Rise of the Darkness

A Grim Fate Foretold

Jheecu

One Week Later

"Always one to keep her claws clean after a kill," said a voice suddenly. I take a few more moments to clean the blood from my right paw then look up at the intruder standing in the entrance to my sleeping quarters. My jaw opens a little.

"Jheecu, we meet again," says Harogbas.

"You're back. We have much to talk about."

"Yes. I arrived last night but had too many other matters needing my attention. Sometimes I hate being the one everyone goes to for answers."

"You know how to scare them off."

"That would be counterproductive. I need them as much as they need me."

His claws clicked on the hard floor as he approached. My heart begins to beat faster with every step. Oh, how it has been so long since we have seen each other.

"I have a few free moments, so I wanted to catch up with you," he said as his snout nearly touched mine. "The Elders here, as well as the researchers told me a lot about what you have been doing."

"Not as much as you, I'm sure. I get to live on my own terms, mostly."

"Lucky you." Harogbas let his weight pull him to the floor, laying on his stomach and legs like me. Face to face. "But then, you ought to deserve it, laying the only egg to hatch a conjuring dragon."

"Again, he is not my son."

He snorted. "Perhaps if you had stolen him from Kucho once you knew of his type, he might have steered more towards a dragon disposition."

"I think it would have been too late."

"Perhaps. Novayar thinks too little like a dragon. But he may yet surprise us."

With his snout so close to mine, I can smell his breath. It smells of a recent kill. Oita allows the eating of prey in dragon form more than most clans, even though it puts more stress on resources. But a dragon finds more enjoyment in eating like a dragon than like a human. And here we want to be dragons. I wonder how big a catch he made.

He backs his head away a little. "The thing is, now we know it's possible to produce a conjurer, even if we don't know why or how. Thoughts seem to direct towards something about you as the reason for this success, but no one really knows for sure."

"So, I've heard."

"Which brings me to the one topic I really wanted to bring up with you. One of the elves in the research team wants to examine you again. She says that one of the findings that had been thrown out interests her. Specifically, the possible finding of cancer within you."

A slight growl escapes me. "I am healthy. Whatever they may find in me, if they even find anything, is not affecting me."

"I did not say anything like that. Nor did they. The ones who examined you and the other mother that time really are not physicians..."

"Then why were they picked for the task?"

"Because of their closeness to the conjurer project. They know enough about the dragon body to aid in their research but cannot truly diagnose anything in the sick or injured."

My claws try to dig into the unyielding stone. "Then another examination might not reveal anything. And this new physician is not even a dragon."

"No, but the elves are very capable, and this one has been in Oita with the other non-dragons for longer than most. I think you forget that our visions affect not just the dragons, but every Laku that lives on this planet."