Wednesday, November 23, 2005

   Chapter 17: Pen's Herd (part 3)
Raine woke up next and did the same as Lucifer had; with one branch for himself and two for the Caravan, he helped them set up the breakfast. Before long, they had completed their task.
“It shouldn’t have taken so little time,” Raine noted, brushing his silver bangs out of his face.
“The Caravan suffered a terrible toll,” Pen pointed out. “There’s only fifty or so kids left now.”
“What about the soldiers?” Lucifer brought up. “Come to think of it, what happened to Nano and Panda anyway?”
“They are taken care of,” Pen said. “I made sure of it.”
“What do you mean by that?” Raine asked, unsure how to interpret the words. “They’re dead?”
Pen shook his head. “They all survived, including Keion and Lyanni, but not unscathed. I handed them over to the Letheans, and hopefully they will return to us someday.”
The half-dragon nodded. “Sasheeta should be waking up soon,” he said after a moment of thought. “I should probably go check on her.” With those words, he returned to the tree beneath which the pseudodragon still slept; a Lethean with one broken horn awaited him there, her bright, intelligent eyes filled with kindness.
It took them a second to realize that Sasheeta was sitting on her back, watching them intently with the same draconic smile that they had all become so familiar with.
“Sasheeta, you’re up!” Raine exclaimed in surprise, snatching her up into his arms. She squeaked in protest. “Sorry. How did you get up there?”
“Hey, I might be short a wing, but I’ve still got four good legs,” she said. Since Raine was holding her on her back, she twitched her limbs just to make a point. “That thick Lethean fur makes a nice ladder, you know.”
Raine laughed and cuddled her tightly to his chest.
“MAAAKKK, YOU’RE SQUISHING MEEEE!!” Sasheeta swalked, wriggling in his grasp.
“Give her here,” Lucifer suggested, coming forward to them, a smile dancing on his face. Raine handed the little dragon over to him.
There was a short moment of silence. Then: “Awww, I’ve missed you so much!!” Lucifer growled, giving the cute little dragon a bear hug.
“Oh no, not again!!” she exclaimed. “Someone, PLEASE HELP ME!!!”
Lucifer released her and sat her down on his shoulder, where she playfully whimpered, “I get so much abuse by you guys.”
“Oh please,” Lucifer told her. “Raine did save your life, you know.”
She bowed her head theatrically to the silver-haired fellow. “I am indepted to you with my life, oh half-blood kin, my master—“
“Spare me,” Raine interrupted. “The least you could do is be a little more careful with yourself. We don’t want you to break your neck next time.”
“As you wish, sir of the bicolored swormmmwmmm—“
Lucifer had closed two fingers on her mouth, shutting it on her tongue. She glared at him indignantly, but he pretended not to notice. “So, where were we? Oh yeah, getting on the move…”
“MMHMMMHMMMHMMHMM,” Sasheeta said significantly.
“… it looks like most of the Caravan is starting to wake up now… We could start going within half and hour or so…”
“MMMRRRMMMRRRR,” the dragon was starting to get really aggitated. “MRRRHHRR!!”
“Uh, Lucifer,” Raine said pointedly. “I think Sasheeta wants to say something…”
“Oh, I guess so!” Lucifer noted sarcastically, still smiling brightly. He finally released the dragon’s mouth. She shook her head and tongue, getting out the cramps. “There, now isn’t that better?”
“Jerk,” she said, and jumped to Raine’s shoulder.
“Ouch.”
Suddenly they realized that there was laughter over by the trees. Tari, Tory, and Ed were sitting there, trying not to die from amusement. The eyes of their Lethean mother, who were standing above them, also danced gaily with inner delight.
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