Michael Mathias - The Sword and the Dragon

Gerard was waiting for him back at the hut. By the way his little brother was fidgeting and squirming in the chair, Hyden could tell something was amiss. He intentionally ignored Gerard for the moment and went about draping the strips of meat over the top edge of the bucket. The little bird woke with a screech, began stretching its neck and reaching up towards the meal. A recognition of instinct washed over Hyden, but he couldn’t quite grasp how he understood the feeling. It was like a fond memory of a favorite food. Only this longing was for a taste that he was sure he had never savored before. He wanted to eat the raw liver himself. Strange.

“Hyden!” Gerard half yelled, half whispered. “Come here, listen to me.”

After making sure that the hawkling could get at all of the strips by itself, he took a seat at the table and gave Gerard his full attention.

Gerard told Hyden, with a voice full of equal parts of excitement and fear, how he had sent Uncle Pylen off with the magical ring and a thought. He went on to tell him how the same sort of thing had worked on their father only a moment ago by the cook fire. Gerard said that their father had eased up to him and asked him if there was anything that he wanted to talk about, and said that if there was, that he would be willing to listen. Gerard had just mustered enough courage to put the ring back on, and after the incident with Pylen, he didn’t want to talk to his father about it yet.

“I told him in my mind to go ask Sharoo the same question,” Gerard said with huge eyes and waving hands. “He did! He just up and walked over to Sharoo and started talking to him. I felt the ring tingle through me Hyden. I felt it make it happen. I swear it.”

“Bah,” Hyden was doubtful. He could usually tell when Gerard was lying or exaggerating, but strangely enough, his brother seemed to be telling the truth.

“I’ll believe you if,” he paused for a moment, thinking, and a devilish grin slowly crept across his face. “Come on. Prove it to me.”

They both hurried outside. Hyden searched the groups of men and boys milling about for someone in particular. Gerard followed nervously, with one hand covering the ring. Hyden led them to the far side of the lodging grounds.

“There, over by the well,” he pointed. “Do you see Tevar, and his brother, Darry?”

“Yeah, I see them,” Gerard answered, wondering what his brother was up to.

“Make Tevar go tell Sharoo what he did with Sharoo’s sister the night before we left the village.”

A wide grin spread across Gerard’s face. This would be great.

“Call them over here.”

Hyden did. When they were all standing close, Hyden struck up a conversation.

“So how was your harvest Tevar? Darry?”

“I got four eggs,” Tevar said proudly.

“Three for me. I could’ve had two more, if I would’ve started earlier,” Darry added.

“I heard you’re going to be leaving us, since Gerard got you that hawkling chick,” Tevar said. “Where are you going to go first?”

Hyden didn’t register the significance of the question at first, and by the time he did, it was too late. When he made to ask Tevar what he meant, the boy was already heading towards the cook fire, blindly obeying Gerard’s silent command.

“What’s gotten into him?” Darry asked. “Hey, Tev, where are you going?”

“Leave him be,” Gerard said through a yawn. He was suddenly very tired. “You got three eggs huh? That’s pretty good.” Gerard put his arm around Darry’s shoulder, and then suddenly slumped to his knees.

Just then, a commotion broke out at the big fire. There were shouts and gasps, and then a primal battle cry. Several men burst out in laughter. Tevar then went racing past Hyden and Gerard with a terrified look on his young face. The older, and much bigger, Sharoo was right on his heels, brandishing a flaming chunk of wood as if it were a club. A few of Sharoo’s brothers trotted along behind them, making a half-hearted show of trying to stop, their enraged older brother.

Laughing, Hyden turned to tell his little brother that he believed him about the ring now, but Gerard was curled up at Darry’s feet, sound asleep and snoring. With Darry’s help, Hyden got his brother back to their father’s hut and into the bed.

After everyone had partaken of the fresh meat, the Council of Elders convened inside Hyden’s grandfather’s hut. Hyden was told to wait in his father’s hut, and to be ready to bring himself and the hawkling chick before the council when called upon. He was also charged with taking care of Gerard. Thankfully, everyone attributed his brother’s sudden slumber to the fact that he had climbed the nesting cliff two days in a row. Hyden strengthened that idea by suggesting that Gerard’s exhaustion had finally caught up with him. He knew it was more than just fatigue that had caused his brother to suddenly collapse, but he didn’t let on to the others. The giantess Berda, who frequented the clan’s village in the mountains when her husband’s herd of devil goats was grazing nearby, had told the people of the Skyler Clan many stories. Hyden remembered one in which a wizard cast a spell on a horse to make it fly. The wizard had slept for several days after casting the spell, because magic took its toll on men. Berda told them that using the magic had sapped his strength. Hyden figured that it was something similar happening with Gerard. At least he hoped so.

As Hyden waited, he watched the dying cook fire from the open doorway of his father’s hut. The blaze had reduced itself to a pile of embers, visited occasionally by a flicker of flame that danced around fleetingly before it wisped away in a curling stream of smoke. He wished the Elders would hurry and call him. He also wished he had taken a lot more of the stag meat before it had gone on the spit. Already, the hawkling chick was up and squawking, begging for more food. As he fed it the last bit of uncooked meat, his father stepped through the doorway.

“The Elders would like to see the hawkling chick now,” he said in his loving, fatherly tone. “We have decided that we must consult the White Lady, through the dragon skull, back at the gathering chamber before we can give you advice with any measure of confidence.”

The aging man walked over to where his younger son lay asleep. He knelt beside him and ran his hand through the boy’s hair.

“We all agree that yours and Gerard’s destinies are intertwined in some strange way. I only hope that it isn’t in a bad way. We hope the White Lady will help us guide you true, but consulting her will have to wait until we are home, when the Summer’s Day Festival and the archery competition are behind us.”

Hyden wasn’t sure how he knew it, but he was certain that his father was correct. Gerard’s strength and love had brought the hawkling chick to him. On the same token, Gerard wouldn’t have been up there to find the ring he seemed to be so fond of if he hadn’t climbed in Hyden’s stead. A strange revelation suddenly unfolded in Hyden’s mind, and he realized that all the little events of now would someday come to influence greater ones. He had a feeling that some would be grand, and others terrible. It all seemed very strange to him. All he could do was what his father had asked of him: try to make good decisions and do what he could to raise the hawkling, which at the moment was squawking loudly for more food.

In his grandfather’s crowded hut, the Elders only had a moment to gawk in awe and wonder at the hungry little hawkling chick. Hyden kept the bucket in his hands protectively as he showed it around the room. A commotion from outside seemed to be intruding on the gathering, drawing everyone’s attention away from the bird. Then someone outside gasped loudly. Another voice shouted out something that sounded urgent. A moment later, Little Condlin burst into the Eldest’s hut. All eyes shot toward the sweat covered, wide eyed boy.