by Jerod Lollar
A blue light appeared above my head. It flew directly into the eyes of the dragon. It roared in annoyance as the light buzzed around its head. It swatted at the light like it was a fly. This made it stop the continuous flow of fire in my direction. As soon as the flame stopped, I rolled away and took a deep breath. I pounded the ground in frustration. I was way over my head here. I didn't know what I was doing. Michelle was dead and now Fetch and I were stuck in chaos. I didn’t see how we were going to get out of this. The dragons seemed to be fighting each other and I had lost sight of Fetch. This strange power that Johnathen had seemed to compensate for the power he was losing from the dragons. It dawned on me that I had no idea where that blue ball of light had originated. I heard a screech coming from a group of goblins and saw the reason why.
It was Pete. Somehow he had found us and was joining the fight. He was surrounded by goblins. He was swinging his sword around slashing at them. There was a sick, green, wetness covering him and I realized it must be goblin blood. This was a real battle. There were things dying. I saw a flash of blue light out of the corner of my eye, and saw that Samantha was distracting the dragons still fighting on Johnathen's side. Again I couldn’t tell if these dragons were controlled or just chose to stay on Johnathen's side.
Samantha looked at me from across the battlefield and smiled. That was when the goblin attacked. He jumped out of the darkness, grabbed her by the throat, and spit in her face. I yelled for Fetch as I ran across the field, everything else forgotten for a moment. The only thought in my head was her safety. I had lost Michelle. I was not about to lose another friend.
Fetch appeared in the air to my right. He shot a stream of flame at my hands. Catching it I continued to run shooting flame at anyone who got in my way. My hip pounded with pain with every step I took. Goblins were screaming in pain as the flame from my hands hit them. Fetch would pick them up and fling them to the ground biting and slashing at them. I felt the splatter of blood hit my face as I finally reached Samantha's side.
She was struggling to catch her breath. Her face was nothing but a bubbling mass of raw and burning skin. You could already see a circle of bone through her forehead and her hair was almost all melted away. Her eyes were undamaged and she stared into the night gasping for air. There was fear and confusion in those eyes.
Fetch knelt down and gently sent a blast of healing fire to her face. Her breathing slowed and her eyes focused on me. I could hear Pete, now at my side, slashing at any goblin that dared to get close. A hand touched my shoulder and Smith whispered in my ear.
"It’s pretty bad, Jack. I don’t know if Fetch's flame can cure her completely. We have to get out of here now."
“No,” I heard myself say, "I have to stop him. Get her someplace safe.”
I stood up shaking in rage. It was all I had left. Johnathen had taken everything away from me, and hurt and killed the people I cared about. I was going to stop him. I had to stop him. I could feel the magic building up inside of me. This time I was going to let it build up until it would explode out of me. I didn’t care if I lived or died, I just wanted to stop Johnathen. Fetch crouched, ready to run by my side, and let out a roar that matched my rage. I began to run.
All the pain I felt was pushed aside. Goblins tried to grab us spitting and snarling. I tossed them aside like they were nothing. The dragons were now busy with their own battle above us. Only one was by Johnathen's side. His robe was in tatters and he stood there waiting for me to reach him. His shimmering patterned shield still surrounded him. I continued to make my way over to him when Fetch was knocked back by a blast of black fire.
One of the dragons, still on Johnathen's side, had attacked. Before it could move in for the kill, a shining blade, thrown by Pete, landed between the eyes of the attacking beast. I kept running toward Johnathen. When I reached the shield, I dove through it. It felt like hands as it grabbed at me, trying to pull me back. I fought my way through the shield, finally standing before Johnathen. The man I trusted. The wizard who destroyed everything.
“How could you kill her? She loved and trusted you and you killed her.”
There was a fury in my words. In spite of the power Johnathen seemed to have now, he took a step back from me as I spoke. For a second I saw a look of confusion followed by sorrow. Johnathen shook his head slowly. Then the light went out of his eyes and the snarling beast that Johnathen now was returned.
“There is always a sacrifice to be made in any war, Jack," he said nonchalantly, as if it was nothing to kill someone you were supposed to love.
I stepped up to him and he took another step back. He was still afraid of the power that had kept on building up inside me. I remembered how I had surprised him in the desert. He seemed to remember that too. I took another step toward him.
He smiled weakly and said, “You can’t win, Jack. You won’t join me. I know you will continue to refuse, and I will kill you and Fetch. Just like I killed Michelle.”
His voice wavered a little at this statement.
“Look, he is already dying.”
He pointed behind me. I wanted to turn around and see if he was telling the truth. But I didn’t dare turn my back on him. He smiled again, realizing that it wasn’t going to work. It was a standoff. I didn’t dare move toward him out of fear that he would unleash an attack, and he didn’t attack for fear of me unloading my unpredictable magic on him. His new power could affect me and so my previous ace-in-the-hole was gone. The strange field surrounding us both was keeping all sound out as the fighting continued around us. Out of the corner of my eye I could see flashes of fire explode in the air as the dragons continued to battle over our heads. I smiled at Johnathen.
“Looks like you lost control of the dragons, dude. Sucks to be you.”
“It doesn’t matter now. By the time I am done, I will be able to destroy them all.”
He looked happy as he said these words, a manic joy in his eyes. He stood there staring calmly at me. We could be meeting each other for coffee instead of facing each other in a struggle for life or death. I felt a strange pulling at my feet. I looked down and saw the smoke that came from his robe wrapping around my ankles. Before I could move I was transported back to that nightmare world I had to fight my way out of in the tunnel.
There was my brother, hanging from the rope around his neck. He had begun to smell bad and one of his eyes had fallen out of his head. I felt the pain in my hip and my hand had curled up as if the bone had never been set those many years ago. With the sound of my mother screaming in my head, my brother spoke to me again.
“Hello loser, back for another tour? “
"You can’t fool me this time, Johnathen. I know it is you."
“Is it? Are you sure? I mean, for all you know you are still in that tunnel. Or you could be in a mental hospital awaiting shock treatments.”
Black blood was pouring out of his mouth with every word he spoke. My hip throbbed and for one second the thought that none of this was real came into my mind. My nightmare brother reached out to grab my arm again. This time I was ready.
“You always were a disappointment, Jack, always a complete loser."
The rope broke and my brother landed on his feet. His head rolled around with no support as he began to walk toward me. I could smell his breath as he moved in close. I was unable to move. He reached out to grab my face. That’s when I forced the magic out of me.
It had been building up inside of me all this time. Even through the haze of pain and sorrow of this vision controlled by Johnathen, I could feel it pulsating to be released. I took a chance in believing that this moment, during the vision of my brother, was the right time to release it. It ripped out of my body causing real pain. I was shaken out of the dream as the full force of the spell, fueled by my own doubts and fears, my anger and sorrow, went through Johnathen like a blade.
He gasped in pain and his barrier fell apart. The sound of the battle raging around was overwhelming. I fell to the ground completely exhausted
. Pain throbbed in my whole body from head to toe. A blast of green fire hit me from a passing dragon and I lay there unable to move. I could do nothing but stare at the sky. I was not happy with the fact that I couldn’t see Johnathen anywhere. If my blast of magic hadn’t stopped him, then I was a sitting duck.
Fetch appeared above me. He blasted me with his healing fire and the green flame was wiped away. I lay there, still throbbing in pain, when a strange numbness started creeping up the right side of my body. It started at my hand and quickly spread down to my leg and up the side of my face. I thought I was having a stroke. The vision in right eye went black and my ear was buzzing. I still was unable to move. Fetch stood over me, protecting me from the battle that seemed to rage on. I was just beginning to believe we were going to die, when a blue ball appeared above me. It got bigger and slowly started to sink down. I tried to warn Fetch but he was too busy fighting off a group of goblins trying to spit on me. The ball engulfed me and Fetch, growing brighter. My last thought was about Samantha. I hoped that Fetch's healing flame had been enough to save her. And then, I passed out.
Chapter 38
I woke up with a start. I sat up too fast and a pain shot through my body. I was no longer numb on my right side, which I took as a good sign. I let my eyes adjust and noticed some familiar graffiti. I was back in the tunnel. Back where it all started. I lay there and my body slowly drained of pain. I had no idea how I got back to the tunnel. A thought crossed my mind. What if this had all been a dream? What if I had fallen into this wash and crawled into this tunnel with some sort of concussion and imagined it all?
The sound of a match being struck shook me from my thoughts. In the light of the match I could see Booger's face. He was lighting a cigar.
“Hiya boss.”
He took a big hit off the cigar and blew smoke in my face. It smelled terrible.
I backed myself against the wall of the tunnel ready for another fight. I felt the magic building in me along with a tingling sensation down the right side of my body.
“Whoa boss, wait, I’m on your side now. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have pulled you out of that fight. At the least I would have already killed you."
In a strange way, that made sense, but, I was nowhere near trusting this guy. Remembering the ball engulfing me and Fetch, I looked around to find him.
"Where is Fetch?" I asked.
Letting the magic simmer in my body, I moved my hand and felt a strange sensation.
I raised it up to my head and felt a bandage across my face.
"Been hurt, boss,” explained Booger, "Face and your arm. Heck pretty much your whole right side.”
I didn’t care about me. I needed to know if I was the only one to survive.
“Where is Fetch, Booger?" I repeated.
In answer to my question I heard a strange gagging sound. I looked over and saw Fetch. He was facing away from me. He sounded sick. I got up and went over to see if he was ok. When I got to him and touched him he moved away from me. He kept his head down. I was relieved he was ok, but puzzled at why he moved away from me.
“Hey. You mad at me?“
Fetch looked back at me with a strange look of guilt on his face. He coughed and blood came out of his mouth. I rushed over to him. He was not doing so well after all.
"What happened?"
My throat was dry and sore and it hurt to talk.
“The battle was going badly. You just lay there as Fetch was fighting to protect you. Whatever you did to Johnathen really knocked the wind out of his sails. The goblins got smart, and, except for the twenty or so that was trying to get you, they took off. The dragons split. Some stayed with Johnathen, others sided with Smith and the others just flew off, not wanting to get involved. Johnathen was in a rage. He was trying to stand up, and I knew if he saw you laying there hurt the way you were, he would kill you, so I got a bubble going and got you and Fetch out of there.”
"What about the others?" I asked as I tried to check and see how bad Fetch was hurt.
He hung his head down, not wanting to look at me.
“Don’t know,” said Booger lighting a second cigar, "That elf got Samantha out of there and the other fey were still fighting. Smith told me to get you to his place, but instead, we ended up here. Funny thing, huh? This is it though isn’t it? The place where it all started?”
I was confused. Why was Booger helping me? How did he know Smith? Once again this strange world I lived in was twisting in a way I didn’t understand.
“Why are you helping us?” I asked.
Booger just puffed on his cigar for a while.
”Got my reasons," he said.
He didn’t say anything else about it. I turned back to Fetch too tired to question it now.
"Been here a while now, boss. Fetch was blasting you with that fire of his over and over again. I finally convinced him to stop. Wrapped your arm and head myself. You're a little messed up right now."
I ignored this last comment. I wasn't concerned about myself right now. Fetch looked bad and I needed to find a way to help him. I remembered that Smith had told me about a group of fairy healers.
“Booger, can you get us to the fairy healers?"
“Don’t think so. Been trying to teleport you guys out of here and haven’t been able to. I think your magic makes mine not work too good. Besides, I doubt I would be accepted by the fey, boss. They don’t like goblins much.”
I stood there scratching Fetch's head as best I could with my bandaged hand. I wondered what kind of damage it had suffered. I wasn’t feeling any pain from it right now, so I didn’t think I was burned. It just tingled. I figured it just took longer to heal this time because Fetch was obviously hurt. I figured that if I could get Fetch some help, he would be able to help me. I was trying to stay positive. The thought of losing Fetch was too much, especially after losing Michelle. I had to get some help.
As I stood there, I saw a familiar sight that filled me with dread. A bobcat was sitting at the mouth of the tunnel staring at us. Fetch spotted him and sent a small burst of flame in his direction. We had been discovered which meant that Johnathen, if he was able, was on his way. Sure enough, blue lights were beginning to glow all around the tunnel.
“Go boss," said Booger, shooting a strange green dart at one bubble that had a green hand reaching through feeling around for us.
”I'll hold them off. Just get on Fetch. Fly northwest out of town into the desert. When you get to the desert, the fairy healers will find you."
I wanted to say something to him. It was very confusing to me that he was helping.
”Thanks," I said.
He sent another bolt at another ball saying, “Don’t thank me yet. Get going."
I looked at Fetch and asked, “Can you fly pal?”
He straightened up and shook out his wings. The proud fierceness in his eyes told me he could. I hoped we wouldn’t half to fly too long. I didn’t want to hurt him any more than he already was hurt. I jumped on his back and we took off into the night air.
I could hear the squeals as more goblins poured into the tunnel. I found myself hoping that Booger was going to be ok. It was hard for me to believe that he was a friend now. Well, if not a friend, at least he was on our side for now.
Just being in the sky seemed to make Fetch feel better. He shot a stream of purple fire into the air. It flew back at me and flowed around us. My hand went up and touched the bandage on my face. I wondered how bad it was. I wasn’t feeling any pain in my face or my hand. I decided to take a chance and see the damage for myself. I reached up and began to unwrap my head. Fetch looked back at me with concern on his face.
“Relax," I told him, “it can’t be that bad. Your fire has never failed to heal me yet."
He turned back around and continued to fly. Every once in a while he would glance back as I continued to unwrap the bandage. When it was completely removed, I just sat there letting the wind touch my face. It felt great.
All of a sudden Fetc
h stiffened. His head began to move from left to right, then up and down. He smelled something in the air and was very excited about it. With a roar of joy he began to dive down. I almost fell off his back as he flew to the right going more north than west now.
“Easy, you stupid lizard," I said as Fetch dipped toward a building.
I recognized it as a hospital. Fetch was flying right for it and he was not bothering to cloak himself. He landed at the front entrance sending people screaming and running. I started to get down, aware that the police could show up any minute. In fact, they might already be inside. After all, it was a hospital and there were usually police inside a hospital. Before I could get completely off of Fetch, he had bounded toward the doors and knocked me backwards. Healed or not, I was still a little weak and it took me a second to get up. I ran in calling for Fetch. There were people crouching on the ground, their hands over their heads. A small boy was standing on a chair, bouncing up and down, pointing at the doors leading out of the room.
“Dragon, Mommy, dragon!" he was saying over and over, very excitedly.
I ran in the direction he was pointing, startling people as I ran past. Some were hidden under chairs they were starting to peek out from under. Some screamed as I ran past them. Surprisingly, Fetch caused no damage as he ran through the hospital. I was unable to catch up to him, just catching a glimpse of his black and silver tail as he would turn a corner. Listening for the sound of screams, I finally caught up to him as he was pushing at a closed door to a room.
I ran up shouting, "Fetch, you stupid lizard! What are you doing?"
