The Sail Weaver Read Online Free Page B

gently traced the deeply etched name and message with his finger, imagining what it must have been like, being alone out here, facing miles and miles of unrelenting wilderness. A dark shadow flickered over him, he glanced up, expecting to see Fenfyr.
    Only it wasn’t the dragon.
    A squat shuttlecar , about as graceful as an overweight beetle, hovered over the canyon. Tristan clamped down his first reaction— anger that someone had violated the sanctuary—and pressed into a small crevasse in the rock. If someone was risking violation of the area, it could mean danger. He held perfectly still, in the cover of shadow of the rock, and hoped he wouldn’t be noticed. The vehicle dropped closer to the ground, still being careful to stay above the “red zone” that would trigger alarms. It turned slowly, for the first time ever Tristan was glad the cliffs were hot, the temperature would cover any attempt to locate him by body heat. He held his breath, not daring to move. Sweat trickled off his face and ran over his scalp, feeling like the feet of tiny insects.
    The nose of the car swung slowly towards him, and Tristan knew they had a lock on him. He closed his eyes, waiting for what was to come. Suddenly, he heard the claxon as the shuttlecar brushed the top of the “red zone.” Opening his eyes, he saw it shoot off towards the north at high speed. Tristan let out the breath he was holding and slid down the rock, listening to the hammering of his heart, wondering what had happened.
    “They can spot tiny you down there, but they miss me right here,” Fenfyr huffed from above his head. Tristan looked up, the dragon was peering over the cliff at him. “Are you okay?”
    “Yes.” Tristan stood. “What did you do?”
    “I just fanned my wings a little, just enough to push them into the alarms. This is a secluded sanctuary for dragons, how dare they invade it!” the dragon said, sounding aggrieved.
    “Which is why you did it?” Tristan asked with a snort.
    “Of course.”
    “Thanks.”
    There was a soft whoosh of air as Fenfyr dropped to the ground, by the time Tristan rounded the corner where the spring trickled out of the rock and into a deep pool, the dragon was stretched out , basking in the rays of the setting sun. Tristan set his pack down in the mouth of the cave at the back of the pool and unrolled his bed roll. He grabbed his cook-kit and carried it back out to sit beside Fenfyr. After heating some soup, with the comforting flame of the small camp stove lighting the walls and glistening on the dragon’s feathers, Tristan sighed and leaned back against Fenfyr.
    “Remember?” the dragon asked softly.
    “How could I forget?”  Tristan smiled gently at the dragon. They had met in this spot when he was first in the Guild. Before Weaving his first set of sails, he was sent out to find the Elements for the Interface. It was his second day out when he realized that part of the test was surviving in the desert. He had been watching a huge electrical storm building in the west for hours as he headed towards a massive red cliff, hoping to find shelter there. The imbalance in the world caused by massive plasma and other weapons used during the last part of the Great Second War made for deadly storms if you were caught out in them. He guessed he had less than an hour before it struck, and he was hurrying towards shelter when he realized he wasn’t alone. There was nothing to confirm that notion, he just knew. When he reached the cliff and the spring, the rain was starting and he dove into the cave. A deep growl greeted him as the first strike of lightning slammed into the ground.
    “I considered eating you,” Fenfyr joked, nudging him out of the memory.
    “I expected you to,” Tristan replied.
    “You were too scrawny, not enough meat. Besides, I like flavored protein soup, and I didn’t want to have to cook it myself.”
    “You are lazy.”
    “And diabolical,” the dragon added.
    Tristan laughed softly.