The Finding (28 page)

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Jaax stopped walking and turned his head to talk to Jahrra.

“We’ll stop here. This looks like a nice, flat open space.”

The great dragon stepped off of the road, merely a small path to him, and started heading west through the new grass that was still quite short. Jahrra sighed and led Phrym after him.
I can’t wait until this is over
, she thought to herself. A ring of tall eucalyptus trees decorated the furthest edge of the field, and Jahrra could see beyond the rim of the bluff just beyond. A sliver of the distant blue ocean and taupe-hued dunes, glowing brilliantly in the morning’s golden sunlight, were visible between the trees.

Jaax’s voice finally interrupted Jahrra’s thoughts, “Shall we continue?”

“What?” Jahrra said, not realizing she’d stopped to ponder the scene before her.

“I want to be done with this as much as you do, so it would help if you paid attention.”

Jahrra turned pink. Stupid dragon! He shouldn’t be allowed to be so rude all the time. She clicked Phrym forward to catch up with the dragon, now walking towards the middle of the large field. Jaax stopped and began to gaze lazily at his surroundings, surveying the open space the way a deer might contemplate an unknown meadow. Jahrra just sat atop Phrym, who began to paw at the ground, and waited for her next order. She let out an obvious sigh, hoping that it would coax Jaax into speaking, and shifted in the saddle, causing the leather to squeak in protest.
For someone who’s in such a hurry, he sure is taking his time
, she thought as she crossed her arms in vexation.

It seemed a full five minutes before Jaax finally spoke.

“Alright, I guess the first logical thing to do would be to see how you handle yourself on a horse, since you’re already prepared for it,” he said, looking Jahrra and Phrym up and down in a bored fashion.

“What would you like us to do?” Jahrra asked composedly.

She had no idea what Jaax wanted her to do with Phrym, but she figured it couldn’t be too difficult. She’d become quite a good rider since she began her lessons with Gieaun and Scede, and Phrym trusted her completely.

“Take him to the edge of that small grove of trees and back.” Jaax nodded to a few young eucalyptus saplings growing away from the main wood. “If you know any maneuvers or other “tricks”, go ahead and show them to me.”

Jahrra rolled her eyes and clicked at Phrym, bringing him into a sudden canter. The semequin easily covered the distance in a short time and soon Jahrra was weaving him in and out of the trees as she ducked and swerved adeptly from stray branches and limbs. She quickly turned Phrym, keeping her balance as he jumped over three fallen logs on their way back to Jaax. Jahrra was tempted to keep riding back to the Ruin, but instead she pulled her tall semequin to a sudden stop, causing foraging birds to scatter raucously and forcing a large cloud of dust to rise up around them.

“That was adequate,” Jaax sniffed.

This was a surprise to Jahrra. She thought she’d done rather well. She just sat straighter in the saddle, trying to look unaffected by the dragon’s judgment.

“Is that all you can do?” he continued.

“Wh-what do you mean?” Jahrra stammered, feeling somewhat flabbergasted.

“You ride well and move with Phrym well, but can you do anything else besides weave through trees and jump logs?”

Jaax was beginning to sound like Master Tarnik and Jahrra was starting to wonder what could be bothering him to make him so aggravated.

“Can you ride fast and shoot with a bow?” he continued fluently. “Could you cover rough ground and fight off five full-grown men while staying on Phrym’s back? Could you make a higher or wider jump if you had to without falling from the saddle? These are things that you’ll need to learn, so therefore, your overall horsemanship is merely adequate.”

Jahrra was stunned.
Why on Ethoes would I need to fight off full-grown men!?
she wondered in exasperation. She didn’t bring these questions up to Jaax, however. She thought that he was just being overly dramatic and assumed further questioning would only anger him more. Jahrra slumped in the saddle, waiting to receive her next set of marching orders.

“I guess we’ll test your archery skills next,” Jaax said shortly, and then added mordantly. “You did bring your bow?”

Jahrra slid from Phrym’s back and untied her bow and quiver from the back of her saddle. She allowed Phrym to wander off to graze and then turned back towards Jaax. “Do I have a target, or am I to just shoot at whatever moves next?”

“I’ll tell you what to aim for, and you’ll try to hit it. That is generally how it works,” the dragon answered to match Jahrra’s cynicism. “Not all of your targets in real life are going to have bull’s-eyes on them you know.”

Jahrra burned with annoyance, but she pulled her gloves on quietly and readied an arrow.

“Alright, what am I to kill?” she said as pleasantly as possible.

“I’ll go easy on you on your first attempt. Do you see that tree over there?”

Jaax nodded to a small apple tree, about fifty yards away that was covered in new leaves and unopened buds. Jahrra noticed the large knothole on its trunk and was happy to agree with Jaax on this next task being easy, that is, until he spoke again.

“I just want you to hit any of the blossoms growing on that tree for now.”

He couldn’t be serious. Most of the buds were smaller than her thumbnail.

“You must be joking!” Jahrra blurted out, making her thoughts known.

“No, deadly serious,” the dragon whispered dangerously. “You can’t always risk missing an exact target, you must be precise, or it could mean your life.”

Jahrra stepped back nervously. She couldn’t believe she was hearing this.
It could mean my life? Who could possibly be that threatening to me?
Then she thought with a slight panic,
Maybe someone told him and Master Hroombra about what happened in Kiniahn Kroi! Could Ellysian and Eydeth really be trying to kill me?

Jahrra swallowed hard and pulled back on her bowstring, aiming at the largest blossom she could find.
It’ll be a miracle if I hit
any
part of the tree
, she thought apprehensively. She released the arrow with a thick twang, but it sailed right past the tree, not even nicking a leaf. Jahrra stood there, turning bright red. Jaax didn’t say a word, and Jahrra was sure he was savoring the moment.

Finally, the dragon spoke, his voice calm, “I am very glad I decided to start your training early. Now, the last thing I want to see is how you defend yourself when provoked. I’m going to attack you and I want you to fight back. In a sense, I want you to try sparring with a dragon. A dragon is probably the deadliest thing you’ll ever have to face, so this is a good learning experience for you.”

Jaax walked away from the numb and embarrassed girl and, using his teeth, broke off a dead limb from a nearby tree.

“Here,” he said, spitting it out at her feet, “pretend that is a sword. You have a good imagination, something you proved with the story of the unicorns yesterday.”

Jahrra’s eyes were stinging with humiliation and rage, but she wouldn’t allow herself to cry, not in front of him. She picked up the branch and broke off the end to a suitable length. She was somewhat afraid to attack Jaax. After all, he was a huge dragon and she was just a girl, but her pride ruled her more than she wished. She took a deep breath that was meant to steady her mind and stepped forward, holding the branch as best she could from what she’d gathered about sword fighting.

Jaax rose up on his hind legs and let out a mighty roar mixed with fire and smoke. Jahrra stopped dead. She’d never heard him roar like this before, and she became even more apprehensive. Now she understood why people feared dragons.

“Come on, attack me! Don’t be afraid!” Jaax boomed down at her.

He was twice as tall as usual as he balanced on his hind legs and tail, his great wings stirring the air as they held up his great weight.

Jahrra lifted the stick she held and swallowed hard, bowing her head against the beat of his wings. She took a deep breath and let out a yell of her own, charging at full speed with her eyes shut tight and her heart racing. She felt a crashing as she sprinted forward, and before she knew it, she had been slammed to the ground, gasping for breath. She felt the earth shake slightly as Jaax returned his forelegs to the solid ground.

Jahrra opened her eyes and looked around dazedly. She was lying on her back and her lungs ached. Groaning, she rolled her head to the side and saw her imaginary sword lying on the ground a few yards away. Phrym was whinnying in distress but seemed too timid to approach. Jaax was standing above her, his great tail wrapped around the perimeter of the battlefield.

The dragon leaned his enormous head down right next to Jahrra’s and said in a whisper, his breath moving the sand beside her head, “Never approach an enemy in anger, and never, ever close your eyes.”

He lifted his head and walked off to the other end of the field and sat down, his back turned to the stunned girl. Jahrra sat up, furious with herself and extremely angry that Jaax had actually knocked her down. She shook the dirt and dead leaves from her hair and glared at him, hurtling as much hatred through her eyes as she could.

Since his back was turned, she decided to take the opportunity to surprise him by creeping up on his blind side. She kept her eyes wide open this time, and as she drew nearer, she lifted her wooden sword in preparation for an attack. Jahrra thought she was doing well. She’d gotten within a few feet of the dragon, but it was no use, his hearing was too good. He swiftly turned around, and as Jahrra swung at him, he grabbed the branch with his scaled hand and lifted both the girl and her weapon high above the ground.

Jahrra clung to her stick and hung helplessly in the air, kicking and flailing as Jaax held her up to his face.

“Not good enough, Jahrra. Come now, you should be able to hit me at least once!” he taunted, smiling in amusement.

He dropped her from five feet up, but this time when Jahrra hit the ground she got up much quicker than before, taking Jaax by surprise. The dragon began to lift up once again on his hind legs, but before he could get his front legs into the air, Jahrra swung her branch with all her strength. The hard wood cracked against one of his left knuckles, and to Jahrra’s surprise and horror, a scale went flying off.

“Oh no! Jaax, I’m sorry!”

She dropped the branch and backed away, worried that he’d be furious. But the dragon merely shook his front foot as if to stop the stinging.

“Ha, don’t worry. That scale has been loose for weeks.”

The dragon’s scowling mood was suddenly gone, and in its place Jahrra could almost detect a hint of approval. “You did well. You caught me by surprise and actually made contact. Unfortunately, if I were truly an unfriendly dragon, you’d be dead by now, but we’ll worry about that later.”

He smiled and Jahrra felt her strained muscles ease a little.

“Jahrra, go pick up that scale you knocked off and bring it over here.”

The scale wasn’t hard to find. It glinted with the blue, green and gold that made up the hue of all of Jaax’s scales. Jahrra picked it up out of the grass and looked at it. It was heavier than she’d anticipated and fit nicely in the small center of her palm. If she didn’t know any better she would’ve said it was a glittering stone she happened upon in the field. After admiring it for awhile, Jahrra brought it back over to the waiting dragon.

“What will you do with it?” she asked as she dropped the small scale into Jaax’s opened paw.

“I’ll find a use for it,” he said. “Maybe the elves of the north can reattach it for me. Now, we’d better head to Aldehren, there is someone waiting to meet you.”

Jahrra was glad to see that Jaax was no longer as disagreeable as he’d been earlier that morning, and she was even starting to feel more relaxed and optimistic. Maybe the loose scale had been bothering him and she’d actually helped him by removing it. Whether that was the reason for his sudden easy mood or not, she didn’t care. She was just glad of the change.

Jaax watched as Jahrra went and collected Phrym from the edge of the clearing, his hard eyes dark with thought. She reminded him of someone he once knew, long ago, someone just as stubborn and just as unrelenting.  It would be a long while yet, however, before the Tanaan dragon realized just how similar the two were.

For now, he needed to focus on her improvement. She had so much to learn. She had to become stronger, that was a must, and more flexible. Her reflexes needed improvement and her archery needed to be fine-tuned. She had to learn how to wield a sword, and although she rode quite well, she needed to become even better in the saddle. Perhaps she was too young to begin these brutal and trying lessons, but Jaax knew that it couldn’t be helped; the sooner she learned how to survive the unthinkable, the better.

Jaax shook himself like a horse shaking off a shiver of unease. This whole process of delaying his busy schedule to check in on Jahrra had been a thorn in his side, and his patience had been worn thin by it. It had also saddened him in a way. He had always meant to have a greater part in Jahrra’s life, that is, until other matters came up; matters outside of Oescienne that were so much more urgent than helping Hroombra raise a child. This in turn had angered him, for some of these issues could’ve been dealt with by someone else, and some of them, well, some of them Jaax hadn’t anticipated on happening so soon.