The Journey of a Thief - Dominique Pearce (heavenly.kaos) (large ebook reader .txt) 📗

connection to those creatures that most humes can’t understand.”
Oh, yeah, huh... hydras and dragons have a lot in common, spirit-wise, anyways.
“Whatever... I just want to get this job over with. I just want to go... back home.”
Funny thing for me to say. Where is my home? I don’t exactly have one. I’ve never really had one.
Rosie saw my saddened expression. “You know as well as I do that Eruyt is no home for people like us. You don’t belong there, neither did I. That’s why I left.”
I only stared at my feet. “Eruyt has always been my home. That’s where my mother raised me, and where I met you. I... I belong there.” I replied with obvious uncertainty in my voice.
She hastily grabbed my right hand and took off my glove, being careful not to touch my bare skin. “Kitiraa, you don’t belong there. This does.” she told me as she pointed to the sacred Stone fastened to my hand. “The only reason you stay is because this bloody thing makes you want to.”
I jerked my hand back and put my glove back on. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was probably right. The Sagus Council is one of the main reasons I stay there. That and I wouldn’t have any other place to go.
“Eruyt is my birth-place. It’s where I was raised. If I don’t belong there, then where do I belong?” I asked her. She only put her hand on my shoulder, and looked me in the eye. “I don’t know. But it’s not for me to decide, Kitiraa. Someday, your heart will find it’s right match. It’ll find a place where you do belong, like I have here, in Aavia. Just, don’t give up and stay in Eruyt forever. I’m not saying you need to leave, but you should at least keep your mind open. Travel some more, explore a little, you’ll find the place you belong. Someday, I’m sure.”
I laughed a little bit. “Well, travel seems to be something I’ll be seeing a lot of. If the Council can convince me to come to Aavia, it seems I’ll be going to plenty of places in the near future.” At this, she laughed with me.
I told her that we needed to leave soon. It was still morning, and I’d like to get in as many miles as I can in a day, seeing how far we’ll be needing to walk. She said she understood, and gave me the book. “Are you sure? It’s not like you to just let me borrow a book, Rose. What if something bad happened to it? We are going to a volcano, after all.”
She only shook her head. “Take it. You’ll be needing it more than I. Besides, I trust you. You’re probably the only one I’d ever trust one of my books with.”
I smiled. It’s nice knowing that people have confidence in you. I took the book from her and held it carefully in my arms. In parting ways, I gave her a hug and a short goodbye, and began walking back to the river where Luneth was waiting. As I came closer to the river, I noticed Luneth, sitting on the riverbank. He seemed to be staring at the water... no, as I got closer, I saw that he was drawing. Yes, he was drawing in the soft sand with a stick he must’ve found nearby. Then as I looked down the bank, I saw it was covered with many of his drawings. Some already being slowly washed away by the waters, others looking as fresh as though they’d just been etched into the sand; all of them were marvels to behold. The drawings depicted wolves, deer, trees, just about anything he would’ve seen in the forest. All of them were beautiful and artfully made, though they were only sketches in the sand. The one he was working on currently was the strangest of them all: it was me. Softly in the sand, he was drawing my face. It was very realistic, except the woman in his sketch looked more beautiful than I am. ‘Is this how he sees me?’ I wondered.
“I didn’t know you were an artist.” I said softly. He jumped a little at the sound of my voice. He must not have heard me come up behind him. “Really? You like them then?” he asked me. I looked back down the riverbank, staring in awe of his creations. “Yes, I like them very much so. You drew them all yourself in only an hour?”
“Well, yes. I got bored. Needed something to do.” he simply replied, then went back to drawing my portrait. I sat down next to him on the bank.
“Y’know, Rosie doesn’t like graffiti.” I told him. He only laughed. “You honestly think these’ll last that long? I give them a day tops. The water will wash them away soon enough.” He kept drawing, appearing as though his mind was in another world. “Besides, it’s one of the things that makes art so beautiful. As much as I’d like them to last forever, it’s better if they only last so long. Like everything else in this world, it only lasts for an instant, before the tides of fate wash it away.” And with that, a sudden wave from the fast-moving river came and washed away half of the drawings farther down the riverbank. Very poetic indeed.
“I never knew you were so artistic, Luneth.” I said with a slight smile.
“Yes, well, there’s a whole lot I don’t know about you, so I think it’s only fair.” he replied.
I laughed. “Yes, I suppose it makes sense.” I stood up. My portrait was done. Like the rest of his works, it was beautiful. It looked just like me, or at least as accurate you can make a 2D drawing in the sand look. The woman in the sand was so beautiful... it made me smile to see that he thought that of me. I shook my head. Focus, girl. Don’t let your guard down.
Luneth stood up too. “So, what did you find out about the dragon?” he asked earnestly. I sighed. Long story, I thought.
“Well, his name is Zalera. He was born over 1000 years ago in the fires of Mount Rizumu. We’re headed there next, to see if we can find any more information.”
“Wait, did you say Zalera? Isn’t he one of the three dragons from that old legend?” I sighed. “Yes, Luneth, unfortunately for us, he is. Look, anyways, Rosie gave me this book to study if we needed any more information. It’s not much, but it’s a start. We’re going to walk a ways, then stop to eat in about 30 minutes. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” He agreed, and we laughed, like old friends.
I couldn’t get my mind off that portrait, though. As we started to walk off to the mountain, I looked back, and saw his creation, his image of me. It was so beautiful, I couldn’t help but stare. Then suddenly, the waters splashed off the rocks, and landed on the drawing, washing half of it away. Soon after came another wave, washing it away completely. Any evidence of the portrait was now gone.

Chapter 8
Luneth
My world has become so complicated in the last couple of days. I used to be a normal guy, or rather, as normal as a guy from around here can be. In fact, before now, I’d never even heard of hydras, or dragon whisperers, or this Kitiraa person with whom I was now traveling with. Now, I’m on a wild goose chase for a dragon that sounds a lot more dangerous than I first thought him to be, not to mention I’m being accompanied by a possibly even more dangerous (and also quite possibly insane) 15 year old girl, who seems to have way too many problems of her own. My, how my world has changed.
But, I didn’t have time to think about that right now. We needed to find a place to stop and rest, so we could have some breakfast. And my hunger overtook any other thoughts I had.
“Say, Kitiraa? How much farther until we stop?” I asked.
She looked at her map. “Um... well, according to this, it’s only a few steps away...” She looked up from her map, and smiled. “We’re here.” she said happily. I sighed with relief. I was so hungry, and I was sure that she was hungry too. I looked at what would be our resting place for now. It was a small meadow, surrounded by shady trees, and seemed to be a very peaceful place, like Rosie’s grove by the river. The trees stood tall and had high branches, as silvery green leaves floated slowly to the ground in a mysteriously beautiful fashion.
Kitiraa seemed to be awed by the sight as well, because she folded and packed up her map slowly as she looked around. However, the second the map was away and the food was out, we simply ate, and didn’t stop to look at the beautiful scenery. Our breakfast today was some bread with fruit. I ate the bread quickly, but didn’t touch the fruit. Honestly, I wasn’t sure it was fruit. Kitiraa had brought it, from her world. And frankly, it was strange.
She noticed I wasn’t touching the odd fruit. “What’s wrong? Not hungry?”
“No,” I replied. “I’m just not touching that fruit. I mean, look at it.” I held it up to her. She admitted it looked a little strange. It had a white skin, tough and about a quarter of an inch thick; surrounding the whole fruit. I split it open to reveal the flesh inside. It was a deep, wine red, and had flesh similar to an orange.
“It might look a little strange to you, but it’s not bad. It’s an exotic fruit. It was taken from an Earthen orange and a pomegranate and crossbred in Ivanna, creating this fruit. It’s called an appama. It’s pretty satisfying, actually.” With that, she took a bite from her fruit, then put the seeds in a separate bag. She set the bag in the middle and continued to eat.
“How can you eat that? It looks so weird, like it’s from another world.” I stated in a sense of slight disgust. She just kept eating. “It is from another world, genius. It’s from Ivanna. And trust me, it only looks weird. Take a bite, you’ll see.”
I didn’t want to eat it. But, I couldn’t deny, I was pretty hungry. And something sweet would do me some good. So, hesitantly, I took a bite. I was surprised at how sweet and fresh it tasted. It had a deep flavor, sweet, and absolutely delicious. I ate the rest of the appama, until it was all gone, stopping only to put the seeds in the bag.
After breakfast, we rested for a while, and began to talk strategy. For the first time since I’d accepted, we sat down and talked about what we were actually going to do with this dragon.
“Well,” Kitiraa began, “First things first. We need to find out as much as we can about Zalera. The other two dragons, as well. Though we’ve only had contact with one, the other two dragons could pop up any time.
“After that, we figure out the best way to handle the dragon. I did speak with him, so he’s not entirely feral. And he was trained at one point. The problem is, if a dragon isn’t feral, it makes things a little more complicated.”
“How so?” I interrupted.
“Well, feral dragons are much like animals. Animal instinct, do what you can to survive, that kind of thing. They don’t speak often, if at all, and they don’t think very much