Chapter Thirty-eight
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Uncle Ike showed up at home, I guess, to escort us to the airport. Why? The old fart confuses me. Maybe he wanted to give the human a glare. Scare the heck out of him. Which wasn’t necessary. Alex was far from getting’ used to our kind. Not just ogres and trolls. He’d never met a goblin, and the sporting goods store was chockful of ’em. Alex’s eyes frequently studied Beky. Even though I saw a couple orcs on campus. Maybe the fool doesn’t get around much. Mix.
Had to have been raised in a pretty homogeneous environment. Funny. Alex studied Beky almost as much as Papa studied him. Papa almost made Alex wet his pants, pretty certain. Didn’t help he spoke to Alex in Trollish, and we had to translate. Thankfully Papa wandered away to the business side of the residence after a bit. Left Mama to keep her eyes on the human interloper.
Dragon pooh. All I could do to keep from laughin’ my white ogre butt off. Poor human. He shook every time someone asked him a question. And the questions weren’t like, would you taste good with potatoes and carrots. More leaned toward, can I get ya a pair of mittens, sweetie. Mama may not be trustin’, but she’s empathetic.
One of my all-time favorite orc hens, hair dyed the color of a pomegranate, leather pants and jacket, knee-high boots, rings on every finger, five swingin’ necklaces, dreads to her waist, met us in the terminal. She and Uncle about danced a jig as they hugged. He’d bent down and picked her up off the floor.
I’ve known her since before ever. Always has been a live wire. As usual she asked if Papa had gotten tired of his troll mate yet, as though she didn’t know that troll is my mama. The story is Hroli was ready to run off and live a life of lust and sinfulness with—she calls Papa, the stud. Too funny.
I think Alex’s eyes were gonna rupture. Poor fool.
That was before Hroli nudged suggestively against Alex and whispered up at him, which turned his face purple. Of course I knew what sinful thin’ she asked him, but I played it cool and obtuse.
The hen acts riotous, but I’d adopt her as a special aunt if I could. Poor thin’ talks so provocatively, but into her sixties she hasn’t figgered out yet if she’s inclined to appreciate bulls or hens more. Hard to believe through all that, she’s still a virgin. If I was that confused, I might have done a bit of experimentation.
I should stay out of folks’ heads. I may be one of those evil witches. The gods will get me for it, no doubt.
“A front is movin’ in,” Hroli said. “When I return to pick ya up, the wind may be a little rough. Any ya’ll get sea sick?” She said it with an evil grin, darin’ anyone to admit to a bit of fear.
“Nah? Good. Can’t abide by light-weights.” And she laughed her reddish orc butt off.
As we all followed her toward the heliport, Alder-Alex nudged my elbow and asked, “How rough do you suppose it’ll be?”
Too funny. “Rough enough to make it interestin’,” I said. I had to smile as he gave a tug at the base layer drawers I’d dressed him in, under the thick wool pants I bought him. Not that I literally dressed him. He clunked heavily too, in his hikers. Maybe had never worn anythin’ but those thin tennies humans like. That multilayered, leather jacket made him look a bit overwhelmed.
Before I followed the others into the helo, Uncle pressed a keychain into my hand. He had already explained there hadn’t been any docents available to show us around. That they trusted Uncle, and anyone he trusted, with keys to the North Ridge shrine, meant a lot. I gave him a longer eye contact, to let him know I understood. He grinned, and thunked me hard in the shoulder.
As I snuggled into the bench seat next to Alex, the others were already belted in and fiddlin’ with their headsets and mic booms. Hroli acted irritated with me before I managed to adjust my harness to fit. Maybe another stinkin’ human had preceded me in my seat. I noted Alex’s harness hung loose on him. Should I suggest he snug it up? Meh. Not like the helo would be takin’ a hard landin’.
~
Hale
~
We settled on the dragon ledge to a sun so bright my trollness insisted I find a dark place to wait it out. But as my eyes adjusted, and we stalked near the stairs, the ogre in me stood amazed all over again at how far I could see, north. Pretty sure the curve of the earth was noticeable. As was the black risin’ above the curve, far, far to the north, northeast.
“How long before that gets here, you suppose?” Beky asked. Guess she was lookin’ at the same thin’ I was.
“Holy, holy weezit,” Alder said. “It’s cold up here.” He tugged himself deeper into that idjit-lookin’ knit hat.
“A bit,” Beky answered for Bele and me.
The rotors of the helo reved significantly as Hroli prepared to take off, and I grabbed Beky to keep her from getting’ blown to Central Plain. Bele grabbed the stumblin’ Alder and held him tight to her. I shouldn’t think badly of him. I had to set my feet farther apart too to manage the stinkin’ vortex. I closed my eyes against my hair flippin’ angrily. Maybe I could have used a ball cap. Hard to wear a ball cap over dreads. Papa’s still angry I cut my dreads off. Won’t be the last thin’ he has to get angry with me.
Guess that’s the providence of a papa.
Beky pressed her face into my throat, and I held her a bit tighter. Sensed the shiver through her leather jerkin, and my vest. Good thing we’d both dressed with about four more layers under.
“Ya okay?” I asked her.
“Just keep holdin’ me.” She laughed.
As the cacophony faded, the whistle of the Ridge’s regular wind waged for my attention. Yep. Hikin’ up here today was gonna be on the uncomfortable side. Pretty sure the little human was gonna opt to hang out inside the residence. And Bele would prolly keep him company. Sigh. Bele and I had trudged over all the nearby trails a dozen times anyway. Nothin’ new for us. But I hoped to share the entire experience with Beky.
After gettin’ an eye full of the one-hundred-eighty degrees of plain layin’ over a mile straight below us, I turned to take in the insanely-jagged terrain west that made the Ridge a natural fortress.
“Wow,” Beky said into my chin. I guess I could set her down now. But then again, a gust could take her for a flight any moment. “Let me down. Let me down.” Oh, darn.
I set her down softly, but held a tight grip of her jerkin at the shoulders. She backed against me, which was almost as nice.
“How’d the gods scrunch up the earth like this?” Beky asked with more than a bit of awe in her voice. I considered sharin’ about the ninety million years they played around to make it so, that cleaved the fissure that became Black Lake, but the wonder of it all is half the majesty.
Don’t think the gods mind us talkin’ the science of it all. I hope. Never did read my Psalms after takin’ those geology classes. Surely they forgave me.
Together we twisted to the east, where the ruggedness softened as the miles traversed between us and the mid-highlands, where the forest emerged, and blended into the horizon. We’d stared at it all from the air just a few moments ago, but the grandeur hadn’t faded, here on terra firma. I pointed out the tiny sliver of the South Turnpike as it neared the Range. Like bein’ on top of the world. Well, we actually were.
I looked around for Bele and Alder. Ah. She’d already led Alder below. Oh well. The view through the twenty-foot windows inside didn’t diminish the experience much.
“All the snow,” Beky murmured.
“Still find smidgens of it in the cracks on the last day of summer,” I said.
“There a summer up here?”
Pretty sure she teased. After she laughed, I added, “Not much.” Should I share what’s janglin’ inside my brain bucket? Usually I have Bele to do that for me. “Hike a hundred yards down,” I said, “and it’ll start feelin’ like summer.”
She peeked toward the ledge. “Like anyone could manage that.”
Should I tell her about Ike’s ward who actually managed that climb, several hundreds of years ago? He had to be really motivated, or stupid. It’s a long story. Maybe another day.
Though she shivered against me, we stood and scanned the half of the world that lay below us for another twenty minutes. She got a big kick out of the big horn way down there, tinier than ants, flowin’ over the grass, which prolly swung in the lesser breeze.
In the time we stood there, the northern storm noticeably neared. As the clouds spread, they should have turned less threatenin’. But they didn’t. I suggested we go downstairs, hopin’ she didn’t pick up on my unease.
Down the first flight of stairs, through the unlocked steel girders Bele had left open, and across the shallow, lower landin’ ledge, we entered Taiz’lin’s lair. The bare, arched, struck granite cavern, prolly doesn’t look much like it did in Taiz’lin’s day, but every visit I imagine I can still scent the slate-colored dragon, as well as the remnants of the many feasts she could have savored before takin’ a nice, day-long nap.
“She slept here?” Beky asked.
“When she wasn’t sunnin’ up there.” I pointed at the ledge we had been standin’ on earlier.
“Looks like you could pen a hundred cattle in here,” she murmured.
“Books say dragons never stopped growin’. Prolly got tight in here before she decided to return to the other side with her brothers. After her love and bonded mate passed.”
“One of the most beautiful stories ever told,” she said softly, as though it’d be sinful to talk overly loud here. In a way, I agreed with her. But not a story. Story implies a made up thin’. I share DNA of that Ike, as does every clan member who didn’t marry in over the last five generations.
“You look as though you’re going to cry,” Beky whispered.
I took a long breath. “This shrine. This place.” I couldn’t finish. My chest heaved a bit.
Beky wrapped her short arms around me. Felt good. I could have stood there a week, but I could hear the wind pickin’ up, so I recommended we go downstairs. The stinkin’ clouds eclipsed the sun as we stepped back on the ledge outside. I held Beky close to ensure she didn’t become an orcan kite.
This was gonna be a doozy of a storm. No way Hroli was pickin’ us up any time soon.
~
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