Below Jacob gazed at a desolate valley devoid of life. Beneath the barren trees ran a gray carpet of decayed grass, and similar to Dragons’ Lair nothing had been spared from the spoil. “How could one person have purposely destroyed so much?” he questioned within himself, stirred deeply by the deplorable condition of the once beautiful realm. What Lacsar had done to the Enchanted Realm was monstrous, and the more he saw of it, the more incensed he felt. At the time of the destruction when he and his uncle had fled, he was too young to remember, but now since he could actually see the devastation firsthand he deeply identified with what they had gone through. For Uncle Clair and all the citizens of the realm, losing everything; home, family, and possessions to start over with nothing must have been truly horrible, but to know as they fled that all life left behind would be totally destroyed was insufferable. As the ground drew closer, his attention turned toward Trarekeal’s out stretched wings, they were no longer being propelled by a forward thrashing motion but gently adrift in a smooth glide. Gradually they floated downward, descending in between the rocky walls of a broad gulch. Trarekeal extended his muscular legs to land, and within seconds they slammed down with a quick and painful jolt that pressed their sore undersides forcefully onto his stiff scaly back.
“Oooooch!” cried Emalynn, “can’t you fly this thing any better Jacob?”
“Twasn’t his fault,” said Hobble pettily, “Thee Lynex said that he tis thee one steering this monster!”
“Your right!” eagerly shouted back the Lynex. “I piloted the dragon and saved us all!”
“Piloted eh dragon, Humph!” grunted Hobble. “Thee only dragon talent this lynex has tis ta eh shovel dragon dung! We need no lynex ta accompany us!”
“You’ll be sorry that you ever said that when I save your life!”
“Humph! Save me life, now that twould be thee day!”
“Now boys,” said Emalynn. “Let’s not start up again.”
Angrily Hobble folded his arms while the Lynex began hotly gnashing his teeth.
Ignoring the small spat, Jacob stiffly lowered himself down to Trarekeal’s knee and then jumped to the ground. The others followed course, and upon reaching solid ground they stood next to one another immobilized as they rubbed their tender hindquarters. Hobble was the first to budge, promptly tottering over to a smooth rock to gently sit down. Keeping to himself he quietly moaned and grumbled, as his face color began to return to a normal fleshy pink. Emalynn enamored with the dragon stood by Trarekeal’s side patting the base of his scaly neck, while expressing her appreciation for a real cool flight. And Jacob, as he massaged his tender underside, stretched out the kinks in his legs by pacing in a bull-legged circle. Each in their own way found themselves unwinding from their long flight, purposely ignoring the jubilant Lynex.
“I am the only lynex brave enough to ever steer a dragon,” he bragged excitedly, while he hugged himself over and over again. “And from now on I shall be known far and wide as the legendary Dragon Riding Lynex!”
After their short rest, Trarekeal began their search by stomping across the floor of the narrow valley, effortlessly trudging over dead bushes and trees. With his massive carcass he smashed everything flat, leaving in his wake a wide flattened path. And despite the trailing cloud of dust and decayed soot, the brave team followed closely behind Trarekeal’s tail, taking advantage of the cleared trail to hike with their hands over their noses and mouths, coughing and choking with uneven breath.
“Do you think any phoenixes survived?” questioned Jacob while focusing his thoughts between hacking up a lung full of dust and stepping over a flattened tree trunk. Trarekeal suddenly stopped and swung his huge neck around, gazing down at him quietly. “A phoenix is not your average creature,” he then conveyed. “They are mighty sun birds with cosmic power. We may yet find some remaining.”
Having made his point, Trarekeal continued on his way dredging the dead undergrowth for what seemed to be a good mile, until at last he broke through a clump of desiccated trees, arriving at a tiny burrow that tunneled deep into the bottom of a hulking mound. There Trarekeal came to a stop and lowered his huge head, haphazardly sniffing the ground circling the hole and inhaling bits of decayed dross into his outstretched nostrils.
“I hope he found something,” said Emalynn, “this dust is killing me!”
Almost immediately Trarekeal jerked back his head, tossing it forward again and booming a thunderous sneeze that echoed through the entire basin. A spray, similar to a heavy monsoon, blasted out of his nostrils painting the knoll with a brown sticky patch of slime. Shuddering, he tossed his head side-to-side abruptly flinging the remaining strings of dragon snot everywhere.
“EEEUUHH,” cried Emalynn, hurriedly bending over to wipe a glob of snot from off her shirtsleeve onto a large rock. “THAT’S DISGUSTING!”
“He got me too!” said Jacob, looking down at a splotch of slimy string plastered across his pants.
“They say that dragon snot has ober three hundred different uses,” said Hobble with an authoritative nod. “Ye twill find it en’ eh diverse range of medicines, potions enn’ eben en’ tasty dwarf puddin’. If I had eh container I’d gather soom up. It tis quite valuable.”
“UUGH! You mean you eat this stuff!” exclaimed Emalynn, her face looking horrified.
“Speaking for myself, I never touch the gunk,” said the Lynex smugly. “But I wish I had a spoon so I could feed the dwarf!”
In an angry frenzy Hobble whipped around to face the Lynex. “I need no spoon from yer likes!” he roared. As if to prove his point, he bent over and scooped up a brown sandy glob of snot from off the ground. Then holding his index finger out in front of the Lynex’s face he exclaimed with a wide satisfied grin, “To me point! Me fingar works just tas twell!”
To everyone’s surprise he suddenly opened his mouth and wiped the entire brown slimy goblet onto his tongue, swallowing a mouthful down in one hearty gulp. “There, that should put moore hair on me chest,” he proudly barked.
“Oooooh Hobble!” cried Emalynn. Red in the face she turned quickly away as if she were about to heave.
Trarekeal drew his head closer to the small burrow and peered inside using his huge black eye. “I smell phoenix,” he conveyed in thought to Jacob.
Jacob, busy wiping the wad of snot from off his pants with a stick, looked up at Trarekeal in surprise.
“Man! This stuff is all over,” complained Emalynn, lifting up her foot with strings of sticky goo stretching from the soul of her shoe to the ground.
“He’s found a phoenix!” exclaimed Jacob, pointing with his gooey stick at the hole. “It’s in there!”
Immediately everyone froze solid and stared expectantly at the small opening. Within moments a small beak could be seen poking out, followed by a head and a light golden body. The odd looking emerging bird was slightly larger than an eagle with a long slender build and a thick short neck. Crowning its head was a circlet of dark golden feathers and from its back end stretched a long silver plume of tail-feathers. As the bird waddled toward the group it lifted its tail feathers to avoid dragging them over the snot covered ground, and miraculously its body was glistening in the murky daylight.
“That’s a phoenix for sure!” exclaimed Emalynn.
“It probably sensed I was here,” said the Lynex excitedly, “and it has come out to greet me!”
“Humph!” grumbled Hobble. “More likely it smelled ye enn’ wanted ta eh see what stunk.”
“You are just jealous,” fired back the Lynex, angrily waving his finger, “because only pure innocence knows true greatness.”
“Thee only thing great aboot ye tis yer mouth,” snapped Hobble, folding his arms.
“Just wait and see, someday you will want my autograph and I then will say, ‘No absolutely not! Not until you eat some more dragon snot for me!’” cried the irate Lynex, as his sprinkles of his slobber splattered over the ground.
“What is it that you seek dragon?” suddenly echoed in Jacobs’ mind, pulling his attention back towards the phoenix. The deep male voice sounded in his head, and was coming from the phoenix. Somehow he was able to distinguish it apart from the dragon. “To bring you out of your hibernation must be a matter of great need.”
“I have brought the prince of the royal family,” answered Trarekeal.
“Nifty!” exclaimed Jacob, looking back at Emalynn. “I can understand the phoenix in my head just like I can understand Trarekeal.”
“Oh you’re so lucky! I wish I could do that!”
The phoenix cocked his head to the side and gazed up a Jacob, carefully looking him over. After finishing his inspection he turned, squatted low, and reentered back into his hole.
“What’s it doing now?” asked Emalynn.
“Going back in the hole,” replied the Lynex, giving everyone an intelligent look.
“She’s eh asking thee prince, mutton head,” complained Hobble.
Jacob smiled and then said, “I sense that he’s getting something important.”
Within moments the magnificent bird reappeared, tottering out of the burrow clasping a metal object in his beak. Unexpectedly the phoenix gave a quick flutter of his wings and leapt into the air, circling around Jacob’s head to gracefully land on his shoulder. With an out stretched neck the phoenix then presented Jacob with a ring. Thoughtfully Jacob held the gift up between his fingers and gazed at a thin frilly silver band and a dark blue emerald mounted in a golden setting. Tiny spiracles of dazzling pink diamonds lined the edges of the ring.
“This is the emblem of a true ruler,” declared the phoenix, ruffling his feathers, as if annoyed by the effects of the dark matter.
Jacob studied the ring with a puzzled gaze.
“Enchanters use instruments to amplify their magical powers,” explained the phoenix, appearing to sense Jacob’s bewilderment. “Some use wands, others pendants, others bracelets and then there are those that use rings. Those of the royal family need no such tools to present their magic as their powers are higher than that of all other enchanters, but add to them a ring to amplify and you have enchantment beyond anything else. This ring was your father’s.”
Respectfully Jacob gazed at the ring for several seconds and then slipped it onto his finger. The ring was sized for an adult but magically shrank to fit his finger. Alarmed at the unexpected resizing, he tugged on the ring to remove it but found it immovable, stuck tight on his skin as if it had been magically fused.
“I can’t take it off! How do you get this dad gum thing off?” he complained, as he continued to tug on the ring showing off his temper.
Without warning the phoenix squeezed his talons, digging into Jacob’s shoulder, and a sudden wave of darkness followed, slamming through them like a bolt of lightning. It was thick and heavy, a cloud of depression that completely knocked the wind out of Jacob and forced him to stagger to the side. He knew instantly that something was terribly wrong, but before he could do anything the excruciating sensation was gone.
The phoenix relaxed his grip and continued to converse, as if nothing had happened. “Once the enchanted ring is worn, it will never come off unless your finger is removed,” conveyed the phoenix.
“What?” replied Jacob in shock, realizing that he had to wear a frilly ring for life. In a heated rage he pushed the dark incident out of his mind. “Why didn’t you say something before? If I had known that, I wouldn’t have put this girly thing on! I hate girly things!” he crossly replied.
Emalynn stared at Jacob’s hand intensely, as if admiring the new ring in a girly sort of way. “Are you talking to the bird now?” she asked inquisitively. “And who’s that gorgeous ring for? It’s so pretty!”
“Yeah, I’m talking to him,” impatiently snapped Jacob, annoyed by Emalynn’s insulting comment. “The phoenix said this was my father’s ring so I put this thing on, and now he tells me that this confounded ring is stuck on my finger for life!”
“There’s no reason to get so upset Jacob. I was only asking,” replied Emalynn sharply, sounding envious. “Does the phoenix know where to find Mr. Pitts? Will it help us?”
“I haven’t asked him yet,” sulked Jacob, sadly staring at his frilly new ring and feeling very depressed.
“You haven’t? Why not?” she demanded, with her arms now folded. “We’re all pins and needles here waiting for you to find out if we’ll be able to save Mr. Pitts. After all isn’t that the reason why we came? And here you are forgetting about us while you admire your adorable new ring! If you didn’t want it in the first place you shouldn’t have put it on and just given it to me!”
The phoenix lowered his head and rubbed his beak back and forth across Jacob’s shirt, leaving dirty browns streaks. Upset with Emalynn’s scolding, Jacob stared at the smudges on his shirt and then glanced at the girly ring stuck on his finger. Lividly he then glared at the phoenix, half-expecting the dumb bird to now poop on him.
“This is the ring worn by the king of this realm,” conversed the phoenix softly, having sensed Jacob’s angry mood. “I have remained burrowed in the ground since the death of your father. All other phoenixes have long left this realm, but your father requested that after his death I stay behind and protect the ring until you return for it.”
Upon sensing the torment in phoenix’s expression he began to imagine what the bird had suffered for his sake. He realized that he had acted in haste, and he began to feel remorseful over what he had just said. He looked at the ring again and thought of his father. In truth he should be indebted to the poor creature, the phoenix had endured greatly all these years by giving up his own personal freedom to linger behind as a prisoner of the realm, true and loyal to Jacob’s father’s last desire. “I’m sorry for my ungrateful attitude and thanks a lot for the gift,” he conveyed. “I don’t have very many belongings of my father, and so this will be a prized possession.” The phoenix nodded his head, and Jacob then changed the subject, “We’re looking for our sentinel trainer. Dark warriors captured him and he’s somewhere in this realm. Can you help us find him?”
“I am sorry to hear of his misfortune,” replied the phoenix, again ruffling his feathers. “The Dark King does not keep prisoners. But if you want to recover his body, I know of a stronghold where his remains may be found. It is close by where dark forces are powerful and feed off the dead.”
Jacob stared at the phoenix, stunned as the despairing thought sank like a lead weight into the pit of his stomach. “Mr. Pitts already dead? But he can’t be dead, there’s still got to be a chance,” he replied, hoping for a word of encouragement. “He’s gotta be alive!”
“I will guide you there,” responded the phoenix, with a solemn look. “And after you find his body and are ready to leave this realm, would you take me with you? I’ve no desire to remain here any longer.”
“We’ll take you with us Phoenix,” sadly conveyed Jacob, “you needn’t suffer here any more.”
Downhearted and almost in tears, Jacob faced his friends to explain the heartbreaking conversation. After rendering the glum news, Trarekeal lowered himself to the ground and they silently climbed up onto Trarekeal’s scaly back. Heavyhearted Jacob held the phoenix against his stomach, and with his free hand he gripped the dragon’s scales to secure himself for flight. With everyone mounted and ready, Trarekeal lifted his wings and rapidly thrust them downward. A strong swoosh of air kicked up dust while propelling them skyward. Once more airborne they rose up out of the valley, and guided by the phoenix’s whispering thoughts they were soon soaring over a nearby range of mountains. Jacob peered down at a jagged rock face and immediately thought about Mr. Pitts. “What if the phoenix is right and he really is dead? What if I could have saved him by calling Uncle Clair right away? Then his death would really be my fault for delaying the rescue, all for the sake of foolishly keeping the adventure for myself!” They passed over the cliff’s rocky face and he felt an air current gush up, pushing them higher. “But he can’t be dead!” he consoled. “The phoenix has to be wrong, after all Mr. Pitts is an experienced sentinel, and he’s tough as nails, he wouldn’t die so easily. There’s got to be a chance, and we’re still going to save him! It’s gotta be that way, just gotta be!”