“I have more questions.” Thissraelle interjected, as she reached for an apple on the blanket before her.
Heathrax nodded his huge head toward her. “And I have a few for you.”
“Ah. Okay.” She hesitated and sat back. “Go ahead.”
“You told me how you were
instructed to find me, but not how you came to
actually find me.”
“Oh. Yeah. Well, that’s a long story, too.”
The dragon, with just a bit of sarcasm in his smile, raised his head and flexed the tendrils on his face. He tried to speak with a mocking high female lilt to his voice, “Well, I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon, and time doesn’t seem to matter here, anyway, so...”
Thissraelle rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She began her story with when she met Granthurg and Karendle, telling how they had all battled the slavers in the manor near Dirae. Eddiwarth and Karendle interrupted with their own embellishments and points of view. They talked about their time in the monastery, and the visitation of St Ivarr. They talked about meeting Parith and Korr in the battle at the Cathedral, and spending time in The Vast with the Seekers.
“They said they knew you, that you had helped to found their order.” Thissraelle said to Heathrax.
“Yes, I did.” Heathrax affirmed. “Many years later, I tried to get Jaxil to join, but he was too concerned with the Guild and their machinations in the City.” Jaxil sighed and nodded.
Thissraelle continued, “They told us they thought you were in the Emberfire mountains, so we all began the journey.”
Eddiwarth interjected with a wink at Thissraelle, “We really like your poetry, by the way.”
“My poetry?” The dragon looked surprised.
“Yes, they gave me a book of your poems,” Thissraelle said, “but they never mentioned that you were a dragon. That might have helped us.”
Heathrax laughed again.
“Hey!” Karendle exclaimed to Thissraelle, “Couldn’t they have just portaled us here? If they knew him and all. That would have saved us a lot of trouble.”
Heathrax shook his head. “I have been isolated for many, many years. I don’t believe any of them know where to find me. I’ve been quite content to be alone.”
The story continued. Korr told of the party traveling through the forest, of being attacked, and ending up in TreeHaven. Thissraelle told him about the shrine, and their efforts to find out more about him there.
“That is a remarkable journey.” Heathrax confirmed.
Korr nodded. “My master teaches that all things are connected, and the world is one, a whole, a complete round. Any road that you walk will eventually lead you to where you need to be.”
Heathrax chuckled. “Your master is wise, but he always makes me laugh.”
Thissraelle smiled.
Yes, the long road got us here. Who could have foreseen all of this? We had no idea where we were going. She looked at her friends with gratitude. She reached out and took Eddiwarth’s hand, then Karendle’s. Each of them took Korr’s and Parith’s as well. “Thank you all. You each risked so much for me, and I have learned so much from each of you. Thank you.”
Karendle embraced her. “I’m with you, sis. I’m with you!”
Heathrax nodded to them. “
This could be why Ivarr came to you.”
Thissraelle sat back. “I don’t understand.”
I’ve been saying that a lot in the last few months.
“You said you had been troubled not knowing why you had been given this task. Look around you. Look how you have all become so close, how much you have obviously all grown. You might have thought that the task was to bring me a vitally important message of the dangers in the world, but The Creator is often very involved in helping small changes in the lives of seemingly small people. Sometimes that’s how big things happen.”
Thissraelle looked around at the others and breathed deep.
A thought jumped up in her mind. “I still want to know how you and my father knew to come save us at the shrine. We were all set to die. How did you know to help us in the fight?”
Her father answered, “Well, I was contacted by Heathrax. He told me you were about to be in trouble and told me where. Years and years and years of nothing, not a ‘how do you do’, and suddenly, he’s telling me that my daughter’s about to get killed. I have no idea how he knew.” He looked over at the dragon.
Heathrax exclaimed, “Why, you told me!”
Jaxil frowned. “No, I didn’t.”
“Not you, Jaxil. You didn’t.” Heathrax gestured at Thissraelle. “However,
you did.”
“What?” Thissraelle face was twisted in confusion.
“I received a message to my mind that you would be there, and that you urgently need my help. I reached out to your father immediately, then hurried to my portal.”
“But I didn’t know you.. I had no idea how to communicate with you! And how would you know who I was and that I would need your help?”
“Time is funny. It marches along very strangely here in The Vast. You obviously didn’t know me then. But now you do. And someday I imagine you will know how to send me that message.”
Thissraelle took a deep breath, her mind reeling a bit, then slowly bit from the apple she had held in her lap. There was no logical response to that statement. She looked at the blank and surprised faces of the others and had no answer for them, either. “So,” she munched, “what do we do now?”
Her father slowly stood. “You four,” he gestured to all of Thissraelle’s friends, “should rest. You should all come with me to Emberfire City and be honored guests in my home there. Stay for the Winterfest. It is amazing here in the mountains.”
“And what about me?” Thissraelle pressed.
Jaxil sighed deeply. “I can no longer command you as your father. You need not obey me. I hope, however, that you will also come home, at least for a time. Please. If not for me, come to comfort your mother.”
Oh.
Yes. My Mother.
That’s going to be an... interesting visit.
She looked at Karendle with pleading in her eyes. “Maybe we can go on another quest...?”
The End of Part 15, and Story Arc 4
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