by Holly Hook
His parents didn't know how to handle the situation and had sent me to do it for them. My friend was too angry to speak to them after this. I wanted to confront them.
I let out a breath. "Dirk. It's me. Felicia. Well, I guess no one will ever bully you again." This was the Dirk whose glasses had been stolen multiple times in elementary school, who had gone crying to the teachers more than once. This creature was the Dirk who loved video games.
It was no wonder Adler approved of him.
Now he and I were both on Mr. Olsen's hit list.
And now, Sven's.
I stepped into the barn, eyeing those bronze scales. I wanted to reach out and touch them to see what dragon skin felt like. Curiosity swept over me. But I closed the door behind me as Dirk continued to stare at the opposite end of the barn. "Don't tell me your parents just threw you in here and closed the door when you said you weren't feeling well."
Then he moved. Dirk lifted his head and turned it to face me.
I froze. A pair of red eyes, eyes not unlike the Gems the Slayers used, locked on me for a moment, forcing me to focus on them. A strange feeling swept over me and my mind calculated the meaning in them without trying. Dirk felt scared, confused, and betrayed. Then he nodded. Yes. His parents had taken him to this barn when he said he was under the weather.
Then he'd matured.
I blinked as he grunted and faced the wall again. Even though he couldn't talk I'd understood him. An amazing sense of the dragon's body language had bloomed within me. It was almost as if I knew a new language.
"That sucks," I managed. A sense of calm followed. I had no fear. Dirk would not hurt me. In fact, he needed me more than I needed him right now. Being here felt right. "Your parents told you nothing about this before it happened? Mine treated me the same way. I found out because I overheard Adler talking to them."
That got him to lift his head again and face me. Now that I wasn't focusing on his eyes as much, I could see that his reptilian face was the same beautiful bronze as the rest of his body. Hair-like spines rose from his head. With his mouth closed, I couldn't see his sharp teeth, but even if I could, I knew they wouldn't frighten me. Adler had been different. She'd been angry and willing to separate me from Sven at all costs.
I understood how Dirk felt.
I drew closer and sat down on a clean pile of straw, close to those shining red eyes. "How long have you been sitting in here alone?"
He stared at me as if unsure how to respond.
"Nod when I say the right number," I say. "One hour. Two. Three..."
He nodded.
"Your parents let you stew in here, alone, for three hours?"
Again, a yes, but there was something reluctant in it.
I sensed I didn't have the whole story. "Did you snap at them?"
Dirk didn't respond. Instead, he looked away as if trying to hide his guilt. That was a definite yes. I could put together what happened. Dirk had matured and looked at his parents in terror. There they explained his true nature to him. Angry, he must have stormed at his parents, the closest he could get to expressing his sense of betrayal.
They gave him time to cool down since they couldn't risk shifting in the open and confronting him in return. At least, I hoped. If that wasn't the case, they were really crappy parents. It was bad enough they'd let him find out the hard way.
"I don't blame you," I said, getting off the straw and approaching him. A tremor stole over me as I reached out and touched his scales just underneath his folded wing. Dirk was warm. Smooth. He jumped a bit at my touch and relaxed. "I'll yell at your parents for you now, okay?"
Dirk turned his head and looked at me, a million questions in his gaze. The terror remained. So his parents hadn't explained everything to him—just enough to cause panic and a sense of hurt before he chased them out. I couldn't tell how much he knew, so it was up to me to reassure him.
"Things will turn out fine," I lied. How could they with a family of Slayers in town? The last thing Dirk needed to hear about right now was that there was a whole organization bent on killing him for his existence alone. "You won't stay stuck like this forever. You'll be able to regain your normal form soon. I'm not sure how long it'll take, but that's what Principal Adler told me. There's some explaining to do when I get back from this confrontation, but I won't stay gone long. I'll tell you everything I know."
Dirk's gaze calmed, but it was clear I needed to tell all once I returned. He now knew I had some knowledge of all this. With a nod, I backed to the barn door, opened it, and closed it behind me. Crickets sang as if sensing that some tension had defused.
Another thought struck as I approached the press building.
Had the Machers been Adler's eyes?
Were they calling her right now? It was clear they knew what I was, and that was why they sent me to see Dirk. Either they had always known or someone had told them. I hoped for the first possibility, but I also had to prepare for Adler to ask them to take me to the caves.
But once I got back into the printing press, the Machers were busy folding papers. Neither would meet my gaze at first. The tension in the room built as I stood there.
"Your son is in shock," I said, grasping the doorway with both hands.
The two of them continued to work for a moment as if I'd said nothing. Papers rustled. Then Mrs. Macher tightened her lips and looked to her husband. The tension in the room turned to a piano string.
"We know," Mr. Macher said. "Neither of us expected him to mature today. We could barely get him to the barn before it happened. Dirk never mentioned he was experiencing any strange symptoms. We thought it wouldn't happen for at least another few months."
"At least he wasn't at school," Mrs. Macher said.
"That would have been inconvenient," I said, heat filling me. "Had he known what he was, you wouldn't have had to worry about that happening."
That explained why he wasn't in the caves where I had to go. But if Dirk had matured with little warning—just hours—what would it be like for me? What if I got caught far away from shelter?
"Felicia," she started.
"You didn't plan on telling him before it happened?" I asked, voice rising.
"Felicia, the den wanted you and Dirk to have normal childhoods," Mrs. Macher said. "We didn't want the specter of war hanging over your heads. The two of us planned on telling Dirk his true nature when he manifested symptoms. But he's always kept to himself. He mentioned nothing to us. We should have known he might hide them. You haven't heard Dirk mention anything? No heat building inside him? No strange happenings?"
I shook my head. "Where are my parents? And no." I could assume that Mr. and Mrs. Macher were both mature dragon shifters. Deep down, I knew Sven would help me find them, but going into the caves might make me mature faster—and in front of him.
And now he wanted to kill dragons again.
"Felicia, they are in the caves," Mr. Macher said. "They are being cared for. We have them there to keep them from interfering with your coming maturity. They both love you, but they're misguided with what's best for you."
"I want them out of the caves. And safe."
"Marianne Adler won't allow it," Mrs. Macher said. From her tone, I guessed she feared interfering.
"Have you told her I'm here?" I asked. I could spill Adler's screw-up right now, which I was sure she had told none of the other dragons about.
But I wouldn't since it was my fault. I'd caused her shame.
"Over the phone, yes," Mrs. Macher said. "She is glad you're here and is happy you're staying with Dirk. But tomorrow, after you finish your deliveries, you need to go down into the caves. Adler's scared that the Slayers will find you before you mature. After you mature, we can release your parents and the three of you can return to the farm together."
"So I finish my shift and then morph into a fire breathing creature. Normal day," I said. So Adler hadn't told them about my relationship with Sven. That would force her to talk about how she meant to dea
l with him on her own, breaking the dragon justice system. Adler couldn't come near me, so now she was relying on the Machers to take me to the caves.
"Yes," Mrs. Macher said.
"Okay," I said, unsure if I'd be able to do it. Being here for a while would relax Adler's worry, though. She'd take her eyes off me. But I hated leaving Sven on the other side of town. Maybe even now, his father was heading back into the caves. If I was lucky, Adler had erased Sven's memories of the den, too. How would she not? That bought time.
But not much. Mr. Olsen knew things were getting warmer.
And I'd left Sven with his abusive father at a place that Adler now knew about. It was well guarded, yes, but I'd still left him. Even if it hadn't been my choice, I still felt slimy.
But I had nowhere else to go tonight. Dirk was my friend, and I wasn't leaving him.
"Will you stay with Dirk?" Mrs. Macher asked, eyes shining with worry.
I'd see Sven again tomorrow. The thought of ending up like Dirk made my heart race, but for tonight, I'd be okay. The Machers needed me to keep their son company. I could see in their eyes they didn't have the heart to rip me away from him and make him spend the night alone. They didn't know what else to do.
And they trusted me. It was an alien feeling.
"Yes," I said.
"Please keep him company tonight. He didn't chase you out of the barn," Mrs. Macher continued. So Dirk had snapped at his parents. "If he seems willing to talk to us, let us know, no matter how late it is," she said, rubbing her eyes. Why hadn't I noticed how young and in shape the Machers were until now? Both wore glasses, giving them an air of intellectual maturity. Mrs. Macher wore a blouse and her husband, a white work shirt. They'd done a good job making themselves appear to age.
"How long will it take Dirk to regain human form?"
His father rubbed his chin. "It might take him up to a week to get the ability. He's in his adjustment period. His magic still has yet to settle."
"And he's stuck in the barn until then? That door's too small to let him out."
"We couldn't get him to the caves in time," his father said again. "Moving him down there now is too risky. We'd have to cut a hole in the barn wall."
"Then I'll go back out to him," I said. If there was anything I understood, it was entrapment.
Dirk remained lying down when I opened the barn door and announced my presence. Misery had overtaken him again. I wasn't sure if it was because of his new form or the fact that he had to stay stuck in this barn, with only enough room to turn around, for the next several days. I'd always thought of him as a small-town boy who would be happy to hang at the same street corner until he died. This attitude was something new.
"Dirk, I'm back."
He gave me another grunt, but this time there was an expectation in it. I found I could understand those, too. So dragons could communicate a lot with body language and some sounds—but not everything. Speech still came out on top.
"I suppose I should tell you everything I know," I continued, walking underneath the pale light bulb. "I yelled at your parents. They didn't think this would happen to you today. Now it's time for me to explain stuff." Dirk needed me right now. He had no one else. I would not be like Tasha and ditch him because he was inconvenient or couldn't do anything. "All I have is what Adler told me." For Dirk's and Sven's sakes, I would leave out everything to do with Slayers.
Dirk grunted again and shifted, making the straw whisper. It was an invitation for me to sit down next to him. That amazing understanding stayed with me, unlike the rest of my strange abilities.
So I crept closer and sat at the straw beside him, right near his front leg, and leaned against his warm, smooth scales. The sensation was comforting. It wasn't like Sven, who made me tingle all over, but it was more like a warm friendship, almost like we were family. For all I knew, Dirk could be related to me, but that made little sense since Adler and his parents alike approved of us staying in the barn like this together. They were all trying to play matchmaker. It was yet another way for Adler to get me away from Sven.
Dirk took a breath. It sounded windy and powerful under my ear. I realized this creature, complete with wings and more than capable of defending himself, lived in a world that wouldn't allow him to fly free without risking his life. The thought saddened me.
In a low voice, I spent the next half an hour explaining what I'd heard my parents and Adler talking about. Leaving out Sven and the Society, I then told him about Adler's attempts to get me to go into the caves so they could do whatever it was to make me mature faster. I told him about her driving me to the quarry, and about Steve, her grandson, who guarded an entrance to treasure underground. Dirk lifted his head when I mentioned treasure—that was something his parents hadn't had the chance to tell him about yet. That had his interest.
"Adler says under Olivia, there's the biggest treasure hoard in the world," I said. "You'll get to see it as soon as you can get out of this barn. I'm sure your parents will show it to you. But," I said, pausing, "We can't go selling or spending any of it. I guess treasure holds magic and keeps dragons alive."
With another grunt, he put his head back down.
The Wiglaf Society would take that treasure as soon as they killed the dragons.
They'd get richer. More powerful. Greedier. How much of the world did they control, anyway? Sven had mentioned that the Society could override the legal system. It was why his cousin didn't care if he got caught killing me.
And now Sven didn't understand—or want to face—that fact. If the real Sven was here, memories intact, and he could see his old self ruling once again, he'd die.
I finished telling Dirk everything I knew about his experience. His breathing was more relaxed now. Deeper. I had helped to put him at ease. We were in this together, after all. I now had a good friend to share this experience with.
"I'll stay with you tonight," I said, resting my head on the space between his front leg and neck. "Something tells me no one's going to break in and try to do anything to me."
Dirk let out another snort—the equivalent of laughter.
I closed my eyes, knowing that this night would be the last time for a while that I'd feel safe.
Chapter Eight
Dirk's breathing lulled me into unconsciousness. Blissful darkness and calm swept over me, masking the pain of Sven's change for a while. I floated inside dreams and took off into flight, soaring over an ever-changing landscape.
I woke to a loud knock on the barn door. With a start, I stood, slipping on the straw at first. Dirk grunted as he woke and rejoined the world.
"Felicia? You need to start your route."
It was Mrs. Macher. And it must have been Saturday morning. The job Dirk got me still stood. It was a sense of normalcy I didn't realize I missed this much until now.
Dirk shifted, scraping his claws against the barn floor. The sound made me jump. As if realizing he had claws for the first time, he shifted again in shock. Or maybe he expected to wake in his own bed, back in human form, and found this instead.
"How's Dirk?" she asked.
"I think we woke him up," I said. Then I leaned down to speak to him. He had one red eye open, trying to focus on me. "It's your mom."
He squeezed his eye shut.
"Dirk?" Mrs. Macher asked. "Can I come in?"
"He's not ready for that yet," I said. "This is a little more awkward than the standard puberty talk since it was unexpected." I emphasized that last word. Anger still filled me for his sake.
Dirk gave another snort. At least he could still laugh. Despite the change, it seemed his personality was still intact. Maturing hadn't changed him into a monster—yet.
"I know, I know," Mrs. Macher said. "Maybe we didn't take the right approach to this. Dirk, I want to say we're sorry we didn't warn you in time." She went silent after that as if waiting for him to say something. He couldn't talk. Not in words, anyway.
But I still had a route to do—a route that would take me to Sven
and away from the Machers, who wanted to take me to the caves. I didn't doubt my ability to hold that off for a little while longer. The Machers didn't treat me like a child, unlike Adler and my adoptive parents.
I hoped Dirk would let them in while I worked.
"I'll be back," I said to Dirk, who was pretending to sleep. He did not indicate he was awake, but I knew he was listening and trying to avoid his mom. "I have to go deliver the papers. Next week maybe we can share a route again."
Mrs. Macher led me into the press building, where she loaded me with a huge sack of Olive Plantations. When I pointed out I didn't have a bike (mine was still at home) she let me borrow hers, which already had a basket attached. I thanked her.
"I'll cook you breakfast when you get back," she told me. "We've always liked you, Felicia. Then when you're ready, we'll journey into the caves. We also have the matter of finding Dirk something to eat." She looked to her husband, who was busy adjusting something on the press. "So we might not be back here right away when you return. We'll try to be back by seven, though."
"What is he going to eat?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"In the past, dragons could hunt. Don't worry. We hunted boars. Deer. Livestock. And we cooked our food, which was easy," Mr. Macher said with a grin. "But now we spend most of our time in human form, hiding from the world, so we eat the way everyone else does. Of course, meat's the best. But Dirk doesn't have that option this week."
"Then what are you going to give him?" I thought of how Adler had tried to eat Sven. "It won't be, well, people, will it?"
The two of them looked at each other and laughed.
People weren't a dietary staple, then. I felt a lot better knowing that.
"In past generations, that might have been the case," Mr. Macher told me. "Only the oldest dragons alive today have ever consumed people, and only in self defense. The practice has died out."
"That's good to know," I said. Adler hadn't told them what she'd attempted back at the quarry. It was her dirty secret.