Page 40 of Riding My Dragons

We passed through the other end of the tunnel, an outlet just as large as where we had come in; and stepped out onto the streets of a village built into the most immense underground cavern that either of us had ever seen.It was bustling with activity and ringing with sound, its buildings reaching up to the top of the cavern and many of them builtinto the cavern walls.Scalers flew everywhere amidst glowing balloons and light drones.Huge light emitters floated like a collection of suns, casting their golden glow over everything.Bands played; dragon folks flew in formation like parades, trailing glowing streamers behind them; food and drink vendors served delicious things everywhere we looked.

The place was like a big dragon party.It all looked and sounded like a celebration of Reconciliation—except there were no humans, nor anyone in human shape, anywhere.And on some of the buildings hung happy-looking banners that said things like HAPPY REAFFIRMATION and PROUD TO REAFFIRM.

Now I had heard of this place before, this city of Reptos.But I had never had any personal business here and never visited here.My travels had never brought me this way, but I knew there was an underground city where only Scalers were permitted as permanent residents and kept to their reptilian shapes, while humans were only a small minority and allowed only as guests.It occurred to me that that was the reason I’d never bothered to visit Reptos.I had always found life more interesting, more fun—and yes, I admit, more sexy—in mixed human and Scaler company.I’d always thought, without human females to sleep with, what was the point of anything?Thinking of Jenna now and the kind of trouble she was in, I felt a bit guilty about that.Guilt, I admit further, was a rare feeling for me.

But, if my friends and I had been able to hear each other over all the jubilations, when we traded curious looks, we would have heard each other wonder aloud, Reaffirmation?What’s that?

But we didn’t have time to wonder.We had someplace to be.Jenna’s uncle had given us directions and toldus that this place was for dragons only.Out in public, we were to stay strictly in our present bodies.

Not wanting to get tangled up in the flying traffic overhead, we went quickly through the streets of Reptos on the path that Neal Callaway had set for us.Passing among the celebrating dragons, we came to a side street off one of the main thoroughfares, which was a little more dimly lit and a little quieter, still with taverns and cafes and dragons enjoying themselves in them.Off this side street was another, smaller one, with just a few apartment dwellings and shops—including one little cafe containing a coffee and wine bar and a gift and trinket shop, with an inviting-looking little fireplace on one side.We went to the bar, where one male Scaler looked up at us from wiping down the counter.

“Tarragon?” I said softly to the bar dragon.

“Fenne,” he said, giving me his countersign to the password that I’d just spoken.Then he pointed to a door behind the counter, tacitly giving us permission to go there.

We stepped to the other side of the counter and went to that door, which I opened.We went through there and entered another, inner room of the cafe.There sat a human at a long table with a collection of handheld monitors and dataplexes.Near him were two Scalers in dragon shapes, a male and a female.They all looked up and acknowledged us.The human was familiar for his resemblance to someone we knew.Except that he was a man, and he was older than we were, with creases of age on his face and grey threaded through his hair, he had a distinct resemblance to Jenna Callaway.

”You boys must be Byron, Elliot, and Cade,” said her Uncle Neal.“While we’re back here, you can show me the way my niece knows you.”

At Neal’s suggestion, the three of us shrugged into our human shapes and put on our shirts while the human at the table and his two dragon friends continued to look us over.

“How do you do, Sir?” I said.

“Hello, Mr. Callaway,” said Elliot.

”Sir,” Cade simply said.

Neal motioned to the male Scaler standing on his right.“These are some of my associates.This is Fergus.”He indicated the female on his left.“This is Jade.They’re both members of the Intercross.”

Fergus and Jade greeted us, and now we looked them over with great interest.None of us had ever knowingly met any members of the Intercross.They always kept a low profile.

Meanwhile, Neal gave my friends and me a good looking-over in these bodies.I had clashing feelings about this.Callaway had been here on Tellus for a while and must have learned all kinds of things about the way we live and the things we do.He had to know that Scaler males love sex with human females and are very good at getting it.He had to have learned that much from his dragon friends in the Intercross.Did he also know how much we enjoy taking human females to bed in pairs or trios, two or three Scalers to a woman?What did he think about that?And what was he thinking about the three of us now?Under his gaze, part of me wished I had telepathic powers and part of me was grateful I didn’t.Did Callaway suspect what my two friends and I were doing with his niece?Was he judging us?He didn’t seem to be upset.He seemed to be looking at us more clinically, like the scientist that he was.

Finally, he spoke up.“So, you boys are friends with my niece?”

”Yes, Sir,” we all said.I suspected the same thing that was on my mind was going through the heads of my friends.

“And how exactly do you know Jenna?”

Elliot said, “I saw some guys bothering Jenna during the opening ceremonies for Reconciliation.I went to help her.My friends went with me.I invited her to one of my wrestling matches.We all got to be friends with her.We like her, Mr. Callaway.Jenna is a really nice girl.And she’s really smart.”

”Very smart,” I felt compelled to say, though none of us knew Jenna in anything like an intellectual way.

Still inscrutable while scrutinizing us, Neal said, “I see.I can imagine my niece has learned a few things from being with you.”

The way he said it didn’t sound judging or even accusing.But it still made me feel as if the spines would start to break out on my neck again.There was no question that Jenna had learned a few things from us.Whether her uncle guessed just what we’d been teaching her, I couldn’t tell.We had better make sure he knew how much we respected her, if we expected him to let us help him.

His next question veered to a different subject entirely.“Which one of you,” he asked, “has the thing from the University warehouse?”

”That’d be me, Sir,” said Cade.

”May I have a look at it, please?”

Cade looked questioningly at the two of us.Elliot gave him a nudge and I gave him a nod, both of us saying without words, go on, we have to trust him.Accepting that we needed him as much as he needed us, Cade took the little box from the pocket of his leather trousers and handed it to the human at the table.

Mr. Callaway examined the object closely, practically drilling his eyes into it.He held it up to Fergus, who leaned over and scanned it as minutely as Callaway did.He held it up to Jade, who took it from his fingers and held it up to hereyes before nodding and handing it back to the human.“This is definitely Scaler Legion vintage,” she said.

”And positively dating back to the Old Wars,” said Fergus.“Probably the last couple of years of that period.”

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