38

Me dolet

We landed quietly, smoothly, in a familiar place. An open field with gentle hills that made the landscape sway cradled a large clearing of birch trees … It was where I had practiced with the spheresaii! But why were we here? I frowned as I slid off of Dragon’s back. Stepping onto the firm ground sent a shock of pain up and down my body.

“We had best check you over, yes?” Dragon said.

“Yeah, okay, I guess so,” I said timidly.

I gingerly cupped my left elbow in my palm and tried to bend it. Everything went black. I yelpd and released the joint. I lost my balance and fell to the ground. As I sat, dejected, I felt ashamed at being so cavalier over my favorite characters’ pain now. Like maybe this was some sort of literary karma.

“No time for despair, Evechild. On the contrary; you should be feeling rather brave and, dare I say, invincible!” Dragon leaned and offered his open palm toward me. “May I?”

I kept my elbow hugged against me and instead raised my leg and set my injured foot in his talon cradle. I was missing a shoe; my orange-striped sock was torn and bloody with little bits of black asphalt stuck in it. I grunted at seeing the sock.

“Did I hurt you?.

“No, no … you’re fine. It’s that stupid sock. Uncle Seb would send me and Philippa random things in the mail over the years. Random stuff, you know? From countries we hadn’t heard of or,” I gestured at my stripy footwear, “kitschy things from his alma mater.”

“And he attended Dublin? No, don’t tell me … orange and white stripes is … Lancaster?”

“Syracuse,” I giggled, “not quite as exotic.”

“They have a championship crew team, I believe.”

“Crew? Oh, rowing? Yeah, I don’t know,” I shrugged, wiping away the wetness that had started to pool around my left temple again. I looked at my fingers as I pulled my hand away from my face. Blood.

“How’s that?” Dragon asked, carefully setting down my ankle. That cheeky dragon! While he had me talking about stupid socks, he had fashioned a brace out of my hoodie sleeve. Funny, I don’t remember ever taking it off. My head hurt. Radiated, actually. Was I sitting or standing?

“Dragon, I, um … I feel weird.”

Dragon leaned in very close, his dark jeweled eyes wide with concern just inches from my face.

“Eve! Stay awake!”

My head bobbed and throbbed; my eyes squinted shut as the sun’s light suddenly brought shards of pain cutting into my brain. I just wanted everything to be dark and quiet!

“Come on, let’s try to stand. Let us test out this brace. Your ankle doesn’t seem broken, but you likely have a nasty sprain,” Dragon spoke evenly and quietly as he pulled on my right arm and brought his wing around my back to stabilize.

I warily brought my injured foot to the ground. Not completely stable, but I felt it could bear my weight ok. I looked up to smile groggily at Dragon, and huuuuuaaaaaaggghhhh a stream of vomit came flying out of mouth. It pooled sickeningly between his hind legs, greenish-brown and foamy. I hadn’t felt nauseated, but now, looking at that tiny swamp I just expelled, I definitely did.

“Ohhhhhh kaaaaaay,” Dragon said as he backed away from the mess. “You, my dear child, are concussed.”

“Con-what?” I stumbled forward.

“You’ve hit your head. I shall wrap it, and then we must be going. They ought to be gone now; we need to get you proper bandages and … yes … and the water… yes,” Dragon spoke more to himself than to me.

“Who’s gone? Where? It’s so bright.”

“I’m just going to tear this one more time, yes, hold still, please.”

Without answering me, he speedily wrapped the fabric tightly around my skull, adding an extra fold where I had felt the blood on my temple.

“Ooooch! Watch it!”

“Just a bruise. Off we go. Yes, climb back on, just like that. Good. And remember. STAY AWAKE.”

With that, he bounded upward, and we were back in the limbo of clouds.

“But Dragon,” I heard myself slur my words but I couldn’t fix it. “Where’re we going … is my mom there?”

I was in and out of consciousness as we careened through the air at a faster clip than usual. The smell of Dragon’s scales had become familiar to me now, a sort of sweet but rustic scent, like leather treated with lemon. My sleepy body snuggled into the smell.

Suddenly the sensation of dropping in altitude – quickly! – forced my eyes open. I brought my hand to my mouth, worried I’d spew again. My other arm laid flat against Dragon’s shoulder. I laid my cheek against the back of his neck.

“The hangar! I see it … are we going on a plane? Your plane? Who are those guys?’

Dragon hit the ground running. His wings swooped up and down as he bounded toward the hangar. The men ran up to him again and again; their speed was impressive. Dragon, unphased, charged forward.

“Not now, Kip! Medical emergency, Kip!” Dragon barked at them.

This sprung the Kips into a different course of action. They practically leapt across the driveway into the hangar and bounded back out holding a med kit, a roll of paper towels, and a fire extinguisher for some reason. Dragon came to a halt, smoothly but abruptly; the momentum slid me upward. The quick jostle made me queasy and dizzy.

“Yep! Here you are, sir! Yep!” one Kip called dutifully toward Dragon.

“Yep! All hands on deck to help!”

“Yep, all hands!”

“Yep!”

“Yep!”

Dragon lowered me to the ground and propped me in the shade against metal wall. I was so very groggy, but all the action pulled me awake now. I blinked and clapped my hands over my eyes; the daylight stung. Kip offered an open palm with two pain reliever tablets on it; another Kip thrust a bottle of water toward me. I took both. I tossed the water bottle ambiguously toward a Kip and dropped my head in between my knees. I craved the comfort of darkness. But Dragon had other ideas: his talons were on my shoulders shaking my head upright again.

“Evechild, this is important now,” Dragon crouched down low in front of me so our eyes were level. “Do you remember the night you and I met your librarian at your school?”

It was a question, but he shot it at me like more of a command. My head bobbed and I squinted to recollect the night he spoke of.

“Ms. Neally?” I responded dreamily, “oh, she’s pretty.”

“Yes, yes, Ms. Neally,” Dragon said impatiently. “Do you remember? She gave you a stone, a gem. Remember? Eve, do you remember? Eve, don’t close your eyes!”

“Bandage, yep!”

“Bandage, yep, yep!”

“Evechild, you must stay awake!”

I felt water on my lips; then something sharp under my chin. I opened my eyes: Dragon was tipping my head back as he held a water bottle to my mouth. I sputtered and choked. Man, did my head hurt. I felt just behind my left temple. It was swollen and wet.

“Yes, Eve, you’re still bleeding. I am trying to help you,” Dragon fumbled with bandages. “The gem you received; do you have it?”

My head was bleeding and my ankle was wrapped in my own torn hoodie sleeve, he was so concerned with a freaking stone? I sighed. Whatever. I blinked a few times again, tried to focus, and leaned forward. Pain shot up my leg as I pulled off a sock.

“Oh, honestly child! I really am trying to help you, but if you’re going to be like this—”

Dragon stopped, amazed. I rolled down my sock and pulled out one tiny (and sweaty) aquamina gem, the very stone Ms. Neally had gifted me what seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Eve! Oh, I apologize! Oh, you wonderful, wonderful heroine!”

“Hooray! Yep! Yep! Hooray!”

The Kips, who had been on standby with more bandages, more water, still a fire extinguisher, and now a life vest for some reason, observed Dragon’s celebration with cocked heads. Then, all together, all five joined in the revelry with Dragon.

“Well, this doesn’t help me feel not loopy and concussed.”

The Kips abruptly stopped dancing. They froze. All five looked up and to the right, their chins cocked at exatly the same angle.

“Intruders, yep! Sir, Protocol Four, yep?”

Dragon nodded, his face serious. I looked up, unable to see what had them so concerned. But my head dropped in pain. I looked down then and groaned. It was bad enough that my head was bleeding. But that blood had spattered on my favorite Beatles shirt. I sighed.

Then I vomited again.

Dragon ushered me inside the hangar. The Kips fanned out, their sentinel movements brilliantly choreographed. I don’t know if it was the head injury, but everything they did was like a dance. I giggled, as I watched them from my spot just inside the mammoth door. Dragon glared at me and motioned with his head to get farther back.

I scooted inside and held my knees to my chest. It was cold in the shadows of this giant steel shell. I looked around the hangar: metal tool benches, metal cabinets, neatly organized metal shelves with more metal boxes … a lot of metal. But there was one main thing missing from this aviation garage – the plane.

A green door was propped open on the opposite wall, revealing a small, dimly lit room. That must be Uncle Seb’s office. Peeking over my shoulder, I crawled stealthily toward the door. At least, I tried to be stealthy. The amount of ooofs! and ughs! that escaped my mouth in pain might not have been the most covert of sounds.

I reached the office, no larger than a bathroom, and headed to the desk parked haphazardly in the middle of the thin, oil-stained carpet. The tidy hangar sparkled compared to this tiny room. Mounds of paper towered on its surface, and a bronze lamp that produced the soft light sat perched precariously atop a pile of books. Notebooks of every color dotted this fire hazard. But not cool notebooks with leather binding and ties – boring old college-ruled spiral-bound notebooks you use for school. I grabbed a green one closest to me and flipped through it: graphs, math equations, notes on trajectory … blah blah blah … Normally, I would be fascinated by this, but oh, how these numbers and signs made my head scream!

I started to close it and toss it back on the pile of kindling called a desk, when something caught my eye. I thumbed through its smudged pages again, and, yes! My eyes hadn’t deceived me – I saw MY NAME.

Written next to four arrows, one triangle, and an x was EVE. I stared at it, then grabbed other notebooks to see if my name occurred anywhere else. Tires squealed, followed by the shuffling of shined shoes. I looked up, startled. The Kips in unison yelled from outside, “Make ready, yep!”

Evechild, you are awake?

I nodded, then winced in pain from that movement. “Yes,” I said aloud.

Stay hidden.

This short command sent shivers down my spine. Out of habit, I tried to zip up my hoodie. I looked down at my bare arms, at my bloodstained shirt, at my ankle bandaged with the sleeve of that beloved hoodie. A proper bandage had been tied at its base, secured with an aqua-colored strip. That reminded me – aquamina! I reached down to check my sock and felt it there, small and warm.

A great roar outside sent me scrambling under the desk. My foot got tangled in the old lamp cord. Something crashed as I tucked closer to the chair. The light went out. My eyes adjusted to the faint daylight steaming in from outside the open hangar. I reached for the green notebook and ripped out the page I with name scribbled on it.

Another roar, high and mighty like a lion, sent my heart pounding. Thuds like watermelons breaking, quick blasts like fireworks, the dark sound of fire blazing, then screams and shrieks. I heard all of this, but I saw nothing. It is a gruesome way to witness something, through only hearing. My min populated the sounds with ghastly images; ghosts of horror scenes I’d read in books or seen in movies gave awful shape to the roars and bangs and thumps.

I stayed balled up under the desk, careful not to rock its rickety legs for fear the whole fire hazard would crumble down. As I listened to whatever was happening outside, I felt about as useful as a pineapple.

“Enough of this,” I muttered. “I’m just going to sit in the dark, metaphorically and literally? No way. Not now.”

I crawled low on my belly toward the hangar’s opening. The roar of engines filled the space, then shouts, screams, hysteria. The roar was deafening. A powerful gust of air rippled through the hangar. A plane had landed – that could mean only one thing!

“Uncle Seb!” I cried as I scrambled to my feet. “Uh-oh. Bad idea.”

With that, I dropped back to the ground.

“Lassie, we’ve nay time fer this!” I felt something kick my foot.

“Baert? When did you –” I groaned and slumped back, exhausted.

“Hold on, yep! Here we go, yep!”

“Are you carrying me?”

“Aye, there’s a pure barry lassie! Now up with ye.”

Baert pushed against my foot, making my leg bend. He shuffled around and propped up my left arm onto his shoulders. I was so drowsy. My head screamed again; sounds reached me as if traveling through a tunnel. My eyes closed.

“Can you just do it, Baert,” I breathed as my head dropped.

My eyes closed as a dark figure in tall boots stomped toward me and hauled me up.

“Easy on the goods!” I mumbled as I was jostled up and set back down. I felt myself strapped into something.

“Evechild, open your eyes.”

“Egg, sit up!”

“She’s just a wee bairn, I knew she shan’t last through tha journey.”

“Perhaps you are correct, my dear friend. Perhaps I overestimated her ability.”

This last comment enraged me even in my weakened, concussed, blood-lost state. I pulled an eye open.

“Listen, haters, I am fiiiiiine,” I said, slurred, and shot finger guns at them.

“There you have it,” Uncle Seb’s growled. “She’s fine. You have the stone?”

I felt Dragon’s talon on my cheek, cool and sharp. He pressed something against my face, just below my injured temple. He brought my hand up and pressed my palm there.

“Only you can wield its power, Evechild. Hold it here,” he said gently.

He held his talons over my hand to support the heaviness of my palm – I hadn’t ever realized how heavy my own arm was. My eyes drooped shut, my chin fell forward, and my whole body succumbed to drowsy pain.

Until it didn’t.

A warmth throbbed in my cheekbone, then made its way up to my temple. A sensation like a thousand tiny warm needles traveled along my skull and spread a tingling heat all over my head. I giggled; this tickled. The warmth crept from my hand to my whole body and made me giddy.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and sat upright.

“Well,” I said loudly to the stunned faces of Dragon, Baert, and Uncle Seb looking down at me. “What are you all waiting for? Let’s go rescue Mom and my freaking sister.”

I pulled my hand away from my face and looked down at the object in my palm: Aquamina flashed as if to wink at me.