THE SECRET OF THE DRAGON’S EYE
Chapter 6
Thaddeus Osbert
Gavin just had to get away from everyone and everything. It was too much to take any longer. He couldn’t tolerate Miss Farnsworth’s irritating nasally voice, or Colin Firth’s improbable adventures, or Ronald Blaine’s constant idiotic blithering, or even Monica Smithers batting her beautiful eyes in his direction.
Gavin needed to be alone for a while, as far away as possible.
It was a long hike to Tintagel Castle, but spending a few hours climbing around the ruins would take his mind off his various troubles. As much as Emily and Bunty were already getting along famously, Gavin even needed a break from his close friends, to find some peace and quiet for a while. The boy wanted to escape into his fantasy world, where nothing was complicated and everything was fun.
However, before he reached the famous castle rumored to be King Arthur’s legendary fortress and home to the Knights of the Round Table, Gavin’s attention was captured by a much less significant structure nearby. According to the locals, the little white cottage, which sat abandoned on top of a hill overlooking the sea, had been there forever. Whenever Gavin had inquired about it in the past, his father’s mood would instantly sour, as if discussing the little stone hut would somehow hurry its collapse from disrepair. In truth, the thatched house had always intrigued the boy and this time it seemed to beckon to him, now more than ever.
Yet Gavin had never before considered disobeying his father.
Still, Lieutenant Commander Richard Kane was off studying aerial photographs in Medmenham. How would his father ever find out that Gavin merely looked around?
The boy checked over his shoulder, just to make sure.
There was no one in sight.
In that moment of weakness, Gavin changed directions and scampered up the hill, only coming to a stop when he was standing before an ancient wooden door.
Reaching for the latch, he hesitated.
The boy could almost hear his father’s scolding words.
Taking a deep breath, Gavin pushed against the ornate and rusting mechanism.
The door opened easily, creaking a little as it swung inward.
The boy cautiously entered the hut, his shoes creating little clouds of dust with each step. The cottage only had one room, with a huge stone fireplace at one end and another door on the opposite side. There was a single old rickety stool sitting in the middle of the dirt floor, but otherwise there was no other furniture to be seen.
Gavin was exceedingly disappointed. He had expected much more. What could possibly make his father so uncomfortable about this harmless, insignificant, and worthless…?
Suddenly, the enormous fireplace started coming apart, as each shaped stone began shifting and moving through the air. Chunks and slabs sailed about the room, almost colliding, yet mysteriously always narrowly missing each other. This magical display of unexplained levitation appeared random at first, before Gavin realized the rocks were coming together to form an entirely new shape.
What once had looked like ordinary fireplace stones, now glistened and sparkled with pulsating radiant colors, including bright golden yellow, blood red, burnished copper, and bluest black. These once inanimate objects now undulated as if alive. In a painful moment of startling truth, Gavin realized they were actually scales, rippling with power and definitely not of this world.
The poor lad could not move.
His teeth chattered, but not from the cold.
His knees knocked and hands shook.
His heart was beating like a drum.
Gavin could not blink, nor swallow, nor even take a breath of air.
He was frozen in terror.
For there, standing before him, in awesome and terrible splendor, was….
Was…
Was…
Gavin almost fainted.
It was a dragon.
A real dragon!
“Tell me, my fine spirited lad, what finally brings you to Tintagel Cottage?” the dragon asked, as thunderous words echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
Now there were voices in Gavin’s head.
His eyes snapped shut.
It was obvious he was losing his mind.
The dragon grinned, his razor-sharp teeth glistening in a splendid smile. Using one of his claws as gently as possible, this supposedly mythical creature tapped the boy on the shoulder.
“Come now, don’t be frightened of me,” the dragon spoke as quietly as possible. “Everyone’s always afraid of me.”
Gavin managed to open one eye just a wee bit.
The giant monster was still ready to devour him at any moment. The anatomy of the dragon was reptilian in structure, consisting of a long, sinuous neck, a scaly body and a tail that doubled the length of the trunk.
Gavin’s eyes snapped shut again.
The dragon sighed dramatically and crossed his forelegs before him, just like a lion or tiger. He was perplexed by the boy’s behavior, for certainly his father had sent him to the cottage to seek out his heritage. It was plain to see the lad had come of age.
“You are Gavin Stuart Kane, are ye not?” the dragon asked, still controlling his impatience.
The boy slowly nodded.
This admission pleased the dragon greatly. “Aye, it’s true then. You’ve come to meet your destiny.”
Suddenly, without understanding why, Gavin decided he would fight this abomination, rather than be devoured in a quick bite and nothing more.
“I will fight you, you big ugly demon,” the boy snarled, making fists. “I’m not afraid of you!”
The dragon pulled back his head, as his eyes grew very wide. Then he did something Gavin certainly hadn’t expected. Out came a burst of laughter. It was a blusterous guffaw. No mere chuckle or snicker, the beast let escape a very impressive belly laugh, which shook his entire body.
Gavin scowled and said, “Are you making fun of me?”
The dragon shook his head, but it took a little while for the tears of mirth, which fogged his many opaque lenses, to clear.
“Would you deny this feeble old dragon a few moments of sheer joviality?” the dragon finally asked.
This question intrigued Gavin. “Just how old are you?”
“I have seen more years than you can imagine,” the dragon replied.
“Are you really a dragon?” Gavin asked.
“Indeed I am.”
They both stared at each other, pondering the significance of this meeting.
“Let me introduce myself,” the dragon whispered, so not to frighten the boy again. “I am Thaddeus Osbert, son of Kenelm Osbert and protector of the House of Kane.”
Gavin couldn’t believe his ears. He had heard those names before, from the very old book his father had been reading, just before Richard Kane had reported for duty with the Royal Navy.
“I’m dreaming,” Gavin pronounced his conclusion.
“Not bloody likely,” Thaddeus said bluntly.
Now that did come as a surprise. Right then, the dragon had sounded so utterly British that it was almost comical. In fact, the dragon’s entire manner was exceedingly entertaining.
Gavin giggled with surprise.
“What, have you never heard an English dragon before?” the creature smirked.
“I’ve never heard any dragon before, sir,” the boy replied.
“Such a shame,” Thaddeus said. “I shall speak to your father regarding your careless upbringing, that’s for certain.”
Gavin was afraid he would get in trouble. “Please, Sir Osbert, don’t tell father I’ve been here. He will be exceedingly angry with me.”
The dragon looked quite concerned. “He will do no such thing. Richard Kane has no business scolding you for pursuing your destiny. I won’t allow it.”
The dragon rose up on all four legs and snorted. It was both a frightening and awesome display, for Gavin hadn’t realized how enormous Thaddeus really was. In fact, the cottage seemed to swell in size to accommodate the dragon’s immense shoulders and long barbed tail.
“Please don’t get upset, Sir Osbert,” Gavin begged. “I’m sure Father was only looking out for my benefit. After all, I am a bit of a snoop.”
The dragon seemed to calm down almost immediately. He reassumed his original position and beckoned for Gavin to come closer. “I apologize for my display of anger, Master Kane. I’m only concerned that you have come of age and perhaps without the proper schooling in the legacy of your forefathers.”
“Father recently began reading from a big old book,” Gavin said. “The tales were about King Arthur and dragons.”
Thaddeus smiled. “That is good. What have you learned?”
Gavin reflected before answering, saying, “King Arthur needed the wizard Merlin to conjure a dragon to help him drive the Saxon invaders from England.”
“That dragon was my father, Kenelm Osbert,” Thaddeus interjected. “Go on.”
“King Arthur defeated the Saxons and brought peace to all of Briton,” Gavin continued. “To maintain the peace, Arthur sent his knights throughout the kingdom. It was then that evil dragons rose up and almost destroyed every living human in England, were it not for Kenelm Osbert’s intervention.”
“It seems you have been studying the significant events in early history,” Thaddeus stated. “But in the end, do you know why the forces of evil allied themselves with dragons?”
“Because dragons were bad?” Gavin guessed.
“Wizards are the only force that can change a dragon to evil, lad,” Thaddeus corrected the boy. “Otherwise, we are a fairly peace-loving species. Man is the only creature we fear and with good cause.”
“So, man is evil,” Gavin reasoned.
“No, humans are born good and learn to be wicked,” Thaddeus tried to explain.
Gavin shook his head. “We should resist.”
“True, but your race easily falls prey to temptation.”
“Why do you dragons tolerate our mistakes?”
Thaddeus shrugged and said, “I do not know why, lad. Perhaps we are convinced you humans will eventually learn from your failings, or will exterminate each other.”
Gavin frowned, but said, “Please, tell me more.”
“In Latin our species is known as Draco Flameus,” Thaddeus continued teaching.
Gavin shrugged. “Up until this very moment, I considered Latin a tedious bore.”
Thaddeus nodded, as if he understood completely. “The dragon’s native language is rumored to be the oldest of all languages, but we rarely speak it. However, no human can understand our tongue, so we readily adapted our alphabet to match the Roman forces we encountered. The pure dragon dialect was used by many mages who considered it the universal communication of magical spells. Even the Romans seemed agreeable to share this planet with us, until Julius Caesar discovered how many we were.”
“What happened?”
“His legions hunted us down, but we disguised ourselves and escaped.”
“Is that how you take the shape of the fireplace?”
“Yes, but I can also become invisible.”
“How is it that I can see you?”
“Dragons only appear to those who believe in us and then, only when we wish you to see us,” Thaddeus replied. “You are the chosen heir and you have believed in dragons for most of your young life. I wish only for you to know me and therefore willingly carry forward as the guardian of the legend.”
“Legend?” Gavin wondered.
Thaddeus pondered his next move before speaking, but seemed to make up his mind rather quickly. “Even though your father is not here to witness your education in these matters, I think he would agree that it is long overdue. We must venture forth on the wind, so that I may teach you the ways of dragonkind.”
“Before we go, please tell me more about your language,” Gavin insisted.
“The dragon language uses a phonetic alphabet, which I am able to translate to an English equivalent,” Thaddeus continued. “We often combine basic words to form more complex words. Hence, our word for horse might literally translate as four-legged, man carrier. My species may take a long time to say something, but we’re around for so long that we’ve concluded it is more important to be perfectly understood than concise.”
Gavin was pleased. “Thank you, Sir Osbert. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am that dragons really do exist. It’s a dream come true.”
Thaddeus frowned deeply. “Be mindful of your dreams, Master Kane, for within lies elements of truth and things to come. Who decides what shall come to pass and what remains mere fantasy? For whatever you conceive, you might also achieve.”
Gavin contemplated the dragon’s words and remembered them.
The dragon’s eyes had a large iris and a vertical pupil, just like a cat. This allowed the pupil to open extremely wide and admit much more light than a human eye. The white of the creature’s eyes changed colors as well, from yellow to gold, or green, orange, red, even silver, depending on his moods.
Thaddeus also had a leathery outer eyelid and three smooth inner eyelids that protected his eyes. The innermost membrane was crystal clear and shielded the eye from damage as the dragon flew. The other two eyelids served a double cleaning process, constantly blinking to keep dirt from the sensitive lenses. They were not as thin, nor as clear as the innermost membrane, because they trapped impurities. Thaddeus could also use the inner lids to protect his coronaries from sudden flashes of bright light.
“Vision is the best developed of all my senses,” Thaddeus stated after surmising what had intrigued Gavin. “This is fundamental to being an efficient predator of fast-moving prey. As my eyes face forward, my sight becomes binocular. When I look sideways, they can become either microscopic or telescopic. I possess many different lenses to enhance whatever I wish to see.”
For Gavin’s firsthand benefit, the dragon lifted his eyelids and demonstrated flipping through the many lenses available. Thaddeus possessed slit-pupil eyes, where the iris could dilate or contract across a broad range. This allowed the creature to finely tune his vision to accommodate differing levels of available light. The lenses were capable of changing shapes radically, allowing Thaddeus to see across great distances. Additionally, behind the retina lay a reflective layer of mirror-like cells. This liquid-silver membrane captured any light not intercepted by the retina and reflected it back, dramatically enhancing the dragon’s vision at night.
After closer examination, Gavin was visibly amazed, for he had never imagined such things were possible. Surely, this dragon’s physiological capabilities were far more advanced than anything humans had developed over the ages.
“Enough with the Draconian anatomy lessons for today, lad,” Thaddeus said. “It is time to travel elsewhere.”
“Where are we going?” Gavin asked excitedly.
“To seek out your destiny,” Thaddeus replied.
Worried that Gavin might someday find himself in mortal danger, Thaddeus had decided to continue the boy’s education by escorting him to a very special place.
The dragon stepped out with one leg, presenting a way for the Gavin to climb up onto his back. “Up on my shoulders, Master Kane, for the trip will be significantly shorter through the air.”
Before Thaddeus spread his mighty wings, he lifted a few of his scales to conceal and protect his passenger, before turning himself invisible. Passing through solid walls of stone presented little difficulty for the dragon and soon he was flying over the treetops to his destination.
The flight didn’t take very long and before Gavin knew it, they were passing over clear waters. Thaddeus circled around, taking a good look at the surrounding terrain, before he landed by a beautiful sparkling-blue lake. The spot he had chosen was pleasantly situated on rising ground above the Cober River, which expanded into a picturesque estuary called Looe Pool, the water being banked up by the formation of Looe Bar near the coast. A pattern of small, regular grassland fields, enclosed by Cornish hedges, predominated the farmland all around them. Nearby, in a quiet arm of Looe Pool, a Black Duck had taken up residence, squawking noisily while poking its beak into the reeds.
Gavin slowly dismounted and walked with the dragon to the water’s edge. He could see their reflections on the surface of the lake, perhaps realizing for the first time how gigantic the dragon really was.