Chapter 19-5

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he picked his way over to his big friend, his broken and torn wings jostling painfully with every step. The griffon, however, was in far worse shape. Blood stained his feathers, and even some of his fur, much of it his own. More blood flowed freely from several large wounds in his chest, wings, and head. While Almonihah could see his chest moving from his breath, it was too rapid and shallow. 

Almonihah swore a bit at some pain in his side... probably just a bruise... as he desperately searched through his pack, hoping that they hadn't broken... There! He pulled a small pouch out and tore it open with his claws, not bothering to untie the top. He'd have to remember to have this more accessible... 

He breathed a short sigh of relief when he saw the three little potion sacks were intact. They were like tiny waterskins, but filled with healing liquids made by the druids that worked with the Rangers. 

“Zakhin'Dakh!” Almonihah shouted... well, said loudly. He'd have to shorten the name for situations like this... Zakh might work, even though he didn't really like the sound of it.

The big griffon opened one eye and chirped weakly.

“Eat this!” Almonihah commanded, holding one of the little potion-skin near his big beak.

Slowly, Zakhin'Dakh opened his beak a bit. Almonihah placed the potion-skin mostly in his beak, with just the stoppered end hanging out. Zakhin'Dakh closed his beak with just enough force to cut through the potion-skin, then swallowed. Almonihah watched anxiously as the flow of blood slowed from his wounds.

“One more,” he whispered, repeating the process. This time the blood was fully stopped, and Zakhin'Dakh's breathing seemed more even. He breathed out a quiet thanks to whoever had come up with these things... and to Naishia, who he was pretty sure must have been keeping an eye out to keep him from getting his friend killed. And himself. 

For the past several years. So why had he been being such an idiot... especially this time? He didn't really want to think about what might have led to this latest incident. Or... well, he didn't want to think about a lot of things just now.

He did, however, need to think about why he was now leaning on Zakhin'Dakh's beak. The big griffon chirped in soft concern.

“Guess I need th' last one...” Almonihah muttered, working the stopper out and drinking the last of the healing potions. He could feel the effects mostly in his wings, and he felt a little less light-headed. Slowly turning around, he saw that he'd trailed blood the whole way from that tree... which was a mess. Yes, apparently there was blood in his wings. Of course. 

He really had been an idiot for the last... quite a while.

Almonihah sat down to rest. Zakhin'Dakh, seeing his friend looking a bit better, screeched sleepily and drifted off. The half-dragon watched carefully, but his breathing stayed steady, and no new blood flowed, so he figured it was best for the big griffon to rest. 

Once he felt up to it, he started setting up something resembling a camp. Sure, there was a big dead dragon in it, and a badly injured griffon sleeping in it, but Zrathanzon had definitely taught him how to make due. He'd also mentioned that you could eat green dragon meat if you cooked it well enough. So Almonihah started a fire, hacked a piece of flesh off the dragon, and started cooking it. He thought back on how stupid he'd been and how he was going to do better as he waited for it to cook.

Fortunately, it didn't get too burnt while he slept.

********

Gasp! Almonihah realizing that he needs to change his life! All it took was almost getting his best friend in a long time killed... yeah, nice job, there.

No update today. Sorry!

No update today. Moving... kind of took precedence. However, here's a bit of info on Draezolnian bronze dragons, just so you have a little something to read. :D



Bronze dragons are among the smallest of the metallic dragons, larger only (for their age) than the coppers. Culturally, they are known for being honorable, but unforgiving. One who receives a bronze dragon's trust should count himself fortunate... but one who betrays that trust can never rest in safety.


As lightning-breathers, they often enjoy flying in storms, and are surprisingly capable of doing so, despite the adverse conditions. They often hunt during thunderstorms, the thunder and wind covering their approach. Their body temperatures run somewhat above that of a human, though not so much as a fire-breathing dragon's does. Of all dragons, they often keep the smallest hoards, and move about most often. They also are among the most frequent of dragons to take human form.

Chapter 19-4

It was Zakhin'Dakh, however, that spotted the dragon first. His soft screech brought Almonihah's attention to it.

If Almonihah had been thinking clearly, he would have talked with his friend about the best tactics to use, about how to not get hit by the green dragon's acidic breath, how he needed to aim for the weakest, smallest scales, all of the things Zrathanzon had taught him about fighting dragons. Of course, if he'd been thinking clearly, he probably wouldn't have been here at all. 

Instead, his thinking was so... wrong that he couldn't even recognize the wrongness of it. He had come here, driven by some pressure he could not explain, and now that he caught sight of the scaled head thrusting itself out of an opening in the side of a hill, the pressure exploded into rage.

Go! he growled to Zakhin'Dakh, and the big griffon, trusting his friend even though something felt wrong, leaped into the air. 

The dragon couldn't help but see a griffon almost as big as it was take to the air so close to its lair. “Who trespasses here?” it roared at them.

Almonihah responded with a roar of his own. He had his bow out, but was discovering just how difficult it was to fire from griffonback. Not only was it incredibly difficult to get the bow into firing position without hitting Zakhin'Dakh's head or wing or his own boot, the constant up and down from his wingbeats made it almost impossible to aim. Then he noticed the dragon taking a deep breath.

He nudged Zakhin'Dakh hard with one knee. The griffon got the idea and veered to one side just in time to avoid a torrent of acid, though he shrieked in pain as part of one back foot caught the edge of it. Almonihah jumped free as his friend started to right himself, landing on the ground and bringing his bow up. The dragon was watching Zakhin'Dakh, readying itself to jump. Quickly Almonihah nocked an arrow, drew, aimed...

The shaft buried itself in the dragon's eye just as it leaped at the griffon. It roared in pain, shaking its head and ruining its jump, just as Zakhin'Dakh rose up above it with a couple powerful flaps of his wings, then dove on the creature below him. There was a loud CRACK as he impacted the dragon's shoulder, just where its wing met its back. 

It roared again, and lashed out at the griffon on its back with its fangs. It tore a bite out of Zakhin'Dakh's thigh, bringing another shriek from him as he twisted around to slash at the head with his talons. Almonihah's next arrow ricocheted off scales as the two massive beasts slashed at each other, and the half-dragon cursed as he watched. His friend, lacking the protection of draconic scales, was losing the fight, bleeding profusely from several long slashes in his chest and sides, while Zakhin'Dakh had only been able to make a few superficial scratches on the dragon's face.

Despite the boiling anger and the fog over his thoughts, Almonihah retained a certain basic cunning. He circled to the dragon's blinded side, and then ran towards it, Zithrandrak drawn. Zakhin'Dakh saw him coming, and redoubled his efforts to injure his foe. He managed to bite the dragon's clawed foot as it slashed at him, his beak shearing off one of the dragon's toes with a sickening crunch. The dragon roared again, pulling its injured foot back and snapping at the griffon, but still not noticing the half-dragon leaping at its blind eye, silver blade outstretched.

Almonihah, wings outstretched as he soared toward the dragon, could see where he was aiming for. Just to the side of where the arrow had gone in. The shaft hadn't gone deep enough to do more than blind the beast, but a thin blade sunk deep enough just a little off to the side of the arrowhead...

The dragon turned its head slightly. Almonihah spread his wings and flapped once, modifying his trajectory just enough. Zithrandrak shot forward, the half-dragon's full weight and momentum behind it.

Just as the dragon was inhaling again, the sword sunk in, piercing the remains of its ruined eye and going deep into its head. Almonihah grunted as the hilt was torn from his grasp, feeling his hand and arm shriek briefly in pain as the opposing forces of holding onto Zithrandrak and flying forward tried to tear them off, then had to grit his teeth against the pain as his now erratic flight brought his right wing into contact with a nearby tree. He felt something in his wing break, and then his other wing struck some low branches as he tumbled through the air. They pierced the fragile membranes and got tangled with the bones of his wing, tearing great rents in it as he struck the tree itself with his body then fell to the ground.

Almonihah groaned as the fog seemed to clear from his mind. He had no idea why he'd been so stupid as to do this. He was lucky that the dragon had concentrated more on Zakhin'Dakh than on him...

Zakhin'Dakh.

The half-dragon stumbled to his feet and made his way back to where they had fought. Zakhin'Dakh... wasn't moving.

******

It's still Monday where I am! Now, bed time.

Chapter 19-3

Zakhin'Dakh screeched an acknowledgement, walked forward, and after a few fumbles, picked up the barrel and took off. As they flew over the town Almonihah could hear exclamations of fear below them, but ignored them. They would see soon enough what they were doing, and if they still wanted to fear them after that, well, that was their choice.

It didn't take long for them to fly to the river with the barrel. Filling it on the wing was a bit trickier: Zakhin'Dakh trailed one of his wings in the water and almost fell out of the air, but managed to recover. He had to beat his wings hard to gain altitude again, with both Almonihah and the full water barrel, but managed to get back high enough to fly back toward the town.

Half of the water in the barrel had sloshed out of the barrel on the way back to the fire—bringing a couple more exclamations from below when some spilled out while they flew over the town. Zakhin'Dakh's aim wasn't very good on dumping the remaining water, so only a little of it hissed on the flames Almonihah had pointed out. It looked like the building had once held a forge, which was probably where the fire had started from.

“Guess we need more,” he said, looking down at Zakhin'Dakh's head in front of him.

Zakhin'Dakh didn't know how many more times they took the water back and forth. After a couple times he got really good at not messing up getting the water and not spilling it, and he was more careful about dropping it exactly where Almonihah wanted. The fire started to be smaller each time they came back, and Almonihah sounded happy, so Zakhin'Dakh was happy even though he was getting really tired.

Almonihah could tell that the big griffon was tiring, so when it seemed like the fire was under control, he guided him into land by hole in the stockade. Zakhin'Dakh landed heavily, panting, and Almonihah jumped off to land next to him.

How do you feel, my friend? he murmured in Great Eagle.

Tired. Happy, replied the griffon.

Rest up, and I'll talk, Almonihah said, patting Zakhin'Dakh's leg before walking over to the nervous guards standing and watching the pair.

As he approached, he took a closer look at the damage to the palisade. It was... odd. A rough semicircle taken out of the tops of the posts making up the wall, not quite to the ground at its lowest point. Looking closer, he could see that the edge of it didn't look like it had been bitten or burned or clawed, but rather... melted. A quick glance at the ground didn't show any sign of something other than humans walking, though the many boot-prints might have obliterated any traces of something else.

“So what happened?” Almonihah asked once he was near the guards.

For a nervous moment none of them answered. Finally one spoke. “A dragon.”

Several things clicked together in the half-dragon's mind. “Green scales?”

They nodded.

“What size?”

After a moment, they all answered at once, with contradictory responses. After a moment, Almonihah pointed at Zakhin'Dakh. “Big as him?”

A moment of conference, then one answered, “Close enough.”

So, a green dragon. An adult, but not a particularly old one. “'nd which way did it leave?”

“You're not going after it?” one of the guards blurted out, incredulous.

Almonihah smiled, showing his rather draconic set of teeth. “I don't particularly like a lot of my father's kind,” he growled as he stopped smiling.

The guards looked at him, over at Zakhin'Dakh, and then back at Almonihah. Finally, one pointed to the southwest. “That way, back into the hills.”

“Then that's where 'll start looking.” Almonihah turned and walked back to Zakhin'Dakh. 

Ready to hunt a dragon? Almonihah asked the big griffon.

Dragon? Zakhin'Dakh repeated, not recognizing the word.

You'll see. This one's supposed to be about as big as you.

Zakhin'Dakh screeched in surprise. As big?

Almonihah nodded. That's what they say. Let's go see if they're right.

Almonihah set a fast pace as the traveled, but didn't let Zakhin'Dakh fly. When he complained about it, Almonihah explained that he didn't want the dragon seeing them any sooner than he could help it. Privately, he thought the giant griffon would be pretty easy to see on the ground, too, but it gave them a better chance.

Why? Hunt? Zakhin'Dakh suddenly asked as they walked.

“Why are we hunting the dragon?” Almonihah asked, surprised by the question.

Zakhin'Dakh nodded and screeched an affirmative.

“It attacked those people. It's dangerous, and you can't just talk with dragons.” Something didn't sound... quite right about his explanation to him.

Zakhin'Dakh's screech sounded doubtful, as well, but he didn't ask anything more. 

Soon, Almonihah's trained eye could detect signs of a dragon. Bark that had been scraped off a tree when something large and scaly brushed it too hard... hints of impact points where a large creature had slammed into its prey from the air... they weren't frequent, but they were there.

It was Zakhin'Dakh, however, that spotted the dragon first.

********

Yeah, Almonihah doesn't particularly like dragons that kill people, for some reason.

I'm going to try to update every Monday. So bug me if I haven't done it!

Chapter 19-2

Zakhin'Dakh looked at what Almonihah was looking at. It looked like a funny little cloud. Something about it made him a bit uneasy.

“Come on,” Almonihah murmured, urgently, breaking out into a ground-eating trot.

The big griffon screeched in response and followed. 

They covered ground quickly, and soon both could see the source of the smoke, one with draconic eyes, the other with aquiline. There was a fair-sized stockaded town downslope from them. Even their sight could make out little detail from this distance, but it seemed that part of the stockade had been knocked down, and something within the town was blazing.

Almonihah took this in quickly. “Stay here,” he said to Zakhin'Dakh. “I'll call when it's time for you to come.”

Zakhin'Dakh screeched disappointedly, but settled down to wait as the Ranger sprinted toward the town. 

Almonihah ran his hardest, wings clamped to his back so they wouldn't drag him back. Soon he could make out some people working to put out the fire, as well as several armed guards standing near the breach in the wall, watching the ground and skies nervously. One of them spotted him, and soon four were marching out to meet him.

“Who goes there?” One yelled as soon as they were close enough to be heard.

“Almonihah. A Ranger,” Almonihah yelled back.

The guards halted and conferred for a moment. Almonihah walked a bit closer and then stopped, too. Now wasn't the time to crowd them.

After a few seconds, one yelled again. “What do you want here?”

“It looked like you had a problem. Thought I could help.”

Even from here the half-dragon could see the doubt on their faces at that response. Then one of them suddenly looked thoughtful and took a couple steps toward him. 

“I think I've heard of someone like you...” He wasn't quite yelling, but Almonihah could still here him easily.

“Gold scales? About my height?” The guard nodded hesitantly. “He trained me.”

The guard that had come forward turned back to his fellows. They talked for a little while again, then he turned back to Almonihah.

“How can you help?”

“Since 't doesn't look like you're fighting now...” he thought a moment. “Can help with the fire. Get your biggest barrel out and we'll dump water on it.”

The guard looked a bit confused. “We?”

Almonihah turned and shouted as loud as he could. “Zakhin'Dakh!”

The griffon, which probably looked like little more than a shape on the horizon to the humans behind Almonihah, perked up at the call, and flew over to see what his friend was calling him for.

The guards shouted and formed a line with their spears pointing outwards as Zakhin'Dakh flew closer.

 Almonihah turned back.

“Don't worry,” he yelled. “He won't hurt you.”

They didn't seem reassured, especially not when the big griffon landed next to Almonihah and his true size was apparent. Zakhin'Dakh looked curiously at the guards.

People? He asked.

Almonihah grinned a bit. Yes, and they're a bit scared of you.

Zakhin'Dakh puffed his chest out. Because big! he screeched happily.

The half-dragon's smile widened. Yes, but we don't want them to be frightened. Try not to look so big and scary.

Zakhin'Dakh screeched unhappily at this. Glancing back at the guards, Almonihah saw that they had relaxed a little bit when no attack came, but they were definitely not at ease.

“'f you don't want us in town, just bring th' barrel out here and point us t' th' nearest water,” he yelled to them. 

After another moment of discussion, one of the guards yelled back, “Wait here!” and then the whole group marched back to the town.

Zakhin'Dakh screeched inquisitively. Almonihah looked back over to him, a bit of a grin playing around his lips again.

People tend to be nervous about big creatures like you around their towns. Things like that, he jerked his head at the damaged stockade, tend to happen when something your size visits.

Oh. While Zakhin'Dakh's screech wasn't actual Great Eagle, its meaning was clear to Almonihah. His next sound, however, was his favorite Great Eagle word... after big, of course.

Why?

This took Almonihah a little while to answer, and he responded in Common since he wasn't quite sure his friend's Great Eagle was good enough to understand the explanation. “Depends. Some 're just hungry 'nd too stupid t' realize th' danger. Some just like killing things... they're just evil. Others...” he shrugged. “Don't know.”

Oh. The big griffon responded again, and was actually quiet for a bit as he thought. Almonihah could make out the guards talking with others at the (undamaged) gate to the town, and after a little while, a man came out rolling a barrel. 

I'll need to ride you for a bit, I think, Almonihah said. When Zakhin'Dakh looked over at him, beak open to speak, he added, It won't be for long enough for the problems to matter.

Okay! Zakhin'Dakh screeched happily, kneeling down a bit to make it easier for Almonihah to mount.

He was sitting at the base of the griffon's neck by the time the man, obviously nervous at the sight of Zakhin'Dakh, stopped rolling the barrel.

“River's just on the other side of the town,” he yelled, not quite close enough to speak normally and be heard.

Almonihah nodded at him, and after a moment, he took the hint and started jogging back to the town. Once there was a bit of distance between him and the barrel, Almonihah murmured to Zakhin'Dakh, Think we can take that barrel and find that river?

******************

I really need to find more words for bird sounds. I overuse screech, shriek I reserve for when he's really loud, chirp is too... small for him...

Anyway, this is leading somewhere... any guesses as to what?

Chapter 19-1

Chapter 19: Two

They headed roughly east-northeast. Almonihah had some vague idea that they should go to the coast, though no specific idea of where. He didn't really think about why, it just... seemed right. Certainly Zakhin'Dakh seemed happy enough to head that way. He wanted to see these strange people things Almonihah talked about, and their funny city-things. 

Almonihah continued teaching Zakhin'Dakh along the way. More Great Eagle was the most important lesson, of course, but the griffon could only take so much of that, so Almonihah often talked of other things. Places they might go, or different ways of hunting and tracking, or the animals and plants he had seen in his journeys... Zakhin'Dakh listened rapturously. The one thing that still bothered him was that Almonihah insisted on walking around, when it was so much slower than flying. He kept asking his little friend why he didn't use his wings, but the half-dragon steadfastly refused to answer.

One day, Zakhin'Dakh simply stopped and screeched, On!

Almonihah looked at him blankly and grunted.

You, he pointed a talon at the half-dragon. On.

Suddenly Almonihah laughed. It's not that easy, Zakhin'Dakh, he replied.

Why?

Almonihah switched back to the Common Tongue. “Can't just hop on your back and ride. I wouldn't have anything t' hold onto, and my scales'd rub your neck raw.”

The big griffon screeched disappointedly and started dejectedly walking along. Shaking his head, Almonihah followed.

“Just need t' get a saddle,” he called after Zakhin'Dakh. “When we get t' a city.”

Zakhin'Dakh perked up. City! he screeched.

By the time they reached the Orc Hills, Zakhin'Dakh could sometimes string together a complete sentence, though the words often weren't in the correct order. Almonihah started to ask him the occasional question, trying to get an idea of what his view on the world was. He quickly gathered that it was rather simplistic, but more complex than an animal's. He wasn't quite sure if this was normal for a griffon or if it was related to whatever it was about that valley that had made him so large. Almonihah's suspicion was that it was a little of both, combined with a bit of Zakhin'Dakh just being an unusual griffon.

One conversation surprised him, however. He asked one day what Zakhin'Dakh most wanted.

More big! was the griffon's enthusiastic reply.

It took Almonihah only a moment to interpret the reply. It brought another laugh. Oh, but it felt good to laugh. He didn't remember when the last time he'd laughed before meeting Zakhin'Dakh was. The thought brought a bit of an odd twist to his smile, though it cleared a bit as he thought of who might have been behind his meeting the griffon.

“Why would you want to be bigger, Zakhin'Dakh?” Almonihah asked, still smiling. “Don't think there's a griffon around who's bigger than you.”

It took Zakhin'Dakh a while to think of how to answer the question. He hadn't really ever thought about why he wanted things, just that he wanted them. 

Big better! Big happy! Big not run away small thing.

Almonihah's grin grew broader. “Don't think there's much that won't be afraid of you, Zakhin'Dakh. Except dragons.”

The griffon raised his head and puffed out his chest. Dragons scared too more big!

The only response this brought was another laugh.

Nothing bothered them when they crossed the Orc Hills. Almonihah wanted to think it was because he'd been careful not to attract attention, but he was pretty sure it had as much to do with nothing wanting to attract Zakhin'Dakh's attention. Despite their reputation among most of their neighbors, orcs generally weren't any more stupid than the average human, and it would've taken a lot of orcs to kill the both of them. More than generally wandered the areas they traveled through. 

They reached the other side of the Hills in the late evening. There was a fair-sized town not far from here, if Almonihah recalled correctly from when he and Zrathanzon had gone through this area. It wasn't long before he could see the smoke from their fires in the distance.

As they neared, he frowned. That was... too much smoke.

******

Zakhin'Dakh is one of the few things on all of Draezoln that can get Almonihah to smile and laugh.

This section was a bit hard for me to sit down and write, because I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to cover what happened during this time between Almonihah and Zakhin'Dakh without bogging down. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, but I may change it in that mythical future in which I come back and revise all of this.

Chapter 18-4

Hours later, the half-dragon—he'd said to call him “Almonihah”, though Zakhin'Dakh didn't really understand how that mattered when he couldn't say anything—said he had to leave. Suddenly the griffon realized he didn't want his new friend to go, and so he decided to keep him from going. He made a funny noise when Zakhin'Dakh trapped him under one of his taloned feet.

He tried to talk, and after a bit Zakhin'Dakh got the impression he couldn't say anything when he was leaning on him. Zakhin'Dakh eased up a bit. 

“I'll come back tomorrow,” Almonihah gasped.

With a disappointed screech, Zakhin'Dakh let him all the way up, then watched as he started climbing back down. It seemed silly that he didn't use his wings when it would be so much faster. Then he realized he was rather hungry, and forgot about watching the half-dragon in his haste to do something about that.

The next day was a good day for flying, but somehow Zakhin'Dakh didn't feel quite as happy as he normally did. He did have a lot to think about, though, like wondering where Almonihah had come from and what else he might be able to talk about. Just talking with the half-dragon had given Zakhin'Dakh the impression that there was a whole lot he didn't know that he'd never imagined there even was to know. It didn't occur to him that a thought like that was unusual for a griffon.

He really hoped Almonihah would come back soon.

He had just taken to the air again after eating in the morning when he saw the half-dragon. With a joyful shriek, he dived down and landed in front of Almonihah. 

Almonihah did something with his face again. “Glad t' see me?”

Zakhin'Dakh nodded and screeched enthusiastically.

“Well, where were we...”

It soon seemed to the big griffon like he'd been looking forward to Almonihah's daily visits his entire life. The Ranger taught him all kinds of new things, like how to look at the ground and tell what had walked there recently, or how to guess what the weather was going to be like. He also talked about a lot of things Zakhin'Dakh had never seen, like people and cities. Zakhin'Dakh wanted to see them, too.

The most frustrating thing, though, was not being able to tell Almonihah what he wanted and what he was thinking. The half-dragon seemed to know that, too.

“There's got t' be some way for you t' talk... 'r at least communicate...” he said one day, looking out at something Zakhin'Dakh couldn't see.

The griffon screeched and nodded in agreement.

“Hmmmm...” Almonihah was quiet for a bit. “I suppose you could scratch some writing with a talon...”

So he started trying to teach Zakhin'Dakh to read and write. It was hard. Zakhin'Dakh didn't really understand how he knew what words meant, much less how to look at something and figure out what word it was supposed to be. But he really wanted to talk, so he tried really hard. After a while he could sometimes scratch out something understandable in the dirt.

It was about then that Almonihah realized something. “You've got an eagle's beak,” he said one day, like it was an amazing thing.

Zakhin'Dakh was a bit confused, and his soft screech echoed that confusion.

Almonihah looked up at the griffon. “'t means I can teach you Great Eagle.”

The griffon screeched happily, even though he didn't really know what that meant.

It turned out it meant a lot more hard work. Zakhin'Dakh had no real concept of language, despite being able to understand the sounds Almonihah made, so learning to speak was slow going. Only his intense desire to communicate kept him going, though he could only do so much each day. When he got tired of trying to talk, he would make his frustration known and he and Almonihah would do something else for the rest of the day.

Eventually, he managed to get down the concept of words, and started screeching them out to try to get across what he wanted or what he was thinking about. His favorite was “Big!” which he liked to exclaim whenever he took advantage of his great size. He still got frustrated when he didn't know the word for something, though he found that he could sometimes use other words in his slowly expanding vocabulary to get across what he wanted a word for. It helped that Almonihah was so smart. Zakhin'Dakh admired that a lot in his friend. 

One day, though, Zakhin'Dakh noticed that Almonihah's face looked different. He'd finally figured out that the half-dragon was happy when his mouth was curved up more, but now he hadn't seen this face very much. It kind of seemed like the opposite of the happy face, though, which made the griffon a bit nervous.

I think I have to go now, he said.

Go? Zakhin'Dakh repeated. He wasn't quite sure he understood what Almonihah had said, since he'd said it in Great Eagle, and he still had trouble understanding it sometimes.

Leave. I need to leave. I have... other places I need to be.

It took the big griffon a few moments to think through exactly what that meant. Then, with an angry No! he jumped on the half-dragon.

“Remember,” Almonihah gasped, “Not to crush me.”

With an unhappy screech, Zakhin'Dakh eased up a bit. No go! he screeched at his friend.

Almonihah shook his head a bit—as much as he could while pinned on the ground. I can't stay here forever, he said, switching back to Great Eagle, And now's the time I need to go.

Why? That was one of Zakhin'Dakh's favorite words, after “big”.

Almonihah was quiet for a moment. Somewhere out there, there's something I need to be doing.

It didn't occur to Zakhin'Dakh to question that answer. With a long, sad screech, he slowly let Almonihah up, then settled down miserably on the ground to watch his friend leave.

“Sorry,” Almonihah said softly as he turned and left. Zakhin'Dakh watched him go with despair, not knowing what he could possibly do with his life now that he knew there was so much interesting stuff to learn and do. 

Then he had an idea.

He stood up and took a step toward the Ranger's back. With! Come! he screeched as he started running toward his friend.

Almonihah turned around. You want to come with me? he asked.

Yes! Zakhin'Dakh screeched happily as he stood in front of the half-dragon. 

Almonihah smiled. After a moment, he said, “Well, if you're going to come with me, I think you need a name. How about...”

Zakhin'Dakh turned his head, looking at Almonihah. He didn't really understand the whole 'name' thing very well yet, but he understood it was important somehow to Almonihah.

“Zakhin'Dakh.”

Zakhin'Dakh sat for a moment, then screeched, Why?

Almonihah laughed. “It means 'Swift Wing' in Draconic. I thought it suited you.”

The big griffon nodded and screeched in agreement. Then it occurred to him that this meant Almonihah had agreed with his idea.

With come! He shrieked happily, rearing up on his hind legs and spreading his wings in excitement.

The half-dragon smiled wider, though he stepped back a bit to make sure Zakhin'Dakh didn't land on him. “Yes, you're coming with me. Now let's go,” he said, then turned and started walking.

Zakhin'Dakh followed, ecstatically happy at the thought of not only staying with his friend but also maybe seeing some of the new places Almonihah had told him about.

****************

This has by far been the most fun part of the chapter to write. It was a lot of fun seeing Zakhin'Dakh's viewpoint on this part of his and Almonihah's shared history, and, well, he's just a fun character to get into.

This is the end of chapter 18, so we'll be mostly returning to Almonihah's point of view for the rest of book one, though I'm sure Zakhin'Dakh will let me know what he was thinking about some of these things. I anticipate it being three or four more chapters until we get to Garkhen and book 2. Which will be a lot different than book 1--Garkhen's history is dominated by one event, so most of the book will revolve around it.