by Ty Burson
Unfortunately, Steve couldn’t move. Swirling above them all, hovering, was the smoke he and Joy had seen earlier, curiously shaped and somehow anchored—whatever it was, it made Steve feel sick to look at it, and the longer he stared the more he felt compelled to remain where he was.
Then, before Steve even thought to try to speak, all the wind ceased. The smoke drifted malevolently toward Steve, stopping right in front of his face. A pair of yellow eyes peeled open from amidst the smoke. Steve realized it was some sort of creature, and that it was looking at him. He tried to look away, but couldn’t. The slits began to expand.
“Steve!” Joy screamed.
“Shut her up,” one of the men said to the other.
But the trance was broken. Steve turned away from the hypnotic yellow stare. He saw Joy struggling against the attendant, who was holding her and Dani by the backs of their t-shirts. Anger, a wave of it, as big as he had ever felt, flooded over him, “S-s-stop! L-l-leave them a-a-alone! Leave u-u-s all alone!”
“Sssssteve.” The voice echoed in Steve’s head, trying to reach out to him, trying to make contact. The demon—suddenly Steve realized he knew exactly what was hovering in front of his face—started weaving circles around Steve. The smoke coiled around him, choking him. Steve between gasps, “H-h-help us.”
The voice answered, saying, “I’m here.” By now, Steve accepted the voice as the dragon—his dragon—and it was trying to say something else, but then the demon began to wail, or scream, or whatever demons did. Regardless, the noise was deafening, and piercing, like nails on a chalkboard and chewing on aluminum at the same time. Steve covered his ears and screamed himself, “S-s-stop it!”
Steve fell to his knees, but the pain he expected didn’t come; instead, a picture formed in Steve’s mind: nothing but darkness at first, but a swirling sort of darkness, the kind that meant something was out there. Suddenly, a light appeared, far away, and Steve could finally see the impossible: he was flying! Far below, he could see the Tastee-Freez. He saw the overturned tables, the men holding Granny, Joy and Dani. He saw the smoke, darker than the night that surrounded him. But that was not all. Moving between the trees, he noticed, were two beautiful, enormous bull elk. In that instant, he was no longer seeing the world from above. Instead, he was moving on the ground, running, angry. His heart was pounding.
From everyone else’s perspective, a pair of elk on steroids broke through the forest without warning, charging onto the road toward the Tastee-Freez. The demon sped to meet them, but they galloped right through it. One of the elk lowered his horns, edging forward, threatening the attendant, whose grip on Dani and Joy became increasingly tenuous.
“So not worth it,” he said between gritted teeth before letting the girls go and running, but the moment he turned, the elk scooped him up in a pair of antlers as wide as a bathtub and flung him into a nearby dumpster.
The guy in the suit watched his companion go flying, and released Granny immediately—who slumped to her knees, barely conscious—before backing away with his hands in the air. The second elk gently lifted Granny up in those antlers, shifted her weight so she lay balanced between them. It turned around and, before it trotted off, it kicked out with two hooves, hammering the assailant squarely in the chest. He practically flew backwards into the side of the building.
With the men down, Steve looked for the demon, but it had completely disappeared. He ran to Joy and Dani, “Are you okay?”
Dani pointed behind him, “Reindeer, look, big reindeer behind you!”
The elk paused in front of the girls. “It’s okay,” Steve began, but then hesitated, realizing that whatever had possessed the creatures might no longer be there. He walked forward and placed a hand on the nearest elk’s shoulder. The animal’s skin twitched, then settled.
“Joy, Dani, here climb on its back,” Steve said, “It’s okay, I think. I don’t know why it’s okay, but it’s okay.” Reluctantly, the two dazed girls approached the elk not carrying Granny. Joy helped Dani up first, and then jumped on herself. Steve used a table as a stepstool and climbed aboard the animal carrying his grandmother. He made sure she was secure, then, together, the four of them trotted off to Granny’s house.
Chapter 22
The elk carried their passengers right up to Granny’s porch. The kids climbed down. Granny, who seemed to be feeling better, eased herself off her savior’s horns and waved as the animal turned and bolted away.
“Oh my gosh, who called the reindeers? Granny was it you?” Dani asked.
Granny shook her head, “Not me. That demon was in my head so badly I couldn’t even think. No, it was your brother.”
“Nuh uh, Steve, you did not! You’ve never talked to reindeers before. Tell the truth,” Dani commanded.
“I think I’ve moved up from ants,” he said with a shrug. “And they were elk, not reindeers.”
Joy shifted her eyes between Steve and Dani, “Uh, while the whole elk thing is cool and all, what just happened? Who were those guys? What did they want with us?”
Steve started to respond, but his grandmother interrupted, “They want Steve, or what Steve can do. Come on in the house, all of you, I need to sit and think a while.”
“Oh no! Justin! What about Justin?” Joy exclaimed.
Granny led her by the arm into the living room. “Come on dear, it’s going to be all right,” she soothed.
Steve and Dani followed, but Steve wasn’t in the mood to calm down. “No, Joy’s right, Granny. What about Justin? We have to call the police!”
Granny frowned, her forehead wrinkled up. “Sit, just sit down, children. Give me a moment.” She went to one of the kitchen cabinets and took out some aspirin and got a glass of water from the sink.
“Granny,” Joy said, after taking a seat on the couch, “we have to call the police. Those creeps attacked us and they probably have Justin. What if they come back?”
Granny stood at the sink, her back to the kids. Steve looked at Joy, confusion on both of their faces. Dani started crying. “It’s okay, Dani,” Steve said.
Granny returned to the couch and reached out for Dani, who crawled into her lap. “Listen children. First things first—we are not in danger. Those men can’t harm us here. They can’t even come on my property. That’s why they tried to get us at the Tastee-Freez. No, hush Dani, let me finish. This place is special; it’s protected. As long as we don’t go beyond the little figures along my land, nothing bad can get at us.”
“Fine,” Steve relented, “Granny, that’s okay for us, but what about Justin? We have to call the police and, and his parents. We have to call my mom and dad.”
“Honey, I don’t think anyone would know what we were talking about. Do you remember why we left the house in the first place?”
“It was to get ice cream,” Dani said, wiping her tears.
“No dear, it was to go get Justin. And what happened? As soon as we left the yard, Justin no longer existed. In fact, all we could think about was ice cream.” Granny waited before continuing, “You see, something got into our heads. Did anyone even remember to look for Justin once we got there?”
No one spoke. Finally, Joy asked, “So what are we going to do? If they have Justin, we still have to get him back.”
Granny looked away, like she was trying to decide what to say. Finally, she said, “I’m not sure where Justin is. Did any of you see him?” Granny looked at each of them in turn, “No, I didn’t either. I don’t think those men have hurt him. They just needed him to get Steve.”
Dani whimpered, her face mostly obscured beneath Granny’s arm, “Stupid, stupid, stupid…stupid bad guys.”
“It’s not just those men, is it, Granny?” asked Joy. “I mean, the men didn’t make us forget about Justin. Those men didn’t make the wind happen. Do you know what it is?”
“It was a demon,” Steve said, meeting his grandmother’s eyes and sharing something, Steve wasn’t sure what, but suddenly he felt older than he wanted. Tired.
&
nbsp; “Yes, Steve. It was,” Granny replied with a sigh. “Here Dani, let me up for a minute.” She walked into her bedroom and returned with the dragon book.
Tears momentarily forgotten, Dani was already reaching for it by the time Granny sat back down. “No, honey,” Granny said, patting Dani’s head, “it’s too old, and very fragile. This came from my great aunt and I’m lucky to still have it.”
“It must be a thousand years old,” observed Dani.
Granny smiled, “Not quite a thousand, kiddo, but it was old when my aunt got it. Anyway, she wrote down what she knew about our family and its responsibilities, what she learned from those before her. Let me read something from it to you.”
The two brothers were huddled together under the serving counter, hidden from sight. Around them, the Tastee-Freez had come alive; flying debris was everywhere, often colliding against the side of the building. John had his head tucked under his brother’s suit coat, jumping occasionally when something particularly heavy slammed against the nearest wall. “Is it over yet?” he screamed.
An umbrella shot past the window above them and exploded against a tree. Frank was just about to respond when a metal table, flipped up on its side like a runaway coin, zeroed in on them. Frank shoved his brother away just as it crashed against the pick-up window.
On their hands and knees, the siblings scuttled away in different directions, dodging the waffle cones, straws, and napkins that rained down all around them. Once the pine needles started to fly, skewering their faces and hands, the brothers gave up and ran. John tried to bury his head in an overturned trashcan, while Frank leapt into the bed of an unoccupied pickup truck.
Almost as quickly as it started, the chaos stopped. Every airborne object dropped to the ground at once with a massive clatter. After a few seconds had passed, Frank’s head drifted over the lip of the truck bed. “John,” he hissed, “you alive?” When he didn’t hear a reply, he stood up, looked around, then immediately ducked back down. A comet of smoke was wrapped around the building, spiraling slowly. On its third rotation, Frank saw the two yellow eye slits appear. “Crap,” Frank said to himself, “what’s that damn thing going to do now?” He gritted his teeth and yelled, “Hey, it’s not our fault! We were attacked by a pair of moose. No one told us the kid could call moose!”
The coil of smoke stopped its revolutions and veered directly for him, winding itself around Frank’s leg, up his torso, until the cloud floated right in front of his face. The yellow slits peered into Frank’s eyes. Frank stood firm, his jaw jutting forward, even if all he could think about was hiding in the closet the way he had as a child whenever his father lost his temper.
Mammon did not move. The smoke enveloped Frank, slowly. He expected to smell the usual fire and brimstone, but this was much worse. It was a nasal assault, a horrible reeking stench, worse than cracking an unopened food container after months in the fridge, worse, in fact, than anything Frank could relate it to. It made Frank want to gag, but even though Frank’s eyes were watering, he refused to look away. He wasn’t a child anymore. And then, Mammon smiled, a smear of impossibly, garishly white teeth appearing out of the darkness. Frank fainted.
Chapter 23
Granny carefully turned a page, then a few more. She began turning them, slowly, one after another. Steve rocked a little, wondering if she was going to read the whole thing to herself. Before he could say something, though, Dani spoke up, “Granny, what’s it say?”
“Sorry, children, I was looking for something my Aunt Isabel wrote down. Let’s see,” Granny mused, tracing her finger along a solitary page, “no, that’s not important…hmm, haw! Here we are.”
Granny began reading, unlocking the mystery of the Portuguese text, “‘It’s my job to watch over the family, just as it was my mother’s, and her great-cousin Betsy before her. Mother has tried to explain it to me, but I don’t think I fully understand her. I’m just an ordinary girl. How am I supposed to protect Samuel? It’s Samuel, he’s the important one. He takes care of the dragon. Because of Samuel, the dragon will keep our town safe. Samuel is older than I am. How am I supposed to protect him?’” Granny stopped reading, “Okay, let me go on. There’s a bunch of details here that aren’t important for us right now.”
“Granny,” Steve asked, “who is Samuel?”
“Hmm? Oh, he was Isabel’s brother, the oldest of five brothers. He was the dragon’s guardian. Let me see…”
“Granny, but Isabel said she was the protector,” Steve pressed, “I’m confused.”
“Ah, me too,” Joy interjected, “I’m kind of confused about, well, everything.”
Granny looked up, “Hmm? Oh, sorry kids. Steve, have you told Joy and Dani about the dragon?”
“Some. I told Joy and Justin about some of it, but not about the dragon, and I didn’t tell Dani about any of it.”
“Why not? What didn’t you tell me?” Dani demanded.
Steve met the glare of his little sister and marveled at how like his mom she looked when she was angry. Luckily, Granny interrupted, “The dragon was not Steve’s secret to tell, Dani.”
“That’s not fair; you don’t tell me anything, Steve. Well, I’m not going to tell you anything either.” She crossed her arms. “Wait a minute, a dragon?” She turned to Granny, “Steve’s got a dragon? How come Steve gets a dragon?”
“Give me a minute to find what I’m looking for in here,” Granny pointed to the book. “Steve, go ahead and tell them what you know, while I find what I’m looking for.”
Dani pushed his arm. “Tell,” she commanded. Steve spent the next few minutes summarizing as best he could, while Joy attempted to keep Dani from interrupting.
Granny had found the section she wanted, but waited until Steve was finished before getting their attention. “Here we go.”
Dani began to jump on the couch. “I want to see the dragon, I want to see the dragon,” she repeated over and over.
“Sit down, dear,” Granny said, then cleared her throat and began to read.
A family arrived last week, an older woman and her two sons. They rode a coach that brings mail all the way from San Francisco. Visitors are rare, sometimes trappers and mountain men, sometimes prospectors, but not well-to-do people. They said they were just passing through on their way up the coast to Seattle and wanted to see the coastal frontier. But no one travels this way who can afford not to. They catch a boat.
They asked a lot of questions, questions about our town, about the families who lived here, and about the fishing. They asked too many questions. No one really trusted them, even if they couldn’t say why. They didn’t come right out and ask about the dragon, but they knew something about it. No one told them anything.
The night after they arrived, I dreamt that Samuel was in danger. I dreamt that a great smoke snake was squeezing him to death. I was scared for him; so as soon as I awoke, I went to see that he was safe.
Samuel has his own house, a small place near the docks. I wrapped myself up against the cold to go find him. The fog was everywhere that morning and so thick you could barely see where you were walking. I knew my way—even if it were black as night I could find Samuel’s house. But as I walked, I did get lost. I found myself turning down one wrong alley after another. Each time I thought I recognized a house or a building, I marked where I was, and would start again, only to get turned around once more. I heard the fog horn blow, and I could hear the echoes of working men and horses all around me, and yet I saw no one.
I was suddenly convinced that something was happening to Samuel. I started to run and found myself in the middle of the street. A horse appeared out of the fog, and I barely managed to jump out of the way. The rider was one of the strangers. Right behind him appeared another horse bearing his brother, but this one had a man lashed across the front of his saddle. It was Samuel, his body limp over the saddlehorn.
I screamed for help, but the fog did something to my voice. It just echoed back at me. No one came to help me. I ran at the
rider and he kicked me hard at my shoulder, knocking me down into the mud. They were starting to fade away into the mist. I knew for sure that if I didn’t stop them, Samuel would die. And deep down I knew all this was because of the dragon. That Samuel was in trouble because of what he did for all of us, because of the secret he protected.
Somehow, that thought gave me the courage I needed to chase after them. The first rider saw me following and turned his mount to block my way. I grabbed the horse’s reins and yanked with a strength that I did not know I had. The horse stumbled sideways. I grabbed its rider by his long black coat and pulled him halfway off the animal. I had to hop back when the horse reared up, but the man’s leg got tangled in one of his stirrups, and when the horse bolted, the man ended up dragged down the street.
This happened so fast that I don’t think the other rider, the one who had Samuel, had time to do more than turn around. Before he could spur his horse away, I jumped up behind him and grabbed him around the throat. He was a big, strong man, and should have been able to toss me off easily, but he couldn’t. I held him fast and hit him about his head. He tried to fight me off, but failed. Samuel groaned and rolled, falling hard to the ground, the rope that bound him to the horse miraculously untied. I grew angrier at seeing this, and hit the man again and again.
Suddenly, something not human, a demon creature, appeared right before my eyes. It had no body, but was thicker than the fog, and it reminded me of the snake in my dreams. Its two eyes, at least I think they were eyes, peered into my own. I realized I was more frightened now than angry, and I quickly lost my balance, slipping sideways off the horse and landing beside Samuel, who was now awake. His hands were tied and blood flowed down the back of his neck. The mounted man, his nose bleeding from the blows to his face he had received at my hand, pulled a pistol from his belt. I tried to cover Samuel’s body with my own, but he pushed me back. He closed his eyes and began to speak, such strange words, words that I have never heard before or since.