The Secret

(Part 5 of ?????)



               “You’re coming with me…”

               “Wait, WHAT!?”

               “You remember how I said my family was having a get-together soon? Well, I’m taking you with me. I-it’s a long story…” Granite mumbled, giving Markus a slightly guilty look.

               “I don’t want to hear it!” Markus cried. He started to sweat and he could feel his heart hammering in his chest. His palms grew slick and his muscles tensed, he was ready to fight, to run, do whatever he could to get out! Yet he knew deep down, even as he raced towards the exit, that he never could. He was trapped, like a pig in a pen, ready for slaughter.

               Markus charged through the greenery as he exited the cave, but all his momentum came to a halt as he arrived at the edge. The heavy foliage hid most of it from view but, beyond the cave’s little ledge, a sheer drop-off led down to the rest of the forest clinging to the mountainside below. He was contemplating whether he should risk jumping or not when Granite spoke behind him.

               “Markus, what are you doing?”

               “Stay back!” Markus spun around to face the grey beast as she poked her head through the vines only about a few body lengths away. He suddenly remembered the knife his father had given him and quickly drew it, pointing it towards his opponent.

               “Markus… What are you going to do with that? Are you going to try to kill me?”

               “Don’t make me!”

               Granite sighed and stepped forward until she was about halfway through the entryway. “Okay then, come on. I’ll give you a free shot.”

               Markus paused in confusion. “W-what?”

               “I’ll give you a free shot,” Granite repeated. “Now, come on, make your move. Do you want me to lie down? Expose my neck? Oh, I could show you my underbelly — you humans seem to think that’s a weak point, for whatever reason…” she finished with a roll of her eyes.

               “Y-you want me to f-fight you?” Markus stuttered.

               Granite shook her head. “Whatever you want to do. I want to play a game, but if you want to go this route then I guess I’ll play along…” she sighed, looking at him as if he were some sort of tiresome toddler. “Soooo, are you ready to be calm and come inside to play, or am I going to have to come get you?”

               “Stop treating me like I’m a child!” Markus shouted, angrily.

               “Well, I am several hundred years older than you… You’re basically a hatchling to me!”

               “I’m not a hatchling!” Markus screamed. “I’m a HUMAN! I have thoughts, feelings, and emotions! And I’m not letting you take me to your family reunion like a little snack!” His voice cracked and tears filled his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

               “Oh, Markus, it’s not like that, I promise!” Granite said, softly, taking a step toward her frightened charge. “I-it’s just something I have to do…”

               “Stay away,” the human choked, weakly, feebly pointing his little blade at her.

               “Markus, it’ll be okay. I promise, nothing will happen to you!” she sighed again and stepped fully outside, scooping him up with a flick of her paw.

               Markus desperately stabbed at his scaly restraint but his blows simply rebounded off her natural armor as she hobbled back inside and lay him gently on the ground before curling around him.

               “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you, I won’t hurt you,” she insisted, giving him a little nuzzle. Her gesture of comfort gained her a stab to the snout as Markus brought the dagger down on at the tip of her nose.

               She grunted in pain and angrily flicked the annoyed weapon away, scooping it up with a claw and depositing it on the floor outside her curled form. She released Markus and he desperately pressed against the wall of scales behind him, looking much the same as he had a few days ago. Fortunately, Granite had a much different agenda in mind this time.

               “I’m really sorry about this, Markus, truly I am! But I’m out of time and this is how it has to be…” She took a deep breath in preparation of her explanation. “Every year my family gets together and everyone has a little contest of Cordik. The winner gets to have a wish granted by the whole family or any member of the group. It’s a pretty big thing in our family!” She paused and looked at Markus but he looked no less terrified than he was a few moments ago. “Everyone tells the family what their wish is before we start the contest and then we start the games. Last year got a bit more heated than usual… My brother and sister have never really seen eye to eye when it comes to the subject of humans. My sister loves humans as friends and my brother sees them more as… Let’s just say food. Last meeting my brother announced that if he won he’d have someone bring a human next year and make my sister eat and digest it…” She looked at Markus and found him in tears again. “But he didn’t win!” Granite continued, quickly. “My sister did and her wish was for someone of her choice to bring a human and have it stay the duration of the meeting period unharmed and untouched!”

               Markus stopped crying and looked up, his little brown eyes filled with hope.

               Granite’s own spirits lifted as Markus’s did and she continued in a lighter tone. “She chose me to bring the human and I chose you!”

               “W-why me?” he croaked, fighting down a lump that had formed in his throat.

               “Weeeeell, I kinda forgot about it until after I’d brought you home…” Granite replied in embarrassment. “I figured that the human might as well be you since we’d, well, become acquainted…” She stared off, remembering her surprise, and gratitude, that she hadn’t killed him while she’d been carving the Cordik board.

               “So, I won’t be eaten?”

               “No, you’re safe,” Granite assured him. “My sister just wants to show a human off to her family to prove that they’re not so bad. No one should really have too big a problem with you being there. Buuut, if you see a dragon with black scales come and find me, ok?”

               Markus shivered. “W-who’s the dragon with black scales?”

               “He’s my grandfather, Tygen. He doesn’t like humans at all! He’s the only one that I can think of that would dare eat you. But don’t worry. He hasn’t come to the meetings for the past two years. He’s been… busy.”

               “I think I know his business,” Markus shuttered, and Granite guessed that the black nightmare was already beginning to fill his thoughts.

               “Well, the good news is if he does come he’s not eating people!” Granite said, trying to lighten the mood.

               “You don’t know that,” Markus shivered again.

               “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the whole time and he really isn’t that bad! He used to love humans but then some dragon hunters killed his mate, Amphroza, and since then he’s started eating them instead…”

               “Wait, his mate’s name was Amphroza?” Markus asked suspiciously.

               “Yes, and yes. Amphroza was my Grandmother’s name and no it’s not the name of a flower, it’s just the excuse I gave your lord to get you out of town,” she explained seeing Markus’s confused expression. “After I caught a traveler going to your town I had him bring a message to your lord, telling him that I’d be borrowing you for a few days and I gave him the excuse to get you out. Otherwise, I told him that I’d land in your town and hunt you down myself. I guess he liked the first option better!” she smirked looking rather pleased with herself. “Not too bad if I say so myself.”

               Markus gulped. “How long until we leave?”

               “We’ll leave today. I’d like to get there a bit early it will make first introductions a bit less stressful if they aren’t all at once!”

               “Today? I can’t leave today!” Markus protested. “My parents will kill me if I’m not back by sundown!”

               “No, they won’t,” she waved the issue aside. “They’re your parents, they’d never do that.”

               “They’ll ground me to the rest of my life!” the human insisted, desperately. “I have to get back and let them know I’m safe!”

               “Your lord will tell them that,” Granite said, brushing the issue aside again.

               “They’ll attack him! He’ll lock them up! Then when I get back they’ll ground me forever! I have to go back!”

               “I’ve been grounded before,” Granite said, solemnly, old memories drifting into her thoughts. “My brother bit my tail too hard so and I broke his jaw. My parents wouldn’t let me fly for a week…”

               “They’ll worry themselves sick! I have to comfort them!”

               “His jaw healed in five days and he taunted me, from the air, for the last two… When my punishment was over he rested… I knocked him out cold!” she finished with a secret smile, still remembering the ever so sweet moment of her revenge, even if it had cost her another few flightless days.

               “Are you even listening to me?” Markus demanded.

               Granite turned her gaze back to her prisoner. “Yes, and the more you talk the more certain I am of my decision. If your parents will indeed, ‘ground you forever’ then there’s no way they’ll allow their ‘little boy’ to fly off with a dragon! As I don’t want to pry you away from your parents kicking and screaming, I’m not taking you back! That’s final!”

               For the rest of the evening Markus was in a sour slump with Granite desperately trying to bring his spirits up. He didn’t even protest when she suggested they play Cordik again.

               “You’ll like my sister!” she said, cheerfully, freezing Markus’s dragon with her Basilisk. “She’s a sorcerer and she’s really friendly towards humans!”

               “She doesn’t like the taste of human?” Markus asked, jadedly.

               “Actually, she loves the taste of human,” Granite admitted. “She just doesn’t digest humans. She found a way to eat people but not digest them!”

               “What?” Markus asked, his intrigue temporarily breaking his expressionless trance.  

               “Yeah, I know, crazy right?” Granite said, excitedly. “She can use her magic to stop her digestion and make it so her ‘meals’ can still survive! I’m told the ride down is a bit tight, and a tad hard to breathe, but otherwise the stomach is quite comfy, albeit a bit slimy!”

               “I’ll take your word for it!” Markus wrinkled his nose in distaste.

               “She always rewards those whom she eats,” Granite continued “and she only eats willing humans so she’s not mean about it!”

               “Yeah, I’m sure,” Markus said rolling his eyes.

               “That’s what I said too!” Granite remarked, pointing at his chest with a claw. “But you’d be surprised what humans are willing to do to get magical items!”

               “She gives people magical items?”

               “She makes people magical items!” Granite corrected.

               “So, what? She just flies into a town and asks people if they’ll let her eat them?”

               “Well, she usually does a proof of concept first, but pretty much.”

               “Such as?”

               “She usually catches a small deer, or something, and shows it to anyone that she can catch, then she swallows it and coughs it up a while later. She’ll usually give a random person a magical item and then ask for volunteers,” Granite explained. “I was very surprised at how many volunteered! Of course, I didn’t really like the taste of human back when she showed me but now I’m quite jealous…” she looked at Markus curiously. “Would you try it?”

               Markus open his mouth to respond but slowly closed it without making a sound. His little brow furrowed slightly and his eyes stared off into space.

               Granite purred. “So you’d consider it? I’ll tell Millana to keep an empty stomach!”

               “No! I mean… I don’t know, maybe?” Markus stammered. “If it is really harmless and I’ll get some magic out of it, I’d be a fool to not consider it, right?”

               “That’s the spirit!” Granite chirped, cheerfully. “And don’t worry, despite the implication, the process is completely harmless!”

               “I said I’d consider it!” Markus said, shifting uncomfortably. “Can we talk about something else?”

               “Sure,” Granite said moving her Manticore into range of Markus’s Wraith and destroying it. “How about we talk about your pitiful game performance?”

               “Whatever,” Markus sighed “I’m done playing…”

               “That means I win!” Granite smacked her licks and reached for her prize.

               “Yeah, you win,” her defeated opponent mumbled giving a longing glance at the cave’s exit.

               “You okay?” Granite asked, suddenly concerned. “You’re much more… docile then you were before.”

               “I have to grin and bear a few days with your family, my parents will be worried sick while I’m gone, and I can’t do a thing about any of it! So, sorry if I’m not as fun for you to toy with!” he snapped.

               Well, I guess I should have seen this coming, Granite sighed inwardly.

               “Alright look, I can’t do anything about this either, my paws are stuck. I can’t take you back to your family as I must bring to mine. I’ll talk to your parents when I bring you back and let them know it wasn’t your fault, that should rid you of a bit of punishment at least. In any case, you can’t go back so there’s no point in moping over it! Just enjoy the experience. I mean, come on, how many humans will be able to experience what you are about to see? Basically none! So, sit up straight, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and focus on the opportunity!” Granite growled, a bit harsher than she’d originally intended.

               The human flinched and Granite was almost proud to have the all too delicious scent of Markus’s fear waft into her nostrils. She really wanted to scare him some more to get a better sniff but she knew that probably wasn’t the best idea.

               “I-I’ll try to keep a more p-positive attitude,” Markus replied, fearfully.

               “I didn’t mean to be so harsh…” Granite muttered with a deep sigh. “I’m not going to hurt you; I’m just irritated that you keep asking me! So, stop asking… Please.”

               “I’ll stop asking!” Markus assured her quickly. “I know you’re trying to be a gracious host, it’s… It’s just a lot to take in…” his eyes flicked to his knife a few body lengths away. “Can I have that back?”

               “Go ahead,” she replied, gesturing to the dagger. “Just don’t try to stab me again!”

               He nodded and eagerly scooped up the precious weapon, slipping it back into its hidden sheath at his waist.

               “Well, I think it’s a good time to get moving!” Granite announced, rising and brushing the stone pieces back into the niche at the side of her cave. “Just give me a few minutes.”

               “Where are you going?” Markus asked as she stepped passed him and headed for the entrance.