The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3)

by Abigail Smith

  I raced over, noticing that both were much faster than me, but I was closer. I picked up the tonfa and ran, leaving the sword for them.

  I peered at the tonfa with curiosity, and the rune on the plate lit up, indicating that I now had a magical shield for the time being.

  A loud whistle sounded above us, or more accurately, a whistle from a person, as Buddy regained consciousness and wanted a more expedient ride to the ground.

  By this point my heart was beating so loud it was the only sound I could focus on, my limbs felt like sticks and the adrenaline coursing through me was enough to keep someone alive for several hours.

  So I bolted towards the tree line, hoping to regroup with my friends and get out of this situation.

  Having all the ammo and a tonfa of protection would be a pretty good day… provided I didn’t end up dead.

  The green dragon was busy flying up, but the purple dragon was right over me as I entered the woods. A very weird sound like some kid put all the settings on a sound effects synthesizer to max came through the air.

  Right in front of me, a purple laser broke through the leaf cover. It seemed to burn through the trees, leaving them charred with purple pulsating light.

  “Surrender the dragon or be charred by the void forever, worm!” the third dragon rider called out.

  That sounded like someone needed to learn how to threaten people.

  I heard the dragon’s wings bat around above the trees. I ran forwards as fast as I could while avoiding any sort of things that if snapped could spell the end of me.

  I had a pretty heavy load, so fast running wasn’t going to be the best thing.

  I then noticed two wolves rushing towards me, and smiled.

  “Shhhh!” I motioned with a finger over my mouth and pointed above the trees.

  I looked back to see if the dragon hunter father was chasing after me and it appeared that he was not, in fact, doing that just yet.

  The wolves crouched as another laser burst through the leaf covering and the dragon flew in the other direction. I hopped on Silvia and just pointed to where I thought everyone else was. They started to run away back towards them, as the dragon swooped around.

  Gavin’s wolf eyes went wide, and he stopped dead as Silvia kept running. A laser blast moving faster than Silvia came racing through the leaf tops. Gavin’s eldritch rending claws shot out of his wolf paws and he jumped up and shattered the effect.

  No doubt this would give the rider pause, as the beam turned white, and cracked. As it shattered Gavin started to glow a bit like someone had turned a black screen up to the highest brightness. Then while the dragon rider was overhead he barked and released the energy.

  I heard a loud crack and the dragon roared in agony. Gavin started to run again, quickly catching up to us as the dragon crashed into the forest’s edge and writhed in pain.

  I couldn’t quite see it from this angle, but I assumed he’d hit the left-wing and there was a gushing geyser of blood on the far side of the dragon.

  There wouldn’t be for long as the rider got out her age exchange device. We quickly got back to the group, and I sighed in relief.

  I no doubt looked very worse for wear with all the adrenaline that’d been going through my system.

  “What happened?” Leonardo asked while I was still panting for breath.

  “It appears they haven’t put anyone through the portal, or executed anyone, probably because no one’s come up to negotiate with them just yet, and then one of those dragon riders found me inside and shot me out the window. Speaking of which, is my back ripped to hell?” I asked, looking back.

  “Uh…” Silvia asked, going around to my backside. “I think they installed the glass that doesn’t have sharp shards, no doubt for this very reason,” Silvia suggested.

  “I thought they only did that for the bases, but I guess it wasn’t a poor decision to do it on the mansion,” Leonardo shrugged.

  “We should head back. It’s late in the day and dragons no doubt have an advantage on us when it comes to seeing at night,” Fumnaya suggested.

  We had to walk the long way around, to stay in the forest area. We only saw snippets of the mansion from the trees, and I hoped to god they didn’t get angry and start doing something to the people inside.

  “We don’t have, like, a telescope, do we?” I asked the group.

  “Lumna, servatas, galvos,” Leonardo said, and the light coming from the mansion magnified in my view, and I could see the area clearly.

  “Neat.”

  At the central portal area, I could see the dragon riders sitting down with their dragons, all healed and looking a bit disappointed. The man was talking to them, possibly coming up with his own plan.

  Then he entered the portal, coming out a few moments later with a large dragon. By that, I mean a dragon about twice the size of any of the other dragons they’d used. It had plain red to blood-red scales, and a spiked head ridge, and wicked claws. It was also chained, muzzled and even had its wings pinned back to prevent the claw-like bone outcropping from bashing someone’s skull in.

  “Uh, you don’t think they’d burn down a forest, do you?” I asked as he led it to the forest.

  “Ohhh, that would be bad,” Leonardo said.

  “We’ll be out before they can burn our part, right?” Fumnaya asked.

  “Bad, as in firefighters, and planes will be swarming this place, trying to figure out how a temperate forest with lots of rainfall suddenly started to burn!”

  “Thus, showing the chained-up dragon and someone all too eager to demand that someone show him where his dragon is?” I added.

  “Bingo,” Leonardo said. “It’ll take a little while before people are notified, and possibly a little while after that before an effort begins in earnest. We need to take this man down now…”

  “I think I have a plan,” I said, tapping the two foxtail key chains I’d suddenly acquired after that ordeal.

  Genki appeared and peered at me with his vulpine eyes.

  “I hate to say this, but I need another suit, and it’ll most likely get broken. Fumnaya, I’m going to need you to carry the dragon into the fray. Gavin, I know what you said but we’re out of options, so you’re going to have to do your thing to the portal, and go after the big guy.”

  “His thing?” Leonardo said.

  Gavin transformed. “There has to be another way,” he said. I couldn’t quite read his expression because Leo still had the picture of the mansion in one of my eyes, but I could tell by his tone he was serious.

  “It’s our duty to uphold the secret of the magical world or die trying. Either way, we’re going up against this foe, with or without your thing.”

  “What is his thing?” Leo asked, waving his hand in the air.

  “What if it causes a bigger problem? You’ve seen the horrors it can bring!”

  “We use chaos to our advantage since it’ll be right next to his age bank, he’ll have to fight it.”

  Gavin bit his lip. I felt really bad for him, the rage and the horrible memories that came up from his ability, but we were running out of time, and we were running out of options. I’d have to pay him back one day, one way or another.

  “I order you to tell me what you’re talking about,” Leonardo demanded.

  “I can… break magic,” Gavin said, shying his gaze away from Leonardo.

  “What do you mean, break magic?” Leonardo asked.

  Gavin silently said what he needed to, to summon the claws, and swiped in front of my face. The ongoing spell was shattered, which seemed to show cracks all around the areas that the light was bending, and the pitiful amount of magic that went into said spell flew into Gavin.

  This unfortunately alerted those we were spying on, and they called out to their father, leading the dragon.

  “Ohhh, shoot, we need to get out of here,” I said, grabbing Leo’s floating form as Gavin linked up with Fumnaya again.

  19

  Chapter 19

 
Leo was still in shock as we made it to the safe house. David was there, apparently not having made it in time for the first fight, and being told by Angela that fragments, where he went back to find us, didn’t turn out well.

  Lorenz was also there, looking about as dirty as I was.

  “Hey guys, we missed you,” I said, smiling at David as he realized how much dirt I was tracking into his house.

  “Uh, showers are all the way upstairs,” he moaned.

  “Glad to see you all in one piece, especially you, E-lis. I suspect you’re going to have a fear of heights from now on, aren’t you?” Angela said.

  “Wait, what?” David and Lorenz said together.

  “Shower first, ridiculous plans and epic reveal later.”

  I walked to the shower, followed up by Silvia, who seemed a bit eager to follow me. “Gavin seemed really angry about his, uh, thing – do you know why that is?”

  I started to take off the muddy clothes but kept the door open a crack so we could continue this conversation.

  “I think that’s something you’ll have to ask him, but it will bring back some bad memories for him.”

  “Well, if it’s alright maybe we could skip that part for him, and you could tell me?”

  “It should be him to tell you, but okay, I don’t wanna hide things when our plan depends on them. Gavin told me about six months ago that when your parents died, he, wait, maybe I should start at them dying.” I turned on the water and waited for it to warm up.

  “It happened that long ago?” Silvia asked.

  “Yeah, he told me a mage had broken into your house, and… murdered your parents.” I paused, waiting for Silvia’s reaction. Having known little about her parents, no doubt she wouldn’t feel that much sadness, though she might feel it over what could have been.

  “Gavin stayed in your room with you, but the man was coming in and having heard his parents being murdered, he didn’t want him to touch you, and in that rage, a new power was born.” I stepped in and sighed at the relieving feeling.

  “Wait, Fumnaya said the plan for you and Amelia to head off the guy was that you didn’t want people to lose their magic. Does that mean–”

  “Yep, that mage is now a subwoofer, and probably needed the hospital afterwards.” I pictured Silvia sitting on the master bed in the master bedroom, kicking her feet as she listened.

  That might have been me underestimating her maturity and height both in one.

  I started the hot water and stepped inside. The sand portion of the muck still on me came off in waves and settled on the bottom of the tub. No doubt if I wasn’t careful, I’d clog this drain.

  “So, if he doesn’t want to do it, I would?” Silvia asked.

  “I don’t think you have as much force with yours. You’re copying him, he’s actually enraged, that’s what he told me fueled it, every time he thinks back to that time, and takes on the feeling of rage and fear that started it all. I don’t think you’d be able to break that portal.” I got some body wash and started to scrub the mud off.

  “E-every time it’s rage?” Silvia asked.

  She sounded confused. Perhaps the times she’d seen him in action, clearly motivated by her safety, seemed nobler than an older brother mad that someone was attacking the only family he had left.

  “That’s what he told me, but I’m sure the root of it is his love for you.” Lucky there was some shampoo and the aforementioned body wash. Unfortunately, it was men’s stuff.

  David was probably buying it for himself if I had to guess. No one sells a house with their soap in it, right?

  “O-okay, why’d he hide it for so long?” Silvia asked.

  “You saw Leonardo’s response. The mages were above you, but if they can’t do anything to you because of a slash of the claws, then they have a reason to destroy you.”

  “Wait, Leo’s not going to–”

  “God, I hope not. Lord knows we have enough to deal with already, but, if it comes to that, we all bolt… the entire community of us. We’re the best at what we do, and I don’t think any amount of mages will be able to get us if we stick together!” I felt dirty and the shampoo didn’t feel like it was cleaning my long hair at all.

  “C-could we really do that, though? David and Lorenz’s bank accounts can be shut down, and no one else can really provide all the money we need.”

  I paused. “Fair enough. I guess we’d better plead our case for keeping us around.” I turned around in the shower, letting the grass that somehow managed to stay on my back fall off.

  “Can you grab me some spare clothes?”

  “D-do we have any?” Silvia asked.

  “I’m sure Angela did something with her time, check the obvious places ar–” I poked my head out of the shower, there were some clothes, and an extra few towels. “Never mind, she put them where I needed them. Damn, she’s good.”

  “It’s my job to be!” Angela said.

  There was a slight pause and Silvia and I shared a laugh. It felt good to have something to laugh at.

  After getting all the muck off me, I maneuvered the showerhead to send it down the drain. It wasn’t a moving shower head, like the kind you can just pick up and point, so I had to manipulate it nearly at the source of the thing. I got out and dried off.

  I got into the clothes and walked out, a nice plain white t-shirt and some cargo pants, as baggy as I liked them.

  Silvia had transformed into a wolf and was curled up on the bed. The sight was nostalgic for me, and I had to stop myself from diving into her side like I used to do with Mika.

  I walked over and pet her gently and laid down, only then realizing the true extent of the pain in all of my body. Apparently, adrenaline and tiredness can cover a lot. My chest was burning, probably from the belly flop-like impact on the ground. My legs were sore for a number of reasons. My hands were particularly sore from rubbing onto dragon spine for dear life.

  “Owwwwww,” I let out in a long uninterrupted burst.

  Silvia put her head on my stomach, a clear sign of being there for me, but it only caused that area to spasm.

  “This wasn’t even going to be the bad day out of this weekend,” I moaned. “Tomorrow’s going to hurt way worse.”

  Silvia whimpered beside me and I continued my petting. The next thing I knew, I was asleep again, standing in front of Mika once more.

  “Hey girl, it’s been pretty rough today…”

  20

  Chapter 20

  To be honest, if there wasn’t a looming threat and the possibility that all our friends, both from our community center and not, getting killed, David’s place would have been a great vacation.

  It wasn’t the great big manor, but like, if we doubled up on beds we could have eight people; there was some good food, comfy furniture; if we had a few board games this place would have been just the thing to relax in.

  It’d also be great because Valkyrie Galvos wouldn’t be glaring at me for the last Eggo waffle. Ironically, I hadn’t had any since I was a kid. Either Angela found that buying them would be good and did so to help us out, or she foresaw this dilemma and thought it would be funny. The only problem I had determining which was that no matter what, she’d be smiling at this little rivalry.

  “Come on, you’ve had an entire package of eight already!” she whined, her attitude making me wonder how much her mind was affected by her size.

  “I’m not the one sitting on the sidelines while others fight the guy you failed to defeat,” I said, taking a sip of my morning coffee.

  I’d also had about a litre of the stuff as I needed to be awake for this guy – very, very awake.

  “You’re going to get fat and be too stuffed to fight!” the runt said.

  It’s times like these I realized I’d be terrible with kids – anyone smaller than me elicited a sarcastic and mean comment. I wondered if it was the reflex Melisa had when she thought she had Genki trapped.

  Speaking of Genki, I lifted my eyes over to the azure fox who s
eemed to be utilizing his paws as best he could at building… something. It wasn’t his normal stuff, too many gemstones for that. While I’d found one version of the show did, in fact, have a gemstone theme, this wasn’t even close to what that looked like.

  Before I could question the still-able-to-talk fox, Valkyrie stole my Eggo waffle.

  I gritted my teeth and raised up, but I didn’t dare say the slogan, that’s what she wanted and I knew it.

  “So, Angela, what’s the forecast for the battle?”

  “Well, like a strangely high number of your opponents, the fragments regarding them are blocked, either by their inherent ability to shrug off Fae magic, or I suppose whatever Gavin’s thing is, but there are a few fragments that can be useful…”

  I nodded politely. Looking into the future must be a really annoying task; at least they got second billing when it came to the community.

  “Silvia is going to struggle a bit, and the outcome of that struggle basically determines whether you win or not. If you end up in a head hold there is a fifty percent chance that you lose, via going unconscious. Don’t bite them, they have something in their blood. Whoever’s attacking the purple dragon, make sure they know that if that one is downed when it’s swooping towards the portal area from above the manor, you’ll lose. Uh, for some reason there’s a few fragments of Fumnaya touching the age-changing magical artifact and it not doing what it does normally – that’s highly correlated with victory…”

  “Okay then, so, considering all of the fragments? What’s your best move?” I asked, looking her dead in the eye.

  “Pretend to be asleep, because if you don’t get those people now, an armoured column will come a-knocking, and I’m sure you’ve noticed how many police reports have been filed about the community center…”

  “A-an armoured column?” My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “We’re not doing that bad of a job of keeping things quiet, are we?” I asked.

  “If you get them the army will have nothing to do, and I’m assuming they won’t need to question anyone on the forest fire’s cause.”