With that, Gee Tee stepped forward towards his friend and asked him to hold out his hand which he did, albeit rather nervously. Asking him to spread his fingers as wide as he could, reluctantly he did. Running the band over one of the young dragon's fingers, suddenly... BANG! Instantly the band constricted, changing into a perfectly fitting ring. Peter's mouth hung open in surprise. It didn't hurt. It wasn't too tight. In fact it fitted perfectly, and he could barely feel it at all.
"It is, as you can see, a ring to fit every dragon, whatever shape or form they may be in. But that's just how you put it on, not what it actually does. The lore that accompanies the ring tells of dragons being brought back to life after being mortally wounded, their so called consciousness or soul as some thought back then, being safely stored inside the ring while healers used mantras to restore their damaged bodies."
Peter stood, fascinated, taking it all in, hanging on every last word.
"How does it work?"
"There's only a very limited translation to go by, and it was a little sketchy in places. But my understanding is, once the ring is on the dragon's finger, like it is now on you, the larger triangle must be held down for... well, it wasn't entirely clear, but I think somewhere around ten seconds. After that, the dark triangles turn green to start, and then when the consciousness is fully downloaded, they glow blue. How long this takes, I have absolutely no idea. I don't know if it's almost instantaneous, or whether it takes a matter of minutes. It certainly is one of the most unusual and interesting artefacts I've ever come across. Would it work today? Who knows? There would certainly be risks... huge ones if you ask me. But who can say what a dragon about to lose their life would do?" he casually ambled on.
Peter was giddy with excitement.
"You know what this means," he started. "We can..."
Immediately the old shopkeeper held up his palm to stop the young dragon mid sentence.
"It's time to go now. I'm going over to the plinths on the far side. By running your hand over every one, starting from the bottom and working up to the top, the vault's defences will reset, and we will have a ten minute window to walk or fly back out, before it all once again comes back online."
By now, he was almost hopping up and down with urgency, desperate to tell the old dragon just how they could put the ring to good use. But the wily old shopkeeper was having none of it.
"While I do this," he declared, "I EXPECT everything in here to be put back in its rightful place." With that he turned and headed over to the stone plinths.
A shiver like a warm summer's breeze ran up both his arms, causing the hair on them to sway just a little. It wasn't what the old dragon said, he thought to himself, but more the way he'd said it. Grabbing handfuls of scattered jewellery off the floor, he started stuffing it back into the cubby hole from which Gee Tee had taken it, all the time glancing down at the rare and ancient ring on his finger.
Standing facing the cubby hole, having put everything back, including the discarded frame with the old dragon's official 'I'm a LORD' documentation, he knew it was now or never. This could be it. It must be it. The old dragon wouldn't have shown him this if he hadn't wanted him to use it. But why all the cloak and dagger stuff, the roundabout hints, instead of just saying... "You could use it on Richie." Not knowing, he found it frustrating and hard to understand. Perhaps it was a step too far for the old dragon, perhaps he didn't want to get in trouble with the council, or perhaps the whole thing had to be his own choice. Perhaps he was the only one that could choose to save Richie. Perhaps he was the only one who could risk everything to save her life. Either way, the time had come. Swiftly, shielding his hands, he slipped the ring off and slid it carefully into his right trouser pocket, behind his thick, worn wallet. Turning round innocently enough, he was just in time to see the master mantra maker finish touching all the ancient dragon runes. As he did so, a soft hum that he hadn't noticed before tailed off, and the air in the vault became so much... lighter.
"Time to go," announced Gee Tee, strolling purposefully back towards the exit, carrying the huge, glass jar of laminium rivets under one arm.
Looking around one last time at the magnificent treasures, barely able to believe some of the things he'd seen, a tiny sliver of guilt settled uneasily inside him. Meandering back through the plinths to join his friend, guilty thoughts at the back of his mind about the ring in his pocket and whether or not the old dragon knew he'd taken it, as well as if he'd actually have the courage to use it on his friend, bubbled away at the back of his mind. Only time would tell if he'd made the right decision.
21
Be MIND-Full Of The Ring
Sitting opposite each other, the two friends waited nervously, Peter messing with her phone, trying to take his mind off what was about to happen, Richie rifling through a magazine. Abruptly, a loud knock at the door signalled that time had finally run out. Letting out a delicate sigh, Richie got up, walked out of the living room and down the small, narrow staircase. Peter could hear her answer the door and then head back up. Standing, he waited for them to arrive.
In they marched like bouncers at a nightclub... fully suited, sunglasses, a shine to their shoes... the lot! Of the three, one was clearly in charge, and stepped forward.
"What the hell do youthink you're doing? You're not supposed to be here. No one is!"
Gulping, more than a little intimidated by what he knew to be one of the most powerful and influential priests the dragon kingdom had to offer, he knew now that it was all or nothing.
"She's my friend," he pleaded. "Someone needs to watch over her... she deserves that much! That someone should be me!"
"Absolutely not," raged the priest. "Guards... remove him!"
Standing his ground, determined to fight if necessary, he tried not to show his nerves as the guards stepped towards him in their neatly pressed, dark suits.
"STOP!" shouted Richie, stepping in between the two warring factions. "There's no need for all this." Turning to look at her friend, a glum reflection plastered across her face, she tried to make everything right. "It'll be okay. I'll be fine. There's no need for you to stay. Come and see me in a few days... please?"
Touched by her words, it was a shame in some ways that he had his own agenda, and for it to work, he had to be with her.
"I'm sorry Rich... but I just have to stay. My earliest memories are of you. Of both of us in the nursery ring... playing, learning, flying... all my memories of all those things all have you in them. The thought of this happening breaks my heart. You're my best friend, my soul mate, my... dragon mate. You are now and you always have been. I won't leave... not now. Not ever!"
Richie stood agog, between Peter and the guards who were creeping ever closer. The priest, however, had heard enough.
"Bentwhistle... you know you can't be here. It simply isn't allowed."
"But why?" he asked. "What possible harm could it do? I give you my word that I won't interfere with the process. Your guards will make sure of that anyway. The council have made their decision and I know now that nothing else can be done. I've done everything in my power to try and get the council to change their sentence," (he'd written a heartfelt letter and asked for an audience to plead his case... which had been rejected out of hand), "but now it's been decreed, I want nothing more than to look after my best friend, and know that even though she'll remember nothing more of our world... just the tiniest sliver of my love for her will remain if I stay with her throughout. If nothing else, who knows, perhaps when she wakes all alone, frightened, scared and unsure, she will at least feel a little loved, and that may be of some comfort. If not to her, then it will be to me."