Scorpions and the Sand Viper Ka ran between the stars to the sound of infinite dragons singing across the universe. He ran with Balanath through fields of stardust and laughed as it rose up around them like silver rain. He lifted his voice and joined the choir of dragons. His silver hair trailed behind him as if a dragon’s tail in the sparkling sand. He stumbled and fell. “Wait for me,” he shouted as Balanath continued to run ahead. A sound from somewhere beneath him pulled him towards a maelstrom of unwelcome darkness. His dream faded, and with it Balanath became an ethereal vision disappearing from the sky of stars. “Come back,” he pleaded. A bright light beyond his closed eyes continued to thwart his attempts to return to the dream. He reluctantly opened his eyes – the magic broken and fading from his memory. Above him a yellow bit of silk cloth fluttered lightly in the breeze, shading him from the sun. His eyes flicked to the side, the ground was moving. No, the ground wasn’t moving, he was being dragged on something low to the ground. He dropped his hand to the sand and let it slid across the ground. “You don’t want to do that,” exclaimed an alarmed voice. “We’re passing over a scorpion nesting ground.” He left his hand on the ground and turned his head to a girl sitting at the opposite edge of the moving tent sliding across the ground. She was dressed in a fashion of silk cloth wrapped around her that couldn’t possibly protect her from anything. She had his saddle in her lap as she used a thick needle and thread to repair the bite marks left by the rock dragon. He felt something brush his hand and lifted it from the sand to inspect a scorpion he held pinched between two fingers. The girl’s eyes widened in fright. “That can kill you!” His throat felt raw and the words came out harsher than he intended. “No, it can’t.” “Excuse me, I know something about scorpions,” argued the girl. Ka shoved the wiggling scorpion towards her. “Then you know this is an emperor scorpion.” The girl flinched back. “Stop it, that thing is deadly.” He flicked the scorpion away. “It’s not – it just hurts a little, like a wasp sting.” The girl glared at him. “If you do that again, I’ll have my dragon stomp on you.” Ka shrugged and rolled over to lift the front silk-covering of the tent and look out. There was a big dragon pulling the tent by two ropes attached to a harness wrapped around the dragon’s torso. He crawled forward a bit to see how the contraption worked. The ropes weren’t tied to the tent, they were tied to metal skids with a wood platform sitting on top. To the outside edge of the wood platform were crates and barrels with the silk stretched over the supplies, creating a shaded area. So, it wasn’t actually a tent, but something hastily made by the girl. He looked back at the girl. He didn’t remember much, just that he’d tried to fight the rock dragons, and then the Southern Dragon Army had showed up. He surrendered, was asked some questions he couldn’t understand, and passed out. This must have been the only place they had to put him, and set the girl to guard him. “I’ve been dragon-stomped before,” said Ka. “But, it doesn’t matter, you don’t have a dragon.” “Some Wyra you are,” she retorted. “What do you call that thing right in front of you?” “I call it, Not-Your-Dragon,” replied Ka. “A rider’s hair turns the same color as their dragon. Your hair is black, like obsidian, but that dragon is dark burnt-orange, like the color of a canyon.” The girl set her needle and thread aside, which was fine by Ka, she was botching the repair job badly. Ka dropped the silk covering and pushed himself to his knees. “Do you even know its name?” “It’s just an animal, why would I name him?” Ka shook his head while he snatched his saddle from her. “She isn’t an animal, and she’s limping?” Ka pulled Balanath’s emergency medical kit from his saddle. “You stay here on your silk pillows in the shade while I help the dragon.” The girl crawled forward and lifted the silk flap to the tent. “It’s a girl? How can you tell?” Ka rolled off the sled and onto the sand. A movement under the sled caught his eye. He tipped his head to the side and saw a sand viper wrapped around a support brace. “Oh, hello there, did you find a cozy spot to munch on scorpions? Okay, enjoy your lunch.” “What’s under there? Asked the girl. Ka pushed himself to his feet and headed for the big dragon pulling the sled. He waved a hand dismissively at the girl. “You don’t want to know, but you probably want to stay very still.” “You can’t leave unless I say so,” said the girl “Watch me,” replied Ka. “You are the meanest boy I’ve ever met!” “You should meet the boys in Clan Teth.” “It’s something poisonous, isn’t it? If I get killed, it’ll be your fault,” shouted the girl. Ka sighed and shoved his hand inside the medical kit for a squishy leather pouch. “What’s your name?” “Cara.” “Smear this on your arms and legs.” Ka tossed the leather pouch to the girl. “What is it?” asked Cara. “Slippery elm oil and dragon urine, it’ll keep the crawlies off you.” Cara made a face and opened the leather pouched, then held the pouch away at arm’s length. “It smells horrible, no wonder you stink so bad.” Ka shrugged and walked up to the dragon. The dragon wasn’t a Sand Dragon, it had two powerful legs that were obviously too big to fold up against its body like Balanath when he was swimming in sand, and really thick scales. The body was thicker than Balanath’s – this dragon wouldn’t be able to coil up like Balanath did. The face was flatter, but the jaw thicker and didn’t have Balanath’s perpetual smile. The dragon’s knees were forward bending, like a human’s knees, where Balanath’s knees were rear bending knees, and that’s what made him super-fast. Ka wanted to reach out and run his hand across the dragon’s leg, but that would be rude until they knew each other. Ka stepped around the front of the dragon, avoiding the dragon’s blind spot – dragons didn’t like it if you approached them from their blind spot. “Hello, my name is Kanath,” he said in way of greeting. “I notice you’re limping, I can…” The dragon didn’t stop walking, or even lower her head to acknowledge he’d spoken. He had to jump out of the way to avoid being trampled. He waved his arms. “Hey, maybe you didn’t see me… hello?” A sound like a snort crossed with a growl caught his attention – it was the dragon equivalent of a person clearing their throat to get your attention. He looked back at the next dragon in the column behind the sand sled. The dragon had an unusually bright yellow spot on her forehead that blended out into a kind of star pattern. “Can you understand me?” asked Bright Star. Of course that probably wasn’t the dragon’s name, but they were separated by twenty feet and practically shouting. This just wasn’t the time for formal introductions, and it seemed a decent mental name for the moment. “Of course I can,” said Ka. “So it’s true then, you are a Wyra. Are there more Wyra coming to take us home?” asked Bright Star. Ka only stared dumbly at the dragon. He had no idea what a Wyra was, or what any of this was about, especially needing to be taken home. He didn’t even know where their home was. “I see it in your eyes,” continued Bright Star. “There is nobody coming, you are just a lost little Wyra.” Ka shook his head. “Look, I don’t know what a Wyra is, or where your home is, but I’ll help you if I can. Right now I’m just trying to fix this one’s foot.” Bright Star studied Ka’s face for a long moment before replying. “The Wyra have forgotten us, there is no hope left.” The dragon in the next column swung its head towards Bright Star. Ka noticed the second dragon had the tip of its tail held in a hook shape – it was something dragons did when they were mildly agitated or deep in thought. “We must not give up, we have waited too long and suffered too much,” said Hook Tail. “Two nights ago we saw the Great Dragon pass the moon, and now there is a Wyra among us. I have thought on this, it is an omen, the Great Dragon has heard and answered our prayers.” Bright Star shook her head. “He is a very small Wyra and greatly outnumbered by the cruel Anse. Is he to fight them all?” A third dragon swung her head around to speak. Ka could see she had unusually long claws that probably needed trimmed. Ka made a mental note to offer to trim her claws later, it wasn’t healthy to have claws too long. “The Great Dragon is wise to have sent the smallest of the Wyra,” said Long Claw. “If he were bigger, they would have seen him as a threat and killed him.” Hook tail kicked sand back at Long Claw. “Don’t tell him that, he’s probably very self-conscious of being such a small Wyra.” “He seems like a perfectly well adjusted Wyra boy to me,” retorted Long Claw. “Nothing like those evil and spoiled Anse human boys. One of them peed in my water bucket this morning.” “Uh… excuse me, I’m pretty sure I’m a human, but we’re not all evil and spoiled,” said Ka. “No, Dear, you are not a human,” replied Long Claw. “Look at yourself. You’re still young, but you’re arms are already bigger than a human’s leg. And, my goodness, look at your chest, it’s as thick as a water barrel.” “And so handsome,” added Bright Star. “He is,” said Hook Tail. “His jaw looks like it was chiseled from stone.” “And framed with that beautiful long silver hair, oh my, I bet all the Wyra girls swoon every time you pass,” said Long Claw. Ka blushed and shook his head. “No, girls try to knock me out with a claw-bar every time they see me.” “Well of course they do,” said Hook Tail. “How else do you expect a Wyra girl to tell a Wyra boy she likes him?” Ka grinned. He liked these three dragons, they were funny. “I still don’t know what a Wyra is, but right now I just need to fix her foot.” He jerked a thumb at the limping dragon. “It’s easy to stop her, you only need to tug on the ropes pulling the sled,” said Bright Star. “But, if you do stop her, the whole column will stop, and then the Anse Dragon Masters will come.” “He needs a diversion,” said Long Claw. “I have an idea,” said Bright Star moving forward and placing her foot on the end of the sled. The sled tipped upward and tugged on the rope to stop Lame Foot. Inside the tent, Cara rolled backward and off the sled with a squeal of surprise. At the same time, the sand viper under the sled startled by the sudden shift in its comfortable riding spot slithered out from under the sled and came face to face with Cara lying in the sand. Cara’s eyes widened, and then Bright Star’s foot stomped down on the poor sand viper. Cara opened her mouth and let out a blood curdling scream. And that was the cue for Long Claw and Hook tail to start prancing around in mock fear. Other dragons, unsure of what was happening, also started stomping around, and in the chaos, the entire column fell apart with dragons stomping in every direction. “Now, little Wyra,” shouted Bright Star. “It will take them a while to sort out this mess.” Ka ran to Lame foot and knelt next to her. She was the only dragon not stomping around. Whatever these people had done to her, she no longer cared about anything that was happening. He gently examined her foot and found her second claw was cracked all the way to the quick. Ka patted her leg and tried to reassure her. “It’s serious, but I can trim this properly so it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Ka pulled a file from his medical bag and went to work as Long Claw, Hook Tail, and Bright Star had a grand time pretending to be terrified of a dead sand viper, and through all of it, Cara did her part and never stopped screaming.