Chapter 19
Marco woke up from some much needed sleep. That travel through the forest had taken out a lot of his energy yesterday. He looked out at the mountain range to which he was travelling. To someone who hadn't seen them before, the mountains of Rakulia would be a stunning spectacle. The black titans loomed over the horizon menacingly with a black so deep it seems one could get lost staring at it for too long. But at the same time it shimmered brightly and cast off a spectrum of light like a prism. This eerie combination gave the rock the appropriate name "grackle stone". However Marco had seen the mountains before, so it was just a trip down the shiny, black pavement of memory lane.
If not for what happened yesterday, he would be much more hesitant to walk towards those mountains from his past. But after encountering the spectral horrors of those trees, he considered every step towards the mountains to be putting more distance between him and that terrible forest. And that was something he was very eager to do.
In a few hours, he was treading up the dusty grackle stone of the the mountains. He looked up to see the the dottings of caverns high in one of the mountains. These mountains were much larger up close. Everything was taller than him ever since he left on this journey. That was unpleasant enough until he realized he’d be running into more dragons. Luckily there didn’t seem to be any black dragons around to see him. He could certain make them out in the distant skies further along the mountain range. This didn’t make him any calmer. He still expected to see dragons waiting for him in every crevice along the path up the mountain.
Minutes of climbing brought him to a trail he recognized very well. It was the trail he had travelled on every day coming out of the cave when he was just a hatchling. It was also the path he took when he escaped from his father. Everything came into a new focus now. Every one of his senses turned into sensations that he had experienced together many times before. He was no longer on a path to some far off destination. He was on a path leading to his long lost home.
The bittersweet pain of nostalgia was curbed only by the knowledge that he ran away from this place for a very good reason. That reason might be waiting from him in the cave up ahead. He was just here for some moss. It would be best to just get that moss and leave as soon as possible. The stuff was supposed to grow in caves, and the closest one was his own. Each cave had about the same possibility of holding a territorial dragon with a quick temper, so he might as well choose the closest one. He approached his old cave cautiously, but he couldn’t help himself pausing to gaze at familiar rock patterns he thought he would never see again. At the mouth of the cave he stopped, but for a much different reason. He could smell another dragon in there. The sound of slow breathing and the sight of a dark lump in against a far wall confirmed this.
What would he do? That might be his horrible father. And the last thing Marco wanted was to see if he still wanted to eat him. His eyes adjusted to the darkness letting him see large splotches of fuzz on the wall. That must be the moss Rinaldo needed. The breathing was too loud to be simply ignore the fact that a dragon was sleeping in this cave. Perhaps Marco could move quietly and quickly enough to get the moss without waking him. Every moment he stayed here was a risk anyways. At any time another dragon might be coming to the cave and see him standing there. While it was scary, doing nothing was the riskiest option.
He stepped into the cave slowly so his claws didn’t clack against the stone floor. Inside the cave the dragon’s scent was much stronger. He took careful long steps now. He recalled that he and indeed all the other dragons could identify one another by smell. He hadn’t done that for a while. Rinaldo usually smelled like a bad salad that had been burned in a fire. Who was that sleeping in the cave though? It seem to be his father, but he knew this one, but the revelation was just barely out of reach.
“Fai?” uttered a deep but soft voice
No, it wasn’t Fai. Although that name did sound familiar for some reason. What was it?… Wait. Did he just hear someone? He turned his head back. Not only was the other black dragon awake, but it was now looking at him. Their eyes flickered with soft emerald glow just like his. Their expression alone told him their scent recollection abilities were far greater than his.
“Is that you, Fia?” it said taking a step towards him.
“Uh…” He must have made lousy first impressions. His brain was preoccupied with recollection, that he forgot to be polite or even use words.
The light shining into the cave illuminated their face as they stepped into it. In that moment, realization struck him. “A mother never forgets her hatchlings.”, she said as if she was narrating the realization of his.
“Mother? Is it really?” How could he have forgotten that smell and that name. He had experienced it every day as a hatchling. He saw a flashback of him looking out of the cave as a hatchling. He only saw the horizon from inside. What else was out there? Walking was still new to him, so he hobbled through the cave swiveling the next leg around and letting it smack on the ground at every step as if his feet were grappling hooks pulling him along. Just outside the cave he found new rocks and bugs to stare at. But then he would hear that voice. “Fai, come along inside. It’s time to eat.” Each day after chasing bugs or sweeping stones into piles she was always there waiting for him. “Fai.” The name was always spoken in a such a voice that no matter what the message, always said “I love you” as an unspoken sentiment laced into the very tones of the words.
Stepping towards him, she responded, “It is me.” She stood face to face with him, looking at him closely to see him in the same way one would smell a flower. not just for the smell, but to relish the pure existence of it. He knew that face of hers. It was the one he would always look up to, and would tell him everything would be fine. When his siblings grew bigger than him, they gave themselves tough names. But they all called him “Runtwing.” He had no chance in their mock fights or races. They all knew he was by far the weakest. If he ever was part of their playtime, he felt more like the toy than a participant. One time his siblings took turns to see how long they could hold him down, but soon found more enjoyment simply pushing him down since he never could get up with anyone on top of him. He ran back to mother and she was able to make him feel better. His siblings would laugh when he ran away crying, but when he returned to mother, all was well. She would curl around him, and it felt like all cruelty and injustice in the world disappeared. The only thing he had to know was that she loved him, and nothing bad was going to happen.
She rubbed her neck against his. “My precious Fai, it’s been ages since I’ve last seen you.”
Marco couldn’t help but shed a couple of tears. “I know. It’s been so long for me too... I missed you.” During all this time, he hadn’t thought about her much, but somewhere part of him had missed her dearly. It was only now that he realized it. "And humans call me Marco now."
"You've met with humans? Tell me all about it."
He gave her a brief explanation of his life with Rinaldo. He left out the part about Lilia.
"So you're just here to get this moss for your friend?" She asked as he was collecting the moss.
He bit off a big clump of the stuff and spit it out into the pouch around his neck. The stuff tasted awful, and he couldn't help but make a disgusted face. "Bleh… yeah, that's all I needed. But I'd love to stay a bit longer to talk with you."
"I'd love that too. But your father might be back. And there's no telling what he would do to you if he found you back here."
"I forgot about that monster." he said grimacing at the bitter memories leading up to him running away from home.
"Please don't call him that." she said with a tone of annoyance rather than her usual warmth.
Marco was taken aback, "I didn't mean to upset you. But why shouldn't I call him that?"
"He doesn't deserve that"
"My father? He was a despicable person."
"No, he wasn't."
"Of course he was. He was going to kill me. I still have nightmares about him sometimes."
"I mean he wasn't always like that."
"I can't imagine he was much better."
"I chose to be his life mate. I never would have chosen him if he was half as cruel as he is now. He was a wonderful person. He was caring and patient. In fact... you remind me of how he was."
"He was like me?"
"From what I've gathered, you are very similar to him when we first met. We loved each other. I used to say that he was the best thing that ever happened to me, but something happened."
"What happened?"
"I don't know exactly. But it's something he owns. Some curse lives in the trinkets he found. But that's not impor-"
Their conversation was cut short by the sound of footsteps outside.
"On no. He's here. You better leave."
"I don't want to leave you here with him."
"I'll be fine. It's you he'll hurt."
The footsteps approached, and a much larger dragon stepped inside the dim cave. His green eyes glimmered as he turned to face Marco. "What have we here?"
Several tough phrases rushed through Marco's head. "It's nice to see you too, Dad", "Your memory must be worse than your breath.", "I'm not so little anymore.", and so on. But he was too scared to say any of them, leaving only an awkward silence to respond. He was certainly bigger now, but his father was still much larger.
"Oh I remember now. I'm surprised you had the guts to come back here. I was looking forward to snapping your neck years ago. Looks like I've got another chance."
That didn't sound good. Setting aside the past wouldn't help now. He hesitated for a moment. There's no way he could win a fight against his father. He bolted out of the cave. It wasn't clear if his dad was chasing him, but looking back to check wasn't worth the risk. He ran off as fast as he could. He took the coward's way out, but he got what he came for.
