She’d read about frequency analysis being used for cryptography and she recognised enough in Wolf’s book to make her think this, while not being English, was at least distantly related. The letters were mostly the same with some exceptions and there was definitely a pattern there. Bullet points suggested some of the words would be numbers and one word was so common that combined with its placement she was pretty sure it was equivalent to ‘and’.
It didn’t take her long to memorise several pages and mock up a table of frequencies in her head. Several words were almost English or looked very similar to English ones. The joining words and numbers she was sure she could figure out. The ingredients, for the bullet pointed lists were definitely ingredients and would be more difficult. There were some ingredients that were obviously common to multiple recipes, or rituals. She was pretty sure this was a magic book and not a recipe book. Then again, they had made that mistake once before so she wasn’t taking it for granted. But she had no way of knowing what the ingredients actually were. She was pretty sure ‘tri’ was ‘three’ but the word ‘fuil’ could have meant flour or fungi or fingers for all she knew.
She glanced up as she considered it and her eye caught movement just off the road up ahead.
She frowned and stared at the strange shaped bolder that perched near the edge of the bend. She quickly forgot about it as the sight of an open valley ahead nabbed her attention instead. It had been like that ever since they’d lost the red and black dragon. Indi would try to decipher the text, then she’d glance up while thinking, and some part of the scenery would capture her attention for awhile until she got tired of that and went back to the book again.
It looked like the road veered down from here on, although it was hard to tell. She could just make out the tops of trees but they grew further down the hill allowing an uninterrupted view of an expansive green forest blanketed in white snow. It looked so soft and sweet like candy, and Indi found herself briefly wishing she’d eaten her candy slower. She had more bags but she wasn’t sure what would be available in Witchaven. The internet had said that not much was known about the human settlements other than the fact that they didn’t have a lot of modern amenities. Indi had worried that extended to candy and so she’d brought her own supply, intended to last at least a week.
As they approached the open valley, movement at the edge of the road caught her eye again. Had the rock moved?
It had been further up the hill before. And the shape looked a little different. She studied it closer but it was still too far ahead for her to get a proper look. It was funny though, if she squinted, it almost looked like a dragon.
“Fuck!” Beside her Cat swore.
Indi glanced back behind them. The red and black dragon was back.
It stalked slowly along the road behind them, its body swinging from side to side in a snake-like fashion. It was taking its time and blocking the entire road. It was almost as if it knew they had nowhere to go.
“Aw shit!”
Another curse from Cat drew Indi’s eyes forward again right as Cat swung the wheel to the right and pulled the car over the centreline, narrowly avoiding the foot of the large bolder which had indeed moved. The boulder had waited until just the right moment when they had been distracted by the other dragon, to pull itself up and slink its scaly body down onto the road.
It wasn’t a fast dragon and Cat’s quick maneuver caught it as unawares as it had most of her passengers. Unfortunately, the rapid change in direction sent them into a slide. Cat reacted to correct it and they were soon swinging back to their side of the road around the dragon. They wiggled left and then back left right again, each slide getting less wide.
Cat seemed close to straightening them up again when the tyres suddenly hit ice right near the bend in the road.
The road curved around. The car didn’t. It sailed right off the edge.
For a moment it felt like they were flying and Indi’s last thought before they dropped was how very pretty the view was.
The car crashed down onto the rocky slope, slid for a hundred metres or so, caught on a rock and then flipped.
All Indi noticed were a few rough jolts, a blur of colour, and the next thing she knew she was hanging upside down looking at pine needles out the side window of the car.
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“Indi! Indi!” Falco was in those pine needles, shoving them aside so he could get her door open. He wrenched it wide with unnatural levels of strength. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“You’re upside down,” she giggled before remembering they weren’t the only two passengers in the car. She looked over toward the driver’s seat.
Cat was struggling to get her seatbelt undone. Eventually, she drew a knife and cut herself out.
Indi could hear movement in the back but her current position made it hard to see what was happening.
Falco soon helped her out of the car and to her feet where she was relieved to find everyone was okay.
“How are we not all more injured?” Cat remarked as she looked at the upside down car with confusion. The front nose and boot were all crushed but the roof and belly seemed fine. In fact there was an almost obvious line where the damage looked like it had been stopped.
“Maybe I shielded?” Indi said, although she wasn’t sure. Sometimes she did it without realising.
“You did. I saw the shimmer,” Falco confirmed.
“Boots stuck,” Wolf said as he looked to Sirius for a hand.
But Sirius was looking back up the hill with an unreadable expression on his face. The others turned to see what it was that had caught his attention.
The grey dragon was there, at the top, right up by the road, looking down on them.
“Why doesn’t it come down?” Indi asked after several seconds of silence of them just staring up at it and it just looking down on them.
“I don’t know,” Cat replied. She wasn’t looking up at the dragon any more though. She had her hands placed gently on her belly and was staring down at them.
“Are you okay?” Indi asked her.
Before the others could turn to look at her, Cat yanked her hands away from her belly and gave Indi a smile. “Fine,” she replied curtly. Then, as if to distract them all she ran her eyes over the car and remarked, “This thing’s a mess.”
“Should we be moving elsewhere?” Falco asked with a worried look at the dragon.
Wolf was still trying in vain to get the boot open.
Sirius hadn’t taken his eyes of the dragon.
As everyone except Wolf watched, the other dragon appeared beside the grey one. It eyed the grey one and then it started to come down the hill eagerly toward them.
Before it could get very far, however, the grey dragon snapped at it. In a display of more speed than it had shown so far it pinned the red and black dragon’s neck between its teeth, snarling as it did so. Its touch was as gentle as anything, for when it finally released the younger dragon, there was not a mark on it. It was enough to put it in it place though. The red dragon slunk back out of sight with its head lowered.
“I’ve seen this before,” Sirius remarked.
“Seen what?” Cat asked.
A frustrated Wolf turned to Sirius. “Will you help me get the boot open?”
Sirius finally reached over and with one hand he tore the back panel off the car and opened the boot for Wolf. Then, looking back up the hill he replied, “They’re working together.”
“What?” Falco said.
“They’re coordinating. Dragons do it sometimes. Those ones have been following us for some time. They’re smart, not like unicorns but smart like dogs and then can hunt in packs sometimes. It’s rare but it does happen. They know there’s two cars and they know we can’t get very far. They’re waiting for the other one.”
With that, Sirius started walking up the hill.
“Where are you going?” Cat called after him.
“I’m going to deal with the dragons,” he shouted without looking back.
“Fuck that,” said Falco.
“Phew,” remarked Wolf, but his comment had nothing to do with Sirius. He’d just found the box the urn was in and checked the contents.
Cat rolled her eyes at Sirius’s back, then she frowned at Wolf. “That was what you wanted in the boot for?”
Wolf scowled at her incredulous tone. “A lot of infusements require the item in question to remain relatively whole to still work.”
Cat rolled her eyes again, gave a sigh, and then sat down on a nearby rock.
“What about wear and tear?” Indi asked Wolf.
Wolf nodded. “It can weaken things.”
“We should get our stuff out,” Falco mumbled more to himself than anyone else and then started getting things out of the boot.
Wolf helped.
Indi was torn between asking Wolf more questions about infusements and checking if Cat was okay. She also wondered if maybe she should be following Sirius up the hill and lending him the aid of her shield.
“You know you’ll get hit if they end up going off the edge as well,” Cat called after Sirius.
Sirius ignored her and kept with his ascent up the slope.
Cat sounded tired.
Indi made her decision.
Approaching Cat she asked again, this time out of earshot of the others, “Are you okay?”
Cat eyed her warily then she sighed. “Just tired.”
Indi nodded and then sat down next to her. She didn’t believe Cat but there wasn’t much they could do to check the baby was okay and if Cat didn’t want to talk about what she was worried about then Indi would respect that. Instead she leaned her head against Cat’s shoulder, hoping that might bring some comfort.
While Wolf and Falco emptied the boot out, Cat and Indi sat and watched Sirius climb up the hill.
“Do you think I should be going up there to help him?” Indi asked.
She felt Cat laugh more than heard it. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to do. Maybe just be prepared to shield in case a car comes flying over the edge.”
Indi nodded, was quiet for about two seconds and then she asked, “Should we make some kind of signal so the others know where we are?”
“I think Sirius will take care of that,” Cat replied in a sleepy voice.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Indi worried.
“His coat’s fireproof,” Cat told her.
Indi frowned. “But not his head.
“Nah, it’s got like a field around it for certain things, well, for fire at least. Amanda told me once.”
They sat in silence for another second, then Indi asked, “Do you want some candy?”
“Sure.”
Indi looked at Cat in surprise. She’d expected her to object at least once, that or make some smart comment. Now Indi really was worried.
Eventually Cat noticed her staring. “I’m fine. Go get the candy,” she said grumpily.
At the familiar tone, Indi smiled and scrambled off to get one of her reserve packets. If ever there was a time to open the reserve candy it was now.
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