Ooops, forgot to send something this morning!
Healing Wounds in Arabarb
By Charles Matthias
April 2, 708 CR
After the spell wore off and Lindsey was his usual age again, he
spent the evening with the timber crews explaining that he would be
leaving them again for a time. At first they were quite upset, but
once he went over the reasons they all understood and shared a few
rounds of ale on him. Michael was especially distraught, but the
patchwork beaver came around in the end.
And he was there the next morning in the northern clearing between
the Keep and the curtain walls where Pharcellus waited with the
harness strapped to his upper back between wings and neck. Jessica
had the spell ready and was accompanied by a worried looking Weyden.
He bore the awl pike that Lindsey had given them for a wedding
present, something he'd made himself while still in Arabarb and
wonderfully suited to the hawk's physique. Of the rest, Madog
reclined near Misha after a thorough romping with the dragon, while
the head of the Long Scouts kept crossing and uncrossing his arms.
Duke Thomas even emerged to wish him a safe and speedy journey. The
horse lord put one hand on his shoulder and gazed down his equine
snout. "I cannot tell you how grateful and indebted I will be to you,
Lindsey. With the death of Calephas the last of Nasoj's lieutenants
will be defeated. He will stand alone and Metamor will stand strong."
Lindsey put his hand on the Duke's shoulder in imitation of the horse
lord's gesture. "I know. And Arabarb will be free. My homeland will
be free. My family will be free again. If Nasoj had died last night I
would still be doing this." He tightened his grip and the horse did
his as well. For a brief moment Thomas and Lindsey were equals,
brothers even, each wishing the other success in battle. And then
they stepped apart, brutal smiles pressing their lips.
Misha came to him next, as they walked through fresh grass, the scent
of flowers and warmer air all around them. The fox licked his jowls
and then in a whisper said, "I've arranged with George to have some
of his still human mercenaries mount a rescue operation if we do not
hear from you in a month. They'll have a pair of mages with them. I
wanted to have a mage with you, but sending even one this way is
risky enough. You will not be abandoned by Metamor if things do not go well."
Lindsey nodded and patted the fox on the shoulder. Though he had
never really known the fox except by reputation until after his
return from Marzac, he was exceedingly grateful for his friendship
now. "Thank you. If things do not go well, I may not be alive in a
month's time, but the sea birds will need help too."
"They'll get it. And we'll do it by force if subtlety doesn't work. I
hate subtlety. So much can go wrong."
"As it does with force too," Lindsey replied. "I have seen many a
tree fall in a completely different direction than we expected and
regardless of what we've done to direct it. But this is my home. I
need to do this, Misha."
The fox sighed but then grabbed Lindsey by the shoulder the same as
the Duke had. "I wish I could convince you to join the Longs,
Lindsey. Be careful now. If Calephas broke our old spy ring, he may
have done the same with the new one. That mage, Gmork, you may need
to kill him first."
The thought was unsettling, but Lindsey knew it could be true. "I'll
watch my back," He and the fox hugged as fellow soldiers, and then he
continued on toward the dragon where Jessica and Michael waited.
The beaver was rubbing one paw over Pharcellus's flank in admiration,
while the dragon gave the multi-hued beaver a peculiar stare. When
Lindsey approached, Michael stepped away and hugged the northerner
before he could even utter a word. His grip was strong and sure, and
the beaver hefted the northerner off the ground a few inches in his
enthusiasm. "You've been the dearest of friends to me, Lindsey.
Without you I'd have never found my place here at Metamor. I missed
you when you left for Marzac, and I'm going to miss you even more
this time! Please come back to us!"
Lindsey patted the beaver along the back as he hugged and laughed
warmly. "Michael, you are a better timbersman than I am. Thank you
for saving me a place with them. Without you Metamor would never feel
like home."
The beaver set him back down and let go, grinning broadly enough to
show off his incisors. He slapped his flat tail on the grass for
emphasis. "We'll get going. The sooner you go, the sooner you get back to us!"
He laughed one more time before turning to Jessica. The hawk bobbed
her head to him and asked, "Do you have your gear?"
"All the clothes for my younger self are in here." He gestured to the
pack slung over his shoulder. He glanced up at the dragon and
grinned, "Pharcellus, do you mind giving me some modesty?"
The dragon belched some smoke and gave the other Keepers a hard
stare. "Not at all! Do you want to walk around me or should I sit on
the others?"
Lindsey laughed broadly and shook his head. "We'll walk around. I'm
sure his grace did not appreciate you threatening to sit on him."
Pharcellus splayed his paw across his chest and in very solemn tones
said, "I would never do such a thing. I am an honorable dragon. The
fox however..." A mischievous glint filled his blue eyes. "It would
only be fair for the way he tightened the harness too tight last night."
"You told me to keep going, you incorrigible reptile!" Misha shouted
with one paw beside his snout.
Pharcellus belched a gust of smoke but made no further reply. Jessica
and Lindsey moved around to the far side where they couldn't be seen
by the others. Pharcellus glanced once at them before turning his
head around to study the colorful beaver again.
Jessica stretched out her wings and lowered her beak. "Are you ready?"
"Aye. Do it."
"You will be this way for a month, or until you remove the spell
yourself. You'll know how." Jessica lowered her voice. "But once you
do, you can't be young again. Do you understand?"
Lindsey stroked his braided beard one last time and then folded his
hands before him, ready to grab his trousers when they started to
fall. "I understand."
The hawk nodded to him then drew her wings tips together and began
drawing sigils in the air. This time, Lindsey could actually see a
faint blue light surrounding them. It grew in strength, a complicated
weave that crossed over itself several times, until Lindsey could
make no sense of the mess of symbols and glyphs from which it had
been arranged. And then, one by one they began to vanish, as if they
were a candle placed in a jar until all the air ran out. And as more
and more of it faded from view, he began to feel that strange
tightening in his body much as he did last night.
His clothes quickly grew baggy around him as his beard and hair
shrank, and the world grew in proportion. He grabbed a hold of his
trousers as they began to slip over his waist, and even the pack over
his shoulder fell down around his elbow and nearly made him stumble.
Even after he felt the changes stop and he was a ten year old boy
again Jessica continued with her spell. He could almost see her tying
knots, and a faint nimbus shot off to the northwest though he couldn't see why.
And then, Jessica lowered her wings and breathed across the empty air
between them. The warm fragrance of chrysanthemums and lilacs struck
him and held him transfixed until they faded. Her beak then creased
in a smile and her golden eyes brightened. "There! I've locked you
into this age until you concentrate on returning to your old self. It
will take a few seconds to trigger, and once it does you won't be
able to stop it. The spells around you will unravel and you'll be you
again. How do you feel?"
Lindsey glanced down at himself and laughed in a piping alto. "Like a
boy again!" He tossed the pack on the ground and started rummaging
through for his clothes. He'd need good warm furs to fly on the back
of a dragon.
Jessica hopped back around while he changed into more fitting
clothes. He double checked that he had an extra pair, then tied the
pack onto the harness next to the rest of his supplies. He gave
Pharcellus's hard but smooth shoulder a firm rub, glad to be in the
company of an old family friend, and then walked back around to where
the others waited.
Michael slapped his tail again and chuckled when he saw the youthful
Lindsey. Thomas congratulated Jessica on her good work, while Madog
looked eager to have a new friend to play with. Misha put a paw on
the automaton's head to gently restrain him.
Lindsey sighed, and glanced past them at the castle once before
turning to Pharcellus who lowered his neck to bring the harness into
reach. The gray-scale smiled in a very simple and reassuring way.
Lindsey gripped the leather straps and hauled himself up onto the
dragon's back, placing his feet in the stirrups. There was a little
clamp that he hooked through his belt, and grips for his arms. The
saddle portion was shaped to protect him from the spiny ridge along
Pharcellus's back, and scalloped so he could duck out of most of the
wind. Otherwise it should be no worse on his body than riding a large horse.
He leaned back for a bit and waved to his friends. "I will return.
Good bye my friends. Eli's blessings go with you." He then patted
Pharcellus on the side of the neck, the scaly flesh very warm beneath
him. "Come my friend, it's time to go."
Lindsey felt the dragon's muscles tense beneath him and he tightened
his grip. The wings spread wide behind him, and with a powerful
thrust of limbs, they vaulted into the air. The sound of the wings
beating was like a heavy drum that reverberated through his chest.
The air whipped past him and made him very grateful he'd tucked his
hair braid within his heavy cloaks. Beneath them the Keepers looked
so small, no more than ants.
Before him he could see the back of Pharcellus's head. Apart from the
twin white dark gray horns protruding from the back of his skull and
the tip of the ridge from his back, his head was mostly smooth
scales, with crimson ridges over his brow. His long neck swelled with
each breath, and every now and then little tendrils of smoke would
escape his nostrils. Beyond the bright blue sky of Spring beckoned,
little wisps of clouds high in the sky dancing like prancing mares.
Once they were well above the Keep, Pharcellus circled a couple of
time to gain his bearings, and then started off on a course to the
northwest, quickly passing above the forests hugging the side of the
valley and then over the first low peaks of the Dragon Mountains.
Lindsey stared first down past the dragon's arms which he held close
to his chest at the forests with their new growth of blossoms and
leaves, and then the first mountains still topped by snow. He then
turned backward and gazed between the massive wings with thick
leather sails stretched between the bony fingers and down the long
tail with a spade tip that bobbed and weaved back and forth in a slow
rhythm. He saw fleeting glimpsed of the Keep, the city, and the
surrounding countryside before all was obscured by rocky peaks and
snowy embankments.
Lindsey sighed and held close to the leather harness draped in skins.
The wind was fierce and cool, and growing colder by the moment. His
legs already felt stiff from straddling so wide a set of shoulders.
Despite this, he felt a strange exhilaration that went beyond the
many weeks he'd spent riding the Rheh Talaran through the sky. Now he
could almost feel the swinging tail as his own, and the beating wings
as from his own back. He smiled and wanted to belch flame.
The gray-scale tilted his head back and in a booming voice said, "Are
you comfortable back there? Just shout into my back. I can hear you that way."
Lindsey had barely been able to hear Pharcellus over the driving wind
and wondered how shouting into his back would help. Certainly there
would be no way anyone could hear him now, especially with his much
weaker voice. Still, he did as the dragon instructed, pushing his
face against exposed scaled along the dragon's neck and shouting. "I
am! This is... amazing!"
Pharcellus dipped a little and then swooped higher. His wings turned
slightly, catching the air and he glided. Beneath them Lindsey could
see numerous valleys cutting through the mountains, most of which
ended in sheer cliffs. He'd always heard how impassable the mountains
were and now he could see why.
"I can hear you through my body. This will let us talk some!"
"I can barely hear you, Pharcellus."
He tilted his head to one side, and then returned his gaze on the sky
before him. The mountains were growing in height the further they
moved from Metamor. He beat his wings a few more times and soon they
were gliding through a valley with forbidding ridges on either side.
Lindsey could see a handful of trees and brush clinging to the
slopes, and he thought he spotted a herd of mountain goats descending
along a narrow defile.
It was another ten minutes before they passed out the other end of
the ravine and emerged into the open air again. Pharcellus glanced
back and said, "I know. We'll talk more when we land next. I always
give my friends at least three brief stops a day for meals and other
things. But if we are attacked in the air, this is how we speak." The
last was accented by a puff of smoke that blew past Lindsey so
quickly he barely detected the aftertaste of hickory that came with it.
He pressed his already chapping lips to the dragon's hide and
shouted, "I understand."
Pharcellus smiled in a fond way, his eyes bright but strangely
distant. He seemed to look at the childish Lindsey and see something
else entirely. His voice, snatched by the wind, nevertheless felt as
warm as the scaly flesh beneath him. "I always hoped one day we'd go
back to Arabarb together." After a moment he added, "I really hope we
find your family too."
Lindsey's heart trembled then and it took all his self-control, which
he discovered he didn't quite have as much as a child as he did an
adult, to keep from crying. Instead, he quickly shouted, "So do I!"
and then huddled in the harness and wondered with fear and awe what
they would find in his home.
----------
May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,
Charles Matthias
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