NaNo 2015 - A Different Light: Chapter 2

Sometimes it's best to think low of yourself—he surely did. But sometimes it's better to think highly of yourself—he surely did.

Sometimes it's best to forgive and forget—he surely did. But sometimes it's better to try and remember—he surely did.

But the thing he did not do was allow fate to bench him on the sidelines during the most important game of his life. It didn't matter how detrimental of an injury he could have possibly sustained; it didn't matter how severe of an obstacle he would have to overcome. He'd always find some way to pull through, and I commend him for that.

-Blaise Belchat, "A Short Guide to Changing the World"

The sun was already down once we noticed that all noise of Blue scratching the ground and weeping had come to a halt. The stars were already scattered across the black night sky, while the quarter moon illuminated the ground—we could still see shadows. Well, I'm in for some real punishment when I get back if I don't bring back something from Blue, I thought.

Houston and I agreed to check up on Blue again, and I saw that he had fallen asleep, resting on all fours with his tail wrapped around his body. His wings simply drooped down on each side.

Ouch. I'd hate to be him. I would definitely be unhappy if someone had to pull out my tooth.

I shook my head. If my dad wanted me to bring back a piece of him—a poor quadruped Dragon with an unforgiving past who found himself in the city because he feared for the sake of his friends—oh, curse him for that.

Even though I only know so little about Blue—basically, I knew that he was sensitive and had some ugly past that I didn't want to force either him or Houston to tell me about—I could tell that if I ever even brought up the notion of taking off a tooth or even pulling out a scale, it could begin a chain of highly undesirable events.

"What now?" I asked Houston. We've already had over two hours to ourselves, and none of the other duos in the search party have found us yet.

Houston just shrugged. "I don't know. We can wait until Blue wakes up, or we can call it a night and go home, try to get out here tomorrow if I can."

I shook my head. "There is no way I'm going back right now. Not in a thousand years would I want to know what would happen to a wolf when they're out past their own curfew without authorization. And the only thing that would prevent me from having to deal with such a punishment is a part of Blue, and I will never try to pry a tooth out of someone like him."

"Okay, then I guess we should just call it a night right now, but someone's going to have to stay awake and make sure no one else finds us hanging out with a quadruped Dragon, or make sure Blue doesn't try to leave." He winked at me. "It's kind of a serious thing for us to be here."

I nodded back. "I get it. I'll go first; I'll wake you up in a few hours."

Houston picked a spot next to Blue and lay down on his side, which I assumed to be the optimal sleeping position for a biped. Never flat on the back as to prevent sleeping on top of the wings. The tail was something that, as a Canid, I was usually able to work around, but I wasn't so sure about how a Dragon—biped or quadruped—would handle it.

He left me to pick a spot at the cave entrance to simply sit down and stay awake, making sure no one just happened to come near us.

For about three hours I just sat there—I guessed it to be three, as I didn't have a watch or any electronic device that would tell me the time. There were only a few pebbles that I tossed up and down in my hand. Sometimes I would hurl one out as far from the cave as possible, though the lack of light prevented me from being able to see where it went. It didn't matter, because there was always another one waiting on the ground to be tossed around.

Some coincidence, I thought, that the two in the group who wished to save the Dragon ended up being paired up with each other. Sure, he picked me because I was unusual, but just because I'm more thoughtful than other wolves doesn't mean I'm less inclined to fighting. Heh, I guess the both of us just got lucky. I continued watching for anything outside in the night sky. Hopefully, this luck persists.

From my spot, I couldn't see the city lights of Emerald Glen. At night, the city itself wasn't too bright, and the only lights that shone over a hundred feet high were those at the top of the chamber and outside the city hall.

The roads built for buses outside the city was invisible. Buses only used those roads while arriving from a different city or when the younger kids went on a field trip that took them outside the city.

I felt like I was living in the wild, being unable to see any hint of civilization from my viewpoint. At times, I've thought of living alone to be a blessing, as there are no norms, no standards to live up to. At others, I've thought of it to be a curse, as there's the everyday struggle to survive off of knowledge and will—one mistake can result in the consumption of something highly poisonous.

About another hour passed and I was slowly beginning to fall asleep. My eyes would shut and I would doze off before catching myself, snapping back to an upright sitting position and holding my eyes wide open. Then the process would repeat itself again, and it would take longer and longer for me to realize that I was falling asleep.

Once I've had enough, I stood up and strolled over to Houston, kneeling down behind him, careful not to place my knee or foot on one of his wings. I placed my hand on his shoulder and shook him vigorously to wake him up.

"Hmm?" he asked, tilting his head a bit.

"Your turn," I simply stated.

"Mm… okay."

After a few seconds, he rolled over onto his back, pressing his wings to the ground.

He shot straight up, wincing a tiny bit and rolling his shoulders. Now he was awake. "Not the optimal way to get up, mind you," he muttered to himself. "I mean, it gets me awake, but it stings for a while."

Houston went over to the cave entrance to watch for the rest of the night while I lay down in the space he previously occupied. Blue's body was less than a foot from my head, and I contemplated leaning against him while I slept. However, I turned down that suggestion—we didn't trust each other enough, having met only a few hours ago.

The fact that I've been falling asleep on a rocky surface this entire time had failed to reach my mind up to the point where I'm actually trying to get some sleep. But lethargy soon got the best of me, and I was asleep in less than a minute.

When I awoke, Blue had already moved from his spot. Turning toward the cave entrance, I found that it was already bright outside, and Houston had fallen asleep at the cave entrance with his head resting on his arms. Blue was snoozing beside him. Great going. You're supposed to be awake to make sure no one finds us. And you, I turned to Blue, must be really devoted to having Houston as a friend if you would get up and move just to be near him.

I sighed and shook Houston awake for the second time in twelve hours, and this time he didn't roll over right onto his wings. Rather, he allowed his head to rise and took in a view of the surrounding mountains outside the cave, and then groaned a bit. He rested his head on his arms again, still looking outside. He looked like he was about to pass out again, and I had my doubts on whether or not he was even focusing.

I decided not to shut up when I noticed a figure soaring through the sky outside. Right away, I tensed up and began talking, trying to give the signal to Houston to pay attention. "Morning!" I exclaimed with a more upbeat tone of voice. "Day 2 away from Emerald Glen and at the moment, we have two options: we can try to find a way back into the city and leave Blue here to suffer for another indefinite period of time, or we can, and I don't really believe I'm saying this right now, leave Emerald Glen because the three of us, being outliers when compared to all the other members of our race, have no place in society. The former can end up with us being kicked out anyway or possibly beaten and jailed, while the latter will leave us to decide on where we're going to go. Pick your poison, because we're going to have to get moving real soon!" I pointed at the figure.

"Who is that?" he asked groggily, raising his head again and seeing the figure I was pointing at. "Huh? Is that Gordon and Kiefer I see out there?"

"Oh, for the love of—ugh!" I growled slightly. Man, I really don't want to do this.

Grabbing Houston's arm, I dragged him away from his spot and threw him down onto his back, crushing his wings between the rest of the body and the ground.

Then he jolted awake. "Ow! Ow!" he yelped, finding me with a stern look on my face, my arms crossed.

"Good morning!" I almost yelled into his scaly face. "If you haven't noticed, we've got someone closing in on us. We can either vamoose, or we might as well lounge here and have them take us back to the city where we'll probably be beaten and jailed for harboring a quadruped Dragon in their backyard," I repeated.

Without saying a word, Houston began to shake Blue awake, and he eventually succeeded after a few tries. Blue's eyes slowly opened. "Houston," he started, "is that you?"

"No time to talk," Houston said hurriedly, helping Blue up and into the cave. "We've got visitors, and if they see you, then all of us are done here. If we don't come up with some plan and fast, then we're just done. Goodbye everyone and everything I knew."

"Well, you're one to talk!" I exclaimed. "Have any ideas yourself?"

"There's always the ruse option," he said.

"Ah yes," I nearly groaned. "The old 'my friend is the enemy' notion used to trick the bad guys. That will certainly work."

"Well, if you have something then I'd love to hear it!" Houston exclaimed.

"No, no," I replied innocently. "Carry on, I was just making a comment."

"But it's going to depend on how well Blue can hold onto things with his paws while flying. Blue?"

The quadruped Dragon nodded. "It's something expected of us in the east," he informed us. "Being able to carry things from simple objects to even people while flying." He sounded more confident than before, even though there was still a slight remnant of the 'I hate myself' tone.

"Good." Houston smirked—it was very slight, but it was printed on his muzzle. "Because Ace is getting kidnapped today."

Ah yes, the classic fake kidnapping that, when viewed from afar, should be pretty convincing. No facial expressions to read, no trails to leave, and all motions have to be exaggerated to be noticeable. The thing that came to my mind was how we were going to be able to pull it off.

"Ace," Houston started, "you're going to try to flee from this cave. And by try I mean actually try by sprinting as quickly as you can, because Blue can fly faster and catch you anyway. Blue, you're going to have to look intimidating. Give us a big blazing breath hot enough to singe Ace's fur and leave him fetid for an entire month, but don't actually hit him. Then as Ace is fleeing, you simply fly over him, scoop him up into your paws, and fly off. I am going to have to be the one who informs them about Ace's 'kidnapping' and hopefully I can send them back to the city to notify the council while I follow you guys."

Did it sound that difficult to execute? Not really, but things are usually easier said than done. Did it sound really risky in the sense that messing up could result in something completely awful? By all means, yes.

"And what can go wrong with this?" I asked him. Blue nodded as if he were wondering the same thing.

"Well," started Houston, "off the top of my head, this is what can go wrong: Blue scorches Ace, Blue drops Ace, Blue completely mauls Ace by accident while trying to pick him up, Blue hits Ace on something while flying away, or Blue gets shot down while carrying Ace."

"Anything that doesn't involve me meeting a rather unfortunate demise?" I pressed on.

Houston glanced outside at the figure. It was still some distance away. "I was getting there," he said. "If it just so happens that they want me to go back to Emerald Glen with them to tell the story to the council, then I'm afraid I'll have to go with them. Whatever happens, Blue, don't stop flying. I'm putting you under Ace's care now, at least until we meet again." He held his head down and sighed, closing his eyes. "I know, Blue, that it's going to be tough, especially for someone like you. Just trust in Ace and do exactly as he says. He knows what he's doing out there, and even though you may have met just several hours back, I think now is a good time for you two to get to know each other. Stay calm, and do exactly as Ace says."

Then Houston turned to me. "Take care of Blue, in the event that I'm forced to go with them to the council. If you manage to reach another city, then feel free to phone me, if you can remember my address."

I nodded. "Go ahead," I told him.

"Emerald Glen, sector C, building number 61," he stated.

I restated the address in my head to solidify them in my mind. "Also, make sure you find a way to wake up that doesn't involve crushing your wings," I commented.

He just scoffed. "Will do."

I didn't know what to think of this plan; was there possibly something else we could muster up and pull off in the course of three minutes, something that would assure our escape? If I had more time to think, then I might have been able to conjure up a safer plan. The only problem was the fact that I had no time.

And then if we do happen to pull this off, there's the chance that Houston won't be able to tag along with us as we fly away. Therefore, he's shoving all this responsibility upon me, leaving the individual he cares for the most in my hands.

So there was no choice but to put Houston's plan into effect. "When you're ready," said Houston, trying and somewhat failing to remain confident. He was unsure about doing this as well, with so many things that could go wrong.

I exchanged glances with Blue, and I could tell from his facial expression that he wasn't too fond of this plan either. To that, I simply nodded and turned slightly toward the cave entrance. "Ready," I stated.

A burst of fire sailed directly over my head—I could feel the heat as the flames proceeded toward the cave entrance and out into plain sight, and as I began to feel them dying away, I took off.

For the sake of this ploy, I stumbled straight out of the cave, ignoring any remnants of Blue's initial blast. They stung a bit, but I wouldn't let the pain deter me any bit.

Then it was over the small incline at the cave entrance, and I was completely free until I glanced back and caught a glimpse of a blue streak flying straight toward me.

Wait a bit… I thought to myself. I trusted Houston when he mentioned that any dragon can fly faster than a wolf at top speed, so I was dashing along the mountainside as hurriedly as I could. At the same time I was hoping Houston was right and that Blue would, in due time, catch up to me.

Trying to take another glance back, I failed to notice the small bump in the terrain right in front of me. Oh hello, ground. I don't believe we've met before, have we?

That was when I felt two giant paws grab hold of me by the shoulders and lift me straight off the ground. Well, that was a bit earlier than it was supposed to have been, but at least it was believable, right?

I didn't dare glance back at Houston and the two figures who were heading toward us. Instead, I allowed myself to sway from side to side and front to back, trusting Blue not to let go of me. I didn't know how adept the average quadruped Dragon was at carrying people during flight, and I wasn't sure if it would be helpful to know at the moment.

I sighed. Second time flying and it's with someone else this time. Hopefully when I change positions to on his back I'll have more room to move around.

For now, I was simply left clawing at Blue's forelegs in an attempt to hang on. I snapped my head back for a brief moment to get a good look at the two Dragons conversing in the sky. There was Houston, and I couldn't tell who the other one was or see who was on the other one. All I saw was the two (or three) of them on a downward course, aiming to land.

At the moment, I was just allowing Blue to guide the two of us due west around the mountains that surrounded Emerald Glen. Only then did I realize how isolated the city was; there's simply nothing but mountains and roads along the mountains, and then there's a vast bustling city with possibly millions of inhabitants. Buildings and homes for as far as the eye could see, buses and trains serving as the primary means of transportation if not flying, and of course the behemoth of a system under the city that connected to the main chamber. It was, without question, nothing to scoff at—just remote.

Maybe the other western Midland cities weren't like this. Either way, a city is a city.

"Hey, can we land for a minute so I can change positions?" I called up to Blue. "Hanging freely like this for over a minute is not the most pleasant feeling ever, and I currently feel like my arms are about to disconnect from the rest of my body at any second."

Blue had to think for a few moments, but I could tell that he was drifting downward a bit ass he flew. "Depends. Can you see them back there or are they hidden now?"

I tried my best to hold a view of what was behind us, finding nothing moving in the air except for Blue's tail. "Nope. I think we're safe to go."

That was when Blue really started downward, headed for the lowest visible clearing. From there, should anyone ever come near us, we could easily take cover under the trees and wait for them to pass by.

The ground approached my feet closer and closer, and once we were at a safe height I told blue to loosen his grip on me. Right away I dropped to the ground and rubbed my arms, stretching them across my body. "Ow," I said. "Dead hanging for that long is not pleasant at all. I don't like it."

I went for a walk around the area, though I did not allow Blue to leave my sight. That was when I was able to survey the outcome of Houston's plan.

So far, it seems like Houston has been forced to return to the city with whoever that Dragon might have been from this morning. I haven't seen any sign of him since Blue 'kidnapped' me back at the cave, and the amount of time we've spent on the ground should be more than enough for him to catch up.

Now I've left Emerald Glen, and I can't exactly return. That would get me flooded with questions I know I surely won't be able to answer. It wasn't so much about running away from punishment, but now a bit closer to running away from treatment. All because of the fact that I care for a Dragon I met less than a day ago.

I may as well consider myself homeless. I wasn't carrying any form of currency with me, so the most optimal thing to do right now would be to head to the nearest town and find some errands to run for people—that way, I'd be able to muster up at least a sufficient number of bits to go by on.

The only problem was, there was no way to get directions. The only thing we could use as a guide for both directions and time was the sun—rises in the east, sets in the west.

So the best choice right now would probably be to head west. That way, if my knowledge of the Midland's geography was correct, I would eventually reach the Realm's capital, Seldovia. A place between two vast lakes that, from the textbook pictures I've seen of the place, would be a hazard to try to navigate from the ground. Obviously I wouldn't be able to bring Blue into the city, so I knew I would have to rely on public buses and trains to get around the place.

I sighed. In a situation like this, it would be completely normal for someone to give up. But since when have I considered myself normal according to wolf standards?

"Alright," I said to Blue. "We'll roll westward, and I'll see what I can work out from there."

He turned to me and grunted—for his sake, I didn't know where to go. Rather, I only knew where not to go, and that was eastward to the Midland Empire.

I climbed onto his back, and right away I found it more comfortable to ride a quadruped Dragon than a biped—granted, Houston was only biped who's taken me on a flight, but I just found that I had more room to move around without impeding Blue's ability to fly.

So Blue took off to the west, while I simply surveyed the entire area. Nothing moving through the air, except for the low-flying birds. No clouds rolling over the terrain to block our path, and no signs of any human interaction with the environment. There weren't even any visible roads from here.

At this point it was just waiting. Waiting for something interesting—perhaps a town—to pop up in the middle of the vast land. The terrain gradually became flatter, and soon the mountains that we were having to navigate around were nothing but small hills that we could easily fly over and possibly land on if either of us so desired. The trees, however, refused to recede.

But there was no reason for either of us to land, so we simply decided to press on. I wasn't aware of how much time had passed until I noticed that the sun was now directly overhead. My stomach was beginning to protest, yearning for food in some form or another, but I simply attempted ignored it for the moment.

'Attempted' is the key word here, as Blue certainly didn't try to ignore his craving for meat. "Hungry?" he asked me as we flew over a small clearing with a pond in the middle.

Well, that's how you prevent someone from ignoring their appetite. "Yes," I confessed. "But what even is there to eat around here?"

Blue began to guide us down toward the clearing. He opted to remain silent as if he were telling me that he wanted me to think this over.

I'm miles away from civilization with nothing but a forest and a Dragon. What is there to eat?

"Oh no, no, no," I said. "You're not saying you're going to have to—,"

"Unfortunately I am," he said with a hint of pity in his voice. "Yeah. I hate it too."

I jumped from his back onto the ground. "Well, I'll be waiting here. You're kind of—you know, better built to catch things. I'm just a wolf, bound to the ground. You're a Dragon, free to fly. Therefore, you're more mobile than me."

Blue sighed. "Fine," he said before trotting into the forest.

I took a seat on the ground next to the pond, listening as Blue stomped over fallen leaves and branches. The sound began to fade away as he became more distant, searching for something to chow down on.

Then it was quiet, except for the sound of the light wind rustling the leaves of the forest and the occasional chirping of a bird in the distance.

After a few minutes of simply waiting and watching for any movement in the pond, there came the sound of something dragging on the dirt.

Blue was backing into the clearing, and he was dragging something between his teeth. I grimaced and clamped my teeth together as I watched the bloodied body of the deer being treated like a ragdoll.

The quadruped Dragon tore off a huge chunk of meet and tossed it toward me, and the thing flopped onto the soil, leaving me to stare at half of a carcass. Needless to say, it freaked me out.

"Eh…" I started hesitantly, "no thanks, I'm good." I stood up and moved away. "You can have the whole catch if you want it."

"You know," started Blue after he swallowed part of his catch, "they don't even do this on the east side."

I sat back down after having put some distance between myself and the now-torn body. "Yet you treat this like it's completely normal?"

He continued to tear into the deer. "When you have to live off these things for a few months, it does start to feel a bit normal. Believe me when I say that Houston went to some pretty extreme measures just to get me to eat."

Probably something that involved punches and a bit of kicking, maybe even a bit of fire from Houston as a threat. Thinking of how Blue had performed in the past few hours compared to when I first met him, I felt that he was competent enough to be able to handle himself, and that Houston might have been wrong about how dependent he was.

For one thing, he was able to survive without that biped for four months! When the bulk of winter falls within that time period, it becomes noteworthy.

But looking at it from the other side, I had to take note of what Blue just told me. Houston had taught the quadruped to hunt, even though it would feel more orthodox for it to be the other way around. So in a sense, Blue was dependent on Houston.

I shrugged and allowed him to keep talking.

The moment he continued, I could tell that he had gotten a bit more emotional. "Whenever I have something—usually a deer like this one—within my grasp, I just can't stand listening to its dying screech while I'm—,"

"Okay, don't go there!" I cringed, averting my eyes.

"Sorry," he said in apology. "I didn't know you were that sensitive as well."

"No, no," I said, "talk about it yes, but don't be so descriptive about it."

Blue sighed and continued. "Anyway, I just hate listening to an animal's dying scream. It makes me feel terrible on the inside for taking a life for the sake of my own, even if I may be of more use than it. So usually I just like to end the thing with a single snap."

I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on my knees. "A quick and painless death," I said to him. "That's the notion you go by when you hunt?"

"Yeah," he answered with pity in his words. "Thing is, every time I get a kill—and it never mattered what it was—I just felt… sorry, I guess, for lack of a better word to describe it. Maybe remorseful. Yeah, I think that's a good way to describe it. I feel remorseful for whatever falls victim to me because fate thought it would be a good idea for this animal to become my food."

There's that word again. "And fate so decided everything that's happened so far," I guessed as I stood up. "Granted, nothing much has exactly happened, but look at what we have in front of us."

Blue decided that he had eaten enough and left the rest of the half-eaten and torn-up body just lying there. He washed any blood off his paws and maw in the pond and allowed me to clamber onto his back again.

"We've got a whole world ahead of us," he replied before we took off.