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twenty-three

Morai

“ L ook out,” Luka yelled, shoving Morai to the floor just as she made it to their camp. A dragon roar sounded, and Morai scrambled to her feet, with Luka on her heels.

“How did they find us?” Morai shouted, but her question went unanswered.

“Wait, we come in peace.” She heard Neoni shout but couldn’t see her.

“They’re not listening. Let's move,” Fida said from behind a tree, but move to where? Morai chanced a look up and saw a blue dragon circling overhead. It was huge, its wings seemed to cover the sky as it flew. At least there weren’t any coming at them from the ground. Morai groaned when a second dragon landed on the ground, with a thunderous boom and charged at them.

“Why is it running? It has wings!!!?” Morai shrieked as she and Luka veered to the left of a large tree only for the dragon above to try to scoop them up, causing them to lay flat on the floor. The dragon charging at them veered towards Fida, Neoni, and Tanen. Fida had run over to Neoni, who was behind a large rock.

“Once again, we come in peace!” Neoni shouted.

“Neoni, seriously?!” Tanen shouted, pulling her along with him. Fida sheathed one sword, and with the other still in hand, leaped over the rock, and landed on the dragon’s back.

“Do not hurt it,” Morai shouted; she wasn’t sure if Fida could even hurt it, but she didn’t want to find out. Fida stopped just as she was about to plunge her sword into the dragon’s scale. She leaped off the dragon and landed in a crouch. The dragon roared, spread its wings and flew off.

“Did that scare it?” Morai asked as Fida caught up to them. They watched as both dragons flew away.

“Not sure, they might be bringing more,” Luka said.

“What should we do?” Neoni asked. A roar sounded in the distance again.

“How did they find us?” Morai asked again, grabbing Luka’s hand to stabilize herself. Luka adjusted his grip on his bag, and Noa popped his head out of the bag and chirped.

“I don’t know. I arrived here just as the first dragon attacked,” Luka said.

“Did you find it?” Fida asked him.

“No.” Neoni sighed in frustration and disappointment, and Morai couldn’t blame her. She felt the same as well.

“We should probably find another place to camp, before they come back,” Tanen said. After gathering their few belongings, the group walked on for what felt like hours, the tension increasing as they didn’t come across any dragons again, not even a roar. Morai kept glancing up at the sky to see if a dragon might be flying towards them in the distance. If she hadn’t been doing that, she wouldn’t have noticed the peacock sitting on a tree branch. It wasn’t the white peacock, but a peacock nonetheless. She pulled Luka to a stop.

“What is it?” he asked with a frown towards her.

“Shhh,” she said, pointing in the direction of the peacock.

“You’ve got to be joking,” Luka said once he saw it, too.

“Whoa,” Neoni said. Morai heard rustling, then the sound of scribbling as Neoni took down notes.

“That’s a peacock,” Tanen said, a note of awe in his voice. “I’ve seen pictures, but seeing the real thing is…wow.”

“Are they skittish? Do you think we can get close?” Neoni asked. Morai shrugged.

“Only one way to find out,” Morai said. Stepping in the direction of the tree, they slowly made their way towards the peacock. The closer they got the more peacocks they saw. A lot of them were really colorful, with beautiful tails, and some were drabber with brown feathers, and their tails were not as impressive.

“Are those females?” Neoni asked, still scribbling in her notebook. “Why do they look so…drab?” Tanen, who was beside her, shrugged.

“Probably because the males need the colors and the females do not?” Neoni shot him a look, but he only shrugged again.

“I already know that but still,” Neoni said.

“Shhh,” Morai said as they walked closer to the first peacock they’d seen. Luka pulled Morai to a stop. Frowning, Morai looked at him, but he was looking up at the sky.

“Aren’t you suspicious that we didn’t see any until now?” he asked.

“Yes, but…” Morai turned to the peacocks frolicking about.

“What if it’s a trap?” Luka asked. Morai frowned looking up at the sky then back at the peacocks, and peahens that were roaming about, but she saw no sign of the white peacock. Luka might be right about the trap; the sudden attack and departure was suspicious. Morai took a deep breath.

“We won’t know till we try,” She said. Luka gave her a questioning look, and she huffed.

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No,” Luka said with a smirk.

“Good,” Morai said. She barely took a step when a roar so loud they had to cover their ears split through the air. The peacocks, startled, cried out loudly even after the dragon’s roar ended. Their cries persisted as a black dragon landed with a ground-shaking thud. The two dragons that had attacked them earlier circled above while the black dragon shook its massive head and then fixed its gaze directly on them. The dragon was massive, bigger than the first too and as it started at them, Morai realized the breathing sounds they’ve been hearing wasn’t the forest itself but the breathing of the black dragon. Morai swallowed.

“What do we have here?” the dragon’s voice boomed in their heads causing Morai to wince. Startled, Neoni dropped her notebook, then scrambled to pick it up with trembling hands.

“We come in peace,” she stammered.

“Hmmm, yes, I gathered that when you first entered my territory. Though I was curious as to why you were all sneaking around,” the black dragon continued. Its voice was a low rumble. Ah well, this wasn’t looking good at all, Morai didn’t think lying about what they were doing would help either. But would telling the dragon why they were here, make the dragon angry? Or worse, throw them out before they could get the feathers?

“We’re just adventurers,” Fida said, causing Morai to gape at her.

“Adventurers?” The dragon boomed, causing everyone to flinch.

“I haven’t had adventurers come here for a while now. And none that snuck into caves.” Morai flinched. “Or stalked my dragons.” Luka flinched this time and Morai stared at him in shock, how did he even manage that. She took a deep breath, there’s a chance that the dragon won’t get angrier than she already was, or at least Morai assumed it was angry. It was hard to tell. Gripping Luka’s hand tighter, she moved closer to him.

“We just want a few feathers from the white peacock,” Morai heard gasped at her honesty and Luka squeezed her hand encouragingly.

“Hmmmm.” The sound, even though wasn’t audible except in their heads, seemed to make the ground vibrate.

“It has been quite a while since we’ve had humans seeking those as well.” The dragon leveled a gaze at them, and Morai tried not to flinch.

“What do you need them for?”

“For an elixir,” Morai continued.

“Hmmmmm.” Morai shifted from foot to foot. Was that not a satisfactory answer?

“We just need it for a uhhh…client, two clients actually. One is the headmage…”

“The headmage!? Kirnon!?” Morai gaped even as the dragon’s booming laughter rang in her head. She was sure her friends had similar shocked faces. How old was Kirnon that even a dragon knew him, or was he that well known that dragons knew him as well?

“Of course, that doodle head did it.” Morai wasn’t sure how to take a dragon calling someone doodle head.

“I will give it to you, but what would you give us in return?” Morai squeezed Luka’s hand, the only excitement she could show. She couldn’t believe mentioning Kirnon worked.

“Well…” Morai started.

“Wait, we should also ask for the people who’d come here previously,” Fida whispered to Morai who groaned; wasn't that pushing their luck? The dragon must have good hearing because it asked,

“Others? What others? You’re the first humans to come here in a millennium.”