"You understand, don't you?" Mom asks the taxi driver in the front seat, while me and Sam awkwardly sit in the back, with our bags packed.
"Yes, don't worry, I clearly understand. And yes, I know that your husband is military, I won't kidnap your children," the taxi driver says, looking at us through the mirror. It was the same guy who had dropped us to 'The Factory', but his attitude had changed… personality too, with a cigar in between his teeth and all.
But he didn't recognise us.
"I gave you the box, didn't I?" Mom asks me, and I hold up the box, and the little ring-with-the-key. "Took some clothes?"
"All here," Sam dusts the bag, but only a damped sound comes out, indicating that it was full of clothes. We had gone back to her home to get some of her clothes, and even I had packed.
"One last thing; introduce yourself as Maxwell Talon. He'll know what it means," Mom says.
"It is a name, how much should it mean?" the driver scoffs, pushing on the lever.
"Driver, don't you dare-" and he does dare to speed us off from there, after starting the car. "Bye!" Mom says, and the two of us look behind, and wave to her.
Maxwell… Talon? Was that Mom's last name, before she married Dad?
Thinking about last names, I never got Aster's. Not like it was just too common to say out loud-our last names, but sure felt weird.
In two hours, we reach the place, which mom had told the driver. She had also given us a list of places, which she got from Dad, in secret, of where the dragons could be.
"Thank you, Mr. Joseph," I say, as we get down the car, and wear our bags.
"What did I tell you about my name?" Mr. Joseph asks, after letting out a puff of smoke.
"Mr. Joseph Lispe, is what he meant," Sam sighs.
"That is what is better, don't mention it, kids. Your mom paid a fairly good amount to me anyways. And however, a little tip, be careful of a guy who lives around here, he is known as the 'Buster Fabula'. He is a bad freak. Leave him alone," Mr. Joseph smirks.
He speeds away, without exchanging anymore words. I open the box. And taking out the photo, I look at the back of it, where it was clearly written: 'Buster Fabula', 'Tarragon Tahlsmen' and 'September 1929'.
"Tell me that the driver didn't talk about the same person that your mom told us to go to," Sam asks.
"I would like to say hopefully not…" I bring the photo into Sam's view, "…but they are the same aliases."
Joseph Lispe, the driver, was not that of a friendly face, as he was before: that day. Or someone whose words were to be easily trusted. All he talked about on the whole ride: was unimportant and forgotten; but this last thing… It ruled over our minds.
We check for the name-plate of a 'Tarragon Tahlsmen', or 'Buster Fabula', in this sunny, and isolated, deserted town; with quite a number of houses. We finally find a scratched down name-plate, with 'BUSTER FABULA' -written in red.
It was ink… should be. But… even when I haven't seen bloody-writings, it felt like it was that.
"Maybe we should just get some help, and know about this guy?"
"He is one man, we'll be fine," I say, stepping towards the door.
When the doorbell doesn't work, I knock the door, tan-tan-tan, three times. And as we wait for quite a while, anxiously and silently, the door finally opens.
A guy, in his forties, in his white tank-top and dark-blue jeans, scans our faces, after opening the door. He wasn't too taller than me, nor did he have a moustache like in the photo. His face had wrinkled lightly, few freckles, and white hairs could be spotted on both his chin (short) and head.
Looking at the muscles… nope, couldn't take this one man.
"Ohh… what do we have here? A couple…" he says, nodding his head, while smiling in a teasing manner, "…of kids. What business?" His smile just fades like that, and reminds me of Dad.
"You are Tarragon Tahlsmen, aren't you? Except for the moustache in this photo, you look the same," I put the photo up in the air, and compare.
"That is me; I just didn't like my moustache. How did you get my photo? Aren't you both too young to take a murder contract on me?" Tarragon snatches the photo, and scans us three.
"We didn't come here to kill you," Sam sighs.
Sam approved: crackhead.
"My name is Maxwell… Talon."
"Wait, MINERVA-FUCKING-TALON, sent you here?" Tarragon gets a huge smile on his face.
"She is my mom."
"Oh right, of course. How many siblings do you have? Got a sister yet, or what? She said she would keep… -I mean, do you have siblings, a sister? Is she Elena?" Tarragon points at Sam, while folding his hands, and smiling like an excited baby.
"No, my name is Samantha," Sam says.
"But, you were supposed to be Elena, being his sister, where is Elena?"
"Villers. I'm Samantha Villers."
"Villers? That's a funny name. Did Minerva finally have it, and breakup with that Mr. Military Blesthe?"
"Parzival Blesthe. And no, this is just my friend."
"And it is NOT a funny name."
"Right…" Tarragon says, forcing to keep his smile now. "And Elena…?"
"There is no Elena. I'm their only child."
"That is heart-breaking," Tarragon's smile finally fades. "Well, I could call you as Elena, Maxwell," he smiles again, without forcing it.
"I'm sorry… I do not fully understand."
"I just got all excited and expected that Minerva would have named her child as Elena. Guess she really didn't want to or something," Tarragon sighs in disappointment.
"Oh, well, even mom was full excited in telling us about you. But Elena part is…"
I stop, as Tarragon's eyes fill-up, and his smile turns into a frown. He wipes it, and hugs me tight, as if he had met his long lost friend, me, after a very long time.
"I'm so happy to be alive… I finally got to see my nephew," Tarragon says, in a squeaky manner.
"Wait, nephew?"
Tarragon pushes backwards, and holds my shoulders.
"Yes, of course. Oh, right, she wouldn't have told you about that shit probably, that's Minerva, always up to her words. Well, talk later, we need to go somewhere, aren't I right? So, you guys wait in the garage, which is side-by, and I'll be back in a second. Just look for the coolest looking car over there."
Tarragon hurries away, without closing the door, and looking back at us… me, a few times.
Me and Sam exchange glances and do as we are told, and go into the open-garage. Inside, we find three cars: a black and white coloured 'Nash touring', and two 'Rolls Royce phantom limousines' - one black and other of blue colour.
I point towards the blue limousine, and we stand by its side.
Tarragon arrives in a while, wearing a half-sleeve unbuttoned black shirt, carrying a bag over his shoulder. He drops the bag, right as he finds us.
"No!" Tarragon scares us, and we look around us: but nothing. "No no-no-no-no-no, that's not what I meant, I meant the cool one, not this one!"
"Didn't you mean this one, by that?" I ask.
"I will shoot you in the face," Tarragon warns me. "Just like your mother… guess it's in you Talons, dumb taste. If you had selected that Nash touring one though, I would have blown that one with a grenade, with you… well, me inside it."
"I'm sure it's just a way of saying," Sam says.
"Now please, sit inside the cooler one, yeah?" Tarragon sighs, picking-up his bag.
Tarragon drives the car outside, and closes the shutter to the garage, even the front door seems to be closed. He sits in the driver seat, as Sam and me sit in the backseat.
"You kids ready for an adventure?" Tarragon asks.
"Sadly, yes," Sam sighs.
"Where to…? You know a place or what?"
"Of course," Sam takes out the map from her bag, and the list which Mom had provided, and leans forward, explaining about the list and locations.
Mom had a brother… and after all these years I get to know. And she knew about the dragons, pretty well. So this is how I'd be leading towards Rahambose.
"You seem to be having fun, Maxwell," Tarragon starts driving, as Sam sits back.
"Sorry, just too many questions and confusion."
"Well, it's a long ride and journey to the places your friend informed me of, so ask it out. Don't be shy, nephew."
"First, you said I'm your nephew. I did not know that mom had a brother."
"Well, step-brother actually, but still, you are my nephew, technically. Min's dad, a Talon, died when she was around two, and her mom married my father, a Tahlsmen, and they had me. I'm three years younger than her. But, Min wouldn't have told you any of that, because I told her not to; your father wouldn't like you to have a bad influence, such as me, around you. So, I stay far away, in a distance from which I could reach out to Min easily, but never could come by."
"Fearing my father?"
"That is almost not the reason. But yes."
"But, where we are going is dangerous," Sam says. "You really want to… not get the details about what we want, first?"
"I know, that is why Min sent you to me. And in case you think I don't know about dragons, I'm one person who knows a lot about dragons. A lot more than Min, who'd have surely boasted a little," Tarragon laughs.
"We didn't even mention about dragons… how are you and Mom so ok with me chasing behind dragons?"
"That is again the reason… Min sure wouldn't have told you about it because: 'Tahlsmen explains', that was a little rule between us, back then. And also, we had promised not to tell anyone too, anyways. Because… you know."
"Tell us about this entire thing first then," Sam says.
"Quite lengthy, but ok… basically in the year nineteen thirty or something, me and Min witnessed a dragon, which just ran away after seeing us, a red tail was all we saw and everything else a shadow."
"September of 19-29," I hold up the picture.
Tarragon looks through the mirror. "Oh no, that is when we just got to know about the dragons. We had a thing going on then, so couldn't chase dragons. But that red tail… yeah, that made us more interested. And even that took about an year to make a start."
"And that's when the car thing happened, I suppose. With Mom."
"That's right," Tarragon laughs. "Oh I was furious. We searched every week once, no luck. And Min learned driving that way. If you don't know how to drive, we could also start there, Maxwell. Even when your Mom sucked; I have hopes on you."
"Mom drives good!" I protest.
"What does 'Buster Fabula' mean, sir?"
"'Sir' is way to formal, Samantha. Call me Tar."
"Call her as Sam, uncle Tar; or she might murder you," I laugh.
"No I won't! Uncle Tar, I'm a charm, I'd never do that."
+
That sounds like Drego… are they related?
+
"Noted, well, so 'Buster Fabula' means myth buster, simply put. I got the name from Min, but people use it to scare kids. It is like an alias to me now," Tar stops, as a thought seemingly hits him. "I sometimes wonder if someone would keep their alias as 'Alias', someday. Must be a real madman."
"And your nameplate was odd…"
"It is to scare people, I used chicken blood on it, don't worry. People scratched out my name, so I did so."
"Couldn't you just have used red ink?"
"Well, blood makes things better though, Sam. Trust me."
"Oh," I open the box. "What is this stone? Mom gave this to me."
"That… is something legendary to the dragons. The vessel to the Prophecy hero, which is supposed to end up in the right hands, eventually. The one supposed to end Rahambose."