Page 14 of Dragon Fire

“Sir Gowan.”Hrardorr bowed his great head directly in front of where Gowan was standing. He might be blind, but nothing had affected his other senses.

“Sir Hrardorr,” Gowan replied aloud, in a grave voice, giving the male dragon a courtly bow for the benefit of the gryphlet. Gryphons, they had been told, lived in a very formal society with strict rules for interacting with their two-legged friends. “May I introduce Sir Flurrthith, from Gryphon Isle. He is the messenger who traveled so far and fast to our shore to tell us of the events transpiring on his island.”

“Ah, Sir Flurrthith, I owe you my sincerest apology. Had I known the enemy would turn their remaining ships on your homeland, I would have followed them to hell and back.”Hrardorr faced the smaller creature, though he couldn’t see him, and waited.

This was a moment of truth. A clearing of the air. Flurrthith would either prove his maturity or try to lash out at the dragon who could easily be blamed for the havoc taking place on Gryphon Isle at this moment. Everyone waited to see what the gryphlet would do.

“Iss it true that you are blind, Ssir Hrardorr?” came the gryphlet’s hesitant voice, adding extra s sounds where his beak interfered with conventional speech, as all gryphons seemed to do.

“I am. I was hit full in the face by skith venom a few months ago and have not been able to see since, much to my disappointment.”

Genlitha held her breath. This was the first time Hrardorr had spoken so calmly of his disability in her presence. It was a watershed moment indeed, though what it would mean for the future, she had no idea.

Flurrthith shifted on his front feet as if uncomfortable. “I’m ssorry you were hurt, Ssir. One of my teacherss at home hass only one eye, and it hinderss hiss flight greatly.” Leave it to a child to speak so plainly, Genlitha thought, wondering how the gryphlet’s words were affecting Hrardorr. “Iss it true you torched the pirate sshipss?” The gryphlet moved a slight distance forward, toward Hrardorr.

“I did. I rose from the water behind them and torched their sails. The ones in the harbor were trapped and burned. The rest ran away, though I got a few of them before they left. Had I known…”Hrardorr let his silent voice trail off for a moment before continuing.“Had I known where they would go and what they would do, I would have tried harder to stop them all. I am truly sorry.”

“You didn’t know they would turn on uss, Ssir.” Flurrthith’s little voice piped through the room, and Genlitha breathed again. This might yet turn out well. “I didn’t think ssea dragonss could flame,” he added in a puzzled tone.

“I am only part sea dragon,”Hrardorr admitted.“I can flame and fight on land, in the sky, and now, in the sea. Actually, the sea is all that’s really left to me, now with my eyes the way they are. I do not need them in the water, you see. My other senses help me know where things are when I’m under the waves. It’s only above them where my lack of sight hinders my effectiveness.”

“Really?” The gryphlet moved closer, clearly intrigued. Genlitha knew things would be all right now. At least as far as Flurrthith and Hrardorr were concerned.

Hrardorr opened up a bit about how his senses worked underwater, which was an education to them all. The gryphlet hung on his every word.

“I didn’t know ssea dragonss could do that,” the youngster said several times. Finally, it was Gowan who addressed the question that should have been obvious to them all.

“Have you met many sea dragons, Sir Flurrthith?” Gowan asked.

Flurrthith turned his beak toward the humans, standing off to one side. “There iss a cove on the ssouthern end of the island where they like to come assshore. Ssome of the older gryphonss have made friendss among them, but I’ve only sspoken to one of the dragonss. Her name iss Sshanaraneth, but she said to call her Sshara for sshort. Sshe is older than me, but not too much older, and sshe was badly injured by a sschool of ssharkss a while back. One of our healerss, my older ssisster Lizbet, hass been working with Lady Sshara and letss me tag along ssometimess. Sshe iss very nice, though sshe wass very ssad when sshe wass sstuck on land healing.”

Hrardorr sighed, sending smoke rings up into the vented dome above his head.“It is a sad thing to be out of one’s element. My ancestor was like your friend, a sea dragon injured and unable to swim like she used to, but she found happiness on land with a land dragon and went on to live many happy centuries with him in this Lair. They founded this Lair, in fact.”

Flurrthith looked back at Hrardorr, his feathers stirring with what looked like excitement. “I didn’t know that, Ssir Hrardorr. If I may, I would like to tell Sshara about your ancesstor. The sstory might make her feel better.”

“You certainly may, my young friend,”Hrardorr agreed.“Hope is a rare commodity. Your friend sounds like she could use some.”

After that interesting exchange, they all got to know each other better. Genlitha broached the topic of flying down to the town to meet Livia toward the end of their meal. She told Flurrthith about how both Gowan and Seth were courting Lady Livia, seeing no reason to hide such information from the child. Perhaps Flurrthith could help the three humans in some way.

It was agreed that Genlitha would carry Gowan, and Flurrthith surprisingly volunteered to carry Seth on his back down to the town. It would be difficult for Hrardorr to carry anyone, since he planned to land in the water and then walk up onto land. While Gowan and Seth would stay well out of sight of Livia’s father, they were hoping to get a few minutes to at least say hello to Livia. And if not, they each claimed to have errands to run in town anyway.

Genlitha doubted the veracity of those claims, but she wasn’t going to say anything. She still had hopes for the threesome, even if circumstances were against them right now.

Seth couldn’t believe he was riding on the back of a gryphon. Of all the things he’d expected when he’d awakened that morning, his backside being cushioned by a mix of fur and feathers while he glided almost silently down from the top of the Lair to the beach below the town had not been foremost in his mind.

He’d been taken aloft by his dragon parents on occasion, and this experience was similar, but also quite different. Gryphons were just…more comfortable, if he was going to tell the truth. They were soft where dragon scale was hard against human limbs. And their glide—or at least, Flurthith’s immense wingspan—made the trip a dream.

They’d agreed to land on the beach in order to meet up with Hrardorr. The idea was to keep Flurrthith busy while the leadership up at the Lair made their decision. So far, Seth had heard through his fathers, the dithering was winning out over actually getting off their duffs and helping.

They’d sent a messenger to the capitalover land, for heavens sake. A lad on a horse, who would take days and days to get there. They’d used the recent attack as an excuse to keep all the dragon messengers here, regardless of the fact that they could have made the flight there and back in half the time.

Seth’s entire family was disgusted, but his fathers were still trying to talk with the leadership, making their case through the proper channels. His parents were too old school to go against the leaders. At least not now, while the situation was still fresh. Perhaps, if nothing had been accomplished by tomorrow, they would actuallydosomething. In the meantime, they’d asked Seth to keep an eye on the gryphon. Nobody wanted the visiting youngster to get the wrong impression of the knights or dragons of Draconia due to the pigheadedness of a couple of old men and even older dragons.

So this outing had been devised. It would keep Flurrthith away from the controversy at the Lair today, while affording Seth and Gowan the slight chance of seeing Livia out from under her father’s watchful eye. Seth thought it was good for Hrardorr to socialize too. He’d been far too solitary since the battle in the harbor.

Flurrthith flew beautifully, and Seth took a moment to just enjoy the sensation of the wind in his hair, the sound of it sifting through the gryphon’s feathers. The sun was shining, and there were no clouds in the sky today. It was a great day to be alive as far as Seth was concerned.

It started with an unexpected and probably once-in-a-lifetime gryphon flight and might result in seeing Livia. Things were looking up.

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