Chapter 29

“Men can be very stupid at times,” Mitty said while pouring the last of the tea into Trevelyn’s mug. “My husband often does things that make no sense at all.”
“How can you stand to live with one for so long?” Cunegunde picked up a piece of sausage and toasted it delicately before popping it into her mouth.
“Because for every stupid thing he does, he also does something that makes me love him even more. We work together.”
“And even though I don’t have a husband,” Trevelyn added, “I work very closely with a lot of men. Sometimes you have to overlook their flaws, but they’re usually quite useful to have around.”
“I know it’s not easy being alone. I felt alone for the longest time before I met Malek. But dragons are lucky in the fact that they aren’t expected to answer to a man. You’re so independent. Don’t worry. Snult and I will have a conversation.”
Mitty nodded to Trevelyn as she stood up. The two had been consoling the poor girl for over two hours. Cunegunde really wasn’t a bad dragon at all, she was just somewhat misunderstood.
As Mitty entered the adjoining room where the men sat in a cluster, they all jumped to their feet.
“So do we get out of here?” Lasser asked.
“What did she say?” Brother Hricks asked.
Prince Orin, Iber and Masonae also added questions but they were garbled into an indecipherable mess. Malek stood in the back, waiting silently and patiently as always.
“First of all, I need to talk to Snult,” Mitty said as she glanced around. There was no sign of the dragon anywhere. The men’s eyes told her where he was. She stood over the fire in a ring and folded her arms over her chest.
“Snult.”
“There’s no one here by that name,” he said from the fire.
“Do I have to get the fire tongues and drag you out of there by your tail?”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Snult, I think you’d better move. Now,” Masonae said. Mitty knew her son recognized the difference between a Mom Bluff and a Threat. This was definitely the latter. Snult let out a grumble crawled halfway out of the fire. There was no way he was getting away with that. Mitty grabbed her apron, and as deftly as removing a hot pan, she scooped Snult up and held him by the tail.
“Hey!”
“Excuse us for a moment,” Mitty said to the rest of the crowd as she held the fluttering Snult out at arm’s length and marched him out of earshot.
“Stay,” she heard Malek firmly call after her. A quick glance told her he was talking to the rest of the boys who were about to follow her. She smiled. Men were useful at times.
Mitty sat Snult down on a rock and knelt next to him.
“Now, Snult, you’ve really hurt Cunegunde’s feelings.”
“Are we talking about the same Cunegunde who made your husband a slave and tried to eat Lasser?”
“And how many times have you threatened to eat someone.”
“Yeah, but I never mean it.”
“Well, perhaps she didn’t mean it either.”
“Of course she did.”
“That’s not the point. The point, Snult, is that she told us about the way things were left between the two of you, and that wasn’t very nice, now was it?”
The dragon grumbled and glared up at Mitty. She knew she was getting to him, though, because his tail was thumping on the stone, sending up sparks.”
“That was a misunderstanding.”
“You disappeared one day, and never came back.”
“She was crowding me. I’m a dragon. I need space.”
Mitty sighed. “You just can’t handle commitment.”
“A dragon is forever… or basically. Do you know how long forever is?”
“A Great Mage isn’t forever?”
“Well…” Snult stopped making eye contact with her. The guilt was setting in. “You and Malek are special.”
“Even if we are, just leaving without explanation is completely and unquestionably rude, so you are going to apologize.”
“If I go in there again she’s going to bite my head off.”
“Actually, Trevelyn and I have calmed her down considerably. She’s expecting you.”
Snult mumbled something Mitty couldn’t hear. He still wasn’t looking at her.
“And when you go in, you are going to be a complete gentleman… dragon. You are going to apologize, and you are going to admit that you were the reason you left, and that she is a perfectly nice lady dragon. You’re just not ready to settle down with anyone yet.”
Snult sighed. Mitty grabbed him by his snout and forced him to look at her.
“And if you make one smart mouthed comment, you won’t have to worry about Cunegunde biting your head off.” His eyes widened and Snult shook his head as much as he could with her hand still around it.
“Right, now come along.”
Mitty headed back to the chamber where the men gathered. With a single finger to her lips, she quelled their questions. With the same finger she motioned them forward into Cunegunde’s abode.
Cunegunde was back to full size, laying next to the table where Trevelyn sat finishing the rest of her tea. Trevelyn appeared calm, but the dragon’s tail was tapping out a beat on the stone and a slight tell tale wisp of smoke leaked from her nose and curled upwards toward the ceiling.
Snult approached, wisely choosing a size similar to Pylon for his apology. Mitty stood beside him and the rest of the party kept a safe distance near the back of the cave.
“Cunegunde,” Snult began as he cleared his throat. “I’m a really horrible dragon, and I wanted to apologize for leaving you without any explanation or cause except the fact that I need a lot of personal space and I can’t exactly maintain a relationship because it’s definitely not you. You’re a wonderful dragon and if I ever wanted to settle down and have little dragons you’d be the one that I’d pick.”
Snult glanced at Mitty who gave him a comforting nod.
“Just as long as you admit you were wrong,” Cunegunde said.
“Wrong. Really wrong. Supremely wrong. Wrong diddely wrong wrong wrong.”
“Oh Snulty. I forgive you.”
Cunegunde reached out and grabbed Snult into a huge hug. Mitty smiled as Snult’s eyes pleaded for a rescue, but his mouth remained shut.
“And just for you and my new friends, Trevelyn and Mitty, I will help you on your quest. A long time ago, my father decided to survey within his flight. He made a map of all his travels and I have spent many hours memorizing it for when I decide to take a journey of my own. I will give it to you.”
She handed over a scroll to Trevelyn who unrolled it over the table. Mitty approached to look at it. The map was quite detailed, marking villages and mountain ranges, some with names she’d never heard before.
“Look, there’s Galadin. It’s pretty much central, isn’t it?”
“Hasn’t changed much,” Trevelyn remarked as she ran her hand over the spot marked as Tamarin. “These different colors. They don’t follow any country lines I’ve ever seen before.”
“Oh they’re not countries. They’re ley lines.”
“What are those?” Mitty looked at the ones that encircled Galadin. They ran through the mountains that surrounded the country on all sides. The others lines seem to run more in circles, each filled in with a different color. The ones in the middle were quite grey.
“Ley lines are are where the magic changes. Each area has a different kind of magic. There’s seven that my father mapped out. Humans can’t feel the shift in the magic, but it’s there. Things that work in one area, are completely useless in the other.”
A swell of relief ran through Mitty. “You mean that if someone is a Great Mage in Galadin, they would be completely normal in another of the areas.”
“Of course, you didn’t know that?”
They all looked sheepish, including Snult.
“I did. I just forgot,” Snult said, head hung low. “I mean it only affects humans and magical objects. It doesn’t affect dragons.”
“It would have been nice to know before I sent my husband out.”
“Anyway, at the center of each area is a tree,” Cunegunde explained.
“And we have to gather seeds from each tree in order to heal the damage to our tree, The Calca Tree.”
Mitty sat back and surveyed the map. At least now they had a general idea of where they were going, and what they were getting into. It was a good thing she’d gotten the idea to search after Pylon and Masonae. If it hadn’t been for Pylon, she’d have never found her son. Trevelyn and she had traveled quickly over the mountains, but had found their strength lagging. They’d taken a nap and found Pylon staring over them intently when they’d awakened. The cat had good enough sense to guide them back to where the men had been checking their traps. They were quite surprised to say the least and led the women directly to their dragon.
It was strange, here, how the women had all the power. The men completed all the mundane task of basic living while the girls went and played about, visiting only a select few of the men and making them feel lucky to be graced with their presense at all. After expressing their gratitude, and another groveling session by Snult, the party was led to a cavern that had a direct access point to the surface. They were given supplies and the men even donated a few of their spears. They fawned over Mitty and Trevelyn and basically ignored the others. Malek’s temper was growing short.
“Right. Right. We’re fine. We’ll bed down here tonight and set off in the morning. The next thing Mitty knew the men were bringing every pillow they could find to provide a soft bed for the two ladies. Even the evil eye Malek flashed didn’t seem to dimish their enthusiasm.
They started a fire and all the travelers gathered around and settled in. Mitty watched her son interact with the prince. It seemed that they got on very well with each other. Perhaps he had been wrong to keep him at home for so long. She should have given him more of a chance to explore without feeling his parents breathing down his neck.
“Masonae, can I talk to you for a minute? I think we need to discuss a few things,” Mitty called to him. He made eye contact and nodded. Masonae glanced over to Hricks and Orin, who were within earshot and trying desperately to look disinterested in their conversation.”
“There’s definitely some things we need to talk about, but I’m not sure now’s a good time. How about tomorrow, when we’re on the road?”
Mitty nodded. Family business should probably stay in the family.
Malek came up behind her and gave Mitty a hug and a kiss. It felt nice to know where her family was. The worries of the nights before melted away as she settled down next to her husband and son. Now that they were all together, everything would be perfectly fine.