Beware of Propheci

by

Chapter 5

Mortis had called Artha and his friends to the Dragon Temple. They were all assembled in one of the chambers with their dragons behind them. Mortis entered the room with staff in hand and walked over to the others, serious as always.

"I called you all here to tell you of some disturbing news that has come to my attention." Mortis turned, waved his hand and a vid screen unfolded from the ceiling. Photographs of many dragons and text to accompany them scrolled by on the screen. "Dragon City Security has reported a sharp increase in the number of missing dragons lately."

"Missing dragons?" Artha said with a bit of anger as the four dragons looked at each other. "It's got to the Moordryd and Word again. That's why Moordryd wasn't at the race today."

"So it would seem. Apparently, Word's still trying to create a formidable wraith dragon army."

Mortis paused while the teenagers and their dragons exchanged glances. None were pleased at the prospect of battling wraith dragons again. Under Word's control, they were ruthless and incapable of mercy. They would blindly fight to the death if instructed to do so.

"But there's more," Mortis said ominously. He waved his hand again and the display changed. This time it showed photos of humans and text to match. Many images scrolled by. "There has also been a sudden increase in the number of missing person reports as well."

"Missing persons?" asked Kitt skeptically. "Do you think Moordryd and Word have something to do with this, too?"

"I don't know," said Mortis, "but we must find out."

Parmon pulled out his hand held computer and began punching buttons. "Let's analyze the data from the missing person reports and see if there are any correlations," he said. He punched buttons and studied the screen intensely. "Perhaps they're all from a certain section of the city." He keyed the query into the computer. It emitted a short error tone indicating no correlation. "Hmm, OK. Perhaps something else..." Another error tone. "OK, not that. Let's try..."

Parmon, completely lost in thought, paced while he worked and tried various ways to analyze the data, each of which resulted in the computer emitting the error tone. After numerous tries, the computer finally chimed to indicate a successful match had been found. Parmon's eyes widened as he stared at the screen. "That can't be a coincidence!"

"What did you find, professor?" asked Kitt showing concern.

"Well, you see, I downloaded the data on the missing person reports from city central computer and loaded it into a relational database so the reports could be aggregated and compared using tuple-based content addressable queries. Then I --"

He was cut off at that point as Artha, Kitt and Lance exchanged glances, shook their heads and said, "Ah-Hem" practically in unison. The dragons cleared their throats as well.

Artha continued, "Can you just get to the point?" This was accompanied with nods from the dragons pleading for Parmon to get on with it themselves.

"Oh. Yes," stammered Parmon a little self consciously. "Almost all the recent missing person reports have one thing in common." The humans and dragons looked on with expectation. "They are nearly all people who don't have a dragon."

The others exchanged puzzled glances.

"That's odd," said Artha. "Almost everyone in Dragon City has a dragon, except for the few humans who live on their own. But there's nothing else special about that."

"Yeah," continued Kitt. "It's not as if they don't like dragons. It's just that having a dragon and caring for it is a considerable expense, with food, of course, being the largest expense."

"Boy, do I know that!" said Artha who cast a smirking glance at Beau. Beau, feeling slightly embarrassed, looked around with a "who me?" expression and then smiled at Artha innocently. Artha let his expression change to a smile to indicate he was just kidding, to which Beau grunted a "humph!" and gave Artha a friendly shove with his snout, nearly knocking Artha over, as retribution for teasing him. Lance and Fracshun both looked at each other and snickered at this exchange, even though they had seen those two having similar exchanges many times before.

Kitt smiled too and continued, "And, add to that the cost of shelter and medical attention, plus the large commitment of time, and some people prefer to be independent."

"These people usually live near where they work," said Artha, "and taxi-dragons are readily available and inexpensive within the city whenever they need to cover longer distances."

"So what happened to them all?" asked a puzzled Lance.

"Artha, you and the others will have to find out," said Mortis. "It can't be a coincidence that dragons and humans would disappear at the same time."

A look of concern fell upon all the faces in the room.

Chapter 6

The news of the missing humans was a new wrinkle that Artha and his friends hadn't encountered before. Mortis had suggested they investigate that first, and to that end, Parmon sorted the missing person reports into four lists organized by city sector. Each of them would take one of the lists and visit the areas where the missing people had lived and see if they could find anything that might reveal what was happening. By splitting up they could cover more ground.

As Beau brought Artha to the next address on their list, the dragon tried to remember the last time he had walked so far in such a short period of time. It was now late afternoon on the fourth day of searching, and he and Artha were both growing weary after having visited numerous places with no leads. There was no news from the others since they had set out that morning, which meant that they hadn't found anything yet either. With so many dead ends, Beau wondered if they would ever uncover anything. This worried him and he could sense that Artha was worried as well. He felt an almost instinctive desire to protect the dragons and humans in the city and the news of the missing dragons and humans concerned him deeply. What bothered him the most was that there was little he could do at the moment and he didn't like feeling powerless to help. This dampened his spirits quite a bit.

Beau stopped outside a small apartment building where a fellow by the name of Jasun Lem had lived before he disappeared just over a week ago. The dragon crouched down so Artha could hop off the saddle. Feeling a bit tired, which was further exacerbated by his mood, Beau let out a short “whew” sound with a sigh.

“Feet tired, huh Beau?”

Beau nodded towards Artha and said, “Uh-huh,” mimicking the human sound as best he could. Running in a race was one thing, but the endless miles they had covered in the last couple of days and the constant walking was enough to wear out even a dragon's feet.

“OK, Beau. Why don't you rest here while I go inside and see if there's anything we can find out at this place.” Before Artha could finish the sentence, Beau flopped on the ground, raising a small cloud of dust, and made himself comfortable. A relieved “Ahhh” sound rumbled in his throat as he stretched out his feet and spread out and flexed his toes. That's better, Beau thought, smiling a bit. Artha smiled and gave his dragon a kind pat on the head then made his way to the front door of the building.

Artha reviewed the information in the missing person report as he made his way inside. He found it worked best to say he was an old friend of the missing person when talking to their neighbors and trying to get information. He found Jasun's apartment and knocked on the door across the hall from it. The approaching footsteps indicated someone was home.

The door opened and a man in his early 20's greeted Artha. “Hi,” he said as he waited to see what Artha wanted.

“I was wondering if you've seen Jasun around lately. I'm an old friend of his. We haven't seen each other in a while and I was trying to get back in touch with him. I tried calling but there was never any answer and he doesn't seem to be home either,“ said Artha, playing dumb and innocent.

“I haven't seen Jasun in a over week now myself. No one seems to have. Dragon City Security was even here looking for him,” the man responded. “So you're an old friend, too?”

“Too?” asked Artha, looking a little puzzled and not quite sure what the man was implying.

“Yeah, someone else came by looking for him about a week ago, just before he was last seen. Said he was an old friend as well.”

“Maybe I know him. Do you happen to know his name?” Artha said, intrigued that he might actually be getting somewhere finally.

“Yeah, he came by while Jasun was out and asked me when he usually gets back. Said his name was Phyll Sivar. Do you know him?”

“Doesn't sound familiar. Anything else you remember about him?”

“Well, only that he seemed pretty serious about something. Didn't seem like he came by for a social visit, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah. Anything else you can think of?”

“No, that's pretty much it. That fellow was here only briefly. He didn't say anything else.”

“OK. Thanks for your help.” Artha gave a polite wave and said, “Have a good day,” as he turned to leave.

With this encouraging bit of information, Artha hurried down the hall and back outside to where Beau was waiting. The dragon lifted his head as he heard Artha approaching.

“I think we got a lead, Beau!” as he keyed his wrist communicator to call Parmon. This news helped lift Beau's spirits and a smile appeared on his face.

“Hi, Artha. What's up?” asked Parm when his image appeared in the viewscreen. Parm was seated in his saddle and Cyrano was apparently taking him to the next address on his list.

“I found out something,” said Artha as he sat down next to his dragon so Beau could see the screen as well. “One of the missing persons on my list named Jason Lem was visited by someone named Phyll Sivar shortly before he disappeared. Does that name mean anything to you?”

“Hmm, let's see,” answered Parm, as he keyed the named into the console before him on his saddle. “Well, that name isn't on the list of recent missing persons. Let me check the city records. Just a moment.” Beau looked on with interest as Parmon established a connection with the city central computer.

After a few moments, Pamon's image in the viewscreen frowned, and sounding a little puzzled he said, “Artha? You said that name was Phyll Sivar? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, it says here that Phyll Sivar was reported missing about five years ago and hasn't been seen since.”

“You're kidding. He's missing, too?” Artha and Beau looked at each other with puzzlement.

“Apparently. But not quite so missing if he was seen recently.”

“Yeah, I guess. Why would he suddenly show up here?”

“I'm not sure,” answered Parmon, thinking intently. “Let's see what I can find out.” Parmon began keying commands into the console before him. “This will take a few minutes.”

Changing the subject slightly as Parm got the computer working on the problem, Artha said, “Have you heard anything from Kitt or Lance?”

“Not since we split up this morning. Apparently, they haven't had any better luck than I have.”

It had been a long a day and Artha leaned against Beau's shoulder while he waited for Parmon to do his work. At least they might finally be getting somewhere.

A minute or so later, Artha could hear Parmon's computer chime over the com-link and that caught his attention. “Find something?” Artha asked.

“Yes, I did!” answered Parmon, intrigued by what he saw. “According to city records, both Jasun Lem and Phyll Sivar attended the same school. And a search of the class records for the school shows that they were both in several classes together. Artha, Jasun and Phyll probably knew each other.”

“So you're saying a man that went missing five years ago suddenly shows up at his friend's house and then his friend goes missing shortly afterwards?”

“So it would seem.”

“Parm, is it possible that Phyll may have known other people who have recently gone missing?”

“Let me check.” Parm said as he worked the computer further. “You're right, Artha! Phyll Sivar also went to school one other person who was recently reported missing.”

“OK, that gives us a lead. But what does it mean?” asked Artha, frowning as he tried to puzzle this out. He could see that Parmon was trying to think it through as well. After what seemed like a very long minute, Artha suggested, “Maybe we need to go about this differently, Parm. I have an idea. What we have is a case where a missing person from several years ago reappears and two of his friends who coincidentally don't have dragons suddenly go missing as well. So let's see if we can get ahead of this. Can you pull up all the missing person reports from the last several years and then see if any of them might have known people who don't have dragons and have not yet been reported missing?”

“Yes, but a search that broad will take awhile. Several hours at least.”

“OK, why don't you get started on that. I'm going to call the others. It's getting near time to feed our dragons anyway.” Beau perked up immediately as soon as feeding time was mentioned and a broad smile appeared on his face. Suddenly, his feet didn't bother him so much anymore. Artha keyed his wrist communicator again and the screen split into three windows. Kitt and Lance appeared in the two new ones.

“Hey guys! Parm and I may have found something. Why don't we all meet at the dragon feed station off dragway 82 and I'll fill you in.”

Chapter 7

Decepshun ate her meal eagerly, being especially careful to get every last bit. They had another long night ahead of them, and Moordryd had fed her early again. To help maintain her stamina for the long hours on these last few nights, Moordryd had also been adding a protein and energy supplement to her normal feed lately. To a dragon this was like candy, and she diligently made sure she didn't miss a single piece.

Moordryd leaned against the wall in the stable area of the Dragon Eyes compound and waited patiently for his dragon to finish her meal as he always did. Though patience wasn't really needed considering how fast a dragon ate. Decepshun knew that some humans considered feeding their dragons to be a "chore" and had others do the work for them. But not Moordryd. He and Decepshun had been together for as far back as she could remember. They were both about the same age and she remembered Moordryd taking over her care and feeding as soon as he was old enough to lift and measure the feed. They had always gotten along well with each other and each looked out for the other as well. As the years went by, they had become a solid team.

While she ate, she could see out of the corner of her eye that Moordryd was watching her with an expression of mild amusement at the tenacity at which she finished off the meal. But she didn't mind. The humans had plenty of their own odd eating habits she could laugh at herself, what with all the utensils, plates, and napkins they insisted on using, not to mention all the equipment needed just to make their meals. Why, they used more gear just to prepare and eat their food than she needed to run in a race! She found their eating habits amusing and she was sure Moordryd knew it.

As she was licking up the last of the crumbs, Cain entered the stable area. "We're just about ready to go, Moordryd."

"Good. It's going to be a long night. Father wants us to steal 30 dragons tonight."

"30? You've got to be kidding! We've never stolen that many dragons in a single night before."

"Even so, we have to try. We don't know exactly what kind of threat the Prophets pose, nor do we know their numbers. We have to be ready for anything." The previous look of amusement that was on Moordryd's face was completely gone by this point. "Get the rest of the gear loaded and I'll be there shortly."

"We'll be ready," Cain said as he turned to leave.

Decepshun wasn't exactly sure what to make of the Prophets herself. On the one side, they represented an unknown threat to her and she didn't like that. She was used to being the aggressor towards other dragons, not have it the other way around. In fact, few dragons had ever challenged her dominance. And only the Furox had ever actually intimidated her. Most dragons were like Coershun: they had a cowardly streak she could easily find and exploit to gain their submission. Long ago she had noticed that Moordryd used a similar technique to maintain his leadership over the humans in his crew. Their personalities were alike in many ways, and she knew that was why they made such a strong team together.

But the Prophets could be different. She knew the legend like everyone else: the orange dragons had been bred for war long ago and were said to be fierce and ruthless in battle. That was very different from most dragons. Even the black and gold dragon, as powerful as he was, could never be considered ruthless when he fought. If the legend was true, then the orange dragons were not like the other dragons in Dragon City, and she found that a bit unnerving.

Still... The legend also said that the Prophets believed that dragons were best suited to rule and would that be so bad? Afterall she thought, dragons did all of the heavy work. Without the help of the dragons, Dragon City could never have been built. And without dragons, human society would quickly collapse. Shouldn't that earn dragons a better position? Perhaps even a leadership position?

But on the other claw, the overwhelming majority of humans freely provided for all their dragon's needs just as Moordryd did. And the humans were the ones that had figured out how to forge raw draconium and construct the gear that extended and enhanced a dragon's natural abilities, not to mention the fact that a human's own life force added to their dragon's draconium energy. So while it was true that the humans couldn't have built the city without the dragons, the dragons couldn't have built the city without the gear from the humans and the humans themselves. It seemed they each had a part in creating the present day world. The problem was that the Prophets might be planning to destroy human society, and she wasn't about to stand by and let anything happen to Moordryd. And she knew that Moordryd would never let anything happen to her.

For now though, they had a job to do, so she pushed these thoughts out of her mind. Moordryd had finished putting things away after the meal, and picked up his helmet and walked over to her. He patted her shoulder and asked, "Ready to go, Decepshun?" in his usual serious and self-assured way.

She nodded back and magged the saddle off the nearby gear rack. She crouched down as Moordryd climbed on and they set off to where Cain was waiting to begin the night's work.

Chapter 8

Beau was enjoying his meal at the feed station with the other dragons. He and Artha had rendezvoused there with the others and it was now dusk. It had been a long day and all the dragons were hungry.

As he ate, Beau noticed that Fracshun had finished his portion but still looked like he wanted a little more. Beau had plenty of food left so he stepped back from the trough and gave a short call to the smaller dragon along with a gesture of his head to invite him over to share his food. Fracshun happily came over for an extra bite.

Even though the two weren't related, Beau viewed the younger dragon as his little brother and looked out for him. Fracshun was another dragon Connor had raised from an egg, and Beau remembered being on hand with Artha and Connor to watch the little dragon hatch and take his first few wobbly steps. Connor had raised the two dragons together, and it didn't take long for a strong bond to form between them.

Fracshun had finished eating his fill and stepped aside to leave the rest for Beau. Beau gathered up the remaining food in one enormous mouthful and swallowed. He made a very satisfied "Ahhh" sound, then belched loudly and cast a sly smile at Fracshun. Fracshun snickered at this but Wyldfyr and Cyrano just looked at each other and shook their heads at Beau's nonsense.

Having finished their meals now, the four dragons gathered around their human companions who were seated at an adjacent picnic table. The teenagers were snacking on Draconee Yum energy bars and soft drinks they purchased out of the vending machine as Artha went over what he had found out earlier that afternoon.

“So given that there seems to be a relationship between the current crop of missing person reports and previous missing persons,” Artha explained, “Parm's done a search to try and find other humans who knew people who went missing in the past.”

“Right,” said Parmon. “Normally, a search like this would have yielded far too many results. However, the fact that the recent missing humans are almost all ones who don't have dragons allowed me to narrow things greatly. As it is, I only had to download the missing person reports for the last few years along with the dragon registry. I used to dragon registry to generate a list of people who don't have dragons and cross referenced those names with the missing person reports to see which ones might have known each other either at school, at work or who might have been neighbors. The resulting list of names was quite small. Plus a few of the names on the list are people who have recently been reported as missing.”“So it seems like we're on to something here,” suggested Kitt.

“It does,” said Artha. As they were talking, Fracshun moved up beside Lance and nudged his arm gently; his way of indicating that he would like a pat on the head. Lance smiled and obliged. As Lance stroked Fracshun's head, Artha continued, “The plan is to try to get ahead of this and find out what's going on. Parm-” indicating that Parmon should take over the explanation from here.

“Right. I've applied a dynamic stochastic systems analysis model to the names on the list based on characteristics from the recent missing person reports in order to generate the quantum probability of any given subject on the list to become missing in the future. By filtering out those with a high standard deviation above the mean average, I've been able to reduce the list to a diminutive set of individuals who have a high likelihood of disappearing in the upcoming future.”

Everyone else was exchanging glances in mild amusement of Parmon's explanation while Wyldfyr just rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. She wondered how Cyrano could stand being around Parmon all the time. “In other words,” translated Artha, “we think we know who might become missing next.”

“Isn't that what I just said?” responded Parmon, slightly indignant.

While this discussion was taking place, Beau, who was standing behind Artha, eyed Artha's half finished Draconee Yum bar and licked his lips. He slowly leaned in over Artha's left shoulder towards the candy bar and tapped Artha's right shoulder with his tail. Artha looked to his right and, as Beau was about to grab the candy bar, Artha snatched it away from Beau's mouth and said, “Ha! Caught ya! Nice try, dragonola breath.”

Beau gave a short whine of disappointment as Artha took another bite of his candy bar and gave an exaggerated “Mmmmm!” to taunt his dragon. Beau could only stare with his mouth slightly open, practically salivating. Artha chuckled at the sight and said, “OK, Beau. Settle for half?” to which the dragon nodded vigorously. Artha broke the remains of the bar in half and tossed a piece towards Beau who deftly snatched it out of the air, swallowed, and gave a very satisfied “Ahhh” sound.

“Well, now that that's settled,” continued Artha, "let's see if we can find out what's happening with these missing people. We'll divide up and each take one of the top names off of Parm's list."

"Right," continued Parmon, "According to the reports, the people who've been reported missing were usually last seen at their home in the evening hours. So that means they disappear sometime during the night."

"So we'll each stake-out the home of one of the people on Parm's list," said Artha, "and hope we see what happens. Parm and I are ready to try it and our dragons are, too." Looking around hopefully, he asked, "Is everyone else in on this?"

Kitt looked up to Wyldfyr to get her reaction. Her dragon thought this seemed like a good idea and smiled back along with a nod of agreement. "Looks like we're in," answered Kitt.

"Us, too!" added Lance as Fracshun nodded his reply.

Artha stood and said, "Great! If everyone's ready, then let's move out."

On to Chapter 9 ------>