“You won’t,” Nova promised, turning back to Korgad. “Right?”
“What’s your name, girl?” Korgad asked Zephyr, tilting his head the other way.
“Zephyr,” the girl responded, following Nova reluctantly as they approached Korgad.
“And you are friends with Nova?”
Zephyr nodded, starting to look suspicious now. “We’ve been friends for years,” she explained. “I live in the same foster home.”
“Foster home?” Korgad tilted his head, glancing between Zephyr and Nova. “A home for young fosters, I presume. Hmph.” He stood straighter again, shaking out his wings and pacing a bit to the side. “No matter, no matter.”
“Yeah, a ‘home for young fosters,’ great way to repeat what we just said,” Nova scoffed angrily, narrowing her eyes at the dragon’s mannerisms. She got the feeling they were about to be disregarded for being foster kids. It had happened before, but the idea of it happening with a dragon was too much. Besides, hadn’t he already known that? He’d mentioned looking for her mother earlier, so why would he react like this now? “Didn’t you know that already?” she pressed him. “What about my mother? I thought you could help me find her! Is she here in this ‘Ragond’ place? Do you know where she is? Could you take me to her?”
“Bah.” Korgad huffed out a steamed breath, shaking his head a bit and stamping his feet on the ground. “I don’t have time for all these questions, girl! We must be off. You’re needed elsewhere.”
“That’s another thing!” Nova said insistently, following Korgad as Zephyr followed her, looking uncomfortable herself as she watched the exchange with wide eyes. “Why me? You said you need me here, in this world—you said you’d been looking for me. But why? Why look for me specifically, instead of asking anybody else? Is it because of my mother? Is it because of this?” She grabbed her pendant, holding it up.
“I said I don’t have time for your questions!” Korgad growled, whirling around and moving towards her, lowering his head to the ground as he crouched low, stopping with his face only a foot from hers again. Nova instinctively took a step back and pursed her lips. Korgad stared into her eyes for a second as she stood there, holding her breath and clenching her fists, feeling tense at the fiery glare, before the dragon huffed out again, hot air hitting Nova’s face as he broke eye contact and turned away. “All will become clear in time,” he said quietly. “Now, come, we must go now.”
“Fine,” Nova muttered. She stepped over to Korgad, who crouched down lower and swiped his claws forward again, grabbing Nova and pushing her up onto his back as she gasped at the speed of it. Zephyr backed up quickly but didn’t escape the same treatment.
“Hey, how about—how about you cut that out?!” Nova demanded, settling onto the dragon’s back awkwardly and leaning forward a little as Zephyr scooted up close behind her, wrapping her arms around Nova’s waist. Nova frowned, having a hard time keeping situated with how broad Korgad’s back and shoulders were, her legs not even reaching his sides as she grasped at some ridges along his long neck, noting now that she had time that his smooth, glassy scales were larger than she would have thought, each diamond-shaped scale about the size of a credit card. Though, the comparison felt inherently wrong, somehow. Like the two didn’t belong in the same universe, let alone the same sentence. “Or at least give us some warning?” she finished.
“I’m about to start flying,” Korgad said, sounding a little amused as he spread his wings. “To give you some warning.”
With that, the beast took off into the air, quickly gaining height like before, evening out about a half-mile over the ground and starting to coast over the plain. The wind was much stronger now, coming from above them and not blocked by Korgad’s body, and it also seemed much colder than the wind back in Florida, but it was much less frightening now that there was at least something underneath her. She felt like she was secure this time, with something to hold on to, rather than feeling helpless in the clutches of some bird of prey, being carried off into the night.
And now that she could look around more easily, perched up here high above the world, she caught her first real look at Ragond.
The light of late afternoon spread over the world in golden hues as the sun started to set over the mountains, illuminating sparkling lakes and rivers that wound down through the hills she’d noticed earlier. The forests she’d barely glimpsed before seemed to take over most of the countryside, and now that she could pay attention, she saw that, interspersed among the green trees, flashes of red and gold were going by. This world must be in autumn, then, despite Florida’s being halfway through winter. She could also see, from this vantage point, several small towns peppering the plains, but there were no skyscrapers, no sprawling suburban grids, no concrete highways crisscrossing the ground. Sure, she could make out a few dirt roads and fields of crops below them as they flew, but the whole scene looked like something out of a picture book. No telephone wires, no cars, no stoplights, nothing. Nova heard Zephyr take in a breath behind her, as well, and Nova glanced over her shoulder, having to smile at the enchanted look on her friend’s face. “See?” Nova called over the wind. “This is amazing!”
Zephyr let out a bit of a laugh again, a grin coming over her face as she nodded. “Yeah!” she agreed. “But where…where are we going?”
“To Stonehaven,” Korgad called to them. “I must present you to the Council.”
That sounded ominous. Nova didn’t know many ‘councils’, but she generally didn’t get along with authority figures. Still, she shook the feeling away, distracted as Korgad flew low over a lake and she saw their reflection glittering like gold over the silver waters. She caught her breath at the sight and momentarily forgot all else
They flew on for a while, covering a lot of ground as they soared past hills, flocks of sheep, and a few small towns, Nova feeling more and more awestruck at how much everything looked like a fairy tale. Especially the villages. Cobblestone streets, actual thatch-roofed cottages, high wooden walls around the outskirts of towns, the occasional stone tower in the more populated areas. The people here didn’t seem to pay much attention to them, with a few small kids waving or yelling excitedly as they passed, but most adults acting like they weren’t anything out of the ordinary. Korgad maintained his altitude about a half-mile above the ground, far enough to be removed but close enough for them to see everything, even slowing down whenever Nova or Zephyr pointed or exclaimed at something new, as if he were actively trying to let them get a sense of things. And it was working. Nova hadn’t ever believed it was possible, but this truly was another world.
But then Korgad circled one of the first mountains, and the new world took on a darker tone. Because there, stretching out in the shadows of the mountain’s valleys, was the dismal remains of a battlefield.
Chapter 4
Bone and Blood
Nova drew in a breath at the sight of the battlefield, the first thing to catch her eye being the dark, damp red of blood covering the entire valley, the second being countless dragons sprawled out over the field, all of them unmoving and clearly dead, with hundreds of other, smaller creatures lying where they’d fallen around the larger beasts. Korgad immediately beat his wings faster, shooting up higher into the sky before she could make out what the other creatures were, and Nova swallowed as the new height only betrayed how far-spreading the fight had been. The valley was three or four miles wide at least, from the base of one mountain to another, and although the dead weren’t covering every inch of the land, there were still so many down there. What had happened? And what were those other creatures?