Chapter 5 : The Dragon Scale
“The prince has been there as well—is that right? Yisreal crossed the border, is that right?”
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Places mentioned:
Tyrannoson:
One of the three kingdoms on the Central Continent, ruled by the Valrino family.
Spring
The capital city of Tyrannoson.
Linsaidea:
One of the three kingdoms on the Central Continent, northwest of Tyrannoson, across a narrow sea, the Rustless Sea, to Mandia. A nomadic, rather savage people that tame mammoths.
East Land:
A continent across the ocean from the Central Continent. There are trades between the two continents, but no official diplomacy.
Rosemary Gulf:
Connecting the Central Continent and East Land. Waters with high rates of shipwrecks.
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Creatures (that can speak and have names) mentioned:
Leopoldo Valrino
The King of Tyrannoson, and the sixth monarch of the Valrino family.
Yisreal Valrino
A son of the King of Tyrannoson.
Oberon Mellon
Ivan’s father.
Moine Mellon
Ivan’s grandfather.
Mr. Galorde
Ivan’s grandfather’s apprentice, having served both his grandfather and father as their assistant.
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5
The Dragon Scale
I shivered violently, and my knees were almost too soft to support my body. But I couldn’t show weakness; even the smell of it would excite beasts. I’d walked through jungles and mountains since I was ten—the age when every boy started to face nature and, mostly, our own cowardice. I had never been trained to be a knight like the princes, but I knew nature well—animals, plants, soil, rocks, weather, and water.
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There was a snippet of memory when my father was cut by a type of nightshade. Grandpa used a snake to suck out the poison from the wound—that snake!
This, this one in front of me was that snake! It had hibernated in a jar filled with liquor, and Grandpa took off the lid, murmuring something, and the snake suddenly woke up, rose out of the jar, and darted itself at Grandpa. Then it stopped right in front of his face, hissing, but couldn’t move, as if there was an invisible wall between them. Grandpa stared at its forked tongue, and two flaring rings of gold appeared in his eyes. Suddenly, the snake swerved to bite on my father’s wound. I remembered its mouth—before, it was pale pink, but after it sucked out the blood, the mouth turned black. Before long, the snake lay there on the bed and stopped moving.
“Ivan,” Grandpa called me in as he knew I’d witnessed the whole thing.
“Is it dead?” I asked carefully.
“For now,” he said. “Now, put it back in the jar.”
I lifted it up and threw it into the jar with the pungent smell of liquor and quickly put on the lid. Within seconds, dark liquid permeated from the snake into the clear liquor, turning the whole jar into ink.
“Step back,” Grandpa said. “Now!”
I fell backward to the ground when the snake propped up the lid and broke free from the jar. Grandpa spoke another bizarre line, and it fell back into the inky liquor again.
“After a few days,” Grandpa said as he put on the lid, “the liquor will be clear, and that means the black mamba is ready to heal again.”
I stepped back into the room. “You’re a snake-charmer?”
He laughed. “Yes, I am.”
“How did you put it back?”
“You wanna know?” He looked at me with a delightful hesitation.
I nodded, and he told me the word.
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I swallowed and took a breath, trying to sound like the one in charge while my body pressed harder against the door.
“How did my father die?”
“Oberon—” the snake turned its head away from me, “served—the wrong Valrino—”
“He was poisoned by the same thing that poisoned Prince Yisreal,” I cut in, trying to expedite the conversation.
“Don't you dare speak his name!” it suddenly turned around and shrieked in the fastest tone I'd heard so far.
“I—know—who—he—is—”
My eyes followed the snake as its body unentangled from me and started slithering around on the floor, almost in anxiety.
“I know him—I know the poison—” The snake moved faster up to the handrail. “They killed me, they killed me—”
“Who?” I interrogated the snake, taking advantage of its visible fear—of the poison or of Yisreal. The calmness I faked was becoming real.
“I was poisoned. Oberon forced me to suck out the poison and I died—I—died from poison!”
It shrieked huskily, rushing down the handrail to the floor and raising its head again in front of me.
“Moine! The last Mellon is going to die soon! Hahahahaha—”
I put down the candle and covered my ears against its piercing shriek. I stared at the snake and bit out my words through its laughter, “No, snake, I’m not gonna die. I’m going to save Yisreal, and you must tell me—”
“How dare you!”
As I’d predicted, the snake broke off again upon hearing the name of Yisreal. It hissed, with its little black eyes exuding green gas. “No one—no one—can save that man! He must—die—”
“I will save him,” I articulated. “Now, get away from me because I’m going to.”
The snake suddenly bloated larger, or the green flame around it enlarged, emitting heat and chill alternately. Its black beady eyes turned green, and the triangular area at its neck spread out wider.
“You—are—a—mortal! You will save neither that man nor your—self—now, mortal—die—with him—”
The snake opened its mouth wide, baring two sharp fangs; green flames flushed out of its black throat, smelling like liquor. In despair, I closed my eyes and screamed out the line Grandpa had taught me: “ad infernum!”
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I saw myself as a little kid, at most 4 years old, submerged in the tub by my father; I struggled, splattering water around. Grandpa stood beside him, holding a dagger. As my struggling died down, Grandpa cut across my father’s arms that were pressing me in the water. Blood oozed and tinted the tub red. Slowly, I no longer moved, while my father’s eyes flared gold, murmuring intensely, line after line. Blood continued oozing from the wounds as sweat slid down his face that grew paler and paler. His eyes, with their two golden rings of flames, fixed on me under the water. My mother stood under the doorframe, covering her mouth, with tears framing her eyes. Finally, my father passed out, and she rushed over to him. Grandpa stood aside, observing the red tub until no more bubbles were rising to the surface, and then he lifted me from the tub, carrying me in his arms and walking out of the room.