Tales from the Tavern...

The moon shone through the window and glinted off the cold steel of the sword and shield on the wall. The bright family crest, emblazoned across its surface, depicted a knight slaying a mighty dragon, and the beast’s eye was staring at him. Even in the darkness of the room, his long white hair seemed to glow in the moonlight as he held his hands folded under his nose. He and the dragon in the crest seemed to stare at each other and the silence echoed around the room, until there was a sharp knock on the door.

            “Come in.” he muttered. The door creaked open and a man in a lab coat poked his head inside.

            “Sir, We’ve lost the signal on two subjects.” He said.

            “What do you mean?”

            “It’s the newest one we introduced into the wild of the island, and one water type.” He said, “We’ve never had trouble with that one before.”

            “Well, what do you think could be the problem?” The man in white asked.

            “Sir, we were hoping you would know.” He said, staring at the floor, “No one has a clue.”

            “This is why I employ you people. This is your job, not mine.”

            “Sir, wouldn’t it be more productive and cost effective if we use methods already known instead of creating them from scratch?” he asked, inching towards the door.

            “So you’re saying it would be better for the company if I tell you why this is happening, rather than you figuring it out by yourselves?” he asked, standing up. The lab technician took another step towards the door.

            “Yes sir.”

            “But isn’t it also true that you learn more when you do it yourself and make your own mistakes? Isn’t learning from your mistakes a part of being human?”

            “Y-Yes sir. But….” He stammered.

            “Don’t bother me with things like this. Unless you want to be on the next ship to New York.”

            “I understand, sir. I like working here!” he exclaimed.

            “Then work. Do your job and you get paid. Don’t come to me wanting me to do it for you.” He said, and then took a seat once more.

            “I’m sorry to have bothered you, sir.”

            Ryu woke with a start the next morning. The fire had gone out and was smoldering at his feet. Nydra was still asleep at his side, and her blue hair draped over his shoulder. The dream still lingered in his mind. He could remember the battered girl staggering out of the smoke into the river, pleading for help. Back then he was different. Back then he didn’t care about humans. He usually kept to his own kind, only going near humans when he had to, but she was different. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was helpless and vulnerable, or because she smelled of blood, but the dream was a memory, and nothing could be done about it now. The choice he made then could not be changed, and he wasn’t even sure if it should be.

            The blue hair on his shoulder began to move as she stirred and looked up into his eyes, blinking from the bright light.

            “Good morning.” She mumbled, “Sleep well?”

            “Just fine.” He said.

            “I hope I didn’t cause any trouble last night.” She said, “If you know what I mean.”

            “It’s fine.” He muttered, “We should get going.”

            “Do you want breakfast?” she asked, “I can get it if you want.”

            “I don’t have the strength to move, let alone eat.” He muttered, “You go eat something and just come back for me later.” He saw her say something he assumed was her saying no, but he didn’t hear her. He was staring at a rock by his feet, and he suddenly felt as if he weighed a thousand of them. The world began to spin as he fell forward and slumped in Nydra’s arms.

            The next time he woke up he was again moving, as trees whipped by his face. He found himself on Nydra’s back once more as she trudged through the bushes.

            “Where are we?” he muttered. She suddenly stopped and craned her neck around.

            “You’re awake! You scared me Ryu! Are you okay?”

            “Where are we?” he repeated.

            “We’re almost there.” She said, “Can you make it?”

            “Oh yeah. I’ll be fine.” He muttered, “Where are we again?”

            “Just hang on!” she began to run through the trees where she broke out onto another clearing and spread her wings, taking off and holding a very low glide that barely hovered over the ground. At the end of the clearing she stopped, lifted him off her back and tried to crouch behind the bushes. From his position on the ground, he could see the tall metal fence a few yards away.

            “There are no guards.” Ryu said.

            “Of course not! What good would guards do against a dragon or two?” she asked, “The fence is electrified, and heated enough to burn any electrical types that the charge wont affect.”

            “But what would it do to a fire dragon?” he asked.

            “Well it wouldn’t burn you but it would give you a nasty shock. Might kill you in the process.” She said, “Don’t even think about it.”

            “My sister is an electric type and I’m pretty much fireproof so I think I can manage.”

            “Ryu don’t!” she pleaded, “You’re weak as it is! You wouldn’t survive!”

            “I have something to live for. I won’t die!” he said as he stood. Before she could say or do anything, Ryu bolted from the bushes and headed for the fence.

            His back was turned from the screen for a second as he poured another cup of coffee. He took a seat in front of the security monitor and eyed them over as he took a sip of coffee. A bright red flash on one screen caught his attention and he almost dropped his coffee.

            “Hey, Jim!” he shouted, “Is that a kid?” His coworker leaned over to eye his monitor.

            “What the hell?” he gasped, “It is! What the hell is a kid doing out there? He could get killed!”

            “What is he doing anyway?” the guard asked, “It looks like he’s trying to…”

            “He wouldn’t” Jim gasped as he watched the kid approach the fence. The red haired kid raised his arm and reached for the bare wire mesh and the guards’ hearts went to their throats. Suddenly there was a bright flash, and the camera died, leaving the console displaying a power failure in that sector of the compound.

            “He didn’t just do what I think he did, did he?” the guard asked. Jim hung his head.

            “I think that a kid just fried himself on the wrong side of our fence.” Jim said,

“But what I think doesn’t matter. I also think the coffee here has us seeing things.”

            “But it was caught on tape man!” the guard exclaimed, “We can replay it right now!”

            “No we can’t.” he said, “Footage from the cameras are saved in temporary storage until it’s full then dumps it to the servers. It’s set up that way to conserve network bandwidth. That means all that footage didn’t get recorded.”

            “Well how long does it usually take for the temporary storage to get full?”

            “It usually dumps every half hour on the hour and half past.” He said, “And right now, it’s ten after seven in the morning. In other words it’s gone.”

            “So what do we do?” the guard asked nervously.

            “If it really did happen, the body would have been burnt to a pile of ashes from a blast like that so there would be nothing left. I say we forget we even saw anything and say a deer ran into the fence to cause the blackout.”

            “You better be right about this…”

            The roar of the engines and the churning water below drowned out most of their conversation, but it was preferred so that they couldn’t be overheard. The tree leaned against the railing as the ship left port and workers milled about, doing their business, not looking twice at them.

            “This is too easy.” Sparcy said, “I can’t believe they just let us on the ship!”

            “They all think we’re employees, Sparcy.” Jessica said, “To them, we’re three guys in the same uniform.”

            “You’re making them all think that?” Crystal asked, “There are a lot of people here, Jessica. How are you managing that many?”

            “I’m just doing it for a certain distance around us.” She said, “I can manage.” They heard footsteps behind them and turned away from peering over the edge of the ship. Two men ran up to them, trying to catch their breath.

            “Have you guys seen three women around here?” one asked, “They look like stowaways.”

            “We haven’t seen anyone.” Jessica said.

            “Are you sure? We were sure we saw them right here from the bridge!” the other said, then turned to his friend, “Maybe the binoculars are broken.” Suddenly his radio came to life.

            “What are you doing? Catch them already!” came a broken voice. The man keyed the mike.

            “Captain, they’re not here.”

            “They are standing right in front of you, crewman!” he yelled.

            “No sir, there’s just three other crewmen here and they haven’t seen them.”

            “You mean to tell me there’s not three women standing in front of you, wearing black suits and leaning against the rail? Are you blind man?!”

            “Sir, they’re wearing yellow uniforms just like us.” He answered, and then clipped the radio to his belt, “If you see them let us know.”

            “Will, do.” Crystal said. The two men left and the three girls began to laugh.

            She stared, eyes wide and unable to move. From her position behind the tall bushes, she saw the bright flash, and was now staring at him lying on the ground as the smoke rose from his body. Breaking out of her trance she did the first thing she thought of and grabbed him by the cloak, dragging him back into the bushes.

            “Ryu! Are you alright?! Speak to me!” she cried, nudging him with her nose. She breathed a sigh of relief when he coughed and winced in pain. “You’re alive!”

            “What happened?” he moaned.

            “You touched the fence and the lights went out.” She said, “You scared the daylights out of me! I was so worried!”

            “Wait the lights are out?” he asked, trying to sit up. He didn’t even care that he was still smoldering as the smoke drifted up from his cloak, “That means the fence is off. We can get in now!”

            Ryu stepped out of the bushes and looked both ways, hoping it was too soon for people to come around, checking on the power outage. He approached the fence once more and quickly grabbed it, taking a deep breath when nothing happened. He waved his friend over, expecting the bushes to part and a huge dragon to lumber out, but instead, there was a slight rustle and she gingerly walked out in her human form, keeping close to him as she walked. There was a sudden flash of fire in front of him, just as in the alleyway when he was getting mugged, and the fence peeled back, allowing them to slip inside.

            The place looked too advanced to be of this time. What Ryu was used to, this place had to be years ahead of it’s time, and everything looked too sterile. To make matters worse, mostly everything was metal.

            “You know I can make it on my own from here.” Ryu said. She giggled.

            “I doubt it.” She said, “If I had left you alone you would have tried to fly over the fence instead of going through it, right?” He hadn’t thought about that before. He was so used to his human form he was beginning to think like one and flying slipped his mind.

            “So why didn’t we?” he asked. She simply pointed upwards where he saw a grid of highly electrified wires that formed a mesh dome over the whole complex. Something you couldn’t see from outside, unless you were flying directly overhead.

            “Those wires are electrified and heated much more heavily than the fences.” She said, “They think the fence doesn’t have to be as strong as the mesh, because its solid metal, and they think dragons are stupid. They figure that if one gets a nasty shock or burn, they’ll run away like a scared animal.”

            “I see” he muttered, “But from here on in, it will be dangerous. If you get hurt, your family will be worried.” She stared at the ground.

            “Actually, that was a lie.” She said, “I have no family.”

            “What?” he gasped, “What about the other dragons in that cave?”

            “You didn’t actually meet them, Ryu.” She said, “You stayed out near the mouth of the cave. They’re more like my captors.”

            “What do you mean? You’re not captured right now.”

            “This is a fairly small island, Ryu. It wouldn’t take much for them to find me if I did want to run away. They’re a pack of hunters. Sometimes they make me run just so they can catch me again.”

            “What are you saying?” he asked, “You mean they use you for their games?”

            “Yes, I didn’t want to get you involved, because they’re all fully grown and can easily overpower us.”

            “They didn’t look fully grown.” He said.

            “They use their magic to reduce their size, but when they hunt they’re monsters.” She quietly said. Ryu noticed tears rolling down their cheeks.

            “You really are alone here, aren’t you?” he said. She quietly nodded.

            “I just can’t take it anymore.” She muttered.

            “Then come with me.” He said, “Come back to Canada.”

            “What? I can’t! They’ll follow me!” she cried.

            “How can they? They can’t get off this island as dragons any more than we can.” He said, placing a hand on her human shoulder, “Wouldn’t it be nice to make friends?”

            “You would do that for me?” she asked, her eyes swelled with tears, “You’ve only met me a couple of days ago!”

            “Hey, you carried me across this island. It’s the least I can do.” He said, “My sisters are nice people.”

            “I don’t know what to say.” She whimpered, “Thank you.” Ryu stood up and peered around the corner of the building they were pressed against, and took her hand.

            “Let’s go.” He said. As he pulled her around the corner, they heard a deafening roar echo from across the complex.

            The empty corridor echoed with his footsteps as he quietly walked, and the tapping of his cane sent sharp snaps down the hall. He stopped in front of a door which automatically slid open, and he stepped inside. The door quickly closed behind him, narrowly missing his white hair behind him.

            He had stepped into a laboratory, with an overall round shape, and in the center a large dome covered an area around twenty feet wide and twenty feet high. Around it, computers buzzed with activity, crunching numbers and running more scans as technicians and scientist milled about, doing their work. He took another step forward and cleared his throat rather loudly so that someone would notice he was standing there.

            “Can I help you sir?” a nearby scientist asked, stepping forward. He lifted his cane under his arm and gestured towards the dome.

            “Is there anything wrong with the subject?” he asked.

            “No sir, not really.” He said, “Why do you ask?”

            “Did you not just hear the roar?”

            “Yes sir!”

            “And why would it do that if there was nothing wrong?” he asked, “Shouldn’t it be sedated?”

            “Yes sir, but we had to run some tests and we had to wake it for a moment.” The scientist became nervous.

            “What kind of test was that?” he asked. The eyes of the dragon’s head on his cane glinted in the light of the lab.

            “A response test.” He said, “We had to make sure it was still alive. It has been asleep for a long time.”

            “Isn’t that what all this equipment is for?” he asked, gesturing around the room.

            “Yes sir. But we started getting odd readings on it today and we had to be sure.”

            “I see.” He muttered, glancing at the dome, “This is a rare specimen, make sure you don’t lose it. It’s not everyday you can capture a grey dragon.”