Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter Thirteen

By the time he was dry, Beckett and Valrinda had a long talk. Valrinda had flown all sorts of places, and he knew of the city that Beckett thought he’d seen, but he’d never been there. “I know the path at least.”

“Of course you do,” Beckett mumbled. “Wouldn’t make sense for you to be my guide if you didn’t.” This was all too coincidental—too easy—for him to believe it was real. Maybe he was in a coma. He did have a great imagination, one teacher had once said. Too bad real life, and his dad, was trying to squash that out of him.

Beckett closed his eyes, his back moving up and down slowly with each breath Valrinda took, and concentrated. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

“What’s that?” Hot, smoky air puffed against his face, and he opened his eyes to see Valrinda’s snout an inch from his nose.

He shouted, not squeaked, shouted in surprise and pushed Valrinda’s snout back, then said, “How are you doing that?”

“I’m very flexible,” Valrinda said proudly. “I always win the acrobatics in air contests too.”

“Sure you do,” Beckett said faintly. There was a long, quiet pause.

“What were you saying?” Valrinda asked again.

“Oh. Um, time to get up?” He carefully stood, but he was feeling much better after soaking in the pool. “Nice.”

“Ass better?” Valrinda moved too fast for Beckett to stop him. He ran a scaly paw down Beckett’s back and ass. “You’re standing looser, and the pain smell is just here.” He puffed a breath across the still red claw marks on Beckett’s chest.

“Personal space!” Beckett shouted. This dragon was too damn grabby and sniffy.

“What? Why?”

That brought him up short. Valrinda hadn’t done anything rude or inappropriate, really. He’d been showing concern and care, and… no. “Humans just like their own bubble. And for others to ask before invading it.”

Valrinda shuffled back a few steps, then shrugged. “Humans are weird.”

“They’re not the only thing,” Beckett mumbled, but he didn’t want to argue. He found his clothes and pulled them on. “Do you think it would be okay to go pack up some of the food in the house for the road? We should probably get going, right?”

“It is fine; it is for you, after all. I’ll wait out front.” Valrinda leapt into the air, flapping a few times which blew the grass sideways and Beckett’s hair into his eyes. He couldn’t see him, but his big body disappeared over the house and then a thump echoed over the quiet meadow.

“For me? Not going to explain that sentence are you? Nope, just says it’s for me and leaves. Just like he didn’t explain the damn vision.” Then again, Beckett had been too freaked out to ask. What kind of being had visions? Not a witch, if those were bad and he wasn’t one… but something.

Inside, Beckett rummaged around the small house until he found a sack with long handles. He piled in the food, trying to figure out what was harder and more preservable for the bottom and placing the delicate fruit and bread-like stuff on top. He couldn’t fit nearly all of the brightly colored food, so he grabbed a few fruits for his pockets and stuffed an orange square of fluffy stuff in his mouth that he started chewing on when he began packing the bag and was still chewing when he turned to shut the door behind him.

“Weady,” he said around his mouthful. “Whith way?”

“I’m going up. You go right.” Valrinda leapt into the air, his body pointed like an arrow down the path they needed to take. At least it was downhill. “Wooroo,” he lisped, finally swallowing the sticky mouthful and taking off after Valrinda’s departing shadow.

 

The path did not stay downhill for very long. It was warm, the dirt soft under his feet, and Beckett only had the one shirt so he pulled his off when he began to sweat. It stung his eyes, and he swiped an arm across his forehead. Who knew it was so humid under the trees? He thought it’d be breezy and cool, but it felt more stuffy and sticky than anything else.

Luckily there were enough breaks in the tropical foliage for him to keep a close eye on Valrinda who seemed to be enjoying his flight. Didn’t look nearly as hot up in the air. Ugh.

Okay, it could totally go back to the winter weather he’d first encountered when he stepped through the portal. Beckett wanted nothing more than to take a nap, but he knew he couldn’t. They didn’t have time, even if he did have a place.

So he plodded on, hot, sweaty, and sticky for long hours with no one to talk to; in the end, Beckett started talking to himself. “Oh, look at that flower. It’s that baby’s butt pink Mom likes; maybe I should pick her one and take it home. And that flower is orange like a pumpkin, and it even has spiraly bits like the stems. I wonder what that bug eats. Hope it’s not human.” The damn thing was the size of his palm and had something sharp protruding out of its head, like little horns or pincers that gleamed pale gold against the darker umber of its shelled head and abdomen.

Not five steps later he saw two that landed on the same wide-petaled blue flower, and one promptly stabbed the other right in the middle of the head between the horns and then lifted and shook its opponent, a huge mouth opening up and consuming the ooze that slid down from the wide crack.

“Ew.” Well, kinda cool, but also ew because Beckett had enough injuries and the last thing he wanted was a bug to stab him. Those horns had to be covered in something toxic if they used them like that. “Mom doesn’t need any infested fantasy flowers.” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter Twelve

 

“What do you know?” Valrinda asked.

Beckett thought hard. It was only… yesterday? How could it only be yesterday with all that had happened? He’d been in the bathroom with Parallax in his arms, then in a freezing cold forest with that same cat, but somehow, he’d been completely different. “Well, Parallax said he was the embodiment of the Cosmos, not it’s guardian,” he pointed out.

“And you think that the very fabric of space and time needs a physical being to not protect it?” One of Valrinda’s eye ridges went up.

“Okay, fair point.” Beckett tried to think back to that hurried conversation when he’d been in shock and so confused—not that he wasn’t still confused—and frowned. “He said I wasn’t all human, and he was going to help me help him.” He snorted. “Telling me to find his star by following the path and that he asked someone to help me wasn’t much help if you ask me.”

Valrinda cocked his head to one side, moving to hover over him. “Not human?” He sniffed, his nostrils flaring wide. “You smell human, but then to use the portal there must be something in you that isn’t human,” he muttered. “And follow… the… path….”

He gasped in a big breath, the air moving so fast that waves skipped across the pool and splashed Beckett in the face. “I’ve got it!”

“Got what? And could you move back, I’m getting a crick in my neck looking up.”

“We follow the path,” he said with excitement as he shuffled back a few steps and curled down to the ground to look closer at Beckett’s eye level.

Beckett groaned. “Seriously? How is that helpful? There are all sorts of paths that go places. How will we follow the path and go the right way? How do we find the path that the thief or thieves took if we don’t know which one they took? He didn’t even tell me who took his star!”

“Maybe he didn’t know?” Valrinda shrugged again.

“He had to know! It’s on his tail!” One time Gael Waters went to flick Parallax’s tail from over the back of the couch and his hiss had scared him so bad he’d nearly pissed his pants, hell they all had before they started laughing at him.

“Magic? And that’s how we’ll find the path. If Parallax said to follow the path, then the knowledge of where to go and when is inside you.”

“Knowledge is learned, buddy, not just known.”

“Not when it’s part of your magic.”

He countered, “Parallax said I wasn’t a witch.”

“Not a witch, those are always bad magic, but he didn’t say what wasn’t human wasn’t magical.” Damn, Valrinda had him there. And, apparently, they didn’t have any good witches. He was glad he wasn’t one then.

Try as he might, Beckett couldn’t think of any way to discover the path Parallax and Valrinda seemed so sure he knew how to find. Sinking into the water, he took a big breath of air, and then dunked his head so he could at least rinse out his hair and get rid of his bed head.

The water wasn’t quiet like he expected. Shouting on his left startled him, and Beckett opened his eyes. There was a city, teeming with beings great and small, that milled all around the red sandstone buildings. A desert surrounded the oasis seated high on a cliff top, a brilliant blue sea just beyond, and a black stone road lead right to it.

He was striding up that road, dressed in a robe with people all around him and Valrinda draped in chains above their head.

He surged to his feet, exploding out of the water. Beckett gasped for air, clinging to Valrinda who was over the pool again.

“Why did you stay down there so long?”

“It… was only a few… seconds.” He panted for air, patting Valrinda’s snout when he pressed it to his cheek.

“No, it was for many long breaths. I got worried when you didn’t come up.”

“Really?” His breath slowing, Beckett shook his head. “It felt like only a second or two, but… I think I saw the path.”

“Ahh, a vision-seeker. That is what you are. Please don’t do that in the pool again. It could be dangerous.”

“I didn’t seek a vision in the pool! I just wanted to wet my hair.” It was lying in limp strands, dripping in his eyes, so he’d gotten that done. “Whatever. Do you want to hear what I saw?” He shuddered, still not sure of everything he’d seen.

“Yes.” Valrinda nodded. “Do you want to get out of the pool?”

Bathing in just his underwear, he was feeling chilled so Beckett got out of the pool. He yanked his underwear away from his skin, flushing, but sighed at the warmth of the sun on his skin. The grass was warm and soft against the soles of his feet, so he sank down lay on his back. A shadow fell over him. “Hey!”

“Sorry.” Valrinda curled up on the ground near him, his whole body also radiating heat and his slightly smoky breath blew across Beckett’s chest and face. “Better?”

“Mmhmm.” While he warmed up and tried to relax after his shock in the pool, Beckett was feeling out the bond he felt to Valrinda. Overwhelmed, he gave in to everything and just let his mind and body drift until he started talking without thinking. “There was a city built out of red stones between a desert and a sea. We were on a black stone road.” The vision seemed to be fading in details. “We weren’t alone. I was surrounded by people of some kind, and you were flying above me with metal chains on you.”

“We were prisoners?” Alarm deepened Valrinda’s voice.

“I-I’m not sure.” Why did he feel embarrassed? He didn’t even know if this was real!

“I won’t let anyone capture you, don’t worry.” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter Eleven

 

“How come I know your name?”

And he wanted to smack himself in the forehead. That was not the first question that Beckett actually wanted to ask. Or thought he should ask. Of course it was the first one that popped out. He tried to think back BTT or as his brain was already labeling it, Before The Touch, capitals all the way. Beckett stepped back. “You never said it, right?” He might as well find out.

“I’m your guide.” Valrinda shuffled his weight on those huge clawed feet of his and then winced. “Why are you in so much pain?”

Beckett gaped at him. “What?”

“Your chest burns… and your backside.” If he wasn’t so darkly scaled, that might like a rosy hue lit him from the inside. “It’s throbbing.” Valrinda lowered his head and turned so one of those dinner-plate sized eyes were staring right at the marks across his chest.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” He wished he’d taken the time to put on a shirt instead of just his jeans.

“That does not like fine. Did you not purify yourself?” He lifted his head and shook it. “No, of course he did. If he didn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to understand each other.” His voice was deep and rumbly, coming from somewhere deep inside but clearly out of his mouth like a normal person. “But did it work? Maybe he needs to do it again?”

Braced to argue, Beckett rethought his position. He had liked the water in the pool and he could use a morning wash. Why not?

 

The pool was cool, refreshing, and better than a extra large, extra caffeine, extra syrup hot coffee on a cold winter’s day. Not that he was cold. Nope, Beckett hadn’t felt cold at all when he slipped into the pool, when he was floating while staring up at his watchful dragon guide, or after he slipped out and Valrinda blew hot air on him in a surprising wave that dried the trails of water streaming over his skin instantly.

He felt good, sort of blissed out, like the one time he’d tried edibles and had the whole gummy bear instead of just eating half.

Valrinda was curled around the pool and watching him. “You’re feeling better.”

He was. The worse of the aches and pain were gone, and he was floating on his stomach, his arms folded over a mossy rock on the edge of the small pool. “I am. I have questions though.”

“What questions?”

“So you can’t read my mind?”

“No, and you can’t read mine.” Valrinda huffed out a short laugh. “Wow, you feel relieved. Before you ask, yes, we do have a physical connection and we can feel each other’s emotions.”

It felt like he almost could read Valrinda’s mind, though, like he knew who Valrinda was and stuff about him, but not really. Was that just the emotional stuff? “But how did I know your name?”

“A dragon’s name is part of his essence, his being. You call me Valrinda, but that name is only known to my eggmates or close-kin. Others call me Val.”

“Why do I need a guide to find Parallax’s tail?” He’d turned that question over and over in his mind since this quest started and he was told he’d get one. “I still don’t really understand what I’m supposed to do.”

Valrinda’s claws scraped on the ground as he shifted. “That is confusing to me. You should know what to do. If he gave you this mission, he should have given you all the information you needed to see it through. I’m just here to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” His heart rate sped up. “If I need someone to keep me safe, that means I’m going to be in danger?” The question wasn’t really a question.

Lowering his head to stare directly into his eyes, Valrinda said, “What makes you think you haven’t been already?”

Yep, panic attack on the horizon. Paerus had mentioned other clans or something like that, but who would want to hurt him? Beckett didn’t know anyone there, and he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. It didn’t make sense.

“You have no idea of the power that Parallax wielded, nor what others would risk to gain that power when the news went out that the star that makes up his tail was missing. So far whispers of your arrival are all that have spread, but once they reach the wrong ears, we will have a fight on our hands.”

“A fight for what?”

“To find his tail. That is your job, remember? Without it, the portal between our worlds, the portal between all the worlds, will wink out like they never existed. The cosmos is a huge place, and Parallax is the Guardian of many secrets. Someone learned this one, and stole the power of his portals.

Beckett blinked and stood in the pool, the water swirling around his chest. “Was that so hard? You’re the first person—ahem, creature, being or whatever—to tell me in plain words what was going on and why this whole star tail thing was important.” Not that he could wrap his brain around the fact that his friend’s cat was really some sort of mythical space being with magic powers, but hey, this was his fantasy. He could imagine anything apparently.

“So I have to, what, travel around and find where it went missing? Find a thief? Look up clues?”

In the strangest of shrugs, his wings flapping up and down between his massive front shoulders, Valrinda spread both his front claws, sensitive paws upward. “I’ve no idea. I gained the knowledge I just shared with you as soon as we touched. As far as our next step, that’s still a mystery to me.”

“Great.” He’d been expecting Valrinda to be the guide, therefore to know what to do and where to go. If he didn’t, what were they supposed to do next? 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail

 

Twin thumps outside rattled his tree, startling Beckett awake in his soft bed where he’d spent the best hours of sleep he’d had in weeks. He bolted up, looking around wildly. Then he collapsed back, groaning. He was still there. He’d slept so hard, dreamless for once, that he’d been sure he’d wake up in his own bed.

Not that this bed wasn’t tons better. His head wasn’t throbbing for once and his stomach wasn’t churning. He wasn’t even hungry. Other than being stuck in this dream, he was overall feeling pretty good.

“Come out, little human,” a voice boomed.

The good mood he’d been in evaporated like spilled soda in the summer sun. “I am not little, damn it.” He threw back the cover he must have grabbed in the middle of the night and the muscles across his chest pulled. He hissed, the wounds from Parallax still inflamed but knitted closed and the redness seemed less.

“Human!”

“Oh!” Beckett grit his teeth and climbed out of the bed. His jeans were on the floor and he grabbed those, pulling the stiff fabric on.

He yanked open the front door and glared out, ignoring the beautiful view in favor of the two large dragons that were taking up most of the space below the steps that led up to the tree’s entrance. They were just as annoying as Ire, but so different.  He’d been one solid color of red, smaller, with wings the same color. Ire was tiny, the size of a dinner plate and these guys had eyes the size of dinner plates.

These two were not just one color—or they were, but they were all the colors of that one color that he’d ever seen. One an array of purple, like a shiny gem, and the other black that shone like all the other colors the same way an oil slick reflected the light.

They were rumbling at each other, bickering. Another way they were like Ire.

“—said his name started with a B or something.”

“He’s a human. They have many names. What if Ire was wrong. Besides, what do we say, “Come out, B something human?”

Some of his anger drained away, but he was still annoyed. “My name is Beckett.”

The dragons whipped their heads around to face him. “Oh, there you are,” Purple said. “We’ve been waiting.”

“Just for a few moments,” Black said.

“Who are you, and why are you here waking me up at the crack of dawn?” It literally was. The sun was just barely a crack over the horizon.

“We’re here as a guide,” Black said.

“Well for you to pick one of us as a guide,” Purple amended. “Didn’t Ire tell you this? He said he told you all this. Weren’t you paying attention? This is important.”

Beckett pursed his lips. “He said I’d get a guide or pick a guide, or something like that, but never told me why or how.”

“Why? Parallax told you why. You need to find his tail.” His voice dropped, like that was a secret he didn’t want anyone to hear.

In all that happened since he saw the annoying cat, he’d kind of forgotten that. Nothing really made sense, even that. How did someone find a cat’s tail? If only he could make sense out of what he was doing, it might be easier.

So maybe start with the guide thing. “How do I pick one of you?”

“Come touch us.”

“Together?”

Purple snorted. “No. I’ll go first.” He puffed his chest, the watery sun gleaming on the amethyst scales that shifted with each breath. He stomped forward as Beckett walked down the stairs.

The grass was warm and damp under his bare toes, and then he had a dragon right up in his face. “Whoa, do you mind?”

“Not if you are mine, now let’s go.” Purple puffed out his chest again.

Mine? His? What did he mean by that? Well, by the way he was shifting and the black was anxiously swishing his tail and wings, he’d do better to just do the touching and then ask his questions later. So he reached out a hand that was miraculously not trembling, despite the fact he was about to actually touch a dragon.

He was warm, hard, and… nothing happened. “Umph.” Purple’s chest deflated. “Good-bye.”

Beckett was knocked to his ass when Purple spread his wings and took off into the sky. “Fucking rude!” Now his ass was throbbing. He looked up at the black dragon. “You better not do that!”

“Well, of course not. If Aparin was not your guide, then I must be.” Black leaned his head down toward Beckett and asked in his rumbly voice, “Are you ready?”

“What’s going to happen?” It seemed like they were expecting something to happen. Maybe for once, someone would tell him before it happened.

“I’ll become your guide.”

And… maybe not.

Climbing to his feet, Beckett winced at one more point of pain in his body and then sighed. “All right.” He held out a hand and let Black come to him. This time, his hand didn’t tremble, but when he touched those black scales, they warmed.

He was drawn in, until he plastered his entire front to Black—no, Valrinda’s—chest and the warmth ran through his body and into the ground. Flowers bloomed, their sweet scent perfuming the air, and the sun burst over the horizon to bathe them in golden light.

“Mine,” Valrinda roared.

He had no idea how or why, but Beckett agreed. “Mine.” 

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