by Sariah Skye
I looked expectantly at Kiarra. “Let me guess… gnome? Troll? Munchkin?”
Gabriel chuckled and singed under his breath quietly “The Lollipop Guild” song from Wizard of Oz while Daniel stifled a giggle and Maxxus looked upon them scornfully.
“What is that dreadful song?” he asked, with a scowl.
This only caused the brothers to snicker and giggle more. I had to stifle my own laughter at their high-pitched renditions of the song.
Kiarra coughed pointedly. “Yes, they are gnomes if you must know. Once upon a time they used to live in gardens and play tricks on people, but they’ve evolved away from that. They are really just small, tiny humans now. Some are witches and wizards, others just as normal as regular people. These gnomes happen to make the best breakfast in town, and are quite fast which is why I figured we’d stop here first. We need—Leorah especially—to eat and keep up our stamina. This might be a rough day.”
I bellyached to myself under my breath and stuck out my tongue in a crabby raspberry sound. “When are they not rough?” My grumbling was soon replaced with more drooling as the gnome and a handful of other gnomes—some a little larger than her, others, smaller but all only under about two and a half feet tall—came carrying trays and pushing carts out full of food and positioned them in front of the counter.
“Oh by the gods…” There were piles of bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, hash browns, and fresh croissants, piles of pastries like Danish and cinnamon rolls and jugs of hot coffee, orange juice and milk. My stomach rumbled and I had to snicker when, across the table from me, Maxxus’ did too. We exchanged sheepish giggles at our growling stomachs as we suddenly realized just how famished we were.
The gnomes—the woman who’d come out earlier, apparently the head chef and head owner of the whole bakery who had introduced herself officially as Felicia—instructed us to dig in.
The three of us dragons practically scrambled to the front of the café, the brothers left behind to laugh at us. Plates were thrust at us and we were told to help ourselves.
When my plate was nearly a foot high with delicious smelling food, I carried it and a tall glass of cold milk to a table where I dug in. As soon as the bacon and pancakes touched my mouth, I let out a sigh of happiness.
“Oh my gods this is fantastic!” I said, spitting bits of food out as I talked and shoved it in but not caring.
Maxxus, a little more polite and reserved than I but no stranger to shoving the food in his face, nodded intently. He swallowed. “Wonderful!” It was much like the large feasts we’d have back home—one of the few times my family all gathered together and I wasn’t totally treated like an outcast. Ignored mostly, yes, but better than outright scorn.
I was thankful for my fast dragon metabolism as I watched Daniel gingerly poke at a plateful of eggs, muttering something about cholesterol and wondering what it would take to get an egg white omelet. As if on cue, one of the younger boy cooks from the kitchen brought out a plate with a perfectly round and folded omelet, dashed with some green leaves and a vegetable, and set it in front of him. He smiled warmly and spoke in a small voice, “Kiarra said you had some dietary restrictions. I hope you like this. I made it myself.”
Daniel beamed, grabbed a fork and cut off a bite and tasted. He grinned, nodding quickly. He let out a pleasured noise. “Oh, it’s fantastic! If I knew you wouldn’t find it offensive, I’d just kiss you right now!”
Gabriel slapped his palm against his forehead and groaned. “Sonofabitch, Daniel. Really?”
The young gentleman smiled uncomfortably. “Well, I have a girlfriend so that would be weird, but I’m glad you like it.” He nodded his head and quickly dashed off to the kitchen. We all stared at Daniel in amazement.
“What?” he asked, innocently, taking a sip gingerly from his white coffee mug.
We all snickered in reply. For the next five minutes, we went on about his comment, Kiarra scolded him for his brashness and Gabriel just banged his head lightly on the table. Even Maxxus laughed. It was a fun, lighthearted moment. I caught smiles from Gabriel and a smirk from Maxxus both at different times.
We finished our breakfast quickly and Kiarra urged us quickly on through the woods to the spot she swore had been warded against magic.
“How do we know?” I asked, skeptically. It looked basically just like a small clearing in the woods. Nothing spectacular about it
She looked at Gabriel expectantly. “Give ‘er a shot.”
Gabriel nodded slowly, and summoned a small ball of water in his hands. He turned around and thrust it out in front of him and it flew rapidly and suddenly splashed into an invisible barrier and rained down below, dispersing.
“Happy?” she retorted, looking between me and Gabriel and we both agreed.
Kiarra thrust me the vial again. She put on a brave face and smiled earnestly. “Good luck, dear. Remember—no matter what happens, we’re all here.”
I slowly took the vial and unscrewed the cap. I was standing in the center of the clearing, surrounded by everyone, watching in anticipation. I caught everyone’s gaze momentarily. Daniel offered a sympathetic smile and a cheesy thumbs up. Gabriel grasped my arm briefly. This garnered a scowl from Maxxus who just bowed his head at me with a smile. Kiarra patted my shoulder.
“Here goes nothing…” I tossed the cap on the ground and downed the contents in one swallow. My eyes clenched, dreading what it would do. I was picturing someone on a daytime talk show who had been supposedly hypnotized into walking around in their underwear, clucking like a chicken. I opened my eyes and gave a surprised look though. I was expecting the pink concoction—reasonably—to taste like stomach medicine (you know the kind) but it actually tasted like warm, dark roasted coffee. “I’ll be damned. Tastes a bit like coffee.”
Gabriel chuckled. “That figures.”
Kiarra offered a wink. “See? I told you it was attuned to you.”
I shrugged nonchalantly, tossing the vial over my shoulder. Anything that tasted like coffee couldn’t be too bad.
I stood there momentarily, waiting expectantly for—something. A bolt of lightning. Smoke to come shooting out my ears. Anything. But nothing happened.
“Well…?” Gabriel prompted. “How do you feel?”
I snorted. “I don’t feel… anything. No different.”
“Are we sure it even works?” Daniel offered, Maxxus nodded in agreement.
“Not the most trustworthy, that Finnian for sure,” he grumbled.
Kiarra raised her palms and shushed us. “It could take awhile; we have no idea how it works, exactly.”
I groaned when suddenly, I gasped, clutching my chest like I couldn’t breathe. All at once it was like I got punched in the throat. My knees felt weak and I felt myself stumbling to the ground. I felt a pair of strong hands on me, slowly lowering me to the ground as I gasped and choked. And instead of everything going black—everything went white.
Moments later I regained my breath and found myself in a large stone atrium, almost cavelike in appearance and feel. It was damp and a little musty, but the official Court pennants hanging on the walls reminded me it was an official room of the Court and not actually a cave.
I was surrounded by the chattering and the guttural growling of about a dozen young drakes in their dragon forms varying in color and a grown, yellow dragon was at the front of the room, rapping her clawed foot on the hard ground, calling for attention. That’s when I realized that I was back in my first year classroom, just like it had been years and years ago.
The Professor—I still don’t recall his name—instructed everyone to come to the front of the room and demonstrate their magical abilities for the class to be properly evaluated on ability. He looked scornfully in my direction. “Leorah, do not even bother with this, we all know you have no magic. Just sit back and watch.”
I pouted and slumped down in the back of the room and watched as various drakes showed off their air, water, or other magic for everyone. I rolled my eyes, scowl
ing and pretended to be very interested in something on my wing when I heard several drakes tittering and scoffing. I looked up to see a green drake at the front, standing with his head bowed shamefully. He muttered something then, but it was unintelligible to me in the back of the room.
“Are you kidding me? Earth magic is the easiest of all! How stupid do you have to be to not be able to do Earth magic?” One male drake proclaimed in between laughter. A handful of others giggled around him.
“He’s almost as bad as that worthless pink one back there,” snickered a yellow drake in front.
My ears perked up at this one. I looked expectantly to the Professor to intervene, but he hung back, a glint of mischief in his black eyes.
I glowered, and glanced back at the poor green drake at the front of the room. In an act of desperation, he exhaled and waved one of his legs in front of him—expecting what, I wasn’t sure but nothing happened. Defeated, he walked back to one side of the large classroom as everyone laughed and pointed.
I huffed. I stood up on all feet and stomped into the center of the room, near him. I outstretched one flimsy wing over him and patted his back, like I would have had if it had been a human hand.
He looked over at me, sniffling sadly. Something familiar about those blue eyes.
“What’s your name again?” I whispered to him quietly so no one can hear.
“Maxxus.” He replied in a small, wounded voice.
“You can’t do magic, either?”
He shook his head. “No.”
I grumbled. “Don’t worry, Maxxus. They’ll regret saying a word.” I got to all my feet and craned my neck high, attempting to make myself larger than I was—and I was rather small, for a drake of my age. Maxxus next to me towered over me and most of the others in the classroom.
I stared down everyone laughing, glaring a particularly long time at the black drake who had taunted him first. He shut up immediately.
“How dare you? You are all being mean!” I shouted out loud, angrily.
The black drake struggled to speak up, but managed even though his voice was strangled. “How pathetic. No one to stick up for you, but the stupid pink dragon!”
“You'll regret it, Lorusto!” I roared at him, narrowing my eyes. I wished he’d choke on his words.
As if on cue, the black drake’s yellow eyes bugged out. He gasped for air, struggling to speak as I stared him down.
“Leorah!” The Professor’s voice boomed from the front of the classroom. A blast of air from the yellow dragon in my side shook me out of my angry trance. I stumbled, but caught myself against something large and hard. I glanced over, it was Maxxus, the green dragon. He offered a friendly, thankful smile. I grinned mischievously.
The Professor barked an order, and everyone was required to be silent. “I will be contacting your parents after class is over,” he said to me, intimidatingly.
I rolled my eyes. “So? I didn’t do anything but look at his ugly self! I’ll just tell my Grandfather you allow bullying in your class and he’ll get you kicked out of Court!” I replied defiantly. “He's an Elder. Elder Aleron. He'll skin your hide and hang it up in his chambers to laugh at daily.”
Maxxus snickered quietly next to me as we watched the yellow drake’s brown eyes grow angry. He growled and barked demands for a moment and ordered us to the back of the room while they continued lessons.
“Thank you.” Maxxus said with an appreciative smile. “You didn’t have to do that.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I did. I hate them. I want to eat their heads.”
He stifled a raucous laugh. “They would probably be gross.”
“Hehe… enough salt and sauce and anything can taste good.” This time Maxxus could not stifle his laughter. He covered his mouth with the crook of his front leg as everyone turned to stare.
“What?” I demanded, crossing my eyes at them. “Mind your own business.” I glared at them all, and they complied. Even the teacher who was busy staring me down.
“Leo!” A female voice was speaking over me, a pair of firm hands on my shoulders, shaking me.
Like I was shaking myself out of a daydream, I shook my head and blinked twice, letting my vision come back into focus. I was back in the woods. Kiarra was standing above me, with a very concerned look upon her face. I glanced around at the pair of hands grasping my shoulders, expecting it to be anyone but Finnian.
“I know I said I’d leave you be, but everyone was concerned, so they called me here,” Finnian explained, before I could get hostile. “You’ve been ‘out’ for over an hour.”
I gave him a strange look. “An hour? What do you mean out? Like, I blacked out?”
He shook his head. “No, no. More like… catatonic. I assumed that when you started getting your magic back, you’d start mind controlling someone. Me, probably if I was there. I did not expect this.”
I glanced past Kiarra. The boys were all sitting nearby, but had been pushed aside by probably Finnian, I assumed.
“How do you feel?” Gabriel questioned sympathetically. “You were… kind of scaring us there.”
I paused, putting my hand to my forehead and rubbing my forehead with my fingertips, where a pain was beginning to ebb and throb. “Sorry… I…” I caught a glimpse of Maxxus’ face—more specifically, his friendly blue eyes—and thought back to that moment in our First Year classroom.
I gasped. “Maxxus—I—I remember!”
He blinked his eyes and appeared confused. “Remember? Remember what, Leo?”
“That day—that day I yelled at those drakes making fun of you!” I sat up, scrambling to my feet, pulling out of Finnian’s grasp and I sat next to Maxxus, despite Gabriel’s wistful gaze.
Maxxus looked at me hopefully. “You do? But—how?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know… but I remember everything.” I winced again, as what looked like someone rewinding a movie clouded my vision, and suddenly a jumble of forgotten memories came to my mind.
“Leo?”
I remembered it. I remembered it all. That first day, and a few days after. Sitting on the grassy field during our lunch period, eating jerky that my mother had packed along for me that I shared with him, as his family provided him nothing. We joked. We laughed…. we were friends. Best friends.
Chapter 8
The “footage” in my mind jumped ahead quickly. Maxxus was beginning to grasp his magic, but I watched as he attained something even more incredible; he had a real knack for shaping metal into weapons, armor and even delicate metal and stone artwork. I remembered he had brought a dagger with a pink sapphire encrusted handle he had forged, that he said made him think of me. It was after lessons one day; we were walking in the woods in our human forms. We appeared to be about thirteen. I was still short, with the same long strawberry hair and pudgy cheeks. Maxxus was slightly lanky and awkward, his wavy hair wild as it grew every-which way but the eyes were the same as ever—those sky-blue eyes.
The sun was setting; the late-night lilies were blooming in the night along the meadow. I was scowling about how much I hated pink—why did he have to choose pink? Otherwise, it was a perfectly lovely dagger, I said.
“You shouldn’t be ashamed. I wish you could see how wonderful you are. Even if others don’t see it… I do.”
I had felt my cheeks flush, as he leaned over slowly, and cautiously—even as a teenaged drake, his human form still towered over me—he had to kneel some—but he softly kissed me on the lips. I felt a rush—a charge through my body to my fingertips as I gingerly wrapped my hands on his forearms and sank into the kiss, relishing in a moment I had waited for a long time. Then… disappointment in later years. Puzzled… Maxxus had stopped randomly speaking to me… why? I felt strange as Grandfather walked him into our house one day. I felt like I should know him better, but at that moment I didn’t feel I did. I just nodded curtly as Grandfather introduced us for what seemed like the first time, but it couldn’t have been?
Memories… memories of a friends
hip, of a budding romance with Maxxus came to the surface… of a deception, of a betrayal as he and I apparently grew apart, though I don’t understand why, even with my newfound memories.
“Leo? What is going on?” Finnian’s firm voice brought me back to the present.
My mouth hung open, agape. “I—I remember things.” I struggled to find the words to describe everything, but I slurred and they just wouldn’t come.
Finnian looked at me expectantly, and I nodded as he reached out his hand. He pressed his fingers against my cheeks and I watched his greenish eyes flash to red… then pink and yellow.
He blinked a few moments later and I looked at him expectantly.
“It is what I thought—you had a memory block on you. Whatever this block was, it was blocking out your memories of Maxxus. Specifically, ones where you may have been forming a romantic relationship or were subconsciously using magic,” Finnian explained.
I looked between Maxxus and Gabriel, who both looked like they’d been slapped with surprising news—and they had, but Maxxus smiled slightly, whereas Gabriel appeared to turn slightly green.
“What—romantic relationship? But… besides that first day, I hardly spoke to Leo before she came to the human realm?” Maxxus was audibly confused.
I glanced at Finnian, hoping for an explanation. He reached out, without asking, and read Maxxus’ thoughts briefly. His eyes briefly turned yellow, then brown before he pulled away and returned to normal before he spoke. “Maxxus’ memories have been blocked as well. I suspected as much, but now that you have yours back, Leo… now I know what the block pertains to; anything involving direct contact with you.”