Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
“All right,” Anon said. “I suppose the trick is to get onto the neck near the shoulders. Is that right, Rhaz?”
The humongous dragon nodded and lowered his neck and head.
“Right then.” Anon studied the dragon. “Oh dear. There isn’t a lot to hang on to, is there? I suppose I could hang on to your horns.”
Rhaz nodded again.
“My weight won’t be too much?”
He shook his head.
“I see I’m going to have to stick to yes or no questions. Communication is out once we’re in the air, I suppose?”
Rhaz nodded again.
“Okay then.” Anon rubbed his hands together. “Here we go.”
“Anon,” Caelen chimed, “You sound nervous.”
“I am about to mount a seventy-foot dragon. Wouldn’t you be nervous?” He snapped back.
Caelen shrugged, “Maybe. But maybe I’ve ridden a dragon before.”
Anon sucked in a breath. “What? Why didn’t you say so?”
Caelen laughed. “Because it would be a lie.” He laughed some more and slapped Anon on the back. “Okay, go ahead, get on. I want to see this.”
Anon growled at him, then mounted Rhaz’s neck and grabbed onto two horns protruding from his head. “Can I steer you with these things?”
Rhaz ignored him.
“I’d hang on if you were if I were you,” Caelen warned, backing up. He motioned everyone to do the same.
“I am hanging on. I’m…whoa!”
Rhaz lifted off the ground, and Anon couldn’t help but scream like a schoolgirl. Which soon turned into a laugh of delight as Rhaz rose, higher and higher. He jerked his neck a little bit as Anon dug his knees in to hang on. “I am sorry. Are you ticklish?”
Rhaz managed a nod as they kept climbing.
“I’ll try to remember that,” he called over the rush of wind.
“Woo hoo! Yahoo! Ride ‘em, cowboy!” He let go of one horn long enough to wave. He didn’t know if the others could see him or not, but he did it anyway and laughed some more.
“This is fantastic! No wonder Aaron wanted to go for a ride!” He let out another, “Yahoo!”
Rhaz leveled out for a bit before climbing some more and disappeared into a cloud.
“Oh dear. Ah, I can’t see a thing. Do you fly with radar? What if you run into a Cessna? Oh, you don’t know what that is, do you? It’s a small airplane. Ohhhhh my goodness!”
Rhaz dove, then leveled out again. Anon laughed and then decided he’d better get himself under control and get to work. “All right, Rhaz,” he called against the rush of wind. “Let’s keep an eye out. Do as wide a perimeter as you want, but let’s make sure the area is secure.”
Anon had no idea how fast they were going, but it had to be a good clip. He watched the ground below them, looking for something large. But there was no movement—none, no dark shapes, nothing to indicate a creature moving among the trees.
It would probably move at night to avoid detection and hole up somewhere during the day to hide.
They flew for an hour before returning to Aaron and Betty’s.
The landing was surprisingly smooth. But Anon’s legs were stiff nonetheless when he dismounted.
As soon as he did, Aaron ran up, a huge smile on his face.
“Can I have my turn now?” Rhaz smiled back, exposing gleaming razor-sharp teeth.
Anon nodded. Aaron didn’t wait, he mounted, hung on to the horns, and said, “Whenever you are ready, I am.”
“Wait!” Anon cried. “Now my boy, hang on tight. Don’t be a show-off. Oh, Rhaz, do take care of him.”
Rhaz nodded, snorted out a puff of smoke and took off. Aaron laughed with delight as they rose into the air and headed out over the lake.
“Oh gracious me, he’s going to be all right, isn’t he?” Anon asked with a worried look.
Quill put a hand on his shoulder. “You worry too much. You’ll notice he’s flying over the lake, if Aaron falls off, he’ll land in the water and be fine.”
“If Aaron falls off from that height, it’ll be like hitting concrete,” Anon said.
“The water will catch him; he’ll be fine.” Quill gave him another pat, then watched with the others as Rhaz circled the lake, then took off in another direction. They lost sight of him for a moment, then he reappeared, returned and landed.
“He’s very good,” Quill said.
“At flying?” Caelen laughed. “I should hope so.”
“His precision is excellent,” Quill observed. “I’ll have to speak to him about what kind of training he received.”
“Leave it to the wizard to be curious about the mathematics,” Anon drawled.
“I’m curious,” Quill said. “It fascinates me.”
Aaron hopped off Rhaz’s neck and ran to them, his hands in the air, laughing. “That was wonderful! I want to go again. Longer this time.” He stopped before Anon. “You got to have a long ride,”
“Yes, I did, my boy, but it was necessary. Happy now?”
“Yes!” Thank you! He threw his arms around Anon and gave him a big hug.
“Oh. My boy, it was my pleasure, but I am not the one that gave you the ride. Rhaz did.”
There was a stirring of the air behind them. Rhaz had shifted. Aaron ran to him next and hugged him. “Thank you, thank you, that was wonderful! I want to go again!”
Rhaz laughed, “I will take you again, Great One. But I still have work to do. Anon, do you need to rest more?”
“Let me have a snack, then we’ll take the others home and head out. The perimeter is clear. There’s no sign of anything. No disturbed trees that I could see. What about you, Rhaz?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. No trail, no anything.”
“I don’t think it’s in the area yet, but it will be,” Caelen said. “So the sooner you two get started, the better.”
Anon couldn’t agree more and went to get his thermos out of the van.
“All right,” Anon said. “Here we are.”
“Where is here?” Jackson asked as he looked out the window.
“Here is two hundred miles away from Moon Creek Falls in the direction of the Mt. Hood forest. Jackson, you know what to do.”
Jackson continued to look around. “All right.” He opened the sliding door of the van and hopped out. Quill also exited, followed by Rhaz and Anon.
“Rhaz, let’s find a spot for you to shift, then we’ll take to the air.” Anon closed his door, locked the van, and pocketed the keys. “Quill, you work your magic. Jackson will sniff around, and we’ll see what we come up with. Let’s go.”
Jackson shifted, and Rhaz openly gawked. “He’s huge.”
“Yes, he is,” Anon said. “Magnificent animal, much like you and your dragon. Of course, he’s an Alpha, so he’s going to be larger than your normal werewolf. And he does come from another realm, so he might be bigger than most shifters of his kind. I really don’t know.”
Rhaz nodded and headed into the woods. He’d slept part of the way and gotten some rest while Anon, Quill, and Jackson spoke in low tones. Jackson was reluctant to leave Hana, but Caelen said he’d look after her. He and Dandy were spending the night at the manse.
They hiked into the woods some distance before Anon found a small clearing. “Will this do, Rhaz?” he asked.
“Yes, this will be perfect.”
Jackson caught up to them, sniffing the ground. He looked at Anon and shook his head.
“Oh dear,” Anon said. “Nothing so far. But that’s all right. We’ll just keep trying.”
Rhaz nodded and shifted.
“All right, Quill. You do what you need to do to lay a few snares, as you call them, and we’ll take a look from above and see what we can find.” Anon mounted Rhaz, and they were off.
Rhaz watched for any sign of lights that might be from campfires or homes. But they were in the middle of nowhere, so there should be none. Anon said there weren’t any campgrounds nearby.
He flew high enough not to be noticed by anything on the ground, but low enough that he could still see well. They started with a small circle and then widened it, doing the same pattern in different areas for several hours.
He couldn’t ask Anon if he was growing tired, but at least Anon could tell him when he was, and Rhaz would land.
When they finally came down, Anon dismounted and kicked his legs out to get the circulation going again. “Oh, that was a ride. Unfortunately, a very unfruitful one.”
He looked around the clearing. “How do you find the spot you took off from?”
Rhaz shifted. “Smell.”
“And how is it you keep all your clothes on when you shift back and forth?”
“Dragon magic.” He smiled, patted Anon on the shoulder, and headed in the direction of the van.
Anon trotted after him. “Do you think the others are back?”
“I have no idea.”
Both stopped and sniffed the air. “Oh yes, they are,” Rhaz said. “They must be waiting for us at the van. Let’s go.”
Anon trotted into the woods, and Rhaz followed. Had the thing changed course? Was it still heading for Moon Creek Falls?
They’d have to speak to Emory and see if he had anything new to report. It had been several days so far, and maybe something new had come up.
When they reached the van, Quill and Jackson, who were leaning against it, stepped toward them.
“Anything?” Jackson asked.
“Not a thing,” Anon said, his voice laced with disappointment. “We’ll have to drive farther, I’m afraid, and see if anything comes up. Jackson, are you up for it? Quill?”
“I’m good,” Jackson said.
“I can keep going,” Quill added.
“Fine then. Everyone into the van. Let’s go farther north and see what we come up with.” They climbed in and set off.
Anon drove a couple more hours before he stopped again, and they repeated the process until daylight. Then they loaded up and headed home.
It was a Sunday, Jackson called it, and both he and Caelen had to work on Monday. So did Anon. So, as soon as they returned to the manse, everyone went to bed.
When Rhaz awoke later that afternoon, Basil was in a mood. “Where have you been, my prince? You were gone all night with that bloodsucker. At least the wolf and the wizard went with you to make sure he behaved.”
Rhaz sat at the kitchen table. “Coffee.”
“Coffee? How can you think of coffee at a time like this? Don’t you want tea?”
“No, Basil, I do not want tea. I wish coffee. The magical device that makes coffee is on the counter. Please operate it.”
Basil grumbled, hopped onto his stool by the stove and then onto the counter. He fiddled with what Anon called Mister Coffee, and soon a pot was brewing.