The Dragon' Son (21 page)

Keegan looked at the bundle of food in his hand, and then he turned and began to pack it onto Ardor. He paused for an instant and studied Saul’s face. Saul stared after Susun as she walked toward the barn, his eyes shining with a soft light but glazed over with a sort of sadness. He sighed and looked down at the ground, letting the blade of grass he held in his fingers fall to the ground. Keegan rolled his eyes and shook his head. He did not understand what Saul was feeling, and he did not care to understand. He turned to look at the field as he finished packing the food on Ardor, and he smiled to see the two sets of twins making their way back to the house.

“Arden is coming,” Saul said, walking over to his horse and flipping the reins over her head, propelling himself up onto her sturdy back.

Keegan looked back at the barn and saw Arden trotting toward them atop a large, brown draft gelding. Susun lingered behind at the barn, watching them from the distance with her arms crossed over, holding herself as she watched. Keegan sighed heavily as he untied Ardor and mounted him. He moved Ardor to the dirt road and paused, looking back toward the direction of the village. He half expected to see a hooded figure of an old man hobbling toward them, but the road was silent and empty. Ardor bounced to the side, his muscles tightening into knots, and he raised his golden head high and proud, bouncing his white mane as Saul went by on the bay mare.

The mare squealed and kicked at Ardor, flicking her tail in an annoyed fashion, walking sideways so that her backend stayed toward Ardor. Ardor bounced off to the side, swishing his tail playfully, then he rushed up to the mare’s face and snorted again, pushing his chest out as he did so and laying his nose over the bay mare’s ears. The mare screamed and nipped annoyingly at Ardor, rearing up on her hind legs.

Both Keegan and Saul had difficulty getting the two horses under control. They nudged them in the sides and pulled on their reins until they were able to pull the two horses away from each other. They then turned them in the right direction and encouraged them to walk on. Saul’s mare insisted on walking sideways, keeping her rear toward Ardor, her ears back, and her tail flicking from side to side.

Arden came between the two of them on his big draft horse. “I say, Keegan’s stallion seems to be stricken by your mare, Saul,” he teased.

The big gelding horse seemed unhappy with the position he was in, being the separating wall between the mare and Ardor, but he did not question Arden’s guidance, and he maintained his heavy pace. Saul’s horse still continued to prance sideways down the road, but she lowered her head and seemed to relax some. She finally did turn straight on the road at Saul’s encouragement, but she kept her ears back, clearly annoyed with the situation. She gave the evil eye to the big draft gelding next to her, then suddenly lunged out at him and bit the big horse on the shoulder with a squeal. The gelding shied away from her and moved closer to Ardor but stayed under control.

“Are you going to have to travel like this the whole way?” Arden asked in a rather annoyed voice.

“The mare will settle down once she has gone a few miles with Ardor,” Keegan said.

Arden glanced at the mare and patted the big gelding. “Well, for your sake, I hope so,” he mumbled.

Soon, they all came to the end of a grove where Arden halted his horse. “I wish I could go further,” he sighed and looked at Keegan.

Keegan smiled kindly and said, “One day, you will go further. In the meantime, be watchful and take care of your younger siblings.” Keegan reached back and pulled the bundle of food from his saddle. “And take this. We don’t need it as much as you, but don’t say anything to Susun about it,” he said as he handed the parcel of meat to Arden.

“Stay out of trouble and keep away from the river,” Saul chuckled.

“Watch for strange creatures,” Keegan stated gravely, recalling the monster that had thrown Susun into the river. “If there is one around, then there are more to follow.”

Arden gave a wry grin. “Don’t worry. That’s why I’m carrying this,” he said as he patted a short sword on his side.

Keegan stared at Arden for a long moment, his eyes lingering on Arden’s strange diamond blue ones. “I will return when I’m able,” he promised then looked away and urged Ardor into an energetic trot with Saul following close behind on his mare.

“And you follow your own advice and stay out of trouble!” Arden yelled after them.

Keegan waved and set off in a gallop with Saul and his horse gradually taking the lead. Arden sighed heavily and turned the gelding back toward home, pausing briefly to watch Keegan and Saul ride away until they topped a hill and were lost from sight. He rubbed the back of his neck as that strange feeling in his head began to buzz, then he blinked his eyes as they went out of focus and began to hurt. Something was wrong, and it had to do with Keegan and Saul’s journey. He just knew it. He felt they were in danger. He wanted to ride after them and tell them so, but what good would that do?

A glimmer of gold in the corner of his eye made his eyes come back into focus. He looked up to see a gold figure, like a hawk, gracefully flying across the horizon in the same direction as Keegan and Saul. Arden smiled softly and clicked to his horse, encouraging it to walk on. Though he still felt danger was at hand, he felt better knowing that a gold dragon, a creature that he had never met, was being watchful of Keegan.

Keegan and Saul plodded along the road as dusk began to settle across the day. It had taken the whole journey thus far for Saul’s mare to finally settle down and just walk without putting up a fight or prancing sideways. She still occasionally pinned her ears back and squealed when Ardor looked back at her, but otherwise, she grudgingly remained quiet. Now the two men were thinking about stopping for the night and resting.

“I think that we should go off-road to sleep,” Keegan stated, looking at the long shadows that the random clumps of trees cast on the ground.

“I agree. It’s far too uncomfortable to sleep near the road,” Saul said, stifling a yawn.

“I am glad that you agree,” Keegan said as he halted Ardor and slipped to the ground, stretching his legs and rolling his shoulders.

Saul pulled his mare up behind Ardor and paused, searching the sparse trees for an acceptable place to stay the night. “See any place that catches your fancy?” he asked.

Just then, the mare stretched her head out and nipped Ardor on the rump. Ardor shrieked and kicked out then spun around and faced the mare, jerking the reins out of Keegan’s hands. He lunged forward and nipped at the mare’s face. The mare screamed, jumped back, and reared. She then spun around and kicked Ardor. The impact made a loud pop, and Ardor groaned.

Saul strived to regain control of his horse, but the bay mare lowered her head and began to buck, kicking her back legs high into the air with snorts of protest, shaking her head in anger. Suddenly, she ran her nose into the ground, stumbled on her front feet, and fell, throwing Saul off her back as down she went. She was up in a moment, though, and unhurt. Ardor came up and struck at her with his front hooves. His teeth were bared, and his ears were flat against his skull. The mare screamed and struck back, pawing at him with her front hooves, then she turned and bolted away with Ardor right on her heels. They both disappeared into the growing darkness with squeals, shrieks, and pounding hooves.

Keegan watched the horses disappear in stunned silence, and then he turned and hurried over to where Saul was lying on the ground. “Saul!” he exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

Saul sat up and gasped. “I am not hurt. It just knocked the wind out of me,” he said hoarsely as Keegan came up, carefully took his arm, and helped him to his feet. “Well, I guess they had to have it out with each other at some point. Better now than later I suppose,” Saul said in a grudging voice as he dusted the dirt and grass from himself.

Keegan let his eyes wonder in the direction that the two horses had run off in. “Don’t worry. Ardor will return once he has had his way with her, and he will bring her back with him,” he said.

Saul huffed, “Right now, I would not care if he pounded her into the ground and left her.” He shook his head and sighed. “Ah, well, we had best find some place to lie down for the night,” he said, wiping blood from his brow.

Keegan paused when he saw the blood. “You’re bleeding,” he said.

Saul looked at the blood on his hand and then looked at Keegan. “I am assuming that it is not life threatening?” he asked blandly.

Keegan shook his head and agreed, “It’s just a scrape at your hairline.”

“Good,” Saul said with a nod. “Nothing that rest won’t fix.”

He and Keegan turned and walked down the road a ways until they found a suitable place in a small cluster of trees. They cleared the ground of sticks and leaves then unbuckled their swords.

“Sorry about all of that,” Saul said as they were lying down.

Keegan chuckled, “Forget it. Like you said, they had to have it out. I’m just glad you didn’t get terribly hurt.”

Saul sighed, “As am I, and I am glad you are not angry about it.”

Keegan shrugged, “Ah, horses will always be horses. I can’t get angry when they act like a horse.”

“Good point,” Saul chuckled this time. “At any rate, I hope we have a better, more restful night than they do. Well then. Goodnight,” he said through a yawn.

“Yes. Rest well,” Keegan sighed and wrapped his arms around his sword, clutching it closely to him and glancing worriedly up at the dark sky where a few stars now shown.

Because of his nightmares, he had grown to dread sleep. The only time he did not seem to suffer them was when Pharrgon was with him, and the last time he had been with the gold dragon, he remembered he had started into a nightmare, which Pharrgon woke him from.

Keegan let his mind wonder to that last dream he had with the dragon. It had started out beautifully, though it was very confusing and conflicting for him.

The Princess had been gorgeous, so surreal, yet completely lifelike at the same time, reminding him of when he first saw her in the forest not long ago. He could never forget her emerald eyes and the way that they stirred some strange emotion deep inside of him. It warmed his whole body and softened his heart, drawing him to her, making him think about her often. They left him feeling weak and vulnerable but longing for more. It washed away his pain and made him long for peace.

He had thought about it often, and he had been unable to decipher what these strange feelings meant or where they came from. They reminded him of a snake hypnotizing a bird, preparing it for death. These foreign feelings only came when he thought about the Princess, and the more he tried to analyze them, the more they befuddled him. They confused him so much that he had actually come to hate them. He aggressively resented their touch, because he knew that they would only wrap him into a fog and confuse his mind. He hated being confused.

He pushed all thought of the Princess harshly from his frustrated mind and closed his eyes. He had already spent several nights pondering these emotions that the Princess incited in him until he was angry and confused enough to tear his own hair out. He grudgingly decided to be rid of the matter once and for all; he would never see this Princess again, so he did not need to constantly dwell on her. Every thought of her put his mind into a whirlwind, and he was tired of it. Surely it was not good for his health, and it was obviously stressing his sanity. He was finished with her and with all of the confusing feelings she brought with her. He would put her to the back of his mind and force himself to forget about her, never thinking about her again, then he could resume his life, and that would be the end of it.