Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 30

 

Thanks for your patience. I was really sick for a really long time, but I'm better now!

“To rest you need to sleep. If you want me to sleep now, you need to wake me up so I can take a turn,” Beckett argued stubbornly.

“We are pretty far from the city. Unless they also have a dragon, I doubt they could catch up before midday tomorrow, and we won’t sleep past dawn.”

“So, sleep here together?” Beckett wasn’t against that. It was clear, the actual stars shining over them in a thick blanket in the dark sky. He would probably stay awake from shivering if he wasn’t curled up under Valrinda’s wing in a cozy pocket of body warmth. His dragon was better than a heater, if a little lumpy.

“We might as well.”

“Don’t you dare try to stay awake.” Beckett wasn’t sure what he’d do. “Don’t make me zap you.” He’d figure out how. “Sleep so you can heal.”

“I will,” Valrinda promised.

Satisfied, Beckett shifted onto his side. They were curled in the sand under the shelter of a batch of rocks off the side of the road, so he made a small divot for his hip and leaned against his warm dragon. Each long breath Valrinda took shifted him up and down, rocking him naturally to sleep.

 

The next morning, Beckett was plastered to Valrinda’s back as they flew through the sky above stormy rain clouds. “Where are we going?” he shouted.

“South.” Valrinda stretched out a scaly arm tipped with a deadly claw. Most of the scratches and small chunks taken out of him had healed overnight, but the bite taken out of his back spine was still filling back in.

“Wait… weren’t we already going south? Why aren’t we headed back to the portal?”

“No, that doesn’t work anymore. It’s broken.”

Beckett leveraged himself up. “What?” he screeched.

“The portal is broken,” Valrinda said loud and slow, like he hearing him had been the problem.

“Then how in the hell am I supposed to get this star back to Parallax?”

“I’m not sure. But I was thinking, with your magic, it would be best to consult the Mage Council. They’ll talk to you now.”

“Now? Like they wouldn’t before?”

“No, they only take on petitions from their own kind.”

Wow, they sounded great. Like the jock bastards who thought they were all hot shit and only cool enough to hang out with each other, but on magical steroids. “Do we have to talk to them?”

“Do you have another idea?”

“Of fucking course not.” Magical jocks it was.

 

And… of course they had their very own city, with their very own guard, and those assholes wouldn’t let Valrinda into the city.

“No, I’m not going without you.” Beckett crossed his arms over his chest. They’d gone back down the road a good ways so the stupid guards in their gold, purple, and black uniforms wouldn’t hear them.

“We don’t have a choice. This is what you have to do so we can figure out how to find a portal that will take you home.”

Beckett leaned against Valrinda’s chest. “You’re my home.”

“I love being your guide, but you have a destiny.” Beckett was starting to hate that word. His arms dropped to his sides. “I won’t stand in the way of that. You need to go speak to the mages and find out if there’s a way to portal you home.”

“Fine. But you don’t move from here. If you’re still my guide, I need to be able to find you.”

Valrinda ducked his head and leaned it over Beckett’s shoulder, pressing them together in his version of a hug. “I will stay here.”

“Promise?” Beckett’s stomach was churning. He really didn’t want to go into another city on his own. It didn’t go well last time, even if he’d found Valrinda in the end.

“I swear by my scales.”

Beckett took a deep breath. “Okay, then.” He turned and marched toward the guards blocking the gate. When one tried to halt him, lightning crackled off Beckett’s fingertips. He curled his lip in a sneer until the spear blocking his path moved hastily.

“Damn right,” he muttered. All he had to do was out elite the elitist mages. He could do that.

Once he figured out where to go. Then again, where would the top brass be other than at the top? He headed up hill, looking for the biggest building on the tallest hill. The buildings on the side of the road nearest the wall blocked his view, but as soon as he got a few streets in, they started to thin.

And he saw it. “Oh yeah, that’s a dick stroke.” A big building with a huge spire topping it towered above everything. He couldn’t walk straight to it, but even as he zigzagged through the city streets he was able to keep it in view at all times.

He repeated his lightning trick on the four guards protecting the bridge to the grounds the building stood on, but he was stalled at the door to the entrance. No guards blocked his way, but there was a large stone golem. It was three times the size of the ones he’d blown up and felt like it was made of something much stronger. He shivered.

“I am here to speak to the mage council,” Beckett announced in his strongest voice.

“Do you have an appointment?”

Beckett’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail

 

The walls warped around him as he slowed, but Beckett wasn’t looking at them. He focused on the pile of rubble that blocked the stairs he needed to get down to find Valrinda. The damn golems had pulled down so much of the wall he couldn’t even get down.

Had that been their plan all along? Trap him up in the tower and let the lightning kill him? He snorted. That wasn’t going to go their way. Trapping him in the tower wasn’t going to go their way either. Beckett tucked the softly glowing star into his pocket, then planted two hands on the biggest stones. They began to vibrate. He pushed harder, not liking the muffled sounds he could hear through the chinks in the rubble.

Valrinda needed him. His face heated, and he let loose a primal roar, forcing the power inside him outside. The air throbbed and pulsed with a wave of energy that rocked the world around him, removing the rock barrier and everything in front of it.

He wasn’t going to feel bad about the golems who were smoldering in clumps alongside the chunks of rock.

“Val!” There were three golems on top of him.

“Beckett! I thought you were dead.” One of the golems opened its wide mouth and bit down on Valrinda’s spines along his back, the sound like stone on metal. Valrinda roared, so it must have hurt.

“No, but those golems are about to be!” Beckett flung out his hands and the heat coalesced inside him and shot through his palms. Crackles of white hot heat blasted through the air and smacked into each golem, piercing their thick stone hides and ripping them off Valrinda’s backs with a resounding boom. “Oh, shit.” He shook out his hands, flexing his fingers.

They were still pink, totally intact. “Wow. Who knew I could do that?”

“Not me.” Valrinda looked over his back. There was a chunk taken out of a spike, but not a singed mark on him. “Nice control.”

“Control my ass. I didn’t control anything. I just saw them on you and got mad. Just like I did when I blasted that wall open.” Beckett went over to Valrinda. “Are you okay?”

“I will heal. Let’s get out of here. Climb on, I think we should fly.”

“But you’re hurt.” Beckett didn’t want to do anything that would make it worse. Valrinda had been out here protecting him while he’d been getting some shiny gem thing. As soon as he’d grabbed it, the star had turned out to be nothing more than a clear rock with pulsing colors that he’d shoved in his pocket as he raced down the stairs.

It had better be worth all that it had cost him and Valrinda.

“It’s not that bad. I don’t want to risk trying to get back through the city. Someone’s going to object to the fact that we just demolished a building and killed a pack of golems.”

“Some of them might still be alive, if they ran away,” Beckett said.

“Golems don’t run away from the buildings they’re charged with protecting.”

Which meant, since they’d been hiding when they first arrived, it had definitely been a trap. For them specifically or just whoever might try to steal the star from whoever stole the star… he wasn’t sure. “Well, I’m not sorry. They were the enemy and don’t deserve any mercy.”

“You’re not getting any arguments from me, but we need to go.” The urgency in Valrinda’s voice was stronger.

“Fine. But we stop as soon as its safe so you can rest and heal.” It was already getting dark with the temperature dropping, and Beckett wasn’t looking forward to the temperatures up in the sky even if flying was one of the best things he’d ever done.

 

The wisps had done a lot to set up camp once they’d joined up together, but as long as Beckett and Valrinda were together, he didn’t care. All he needed was to curl up by his dragon’s side, and Beckett was happy.

“You found the star?” Valrinda asked. He curled tighter when Beckett shivered, wrapping one wing around them both so his heat created a pocket of warmth around them.

“I did.” It was stabbing Beckett from inside his pocket anyway, so he pulled it out. The star was hard and pointy but not in any sort of regular shape. Certainly not in an actual star. It didn’t look like a gem or a rock, either. There were lights inside, dancing and glowing, and even in the warmth of his pocket and Valrinda’s heat, the star itself held a heat of its own that made Beckett’s hand tingle without burning.

“It was making lightning all over the room, and I wasn’t sure how to get it. Then I heard you fighting, and I just… knew how to do it. If I let my fire burn, I could flame just as bright as this star.” Beckett shook his head. “That’s just insane.”

“Why?” Valrinda cocked his head.

“Stars are insanely hot. And huge. None of this makes sense.”

Valrinda snorted. “You are talking about magic. Of course it makes sense. If you believe in it hard enough.”

Did that make sense? “So you’re saying because you believed I’d find the path and the star, I did? And because I believed I could use fire magic hot enough to match the lightning, I just could? No other reason or logic?”

“What is magic but reason and logic that hasn’t been explained yet?”

Beckett rubbed his forehead. “This is too existential for me. I’m exhausted.”

“You used a lot of magic today. You need to rest. I will watch and listen for any pursuit.”

“To heal you need to rest too. I can take a watch up on the rocks tonight.” Valrinda had put them down near a jumbled set of jagged rocks that rose up next to the road.

“I am resting.” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 28

 

Getting in really didn’t turn out to be a problem. The gate to the tunnel was wood, and two bashes from Valrinda’s tail decimated it. It was a tight squeeze for him, but he made it in. His bulk hid what waited for them at the end from Beckett, but he was glad he’d listened and let Valrinda go first when the heat from his breath wafted back into the stone tunnel.

“Sorry.” The dragon’s voice was muffled by his own butt. He blocked most of the light, so Beckett couldn’t see much either, just a few stray gleams bouncing off his back scales.

“Want to get out of the way?”

“Um, just a moment.” There was a crunch, stones crumbled, and dust filled the tunnel. Beckett started coughing, doubling over as his body fought to hack up both his lungs. Tears ran from his eyes, and he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

More light was streaming in until Valrinda stuck his head and shoulders back into the tunnel. “You okay?”

“No,” Beckett choked out. “What did… you do that for?”

“There was a guard on top of the wall here facing inside that I couldn’t burn, so I sort of pulled down the top of the wall.”

“That you… couldn’t burn.” Beckett felt faint. “You burned people?”

“Nah. They were constructs. Golems imbued with power to guard the star. Do you really think anyone who would still Parallax’s star would allow other beings around it who might steal it from them?”

“Oh, good point.” Beckett’s cheeks heated. He still didn’t have an accurate picture of the who or what had stolen the star, or who’d tried to force Valrinda. Both beings had too much magic, but he wouldn’t let that stop him.

There was no way they’d expected Beckett and Valrinda to overcome the venom and come after the star for themselves. Dragon and fire mage to the rescue!

Of course, Beckett was also going to have to figure out what a fire mage was. Or did. He’d chalk that up to tomorrow’s job.

“You wanna move so I can get out of the tunnel now?” He was more than a little worried it was going to collapse, especially since he was going to have to climb over some rather large pieces of stone to get out.

“Sure, sure. I’m going to go knock down some more walls.”

“I’ll stand back while you have fun then.”

So much for the serious adventurers saving the day and getting the star. Valrinda was cackling as he tore into the walls, his claws ripping into the mortar and pulverizing the edges of the dark stones as he yanked them out until he created a huge hole.

“You couldn’t have just pulled the doors off their hinges?” There were two big double doors at one end of the courtyard.

“The star is up there.” Valrinda pointed to the right with his tail. “Why go the long way? Besides, more golems are coming. I can hear them.”

“Good point.” Into the hole then. There was a long flight of stairs, which turned twice, growing narrower each time. Valrinda had to stop or risk getting his long body stuck. “I don’t like this,” he hissed. “I need to protect you.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m not some weak human anymore, remember? Besides, you need to go back and protect our retreat.”

“You’ve never been weak.” Valrinda pushed his nose against the hand Beckett laid on him. “Be fast. Get the star and come right back. I’ll be here. If I hear something that makes me think you’re in trouble, anything, I’m tearing this place apart to get up there.”

“How about you don’t tear the building down around me, hmm? I bet I still squish good.” Plus Beckett didn’t want another dust bath.

“Fine.”

 

Alone now, Beckett climbed warily. They hadn’t found any golems inside. Sure, the whole building ruse had been about hiding the star in an out of the way place, but this seemed too easy.

And he spoke too damn soon. Golems? He’d take a golem or two.

Ten even.

Instead, he faced a pool of lightning that crackled and roiled. He jerked out of the open doorway when a bolt? Strand? Freaking lance of bright white crackling energy that made all the hair on his body stand on end lashed out and struck within inches of his feet.

And in the center of all that deadly electricity? The star. He couldn’t really look at it, but he could sense it and knew what it was.

Was the electricity a trap protecting it or part of the star itself? “Fuck!” Why couldn’t Parallax have given him some god damned answers before he sent him in after this thing? Beckett tried to peek into the room without putting his body into the doorway.

A crackle and snap struck again, and he cursed, ducking into a crouch. The building shook under him, and he fell against the wall. “Hey,” Beckett shouted. “I said don’t pull down the walls.”

“It’s not me, it’s the golems!”

Shit. Of course he’d wished for golems and this would happen.

“They’re pulling the building down. They came out of nowhere, and there are too many of them. I can’t fry them all. You need to get the star and get out of there.” Valrinda grunted, then groaned.

Pain lanced through Beckett. “Oh fuck. Hell no.” They were hurting Valrinda. Rage boiled up inside Beckett, and his whole body caught fire. He began to glow the same color as the lightning inside the room, and it went crazy, striking him over and over.

It tickled, but he ignored it. Racing to the center of the room, Beckett grabbed the star and then he was dashing down the shaking stairs.

He had some golems to turn to ash, and then he’d find the bastards who hurt his dragon. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path Starless Tail Chapter 27

Their flesh met, and the venom joined them together under the magic. It wasn’t just a neurotoxin poison that forced the victim to surrender control of their mind and body to the owner of seprecries. That had been what attacked Valrinda, and he’d been fighting it with all his might. He’d managed to stay down under the city instead of going back to the surface to find Beckett and kill him.  

Then find the star.

But that was where his strength had failed him. He couldn’t fight forever, and he would eventually succumb to the suggestions being overlaid on his mind. Whispering, shouting, twitching along his nerves and clouding all he knew, thought, and did.

Until Valrinda and Beckett had touched, and those scrapes on his chest met the wounds on Valrinda’s neck. Blood met blood, already tied by fate, and together they turned their attention to the master of the seprecries who thought they could own Parallax’s star for their own. Their greed would bring about their downfall.

First, the poison in Valrinda’s veins.

Beckett rested his head against Valrinda’s smooth scales. They were unnaturally cold. “Let me help you,” he whispered.

“Please,” Valrinda begged. Not that he had to. With his permission freely given, Beckett unleashed something he hadn’t known lived inside him.

A fire that blazed within his being rose up and spread outward, pouring into Valrinda. It rekindled his flame, and they snuffed out the poison in a few heartbeats. Valrinda’s eyes cleared, and his wings drooped. He folded them along his back. The rigid lock of his muscles eased, and he sank to the stone floor of the tunnel, curling around Beckett. “Thank you,” he said.

“You protect me, so I protect you,” Beckett said simply.

“How did you find me?” Valrinda asked.

“The wisps. There was one… somewhere.” He didn’t bother trying to look for it. He needed to stay with Valrinda. “You knew about this before, didn’t you?”

“That you had magic inside you? Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? People kept calling me human.” His forehead wrinkled. “But I can’t just be a human. People don’t feel like this.” The flames were banked inside him at that moment, like hot coals that were ready to be fanned into a flaming inferno at his behest.

He wasn’t quite sure how to do it though. He hadn’t done it on purpose when he healed Valrinda, but it had also felt as natural as breathing.

“You are a fire mage. It is why we are so compatible, and also why you rejected the ice dragon. We have always been meant to meet and do this. It was fate because it’s been foretold.”

“Who foretold it?” Beckett looked up at him, still stroking his scales around the pink, healing wounds. His own wounds on his chest hand finally closed, the flesh pink but no longer raw and painful.

Valrinda snorted. “Parallax, of course.”

That damn cat. It all came back to him. What was his real purpose in sending Beckett here? “If he foretold me meeting you, and if he knew I had this magic… then why didn’t he just stop his star from being taken in the first place?” Beckett was exasperated, but it was a good question.

“Maybe he couldn’t.”

“Or he didn’t want to,” Beckett muttered. Damn cat was just as big a pain in the ass as regular cats. More, even.

Well, he had his dragon back, and now he had magic. “We should go.”

“Where?” Valrinda asked.

“After the star.” Thanks for the seprecries, they knew where it was. The shadowy figure that had sent it to attack Valrinda was still obscured from them, but it had given two very distinct commands.

One, kill Beckett before he could find the star and take it back through the portal.

Two, get the star from the squat building behind the castle on the hill. It was very “Don’t look behind the big fancy castle at this midden heap of a building.” Fancy stuff hiding the real gem.

“We can go up two streets over.” Valrinda craned his neck over Beckett’s head. “That way.”

“First, the star. Then we get the mage that sent the seprecries after you.” Beckett stroked Valrinda’s scales by his wound one last time. “No one hurts you.” The coals inside him burned a little hotter as he made that promise.

 

Beckett and Valrinda emerged from the tunnels into the late afternoon sun. How long had they spent healing their wounds? He didn’t think they’d been down there that long.

“We need to hurry.”

Despite the mix of beings in the city, the two of them couldn’t move around without getting stared at. Apparently dragons weren’t that common, or at least ones Valrinda’s size. Maybe the little red guy was more normal. He had seen one or two flying things moving away from them that could have been dragons.

“How are we going to get in?” Beckett asked.

“I’m a big-ass dragon. We’ll get in.” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 26

The one-eyed-winking windbag, as Beckett dubbed him in his mind, looked like a tube that had been unrolled, then inflated partway. Lumpy, with no real defined shape, it still filled the entire archway that appeared to have a set of stairs leading down into a squat stone building. Every time the thing breathed out of holes on either side of its eye, it emitted a cloud of… something foul into the air with a greenish tinge. The mix of cooked broccoli and three week old gym socks made Beckett gag and then have to swallow down a thin stream of bile that burned on its way back down.

“How do I get passed it?” he hissed. He hid around the corner of a building a block away. That’s how far the stench went, so he couldn’t begin to imagine how bad it was up close. He’d pass out! No locker room had ever rivaled that smell. No way he could hold his breath that long.

The wisps must have been as stumped as he was. “Guys?” Beckett looked behind him… and they were nowhere to be seen. “What the hell? Damn it!”

Beckett turned back to the windbag, and his eyes widened. The wisps hadn’t abandoned him! They were swarmed around the thing, and had rolled it in a shiny net. He’d have preferred a bag that trapped it in its own odors, but beggars couldn’t be choosers because in that moment, the wisps were rolling it away from the archway. He took off running. “Thanks!” he called over his shoulder as he sailed down the stairs and down into the depths of the building. He didn’t look back, and he kept going, determined to find Valrinda.

One wisp stayed by his side, not having any trouble keeping up despite how small it was. Seriously, what were they like under those robes? He ran down the uneven stone steps until his side ached, and then he stumbled to a stop, leaning against the gritty stone wall. It was cold and damp.

Glowing sconces on the walls kept it from being pitch black, and Beckett prayed they were removable. Who knew what the tunnels were like? While he caught his breath, he examined one. It looked like something was moving inside the globe, and he shuddered, but he still grabbed the bottom of the post in the bracket and pulled. It came free with a loud scrape.

He looked back and forth, but nothing was behind them and he didn’t see anything in the murky depths of the stairs still leading down. How far was it? “Can you still sense Val?” he asked the wisp.

“Yes, he is ahead and that way.” It pointed to one side.

“Okay.” He heaved a big breath. “Let’s go.”

 

They walked, and walked, and walked. Once they were off the stairs, they found tunnels. Thank fuck a wisp came with him because they branched everywhere like snakes. Some were huge, and some small, and Beckett would never have found any sign of Valrinda on his own. There were definitely things living down here, but he never saw anything, just heard sounds and saw the bones.

That was worse. Wet, sucking noises or soft scraping. Dry clicks or raspy rattles. He would hold up the globe high or spin, but never saw the gleam of an eye or a hint of a body.

The wisp tugged him along, and Beckett went as fast as he could. He wanted out of here, his skin crawling constantly.

“Wait! Did you hear that?” It hadn’t been like the other sounds. It had sounded like… “There! Chains, I think it’s the chains you guys put on Val!” Excited, Beckett took off toward the end of the huge tunnel he was in. “Valrinda! I’m coming! Wait for me!” Was he trying to find the way out? To look for Beckett?

Beckett ran into a space where three large tunnels came together right before Valrinda left by another tunnel. “Val! Wait!” He ran up to him and threw his body against his dragon. “I found you!”

Val’s wing swept out and knocked him away. He turned, barely fitting in the space, and bared his teeth, growling.

“What the hell?” Beckett wheezed on the ground, the breath knocked out of him. “It’s me!”

What was wrong with him? Beckett crawled backward on his elbows and heels, not taking his eyes off the milky orbs that were fixed on his chest.

His tunic had popped open with the force of the fall, and the raw red claw marks were still visible. He’d learned to ignore them, since they’d never gone away, but now Valrinda was staring with his nostrils flaring and his teeth bared.

Like he was enraged. At Beckett? Himself? Maybe Valrinda thought he hurt him.

“They’re just those scratches from before. I’m fine. You didn’t do it. It’s okay.” He tried to soothe Valrinda, but it didn’t work. As soon as he spoke, Valrinda snarled and the sound held nothing but hostile menace.

Something wasn’t right, and Beckett had no idea what. He had to get out of here. His eyes burned but he refused to let the tears fall. He’d figure this out on his own. But he had to free Valrinda. Maybe he could lead him out….

No, the tunnels were too small the way he came. He’d just have to let him find his own way out. Beckett gathered himself to jump up and run. He’d have to make it past that deadly mouth full of fangs and those claws and through the tunnel to his left.

He waited for an eternity of a moment when a sound distracted Valrinda. In the second his head turned to the side, Beckett leaped to his feet to bolt away. Then he saw the dripping puncture marks, and the side of Valrinda’s head caught him and swept him against his neck, right against the wound. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 25

 

They were not staying in an inn or anywhere else Beckett could have gotten food or something to drink. He should have known better. The wisps seemed to be universally unpopular. Instead he was sitting on the floor of a ramshackle building that looked like it would fall down around his head if he moved wrong or even breathed too hard.

The wisps had all grouped together in a giant pile and they were glowing as they chanted. He watched with nervous anticipation and hoped that something happened soon. This room was dark and gloomy, which was probably great for hiding, but all he wanted to was find Valrinda, find the star, and get home.

Smothering his gasp with one hand, hoping he didn’t distract the wisps, Beckett struggled with the stomach punch of a sudden realization if he found Parallax’s star and took it home to him, he’d lose Valrinda.

The real world certainly had no room for a magical dragon with scales and wings. Their nights snuggled together with Valrinda warming him with his wings curled protectively around him or the days he’d been given the gift of flying on his back would become nothing but a distant memory that would be consumed then obliterated by a boring, grown up life.

He grit his teeth. No! He didn’t want that to happen. Beckett was tired, and hungry, scared out of his mind, and still happier than he’d been in the last year since his dad had started pressuring him. He was free in a way he’d never been before. He knuckled his eyes, taking deep breaths.

“Found him!” The wisps cried, their voices merged together in an echoing jumble. Beckett was pulled to his feet, and he stumbled as pins and needles stung his abused legs from sitting still for too long.

“Come,” the ones holding his hand repeated over and over.

“This way, we found him!” The others milled around them, and he winced when they wacked right into the stone walls. Dust, or more frightening, the mortar chinked between the ancient stones also crumbling, filled the air. His nose tickled and he sneezed twice, yanking his hands away from the wisps.

“Slow down,” Beckett said, wiping his nose on the back of his arm. “Where is he? Did that thing on the road attack him?”

“Shh! Come!” They pulled at his clothes and pushed him and generally shoved him out of the hovel and onto the street. He blinked, blinded by the sun that had cleared the buildings and woken the city. People were moving now, going about their business. The chill was already gone, heat building from the blazing sun and lack of shade in the desert city.

He tried to use his brain since the wisps were not giving him any say in where his body was going. They’d disappeared when the huge beast charged them with that human on his back… huge beast. It’d been way too big to create the hole in the barn they’d been in. So it wasn’t that.

Then what had attacked them? He’d just slapped evil guy, obvious star thief on the human’s head since he acted like a douche nozzle and came off all high and mighty, plus he knew shit he shouldn’t know if he wasn’t in on the whole thing. He squinted, chewing his lip, growling in frustration. The imp on his right squeaked, squeezing his hand.

“It’s far, hurry, hurry. The great one is moving away, and you must catch up to him!”

“Great one.” Beckett rolled his eyes, but he tried to put on some more speed. For little guys, the wisps were damn fast. Fine grit ground across his forehead when he wiped away the sweat stinging his eyes as he panted and strained to keep up with them for longer than he expected it would take to even cross the entire city. “Are you leading me in circles?”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“Maybe?” another squeaked. “We follow the chains.”

“How?”

“Feel them.” The wisps in front of him patted their chests, eyes closed.

“Could Val be flying?” Beckett squinted as he looked upward, straining to catch a glimpse of his dragon on the high rising thermals despite the lack of even a ribbon of white clouds to hide his sleek, dark form.

The wisps shook their heads in unison. “No, too close.”

“We would have seen him if he was close!” Beckett exploded. “Even with all these damn people and buildings crammed in here like a fucking sweatbox, we wouldn’t miss a black dragon.” People had gotten out of their way the day before or risked being stepped on and slightly smooshed. “Where is he?” He rubbed his forehead, trying to stave off the dizziness. His chest still ached, his head hurt, and nothing he did could make the pain go away.

Nothing except find Valrinda. The wisps said they were close, and he believed them, so what was he missing? The brick buildings and brick streets couldn’t stop the desert from sending in the fine dust from outside the walls. It piled up in corners and trickled down in holes between the pavers…

Holes between the stones. If Valrinda could smash through a wall, could he or his attacker have smashed into the road, or under it?

“Fuck. Of course I have to go looking for underground tunnels.” He swallowed hard. “Are there tunnels here?” he asked louder. He prayed they would say no, but by their excitement as they began towing him around again, he knew the answer was yes.

Worse, the ugliest creature he’d ever seen, emitting the most disgusting smell, was guarding the entrance to what was clearly a tunnel into a basement, which no one would bother guarding, or an underground labyrinth of tunnels that his dragon was trapped in.

“Guess which one you’re about to explore?” Beckett muttered. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 24

 

“Okay, it’s fine. You’re fine.” He wasn’t fine. Beckett hadn’t realized how quickly he’d come to rely on the guides that had found him wandering down the path after he’d been sent without a fucking clue through that weird ass portal thing by his best friend’s cat. Or mostly all powerful galactic being thing. Whatever he was.

He’d gone from wilderness to a city after days, possibly weeks of travel as everything blurred together. Beckett was exhausted and despite everyone’s assurance that he’d somehow just know what to do when he needed to do it, he didn’t have a fucking clue.

And now he was alone. The idea made him want to vomit, and Beckett cast another panicked look around the street like he’d somehow missed his giant dragon.

But no, everything was still silent and still and there was no one but him. How could no one have seen or heard the attack or Valrinda crash through the wall and come to investigate? Something fucking weird—or magical, which was the same thing—had to be going on.

And here he was, just standing in the street like a sacrificial lamb. “Dumbass,” he muttered. Stretching up, he grabbed the lower lamp off the hook on the street pole and hurried back inside the barn. At least in here, there were signs that the animals saw and heard the shit go down. The beasts in the stalls near them were antsy, stamping and calling out.

Beckett carefully set the lamp down so it wouldn’t tip over and start a fire. He hurried into the rest of his clothes and thrust his arms into his jacket, shivering once he realized how cold he’d gotten standing outside in just his thin shirt. Stamping his feet into his boots, he wiggled his toes.

Dressed with his pack and coin pouch, he picked up the lamp and then foundered… what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t leave to find Valrinda because he needed to find the star.

But he had no idea where the star was.

The wisps.

They’d disappeared and wouldn’t come close because Valrinda was pissed at them, but maybe he convince them to help now. Valrinda had said they were close. Maybe he could find them.

 

Beckett was cold, tired, and hungry from wandering the city without any luck. It had been at least an hour, and he was out of ideas. And completely lost. He’d tried to stay away from places that looked too sketchy, with dark alleys and run down buildings with cracked windows or frayed awnings, both for his own safety and sure that beings drawn to shiny objects wouldn’t go there either. At least it’d gotten light enough that he could put the lamp back on an empty hook and didn’t have to fear attack from a dark corner quite so much.

Spying what looked like a café with benches out front, he slumped down in front. Slipping a hand into the pouch out at his belt, he grabbed one of the crescents. He needed to get something to eat and drink, and he could see someone or something inside bustling around. He sighed, rubbing his forehead, then fisted the coin.

“Beckett?”

“We found you.”

“The shiny was hidden, but then we saw.”

Beckett jolted and opened his eyes, almost falling off his bench. He was glad he’d put his back to the wall of the building next to the inn or tavern he’d sat down at, or he would have been dumped down in the dirt with no way to get clean. The wisps were talking over each other, finishing each other’s sentences almost before another stopped speaking, but he’d gotten used to that while they traveled together. He waited for them to stop, then started asking his own questions.

“Where were you?”

“The black one was angry.”

“He would eat us.”

“Gobble us up!”

“He would not,” Beckett protested. At least, he was pretty sure that Valrinda wouldn’t have done that. He’d been angry, but angry enough to eat thinking, speaking creatures? No… he wasn’t like that. “Something attacked us last night, and now Valrinda is missing. I need you to help me find him.”

“Not the star?”

“It is shiny. Bright!”

“So bright it glows in the night.”

Wait, had they already found the star? “You know where it is?”

The wisps all crowded around him, pressing together. “We did, we did!” For once they spoke together.

“Shh!” he hushed them. Beckett looked around, but while the city was waking up and there were people starting to move around no one seemed to be paying attention to them despite the wisps acting crazy. Maybe it wasn’t crazy for them. “Where?”

“A keep, full of shiny things, locked up tight.” The wisps pointed behind him. “That way.”

“Shiny magic locks up the shiny things.”

Beckett groaned. “Fuck.” Of course whoever took the star had magic. It was a star, after all. How’d someone take and keep a star without magic? He should have anticipated that the star would be protected from being taken back by magical means too.

“We need Val,” he said. He had no idea how to counter magic. He’d probably need magic of his own, and he had no idea where to get it. “Can you find those chains that you gave him?”

“Hmm, perhaps.”

“Not shiny, but they were ours.”

“Still have traces, so we might,”

“Find him that way if we all focus.”

Them, focus? Damn, it really would be a challenge. “Where should we go? Do you have a place you were staying.”

“Yes, come, come.”

Before the innkeeper could even open the doors, Beckett was already on his feet and off again, no chance to buy anything to eat or drink. He sighed, but there’d be time for that later. Now that there was hope to find Valrinda, that was his whole focus. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 23

 

“I don’t know, it’s your mission.”

He was too tired and too frustrated to be indignant. Well, too indignant. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Aren’t you supposed to be my guide?” He’d taken that to mean that Parallax was sending him someone that would know where to find the star that had been taken from him, but he was getting more and more of an idea that Valrinda was more along for the ride.

Not that he wasn’t a wealth of knowledge about the world that Beckett found himself in. He’d have had no idea where to go or how to find the road, how to trade to get money, his new clothes and stuff. Not to mention he’d probably have been killed by one beast or another. There were probably smaller things that didn’t come near a dragon but would consider a human a tasty snack.

“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.” Valrinda curled around him, tucking a wing near his feet.

“Maybe. I’m just… lost.” Maybe it was what that asshole had said. “How in the hell am I supposed to find a star? What if it isn’t here?” He’d had that vision, or whatever it was, but what had it really shown him?

“I believe in you.” Valrinda laid his head down, creating a circle around him where he was nestled in the hay.

It really was the worst bed. Loud, stiff, and a lot of little pieces were stabbing him through the towel he’d put over it. His feet ached, but at least he was clean, and didn’t have to worry about something coming out the darkness to attack them.

 

Valrinda’s roar and the jerk of his wing from around Beckett sent him tumbling off the pile of hay onto the hard packed dirt. “Wha—?” Beckett jackknifed up and whipped his head around, trying to see in the dark stable. There were no lights coming in through the thick glass windows, so sunrise was still far off and the magic light that had been up in the corner was gone or blocked by Valrinda.

He could hear scuffling, the harsh sounds of something breathing in a sharp whistle, and then metal on metal. Or… metal on scales? Was Valrinda being attacked. “What’s happening?”

“Stay there!”

It wasn’t like Beckett had a choice. He couldn’t see what was going on or help Valrinda if he didn’t have the ability to move without killing himself in the pitch black. Why the fuck had he thought he didn’t have to worry about something attacking them. Of course that jinxed them.

Slowly creeping backward in a crouch, feeling his way and hoping he wouldn’t run into something he didn’t expect, Beckett tried to find the corner of the big stall he’d been sharing with Valrinda. His fingers brushed the rough wood, and he slid alongside it after he found the short wall that bordered their area. It felt like flimsy protection, but it was all he had. Maybe he should have gotten a room like the innkeeper had suggested so at least he’d had a door with a lock.

Or maybe he’d be hurt, captured, or dead if he was the target of the attack. Beckett smacked himself on the forehead and leaned into the corner. He had to wake up and get smart. Who knew they were there? The wisps, but he didn’t believe they would send someone to attack them. They could have done it themselves at any point, including when Beckett had been alone while Valrinda was flying above them. So who else? Just the innkeeper.

“Val—” Wind whistled in front of him, and Beckett jerked back and smacked his head on the wall.

“No!” The shout cut him off, then a crash echoed through the stable. The walls shook and light from the lamps on the street shone in through the ragged hole in the wall. Valrinda was gone, and so was whoever or whatever was attacking him.

All except for a pale white arm on the ground at Beckett’s feet, the hand clutching a metal spike and elbow joint glistening white and red as it dripped in the dirt.

Beckett’s mouth dropped open and he heaved. Bile burned up his throat, and he turned, vomit spewing as he clung to the wall.

That spike wasn’t clean; it looked like the attacked had stabbed Valrinda. Was that why he shouted? Was he dying right then, out in the street all by himself while Beckett puked his guts out like a wimp? Damn it. Beckett dragged the back of his hand over his mouth, swallowing convulsively, and gingerly stepped over the nasty mess in the stall. Snagging his gear, he crept toward the hole in the wall.

His chest rose in short, sharp bursts. He tried to listen, but Beckett couldn’t hear anything over the blood pounding in his ears. Glancing around, he spotted a sharp stabbing tool thing for picking up stuff out of stalls hanging on the wall that hadn’t fallen down. “Better than nothing,” he muttered. He grabbed it in two hands, trying to figure out how to hold it, then approached the hole again.

Jaw clenched, knuckles white, Beckett jumped out of the hole in the wall and into the street… “Ah!” he barked.

At nothing.

No attacker with matching milky white flesh missing an arm and dripping blood. No Valrinda sprawled out dead or waiting for him to come out so they could find a safe place to hide.

Not another being appeared on the street, despite all the noise of the fight and the wood board scattered everywhere from a giant dragon and something else bursting through a wall. The lights flickered white gold against the velvet blue of the night sky, but Beckett didn’t see Valrinda flying over the city either.

He was all alone. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 22

 

“Friend,” the beast scoffed. “There is so much you don’t know.”

“And let me guess, you’re just dying to tell me.” Like he was just going to take a stranger’s word over what he’d experienced with Colby, or how Mr. and Mrs. R had treated him. Sure, he’d never expected their crazy cat to claw him up, grow ginormous, and create all this magic mumbo jumbo crap he was living through right now, but still….

Who in their right mind would just accept a stranger’s vague, supposed dire warnings? Beckett had suspended a lot of disbelief, but the one thing he would never do was believe that his best friend would ever do anything to hurt him. That wasn’t who Colby was, even if he had a crazy cat.

That’s where this whole thing started. Colby’s cat clawed him up, and the next thing Beckett knew he sent him through some crazy tunnel of light in search of some star so he could get his tail back. Not that that made any sense at all, right?

Becket was still pretty sure this was all just a fever dream or infection coma or something like that. But hell if anyone was going to badmouth his friends!

“You’re trapped in a web of lies, and you don’t even know it.”

“And you’re a complete stranger that came charging at us on the back of a monster that looks like it wants to eat me, spouting complete bullshit without saying how you know me or why I should given a shit about what you have to say. Do you think because you’re the only other human here I’ll instantly trust you?” He scoffed. “Yeah, right. I’m not that dumb. So excuse the fuck out of me if I say get the hell outta our way because I don’t care what you think.” By the time he stopped yelling, Beckett’s throat hurt and his fists ached from how hard he had them clenched.

Valrinda shifted slightly, but it was enough to press his forearm against Beckett’s side. His warmth infused Beckett, the heat radiating off him. Beckett knew he was there to help him, and damned if he was going to doubt that again. He also knew Valrinda was ready to scoop him up and take off if that creature attacked.

The other human’s face wasn’t quite clear through the screen covering most of the cage walls. “You just think you know. When you’re ready for answers, you’ll find me.” His beast’s heads snapped then it spun and took off across the desert.

“Where is it going?”

“No idea. There’s nothing out there that I know of.”

The beast’s legs rapped an uneven thump across the hard sand that faded faster than Beckett expected. “I thought only the road was safe?”

“It is the safest way to cross the desert, but not the only way. I wouldn’t want to cross it on land or the sky, but that isn’t to say no one can. The wisps sometimes manage it, and they hide their camps quite well when they want to.”

“So you’re saying they weren’t hiding on purpose when we tried to avoid them.” It wasn’t a question. Beckett looked around, but he couldn’t see any indication that they hadn’t been completely alone on the road. There wasn’t even a scrap of cloth or footprint in the sand. No wonder Valrinda had been so suspicious of them.

“Still want their help to find the star?” Valrinda asked.

“I think I need all the help I can get.” He felt so out of depth, with no idea how to solve this puzzle. Find his guide, follow the path, yadda yadda. Well the path was about to end in a big ass fantasy city and he had no clue where to go or what to do after that. “Do we call for them or something” He pictured calling for them like calling for a dog, or more likely a stubborn cat that was in hiding, and couldn’t smother the snort and chuckle at the thought of clicking his tongue and rattling some food bag or something.

“They’ll catch up. Let’s go.” Valrinda started walking toward the city.

“You’re not going to fly?” Surprise stuck Beckett’s feet right where he was on the path, and with his much longer body Valrinda got ahead of him quickly.

“I feel like I need to stay close to you.” He prowled over the black stones like a sleek oversized lizard, his wings folded and long tail whipping behind him in the air.

“Hey, watch it! Try not to get that close.” That tail had been too close moving that fast.

“Then catch up. We’ll never reach the city and an inn with a bathing tub and stable if you don’t hurry up.”

“A bath?” He’d pay for a bath. Eyeing the pouch on his belt, he shrugged. Hopefully he could pay. He hadn’t had a chance to really bathe since the pool at the treehouse, and he was ripe. Days old sweat didn’t smell good on anyway.

Darn dragon smelled like smoke, salt, stone and heat but that smelled good to Beckett. He felt bad for Valrinda, who was forced to sniff his stink.

“Think we’ll reach the city today?”

Valrinda looked down. “I do.”

 

He was right. He was also right about the wisps catching up, but they kept their distance now, like they knew Valrinda was upset with them and would do something if they got too close.

Fortunately, there were plenty of inns with huge stables on the outside of town. Had they been for the beast on the road? Beckett was too tired to ask. He paid for the stable, a huge tub of hot water to be taken to an empty stall by where Valrinda was plus a blanket for later.

He relished the water while it was fresh, then used the towel to dry off and as a buffer from the scratch hay. Sinking down, he sighed. “Well, what now?” 

Want more flash?

J Ray Lamb

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter Twenty-one

 

Damn, he hated being right. Around mid-morning on the next day, when the city was still the faintest smudge on the horizon to Beckett, Valrinda came swooping down. “There’s a large cloud of dust heading our way.”

“Dust?” He thought it was just the nature of the desert, not something coming for them.

“Well, obviously something is making the dust, but for that to happen, something must be kicking up enough sand and dust on the sides of the road to make such a thick cloud even I can’t really see what is coming. Just… there’s a lot.”

The wisps were squeaking and talking over each other, rushing around. Beckett couldn’t make out anything they were saying, they were so frantic. “What? What is it?”

“I don’t know.” Valrinda lowered his head. “Quiet!” he thundered.

The wisps froze.

“Better. Why are you so scared?”

“It is the protector.” The way they said the last word, then chittered and clung together, proved they didn’t view the cause off the dust to be something positive, like they viewed Valrinda with awe after he protected them from the chacory. No, they feared it.

“Protector of what?” Beckett asked.

“The city.”

“The master.” They all squeaked in alarm and started patting each other’s faces, like they weren’t such which one had said that and wanted to no one to say more.

Beckett, as American as they come, didn’t like the word master when it came to someone who thought they were in charge of other people. He scowled, staring toward the city. “What should we do?” he asked Valrinda darkly.

“I’m stronger than any protector,” he said proudly, posing with his wings spread. “Especially with these runed chains protecting me. Stand beside me, ready to leap up on my shoulders just in case.”

“But what about the w—” Beckett stopped, looking around. The wisps had melted away in just the few seconds that Valrinda’s posing distracted him, and if he hadn’t known they’d traveled with them, he would never have known they had been there. “Where did they go?”

“Hiding. They’re wisps. It’s what they do.” Valrinda shrugged, but then he’d never really had anything good to say about the wisps. “They’ll come out if we win.”

“Win?” He didn’t like the sound of that at all.

 

Valrinda’s sight was definitely improved by the wisps’ chains. It felt like an eternity of waiting, Beckett’s stomach churning with acid and heart trying to lurch out his chest with the strain of not knowing what was coming toward them, before the cause of the cloud of dust finally came into view.

When it did, he wished it hadn’t. Not a dragon, or a chacory, so at least it didn’t have wings. But the monstrous beast had three heads that bobbed and wove as it charged forward and two wide tails that whipped behind it, making the large cloud of dust. A much smaller being rode on its back in a metal cage that was strapped to the thing’s green sides and along the wider, primary neck in a thick collar.

“What is that?” Beckett shuddered, balling his hands up into fists to hide their shaking.

“I-I don’t know. Be prepared to climb on. I don’t see wings. We can escape.”

“We can’t. We have to go to the city to find the star, and that’s where that thing came from, the city! We can’t just leave.”

“I can’t let it kill you either.”

Beckett didn’t want to die, and he didn’t want Valrinda to get hurt fighting a creature that was twice as big as he was with unknown defenses. “What is that on his back?”

Valrinda cocked his head, “A… human? Another human is here? Why didn’t I know that?”

“This isn’t the time to worry about that,” Beckett hissed.

“Then when? Humans come here once an age. It’s very rare. Usually only magi—” He cut himself off. “Not the time, right.”

It really wasn’t. The huge beast came to a stop when even Beckett could see the human inside the glittering cage. Protection or possession? He wasn’t sure until he started yelling. The beast’s two outside heads wove and snapped at the air, baring fangs as long as his hand.

“So you finally made it here, Beckett. I wondered if you ever would.”

“Do I know you?” Yelling at least made his voice shake less.

“No, but I know you. Know your so-called friends. Have you unraveled all their lies yet or are you still trapped in their little game?”

None of what he was saying made sense? Knew my friends? The only friend I had here was Valrinda. He wasn’t playing games. “I’m here to save a friend.” Not that Beckett would necessarily call Parallax a friend, but his family was. This whole thing was crazy but he wasn’t going call it a game. 

Want more flash?

J Ray Lamb

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter Twenty

 

Landing on the road, Valrinda was panting heavily. Beckett scrambled to his feet. “Are you okay?” he asked. There were cuts on his chest and face, slices marring his beautiful dark scales.

“I’ll heal. Are you hurt? Did it get acid on you?”

“Acid?” Beckett spun, checking the back of his body where he’d thought the stones were too hot. He sighed. “No, no acid. I’m fine. What was that thing?”

“That was a chacory. We were lucky that was a young male, probably just left it’s maternal flight. More than one is much harder to fight off, especially if they’re smarter than that one.”

“That was a young chacory? And they come in bigger fucking groups?” No wonder Valrinda had wanted to avoid them. “Damn. I’m sorry. I never wanted to put you in that kind of danger.”

Valrinda heaved a sigh. “You didn’t. I did by flying the way I did today. If I’d been higher up, we’d have been safer. It never would’ve read my vibrations on the low thermals and come to investigate.”

“What can I do?” Beckett hovered his hands over the wounds he could reach. Valrinda was still breathing hard, and he’d never done that before.

“Gotta wash off the acid.”

“Right, I can do that.” Beckett grabbed his flask. He pulled the top off and the began to pour the water over the slashes in Valrinda’s scales, starting with the highest he could reach and working his way down. With each wound he rinsed, Valrinda eased until he was nearly on his belly and his sides had stopped heaving like bellows.

The first chain that they threw over Valrinda’s neck took both of them by surprise. It was thick, and dark, and tinkled as it slid between his spikes. The wisps moved faster than Beckett could, and they laid chains across Valrinda’s wide shoulders and back by the time he got out his shout, “What the hell are you doing?”

Beckett couldn’t believe it. He’d thought they were safe, that his vision had been wrong. How could trusting his gut have gone so badly? Valrinda was a dragon, a warrior and a free being of the skies. No one should ever chain him.

“I won’t let you chain him up and make Valrinda a slave!” He rushed at the closest pair of wisps who backed away, spreading their hands with fingers facing down. Valrinda reared up, roaring and flapping his wings, and the wisps couldn’t reach him anymore. Those still holding chains cried out in dismay, but the ones on him didn’t move an inch.

“No, no,” they chanted.

“You bet no,” Beckett said fiercely.

“We do not chain up.”

“Not enslaving.”

“Honoring. Chains of victory and protection.”

“He saved us, so we will share runes with him.”

Valrinda turned his head, studying one of the chains on his back that he could see. “Oh.” All the fiery anger in his voice that had echoed in his bellow of rage had dissipated, almost comical in its contrast. “They are runes of protection, not ensorcellment.”

Beckett goggled at him. “What?”

“The chains. They’re engraved with protection runes for strength, healing, and speed. I don’t even know how they would have gathered enough metal to create them, much less get someone to make these blessings.” Now he sounded awed. “They’re priceless.”

“You saved us! No one eaten.”

“No one burned or dead.”

“It is foretold. We bring these, but wait for the prophecy to unfold.”

“The time is now, it is truth. You will need these chains, so we will provide you with all that you require to protect Beckett.”

The way the wisps spoke gave Beckett whiplash, speaking one after the other, holding one conversation with many voices. It was headache-inducing. Could they trust it? Valrinda seemed to already be convinced.

Beckett couldn’t read the runes, so how would he know? He beckoned Valrinda down. “Are you sure?” he whispered.

“Yeah. If they’d chained me, I wouldn’t have been able to rear up or flap my wings. They’d have trapped me on land unless ordered to fly. We can trust them.”

“Just a little bit ago you were sure it was a disaster traveling with them.”

“And yet now my wounds are healed.”

“Holy shit, they are.” There wasn’t a single sign that Valrinda had been clawed or burned by the chacory’s acid. His scales gleamed, all the gashes closed up recovered without even a scar to mark their place.

“So we let them put more chains on you?”

 

It was all too surreal. The wisps showed even more deference to them both, chittering among themselves. Valrinda flew higher but checked in frequently by swooping down and then flying back up. He said the protection runes quieted his movements on the air currents.

Beckett thought he looked even fiercer than before, the chains highlighting his thick muscles that flexed  with every wingbeat as they lay taut over his body. No way would any creature attack them now without thinking twice.

They traveled two more days on the black road before the signs of civilization started to make appearances. The first were abandoned carts then animals wandering the desert that came to them. The wisps swarmed over it all, and somehow it disappeared into their packs or the carts they were towing.  

Valrinda swooped down the third afternoon and said, “The city is up ahead. You’ll get there tomorrow.”

Beckett felt his heart race. This was where his vision came into play. Approaching the city on the black road in the company of the wisps, Beckett flying above them decked out in chains. Was it a warning? An omen of the place they’d find the star?

He kept his head on the swivel, trying to figure it out. 

Want more flash?

J Ray Lamb

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 19

 

“Working with wisps,” Valrinda grumbled. “I’m telling you, this will go bad for us.”

The wisps were bustling around, setting up a camp for the night. They’d spent the morning flying, and then Beckett had spent the afternoon passed out against Valrinda’s side. He’d nearly froze to death, and for what? To avoid these cute little characters who were skipping around and putting up colorful tents while chattering at each other? Everything they had was bright, or stitched with metals and stones that reflected the dying light of the sun.

“They don’t seem like bad people,” Beckett said. He grabbed some food out of his pouch and snuggled back against Valrinda’s side. He didn’t need a tent, or the fire that was too warm just an hour before but was getting more welcome as night fell and it grew colder in the desert.

“Not bad. Bad for you. Bad for me. Wisps only look out for their troop, and outsiders are not wisps. They say they’ll help, but that doesn’t mean their help won’t actually hurt us in the end.”

Beckett shook his head, taking a drink of water to wash down the bread that was going stale. “Are you always so cynical of others?”

“Yes.”

He rolled his eyes. “We’re going to make the best of our helpers.” Who knew dragons could become jealous so easily? If Beckett didn’t know better, he’d worry Valrinda was gonna turn into Valery, a fucking annoying girl from his sophomore year who’d whined constantly to go together to a dance.

He didn’t dance.

“You’re my guide; they’re just helpers.” He put more effort into soothing Valrinda than he did Valery. He’d shouted at her to leave him the hell alone, and she’d ran off crying, so of course he’d landed in fucking detention. Maybe he was a little more mature now.

“Fine.” Valrinda was still huffy, but Beckett ignored it. The stones of the road were hard under his ass, but he wasn’t about to sleep in the sand. Not after Valrinda told him about burrowing eating creatures.

 

Their first argument about traveling the next day was when Beckett said he’d walk with the wisps instead of riding. Maybe it was risky, but he wanted to talk to them. Find out how they knew about him, where he was going, what he was doing. How else was he going to figure things out? It’d come to him, as he lay there trying and failing to sleep.

How did every fairytale creature in this place seem to know he was there, that he was a human, and that Parallax had lost his star?

He had been told not to trust everyone, but everyone he’d met had done nothing but help him so far. Where was the great conspiracy? The danger? So far it’d been nothing but a walk in the park, as it were.

In the end, neither of them were happy. Beckett walked and Valrinda flew. He flew so low he kept sweeping up fine clouds of sand so Beckett’s eyes watered and talking was made difficult. Plus talking to the ore wisps was like trying to understand chattering chipmunks. They spoke in fragments, talking over each other, and half the time it didn’t make sense. He persisted anyway and got a headache for his efforts. It wasn’t the quiet walk he’d had before or the flights Beckett had taken with Valrinda. What he wouldn’t do for a soda and chips, maybe a nap in a field of cold grass. Nope, all he had was a flask of water.

Endless water. He was so hot and sweaty, his feet sore, and Beckett was getting cranky. He was starting to think about calling Valrinda down so he could ride instead when the sky darkened.

Not the shadow of Valrinda’s wings as he swooped down over them again, it was bigger than that, and the scream that pierced the air sent the air wisps scrambling to hide, collapsing flat.

“What the fuck!” Beckett fell backward, staring up and then at the wisps burrowing into the sand at the side of the road in complete silence, something they’d never been.

Something huge, and bone white with sickly green claws was flapping leathery wings just above them, barely missing where they’d been standing. “Valrinda!” Beckett screamed.

“I’m coming!” Valrinda roared. Beckett watched as Valrinda arrowed, his wings folded tight to his body as he darted at the beast attacking them. He opened his jaw and shot blue fire, forcing it away.

Both the beast and Valrinda beat their wings hard, rising to crash together, clawing and screaming. The scent of burning flesh and acid, blood and fear and the horrific sounds of their battle drowned out the sounds of the desert.

The beast reared its head back and stabbed its horrific beak toward Valrinda’s neck.

“No!” Beckett screamed. Valrinda reared back, beating his wings sharply and pushed off with his claws, so the beast’s beak glanced off his scales instead of stabbing in deep.

Now free from Valrinda’s grasp, the beast swooped again, reaching for them, but instead of going to Beckett, it tried to grab a wisp.

“You shall not feed here!” Valrinda roared. He sent a blast of flame at the beast’s head, and it dropped the wisp who fell a dozen feet back to the sand. Beckett hoped it was okay, because it wasn’t moving. He didn’t want to move and draw that thing’s attention, but how long could he lay here? The stones were blazing hot, and the sounds of the battle could be drawing who knew what to them.

Valrinda pressed his advantage of being higher than the beast and went for the back of its head, neck, and wings, blasting his fire and racking his claws down its back. The beast screamed, and one of its wings bent awkwardly. It was flying, but erratically and not well. It took off, warbling, and quickly disappeared into the desert. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter Eighteen

 

“Are you okay?” Valrinda asked. He craned his neck and tried to peer at Beckett, who only looked up for a brief second before the icy wind of their rapid flight made it too unbearable.

“F-f-fine,” was all Beckett could get out without risking biting off his own tongue. He patted Valrinda’s neck, and his hand burned from just the light contact. There wasn’t a choice. They had to stay higher in the atmosphere, and he was going to tough it out. His core was warm enough, pressed against Valrinda, and that was most important. Beckett tucked his head tighter against Valrinda’s smooth scales, just trying to breathe through it.

He tried to hide it, but a few minutes later, Beckett was shaking violently and struggling to hold on.

“I’m going down,” Valrinda announced.

“N-n-nooo.” It hurt to talk, and Beckett didn’t even try to lift up and look around.

“Yes, you can’t stay up here. It’s too dangerous. What good does it do us if you get sick or hurt from being this cold? It’s not safe, Beckett.”

“N-not s-safe d-down.” That was all he could get out.

“We don’t know that. We can’t be sure what your dream meant, and I might have gotten us past whoever, or whatever, was camped on the road. I promised I’d keep you safe, and keeping you up here is the opposite. So stop arguing with me because you’re on my back, which means I’m in charge of this ride.”

“F-f-fine.” He just really wanted to get warm. Or take a nap. Beckett could go for a nap, even if they’d only been up and flying for a short time.

“No sleeping!” Valrinda snapped.

“’M not.” Beckett forced himself to stay away, to keep that petulant promise. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he recognized the danger of falling asleep when he was that cold, even if he couldn’t consciously think it.

Some feeling was creeping back into his limbs by the time they landed, but Beckett wasn’t any use to Valrinda as he slid off onto the black stones that made up the road. His brain was fuzzy, and he huddled in a heap of exhaustion. “I don’t see anyone around,” Valrinda said. “Just rest for now.” He nuzzled Beckett, tucking him close to his side with one wing. “Just rest.”

 

The tinkle of metal startled Beckett, and Valrinda’s roar deafened him. He stumbled to his feet, staring at the beings surrounding them. Valrinda reared up behind him, claws at the ready, but the beings weren’t threatening them that he could see, just surrounding them, so Beckett put a hand on his chest. It was rumbling, and Beckett had to hope Valrinda wasn’t about to burn them all to a crisp for startling them.

Not really the reputation he was going for.

“Who are you?” Beckett demanded defensively. They were small, barely coming up to his elbow, but their bodies were hidden in crimson robes and hoods. Everyone knew if you were hiding your face like that you were probably up to no good.

One stepped forward and bowed. “Oh, great days are upon us now that we have found you, Seeker of the Star. We have pilgrimaged far to offer our services.”

Great. Wonderful. So these beings didn’t want to capture and enslave them, but that still didn’t answer his question. “Who are you?” Beckett asked again, a little less aggressively.

As one, they all lowered their hoods.

Valrinda groaned, “Great, Ore Wisps.”

They didn’t look very wispy. In fact, with their eyes spaced wide apart, and faces strangely pushed forward at the nose and mouth almost like a muzzle, with wide teeth they were all showing either in a threat or a smile, they looked a lot like a human mixed with a goat. Not that goats had purple, yellow, or orange hair, or walked around on two legs wearing cloaks and talking… but the resemblance was there.

“What’s an Ore Wisp?”

“It is what the others call our kind, since we mostly secret ourselves in the mountains where we can search out sparklies and other fancies—”

“They’re obsessed with anything shiny,” Valrinda said, “And they’re not above stealing what catches their eye either.”

“We do not steal,” one said indignantly. “We trade.”

“Does the other person always agree to the trade?”

The group was silent. Valrinda snorted. “That’s what I thought,” he muttered. “Better what your stuff, Beckett. You never know what they might take. In fact, you’ll probably not even realize it until you go to stand up and your pants fall around your ankles and a useless rock falls into the dirt in place of the belt they took.”

“We would never take something from the Seeker. We are here to help him.”

“Help him? How? I’m his guide,” Valrinda said defensively. “I’m helping him, so buzz off, wisps.”

“Wait, wait. Didn’t you say they’re good at finding shiny, sparkly things?” Beckett asked.

“Yeah, so?”

“We are,” several wisps exclaimed at the same time, drowning out Valrinda’s petulant mutter.

“So, obviously Parallax’s star will be shiny, right? They could help me find it!”

“We could, we will!” They were so excited, their little voices piped up in a pitch that was almost painful to hear.

“You’ll be lucky if they don’t steal it for themselves,” Valrinda declared in a fit of doom. He stamped his foot. “Nothing good ever comes from consorting with wisps!”

Beckett knew he was supposed to listen to his guide, but what about his vision? He’d seen them. And how did they know to be on the road and looking for him? They had to be something more at work here, some magic that probably was part of the path that Parallax set him on to find his star.

“Valrinda, I think they were meant to find us, and we’re meant to work together with them. I need their help, just like I still need yours.” He stroked Valrinda’s side. 

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