by Bob Dattolo
My next step was to find a rock that I could sort of jump onto and then leap off of and glide to a landing. Conveniently, since I’m at the base of a huge cliff, there are a number of rocks nearby that I can use. Most even have a decent area I can land in, assuming I don’t rocket into the ground.
My first two were cool as hell and I coasted most of 30 or 40 feet without really trying. I got cocky with that one and tried a larger rock and made it about 50 feet before I adjusted my wings and promptly flipped over and rammed into the ground.
“That fucking hurt!” Dirt dribbled out of my mouth as I stood, wiping the dirt away from my face. “Note to self? My tail actually does something when I’m flying.”
Such a stupid thought, but it’s true. I haven’t really talked about it much because I’m seriously not really used to the idea that I have this one. I can even wag it and things like that, but it seems like the main use is for flying. When I’m in the air, the tip for about a foot widens, sort of like with a cobra’s neck flair. I never expected that to actually do anything.
It does. It really does.
Fine. Let’s really try this!
Run, jump, glide. Run, jump, glide. Some iffy landings. Some fantastic ones. Some glides that were crazy long. Some that were short as hell.
Then I ran and jumped and started to glide…and then pumped my wings, sending myself up another ten feet and then gliding again. I far surpassed where I expected to land and whooped with joy as I flapped again.
This is freaking awesome!
Another flap, then a tentative turn that sent me curving to the left far easier than I expected it to happen. More laughter.
At which point I continued flapping and actually flew back to where I started before landing.
“Maddie, you magnificent freaking beauty, you flew!” Echoes of my whoop for joy came back to me from the huge wall of stone, but I didn’t care about that. I only had eyes for the dragons soaring way above me.
I’m a dragon.
I should be soaring. Shouldn’t I?
Yes, yes I should.
Instead of taking off like I wanted to, I flapped and shot up, then did some half sort of flaps and managed to pretty much hover in place. I know normal dragons have a bitch of a time doing that, but that’s because they’re so huge. I’m miniscule in comparison to them, yet I still have large wings. At least in relation to my body size.
I’m thinking that means I can fly pretty freaking fast.
My hovering turned into climbing as I flapped harder and harder again, until I was rocketing up like an insane person, clearing the top of the cliff we started from before I thought it would even be possible.
The girls are circling maybe…shoot, 5,000 feet up? That’s what it looks like to me. They’re in a lazy circle, all at the same level, just sort of gliding around almost in a follow the leader sort of thing. I so didn’t mean to laugh like a crazy person as I shot through the middle of their huge circle, continuing to climb as their startled responses reached me.
This is freaking amazing. This, right here, nearly makes the earlier part of my life worth it. It’s not quite to that level, yet it’s close. Having magic again makes up for a lot of the rest that flying doesn’t. I’m thinking the remaining gap will be covered by the corpses of my parents.
Instead of sticking on that, I wrenched myself around in a brutal curve backwards from my perspective, heading back down to where they’re still circling, now about 2,000 feet below me. I’m still laughing as I go into a corkscrew sort of flight, pulling left and right and even going into some loops and things before I reached about 30 feet above their level and spread my wings to glide. I’m inside their overall circle, which I did on purpose. I can feel the upswelling of hot air and general airflow from the face of the cliff, and I know that I can glide and continue to rise, so that means I have to reduce my available wing space.
The best part is that I’m not consciously thinking that, it’s just sort of coming to me as my flight level steadies.
Parece is laughing like crazy, while Samantha nods at me. “You caught on pretty quickly?” She’s on the other side of the circle from me, but I can hear her pretty well. I’m thinking that’s why our eyesight and hearing are so good, so that we can pick things up when we’re in the air like this.
Like that couple down there having sex in the woods. They think they’re too far away to be seen, yet I can see them plain as day.
“This is so freaking awesome; I can barely stand it!”
More laughter from the three of them, “Now you know why we love to go for flights. It’s calming. It helps center us. Same thing for being high like on the cliff or on a building. It’s part of us as dragons.” Angelica sent out a jet of her breath, almost like a salute.
“Seriously, this is crazy. I’ve never felt this relaxed before. Ever. It’s like we were made for this, which I know dragons were, but still!”
“And every dragon is like this.” Samantha began a sort of undulation motion, dipping and rising, and making it look like fun. “Negotiations while flying are almost always more satisfactory for both sides. We seem to relax our requirements. We’re more willing to give at times.”
“Really? That’s nuts, I’ve never heard that before?”
She shrugged her huge shoulders, “I’m not sure if norms and mages picked up on that since they can’t really join us. Between us, though? Flying together like this is always preferred.”
“I can see it. I really can.”
We fell into a companionable silence for a bit, making circle after circle and enjoying the experience. Finally, a thought trickled through the relaxation, “How much shit are you gonna be in from your parents?”
She didn’t answer at first, “I’m not sure. You met them. Obviously. They’re hard to deal with. I’m not up to their level yet, at least I don’t think so. I’m like Angelica is, if I don’t test well enough? They’ll think nothing of killing me. Even though I think my parents are generally more aggressive than hers are, I think hers are more vicious that way. I think I have more leeway with where I test before they attack.”
“And you can’t just leave them behind?”
“I can, but it’s hard. It really is.”
“So, you not having your phone on?”
“Honestly? I wouldn’t be shocked if they had private investigators hunting through my finances. That’s why I took a bunch of cash out and am only spending that. If they see me using my card, they’ll track back to where it was used and send someone to hunt. Every time that happens, they’ll get closer and closer. Figure out directions and get ahead of us. Things like that.”
“God dammit, that’s insane. Should we turn on the phones and just get messages and things? Find out if they’re really pissed?”
She gave me a look, “Maddie? They’re really pissed. They ran away from you without really going for you. They fucking saw you get up from their attack and brush off the injuries, and they freaked. They don’t know how to handle you and decided to run. That’s gotta bite them in the ass something fierce. It really does. They’re not the types to back off, so to have them flee? I’m thinking they were seething in rage by the time they were like two miles away. If you really scarred them?”
“I’d be shocked if they healed from that. Like Levi. Just…I got more of them with the spell. It’s gotta look like an actual dragon clawed both of them.”
“They’ll be pushing to find you and teach you a lesson.”
“So, you’re gonna get in trouble from that? From being with me?”
“Trouble’s relative, I guess. If I can stay the fuck away from them and get through year two, then they may back off. I think they’d want a successful and powerful daughter more than they’d want to spank me for being with you.”
“I’m so sorry you’re in that position. Do you want me to head off on my own?”
“No! No, I don’t. It’s a tempting offer, it really is, but…” she didn’t continue talking for a bit. I wasn’t r
eady for it when she finally started speaking again, “You don’t see what you’re like. From our perspective? I’m a foot taller than you are. I outweigh you by more than double. I’m huge in comparison. Even in these forms. Yet look at you. You’ve beaten dragons in your human form. Something I’ve never heard of happening without some sort of crazy powerful weapon being used.” She squinted at me, “Wait a minute, when you fought Daniela? She didn’t break her neck by ramming her head into the ground, did she?!” The other two laughed at the question.
Maybe time for some honesty? “No. She hit me with her fire breath, and I expected to die. When it didn’t even start to burn me, I created a larger ball of flame around us to hide everything and ran at her and managed to jump onto her neck. I lucked into a good spot where she couldn’t get me with her claws, and I wrapped myself around her and began crushing in with my hands and pulling back against where my legs were wrapped around her neck. I sent out more spells, making it look like she was still spraying fire everywhere, then broke her neck. I used another spell to ram her head into the ground and even more spells to form the blisters that I had, like I wasn’t quite able to protect myself from the flames.”
Hysterical laughter from them that lasted longer than I expected it to, “Dammit to hell, I knew something was funky about that.” Angelica started to laugh again.
“See? It’s things like that. You killed her in your human form. You made Levi shift back. You’re powerful as fuck and sometimes you act it and sometimes you just seem like a normal person. So, I hear you talking about joining together and making it through, and I keep thinking that maybe it’s worth it. Maybe it’s possible to do.”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing.” Parece jumped in. “I don’t know what to do about that, though. I’m in the same boat you and Angelica are in. My parents will think nothing of killing me if I make it through and get placed poorly. They’ll straight up murder me for being a letdown. I see what you made possible at the end there in the trial, and I think that’s what we need to make it through the next two. Yet…I keep thinking about the end. If I make it through as I am right now, then I doubt I’ll place highly enough to avoid my parents trying to kill me.”
“Same for me.” Angelica sounds just about as sad as you can imagine. “That’s my worry. I want to live, you know? And based on how they’ve acted before, I’m thinking some people need to die in order for me to do that. Either that, or I somehow make it out and avoid them. Which I don’t think is possible. Unless I outright fled and somehow hid myself away completely, I’d never avoid them. They’ll spend the next thousand years hunting for me. Even if I go to Mexico and get stripped and try to live like a norm? They’ve basically hinted that they watch the borders in case I make a run for it.”
“What the fuck? Seriously?”
“Seriously. They want a powerful daughter, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it.”
“So, yeah, the three of us are in the same boat.” Samantha blew out a burst of her breath, flying through the resulting bloom of light, “We either test well or we die anyway. We have to have enough power to do that. I don’t think any of us are there, even with the free power you’ve fed to each of us. I think we’re getting closer, yet that still calls for people to die. I don’t like that, but I like dying even less.”
“This is so fucked up.”
“It is. Yet it’s our life. We saw what you did, and none of us can really imagine taking the risks you did. People were gonna die that tried to go over that last challenge. If I went too early? You can be damn well sure Angelica would have taken a swipe at me.”
“I’m not sure I could have stopped from trying to do that. You’re too powerful to risk being on the wrong side of.”
“See? It’s things like that, and she probably wouldn’t have even been the first to take a swing at me. There were so few people there that could have made it across without someone going for them. If anyone at all.”
“I’d put money on it being no one.” Angelica spoke with conviction. “Those of us that knew we’d be victims? We wouldn’t want anyone else to make it across when we couldn’t, so…they’d have been thrown off out of spite as our last use of our magic. Basically.”
“That’s so freaking bloodthirsty!”
“It is.” Samantha again, “It’s just how we were raised. It really was. We’re out for ourselves first, second, and third. Then our allies maybe fourth. Ourselves again in fifth place. We know what waits us after graduation. It’s usually worse for us dragons, but mages also have it bad. They’re just as vindictive and evil to their kids as we are, they just hide it more.”
“So, the 20 that were left on the wrong side of the challenge? You guys really think the only options were death or losing your power?”
Joined yesses from the girls.
“God, that’s so fucked. So then I step in and stop the fighting and get people across. You got a benefit from that, which you can appreciate, but you’re still over there facing the reality of your situation knowing that I don’t really see it or understand it.”
Another set of joined yesses.
“Like Samantha said?” Parece began moving back and forth, banking a little on each turn, “You’re this weird mix of things to us. Strong yet weak. Powerful as fuck, yet also a stricken. Even your last name. We see you and realize what your scars mean, and we still want to control you. Lord it over you. Then we think about what we’ve seen you do, and it kinda scares the shit out of us. You single handedly made it possible or the three of us to graduate. From the various things you did at the challenges to the very end. You’re a power to be reckoned with, yet the rest of our lives is looming over us. We get what you want to do. We understand how much stronger we’d be as a group. Yet that group strength won’t help for shit when our parents will cave in our skulls for graduating but not placing high enough.”
“This is so fucked up. It really is.”
“Story of our lives.” She sighed, but continued banking. It looked like fun to me, but I didn’t copy her in case she thought I was making fun of her. “We see what the human parts of us go through, and we wonder how they do it. They do the same for us. So us right now? We feel your power. We see how dominant you are, yet even that’s hidden. You flutter in and out of being prey and being scarily powerful, yet you keep landing on the side of being weak. At least usually. Except we benefited from what you did. All three of us. We’d love to continue that, we’re just terrified. What if you really do want to just kill us? What if we make it and still get killed? Everything in our lives is pushing us towards draining people to survive. All of it. It’s just that I think all of us would rather make it through without having to do that. Fighting makes it risky for us. Unless it’s guaranteed as a win, we risk losing. And that’s not a great way to make it.”
Silence from the girls for a bit.
“What if you had a way to become more powerful? Something you could be taught?”
Each of them looked at me, “What do you mean?” Angelica bit the bullet first.
“I’m not saying anything yet, I need to think about it.”
“Are you saying that you know something that could make us more powerful?” Samantha this time.
“I do.”
“Just that? I do? You can’t tell us?”
“I need to think about it. It’s dangerous if it gets out there, and I can’t really control where the information goes if more people know about it.”
Parece barked a laugh, “That’s fucked if you know something like that. How you would is beyond me, it really is. You’ve known magic way less than any of us, yet…you keep doing freaky things.”
“I’m sorry I can’t just tell you. Like I said, I need to think about it.”
“We understand. We won’t pressure you. Just…it may come down to us getting desperate once classes start or we get into the trials. We don’t want to attack you; we just may be driven to it.”
“I know. I have to add that to things.” We
circled a few more times, “For now? Anyone want to show me some flying tricks I can try?”
As you can imagine, they all wanted to show me some things. It became an aerial version of look at me!
Which I did. And I tried to do all of it.
This is seriously the shit.
Chapter 11
I sat back on the chair and stared out across the ocean, letting the light breeze play across my skin. My little bathing suit is new as of a week ago when we arrived, and I have to say that I’m loving it here.
Parece joins me, plopping down on the chair next to me. Her South Padre Island bikini is a bit disheveled, so she tugged the girls back into place and smiled at me before raising her drink, “Here’s to a good day!”
I clanked my glass against hers and sipped. I have water, while she has…shoot, some sort of icy thing that I can’t remember the name of. “You done messing with the guys?”
She raised an eyebrow as she winked, “How many people do you think knew I was jerking them off out there?”
She joined my laugh, “Two that I caught, but since one was a guy that headed out there like a half hour ago? I can’t say that anyone cared.”
She sighed, “I always wanted to come here and visit, but my parents would never let me. This place is too much.”
“I can see it. How many guys you jerk off today?”
“31. Beat my record from yesterday, so that’s good.”
“It’s good to have a goal!”
“What can I say? When you can’t get a disease like that, why not? It’s all good in my book.”
“I bet. Now, where did Samantha and Angelica head off to?”
She waved her drink back towards the hotel, “They each took two guys back to the room. Twins for each of them.”
My mouth went dry, “Holy crap, they found twins willing to fuck them at the same time?”
“That’s their hope. There’s a chance they may swap it up, though. One and one for each of ‘em.”
Okay, that actually sounds decently fun to me. “Good for them.”
She sighed before sipping her drink again, “It’s been fun here. Another week down, we’re getting closer and closer to having to go back.”