Dragon Bone Ridge by Gibbs L. Darby

Author:Gibbs, L. Darby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkabout Publishing
Published: 2018-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

Maribelle walked around the ridge of red stone for the second time and yelled, “Nyle, where are you?” A shadow rolled over her, and she looked up. Brilliant red and pale reddish-tan flew past her in overlapping scales and wind that rippled her hair and the tall grass around her. Nyle landed with a graceful thump, thump, back feet followed by the front and two wing flaps against the rising hot air. His neck whipped his head toward her. Maribelle fingered her hair away from her face and pushed much of it behind her ears.

He padded like a cat toward her, neck slung low and predatory. “Hello, Maribelle.”

“You’re looking dragonish today.” Maribelle grinned. If she didn’t know him, she’d have thought he planned an imaginary lunch of imaginary human.

His head dropped lower along with his voice. “You’re being complimentary. Do you have bad news?”

She laughed and leaned on the shoulder of the stone dragon beside them. “Did you enjoy flying?”

He shrugged his shoulders, the scales appearing to shift with the muscles under his natural armor. The high sun glinted off the red, giving it a gold sheen. “It’s better than not flying at all.”

“One day you’ll fly for real, Nyle.” Maribelle looked up at the sky and imagined him flying over Tugglend. “When you soar over the meadow and beyond, do you see what is really going on in the world, or what you think is going on?”

He sighed and slumped down into the grass. “Was it necessary to haul reality in right away?” he growled and shifted into much the same position as the stone ridge. Two dragons: one a crumbling impression, the other vibrantly real, while both were but phantoms of reality.

Maribelle looked back and forth at the two views of Nyle. The ridge was worn, jagged and many of the features that made one think of a dragon were tumbled around its sides. How much could Nyle lose before he lost all sense of himself?

“Does it hurt when a piece breaks off?”

“It’s just rock, Maribelle,” he droned and ran a claw through the grass. A fraction of a second later, the grass fell as if a scythe ran through it.

“But when you tried to return to flesh and found your hip gone, was there pain?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“So right now, there is no pain?”

“No physical pain.”

Any talking at all was better than mooning over the loss. “You don’t have a sense of what’s going on in the world.”

Nyle peered around and then returned his gaze to Maribelle. “I can see to the horizon line. Anyone within that range, I can observe. If they’re within earshot, and dragons have excellent hearing and eyesight, I can hear them. But for me, it’s a small world.”

“Well, you are one step closer to the larger world.”

The dragon’s head rose to alertness. “Go on.”

“I found your elbow today in a cemetery about a half mile farther north.” She waved her hand in the direction the two had taken. “It’s in pretty good condition, polished up, a small engraving on it, but it’s safely hidden.

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