Questions swirled in her mind. “Do you have a name?”
Call me Leje. That is what your grandmother called me.
Deanna’s eyes stung again with the memory of her grandmother, dark hands covered in flour as she kneaded bread. She reached up and touched her frizzy curls, kept short to make them more manageable. Her mother had always said she had her grandmother’s hair, even as she tried to make her pass for white. Bitter memories flooded her mind.
Warmth surrounded her and when Deanna opened her eyes, she was face-to-face with one of Leje’s gold orbs.
You are our protector. Now go. People may be looking for you. The wind was angry, but my children are safe.
“The nesting grounds? Are they all right?” The sandy patch sometimes held an egg, sometimes two, though she’d never seen them hatch. Only knew her family’s legacy to watch over them.
They are barren at the moment. Do not worry. Now go. The great snout gave her a gentle push up the incline. I will send my little one with you as before. The orange dragon flew easily up the incline, then stood at the top, chortling encouragement at her.
Deanna knew better than to argue with a dragon, though she had more questions than she could ever ask. She reached for the incline, found a tiny handhold and pulled herself forward. With her phone in her hand, she struggled to grab a second handhold. Reluctantly, knowing she’d be moving in the darkness nearly blind, she put her phone in her pocket, then reached forward again. She heaved herself up a small distance, then bracing her feet against the incline, pushed forward once more.
Inch by painful inch, Deanna pulled herself back to the main part of the cave. Behind her, Leje’s warmth reminded her that there were large dragons and the small one who had remained with her since she’d been barely an adult was but an immature dragon itself. She wondered how old Leje was, using the thoughts to distract herself from burning muscles and rock-scratched hands. At last, she heaved herself over the edge and fished her phone out of her pocket.
She turned to look behind her. Not even Leje’s golden eyes shone. A few smaller dragons hovered around the ledge, though not venturing far. Breathing deeply, she steeled her nerves for what she might find. She walked toward the cave’s opening, the sound of gentle rain growing louder. She stood just inside the opening and gaped at the surrounding devastation. Trees stood broken off maybe six or eight feet from the ground, tossed aside like a spilled box of toothpicks. Shredded leaves coated the inside of the cave’s opening. Several fallen trunks lay in the path.
A sob rose in her throat. How could one storm do so much damage in so short of a time? She’d watched shows on television featuring big tornadoes, people walking around looking dazed. She’d tried—and failed—to imagine how it must be to live through such a disaster. And now she knew. Thankful she didn’t have any pets at home, except a betta in a bowl on her desk, and if her house still stood he’d be okay. She walked forward, mindful that the storm could have dislodged wildlife and snakes that’d been seeking cover.
She went to the nesting area first. The pitted sand testified to the power of the winds. Any eggs that would have been here never could have made it. The orange dragon fluttered around, making worried noises. He preyed on the small animals, lizards and mice, that scurried among the trees. Without the trees and the forest, no doubt their source of food would be disrupted. A large tree that’d been broken off blocked the path she normally took back. She leaned down and touched the bark, struck wordless by the utter destruction. Tears leaked from her eyes. She dashed them away and scurried over the tree, heedless of her scratched and bleeding hands, to continue.
The broken trees revealed what remained of her house. It had demolished the empty barn, the roof caved in, walls leaning dangerously. The house appeared standing, though the top gable was gone and the wind had shattered windows. A tree flattened the carport and her SUV beneath it. The shed with her riding mower and garden tools remained intact, surprisingly so, as did a small bird house she’d set by an untouched tree in her front yard.
“How?” she whispered, struck by what had been ruined and what, like a gazing ball next to a birdbath in her garden, remained intact. She circled her house, and when she reached the back, saw that the northwest corner of the house had been heavily damaged by a falling tree. Her metal roof remained intact and the tree by her back door had fallen on her carport. Shredded leaves and grasses spattered her siding, which was pitted with holes from flying debris. It could have been far worse. She completed her circuit and with her back door blocked by the tree, she hurried to the front door and entered, going directly to the damaged corner. The first floor appeared fine, and she grabbed an insurance statement to make the call, then went upstairs. Her heart sank when she saw the branches protruding through the walls and ceiling of her guest bedroom, the roof blown open to reveal cloudy skies and blowing bits of insulation.
She checked her phone. No signal. Of course not. A tornado of that size probably took out at least one tower, maybe more. She flipped the switch on her way downstairs to confirm the electricity was out. She grabbed an electric statement, then realized she was soaking wet from the rain, set both papers on her kitchen table beneath her cell phone and went to her bedroom to change clothes. Once she was dry, she returned to her station and switched her radio over to the backup battery she kept. She turned it on, thankful that she’d put this system in place.
Except now she needed help and she needed to keep the dragons safe. She reached up and pet the orange creature on her shoulder. “I’ll miss you, but there will be people around doing repairs. I have to keep you hidden.”
The dragon made a noise, possibly of understanding, then flew off toward the stairs. She sat down and tuned into the frequencies.
“USKG1E, requesting emergency assistance from anyone in the Ozarks area because of a tornado. USKG1E, can anyone hear me?” She kept her voice even despite her pounding heart.
“USKG1E, this is UKJ7RA, Dr. Khalid Bijan. I received your message and will be in your area by tomorrow. What help do you need?”
The sound of a truck coming up her driveway gave Deanna pause. “I have someone here to check on me. Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be back. USKG1E signing off.” She quickly turned off the radio, before stepping outside.
A battered silver truck stopped well away from her house. Two men, one middle-aged, and one younger, possibly a son, stepped out. “Hello, is anyone here? Are you okay?”
Deanna opened her front door, aware she was a woman alone after a disaster. “Hello?” she asked and hoped the orange dragon had gotten himself hidden and relayed the message. At least it’d stopped raining.
Chapter 3
“Boy, are we glad to see you’re safe. My name is Chet and this is my boy, Justin. My wife Paula wanted us to check on you and maybe bring over our chain saws and see if we can help. We live at the end of the road and saw the twister pass by.” He strode forward, hand outstretched.
Deanna met him and shook his work-roughened hand, then shook Justin’s hand. “Thank you. I’ve got a tree in the back of my house, but otherwise we’re okay. You out of power too? I don’t have any cell signal.”
Justin pulled a large ladder from the back of the truck.
“We’re out too, but have a generator if you need anything. Our phones are down, but we have a land line. The wife said that we can pool food if the power’s out very long so none of it goes to waste.”
“That’s great. Thank you.” Deanna blinked and tried not to be bowled over by the sudden outpouring of support. She glanced toward the woods, thankfully not seeing any dragons.
“Let’s go see what you got happening. Probably need to go into town and get some tarps, maybe some boards. I can give you a ride.”
Deanna walked with Chet to the back of the house. He gave a low whistle when he saw the damage. “That’s rough. We got a land line if you need to call your insurance guy.”
“Yeah. Probably will if I can’t get reception soon.” Without the tree
canopy, no drips of water from the trees gave the illusion of showers. She was struck by the silence between their sentences. Either no one else faced damage, or it hadn’t been discovered yet, because the roar of chainsaws remained silent.
“What do you think?” Justin asked as he leaned the ladder against the house. “Take off the top branches and work our way down? Then help her get some tarps up here at least for the night?”
“Sounds good.” Chet turned to her. “Why don’t you count how many windows are out? Can make a list of what you need and I’ll take you into town. The stores should still be open. Maybe make a list of what you have in your fridge and freezer from memory. Keep them closed. You don’t want to let the cold air out.”
“Thanks. I will.” She didn’t need the reminder, but appreciated it. She had a chain saw, but seeing the two men working together like a team decided not to mention it. Instead, she stayed well out of the way and counted the windows. Seven of them, mostly on the same end of the house where the damage was. She ducked inside, hearing a thud as a branch hit the floor of her upstairs bedroom and shuddered at the impact. She quickly listed what she needed, then brought her purse outside set it on the front porch.
Deanna peered around the corner to see how the men were doing, surprised to see most of the top branches were down and they worked together on the trunk. When they cut it down enough, the two men pushed it back over, where it landed on the ground with a thud.
“Thank you!” It took them a few hours to do what it would have taken her days to complete, if she even could do it at all. “That’s amazing work.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am. If you don’t mind, I’d like to look over the list to see what you have. I don’t think it’s supposed to rain for a while so the tarps will be fine until your insurance company gets their guys out here.”
Deanna handed him the list.
“Looks good.” He made a few more suggestions, which she added. Then, they piled into the truck to go into town.
Her initial concern over her neighbors that she really hadn’t met except for passing nods, faded as they went into town. Justin worked on a construction crew while Chet stayed at the farm. Paula had a job at the local small grocery store a few days a week to help supplement things. They purchased the items, then on the way back, Chet dropped her off at the house. “Why don’t you use our phone? Then Paula can bring you down in the mule.”
“The mule?” Deanna blinked.
“Our utility vehicle.”
Paula, a woman with straight salt and pepper hair, laugh lines, and an easy smile came from the house, wiping her hands on her flowered apron. “You must be Deanna. Chet let me know you needed to use our phone. I’m so sorry I haven’t been up sooner, but between work and the farm, I’ve been busy. What are you thinking for dinner? I’ve got some pie.”
Deanna stood there, shocked by the open hospitality when she’d expected reservations.
“Oh my stars, I’m sorry jabbering at you like that. You’ve been through a tornado. Bless the Lord, you’re safe. Come inside. Sit. I’ve got some cold tea.” She wrapped her arm around Deanna’s shoulder and steered her toward the house with a nod to her husband and son still in the truck.
“Thank you. It’s all been a shock.” Deanna gathered her wits. “Thank you for letting me use your land line to call my insurance company.”
“It’s nothing. Just being a neighbor. I’ve already called the electric company to let them know you’re out and your place took a blow. I suspect we’ll see them soon.”
She managed what she hoped was a decent smile and nod as Paula sat her down at the table and handed the phone to her. Deanna focused on dialing the number to her insurance company and hoped that the dragons knew well enough to stay hidden. There would be many people at her place over the next few weeks.
Deanna stared at the ceiling of her bedroom, listening to the rustling tarps as breezes moved over them. She jumped at the howl of a coyote, the hoot of an owl, the noises so much louder than before. Her house looked like a scarred warrior, with folded tarps taped over broken windows and draped over the end of the house with thin boards holding them in place. Her insurance adjuster said he’d be there tomorrow; there’d been too many places to visit closer to town. Without cell service or Internet, she felt as if she were in some kind of lost world.
Paula had brought her down, along with a large lettuce and tomato salad with sliced radishes on top that she’d already put together for dinner before the storm had hit, and a couple of bottles of dressing. Deanna had offered a ten pound chub of hamburger she was going to cook up for the dragons to make burgers on the grill. Paula brought some hamburger buns with her, and when they’d run out Deanna had provided her loaf of bread. Somehow, Paula had boiled water and made a Jell-O salad. The four of them ate outside at Deanna’s house and it’d been a rather nice picnic given the circumstances.
The dragons weighed on Deanna’s mind. She turned, throwing another blanket over her as the night’s chill seeped into the house. Without electricity to run the furnace and the tarps not providing much insulation, the top level cooled rapidly. She hadn’t seen the orange dragon since sending him off, and by the time her neighbors had left, it’d grown dark. Walking into the woods with the paths blocked by trees and debris didn’t seem safe.
Keeping the dragons' secret had to be her utmost priority. Without knowing when the insurance adjuster or Dr. Bijan would arrive, only that they would tomorrow, venturing into the woods seemed unwise. Her neighbors had left at dark, and when she’d gotten on Radio Arcanum, the doctor wasn’t on the frequencies. She’d turned off her cell phone to conserve battery. She didn’t dare turn it on to see what time it was. The middle of the night. Dark. That was all she needed to know.
She missed the orange dragon’s presence. Normally he perched on a cat bed placed on top of her dresser, his nose tucked beneath his wings, tail wrapped around himself. The contentment radiating from him allowed her to relax. Did he miss her? Did he wonder why he couldn’t be around the people? Or did the sound of the chainsaws and the extra people worry them? She realized other than needing to protect the dragons, how little her mother had taught her and her grandmother before that.
The Radio Arcanum Times story about the academy in New Mexico came to mind. They taught people who connected with unicorns and Pegasus. Would they be interested in teaching people to work with dragons? More importantly did the dragons want to be known?
Realizing she would not get much sleep, she rolled out of bed and put her boots on by feel. She grabbed the lantern she’d set by her bed and turned it on, working her way downstairs through the darkened, silent house. With no electricity, all the small noises, the whirring of the fridge, the tick-tock of her living room clock, remained eerie quiet. She stepped outside.
A three-quarters moon bathed the broken forest in an eerie silver glow. The scent of rain in the air belied all the weather forecasts. Spring peepers called their joy at the spring weather into the dark night, courting each other in the rising fog. Something scurried not far away, and when she shone her flashlight, a raccoon made an inordinate amount of noise for something so small. A dog barked, maybe belonging to her neighbors.
She found the path through the woods, stepping over fallen logs and climbing over tree trunks when necessary. The farther she got from her house, the more all her questions faded into the back of her mind. She allowed the pull of the cave and maybe seeing Leje again draw her deeper into the battered trees. They parted to reveal the opening of the cave and the mother dragon sitting there with her tail curled around her and a dozen smaller dragons, including her little orange one, gamboling around her.
“You were real,” Deanna breathed, then turned off the lantern as if even having the manmade light turned onto the dragon was some kind of affront. The moon provided enough illumination, the twin golden eyes like orbs drawing her closer. Leje’s scales shimmered, their inky color marvelous. A scent like warm desert winds filled her nostrils as sh
e stepped reverently closer. “May I touch you?”
Of course. The dragon’s mirth echoed in Deanna’s mind. You have questions. My children know they need to stay away until you tell us it is safe.
“Thank you,” she breathed. Her fingers encountered, not coolness as she’d expected, but warm scales, soft to the touch. The edges were feather-soft against her fingers, not sharp. Though she suspected they protected far more than expected. She remembered reading about elven armor in a fantasy book and imagined it to be something like this. She flattened her palm against the dragon’s side and just for a moment imagined what it would be like to fly on her back.
That could be arranged.
Deanna held her breath. “Someone might see you,” she replied at last.
It is dark and so am I. We are good at not being seen when we don’t want to be. But perhaps that will be for another time. Trust that neither I, nor my younglings, will allow ourselves to be seen until it is safe.
Deanna yawned.
Leje lifted a wing. Seek shelter.
Deanna paused only for a moment. Then, she nestled next to the dragon and with the wing draped over her like a heated blanket she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 4
Deanna awakened toasty warm with a rumbling noise like the purr of a cat vibrating into her. She opened her eyes, at first seeing only black. Then, she moved her head and realized she saw the woods. Disoriented, it took her a moment to remember that she’d come out here to talk to the dragons and had… fallen asleep? She slipped from beneath the wing and stood, stretching with the realization that she slept better than she had in a long time.
“I’ve got to go,” she told Leje. “Be careful okay.”
The dragon reached forward a front leg and brushed her foot along Deanna’s cheek. We are always careful. You have great decisions ahead of you. I am glad to have been able to offer comfort. Now go. And bring the doctor here when he arrives. But only if you deem him worthy.
Dragons and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology Page 120
