Chapter Text
Nine Realms rewrite Chapter 5
The room was dark. The window was cracked open just enough to let the dozens of wires fall out of it, snaking up and out into the winter. She could feel a cool breeze, but she couldn’t hear the wind she was sure raged outside. Guitars roared in her ears with percussion erupting across her desk. The red light on her second monitor reflected onto her keyboard. I feel so evil, she thought with a grin.
The headphones atop her beanie dug into her hair, the bridge snug between the yarn. She spun the pencil up and around her fingers and leaned forward in her chair. The bass drums thundered. The pencil left her hand, quickly trapped between her teeth. Her fingers suddenly flew over the keyboard. The screen flipped. She checked the second monitor to make sure she was recording. She squirted at the main monitor, then reloaded. Then again.
“What are you up to, Tom Kullerson?” She mumbled in the darkness. The white figure on her screen reflected off her glasses. She took a quick screenshot and dragged it over to her second monitor, covering the recording software. After a few more clicks and keys, she was granted a big fat fuck you.
[No results]
Well, that can’t be right. Unless-
She turned slowly to the camera feed and stared. The pencil fell out of her mouth. A bass solo danced from one ear to the other. Alex narrowed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. If I play my cards right, I can be in charge of this whole operation by next week.
Alex paced her newly cleaned room, tongue rolling over and under the red candy of the sucker in her mouth. She had on four layers, an undershirt, a shirt, a hoodie, and a jacket. Somehow, it was still bitter cold, and she dug in her dresser for a pair of fingerless gloves. She pulled them on quickly. Alex hesitated, then closed the drawer. What am I thinking? Her first instinct was to send him an email, but then she remembered how that went back home. Normal people don’t send emails about this stuff. Normal people don’t get into this situation in the first place.
Everyone around her was born with the perfect instinct of mimicry and manipulation. Alex was sorely lacking. She originally got the idea from Death Note, then perfected it through Orwell’s 1984. She discovered in order to know people, she had to watch them, and Alex had no interest in learning on the job. So she set up cameras in nearly every building, room, and corner of ICARIS. Wherever she couldn’t reach, she sent her dragons to spy for her.
Jun read when people were watching and bit her nails when she knew they weren’t. Tom fought with his mom and snuck out. D’Angelo-
“Alex!” The voice called from the kitchen.
“Coming Mamá!” Alex shouted back, quickly leaving her freezer of a room. Her boots made every step she took twice as loud, and no one was surprised when she arrived.
D’Angelo looked more like a piece of wood than a person. He stood straight and stiff, eyes hard. He wore a black winter hat with the logo of some sports team and a thin pine green jacket that looked more like a cheap sleeping bag than a coat. Around his shoulder was a messenger bag, and in his hands was one of Alex’s dragons.
“D'Angelo found one of your drones in a tree by his house and brought it back for you,” Her mamá explained, a smile plastered on her face. D'Angelo didn’t even blink. “Isn’t that nice?”
“Thank you,” Alex said stiffly. Her mamá nudged her. Alex grinned with too many teeth as she took the drone. “Do- do you want to come upstairs? I can show you how they work.”
“Only if your moms don’t mind,” D'Angelo said, looking at her mamá.
“What? Of course, come in, I’ll throw a pizza in the oven, have you had lunch yet?” D'Angelo closed the door behind him as her mamá rushed to the kitchen. He gave her a pointed look. Alex winked. D'Angelo winced.
“Can we go upstairs?” Alex asked.
“Of course, of course, have fun! Oh, and behave.” Her mamá pointed at both of them in warning.
“We will, love you.” She practically dragged D'Angelo to her room, locking the door behind her.
“Alright, explain,” D'Angelo said, dropping the letter onto her desk. Alex placed her dragon carefully onto its box giving it a soft pat on the top. “Are you insane? What do you want?”
“Sit,” Alex said. D'Angelo folded his arms, standing. She sighed. All men are fools and all men are knights. Alex unlocked her computer and pulled up the clip from the previous night. D'Angelo, Jun, and Tom all crossed the screen, and then, the white bat. D'Angelo went pale as the creature.
“I- I don’t know what that is.”
“Liar. I have eyes.” Alex paused the video on a clear frame of the creature. “What is the white bat?”
“The what?”
“This thing,” Alex pulled the sucker free from her mouth, using it to gesture at the screen.
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone. Why don’t you ask Tom? Or Jun?”
“Because Tom is clearly injured from something. That’s why Jun needed your help. And Jun wandered off into the woods this morning. I haven’t seen her since.” D'Angelo just stared.
“Jun’s in the forest alone?”
“Hey! Focus. Do you know how much trouble you’re in?” Alex asked.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re an accomplice. I see everything that goes on at ICARIS, you can sneeze in the shower and I’ll know about it.”
“You can see in my shower?” D'Angelo asked, horrified.
“What? No, I didn’t say that.” Alex said, confused.
“But- never mind.” Alex cursed herself internally. How was it going wrong already? “You need to tell me what that thing is because if you don’t, we’re all going to be in deep shit. Do you understand? Everyone could die. Also, if you refuse I’m going to blackmail you.” D'Angelo narrowed his gaze, stepping closer to her and making their height difference that much more obvious.
“Try. See what happens, Alex.” D'Angelo’s dark eyes hardened.
“Or what? You’ll send the white bat to kill me? Good luck explaining that one to Chief Baker.” D'Angelo glared.
“How about you explain what you mean by we’re all gonna die first?”
“Okay, think about it. If there are any more of these, even ten or so, and their friend is here, injured, what do you think they’ll do? Or what if Tom gets hurt again and the bat tries to protect him, or worse, avenge him? What if it wants to just hang out around here? Do you think our parents will just let it? What if that thing manages to find civilization? It has wings, and it can shoot fireballs. We’re fucked.”
“Echo wouldn’t just-” D'Angelo cut himself off with a sharp breath.
“Echo?” Alex asked, horror creeping into her voice. “It has a name?”
“Tom named it,” D'Angelo explained. “Tom found it alone, injured in the woods, and brought it here so I could help it. It went home, it’s gone now. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“So where is Jun going?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know.” Alex glared. “I’m serious! I barely talk to either of them.” The puff ball on the top of D'Angelo’s hat bounced as he shook his head.
“Let me show you something. Wendy, pull up dragon feeds.”
“Pulling up Dragon Feed.” Wendy’s robotic voice responded. Both of her monitors switched to camera footage, live-streamed video from across ICARIS. Each was labeled in small white text in the top left corner of their feed. Quicksilver was stationed at D'Angelo’s house, Sunfyre at Jun’s, and Vhagar at Tom’s.
“Dragon feed?” D'Angelo asked.
“Drones, they’re my dragons. They’re all named after Game of Thrones dragons so it’s easier for me to keep track of them.”
D'Angelo stared at the cameras. “That makes it easier?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you spying on us?” D'Angelo asked, seemingly offended.
“I’m keeping us all safe. I wasn’t expecting dinosaurs, maybe evil Scandinavians, or perhaps bears,” she hesitated. “Mainly each other. Isolation tends to do terrible things to the brain.”
“My dad is the head of security, he would-”
“Chief Baker’s firewall might as well be made of paper mache. Pow!” Alex punched the air. “That’s me breaking into ICARIS’s security system.”
D'Angelo stared. “Can I go?”
“No.” Alex turned off the feed with the push of a button. “The point is, I know all of your secrets. I’ll tell your dad that you don’t want to be a doctor if you don’t tell me everything.”
“I don’t respond to threats.”
“I’ll tell him you want to be a vet.”
D'Angelo hesitated. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“I have no investment in your future or the relationship between you and your father,” Alex said.
“This is blackmail!”
“I know, I said that.”
“I don’t know where Jun is, all I know is what I told you.”
“You’re not serious,” Alex demanded.
“I am!” He insisted. “It’s none of my business what they do-”
“Are you crazy?” D'Angelo’s face remained as unmoving as stone, his neutrality a permanent fixture. He is totally serious. “Dragons exist and you’re not even the least bit curious about them?”
“Of course I am,” D'Angelo hissed, his expression breaking. Something in his eyes looked sad. “But whatever trouble Tom got into that broke his ankle is none of my business. I’m needed here, if the power goes out again at a bad time, they’re gonna need all the help they can get.”
“You’re lying,” Alex realized with a sudden grin. “You’re lying to me!”
“I’m… not?” D'Angelo gave her a queer look.
“You are!” Alex clapped her hands together. “Your tone is hesitant and nervous, you want me to believe you because you don’t want to get in trouble, do you?”
“I don’t care about that.”
“You’re still lying.”
“This is so stupid, I’m going home.” D'Angelo shook his head and made a beeline for the door.
“Wendy, lock the door.”
“Locking door.” It jammed just as D'Angelo pulled on the handle. Alex clenched her jaw. I’m about two steps away from becoming a kidnapper. I need a new plan.
“What are you doing, D'Angelo?” Alex asked, staring at him with sad, pitiful eyes. “You’re not an idiot, so why are you acting like one?”
“Let me go,” D'Angelo warned.
“You’re not even a little curious about the dragons? If you’re not panicking, you must not think they’re malicious predators. Nobody, nobody just ‘doesn’t care’ about dragons.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Bullshit.”
“I don’t poke into other people’s business, okay? How would you feel if someone came in here and started asking what’s wrong with you, huh? What’s with the cameras, Alex? What are you afraid of, Alex?” She took a stumbling step back, tripping into the seat of her chair. “You’re the coward, not me.” The room fell silent, D'Angelo standing over her with fire in his eyes. Alex half expected him to grow a pair of leathery wings and burn her alive.
The door swung open with no warning, her mamá bouncing in on light feet. Her hands were full with two plates, each with two slices of everything pizza on them and napkins tucked underneath.
“Pizza’s ready,” she announced with a wide smile as she handed a plate to each of them, oblivious to the tension that had just fled the room.
“Thank you, ma’am,” D'Angelo said.
“Thank you, mamita,” Alex echoed, placing the plate carefully on the desk and away from the keyboard.
“No problem,” she glanced at D'Angelo. “Keep the door open at least two inches.” Alex went pink.
“Mama!”
“I’m leaving! I’m leaving,” her mamá promised, leaving the door open just a few inches as she left.
“She’s nice,” D'Angelo said, taking a cautious bite.
“Yeah, she’s really happy to even have a guest to serve. I don’t invite a lot of people over.” Silence covered them like a thick blanket, only permeating by the occasional sounds of chewing and the clinking of their plates. Alex wiped her fingers slowly, then thoughtfully.
“Fine,” Alex put her plate back down with a clink. “If you don’t want to get involved, fine. But Jun is missing. Tom clearly can’t do… whatever he’s doing by himself. Someone has to keep them from being stupid.”
“Then you go help.”
“I can’t, I’m the guy in the chair.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. I do not need to be a part of this. I don’t need to be distracted.
“The guy in the chair?” D'Angelo asked, putting his empty plate on top of hers. “You mean the gal in the chair?”
“Hey, anyone can be the guy in the chair. Besides I’m a lot cooler than Ned Leeds.”
“Who?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Alex grumbled. “I can be your aerial support. You don’t have a dragon, but I do. If there are a lot of these things, you can bet their lair isn’t gonna be built for people.”
“They- I can’t do this!” D'Angelo exclaimed, breaking into a hushed voice when Alex glared and pointed to the open door. “I don’t even know where Jun is!”
“I’ve got an idea,” Alex said, turning to her keyboard. The rhythmic sound of clacking keys soothed her like something nostalgic. She pulled up a map of the area and pressed a button on the side of the screen.
“Woah, is this all of Rakketown?” D'Angelo asked, the white light of the screen brightening his face and eyes.
“Not just Rakketown, but a ten mile radius of it.” Alex used the touchscreen to pull up a digital pencil tool, drawing a white circle. “This is where my cameras last detected any movement from Jun, heading east. Wendy can calculate a general direction based on my records of her walking patterns and decision making.”
“Is Wendy your AI? Is it like ChatGPT?”
Alex turned to him and flared. “She has nothing in common with that word vomit machine.”
D'Angelo looked apologetic but said nothing, instead pursing his lips for a few seconds before speaking again. “How long ago was this?”
“About two hours ago.”
“Jun disappeared into the woods two hours ago and you didn’t tell anyone?” D'Angelo demanded.
“No. A lot of people would be mad if they knew I was spying, your dad especially. Besides, that’s what you’re here for. You three are the only ones that know about the dragons, right?”
“I think so.”
“Right. So Jun is the one missing and Tom broke his leg, so he’s out. It has to be you, and fast. After I spotted the dragon,” her words came out like a hiss between her teeth. “I started sending my own further into the woods and… and I don’t think all of the dragons are as friendly as Tom’s.”
“Why can’t you go?”
“You’re the medic, Jun could be hurt, and she might need someone to physically drag her out. Look at me, I can’t lift Jun, much less fight a dragon.” Alex held up her small arms, picturing the black dragons that would have been invisible to her if not for infrared cameras. They would eat me alive. “Jun’s tiny and even she’s taller than me.”
“Then come with me,” D'Angelo practically begged. “You can only do so much from here.”
Alex shook her head. “If something happens to you too, someone needs to be here to tell the adults and rescue you guys. We can’t put all of our eggs in one basket.”
“And why can’t we tell our parents? If Jun’s in serious trouble, we have to get her serious help.”
“There are a million ways that could go wrong. Rakkecorp could sell them for profit, tourists could flood here and ruin their natural habitat, the government might get involved and other countries would want a slice of the pie. Maybe the dragons escape whatever captivity they're in and start burning cities. We can recreate Jurassic Park a hundred times over, but these dinosaurs have wings, breathe fire, and there could be millions. We don’t even know if they can be killed with bullets. They could have diseases that humans aren’t resistant to. They could be killed to use their scales as clothing like with crocodiles. Do you want dragon skin boots, D'Angelo? Do you want to live with that?”
“Okay, okay, bad idea, I get it,” D'Angelo grumbled. “So if I die horribly, I could be dooming humanity to death by fire?”
“Worst case scenario, yes.”
D'Angelo signed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He briefly threw his head back before righting himself. “Fine. I can’t believe I'm agreeing to this, but fine.”
Alex grinned. “Great.”
“Please don’t make me regret this."
Tom was not a fan of having a sprained ankle.
Walking anywhere was painful and inconvenient. D'Angelo hadn’t told him what to do when he needed a shower, and Tom hadn’t thought to ask. He lasted about a minute before just giving in and sitting on the floor like an idiot. Limping out of the bathroom with his hair dripping warm water down the bridge of his nose, he locked himself back in his room and shuddered. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his throbbing foot.
It wasn’t that bad looking. An angry purple bruise covered most of the ball of his ankle, with an outline the color of mashed up squash. That’s… probably a good sign. He called hearing from somewhere at some point that yellow meant it was healing. Tom had been badly injured more times than he could remember, but this was his first ankle sprain. I broke my ankle sprain virginity, he thought dumbly. Thinking felt like dragging his feet through mud, slow and painful, each second a sharp reminder of his injury and mistake.
Thunk.
Tom whipped his head around, still sitting. The sudden motion made him instantly nauseous and dizzy, forcing him to close his eyes and breathe slowly to recover. Thunk. Something heavy hit his window again, hidden by curtains. Tom opened his eyes and shuffled over his bed, poking just his head out. At first, nothing, then a third pebble came out of hammerspace, hurling toward him. Thunk. It made the window’s plastic trim wobble a little. It would have hit him right between the eyes if the glass hadn’t been there. Tom glanced over the edge, and he swore his heart jumped in his chest.
“Echo!” Tom hissed, unsure if the dragon could hear him. Echo’s head shot up, meeting his eyes. “What are you doing here? Someone could see you!” Echo seemed to disagree entirely, leaping into the air like a cat before gracefully diving into a foot of snow. His scales resembled the snow so closely, even the glint of the sun matching the ground, Tom wasn’t entirely sure he would notice the dragon with a quick glance.
“Huh. Alright then. Give me a minute, I’m coming down.” Tom flung the curtains closed again. He hobbled around his bedroom collecting articles of clothing very, very, slowly. He grit his teeth as he wiggled into jeans, that particular task ten times harder while sitting. After six thousand years, Tom managed to bundle himself up in as much white as he could find. An old white hat that his mom hadn’t worn in years, an old puffy white jacket that was at least two sizes too small, a silver scarf that he’d found at the bottom of their miscellaneous laundry basket, his white gloves, and his white rainboots that went up past his shins. He wrapped his ankle in an elastic medical bandage and some bubble wrap before putting it in the rainboot. It hurt less after that (and aspirin). Tom tiptoed past his mom watching TV on the sofa in her pajamas. He wasn’t sure if he was just that quiet, or if his mom had fallen back asleep, but he escaped without a word.
“It’s me,” Tom said when he approached the back of the house. Echo’s ears (Numbs? Frills? Ear flaps?) perked up through the snow, his head emerging a second later. Echo jumped free and practically tackled Tom, spinning him around in a wide arc. Tom fell back first into the snow, one leg mostly useless at supporting him. Despite the throbbing pain in his ankle, a bright laugh broke free from him. Echo licked him across the face, Tom groaning even after it was over. He reached over and grabbed a fist full of snow, throwing it at Echo. The snowball dissolved into a shower of powder before it even hit the dragon. The snow was too light to even stick together. Echo snorted at him, swishing his tail once and burying Tom up to the waist in powder.
“Asshole!” Tom teased, trying futilely to wipe the snow from his eyes with his equally wet gloves. “Alright, alright, fine, you win. Wasn’t really fair anyway.” He mumbled the last part. Echo crouched next to him in a familiar motion. Hop on, he might have said, staring at Tom expectantly.
“Ah, about that,” Tom held up his sprained ankle and gave it a little demonstrable wiggle. Echo sniffed it cautiously. “It’s broken. Well, sprained, but it might as well be. I’m on bed rest, doctor’s orders.” Echo stared at him as if to say, then why are you down here, silly creature. “You're the one who wanted me down here!” Echo snorted again, sending up a flurry of powder. Echo made the same motion, we’re going flying, get on. Tom sighed, at least he wouldn’t have to use his feet while flying. Much easier than driving a car. Dragons were simply vibes based. Cars had all these rules about lights, signs, other cars, other people… it was exhausting.
“If this goes horribly wrong, I’m blaming you.” One of Echo’s ear flaps whacked his hand as he reached to climb on. “Yeah well fuck you too,” Tom said fondly. He balanced on his good foot and swung the other over Echo’s back. It took a good minute of shuffling around, pushing, and pulling to get comfortable, and even then he felt a headache coming on.
“I’m starting to think this is a terrible idea,” Tom mumbled. Eh, fuck it. He’d been saying that a lot recently. “We need to get you-” Tom stopped himself. A saddle. Like a horse. Wouldn’t that be humiliating? Hey my only friend within a thousand miles, how about a put a saddle on you so you can carry me around while I sit here and do fuck all! His cheeks felt red with embarrassment, or maybe it was just the cold. Echo looked back at him, you good?
“I’m fine,” Tom asked, wrapping his legs around Echo as best as he could. “Lead the way.” He didn’t have to ask twice, Echo springing into the air with one beat of his wings. The motion sent a wave of shock to his ankle, but the powerful winter winds were so sudden and so absolutely freezing that he barely noticed, just wrapping the scarf around his face tighter. He could feel every muscle moving under him, the joints of Echo’s white wings and back with every flap.
As they climbed, Tom felt his heart drop. There wasn’t any fear, even as he tried to find the clenching in his chest, just a shock at the sudden gain in elevation, and the elation of soaring. The warmth of Echo’s internal fire heated him like a furnace. Tom was sure that without it, he’d have frozen into a block of ice instantly.
“Woo!” Tom whooped, letting out a long laugh as they left Rakketown and ICARIS behind. The world around them was white in every direction, Echo’s green eyes in rare moments were the only reminder that the pale void wasn’t all encompassing. Time passed in a blur, along with everything else. Minutes looked the same as seconds, hours the same as minutes, and soon, Tom had lost any sense of time. Up might as well have been left or right, or even below him, as Echo blended in perfectly in the clouds, and even Tom himself was fit to disappear. The realization made his chest swell. I could disappear up here. He and Echo could ditch the rest of the world, and just live in the clouds and snow banks, eating fish and berries.
“I should’ve been a dragon,” Tom said quietly as Echo’s breakneck pace slowed to a glide. The dragon purred as soft as the snow. “Why did you come back for me? You couldn't even fly last night, and now you’re carrying me on your back? Do dragons heal super fast or something?” Tom leaned forward and wrapped both arms around Echo, dipping his head down to see Echo’s underside. The dragon warbled a warning. “I’m being super careful, promise.” Echo’s stomach was covered in pale pink scales where the old ones had been ripped away or carefully removed by D'Angelo. They seemed fragile, like scars, but looked much better.
“Was that because of D'Angelo or do you just heal fast?” Echo made a derisive purr as if saying, stupid question, creature. “Yeah, well, I’m learning, okay?” Tom pushed himself back up to a sitting position, the warmth on his chest from Echo’s body fading. Tom’s ever present grin began to fade. The snow wouldn’t last, none of it would. One day, ICARIS would finish whatever they were doing, pack up, and go home, leaving Echo behind forever. Tom tried to think of a way to come back. Flights to Scandinavia from America weren’t cheap, especially for a teenager. He shook the thoughts from his head quickly.
“What do you do during the summer?” Tom asked. “When it isn’t snowing anymore? Blend in with the sun like orcas and penguins?” Echo snorted again, the one he quickly learned meant you’re being stupid. “Although, you guys do live in caves, so it probably doesn’t matter. I’m hungry. Oh, shit, I never followed up on that marshmallow promise. I’ll do it soon, promise.” Another you’re stupid snort. “Yeah, yeah.”
Echo’s ear frills popped up without warning, and with a sudden jerk of his wings, they were flying in almost the opposite direction.
“Woah, hey, what’s going on?” Tom asked as the motion made his head throb. Danger, Echo’s concerned warble warned. Well, that’s not good Tom thought. After a few minutes of quiet flying, Echo began a steady dive. Tom leaned as far forward as he could, one hand clutching desperately at his hat to keep it from flying off. The wind rushed past his face so fast it burned. In the last moments, Echo’s wings spread wide, and their fall slowed to a glide. Tom caught sight of the hole first. That seems… new. The ground around it bulged like the snake dragon tunnels from before. His blood ran cold.
“They’re back?” Tom asked. Echo didn’t acknowledge him. In a swift motion, they were diving through the cave, slicing through the air like a fish through water. The white world around them disappeared and turned dark. Tom’s face warmed as they descended. Echo emitted a sonic blast of blue fire down the walls of the tunnel, illuminating his scales in a light lavender before the rings of light fled downward. It took only a few moments before the tunnel brightened once more. The narrow walls parted like opening curtains into a cavern he recognized immediately.
As Echo dipped low when they emerged, Tom leaned forward, and when Echo pulled back, Tom reclined in sync. The cave was the same as the one where he’d found Softshower, covered in mist, bioluminescence, and waterfalls. Echo made a beeline past it all.
“Where are we g-?” Tom’s words caught in his throat as they passed another corner. The caves opened even wider, so much so he had to pause and really consider how far underground they were. The small streams and pools that filled and were filled by the waterfalls grew much larger and deeper, with glowing rocks bunched at the bottoms. And through all the glowing crystals, massive fungi, and neon rock spires, there was only one distinctly alien thing.
“D’Angelo?” Tom cried out with such ferocity and shock that Echo stopped in midair. D’Angelo stood on a random rock spire, with such utter bewilderment on his usually stoic face that Tom couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Echo shot him a scolding look. The dragon beat his wings and flew forward once again… in the opposite direction of D’Angelo.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Tom asked, leaning back and making Echo slow. “Isn’t that what you wanted to show me?” Echo looked back at him, eyes filled with something he’d never seen before. He didn’t realize he’d been grinning until the smile sharply fell. “Okay, we’ll go, but can we talk to him first? I would be very sad if D’Angelo died after getting eaten by a dragon.” Echo gave him one last pleading look before agreeing. As one, Tom and Echo pivoted on an angle, flying straight for D’Angelo.
“What the hell are you doing down here?” Tom demanded as Echo landed right next to him. There wasn’t even room on the small rock spire for Tom to get off and stand. “Scratch that, how did you get down here, how did you get on this without a dragon?” Tom gestured to the isolated rock they stood on.
“He did have a dragon.” A static voice said from seemingly nowhere. From behind D’Angelo emerged not one, not two, but somewhere around half a dozen drones, all covered in paint and ugly pieces of black boxes of add-ons that were clearly custom. Each drone was colored slightly differently, with snarling faces and some of the strangest names Tom had ever read scrawled on the sides in varying colors and fonts.
“Alex knows,” D’Angelo said. “She saw us on the cameras, but she’s been covering for us, no one else knows-”
“You told!” Tom shouted, unable to hide the look of disgust and betrayal that threatened to take over. “What the fuck D’Angelo! You had one job, shut up and leave us alone.”
“He didn’t tell me,” Alex’s voice said from one of the drones’ speakers. “I figured it out. You guys are terrible at keeping this secret. I’m gonna help, I’m helping D’Angelo find Jun.”
Tom’s fury abated. “Jun? What do you mean?”
“She disappeared down here a few hours ago, my drones have been searching the forest and caves for her but nothing yet. We’re pretty sure she got at least this far.”
“If she’s down here, she’s either fucked or-” Tom looked down at Echo. “You knew, didn’t you? You’re trying to lead me to her.” Echo just glared.
“It knows where she went?” D’Angelo asked.
“He has a better sense of hearing and smell than us or the drones. I trust him to take us to her,” Tom said.
“Good, thank God,” D’Angelo’s shoulders sagged visibly, as though he’d been making a conscious effort to hold an invisible weight on his shoulders. “Can I get on?” Tom and Echo made eye contact, immediately coming to a silent agreement. You and you alone.
“We can carry you,” Tom offered. “Echo can’t carry that much weight- ow!” He cried as Echo’s ear flap whacked his wrist. “There’s no room. You’re very strong.” Tom assured the dragon who just snorted and stared at him intensely, as if to say get it over with!
“Uh,” D’Angelo looked from him to Echo, then to Echo’s sharp talons. “I’ll take my chances with Alex,” he said turning to the black drone. It was the only one of its color, and far larger than the others, with two black straps hanging from the bottom that looked strangely like handles.
“Did- did you ride a drone down here?” Tom asked, almost afraid to speak the words, afraid he sounded like an idiot
D’Angelo sighed. “Yeah. My arms are killing me.” He reached up and strapped both of his hands in.
“Package secured.” A robot voice declared in a voice that was definitively not Alex.
“Are you going to be able to keep up?” Tom asked.
“Balerion is the fastest,” Alex’s voice said with a crackle. “He can handle it.”
“This is so fucked.” Tom mumbled, feeling Echo’s muscles tense a moment before they took off. Those few sentences were the most he’d ever spoken with Alex ever before. He’d barely recognized her voice. What’s her stake in this? He could understand D’Angelo a little bit, he had some pathological need to save people, though Tom had no idea if it was genuine selflessness or some fucked up ego thing. But Alex? She was too afraid to speak during their class with four people and made an entire hologram projection of herself so she didn’t have to present in front of them. Once Tom ran into her, literally, and Alex screamed bloody murder, before turning bright red and practically running away.
And what the hell was Jun doing down here? Curiosity, maybe? Physically he couldn’t understand how she even got down the entrance, much less past all the massive pits. Only a dragon could-
Tom’s head spun even more than it already had. Softshower. He should’ve seen it earlier. They must have interacted when Echo rescued him with Softshower, someone had to send her away. His heart raced, and he gripped Echo’s scales tightly. I’m not the only dragon rider anymore, am I? The thought was ugly. Maybe, just maybe he wanted to keep the dragons and the hidden world to himself just a little while longer, but was that so wrong? He barely even knew Jun, he couldn’t even call them friends. And yet the same siren call that brought Tom down here brought Jun.
And now she could be in danger because of me.
“I never should have told anyone about this,” Tom mumbled. “I shouldn’t have-” he stopped himself before he could say it. I shouldn’t have ever come down here. “I ruined it,” Tom said quietly, so only Echo could hear. “I ruined the secret, not Jun or D’Angelo. I fucked it up.” Echo glanced back at him, not with pity or anger, but the look he’d seen on every teacher he’d ever had. Don’t be stupid, Tom, Echo seemed to say. And yet it wasn’t quite disappointment. Echo’s eyes softened, I’m glad you’re here.
“Thanks,” Tom said in a breath, giving the dragon a small smile. Now quit being stupid, Echo might have said. We have shit to do, you’re needed right now. Tom nodded. Focus, he thought to himself, the same scolding mantra he’d been repeating for years. Eh, fuck it. I don’t have time for that either.
“D’Angelo!” Tom called, leaning back so Echo would slow and they could make eye contact. D’Angelo looked absolutely pissed, dangling from the drone with shaking arms.
“Are we almost there?” D’Angelo whined somewhat desperately. Tom almost laughed at his composure. Echo warbled a yes.
“Almost. When we get there, I want you to stay back for a minute, we don’t know what we’re getting into. Alex, scatter the rest of the drones. Get a layout of the area, check for threats, and be ready to break everyone out.”
“Will do,” Alex said, her microphone crackling to life and briefly blasting the dragon world with the rock and roll music she was listening to. A few spiked dragons flew past them, shooting suspicious looks their way. How do I know what a suspicious dragon looks like? I have got to talk to less dragons and more people. Echo warbled a gentle warning.
“We’re here,” Tom said as they approached a series of small pools and caves, Echo leaning toward one cave in particular. Echo dove quickly, flying smoothly inside and landing at the entrance. The dragon made a desperate crying sound.
“Woah, Echo, what’s wrong?” Tom asked, unsure if Echo had been hurt. Deep inside the cave, he instantly recognized the two figures. Softshower, with light happy eyes, came bounding toward them instantly, chirping happily before Echo cut her off with a reverberating roar. Then there was Jun, sitting on the edge of a pool, the legs of her pants rolled up over her knees, her feet dangling in the water. Oh, and surrounded by a million baby dragons.
“Tom?” Jun stared at him blankly, mouth slightly agape. “Why- how did you-”
“Why did you come down here?” Tom countered, hopping off Echo and hobbling toward her on his good leg. “And how, and why again? What the hell, Jun? You could’ve gotten hurt.”
Jun glared at him, swinging her feet back onto land and splashing a tiny version of Softshower with water. “Says you. Why did you come down here with your ankle like that?”
“It’s a long story,” Tom explained. Echo whined again behind him, and Softshower took up the call, seeming equally anxious. “Look, we’ve got to go. Something’s up, I don’t know what but Echo has been losing his shit-”
“Go? I’m not going anywhere,” Jun declared, rolling down her pants legs. “Softshower’s eggs just hatched, she can’t take care of all these babies on her own. That’s why the nadders had to come get me.” The dizziness that Tom had become so familiar with returned without warning.
“What? You know what, it doesn’t matter, Alex knows about the dragons and D’Angelo is down here looking for you. Everyone was worried.”
Jun blinked, pausing in the middle of putting her dry socks on. “What do you mean Alex knows? How did D’Angelo get here?” Echo finally had enough and marched right over to Tom, retracting his sharp teeth (something he should have noticed Echo could do before). The dragon grabbed Tom by the hood of his jacket and marched right back out toward the mouth of the cave.
“Hey! What the fuck!” Tom shouted as his feet dragged on the ground. His ankle complained at every one of Echo’s steps. “I’m injured you know. I could die tomorrow.” Echo snorted at him.
“Oh my gods,” Jun mumbled, chasing after them. “This is ridiculous.”
“Tom!” Came a shout from outside the cave. D’Angelo, strapped to the underside of Alex’s black drone, came at an agonizingly slow pace toward them. He quickly unstrapped himself. “We have got to get out of here.”
“Echo seems to agree,” Tom mumbled, still hanging uselessly from the dragon’s mouth.
“We can’t leave them,” Jun said, gesturing toward the baby dragons inside that watched them carefully, chirping constantly like a symphony of finger cymbals. “The Deadly Nadders and Raincutters have been working together for a reason. They could be vulnerable to diseases, or maybe too weak, or-”
The caves roared to life.
A sound of thunder descended upon them. A thousand, no, thousands of dragons all picked up the call of a few, a very desperate few. The walls shook from the force of it, crystals breaking off of thin stalactites and stalagmites, raining diamonds down upon parents and babies alike. Echo and Softshower joined the cries, throwing their heads back to scream the warning. Tom clamped his hands over his ears. The world spun around him like he’d just gotten off one of those teacup rides. Somehow, his legs felt dizzy. Surely that wasn’t supposed to-
“Tom!” Someone shouted before his vision faded for a few moments. The world was black for only a few seconds, but when he opened his eyes again, he was staring down the jaws of a beast.
“Echo!” Tom shouted, scrambling onto his back. Echo fired a single shot down the dragon’s maw, the beast shrieking in pain as it fell off the cliff. It emerged flying unevenly a moment later.
“Deathgrippers!” Jun called, magically mounted onto Softshower. Tom couldn’t see straight, much less think straight. What time is it? He groaned. D’Angelo climbed onto Softshower’s back right behind Jun, with her yelling something at him. She looked… pissed.
“What the fuck is a Deathgripper!” D’Angelo’s words came out in a shrill shriek so loud it made stars dance in Tom’s eyes.
“Everyone calm down!” Tom shouted as loudly as he could. Softshower’s babies, adopted and biological, had fallen as silent as death, some trying to learn to fly in panic. “Look, we can’t evacuate all of these babies out of here by ourselves. Alex, can you hear me?”
“Unfortunately,” came a robotic yet feminine voice.
“Get all of your drones here but two. They’re going to be lookouts. Jun-” His orders died in his throat. Another Deathgripper, one large enough to swallow him and Echo whole flew straight toward them. Two sharpened tusks emerged from the corners of its mouth, like spears made of ivory and steel. That thing could use my spine as a toothpick, Tom thought in the second it took him to vault himself off of Echo’s back and onto the ground in front of them. The Deathgripper seemed almost as surprised as Tom did, pulling itself to a sudden halt.
“Wait!” Tom shouted. The dragon stared at him, maybe contemplating if he was going to eat Tom slowly or just get it over with. The realization that he was standing between a massive cannibalistic dragon with more teeth than sense and a million baby dragons with his friends hit him like one of the raining crystals.
“Tom, don’t be stupid,” D’Angelo warned. Jun just seemed shocked to silence.
“Let me do this,” Tom said, slowly holding up his open palm. “You’re just an animal, and hungry, I get that.” The Deathgripper almost looked amused. The caves echoed with the sounds of crying dragons and rock crystals being ground into bits. Tom forced himself to look into the dragon’s yellow eyes. Every part of the dragon was either red or black, except for those eyes. A long, dark tail hung above their heads with the sharp point of a stinger, the blade of a guillotine waiting to pass judgment.
“It’s okay,” Tom promised, inching forward and willing his hands not to shake. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not going to hurt you.” For just an instant, Tom swore he saw something intelligent behind the slitted eyes, something that resembled understanding.
“I don’t believe it,” D’Angelo mumbled, sounding like he literally didn’t believe what he was seeing.
“They’re just dragons like the rest of them,” Tom reassured the company behind him. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised again.
The drone moved faster than he could react, leaving him with a simple stab of panic as it crashed directly into the Deathgripper’s jaws.
The dragon screamed, thrashing its tail around blindly. The flat side hit D’Angelo in the stomach, sending careening off Softshower like a bowling ball into the pile of baby dragons. Something heavy slammed into Tom’s side. He fell to the ground bottom first, Echo standing over him. The Deathgripper’s eyes disappeared in a mass of wires and plastic. Softshower wheeled her great head around and snapped her jaws around the Deathgripper’s back thigh. Hot blood splattered across her face.
“No!” Tom cried. He watched it happen in slow motion, the Deathgripper’s tail thrashing around wildly and blind, Softshower’s claws tearing massive holes in the dragon’s wings, and her unceremoniously throwing their attacker off the ledge.
It was over before any of them even knew what was happening.
“Well I hope you’re proud of yourself,” Jun said. More than half of her was drenched in dragon blood, two cracked crimson scales sliding off her arm as she wiped her eyes clean. Without another word, Softshower flew off to join the defense as the noises died outside. The babies cried out in protest. D’Angelo stood up silently, ignoring the chirping newborns at his feet. He gave Tom a short glance. Their mirrored looks said more than words ever could, what was that?
“Alex,” Tom’s words came out sharp, splitting the air around them.
“Yeah?” Her voice floated in behind him, a smaller red drone flying into the cave.
“What the hell? Why did you do that?” Tom demanded.
“I sacrificed one of my dragons, not just any but my biggest one, to save you. A thanks would be nice.” Tom just stood there, mouth agape and face frozen in shock.
“I had it handled, he wasn’t going to hurt me-”
“It would’ve bitten off your arms and left you to bleed to death. I don’t care if there’s a ninety percent chance it would’ve… I don’t know accept you as its master or whatever. That was really stupid, Tom.”
“It’s not up to you.” Tom finally said, his hands sweaty from rage and stress. He wasn’t sure whether to snap the drone’s propellers over his knee like a stick and toss it over the edge, or just get on Echo and do laps until one of them passed out. “I get to decide what risks to take for myself-”
“And what happens if you do get your arm bit off? Huh?” Alex’s microphone broke into static as her voice grew too high. “You’re the only one who’s been down here before and who has control of a dragon. We could’ve died too, Tom. So I made the best choice for the most people. I’m sorry if that means another dragon had to die.” Tom blinked.
“Can we please get out of here?” D’Angelo begged. “Our parents are going to notice we’re gone.”
“Right,” Tom nodded. Snap out of it. “This whole thing is getting out of hand. Both of you need to promise me that you won’t come back down here until we can all talk about this. Together. This place seems… dangerous for people to come alone.”
“Fine,” D’Angelo agreed.
“You couldn't pay me to come down here alone,” Alex said, a twinge of sarcasm making Tom’s mouth twitch into a small smile. “D’Angelo, I don’t think you’re going to fit on Meleys.”
“On what?” Tom asked, staring and unsure he’d heard her correctly. That’s not a real word.
“Alex… names her drones after Game of Thrones dragons,” D’Angelo explained, seeming just as confused as him. The drone floating next to them was painted with metallic red paint and had the name Meleys scrawled in some fancy font with pink Sharpie.
“It’s easier to keep track,” Alex mumbled.
“Oh, okay. Cool,” Tom ran his hands through his hair. It was half wet from melted snow. “Alex, can you check the area and make sure the attack is over?”
“Uh,” Alex hesitated. “Yeah, I’ve been watching the… dragons all around here, that seemed more like a scouting party that got caught than an actual attack. I never saw more than three of them at a time.”
“Since at least one won’t be returning, they probably won’t be back for a while,” Tom guessed. I have to get out of here. The air reeked of blood. “We should get back to Rakketown. Echo, how would you like to take D’Angelo to the surface?” He swore the dragon grinned.
When they emerged from the cave’s opening, Jun was already there, sitting cross-legged on Softshower’s wide back.
“You guys took a while,” she said a little dryly. The blood was mostly cleaned off, with the exception of her white, now pink, hat. Her eyes were red and puffy. Echo dropped D’Angelo about half a foot off the ground, the dragon landing gracefully next to him. D’Angelo immediately made the sign of the cross.
“My God, my God,” D’Angelo repeated, Softshower watching him curiously. “All of you are absolutely fucking crazy-”
“Woah!” Tom held up his hands as if to show he was unarmed.
“That’s not fair-” Jun started.
“I am never going back down there again,” D’Angelo swore. “We almost died. Fuck all of you for dragging me into this. I’m going home.” Without another word, he spun around and began stomping through the snow toward Rakketown. No one spoke as they waited for D’Angelo’s words to settle, like thick snowflakes finding their home among the white earth. When they disappeared in the quiet air, Alex finally spoke.
“He’s gonna tell,” she said quietly.
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t,” Jun said. She whispered something Tom couldn’t make out, and Softshower took to the sky. The flapping of her wings sent powdered snow billowing onto him and Echo, who sneezed. Alex didn’t bother with an awkward goodbye, just turning off her microphone and sending the drone off toward Rakketown.
“Want to see if we can find a frozen lake and fail at ice skating?” Tom suggested when the quiet got too loud. Echo didn’t need to be asked twice. Please, let us go a few days without something terrible happening.