Lifting the bales from the ground onto the back of the truck, stacking them, and then unloading and restacking them in the barn was hard work, especially for me. Will and Chace had bulk to help them. I was still, as my mom so kindly put it, ‘just waiting to fill out.’ The other challenge I faced came from my asthma. Several times a day, I used my inhaler, but it was worth it. Although I was ready to collapse at the end of every day, we didn’t call my folks to pick us up until after we’d stopped at the barn to see Steria. She greeted us eagerly each evening, either flying to meet us or nudging up against us. When she’d do that, my legs were so weak she’d knock me down. Then I’d get a face full of dragon muzzle.
“Steria, why can’t you greet me more gently?” I asked one day as I stared up at a slobbery dragon mouth and tried to negotiate my back off the rock it had found when she knocked me over.
I received no reply, just a drip of dragon slobber on my chin.
“Ew!” I exclaimed, wiping it with the edge of my t-shirt. “That’s disgusting!”
Meanwhile, Chace and Will were laughing.
“You should see yourself,” Will said between giggles.
“Yeah, you look ridiculous!” Chace hid his laughter with a smile.
“Thanks. I can tell who my friends are here,” I complained, trying to get Steria to back off.
Do you not like us, Harley? Steria asked.
I sighed and wrapped my arms around her scale-encrusted neck. “I love you, Steria, but I’m not so sure my friends appreciate how much more difficult this work is for me.”
“Here he goes again,” Chace said. “He’s complaining about how small he is.”
“But it’s true,” I protested.
“Oh, we know.” Will sat down. “But by the end of the week you’ll be stronger. You always whine at the beginning of track season, too.”
I shrugged and then groaned as the muscles in my arms and shoulders let loose with their litany of complaints. I wished Steria would move just enough to let me up. As if in answer to my unspoken request, she shifted her weight, and I squirmed away from the rock.
“Come on, Steria,” Chace called. “Give him a break. Let him up.”
She moved, and I stood, leaning on Steria to help me rise. She now sat as tall as I stood.
We chatted amiably and joked around. Chace pulled some sodas out of a fridge. It was a perfect ending to the work day.
Chapter 11: A Tense Moment
Ever since I saw Professor Raleigh before school was out, I kept my eyes on the Seashore B&B when we passed. I wondered if he was still around.
One morning as Karis took me to the hay field, I glanced at the Seashore B&B. What I saw got my heart sprinting. Professor Raleigh and his pack were climbing into the white Taurus. Karis must have noticed my reaction.
“What’s up, Harley? Are you scoping out the competition?”
I shrugged.
“All right, now,” she said, adjusting her hands on the steering wheel as we turned up Myrtle River Road. “Out with it. You’ve looked over there every day as we go by, and today you jumped like you’d sat on a tack. What’s up?”
Will shifted behind me but didn’t offer any help. I didn’t blame him. After all, she was my sister, not his.
“Did you see that man back there?”
“Yeah, he looked like the professor who stayed with us back in April.”
“It was him,” I agreed, and proceeded to tell her everything.
“You mean Chace actually met him with a shotgun?” Karis chuckled when I had finished.
“Yep,” Will said. “I would’ve liked to see it.”
Karis nodded as we rounded a curve. Then she asked, “Do you think he’ll come back to Chace’s place?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged.
“But why?” Karis scrunched her nose thoughtfully. “Why would he want you guys to search for thundereggs if that’s not what he was looking for?”
“I don’t know.” I drummed my fingers along my leg. “It’s been bugging me too. Along with how he knows about her in the first place.”
“Does he know about her?” Will asked.
“I guess we can’t be sure.” I stared out the window. “I always assumed he did, but I have no proof.”
“Well, I’m going to keep my eye on him,” Karis surprised me by saying. “You guys take care of Steria. I’ll keep track of the professor.”
***
The day dragged on. We had the bucking hay to do, but with monotonous work, it’s easy to think of other things. My mind worked as hard as my arms, mulling over the problem.
At lunch, Will told Chace about seeing the professor. Chace’s blue eyes took on a faraway look.
“Earth to Chace.” I waved my hand in front of his glasses.
“I’m here. I was just checking on her. She’s upriver and doing fine.”
Will and I stared at him. A feeling of jealousy came over me. I wished I could have the same relationship with Steria that Chace had. But even setting that aside, there was still an apprehensive silence between us as we ate. How could we protect her?
The next four hours moved as slowly as molasses. Each row of hay bales loaded only revealed more to be gathered. Each tier that disappeared from the truck into the barn was only replaced by more of the green bales. But finally, the last bale was in the barn, and we were free for the evening. A half day of work remained. It was a bittersweet feeling. I was glad to be done so we could spend more time with Steria, but sad at the same time because there was no excuse to come up the river to be with her.
That night as we sat in the old barn sipping our sodas, we finally set about trying to find an answer.
“What if we moved her to some kind of national park?” I asked.
Will shrugged. Chace seemed lost in thought. I swirled the soda in my can. Finally, Chace looked up. His gaze rested on the young dragon, who was curled up in a ball nearby.
“There’s another problem,” Chace said. “The farmers upriver are losing cattle and sheep. They’re blaming a cougar, but I’m not so sure. One of these days, she’s going to leave a track, and we’ll really have a problem on our hands.”
The three of us looked to Steria, who rested serenely near our feet. She was such a sweet dragon, but she was a dragon. I was reminded of stories of kids who befriended cheetahs. It was fine when the cats were babies, but as they grew they were forced to release them into the wild. Our problem was that Steria didn’t really belong anywhere.
With a sigh, I stretched and pulled out my phone. As usual, there was no reception.
“Chace, I’ll need to use your phone.”
He nodded. We got up and walked to the door, where a sound up the driveway caught our attention. Karis’ car came into view, its nearly reckless speed leaving a cloud of dust in its wake.
“That’s not good.” I said dumbly.
“You’re telling me.” Will peered around my shoulder.
The car skidded to a stop and Karis stuck her head out the window.
“Where’s Steria?” Her eyes roved the field.
I am here, the dragon’s voice sounded in my mind.
I turned, as did Karis, to see Steria’s purple scales sparkling in the evening light.
“Steria, you have to get out of here. The professor is coming with his machine. He’s been up here all day, but just recently, he started moving, and he’s coming this way.”
We all looked to the river. What could we do? Chace’s dad was home, but he didn’t know about Steria. I looked around for inspiration and found nothing.
Steria seemed to understand the situation better than any of us. With a leap she was in the air and heading away from the river.
“Where’s she going?” Karis watched her fade from sight.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“She’ll be all right,” Chace assured us.
I wasn’t so sure, and from the look on Will’s face, neither was he. Chace herded us and Karis back to where we’
d left our soda. He pulled out a can for Karis, and we sat and stared at each other, trying to think innocuous thoughts.
After about five minutes, the tension started to ease, since we all knew Steria had had plenty of time to leave the area. We made some attempt at small talk, but it wasn’t the same without her. Footsteps sounded on the gravel outside, followed by voices.
“I don’t know if you’ll find what you’re after, Professor,” Chace’s dad was saying. “There aren’t a lot of lizards up here.”
“Well, I thank you anyway, Mr. Martin.” The professor’s cultured voice slithered down my spine and set it prickling. “A scientist’s job is to search all possibilities, even the faintest ones.”
“What’s your machine?” Mr. Martin’s voice showed only minimal interest.
“It is a very special device. It uses satellite and thermal images to track any creature.”
I shuddered at the thought, but didn’t have a chance to do any more.
“Hey, Chace, boys,” Chace’s dad greeted us. “Oh, and Karis, isn’t it? Nice to see you. Professor Raleigh, I’d like to introduce you to my son and his friends.”
“Yes,” the professor’s voice dropped a few chilly degrees crisp as a fall morning. “We’ve met before. Haven’t we?”
“Hi, Professor Raleigh,” I said, my folks’ training kicking in.
Karis seemed to have the same issue. “Hi, Professor Raleigh.” She glanced to Mr. Martin. “The professor stayed at Aidan’s Keep in April.”
“Ah, yes,” the professor agreed. “If I recall correctly, it was the boys’ fault that my grant fell through. I was supposed to return to the college with a thunderegg, and the boys deprived me of it.”
“I’m sorry you think that, professor.” I looked up at the man from the floor where I sat. “But honestly, we didn’t find a thunderegg.”
“Yes, well, that is all past now. I am working on a new project. This time, I won’t make the foolish mistake of involving mere children in my research.” From the disgust in his tone, I expected to see him stick his nose in the air. “So, if you’ll excuse me, boys, I am going to continue my search.”
He turned toward the hayloft. Mr. Martin shrugged at Chace with a look that said he expected some answers from his son, then turned and followed the professor.
We sat back, but didn’t relax. Our eyes followed the two men as they climbed the ladder, the professor toting his machine over one shoulder. We heard them moving around while hay filtered through the cracks in the hayloft floor.
The professor’s voice trailed down to us. “These lizards are very elusive, Mr. Martin. It wouldn’t surprise me if it lived here at night and roamed during the day. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
“I’ve never seen anything like you’re describing, Professor, and I’ve seen my share of lizards around here.”
“Yes, but rare ones seem to have their own habits, Mr. Martin.”
I looked to Chace, who shook his head. We both knew Professor Raleigh was looking for a dragon, and kept our mouths very carefully closed.
Before long, the two men came back down the ladder. Once on the main floor, Chace’s dad wiped his hands on his Carharts. The professor scanned the room.
“I thank you, Mr. Martin. If you don’t mind, I’d like to return tomorrow morning and spend the day here.”
“Well, professor, I leave at four thirty in the morning and don’t get home until around noon. You’ve already said you don’t want Chace messing things up; so the earliest you could come by would be one o’clock.”
The professor looked as if he’d swallowed a lemon, and I took a gingerly sip of my soda to keep from laughing. He had worked himself into that one, and it served him right.
“I guess that will have to do, Mr. Martin. I am at the mercy of your schedule. I will see you at one o’clock tomorrow. Until then, I bid you good-eve.”
As he walked out, we breathed a bit easier, but we knew we had barely beaten him this time. How long until we slipped?
Chapter 12: A Terrifying Dream
“What’re we going to do?” I exclaimed once Mr. Martin and Professor Raleigh’s voices couldn’t be heard anymore. “I can’t take her to town again.”
Karis’ eyes grew wide. “You’ve had her in town?”
I nodded. “But only when she was an egg.”
“Calm down, Harley.” Chace pushed his hair out of his eyes. “She’ll be okay. She’ll come back tonight, and when Dad comes home, she’ll leave and go up river.”
“Are you sure it’ll work?” Will said, voicing my own fears.
Chace stood. “Guys, we have work in the morning. There’s not much we can do about it. We’re going to have to let her be a big girl. She’s been on her own all along.”
“Yes.” I slowly nodded my head. “But the professor hasn’t been actively seeking her in her own home.”
No one had an answer to that.
***
I didn’t sleep well that night. I tossed and turned, and when I finally fell asleep, I dreamed.
The professor was chasing me, and I could see Steria just ahead of us. As I glanced back he took a device out of his bag, and a loud pop sounded. Ahead of me, Steria stumbled and went down. Another pop, and I saw the rope wrap itself around her muzzle. Her feet were caught in something like a net.
“No!” I screamed, tears running down my face.
My yell was drowned out by a third shot from the weapon Professor Raleigh held in his hand. A filmy white sheet landed on my face. It clung to my skin, and although I could hear Steria’s struggle, I was blind. At the same time the sticky mess on my face began to draw tighter. It sank against my eyeballs, applying stinging pressure. Then it moved down my nose, encasing my nostrils. I scratched at it, but it wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t breathe! As soon as I took a deep breath through my mouth, the film entered, blocking all air.
I tried to scream again, but no sound escaped. Somewhere nearby I could hear Steria screeching, the sound raw and terrified.
“I have her, Harley, my boy.” The professor’s laugh filled my ears. “You will never see her again. Good-bye.”
I awoke with a jerk, my breath coming in short, wheezing gasps. I felt along my nightstand for my inhaler. Groping in the dark, I found it and wrapped my fingers tight around the cylinder. My heart raced as I exhaled what little breath I had and then took a puff. As the medicine sped down into my airway I felt the constriction on my chest lessen, and finally my lungs opened to admit life-giving air. I sucked it in, all but panting in relief, trying to erase the last vestiges of the dream. A knock sounded on my door, and then it opened.
“Harley?” Karis’ voice was barely above a whisper.
“Yeah?” My voice cracked.
“You okay?” She sat down on the edge of my bed. “Oh, not another asthma attack. Do I need to get Mom and Dad?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“You shouldn’t have taken the haying job,” she scolded me, but at the same time she rubbed her hand in circles around my back like she used to do when we were little and I’d have an attack.
I sat, still drawing in great draughts of air and trying not to think about the dream. My heart still raced.
“You screamed.” The small circles continued. “That’s not normal for an asthma attack.”
“I had a dream, too.” Minus Steria and the professor, it was a recurring nightmare. I blamed it on the asthma, which I’d had since I was little. It was like running a race and being winded, but instead of taking full breaths of air, trying to breathe through a half-clogged straw.
“Your suffocating dream?” Karis’ voice was soothing.
I nodded. “This time Professor Raleigh was chasing Steria and me. He got us both.”
Having said it, the power of the dream dissipated. My breathing, which had still been somewhat exaggerated and desperate, evened out as the tension faded.
“She’ll be fine, Harley,” Karis said. “If it’ll make you feel better, we could call M
r. Behr and get help from him.”
That sounded good. We were in over our heads, and probably should have admitted it sooner. I nodded.
”I’ll call him before we go to work tomorrow.” She just continued to rub my back. My eyes began to close.
“Thanks, Karis. I’ll be okay now.”
“You sure, little brother?”
“Yeah. Remember, I’m in high school now.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re still my little brother.”
Chapter 13: A Great Dad
The next morning I dragged myself out of bed, motivating myself with the idea of talking to Mr. Behr. Just before seven thirty, I picked up the phone with a bit of trepidation; after all, I was calling a teacher at home and during summer vacation. I needn’t have worried. His cheerful voice greeted me, and I wasted no time in explaining why I was calling.
“So, the professor has decided to explore the ranch, huh?” I could just see Mr. Behr standing with one hand on his belly and the other holding the phone.
“That’s about right. Besides that, Steria’s growing. She’s getting hungry, and we’re not positive she’s not taking out local livestock.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I have a friend at UC Berkley in the biological sciences college. I’ll ask her if she has any suggestions of where we could house a large predator.”
After thanking Mr. Behr and hanging up, I rushed out the door. I didn’t want to be late for my last day of work.
***
No matter how hard Chace had argued with his dad the night before, he hadn’t received permission to follow Professor Raleigh around when he showed up. Nothing was stated about being in our barn though.
As soon as the last bale was safely stored in the hayloft, we ran back to the old barn and pulled out our lunches. It wasn’t as much fun as when Steria was with us; plus we were rather nervous as well. We wondered what Professor Raleigh actually knew versus what he was just searching for.
Eventually, we reclined on our makeshift chairs from odds and ends we’d pieced together. I dozed off. The restless night along with the hard work made for a tired body. The professor’s voice jolted me from my nap.
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