by T. S. Ryder
“I gotta get some air,” Cain said. He skated to the entrance to the rink and ripped off his skates, putting his shoes on and leaving the practice behind.
Chapter Six
The smell of coconut oil filled Michelle’s apartment. She wanted to do a hot oil treatment on her hair before her date. She had massaged the oil into her scalp and down the length of her hair and now it was wrapped in a plastic cap and she had wrapped a hot towel around her head to help the oil activate.
She was actually excited for her date with Brock Thaddeus. Her brother had lost his mind when she texted him about it. He had sent her a list of questions about training and protein intake to ask Brock, but Michelle hoped that it didn’t come to that. She was ready for chemistry and passion, not small talk about weightlifting.
It was late by the time she finally crawled into bed. She had done her nails, her toenails and her hair in preparation for the date. Tomorrow she would just need to do her makeup and pick out her sexiest, but not too sexy, dress.
She didn’t remember falling asleep, but no one ever does. She did remember the dream she had. In this dream, she was lost in a deep, dark forest. The trees were tall and the ground was covered in a thick coating of fallen leaves. The forest was silent. Her footfalls crinkling on the dead leaves was the only sound.
She was walking, but she didn’t know where she was going. The forest around her refused to change. It was just endless tall trees as far as the eye could see. She wasn’t sure if she was going in the right direction, or even what the right direction was. The scenery around her never seemed to change.
She had been walking for a while when she heard it. It was like a heartbeat, a soft, steady drumbeat that throbbed in the air all around her. She looked around, trying to figure out where that sound was coming from. There was nothing hiding between the trees, but the sound was getting louder and closer. She wasn’t alone.
Finally, it occurred to her to look up. She could see a small circle of pale light framed by the leafy branches of trees. She stared up as that beating, thumping noise grew louder. She was afraid. She knew something was close, but still she couldn’t see it. Heart pounding, she stared up through the gap in the trees.
She put a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream as it passed over her. It was huge, massive, covered in green and yellow scales with long, bat-like brown wings, a heavy set of back legs and two smaller forelegs. It was a dragon. Its wings created the thumping noise. It was the sound of the beast flying.
Her eyes were wide with terror and there was an ancient panic coursing through her. The thing was too big. It was like some ancient monster that had survived to modern times. Her body instinctively wanted to move away from it and hunker down in the hollow of a tree.
Instead, she kept walking. She moved in the same direction as the dragon. She didn’t know why she was following it. She had no control over herself, she was just walking forward. Far in the distance, she could see light through the ancient trees. There must have been a clearing up there.
She walked through the forest, praying the dragon couldn't see, hear, or smell her. She would never be able to stop it. If it wanted her, it would have her. The trees began to thin out and a large lake appeared in front of her. On the banks of the lake, lay the dragon. His huge side rose up and down as he breathed. He was stretched out with his pale belly exposed to the sun.
She watched its sleeping form for a moment, but it did not remain still for long. It brought its head up and smelled the air. Michelle pulled back, worried that the dragon could smell her. But after a moment, it stopped sniffing the air. With an elegance that something so big should never possess, it stood up on its back paws and shook its body out.
It leaned down towards the lake and began to drink the water. Its eyes open as it scanned the forest for danger. It lapped up the water silently. When it was done, it began to beat its wings, rising quickly into the air. Michelle couldn’t believe how fast and lithe it was. In the span of a few seconds, the giant beast had gone from being next to the lake to being hundreds of feet above it.
The world shifted in front of her. She lost her footing and stumbled to the side, clinging to a tree as the world around her disappeared. Darkness fell and the tree she was holding onto dissipated into nothingness. She didn’t know which way was up or down or even where she was.
Finally, the world began to come back into focus. She could smell smoke and feel the heat from a nearby fire. Then there was the sound of a woman screaming over and over again. Michelle stood up and tried to find the screaming woman, but she wasn’t in the forest anymore.
She was on a city street. The buildings around her were all one fire. She coughed and tried to peer through the heavy, thick, poisonous smoke that lingered in the air. There were people lying in the street, covered in blood and crying out for help. They reached out to Michelle, begging her to help them, but what could she do?
A shadow passed over her and she looked up to see the dragon soaring over the street. Giant brown wings stirred ash up into the air. Heat pounded her face, sweat was pouring down her body. What was she supposed to do? The dragon opened its mouth and an otherworldly scream pierced her ears. She covered them with her hands and crouched on the ground. She looked up in time to see the dragon racing towards her. It opened its huge jaws and a burst of fire poured from its throat. It was coming right for her and she could do nothing but scream as she was engulfed in flames.
She woke up gasping. She jumped from the bed, searching her body for fire. But she wasn’t in the forest, or that dangerous street. She was safe at home in her bedroom. Her eyes were slowly coming into focus and she fell back onto the bed gasping for breath.
That was no ordinary dream. It was too realistic and the emotions in them were too strong. It had left her feeling spent and exhausted and shaking all over. That was no dream, that was a vision.
She sat up and put her head in her hands. The meaning was clear enough. Danger lurking all around her, something very bad and very dangerous was about to happen. Dragons were magical animals, they were extremely powerful and potent beings. But no one had seen a dragon in a very, very long time. So why was she having visions of one?
Visions came for a reason. She knew that. They were warnings and needed to be taken seriously. She needed to take this seriously. The only problem was she didn’t know anything about dragons.
Michelle stood up and walked over to her walk-in closet. She turned on the light and moved past a long line of dresses and shoes. On the floor, there was a box covered in a floral tablecloth. She whipped the cloth off and opened the box. Inside was her alter. There were crystals, herbs, bones, tea leaves and fire starters. Everything a witch might need.
She couldn’t fight a dragon, but she could control animals. That had been one of the first ways her magic had manifested. She had always been able to see people’s auras. She talked about them constantly as a child. It took her a long time to realize that few people could see what she did. But by the age of ten, she had learned to keep her abilities secret.
She discovered the power to charm animals when she was ten years old. She was walking home from school on her normal route that took her down a run-down alley. Pawn shops and cheap Chinese take-out joints had back doors that opened to this alley. There was always a mean German Shepard chained to one of the walls. Every time Michelle had to walk past it, the dog would bark furiously and strain at its leash as it struggled to attack. She had learned to give the dog a wide berth and stay well out of its reach.
On that fateful day, the dog was particularly angry. It was barking and foaming at the mouth. It was pulling and tugging on its leash as she tried to sneak by. Michelle hugged the wall and edged past it, avoiding looking the animal in the eye. She was halfway through the alley when the dog managed to break its leash. Once free it raced towards her, slobber dripping from its mouth.
Michelle began to run, but her foot hit a pothole and he she fell forward skinning her arms and legs. Tears streamed
down her face as she tried to scramble back to her feet. She turned over, but it was too late, the dog was on top of her. He was growling and slowly moving towards her with his teeth bared, his eyes furious.
“Stop,” she screamed, holding her hand up. To her surprise, the dog complied. It skittered to a stop and then looked around confused before sitting down in front of her. Its tongue lagged out of his mouth and he cocked his head and looked at her.
Michelle sat up and wiped the grit from her arms. The dog continued to sit and stare at her. All the anger and fury had left it. In one moment it had gone from furious predator to a little puppy who wanted his belly rubbed.
She reached out with her hand and touch his soft fur. At first, he pulled away as if he expected to be hit. But once he saw that she was kind, he leaned into her hand and thumped his tail happily.
The second her hand touched his fur she was bombarded with strange thoughts. The dog was scared, his master beat him. He was hungry and thirsty. He was hot, tired and dirty from being out in this back alley all day and night.
“Poor, little doggy,” Michelle had said as she scratched behind his ears. Underneath his fear, hunger and thirst was a sweet little puppy who just wanted to run and play and sleep inside.
Instead of tying the dog back up, she took the leash in her hand and brought him home. Her mother had been angry when Michelle first brought him home. But the dog was so sweet and so well-behaved that she eventually relented and Dolly, as he came to be known, became the loving family pet he had always wanted to be.
Dolly had been the first animal she had charmed, but he had been far from the last. Crickets, fish, even a lion at the zoo once, Michelle had yet to meet an animal immune to her charms. She just had to hope that dragons were susceptible as well.
Chapter Seven
The date was going well. No, scratch that, the date was fantastic. Michelle was charming and smart and funny. She knew a lot about hockey and sports in general. Brock couldn’t stop staring into her dark eyes. He was desperate to kiss her.
He took her to his favorite sushi place. She was exactly as unafraid as she claimed to be. They ordered the chef's tasting and they dug into the beautiful sushi and sashimi that was spread before them.
“So, did you google me?” Brock asked.
Her face blushed and then she said, “Maybe.”
“Did you like anything you saw?” He asked.
“You’re very successful,” she said, tipping back a shot of Saki. “I didn’t know about the accident that shattered your leg.”
“Yeah,” Brock said. There was a time when any mention of the accident would have sent him on a downward spiral, but he was passed it now. He hadn’t let that accident stop him. It had only made him stronger.
“I had a full hockey scholarship to Penn State,” he said with a shake of his head. “Third practice of the season, this guy on our team comes in so hung-over that he’s still kind of drunk. He hit the angle on his skate wrong and went crashing into me and then we were both down. He landed on my leg and I felt the whole thing shatter. It was the worst experience of my life. I blacked out from the pain.”
“Wow,” was all she could say.
“I was depressed for a while. I stopped going out, stopped going to school. I lost my scholarship and eventually got kicked out. I spent a miserable summer on my parents’ couch, just whining and complaining about how my life was ruined. Then one day my father sat me down and told me that I could either spend my entire life crying about what I had lost or I could recover from this tragedy and see what else life had to offer.”
“Seems like a great dad,” Michelle said.
“He was a great dad. I’m not doing his speech much justice. It was very moving and powerful and he was right. So I got up and applied to some other schools and began to figure out what my life looked out without hockey.”
“So you don’t play at all anymore?”
Brock shook his head and said, “I have to be careful with the leg. The injury is bad and if I break it again I could be in some real trouble. I’m a trainer now, on my own and with the Black Hawks.”
“With Cain,” she said.
He nodded and tried to think of something else to say. He didn’t want them to end up on the subject of Cain. But suddenly he realized that he couldn’t think of a single thing to say. All he could think about was Cain’s rage at the rink. The two men hadn’t spoken since that day. Brock had called and texted and even showed up at Cain’s house. But it had been like running into a brick wall.
“He’s not happy we’re dating,” Michelle said. “I feel bad about that. You two have been friends for so long. I don’t want to mess that up.”
“You haven't,” Brock said. “All three of us are adults. We can make our own decisions. Cain can’t claim you. He’s mad now, but he’ll come around. We’ve been friends a long time. We’ll get through this.”
“When did the two of you meet?” Michelle asked.
“It’s a strange story actually. I’m sure you heard about how Cain grew up, pretty far from civilization.”
“His father ran a weather station in the middle of the Yukon, right?” Michelle asked.
“Yeah. It was just his mom, him and his dad way out in the middle of nowhere. They almost never saw any other people. They lived in this isolated building far back in the forest. There was only one lone road to get to town. It was impossible most of the time due to the snow.
“It wasn’t until he was fourteen that they left the weather station and he was enrolled in a real school, my school. He was an odd looking kid. His hair was long and he didn’t know anything about movies or TV or video games. He was just strange,” Brock continued.
“I was a hockey player and he joined our team. At first, we were all wondering who this weird kid from the woods was. We were all ready to pounce on him and haze him until he quit.”
“Then he started playing and we saw how good he was. The kid had spent his entire life in winter. He ice skated year round. Hockey was his whole life. The coach tasked me with keeping him company and making sure he didn’t get in any trouble. We got along right away. I taught him everything he needed to know about surviving public school and he drilled me in hockey. We’ve been friends ever since,” he added.
“I don’t want to be the thing that comes between that,” Michelle said.
“You won’t,” Brock said, reaching over and taking her hand. “Cain will get over this. He knows he has no right to be mad.”
They finished their meal and Brock swept up the check right as the waiter dropped it off. Michelle offered to pay half, but he waved her off. Brock wasn’t the kind of guy who went Dutch. He knew how a man was supposed to treat a woman.
“Feel like taking a walk?” he asked her.
“I would love that,” she responded.
They strolled along Lake Michigan, a cool breeze ruffling their hair. The sky was clear and even with the bright city lights, Brock could see a smattering of stars above them. He looked up at the stars as he reached for Michelle’s hand. He took her warm fingers in his and stroked her palm with his thumb. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her smiling.
“So what about you? Where did you grow up?” he asked.
“Tennessee,” she answered. “I hated it. It was hot and swampy and when I told people I wanted to be a lawyer they laughed at me and told me to mind my place,” she shook her head as a tinge of bitterness entered her voice. “I couldn't wait to get out of there. I worked so hard all through high school so that I could get a free ride to a college somewhere north. I wanted to see snow and watch the trees change.”
“What about your parents?” Brock answered.
“They always supported me. They wanted me to have a better life. Both of my parents were blue collar workers, they had never gone to college. My mother never even graduated from high school. But I do my best to take care of them now. They’re both retired and having a great time in Florida.”
“Sounds like you'
re a hard worker, driven. I like that in a woman,” he said, turning to face her.
“I don’t do it for you,” she said while raising one eyebrow and smiling at him. “I do it for me.”
He nodded and took a step closer. She didn’t step back, but instead looked up through her lashes at him. He brought his hand up and placed it gently on her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch as he leaned down and kissed her.
He could feel the goose bumps on her arms. She leaned into him and her hand came around his waist. He pulled her close, his tongue sliding into her mouth. He wrapped her up in his arms and she melted into him as their kiss continued.
A horn honked loudly and a group of teenagers leaned out of their car and started hooting and hollering.
“Get it, man. She’s hot!” One of them screamed. And Michelle laughed, a sweet sound that was like chimes on a windy day. Everything about her was perfect. If only she hadn’t specifically requested no funny business. He would have brought her home and shown her the time of her life.
His mother had always said that patience is a virtue and he knew that was true now more than ever. Michelle was perfect, there was a chance that this could be the real thing. He didn’t want to ruin this by being impatient. He would wait if that was what she wanted.
She smiled at him and turned to walk again. They were headed down a long pier that led out into the water. There were boats moored on either side as they walked farther out, away from the bright lights of the city.
Michelle opened her mouth to say something, but before she could get a word out, the air was pierced with a loud, unearthly scream. The sound hit his ears like knives and he instinctively grabbed for Michelle and wrapped her up in his arms to protect her.
“What is that?” he asked as the scream came again.
“It’s a dragon,” Michelle said.
Chapter Eight
Brock’s strong arms were wrapped around her, but Michelle knew they wouldn’t be enough. He couldn’t protect her, she needed to protect him. The screams of the dragon matched the ones from her dream. It had been a prophecy.