Tiny Dragons 2: The Bear and Scepter (4 page)

Alana hurried over to his side and looked up, seeing an ornate wooden box that looked designed to hold something rectangular and important. James tried to lift the lid but it was sealed tight. "Of course it's locked," he said, shaking his head. "Why would this be easy?"

Alana looked down at the box and saw something was written across the surface of the lid in an ornate script that read,
What Makes You Worthy?

James frowned at the box, "I don't even see a keyhole. How does this thing open?" He bent down to look at the writing and repeated the words, "What makes you worthy? Maybe it's some sort of riddle?"

He moved to lift the box and look under it, when Alana grabbed him by the arm and said, "I think Mom's coming! We have to go."

"No she isn't," he said, moving her hand away. "Don't be such a chicken."

She smacked him on the arm, "I'm not. Let's go. We found the stupid box. That's what you said."

Someone moved at the bottom of the stairs and both of them heard it that time, both of them grabbing one another in fright. It was Mother, and she was about to come up. "Kids," she called out. "Lunch is ready."

James swallowed thickly and shouted, "Okay! Coming right there!"

Both of them stared at one another for what seemed like forever, until finally they heard Mother back in the kitchen, setting the table. Alana tugged on her brother's arm and said, "Come on!"

"Fine," he sighed. "But I'm going to find that key. I'll wait until Mom goes to the store or something."

"Forget it," Alana said. "It's just some dumb…" Her voice trailed off as she looked back up at the box and realized she knew where the whispering was coming from. The box rattled slightly, shaking on the closet shelf, and whispered to Alana once more. It had been the box the entire time, calling out to her, and now it was shaking on the shelf to try and get her to come closer and open it.

She shoved James out of the room in a blinding panic and flicked off the light switch, no longer caring about being loud. She raced down the stairs and barreled through the hallway until she reached the kitchen, where she leapt into one of the chairs and tried to stop herself from shaking.

"Alana? Are you all right?" her mother said, frowning at her.

"Yes," Alana wheezed, too out of breath to say anything else. There, in the kitchen, bathed in the afternoon sun, with her mother right there, doing something as normal as eating lunch, it was easy to tell herself that the whispering voice was just her imagination. Soon she was laughing at her own silliness, and the fear drained out of her. The entire event seemed like nothing more than a strange dream that seems terrible and real while you're in it, but within a short period of time, it becomes nothing more than a cloudy memory. She picked up her sandwich and took a bite, quietly laughing at the entire situation. 

4. The Queen of Cats

He'd been waiting for the chance to run through the door, not wanting to appear too eager to leave, or overly concerned about what was happening in the back of the O'Neil's house. Humans are tricky that way. If you seem overly interested in something but they weren't sure what it was, or why you were so interested, they were likely to try and keep it away from you. Luckily, the patio door had opened just enough for him to squeeze through and he escaped before it was too late.

The bear was near.

He'd caught a glimpse of it at the edge of the woods, just beyond the shed. A massive beast with wide paws and heavily-set shoulders, hunched forward in the dirt. Its dark fur was tangled and matted with earth and vines, and even bent down low, it stood as tall as the shed.

None of that concerned Mister Six. All the trouble was in the bear's eyes.

Something had gone wrong with them. Horribly wrong. In the newspaper photo the bear's eyes were filled with curiosity and warmth. It was looking for a new place to live and trying to make sense of all the strange things it was seeing for the first time, like backyard play sets and cars and large barrels of perfectly good food just waiting to be eaten. The humans considered their trash nothing more than waste, but for an animal like a bear, it was a feast fit for a king.

But what Mister Six had seen in the woods that day chilled him to the bone. The bear staring at him that day had changed. Its eyes were now black as obsidian all the way through, black swallowing up all the other colors, black and hard and stinking of magic.

Someone, or something, had done that to the bear, and Mister Six would do whatever it took to keep it away from the O'Neil family.

By the time he reached the back of the shed, the bear was gone. Another group of humans came barging through the woods, searching haplessly for the bear, and succeeded in doing nothing but alerting the entire animal kingdom to their presence.

Mister Six bent down and sniffed the ground where he'd last seen the bear standing, trying to pick up the scent. He found it, and flinched backwards, stunned by the foul odor lingering in the air. He sniffed the air, searching for its trail.

He smelled something else.

Another animal, he realized. It was watching him, too. He could not tell if it was the bear or just another animal, but whatever it was, it was close.

Mister Six growled softly as he looked for the creature, but instead, it took off running. Mister Six shot after it, darting up the grassy hill into the leaf-strewn darkness of the woods beyond. He leapt over fallen branches and burst through thick tangles of thorny brush like a gray cannonball, twisting gymnastically in the air to change direction and keep up with the creature. Branches slapped his face and leaves stung him in the eyes every time he tried to get a better look at what he was chasing, but all he could see was a streak of soft brown fur.

It was like trying to catch an express train going downhill around the broadside of a narrow mountain. It had to end. Mister Six could not keep running like that. They neared a cluster of tall, thin trees that were stacked beside one another so tightly he could no longer see daylight, and Mister Six drew his breath into his tight chest as much as he could and leapt.

He sailed between two trees, unsure of what he was about to land on, jumping as far ahead of his quarry as he could, using his best guess to head it off as it ran. He flicked out his claws and stuck both of his front paws in front of himself as far as possible, grasping blindly for whatever he could grab.

Something yowled, high-pitched and angry, as his claws found the center of its back, digging into that soft brown fur and clutching it with all his might. He landed hard on top of the creature, thrown sideways with it still in his grip, and the two of them tumbled, rolling over and over until they struck the center of a tree trunk.

Mister Six staggered to his feet and shook his head, eager to see his quarry. What he saw made his eyes widen.

She was a Siamese cat, long and sleek, and her eyes were bright blue. Her fur was a blended, rich, cinnamon color, and as she looked at him, her tail curled high up into the air. "You run well, He-Who-Walks-In-Shadows," she said.

His claws were still out, and he said, "Why were you spying on me?"

"I was sent to bring you in," she purred.

He tilted his head at her slightly, surprised by her response. "By whom?"

The female cat smiled slightly and said, "By She-Prowls-At-Nightfall, of course."

Mister Six snarled and advanced on the cinnamon-colored cat, "The Queen of Cats has not been seen or heard from in five years. Who are you really? Answer me truly…or else."

The Siamese cat inched backwards slightly and lowered her head, "I beg your pardon, great warrior, but the Queen has come a great distance. What I speak is true."

Mister Six sniffed the other cat and detected no trace of deceit. "Why has the Queen come out of exile now, of all times?"

She looked up at him and said, "To find you."

He circled around her and watched her lumber to her feet, favoring her front paw slightly, and he said, "Are you all right?" 

"I'm fine," she sniffed, circling the opposite way from him, keeping her head low and eyes locked on him. "I should have known you'd find a way to take me down. It's my fault for turning into it." She shook her head and whispered, "Stupid, really."

He quickened his pace and she stumbled a little, trying to keep the same distance between them, but he was able to get a closer look at her leg. It was neither cut nor broken. "Perhaps you'd like to rest."

"No, but thank you. The Queen was quite clear that she needed you right away."

Mister Six grunted as he continued to circle, "She can wait."

The Siamese cat laughed at his boldness and said, "Perhaps you are no longer loyal to the Queen? Have you forgotten your vows, then, He-Who-Walks-In-Shadows?"

"Never," he snapped. "For these many years I have done what I was sent to do. Even when it meant the loss of everything I knew and loved. No one can ever question my loyalty. Not the Queen, and certainly not you."

"That is true," she whispered. "So what is it then?"

"I just," he said, trying to find the right words. "I just fail to see why the Queen would send someone like you to summon me."

"Someone like me? What's wrong with someone like me?"

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"You think because you tackled me that I'm weak?"

"No, of course not," he said.

"Is it that I run slowly?"

"No, you run wonderfully."

"Well, what is it then? Speak up!"

"You're a girl," he muttered.

"A what?" she growled.

Mister Six stopped moving and swatted the air in front of him angrily, "A girl! You're a girl, and a rather pretty one at that, and you were sent out here into the wilderness all alone. There's a bear in these woods, and I dare say he's been possessed by dark magic, but sure, why not? Send a little girl off to go find Old-What's-His-Name no matter how stupid it is!"

She looked at him for a moment after he finished ranting, then said, "A pretty one?"

"Yes, well, it's obvious, isn't it?"

"I can't believe the legendary He-Who-Walks-In-Shadows is hitting on me," she giggled.

"I am not!" he said, suddenly feeling very foolish. He looked down at the ground, desperately needing to do something besides sitting there staring into the other cat's bright blue eyes and thinking how, in fact, really pretty they actually were. "I was simply making a point."

"When is the last time you saw the Queen?" she said.

"Not since we were both young," Mister Six said. "My father was the King's Champion, and I would see her in the woods on occasion. A timid, little thing, she was back then. I expect that she is quite different now, especially since the…well, you know. Hard times have fallen on us all since the King was killed."

"Not just the King," the other cat said. "He-Who-Strikes-Unseen was killed battling the Evil One, as well. It is said that your father saved the Queen, you know. That she would have perished or taken as a prisoner and enslaved without his sacrifice."

Mister Six turned away from the other cat and said, "That was his duty. Nothing more."

"Life is not all duty, you know," she purred.

"You are not a knight."

She rolled her eyes and moved past him, her soft fur sliding against his, her long, arched tail stroking down the length of his, but instead of following her, Mister Six simply sat down on his hind legs and watched her go. "Well?" she said. "Aren't you coming?"

He turned and looked over his shoulder, searching for a sight of the O'Neil home. He had pursued this strange female cat deeper into the woods than he intended, but not so far that he could not still smell the lotion Mrs. O'Neil used on her hands, or the powdery deodorant James had recently begun continuously applying under his arms in his continuous effort to appear more grown up, or the sweet apple shampoo smell of Alana's long, curly hair. He shook his head and said, "I cannot go with you."

"I beg your pardon?" the Siamese cat said. "The Queen has summoned you, your Queen, and she's come out of hiding to do so. You would dare refuse her?"

"Of course not," Mister Six said softly. "But I cannot go, not just now, anyway. The bear I told you about? He is near. I can feel him at his very moment, filled with the darkest and cruelest of magic. It cannot be a coincidence that I have seen him prowling around the Nastikan's family. I fear that he means them harm."

The Siamese cat raised her eyebrow and said, "This human family is so precious to you?"

"Not at first," Mister Six said. "When the King first sent me to guard them, I resented him for sending me away from my family. For giving me the unknightly task of pretending to be someone's pet, when I should have been guarding the realm. When the King was killed, and my father was killed, and the realm fell, I carried a guilt that none will ever know."

She lowered her head and nodded, "I understand. But you were given a task, and you could not have known the Evil One would attack."

"Perhaps not," Mister Six agreed. "But I do know that the King felt the key to defeating the Evil One lay with the Nastikan, and that he would need our protection. Go, find the Queen and tell her these are the words of He-Who-Walks-In-Shadow, her sworn and faithful knight. Tell her I will come. Just not now, but when I can. I swear it."

"I'm afraid not," the female cat responded.

Mister Six looked at her in confusion, "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I said that I will not tell her that, because I am not going back."

He watched her walk back toward him, heading in the opposite direction of the woods and going back the way they'd come. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going back with you to guard this human family you hold so dear. I'm going to wait to see if this mysterious bear shows up after all."

He batted her tail with his front paw and said, "No you are not. Turn right around and go back to the others, this instant. Right now, you'll be safe there. Hey!"

"I don't want to be safe," she said over her shoulder. "I want to see this bear. Never seen a bear. They sound positively dreadful. I'm so excited I can't stand it!"

Mister Six watched her walk, spending far too long admiring the curve or her hips and the tall way she carried her head. It was almost regal, in a way. "What is your name, anyway?" he called out, hurrying to catch up to her.

In the distance, just above the tips of the trees, darkness rolled in across the skyline. Great clusters of black clouds formed, turning what had been the bright afternoon sun into sudden night. Mister Six stopped and squinted into the dark woods, searching for signs of danger. He had no fear of the dark, in fact, he preferred it. It was how he'd gotten his name. He looked and he listened and he sniffed the air, searching for danger.

A cold drop of water plopped down on the center of his nose, and Mister Six scowled. He might have had no fear of darkness, or even large bears possessed by dark magic, but he seriously, seriously hated rain.