by Amelia Jade
Kevin and Paul, the two pilots, started going over the warmup checklist while Brian and Aimee did a once-over of the exterior of the red and gray chopper, ensuring they didn’t see anything out of place. After that they switched to the interior, this time going over all their packed gear while the pilots reviewed the exterior.
“Report,” Angel barked.
“Flow, clear,” she said first, as his second.
“King, we are go.”
“Jergins, everything is green.” For obvious reasons Paul used his last name as a call sign, not his nickname.
“Fire it up,” Harkness said as they all climbed inside.
Aimee swung up and into her seat, clipping herself in before slamming the sliding door shut. Then she slipped back into her seat, pulled her harness into place, and buckled it up. The harness was the primary point of safety, with the safety clip being a backup, just in case. She turned and checked that Brian was secured in place while he did the same for her. They exchanged a fist bump and then pulled on their headsets to listen to Paul go through his spiel.
“Welcome to Drake’s Crossing Scenic Tours. Today we will be going into the mountains. Fascinating stuff. Please keep your eyes open for any oddities, and report them back to the Angel himself. Thank you.”
She rolled her eyes and settled in, content among her team, and eager to go see what was up. There had been a higher incidence of avalanches reported so far this year, and her team had been busy. She was happy that this time they were able to go on a mission that might help prevent others from coming to harm in the future. Aimee liked the idea of being proactive, instead of purely reactive.
The flight itself wasn’t very long. By helicopter the mountains were ten minutes or so outside of town. She sat up straighter as they neared, her trained eyes scanning the slopes as they came into view. On the opposite side she knew Angel would be doing the same thing. He had nearly ten years on anyone else on the team, the grizzled old veteran, such as it were, even though he was just entering his forties.
Aimee wanted his position though. Not at his expense of course, but she was driving herself hard, working to ensure she had the skills necessary to be a team leader. So she was determined to be the first one to spot something.
“What’s that?” Angel said sharply from his side perhaps thirty seconds later.
She sighed. So much for being first. Turning, she looked over his shoulder. The evidence of an avalanche was clear. “Looks like it exposed part of the mountain.”
“Indeed. Jergins, take us in closer.”
“I want it,” she said automatically, before Angel could speak again. Now that they were on duty, she thought of him only by his call-sign.
He glanced at her, his experienced brown eyes searching her face, ensuring she was in the right frame of mind. Finally he sighed. “Okay boys, Flow is going to go down and check it out. Nice and easy now.”
The team was on edge. This was the most dangerous part of the job. Putting her down on the mountain wasn’t something that many would go for, but they needed to find out the reason for the increase in avalanches. And that meant sometimes risks needed to be taken.
Plus she wanted to see what was inside the mountain. It was rare that a cave was exposed by an avalanche, but there was no doubt that this was fresh. The sides were far too jagged, and the rocks strewn down the hill below it indicated a fresh fall. This was uncharted territory, and she was going to possibly be the first human inside it. Ever.
Angel pulled the door open as she slipped out of her harness, clipped in to the winch line, and then finally undid her safety rope.
“Be safe, be smart. Not stupid.”
She smiled at Angel’s normal parting. “I’m not ready for a halo just yet,” she shot back with a wink, and then dropped out the door. The winch started to lower her down. A shiver swept over her body, but she waved it off to the sudden bite of winter as she exited the heated interior of the chopper.
“Tell me again why I volunteered to come out in the cold?” she muttered to herself as she descended.
When her legs touched down she flexed them, her long, powerful frame absorbing the landing with ease. At a hair under six feet tall, and packed with the muscle necessary to hang with the boys, Aimee didn’t cut the normal feminine figure. Broad shoulders, thick thighs, and legs that looked like they belonged to a speedskater tended to scare away most of the guys. Her hair was the sole feminine attribute she allowed herself.
That, and once a month she got a mani-pedi done, but nobody, and she meant nobody was allowed to know about that. She’d never live it down if her team found out she was actually a girl. If she ever grew breasts, they might find out, but at age thirty-four, she’d stopped expecting that to happen. This was her lot in life, and minus the occasional lonely night where she wished she had male company, she loved it. Her job was amazing, her team were her best friends, and she wouldn’t trade it for the world!
Unclipping, she radioed up. “Unclipped, proceeding inside. Hang tight there boys.”
“Roger,” came Angel’s voice. “Remember to—”
“Obey all the safety signs, including keep your arms and legs inside the coaster at all times,” she interrupted. “Don’t worry, Angel, I’m coming home.”
She walked forward and into the cave, pulling a flashlight from her belt and flicking it on. Moving it around the interior, she felt her eyebrows raise in surprise. “This is huge,” she radioed back. “Absolutely massive. It goes way back.”
“Anything of interest?”
Swinging the light around some more she frowned. “Yeah. There’s no—”
“Hold on, Flow,” Angel’s voice barked sharply.
There was silence for a solid thirty seconds before her boss came back on the line.
“Sorry, Flow, bad news. We have reports of a skier who took a bad fall. They need immediate transport to a hospital. We’re the closest unit.”
“On my way,” she barked, turning and heading for the cave entrance at full tilt.
“Negative on that.” Her boss’s voice was tight. Whatever it was, it must be bad. “We’re already on the move. Hang tight and we’ll come back for you as soon as we can, understand?”
She skidded to a halt. “That bad?” she whispered.
“We might already be too late,” Angel came back after a pause.
“Just don’t forget about me,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.
“No worries, Flow. We’ll have you back before shift end. I know you’ve got a bunch of hot dates lined up during your time off.”
The radio channel was filled with snickering. Everyone on her team was well aware of her lack of a personal life. She smiled. Despite his levity, Aimee knew he hated the idea of leaving her behind, especially in such a precarious position. But this is what they signed up for when they joined SAR. They weren’t classified as expendable, but each member of their team wouldn’t hesitate to lay down their own life to save someone else’s, if that’s what it took.
“Roger that, Angel. Maybe one of them will even turn up this time.” She paused to allow the others to laugh. “Godspeed,” she whispered into the headset, going silent for a moment as she whispered a quick prayer for the downed skier, hoping her team could get there in time.
As the chopper disappeared into the distance she gave the huge cavern another once-over.
“May as well explore. Not like I’m doing anything else.” She was talking to herself now, a nervous habit she’d picked up a long time ago.
Climbing back inside, she once again regarded what had caught her attention the first time. The smoothness of the walls seemed so out of place. It looked like they had been worn down by the passage of water. Only there was no way that was possible up here at this elevation. Perhaps down on the valley floor. There was a huge gorge that went between the mountains, heading back toward Drake’s Crossing, which ran high and rough in the spring when meltwater flowed down from the peaks.
She walked in deeper, wond
ering what had become of all the various rock formations that should have dotted such a large opening. Nature was weird though, and she knew it wouldn’t be the first time it had acted one way when it should have gone another.
Behind her the sun erupted from behind some of the intermittent cloud cover that was dotting the sky today, shining deep into the cave, providing her with extra ambient lighting. Aimee shielded her eyes as a sudden glare reached her.
“What the hell?” Her eyes were drawn to the far side of the cavern as she tried to identify the source. Walking over, she realized that what she’d assumed to just be a boulder was actually a pile of shiny stones.
Weird. How did they all get…
The earth shook again slightly and one of the “stones” rattled and slid to the floor, becoming impaled by her flashlight.
It wasn’t stone. Aimee gasped as the burnished yellow gold bar glittered in the sunlight. She picked it up, turning it over several times, until her brain gave her a gentle reminder that this was but one small piece of the pile.
“Oh…oh my.” She kept repeating that over and over again as her eyes picked out one pile after another scattered through the back of the cavern. “Oh dear.”
She needed to tell Angel. He would know what to do, how to handle it. All Aimee knew was that they were rich. Rich beyond her wildest dreams. They could buy a helicopter that worked now! And new gear, and hire more team members, and replace the cots with something that didn’t feel like stone. And…and…
“He’s never going to believe me,” she muttered. “I need proof. This isn’t enough.” She twirled the one bar in her hand. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled her phone out and stepped back, trying to get the right angle with the light.
“Dammit,” she cursed as the light dulled once more. “Get back out from behind those clouds,” she yelled, utterly absorbed in her find. “Stop hiding!”
The cavern was suddenly thrown into darkness as even the ambient light from the day disappeared. Aimee spun around, wondering how the hell Angel and the others had managed to prank her this time. It was only as her mind registered what it was seeing did she realize one tiny detail.
She hadn’t heard the helicopter come back.
“Very well,” a deep, flowing voice replied as it filled the cavern. “I am no longer hiding.”
Aimee swallowed and remained very, very still. Maybe if she didn’t move, it wouldn’t see her.
Chapter Three
Rhyolite
The human stared up at him, unmoving, not even blinking.
He frowned. This wasn’t the sort of reaction he’d imagined. There should have been more screaming and begging and fear. He liked fear.
“Why do you just stand there like that?” he growled, making his way across the cave, ensuring his wings stayed spread wide to block the majority of the sunlight. Humans couldn’t see in the dark, and they were scared of it.
The female’s lips moved slightly, but he couldn’t hear a word she was saying.
“What? Speak up!” he ordered.
“Because if I stay still you won’t see me,” she squeaked.
Cocking his head sideways, he lowered it closer, swinging it back and forth around the area she was in, pretending like he couldn’t see her, always keeping his eyes focused elsewhere. Then when he was perhaps five feet away, he twisted his head sharply and focused one yellow eye on her. Slowly he blinked his triple eyelids, and as they slid back into place he spoke one word.
“Boo.”
Finally, he thought as she screamed. Opening his jaws to expose the razor-sharp teeth behind his silvery skin, he lunged at her with his head, expecting to snap her up and teach her a lesson for stealing from him.
But his mouth closed on empty air as the woman dove to the side and rolled out of his range.
“Oooh goody,” he rumbled. “Game time.”
He chased after her, but once more she managed to evade his attack just in time. Rhyolite roared in anger and spun after her, but she kept running until they’d completed a full circle. He saw her hand shoot out and she snatched another handful of his gold.
“THIEF!” he bellowed and paused to inhaled enough breath to fill the cave with fire.
She somehow sensed what he was up to, and just before he could unleash, something flung out of her hand and hit him right in the top of the snout.
“Ow!” he roared, his voice shaking tiny bits of stone loose from the ceiling as he shook his head from pain. “That hurt!”
Another thing flew at him, this time hitting him in the side of the mouth. His front paw plucked the object from midair, and he realized with a start it was gold. His gold. This impertinent little human was using his own gold as a weapon against him. If he’d been mad before, now he was filled with rage. His tail swept around, batting half of a pile of gold at her. But to his astonishment she managed to hide behind another pile just in time.
“Stay still!” he commanded. “You are worse than a bug that needs squashing.”
“Maybe that’s because I don’t particularly feel like being squashed!”
The instant reply caught him off guard. “Then you shouldn’t have stolen from me.”
“I wasn’t stealing from you.”
“This is my cave,” he said, his tone telling her it should be obvious that if she took something from his cave, that was stealing from him. “I don’t like thieves.”
“Well no shit. I’ve seen the welcome mat you roll out for them, and let me tell you, it’s no red carpet.”
Rhyolite frowned. “What? Why would I use red carpet? What does that have to do with a thief like you?”
“Because…it’s…oh, never mind.”
Was she exasperated with him? He shook his head. How had it come to this? He was the dragon here, the master of his own domain! No puny little human should be talking back to him like this, treating him like an idiot.
“I am going to kill you,” he rumbled from where he blocked the cave exit, eying the pile of gold she was hiding behind.
“Yes, you’ve made that very clear,” she shouted. “It’s a decision you came to despite missing some rather key facts.”
“Oh, such as?”
“I wasn’t stealing from you, for starters!” she snapped.
“You are in my cave. This has been my cave since I claimed it. Everyone knows that.”
A growl of frustration reached him. “Dude, nobody knows that!”
“How can they not know that?”
“Well, let’s start with the fact that you’re a dragon, and those don’t exist!” A small, terrified noise followed up her last words. “I’m talking to a dragon. Great. Perfect. The team is never going to let me live this one down. ‘Oh hey Flow, what did you do today? Oh not much, just got chased by a dragon who thinks I stole from him. You know, no big deal. What about you Kevin? Well, nothing much. Went swimming with mermaids and then took a short ride on a unicorn. The usual. Ha-ha. Okay. great.’”
By this time the tapping of his claw upon the rock floor was swiftly drowning her out. “Are you quite done?” he drawled. “Because I promise you, I am very much real, and this is not a dream.”
“That just proves my point even more.” His respect for this human rose as she stood up from her hiding spot. “I thought you were a dream. I still kind of do. Because dragons don’t exist. They aren’t real. Which means I can’t be stealing from you. I didn’t know it was yours!”
He snorted. “Because gold just stacks itself ever so neatly like this in nature.”
She shrugged. “I was curious about that, yes. But it’s not like there was a big sign on the door that said ‘Here be dragons, don’t take their treasure.’ If it isn’t labeled, how should anyone be expected to know?”
“Turn it over.”
“Huh?”
He gestured with his wingtip. “Turn it over. Read the bottom.”
She snorted. “I’m not falling for that.”
“Falling for what?” he asked, perplexed.
“Eat you? Is that what you thought I was doing?”
“I mean, the part where you tried to snap me up in your jaws was kind of a dead giveaway.”
He let his lips peel back in the dragon equivalent of smile. Despite her verbal barrage, he could still see her wilt slightly at the sight of it. “I am not a fan of human,” he announced. “You’re too stringy. I gave up eating you long ago. So you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Oh gee golly. Thank you! I’ll be so relieved you won’t eat me when I’m dead!”
“I am not going to harm you through trickery,” he said sternly. “That is not how I operate.” To prove his point he backed off, folding his wings tighter to his body and backed away, letting light stream into the cave once more. “Now read it.”
She flipped the gold bar in her hand over, and held it up so that he would be in the background as she read, allowing her to react faster to any move he made. Whoever she was, she was a smart one. There wasn’t much else that he could tell about her. She was tall for a human, especially so for a female. The orange outfit she wore was unlike anything he’d seen before, but it was snug enough to reveal a wide, muscular frame. Her shoulders stretched it, and there was no traditional filling out around her chest section. But there was no mistaking her as female. He could see parts of her hair spilling out from under her white helmet, and her voice was another dead giveaway.
Just another oddity that he had discovered since being unceremoniously dumped out of the side of his cave and onto the mountain. There were a lot of strange things he’d seen, including the way she had arrived. He had been hiding, his silver scales blending easily into the snow, especially once he dug himself deep into it.
“Rye-o-light,” she said, stumbling over the name. “Isn’t that a type of rock?”
“It is also my name. But it’s pronounce Rhy-lite.”
“Oh,” she said, then snickered at her reply as the double-meaning of it registered.