The young dragon was twice the size of a baby elephant. It had scales that were of the darkest, deepest forest green color that either of them had ever seen. As soon as the sun hit the creature, it sparkled with radiance. Sarah saw that each of the baby dragon’s dark green scales was edged with a thin line of gold, no doubt due to Kahvel’s golden coloring. The baby’s thin leathery wings were folded flat against its back. The dragonlet sniffed the air and then turned to look pointedly at the visitors as if noticing for the first time that were a couple of non-wyverian beings present.
“Awww! That has to be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!” Sarah wanted desperately to go over to the baby and cuddle it but was unsure how docile a baby dragon would be.
Pryllan looked with undisguised pride down at her offspring. She clicked her fangs together to get the baby’s attention. Once she had it, Pryllan inclined her neck towards the humans.
“Pravara, we have guests. These are…”
“Humans!” Pravara finished for her mother. As soon as the young dragon noticed that she had become the center of attention, the dragonlet frantically rushed to her mother and hid behind several coils of Pryllan’s green tail. Pravara peered suspiciously at them from the safety of her mother’s side.
“Pravara, don’t be rude. This is Steve, and the female is his mate, Sarah.”
Pravara inched away from her mother and gradually approached the two newcomers. The dragonlet sniffed cautiously, familiarizing herself with their scents. Once that dangerous task had been successfully accomplished she turned tail and fled back to the safety of her mother. Two large golden eyes watched the proceedings from a much safer distance.
“She’s adorable,” Sarah told the two dragons. “How old is she?”
“She hatched almost ten months ago,” Pryllan answered.
“Wow. Is she big for her age?” Steve stared with fascination at the strikingly dark green creature before them. He squatted down and smiled at the dragon baby who was staring at him with equal curiosity. “Do young dragons grow quickly?”
Pryllan nodded. “Kahvel disagrees but I maintain if you watch her long enough she will grow right before your eyes.”
Sarah smiled. “All parents say that, Pryllan.”
“Wyverians will generally reach their adult size in a few years,” Kahvel informed them. “Pravara is actually small for her age. She must take after her mother.”
Pryllan’s head jerked up. She stared at her mate.
“It’s just my own opinion,” Kahvel hastily added.
Steve held out a hand, as though he was facing a stray dog.
“Hi there! I won’t hurt you. Neither of us will. Look at those pretty golden eyes. I’ll bet you get into all kinds of trouble, don’t you?”
Pravara blinked her eyes a few times as she studied him.
“Lots of trouble,” Pryllan agreed.
Pravara glanced up at her mother before returning her gaze to Steve. It was as if the little dragon was unable to look away. Her large golden eyes glanced briefly at Sarah before returning to Steve.
“Dr. Dolittle strikes again,” Sarah murmured as she also noticed the young dragon’s fascination with her husband.
“What is doctor dolittle?” Kahvel asked.
“It’s just something I always say,” Sarah explained. “It means Steve can make friends with just about any creature out there. Dogs, cats, birds, and apparently dragons.”
“Where is the peanut?” Pryllan suddenly asked. “It has been some time since I’ve seen the little creature. Is it well?”
“Are you asking about Peanut, our corgi?” Steve asked the dragon. “I’m sure she’d love to see you again. Better yet, I’m sure she’d love to meet Pravara. As luck would have it, Peanut is here in Lentari at the moment. She’s been with Mikal in the castle for the past couple of weeks. You’ll have to stop by and say hello!”
“Or we could bring Peanut here,” Sarah suggested. “It’d probably be easier.”
“Okay, sure, go for the easy way out,” Steve laughed. “We’ll have to find a way to introduce Peanut and Pravara. That’s something I just have to see!”
“At what age does a dragon begin to speak?” Sarah asked, curious.
“Usually around four months of age,” Pryllan answered. “Once a dragonlet is eight months old then they begin to make their wants and needs known. Pravara, here, began speaking at three months, and was forming complete sentences by six months of age.”
Becoming bolder by the second, Pravara eased away from her mother and approached Steve.
“Where are you from?” the tiny dragon inquired.
“Our home is a long way from here,” Steve informed the dragonlet. “Farther than a dragon can fly.”
Pravara shook her head. “That’s not possible, is it? Father?”
Kahvel stared down at his young offspring and hesitated.
“In this case, it is, young one. Their home is so far away that they must use a portal.”
“A portal?” Pravara paused a few seconds to think about the unfamiliar word.
“It’s an aperture, typically jhorun in nature, which leads from one location to the next regardless of distance,” Kahvel answered, giving his offspring what sounded like a text book definition of a portal.
Pravara’s golden eyes blinked rapidly while she thought about her sire’s answer.
“She doesn’t understand,” Pryllan said to Kahvel. “She’s too young.”
“I am not!” Pravara declared, baring her tiny fangs in an incredibly realistic impersonation of her mother. “I know what it means!”
“Have you met many humans?” Steve good-naturedly asked the baby dragon.
Pravara emphatically nodded her head yes.
“Would you be referring to the two of us?” Sarah asked with a twinkle in her eye.
The young dragon sheepishly nodded her head. A few moments later Pravara’s innocent gaze locked onto Steve once more.
“What type of jhorun do you have?”
“Pravara!” Kahvel snapped.
The young dragon whipped her head around to stare at her sire.
“We do not ask questions like that. Most humans do not like informing others of the nature of their jhorun.”
Crestfallen, Pravara dropped as low as she could to the ground.
“It’s okay,” Sarah quickly said; Pravara’s head perked up at this. “We don’t mind. We’re not from Lentari, so we don’t have the typical misgivings most humans have that live here.”
Thankful for the swift intervention, Pravara timidly approached Sarah and stopped at a comfortable distance from both of her parents.
“What is your jhorun?” Pravara asked again.
“I can teleport,” Sarah told the young dragon. “Watch this!”
Sarah disappeared. Startled, Pravara looked right then left.
“Where did she go?”
Both adult dragons sniffed the air.
“She’s nearby,” Kahvel reported. “Somewhere south and at a lower elevation.”
Pryllan looked over the side of the nest and down at the distant ground.
“She’s there. She’s waving to me.”
Pravara hurried to the edge of the nest and looked at the ground far below, but was unable to see anything. The dragonlet’s visual acuities, while impressive, were nowhere near her mother’s. Not yet, anyway.
“I don’t see her.”
“Your sight and smell won’t advance until your first year,” Pryllan told her. “You must be patient.”
Sarah appeared back at Steve’s side, which was behind Pryllan and Pravara. Both mother and offspring were still looking over the edge of the nest.
“I’m back!”
Pravara jerked her head to look back at her. The little dragon trotted over to Sarah’s side and sat down.
“You can move without moving!”
Sarah smiled and nodded.
Pravara sighed wistfully. “I wish I could do that.”
Sarah touched Pravara’s wings. “Oh, yeah? You have wings! You can fly! Or will, someday. I’d love to be able to fly!”
“I can fly now!” Pravara proudly declared. “Do you want to see? Look!”
Pravara leapt into the air and spread her small wings. Hovering unsteadily in the air, the little green dragon was flying, albeit a little on the wobbly side.
“You should show her your nose wiggle thing,” Steve joked, referring to Sarah’s ability to teleport objects without having the object vanish. It meant she could move objects about, as though they were guided by an invisible hand.
“I don’t want to frighten her,” Sarah told her husband. “Maybe later.”
Pravara plopped back to the ground and folded her wings. She turned to Steve.
“What kind of jhorun do you have?”
“Hoo boy,” Sarah mumbled under her breath. “Here we go.”
Ignoring his wife, Steve faced the little dragon and ignited a hand.
“Your hand is on fire,” Pravara helpfully informed him.
Nodding, Steve ignited his other hand.
“You’re burning,” Pravara told him again.
“On purpose,” Steve remarked. He generated a basketball sized fireball and spun it on his finger.
“Your jhorun is fire?” Pravara asked, amazed that the human could generate fire, let alone not be burned by it.
“Yep. Watch this, squirt!”
Steve created another dozen or so fireballs and let them hang suspended in the air next to the spinning chaser on his finger. He let the extra fireballs float harmlessly for a few moments before he sent them zipping around the perimeter of the nest. Kahvel and Pryllan watched the fireballs fly into their nest, prompting Pravara to hurry over to their cave to see what they were doing. Doubling back, the train of fireballs sped by her and back out into the open air before being called to Steve’s open palm. The last fireball didn’t make it; Pravara had snapped it up as it flew by.
Chewing thoughtfully, the dragonlet looked at her mother with a surprised look on her face.
“I can’t taste anything.”
“Because nothing is there,” Pryllan informed her.
“Yes there is,” Pravara argued. “I saw it burning. Something was burning.”
“He made a fireball,” Pryllan tried to explain. “Steve doesn’t need any material to make one.”
“Then how does it burn?”
Exasperated, Pryllan looked at Kahvel, who shook his head ‘no’.
“Don’t look at me. If you want a detailed explanation then I’d say you should consult the one who made the fireball.”
Steve looked up at the huge gold dragon.
“Excuse me?”
“That fireball was of your doing,” Kahvel told him. “You’ve confused Pravara. It’s up to you to explain it in such a way that she’ll understand.”
“Umm, okay. Pravara, look.” Steve sat down on a nearby rock and lit his right hand. “Ordinarily this would hurt like… well, it would hurt. My jhorun prevents my hand from burning. I can choose whether or not to let something burn. Since I don’t want to be in pain, my hand isn’t burning. Do you understand?”
Pravara was silent as she studied Steve’s burning hand.
“Without jhorun,” Steve continued, “if I were to thrust my hand into a roaring fire, I’d hurt myself. Same thing with Sarah. Her jhorun will move her around all without her moving, like you noticed before. With me so far?”
The young dragon nodded.
“Just like Sarah’s jhorun, my own will allow me to burn something, regardless of whether or not there’s anything there to burn.”
“Can you make something burn that isn’t supposed to burn?” Pravara thoughtfully asked.
“You mean like a rock?” Steve picked up a small rock from the ground and held it in his hand. “For all intents and purposes I can make the rock burn, but as soon as I pull my jhorun away from it the flames would disappear. Watch.”
The small rock was suddenly engulfed in flames. Pravara watched, fascinated, as the rock appeared to burn like a dry piece of timber.
“As soon as I extinguish my flames,” Steve told the dragon, “this is what happens.”
The flames poofed out, which left a red hot stone lying in Steve’s unscathed hand.
“Is the stone warm?” Pravara inquired.
Sarah gently held her hand over her husband’s.
“Yes, it’s warm,” Sarah agreed. “If that were sitting in my hand right now I’d be badly burned.”
Steve pulled the warmth away from the rock until it was cool to the touch once more. He dropped the now harmless stone to the ground.
Anxious to impress the visitors, Pravara reared up and started taking deep gulps of air.
“I can make fire, too! Watch!”
Giving little consideration as to what she was aiming at, Pravara let loose a single jet of flames. Tiny for a dragon, but still more than adequate to inflict damage if one didn’t have heavy scales to protect them. Pravara’s flames were headed straight towards Sarah.
Sarah gasped with alarm and darted behind Steve, hoping he’d be able to shield her from the sudden onslaught of fire. Steve brought up an arm and instructed his jhorun to absorb all the incoming flames, regardless of source. Pravara hiccupped with surprise as she felt her flames being sucked out of her mouth at a high speed.
Absorbing the last of the little dragon’s fiery breath, Steve visibly sighed. He glanced behind him to verify Sarah was okay; she nodded that she was.
Kahvel was outraged.
“Pravara! What have I told you about spitting fire at your age? You don’t have enough control yet! Apologize to Steve and Sarah. Now.”
Properly cowed by her sire’s glare, Pravara whispered an apology and retreated into the darkness of the cave.
“Are you two injured?” Kahvel asked, concern evident in his voice.
“No harm done,” Steve assured the gold dragon. “Had that been you or Pryllan’s flames my response would be different, I’m sure. As it is, it’s just a harmless mistake.”
Sarah nudged her husband and whispered a few words in his ear. Steve nodded as he turned to face the wyverian couple.
“Both Sarah and I are in agreement here. Whatever has you spooked, Kahvel, you can count on us to help. Whatever it takes, you have a fire thrower and a teleporter in your corner.”
Kahvel nodded while Pryllan bowed her head.
“You have our thanks,” the emerald dragon responded.
“When are you going to tell us what has you two so concerned?” Steve asked. “What’s going on that’s bothering you enough to contact us on our world? You mentioned before that several dragons had been ‘lost’. What did you mean?”
“There’s some type of malady spreading throughout the wyverian population,” Kahvel informed them. “Large numbers of our brethren have reported they are at the first stage.”
“The first stage of what?” Sarah wanted to know.
“This malady comes in three stages,” Pryllan explained.
“So far as we know,” Kahvel added darkly.
“The first stage happens once a dragon has become infected and a period of several days follows. That’s when the victim loses the ability to spit fire.”
“That’s horrible!” Sarah exclaimed.
“The second stage,” Pryllan continued, “is the loss of the Collective. For a dragon, that’s detrimental to our wellbeing.”
“The Collective?” Steve repeated, puzzled. “What’s that? After all this time I thought I knew everything there is to know about dragons but it turns out that I really don’t know anything. Not a word, dear.”
Sarah managed to keep her face neutral.
“The Collective is a telepathic connection to other dragons,” Pryllan told them. “The voices of our brethren are there whenever we need them, whether to call for help, or to communicate with the Dragon Lord, or to ask a simple question. The Collective is the embodiment of everything that it is to be a wyverian.”
“So this second stage cuts you off from other dragons?” Steve asked.
Kahvel nodded. “Correct. If you become hurt, or if you need to alert your fellow brethren of a threat, you’d be unable to do so.”
“What does the third stage do?” Sarah all but whispered, not really wanting to hear the answer.
“Loss of flight,” Kahvel angrily informed her.
Steve held up his hands. “Wait; just a moment. You’re telling me that this wyverian malady results in a dragon becoming defenseless? What if they need to call for help? What about getting away?”
Kahvel and Pryllan both nodded.
“So that’s why you’re so concerned,” Steve observed, looking at Pryllan, “and why you’re angry,” he finished, looking at Kahvel. “You two are new parents. You want to protect Pravara.”
“We do” Kahvel agreed.
“How do you contract this malady?” Sarah asked. “Does anyone know?”
“How long ago did it first show up?” Steve asked.
“Who got it first?”
“How did it spread?”
Kahvel looked at his mate. Pryllan gave him the approximation of a shrug.
Kahvel suddenly looked off to the east.
“What is it?” Pryllan asked.
“I have been summoned.”
“Does he know about the involvement of the humans?” Pryllan asked worriedly.
“No. If Rinbok Intherer did he would have voiced his displeasure by now.”
Steve held up a hand.
“I thought you guys were always talking with this Collective in your head? Wouldn’t he already know we’re here since the two of you obviously know?”
Both dragons shook their heads.
“The Collective doesn’t work that way,” Pryllan gently told him. “We use the Collective only when we need to. The Collective is never invasive. When we require access, we share our minds.” Pryllan looked pointedly at Steve. “You should know what that is like, correct?”
Steve nodded. “Gotcha.”
“Is she talking about the connection the two of you share?” Sarah softly asked, bending close to his ear to keep from being overheard.
Steve nodded again. “Right.”
Kahvel extended his great golden wings and within moments he was gone, having disappeared high into the sky.
“I hope everything is alright with Rinbok,” Sarah remarked, still staring at the large cloud Kahvel had just flown through.
“Rinbok has become infected,” Pryllan softly said. “So has Kahvel. He hasn’t said anything to me but I can tell.”
Both Steve and Sarah gasped with shock.
“Are you sure?” Steve asked.
Pryllan nodded. “Kahvel informed me about the Dragon Lord a few days ago.”
“And Kahvel?” Sarah gently inquired.
“I believe he has recently contracted this malady. His body is cool to the touch. His body is never cool unless he suffers from an ailment.”
“What stage are they?” Sarah wanted to know.
“Providing Kahvel’s condition has not worsened, the first stage. However, from what I’ve been told, Rinbok has been at the second stage for over a week. He will lose the ability to fly any day now.”
Steve huffed out an irritated breath and began to pace. “We need to figure out what’s going on and we need to do that now. The question is; how do we do that?”
“We need to look at this problem like any other,” Sarah told him. “We need more information. We can’t make an informed decision until we know what we’re dealing with.”
Steve looked up at Pryllan’s large form.
“I’d say there’s only one way to do that.”
Sarah turned to her husband.
“How?”
“We get Pryllan to snoop around. Ask some questions. The more we can find out the more we can pinpoint what to do next.”
Two slitted green eyes stared down at him as Pryllan’s elegant green nose lifted higher into the air.
“Excuse me? I’ll have you know I have never snooped a day in my life.”
Steve smiled up at the large dragon.
“Maybe it’s time you learned how. For Pravara’s sake.”
“Speaking of which, what am I to do about Pravara? She can fly, yes, but not with much stealth.”
It was Sarah’s turn to smile.
“I guess we’ll have to watch her for you.”
Surprised, Steve turned to his wife.
“Babysitting? We’re babysitters again? Are you sure?”
“It’s only for a little while, dear,” Sarah complacently told him. “If we want to know more about what’s been affecting the dragons, Pryllan will have to be the one to do it. The least we can do is watch Pravara for her.”
“She’s asleep in the nest,” Pryllan told Steve, sensing his reluctance. “She shouldn’t be a bother to you.”
“Babysitting a dragon,” Steve repeated as he started to smile. “I don’t suppose you have a bottle of some sort should she wake up, do you?”
Pryllan blinked with surprise.
“A bottle? Of what?”
“Forget it,” Sarah told Pryllan. “He’s joking. We’ll be fine. Go. See what you can find out. Just be careful and avoid contact as much as possible. I don’t want you catching whatever it is they have.”
“Agreed,” Pryllan agreed.
Pryllan took off in her trademark fashion, which was leaping over a hundred feet straight up and extending her wings only at the apex of her jump. They watched Pryllan’s retreating form until she vanished from sight high in the sky.
“Where did she go?” a quiet, timid voice asked.
“Son of a biscuit eater,” Steve swore softly.
Together, he and Sarah turned to the mouth of the cave and saw Pravara sitting on her haunches. Wide awake, Steve noticed. He glanced nervously at his wife.
“Your mother, um, had some errands to run,” Steve lamely told the young dragon. “She’ll be back in a little while.”
If Pravara was concerned, she didn’t show it. Instead, she looked back at her nest, then up at the sky, and finally back at her two babysitters.
Steve clapped his hands together and rubbed them rapidly back and forth. “So, Pravara, what would you like to do now? Umm, what does a baby dragon like to do for fun?”
“I’m no baby!” Pravara growled. “Babies can’t spit fire, or fly! I can do both!”
Pravara leapt into the air, much like her mother would, and flew out over the nest and started towards the ground far below. At least she would have if Sarah hadn’t caught the young dragon with her own jhorun and began pulling her back to the nest much like a fisherman would do after hooking a fish.
“What’s going on?” the young dragon demanded. “How are you doing this? Let me go!”
Pravara flapped her wings harder in an effort to break Sarah’s grasp.
“Don’t just stand there grinning at me!” Sarah scolded her husband. “She’s strong. I’m not going to be able to hold her there forever!”
“And what exactly am I supposed to do?” Steve asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t care! Distract her!”
Steve looked at the struggling dragonlet and smiled. He ignited three chasers and began juggling the fireballs, throwing them higher and higher in an attempt to get the dragon’s attention. It worked. Pravara was still flapping her wings in an effort to escape, but now it was only a half-hearted attempt to do so.
Steve added a fourth and a fifth fireball and included them in with the others. As he juggled, he noticed a large flat surface to the immediate left of the cave entrance. Inspiration had just struck.
He let the fireballs extinguish, one right after the other, and then walked over to the left of the cave entrance. He drew a large six foot diameter circle of fire and instructed his jhorun to keep the circle lit. Then he drew a couple of concentric rings inside the large circle and also kept the rings burning.
“What are you doing?” Sarah demanded, somewhat crossly.
“Drawing a bulls eye.”
“I can see that. Why? Why did you stop juggling?”
“I have an idea. I’m going to work with Pravara on her aim.”
“Good luck with that.”
Steve adopted his smug smirk and mimicked his favorite old west movie star.
“Just you watch and learn, little lady. Hey Pravara!”
The dragonlet finally ceased her flapping and hung, motionless, in the air. She turned to look at Steve, who had pointed at the bulls eye.
“I’ll bet I can hit the center more times than you can.”
Pravara was silent as she was slowly lowered to the ground. Once Sarah had deposited her safely in front of her nest, she relinquished her grip on the small dragon and waited to see what Pravara would do.
“What is that?” the dragonlet asked, curious.
“It’s a target. Come here, I’ll show you.”
Forgetting that she had just tried to escape her nest, Pravara obediently joined Steve and together they stared at the target.
“Here’s what you do. See the dot in the middle of all those rings?”
Pravara nodded her head.
“See if you can do this!”
Steve ignited a chaser and threw it at the target, decreasing the intensity and strength of the fireball as much as he was able. Deliberately aiming a few feet to the left, the chaser impacted the outermost ring of his target and glowed brightly a few seconds before disappearing.
“Oh, darn. I was so close. It’s your turn. Think you can hit it?”
A grim look of determination appeared on the young dragon’s face. Standing as still as she was able, she stared at the center of the target for a few moments before whipping back her head, like Steve had seen Sarah do when trying to swallow vitamins, and then snapped her head forward. The resulting fireball spun off to the right and threatened to fly into the nest before Steve was able to stop the ball of fire and have his jhorun absorb its energy.
“The sun was in your eyes,” Steve told the forlorn little dragon. “I do believe you get another shot.”
Pravara’s ears perked up. Once more she sighted the target and was ready to snap back her neck again when Steve gently placed a hand on her long scaled neck, drawing her attention.
“Try this. Instead of whipping your neck back, which takes your eyes of your target, try to keep your head level. Don’t move your neck. There, that’s good. Now, with the target still in your sites, inhale as much air as you need and once you’re ready, release your breath in a fast whoosh, like you’re forcing yourself to sneeze. Can you do that?”
Pravara did as she was told and when she released her breath, as fast as she was able to exhale, she was startled to discover the resulting fireball was larger than her normal shots but also had much more power behind it. Pravara’s shot ended up flying a little bit straighter. She missed the outer ring of the target, but only by a few inches.
Excited, Pravara turned to Steve to ask his permission to go again, but Steve was already waving her on for another shot. As Pravara practiced, with her accuracy improving with each of her shots, Steve wandered over to where Sarah was sitting on an outcropping of rock.
“You do realize you’re never, ever, going to rid yourself of your Doctor Dolittle moniker if you keep doing stuff like this, don’t you?”
“What’s the problem? I’m just helping her work on her aim.”
“Look at her! It’s been, what, ten minutes and she’s doting on every little thing you say. You certainly don’t need me here.”
“Steve! Look! Look! I hit the target!”
Steve and Sarah rose to their feet and walked over to the side of the cave with the burning rings still visible. Visible just inside the outermost ring, but fading fast, was the strike from Pravara. They turned to face the little dragon who was practically bouncing up and down on all four legs.
“Nicely done!” Steve praised, giving Pravara a pat on her shoulder. “Not bad at all!”
“I got closer to the center than you did!” Pravara declared proudly. “Let’s see you beat that!”
“Ah! I see! The challenge is back on! You got it, squirt.”
Steve ignited a chaser and spun it on his finger as he pretended to aim for the target. Once he had put on a little show, he flung his chaser out, but not before Sarah appeared behind him and kissed his neck just as he threw the fireball.
His chaser spun out of control and impacted the mountainside nearly twenty feet away.
“You need to practice,” Pravara helpfully told him.
“Mmm-hmmm,” Steve grumbled, casting a look over his shoulder at Sarah, who was practically in tears from laughing so hard. “Let’s try that again, shall we?”
Steve ignited another chaser and lined up his shot for real this time, all while keeping an eye on Sarah, who was inching closer and closer.
“Keep your distance, lady.”
Sarah backed a dozen feet away and held both arms out, palms facing up, as if to say, ‘who, me?’
Just as Steve threw the chaser Sarah vanished and appeared right next to him and blew softly in his ear. This chaser struck the mountain even farther away than the previous one.
“You helped me practice,” Pravara informed him. “I’ll do the same for you.”
“Aren’t you a barrel of laughs?” Steve chuckled as he frowned at his wife.
Sarah put both hands on her hips. “I know you didn’t just scowl at me.”
Steve wiped his defiant expression from his face and started backpedaling. Rapidly.
“Nope. Of course not.”
Sarah gave her husband a smug smile. “Good answer, Paco.”
“I’m hungry.”
Together, husband and wife turned to look at the dragonlet. Sarah helplessly looked at Steve.
“What do we do?”
“Don’t look at me. I don’t seem to be lactating right now.”
Suddenly Pravara looked up at the distant clouds, causing Steve and Sarah to mimic her. A tiny speck had appeared and grew steadily larger. Pryllan had returned. Hanging limply from her mouth was some sort of dead animal. Apparently Pryllan had returned with lunch.
“How long does it take her to eat?” Steve asked, swallowing noisily. The last thing he wanted to witness was a dragon feeding, let alone two.
“No more than a few minutes,” Pryllan told them. “She’s a very fast eater. I keep telling her to slow down but it falls on deaf ears.”
Sarah pointed at Steve, but he interrupted her first.
“Nope. Put that finger down. Don’t even say it.”
Confused, Pryllan’s gaze darted between man and woman and then back again.
“How was Pravara? I see that she awakened.”
“Almost as soon as you left,” Sarah admitted.
“And you kept her entertained?” Pryllan asked, incredulous. “I am impressed. You have my thanks.”
“Don’t thank me,” Sarah informed her. “You can thank Steve. He even worked with her on improving her aim.”
Shocked, Pryllan stared at the fire thrower. However, at that moment, the first sickening crunch of bones sounded as Pravara took her first bite of lunch.
“We’ll be back in about five minutes,” Sarah assured Pryllan. She took her husband’s arm and teleported them down to the base of the mountain where she had gone earlier that day. After waiting close to ten minutes, to make sure all traces of the kill had been removed, Sarah returned them to the nest to find Pravara excitedly demonstrating her new skills for her mother.
“Most impressive, Pravara. Your aim has improved significantly. Your sire will be very proud.”
Pravara’s scales sparkled in the sun as she beamed with joy.
“I assume Kahvel has not returned?” Pryllan asked, once she had spotted the two of them.
“We haven’t seen him since he left,” Sarah answered.
“What did you find out?” Steve asked. He and Sarah sat down on the nearby rocks. “Were you able to find out anything useful?”
Pryllan nodded. “Indeed. I must say I rather enjoy snooping.”
Both Steve and Sarah laughed out loud.
“It’s more fun than you realize,” Steve admitted. He looked at his wife. “Some of us are better at it than others.”
Sarah elbowed him in the ribs. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Your jhorun is more suited to snooping around than mine is.”
“Oh.”
“What’d you think I meant? You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”
“What I have learned,” Pryllan began, “is that the symptoms first appeared about three fortnights ago.”
“Roughly a month and a half ago,” Steve translated for Sarah’s benefit.
Sarah playfully smacked his arm. “I know what a fortnight is, thank you very much.”
Pryllan waited a few moments to make sure she could continue.
“Three dragons became infected after returning from a hunt in the far north. Within several days it had spread to five of us. Unfortunately, the infection rate has been steadily increasing ever since.”
“Do we know what these three dragons did to become infected?” Steve asked. “Did they all eat part of the same animal?”
“Unknown,” Pryllan answered.
“So is this a disease?” Sarah asked. “It’s sure sounding like it right about now.”
“If this is a malady, then it has been previously unreported until now. After contracting this malady, within two weeks the infected dragon would lose the ability to spit fire.”
Steve raised a hand. “What about when they lose the Collective? Would it, or someone on it, inform you if someone else had been kicked off of it?”
Pryllan shook her massive head.
“It doesn’t work that way. The Collective is a mental gathering of wyverian minds. If you choose to use the Collective then you open your senses and quiet your mind so that you can hear the voices of the others. If one voice is silent, we would be unable to determine which voice that is.”
“Have you noticed anyone disappearing from the Collective?” Sarah asked. “For example, can you tell how long it’s been since you’ve last contacted so-and-so?”
“What I have noticed,” Pryllan admitted, “is that the number of voices in the Collective has dropped. Whereas it is possible for the Collective to become all but silent, provided every dragon chose to shun contact with the others, however, no one has ever noticed it this quiet for this long. This malady is definitely affecting the Collective as more and more voices are going silent.”
Kahvel swooped in from the east, circling about overhead to give everyone enough time to make enough room for him to land. Folding his wings and laying them flat against his back, he regarded his mate with a troubled look.
“What is it?” Pryllan asked. “What has happened?”
“Rinbok Intherer believes he has just reached stage two.”
“Didn’t he just use the Collective to summon you?” Steve asked, confused. “Stage two is the loss of the Collective, right?”
Kahvel nodded. “It is. He progressed to stage two in my presence. I could see it in his eyes.”
“Don’t you guys have some sort of a doctor you can go to if you have any type of medical problems?” Sarah asked, exasperated. “I can’t believe there’s no one you can turn to for help in a situation such as this.”
“We dragons are naturally resilient to medical ailments,” Kahvel proudly informed them. “The services of a healer are rarely needed.”
“What about now?” Steve asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kahvel grunted but didn’t say anything.
“There is someone we might be able to turn to for help,” Pryllan said. She turned to look at her mate. “Do you think Sciathan could shed any additional light on the matter?”
Kahvel was silent for a few moments.
“If ever there were anyone that could, aye, I believe he would. Provided you can find him.”
“Who’s Sciathan?” Steve asked.
“One of us who has lived for many centuries,” Pryllan answered.
“So he’s an elder dragon,” Sarah observed. “He’d be perfect.”
“Ascertaining his location will be a problem,” Pryllan admitted.
Steve scratched his head. “Why? Oh, let me guess. Because no one who goes to see him ever comes back alive?”
Pryllan and Kahvel both stared at Steve as though he had just belched up a fireball.
Steve grinned at the two adult dragons. “Okay, that’s a little inappropriate. Sorry.”
“Can you ask this elder dragon what his present location is?” Sarah inquired as she mentally crossed her fingers.
Pryllan shook her head. “His voice has been absent from the Collective for some time.”
Steve sighed. He stretched his back and turned to look southeast, back towards the distant lake.
“Do we have an idea where to look?”
Kahvel approached Steve on his right and looked northeast.
“Do you see the three peaks to the north?”
“I see a peak off by itself and two others a little farther away on its left. Is that what you’re talking about?”
Kahvel shook his head.
“Not even close. You need to look further north. The three peaks sit side by side from one another.”
Steve squinted at the distant mountains and then held a hand over his eyes to shade them. Sarah tapped Kahvel’s foreleg to get his attention.
“I see what you’re referring to. Is that where we have to go?”
“Aye. That was his last known location. I’m not sure Pravara would be able to –”
Pryllan thumped the ground with her tail to get Kahvel’s attention. “Pravara will remain here. With you.”
Kahvel, noting the hostile tone emanating from his mate, swiveled his head to look at her.
“Caring for offspring is the duty of the female.”
Sarah rapped Kahvel’s closest foreleg and then rubbed her stinging knuckles.
“Excuse me? What did you just say?”
Pryllan stepped up to Sarah’s side and together the females glared at the two males.
Steve held up his hands and backed away. With a smile, he looked up at the towering gold dragon.
“What was it that you once told me before? Oh, yes, I have it. ‘Your female, your problem’. You’re not dragging me into this, buddy.”
Kahvel looked down at Sarah and then up at his mate. Both were still scowling at him. Well, Sarah was scowling; Pryllan was growling. Sarah wagged her finger at Kahvel.
“If we weren’t going to go find this elder dragon we’d be continuing this right now. Consider yourself lucky.”
Kahvel snorted; a thin line of smoke escaped from each nostril. He withdrew from the debate and retreated inside the cave.