“Others?”
“That one back there looked like a black. There are also reds, greens, tans, and I don’t know what all else. What I do know is that they’re always as hungry as small boys, and people in boats are just snacks. I'm about worn out and going slow, so if you think you can paddle us a little faster, let me know, and you can take over.”
Seth snatched the paddle from his hands and drove the paddle deep, swinging the front of the canoe to a hard left. His next powerful stroke turned it back to the right, but neither drove it ahead very far.
“Taking a long way, are we?” Dawn asked, the humor clear in his tone.
“Are you keeping the same name today?” Seth shot back, “Dawn?”
“So far, I think so,” he spat over the side.
“Then shut up, Dawn and let me paddle.”
The old man cackled so much he fell into another coughing spell. Seth eased up on the power in each stroke, and the canoe surged ahead in more of a straight line. He looked ahead and found the shoreline where it met the water with a strip of gray sand. It drew closer. The breeze now came from his back and pushed the canoe ahead. He could have let the air and currents carry the boat ashore, but kept paddling, his eyes scanning the sky.
Dawn said, “Take her a bit to the left. See that black rock outcrop where it reaches down to the beach? We want to land right about there.”
Seth adjusted the direction and kept watch on the sky for dragons at the same time. In the far distance, he found another, or perhaps the same one, flying away from them. He pointed the paddle at it.
“We’ll see a lot of them on the island, son. Don’t be pointing them all out or you’ll wear out your pointing finger and only have four left on that hand.”
Seth would have argued about the loss of a finger, but Dawn had used another unknown word. Island. He asked, “Land? Island?”
Dawn said, “Well, it’s land of a sort, like you’re used to, but has salt water all around it. There’s fresh water on the island, including a small lake. Your friends from last night cannot get here unless they have another boat and are brave enough to travel out of sight of their land. But with nothing in sight, dragons flying all around, giant fish eating small boats and paddlers, and storms that shred boats into firewood, who in their right minds would ever come here?”
“Just us, I guess,” Seth grinned.
“Watch out for the waves when we get closer to shore. They’ll try to spill us over. Catch the tip of one and it’ll carry us right onto the beach. If not, be prepared to swim. Know why we’re here?”
“Because a crazy old man brought me here.”
“Nope. I lived here when I was your age. This island has plenty of food, water, and see that mountain in the center? It’s warm.”
“Warm? What’s that mean?”
“The sides of the mountain are warm. The ground itself. Not from the sun. It comes up from below like there’s a fire down there. Some smoke seeps up, too. And bad smells now and then, but in the winter snow and ice melt before touching the ground. This side of the mountain points away from the land we came from so anyone in a fishing boat won’t see it. They’ll just see the smoke from the mountain and the dragons circling. It must be the safest place you ever saw.”
“Except for the dragons.”
“Well, yes, there is that.”
After the other tales Dawn had told, Seth didn’t intend to believe half of what the old man said. The problem was that he didn’t know which half. “You used to live here?”
“That I did. Most of my life until I was maybe twenty. I was a strong young man from a good family. I went out into the world to see what else I could find. And there is much more to my story, but I’ll tell that to you about it later. Things are about to get busy.”
They had reached where the waves formed into white tips and rolled over themselves. A larger one lifted the boat up, then pushed it ahead where it rested between others so they could only see the sky in any direction. Another wave raised them higher again.
“Paddle us closer, and get ready to hold on, Seth. We’re going for a ride,” Dawn shouted.
While he didn’t understand the consequences, Seth did as told. They reached the point where the tops of the waves made themselves distinct and churned white. One caught the canoe and pushed it closer to the shore in a sweeping motion, skewing the boat sideways and threatening to tip them over.
“Use your paddle to keep us going straight,” Dawn yelled in a panic, sounding much calmer than Seth felt.
A smaller wave pushed them farther ashore, then a large wave already breaking roared their way. It lifted them higher and higher, then pushed them ahead as they slid down the front side. The breaking wave stayed right behind Dawn, always curling over, threatening to pour into the boat, but the canoe managed to move as fast and stay just ahead.
Seth looked at the beach and found it racing at him faster than Modoc could run. He grabbed a huge breath and held it as the sand seemed to rush at him. . . and then the wave fell apart as it lost energy. It reminded Seth of after he sprinted at top speed and had to stop, hands on knees while he wheezed to suck in a lungful of air. He simply ran out of energy, like the wave.
The waves after the point where they crested, shrank in size until they deposited the boat in water only ankle-deep, and the canoe scraped bottom. Seth leaped out and faced the incoming waves as if he’d defeated them in battle, while shaking a fist. Dawn climbed out in a more dignified manner and took hold of the back of the canoe so it didn’t drift off.
He looked at Seth. “Well done, my boy.”
They pulled the canoe up past the sand to the first of the trees, then beyond. Dawn said, “Tie it well. There are times when the water reaches this high.”
Looking behind at the beach and the sand between the boat and water, he sighed with disbelief. But to satisfy the old man he did as he asked.
Dawn had moved down the beach, closer to the rock ledge that jutted out into the water. Seth raced to join him, glad to use his legs again. The wet sand sucked at the bottoms of his feet. Shellfish coated the rocks and between where the water crashed ashore on the beach and the rock cliff, swirled a lake of green and white water, of relative calm.
Dawn pointed at it. “The fish swim in there to eat the shellfish. A boy with a fishing line can catch a meal quickly if he uses the right bait.” He walked on, finding the remains of a small path that led up the side of the cliff. Flat rocks had been placed almost side by side until they formed a walkway and even steps, now overgrown but visible.
Seth followed, but couldn’t help pausing now and then to look behind. The beach, the black rocks of the cliffs, and the churning water drew him. The place where Dawn said there would be fish also looked like a perfect place to swim, if it was only a little warmer. The vegetation was dense and much of it alien to him. Plants with wide leaves grew beside trees so tall he couldn’t see the tops.
Colorful birds flitted or flew above, and a black crow hopped from branch to branch, squawking and scolding them as they moved along the path. They reached a wide, level valley barren of trees, but filled with grass and smaller shrubs. Goats grazed in the distance. Three sheep were nearer. A doe looked up from eating the green grass and snorted before lowering her head and eating again.
A flutter of nearby movement turned Seth’s head. Chickens ran free. Chickens meant eggs and easy birds to kill. The island was filled with familiar domesticated animals.
“No hunters?” Seth asked.
“No people. At least, not for a while. See that ridge up there?”