Dragon Green

by Macy Babineaux

  Brynn was happy to see him blush a little. He turned his eyes back to the screen.

  “As you will,” he said, trying to act nonchalant. But she was still inside his mind. She could feel his arousal, the awkward, uncontrollable swelling down below.

  Her plan was to lie down, maybe poke him with her feet. And then when he turned around, open the towel and invite him on top of her. But when she slid onto the bed, she was surprised just how amazingly comfortable it felt, like sliding her whole body into a warm slipper.

  “That’s a television, by the way,” she mumbled, feeling tired all the way into her bones.

  “Oh?” he said. “Are these events happening now somewhere in your world? Or is this prophecy, like the images seers see in their crystals?”

  She smiled at that. Her eyelids were so heavy now, and she fought between her arousal and her weariness. She started to form a response, but decided she was too tired.

  I’ll just close my eyes for a few seconds, she thought. Rest a little bit. Then I’ll offer myself up to him and let him do whatever he wants.

  Brynn let her eyelids flutter closed, and it felt so good. The sounds of the television were far in the distance.

  “Brynn.”

  She heard his voice as if he were calling down to her at the bottom of a well. She felt her body shake gently.

  “Brynn.”

  She opened her eyes, sticky with sleep. Vander still sat on the edge of the bed, looking at her affectionately. His hand rested on her knee, and she felt a bristle of excitement at his touch.

  She sat up and stretched. The towel started to come loose. She grabbed it to keep it from falling, then realized that was probably what she wanted.

  “How long was I out?” she asked, her mouth feeling like it was stuffed with cotton.

  “A good while,” he said. “I thought it best to let you rest, but I believe time grows short now.”

  She looked past him to the television, which was now playing an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. He was dressed like a girl, flirting with Elmer Fudd. She glanced up at the red number of the digital clock sitting on top of the TV and snapped awake. It read 2:27.

  Shit. He’d come through a little after three. That didn’t leave them much time. Definitely not enough time to do what she’d hoped they would.

  “Yeah,” she said, her voice both urgent and wistful. “We need to go.” Brynn slid off the bed and back into the bathroom to put on her dirty clothes. She was sorry she hadn’t had the chance to see what would happen with Vander, but she wasn’t surprised she had passed out.

  She dressed quickly, then emerged from the bathroom. Vander was rapt, watching as Bugs Bunny jumped into a rabbit hole. She sighed. He had definitely kept himself entertained, but she really wished she were the one doing the entertaining. And now it was too late.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get you back home.”

  They piled into the jeep like they had before, the trident jutting up from the back seat. The streets were empty as they drove into town. Brynn thought they’d have plenty of time.

  But as she made the turn just a few blocks from her office, Vander sat up straight.

  “Gods,” he said. “I very nearly forgot.”

  "What?" she asked. “What is it?”

  He turned and looked at her with urgency. “I made a promise,” he said. “Before I return, do you know where I might find a cheeseburger?”

  She would have laughed if he hadn’t looked almost frantic. A cheeseburger? What the hell?

  “Yeah,” she said. “There’s a burger place near campus that’s open twenty-four hours. We can swing through there on the way. Does it matter what kind?”

  He relaxed back down in his seat, but looked confused again. “I do not know.”

  Brynn did laugh now. “We’ll just get the works.”

  “The works,” he muttered. “Yes, that sounds as if it will do.”

  She headed down University Avenue and pulled into the Whataburger drive-through.

  “You just want one?” she asked him.

  “Are they rare?” he asked. “Or costly? One was all that was asked for.”

  "No," she said. "Neither, actually."

  She waited for the crackle of the intercom, then ordered a double cheeseburger with everything.

  As they pulled up to the window, a lanky kid with long hair and pimples on his forehead had his elbows on the sill, their order in one hand.

  He handed over the bag and took her money, then looked at Vander and into the back seat.

  “Nice trident,” he said, his voice deep and mellow.

  “Thanks,” Brynn said. “Keep the change.”

  They stood in the middle of the quad, waiting. Brynn looked at her phone. 3:04. Then she looked up at Vander, standing there in the dim moonlight clutching the trident in one hand and a greasy white bag in the other.

  He looked back at her, and though he didn’t say anything, she could feel the conflict in his mind. He wanted to ask her to come with him, but he knew that was a bad idea. He was about to be wed, and a woman from Earth, one that he had strong feelings for, would horribly complicate matters.

  For her part, she wanted to tell him that didn’t matter. They would find some way to work it out. And if they couldn’t, she could travel away from this Emerald Isle, spend her time wandering his world and learning everything she could. There wasn’t much left for her here except for her dying career.

  But Brynn knew she wouldn’t say anything. She didn’t belong in his world any more than he belonged in hers.

  He looked at the spear and then at her. “If this is as important as I think it is, I will owe you a great debt,” he said. “My entire world will.”

  She took a step toward him and found herself brave enough to put her fingertips on his chest. All this time, all she had wanted to do was touch him and to have him touch her. Well, maybe not when they very first met, but pretty much every second after that.

  She had expected the scales to feel cold and hard, but they gave a little under her touch and were warm, like the skin of a snake bathing itself in the sun. Brynn looked up at him and smiled. “Just don’t get yourself killed.”

  Then not bothering to listen inside his head, she slid her arms around him, stood up on her toes, and lifted her lips towards his.

  He lowered his head to meet her, their lips touching softly. He was gentler than she thought he would be as she felt his hard body press against hers.

  While they kissed, Brynn heard a fiery crackle and saw a light flare up from her left. She stepped back to see a ring of energy, like a red-orange lightning bolt looped into a circle. It grew wider as she watched, and from this angle she saw the dark gray stone of a floor on the other side.

  “I must go,” Vander said over the loud crackling. “I’m not sure how long she can keep it open.”

  No, Brynn thought. She didn’t want him to go. They’d just barely met. She had so many questions for him, and so many things she wanted to tell him. At the top of the list was the thing in the chamber, the thing that had become a part of her and let her know his thoughts. But that wouldn’t matter now that he was leaving, would it?

  “Maybe we’ll see each other again,” she said, knowing how dumb it sounded even as she said it. But it was what she hoped.

  Vander smiled sadly, nodded, then bent down to kiss her one last time.

  As he pulled back, she felt dazed, as if she were in some crazy dream.

  “Goodbye, Brynn,” he said.

  Carrying the trident and the greasy bag, he moved toward the portal, bent down, and stepped through.

  At the last second, Brynn changed her mind. Who the hell cared if she didn’t belong there? Maybe she did. Who was to say?

  She stepped toward the ring, determined to run through the hole in space and time. But she was too slow. As soon as Vander was through, the circle shrank with a crack.

  The force of it closing knocked her backwards, and she fell on the soft, wet grass of the quad
. The wind was knocked out of her, and Brynn sat up on her elbows and struggled to breathe.

  She was finally able to take a full breath, but it hurt, her back sore from where she had landed. She climbed shakily to her feet and looked around.

  It was as if he had never been there at all.

  9

  VANDER

  He stepped through the portal, his mind swirling with a mixture of emotions. He’d only been on Earth for a scant day, but in that span he’d met a woman that had roused in him something he didn’t know was there. He’d accomplished his goal, recovering the trident, but he had the nagging feeling of having left something more important behind.

  Vander felt the chill of the blue dragon’s castle as his foot found stone where he had just been standing on grass. He saw Miranda standing before him, her head bowed, her forehead wrinkled in intense concentration. Her hands were outstretched, all her fingers pointing towards him.

  The crack of the portal closing made him jump and look behind him. Nothing was there. Just the empty room where he had departed from the day before. Crumbling orange logs crackled in the fireplace, but otherwise the room was silent.

  Miranda lowered her arms and looked up at him, the skin under her eyes sallow with exhaustion.

  “You made it back," she said, slumping into the chair behind her. “Good thing. I’m not sure I could do that every day.” Her tired eyes saw the trident in his grasp, and she smiled weakly. “You found it.”

  “Yes,” he said, taking a step forward. He was about to launch into the tale of his journey, of meeting Brynn, traveling across the red desert, and descending into the chamber filled with ancient machines. But he saw how tired she was and doubted she was in the mood for his stories. Besides, recounting his time with Brynn would only serve to make him miss her all the more. Perhaps in time her memory would fade, but something deep within him knew that would be unlikely.

  Miranda laughed. He saw that her eyes had finally found the greasy white paper sack clutched in his other hand.

  “You brought me a cheeseburger?”

  He walked closer to hand her the bag, then stepped back. “It has the works,” he said. “I hope that is acceptable.”

  Miranda uncurled the top of the bag and took out something round and greasy, wrapped in white paper. “My dear green dragonlord,” she said. “That is more than acceptable.”

  When she unwrapped it, Vander was at a loss to understand what the fuss had been about. This cheeseburger appeared to be nothing more than thin pieces of meat squeezed between paltry circles of bread, hardly a thing to wish for from across worlds.

  But when the blue queen bit heartily into it, she closed her eyes and let out a low moan as she chewed, a sound almost as if she were being pleased by a man. He absently wondered if he should leave her alone with her ecstasy. He felt as if he were intruding in some kind of private ritual.

  She opened her eyes and took another bite, then wiped the grease from her chin as she chewed. Her eyes looked more alert now, less tired.

  “I don’t know about that spear,” she said. “Whether or not it can kill a demon. But I’m pretty sure this burger was worth the trip.”

  Vander somehow doubted that, but wasn’t about to contradict Miranda. She had done him a great service. Not only had she helped him recover the spear, but she had brought him together with Brynn. His feelings for her might turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing, causing him pain and making him wonder how things might have been different if he had pushed harder for her to come with him. But Brynn’s drive had also shifted something inside him, made him realize that there was so much more to life than lying on a beach and munching on mangos. A man, a king, needed purpose. And his encounter with Brynn had made him realize the importance of that.

  “As you say,” he said. “I do not wish to be rude, but if it is all the same to you, I would set off for home. I have obligations awaiting me.”

  “Ah, right,” Miranda said, taking another huge bite and chewing while she talked. She ate like a man, and Vander wasn’t sure whether her lack of decorum was endearing or simply crude. Though she did remind him of Brynn just a bit. “You’re getting married, aren’t you?”

  So I am, he thought. He lowered his head and nodded.

  “Wait,” Miranda said, putting the cheeseburger down on the paper in her lap. “Did something happen over there?”

  Indeed, something had happened over there. “No,” he said. “Nothing happened.” Now, even though she was willing to hear his story, he no longer wanted to share it.

  “Farewell, Miranda Everfrost,” he said, giving her a short bow. “Something tells me we will meet again soon enough. Until then, be well.”

  She put her hand on her belly and nodded back. It was that same gesture he had seen before, and now he understood. She was with child. That made sense. It was likely the reason she did not wish to journey through the portal. She was not afraid for herself, but for the child she carried inside. It also explained why she was devouring her cheeseburger like a starved wolf.

  He turned and smiled as he left her by the fire.

  Vander remembered the way out of the keep. The guards opened the gate, and he walked out into the darkness of the early morning, the moonlight making the freshly-fallen snow sparkle blue.

  He held the trident in both hands as he took dragonform, his hands curling into claws around the spear’s metallic shaft. His wings sprouted from his back, and he launched into the air, snow puffing up in a cloud beneath him.

  He would be glad to be gone from this place. Despite being a fire dragon, Miranda seemed oddly at home here. But he preferred the tropical clime of his beloved isle. He would not be returning as the same man as when he left, though. He would be bringing with him a weapon of immense power. But he was also returning with a renewed sense of self and purpose.

  His wife-to-be, Nevra Nightshadow, might be strange and dark, but he would fulfil his obligation to his people and the realm. He would learn to be with her, and perhaps eventually to love her. Who knew what waited in store?

  He flapped his great wings, carrying the spear beneath him clenched in his claws. He thought about where he might store it. The oracle said a great war was coming. Simply carrying around the trident seemed reckless and might arouse suspicion. Better to hide it until the conflict was upon them. As he flew over the ice-capped mountains towards the west, he knew exactly where that place would be.

  Along the southern shore of the Emerald Isle was a craggy inlet of volcanic rock, and a cave whose entrance was only accessible when the tide was low. He would put the trident there and tell no one. Only then would he fly back to the bamboo palace. Sorian Nightshadow said they would return within three days. He had retrieved the relic in one, so now he had two days to rest and prepare for his wedding and his new bride.

  Vander stretched out his neck and tail, beating his wings even more briskly, heading for home.

  10

  BRYNN

  She curled up on her lumpy brown sofa, wearing her flannel pajamas and wrapped in the black and white macramé blanket she'd found in a thrift store years ago. She had a glass of cheap box wine in one hand and the remote in the other.

  She took a big gulp and kept flipping through the channels. And there it was, the original Indiana Jones movie. She’d caught it near the beginning, just after the crackerjack opener where Indie nearly gets smooshed by a giant rock ball. He’s back in front of his class, and some cute little coed is flirting with him while he’s trying to lecture.

  You sold me a crappy bill of goods, Hollywood, she thought. Sure, she’d been through crazier stuff than what was happening on the screen. But in the end, Indie didn’t jump through some mystical portal, knocking Marion on her ass and leaving her all alone. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.

  She took another mouthful of wine and swallowed. She felt tears standing out in her eyes. No, it wasn’t supposed to go like this at all. She’d finally thought she’d hit the jackpot, finding
a site with years or decades worth of pieces to research and study. On top of that, she’d met the most incredible man she ever would. She didn’t think she could conjure up someone from her fantasies more amazing. And he wanted her!

  Then, in the blink of an eye, it was all gone. The site, her career, and the man. All gone. He’d stepped through that ring of red lightning back into his world, and that was that.

  Brynn finished off the glass and wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand. She was supposed to teach a class at eight in the morning, but she just didn’t give a crap anymore. She had decided to get drunk.

  She threw back the blanket and got to her feet. Too quickly, as it turned out. Her head swam, and she grabbed the armrest of the sofa to keep from keeling over.

  “Whoa,” she said, steadying herself. She looked at the TV. Doctor Jones was scribbling on a chalkboard, explaining the Ark of the Covenant. Sure, a young Harrison Ford was hot, but he was no dragonlord. He was no Vander.

  Clutching the empty glass, Brynn took a step towards the kitchen, eager for a refill. Then she stopped.

  There, inside her mind, images began to form. She had to put her hand on the back of the sofa this time to keep from falling over.

  She was flying. Blue water rushed beneath her as she flew fast and low, feeling the salty spray on her face and wings. The sun was high and bright, and up ahead she saw an island with trees so green that she thought every tree she would see for the rest of her life would look limp and colorless by comparison.

  Holy shit, she thought. I’m seeing what he’s seeing. We’re still connected, even between worlds. How was that possible? But then, how had any of this been possible?

  She stood there in the living room of her apartment, not only seeing what he was seeing, but feeling what he was feeling. The wind rushed over his wings as he flew. The sun warmed the scales on his back and tail.