2. Chapter Two
The name Dragonrider was old, and though the last of the dragons had disappeared more than a hundred years before, Linorra could feel in her very soul that she was meant to have one. She dreamed about finding new lands where dragons still ruled the skies, and she searched for evidence that they still existed somewhere hidden and unknown. One day, she found it.
I was in the hospital for about a week, which was great because if I had stayed any longer, the food would’ve killed me. The doctors and nurses all said that I was lucky to be alive given how I’d arrived. They were surprised at how quickly I recovered, but I’ve always been a crazy-fast healer. My collapsed lung reinflated, and they took that horrible chest tube out. My right wrist was broken, but it didn’t need surgery, just a hard plastic splint.
My mother offered to pay for the search party by cooking for everyone, which anyone within fifty miles would tell you was a great deal. I had spent the last few days calling everyone I knew to come help.
I called my best friend, Marti Jermez, who enlisted her husband, Milo, and he brought his twin brothers, who I’d never met. I also asked another friend, Spirit, a new age hippie who believed in healing crystals. She was kind of an oddball but was also one of those people you could always count on for steadfast moral support.
I purposely did not call Drew. I wasn’t mad. I swear. I just wasn’t in the mood for drama. Marti called her, though. Did I mention Marti was a sneaky bitch? That girl always found a way to get what she wanted. At five-two, she was like a teacup wolverine with bright red claws and lipstick to match. She wasn’t great with moral support, but she was incredible when you needed someone on your team to keep the others in line.
We all met at the stables, which was about a forty-five-minute drive from Eureka, California. It was Fourth of July weekend, so we turned the hunt into an occasion. Though it wasn’t terribly hot, we couldn’t do any kind of fireworks due to a fire ban. So, we all just wore red, white, and blue and let Ray Charles and Lee Greenwood do the rest.
I chose to wear my favorite running pants, which were a light iridescent blue, and a crimson tank top with a denim button-down over top for a cool walk through the woods. To complete the ensemble, I wore my running shoes, white Giants hat, and pink smartwatch.
Since we were in the middle of the foggy season, we decided to wait for some of the fog to burn off. In that part of the state, a dense fog took over the forest in the early afternoon and usually burned off by the middle of the next morning. It made for a beautiful, eerie walk in the woods, but it wasn”t exactly optimal for finding a lost dog.
At about noon, after some sausage-stuffed mushrooms and toasted ravioli, my parents saddled the horses and took off to ride the trails. I was too broken to ride Fantasma, my own dapple-gray Andalusian, not to mention traumatized by my accident, so I planned to hike on foot with my friends.
My hiking pack, a blue REI co-op, had been my de facto purse since I’d been working at the stables, so I had a lot of random junk in it. The bag was stuffed and disorganized as always, but I wasn’t in the mood to sift. I added water, bear spray, a remote GPS, and a few other things. Marti insisted that I bring a collar and leash, though I hadn’t needed it for Rogue in ages. But as Milo always used to say, when Marti insists, you can’t resist.
We set out on our hike, scanning the forest for evidence of my Rogue, alive or otherwise.
In the redwoods, the forest floor was a thick tangle of ferns and other brush, so you couldn’t just walk through it. We stuck to a smaller footpath through the property that was probably an animal trail at one point. It was the trail that Rogue and I always took when going out for a walk. Drew stayed close to me.
“I heard you have paintings displayed in a few galleries,” I said.
Drew beamed, her enormous brown eyes alight with pride. She had always been cute, but she had a new quiet confidence. She tucked a lock of curly brown hair behind her ear and caught my eye, trying to hold it.
“Yes, it’s very exciting,” she said. “I have one painting in LA, two in San Francisco, and one up in Seattle. All oil on canvas. Nothing fantastically inventive like some of my classmates, but people seem to like my work. I hope so. I have pretty intense loans to pay off. I’ve applied to be an art teacher at a couple different high schools.”
“Local?” I asked.
“One is,” she said, glancing down, then back up at me. I nodded noncommittally.
The dark side of my personality—the one I had long ago nicknamed Evil Lina, or Evilina—saw right through Drew’s innocent act. She’s fishing. She wants you to say that you hope she’ll take that one. It’s kind of pathetic.
“Well, I’m very happy for you,” I lied. “I’m glad you’re doing well.”
“Thanks,” Drew said. “So, you’re working at your parents’ stables?”
“Yeah, for the last three years. I’m basically their office bitch.”
“Oh, so they hired Evilina?” Drew suggested.
I laughed. “They sure did. Anyway, I arrange the group rides and guest room scheduling, and I do the advertising and books. I might start doing it for a few other places too. I’m good at that kind of thing, taking details and organizing them. I was getting ready to take some pictures for our website when I had my . . . ya know.” I waved my splint at her.
“Hey, can I sign that?” she asked, pointing to the splint.
“Not unless you’ve got that label maker on you.” It was an old inside joke, and Drew laughed. She had a nice laugh, soft and genuine. It made my heart do little somersaults, which led to a strange pain in my chest. I stopped walking, holding my chest with my uninjured hand.
“Are you okay?” Drew came up close and placed her hand on my back. I could smell her lavender shampoo. It was all familiar and effortless, yet the sensation of her touch made my fists clench involuntarily. It would have been very easy to slip back into a relationship with her, especially since it had been a year since I had even kissed anyone, but the memory of the night we broke up stuck in my mind like those spiky hitchhiker seeds that get stuck on your clothes. I became acutely aware that the tightness in my throat was back, and I swallowed it aggressively.
“I’m fine,” I said, “just a little sore. I should probably concentrate on our search.”
“Sure,” she said, stepping back. A frown crept onto her face, but I couldn’t deal with that right now. I had goals, and I didn’t want to get sidetracked. I needed to find Rogue.
We walked for several hours, chatting idly. Marti left me alone with Drew, walking with Milo at a comfortable distance, not even trying to hide her smug expression. Freaking Marti, I swear. I would get her for this.
The Jermez twins flanked Spirit, saying anything to make her laugh. They were quietly competing for Spirit’s attention, and she gave it to them, though I doubted she could tell the difference between the two. Aside from the fact that one had long black hair and the other short, they were otherwise indistinguishable.
Spirit didn’t seem to mind, though. She flashed a bright white smile at the short-haired twin and giggled, toying idly with a lock of her white-blond hair. I wondered if that would later turn into something weird and wonderful. If it did, I wanted to be a part of it. Chuckling at them under my breath made my ribs hurt, and I grabbed my side, groaning. Everyone stopped to stare at me.
“I’m fine,” I said in my most exasperated voice, then I took a calming breath. Inhale. Exhale.
I loved the subtle aroma of the redwoods. It had a faint woodiness, but also a hint of something sweet and spicy, mixed with damp earth. To me, it smelled like freedom, a feeling echoed in the birdsong that rushed out in a chorus so high above your head that you couldn”t tell exactly where it was coming from.
Rogue and I used to go in there sometimes, find a little clearing, and lie down on the mattress of needles, gazing jealously up at that distant reality at the top of the trees. Their otherworldly height makes the forest feel spacious in some ways, and yet the canopy might be so thick that both light and sound struggle to penetrate all the way down, making you feel like you’re tucked into a cozy, echoey cavern.
That was my place with Rogue. To be there without him felt two-dimensional, like I was looking at a photo of the forest rather than seeing, feeling, and smelling its true depth. It was a beautiful walk, but hollow.
We gained elevation, sometimes hopping over small streams or winding around the steep side of a hill. At about three o’clock, Marti shouted, “Hey, what’s that?” She pointed to a clump of something rank and gooey in front of an otherwise lovely patch of white coral bells.
As I approached, Marti stepped into my path. “Let Milo go first. It will make him feel useful.” Marti was about four inches shorter than me, but that fact made no difference when I needed to get my own way. There was no getting past Marti when she made up her mind about something.
“No!” Milo said, gagging. “That’s Thomas the Tank Engine you’re thinking of. I don’t give a shit about being useful. And I can smell it from here.” He coughed and covered his nose with his sleeve. So much for love conquers all.
“Milo!” Marti shouted, using her mom voice. Marti didn’t have any kids that I was aware of, yet she had a solid mom voice that made you want to immediately apologize for whatever it was you had done. We called it her “mommytone” voice. Ya know, instead of monotone? She liked to use it whenever I made stupid dad jokes, which I admit is one of my favorite things.
“I’ll do it,” Spirit said, rolling her eyes.
Marti pressed her bright red lips together in a tight line. She flicked her black hair over her shoulder and shifted from foot to foot, cracking every knuckle in her right hand. I lifted my palms in acquiescence.
Spirit heroically advanced on the pile of goo. She found a stick and poked it. “I don’t think this is a dog. And even if it is, the rib cage is pretty small. Rogue is a big boy.”
I liked how Spirit used the present tense. Rogue is. Damn right. I unclenched my jaw.
Marti let me pass, and I walked over to see for myself. “Not a dog,” I said. “Probably a fawn.”
The image of a white wolf forced its way into my thoughts. It had been huge, much bigger than I ever imagined a wolf would be. What the hell was a white wolf doing in this grove anyway? The redwoods weren’t even wolf country, let alone home to a giant white one. Black bears, yes. And coyotes. Not wolves.
“Let’s turn back,” I said. “The fog is rolling in again, and I don’t think he would have run this far anyway.” Nobody in the group moved or said anything for a minute. It was like a little impromptu moment of silence.
No. Rogue isn’t gone. He’s out here somewhere.I felt my chest tightening beneath the weight of that silence, and I had to close my eyes and focus on my breath.
I lifted my hand to my heart, a habit I’d acquired as a child. Sometimes I would imagine a friend laying a hand over mine as I stood there. For a long time, imaginary friends were all I had, but I often thought I could actually feel a hand there. I felt that now, and when I opened my eyes, I expected to see Drew’s hand over mine.
It wasn’t.
“Come on,” Drew said, taking my other hand. “Maybe your parents found him.”
“Maybe your mom is cooking those spicy chuck burgers,” said Milo. “That’ll make him come running. Let’s go find out!” He set off, power walking back the way we came. Marti eyed me, then followed behind.
Spirit turned to me. “Lina, I know you don’t believe in the same things I do, but I know Rogue is alive. It might sound bizarre, but I bonded with him, too, the night you and I met.” Behind her, the twins gave each other a look. “I would definitely know if he were gone forever. You will see him again. I have a strong feeling about it.” She smiled brilliantly at me, shot Drew what appeared to be a genuine smile, but which I knew to be annoyance masked by polite civility, and turned to go.
The long-haired twin leaned to put his arm around her, saying, “You’re such a good friend.” The other twin pinched the back of his arm and he hopped away, chuckling.
Okay, confession time. I couldn’t actually remember the twins’ names. I forgot their names one second after Milo told me because I was so distracted by trying to detect a difference between them. They weren’t exactly the same, but other than the length of their hair, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what the difference between them was. I could’ve asked Marti their names, but she would’ve laughed in my face and announced my faux pas to everyone. I kept hoping someone would mention them casually in conversation so that I could pretend I hadn’t forgotten. Sadly, that’s not uncommon for me.
Drew still had my hand and pulled me gently in the right direction. I followed, but I glanced back down at the unfortunate fawn one more time, shivering. The fog actively rolled in around us. It would soon be too thick to see beyond the trail.
I turned to follow my friends back toward home but jumped when something behind me cracked loudly. I spun, eyes searching left and right. My chest ached again from my pounding heart. I just knew that the big bad wolf was about to leap out of the fog and get me. I backed away from where the sound had emanated and almost ran over Drew.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I . . . nothing.” I gave a nervous little laugh. “I’m just paranoid. I thought I heard something. Let’s catch up to the others.”
We’d only taken one step down the trail when I heard a woman’s laugh, soft and incorporeal. I spun back around, my heart racing.
I’ve never really believed in ghosts or the afterlife. Technically, I’m agnostic, but the way I see it, if all those people who believed in the gods of Olympus were wrong, then why are we so sure that all other religions aren’t just as wrong? It’s all just mythology to me, but when I heard that woman’s laughter, I thought for sure that I had made a grave error in judgment.
I backed away again, my adrenaline surging. It could have been an echo from one of my friends, but I didn’t think so.
“Drew, do you hear that?” I whispered.
“Yeah, it sounds like a ghost laughing,” she replied, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. Drew was even more of a skeptic than I was, but this was undeniable. The laughing got louder. We looked at each other, eyes wide, then turned and ran.
Sticks and leaves crunched under our feet as we ran down the narrow trail. Small animals skittered out from under bushes and bolted up trees.
We caught up with Milo, then snaked around him and kept on running. I turned back every few minutes to glance behind me, but there was nothing there except my friends, for whom, I’m embarrassed to say, I had no intention of waiting.
When the rest of the group saw us running, they turned back to see what we ran from, but I knew there was nothing visible from the trail. They yelled questions after us that I couldn’t make out. I just screamed over my shoulder, “Ghost!”