by Jon Jacks
Her eyes were closed.
Her breathing was weak, irregular, virtually non-existent.
‘Celly!’ he cried.
*
Chapter 12
Even as Jake tenderly moved a wing aside and carefully lifted himself clear of Celly, he heard the heavy fluttering of wings signalling the arrival of her family.
‘Celly!’ Perisa wailed anxiously, immediately rushing to her daughter’s side. ‘What have you done to her Jake?’ she screamed accusingly, whirling on him as soon as she saw that Celly was unresponsive and deathly still.
‘Me?’
Jake was still dazed from the fall. He frowned, shook his head in an attempt to clear the confusion he felt in his mind.
What had happened?
He couldn’t remember exactly.
‘I told Celly she shouldn’t try and fly with him,’ Leon insisted innocently, taking advantage of Jake’s bewilderment.
Is that what had happened?
Again, Jake couldn’t be sure.
It didn’t seem like it could be true. He had never asked, let alone insisted, that Celly should fly with him.
But, undoubtedly, he could remember that he and Celly had fallen.
And Leon?
He had been there too, hadn’t he?
Had he gone for help when he had seen them fall?
Jake shook his head again; he couldn’t recall everything that had happened.
Celly’s father Erdwin was now also kneeling beside her, carefully inspecting every inch of her body.
‘We shouldn’t move her until we’re sure we won’t make her injuries worse.’ He turned to the apprehensively waiting Hincheley and Mary. ‘Put together a stretcher of some kind, quickly,’ he commanded.
As they rushed off, Perisa broke off from her anxious caressing of Celly to furiously glare at Jake once more.
‘What were you doing, Jake? Making her give you lifts!’
‘I’m…I’m not sure that’s what really happened.’
The confused images flitting through Jake’s befuddled mind were beginning to come together in a more coherent sequence.
‘There was an argument…an argument between me and Leon.’
‘Of course there was an argument!’ Leon persisted. ‘I told you to leave Celly alone!’
Jake felt bewildered once more.
Yes, that was true, wasn’t it?
Wait, wait!
What was he doing?
Here he was, involved in a stupid argument about who was responsible, while Celly was lying injured – perhaps even dying! – on the floor.
He spun around, falling to his knees alongside her as near as he could.
‘How is she? Will she be all right?’
‘I think she’s been badly winded by the fall,’ Erdwin replied distractedly as he continued his careful examination of his daughter.
‘Winded?’ Jake said, puzzled. ‘How can just being winded have left her like this?’
‘Being winded is highly dangerous to us!’ Perisa irately snapped at him. ‘Our lungs control far more of our bodies than yours do!’
‘Yes, and thankfully, because of that, they’re more resilient,’ Erdwin said. ‘But she took one hell of a fall here, obviously.’
‘She’s so light.’
Reaching for Celly’s hand, Jake gently held it in his. It felt so delicate, so incredibly weightless. Yes, when he’d held her earlier, she’d seemed similarly weightless; but in moments of ecstasy, your senses could be fooled, couldn’t they? Now she felt physically insubstantial.
‘She weighs nothing at all!’
Of course she weighs nothing, idiot!’ Leon sneered behind him.
‘That’s how we fly, Jake.’
Perisa’s anger had dissipated a little as she gently caressed Celly. Signs of life were returning, with the merest flicker of Celly’s eyelids, a whispering moan.
‘That’s why our lungs are so important; they force helium throughout the capillaries of our bodies when we prepare to fly.’
‘Mum? Dad?’ Celly groaned uncertainly, smiling weakly.
‘Celly!’ Perisa exclaimed joyously, gratefully and tearfully kissing Celly on her cheeks, her nose, her forehead. ‘How do you feel?’ she asked urgently. ‘Can you tell us where you think you’re injured?’
‘I’m okay; I think!’ Celly chuckled quietly in reply.
With what little strength she had, she clutched Jake’s hand.
‘Jake; you’re okay?’ she said happily.
‘Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,’ Jake answered hoarsely, choked by his anxiety for Celly. ‘Thanks to you Celly, thanks to you.’
Celly smiled.
Perisa smiled.
But Perisa’s smile was a smile of conflicting emotions, Jake realised.
She was glad to see that Celly looked so content.
But she was also incredibly annoyed that it was Jake who made her so happy.
*
Chapter 13
‘Now, Celly,’ Erdwin said tenderly as Hincheley and Mary returned with the stretcher they’d formed from palm-leaf sheeting and wooden poles, ‘we’re going to lift you on to this stretcher; but if you feel the slightest pain, anywhere, let us know immediately, okay?’
Celly nodded, smiled wanly.
‘You did prepare your back before hitting the ground, right?’ Erdwin asked as the four adults kneeling around her prepared to carefully ease her onto the stretcher set out by her side.
Celly nodded again.
Jake wanted to ask what Erwin meant by ‘preparing her back’ but, as Leon was the only one who wasn’t busy helping Celly, he decided not to. The others seemed to be having difficulty with Celly’s massive wings, unsure how and where to wrap them so that they wouldn’t drag on the ground, or hang down from the stretcher while it was carried. It seemed to Jake, too, that the wings were strangely rigid and unwieldy.
In the end, Celly’s parents supported the wings, flying alongside the stretcher as it was swiftly and smoothly borne along by Hincheley and Mary. Ironically, Jake thought, they all grinned with relief when Celly returned to her more human form.
‘Good, good,’ Erdwin said ecstatically. ‘With any luck, it was only a temporary injury; and, hopefully, nothing serious.’
Once again, Jake was itching to ask why everyone seemed to assume that her transformation was a sign of recovery. That meant, surely, that they had assumed something was wrong because she had retained her dragon form as they had tried to help her?
This time, he couldn’t hold back from asking. As soon as Celly had been safely laid on a bed and Erdwin made a few more final checks, he tentatively approached Perisa.
‘I don’t understand,’ he whispered to her, ‘why does Celly’s change make you think she’s going to be all right?’
‘We’re hoping it means that, yes, she was badly winded, but she hasn’t suffered any permanent damage,’ Perisa whispered back.
Noticing that Jake still looked puzzled, she continued, ‘She hadn’t retracted her wings, yes? And they were too rigid, as if her lungs weren’t adapting the pressures or the types of gasses to whatever was needed.’
‘Ah, the helium, right? But what about her back? What did Mr Volance mean when he asked Celly if she strengthened it?’
‘To absorb the worst of the fall, she’d pump oxygen and other elements the lungs have extracted from the air into the capillaries of her back; making it both resilient yet also supple.’
‘So…you’re saying you think she’s okay?’ Jake asked hopefully.
Perisa nodded, a tear in her eye.
‘Yes, yes,’ she said. ‘Although she may need a while to fully recover. It must have been one heck of a bad fall for her to–’
‘She seems fine,’ Erdwin pronounced with great satisfaction, having finished his inspection of Celly. ‘Ideally, Harry should have a look at her just to make sure, but I think she’ll manage, thankfully, with little more than a rest.’
As Erdwin stepped away f
rom the bed, Perisa immediately took his place. Crouching down beside Celly, she lovingly stroked her hair, spoke to her quietly, tenderly.
‘You’ll be better soon, my sweet. You see.’
‘I’ll be fine mum,’ Celly croaked hoarsely in reply.
‘What happened?’ Perisa asked. ‘Can you remember?’
Celly weakly moved her head, looking inquisitively at first Leon then Jake.
‘No, I can’t remember,’ she said, turning back to Perisa.
‘It doesn’t matter anyway,’ Perisa reassured her. ‘We know what happened; but I just wondered if you’d remembered any of it.’
Leon made sure that no one but Jake saw him smirk triumphantly.
*
‘Sorry Jake.’
‘Sorry? What do you have to apologise for? I’m the one who got you into this mess.’
‘No you didn’t; it was Leon.’
‘Leon?’ Jake stared back at Celly curiously. ‘So…are you saying you really do remember what happened when we fell?’
‘Sure I remember; and that’s why I’m sorry. I’m sorry that mum and dad think it’s your fault that I’m like this, simply because I didn’t tell them what really happened.’
‘Celly! Why? Why didn’t you tell them? But you still don’t have to apologise, silly! You saved my life; and risked yours doing it too.’
Celly chuckled sourly.
‘Huh, I might not have tried to rescue if I’d known how dangerous it was! I didn’t think I’d make such a mess of it!’
Jake laughed quietly with her.
It was the first time that they’d managed to be on their own together since the accident. They held hands. They kissed now and again, when they were definitely sure that no one was around, no one was close enough to hear.
‘So…’ Jake began unsurely, ‘if you can remember what really happened, how come you didn’t make sure your mum and dad don’t think I’m evil incarnate because I got you into trouble?’
‘Because I’m recovering, right? And the better I get, the more they’ll forget and forgive.’
‘Forget and forgive me for something Leon was really responsible for, you mean? Great, just great!’
Celly laughed. She clenched his hand tightly.
‘What they wouldn’t have forgiven you for, Jake, is if Leon had told them he’d caught us together.’
‘Hah,’ Jake sighed, understanding what she meant. ‘So why didn’t he tell them what he’d seen?’
‘Because when I first came round, when I first caught his eyes; I let him know in my glare at him that we were making a silent deal.’
‘A deal? You mean you wouldn’t tell if he didn’t?’
‘Huh huh,’ Celly agreed.
‘He’s sick, you know that? He could have killed me, if you hadn’t saved me.’
‘He wasn’t thinking straight; he’s sick, but not in the way you mean.’
‘Wow, if someone decides to kill someone just because they’re not thinking straight, that’s pretty sick in my book! I take it you mean some sort of illness, though? The way he was stumbling when you first met? What’s wrong with him?’
‘As I said, he’s really sick. Love sickness.’
‘Love sickness? You kidding me, Celly? Sure, some people can get pretty love sick – moping around, staying in bed, off their food, all that sort of thing – but that doesn’t mean you’re suddenly homicidal!’
‘We’re dragons, remember? When we meet someone, you can decide in an instant that she or he’s your mate for life. Think of when someone’s sort of thunderstruck by love at first sight, then combine it with your idea of the soul mate you’re destined to spend your whole life together with.’
‘Mate for life? And you’re saying that…that your Leon’s?’
‘No no,’ Celly said urgently, detecting the anxiety and hurt in Jake’s voice. ‘But yeah; I might have been if you hadn’t sort of happened along.’
‘Ahhh, you make it all sound oh so romantic!’
‘It’s hard to be romantic when you’re laid flat out on an aching back, struggling to breathe. You should try it yourself sometime.’
‘Okay, okay; that’s true. Still – you sound pretty sure of yourself. That is, if you’re saying what I think you’re saying; that Leon’s fallen for you big time!’
‘All, right I get where you’re going; that I’m sounding pretty big headed, right? But look, as I said, it’s different with dragons. See, whereas it was just so frustrating trying to figure out if you fancied me or not–’
‘I’ve fancied you for ages, dopey!’ Jake said light-heartedly. ‘Why do you think I was always calling on you?’
‘Ah, so that’s it, is it? That’s how one human knows if another fancies them! And there’s me, thinking you just needed someone to slaughter when playing those bloody computer games!’
‘Well, that as well of course. But I was hoping, you know, one of us would sort of naturally get around to saying something that would let the other know it was okay to ask them out.’
‘Yeah, yeah; I know. Complicated, isn’t it? No one wanting to make the first move in case they get humiliated with a “no”. So, instead, we just hang around, hoping we get some kind of sign that says we’ve both got the hots for each other, right?’
‘Right; but you said “we”. Did I hear that right?’
‘Well, in human form, I’m just as lost as any other human in trying to figure out if anyone fancies me or not. You’ve got so few signs to show it, you know that? But now dragons, well; wow, you can’t miss it. All that glittering, that glow, coming off our skins.’
‘Wait a minute; you’re always glistening, always glowing!’
‘Think of the way your body language can give away what you’re thinking, if anyone’s clever enough to read it. Or the way a peacock can suddenly put on this ultra-amazing display, or a song bird sing more brilliantly than ever before.’
‘So you’re saying you deliberately set out to attract Leon?’
‘No, you didn’t let me finish, right? I was going to add that all of those signs are going to be misread by someone who’s looking for the sign they want to see. And young dragons, just like any teenager, have got all these raging hormones running around wild and untamed inside them.’
Reaching out, Celly grasped Jake’s hand.
‘If I hadn’t found you, I’d probably have fallen for Leon just as badly as he’s fallen for me. All that sparkling skin; it’s like an irresistible siren call to us, if we’re still unattached and seeking a mate. There are stories of our less-evolved ancestors flying off towards the Northern Lights, endlessly searching for their true love.’
‘Hah, of course; the treasure hoard! That’s why there’s all those tales of dragons guarding piles of treasure!’
‘Okay, but let’s remember here, shall we, that I said our less-evolved ancestors? We’ve moved on a bit since then, thank you, just as you have from your banana loving ancestors.’
‘And what’s wrong with bananas?’
‘Nothing; but that doesn’t mean you’d spend your life sitting on a pile of them, does it? And while we’re on these myths, I’d like to debunk this idea you humans have that some poor girl was tied to a post for a dragon to eat.’
‘Hmn, so you mean they didn’t bother with a post? They just used to surround her with a pile of more edible bananas?’
‘If I had a banana, I’d quite like to squash it in your smug face. The word damsel used to mean a child, not this ridiculously helpless maiden we see in all these pictures. The cries of the frightened child would draw the dragon out, as dragons will try and protect the young of any species – not eat them!’
‘Glad to hear it; I’d hate to think we were in some sort of black-widow relationship here.’
He smiled. He lent forward, kissed her.
As they pulled apart, Celly contentedly licked her lips.
‘Although, come to think of it,’ she said, ‘I could eat you up.’
‘With or without t
he squashed banana?’
*
‘Someone else is coming,’ Celly said, shading her eyes from the sun’s glare as she directed Jakes gaze up to a flash of ruby red in the sky.
They had taken a short walk along the beach, one of many they took each day as Celly gradually regained her strength. In front of everyone else, Celly pretended to be far weaker than she actually was, giving her an excuse to either lean on or at least stand close to Jake.
Leon would glare hatefully at them both when he saw them together like this. The others merely frowned in puzzlement now and again, as if they were trying to work out why Celly was spending so much time with Jake rather than Leon.
Was she trying to make Leon jealous?
Was she playing hard to get?
Was she still a little bit befuddled after her fall?
Would she come to her senses in a short while?
In many ways, they didn’t care. Leon was far more useful in helping around the island than Jake could ever be. It was far better that Jake took on the role of Celly’s nursemaid rather than someone who was so much stronger, quicker, versatile.
Jake, however, was fully aware that Leon didn’t see it this way.
‘You say Leon fancies you,’ he said casually as he stared into the distance, trying to make out the details of the incoming dragon. ‘The way he acts, though, it’s more like he hates you.’
‘Of course he hates me. He hates me because he loves me, yet I’m not returning that love. In many ways, you know, dragons are just like humans. When he’s near me, he feels foolish, awkward; and he blames me for making him feel like that. He still thinks that we’re destined to be together; that, you being human, you can’t be more than some silly little fad I’m going through.’
‘Ohh? And am I? Is that all I am? Some silly little fad?’
Celly grinned, secretly pleased by Jake’s concern that she might not care for him as much as she did.
She grabbed his hand tightly, running her fingers through his. She pulled him closer.
She lifted her head, her mouth, towards his. She gave him a swift, reassuring kiss.
‘Course not silly! But…’
‘But?’ Jake repeated anxiously.
Celly nodded up towards the ruby-skinned dragon that was now gracefully swooping down towards the huts scattered across the beach.
‘But I’m not sure she’ll be too happy about it.’