by Mell Eight
Platinum let the curtains fall back into place and headed to the bathroom. He had an hour to get ready and walk into town before he was late. Today was stocking day at the local grocery store. Although the store restocked every night, today was the day the big trucks drove in—a difficulty considering the location of the town in the mountains—and the owner, a man that insisted Platinum call him Ryan, needed all hands on deck. Platinum was one of a dozen locals Ryan had hired under the table, glad for the help unpacking the trucks and then unpacking the dozens of boxes so the merchandise could be properly put away.
Platinum had only gotten the job due to luck. Three of Ryan's usual helpers had been out sick a few weeks back, and Platinum had been standing on the sidewalk contemplating how he was going to steal a couple candy bars from the store so he could eat something for the first time in days. He doubted Ryan knew what he was thinking, but he had offered Platinum money and food for a few hours of work. That Platinum then spent the money on groceries didn't faze Ryan at all. He had invited Platinum back the next week too.
Which was one of the reasons Platinum was so reluctant to leave the town. He knew that if he squatted too long in one place, the scientists would find him. He had to keep moving, but the lure of borrowing someone's soft bed and having money to eat real food kept him stationary.
The bathroom light flickered on when he flipped the switch and Platinum hurried to the sink to splash some water on his face. He dried himself off and then looked into the mirror. The braids Platinum had plaited his long white hair into after his shower the night before had held. He took the ends and wrapped them around his head, holding them in place with some bobby pins he had bought from the store. Most people assumed Platinum's white hair was either an unfortunate genetic problem or a bad dye job, and they were polite enough not to ask him about it. He refused to dye it even though it might help him hide better. He was an air dragon and air dragons didn't have ordinary brown hair. It would feel demeaning to alter his hair color like that. His eyes were gray, a shade that could be construed as human. As long as he kept his scales carefully covered by his clothing, no one would suspect him of being a dragon. He had perfected staying hidden like this over the last few weeks, and it helped to keep him safe.
Once his hair was in place, Platinum returned to the bedroom. He changed out of his pajamas into real clothes, made the bed, and packed everything he owned into his backpack to take with him. The last thing he wanted was for someone to come home and find his things everywhere. Platinum had worked hard to earn enough money for a few changes of clothes and the backpack itself, and he didn't want to lose it by leaving anything behind.
Platinum left the house without bothering with breakfast. The storeowner usually provided something, and Platinum needed to shop anyway. A little brush of wind pushed the deadbolt into place, locking it behind him as he headed through the forest and down the mountain towards the town below. He avoided the road so he wouldn't be seen, only stepping into view when the town's sidewalk began to parallel the road. He turned at the intersection and passed a number of smaller stores before heading around the back of the grocery store to the loading dock.
"The trucks are running a little late this morning, Platinum," Ryan called. Platinum had little doubt that he thought Platinum had given him an alias based on the color of Platinum's hair instead of his real name, but Ryan had brushed it off. According to the often wild-sounding stories about living in New York City he sometimes told while they were working, Ryan was used to eccentricities. "Come have some pizza while we wait."
Six large pizza boxes were piled on the loading dock near where Ryan was sitting. Three boys and two girls had already helped themselves. Platinum hurried over too, glad for the chance to eat before he started lifting heavy things.
Small talk flittered around as they waited. One of the girls was flirting desperately with one of the guys, who was ignoring her. Another one of the guys was hoping to buy the newest gaming console this afternoon with his earnings, and another guy had already made plans to come play. It was inane talk, but it passed the time, and Platinum learned a lot from it.
Platinum's first week of freedom had been spent in the woods, running almost constantly. He had eventually stolen someone's clothes and shoes from a cabin that had a drying line outside and ditched the scrubs. And then he had stumbled into a small town not too dissimilar from this one. Platinum had quickly learned that everything he needed, like food and water, cost something called money, and that Platinum didn't have any. He kept moving, and at the next town, he knew enough to offer to wash dishes at a local restaurant in return for a few meals. Every town Platinum stopped at offered a little more knowledge of how the world outside his cell worked, and these other youths helping with the stocking provided even more insight every day.
The trucks eventually pulled up long after the pizza was gone, and they all got to work. It was a sweaty job, but every box Platinum lifted made him a little stronger. It was better than lifting weights, one of the guys had explained a few weeks back. Platinum was thin from hunger and strong from all the running, but this added a different sort of strength to his body. He would need to buy a shirt in a larger size after a few more weeks of lifting the boxes to accommodate the new muscle he was slowly putting on.
They were fed a lunch of prepackaged deli sandwiches halfway through the day, but by the time the last truck had left, Platinum was exhausted and starving again. Ryan ambled over and handed him a wad of rolled-up twenties, about two hundred dollars, which was very generous for a day's work. Platinum pocketed the money, walked around to the front of the store, and walked inside as a customer.
He filled his basket with the essentials: milk, cereal, and pasta. Then he browsed for a little bit. Platinum liked to try something new, something he wouldn't have been served at the lab. They liked to feed him healthy salads with cut-up chicken or tuna on top. Platinum had discovered that adding pasta to just about anything made it into a meal, and he wanted to break free of the damned scientists, so he picked up something different each time he shopped. Platinum wandered back into the dairy section and spotted small cartons of eggs. He knew they had to be heated and that the inside would be creamy if he cooked them correctly. Platinum grabbed a half-dozen carton and added it to his basket. Eggs over pasta might be good. He would have to try it.
Spending as little money as possible was Platinum's goal. He had a stash of it in his backpack so that when he had to run again he could afford food without needing to steal and running the risk of being caught by the local authorities. He had little doubt the police would turn him back over to the scientists quickly. The scientists had clout. Platinum knew they did, because otherwise how would they get away with killing so many dragons for their experiments? He paid and took his bag of food with him, then headed up the sidewalk and back into the mountain.
Platinum started sniffing the air as he approached the house he had commandeered. There were plenty of the usual scents around from trees, flowers, bugs, and birds. The occasional acrid whiff of car exhaust from the road nearby made his nose wrinkle in distaste. He couldn't sense any intruders around the house. There weren't any fresh smells of the humans who owned it and all the lights were still out and the blinds down, just as Platinum had left them. Still, he circled the house cautiously.
Dragon, Platinum's nose informed him the second he stepped onto the gravel driveway leading from the road up to the house. It hadn't stayed, just walked up the drive to the front door before turning around and leaving again.
There were dragons in the town below. Platinum wasn't ignorant to that fact, but he had managed to stay out of their territory so there hadn't been a confrontation. Platinum had only smelled them a few times, particularly around the consulting firm next to the grocery store. Guilt informed Platinum that he would need to warn them to run should the scientists track him here—the scientists wouldn't hesitate to grab more dragons—but Platinum did his best to stay out of their territory. It was safer tha
t way.
Platinum was growling, he realized as he followed the scent of the dragon down the driveway and back to the road. The dragon had continued walking further up the mountain, Platinum's nose informed him, and then it eventually doubled back to return to town. Platinum didn't know what the dragon was looking for or why one of the town's dragons had decided to venture up the mountain now, but Platinum had a sinking suspicion that it was his fault and that it was probably time for him to move on to another town. Dragons were very territorial, and the last thing Platinum wanted to do was start a fight because he was accidentally encroaching on another dragon's territory.
The wind came to Platinum's call, and he let it blow his scent off the road and out of the forest. It was a trick he had learned to keep the dogs away, and he hoped it would work just as well on fellow dragons. Once Platinum was certain his trail was covered, he let himself into the house, locked the door again behind himself, and went to make dinner.
Platinum would get ready to leave in the morning, he decided as he measured out a serving of pasta. First on his list would be stopping by the grocery store to stock up on things that wouldn't go bad to eat on the way. He would also have to tell Ryan he was leaving so the man didn't expect Platinum for the trucks next week. Once that was done, Platinum would be gone, back into the woods and on his way to a new place to hide.
CHAPTER THREE
Nickel walked back into the office tired, achy, and covered in sticks and leaves. He was also frowning as he thought about his day. He had been wholly unsuccessful at finding the white-haired boy Louise had described, and yet there was definitely something odd up there. Every once in a while he would catch a scent on the wind that didn't quite belong. It blew away too quickly for him to be able to tell what type of creature had caused it, and he hadn't been able to track it to a physical source.
There had been hail on the ground in the morning, and there was something in the woods. It was like the start of a bad horror movie, Nickel joked to himself, except that he was the one in the center of it all, which meant he would probably be the first to die. Nickel rolled his eyes at his melodrama and started brushing the leaves and sticks stuck to him into the trashcan.
"No luck?" Becky asked sympathetically.
"Nothing," Nickel groaned, working a particularly stubborn stick out of his hair. He lost a few strands, but the stick finally came loose.
Becky hummed and then turned her computer monitor for Nickel to see. "Could this be your guy?" she asked, pointing one manicured nail at a fuzzy security video. A young man approximately Nickel's age walked in and out of the camera frame carrying boxes from a large truck. The picture was grainy so Nickel couldn't tell if the young man's hair was blond or white, but it was a possibility.
"When was this taken?" he asked.
Becky grinned at him. "This morning. It continues into mid-afternoon."
"So while I was tromping through the woods looking for him, he was in town?" Nickel sighed.
"He was next door unloading trucks for the grocery store," Becky added cheekily.
"Of course he was. I wonder if he's still there?"
Becky shook her head. "The trucks left an hour ago. You probably just missed him."
Nickel growled. "At least I can talk to the store owner." He double checked that he had gotten all the leaves and sticks off and then turned around to head back out the door.
The store was crowded with people coming to shop for their dinner groceries after work. Nickel stopped the first uniformed employee he saw that didn't look too harried and asked to speak with the owner. It took a few minutes for Ryan to appear, but he hurried over to Nickel with a welcoming smile.
"How can I help you?" he asked. "Dane was over just yesterday buying out our cat supplies. We haven't been able to restock yet, but I can give you a call when we do if he needs anything more."
Nickel laughed, remembering the three cat trees, plethora of toys, two litter boxes, food, and other supplies Dane had stumbled back to the office with. Lumie and Alloy were spending most of today helping get Turtle and Cinnamon acclimated to their new home and had decided not to come to the office. Thank goodness; Nickel didn't think he could deal with them two days in a row, especially after a long day trekking through the woods.
"I think we'll be good with cat stuff for the next decade," he joked. "Actually, I came to ask you about a boy Dane's having me check up on. I think he was helping you unpack the trucks today? He has white hair?"
Ryan was nodding before Nickel even finished his description. "He calls himself Platinum," he began, and Nickel felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. "Comes down from the mountain once a week. I'm pretty sure he was looking to steal some food from me a few weeks back, so I hired him instead. I've a soft spot for runaways and he looked like he'd been running for a while."
"You're certain he called himself Platinum?" Nickel asked desperately.
Ten years ago, Nickel, Dane, and Mercury had raided a warehouse where some of the evil government-funded scientists had been conducting experiments on air dragons. Mercury had rescued Nickel from the water dragon compound, Chrome and 'Ron from the earth dragon lab, and Lumie, Copper, and Alloy from the fire dragon lab. At the air dragon warehouse they had located Zinc, a female air dragon Nickel's age, and she had told them that the scientists had left her as bait in a trap and taken another air dragon, a boy named Platinum, with them. Despite everyone's best efforts, they hadn't been able to locate and rescue Platinum. It was something that had been driving Dane a little crazy because despite all of his strength and resources, he hadn't been able to catch the scientists and stop their experiments. Apparently, Platinum had escaped on his own and had somehow landed in Dane's town.
"I'm positive," Ryan said. "Is everything all right with him?"
"I need to speak with him, that's all. He's someone important to Dane." Nickel forced himself to smile and thank Ryan politely.
"He comes by again and I'll point him in your direction," Ryan said helpfully. "He's a good kid, if a bit quiet."
"Thanks," Nickel repeated. He headed outside and walked quickly back into the office. Dane needed to know Platinum was around.
Luckily, Dane was sequestered behind his desk, enjoying sitting in his plush chair for the first time in a while. He was on the phone with a client, so Nickel settled into one of the guest chairs to wait. It took a few minutes before Dane finished. He stood up to run his handwritten notes over to Becky first before returning to Nickel.
"What's up?" he asked once he was back in his seat.
"Platinum," Nickel stated flatly. "Apparently, he's been working to unload the trucks next door once a week for at least a month."
Dane's eyes widened comically and then narrowed as he thought. "Interesting that he would end up in my town. A dragon supposed to be so important to the evil scientists that they've managed to keep him hidden from me for over ten years and he inadvertently ends up on my doorstep? It's too much of a coincidence." Dane had made it perfectly clear to the supernatural community that any dragon in need of aid could come to him for help, and yet once free, Platinum hadn't come directly to Dane's office. Instead, Platinum was still hiding as if he didn't know about Dane's offer, but then why would he have come to this town specifically out of the dozens of small towns in this mountain range unless he had been sent here?
"I went hiking in the woods looking for a guy who appeared at exactly the same time as the weird weather and found Platinum instead," Nickel added. "That's a lot of coincidences."
"An awful lot," Dane agreed slowly. "You find his den today?"
Nickel shook his head. "He's supposed to be living up the mountain, but I couldn't find any sign of him."
"Air dragons are notoriously elusive and hard to find. I'm not surprised you couldn't locate his trail, especially if he's on the run."
"Do you think he's running or that he's still being controlled?"
Dane frowned and then shook his head. "There's no way to tell. Be very careful wit
h how you approach this case, Nickel."
Nickel nodded solemnly. That much was obvious.
The phone rang in the outer office. Becky answered it, and a few minutes later, the phone on Dane's desk lit up. Dane picked up the handset and held it to his ear. Nickel could hear Becky speaking in an odd echo of her voice in the main office and more faintly on Dane's phone.
"Director Stockton on line two," Becky said.
"Thanks, Becky," Dane replied. He waited a moment for Becky to hang up before he poked the button for line two. "This is Dane, your local Supernatural Consultant. How may I help you?" He listened for a few long minutes during which Nickel couldn't hear more than a murmur from the other half of the conversation. "Chatter?" He sounded like he was repeating something Stockton had said. "You're certain?" Another couple minutes of silent listening. "Nickel will be happy to find out." And now Nickel was being volunteered for something. Nickel sighed in exasperation. They spoke for a few more minutes, mostly just exchanging pleasantries from what Nickel could hear, before Dane hung up.
"What did you rope me into now?" Nickel asked sharply.
Dane smiled. It wasn't a friendly sort of grin, meaning that Dane had something up his sleeve and Nickel was about to regret agreeing to work for him. Nickel just scowled in reply and waited somewhat impatiently for Dane to get on with the explanation.
"You remember O'Simmons from five years ago? The corrupt police officer that had captured two precious dragons?" Dragons whose magic wasn't confined to an element, unlike Nickel. There had been other raids and other dragons saved in the five years since, but that raid had also included the Secretary of Defense in the planning, and since then Nickel had gotten official legal status as a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country. That included a social security number and the requirement that he pay his taxes properly. Outwardly, that wasn't a big change, but it brought a strange sort of security into Nickel's life, which was probably helped because Dane and Mercury had both been able to legally adopt all the kits in their care.
