Drakon_Awakening

by Erik Schubach

  I nodded fervently. “Oh lordy yes! I studied everything I could get my hands on since it was unearthed eighteen months ago. But actually getting ta see a shard is me dream come true!”

  We were knocked out of our three way excitement by Henry clearing his throat. We all sheepishly turned to him as he said, “Well, it seems I'm no longer needed here. Myra welcome aboard. Mei get her situated in her office after your show and tell. I'll let you three get to your work.”

  I gave a tiny embarrassed wave goodbye at the smiling man as he left, chuckling and shaking his head. Then with comical timing, we all slowly looked at each other again and our smiles bloomed as Mei led the way to the end of the light table to a plain wooden box.

  I could feel static in my hair as she opened it, like it felt on dry days when I dried it too much. I covered my mouth with my hand as I looked into the little box. What I saw appeared to be an impossibly clear sliver of red crystal no bigger than my index finger. It was beautiful, almost mesmerizing. The pressure inside of me kept building. I tentatively brought my hand forward to pick up the shard, and looked at my colleagues. They nodded in encouragement.

  It sparkled so brightly and seemed to shimmer as I picked it up. Then that pressure inside me seemed to explode outward. “Jaysus!” The light table and the glass doors all shattered as I screamed in pain. Power was arcing into me from the shard and from the light fixtures exploding all around the restoration room. I was thrown backwards into the much thicker glass of the room's observation window. I lost consciousness to the sound of shattering and the most unbelievable white hot pain.

  Chapter 2 – Waking Up

  My eyes fluttered open. I was in the hospital. “She's awake!” I heard Mei say, and I looked over to see her and James. Henry poked his head in the door then seemed to smile in relief.

  I grinned at the motley crew and then said, “You'll have to be excusing me language here, but what in the fecking hell happened?”

  Henry chuckled nervously. “So how are you liking your first day so far?” I laughed, but it hurt, my whole body ached. I went to sit up but decided against it.

  I looked at them. “Ow.”

  Before they could tell me what had happened in the restoration room, a tall, white haired, elderly man whom I assumed was a doctor walked into the room. Everyone moved to the far wall while he started examining me. “Welcome back Miss O'Connell.” His kind face wrinkled up a little with his genuine smile.

  He started taking my blood pressure as he asked, “Do you remember what happened?”

  I nodded. “I felt as if I was being electrocuted when I grabbed the shard. I thought I was being burned alive. When I hit the observation window, I sorta lost me-self.”

  I quickly brought my hands up and examined them. “No burns?”

  He shook his head. “No, other than a few minor bruises where you were thrown through the window, I can't find a single thing wrong with you.”

  I looked at him stunned. With all that burning pain I'm unscathed? “How long was me little nap?”

  He looked at the wall clock. “About two hours.” He looked around to everyone and said to nobody in particular. “I'd like to keep her until noon for observation but then she is free to go.”

  I looked at the hospital gown I was in. “Me clothes?”

  Mei cringed. “They were burned off your body. We're about the same size, I'll run to my place and bring you a set.”

  I looked at Henry, he looked genuinely relieved and was mouthing, “bubble wrap” at me. I snorted and went into a giggle fit. They must have thought I was out of me mind if Henry hadn't been laughing with me.

  Then everyone started laughing as James deadpanned. “Can we get some lunch after this? I'm hungry.”

  Mei rolled her eyes and called out over her shoulder as she left, “You're always hungry James!”

  Henry turned to me. “I'm so sorry about the accident Myra. The investigators are saying it looks like our power somehow surged and fried all the disconnects and unfortunately you were in the wrong place as the power surged to ground.”

  James was shaking his head. “It's the Fire Stone curse.”

  Henry rolled his eyes. “You're an educated man and you believe that nonsense?” He turned back to me. “Luckily the scrolls were undamaged and were moved to another clean room. The shard...”

  He paused and James chimed in, “It is the damnedest thing. Probably a result of that much electricity hitting you, but it is clear now. That unexplained red tint is just gone.” Then he looked sad, his long face grew impossibly longer, he reminded me of a bulldog.

  I was horrified that because of my actions, the Fire Stone shard was damaged. I couldn't imagine the ramifications of it on the museum. The Dublin team was going to be irate, maybe that is the reason James looked as if someone was going to beat him. “What is it?”

  He scrunched up his face in a sour look. “Dublin wants the shard back. They gave us the ol' what for, but since the shard itself was undamaged, just the unexplained coloring was gone, they want to compare its structure with some red pieces. They grudgingly offered another red shard to us letting us know that they wouldn't even have done that if the scrolls had been damaged or if they didn't have a few hundred pieces. They have the other shards that museums around the world complained of causing static shocks to one or two employees. Maybe they are all tied together with your accident.”

  I looked at Henry. “Sorry.”

  He chuckled. “What for, the incident wasn't your fault. We are insured for freak accidents anyway though Dublin didn't even seem to care about that, they were more interested in the clear shard. You over-educated lot are an odd sort.”

  I squinted an eye. “Wait a minute, you are a doctor too.”

  He grinned. “Damn, tried to slip that one past you.”

  I shook my head at his antics. “Well I'd love to take a gander at the shard before it is whisked away.”

  He shook his head as the doctor completed his chart and quietly slipped away. “You take the rest of the day off. You just got blown through a window woman!”

  I was shaking my head. He held his hand in surrender when James gave him no support. Henry murmured, “Fine whatever, all you researcher types are crazy.”

  Then he stepped up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I have to get back to the office. I'm glad you are OK, but don't overdo it.”

  I winked, “Whatever you say boss.”

  He shook his head in mirth again and nodded to James and left.

  James described the whole incident as he saw it and how his terror doubled when he realized the scrolls may be hurt too. I giggled, I would have had the same reaction.

  Then Mei showed up right before noon with some clothes that were a little more frilly than I normally wear, but I wasn't about to complain. I just wanted out of there.

  After I emerged from the bathroom, I looked around for my personal belongings. Mei realized what I was doing and said, “Oh! Here.” She dug in her huge shoulder bag and produced my purse. Luckily you had set this down before you made like the god of thunder.

  I looked in it. “Umm... my glasses?”

  “Shattered with all the other glass in the room,” James said.

  Well hellfire and damnation! How am I going to be able to drive now? But then I realized I could see the nurses desk in the hall just fine. Well isn't that just a wee bit unnerving?

  I pushed that topic aside and to my colleagues I said, “To the restoration room!”

  James made a wagon train gesture and added, “By way of the front desk and lunch!”

  I chuckled as Mei bumped his leg with her hip. “Yes you babbling oaf, we'll get you fed.”

  We made our way to the nurses station and signed the discharge papers, Henry had apparently supplied them with my health insurance information. Heh, first day on the job and already thankful for the insurance it provided.

  I was still stiff, and a little sore but was feeling better by the minute. Mei led us to her car,
and a minute later we were on the road heading to a cafe to feed the bottomless pit that is James' stomach. I grinned at the two. It was obvious to me that Mei had a thing for James, but in typical male fashion, he was oblivious.

  I was looking around as Mei drove, everything was crystal clear even way off in the distance. I was severely nearsighted... did all that electricity affect my eyes somehow?

  We pulled up to a little cafe named Molly's and piled out of Mei's Volkswagen Beetle. Before I knew it, we were happily seated and munching on tuna salad sandwiches. James said they are heaven. He didn't misrepresent them. Mmmm.

  A passing waitress tripped on a chair leg one table over, and a plate of food slid off her tray as she stumbled. Before I even thought about it, my hand shot out and caught the plate without spilling the food and with my other hand I steadied her. Some other customers clapped.

  The waitress grinned and said, “Thanks! You have awesome reflexes!” She quickly retrieved the plate with a towel covered hand. “But be careful that plate is scalding hot.” She scurried off to her customer's table as I stared at my hand. I hadn't even felt the heat of the plate... were my nerves shot from the shock? And me? Good reflexes? I told myself that on my first day off I would visit a doctor to have myself thoroughly checked out.

  I shook myself from that line of thought and looked over at James. He and Mei had shocked and impressed looks on their faces over what had just occurred. “So what was that prattle about a curse that you were goin' on about in the hospital?”

  Mei rolled her eyes. “Not this again James.”

  He looked hurt as he turned to me. “What? It's the truth. You see Myra, there have been other occurrences of shards shocking people, like little static discharges. Nothing like yours though. And theirs lost a little bit of the red pigment in the shard when it occurred. Out of thousands of people that have handled the shards, the six people across the globe that this happened to, mysteriously disappeared within a few days of reporting it.”

  Mei made a spooky ghost sound, “Woooo-oooo.”

  James seemed to pout. “Fine. Just sayin' it happened. Watch your back Myra.”

  We made idle chit chat getting to know each other as we finished our meal and headed back to the museum. They brought me to security to get my melted badge replaced then down into the alternate restoration room.

  As we were donning our smocks, Mei asked, “Are you sure you want to be back at work so soon?”

  There was no way I was going to pass up looking at the scrolls! I grinned at her. “Me good Ma always says, lose an hour in the morning and you'll be looking for it all day.”

  She laughed. “You were lucky today. That's all I'm saying.”

  I winked at her with and tilted my head with a sly grin. “If you’re enough lucky to be Irish... You’re lucky enough!”

  James was just silently grinning at us and shaking his head as we entered the room. I smiled as I saw the scrolls on the light table and froze when I saw the open box beside it with the shard. It was crystal clear now, not a trace of the red tint.

  I paused, and James saw my reticence and shook his head again and grabbed the crystal from the box and offered it to me. I reached out slowly and touched it quickly and recoiled my hand. When the lord saw fit not to strike me down again, I let out the breath I was holding and accepted the shard.

  We all laughed nervously. Even like this, the sliver of crystal was so smooth and cool to the touch. I swear that the energy I felt searing my soul before, had come from the shard. I was still in awe. This was a piece of the Fire Stone!

  I placed it back in the box and turned my attention to the scrolls. They were in bad shape. Some chunks were missing, and the writing had faded and was non existent in huge swaths across them from centuries of wear. I put on some acid free latex gloves from a box on the table and lightly touched the scrolls. They were phenomenal, I couldn't believe I was actually doing this, this was history right in front of me. Me good Ma always said, “Seeing is believing, but the feeling is the God’s own truth.”

  My eyes snapped instantly to a faded rune, and I stabbed my finger toward it in excitement. “The Fire Stone!” Mei was nodding, with a grin and I continued to scan. I pointed again at another portion of the same scroll. “This could be Saint George. But the symbology is too faded to be certain.”

  James said, “Those were the first things the researchers in Dublin figured out too. That's where you come in. The only other scholar to even theorize the existence of the Fire Stone let alone connect it with Saint George, the Dragon Slayer. I swear they sent this half of the scrolls here to Denver to coax you into sharing your expertise since you refuse to go to Ireland.”

  I blushed profusely at the compliment and the exaggeration of my knowledge, then shrugged. “I'm scared to death of flyin'. Me Da had to have the doctor prescribe a sedative to me to get me to the States when I was younger. Heights bother me almost as much as the thought of fallin' from the sky in an overrated tin can.”

  Mei snorted. “Their loss, our gain. You want to see the fluoroscope and x-rays of the first scroll? We were able to detect some of the pigments and piece together some of the writings. There are still big holes, but we are getting closer.”

  I nodded eagerly, and she grabbed a remote and brought up on the big screen covering one wall, it displayed scans of the x-rays and fluoroscope images and merged them with an image of the scroll itself. She upped the contrast and almost a full third of the scroll was readable. I excitedly ran up to the wall and examined the archaic Old Irish that was interspersed with the Gaelic runes of the druids. I blurted, “These are druid scrolls!”

  I pointed to various locations. “Here, here and here. They correspond with the elements. Nature magic. The druids were a wee bit obsessed with it, ya'know.”

  I turned back, and Mei was smiling at James. “You were right!” Then she turned to me. “James had a hypothesis that these may be the druid accounts of Saint George.”

  I was nodding. “Yes, I believe he is right. It is so exciting to actually see this history!”

  We spent the rest of the afternoon deciphering the portions we could read. One obscure rune kept coming up over and over. It looked so familiar, but none of the lexicons we had in the database matched. Then I suddenly realized why it looked familiar. “Wait!” I typed furiously at the computer and pulled up my research material for my dissertation. I pulled up an old Latin account of Saint George’s travels to the land of Eire. I squeaked in excitement and stabbed at the screen.

  My colleagues leaned in. There, staring us right in the face, was the same rune beside the reference to the Latin word 'drakon'. I covered my mouth as I heard their simultaneous intake of breath behind me. I spun to the translations on the wall. “Dragons! This is the druid's account of Saint George and the dragons!” They were both patting my back. Did we just find a fist hand account of him slaying the dragon?

  I had to sit. We all sat and laughed for a bit then Mei looked at the time, it was almost seven at night. “Ooops... we worked past closing again. My God Myra. You just connected it all to your divergent mythology.”

  We all grinned and made our way out of the almost deserted building. The security guards walked us to the parking lot, and I smiled at the two doctors. “I'll see you two tomorrow! I canna tell you how exciting this day has been.”

  Mei shook her head as she got in her car. “You more so than most. Hopefully you don't have quite as exciting of a morning tomorrow.”

  I chuckled, and we all got into our cars and went our separate ways. I wasn't sure where I could go tonight to sleep since the park was out. Maybe I should have accepted me Da's offer of putting me up in a hotel until my grant money came in. But I wanted to prove to my parents I could make my own way in the world now.

  I found a nearby alley by an abandoned warehouse. This was as good a place as any. I locked Maggie's doors and reclined the seat and was out before my head hit the seat cushion. I dreamed of dragons!

  Chapter 3 �
�� Reginald Blaine

  The next two weeks were spent assembling our translations of the visible parts of the scrolls. Our counterparts in Dublin were ecstatic at our progress, and they sent all the scans of their scrolls to try to help fill in. Henry was over the moon, he kept telling people that the investment in my team was well worth it.

  I found it odd that I didn't seem to have my trademark clumsiness anymore. If anything, I was getting more graceful by the day. My eyesight appeared to be getting better and better. I wonder if it had anything to do with the accident. But a return visit to the doctor turned up nothing. My fecking bras were feeling tighter, I was probably gaining some weight from all the fast food my team has been eating. I was a couple pounds heavier than I was on my last unplanned visit to the hospital, I'll have to cut back a bit.

  We had shipped the shard back to Ireland the day after the accident and the replacement shard was going to be here any day now.

  On a Tuesday morning, Henry called down to the restoration room and asked me to join him in his office. I got out of my clean room gear and made my way up. As I got closer to Henry's office I felt a pressure inside that was familiar, I hadn't felt it since the day of the accident. I hesitated at his door, hearing him speaking with another man, then knocked. Henry called out, “Come in Doctor O'Connell.” He was always so stiff and formal whenever he was speaking with me in front of people from outside the museum. I found it sort of humorous.

  I straightened my blouse and skirt then walked into the room. I paused a second when I saw the delectable specimen of a man standing next to Henry in front of his desk. He was about six foot one, in his early thirties perhaps. It was easy to see, by the way, he held himself that he was in great physical shape beneath that thousand dollar suit. His dark brown hair was showing a few silver strands on his sideburns that made him look very distinguished.