Dragon Aster Trilogy

33: TOY TRAINS



When Kenshe, Tank, Prisca and Cirrus reached the center of the Harbor where the train station was, they were greeted by unfriendly and distrustful looks. Urio was shouting orders and already assembling a train on his own accord.

Cirrus eyed the locomotive like it was his own personal toy train set that he had just received as a gift. It was the ultimate attention-getter as the whole station froze when he somned into his dragon form, fearing that he would take to the tons of metal like a toy.

Kenshe only shook his head. “Are you having fun?”

“I didn’t touch it,” Cirrus countered, shrinking slightly smaller in size, but still taller than the locomotive, as his light blue eyes peered just over its top. He looked around the station as Feryl and Urio had managed to round up some workers rather quickly. Urio was clearly the right choice to get things organized and done.

“Ah, Tank!” Urio said, giving his old friend a hug. “And you brought my favorite Caller as well!” He picked up Prisca, and she giggled as she was tucked under his arm like an extra part.

“Is this all we need?” Cirrus asked.

“We still have to hire some Runners,” Urio answered.

“Should I prepare to push it too?” Cirrus replied, not understanding what the old phelan was talking about in its entirety yet.

Urio laughed. “You hear that Feryl? Looks like you’re pushing this hunk of junk.”

“Hey, it works!” Feryl countered with a shout, wiping a line of black grease across his sweaty forehead as he walked over to them. It matched his black and white streaked hair rather well. “And it’s the only one I could acquire with the pickings you gave me to bribe with.” Then he looked at the dragon stalking his train. “Runners are phelan who escort trains to their destination. There are a lot of angry spirits, griffins and a bit of everything that tends to want a bite out of trains on the Suzerain Continent. They carry supplies and important people who would rather not use their own four legs. Now with the guarantee all the rogue spirits out there are angry, we need to be prepared.”

“Kenshe is a natural Runner, just like his father was. So that gives us three,” Urio added.

“You’re a Runner?” Cirrus asked Feryl.

“Yeah, I’m not too old yet.” He looked at Urio then. “You coming along?”

“I am, but I can’t be a Runner anymore. Don’t have that kind of stamina left in me.”

“I was the fastest back in the day, but I’m betting that Kenshe can easily beat me in speed now,” Feryl said. “Tank was the meat shield, Urio was our Sano and Hain…well Hain was our Boss,” he finished, with a hint of sadness escaping his voice.

Cirrus had never felt anything aside from contempt for Hain, but it was clear that he was alone in his feelings about the dead Awl. Now that he knew that Damek’s Curse was meant to kill, as it had Kas, he couldn’t entirely avoid the gratitude in him for Hain saving Sybl. The Awl had bought them more time, but how much time he had left to save his Bond he didn’t know.

“He did nothing less than any of us would do. Only it wasn’t until now that I actually thought he had the guts for it,” Urio said, finishing the topic. “Now back to work.”

Cirrus didn’t know where he fit in there, so he decided to guard his oversized toy. He would be more useful in Helios with any unfriendly locals to the place. But someone was still staring at him. He found the red eyes, and it was Prisca who looked to be frozen in shock from where she stood looking up at him. But she didn’t run in terror to her father to Cirrus’ surprise.

“Do dragons have Packs?”

Cirrus’ face twitched at the question as he couldn’t imagine a daoran putting up with more than one mate. They would sooner kill them off to have some peace and quiet which was their nature. But he couldn’t bring himself to disappoint his newest, most unexpected fan. Not when she was the only female on the planet, next to Sybl, who didn’t want to kill him. “Sometimes dragoons have more than one female.” He didn’t add the details to just how wrong it was.

“You can’t do that!” she shouted at him.

“Why not?” he teased.

“Because that isn’t fair.”

“And you having more than one male is fair?”

“Yes,” Prisca replied, quite certain.

Cirrus smiled, trying to keep as much of his teeth to himself as he could. “You should ask the Caelestis to change the Laws then, not me.”

“I will do that.” Prisca pulled out a ribbon of gold from her pocket and held it between her hands as if she was praying.

Cirrus unsomned and looked more closely to what she was doing. “What is that?”

“Chrison stole it from the Caelestis’ pocket. I think it fell off of her unicorn mask when she was pretending to be an Awl.”

“Can I see that for a moment?”

“No. Not until I’m done asking her Lady Caelestis to change the Laws.”

Cirrus knelt down on one knee as he watched Prisca sing up a Nova with her small, but powerful voice. But only minutes into the trance, she snapped back out with a gasp. “What did you see?” he asked, catching her shoulders to shake her back into focus.

“She’s fighting something. Something big!”

Cirrus took his hands back to himself when Tank came over in concern, before taking the golden ribbon from the ayame who didn’t look to want it anymore. He closed his eyes and soon saw what Prisca had, but also that Sybl wasn’t alone. He gripped it tighter and boarded the train as it was ready to leave. He would not accept the possibility of losing Sybl for anything.