Ch 17- Communication

When Casey opened his eyes he saw Mac's face almost touching his own and was a bit dazed. He moved carefully away and realized Mac's hands were on his back; as Casey sat up he felt a weight on his neck and looked down.

As Casey looked down he could see a glint out of the corner of his eyes. He reached his claws and grabbed the object and lifted it up so he could get a good look at it. His eyes lit up as he saw a beautiful necklace on him, he turned his head back toward Mac and realized where it must have come from.

Casey grinned like a silly fool and started to look carefully at the necklace. His whole dragon felt extremely comfortable when he touched the stone, Casey was enchanted; he turned the necklace over and saw that Mac had actually engraved it. "For my small dragon with love and care, Mac".

Casey's heart felt warm as he read the inscription. He bent his head down and placed a gentle kiss on Mac's cheek and whispered "thank you". Casey got up and made breakfast all by himself today to show his appreciation to Mac and Ryien, unfortunately, Mac hadn't woken up by the time him and Ryien had finished eating.

Ryien bent down and hugged Casey tightly. "Ill be back in a week at the latest, take care of yourself, and don't forget me". Ryien left a wink and dashed out the door.

Casey watched until he was out of sight and walked back to the kitchen, he saw all the untouched food and glanced back towards Mac's room, and heaved a small sigh before he started cleaning everything up.

When Mac woke up he instinctively looked next to him but saw the bed was empty. Mac sat up and jumped out of bed and looked for Casey; he rushed out of his room and looked toward the living room, then the kitchen. He saw wrapped plates of food sitting on the counter, his heart felt warm as he saw the food. He circled back to the living room and finally noticed a silver dragon curled into a ball fast asleep on the couch; between his claws was the necklace Mac made for him last night. Mac walked over and sat next to Casey and gently touched his head.

Mac stared at him and began to recall Ryiens words, his dragon will be an adult soon. Mac was trying to process how he should treat him after his growth phase. He wasn't even sure if Casey would stick around after his growth phase passed; Mac felt a bit bitter at the thought.

He sat next to Casey for over an hour and his thoughts kept turning. Unsure if he should treat Casey the same, he treats Casey like a child now, but that wouldn't be appropriate after the growth phase would it? Mac also realized if Casey passed the growth phase and left on his own then the communication tower and plan his grandfather made would be worthless.

Mac bit his lower lip; in all reality, the satellite was almost complete and after a couple of days of hard work it could be tested. At the same time though Mac wanted to take advantage of the time Ryien was away to dominate Casey's time. Mac sat in a daze and weighed his options and priorities.

Mac picked up the still sleeping Casey and decided to ask advice from Tala about this matter. Tala heard a knock at the door and was surprised to see his grandson and the sleeping dragon in his arms. Mac went to put Casey on the bed in his old room and asked Tala to talk in the study.

"I want to tell Casey about the plan for the tower and satellite. He may go through his first growth phase and leave very soon. If that's the case all our work is for naught. If he knows we have a way to communicate out, he may hang around longer and wait for the results". Tala was upset hearing Mac's opening remarks but as he listened he realized Mac had a very good point.

Tala nodded "go ahead and tell the dragon and see what he thinks". "If we can't stop him from leaving we may as well offer everything we can and make him like us more" Tala couldn't help looking at everything in a profit and gain-oriented mindset.

Casey opened his eyes and saw Mac sitting next to him and felt that he was stroking his back. Casey threw himself into Mac's arms and nuzzled against him repeatedly. "I love the necklace, thank you, Mac!".

Mac chuckled "I stayed up all night making it for you, I'm glad you like it; this stone made me think of you and I know you love shiny things so I made this to impress you. So how bout it? are you impressed?". Casey flushed at Mac's words, but he still hesitantly nodded in response; Mac grinned seeing his shy response.

Casey kept nuzzling against him, "hey Casey there's something I'd like to discuss with you". Casey saw Mac's face get serious and sat up and gave his full attention in response.

"To be honest what has kept me busy these past couple of months" Mac paused and smiled at Casey "aside from my needy dragon is a project we started to help you".

I've been repairing and enhancing the original communication tower in our village and am also building a satellite from scratch so we can contact the universe outside this planet. Although it didn't work in the past, with the satellite the range our messages can travel will be much farther and should be able to even reach the dragon's star. Would it be okay if we used your name and situation to send out messages? We may be able to find information about you from others this way".

Casey sat in a daze hearing Mac's words and suddenly smiled; "you've been working so hard… all for my sake? Of course you can send messages out! In fact that'd be a huge help to me, Mac thank you!".

After reaching an agreement the two stayed at Talas for a very late lunch before Mac brought Casey to the satellite that was almost finished. Casey sat by Mac's side and handed him parts and tools as Mac needed; Tala peeked in and saw the whole scene and thought it was very harmonious.

They worked til late then went home and to bed, when they woke up the next day Casey suggested they take turns accompanying each other's work. Mac looked at Casey with a puzzled expression "what work do you have?".

"I'm gonna try to figure out and train my space powers". Mac's eyes went wide, "how do you plan to train?". "Well that dragon told me to imagine where I am in my mind to return, so in theory couldn't I do the same to go to places?". As Casey finished he vanished the next second and reappeared on the other side of the room. Casey grinned at Mac and started jumping in excitement. For the whole day, Casey focused on small space hops and gradually increased his distance little by little until he had exhausted his spiritual power.

Mac and Casey carried this routine of supporting each other's work back and forth until Ryien came back a little over a week later. The next day after his return he sat Casey down and asked Casey how his training had been going, Casey proudly explained his progress. In response, Ryien went up to Casey and injected his spiritual power to check Casey's growth. Shortly after Ryiens expression became a bit subtle as he looked at Casey.

You're going to grow soon Casey, your spiritual power is starting to fluctuate; probably in the next week or so you should hit your first growth phase. Casey became ecstatic hearing Ryiens words and ran to tell Mac. Mac smiled and patted his head, "that great news, I've talked with my grandfather and the satellite will be sent out tomorrow, and the day after we should be able to start sending messages. So many exciting things in a short time; do we need to prepare anything for your growth phase?".

Casey tilted his head and thought before replying, "I'm not sure the inherited memories don't have the specifics of the growth phase. Normally the parents should explain and prepare their cubs for the process. So I'm kind of blank on what happens or what I need to prepare".

Hearing Casey's words Mac sighed, "well hopefully a dragon will reply to our message before your growth phase and can give us some tips". Casey nodded; filled with excitement for the various things to come.

The next morning the whole tribe came out to watch the satellite launch. They cheered as they saw the successful launch, by late evening Casey started to receive the feedback signal from the satellite. He pulled Casey over and asked what he wanted to write in his message.

Casey showed a pensive face and went to Mac's ear and whispered his message, Mac gave a slight smile; typed the message, and sent it off. Mac squatted by Casey and rubbed his head, "hopefully we get a reply before your growth phase starts".

To their surprise, they received a reply the following morning. It was a dragon who reached out and told them to stop sending the signal out; they stated they would be on their way there soon and to wait there for them.

Mac received this message and felt like crying, he recalled the dream he had a long time ago and thought it might be better to leave the message up and allow other dragons to see it. So Mac ignored the message's request and left the previous message out for others to respond. After a full day, the communication tower received several messages. There was one in particular that scared Mac, he ran to Casey and Ryien.

"There's an emergency! We need to leave. Now".

Casey glanced at Mac in confusion, "what's wrong?" Mac printed out all the responses they had received and allowed Casey and Ryien to read them, then he pulled out the last one and both their eyes widened in shock. The majority of the messages said they would come to take the little dragon and care for him. However, there was one message that held too much information and was a bit hard to swallow.

"Can we trust this?". Casey asked in a daze.

"I'd rather trust it and hide to be safe. After you pass your growth phase it wouldn't be too late to go out and investigate ourselves".

"Me, a king though? There's nothing special about me, it seems really far-fetched".

Ryien glanced at Casey and for once he and Mac agreed that they needed to leave first and protect Casey. There were several dragons that said they would come here but after seeing the message about the different factions and the danger of the wrong one getting Casey they collectively decided they couldn't risk meeting any of them now. They moved fast to leave and ran to the wild before anyone could arrive

The three journeyed as far as they could, only stopping to rest when necessary. Ryien constantly checked Casey's spiritual state to make sure they would have enough time to search for a temporary refuge before he entered the growth phase. The group of three still had barely any information about the growth phase and were getting more anxious with each passing day.

They had been trekking through the wilderness for almost a week now and Ryien told them it was about time and they need to find a semi-permanent shelter. They searched for half a day and finally settled in a somewhat small cave. They organized all their gear and made it into their temporary home.

Although they don't understand much about the dragon's growth phase they know it can take a while for a dragon to complete it. The small team of three was exhausted by the time they had settled and passed out after dinner.