by Jason Beil
enough to bind him in place.
The vines around Amy were strangling her, and Bob could tell she was being crushed. But before he could go to her, her eyes began to glow. Her fear and panic, her anger and confusion, had awakened something inside her.
The vines burst from her as she expanded to ten times her size, her form changing as she grew.
“DRAGON!” shouted Vivian, Deidre, Lupo, and Hugo. “RUN!”
Amy turned her reptilian face toward Jane and Liza.
“I will fight. But I fight for myself!”
Amy watched everyone try to scatter. She quickly breathed fire in a circle around them so that no one could get away. Vivian, Hugo, Deirdra and Lupo all cowered together in fright. Amy watched them as she contemplated what to do next.
Through all these events, Olive the Dragon Owl had remained on Vivian’s shoulder, apparently sleeping, but shifting the grip of her strong talons to maintain her place. Now, her fierce yellow eyes opened, and with two soundless flaps of her wings she was airborne, ghosting through the twilight, to a point above and beyond the vulture, where she circled, waiting, until she could dive at the vultures whirling red eyes.
Olive continued waiting, waiting for the vulture to turn his eyes her way so she could gouge them out. But she had to be careful because the vulture still had the man’s body. Hmmm… what to do, what to do.
Ted, or Bear as he’s known to his friends because he’s as big as one, found the condo easily enough using the pre-programmed GPS that his partner in crime had given him when he went in with her fifty-fifty to start up a dry cleaning business. He and Liza were actually husband and wife, but when it came to business they kept it professional. Ted saw Liza’s wagon parked against the curb in front of her first stop and was more concerned than earlier. She was way past due to return to the shop, yet her car was still at her first scheduled pick-up for the day?
The last six months had been hard for them. Their adopted daughter had disappeared, and they had no idea how, or why. Liza had shut herself off from him and gone through her work days like an automation, but she hadn’t shirked on her tasks. The police had been no help, in fact they suspected Ted of something. Ironic, when he was the first to come to the aid of children and animals. He just prayed that their daughter was alive, somewhere, anywhere, and that she and his wife would both return to him, physically and emotionally.
He parked behind Liza’s wagon, jumped out of his VW Beetle, and stretched his legs. Being almost seven feet tall made it difficult to drive, but it was paid for. He checked his wife’s wagon. It was empty. He walked down the steps to the back door of the condo’s basement and found the door ajar. After walking in and flipping on the lights, he paused at the mess. Liza was not there, but he saw a man on the floor. He bent over and checked the pulse of the odd looking character, found one, then scratched his chin, thinking. He pulled out his cell phone, dialed a number, got the voice mail and left a message. He started to look for identification on the man, but found no wallet. There was, however, an odd looking marble in one of his pockets. It was big and reminded him of a shooter. He’d never seen anything like it. It was beautiful. Liza temporarily forgotten as he stared into the glass, he rubbed it with his sleeve and the world began to spin.
“Linking Orb activated,” a voice echoed from the marble. “Dimensional shift in progress. Two to transport.”
The world spun, and the marble seemed to melt and grow, until the glow covered both Bear and the unconscious man. All he could see through his dizziness was the inside of the multicolored sphere, until suddenly it seemed to pop like a soap bubble. He found himself alone in the woods. He could hear a cacophony of sounds a short distance away: screams, laughter, curses, and shouts. Looking upward, he saw the formerly unconscious body from the basement clutched in the talons of an enormous vulture. Then from the discordant noise he picked out the words “I fight for myself!” It couldn’t be, but it sounded like Amy! He shuffled forward until he reached the clearing, and let out a roar.
Or at least he meant to roar. What came out was a high pitched squeak. As everyone in the clearing looked his way, there were several gasps, and Lupo actually started laughing. What would you do if you saw a seven foot tall, brown and white plush bear with a red heart on it’s chest? It was Cares-a-lot Care Bear.
Amy flapped her mighty wings and rose into the air. She cast her smoldering gaze about the clearing, looking for a target. Her eyes fell on the woman, Jane, who had claimed to be her birthmother. Mother or no, she was clearly a madwoman, and Amy’s first instinct was to take the fight to her. But Jane was standing too close to the other woman, Liza, who claimed to be Amy’s father. She seemed innocent… if absolutely crazy… and Amy didn’t want to risk hurting her.
Movement below caught her attention. The she-wolf, Sara, had gone mad, and was striking out at everyone around her. She had somehow caused grass to grow up past the giant’s waist, binding him in place. Now she launched herself at Bob, snarling and brandishing her deadly claws.
“BOB!” Amy roared, diving toward the conflict. She opened her jaws and breathed a giant gout of flame. The she-wolf howled in agony, engulfed in a billowing inferno.
As Amy beat her wings to gain altitude and circle above, the fire she had spewed caught the grass at the giant’s feet and climbed up his legs. Rage and pain ripped from his throat in a strangled scream.
“Dragon hurt Harvey! Dragon will pay!”
Harvey pointed to the ground in front of him. Great rocks pulled free of the earth and hurtled toward her.
“Yes, yes!” Jane shouted from somewhere below. “The powers of mineral! Kill her, Harvey! It is only her blood I need now. Kill her, my champion!”
Amy tried to wheel out of the way, but the boulders homed in on her, guided by some unseen force. With tremendous power they smote her, cracking ribs and breaking a wing. Spinning uncontrollably, screaming in pain, she plummeted to the earth.
Robert Paper was horrorstruck. He looked from Sara, who was rolling on the grass to douse the flames that were burning her alive, to Amy, whose massive form had just struck the ground with the horrible sound of shattering bones. These were both women he cared for; one was the love of his life. Was he about to watch them die?
“Dragon down!” Harvey shouted. “Now Harvey smash!”
“No, stop!” Bob cried. “That’s AMY!”
“Jane, stop this now!” Liza exclaimed.
Jane merely laughed, completely unhinged. Bob gaped in horror, understanding for the first time how sick the Witch-Queen was, how much she was willing to sacrifice for her perverse game. Her own daughter…!
The power of animal, thought Bob. Please, help me. Please!
Just as Harvey was about to bring his massive fist down on Amy’s skull, a gargantuan vulture, still clutching the man in black, slammed into the giant, knocking him flat. The impact caused the vulture to veer out of control, flip head over tail, and crash into the trees at the far end of the clearing.
His attention fixed on the giant and the crashing bird, Bob failed to notice Sara’s attack until it was too late. She leapt upon his back, growling in his ear and wrapping her furry arms around his neck, strangling him. The smell of her burnt fur was almost more than he could take.
“You love her?” she screamed. “Her?? I thought we had something, you son of a—”
Something tore Sara off his back. She howled indignantly as the thing that had grabbed her flung her to the ground. Turning, Bob gaped in disbelief at the creature who had just saved his life.
“You leave that young man alone,” squeaked the bear. The seven foot tall plush bear. With a heart. On its chest.
“Screw this,” said Jane, waving her hands in the air. “Too many players on the field.” Lightning flashed above as dark, foreboding clouds filled the sky. “Harvey, get up. Let’s finish this.”
Wreathed in power and madness, the Witch-Queen rose into the sky, cackling maniacally.
Olive circled above, glaring at the fallen vul
ture and the man it still held clenched in its claws. She recognized the man as the Draco Magicae, her lord and master. She had to try and free him! It was her duty, after all. Despite being outsized (an understatement if ever there was one), she dived toward the monstrous bird.
I’ve got you now, my pretty. You can’t get away from me. But how will I get my master to safety?
Then a thought came to her. She was a Dragon Owl, easily strong enough to lift a human form, if she could get a good grip. When she got close enough, she grabbed her master with her talons and pecked the eyes out of the monstrous bird. The vulture cried out in pain and let go of the Draco Magicae. Once he did, Olive tried to fly away… far, far away.
Surprisingly, the man she was trying to rescue screamed and kicked, trying to get loose from her grip. But a woman in the clearing cried, “Olive, Olive, come to me!” Puzzled, she flew towards the woman, maintaining her precarious grip on the man who didn’t recognize her.
Wilberforce shook his head, wondering what his brothers, the other gatekeepers, were doing. Certainly not their jobs! It was like a revolving door around here. While the tournament was something of a homecoming for most, Liza and Bear were strangers to the land. Sara, while descended from one citizen, had been born of an Earthly mother, who had died naturally of a mundane disease. There
