Primo Victoria

It took two days before Allen was walking again. With the thanks to an extract from willow bark, his headaches had eased just a bit. When he took the bitter tasting water that was soaked with the bark, he could feel the hotness that normally spread around his body ease. What did not ease was the pain that light caused him. He avoided the mid-day bright sun whenever he could. He made up for the hours by visiting Tanith later in the evening.

He was sitting against Tanith’s flank just as old days for the first time in a while, reading a book that was gifted by Evans about the Camari’s culture and connection to the dragons. While he did not quite forgive Tanith, he did believe that she did not hit him on purpose. Freya seemed more sincere in her apologies. When she talked to Allen, the pain and dread was visible in her eyes.

“Allen?”

“Yes Tanith, what’s on your mind” Allen paused his reading for a moment to wait what Tanith was going to ask.

“Are you blaming me for what happened?”

“Do you want an honest answer or just one that souths your thoughts?”

Tanith waited a good long while before answering Allen’s question. She wanted his honest from him, even if she was not prepared to receive it.

“Yes, I do. I forgive you but I still blame you for what happened. You should have known better. Trough from what I heard, Admiral Evenas already chewed you out. There is not much for me to say, you injured me, now I can’t talk and walk around with a killing headache.”

“How can I make it up to you?”

“By learning from this and become a better person”

Tanith looked like she was going to say more, but she closed herself off. Her head turned away from Allen in complication.

“Kuhusu, airman Walker” A young man approached him. He wore a toga like dress painted in cobalt blue with golden painted dragons. The man’s brilliant green eyes gazed at Allen.

“The elders have summoned you and Tanith. Would you follow me airman Walker”

“Are those the elders Evans told us about?” Tanith pondered while standing up.

“yes Tanith, they are the elders. You elder has arranged a meeting”

“My elder?” Allen asked.

“Admiral Evans”

“I am still not used to people just understanding me”

They followed the unnamed man away from the palace and down the stairs towards the city. Where he walked, they mass of people stopped and parted. Allen and Tanith got all kind of looks. From wonder, to jealousy. Allen felt like he was given a huge gift that he did not understand enough about to appreciate it. They were lead outside of the city, to dragon with scales of black and golden that was sitting outside of the city. Those who came close to the dragon bowed down deep for the dragon. When Allen and Tanith arrived, the dragon moved.

The young male bowed for the dragon and walked off without saying anything towards Allen and Tanith. Allen gazed at the dragon before bowing, trying to show respect.

“Allen Walker, Tanith, you have been requested by the elders. Do you accept this request?”

Allen gave a soft nod but his voice came out gargled again.

“My pilot and I accept the invite” Tanith fell in for what Allen could not.

“I am pleased, now Allen, you ride on my back. Only tethered couples are allowed to go into the Kumfunga together. Thus, I am a vessel to carry you Allen until you too are tethered.”

Tanith felt uncomfortable about allowing Allen to fly on another dragon, a strange dragon. Especially when Allen was still injured.

“Allen? How you feel about this?”

“Uneasy Tanith” Allen gazed at the dragon “Tanith, could you tell him that I wish no insult to his traditions but I do feel uncomfortable about flying on another dragon.”

“Allen Walker, I wonder why you can’t tell it yourself. I don’t understand your feeling, trough I ask you to respect our culture in this”

Allen tried to directly talk to the dragon, trough something was blocking him. He gave a soft nod and thumbs up. Despites his headache and slightly hurting limbs, he managed to get on the dragon’s back. The dragon wore no saddle for him to easily hold onto. He could only press his tights together as one would ride a horse, hold him steady on one of the spines on the dragon’s back and hope he was not thrown from the dragon.

For Allen, the trip to where ever the elders where was a painful one. The higher they flew, the more painful his headache became. He could feel his vision slowly narrow and fade, the colours he saw turned to black and white. He lost the track of time and focused on holding onto the ground, without straps, a fall could be deadly

He could not hear when the time came to dismount the dragon, he only felt the dragon stop and a tap on his shoulder, soon after a large yaw pulled him from the dragon. He could be placed on the ground, a bitter liquid was forced passed his lips. He coughed a few times not wanting to drink the liquid at the first time. Thinking back to the willow bark liquid, he took a few sips. Through his stomach did not agree with the liquid and he threw everything out of his stomach again. Soon he was moved again, being placed against something warm and soft. He did not quite know what was going on but he knew that he just wanted to sleep.

He came too in a dark cave. He was laying against Tanith’s flank who shielded him from any light that could have fallen on him. He slowly moved, the pain in his head subsided again to something he could deal with.

“You are alright Allen?” Tanith felt him moving and slowly unwrapped herself to allow some light to fall in Allen’s eyes. The light in the cave was a strange green glow, a glow that he normally associated with fireflies in the night.

“I don’t know what happened” Allen tested what he could do with the mental link. “When we flew higher in the sky, I just…” Allen stopped talking.

“It is alright Allen, I explained to the elders you are not well.”

“You met the elders?”

Tanith hummed softly. “Yes, I have, Trough I promised to them not to say a word about it. They state that first they have to prepare you.”

Allen groaned when trying to get on his legs again. “Seems impolite to let them wait.”

He tried to supress her headache, to do what seemed to him his responsibility now.

“Then follow me”

Allen followed Tanith to a large antechamber, the carved out rock formed a large dome that was coated with a green glowing layer on each wall. The ground under his feet was warm and humid warm air flowed across his face when he followed Tanith down another chamber.

The two stopped in a large hall that was bigger than any chamber Allen could imagine. The chamber’s walls where again coated with the green glow. It gave Tanith’s normally orange coloured scales and eery glow.

“Elders, I come here in respect. My apologies for the wait, my prospect has now joined me”

In silence the two stood for a while. Allen gazed into the distance until he could see that the cave had an opening, it was masked by a curtain of some kind that was covered in the same glow.

“Tanith and Allen” A mental voice thundered. It was no one voice, it where multiple that spoke as one. Soon the curtain opened to show three dragons. Allen could not see the colour of the dragon’s scales in the green growl. They could be any colour of brown, grey, or black.

“Allen, we are pleased that you could join us. We would like you to sing to us, your story.”

Allen was dumps truck with what is going on. “Tanith could you ask them? What is going on?”

“Allen, we sing in many ways, sing how you like. Trough we wonder, our younger told us you did not speak to him directly.”

“That is right” Tanith starting to fill in what she knew “My pilot for some reason cannot speak to other dragons but hear them just fine.”

The dragons shuffled a bit. “Curious, trough Allen has not been taught the way of the Camari?”

“Allen nor me have been taught that. I never knew before there was a place like the Camara” Tanith answered honestly.

The dragons looked at each other, their golden eyes darting between Tanith, Allen and each other. “Your elder has not spoken about that, it normally takes a Camari youngling many years to mature and be able to hear dragons. Normally they can also talk to some dragons who allow it.”

Allen grew frustrated with his pure inability to speak.  “So, if I speak to Tanith, you can hear me?”

The elders gave yes.

“I am sorry Tanith but you have to hear a story you already know.” Tanith shrugged “If that helps you, I am happy to.”

Allen started, about the ship, about the hell that he worked in in order to eat. The attack he suffered and the fire that spread through the ship. He was drawn into the memory, hearing every scream of those who burned alive. Every single detail of blood that dripped among the hot metal parts of the ship, the dragon deck, the gore he encountered and.

“Allen, please stop” A single dragon spoke, he thought it would have been the elders. Instead it was Tanith. She was shivering and tears flowed across her face. “No more please Allen.”

Allen took one look at Tanith and walked to her snout, he pulled her down so he could embrace her. Holding her close while she worked through it.

“Allen” The elders spoke again “You do not have to talk about this gruesome part if you are hurting from it.”

Allen took one look at Tanith and skilled, trying to avoid the horrors that they experience together. He focused on the first time they spoke at each other, when he spoke to other dragons and, finally the moment that he watched a dragon be killed by his pilot.

“We made each other a promise” Tanith added “I don’t want to die on the ground, I asked him if it ever came to it, he would….” She stopped again, hoping the elders got the message.

“And I will keep with her until the end.” Allen spoke to Tanith, slowly petting her snout.

“Alright, we wish to talk privately. Please wait here” They turned around and exited trough the curtain again. Once again, they were alone in the cave.

“Are you alright Tanith?”

“Yes, I am” Tanith tried to lie but her voice was filled with despair.

“Tanith.” Allen started stern “I mentioned the day on the carrier and you begged me to stop.”

“YES!” she raised her volume “I do not wish to hear again how my brother died! How, Maximius died, how Marus has passed in the middle of the flight. I don’t want any more death!” Her tears started to roll again. “I when I exited the nursery, I was happy that there was no more war. I heard that the war has ended and I was rejoiced. No more killing, no more harpoons that show dragons out of the sky. My human mentor had burned skin from one of the tar traps. From all the stories, I was sure that that there would be no more wars for my life time.”

Allen’s eye ridge raced up “I thought you were of the new dragons? But you speak of the twenty-year war? That happened before my father was born”

“I am one of the new dragons Allen, I never seen war before, most dragons have experienced the war before. Trough I am sixty-five years old, still young compared to most dragons. Maximius was one hundred and five years old. Trough he never spoke about the war.”

Allen placed his hand on her shoulder, catching up to the idea that Tanith was a fair bit older than he was. Not that he had not much time, the elders returned from their talk. They came closer than before and gazed down upon the two. Allen had not realised the dragon’s immense size from the distance. Their flanks came up to Tanith’s head.

“Tanith, have dragons ever taught you about the Tether?”

Tanith shook her head, they had not. “We were never hatched by our parents. Humans take our eggs into nurseries and raised by them.”

They received a collected snort of hot air from the elders. “You have much to fix before we can truly become allies. Trough we bestow you this knowledge in the hope it will help you on your quest. The tether is a concept first realised by those foreign to us in an age before the kingdom of Camari existed. Back then we had tribes. Chisur was a dragon of the proto Camari tribe. He gotten rather fond of a boy who was sailed in from oversees, Kyle was his name. They explored a bound that was deeper than most dragons had with any human. That bond strengthened into a tether that linked them. They could hear each other’s thoughts, feel each other’s senses, and when needed communicate across fast distances. The longest distance ever attempted by a tethered couple was from one side of the kingdom to the other side.”

Tanith was the first who dared to ask a question “How did they achieve the tether?”

“Their tether came from many years of being close, luckily over the times since, shortcuts have been made for those years since. We call it the ritual of kumfunga. Or ritual of bonding in your language. It is not for the faint of heart, after forming a tether it is almost impossible to remove, if not impossible.”

“Have there been cases?” Allen asked next, growing weary of the direction the two were pushed into.

“there have been cases, Not all successful. A bad tether separation will rip the soul apart and leaves the body an empty shell to life out the remainders of their lives. Trough even a good separation, leaves the mind wanting for something. A mind with a broken tether is easily addicted to anything. A tether severed by death is even worse, death can push through the tether and kill the other.”

Allen could feel a knot growing in his stomach, he used his hand to steady himself on Tanith’s hip. He could feel the questions burning on Tanith’s mind, he could feel the expectation in the elder’s eyes.

 “And how does one make this tether? Does my pilot need to do anything special for it?”

“You both need to be ready, else it will never work. A tether is nod easily forged and can take a while of mediation to form. When you are ready, you can follow us.”

“As ready as I ever get” Allen surged, removing his hand from Tanith’s shoulder. “How does one get ready to, I don’t know, share a soul?”

“No one is ready for the tether until they experience inner peace.”

The trio of elder dragons lead them through the curtain to another chamber. This one was dark and only a small blue fire in the middle of the room lit the room. The fire flickered pleasantly. And spread its warmth trough the cave. The scent of burning peat filled the room.

“the cave of eternal fire, this fire has been burning long before we came here. This fire gives you strength and power. You will meditate around the fire, meditate until you become one.”

Allen was a bit hesitant to enter the room, it was too small to house more than two dragons at most. The fire was hot when he came close, he tried to find a somewhat comfortable distance from the fire. Tanith sat closer to the fire, warming her body to the blue glow. Her amber scales soaked up the heat.

“It’s true what they say, this fire does give energy.”

While Allen was not so sure about the energy, he could feel the headache being relieved. The scent of burning peat even ebbed away in the room until he could only sense the heat of the flames and Tanith.

Allen first tried to count the passage of time with the amounts of breath he took, trough they slowed down, after that he tried to mentally count the seconds in his head, that too failed. Soon he lost track of time itself. No sunlight, only the fire and Tanith. He felt like he was about to float, strangely he was not getting tired from the darkness around them. His gaze focused on the fire that danced like a seductive lady before him. It flickered before small parts of flames broke up and disappeared in the air. He could see a small hole at the base of the fire that supplied the fire with something that made it burn.

The heat it burned, Allen gazed around on the dragon deck, he could not move as something held him down. Coldness of chains where pressing down up on his body as people buzzed about him. Dragons of all shapes and sizes where getting ready to do something. An alarm sounded that threw a stick into the hornets nest that was the dragon’s deck. For some reason Allen could place the alarm without ever having heard it himself before. The air raid alarm. The people on the dragon deck doubled down in speed, trying to scramble a dragon into the air.

Allen’ gaze fell on a dragon the other end of the dragon deck, the dragon was familiar to him. He couldn’t place from where but he was sure he saw the dragon before. Outside he could hear dragons roar and a quick count of the deck confirmed that the roars where not from friendly dragons.

Allen could hear that turrets roar to defend the ship from the onslaught of dragons. He struggled in his chains, why was he chained down? Confused he looked down to see orange scales. He realised, who’s vision he had. In surprise he looked up to.

And then it happened, an ear deafening shock and a blinding flash of light.

Tanith did not know the purpose what she was doing. Her body was not her glorious draconic body rather that of flesh and skin of a human. She was forced to shovel coal into an inferno, the place felt like literal hell on earth. Metal walls that where only light up by the fires of the inferno. The sounds of machines echoed through the room and the scent of fire, coal and sweat filled the air. There was a constant breeze through the inferno of the machines.

Tanith was shaken by a loud ping on one of the metal surfaces, a silence fell over the room and suddenly the pace quickened, there was a tension in the room. No one spoke a word besides a single person that was shouting loudly about pacing.

She tried to keep up but was shaken from her job by a loud explosion that shook the ship.

Allen could only see death and destruction when the smoke cleared. Fires were burning and ammunition exploding. He could smell the disadvantage of a dragon’s nose, every scent that was in the air was picked up, the scent of gunpowder, burning flesh and boiling metal. The pungent scent burned in his mind while he struggled to get free of the chains. He tried to get the emergency release but it was no use. The release was placed far away from the touch of any dragon.

He was placed her to die unless someone could free him in time.

Tanith did not know why she ran to a different staircase than the rest of the humans when an evacuation order was given. Something happened and it looked bad. Even with her subpar human nose she could smell the scent of burning flesh. When she opened the door to the stairs, she could hear the screams of the humans burning alive. With pain she walked through the stairs, she was reminded of being on the dragon decks but nothing prepared her to the screaming of people burning alive. She could hear people hitting the metal hull over and over again in the hope that they gotten free. Some doors where glowing red hot and she could hear faint voices praying directly behind those doors.

She was happy when she found the last door that lead to the dragon deck, finally free of the screams and the scent. Trough the dragon deck offered no such safety, it was a chaos and then she knew. She knew the dragon who was standing there. Slowly she approached the dragon and laid a hand on its nose.

Allen could feel the heat of a fire on his hands, he opened his eyes to a slightly maddening look of his hand in the blue fire and Tanith’s nose against it. He should have been burnet to a crisp yet the fire licked around his hand like a shield, preventing the heat building in his skin. He looked in Tanith’s eyes and slowly whispered.

“We are all and the same now” Allen did not know where the words came from, but they felt right in his mind.

“You take the pain away” Tanith answered. With the words a pressure was building between them. An unprecedented force barred down on his mind and pushed deep into his mind. Suddenly his headache came back with force. His vision narrowed before fainting. He could feel his body fall back into the cave floor before being overcome by the headache.

Is he alright? He could hear something, it was not Tanith who was directly talking to him. He lost track of time again trough knew he was not out for long. Slowly he opened his eyes to see Tanith above him, looking at him.

Why isn’t this headache I feel dying down.

Another thought that was not his entered his mind. He moved, pushing himself from the dirt. Standing up his headache returned with force causing him to stop and wait. Tanith placed her snout against his cheek for support. He could feel her worry trough whatever they shared now. For a moment he remembered the tether but was that what he felt? He turned his head to look in Tanith’s eyes for answers

Tanith could feel a sharp pain when Allen fainted, he laid yet again on the ground. What is with him and fainting. She was less amused with the idea of him fainting. She could feel a steady pain building that was inside her head and at the same time not. The pain was slowly building until Allen’s eyes opened. He moved slow, feeling the pain. Tanith showed her support with pressing the tip of his snout against him. He smelled feverish and his skin was cold. She could feel with every vein in her body that her pilot was not alright, not that he would ever tell her.

“Have we been bound?” she could hear Allen’s voice, slightly hollow and sickish from fainting. She could feel Allen’s pressing questions about the experience. About her mind, at the thoughts that where rushing through the dragon’s mind.

“From what I experience we share a tether yes” She hummed at her pilot, helping him on his feet by allowing him to grab her horns. It wouldn’t be that bad for him to experience being a dragon certainly. She watched with Allen taking his first step towards the exit. He walked methodical and in a trance. Tanith was behind him, looking down upon her little human who experienced the full brunt of a deep mental connection in a confused state of mind.

The thoughts of Allen came in flares and sputtered. Dying down before another rush came to his mind. In the peaceful moments of his thought process she could feel him being open to her thoughts, calming and soothing to his painful mind. She wished she could just take him on a flight to ease him.

In relative silence they walked through the caves, searching for a way out. Tanith could not smell the scent of the adults, yet she knew they would be watching. Somewhere in the back of her head she could feel eyes burn but when she turned around nothing.

“Tanith, something the matter?”

“No, I thought the elders would be around”

Allen could feel his headache act up again when the bright light out the outdoors coming from god knows how long in the dark tunnels the bright midday sun burned their eyes. Even Tanith, the more resilient of the two was unpleasantly surprised by the brightness of the light. She growled in displeasure for both the light and the pain that came through the Tether they shared.

“Dragons are not made for the underground.”

Allen hold on to Tanith’s left front leg while trying to get his bearings slowly adjusting to the light. He blinked a few times, each time getting adjusted just a bit more by the light.

“Are you capable of flying through?”

“just give me a few moments to get my bearings”

Tanith looked around, sniffing the air and sensing something. She did look lost, she felt lost. In a moment Allen gotten the problem of the situation. She did not even know what direction to fly in to get back to the city.

“I thought you were watching the trip” Allen called panicked, he did not gear up for a long stay in god knows where. A hot dry environment all around with sand in any direction and as far the eye can see.

“I did!” Tanith defended herself “I have been so long underground I don’t feel the earth’s pull anymore. I hope that in the air it will return to me”

Tanith decided for both of them how to get out of the mess, trough when she took to the sky, he could see nothing but desert all the eye could see. The black rock that they came from was the only land mark they could see and it was not much to go on. Tanith flew a few wide circles around the rock. Trying to get the hang of what was wrong.

Allen felt a slight tingle on his nose that changed when Tanith flew her circles, a tingle that moved around with Tanith’s head movements. A tangle that he could feel being overruled with waves of headaches. Between the waves of his headache he could sense something, something that told him to go south. With the sun at the highest point in the sky he had no way to verify his idea, yet it felt better than any other claim. It just felt south whenever Tanith pointed at the direction.

“You get…” he started

“What You get, yes” Tanith ended and made a last circle before flying in the general direction. Knowing what happened last time when they flew higher, Tanith prevented herself from soaring high into the sky. Instead she remained low to the ground, gliding over the sand dunes like an graceful bird. The warm air, the feeling of freedom liberated Allen from his headache for a moment or distracted him from the headache at least.

He could feel every movement in Tanith’s wings as if he moved them himself. His sense of smell felt sharper, smelling scents of the sand that where forging to him. Like the smell of danger that lingered within the sand. He thought he could see more colour or the world was more vibrant when he looked at Tanith’s scales. Her amber scales looked more purplish, or was he imagining that. This flight felt like he was flying anew, like this was his first time on her back. Flying away from…

“STOP!” Tanith growled “don’t you dare think about that hell again.”

Her warning dragged him from his memory of the Goliath.

“Sorry. But Tanith is this how flying truly feels? So liberating? Free?”

“you have not noticed before Allen?”

“No, I haven’t”

“Then my little human prepared to be amazed”

“My little human?” Allen snorted a laugh, caught off-guard by her endearment. While she did not make a note to his question, she folded her right wing and rolled around her axis. A manoeuvre that normally send acid to his throat now only send excitement. He could feel and predict every moment Tanith made. His body leaned into the moves when she dived up for a looping. He gripped on to the saddle with all his might not to fall off while she performed the reckless flying manoeuvres, she had longed for to do so long. Her previous pilot would not have dared to let her fly like this but now, now she had a pilot who not only allowed her but who was enjoying the flight.

She flew up towards the sky emboldened by the combined pleasure of their flight together. Trough any mental issue would prevent it. The headache came back when she flew higher and higher. Tanith, slightly stunned by the upcoming headache stopped her climb. It took her a moment to realise what was going wrong when she felt Allen on her back losing consciousness.

With a growl of announce she dived back down. Hoping that it would stop the growing pain that her rider experienced. A call that seemed to be correct. The closer they came to the ground, the clearer Allen’s thoughts seemed to get. Levelling off just a few hundred meters above the ground Allen came by without a problem.

“Lets…not…do that again” Allen panted trying to get rid of the ringing headache that the flight gave him. “I don’t feel that great still.”

“Another time” Tanith decided for him, “another time and I will take you as high as we can go. And dive down like an eagle.”

Allen gave a small snort “damned dragon you will be the dead of me”

“You wouldn’t have it any other way Allen. I know you know.”

“Oi dragon, that is cheating. Reading my mind.”

Tanith gave a small plume of air just to annoy her pilot a bit more. “If that is cheating, then tell me how I feel”

“Happy, I can feel that. Trough I also feel that you are relieved for something and… he paused for a moment “I can feel your heart beating faster when you think of me” Tanith for a moment kept her wings straight and a soft oh no filled her head like Allen discovered a hidden secrete.

“It’s alright Tanith. I enjoy this time with you too.” Allen joked and reached down to stroke the side of Tanith’s neck. Comforting his dragon. Trough the feeling he could not place his finger on still lingered in the back of his mind. He was more aware of her pulse and her breath quicken ever so slightly when he touched her.

Of course, she feels this way. She is a dragon, she is accepted by the one she cares about. Wouldn’t you be exited?

Allen told himself, a thought that soothed Tanith’s mind slightly. Her mind was allowed to trail off once again to the flight ahead of them. Her senses picked up the earth’s pull again. A pull that always pointed the same way, always to what the humans call north. She was happy with the pull guiding them over the desert towards the jungle that their hosts called home.

She approached the jungle with speed, happy to have found the way back. Her wings beaten in a furry and soon a lavender dragon could be seen flying around in the jungle. Tanith chanced course to intersect the dragon who had but a single pilot on her back.

“Freya!” her mind called out into the distance to grab the dragon’s attention. The lavender dragon abruptly changed direction to look at Tanith. They too speeded up to meet them in the middle of the air.

“Tanith! by the ancients you are safe! We where worried sick. Jane...” she paused suddenly before correcting herself slightly depressed “Admiral Evans, was worried sick. I am glad you are back but where the hell have you been all this time?”

“How so worried sick Freya?” Tanith asked while Allen gotten an uneasy feeling deep in this stomach, there was something wrong about what was happened to them. Something that his admiral did not know. He thought that their visit was known to the Admiral.

“HOWSO?” Freya spoke rather furious and fast. “you have bene gone without a word to anyone for a damned week! You have some gut to know to just think it’s a joke”