Tending the Stones for the Lock XXII

By aaforringer on July 9, 2017 • ( 0 )

21st part of the new weekly story. (1st Part) The inspiration for this came from an off hand comment I made on Facebook, and since people seemed interested I decided to follow through. Happy Reading.

(1st Part) (2nd Part) (3rd Part) (4th Part) (5th Part) (6th Part) (7th Part) (8th Part) (9th Part)(Part 10) (Part 11)(Part 12)(Part 13)(Part 14)(Part 15)(Part 16)(Part 17)(Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20) (Part 21) (Part 22)

“Damn.” Emily said as she saw that Brodie was looking at the dragon dead center in the eye. Emily took a deep breath and slowly and very carefully finished moving the rock she had in her hand to its proper place, then standing slowly using both her canes she stood facing the green dragon with her head bowed. Her mind was racing but she tried to remain calm on the exterior, knowing one wrong move would doom Brodie. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the High Pilgrim prostrating himself on the ground along with the rest of the travelers.

“Child I know what you are doing.”

“Of course you do honored one.”

“You did not seek my clan’s approval before coming into this place.”

Emily was careful with her phrasing. “Honored one you speak to confuse me, I understood that keeping the world in balance was the duty of all good creatures and no permission was needed to do right.”

The dragon growled from somewhere deep in it’s body. Emily raised her eyes slightly looking thru her eyelashes. Brodie was frozen still his face only inches from the dragon, she had never met a dragon before and was unsure if it was a good thing or a bad thing the longer he met the gaze of the large beast. “You are Emily the one who has been traveling and ensuring the lock for the demon stays in place.”

“Yes honored one.” She said honored herself that the dragon knew her name.

The growl changed, from a deep one to one that sounded almost like a chuckle.

“You two legs think what you do matters so much.” With that he moved back away from Brodie and then took his front paw and placed a claw in the middle of the man’s forehead and gave a tap and Brodie fell straight back and thudded on the ground. Emily winced as his crumpled onto to the ground. The dragon jumped over Brodie’s unmoving body and in a flash and was inches away from her, luckily her eyes were still downward but she could tell it was staring at her. “You know in the long run the battle will rage between the Demon and the Guardian.”

“Yes I know it will happen but hopefully not during my days.”

Again a long stare from the dragon then a sniff from the creature. “How many days have you been on this ball.”

Emily thought quickly trying to decipher exactly what he wanted to know. “Ah I have been on Earth for seventy-eight years.”

The dragon huffed. “Seventy-eight years, seventy-eight days, you two legs scurry about with so little time to you, maybe that is why you try to move so fast in your metal boxes.” Then there was silence for a few minutes. The dragon did not move, and did not say anything either. If it had been a person Emily would have felt very uncomfortable but as it was it just scary. Another few minutes passed and Emily was getting tired and the length of the day was beginning to wear on her and even though this dragon had all the time in the world she did not. “Honored one I do not want to be disrespectful but I need to check on my friend.” She turned towards Brodie and began to move around the left side of the dragon knowing that at any moment would be her last. Then the dragon was gone. Emily raised her eyes up slowly and looked around and saw the deep impressions in the sand where the dragons claws had been. Emily let out and breath and was surprised that she had been holding her breath, so before she moved on to Brodie she took several deep breaths then after at least a full minute of breathing in a controlled manner she hurried over to the prone body of her aide. Getting down gingerly on the sand next him was tricky but she managed it with her canes, but she would definitely need help getting back up.

“Brodie.” She shook him after looking him over and noted the small burn mark off center on his forehead.

Brodie fell into the vivid green eyes of the dragon. There was no other way to explain it, he felt himself being pulled deeper and deeper into the greenness of those deep all encompassing eyes. Brodie felt like he was in bottomless pool of warm water with strangely a darkly spicy flavor.

“You are new.”

Brodie did not know where the voice came from, it seemed to come from all around him and from inside him at the same time. The tone was not questioning, more of a pronouncement of derision.

“You are new.”

The same voice, the same tone came thru him again. Brodie was unsure if the voice wanted a response.

“You are new.”

Brodie swallowed hard. “Yes I am I have never been to Mongolia before.”

“You are new.”

Again no change in timber, tone or volume. Brodie sighed. “Yes I am new, new to travel, new to this country, heck I am even new to magic.” Brodie sighed again and even felt like crying. “This magic is so unbelievable, but that is not really true because I see it all now and I believe it, I mean it is not a trick as much as I would like it to be.” Brodie moaned a little bit. “I mean you are here, and you are a dragon and I thought dragons were just stories, who knew you guys were real?” Brodie stopped hoping he had not offended the big creature. Then he thought about it while trying to look around and all he saw was the glowing, shimmering, greenness that was around him. Then a thought occurred to him. “Am I dead.” There was silence and Brodie got scared. “I think I am dead.”

“You are not dead.”

Brodie tried to nod but he was not sure he was able to so he answered. “Thank you for that bit of information.” Then he thought. “Am I in a coma or something?” There was no answer from the voice.

“So you are a dragon, are you going to eat me?” Brodie waited what must have been ten minutes from his question and when it was not answered he guessed the answer would most likely be ‘no’, at least he hoped. Maybe he was in some sort of suspended animation and the dragon would eat him at his leisure, well that was not a comforting thought. Brodie’s brain raced while he was floating in the deep green eyes of the dragon, he thought of his family, the books he had read, he thought of his cat, and he even thought about Holly. He was thinking about the blonde haired girl when the voice interrupted him.

“You have a long journey before you.”

Brodie nodded his head then he remembered he might not have a body right now, or might not actually be able to move. “Okay”

“A gift for you.”

Brodie felt a red hot poker go into his brain, and the deep green encompassing light was gone.

“Brodie wake up, please wake up.” Mrs. Emily said with her hand flat on his chest. Brodie sat up suddenly and took a deep breath and then looked around with a shocked look on his face.

(1st Part) (2nd Part) (3rd Part) (4th Part) (5th Part) (6th Part) (7th Part) (8th Part) (9th Part)(Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12)(Part 13)(Part 14)(Part 15)(Part 16)(Part 17)(Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 21) (Part 22)

Not crazy about the title, any suggestions will be duly considered.

The problem I have discovered with this type of writing is if I commit to something in the story there is no taking it back I just have to go with is and write my way out of it.

If you would like to read my last weekly story, A Disinclined Purveyor of Sequential Art here it is. (Written in 2013, the same year my wife left me, so I was a different person back then, and I hope I have learned a lot about writing since then.)

If you want to see one of my complete books try Disconnect in the Outfitters Universe.

My Response: The prophecy stated that in 60 years if the Stones were not properly aligned then the world would fall under the sway of the demon king for 1000 years. 1956 21 year old Emily the chosen one starts the quest. She arranges half the Stones around the planet, but then falls in love and life happens. Now it is 59 years later, Emily’s husband of 58 years passed away and one of the monks has found Emily and reminds her that she is the chosen one and needs to complete her task. Anyone interested?