Gareth tied the goat under a huge maple tree where it could reach green, lush grass, but where it was concealed from dragons in the air. He released Blackie, which promptly explored the area looking for food behind rocks, hiding in the grass, and flying in the air. A butterfly flitted too near and disappeared into the jagged tooth maw. A beetle tried escaping and failed. “Don’t go far hunting for food and stay away from my goat.”
The dragon made no promises. Gareth sat with his back against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes. He made a strong mental image of the goat, stressing the idea of staying away from it, hoping the dragon understood. He then settled in the shade of a type of tree with large leaves with scalloped edges he didn’t recognize. The lowlands grew a lot of types of plants he didn’t recognize.
He rested, his mind calm as it could be under the circumstances. Eyes closed, his thinking centered on the woman who had rescued him. She was obviously accomplished in woodcraft. Her actions were not centered in friendliness. She seemed to be doing someone else’s wishes when it came to him. She was also used to giving orders and acted as if he was expected to obey them. It could be that she had a son his age and was used to ordering him around. She might just be a bossy sort of person.
As his emotions increased with resentment in how she treated him, he realized he needed to relax, as she’d told him to do. He calmed himself, thinking warm thoughts of his time in Dun Mare and the enjoyable times working Odd’s farm. Sara would be worried about him, and he thought of her handing him mugs of cold water, and he missed the closeness of that small action.
The nameless forest woman had confirmed that there were many people searching for him, as unreasonable as that seemed, but he knew it to be true. That implied she drew knowledge from somewhere, and she was not acting on her own, too. Most puzzling, she had warned him not to get angry or excited as he was tempted to do now.
She said not to think angry thoughts. She acted as if she wanted to help him, and said she was going after Tom to return him. Fine, let her bring Tom here and then the two of them could get together and figure out what was really happening, and who the woman was. Tom was far better qualified than he was to sort through all the information and draw conclusions.
The dragon returned to stand a few steps away, a dead brown rabbit in its jaws. It let the animal fall to the ground since it was too large to eat in one bite. It tore off a hunk of the foreleg and chewed, looking up at Gareth with adoring eyes.
The idea of the dragon understanding his thoughts was still unbelievable, let alone the idea that it obeyed him. He saw an opportunity to investigate their relationship further. Earlier it had leaped onto the fallen tree when ordered, but what if it had intended to do that, anyway? He needed to confirm the wordless communication by telling the dragon to do something it didn’t want to do. That was the only way to be sure the dragon’s actions were not a coincidence. Without using words, he said, “Stop eating.”
The eyes of the dragon looked less adoring as it allowed the leg that it gnawed on to fall to the ground. Its wings unfolded slightly and twitched in agitation. The animal sidestepped slowly until its body shielded the rabbit from Gareth, but it did not take another bite.
“Give me the rabbit,” He said the words in his mind, mouth firmly shut.
The dragon hissed.
“Now. Give it to me.”
Eyes as cold as the shiver that ran up his back centered on Gareth. Then, in a rush, the dragon grabbed the carcass in its mouth and took three tentative steps closer. It let the rabbit fall to the ground as it retreated one small step, watching Gareth intently.
“Okay, you can eat it now.”
The dragon leaped the short distance to the rabbit and tore into a hind leg with a sickening crunch of bone. In a few minutes, only a patch of bloody fur remained.
A voice came from behind, a woman’s voice, but he had not heard her speak before “That was very impressive. Now, you three need to get under cover and stay still because a brown is about to fly directly over us.”
Gareth had spun at her first word. A woman stood motionless beside a nearby boulder, dressed in brown pants and green shirt, much like the first woman. There was no way of telling how long she had been there. She blended in so well that he had to look for her before picking her out from the background. She was a younger clone of the woman with the bow, one hand on a hip and the other pointing at a stand of small trees she wanted them to move under. Then she stepped quickly beneath the overhanging branches near her, never looking back to see if he followed suit.
Gareth grabbed the rope and pulled the goat nearer the trunks. “You too,” he said to the dragon. The dragon half-ran to join them, tail sweeping back and forth with each step. Once safely under the large branches, Gareth looked at the newcomer and said, “I never got the name of the other woman who was here. What’s yours?”
“Mary. She was Sister Karen.”
“Just Mary?”
She sat in the grass. “Mary and Karen, to you. Simple names for simple people. Tell your dragon to remain still until the brown has passed. Nasty looking little thing, your beastie. I heard it’s a black, but this is the first one I’ve ever seen. I thought blacks were extinct or just myths. Keep a good hold on that line with the goat until it passes, too. Their eyesight spots any movement.”
“Who are you people?”
Mary said, “Nobody you need concern yourself with. I don’t want any trouble from you, understand? Keep calm.”
Gareth sat and looked between the overhead branches and watched the sky. Gareth never doubted he’d see a brown dragon. When it came into view, it flew lower than expected and almost right over them. It was so low Gareth watched it and saw the eyes flick left then right, then left again. The rustle of wings sounded like the scrape of old sheet metal on sand. He imagined the sweep of the wings causing his hair to move.
The brown flew on. Mary’s comment and attitude angered him. He glanced at his feet trying to avoid posturing and threatening. He wanted to keep calm and control his thoughts. His little black dragon lay in the dirt nearby, curled up and asleep. Peaceful, but in a way, a coiled snake might take just before striking.
Mary saw where he looked and shifted her attention as he glanced up. She said, “They say male blacks are the largest and most powerful of all. Intelligent, too. Right now, it looks as harmless as a kitten. So do you. Okay, we can move again, but be prepared to take cover at any time.”
“Mary, is that all you have for a name?”
“Sister Mary, if it suits you but don’t be critical. Our traditional names are better than calling a black dragon ‘Blackie,'” she chuckled.
“Only until I think of a better name. How’d you know that name?” Gareth felt like he was suddenly standing there naked and she was looking at him. Then, he realized the growing smile she wore was because she knew his thoughts. He tried shifting thoughts to safer subjects, couldn’t manage, and in his mind saw her standing naked.
Her smile increased. “You need to know that any ‘sensitive’ can read your thoughts better than normal people hear words,” she pulled a metal flask from her hip and held it out to him. “They know exactly what you are thinking. Everything. Here, drink this. All of it, and don’t bother telling me how bad it tastes, because it does.”