Raja Whiskerji's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

At dawn Kasim pointed at the hatchling and spat. "It still hates you, cat. One scream on the open flats and we die." The letter was buried now, but the little dragon kept its eyes on Raja. Its markings flared when he moved. Raja knew the truth. He could not cross until the beast trusted him. He needed someone who understood young creatures, and he knew one name. He found the old beast tamer near a sheltered grotto, a stone shell curved like a cradle, cool and quiet. Garrick Beasthollow had calmed wild things since before Raja was born. He crouched now with a hand flat, feeding a lean dune jackal from his palm. The animal's flattened spine made it look like a blade. It ate without fear. "Beasts don't hate," Garrick said, not looking up. "They remember. Yours remembers a smell. Teach it a better one." Raja told him everything. The crossing. The screams. The danger. Garrick carried the hatchling into the grotto. "We practice here first," he said. "Walls hold sound. If it screams, no hunter hears." He handed Raja a strip of jackal hide. "Carry this. Let the smell cover your own. Then move slow. Let it watch your paws, not your fear." The first try failed. Raja stepped close and the hatchling shrieked. The sound cracked off the stone and rang in his ears. Garrick did not flinch. "Again. You rushed. A scared cat smells like prey." Raja breathed. He sat down and went still. He let the hatchling come to him. It crept forward, sniffed the hide, and backed away hissing. They tried for hours. Raja kept his paws low. He fed the beast the way Garrick fed the jackal, flat palm, no sudden move. Each time the hatchling came closer. Smoke still leaked from its nose, but the screams grew shorter. By dusk it did not scream at all. "Now the real test," Garrick said. He set a pebble clattering, a sudden noise, the kind the flats threw at travelers. The hatchling tensed. Its markings glowed. Raja held out the hide and stayed still. The beast opened its mouth. No cry came. It closed its jaws and climbed onto Raja's arm. It settled against his chest, warm and heavy, and slept. Garrick let out a slow breath. "It's yours now. It chose you." Raja felt the small weight rise and fall with each breath. The crossing could happen. The hatchling would not doom them. But Garrick's face changed. "It trusts you," he said. "Which means Kasim no longer controls it." Raja understood at once. The smuggler's only hold over the beast was gone. And the beast was the one thing that kept Kasim from robbing a client and leaving him in the salt. Raja had won the hatchling. Now he had to wonder what Kasim would do when he learned it followed a cat instead.