What's a Dragon? - Chapter 13
First Flight
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.
The enormous wolf leaps, and I feel a sudden burst of pain from my right arm! Aaaaa! I throw my arm out, trying to shake it off and collapse into the dirt! I close my eyes against my fall and watch the wolf’s heat signature sail through the air and crunch against a tree at the clearing’s edge. Then the wolf falls with a yelp and runs away.
What just happened? Did I do that?
It takes some time, but eventually I figure out how to stand back up, and as I do I arch my neck to look at my leg. Wow, my eyesight is a little weird. I think my eyes are on the sides of my head, because I can’t see the end of my snout and basically nothing I can see with one eye is visible with the other. Anyway, my, uh… ankle? On a foreleg. My ankle is bleeding a little and it looks like the wolf managed to remove a scale. But it doesn’t hurt anymore. There’s no other blood on me, so the wolf must’ve been standing on my foot. And I launched it really far.
I don’t think I need to be afraid.
I can defend myself.
I don’t need to be afraid!
I barely suppress the urge to prance around; I still don’t know how to move very well like this. Plus I horribly failed the “don’t leave footprints” plan when I fell off the quartz boulder and especially when I crashed trying to get rid of the wolf. But… I can fly.
I can’t ask Jess right now how she flies, but I have asked her about it before and the Mymoir has some tips. And memories. And I’ve seen a bunch of Dragon records, of course. Anyway, it all starts with a jump, and then I need to flap really hard.
Wow! I can barely pick out trees from this high up, and that only took a few seconds!
I mean, the park is still abundantly obvious. It’s really just the nighttime darkness that’s concealing the trees. The road to the park is sort of concealed beneath the trees, but since it’s winter and there are hardly any evergreens around here, that barely holds true. And… I think I can see Blacksburg in the distance. It’s not bright or anything, but there’s a half mile or more of clearing on every side.
I’ve slowed my flapping so I’m not rising anymore, but I’m not hovering in place like someone using a flight spell. It’s a gentle up, down, up, down motion between each flap. Surprisingly easy. And I should be able to glide, too, right? Lock my wings out and fall a little more slowly, with some steering?
Flying is harder than it looks. I told myself that Jess was able to figure it out, but I’m thinking her magic probably gave her some help. Not to say mine doesn’t help at all, but it definitely doesn’t tell me how to move, or how much my tail affects steering (not a lot but certainly some), or anything like that. I’m probably supposed to ask another Dragon for help, but at this point the only one I’d ask is Akiko. And I really, really don’t want any other Dragons to know I exist right now. Akiko has a bounty on her. I don’t want Dragons or beast hunters coming after me. They’re probably a lot tougher than a wild wolf monster.
I loop to the east and am momentarily blinded by the rising sun. Wait. Sunrise? I’ve been out here that long? Oh no! It’s, like, half an hour back to town on my bike! And I came out at night so nobody would see me flying! I hurriedly look for the park, then dive, pulling up just above the trees to land as gently as possible but also close to my takeoff position. Taking a lot less effort than “shifting” to dragon form, I concentrate on how I look as a human and shift back before running over to my bike.
Well, I try to run. I just spent over two hours flying around as a dragon. My muscles work a bit differently in human form and I’m actually a little winded. So I more stumble-walk than run to my bike. Once there, I make sure that the feather is secure where it was on my ride out here—back inside my shirt to protect it from the wind—then put on my helmet, catch my breath and unsteadily start my ride home.
I don’t think I fully thought this through.
To exit the gate, you just have to push a button. They barely check. To reenter, you have to push the button and actually stand next to the box and talk to it. The person in the watchtower uses a spell through the box to chat with you and check your ID. I think Al said it was to check for monsters and impersonators. But as a Dragon, I’m immune to any sort of information or communication magic. He’ll be able to see me physically from the tower, but I can’t chat with him or show him my school ID. And he’ll definitely know something is off simply because I can’t talk to him.
Although I’m probably not the only Dragon that lives undercover inside a town, so there’s probably some other explanation for it that I can look up.
Or my parents could be waiting inside the gate. Poop.
“Emilie!” Dad calls when the gate is open enough. “Get over here!” He does not sound or look happy. Mom looks relieved, however, so maybe this won’t go too poorly? I think I’m generally better-behaved than Al, at any rate.
I direct my bike over to stop right before them. I don’t bother trying to talk before Dad continues. “Where were you?”
“The park,” I answer truthfully.
“Don’t you know that’s dangerous?” Is he scared or disappointed?
I shrug. It’d be much more dangerous to shift in town. “I’m fine.”
Mom speaks next. “Why couldn’t Mrs. Chesbrough find you?”
Oh. Uh… The park is definitely close enough for her to scry someone, but again, you can’t scry a Dragon. Although until last Saturday, I didn’t have any of the abilities of a Dragon, so scrying me worked just fine. If I want to make better excuses, I probably should study Aspect magic a little. For now, I think I’ll hope being vague will make someone else come up with an excuse for me. “I don’t know? I just spent some time in the park and came back. I know better than to wander through the woods.”
Dad sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “If you want to leave town, take someone with you, okay? And let someone else know where you’ll be and when you plan to return. It’s dangerous out there.”
I think the first is easy enough, especially since I’ll need someone to help me reenter town anyway. I just have to think on who. The second is harder, although I suppose I’ll be trusting whoever it is with less information, so… maybe just telling Al will do the trick. And at least when I do go, I won’t have to worry about wild beasts. I just have to kick them before they attack me next time.
Dad continues, “We’re heading to the Defense Force building now because you scared us and made us call them. You understand why that’s wrong, don’t you?”
His tone gives me all I need to know. I nod somberly.
Mom and Dad turn around, and the gate shuts behind me. And I notice a Defense Force car waiting beyond them. Oops. At least it has a bike carrier.
Al was waiting for us at the DF building. The people there asked me a bunch of questions about whether I saw anything unusual, or if I brought any wands with me, or anything like that. I just told them “No.” The most interesting part was when they made me pull out the feather.
“Is that a feather?” my interviewer asked. He stared at it. Gyrfalcons are pretty big, and therefore Jess’s pinion is also very big—about the same length as my forearm.
“Yes,” I answered, thoroughly bored.
“Where did you get it?”
“Jess gave it to me.”
“Jess?”
Mrs. Chesbrough was in the room. “My daughter,” she answered, nodding. “Do you mind if I take a look at it?”
I hesitated—it’d look odd if I didn’t hand it over, but the feather wasn’t just a feather anymore. But I probably should’ve done more reading before I agreed.
I don’t know what Mrs. Chesbrough did while she was holding the feather, but I know she has spells for more than just communication. And whatever she tried must’ve failed. The feather is a part of me now, and has the same magic immunities that I do. Which means that you can’t analyze it with magic, although you definitely can tell when your spell fails.
Frowning, she handed it back to me, and I clipped it around my neck again. “That should be everything,” my interviewer said. “You can go now.”
“Can I look at the records room?” I asked. I’ve spent a lot of time there in the past. One DF researcher has stockpiled a load of records on every sort of monster, including a few records on true dragons. They let kids watch them if the room isn’t presently in use.
“I’ll send someone to check,” my interviewer replied, and I left the room.