A Dragon's Clutch

by Alica Mckenna Johnson

  “I would like to invite anyone interested in learning more about my party to join me so I can answer any questions you might have.”

  Several performers approached him, one of them Sasha.

  “You want to be a paid guest at a party? Wearing your costume and talking with people all night?” I asked when he came back.

  Sasha shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe. It’s a lot of money and it might be fun.

  At least I’ll get a free dinner out of it.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Do you feel something is wrong with him?” Sasha asked frowning.

  “No, but it seems like a creepy thing to ask. Like who pays that much money to talk to people? Especially if we’re in our costumes.”

  “Just because it isn’t part of your culture doesn’t make it bad or wrong. You’re uptight and innocent.” Sasha walked away.

  Okay, that was intense.

  “I agree with you, little sister. It’s creepy,” Kayin said standing next to me. Shin at his side.

  “I don’t think it’s creepy,” Shin said. “But I do think being forced to talk to people and be on display like that will be harder than he thinks.”

  “I’m worried about him. His father rejecting him has hurt Sasha more than he can deal with.” I bit my lower lip. “Maybe we should have a counselor traveling with us?”

  “Maybe someone needs to say something to him and try and get him to talk?” Shin said looking at me.

  What? Me? Oh no, that couldn’t go well. What would I even say?

  * * *

  My stomach growled. Setting the blow-dryer on the counter, I put on a sweater before seeing what options I had for dinner. It had taken forever to get into the shower, everyone seemed to be in a rush to go out. I walked down the hall and the boys’ room was empty, they must have gone out. My wooden sandals echoed on the stairs. The dining room dark and quiet. Oh, crap. Enough people must have had plans so they weren’t serving dinner tonight. I needed to pay more attention to the schedule Michael posted. Oh, well. I had enough snacks in my room. I’ll finish Huckleberry Finn tonight and then I can start on the paper and test tomorrow and finish the class.

  “Hey, Sapphire, where are you going?” Michael asked.

  “Oh, I forgot the dining room was closed tonight, so I’m headed back upstairs.”

  Nyota frowned pulling her dreadlocks out from under her jacket, the bells and bead tinkling. “Where is everyone else?”

  I shrugged. “Out I guess. It’s no big deal.”

  “What are you going to have for dinner?” Michael asked his thick brown eyebrows hunching together.

  “I have food in my room. You know, snacks and stuff.”

  Nyota arched her eyebrow, her barbell piercing glinting as it moved.

  “Yeah, no,” Michael said. “Come with us for dinner.”

  “It’s fine. You’re probably doing some father-daughter bonding thing. I don’t want to interrupt.”

  “We are going to sample as much of Tokyo’s street food as we can.” Nyota smiled. “Come on it’ll be fun. And the old man is paying so we can pig out.”

  “Hey, not so much of the old if you please.” Michael wrapped an arm around Nyota’s shoulders and squeezed. “Sapphire, run upstairs, get your jacket and scarf, and come explore the exciting world of street food with us.”

  “Yeah, okay.” In a few minutes I had my bag, jacket, scarf, and the card Miu had made saying I was a vegetarian. She had made them for anyone who wanted one. It would make ordering food a lot easier.

  “Come on, I’m ready for an adventure,” Nyota said.

  The signs and billboards lit up downtown Tokyo. People bustled about chatting and laughing. The energy felt lighter, as if at night people wouldn’t be judging you the same way.

  We went from food stall to food stall, sampling all sorts of fun things. Sharing each dish so we could try as many things as possible. Yakisoba with tofu, tempura vegetables, roasted corn with miso and soy sauce, fried mochi balls with syrup, and currently we waited for a fresh batch of octopus balls. The man cooking had poured batter over a grill with golf ball sized cups. He waited a minute then using chopsticks began to quickly turn the balls so they cooked on both sides.

  “That is so cool,” I said, watching his hands fly over the grill.

  “Well, even if they taste bad, this has been entertaining.” The cook looked up and winked. Nyota’s light brown skin pinked.

  I nudged her with my shoulder. “Should I leave the two of you alone?”

  “Shut-up. Dad, Sapphire’s picking on me.”

  “Now, now you two. Let’s sit.” Michael smiled, holding a steaming carton of the takoyaki which had been drizzled with Japanese mayonnaise and a thin brown sauce. So far we had tasted several mysterious brown sauces tonight.

  “They’re hot.”

  I poked one of the fried balls and let the steam out. “They smell good.”

  Using her chopsticks Nyota managed to tear a ball in half. She blew on it then popped a piece in her mouth. “Still hot but good.”

  Following her lead, I tried a bite. Sweet and salty, with green onions and ginger, and little chewy pieces I assumed were octopus. “I like it, entertaining to watch them cook it, and yummy.”

  Michael hummed his agreement, his mouth full.

  Once we finished the container we started walking again. Michael stopped at yet another ramen restaurant to see if anyone served a vegetarian version. I doubted he was going to get lucky on this one.

  “Those are pretty.” Nyota pointed to colorful little buns. We looked over the pictures and finally figured out they were ice cream covered in a soft mochi. We each got one based off the color, having no idea about the flavor. The outside was cold and squishy. I wrinkled my nose at the light purple one I’d picked. Nyota had gotten a soft orange one and Michael green. I was about to take a bite when the vendor said something unhappy sounding, then pointed to his wrist and opened his hand up three times.

  Michael nodded. “I think he wants us to wait fifteen minutes.”

  “Oh, okay.” I smiled and nodded.

  “Let’s sit over on that bench.”

  We followed Nyota and sat watching people walk by us. A business man fell in front of us. I jumped to help him and gagged at the smell of alcohol coming off the man. He bowed his head and tittered off. “Wow, I hope he can get home alright,” I said.

  “Me too,” said Michael. “Hey, look! They have cakes in the shape of fish. I’ll be right back.” Handing me his green mochi ice cream he went to buy another treat.

  “Is everything okay?” Nyota asked. “I’ve noticed that you’re spending a lot of time alone lately.”

  “Yeah, sure. I mean Kayin and Shin are dating, and it’s so cute how wrapped up in each other they are. Anali finally stopped having bad morning sickness, and she and Gavin are still nervous. Well, now they’re in India. Sasha has been off doing his own thing. I miss hanging out with Taliesin, but what kind of friend would I be to complain about him having a girlfriend? Usually I have Miu around to keep me from getting too bored, but she is visiting her family.”

  Nyota frowned. “I don’t mean right now. You’ve been this way for a while. Ever since London.”

  Frowning, I checked the time on my phone. “We have five minutes left to wait. I don’t know, I’ve been focused on school work, and training.”

  “What happened in Avalon? I know you went to save Anali after she was kidnapped, and you all came back beat up and tired. But did something bad happen there? You haven’t seemed the same. You seemed depressed for a bit then started doing everything like normal again.”

  Flashes of the fight filled my vision. Magical creatures fighting for their lives.

  Blood pooling on the ground.

  “It’s filled with red bean paste,” Michael said, breaking me out of my memories, holding out the fish shaped cake.

  “Who wants to try it first?”

  “I will.” I broke off a piece of tail, the dark r
ed filling oozing between the two soft warm cakes. The cake was sweet, eggy, and flavored with vanilla. Sweet red bean paste isn’t super sweet and tastes a bit odd, but each time I tried it I liked it a bit more. “It’s good.”

  Nyota nodded her agreement. “I love sweet red bean paste.”

  “Me too,” Michael said.

  “Mom still hates it,” Nyota smiled. “Of course she doesn’t like most Asian food.”

  “I should have realized our marriage would never work when I took her to get pho and she didn’t like it. I mean who doesn’t like pho?” Michael said.

  Nyota laughed. “She loves the Cuban food in Florida.”

  “What does your mom do?” Nyota never talked about her mom with me before.

  “She’s a hair stylist. I mean she cuts and styles, but she also braids, weaves, twists, dreads anything you can think of,” Nyota said.

  “Oh, cool. A girl in one of the group homes I lived in tried to teach me so I could help braid her sisters’ hair, there were three of them. I did okay with the simple braids and twists but I didn’t make the small braids tight enough. They left to go live with their grandmother before I figured it out.”

  “It is a skill, as is sitting still for hours while your hair is pulled and braided tight against your skull,” Nyota smiled fondly at the memories. “Hey, Dad, she’s going to the Star Trek convention again this year.”

  “One of the downsides of touring,” Michael said. “This will be the first time I’ve missed the convention since I started going twenty-five years ago.”

  “I didn’t know you were a Trekkie.”

  Nyota groaned. “Please don’t get him started. It has to be time, let’s try the mochi ice cream.”

  Chuckling, I bit into my purple treat. The outside soft and sticky, the ice cream had softened to the perfect temperature and was rich and creamy. What flavor, some kind of berry, not blueberry, maybe boysenberry or a blackberry? The texture of the mochi was a little odd, but didn’t bother me.

  “Oh, no,” said Nyota handing hers to me. “That chewy, slimy, sticky outside bit is not going to work for me.”

  “I like it. Mine’s green tea.” Michael held his out and I took a bite. Yep, the slightly bitter green tea that seemed to be a flavor choice for half the food and drinks in Japan.

  “I have blackberry, I think, and Nyota’s.” I took a bite of her orange ice cream.

  “It’s mango.”

  Michael and I finished off the mochi, letting Nyota have the rest of the fish-shaped cake.

  We walked along another block, stopping to get French fries at a stall. Michael stepped into yet another ramen house and held up his card Miu had made. The man behind the counter bowed his head and said, “Hai.”

  Michael beamed. “Girls, they have vegetarian ramen here.” Michael held up three fingers and we sat at a small table. “I am so excited.”

  We took off our jackets and scarves. A woman brought us hot tea.

  I took a deep breath and let the energy of the restaurant flow around me. Generations had made ramen in this little place. Pride, duty, and family honor had seeped into everything in the building. The woman brought over three large bowls of steaming soup. Spinach, slices of green onions, strips of nori seaweed, rounds of hard boiled eggs, and squares of tofu floated above thin yellow noodles in a rich clear golden broth. Using chopsticks, I managed to get some veggies and noodles all together. The noodles were soft and the broth rich and delicious.

  “I am so glad I kept asking,” Michael said as he slurped noodles.

  “Me too,” Nyota said.

  I managed to grab a piece of the soft tofu with my chopsticks, then turned. A woman stood a few feet away, her energy focused on me. She smiled and bowed her head. I checked my bracelet and the bead glowed a happy orange, which it turned when people enjoyed what they were eating, with stripes of gray-brown. She bowed again and hurried to the counter ordering a bowl of ramen.

  “Is everything okay?” Michael asked.

  “I don’t know. I told you about the hair pulling.” They both nodded. “Well, that woman came in and I felt something strange from her. And now the crystal bead in my bracelet has grey brown streaks in it, which Taliesin says means a hunter is nearby.”

  “Do you feel anything from them?” Michael turned towards the woman.

  “No, and that’s odd too. Although I don’t feel a lot of emotion from most of the people in Japan. Maybe a glimpse of satisfaction, and coldness. But nothing super threatening not like the Sons of Belial.”

  Nyota frowned. “That is weird.”

  “Do we need to leave?” Michael asked.

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. Maybe they are just weird people who really like my hair? Or a trickster being? But I don’t feel anything magical.”

  “I’ll look into it. Maybe my baby brother will know something.”

  I rolled my eyes. Philip ran the San Francisco Center for the Circus Arts and did research on magical beings and places for us. “I need to Skype him. I have questions about the magical beings here.”

  “I’ll have him text you when he has free time so you guys can coordinate,”

  Michael said. “Let me know if anything changes with her okay?”

  “I will.” We finished our ramen chatting about our upcoming show and how everyone was doing. I had fun and it would have been relaxing if I hadn’t continued to watch the woman at the counter.

  Chapter Ten

  “Your brother and niece are driving me crazy, when are you coming?” I asked, but didn’t whine, no matter what Philip says later.

  Trying to hide his amusement Philip leaned forward and let his hair fall over his face. But when your salt and pepper hair is cut for a Mohawk, even down it doesn’t do any good. “It’s only been three days.”

  “I can see you laughing at me. I know they are just being silly, but Nyota checked behind my ears to make sure I had washed them.”

  “I’m sorry, Sapphire,” Philip said once he calmed. I saw the laughter in his blue eyes even over Skype. “I’ll get there as soon as I can, but the woman who’ll be taking over for me is visiting her parents right now. I still have a lot of paperwork to do. Why don’t you tell me about what has been going on? Michael said you needed to talk to me.”

  I explained about the dreams and the hair pulling.

  “Wait, let’s take these one a time. Has the hair pulling continued?”

  I brought my braid to the front protectively. “Yes. At least once a day someone or something tries. Whether I notice them before they touch me depends on how distracted I am.”

  “And the bead on the unicorn hair bracelet changes every time to the same gray-brown color?”

  “Yes. Taliesin said it means it’s a hunter.”

  “It sounds like someone is playing with you, showing you how close they can get to you, how vulnerable you are.”

  “I don’t feel any magic coming from them, but they could be Earth magic beings. I can’t always sense them.”

  Philip rubbed his jaw, the silver scruff making a raspy sound. “Tell me in detail about the dreams.”

  “They start in one place and then switch …”

  “No,” he interrupted. “Tell me everything.”

  I wrapped my arms around myself and stared at the wall as I recited every detail of the last dream I’d had. My voice stayed monotone as I described the fight in Avalon and all the dead bodies, then the wrong colored sky and the snakes.

  “Sapphire,” Philip said his voice soft. “Honey, did you tell Gavin about your dreams?”

  “The important parts, about the snakes and the weirdness.”

  “Sapphire, look at me.”

  Sighing, I looked at Philip through the screen.

  “I am so sorry about Ramsey,” he said.

  I covered my mouth to stifle a sob.

  “Fighting is scary, being in a battle is even scarier.” Philip rubbed the faded tattoo of a mermaid on his forearm.

  I wiped at my face
. When did I start crying? “It’s what I have to do though, right?”

  “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Have you seen Ramsey in Akasha when you dream?”

  “Kind of. I’ve seen him from a distance, but once he sees me he leaves. I don’t blame him, it’s all my fault.”

  “No,” Philip said firmly. “No, it is not your fault. You aren’t responsible for Cartazonon’s actions.”

  I bit my lip. “Did Gavin tell you Cartazonon made me an offer? If I go to him and open a portal to Akasha so he can tap into the energy there, he’ll stop hunting magical creatures. He won’t need to kill them for their energy and power. I could stop it all. I could make this all end.”

  “And what do you think about that?”

  “I think that Cartazonon shouldn’t be trusted with that kind of power, that I’ll hate my life with him. But that if I can save other lives, maybe I should consider it.”

  Philip nodded. “I can understand that. I think you're right that he can’t be trusted with that kind of power. Look at what he does with the power he has now.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  Philip smiled. “Of course, I’m right. Now tell me about your days.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “Tell me about an average day. What do you do?”

  “With or without Michael and Nyota.”

  “Without.”

  I had no idea why he wanted to know, but I did as he asked.

  Philip hummed and scratched his beard. I shall now call it his “thinking pose”.

  “So I think that you may be dealing with depression and possibly PTSD.”

  “Is that your professional opinion?” I asked.

  “Yes, actually. Other than being the most awesome circus gym manager and teacher I am also a vet recovering from PTSD. I lead a support group once a week for other vets.”

  “Oh, really?” I didn’t know that.

  Philip smiled. “Yes, really. After my own issues when I left the Navy, I wanted to give back to other vets.”

  “But I don’t feel depressed, just kind of …” What was the word I wanted?