Page 30 of Dream Reaper

“Look, you can’t just run around the forest at night, you know,” he began, trying to sound stern and parental. “There are very dangerous things in the woods.”

Roar drew his knees to his chest and began to rock on his bottom. “Oh, I know. I’ve seen it all. Wolves, and hounds, and rats. Oh, and gremlins too. Well, I actually haven’t seen a gremlin yet, but I know we have them.”

“Gremlins?” Jerrid echoed with a frown. “What is a gremlin?”

“Oh, you know,” the boy said, waving a hand as he rocked. “They are tiny invisible sneaks who steal your things when you aren’t looking and hide them in dumb places. They’re always taking my da’s stuff and hiding it. He finds his things in the strangest of places. Definitely the gremlins.”

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. It sounded to him like Roar’s da was just beginning to have trouble with his memory, but he could imagine why the poor man wouldn’t want to admit that to his impressionable young son.

“Ah, well, yes. You don’t want to run amok of the gremlins in the dark either.”

“Nah, they’re harmless at night. They run around all day thieving, and then they sleep all night. If you listen really carefully, you can hear them snoring. They sound like bugs going bzzzZZZ bzzzzZZZZ.”

Which meant those sounds probably were just bugs droning through the night, but Jerrid wasn’t going to try to explain that to a five-year-old. It wouldn’t do to break his faith in his father’s storytelling, no matter how ridiculous those stories might be.

But it would behoove the man to better prepare his child for the real world…so that he didn’t think it was a good idea to run off in the dark all by himself.

“Well, you’re going to have to stay here until Brynja comes back.”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? She isn’t coming.”

“You did say something to that effect,” Jerrid replied sourly, plunking down again on the ground on the opposite side of the fire from the boy. “I just hoped I had misheard you. Did she say why?”

The boy shrugged. “I dunno. If she did, I didn’t hear that part. I was hiding in a basket.”

“Um…why?” He wasn’t sure he even wanted to know the answer to the question.

The boy’s smile held no contrition. “I wanted to know where you were hiding the dragon. So I could come see it. I’ve never seen a real dragon. I’ve heard about them, though. My da has told me all about them.”

“You’ve never⁠—”

“Nope. Never. I was little when we left home. I don’t remember nothing. But I aim to go back one day. I want to be a dragon rider. Like you.”

Jerrid studied the boy with a frown. Why was he living in Gelaira? He wasn’t of mixed lineage. His clear skin and rounded ears, along with all those freckles, clearly suggested both of the boy’s parents were of human lineage.

“Why are you living here?”

“My da came here to find his sister, and my mum came after him. She didn’t want to be left out of all the fun. We’ve been here ever since.”

The boy continued to rock back and forth as the orange glow of the fire darkened his freckled cheeks.

“Why didn’t you all go home?”

“Da wouldn’t leave until he found my auntie,” Roar said. “She was married to one of them elves, but he wanted to find the right one to battle.”

Jerrid inhaled too quickly and coughed to clear his throat. “I’m sorry. He’s planning to battle the elves?”

“No, not all of them.” Roar yawned and shook his head. “He was just after the one that took my auntie. Boy, am I hungry. Do you have food? Oh, oh, do you have travel rations? I’d love to try some real, genuine travel rations!”

Jerrid groaned and leaned his head back against Echo’s side. He didn’t have many rations left for himself, let alone enough to share.

“No,” he muttered. “You can go home to eat. You’ll have to go back in the morning though.”

“Oh please, can’t I stay with you? I want to be here when the dragon wakes up. I don’t suppose I can have a ride⁠—”

“No,” Jerrid interrupted grimly. “You may not have a ride. You may go to sleep now. I need to keep watch, and you’re making too much noise. You’re liable to attract all the beasties in the forest.”

Roar groaned and flopped into the grass dramatically. “Now you sound like my mum. She always says I’m too loud, too. That’s how I got my name, you know. I came out howling when I was born, and so they decided to call me Roar. Because I was roaring, understand.”