Ben the Dragonborn by Dianne E Astle Read Free Book Online

“Please sit,” she instructed.
    “I’ll wait until I have dry clothes on,” Ben said.  
    The Watcher sat down in one of the chairs and placed her feet on the footstool.  As Ben watched, her legs turned back into the tail of a mer woman. 
    “What is the name of your Watcher?”  Lea Waterborn asked. 
    “Miss Mariah Templeton.” 
    “And the name of your school?”
    “Fairhaven.”
    “Clearly you are from Earth and I assume you are the right one.”
    “I’m not sure about that,” Ben said. “I think someone has made a big mistake.  If this is not a dream, I shouldn’t be here.  I was sent to Miss Templeton to talk about my fear of water, and somehow ended up in a world that has more water than I ever imagined in my worst nightmares.  Someone has made a huge mistake.  I’d say...”  Whatever else Ben was going to say was cut off by a knock at the door.     
    A male student entered and brought dry clothes, which he handed to Ben.  The boy was introduced as Brina. Ben took the dry clothes and changed behind a screen.  Afterwards he sat in the chair the Watcher offered him earlier.  
    Charla arrived with a tray of food and cups of juice.  The only things Ben recognized were eggs.  Charla identified the unknown food as pickled sea slugs, sea cucumbers, and a sea weed and snail salad.  Ben ate some eggs and a little of the cucumber. 
    After they had eaten, Charla looked back and forth between the Watcher and Ben, her fingers drumming on the arm of her chair.  Finally unable to contain herself, Charla asked, “Is he or is he not the one?” 
    “He is the one…but this day has been a challenging one for Ben because he knew nothing of the Guardian, the six worlds or the portals before today.” 
    Charla seemed stunned, “But…but…” 
    And while Ben tended to agree with Charla, he felt somehow vindicated by the Watcher’s words.   
    The Watcher turned her attention to Ben. “You seem to have some doubts as to whether this world is real.  Please act as if it is in spite of your doubts. Your life might depend on doing that.”  This sounded like good advice to Ben. 
    “You have the gift of holding fast.” Lea Waterborn continued.  “I saw the marks on Akca’s back.  He was not happy, but I assured him that they would disappear.  What other gifts do you have?” 
    Ben remembered the strange experience in Miss Templeton’s office. “I think I have the gift of invisibility.”
    “That gift can be very useful,” Lea Waterborn said, “although you must remember that if a creature depends largely on its sense of smell it will be able to find you anyway.  What is your third gift?”
    “There is no third gift,” said Ben. “Not that I know of anyway.” 
    “Are you sure?” asked the Watcher clearly puzzled. 
    “Miss Templeton said that a third gift may come later.  She hoped it would be the ability to breathe under water.” 
    “And that did not happen?”
    “No. Are there always three gifts? Ben asked.
    “Yes and no,” said the Watcher. “There are actually four gifts.  One is always given.  The ability to understand the language of the people to whom you are sent is always given.  There are certain groups who receive only two other gifts because they already have a third gift that came to them at birth.  For example, the Mer chosen by the Guardian always have the gift of transforming their tail fin into legs. When we travel from our world we are given two additional gifts besides the ability to walk and understand the speech of others. The two additional gifts are ours to use when we are away from our world, but once we return to Lushaka the gifts return to the giver.”
    “Who is?”
    “The Guardian of the Six Worlds, of course,” exclaimed Charla. “Don’t you know anything?”   
    The Watcher gave Charla a sharp look before continuing on, “On a world called Zargon there are a people who can transform into dragons. As far as I know only mer