Dragon Conjurer 8, page 5
I found it a little disheartening that I couldn’t connect with Beyblade’s energy to the same intense level like that brief dose of fiery temper I’d had. I had a gut feeling that if I could harness that power, I might be able to use it similarly to the way I connected with Thor’s energy. I didn’t expect to be able to shoot fire out of my eyeballs or anything as extreme as that, but maybe I could tap into the heat of his flames. That could be useful in icy climates, like yesterday’s mission in Greenland.
I sighed a little at the lack of significant progress with Beyblade, and I turned my focus to Ky next. Much like my hearing connection with Goldie, the physical tether with Ky was practically second nature to me at this point. I subconsciously had a feel for my ice dragon’s position at all times, and I only needed to send a light tap across the silvery tether to get a very specific location. It was like my own personal Ky GPS system, and it was helpful in keeping track of him during missions.
I had started to be able to get a sense of his movements as well through the invisible tether, and not just the general direction he moved in. If I focused hard enough, I could feel when Ky raised a leg, or when he took a deep breath to blast out a freezing wave of ice. It was still incredibly difficult to maintain that level of connection with my blue dragon, but I had a feeling that with enough practice it would become easier and more natural.
I took a deep breath and tuned into Ky’s current position. I could feel that my ice dragon was crawling low through the trees, and the thick muscles of his legs were bunched with stored energy. Then I let Goldie’s hearing fill my ears, and with the combination of her ears, Beyblade’s focused mood, and the crouching, stalking movements of Ky, it was almost like I was on the hunt with them. I let the sensations fill my mind, and it was more powerful than any of the previous times I’d tried.
Before, I hadn’t been able to maintain a solid focus on more than two connections at the same time, but this morning, the three dragons’ energies seemed to meld effortlessly together.
My breaths grew shallow as I lost myself a little in my dragons’ hunt.
The deer were only a short distance away, and they didn’t suspect a thing. A primal instinct rose inside my chest as my ears heard Beyblade stalk forward toward the deer. A second later, my ears were filled with a rush of sounds. There was the crunch of dried leaves and sticks under my dragons’ feet as Beyblade and Ky pounced on their prey, and the snap of bones as they quickly killed the deer. The steady thrumming of the deer’s hearts stuttered to a stop, and I pulled myself back from the successful hunt.
I opened my eyes, and I could see all six of my dragons chomping happily on their meal about a hundred yards away. I’d learned over the last few weeks that there wasn’t much progress I could make while my dragons were engrossed in their meals, so I walked over to a nearby bench and had a seat to wait for them to finish.
“There you are, man.” Nick’s voice drew my attention, and I looked over my shoulder at my best friend. “You okay?”
“Hey, yeah, I’m alright.” I scooted over on the bench to make room for Nick to sit beside me. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“More nightmares?” Nick asked, but there wasn’t a whole lot of question in his tone.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I’ve always had pretty vivid dreams, but this shit is just…”
“Fucking awful?” Nick suggested helpfully.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “That’s a good way to put it.”
“I used to have really bad dreams when I was a kid,” Nick admitted.
“Really?” I asked, and I turned my body more fully toward the blond nymph. “You’ve never told me that before.”
“It’s not something I really like to talk about,” Nick admitted. “They still happen sometimes, not very often, but I haven’t had a single bad dream since Zahra…”
“Started sleeping in your bed every night,” I said, and I cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Yeah,” Nick laughed, and a smile of pure happiness spread across his face. “My point is, or maybe it’s a question, do you still have nightmares when you have company?”
“I do.” I nodded and frowned. “Which is almost worse, because I worry about disrupting their sleep, too.”
“That sucks,” Nick sighed. “I’m sure if you did, they’d say something.”
“You’re probably right about that,” I agreed. “None of the girls have ever said anything about my nightmares waking them up, and as far as I know, I’ve never thrashed around or anything.”
“That’s good,” Nick chuckled. “I gotta ask, though, dude…”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“How do you all fit in one bed?” my best friend asked emphatically, and he mimed a square with his hands. “Like… I know you’ve got a king-size… but still!”
“Well,” I laughed until I snorted. “They really cuddle up close. Sometimes they tangle up like a pretzel. A super soft pretzel.”
“Okay.” Nick held up a hand to stop me, and he laughed. “I don’t need any more details than that.”
“So, how are things with you and Zahra?” I asked to change the subject.
“Oh, sooo gooooood,” Nick sighed happily. “She’s completely perfect.”
“Good,” I said, and I couldn’t keep the smugness out of my tone. “I knew she would be.”
“Ugh, you were so right, dude,” Nick said. “Z’s brilliant, she knows every good anime, and the bad ones, too. She eats like a real person, and she never feels like she needs to hide her appetite from me. I hate when girls do that.”
“Me, too,” I chuckled.
“Like, what am I supposed to think?” Nick went on. “That girls don’t eat food? Come on, stuff your face if you’re hungry!”
“I don’t get it, either, man,” I laughed.
“Seriously.” Nick grinned. “Anyway, Zahra’s powers are amazing, too. And it’s just like I dreamed it would be, we work together so well. I’m teaching her how to sense the dormant seeds in the ground, and she’s really getting a handle on that.”
“That’s awesome,” I said. “I bet that’ll be a really helpful skill for Zahra to add to her powers.”
“Definitely.” Nick nodded. “Z can’t really tell what plant a seed is until she starts to make it grow, but I think she’ll figure that out with more practice.”
“And she has the best teacher anyone could ask for,” I pointed out.
“I just hope I’m helping,” Nick said with a touch of uncertainty.
“I know you are,” I assured him, and I patted him on the shoulder. “I’m really glad I got a chance to meet Brandon finally.”
“Yeah,” Nick agreed. “He seems like a cool guy, I’m glad he came to hang out yesterday.”
“He does.” I nodded. “After the way Zahra had described him, I really expected like… a nervous chihuahua.”
“Dude, he was like that at first!” Nick laughed, and he slapped a hand on his thigh. “The first time I met him, he seemed so twitchy and nervous. I thought he was gonna puke, he looked so anxious.”
“I wonder what helped Brandon chill out?” I mused, and I leaned back against the bench.
“I don’t know.” Nick shook his head. “But I’m glad he did. He seemed so high-strung. If he’d continued on that way, he was well on his way to a nervous breakdown.”
“Not what anybody needs,” I laughed.
“Definitely not, especially since my girlfriend is on his team,” Nick pointed out. “I need him to have Zahra’s back on missions, not curl up into a ball of nerves and fall apart.”
“Good point,” I chuckled. “I’m glad he’s chilled out, and that you two are friends.”
“It’s really nice to have a few guy friends,” Nick said with a thoughtful smile. “Before you got here, it was me and the girls all the time. I’m really glad to have some bros at the Academy.”
“I hear that,” I laughed. “And I know you and Phoenix got pretty close, and it sucked when he had to go back to Kyoto.”
“It did,” Nick said. “We chat online, though. How’s Ronin doing with being away from her brother?”
“Pretty well.” I nodded thoughtfully. “I think she’s been pretty busy with everything going on, so she hasn’t had a lot of downtime to have the chance to really miss him.”
“Plus, she’s got you,” Nick pointed out with a teasing voice. “And being with someone you’re in love with is probably way better than a sibling, even a sibling you actually like.”
“That’s true,” I agreed.
“How are your dragons this morning?” Nick asked, and his green eyes flicked over to where my dragons were romping around in the early morning sunlight.
The sun had risen while we’d been chatting, and the frost on the grass had completely melted, so it all twinkled like tiny diamonds in the rolling field in front of us. It was really beautiful the way the light flickered through the drops of dew, and I took a moment to enjoy the sight before I answered Nick’s question.
“They’re doing well,” I said. “They’ve all adjusted to Griff really nicely. He and Beyblade seem to get along really well.”
“That makes sense,” Nick mused. “They both have pretty playful personalities. I’m not surprised they’re friends.”
“Neither am I, to be honest.” I nodded.
We sat in comfortable silence for a while and watched my dragons playing in the field. It was oddly soothing to watch these enormous magical creatures playing in such a normal way with each other. They looked like little kids at recess, or a pack of puppies exploring the yard, and it warmed my heart.
But contentment and calmness were becoming rare for me lately, and this morning was no different. The ever-present looming darkness of The Great Scaled One slowly crept back into the corners of my mind, and my thoughts steadily dipped into shadows and doom.
My heart started to pick up its pace, and a nervous sweat started to spread across my body. It came over me slowly, like a frog boiling to death in a pot of water, and before I knew it, my breaths were coming in shallow bursts.
“Dude,” Nick said, and he laid a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Mmm,” I groaned, and I shook my head a little. “Ugh, fuck. I hate this.”
“Hate what?” Nick asked, and concern was clear in his eyes.
“It feels like everything is on me,” I said. “Like the fate of the whole world is on my shoulders, and I don’t even know what I’m up against, let alone how to go about fighting it.”
“You’re not alone, dude,” Nick said, and I knew he was trying to reassure me, but there was a tremble in his voice now. “I mean… we’re all in it with you.”
“I know that,” I agreed. “And that somehow makes it worse. Not only do I have to save the entire world, but my best friend and all the girls are in danger at the same time.”
“You’re kind of freaking me out, man,” Nick said, and the tremble in his voice made me look up at his face.
The blond nymph’s green eyes had grown wide with anxiety, and I could see his pulse drumming fast at the base of his neck.
I silently cursed myself for allowing my own anxiety to spread to my teammate. I was the Dragon Conjurer, I was the team leader, and it was my job to keep a level head. I was really doing a shit job at the moment, and guilt rose up in my chest to mingle with the panic.
Then the light tread of a dragon’s feet reached through the thumping of my pulse in my ears, and I looked up to find Zofia’s bright red eyes glowing down at me. My mind-control dragon stared at me without blinking, and the rising panic in my throat started to fade rapidly away.
Zofia held my gaze for several seconds, but then she turned to stare at Nick in the same way. Only after my heartbeat had settled back into a normal rhythm, and the tension around Nick’s eyes relaxed, did she blink sagely at me.
Then Nick took a deep breath, and I could see the rising panic ebb from his tense shoulders, and realization hit me like a brick wall.
“Holy shit, you can force a feeling of calm over other people, too,” I said softly to my gloomy-purple dragon. “Not just me.”
Zofia blinked slowly at me as if to say, “Of course, I fucking can.”
Chapter 4
“Woah,” Nick breathed, and he turned to look at me. “What just happened?”
“Zo happened,” I said.
I looked up at my gloomy-purple dragon with fascination and considered the possibilities this new development could bring. I’d assumed the calming effect Zofia sometimes had on me was a part of our connection, like the way I could hear through Goldie’s ears, or tell where Ky was at any given moment.
But now I couldn’t help but think it wasn’t a connection at all, it was another aspect of her magical powers.
“Zofia can do calming…” Nick searched for the right word. “Attacks? Like, Zo can send out calm the same way she can use her mind-confusion attacks?”
“I guess so.” I shrugged. “I’m not totally sure, this is brand-new, but that’s definitely what it seems like.”
“That’s wild!” Nick cheered.
The revelation spun through my head, and I felt a touch dizzy. Then I remembered I hadn’t bothered to eat the breakfast cookie I’d jammed into my pocket before I left the suite, so I pulled it out, tore the wrapper away, and shoved half of one of the cookies into my mouth. I held out the snack to Nick, and he silently took one and devoured it nearly whole.
“What does this mean?” Nick asked, and a few cookie crumbs flew out of his mouth.
“I guess it means we’ll never have a moment of real panic on a mission ever again,” I snorted.
We sat quietly for a moment and finished the breakfast cookies as I continued to contemplate the implications of Zofia’s powers.
“Do you think Zo has other powers, too?” Nick asked, and he looked at me with excitement bright in his green eyes.
“Like what?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Nick chuckled. “Maybe she can send out other emotions, like bravery!”
“Bravery?” I repeated.
“Yeah!” Nick nodded enthusiastically. “Maybe she can make us brave, or maybe she can infuse monsters with panic instead!”
“That could be cool,” I said as the idea turned over in my head. “I could definitely see how an attack of fear could be useful.”
“We’ll have to brainstorm some ideas,” Nick pondered. “Then we can try some of them out in action.”
“That’s a good idea.” I nodded, and my thoughts started to turn to possible attacks against monsters and assistive boosts to the team.
Zofia laid down in the grass nearby like some kind of protective gargoyle, and Beyblade soon came over to join her. My dragons started to wander back over by themselves a short time later. I’d come up with a few possibilities that I wanted to try with Zofia, and they included Nick’s suggestions of bravery and fear, as well as a clear-minded focus. I also wondered if Zofia could interrupt monsters’ brainwaves to cause them to lose their ability to focus to the point where they would effectively be blind. I felt my ideas wandering into fairly ridiculous prospects, and I shook my head.
“Why don’t we go back to the suite and see what the girls are up to?” I suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” Nick agreed. “Zahra was awake when I came out, but none of the others had come out of their rooms yet.”
“Epistrophi, Dychwelyd,” I said, and Ky and Griff disappeared in a silent flash of blue light to curl up under my skin.
“Komme Tilbake, Moduro,” I said after a moment.
A bright flash of indigo and gold light burst out, and Thor and Goldie disappeared to settle comfortably on my back and arm.
Zofia stood up and blinked patiently at me, and Beyblade nuzzled close under her chin before he stared at me like an obedient toddler.
“Bianxifa, Búcsú,” I said, and Beyblade and Zofia disappeared with a loud fwoomp and a flash of orange light.
“Is staggering their returns better than doing them all at once?” Nick asked.
We stood from the bench and started to walk around the corner of the building.
“Yeah, definitely.” I nodded. “It’s just so much if I try and summon them all back in at the same time. It’s like a head rush mixed with a shot of grain alcohol. It kind of just knocks me in the gut and takes my legs right out from under me.”
“That sounds awful.” Nick grimaced.
We walked back up to the suite, and I was entirely unsurprised to see Zahra sitting with my ladies around the kitchen table. It looked like they were about finished with breakfast, and there were plates in front of each of them with the last scraps of what smelled like sausage and eggs.
“Hey cutie, what had you up so early?” Steffi asked when we walked through the door.
Elisabeth leaned back in her chair as she sipped the last of her tea, and Nala smiled at me as she stood from her seat and moved to refill her coffee cup.
“More nightmares,” Ronin said after a quick, assessing glance at my face.
“How’d you guess?” I asked sardonically.
“There are dark shadows under your eyes again,” Ronin whispered.
“I wish there was a way for us to help you find solace in sleep once more,” Elisabeth mused.
My French shapeshifter’s idle comment gave me an idea, and I wondered if I could tap into Zofia’s calming ability while she was in my tattoo. Maybe if I could reach out to her as part of my bedtime routine, she could keep me calm throughout the night, or at least for part of it.
“I’m sure it’ll pass,” I said instead, and I tucked the idea away for later inspection. Then I walked around the table and gave each of my girls a kiss.
“I’ll take a good old-fashioned ‘good morning,’” Zahra laughed, and she held her hand up.
“Good morning, Zahra.” I grinned at her teasing.
