Meanwhile, Tom had met up with Ren, his magnificent Golden Dragon.
“Hi Ren, dad said that I need to get to know you better, get inside your head and you get inside my head so we can act as one. Any idea what he’s on about?”
“Yes, dear boy, we need to be as one, to fight as one, to think as one, to act as one. That way we will be an invincible team.”
“How do we do that then.?”
“For a Golden Dragon, it is simple. For a small boy, it is not quite so simple,” he said condescendingly, “but not impossible. Come sit in front of me and look me straight in the eyes, relax and try to make your mind still.”
Tom sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Ren, Ren prostrated himself full length on the floor in front of Tom and they stared into each other’s eyes, meditatively.
“My, my, young Tom, yours is not an open mind at all. Even I am having great difficulty in penetrating into your thought patterns. This is a fantastic ability you have. It means that you are difficult if not impossible to influence and control by thought and mind power, a trait which I am sure will stand you in good stead in the future.”
“I know that, Howel had the same problem before I came to Trymyll. He had difficulty weaving incantations into my head. But I’m not doing it on purpose, it’s just me, it’s just the way I am.”
“Oh, I know that, but it is a great gift, a great gift indeed. Now, try to relax a little more. Look into my eyes, concentrate on me and try to imagine you are reading my mind.”
They tried again and again and again. Tom was just getting fed up and thinking it would never happen, when suddenly they connected.
Tom felt like he was falling into another world. When he stopped falling, although he knew he wasn’t, he looked around. He could see through Ren’s eyes, He could see himself sitting there in front of him, cross-legged on the floor, staring back at Ren; it was as if he were inside Ren’s head. Tom could see all of Ren’s thoughts, he could see all his one hundred years stretching back, right back to when he fought his way out of the egg his mother had guarded day and night for nearly a year. He could see the love in his mother’s eyes as he took his first hesitant steps and stepped out of the last piece of shell. He could almost taste the richness of Morcan’s milk as Ren suckled for that first year. He watched his childhood, his learning, his magic being formed as he matured. He saw his battles, he saw his times of sadness, his joys, his laughter, his devastations, his mourning at the loss of a loved one. He saw everything, his most intimate of thoughts and Ren also was seeing them all again as well.
Tom also knew that Ren had the same access, Ren had seen his hopes and fears as well. Tom could now see Howel weaving thoughts into his mind, he could feel and remember how the Hadleigh-Smythes were imagined and created into existence, while at the same time, not existing at all. He could see the mountainside as seen by others and he could see it as it was spell woven by Howel, the cave entrance and the path and stile which led up to it. He could see his school days flash before him, and he could not only see Mrs Glyn but understand her, he could see how passionate she was as a teacher and how she only wanted the best for them all, even if she had to be a little hard on them at times. Tom could now remember right back to his earliest days, Tom could see his father weeping bitterly as he left him and his mother behind, he could remember, see, and feel the trauma for Jon as he was taken from his mother at just a couple of years old. He remembered every part of his life right back to when he first opened his eyes and looked at the loving gaze of his mother and father. He watched and winced as his father cut his umbilical cord at his birth.
They released each other but still sat staring at each other. Tom had tears in his eyes at what he had seen, not only in his own life but in Ren’s life as well. Ren had lost his brother; his brother had died, but Tom still had a brother even though he had not seen him in all those years, at least now Jon and he were reunited. He was filled with so many emotions that he started to weep. He looked up at Ren, he also was weeping, huge tears making puddles on the dry ground below. Tom had never thought that a dragon could cry, but he was wrong.
Such an encounter is both thrilling and revealing. It lays bare the emotions. Neither would forget it, neither could forget it, for now, they were forever connected.
Jon looked at Bevon and Bevon looked at Jon, now they too were connected. Not in the same intimate, soul-piercing way Tom and Ren were, but in a very understanding, knowing the next move type of connection, they were like a couple of twins who always knew what the other was doing wherever they were in the world. They could feel each other’s pain.
“What next?” asked Jon.
“Flying lessons!” was the unexpected answer.
“But I can already fly.”
“Yes, on your own, but not on the back of a Red Dragon!”
“Why would I need to do that?” Jon said, a little nervously.
“When we fight, we fight as one. You with your incredibly powerful energy bolts, and me with my strength and fire. Together we will be invincible,” Bevon declared, “here, sit just at the back of my neck and hold on. You won’t fall, in fact, you can’t fall. If you come off, just fly back on again. Don’t forget, you don’t need a staff to fly. When you fly with me, I am your staff.”
Jon gingerly mounted the neck of the Dragon, his gangly legs hanging either side. Bevon pushed off. Jon wobbled but kept his place holding on to one of the spikes that stuck out at the base of the neck, and up they went, weaving, ducking, swooping, and cheering all around the quarries.
“Blast a few rocks, let's see how it works, but be careful you don’t blow my head off!” Bevon laughed as Jon heard it in his head.
Jon released bolts of energy from the end of his wand, smashing huge boulders into a thousand pebbles. He envisioned a cave right through the wall of one quarry and into the next, closing it back up as soon as they had passed through it.
“Good move if we were being tailgated,” he felt Bevon think. And so, it went on until they were both bored, then Bevon took on some height and they winged their way back to Blaenoraid and home.
Tom’s encounter was far less physically energetic but mentally exhausting. They had not had to leave the clearing where Llewellyn had parked Ren when they arrived. You don’t ride a Golden Dragon anyway, you fly with it and almost become part of it. You take on all its skills and powers as you do so. Tom was surprised to find, that like Ren, he could now pick up the thoughts of others, the only mind he could read directly was Ren’s, but now he had the same power that Howel had, he could catch the thoughts and intentions of others and also project his own thoughts into their minds. Ren had taught him, in those few moments that their minds were connected as one. He now knew how to weave thoughts into another's mind, how to bend the will of another, subtly and without them noticing.
“I see you have focused on the mind weaving young Tom. Be careful with it. It is a great power and with great power comes great responsibility.”
“You dragons really like that phrase don’t you,” interrupted Jon.
“Which phrase?”
“With great power comes great responsibility!” Tom said laughing.
“But it’s true, so do not use it just to get your own way, tempting as that might be. Use it only in situations where it is necessary. Yours was the first mind I could not see straight into as soon as I wished. Your subconscious blocking of my attempt to get into your mind was outstanding. Having been in your head I know that this is a latent, not a learnt skill. Make sure you keep it honed. From now on you will know when someone or some thing is trying to influence you through your mind. Find that block and keep it engaged. It may save you and others in the future.”
“Why do people keep saying someone or some thing? I don’t like the idea of a some thing.”
“I know, I have seen that in your memories. But do not fear little one, your mind is strong, the strongest I have met. You have little to fear except fear itself. So be brave, be fearless.”
With that said, Ren disappeared. Tom heard in his head, “When you need of me, I will return in an instant. I have apparated away home now, but we are as one, so should you want me, you only have to think, and I will return.”
Tom smiled happily and walked back into the city. With Ren, they would be a formidable team. He couldn’t wait to tell the others.