“It’ll take me fifteen minutes to get Phrym ready,” she said sleepily while she rubbed the grit out of her eyes.
She neglected to tell him about Eydeth’s claim to owning the cove, and that she was banned from ever going back there again. She partially didn’t believe the Resai boy but she also knew that Jaax would have no trouble getting his way if Eydeth’s father had posted guards.
“We won’t be taking Phrym,” Jaax said plainly.
Jahrra stared at him blankly, her mind and eyes still glazed with sleep.
“Do you know how long it will take us to walk there?” she asked in a how-dumb-can-you-be tone.
Jaax just grinned and released a small laugh. “You’re forgetting one thing, Young Jahrra,” he said, his voice dripping with amusement.
Jahrra rolled her eyes. She hated being called “young” by him.
“I’m not Hroombra, my wings still work.”
In the blink of an eye he thrust open his great wings, knocking her to the ground.
“Quickly, climb on,” he commanded, obviously not noticing an irate Jahrra dusting herself off.
“I’m not accepting a ride from you!” she said irascibly.
“You have no choice,” Jaax drawled in a bored fashion. “I need to have that book and you’re the only one who knows where it is. It’s pointless to take Phrym when I can just as easily fly and get there much quicker.”
Jahrra stood up straight and crossed her arms, meeting the dragon’s frosty green gaze with her own stormy blue one.
Jaax’s look hardened. “Perhaps you would rather ride in my teeth?”
Jahrra growled in exasperation and reluctantly climbed onto Jaax’s back, settling herself behind his neck. She was used to Hroombra’s relaxed and laid-back stance, but Jaax was exactly the opposite. This dragon was tense and powerful, and Jahrra had a terrifying image of being thrown off as they soared over the farmlands.
“What’s so important about this book anyway?” she inquired, trying to shake her image of being catapulted to the earth.
“That is not your concern at the moment,” he snapped. “Now, which way is this cove of yours?”
Jahrra yawned again and pointed northward, trying not to be annoyed at Jaax’s tone.
“Very good, now hold on tight.”
The dragon beat his giant wings and with a little effort, they were airborne.
Jahrra found herself clinging for life as Jaax swooped off the edge of the cliff of the Sloping Hill. The crisp winter air stung Jahrra’s eyes, and after only a few minutes of flight she could feel her hands and face growing numb. After the initial shock of the take off, she braved a look beneath her. The farmlands, hills and trees glided past them as they made their way westward.
Once she had regained her balance atop the dragon’s back, Jahrra sat upright and gazed towards the great ocean. The sun was just coming up in the east and its morning light was staining the landscape with a beautiful hue of golden peach. The dunes caught the light on their eastern sides, looking like hundreds of eyes opening to the sun’s rays. Jahrra smiled as the dark hills slowly turned to a deep grass green and the vast ocean changed from a stormy grey to a deep blue.
After ten minutes of gliding over the sleepy Aldehr Valley, Jahrra pointed out Toria Town and Hassett Town.
“The coves are just beyond that hill north of Hassett Town. There, where that point is!” she shouted out to Jaax over the rush of the wind and the beat of his wings. “The ninth cove would be on the southern side of it.”
The Tanaan dragon swooped down toward the great arm of land that reached out to the sea, causing Jahrra to screech and cling even tighter to his neck. She thought she heard him chuckle, but her stomach was swimming so badly that she feared if she opened her mouth to chastise him she might be sick.
As he descended closer towards the point of land marking the southern end of the coves, Jahrra began to see clearly the tiny beach her friends had explored almost a year earlier. Jaax made a rocky landing, crunching roughly upon the small pebbles and Jahrra had to hold on even tighter to keep from slipping off his scaly skin and crashing into the surf.
“Sorry,” Jaax said as she slid off his back, clearly shaken. “I’m not used to having passengers.”
Jahrra hit the pebbly shore hard and once her wooziness passed, she began scanning the cliff side for the cave. If Eydeth’s father had posted guards around the cove, she wanted to get the book and be gone as soon as possible, even if a formidable dragon was there to guard her.
“Do you just want the book?” she asked wearily, trying not to sound agitated.
Jaax nodded. “And anything else you can bring down.”
Jahrra trudged over to the old worn steps in the side of the vertical rock face and began climbing. She didn’t like the idea of robbing the dead man without leaving anything in return, but she figured he would do less harm to her than Jaax would if she refused. She found the cave just as it had been the last time she was here, and she gathered the coin purse and the book and set them aside.
“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she whispered apologetically as she searched the skeleton’s pockets with some hesitation.
Nothing. She climbed back out of the cave and saw that Jaax was watching anxiously. By the time she reached the dragon’s side, the sun was fully up.
“Can you tuck those into your coat without dropping them?” he asked.
“Yes,” Jahrra answered snippishly.
“Very well, let’s get back. Hroombra will be wanting to see those.”
Jahrra climbed back onto Jaax’s shoulders and tucked the items safely away.
The Tanaan dragon took his time on the flight back to the Ruin. He knew Jahrra had never taken a ride on a dragon before (at least not one that could fly) and even though she had turned down his many offers before, he could tell she had secretly yearned to see Oescienne from these heights. Jaax blinked against the stinging wind and lifted a little higher into the sky as they passed over the Aldehr Hills, quietly settling his thoughts on what was to come if the journal Jahrra carried in her coat was what he thought it was.
Jahrra tried her best to enjoy the beautiful aerial view of the Raenyan Valley and the Sloping Hill as they glided along, but she, like Jaax, was too busy thinking about the book. What is so important about this book anyway? she wondered once again. She braved a look down towards the earth and saw the Castle Ruin settled among the scattered trees on the highest point of the Sloping Hill. She couldn’t help but remember that the symbols in the old diary reminded her of the mural on the wall of the old crumbled fortress. Maybe, she told herself, they were linked somehow.
Jahrra shook her head, letting all of her thoughts jumble around inside of it. Jaax and Hroombra would never tell her what was going on, not unless they needed to. She had a terrible feeling they wouldn’t, and she had a terrible feeling that she was somehow going to be in a lot of trouble. She needed to talk to Denaeh, and she needed to do so soon. If the Mystic didn’t have any answers, no one, minus her two guardians of course, would.