What's a Dragon? - Chapter 11

Backup Systems

In Part 1 (Ch. 1-5), we met our Static bookworm narrator Emilie and her friends: the active Mage Jess, the shy Wizard Shannon, and the enthusiastic and Dynamic Alex. But when Emilie was set to research her favorite true dragons, she read a mysterious note saying that she was a true dragon herself.

Alex came back on Tuesday, but I think Shannon talked her out of it on Wednesday. I’ve got to work out how to relax about all this, but I don’t think that’ll happen until Saturday at least.

Yesterday I visited the school library and looked up a few maps of the mountains and towns around here. I also compared my eye color to an image of the night sky, since the Mymoir said that would also be my scale color. I think I might be able to sneak out through the gate early Saturday morning, and if I leave early enough I might even be able to try flying without getting spotted. Maybe I’ll be able to tell why Jess likes that so much.

In the meantime, waiting for the morning bus is pretty nerve-wracking. It comes from the direction of Main Street, so I’m looking that way, with both sight and heat. I can find it first with heat.

Suddenly, there’s a huge burst of red and white at the edge of my range and an echoing boom like thunder! It’s not a car—I know what those look like by heat. I focus on it and realize what it is: a dozen or so things barreling down Main Street on all fours! I start running back home before even the alarms around the neighborhood sound, then run through the front door that Mom is holding open and up to my room. Then I drop my backpack, grab the feather and curl up in a corner. What-do-I-do!?

I’ve been spending bits of my magic by testing basic spells and not-spell heating on the air a few hundred feet away from me. People might notice it, but fire spells usually don’t have that much range, so they probably wouldn’t connect the sudden heat or cold with me. Keeping these beasts away from my house, however—and Jess’s which is even closer to Main—is going to require a stronger spell that I found on Tuesday.

“Jökull’s Extreme Heat Wall!” I whisper, starting the spell. From what I understood, the “Extreme” refers to temperature. I’ve selected two areas near the end of my street and the next one south, between myself and the beasts—which I overheard from the emergency board were wolf monsters—and the spell starts moving heat from the area on the next street to the one on mine. The spell will keep going until I shut it off, greatly heating the air above my street and freezing the air over the other. I can sorta tell where the streets are, so I did my best to only target the space over the asphalt so I won’t start a fire.

It looks like I made the right decision when one group of wolves breaks off and starts running down my street. Shannon and Jess say that my house is flooded with magic since we don’t have anyone Dynamic here, and Jess’s mom said that draws monsters. Which is apparently why we need walls in the first place, but that’s not very reassuring when the monsters are inside the walls! The fiery wall isn’t all that hot actually by the time the wolves reach it, but those that get there first step on the hotter ground and jump back. I take a look out my window to see them gingerly stepping forward before the Defense Force’s roc tears into them!

While Mages that can summon monsters are pretty rare, they also get really powerful spells. The same Mage that can summon the goblin Jeff (the one that serves as an entry test for the Defense Force, and that Jess beat earlier this year) can also summon a roc, which is way stronger than Jeff and regularly drives off even wild gryphons. So when that hits the wolves, it’s clear very quickly that they are not going to win the fight. And then I see one run away into the heated area.

I have not seen food flash-fried, but that was a very bright flash of light followed by a lot of smoke, and I expect it was similar to flash-frying. I can also feel it as the spell dodges the wolf passing through it. Star magic is super duper precise and you can’t use it on living things because that’s way, way too complicated. I can sense heat in living things, but trying to change it (even something like heating my skin on a cold day) is really, really hard because of all the different stuff in it. So good spells will detect and avoid trying to affect living things because that’s a very good way to quickly use all of my magic. But the wolf was still cooked because it went through air that—by using a chart in the Mymoir—is about 1200°F, which is, um, a lot. I think meat is cooked at under 400 degrees.

The roc sees the charred wolf and wisely decides to avoid the heated area, instead opting to bash the fleeing wolves against my cold wall. (I can’t see that out the window but I can sense where they are by heat.) Which is similarly cold. The chart says it’s -455°F, which is much colder than I think I’ve ever seen anywhere ever. I think the lowest I’ve seen on a thermometer was -10, even including freezers. So the wall is quite solid and I bet the wolves’ fur freezes a little when it hits it.

I hear the emergency board again from downstairs, this time ending the event. Well, if they say it’s over, I may as well end the spell.

While I can’t really tell what my maximum is for storing magic, I could feel it build up in myself and the feather, almost like blowing air into a balloon really slowly. Before all this, it felt about ready to burst. Now it’s a whole lot lighter. Not empty, but close to how it felt on Sunday morning. I don’t think I’ll have to use any more before Saturday.

“Emilie?” my brother calls, knocking on my door. I don’t remember closing it, but I like that he knocked. I carefully uncurl and stand up, putting the feather back on my bookshelf.

“Yeah?” I eventually reply after I’ve calmed down.

“You alright in there? I know school’s delayed, but you looked kinda panicked earlier.”

I chuckle lightly, just relieved that everyone’s alright. “I’m fine. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”