Dragon Conjurer 8, page 10
“Of course,” Nala sighed. “Of course, it’s a volcano, too. This just keeps getting better and better.”
“How is the beast trapped?” Elisabeth asked.
“The file didn’t really say.” I frowned.
There was a long, uncomfortable silence as everyone struggled to process the huge dump of information I’d laid out at their feet. I waited patiently as they all worked to wrap their heads around the entire situation.
I’d had a couple of weeks to come to terms with the possibilities of what The Great Scaled One could be. Though none of these options were in any way good, the sheer shock of it all had turned into a numb undertone of terror in my mind. I’d already had the opportunity to get past the shock of it all and move into the acceptance of going forward with life while knowing that one of these monsters, or possibly something way worse, was looming on the not too distant horizon.
I couldn’t bear looking at the mix of horrified, terrified, and shocked faces, so I stood up and paced into the kitchen.
“Anybody hungry?” I asked as I started blindly pulling ingredients from the fridge.
“Always,” Nick murmured softly, and it sounded more like an automatic response than a real answer.
“Burgers sound good to you guys?” I muttered, and I pulled a large mixing bowl from the cabinet.
I didn't wait for a response, and I started dicing an onion and plopping it into the bowl.
“What are we going to do?” Steffi wondered a moment later.
I glanced up at my beautiful fairy-girl, and I saw that the panic and shock had started to recede, and determination was starting to take its place.
“Right now, we’re going to eat,” I said soothingly. “And we will figure out The Great Scaled One like we figure out every monster mission, one step at a time. We’ll wait for intel, and in the meantime, we can work on strengthening our newer techniques and getting stronger.”
“Dylan’s right, guys,” Nick said with a decisive nod. “Freaking out about any of this, even though it is pretty freak-out worthy, won’t do us any good. We need to keep our wits about us and focus on getting stronger.”
“I agree,” Zahra said. “I mean, I know I’m not a part of your team, but I think Dylan and Nick are right. Worrying about it doesn’t do any good, and like my dad always told me, the best kind of problem is the kind you can’t do anything about right now.”
“I prefer problems when I can work toward a solution,” Ronin said, and she turned to my other girlfriends. “But they are correct. Until we have more information, there is no use in living in fear of the future.”
“I’ll keep digging into SEEKR to see if I can find out more information about these suspects,” I said, and I dug my hands wrist-deep into the ground beef, onions, garlic, and diced apple mixture in front of me. “The last time Dr. Hastings and I researched together she said she was going to bring the suspects to Headmaster Burkhard and get him to authorize a specific search for monster activity based on those three myths.”
“How much good is that going to be if SEEKR is having internal operational issues?” Nala asked, and she walked over to nuzzle against my side.
“I’m not sure, but it’s better than nothing,” I pointed out.
Nala leaned around my side and peered into the bowl where I was busy shaping the meat into patties.
“Is that apple?” Nala asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “What? You’ve never put an apple in your burgers before?”
“Um, no,” Nala laughed.
“Apple?” Steffi asked, and she walked over to join us in the kitchen. “That seems… weird.”
“I have to agree,” Ronin said. “Why would you put some fruit into a burger mix?”
“I think that sounds amazing,” Nick chuckled.
“It is,” I said. “My stoner roommate at Berkeley told me he used to do this. I tried it once before I came to AIMM, and it makes the burgers really juicy. It’s even better if you chop up some bacon and throw that right into the meat, but we didn’t have any bacon.”
“Ooooh,” Steffi sighed. “That does sound really good.”
“Just wait until you taste it.” I grinned and started placing the patties onto the broiling pan. Then I cleaned up and turned the broiler on, and I stuck the pan inside. “Cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup? What does everybody want on their burgers?”
We spent the next several minutes playfully debating whether ketchup or mayonnaise belonged on a burger, and we prepared the other toppings. I was relieved to see the haze of anxiety had started to ease out of the room, but there was still a slight undercurrent of foreboding in everyone. It was the best I could hope for at the moment, and I would happily take it.
When the meat patties were ready, and the cheese was perfectly melted, I placed a patty on everyone’s personally prepared buns, and we sat down around the table to eat. I waited with great anticipation as my team began to take their first bites of my burger concoction.
“Mmmmm,” Nala sighed with pleasure, and her eyes rolled back in her head as she chewed. “Okay, yeah, this is fucking amazing.”
“Dude,” Nick moaned. “Delicious, but yeah, we definitely need to try the bacon thing next time.”
“I have to agree,” Ronin said. “This is quite enjoyable.”
Elisabeth just nodded with a mouth full of juicy beef, and Steffi giggled in agreement.
“I bet the bacon and apple mix is fantastic,” Zahra said a while later as she chewed the last bite of her burger.
“Like applewood smoked bacon.” Nick nodded. “It’s really a perfect combination.”
“I take it all back,” Nala said as she wiped at the corner of her mouth with a napkin. “That was absolutely incredible.”
“Thank you,” I chuckled. “And many thanks to Ethan.”
“Stoners have the best food ideas,” Nick laughed.
A sudden sharp knock at the door drew startled gasps from my ladies, and we all turned to look at the door like The Great Scaled One was going to walk right into our suite.
“Ugh,” Steffi grumbled. “I guess I’m still a little jumpy.”
“As am I,” Elisabeth said.
“It’s probably just Katie and Alice,” Zahra said. “They said they might come back later if they finished up.”
“I’ll get it.” I stood up from my seat, walked over to the door, and pulled it open.
Two Men in Black were standing in the hall like a solid wall of black suits, and they stared at me without any facial expressions.
“Cooper, your team is up,” one of the guards announced.
“Great, thanks,” I said, and I started to close the door, but the other guard put his hand up and held it open with little effort.
“You are to report to Headmaster Burkhard’s office immediately.” The Man in Black lowered his hand from the door, and the pair turned together and stomped off down the hall without another word.
Chapter 7
I stared after the Men in Black for a second before I closed the door and turned back to everyone.
“Mission time?” Steffi assumed.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “But they said we’re supposed to report to Burkhard first.”
“Welp.” Nick stood from the table. “Let’s get going.”
“I’m going to go back to my room to wait for you,” Zahra said softly, and she leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss Nick.
“Okay, babe,” Nick said. “I’ll let you know when we get back.”
Steffi, Nala, and Ronin quickly piled the dishes into the kitchen to deal with later, and Elisabeth picked up the napkins and a few stray pieces of lettuce and threw them into the garbage. Then we all walked out into the hallway together, and I pulled the door closed behind us.
“I’m glad we ate when we did,” Nala said as we walked down toward the elevator.
“Yes,” Elisabeth agreed, and then she smiled up at me. “Thank you for taking care of us, Dylan.”
“Of course,” I said, and I let all the love I felt for my ladies, and my best friend, seep into my voice. “You guys take care of me, too, I’d be a giant asshole not to do the same.”
“Is it just me,” Nick began, “or is it weird that Burkhard wanted to meet with us first?”
“It’s a little weird,” Steffi agreed. “We haven’t had a briefing with him in person in a while.”
“That’s how it used to be,” I pointed out, but I could feel the tension start to rise again, and I tried to reassure my team. “Maybe, when things started getting more intense, it just became easier to have briefings on the flight. It definitely saves time. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”
We reached the elevators, and I pressed the call button as Nick pulled Zahra into a tight hug.
“I’ll see you later, baby.” Zahra gave Nick a lingering kiss. “Have a good mission, and be safe.”
“You know me,” Nick said with a charming smile.
“Yes,” Zahra replied dryly. “Yes, I do.”
“I’ll do my best to keep him out of trouble,” I chuckled.
“Thank you, Dylan.” Zahra grinned, and then she walked off down the hall toward her dorm room.
The elevator doors slid open, and we stepped inside. Then I pressed the button for the ground floor, and the doors quietly closed. We rode down in a slightly tense silence, and a few moments later, I knocked on the headmaster’s door.
“Come in!” Burkhard’s voice called from the other side.
I pushed the door open, and Burkhard waved us forward.
“No need for all these worried faces.” Burkhard looked focused and fairly well-rested, and his apparent ease and calm tone seemed to have a pleasantly relaxing effect on my team.
“We were a little worried because you wanted to see us before we left for the mission,” Steffi explained.
“I do have a logical reason for that, Ms. Foster,” Burkhard said lightly. “Seeing as there has been a lack of reliability in our intel lately, I wanted to give you as much information on the situation as possible.”
“We definitely appreciate that, sir,” I said.
“I would imagine so, after everything your team has been up against lately.” Burkhard nodded. “So in order to provide you with as much information as possible, I have sent a recon team ahead of you.”
“Is the mission fairly nearby?” Nala asked.
“Yes. Relatively speaking, Ms. Jefferson,” Burkhard answered. “SEEKR’s systems identified a rather large gathering of monster activity south of Anchorage.”
“Goodie, Alaska,” Nick muttered dryly. “More cold.”
“Quite,” Burkhard agreed sardonically. “Not quite as frigid as Greenland, I’m sure, and south of the Arctic circle, so you’ll have some daylight, at least.”
“That’s good,” Nick chuckled.
“This is a unique mission,” Burkhard continued. “The recon team has confirmed the monsters in the area are Urayuli. They are usually peaceful creatures, and so your job is to disperse their numbers before they draw too much attention. If you can avoid killing the docile beasts, do so.”
“We can do that.” I nodded, and I was rather looking forward to a mission that could potentially be the opposite of a bloodbath.
“The recon team seemed to think they were agitated,” Burkhard said as he flipped through a file on his desk. “They weren’t more specific than that, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I suspect they may have been disturbed by the chopper’s noise.”
“That makes sense,” Elisabeth agreed.
“The team had spotted something else moving in the forest, though,” Burkhard added. “They couldn’t see what it was with such dense tree cover, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were simply more of the Urayuli. Perhaps they had attempted to hide their young and weak members in the forest when the helicopters approached.”
“This is what I would do.” Ronin nodded sagely.
“Very well. That’s all I have for you,” Burkhard said, and he handed a manila folder over to Steffi. “Here is a more detailed file on the Urayuli as well as a few images the recon team managed to capture for you.”
“Thank you, sir,” Steffi said, and she took the file and folded it against her chest.
“Right, well, off you go.” Burkhard nodded and gestured vaguely toward the door. “Good luck, cadets.”
We murmured our thanks to the headmaster for his attempts to gather thorough and accurate information for us, and then we filed out into the hallway. I nodded at the Kingpin look-alike and then closed the door behind me.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Nick said, and he started walking purposefully in the direction of the hangar bays.
“Silva is probably getting impatient waiting for us,” Nala chuckled.
“It wouldn’t surprise me in the least,” Elisabeth giggled.
A few minutes later we marched right up to Captain Silva and his jet. He was leaning casually inside the doorway of the ramp, and he offered us a lopsided smirk when he spotted us coming.
“I thought I was gonna have to leave without you kids,” Silva joked. “You guys are usually more prompt about arriving for missions.”
“And what?” Nick chortled. “You were going to handle the monster situation by yourself?”
“Hmm,” Silva hummed thoughtfully, and then he grinned widely. “Good point.”
“We had to meet with Burkhard first,” I explained.
“Very good,” Silva said, and he turned around to walk up the aisle to the cockpit. “Strap in, we’re taking off in two.”
We moved swiftly to lower ourselves into the seats and pull our headsets on. Steffi and Ronin sat beside one another in the front row, and Nick sprawled out across the aisle from them. Elisabeth sat down beside the blond nymph, and Nala scooted into the second seat across from her. I debated for half a second whether I should sit beside Elisabeth or Nala, but then I sank into the seat beside my French girlfriend.
It was tricky sometimes to make sure I was giving enough time and affection to all of my girlfriends. Even though none of them ever complained, I still made an effort to spread my time out evenly amongst the four of them.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” Captain Silva’s voice came through our headsets. “We at Silva Airlines would like to thank you for having absolutely no other options for your travels on this fine day. We hope you enjoy your flight, and as always, if you have any complaints, you can go fuck yourselves.”
I gripped the ends of my armrests as the jet raced down the runway and lurched off the ground and into the air. My stomach crept up into my throat, and my ears popped uncomfortably just before we leveled out at cruising altitude.
“Let’s have a look at this thing,” Nick said a moment later.
Steffi pulled the manila folder from Burkhard out and opened it, and she glanced at the photos before passing them to Ronin. Then she began to read from the file.
“The Urayuli or ‘Hairy Men’ are a legend from woodland areas of southwestern Alaska,” Steffi said. “They are reported to be ten feet tall, with long, shaggy fur, large luminescent eyes, and very few other defining features. They are naturally peaceful and docile creatures. Local myths are used by parents to keep their children from wandering far from home at night.”
“They are almost cute,” Ronin remarked, and then she handed the photos over to Nick.
“Oh, yeah.” Nick nodded. “They’re almost like a plushie version of Sasquatch.”
“That sounds like a strange combination,” Elisabeth mused.
Nick passed the photos back to me, and Elisabeth and I looked at them together.
I had to admit, the Urayuli were pretty cute. There were at least a dozen standing around together in the photos, and they had bushy-looking dark fur that reminded me of a sheepdog, but with a much thicker coat. Their softly glowing eyes took up the majority of their faces, and I couldn’t discern a mouth, nose, or ears in the photos. I could only judge by the size of the trees around the hairy beasts, but they did look roughly ten feet tall.
“I’m rather looking forward to a crowd control kind of mission,” Nala said as she leaned over to take the photos from me. “Oh, they are kind of cute!”
“I am, too,” Nick chuckled. “It’ll be a nice little break not to have to slaughter a horde of monsters that are actively trying to murder us.”
“I think we still better be prepared for things to go south on us,” I said with a touch of warning in my voice. “Things are never what they seem anymore, and rarely are they easy.”
“That is a good point,” Ronin agreed.
“Oh, there’s a baby!” Nala squealed, and she stood up and leaned over the backs of Steffi and Ronin’s chairs to point at the photo.
“Aww,” Steffi cooed. “It’s adorable.”
I smiled to myself as my ladies cooed over the infantile monster, and very rapidly felt the exhaustion of my early morning start to grab hold over me.
“You look very exhausted, mon amour,” Elisabeth murmured beside me, and her pale green eyes flicked over my face.
“I’m really tired,” I said as I fought back a yawn. “I was up stupidly early this morning.”
“Take a nap, love.” Elisabeth leaned in and kissed my cheek gently. “I will wake you when we arrive.”
“Thanks,” I sighed and settled lower in my seat as I succumbed to the feeling of hundred-pound weights on my eyelids.
Deep, dreamless sleep took a merciful hold on me, and I was totally unaware of anything more until Elisabeth’s hand gently nudged me awake.
“Dylan, it is time to wake up,” Elisabeth whispered softly in my ear.
“We in Alaska?” I muttered as I stretched in my seat, and my joints popped.
“Yes,” Elisabeth said. “We have landed on a strip of highway once more. I suspect AIMM has shut this area down for our use, as they did when we went to the golf course.”
“That’s pretty clever.” I looked around at my team.
Everyone must have changed into their mission clothes before Elisabeth had woken me up.
Nick looked rather comfortable in a puffy green jacket and what looked like black snow pants. Elisabeth was wearing a one-piece full-body suit of skiing gear that zipped up the front, and the getup was a dull gray color with a fierce yellow stripe across the front. She also wore a sunflower yellow winter wrap over her ears, and heavy hiking boots that looked like they had extra insulation.
