22
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Raegan and I made it back to the rest of the group just as they all started their slow return to consciousness.
Niamh was halfway through a stretch and in the midst of a yawn when she looked at Raegan and hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “The red one wants to talk to you, apparently.”
Raegan made to move past me, the subtlest of touches to the small of my back with his hand as he maneuvered around us. Biting down on the innards of my cheek, I looked for anything else to focus on.
“You can hear them?” I asked Niamh, who somehow looked more radiant in the early hours of the day.
“Oh, no,” she chuckled as she stretched out her leg. “He just kept huffing at me whenever I got near to him and followed it up with a sharp screech. Then when I’d try again the grey one growled at me. I just assumed they wanted Raegan, not me.”
“Oh.” I nodded along, watching her as she walked across the cliff-ledge and began stroking Sonus.
“I wish, though. Dragons are well known for their inability to develop caraid with anyone. Other than Raegan, the only other one that we know of was his ancestor, Rian. And that was…” She blew out air with her lips before continuing, “Gods, at least several centuries ago.”
I tried my best to allow enough of my shock through for genuine surprise at her statement, but not so much that it could give away my utter disbelief.
So Raegan hadn’t told them about me and Urram, and I couldn’t quite figure out why.
Whatever the reason was, if his lips were sealed about it, I’d make sure mine were too.
All I could manage to mutter out was, “I wonder why.”
Niamh shrugged as she glanced over my shoulder, noticing an approaching Killian. I turned just in time to see the darker shadow of his stubble before he let out a yawn.
“What you did last night…” he whispered as he stepped close to me. “It was magnificent.”
“T-thank you.” Suddenly, I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Instead of possibly making a fool of myself, I wrapped my arms around my body and tucked my fingers within them.
A low bout of laughter echoed through the cave behind us, and Urram’s head popped out just as it finished. His neck stretched long and high as he tipped his horned snout to the rising sun, the scattering of light across his metallic scales shimmering in every direction.
Then his eyes fell to me.
Please don’t talk to me–
“Thank you, Little.”
All too aware of Shea, Niamh, and Killian being near me, instead of responding I dipped my chin to the mighty reptile.
“Gliocas will live, because of you.”
Trying my best to cover my answer with a cough, I lifted my hand to my mouth. “It was my pleasure.”
“What?” Killian popped his head around to look at my face. “Did you say something?”
The slippery eyelid of Urram slid down over his bright eyes as he watched us. His staring was ended only when there was a loud thud in the midst of the cave, followed by more laughter from Raegan.
“What are they doing in there?” I made it look like I was asking anyone, but it was truly directed towards Urram.
“Being immature fools,” Urram scoffed before winding his head up and over his back, looking to where Gliocas and Raegan emerged.
“Oh, you grumpy old man. Live a little,” Raegan beamed at Urram as he passed him.
Gliocas, whose stitches were somehow still intact, bowed his head to the ground in front of me. “Thank you, little human.”
I grumbled beneath my breath, something about Raegan having given his favourite nickname for me to Gliocas.
But both of the dragons were awaiting an answer from me. So was Raegan, who turned to face me with both arms folded over his chest.
“Olivia?” he finally asked. My name on his lips was enough to make the other three listen in closer, Killian going so far as to actually step closer.
“What?”
“He’s talking to you.”
Niamh, Shea, and Killian’s jaws all dropped low enough to catch both birds and beetles.
“Oh, sorry,” I coughed, looking at Gliocas at last. “You’re welcome, Gliocas.”
Shea and Killian both stammered out, at the same time, “There’s no way.”
Niamh frowned at me, looking like she had received the ultimate hurt in not being told sooner.
“What?” I scowled at them all. “I thought you could all hear them.”
Raegan was far too thrilled with himself as he winked at Gliocas, then turned back to Rìoghail and stroked at the long lengths of his golden mane.
“We best be getting back,” Killian started, accepting a hand up from Shea onto Milis. “We have to attend that breakfast that you demanded all to be a part of, Raegan.”
The Prince stiffened his jaw as he nodded to Gliocas and Urram, leaping up onto Rìoghail with ease.
Turning back to Urram, whose head lingered just behind me, I pressed a hand to his cold hide. “I hope I get to see you again soon, Urram.”
The giant reptile let out a deep purr, the vibrations transferring into my hands and trickling down my bones.
“Hopefully on better terms, Little.”
With a nervous laughter I finished a stroke of his scales and moved backwards towards Niamh, who helped me up onto Sonus.
She jumped up and behind me, wrapping her hands around my waist after offering a hearty wave to the two dragons, who lingered on the cliff-edge long enough to watch us depart into the sky above.
~
We were only several minutes into our flight when balls of ice the size of the very creatures we rode on began to fall from the heavens.
“Hail!” Shea screeched from where she flew just ahead of us, spinning around to look at Raegan. “We haven’t had hail in years!”
Niamh groaned behind me before letting out a small laugh.
“Why is the sudden change in weather worth commenting on?” I whispered to Niamh.
“Just wait,” she sighed.
“What do you say, Raegan?” Killian roared from in front of Shea.
“We’re going to be late,” he called back.
“I see,” Killian chuckled. “You’re afraid I’ll beat you again.”
Raegan whirled around from his position on Rìoghail, his eyes alive with a challenge as water began to seep into his hair. “I won last time.”
“Actually,” Niahm began, “Killian is right – he beat you the last time. And the time before that.”
“Niamh!” Raegan hissed just as Shea began laughing. “Alright, alright. One round.”
We collected on the ground, halfway through the meadow we had been flying over.
Apparently, hail-jumping was something of a little game between the four of them. I didn’t understand a single moment of the explanation that was offered to me as we hit the earth. But I wouldn’t have to understand it, because in only a few minutes I would see it.
Shea jumped off of Milis, offering her mount to Killian after he finished begging her for several minutes.
He whispered something to the pegasus, leant over her mane before he pushed them up into the skies.
Niamh and I followed, leaving Shea on the ground to be the ‘judge’ of the strange game that was about to unfold.
We climbed higher into the sky than we had before, until we seemed to be in the very spot that hail poured down to the earth below.
“Hold on tight, Olivia,” Niamh muttered in my ear. “Sonus will follow them, so movements might be abrupt and choppy. And the last thing I want to do is be diving through this storm in search of you.”
Gulping, I nodded to her.
Killian and Raegan on Milis and Rìoghail squared up just beneath the cloud, careful to shoot out of the way whenever one of the car-sized balls of hail emerged from thin air.
Niamh sat taller behind me. “You two ready?”
The two males tossed thumbs up in our directions, a competitive strike lashing lightning behind their eyes.
“Three… Two… One… GO!”
I wasn’t sure what to expect at the sound of her tight, pursed whistle, but what they did I would never have guessed.
Killian and Raegan, at the same time, slid off of the pegasus’.
They each fell for a few minutes before Raegan slammed his body against a piece of hail, Killian following shortly after on one several feet away from his Prince.
Using the hail as some sort of aerial vehicle, they continued to careen down to the ground.
I thought that perhaps that was the entirety of the game, until Raegan lifted himself up, crouching over the ball beneath him and leapt to another piece, lower than the first.
My heart was in my throat as I watched both of them leap-frog across falling collections of ice, occasionally missing their mark and soaring towards the earth before they splattered on the ground.
Rìoghail and Milis kept up with them, the creatures embarking on their own strange form of competition as they ducked and dove through the onslaught, narrowly missing piece after piece as they kept their eyes on their caraid.
Raegan let out a wild cackle as he stood up on his piece of hail, flexing for the whole world to see.
Killian had his own plan, though, and jumped through the air to knock Raegan off of his piece, the two of them whirling through their air completely interlocked.
A gasp tore from my throat as I watched them, until at last they each found another piece to surf down towards the ground.
“What happens when they get to the –”
Killian, stood up on his piece like he was nothing more than a skateboarder, hit the ground. The hail exploded beneath him, sending shards of it in every direction and making Shea block her face with her arms as she let out her own bout of raucous laughter.
Raegan landed not a second later and declared that a second round was needed.
Four rounds later and Raegan finally beat Killian. I was pretty sure I had thrown up somewhere along the way, but was glad to see their faces stretched into wild grins as they met us with Shea back on the ground.
“You two are insane!” I hollered through the whistling winds that started to pick up around us.
“We prefer the term brave,” Killian cackled.
“No, no! Just insane. Stupid, too!” I called back, earning me a humoured smirk from Raegan as he found himself on Rìoghail’s back once more. Far more dishevelled than how we had left the dragons, the three pegasus’ took to the sky once more, Rìoghail and Milis noticeably lagging behind Sonus.
We crossed the border of Cluaineach not too long after, finding ourselves above the stretching waters of Uisge that stood between us and Choilltean.
Though the storm continued to wage on above us, we twisted and spun around falling hail as we began the long stretch of flight over the water, prepared to get to the other side and hopefully take a minute or two to rest.
We never got that chance, though.
Because as we glided above the ocean, I glanced down.
There, I saw the mass slaughter of pixies.