by Drew Seren
“I can tell. You don’t even realize that you’re speaking mind to mind with me as opposed to just hearing my thoughts.”
Skylar dropped his hand in mid movement and turned to look at Professor Aduncus. “What?”
The professor smiled and lowered his own hands. “You slipped into speaking mind to mind with me as you became more relaxed. It’s a very good sign. The first real progress we’ve seen since we began our sessions.”
“But I thought I was speaking to you with my mouth.” Skylar’s jaw dropped. “How did I slip into mental communication with you?”
“How did you open up last month when you confronted Ms. Grissom and let the whole school know you were upset? At first, your powers react to your mental state. Last month, you were upset and they lashed out. Today, you were relaxed and they reached out very gracefully. I’d given you the suggestion that, as you relaxed, you could speak mind to mind. Your mind did just that. When we have you doing that consciously, then we’ll have made our next step.” Professor Aduncus dropped back into the starting stance. “We have made progress to finding your center, now let’s see if you can do it again before our session ends. Begin from the start.”
Skylar couldn’t help but smile. With these exercises, it wasn’t as hard to make progress as he had started to feel. After a month of getting nowhere, he’d began to worry. He dropped back into his own starting stance and waited for the professor to move, then mirrored his gestures and motions. When they reached the one he’d had trouble with, he did it easily but stumbled over the following move. But he didn’t despair—he’d made progress—and that was something. That was enough to give him a level of hope he hadn’t had when he’d entered the professor’s workout room.
There was a soft knock at the door. Professor Aduncus frowned, but Skylar didn’t feel any anger come from him. If his mother had been interrupted while trying to teach him something, she would’ve been angry.
“Continue with your exercises while I see who it is.” Aduncus broke stance and walked to the door.
As Skylar went through his easy motions, sweeping his hands and body in the patterns he’d been taught, he remembered the room was shielded to not let their minds reach beyond its walls, and kept unwanted thoughts and emotions from intruding on them. He didn’t doubt that if they were in Professor Aduncus’ main office, he’d have known who was at the door before he opened it.
“Grandfather!” Del sounded excited. “Is Skylar with you? There is something happening and I…he should come quickly.”
Skylar stopped his exercise and hurried up behind the professor. “What is it, Del?”
“Solaria wants you right away,” Del blurted out. “She says it’s important.”
“Can I go see what she wants?” Skylar asked. “I don’t think she would interrupt unless it was very important.”
Aduncus sighed. There was still no anger coming from him, but there was a lot of excitement rolling off Del. “Very well. I’m pleased with your progress today. Go, see what your friend needs. I’ll see you again tomorrow.”
Skylar nodded. “Thank you, professor.” He slid out of the room, moving quietly between his professor and the door.
He rushed alongside Del as his friend hurried away from the training room. “What’s up?”
“It’s too awesome, but I promised Solaria I wouldn’t say anything until we got there.” Del all but ran down the hall. Skylar extended his stride to keep up with him. The excitement coming off Del gave Skylar all the energy he needed, and an image of the egg kept popping into his head, pushing him faster.
15
Hatching
“WHERE’S SOLARIA?” Skylar asked as they rushed down the hall.
“She’s up in the garden, near that big magnolia tree,” Del replied, turning to the doorway that would take them to the inclined hall connecting the gardens and farms with the common areas. “She said she felt like the warmth of the garden would be good for the egg.”
“She really does care about this egg, doesn’t she?” Skylar said as several girls glared at them for rushing past, their irritation very clear even if they didn’t say anything. It was after class time, and a lot of students were out meeting friends. The halls were more crowded than at any other time of the day, except maybe mornings when students were going from breakfast to class. “She normally doesn’t like the garden, says it’s too warm for Pantherians.”
Del nodded. “Yeah. She’s really fixated.”
They cleared the final doors and warm, humid, earthy air hit them. It was a big enough change from the average air temperature in the halls that it took Skylar’s breath away for a second. He spotted the big tree, one of the few merely ornamental ones in the garden, and his steps sped up. Even from a distance, Solaria’s excitement hit him. Mingled with Del’s, it made him feel almost giddy.
He stopped in front of Solaria. “What’s happening?”
She beamed. “I think it’s hatching.” Her slitted blue eyes sparkled. “It started a few minutes ago. I was sitting here, petting it like I always do, and a pang of hunger hit me. I wondered what it meant. Then the egg shook. After the shake, the little one inside started tapping. That’s when I sent Del after you. I can see where it’s trying to break out of the shell.” She pointed to a spot on the red and orange shell where cracks widened even as they watched.
“Wow, this is awesome.” Skylar settled down on the grass next to her. “I could feel Del’s excitement when he interrupted my session with his grandfather, but I wasn’t sure what was going on. Thanks for sending him to get me.” He looked up at Del. “And thanks for coming to get me. I wouldn’t want to miss this.”
Del frowned and a sense of worry hit Skylar. “Wait a minute. You don’t have your dampening bracelet on, do you?”
Skylar glanced at his wrist and swore. “I must have run off so fast I forgot about it.”
“Skylar, you can’t be running around without it until Grandfather and Ms. Grissom say you’re safe to be around other people.” Del glanced around as if he expected either his grandfather or the counselor to show up and get them all in trouble. “I’ll go find it. If it’s not back in the training room, I’ll find Grandfather and get it from him. You stay here. And whatever you do, stay calm. We don’t need the whole school getting excited about this egg hatching and coming see what or who is causing the disturbance.” He turned and hurried off the way they’d come.
“He is a bit of a worrywart, isn’t he?” Skylar watched the egg as a small piece of shell fell away.
“Yes.” Solaria sighed. “But I think he’s got good reason to be. You are getting stronger than most of the kids around here, and caused some real trouble last time you lost control. Most level five readers couldn’t be heard by the whole school, that’s level seven or eight, even if they haven’t said anything about it.”
A pang of hunger hit Skylar as he touched the egg—it made him forget all about levels and everything else, except the little life about to come into their world. He suddenly felt like he could eat three rounds of dinner before he was full. “But this is different. This is a good thing. Nothing bad is going to happen today, is it, little egg?”
“I hope you’re right. I wish we knew what was hatching. If we did, we could have food ready for it. The hunger coming off it is really strong.” Solaria’s stomach growled, and made Skylar wonder if she was really hungry or if the hatchling trying to escape the egg was influencing her.
“You don’t think it’s going to eat us as soon as it hatches, do you?”
Solaria shrugged. “That’s why I wish we knew what was hatching.” She looked down at the egg. “If you try to eat me, I might have to do something I really don’t want to do. I’d rather be friends.”
“Hey, could we try projecting thoughts and emotions at it? Maybe we can influence it. If we pour enough positive things at it, it’ll have to like us, won’t it?”
A wide grin crossed Solaria’s face, causing her whiskers to curl up. “I like that idea! I
’m only a level five feeler, but I can project a little bit. Let’s try it.”
“So, what’s the best way to project?” Skylar stared at the egg uncertainly. “I mean, I talked mind to mind to Professor Aduncus a few minutes ago, but I’m not sure how I did it. I just relaxed and it happened.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to stand up and do the movements the professor showed him in public. Some of the other kids might laugh at him, and then he definitely wouldn’t be able to relax enough to connect with the organism coming out of the egg.
“That’s the basics of it. Just relax. Feel happy and let the emotions flow out of you and into the egg.” She took a deep breath and stroked the egg. “Like this.”
A strong feeling welled up from Solaria. It was like she was trying to hug him and tell him how much she cared about him. It almost felt like his mother had returned from the dead and wanted to comfort him. But since Skylar’d had a little training, he understood what she was doing. He tried to think of happy moments in his past. Visions of his mother kissing him goodnight and making him feel safe flooded up around him. He took that feeling and focused it on the egg.
Solaria nodded. “That’s it. You’re good at this. A natural.”
Skylar touched the egg again. “Just trying to remember the good times.” With everything he’d been through the past month or so, it was good to remember the happier times, before the Boarisk had attacked his home.
“Your mother was a good person,” Solaria whispered. “Very pretty too.”
Skylar blinked, and the quiet moment shattered. A renewed wave of hunger came from the egg. “How do you know what my mother looked like?”
“You’re projecting her image right now,” Solaria replied. “I can see the way she looked every night when she tucked you into bed. My mother used to do that for me too.” She frowned, and longing rolled off her. “I think that’s one of the things I miss the most being here at Stars’ End. I miss my mother tucking me into bed every night and telling me it’s going to be okay, that the shadows aren’t scary.”
With a deep breath, Skylar nodded. “Yeah. At least when you go home, your mother will still be there to tuck you in and make everything alright.”
“I wish your mother was still alive. It would be nice to meet her. But as long as you can share your memories of her with others, a part of her will still be here.” Solaria took Skylar’s hand in hers. Her stubby fingers felt velvety soft against his skin. “Tell you what. Maybe if things get too intense for either of us, we can share stories of our mothers and remember the good times.”
Skylar swallowed and tried to find his voice. “That would be nice.”
In Solaria’s lap, the egg shook violently. The small crack widened. A tiny yellow snout pushed its way out of the shell.
Del came rushing up, breathless. He had the dampening bracelet in his hand. “Here it is. Did I miss anything?” He stopped and stared down at the little nose poking out of the shell. “Well, it’s definitely not a bird.”
Solaria shook her head. “Nope, not a bird. I think we’re going to need meat for it.”
A very high-pitched squeak came from the little yellow snout. It gasped for breath before emitting another squeak.
“I bet it’s calling for its mother,” Del said.
“And we don’t know how to reply,” Solaria stared down at the egg in her lap as little pieces of red and orange shell fell onto her gray pants.
It let out another squeak.
Del knelt down next to Skylar and in front of Solaria. “Let me try to mimic it. Tursiops can hit some pretty high notes.” The squeak he made was similar to the thing hatching from the egg. It gave another squeak and struggled against the shell.
“Skylar, why don’t you and I keep broadcasting at it while Del continues encouraging it?” Solaria suggested. Hope and excitement poured off her, making it hard for Skylar to tell which were her emotions and which his, but in that moment, it didn’t matter. “Once it’s free and if it doesn’t try to eat us, I’ll run and get some raw meat for it.”
“Okay.” Using the same feelings and images as before, Skylar tried to make the little hatchling feel welcome.
As his energies melded with Solaria’s and Del continued to squeak at it, the little yellow snout pushed further out of the egg, dropping more shell fragments into Solaria’s lap. The rest of the head appeared, sleek and reptilian. Bright orange eyes looked at the three of them.
“I think it’s a Solar Drake!” Del said, his eyes wide.
“Then it’s not going to try and eat us,” Solaria replied.
Seconds later, it had enough of the egg broken away that it could force its way free of the rest. Once clear of the eggshell, it collapsed in Solaria’s lap.
“Is it dead?” Skylar stared down at the delicate yellow wings with orange and red lines decorating them. The little body looked like some of the lizards he’d played with in the jungles of Hummassa, but beyond the basic shape, most lizards didn’t have long wings and bright orange eyes. He hoped they weren’t supposed to have been feeding it as it came out of the shell, and by not doing so had killed the little guy.
“I can still feel it’s alive,” Solaria said. “We need to feed it. Now!”
“I’ll get some fish from the stream,” Del offered. “That’ll be fastest.”
Skylar looked at his friend. “But you don’t have a net or fishing pole.”
Del stood. “I don’t need one.” He ran off toward the stream that cut through the center of the garden.
“I didn’t know he could fish.” Skylar turned his attention back to the little Solar Drake as Solaria picked it up.
“All Tursiops can fish. It’s part of what they evolved for,” she explained without looking at him. It took both of her hands to hold the little lizard, and its wings still drooped over her fingers.
“So, now what do we do with it?” Skylar asked. He stopped himself from reaching out to touch it.
“First we feed it, then you and Del take it back to your room and keep it safe there until we have more time to think.” She sounded sad.
“Why our room?”
Solaria looked up at him. The frown on her face confirmed her sadness. “I did some research on the list of things Del said could come out of the egg. Solar Drakes, especially young ones, do best in either human standard or higher temperatures. The planet they come from is tropical. This little one would not do well in my room. It’s too cold.” She moved her thumb in small circular motions against its side. “I wish I could take it back with me, but I shouldn’t. I don’t think it would do well even if I called my folks and had them come get it.”
Skylar stared at the Solar Drake. “So… now what?” He was beginning to understand Solaria’s urge to protect the little thing. It was so small and delicate. It definitely needed them to watch over it.
Del returned before Solaria could say anything else. “Here, it’s not a big fish, but I think it might be enough to get him started eating.” The shiny silver fish dangling from his fingers was about half the size of the hatchling.
“That should do.” Solaria nodded. “Now, cut it into little pieces so we can get them into its mouth.”
“But we don’t have a knife,” Skylar pointed out.
“Here, hold it for me.” Solaria gently thrust the little yellow drake at him. It opened its eyes and squeaked at him.
Skylar put his hands under hers and she deposited the hatchling in them. It didn’t weigh much, about half the weight of the egg. It looked up at Skylar and, as the orange eyes looked into his blue ones, he knew he’d do anything to keep it safe and make sure it had a home. It was very precious and very special.
“Little one, do you want some fish?” Solaria asked as she held a piece of fish on her claw near the hatchling’s mouth.
The tiny yellow nostrils flared and its head flashed around and grabbed the meat. It gulped it down, and then looked back up at Skylar.
“I think he likes it.” Skylar smiled. He took it as a good sign that i
t was eating. The better it ate, the more chance it had to survive.
Solaria offered it another piece, which it gulped right down like the other. “I think you’re right. Let’s see if it will eat all of this fish.”
“I can get more if I need to,” Del offered. “They keep the stream really well stocked and I doubt anyone’s going to miss a few minnows and such.”
“Let’s get this one in it first,” Solaria replied without looking at him as she gave the baby drake another piece of fish.
Within a couple of minutes, the fish was gone. The little drake circled around Skylar’s cupped hands, folded its wings over its back, then tucked its head under one wing and went to sleep. A feeling of contentment spread over Skylar as he sat there in the grass with the little lizard asleep in his hand. He’s depending on me. I’ve got to do right by him.
“Do you want more fish?” Del asked.
“Let him sleep for now,” Solaria said. “We’ll sneak some meat out of the kitchen so you and Skylar can feed him later.” The look she gave the little one reminded Skylar of the looks his mother would give him when she tucked him in for the night. It was the look that told him that everything was going to be okay.
Del fidgeted next to them. “How do you know it’s a he?”
Solaria shrugged. “Feels like a boy to me. Can’t really explain it.”
Del huffed. “Sometimes I wish I was stronger, psychically speaking.”
“But you’re smart,” Skylar said, not liking the wave of sadness coming off Del. Then he remembered he wasn’t wearing the dampening bracelet. “Hey, can you put my bracelet back on for me?” He held his arm out to Del. “I guess I don’t need to go around picking up every little thought and feeling from everyone.”
“Ah.” Del fished the bracelet out of his pocket. “I can’t believe we still forgot to put this back on you.”
“A lot’s been going on,” Solaria added as Del snapped the bracelet in place, instantly quieting the thoughts and emotions hitting Skylar.
