Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (39 page)

The four of them sat in total silence with only the distant murmurs of the spring’s other occupants farther off filling the cavern.

Three hours later, they were clean, dressed, and feeling very much rejuvenated from their adventurous start to the day.

“Hard to believe this morning actually happened,” EeNox said, stretching his arms upward as they walked through the streets toward the shop.

“How do you figure?” DiNiya asked.

“I mean, it’s just that after that nice long bath, my body feels so relaxed that I can’t picture running for my life a few hours ago.”

“You sound disappointed,” Rex said.

“No, I just mean—”

“He’s right,” LyCora interrupted. “Maybe next time you can smear a little fish blood all over yourself to ensure that everything upwind that eats meat comes running to take a bite out of you.”

Rex laughed boisterously, which surprised even him. He had been very closed up and cautious when he first arrived but had slowly opened up over the course of time, to the point where he now felt comfortable enough to allow some of his cynical sense of humor to shine through, or at least show an appreciation for LyCora’s.

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you blamed me for what happened today,” EeNox said, looking over at LyCora.

“You were the one who insisted we come with you on your little fishing trip.”

“So?”

“So it’s your fault, brainless!”

“How the hell was I supposed to know all that would happen? I mean, damn it, woman, cut me some slack! I’ve gone out there almost every day and never had that happen to me! You really think I would have gone had I known?”

“Whatever,” she said with a sigh and walked ahead of him.

EeNox rolled his eyes and made a face behind her back.

DiNiya turned and said sarcastically “ladies’ man” as she pointed to him with both index fingers.

EeNox bit his bottom lip in an effort to hold back less-than-kind words.

“Hey, it’s ShinGaru,” Rex said, nodding up ahead to the familiar cloaked figure who was walking down the path from the shop towards them.

“Hello, ShinGaru,” DiNiya said as he got closer. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Hello,” he replied in turn. “I’ve been working on the western coast.”

“Still exploring the ruins in the sunken caves?”

“Yes. I’ve only returned topside ten days ago.”

“Exactly how long were you down there?”

“Two and a half cycles…give or take a day or two.”

“Two and a half cycles?” DiNiya repeated in surprise.

“Give or take a day or two,” EeNox added sarcastically.

“I know exploring ruins is a real passion of yours, but please be careful. I’ve heard many say it’s very easy to get lost down there and that no one would ever know if something happened to you.”

“Your concern is appreciated but not needed. Don’t worry. I know full well what I’m doing.”

Rex had been steadily picking up on the more commonly used vernacular of the language for some time now. Fortunately, the people of this world had the innate ability to pick up on things extremely fast, which meant he did, too. Yet for some still unexplained reason, he had been unable to do so while on Earth. It was not until he returned to EeNara that all these inherent abilities characteristic of the SaVarian and DyVorian came to the surface. He had remembered reading something that related to this during his many lunches spent in the school library. One article in particular stood out to him about something called “fast mapping,” which was a baby’s ability to pick up on things quickly in order to hasten their development. It was something everyone was apparently born with but lost after the first three or four years of life. All the races of EeNara, however, not only seemed to be born with this innate ability, but also retained it throughout their lives, giving them the ability to quickly learn how to read and speak a language as well as develop new skill sets in short amounts of time. If that was not enough, this developmental trait seemed to be heightened to a much greater degree than it was on Earth and developed at three or four months of age amongst the SaVarians as well as all the DyVorian races.
If only it had been up and running back there. I would have been the youngest paleontologist in history: a bygone dream, from a bygone life
. He had begun to suspect that it had something to do with his flame being dormant for those years, although he did not pretend to understand the particulars.

“How long will you be in town?” DiNiya asked ShinGaru.

“For a little while. At the moment, I am not sure for how long exactly.”

“Oh,” she said with a slight look of surprise. “Something related to your research?”

“Actually, I’ve decided to take some time off.” Everyone gave him a surprised look, as they all knew ShinGaru was not the type to put a hold on his work, especially not when he was working on a special project. Sensing what they were all thinking, he sighed with what was obvious disappointment. “In truth, the science guild has revoked my application to work out of the Rainbow Caves, stating that the risk outweighs any potential discoveries that could be made.”

“Wow,” said EeNox. “I’m really sorry to hear that. I know how important it was to you.”

“Well, I for one think they’ve made the right decision,” declared DiNiya.

“DiNiya!”

“I know it sounds mean, but the truth is I was worried sick about you the whole time you were gone. You’re like a brother to me, ShinGaru, and those caves are considered dangerous for a reason.”

“I assure you I’m always careful,” ShinGaru said in an attempt to ease her mind.

“I have no doubt, but more often than not things happen that are out of our control.” She sighed and closed her eyes briefly before retraining them on ShinGaru. “At least promise me you’ll stick around for a little bit before you go running back down to the capital.”

ShinGaru smiled and nodded. “Very well, you win. Besides, I suppose I could take this time to refocus my mind on other research I’ve been considering working on—plan my next move, so to speak.”

“Well, unfortunately you may have picked the worst time to come here and do that,” Rex stated.

“Yes, I have been made well aware of the unfortunate events that have befallen KaNar. I’m sorry to hear about TarFor. How is he?”

“Better from what I can see, now that the new healer has started treating him.”

“A new healer?”

“Yes…I thought everyone knew she had come,” DiNiya said.

“She…I’m sorry. As I said, I’ve only recently been brought up to speed on what has been going on. It stands to reason that a few facts would have eluded me.”

“You remember AnaSaya, don’t you?” asked EeNox.

“VyKia’s daughter?” ShinGaru asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.

EeNox nodded.

“I obviously remember her being of the lavender flame, but never so powerful.”

“It was a surprise to the rest of us too,” EeNox replied, sounding somewhat bewildered. “I just don’t understand why TarFor would have kept that a secret.”

“Indeed. Still, it seems like there is still more to this little mystery that we’ve yet to uncover in KaNar alone to keep us all preoccupied.”

“Perhaps they forgot to mention that people have died as a result of this little mystery?” LyCora said with a stern stare.

ShinGaru regarded her for a moment before speaking. “Yes, I am well aware of that fact, and am just as sorry now as I was when I first learned of it. I did not mean to come off as insensitive.”

LyCora looked at him with a hint of a narrowed gaze before relaxing. “No need to apologize. It goes without saying that anyone would feel terrible about what happened. I should apologize for just stating the obvious, and on behalf of all of us, for holding you up.”

Fully understanding the meaning behind the less-than-subtle hint, he nodded agreeably. “Very well. A good day to you all.”

With that, he glided past them back the way they had come, where they watched him disappear down into the crowd before they all turned back to LyCora.

“That was rude,” DiNiya said angrily. “Even for you!”

“If making light of those who have been murdered isn’t rude to you, then you have no business passing judgment on me, DiNiya.”

DiNiya looked as if she was about to say something back but stopped. Much as it pained her to acknowledge it, LyCora’s words rang with some degree of truth. She had long since feared that ShinGaru’s self-imposed solidarity had been taking its toll on his ability to properly interact with others. More often than not, he was his only company, and she wondered if he was becoming emotionally detached from everyone he knew.
No
, she thought. Someone who preferred his own company he may be, but never insensitive to the needs or feelings of others. ShinGaru had always been a confidant and friend to her, and she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for allowing LyCora, of all people, to in any way sway her long-established perception of him. “He may not always say the right thing, but at least he always means well and never says what he does to hurt others. Unlike someone else I know.”

LyCora just stared at her for a moment, a million possible retorts racing through her mind, but none of them seeming to be able to properly convey what she was thinking. At last she just smiled and said, “I see there’s no point in arguing with you, DiNiya. Not when you have me all figured out.” With that, she silently walked past her and proceeded on ahead.

The others looked at DiNiya, then back at LyCora, who was already twenty meters ahead. DiNiya decided not to let the matter bother her for now, knowing full well that would end up being easier said than done. She motioned for the others to follow her as she walked briskly to catch up to the other girl so they could continue their shopping.

BaRone held a strange fossil of half of a lower jaw with a single remaining tooth. He turned it over in his hands and studied the deep grooves where the other teeth had once fit, when DiNiya and the others came walking in. He looked up and smiled. “Well, hello there, my little morning warriors. Feeling any better?”

“Very much so,” DiNiya said as she pushed back one of her still-damp locks.

“My shoulder is still bothering me,” Rex said, rotating his arm.

“You should have AnaSaya give you a shoulder massage. Guarantee she’ll work that ache right out.”

“Really?” Rex replied, feeling uneasy at the prospect of a girl rubbing him down. Love them as he did, he always felt a little unsure of himself when members of the opposite sex made any physical contact—all of them except DiNiya, which was still something of a troublesome mystery.

“What is that?” EeNox asked, taking note of the fossil his father was holding.

“Oh, this?” BaRone replied, looking back to it. “It’s a fossil ShinGaru traded me for some dusty old statue I had sitting in the back.”

“Really?” Rex asked. “A fossil of what?”

“A DraGon.”

“Really? A DraGon?”

“A young one, too, judging by the size of the jaw.”

“You can’t be serious?” EeNox said.

“Hey, I’m just telling you what he told me.”

“But DraGon fossils are extremely rare. In fact, the last one was found, what? Over a hundred years ago?”

“But if the war was only ten thousand years ago, then their bones should still be in really good condition,” stated Rex. “Many of them wouldn’t even be fossilized yet.”

“All of which is true,” explained BaRone thoughtfully. “But DraGon skeletons were like DyVorians, or actually more like CyTorians—filled with hollow air sacs. This means they don’t hold up as well when exposed to the elements after decay.”

“Not to mention big predators like the TarBoranx would have eaten them, bones and all,” EeNox added.

“Really?” Rex said in surprise as he thought back to all the artistic interpretations he had ever seen of the mythical creatures back on Earth.

“We only really know what they looked like because a body was discovered frozen in ice two hundred and thirty years ago at the base of the mountains of ClyVen,” EeNox said, stepping closer to the jaw and eyeing it curiously.

“Seismic activity in that area has always brought things down from the higher elevations, but that was the first time in recorded history that anyone had found something like that. In fact, it was the first time anyone had actually seen a DraGon in thousands of years. Before that, all we had to go on were vague descriptions, nothing nearly close to being called scientific.” BaRone seemed to drift off. “I still remember the first time I saw that thing. My father had taken me with him north to do some trading. We were passing through a village at the base of the mountain when we heard the news of the discovery. They were keeping the body on ice while they waited for a team dispatched by the science guild. My father pulled some strings, and we were granted access. It was…unlike anything I had ever seen. The size of VayRonx, pale grey skin, four enormous wings, a long thin tail, and the neck of a serpent.”

BaRone’s words seemed to stir something within Rex. His mind began to whirl, as if a memory was trying to push itself to the surface. The description seemed to fit the general image of what he had always seen DraGons depicted as, and he wondered if that was why he was feeling so strange. The idea of something he had always believed to be fantasy actually being real would surely be enough to evoke any number of feelings he was unaccustomed to. Still, he could not shake the notion that it was somehow something more.

“Those blue eyes,” BaRone continued, breaking Rex’s thoughts. “They say if you die in anger, the look of hatred is locked in your eyes until they rot out of your skull. Dead that ancient monster was, but the hatred it felt before its heart stopped beating still burned alive in those cold blue eyes.”

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, when at last Rex spoke up. “Where is it now?”

“The team sent by the capital set up an exhibit around it in the village for study and also as a bit of a tourist attraction for the village,” BaRone said, exhaling loudly as if forcing out the cryptic feeling that came with the memory. “It’s still on display to this day for all to see. Not as big of a draw as it had once been, though. Then again, maybe it’s the look in its eyes that repels people. After all, it’s no secret lost to history that they hated us so much that they were willing to commit genocide on every DyVorian, CyTorian, and SaVarian. Only something that you hate that much could evoke such a look in something. So when people see it, they instinctively know that look of hate…is for them.”