Boelik (6 page)

“
Boelik. What is
it?”

“
I need to bury my wife.
And I need to know—should I stay here? Is there any reason?” Dayo
raised his head and swung it over to Boelik.

“
Unless you want to stay
near your wife’s corpse, no. There is not any reason for it. And I
doubt your wife would want you to stay just so you can be near her
bones. Let her body fall to nature: you can live and keep her alive
in your memory.”

Boelik nodded and got up, guilt and relief
swirling inside him. “I understand.” Then a nagging curiosity
caught his tongue. “Also, how do you speak?”

Dayo rumbled, and Boelik discovered that it
was a laugh as a wave of foreign amusement ran through him. “I use
a method that allows me to connect with another’s mind and
speak.”

“
I see.” He didn’t
understand, but he had enough of an idea. Magic.

“
Is that all?”

Boelik nodded. “I believe so.” And he turned
away.

“
Oh, and Boelik?” Dayo said
as Boelik began to walk away.

“
Yes?” Boelik asked,
turning back around.

“
If you happen to find any
demons and kill them, it is best to erase evidence of their
existence. Demons are attracted to carcasses of their fellows.
And…” Dayo said, hesitating for a moment. “…the human race is
fragile-minded; demons and dragons are falling to myth. It may be
best to keep it that way. You understand?”

Boelik gazed at Dayo for a moment before
answering. “Yes, I understand.”

Boelik walked back to his grove and his
house. He brought out his wife, carrying her like the day he first
brought her home. Boelik carried her to the hill and laid her there
while he dug her grave with his bare hands. Dayo was long gone.

Once the soft dirt covered Olea for her
eternal rest, Boelik went back to the house and dragged the dead
demon inside.

He moved to his shed, removing his beige
cloak and putting dried meat in it in a bundle. After he was
finished, he looked at the garden, at the home he’d made for
himself and then at the one he’d made for more. And he set it all
on fire.

Glowing ashes lit up the sky like smoldering
stars as they rose. Screams echoed in Boelik’s head, and crickets
outside of it. Staring, he watched for another few moments as the
fire burned all that he’d known for the last five years. The first
place he’d deigned to call ‘home’ since he’d been a child. The
first place in a long time where he felt loved. And then he pulled
his cloak tighter and walked away, letting the fire consume all
evidence of his life there.

That night, he sat in the calm breeze by
Olea’s grave and whittled until the sun rose. In the morning, he
took his supplies and checked on the forest to make sure his fire
eliminated everything it should have. It had, and only just: the
rain before had prevented its spread. Boelik left the pile of coals
behind, walking over to his creek and looking down at it for one
last time as his shadow passed over.

He eventually ended up at Helena’s house.
Outside of her door he placed his night’s work—a small wooden fox.
With that done, he left the forest for the last time, headed away
from the village.

The trees moaned behind Boelik as he left
their protection once and for all. He glanced back at them for a
moment before turning around and putting the hood of his navy cloak
up and walking away. He did not look back again.

***

“
Look at this: ‘Colonies
claim independence’,” a man said in the pub. There was a lively
racket in the building, swathes of men drinking away their short
lives.

“
Ungrateful,” someone else
growled. Boelik glanced over at the two men having the
conversation, but he soon turned away and walked out. He strolled
calmly into the night-blanketed streets of the town.

“
1776—the United States of
America emerge,” Boelik mumbled under his breath. He looked around
at the small English settlement. “Maybe I should go visit once
everyone is done fighting in their petty arguments.” He turned as
he heard a fight break out in the pub, and he shook his head.
“Wonderful treasure troves of information, pubs; but not full of
very good people.” He shook his head again. “I don’t even
drink.”

A man passed Boelik on the street, not even
giving him a glance. Still, Boelik moved deeper into the shadows
out of habit. His hazel eyes scanned everything about his location,
always watchful. He had had more than enough surprise attacks in
his life.

“
Come on, Dayo,” he
muttered. “It’s been four hundred years. Where are these people
that need me? Am I doing something wrong here? Did you lie to
me?”

He’d asked the same questions thousands of
times by now, and, naturally, he still didn’t have an answer. He
had no idea why he was still waiting.

“
No.”

Boelik stopped in his tracks, now on full
alert. “Not one time in four hundred years, and now you finally say
something?”

“
Yes.” Dayo’s voice
resonated in his head, familiar and strange after all this
time.

“
Do you have someone in
mind? Is he born?”

“
Yes, I have someone in
mind. No, your primary pupil is still not yet born.”

“
Well, will you take me to
whoever it is that needs me?”

“
Of course. Find me in the
fields to the south.” With that, the old dragon’s deep, rich voice
was silent. Boelik dashed for the fields, everything else in slow
motion in comparison to his unnatural speed. He was in the fields
within ten minutes at Dayo’s side.

“
You were extraordinarily
difficult to find for being a behemoth of fur and feathers,” Boelik
huffed, bending down and putting his right hand on his knee. He let
his left arm dangle limply under the cloak. The moon shone above
the two, bathing them in its gentle light, turning Boelik’s brown
hair silver just like his fur.

“
I was wondering why you
were so slow. Are you out of practice with your speed?” Dayo asked,
bending his serpentine neck down to put his face at Boelik’s
level.

“
No: I just had to sprint
around to try and find you before we both got impatient. I checked
three different fields to make sure I didn’t miss you.”

“
I see. Well, onto the
matter at hand,” Dayo said, lying down like a patient
cat.

Boelik glared at him and huffed before
sitting himself, crossing his arm over his chest. “What do you have
for me after all of these years? I have been patient as you
asked.”

“
I know,” Dayo said with a
nod. “And I am glad of it.” Boelik realized then that his voice
sounded more raspy—older, in a way. And he realized then that even
Dayo aged faster than he did. Continuing, Dayo said, “Your new
charge is in Ireland.”

“
Ireland?” Boelik asked.
Dayo nodded. “Great. Potatoes.”

“
Was that
sarcasm?”

“
I don’t know,” Boelik
replied sourly, wrinkling his nose. Dayo moved his tail out and
flicked Boelik across the back, sending him sprawling into the
grass. He laid there, still for a moment. Then he turned his head
to the side so it wasn’t in the dirt.

“
Ow. Sorry. I apologize,”
Boelik muttered, keeping his eyes low.

“
I know,” Dayo replied, his
voice level. “It’s just that it’s been four hundred years since
you’ve had a clear purpose. That can be hard on a soul.”

Boelik sighed and sat himself back up. “So,
do I have to find my own transportation?”

Dayo shook his head, closing his golden eyes
for a moment. “No. I will fly you nearby and direct you the rest of
the way.”

Boelik’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Fly? You
mean, on
you
? Like a steed?”

“
The best you will ever
ride,” Dayo replied, a playful glint in his eye as he ruffled his
wings.

“
Oh, no.” Boelik shook his
head, scrambling to his feet and turning away, hands raised. “No,
no, no.”

“
What? Are you afraid of
heights?”

“
I don’t
know
. But I certainly don’t want to
fall
!”

Dayo spread his wings and shuddered in
irritation. “If you fall, I will either catch you, or you will be
low enough to the ground to be fine.”

Boelik sucked in a deep breath, folding his
arms. “It’s been four hundred years. I don’t know why I still trust
you.”

Gazing at Boelik’s turned back and folding
his wings back in, Dayo said, “Because you know you can.” Boelik
gave a small sigh, his shoulders sagging some, and faced Dayo.
Turning his gaze up to Dayo’s equine eyes, the dragon pressed,
“There you go. Get on.”

“
I
cannot
believe that I’m doing this,” Boelik muttered,
grabbing the soft white fur between his hands and clambering up
onto Dayo’s back. “You’d better not drop me!” he called
out.

“
Hold on tight and press
close to me.” Dayo shifted beneath Boelik, so he did as he was
told.

The warm fur surrounded him, creating a thick
insulation. Boelik looked up towards Dayo’s head as it began
stretching to the sky, and he both felt and heard a joyful rumble
in the dragon’s chest. “Uh, Dayo…?” he began. Before he could say
anything else, the dragon thrust his wings in a downward stroke and
the two started off. As Boelik glanced back at the ground and, with
wide eyes, saw the world shrink, he felt nauseous. “Oh, not good,”
he groaned.

“
Don’t let your stomach
loose, now!”

“
I certainly won’t
try
to!”

The two soared high into the night, clouds
eventually coming between them and the ground. Dayo’s fur kept
getting in Boelik’s face, but it kept him warm in the cool
atmosphere.

Once Dayo was confident in his speed, he
slowed his wings and let the two of them glide, only adjusting his
wings once in a while to keep the flight steady. The moonlight
graced the clouds and made them look like snow. Boelik was almost
convinced that they were, and that if he fell on one that it would
catch him in a white plume. He reached out with his human hand but
soon jerked back from the cold vapor.

“
Don’t be fooled,” Dayo
warned. “The clouds are not solid, even if they appear to
be.”

“
I know,” Boelik replied.
“I was just curious.”

“
That can be
deadly.”

“
Or useful.”

Dayo snorted. “Or useful.”

After a matter of a few hours, the two
arrived over the land they sought. Dawn was just arriving, bathing
the land in a golden light. Boelik yawned, the sun shining in his
eyes past Dayo’s neck.

“
Are we almost there?” he
asked.

“
Almost,” Dayo affirmed,
banking left.

“
Whoa!” Boelik yelled,
gripping tighter Dayo’s fur, turning his knuckles white. Dayo’s
rumbling laughter spilled into the air as he tucked in his wings
and dived towards the ground. Boelik screamed and shut his eyes as
they accelerated. At the last moment, Dayo whipped his wings back
out and sent them at an all-too-fast glide parallel to the
ground.

Boelik opened his eyes to see the green land
going by in a blur; almost exactly how it would look if he ran.
They were close enough now that Boelik would almost certainly live
if he fell—had they been traveling slower. In his chest, his heart
pounded an insane beat, now from excitement rather than fear.
Sunlight shone in his eyes if he tried to peer ahead, so instead he
looked down and mentally marked whatever he could. There was very
little to mark—they were flying over hilled plains. There was,
however, a lot of green.

Dayo slowed over a small cottage that seemed
all but abandoned and landed just out of sight of it. Boelik
scanned the plains, feeling small and exposed even as he sat on the
dragon. The lack of trees or buildings was new to him. As least
wherever he’d stayed before there was something to break the flat
horizon somewhere. Here, trees were as rare as half-demons.

He slid off Dayo’s back and immediately his
face was in the grass. His legs were like honey underneath him;
entirely insubstantial. Boelik growled and tried to stand again,
Dayo putting his foreleg beside him so Boelik could use it to
balance himself. He noticed that Dayo was laughing again and gave
him a glare from the corner of his eye.

“
I’m sorry,” Dayo
apologized, though the rumbling continued. “It is quite humorous to
see the effects of a first ride, though.”

“
Oh, be quiet,” Boelik
grumbled, the strength beginning to return to his legs. Dayo moved
his leg and Boelik stumbled to the ground with an
“Oh!”

He quickly regained his composure and stood
again, still shaky. And again his baleful glare was turned to
Dayo.

“
I couldn’t help it: I’m
sorry,” he rumbled. After a moment, he became serious once again
and shifted to better face Boelik as he said, “Back to the matter
at hand. You saw the cottage, did you not?”

“
I did.” Boelik let himself
relax, managing to stay on his feet.

Dayo nodded. “That is where the student is
hiding. The nearest village is to the south. Good luck.”

“
Wait, wait,” Boelik
protested as Dayo spread his wings. “That’s it? No fundamental
details? Not even their name? Their appearance?”

“
Did I know your name,
Boelik?” Dayo lowered his head to stare Boelik in the
eye.