"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry I worried you. When the storm came I got in some stranger's car since I had no other way out. That stranger then decided to stay with her cousin in Connecticut since her house was destroyed, and she was generous enough to let me stay with her until you got back. She even drove me here to the airport, but she took off after dropping me. I would have called but I lost my phone in the storm," Joseph did his best to lie.
"What's the stranger's name?"
"Gracie."
"Why didn't you call from her phone?"
"She wouldn't let me make an international call."
"What's her cousin's name?"
"Grayson."
Grey narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why do your names all contain my name?"
"You're putting me on the spot!" Joseph defended, "I don't do well under pressure. I've hardly managed to spin this story so far in the two weeks I've had!"
Shimmertail shouted over his wing flaps then, "Relax! I'm sure your story is fine. At least it's easier to believe than the truth!"
"Can't argue with that!" Joseph conceded. He sighed and groaned then. "God, I can't believe this! I'll never be able to tell anyone about this! No one will ever know what you all have done for me or that we became friends."
Grey reminded Joseph, "Don't forget what you've done for us, too. Now that we have a place to settle, well... you might have just saved all the inhabitants of the Rim of Heaven. The dragons, the mountain brownies, the rats-"
"Rats?" Joseph interrupted.
"What, rats don't deserve saving?" Grey quipped.
"No, not that! Just seems weird to be on the same list."
"The point is," the brownie continued, "We'll know. And so will you, even if you don't see the results. Without your book of maps we would still be wandering, maybe even caught by now."
"And," Shimmertail cut in, "Now I've learned there are good humans and bad ones, like any other race. Firedrake was right after all."
"Tell me about your history with humans then!" Joseph just got more curious every time the subject was broached. "Obviously it's had some very poor spots, but not all the time."
Grey nodded and began, "Dragons have existed for much longer than humans."
"Thought as much," Joseph agreed.
Shimmertail then picked up, "In the humans' younger years all was beautiful. The easternmost ones practically worshipped dragons in fact."
"You mean the ancient Chinese!" Joseph jumped in, "They believed dragons were a symbol of good luck and good fortune. Lots of them even still do, though they probably wouldn't react the same to a real one."
"Sounds correct," the dragon reasoned, banking a little. Joseph held on but wasn't scared of such simple maneuvers anymore. "We lived in harmony until humans discovered they could use parts of our dead for their own purposes. Our horns, for example, were very valuable to them. Alchemists thought they were an ingredient for creating gold."
"Well..." Joseph tried to defend, "At least we know better now. Gold is made of 79 protons and electrons as well as generally about 115 neutrons."
"In any case," Shimmertail went on, "Human avarice for gold began consuming them. They didn't keep waiting until dragons died anymore; they began hunting us, and they nearly succeeded in annihilating our race altogether. But the practice of dragon slaying was nearly dead by the human year 1500, at which point my kind decided to hide ourselves away in the Rim of Heaven - that mountain range you tried to show us the other day."
"For the most part, that was the end," Grey began to continue, "The dragons even managed to live peacefully with a village near the mouth of a river delta, though the humans were never foolish enough to get close to them... except one, of course. A boy who swam out to sea while the dragons were celebrating and climbed on its back. But as Shim tells it, that little boy eventually learned to live among the dragons closely. Even his lifespan was extended; he lived to be well over a century old."
"You're joking," Joseph exclaimed, "We start looking at humans as old by the time they hit 55!"
"It's the truth," Shimmertail confirmed. "And on his deathbed he made a vow: he would return again in the form of a boy whose skin was as white as the moon itself." Joseph glanced at his own skin; in the dark it definitely didn't look as white as the moon. "But two centuries before that would happen, disaster struck: for the last of the dragon slayers had found the dragons' hideaway.
"In the 15th human century an alchemist who specialized in homunculi created a deadly homonculus to do his slaying for him: another dragon, but not like me. He was ten times larger and flightless, adorned with golden scaled. As the dragons swam near that river delta, the ruler of water struck unexpectedly soon after the rider's death, hundreds of years after his original creation. In that moment the dragons fled to the Rim of Heaven, all safe, but those waters no longer were. So ever since then, we have never left the Rim.
"Except for one smaller flock of dragons they fled the Rim of Heaven altogether to find a new refuge in a valley in..."
Shimmertail was having trouble remembering the name of the country, so Grey reminded him, "Scotland."
"I thought their choice was awful. I thought the rest of us were in the only place safe for our kind. Ironically, though... They fared much better than we did."
As Shimmertail got to the points that he personally witnessed, all his passengers could tell he was getting emotional. The brownie took over then. "The silver dragons at the Rim of Heaven became paranoid; they wouldn't even leave their caves anymore, even at night. And because of that they never soaked up any moonlight. So they... they became encased in stone. They were immobile so long that the rock just formed around them. And they slept for over a hundred years." The brownie pat Shimmertail's side then. "Shimmertail was one of those dragons."
"But my cousins in the west," he resumed, "Lived peacefully away from the humans and the hunter... until they didn't. Soon the humans came for their valley to flood it. Still the dragons had nowhere left to flee, and all the old dragons who knew where the Rim lies had long forgotten. So a young dragon from them set off on a journey to find it again."
"Is that Firedrake?" Joseph asked.
"Yes, he is. And along the way he chanced upon Ben: a boy whose skin was pale as the moon. Firedrake and the valley dragons had long forgotten that prophecy, but it was fulfilled in any case. They also happened upon one of the great hunters many spies, still hunting us even to that day. But the spy turned traitor against his master as the party approached the Rim of Heaven. He was a homunculus as well, much like a human but only as tall as the tip of your longest finger to where your palm meets your wrist." Joseph held his hand out in front of him for reference. "He helped Firedrake, the dragon rider, and the one remaining dragon from the Rim of Heaven destroy the last of the dragon hunters. When he was destroyed, Firedrake fetched all the dragons from his valley home and brought them to the Rim of Heaven, the dragons united once again. Three years after that the rider died. The homonculus died with him, for he gave his heart to the boy and couldn't live without him.
"Fifteen years later... Well, at that point history catches up with us."
"Would you believe the Scottish brownies look a lot different from me?" Grey went off on a tangent, "They're orange and spotted all over. But I also don't quite resemble the mountain brownies because they tend to have more than two arms. My parents were one of each." Grey let go of the dragon's back then and looked at his own arms. "I think I got the best of both, to be honest. Bright orange is hard on the eyes, and any more arms would be too awkward to carry around."
Joseph nodded and took some moments to take everything in. Given all that Joseph couldn't blame Shimmertail for his apprehension for humans; the creation of a human almost drove his kind extinct, not to mention what this dragon specifically went through. He became suddenly aware of the age disparity between them all then. "So how did the dragons of the Rim get out of the stone?"
"Thank a dwarf for that," Grey explained, "You won't hear me say that very often. Little titches bug me to no end. But nobody knows stone and digging quite like they do."
"Hmm." Joseph sat thoughtfully. "Well you're right to stay hidden still. I don't think humanity as a whole is ready for dragons and brownies and sprites yet. But... I guess I'd like to think it's possible one day."
"There ya go!" Grey exclaimed, pushing on the boy's back. "I'm with you. We can all get along right?"
The dragon shook his head, though. "I'm not as optimistic. At the very least, it won't happen in my lifetime." Shimmertail began his descent.
As the party began to land, Grey piped up. "Let me see you off!" he insisted, and he began to continue before any of the others could raise an objection. "It's the last time I'll see my friend! And that's what friends do, right? I know Shim can't come, but you said I could pass as human."
"Or a human in a costume," the boy reasoned, adjusting his glasses nervously. "But Grey-"
"No buts! The only way you'll stop me is tying me to a tree under Shimmertail's watchful guard!"
Vulture form Kiloh flew in close to interject, "I believe the straps of leather you brought will accomplish that."
The brownie huffed. "Well, at the very least we should all exchange mementos to remember each other by." Shimmertail landed in woods once again. As he did, Grey began digging through his pack. "Goodness knows I overpacked for this trip..."
"Um," Joseph pointed out awkwardly, "I don't really have anything to give you."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Grey contested as he turned his bag upside-down, "I can just keep this jacket right?" Oh, Joseph supposed so. He certainly didn't need two of them, he thought. "Surely there's- aha!" Grey snatched an empty water bottle from the pile. "I suppose I don't need this anymore."
Joseph initially shook his head. "Are you sure? It might be good for holding water."
"Two canteens will be enough," Grey reasoned, "Besides, I didn't even bring this for water. Remember? This is the bottle I poured down Shimmertail's throat right before your first ride."
"Do you mean the ride that scarred me for life?" Joseph quipped. "Well, that's... actually a really thoughtful gift." The boy accepted the bottle then. "Thank you very much."
Shimmertail piped up, "I have something for you, too." And that really took the boy by surprise, for as far as he knew the dragon didn't bring anything with him. Was it among Grey's things? No, the dragon bent his neck down and started clawing at himself.
"What are you doing?" Joseph asked with some concern. The dragon seemed to be acting very deliberately, though, careful not to stab or scratch himself. He just gave many little picks to one spot. Eventually he managed what he intended to do, which was loosen up one of his scales and peel it right off, exposing the epidermal layer beneath. Joseph slid off the dragon's back then and met him around his front. "You didn't have to do that!"
"I wanted to." Shimmertail smiled a little. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. And it'll grow back." Shimmertail dropped the scale in Joseph's open hands then, and he found it covered his whole palm! It wasn't lost on Joseph how big a sign of friendship and trust that was; with that scale, Joseph might have proved the existence of dragons. But that thought didn't even cross his mind.
"Wow, then that's... an honor." The boy was dumbstruck as he pocketed the scale. "And it leaves me in an awkward position: I don't have much else to leave you. I don't know what use a dragon could have for my raincoat."
The great beast shook his head. "I think hope for a new home will do." The dragon held a digit underneath the human's chin then and forced him to look up and meet Shimmertail's eyes. "Take care, Joseph."
"Same for you." Joseph gently pushed the talon away from himself and nodded to Kiloh then. "Come on, then. It's a long walk into Bangor. Might even be sunrise by the time we get in. Let's introduce my parents to my new stray dog who jumped in the van with me as we were driving off."
"Alright, let's do this!" Grey exclaimed, starting to follow the pair. Joseph stopped to scold him, though.
"Grey, I told you, it's too risky for my liking. I know you'll have meant to see me off."
"Yeah, you will," the brownie insisted, "Because I'm going. No buts." Joseph looked to the dragon for advice, but Shimmertail just sighed. He'd known Grey long enough to know when the brownie couldn't be swayed, and that motion spoke volumes to Joseph. "Alright? Now let's get a move on! I wanna be back before the moon rises, please!"
Joseph fidgeted on his bench incessantly. Grey was cautiously curious about why, but he didn't say anything. Kiloh's dog disguise wouldn't have worked without a leash inside the airport's busy baggage claim, so instead he was hiding in the boy's pants pocket as a mouse. "Oh!" Joseph had to look up when approached by a security guard, a terrible feeling forming in his gut. The man was way too close. "You sure look cute in your little costume!" the portly woman cooed at Grey, "But it's policy for hoods to be down inside the building, OK?" she smiled way too big, like she was talking to a little kid.
Luckily Grey was better under pressure than the human was. Joseph noticed he artificially made his voice higher to mimic a child and even managed to make his diction sound immature, like talking was a new skill to him. "OK! Sorry!" and he lowered his hood with a stupid grin. Joseph thought in his head that the brownie was impressive. After that the guard left the pair alone, at which point Grey resumed his normal voice. "See? It'll be fine."
"Are you sure you can find your way back?"
"Are you sure you can ever stop worrying?" Grey scolded. "You should be happy! You're about to see your family again, and they'll take care of you! That's what family does!"
Joseph swallowed and peered at a board displaying flight arrival and departure times. "Well... That's what they're supposed to do." He pointed at the board then. "But it's noon. They should have landed hours ago."
"You said flights get delayed!" Grey reminded him, "Flying is no simple matter, you know. It must be even harder for humans without wings."
"I guess," he admitted, "But six hours is extremely unusual." His stomach growled then. "That doesn't ease my nerves either."
"Why not just take a mushroom?"
"Humans don't eat raw mushrooms, Grey." He sighed, becoming very impatient. "Hold tight. I'm going to ask that security lady what's up. Maybe she'll know." Joseph fidgeted with his fingers the whole time he approached the guard. "Excuse me, but do you know what might be keeping flight 399? My- our parents are on it, and I don't have any contact with them."
The pit in the boy's stomach as the guard's face turned to horror. No, no, what could be coming? "Oh, honey!" The woman hugged Joseph without asking then and looked him straight in the eye. "That flight... fell over the ocean overnight." She checked her watch then. "Eight hours ago."
Joseph's pupils dilated, and he took an instant deep breath. His eyes already started welling up. "My parents," was all he managed to weakly mutter.
"There were no survivors to be found," the guard lamented. "Come on, grab your brother and let's find someone for you to call."
"No!" Joseph protested that immediately.
"Honey, I insist. If you're here alone-"
"We're not here alone!" Joseph tried to spin, "O-our uncle is in the bathroom. I-I'll go find him. B-but thank you." This time Joseph wasn't stuttering because he was a poor liar under pressure, even if that was still true. He called over his shoulder then, "Grayson! Can I talk to you outside?"
The brownie had an alert expression on his face immediately and knew this was a serious matter. Without a word he got up and walked out the automatic sliding doors, Joseph trudging after him. As soon as the pair was out by the loading street, Gray asked in a sensitively low voice, "What's up, Joe?"
Joseph really hated how the brownie always chose to shorten his name at times when he had more important things to worry about than correcting it. "Not here," he breathed more than he said, "Let's get out of this city first. I'll tell you on the way when there are less people around."
"Joseph!" Grey demanded.
But right then Kiloh the white mouse peeped out of the boy's pocket to weigh in. "Let it be, brownie. "The boy needs a moment."
Joseph felt like he should thank the sprite but didn't. Other thoughts were already too heavy on him.
Shimmertail hadn't managed to stay awake like he hoped, but in his defense he expected the brownie back much sooner than he actually was. Even though he was very worried, fatigue took him to bed. However, he was awakened by the smell of Grey close; the dragon picked him up a few hundred feet away, and the scent awakened him. He also detected the less familiar scents of Kiloh and Joseph, but once awake he dismissed those as inconsequential. Of course they would be on him when they've all been in such close quarters recently.
Once the brownie pushed through a bush to reach the dragon, Shimmertail greeted, "I'm glad you're back safe! How was-?" The reason the dragon cut himself off was that a black bear and a human boy followed a couple of steps behind the mountain brownie. "Wait, why?" Grey didn't want to make Joseph have to say it out loud again; it took him ten minutes for him to get himself together enough to make his speech understandable once they were clear of prying ears. So instead, Grey beckoned the dragon to lean in closer to him so that he could advocate for the human, who threw his back against a tree and slowly sank until his butt was on the ground and his knees covered his face.
"Let him alone, Shim," Grey suggested after explaining, "I think he wants to be alone right now."
For a couple of seconds the dragon studied the boy and then shook his head. "I think loneliness is what's hurting him the most." The dragon proceeded then to lay down in front of Joseph just as Kiloh lay his big bear head on top of the boy's feet. Like Shimmertail had done earlier that day, he lifted the human's chin to force eye contact. "If there's anywhere else we can take you, we'll do it. I don't even mind if it's off our route."
Grey appreciates the intent, but when he saw that he cringed as he watched Joseph push the claw away much less gently and pull his face back behind his knees like a turtle into its shell. The brownie knew better, that the approach Shimmertail had just taken was about the worst one he could have. So the brownie whispered in his ear, "He says he doesn't have anywhere else. Those were his only living family members. Now he's what's called an 'orphan,' which means he has no one to care for him and no home to go back to."
Kiloh tried to soothingly vibrate his throat as Shimmertail pursed his lips. Why was such awful misfortune always attracted to the humans who least deserved it, he thought? Even worse of a thought, why did it begin as soon as he and his companion had entered the human's life? Given that, both he and the brownie felt irrationally responsible even though for the Joseph's sake they tried to keep that to themselves. "Fret not." Kiloh's voice was as deep as the sea in his bear form. "I promised to care for you until one of us stopped breathing, and I stand by that."
Joseph this time lifted his head voluntarily, and he was a little overwhelmed by the three creatures all surrounding him so close. "Please leave me alone. I'm not any of your responsibilities anymore." He faced the first two magical creatures he met then. "Especially you! I know you got stuck with me more than anything!" That was then Joseph had to pause because a breathing fit left him unable to speak. When he recovered it, at least, a little, he still inhaled sharply involuntarily between each word. "You- were- supposed- to dump- me off! I can't!" Kiloh stood, stabbed Joseph in the stomach with his snout, and held it there. Surprisingly, that seemed to help him breathe easier, though it was still rapid and deep. "I can't burden you with my problems anymore." Now the human was whimpering rather than wailing. "I- you've been through a lot for me. And that was supposed to stop. It shouldn't even still be going now." Joseph swallowed and almost went into another breathing fit, but Kiloh pushed harder on the boy's diaphragm with his snout. "Just go away! My problems aren't yours! They aren't even as big as yours! At least I'm not being hunted! Nobody is even looking for me or waiting for me to come home! So leave me alone!"
Grey practically wanted to start crying with Joseph just because of what he was hearing and, more importantly, what he knew it actually meant. Perhaps this is what Kiloh saw in him. Maybe he can take or leave honesty, but he's so selfless. Grey understood he wasn't pushing the others away because he wanted to be alone; he was doing it because he thought suffering alone was better than making others feel bad with him, especially when it was for him. And that implied he was accepting his lot in life to be lonely forever - for the sake of three strangers he'd known for two weeks that weren't even his own kind.
He probably thinks he's going to starve and die with no one to look after him and nowhere to go, the brownie thought, And worse, from what Joey's said about human society... he might be right. Grey and Shimmertail exchanged looks simultaneously then as if they were about to ask each other something, and it happened to be the same question. But neither spoke because they also both knew the other's answer to that question.
Shimmertail almost touched his snout to Joseph's nose, making him appear much bigger to the boy. "Who are you to command a dragon?" the silver dragon demanded playfully, then bumping Joseph's face.
Kiloh took his nose out of Joseph's gut and surprised the boy by doing exactly what the dragon did. Perhaps bears were smaller, but he was still as imposing at close quarters. "Or a bear?" the sprite piled on.
"You're trying to tell your friends not to care about you," Grey spelled out, "You're more likely to convince the sun to stop shining. OK?" The brownie got between everybody and knelt in front of Joseph, laying his paws on the sobbing human's shoulders. "You have no home? We'll give you a home! Didn't I tell you earlier that family takes care of each other?" The mention of family had the opposite effect that the brownie intended, making the boy grimace harder and find new tears to drop. "Well family takes care of each other! And we don't do it because of debts owed or even for a moral obligation! Family takes care of each other because we care about each other!"
"You're not my family!" Joseph rebelled, his voice cracking. The scream sent everyone around him a step back, even Shimmertail. That gave the boy a second to think about what he just said and collapse onto his side, weighed down by guilt that felt so heavy that it was practically a real, physical weight. The boy panted like he had just been running, mouth open because that was the only way his stressed body would get the oxygen it needed to endure. He wasn't able to express that he didn't mean what he just said, but everybody around him knew that he meant to.
Shimmertail took the lead again. "No one can help you mourn loved ones more easily or more quickly than they must be mourned. But if your mind wanders to places of loneliness or fear for the future, leave those places." He spread his wings then and enclosed everybody in them, blocking out a lot of their surroundings from view and limiting the light inside as well. "For half a century I thought I would never tolerate another human on my back, especially one who wasn't the dragon rider. But if the human is you, then it would be my pleasure to fly with you."
"Even if your snoring annoys us both," Grey unnecessarily finished.
Joseph shook his head and sniffed, but after that he needed a minute to get his breath under control again long enough to whimper, "...do I snore?"
And the sprite answered, "Don't worry about it too much. At least it's loud enough to scare away any dangerous creature that may be near." Joseph used all the willpower he possessed to keep a smile from appearing on his face, and all around him enjoyed watching him slowly lose the battle.
"My advice?" Grey began to suggest, "Take a nap. It won't make you feel better, but when you wake up feeling bad will be easier." The brownie glanced at the others. "You two as well. You-" He addressed Shimmertail "-still need to fly us out of here. And you-" This time it was to Kiloh. "-can't keep flying all night and patrolling all day. I got good sleep lately, so I can miss a day." Then he looked back to Joseph. "But seriously, you, too. Sleep off the shock, OK?"
Joseph swallowed before deciding, "Fine." His head was spinning trying to challenge all the claims made about family and such (mostly because he couldn't admit they were correct yet), so he was at least willing to put those questions off for later. So he found a comfy spot on the ground and curled up.
Joseph heard the bear approaching from behind, but he didn't see it or pay it any heed. However, he didn't expect it to plop down beside him or use its thick, fuzzy forelegs to pull the boy from behind into its warm self. He tilted his head up to find Kiloh looking down back at him. "If you'd like me to stop, then simply leave," Kiloh joked while gripping the boy so tightly that escape was impossible. But both of them also knew the tight hold wasn't just for restraint.
Subsequently, Shimmertail curled his long body around both the snuggling creatures with his body in front of Joseph and his tail wrapping behind the bear. In that position the boy was practically sandwiched between the two, but he also felt a sense of calm and security that his misery tried to fight off. However, Joseph's misery lost a second battle right then and lost just enough ground for the boy to drift off, even if tears never stopped flowing until then that matted the bear's fur and made the dragon scales glimmer even brighter than normal.
