Curse of the Stars Book 1

Chapter 19

Chapter XIX

But Calliopel did come back. He always did. And he never disappointed. Back he came, with a bramble of berries in his mouth.

He came back to the empty indented snow of where his dragon friend had been.

He looked around, unworried.

There were long grooves of snow splashed to the side, as if something large and heavy had dragged itself through the snows. The fox flicked its tail and followed the trail.

~*~*~*~

Stygian had smelled something delicious wafting through the trees, and as she had dragged herself closer, she had heard a burbling brook nearby.

The ice was peeling back from the brook like a layer of skin that was being molted so the brook could break through anew. That's what the river was...a snake, having just shed its old layer of crusted skin... It bounced happily down the stones in the ravine where its migration grounds led. Stygian bent her head and drank from it greedily, feeling the cold hit her at the back of her throat. It hurt, but she didn't care.

Another shadow flickered to her right. Maybe the fox had come back and had scented her down at last, she thought with a sigh of relief.

But it was no fox.

The creature that stuck its head out of the tangle of leaves to her right was a long reptilian head with rows of teeth hanging below its crooked grin.

Stygian flailed backwards and pain shot from within her from all directions.

Just what she needed! Another predator!

The creature's head disappeared and out popped its long body. It was a bit smaller than her, with beady little molten silver eyes and a red and silver body. It had red feathers upon its head, melding into its scales, which ran in a set of two upon its head, ending at the base of its neck. Its tail had more of such feathers, at the end, as well as the few that protruded from his elbows.

It stood on two feet, and it looked like a dragon that wasn't a dragon.

"Who are YOU?!" Stygian demanded, not hesitating to show it her carved metal teeth that still tasted metallic in her mouth.

The creature looked up at her unworriedly.

"I be Quicksilver." He answered, his mouth carrying a lisp as he spoke dragon tongue. Its voice was slick with oil. That same tongue dragged itself over his marbled white teeth as he considered her. "You be far from home." He added.

"How do you know who I am?" Stygian relaxed her bristled spines. "You've heard of me?"

"You, no." the creature responded choppily. His eyes narrowed. "You be injured." Its eyes scalded and bounced off of her scales at the same time.

Stygian recoiled, feeling uncomfortable, like a startled prey in a predator's hungering gaze. But surely this creature was no match for her. Its arms were short and spindly with only a couple claws balanced on the edges. And its tail was weak, its head small and glaringly easy to break.

So why was it looking at her as if it was quickly figuring out a way to take her apart piece by piece?

Stygian shuddered.

"Get away from me, you ugly creature." She sneered at it. "You're no match for me and my metal teeth."

The creature blinked.

"That be true." He said, his voice filled with a growl. "But Quicksilver be quick and clever, so he will find a way into you."

Stygian snarled back in his direction, and lashed her tail threateningly. It hurt but she didn't let it show.

"You be injured." The not-dragon continued, unconvinced. "You be useless to the world. Why not you give yourself over to me? I make it quick."

"I can't die!" Stygian flared. "I'm immortal you vulture! I'd like to see you try!"

Quicksilver cocked its head at her, his simple brain churning up a storm so furious she could almost see it.

"Imm-or-tal." The creature hummed to itself. "Nothing lives forever. Your time is over."

"I am immortal until my curse is complete." Stygian continued. "Do you really want to find out how immortal I am?"

The creature pondered that some more, his face crinkled in confusion as he beheld the strange creature that she was, that went against all laws of nature that this creature could understand.

"But..." he drawled.

Just then, a red flame swept over the snow and Calliopel stood there, with a red spattering of berries in his mouth. His yellow eyes pinpointed on Quicksilver with startling speed.

Quicksilver reeled back, fear in his eyes.

"Why it BE here?!" It snarled at Stygian, stepping back into the protective canopy of branches that it had emerged from.

He's scared of a fox but not an invincible, immortal dragon? Stygian wanted to laugh. Her spirits were high again because her little Calliopel had returned.

"Oh this little cutie? He's Calliopel, my sidekick." Stygian replied happily. "Don't you want to come over and pet him?"

"Your...pet?" The creature squawked, looking up at her with fear and uncertainty in its eyes.

"Yes my pet." Stygian warned. "A very dangerous pet might I add." She liked to joke with this pathetic creature, and she thought it deserved to be fearful of something so small and harmless too.

"Not...what...you think." Quicksilver hissed, his pupils shrinking into slits as it stared down at the creature with heated intensity.

The fox set the berries down and snarled.

Quicksilver fled without a word more.

"Good fox. Good Calliopel." Stygian patted his head and the fox angled its head up to look at her. "What have you got there? Berries? Well...thanks..." It wasn't much for a meal. Stygian bent her head down to lap them up with her tongue but then the fox, to her amazement, growled at her.

Stygian eyed him suspiciously. Did he suddenly want them for himself? Then why bring them to her?

"Fine. I don't even care." She turned away, suddenly finding his presence very irritating indeed. At least no one was around to growl at her when she was alone.

The fox growled again, as if to get her attention.

"What do you want?!" Stygian sighed. "What are those for?" She indicated the berries with her long muzzle.

The fox bent his head down and very, very carefully, removed just a single berry from the branch with its tongue. As Stygian watched in amazement, he trotted over to the wound in her tail and dropped the berry on top of it.

Both Stygian and the fox stared at the berry, balancing precariously on top of her wound. It rolled to the right and then to the left, as if unsure of which side it wanted to roll off of, and then after a moment its decision was to not decide, and it sat there perfectly balanced. Stygian hardly dared to breathe in case it decided to move again.

But then Calliopel smushed it with his paw, so quick it was like a chameleon catching a fly with its tongue.

"Okaaaaaaayyyy...." Stygian stared at the fox, hard.

The fox removed his paw. Berry juice mixed into the blood in her wound and Stygian screamed in pain.

"Traitor! I hate you!" She lunged at the fox, rage flickering across her silver eyes. The fox leapt out of reach but didn't flee, just looked up at her expectantly.

Fire burned through her veins. Stygian stopped herself short of crying out again but the pain only increased. Up, it rose, like a great wall of fire, clenching the blood in its fist as if to squeeze the life out of it. Faint with pain, Stygian dropped into the verge of unconsciousness.

Maybe that ugly little reptile is right. Maybe the fox isn't what it seems... She thought as she dropped then past memory and thinking capacity.