The Tail Tales - Chapter 6 - The Guardian

Through the rest of the night, Andy sat, holding Ael in his lap. At occasions during the night, he would put his ear next to her nose to check if she was still breathing. Her deep sleep showed no signs of breaking as the night wore on. Pitch black darkness was both an ally and an enemy. Strange noises and sounds of breathing carried through to Andy, noises of creatures shuffling about and then stopping perhaps when another predator came close by. He felt that he was going crazy with the riot of activity happening in an otherwise empty night. He had had enough excitement to last him for a lifetime and longed for the comfort of his mother’s hug and the warmth of the kitchen back at home.

But, this was not to be and he continued to sit there staring into the black inky pool around them, peering desperately for some sign of help. At long last, his frayed nerves gave him away and he slumped in a deep doze. Around him, the inky blackness began to slowly withdraw as if the night were slowly and stealthily withdrawing her blanket. An ashen gray sky lay underneath, sickly in hue and weepy in its outlook. The orange yellow sun was late in coming up and hid shyly behind the thick tapestry of clouds that framed the horizon. The leaden yellow day watched Andy doze with Ael in his lap, the little boy in a world that he did not at all understand and was not prepared for.  The clouds sighed in regret as their hearts were heavy with all the rain they were carrying. They drifted in low as the weight dragged them down and as they drifted lower and lower, they started crying their regret for the events that had passed before. The drops were just a few stray ones and fell at random.

One such droplet fell down below into the clearing where Ael lay on Andy’s lap. The drop spiraled down, grape sized and clear, seemingly headed straight for the two of them. A drift of breeze caught it and tried to swing it away but the drop was resolute and held steady to its course. It fell straight and true to catch onto Ael’s right eye lashes. The drop tangled for a moment in the lashes and then seeped through to form a pool in the corner of her eye. Suddenly, the pool was shaken violently as her eyes opened and her clear green pupils stared up at the sky. Her eyes looked confused and disoriented as she struggled to figure out where she was and what had happened. And then she happened to look to her left and saw Andy’s slumped form and the confusion gave way to concern. She rose; half sat up and tried to shake Andy awake. The first couple of times gave no result as Andy seemed to be completely dead to the world. Finally, the third time, she shook him a little hard and he woke up with a start, a violent look in his eyes as if he was expecting the worst. He looked around a little wildly and then at her, his eyes softening at seeing her awake. He did not say anything and just leaned forward and hugged her in relief.

He got to his feet, a little uncomfortable about the show of emotion and as she tried to follow, she found that her feet were still a little unsteady. She almost fell and then finally, balanced herself with a lot of effort, still very wobbly on her feet. Andy asked her to lean on his shoulder and they set off up the mound, away from the field of the deadly flowers. The drizzle continued, feeling strangely refreshing as the water washed them down. As Ael struggled forward and covered some distance, her legs became better until after about a kilometer, she was able to walk on her own. By then the drizzle had slowed down to just a few droplets and the sky had cleared up. The weak yellow sun now surveyed the land as if deciding what to do next. They had almost reached the pool where Andy had drunk the water the previous evening. Both of them were thirsty and drank and washed their faces in the clear cool water.  Andy realized that he was very hungry and thought of going to hunt for the berries again. He asked Ael to sit there by the pool and went deeper into the shrubs searching for the berries. With the sun behind his back, he still stepped cautiously forward, half expecting some large creature or beast to make an appearance from behind a shrub. His breath coming quickly, Andy found no signs of the shrubs that he had seen yesterday. He decided he must have taken the wrong direction and tried to retrace his path back to the pool, looking for signs of his passing and heading back using the sun as a guide.

Suddenly, a huge cloud seemed to come up over him and the sky darkened almost instantly. Andy thought there was going to be further rain and started running back towards the pool so that Ael and he could find shelter. There was a complete silence around for some reason, like the calm before a storm. An uneasy tingle started in his spine and Andy quickened his pace. As he did, a sudden whoosh sounded some distance above him. Andy immediately remembered the happenings of the previous night and almost froze in panic. It took him an enormous effort to lift his head to look up and then his worst nightmare came true. Yellow Eyes was peering down at him like he was a morsel that needed nibbling and was starting to swoop down to get a taste. Andy then did the only thing that came to him in his panic, he hid. He ducked behind a rather large shrub and curled himself into a tight little ball underneath it. He could still see Yellow Eyes through a few gaps in the leaves. Yellow Eyes had stopped mid air at his sudden disappearance and was now turning and dropping down to where he had last been. In a couple of seconds, the beast was on the ground, its massive legs settled down among the shrubs, trampling a few of them like grass under its feet. One of its feet landed close to Andy and its talon came to rest right at the shrub under which Andy hid.

The claw, though small in comparison with the rest of the creature’s body, was about half of Andy’s size. It was dirty brown in color and looked sharp enough to tear him into two with a flick. Andy was mesmerized by it and watched it intently as the claw tapped the ground and then dug grooves into it as the creature shifted its weight and stepped around, searching for him. He glanced up to see that the creature was now bending down, sniffing as if searching for a scent of him. He held his breath, sure now that it was only moments before he got a very close look at those curved teeth. Suddenly, he heard a high pitched girlish voice screaming “Heeeyyyyyy”. Not once but several times, as if calling the attention of the creature. The creature must have heard it too, because, it immediately swung its head up and looked for the source of the sound. Andy realized that Ael must have come out into the open and screamed to draw the creature away, thinking that he was in danger. He cursed her stupidity while his brain explained that she had obviously done it for him. The creature must have seen her for it began to move away, each step of its massive feet causing the ground to tremble and shake and its wings flapping and raising a large cloud of dust.

The dust was everywhere and Andy started choking in it, unable to even see anything. He could only hear the creature moving away, gather pace now. Ael must have still been some distance away but not too far as the creature chose to run on the ground and not take flight. Andy stepped out from the under the shrub and started running in the direction of the sounds knowing full well that he could never outrun the creature and that it would get to Ael far before he could. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, Ael had stopped screaming. Andy prayed that she had the good sense to hide herself, knowing that neither of them had a chance of any kind against this creature.

All of a sudden, Andy heard a different kind of noise, a curious buzz, almost as if it was a high pitched scream. The air seemed to vibrate with the sound which seemed very powerful though obviously not so loud. It almost seemed like the warning growl that a very large dog gives before it attacks. Andy glanced over his shoulder as he continued to run behind Yellow Eyes. And he caught sight of the creature that looked like the one that had saved them the previous night. Only, this one was much larger, almost as if it had grown to about two times its size in the night. Powerful wings pushed it forward as it was swooping down, aiming at a little distance ahead of Andy, roughly the spot where Yellow Eyes was. Andy could see now that Yellow Eyes had sensed the presence of the second creature and had stopped and turned around as if preparing for a fight, raising itself on its hind legs, forelegs pulled up for attack and tail on the ground, steadying itself. Whatever it had been preparing itself for, Yellow Eyes did not expect what happened next.

The black creature simply launched itself like a missile streaking towards Yellow Eyes, not trying to stop or descend to the ground. Yellow Eyes must have realized this late as it started to turn and run away. But by then, it was too late. The black creature had slammed into Yellow Eyes, the impact causing a shock wave that threw Andy back clear off the ground.  He fell and lay there in a daze, shaking his head. Sounds of the two creatures still rolling came to him and he got to his feet, taking cover behind a shrub, hardly realizing that it was of no use at all. He saw that the two creatures were locked in a fierce embrace, forelegs gripping the torso of the other, hind legs kicking and tearing at the other’s belly while the jaws snapped in attempts to bite off portions of the other’s body. Yellow Eyes was clearly the bigger of the two and was heavier as a result. But the black creature was definitely more powerful, its legs easily deflecting away the other’s attacks and then tearing away. Its jaws too began to find weak spots on Yellow Eyes.  As the two massive creatures rolled around on the ground, they flattened everything around like a bunch of twigs in a carpet of grass that they trod on. Suddenly, Yellow Eyes let out what sounded like a scream. Andy could see that the black creature had buried its fangs deep in Yellow Eyes neck and was now pulling and tearing away. Yellow Eyes now struggled grimly to dislodge the hold and threw itself around on the ground. Finally, the both of them landed on a set of trees and the impact loosened the black creature’s hold. At once, Yellow Eyes took flight, flapping its wings a little weakly and desperately pushing away from its attacker.

Andy expected the black creature to take flight and follow Yellow Eyes, to go and finish what had started. But the creature simply got up and shook itself off. It then sat there, like a massive statue carved out of some ancient black rock, except for the rise and fall of its chest as it breathed. Andy suddenly thought that it had sighted Ael and was now shifting its focus to the girl. He broke into a run, desperately thinking of any way in which he could fight the creature. As he got closer, he realized that the creature was simply looking at something close to its feet and not even glancing up at him. He stopped and yelled at it, waving his arms about, trying to attract its attention. He did manage to briefly distract it, for it looked up at him and then quickly looked back down at its feet. Andy was now sure that it had found Ael. He suddenly came into the clearing where the creature sat, all bushes and shrubs around flattened into a green carpet by the mammoths struggling. And he saw Ael lying down at the creature’s feet. He ran to her and tried to lift her and speak to her, only to realize that she was unconscious. There was no visible sign of any injury and Andy thought that she must have been hit by a branch or a shrub during the tussle.

Andy looked up and saw the creature simply looking down, its red black eyes not showing any signs of attack. He tried to pull Ael away from there but he was too weak after the entire struggle and could not move more than a few feet. He finally sank down to the ground, holding Ael and almost sobbed in frustration. At that instant, the creature moved forward and grabbed hold of them. Andy screamed as he felt the powerful claws go around him and Ael, thinking that this was it and that they were going to be crushed. But the claws simply held them like a cage, not squeezing but holding. The creature then simply pushed itself off into the air with its powerful hind legs. One flap of its mighty wings and it was airborne, high above the ground. Andy felt the wind rushing past him as the creature simply glided through the air, only flapping its wings occasionally. A few seconds later, he realized that they were descending. And could see a pool of water far below on the ground. It looked like the pool where they had drunk earlier. The creature descended swiftly and once on the ground, simply set Andy and Ael down on a patch of grass. It then sat back and once again watched them motionlessly.

Andy realized that the creature had brought them to water thinking they would need some. It seemed to be helping them in some way though Andy could not think of any reasons why.  A flood of thoughts ran through his head, starting from the earlier episodes of the stone and how it had always shielded them or protected them. How he had imagined seeing a tail inside it. And how, during the previous night and just then, the creature had fought off Yellow Eyes. As he struggled to understand what had happened, he realized that in this hostile and unknown land they were in, they now seemed to have a guardian of sorts though by the looks of it, the guardian could well change its mind and snack on them in a minute. The sheer relief of having someone on his side was too much for Andy and he just sank his head to the ground weakly. An instant later, he felt a warm moist breeze pass over him and looked up to see the creature breathing down on him, close above, as if enquiring whether he was OK. The rows of sharp curving fangs stretched backwards just a few feet away from his face. But they oddly did not seem threatening or scary any more.

Andy stood up and walked down to the pool of water, gathered some in his cupped hands and walked back to Ael. He splashed some on her face and as she sputtered awake, her eyes filled with alarm at the sight of the creature that loomed over them. Andy then reassured her of the creature’s intentions and proceeded to brief her on the sequence of events thus far and more importantly, share with her the fact that they now had a guardian. The creature was certainly no angel but for now, that seemed far less important. As Ael stared at the creature, still not believing anything that Andy had said, the creature simply extended its fore leg with its claws. The claws now stood inches away from them. Andy grabbed hold of a claw and on seeing him; Ael reluctantly took hold of one too. The creature then simply folded its claws, back to the cage hold that had brought them there. It then simply pushed up in the air again and in seconds, they were soaring high up in the air, the ground rushing past them. The creature continued to soar and Andy saw that it was heading for a mountain like land formation up ahead. For a moment, he felt uneasy at the memory of having escaped from one such mountain with a cave where he had nearly been cooked to death. Then, shrugging the memory off, he simply closed his eyes, letting the wind brush off all his unpleasant memories and clear up his brain. 

The Tail Tales - Chapter 5 - The Hatchling

Andy became a statue, almost stopping his breath in sheer fright. He dared not move even a finger and sat in what he hoped was an absolutely still, frozen position. He almost heard the next movement before he felt it. A sort of a whoosh that drove the air before it and there it was again, that little touch, somehow hard, bony and pointy, like someone had brushed his back with a rather large stick. Whatever it was had not yet attacked him and it had had enough opportunity to do so. He decided to chance a movement and turned his head in what he hoped was as small a movement was possible. And then he strained to see something, anything in the dark. He could now sense a very large presence behind him, dangerous and powerful, and yet could see nothing at all in the darkness. He moved his head just a little bit again. This brought his stone into view. And what was earlier just warmth that came from it had now become something close to heat. It was glowing orange red, becoming almost red hot. If he did not know better, he would have thought that the stone had become angry and was giving out a warning.

Soon, the heat that came from the stone was strong enough to make him flinch and the stone was pure red, almost as if it was in the middle of a roaring flame. And yet the grass and twigs around it were untouched by the heat.  The grass on the mound where he had placed it was not smoking or burning, though the shoots reflected red in the light from the stone. Another startling thing that hit him was that the stone had somehow grown and become larger. It now was almost triple its size and still growing, at a speed that was visible. As it grew larger, the area around it became red with its light, casting aside the darkness like a boy throwing aside a blanket on a warm night. Soon, the light grew closer to where Ael had been lying down and Andy saw she was no longer there. Again, there was another of those whoosh sounds, though nothing brushed against him and somehow the sound itself seemed to come from slightly further away.

The stone, if it was still a stone, was nearly Andy’s size now and was still growing. Now, the reddish light from it was casting shadows at the far end near where the slope started and where the plants were. Andy turned his head slightly more and now his gaze fell on Ael. She seemed to be still in a trance, her eyes were open and staring wide unseeing. But, she was not lying on the ground or even standing. She seemed to be floating about 5 feet off the ground, completely horizontal and not supported by or holding onto anything. She was bathed in some kind of a blue cocoon, her metallic skin glowing blue in the light thrown off by the stone. Her arms were held straight away from her body and her legs were sticking straight out, not even a slight bending of the knee was visible. The blue cocoon seemed to have enveloped her completely, a foot thick around her and leading off above her. His eyes followed the imaginary path of the cocoon’s tail and he suddenly froze in fright again, his entire insides suddenly turning into a mushy liquid that seemed to be fighting to get out. For, high up in the air above Ael, there were a pair of eyes, narrowing like slits at the end and yellow, glowing evilly in a light of their own. They seemed to be staring down at him and the stone. He had not seen the eyes so far simply because they were too high up, he guessed almost fifty odd feet above the ground.

His terror was suddenly broken by a loud cracking noise. It came from the stone which was by now about three times the size of a normal human being. He could see that the inside of the stone was in some curious way stirring and moving around, as if some hand with a spoon was actually stirring this pot. The inside of the stone was moving in a continuous whirl that seemed to be gathering speed, like the eye of a hurricane framed by a severe whirling storm. Suddenly, Andy saw a long black tail like thing whipping around inside the stone followed closely by what seemed like a clawed foot. Only, this foot was bigger than Andy’s arm. The liquid sensation inside Andy seemed to have just become worse. Another cracking sound came from the stone as it seemed to grow impossibly large, like a balloon stretched to its breaking point. A curious buzzing sound seemed to come from the stone, almost as if the stirring inside was causing a noise.  The reddish light coming from the stone, now seemed to be dropping, growing quickly to become orange and then in the next minute or so, settle down to a bright yellow glow, almost like daylight lighting up the entire area. Now, Andy could see clearly a large form, jet black in color, flexing inside the stone, almost as if it were fighting to get out. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he corrected himself that it was an egg and not a stone. He had been carrying an egg that he had picked up off the ground in Kirkmichael and here, in the middle of god knows where; it had turned out to be an egg.

The yellow light now reached far across the clearing and threw shadows on the side of the mound. Andy had now thrown caution to the winds, there was simply too much happening around him and in any case, he did not seem to matter even a bit in all that was happening. He turned around and looked at the whole scene. One clear detail that he had missed so far; caught his eye and held it. He noticed at the far end of the clearing, beyond the plant line, in the middle of the field, a pair of thick trunk like shapes now stood, some distance apart from each other. They looked like trunks of a very old oak tree he had seen, knotted and twisted in a shape that had stood the test of time. When he had tried to put his hands around it, he realized that he could only span about a quarter of its circumference. These trunks actually looked larger. In Andy’s mind, they were somehow connected to the yellow slit shaped eyes up above. Certainly, they looked like a massive pair of legs. As he watched, one of the trunks moved and actually uprooted itself from the ground, rising to reveal a huge foot that would have dwarfed him had he been standing underneath it ending in a set of claws and talons that were as long as he was tall. The foot moved away from him and set itself on the ground again. As it did, there came the whoosh sound again and this time Andy could see what appeared to be a wing tip with a talon at the end of it, pass close by him. The sheer size of the creature made him cold with fright.

While Andy had been realizing all this about the yellow eyes, the egg had now cracked open and lay in two halves. The creature that emerged from inside the egg now stood some distance away from it. Though it seemed to be smaller in size, the creature seemed more dangerous and deadly in some way. A large webbed frill neck seemed to frame its face, the frill completely flaring out in an unmistakable warning. The frill was jet black in color with the webbing almost transparent and the tips and back of it was reddish in color and made the face of the creature appear impossibly large. The red coloring somehow added to the dangerous feel of it all. The face of the creature itself was like a giant lizard except it was nothing like he had seen before. It stood facing upwards as if challenging the much larger yellow eyed creature. 

It had a high pair of eyes, the pupils a vertical slit, framed by clear pools of white, the pupils glowing red in color and staring upwards at the yellow eyed creature.  The eyes seemed to be smoking slightly or maybe it was just Andy’s imagination going into overdrive. A snout seemed to grow from in between the eyes and stretch down to end in two slits, glowing red and slightly smoky again. Below the snout was the mouth or what should have been the mouth. Except that this one had a pair of jaws that resembled the crocodile at the local zoo. Resembled was not quite the right word since this one seemed like a giant version that would have nibbled the crocodile as a tasty bite. The jaws spread wide open and a double rows of fangs as big as his hand, bristled inside, each pointing at a slight angle inwards except at the front where they poked outwards. A forked tongue darted out again and again, twisting this way and that, like a snake with a mind of its own. Andy could see into the back of its throat and saw the same reddish glow there. It was almost as if the creature had a full fire going inside it.

Now that the egg had cracked open, it simply lay there giving off a weak yellow light that grew weaker. The creature seemed to be exuding the same bright yellow light that had come from the egg and lit up the whole area, bright as daylight. The creature stood there and its sheer size hit Andy. It had a short pair of forelegs, if you could call them short; that ended in a paw with claws and curved sharp talons. The forearms were raised as the creature stood up in the air and they seemed poised to attack. The claws were thin and pointy with even longer talons that looked like they could tear open anything. Behind the forelegs was a pair of large wings similar to bat wings, each point on the wings ending in a similar fang shaped talon. The wings themselves stretched out to almost 6-7 times Andy’s size and had the same transparent webbing as its frilled neck, with the same reddish tips and back. The creature had a crested spine, each crest ending in a sharp tip curved backwards, the tips now standing out in full attack mode. 

Its belly curved inwards, long and muscular and led towards the hind legs which were resting on the ground. The hind legs were as tall as Andy, the claws stretched and talons out, slightly crouching as if readying itself for a spring forward. It seemed to be supported by a tail that was itself as long as the creature was tall, resting on the ground, crested like its spine. The creature was very powerful and dangerous, a fact that was not lost on the much larger tree-trunk-legs-slit-yellow-eyes. Yellow eyes seemed to be clearly stepping back. As it stepped back, the cocoon that was holding Ael seemed to grow weaker and thinner. Ael had dropped closer to the ground and hovered about a foot off the ground. Yellow eyes had retreated into the field of flowers and stood there, waiting. Suddenly, a jet of reddish yellow flame shot out towards Yellow eyes. The jet headed straight towards the yellow eyes, reaching all the way up there. The flame came out of the black creature’s mouth. Rearing its head in head in alarm, yellow eyes turned away. As it did, Ael fell to the ground, the cocoon completely vanishing. Yellow eyes then took flight with a flap of those mighty wings, creating a wall of air that blew Andy away with its sheer power. Andy fell flat onto the ground and lay there winded. In a couple of whooshes; the yellow eyed creature had left the scene.

Andy lay there for a few moments recovering. As he stood up, he saw that the black creature now stood over Ael, its forelegs close to her shoulders, its snout close to her face. He thought that it was attacking her, now that Yellow eyes had left her behind. Anger got hold of his brain and he stopped thinking at all. He looked around for something, anything, with which he could attack the creature, forgetting that it was several times his size. His eyes fell on a branch lying on the ground and he picked it up. Much like the medieval knight wielding his lance, Andy charged at the black creature, screaming in his anger. He saw that it seemed to be sniffing her to see how tasty she was and its tongue flicked out to her cheek as if tasting her. As Andy approached the creature, its size registered in his brain. But by then it was too late and he continued his charge, a Don Quixote against the largest windmill he could even imagine of. Andy came within striking distance of the creature and brought the branch down on its back with all his might hoping that it would get stunned. The branch could have been made of paper or grass for all that it mattered and it shattered into tiny pieces on impact. The creature felt the blow and turned towards him. Andy prepared to be stomped upon or burnt to crisp in the next second. But the creature just seemed to give him a hurt look, its pupils now cooled down into a dark red, widening in their clear pain. It made no move to attack him or burn him down and just stayed there just looking at him.

Andy’s anger had vanished as quickly as it had come and he stood shivering in fright at what might happen to him. He was vaguely surprised by the creature’s not attacking him and stood rooted to the ground, not sure of what to do next, and not even running away from there. The creature continued to simply look at him, the frilled neck now having been folded away, its arrow shaped head clearly visible. The crest in its spine also had subsided and was no longer standing on end. Its tail swished gently a few feet away from him, but not moving towards him. As the both of them simply stood there staring at each other, there was a muffled sound from the ground beyond the creature, where Ael lay. Hearing this, Andy almost stepped forward as if to go to her help but stopped short as he realized that he had to cross the creature to get to her. The creature, seeing his hesitation, seemed to make up its mind and spread its wings to full span and simply leapt into the air. In the dark, he could only hear a couple of whap-whaps and then nothing. It had simply left him there with Ael. With it, all light around disappeared and the place was completely dark again. Andy ran towards where he had heard Ael’s voice and then, in the dark, dropped onto the ground and crawled forward. He bumped into her lying there and grabbed hold of her. She was shivering as if she was very cold, though the place was warm.

He could not think of anything that he could do and finally, just held her and sat there. In some time, her shivering stopped and she seemed to fall into a deep sleep. Andy continued sitting there holding her until the orange streaks peeked over the horizon, as if to check whether the night had gone and then slowly stole out, announcing the arrival of a new dawn. Andy could now see that Ael was still sleeping deeply, but breathing evenly. She seemed to be actually sleeping rather than being frozen like she had been before. The spot on her cheek which had been red and swollen had now grown back to normal. As Andy ran through the events of the past hours, a sudden doubt rose in his mind. Had that black creature in some way cured Ael? What if it had been sniffing or licking her face to cure her rather than attacking her like he had imagined? Was that why it had seemed hurt after his “attack”? Andy suddenly felt sure that the creature had been trying to protect them all the while, even when it was in its egg. And he had stupidly driven it off. He now desperately wished that the creature was back with them, protecting and shielding them in this weird world that seemed to be out to get them.