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Now Ayre understood why some elderly dragons threw themselves against the sharpest of rocks until they bled to death.
A low hum was drifting from the nearby cave where the leaders of other dragon clans had gathered to pay their respects and to say their goodbyes to their dragon lord. Only family members and servants were allowed to see him in his current state.
Ayre was grateful for that.
There was something unbearably ignominious about having others see his once great and glorious father like that. It filled him with the deepest shame he couldn’t explain. Death offended him. It repulsed him on a physical level. He could feel himself recoil from the sight. He averted his gaze from the motionless mound and looked down.
A mass of fallen scales littered the floor of the cave. Ayre bent down to pick them up. He studied them before placing the golden ones on one pile and the rotten ones on the other. Later, the golden scales would be preserved along with his father’s heart, brain, wings, horns, teeth, claws, and hide, while the rotten scales would join the funeral pyre along with his bones.
There was a belief that if the pile of golden scales was larger than the pile of rotten scales, the spirit of the departed dragon would find itself in the Golden Halls of Glory. However, if it was the pile with rotten scales that was larger, then the spirit of the dragon would instead find itself trapped in eternal darkness.
Ayre was glad to see that the pile with golden scales remained much larger.
After visiting his father or what was left of him, Ayre spent some time disciplining his mind and exerting control over his temper in the cool and calming waters of an underground lake. Feeling more in control of his emotions, he made his way to the upper caves, where his sleeping chamber was situated.
It was a simple cave with a stone fire pit in its centre and a number of recesses in its walls for his personal belongings.
Ayre quickly changed into his sleeping tunic, shooed away a flock of lanthorn flies that provided meagre illumination, lay down on a simple bamboo mat, and went to sleep.
When he woke up the next day, he found Ayzu sitting cross-legged and pensive next to the stone fire pit with a bunch of scrolls on his lap. There was no fire in the pit even though caves grew quite cold during the night. However, dragon warriors were trained to sleep outside in their human form in all weather until they became completely immune to its changes.
“Morning, Phi,” he greeted his brother in a husky whisper as he sat up and crossed his legs just like his brother. “Have you been here long? Why didn’t you wake me?”
Ayzu didn’t reply. He was looking at him with so much tenderness and sadness that Ayre had to look away. That’s when he noticed a bamboo tray with jasmine tea already cooling off in shallow clay bowls. Ayre cleared his throat and lifted one of the bowls to his dry lips.
He took a slow careful sip, so that small white flowers that floated on the surface remained in the bowl. He was so studiously focusing on his task that didn’t notice when Ayzu leaned over to ruffle his messy morning hair.
“Hey!”
Ayre glared at him.
Ayzu laughed.
“I’ll miss that.”
“I won’t,” snapped Ayre.
Ayzu sighed and took the other bowl. Looking at his brother’s face, Ayre wished he could take back his ill-advised words. They sat in silence, drinking their tea – and despite years of training, right now they were both stooped under the weight of their impending separation.
“I have brought you some texts,” said Ayzu when he could no longer pretend to drink tea. “Of course, they are extremely outdated as they were compiled centuries ago… Yet knowing their past cannot hurt. Study them before you take flight. Speaking about that, I have also found a map that might make your journey easier.”
“How?” Ayre frowned. “I won’t be able to fly and keep an eye on the map unless I attach it to my tail.”
“You won’t have to. I will spell it on your back with special ink – the magic will guide you in the right direction. You will also be able to make it invisible once you reach the human kingdom, so that no one can guess where you’ve come from.”
Ayre raised an eyebrow.
“Do you think I’ll be walking around humans with my back naked?”
Ayzu huffed. “I don’t know, do I?” he asked with a grin. “Maybe you’ll throw all caution to the wind and forget everything you’ve been taught once you find yourself in the wild?”
Ayzu winked.
Ayre snorted.
They both laughed.
Knowing that it was their last meeting before his departure, Ayre clung to its lingering happiness by squeezing his empty bowl between his palms, because he couldn’t cling to his brother. Even young dragons were taught to keep their emotions under control and prolonged physical contact was allowed only during training or between mates.
Reluctantly, Ayre cleaned the bowls and put them away into one of the recesses. His insides were churning with hunger, but admitting that meant leaving the comfort of his cave and his brother’s presence and going to the dining hall. It was a common area, where clan dragons spent much of their time when they were free from their various duties and it was also the place where Aybo loved to flaunt his pretty and rich mate. Ayre felt sick just thinking about it. Of course, it could be hunger talking, but Ayre didn’t care.
Yet their time together was swiftly running out. Ayzu had to return to the training arena, because Aybo didn’t consider saying goodbye to his younger brother a good enough reason not to fulfill his duties. Ayzu took out a bottle of ink and some brushes from his leather bag and spread them on a low table that he had found folded in the corner of the cave. Then he prompted Ayre to bare his back and lie down on the bamboo mat. Ayre did as he was told.
“It might tickle a little,” warned Ayzu as he uncorked the bottle with black ink and dipped one of the brushes inside. “So try not to move if it does. Each line and curve that I will put on your back must match precisely those on the map. Even the tiniest of errors might take you off course or even lead you astray.”
Ayre tensed and held his breath, his fingers gripping the edge of the mat. He didn’t know whether he was ticklish or not and thought that now was probably not the best time to find it out.
“How exactly does it work?” he asked to distract himself.
“First, I will trace the map on your back with enchanted ink and brushes that I spelled to place each line with perfect precision. Once your skin absorbs the ink, I will say the incantation to activate the magic. After that all you have to do is imagine the map with your mind’s eye and the magic will guide you in the right direction.”
“Good thing you know so much about magic, Phi,” murmured Ayre gratefully before pressing his forehead against his folded arms and closing his eyes. Ayzu wasn’t a magic disciple and, strictly speaking, wasn’t supposed to know so much about magic, but his curiosity broke through every barrier put in place by previous generations of dragons.
The first touch of the brush against his naturally hot skin felt pleasantly cool. It reminded Ayre of water. He suppressed a shiver of pleasure and concentrated on his breathing, keeping it slow and even, so as not to disturb his brother’s hard work. He relished every brush stroke against his back, imagining his skin absorbing the ink in the same way that he soaked in his brother’s care, locking this moment inside his memories to relive it once he was far away from home.
“You don’t have to make it invisible – if you don’t want to. For an outsider it will look like an intricate tattoo,” explained Ayzu as he confidently painted different lines and curves on Ayre’s broad bronze back. “No one will be able to read the map unless you allow them to see it for what it is. I would not advise you to do so. We don’t want to attract any attention to our realm.”
Ayre fluttered his eyes open. He hadn’t even noticed when he had started nodding off. “I keep telling you,” he said with a yawn, “that I’m not going to walk around with my back naked.”
“We don’t know what humans wear these days,” pointed out Ayzu. “You might not have a choice.”
Ayre thought about it.
“Are they very different from us?” he asked after a short pause; he had been wondering about it for some time now.
“In the past, when we took on our human form, it was impossible to tell us apart,” answered Ayzu. “So unless they have developed some extraordinary appendages or abilities, they should have retained that similarity. I imagine you won’t have any trouble blending in. However,” he warned, “I would advise you to study their appearance and behaviour from afar – make necessary changes to your own looks and clothes – before approaching them. Also, think about what you will tell them if they ask you about where you came from or about your family.”
Ayre’s eyes widened. “I didn’t think of that.”
“You will have plenty of time during your flight to figure it out,” said Ayzu encouragingly.
Ayre sighed but nodded.
He comforted himself with the thought that pretending to be a human surely couldn’t be harder than becoming a dragon warrior.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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