Zach launched forward. He felt like he had just woken up from a bad dream.... he looked around. He was in his room... back in bed... No Draconics... No magic... NOTHING.
Had it been a dream?
He put a hand on his cheek where the trident had cut him. It was still there...
He looked outside and saw that the sun had started to come up. The rays of light came into the window, hitting something shiny in the corner of the room. Zach got up to inspect it.... it was a bag with gold and diamonds...
Zach's grandpa told him a lot of things about Draconics, but he doesn't remember about them leaving people gems and gold. He only knows that those that are in their land area...
"Oh no... Devin..." said Zach, "He's still up there..."
"ZACHARY!!!!" Rose shouted from downstairs, "Breakfast is ready!!! Hurry up so you can go hunt Rabbits!!"
"Uhm... COMING!" Zach shouted back as he hid the gold under his bed.
Zach went downstairs. Max was chewing happily on a bone. His dad was sitting in his chair. William looked up at him, then back at his food.
Disappointment
Rose walked to the table with a bowl of oatmeal.
"Good morning dear," she smiled warmly. That smiled then turned to concern, "Oh Sweetie what happened? You have a scar on your cheek".
"Oh! This?!" he stuttered nervously, "I hurt myself with the bed frame..."
"Oh... are you sure?"
"Ya... I'm alright... Uhm..."
Zach noticed that his Grandpa wasn't at the table with them. He normally wakes up earlier.
"...Where's Grandpa?" he asked
"... he's in his room packing," Rose sighed, "He's going to live with Aunt Willow and Devin from now remember?"
"Oh... right."
Just then, all of them heard a cluttering sound outside. Zach, his parents, and Max all went to check what it was. Everyone in the village did the same as well.
In the center of the town, there were two wagons that no one recognized. They both had black tarps and they were both made with dark oak wood. The horses were also black colored. From the side of one of them hoped out a man wearing a long black coat, black hunting boots, a tunic, and had straps around him with what looked like gunpowder. He also had a nasty-looking scar that went across one of his eyes.
Then more people came out of the wagons. At least seven people including him, three women and four men.
The Headsman then came out of his house.
"Greetings gentlemen," he said shaking hands with the man with the scar.
"Thank you for sending us that letters," he said in a groggy voice.
The Headsman looked at all the townspeople. "Do not be afraid everyone," he said, "This gentleman is Hitch Fang and his team, I called him because some of you have had some concerns about the noise we all heard last night. So I'm sending him and his team to go and investigate the disturbance".
"Correct," said Hitch, "We are professionals at this kind of stuff, you can rest assured that we will find what's causing this disturbance".
Max growled at Hitch.
"Humbug," William mumbled.
Just then, Willow came running towards Zach and his family, tears running down her eyes, looking visibly upset.
"What's wrong Willow?" asked William.
"Is Devin..." she cried, "He's not in his room!"
"Oh no..." Zach thought.
"What?!?!" my dad screamed, "Come on let's go inside".
Everyone went into the house quickly, while Hitch and the Headsman were still talking.
Once inside, Willow sat down on the table. Max ran up the stairs.
"What happened?" asked Rose as she poured her some coffee.
"Well," she sniffed, "I was making breakfast and I called Devin to come eat and he never came. I went to his room and when I opened the door he wasn't there and the window was opened... not just that, but the door to the stables was unlocked and two horses are missing... I don't know if someone kidnapped him.. or... or-"
"He probably just ran away," William interrupted, "When I was a kid I used to run away a lot at night".
"Devin isn't you Bill!" Willow scolded, "Sure he's gotten into his fair share of trouble, but he has never done something like that... I'm worried that... whoever took him is the same person that took that boy Edward... whoever has been taking people...."
Zach was standing near the staircase.
"Oh no... this my fault..." he thought, "Why did I have to bring him WITH ME?!?!? What do I do....? Well... there's only one person in this village that might be able to help me with this... Grandpa."
"Uhm... c-can I be excused?" I asked, "I need a moment right now..."
"sigh... sure sweetie," Rose sighed.
Zach went to his grandpa's room to talk to him. But he wasn't in there.
He went up to his room to find the bag with gems. The bag was out from under my bed... on my grandpa's lap. Max was sitting next to him, sniffing the bag.
"Where- where did you find this?" his Grandpa asked in shock.
Zach walked shamefully over to him and sat on his bed. Head tilted down, not making eye contact with him.
"I...I..." he stuttered, before finally forming a sentence in his mouth, "I know where Devin is.... you were right Grandpa.... Draconics are real".
He gasped.
Zach started explaining to him everything that happened and how it was his fault that Devin got turned to stone.
"Zachary," he sighed. He took a long pause and then spoke again, "As a child, I told you a lot of Stories about Draconics. From their history to their cultures to my expeditions. But there's one story I've never told you about... my first face-to-face encounter with one of them. It was me and my brother."
Zach looked at him shocked. He didn't know that his grandpa had a brother.
"It was a long time ago," he continued, "I was your age and my brother was 21, 22 maybe. My brother was a bit of a black sheep in my family... he did whatever he wanted and got into trouble a lot of the time... he would steal sometimes and stuff.... my uncle was the one that told us stories about the Draconics when we were younger... we never really believed in them and thought he was just telling us silly old tales... But one night.... something happened...."
"My brother woke me up in the middle of the night. He told me that we should go to the Northern Mountain. Kind of as a dare, whoever stayed there the longest won. I didn't want to go, but he pushed me until he was finally able to convince me to go. We grabbed our horses and headed to the Mountain... Once we got to the Mountain we decided to try to set camp there... but we started hearing things... whispers... snarls... and yelps... I kept telling him we should go back to the village... but he kept telling me that I was a coward and I didn't have the guts to stay. Just trying to convince me to stay... But I eventually decided that I didn't want to be there and left him in the Mountains... Alone..."
"That... was the biggest regret of my life... is still is to this day..."
"The next morning... he didn't come back to the house... my family looked everywhere but we couldn't find him.... but I knew where he was... I thought maybe he decided to stay an extra day in the Mountain... one day passed... then two... then three... nothing."
"I'm guessing telling someone wasn't an option?" Zach asked.
Charles shook his head, "I thought my parents were gonna kill me for leaving him the Mountain by himself. So I decided to take matters into my own hands..."
"What did you do?"
"I decided to go to the Mountain on my own and Bring him back... That night, armed with a sword, I went to the woods. I heard the scratches and noises again, this time I didn't run, I taunted them and screamed at them to let my brother go.... that was when I saw them... creatures... that I have never seen before.... humans that looked like Dragons... I ran back to my horse and got out of there... not before getting marked..."
"What happened?" Zach asked.
Charles rolled up his long sleeves and showed Zach a scar he had never seen before, they looked like burn marks, with claw marks from an animal...
"Fire Draconics," he said, "They've very aggressive."
"What happened after that?"
"I... returned to the village... I never saw my brother again... I decided to do my research on the creatures and found out more about them... I learned that they're very territorial... if you find yourself on their land, they'll first give you the warning... and then they attack... they don't kill humans... exactly..."
"They turn them to stone..."
Charles nodded.
"There has to be a way to get Devin back..."
"... sadly... there is one way... but it isn't the best way.... the Drakarus will let him go... but she's gonna want something in exchange.... and sometimes what she asks for... it isn't easy..."
"But all of that is worth it to get Devin Back! He's like a brother to me! I don't care what she asks of me! Whatever she wants I'll do it!"
"NO! YOU ARE NOT! I can't lose another Grandson!"
"I WASN'T ASKING....! Is my fault Devin got turned to stone! And I'm getting his out even if it cost me my blood!"
Charles sighed in defeat.
"There's no way I can convince you to not do this... is there?"
Zach shacked my head.
"sigh Well then... First, you have to take this bag and return it to the Drakarus. Look her in the eyes... Do not be afraid... that's very important to remember. she'll know that you're being serious..."
Charles stuttered and started to tear up. Zach gave him a big tight hug... One that he hasn't given him in years...
"I'll miss You, Zachary..."
"I'll miss you Opa..."
The Headman's Office...
"Well," said the Headsman, "Before we make a deal I need to know how do you do your job... and how successful you've been in doing it?"
"Are you doubting my word?" Hitch asked with a smirk.
"No, is not that. I just want to know, there are millions of knots worth of gold and diamonds in there".
"Well, our job is simple, we study the area they live in for a bit... and how many there are, what magic elements they have. Lucky for you, I've been to the mountain before so I know the area well enough already. After, we get inside the mountain.... well, let's just say it gets a bit messy".
"Well. If you do get me the gold successfully, I will give you a percentage of it... how about.... 10%?"
"Appreciate the gesture, but our reward is something more valuable than gold..."
"What in Dradevows can be more valuable than gold?"
Hitch put his arm on the table and rolled up his sleeve. Showing the armor he had underneath, it looked like reptile skin.
"Let's just say Draconic wings make for great armor".
Later that night...
The Northern Mountain...
After last night Obi and her Draconics have been keeping a watchful eye over the Mountain and the Woods, making sure they don't get another surprise like last night.
Obi, Shams, and Brann keep a lookout during the day, and Vatten, ShinRin, and Noapte keep an eye on the night.
"Here... Humans..." said Noapte, "Where are you....?
"Could you not do that?" asked Vatten, "You do that all night? What are you even getting from doing that?"
"It might keep humans away," he replied, "If not, is just a fun thing to annoy you with".
"Sighs... Speaking of humans, are you guys still baffled that Obi let humans go? Obi... who HATES humans... let one of them go...?!"
"Ya!" said ShinRin, hanging from the top of a tree, "It is a bit weird... maybe she saw threw him and decided to let him go FREE!"
"Still I mean.. is weird..."
"Do you think he might want to be our FRIEND?!"
"Uhm... as much as having a human friend might seem like fun I don't think THAT Human might want to be friends with us..."
"OMD I would LOVE to have a Human FRIEND! And I would make them SO HAPPY! Give them GIFTS! And HUGS! AND FLOWERS!"
A bunch of flowers started to blossom everywhere. One of the flowers blossomed near Noapte and died.
"Death," he said, "Is such an interesting thing".
"You can never keep on conversation," said Vatten
"Shhh!!!"
"Oh, now you're shushing me!"
"SHHHH!!!! I sense someone nearby... I sense anger... rage... fear..."
"Who is it?" asked ShinRin a bit concerned.
Vatten pulled out a spyglass he brought with him and saw Zach coming towards them on a horse.
"Is that human from Last night?" Vatten asked, baffled and confused, "He came back?"
"I've never seen a human do that," ShinRin replied, "No human would return here".
"A stupid one might," Noapte commented.
Vatten looks at ShinRin, "Get Obi, QUICKLY!" he hurried
ShinRin flew away to get Obi and the others.
Vatten and Noapte pulled out their weapons and hid in the woods.
Zach walked up with the horse to the base of the mountain, it still looked as intimidating as it did last night. He got off the horse, grabbed the bag of gold, and started climbing up. Halfway near the rocky part of the mountain when he heard it.
"Huuuuuman...." it trailed, "You made a BIG mistake coming back here...."
"I know I did," Zach answered, "Listen. I don't want to fight you or anything, I just want to talk to the Drakarus".
"And WHY do we have to believe you?" another voice asked.
He lifted the bag of gold high up, "You see these?!" he shouted, "Remember these?! The Gems you gave me in exchange for my cousin!" He threw the Gems at the ground, "You can have them BACK! Just let him go!!!"
There was a long silence.... an unnerving silence.
Like, Comment, and Share! Till next time Amores <3!