Bayang

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Bayang said reluctantly. She wasn’t afraid of helping Leech find his true powers because she was sure he wasn’t a threat to dragonkind. Rather, she didn’t want him to discover her original mission.

Though Pele only came up to Bayang’s chin, suddenly the goddess seemed to loom over her. “We might need him for the battle,” Pele said.

“Need who?” Leech asked, puzzled.

Pele pointed a dirty finger at the iron armband. “We need that.”

“They’re just something I’ve always had,” Leech said, fingering them. “It was with me when I was found as a baby and brought to the orphanage.”

Pele shook her head. “You still got no luck with your family, do you?” She turned commandingly to Bayang. “Tell him.” The brown eyes seemed to swell until Bayang felt she had fallen into cups of molten chocolate.

Bayang was unable to resist. “When a person dies, they’re born again in another life. Thousands of years ago, you were once a hero known as Lee No Cha.” Against her will, the dragon indicated the iron armband. “As Pele said, you can fly with part of it and fight with the rest.”

“Really?” Leech asked in amazement. “But how do I use them?” He poked, prodded, and rubbed the armband.

Aware of Pele’s stern eyes upon her, Bayang directed him. “Take the flying disks off the armband and then spit on them.”

Leech looked skeptical, as if he suspected them of playing a practical joke on him. But when he pulled at the disks, he was surprised when they came off in his hand. “So what am I supposed to do now? Am I supposed to clean them?”

“Spit on them!” Pele commanded. Her voice resonated in the cellar; the sound seemed to fill the boy’s head.

Feeling foolish, Leech spat on one of the bracelets.

“Now say, ‘Change!’“ Bayang said.

“Change,” Leech mumbled sheepishly. Instantly the disks rose from his palm and expanded to eighteen inches in diameter.

“Whoa,” Leech said as his jaw dropped open. The disks hovered only inches away.

“Give them a gentle push from above,” Bayang instructed.

Cautiously, the boy tapped one with a fingertip. It spiraled downward where it waited a few inches above the floor. When Leech nudged the other one, it, too descended until it was next to the other.

“Now step onto them,” Bayang said.

Puzzled, the boy set his right foot on one. “It’s sticking like glue to me,” he said in surprise as it clung to the sole of his shoe.

“Now the second disk,” Bayang said.

As soon as his left shoe touched the other disk, Leech began to rise into the air.