Heir To The Dragon King

            As she sat by the pier, she looked out over the bay.  She noticed that thick fog and mists obscured the mountain island.  When the boat didn’t come, she assumed at first that the fog delayed them. 

            The sky eventually cleared up around noon, but she still saw no sign of the returning boat.  It was late afternoon before she saw the boat come bobbing over the choppy surface of the bay.  The fishermen rowed up to the wharf, and they threw a rope over the piling to secure the boat.  Looking into the craft, Malvola saw no sign of her son, but Alberto seemed to be lying in the stern of the boat, asleep. 

            “Someone’s going to have to tell her,” she heard one of the men say. 

            Malvola ran to the boat.  “What happened?” she demanded.  “Alberto, where is Titus?” 

            Alberto didn’t answer. 

            One of the men in the boat took Malvola gently by the shoulders, and he quietly led her to one of the pilings.  “You’d better sit down, Doctor Malvola,” he said.  “I don’t know how to tell you this, but your husband is dead.  Neither he nor the boy was at the meeting place, and a couple of us went ashore to see if we could see them.  We found your husband’s body at the bottom of the mountain, along with his backpack and some of their camping gear.  It looks as though he slipped trying to climb down and hit his head.  The fog is very thick up there.  There’s no mark on him, except a big bump on the back of his head, and I don’t think those beasts had anything to do with it.  We called and called, and we looked around, but we couldn’t find your son, and nobody answered.  The fog was too thick for us to go climbing up the mountain, but frankly, most of us aren’t brave enough to go up the mountain near those beasts, even when it clears.  We’ll go back tomorrow, but we don’t know what to think.” 

            Malvola went to the boat, and knelt beside her husband.  He looked as though he were peacefully asleep, and he would awaken at the sound of her voice, but she found no pulse in the wrists or neck, and her ear at his check was greeted only with silence.  Her loving, wise Alberto was gone, and only the empty shell remained.  On impulse, Malvola, with some difficulty, took the dragon ring from his stiffening finger, and she undid the cachet from his neck.  It felt heavy, and she thought it might contain some of the dragon essence. 

            The next few days were a blur for Malvola.  True to their word, the men from the fishing village went back to the island in the morning, when the sky was blue and clear.  This time, Malvola went with them.  From the bottom of the mountain, they called and called, but there was no sign of Titus.  Malvola went up the mountain alone, heedless of any possible danger.  There was no sign of Titus, or of the dragons, either.  Although Malvola was glad they were safely away from vengeful hunters, she wished that either the King or Queen dragon had been there, to tell her, by thoughts or otherwise, what had happened to her son.  She feared that he must be dead.  He would not have left his father, and she thought that Alberto would not have come down the mountain without him unless something was very wrong.