Broken Path, Starless Tail - 11. Chapter 11

“How come I know your name?”

And he wanted to smack himself in the forehead. That was not the first question that Beckett actually wanted to ask. Or thought he should ask. Of course it was the first one that popped out. He tried to think back BTT or as his brain was already labeling it, Before The Touch, capitals all the way. Beckett stepped back. “You never said it, right?” He might as well find out.

“I’m your guide.” Valrinda shuffled his weight on those huge clawed feet of his and then winced. “Why are you in so much pain?”

Beckett gaped at him. “What?”

“Your chest burns… and your backside.” If he wasn’t so darkly scaled, that might like a rosy hue lit him from the inside. “It’s throbbing.” Valrinda lowered his head and turned so one of those dinner-plate sized eyes were staring right at the marks across his chest.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” He wished he’d taken the time to put on a shirt instead of just his jeans.

“That does not like fine. Did you not purify yourself?” He lifted his head and shook it. “No, of course he did. If he didn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to understand each other.” His voice was deep and rumbly, coming from somewhere deep inside but clearly out of his mouth like a normal person. “But did it work? Maybe he needs to do it again?”

Braced to argue, Beckett rethought his position. He had liked the water in the pool and he could use a morning wash. Why not?

The pool was cool, refreshing, and better than a extra large, extra caffeine, extra syrup hot coffee on a cold winter’s day. Not that he was cold. Nope, Beckett hadn’t felt cold at all when he slipped into the pool, when he was floating while staring up at his watchful dragon guide, or after he slipped out and Valrinda blew hot air on him in a surprising wave that dried the trails of water streaming over his skin instantly.

He felt good, sort of blissed out, like the one time he’d tried edibles and had the whole gummy bear instead of just eating half.

Valrinda was curled around the pool and watching him. “You’re feeling better.”

He was. The worse of the aches and pain were gone, and he was floating on his stomach, his arms folded over a mossy rock on the edge of the small pool. “I am. I have questions though.”

“What questions?”

“So you can’t read my mind?”

“No, and you can’t read mine.” Valrinda huffed out a short laugh. “Wow, you feel relieved. Before you ask, yes, we do have a physical connection and we can feel each other’s emotions.”

It felt like he almost could read Valrinda’s mind, though, like he knew who Valrinda was and stuff about him, but not really. Was that just the emotional stuff? “But how did I know your name?”

“A dragon’s name is part of his essence, his being. You call me Valrinda, but that name is only known to my eggmates or close-kin. Others call me Val.”

“Why do I need a guide to find Parallax’s tail?” He’d turned that question over and over in his mind since this quest started and he was told he’d get one. “I still don’t really understand what I’m supposed to do.”

Valrinda’s claws scraped on the ground as he shifted. “That is confusing to me. You should know what to do. If he gave you this mission, he should have given you all the information you needed to see it through. I’m just here to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” His heart rate sped up. “If I need someone to keep me safe, that means I’m going to be in danger?” The question wasn’t really a question.

Lowering his head to stare directly into his eyes, Valrinda said, “What makes you think you haven’t been already?”

Yep, panic attack on the horizon. Paerus had mentioned other clans or something like that, but who would want to hurt him? Beckett didn’t know anyone there, and he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. It didn’t make sense.

“You have no idea of the power that Parallax wielded, nor what others would risk to gain that power when the news went out that the star that makes up his tail was missing. So far whispers of your arrival are all that have spread, but once they reach the wrong ears, we will have a fight on our hands.”

“A fight for what?”

“To find his tail. That is your job, remember? Without it, the portal between our worlds, the portal between all the worlds, will wink out like they never existed. The cosmos is a huge place, and Parallax is the Guardian of many secrets. Someone learned this one, and stole the power of his portals.

Beckett blinked and stood in the pool, the water swirling around his chest. “Was that so hard? You’re the first person—ahem, creature, being or whatever—to tell me in plain words what was going on and why this whole star tail thing was important.” Not that he could wrap his brain around the fact that his friend’s cat was really some sort of mythical space being with magic powers, but hey, this was his fantasy. He could imagine anything apparently.

“So I have to, what, travel around and find where it went missing? Find a thief? Look up clues?”

In the strangest of shrugs, his wings flapping up and down between his massive front shoulders, Valrinda spread both his front claws, sensitive paws upward. “I’ve no idea. I gained the knowledge I just shared with you as soon as we touched. As far as our next step, that’s still a mystery to me.”

“Great.” He’d been expecting Valrinda to be the guide, therefore to know what to do and where to go. If he didn’t, what were they supposed to do next?