by D K Drake
“I couldn’t kill to gain a dragon. Human life is more valuable than that.”
“A man with a conscience.” Kenton beat a bowl full of raw eggs and dumped them in a frying pan. “The Land of Zandador hasn’t seen that from its king in a very long time.”
Booming voices from the living room interrupted the quiet conversation. Micah threw the remote on the floor and covered his ears. “What is happening?” he yelled.
“You turned the volume up too high,” Javan yelled back.
“I did what?”
Javan hopped off his stool and recovered the remote. He pressed the volume button until the voices on the television became whispers. He tried handing the remote back to Micah, but Micah wouldn’t take it.
“That thing has powers I do not understand.”
Javan suppressed a smile and nodded solemnly. “It is a powerful wand that can make pictures change and volume increase. It must be handled with great care, but I believe you are worthy.”
Micah hesitated before accepting the offered remote. “Thank you for believing in me.”
“Always.” Javan caught a glimpse of the Destroyer as he turned to go. Her expression remained blank but her eyes locked on him. He felt like she could see into his soul. She was searching for his fears and weaknesses, and he worried that she just might find everything she was looking for.
◊◊◊
Taliya chased Javan away after he brought her a plate of food. She expected the dragon eggs to hatch soon, and she wanted all three men guarding the Destroyer when that happened. That’s when the dragons would be the most vulnerable, and Taliya wanted to make sure the Destroyer couldn’t get near them.
But guarding eggs proved to be a very boring job. She had been at it less than an hour and was already itching for something else to do. “You two wouldn’t mind if I took a look around, right?”
The eggs didn’t move.
“If you decide to hatch, I’ll right be over there.”
What Javan had told her was a tractor and lawnmower were the first unusual things she had seen. She couldn’t resist exploring any longer and walked over to the big one. Its back wheels were almost as tall as her, and its seat was enclosed in glass with a black top. “I’ll come back to you. This other one looks to be more my size.”
She moved to the shiny green thing with four wheels, a yellow seat, and a yellow metal thing under the seat. She climbed up and onto the seat. “I’m not sure why Javan called this a lawnmower,” she said, talking to the unhatched dragons. “It sure is the weirdest wagon I’ve ever seen. How does it hook up to animals, and where’s the bed for storing things to carry?”
She turned the fifth wheel in front of her. As it moved, so did the tires on the front. “You are for steering. So what do you do?” She turned a key sticking out of the dash under the steering wheel. A screeching noise made her turn it back. “Interesting.” She pushed some knobs to her right up and tried again. More screeching.
“Maybe I need to add this.” She pushed her left foot against a pedal and turned the key. This time a rumbling came from under the green top. The lawnmower launched forward when she pressed her foot against the right pedal, but the rumbling stopped. She got it going again and tried moving the black lever down. The rumbling remained strong. She pushed against the right pedal. Forward movement. Cool.
She wasn’t sure how this machine was moving without the aid of an animal, but she didn’t need to know the specifics. The fact that she was on the go was enough fun for her. She rolled through the open door and onto the dirt road.
“Time to discover where this road goes.” Excited to find out how much of this world she could see now that she didn’t have to walk everywhere, she puttered past the house. Up ahead, she saw a row of tall trees that blocked her view of anything else. She also heard an occasional rumbling sound, the same kind of rumbling that came from under the green top of the lawnmower.
“That must be another road up there. Do a lot of people get around on these lawnmowers?” She lurched toward the noises. The closer she came to the other road, she noticed flashes of color zooming by. “How are they going that fast?”
She pressed down her pedal as far as it would go, but she couldn’t get her lawnmower to zoom. It stayed plugging along at the same steady pace. She finally reached a hard, black surface and paused when she didn’t see any other lawnmowers. She did see several dozen cows meandering around a wide open field on the other side of the road.
Then something that was most definitely NOT a lawnmower raced by her. It had four wheels and moved without being pulled by animals, but it was blue and much bigger than that tractor in the barn. She could see two people sitting in it through a big front window.
She followed it with her eyes as it zipped by and saw a similar red contraption coming toward her. It began making a loud blaring noise, and she frantically steered her lawnmower off the paved road. She avoided being hit by the oversized red tractor but slammed into a short pole.
Her body lurched forward. Her stomach rammed into the steering wheel, and her forehead knocked against the top of her shiny green lawnmower.
Chapter 34
Earth Identification
Honking. Burning rubber. Metal crunching. The sounds of a car accident cut through the walls of the house just as Javan snuggled under the covers on Kenton’s bed and closed his eyes. That’s when it occurred to Javan that life was much more peaceful and safer in Zandador where cars didn’t exist.
He took a few calming breaths to relax himself enough to get back to sleep. It would have worked if Kenton hadn’t barged into the room. “Javan, you need to come with me. Now.”
The urgency in Kenton’s voice told Javan something important was happening. Like maybe his dragon had busted out of his shell. “So much for sleep.”
Groggily, Javan shuffled into the hall and was confused when he saw Kenton rush out the front door. If his dragon was hatching, wouldn’t it be easier to go out the back door to get to the barn?
“It’s Taliya,” Micah said, pointing out the door toward the road. “I’d go, but I can’t leave the Wordless Wonder here by herself.”
“Taliya’s out front?” The car accident. Had Taliya wandered into the road and caused an accident? “Oh, no.”
Javan busted through the door and dashed across the front yard behind Kenton. As he caught up with Kenton, he saw Taliya slumped over the steering wheel of the lawnmower she had somehow smashed into the mailbox post. Blood from her head streamed down the green hood.
“Taliya!”
“That’s me.” She coughed and slowly sat up. Good. She was conscious.
“What are you doing out here?” Javan noticed a gash on her forehead and helped her sit steadily in the seat. “This cut looks painful. You’re gonna need stitches.”
“The cut looks worse than it is,” Kenton said. “I can patch her up inside.”
“What are those big colorful things on wheels?” She wiped away blood dripping into her mouth. “Why do they go so much faster than my lawnmower? I want to drive one of the big, fast lawnmowers.”
“They’re called cars, but you need a license to drive one of those.” Javan helped Taliya off the lawnmower, and they started walking back to the house while Kenton pushed the lawnmower behind the tree line.
A car whipped by them. Taliya turned and pointed at it until they could no longer see it. “I have to drive a car. How do I get a license?”
“First you have to take a class. Then you have to pass a driving test.” He nodded toward the lawnmower. “I don’t think you’ll be on Earth long enough to pass the test.”
“Or,” Kenton said, supporting Taliya from the other side, “I can print you a license, give you a quick lesson, and let you drive one of my cars.”
Javan stopped walking. “Are you saying you know how to make fake ID’s?”
“Certainly. How else was a guy from another dimension supposed to make a life for himself on Earth?” Kenton picked Taliya up and carri
ed her the rest of the way to the house. As Javan followed, he wondered what other illegal things his great-great-great grandfather had gotten involved with in order to make a life for himself on Earth.
◊◊◊
“I don’t understand.” Micah stood behind Kenton’s desk in the corner room of the house that Kenton used as an office and held the piece of plastic that had his picture on it. “What is this for?”
“It’s a driver’s license that also serves as your identification,” Javan said. He hovered over Taliya, who was laying quietly on the couch with an ice pack over her bandaged head. The Destroyer was quiet as well, but she was sitting under the window where everyone could watch her. “Usually you have to pass a driving test to get one of these. Printing your own is kind of illegal.”
“We’re not using them for illegal purposes.” Kenton rubbed his hands together, and moved his fingers over rows of letters on what he called the keyboard of a computer. “We’re just being prepared. If we find ourselves in a situation where we need to prove our identity, we can. I don’t anticipate needing to leave the farm for any reason, but if we do, we will be ready. It will also make a lovely personalized treasure to commemorate your time on Earth.”
“I do like being prepared,” Micah said. He mostly wanted to take Kenton’s side because he could see it irritated Javan. And that amused him. He studied his ID again. “What is this number on here beside my birthday? You got the day right but not the year. According to this, I’m 2200 when I’m really only seventy-seven!”
“Actually,” Kenton said, never looking away from his computer, “we track years differently on Earth. Here time is divided into before Christ lived on Earth and after Christ, but the Great Rift began tracking time from the moment God created that dimension after the flood. That was 4200 years ago, but Christ came to Earth a little over two thousand years ago.”
“That was too much information.” Micah waved his ID in the air. “I just want to know how old this thing says I am.”
Javan looked at it and said, “Eighteen.”
“What? No.” Micah shook his head. “That’s not even close to right. Look again.”
“It still says you’re eighteen, which is about right. That’s how old I thought you were when I first saw you.”
“Fix this.” Micah slammed the plastic on the desk beside Kenton. “No one will believe I’m eighteen. I pass for at least 170 in Zandador even though I’m much younger.”
“Sorry, kid,” Kenton said. The printer whined as it spit out another license. “Here you look like a senior in high school. That makes you eighteen. So that’s what I put on your ID.” He handed the newly printed license to Javan.
“If anyone asks,” Javan said, “you can tell them you play football. That will make you seem tougher if tough is what you’re going for. Hey.” Javan scrunched his face and showed his license to Kenton. “You made me fifteen, and this is only a permit. Why can’t I be sixteen and get a license?”
“Because you’re not sixteen,” Kenton said. “Whether you count by Zandadorian years or Earth years, you were born fifteen years ago.”
Micah wasn’t sure why Javan cared about one measly little year, but he was more interested in how old the Destroyer looked in Earth years. “Your turn,” Micah said, crouching in front of the Wordless Wonder. “What do you think your Earth age is, and what name should we put on your identification?”
True to form, she said nothing and stared at him with an I-don’t-care attitude.
◊◊◊
“How about me?” Taliya sat up. The sudden movement made her head spin, but she was tired of being still and quiet. “What’s my Earth age?”
“Hmm.” Kenton used his device to take her picture. He rubbed his chin and snapped. “Sixteen. You look like you’re sixteen.”
“Hey,” Javan whined, “why does she get to be sixteen, but I don’t? You even made silent girl over there eighteen like Micah. As long as we’re making up ages, I think I should get to be one year older.”
“What’s the big deal about being sixteen?” Taliya asked. “At twenty-three, I’ve already lived my sixteenth year, and it wasn’t anything special.”
“When you turn sixteen here,” Javan said, “it means you’re old enough to drive. That means you get to start going places on your own without any adult having to tote you around.”
“Then I definitely want to be sixteen. What else do sixteen-year-olds get to do?”
“You get to go to high school.”
“What’s high school? Is it a school in the mountains? And does that mean there’s a low school?”
“I guess there is a low school. We call it elementary school. You start when you are five and go through fifth grade. Then we graduate to middle school that is sixth through eighth grade. High school is the last block of our required educational system. It covers grades nine through twelve. At sixteen with your birthday in March, you would be in your junior year, or eleventh grade.”
“I’d almost be done with school? That’s sad. I love learning.”
“The learning part of school is fine. It’s the social stuff that I hated. There are so many bullies and snobs. They can make your life miserable at school and online.”
“Online. I don’t follow. Explain.”
“By online I mean the Internet you can access on a computer or phone or tablet. There are all kinds of these social media sites where people can post countless pictures of themselves. We call them selfies. Teens these days are basically addicted to their phones and base their personal value on how many likes their pictures get or how many followers they have.”
“I don’t understand anything you just said.”
“Me, either,” said Micah. “Are there any similarities between here and Zandador?”
“I’m sure there are,” Javan said. But before he could share any, an ear-piercing shriek made everyone wince.
“The baby dragons!” Taliya jumped to her feet. “I knew we shouldn’t have left them unattended.” She rushed out of the room, certain hers was the one that had hatched.
Chapter 35
Dusk Baby
The dragon cried again. Only its head and front right leg had broken free from its white shell. It wiggled and turned but couldn’t seem to make any more progress. “Come on, boy,” Javan said, encouraging his goo-covered dragon, “you can do it. Be strong and smash through that shell.”
He wanted to reach down. It would be easy for him to move the shell and free the baby. But he knew better. He knew this was a fight the dragon had to win for himself.
“Push a little harder.” Taliya took over the cheering from the other side of the incubator. “Keep trying. I believe in you.”
That seemed to be all the encouragement the dragon needed. With one long, loud screech, his three stuck legs kicked through the shell. Then his tail popped through the other side. He shook, throwing pieces of his shell and sticky green goo all over the hay and sides of the incubator.
“He looks like a furless cat with a long snout,” Kenton remarked beside Javan.
“You’re no cat, are you pal?” Javan watched the baby waddle around the edge of the incubator. His legs were unsteady, and his sticky body had fragments of his shell casing stuck to him. Javan wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t hear the dragon’s thoughts and didn’t want to startle the poor thing by reaching down and picking him up.
Could babies breathe poison? Was it born with a full set of teeth? Was it naturally vicious?
It rubbed against the pink, unhatched egg. “That’s right,” Taliya said. “Be a good friend and tell the dragon behind the pink shell to make her appearance.”
The baby cocked its head at Taliya and steadily walked over to her. He then raised himself up on his back legs and reached for Taliya with his front legs. “Oh. You’re a girl. And you want out.”
“He’s a she?” Javan was dumbfounded. He was certain his dragon should be a boy.
“No. She’s a she.” Taliya picked her up. �
�You need a bath. Let’s get you cleaned up, and then you can come back and talk my dragon into hatching.”
A twinge of jealousy hit Javan. Taliya had somehow connected with his dragon, and he hadn’t thought of giving her a bath. What kind of Collector was he? Or was Taliya just a better Protector than he was a Collector?
◊◊◊
Taliya marveled at the Dusk baby as it swam underwater in Kenton’s big bathtub with her eyes open and her ears pinned back. Such a beautiful, perfect creature in such a tiny little body. Taliya tried to imagine what the dragon would look like covered in scales, but she liked the vulnerable, soft look of the white skin. That white skin meant she needed Taliya to protect her from harm, and Taliya wanted to feel needed even if this technically wasn’t her dragon.
Her desire to protect the dragon seemed to upset Javan. He hadn’t said much since showing her how to fill the tub with water and sat on the edge of the tub with a sour look on his face. The dragon must not have appreciated the sulky attitude because she broke through the surface and spit water up in the air like a fountain. The water smacked Javan in the face and soaked his shirt.
Taliya laughed. “You’re going to be the first Dusk Stalker in history not to be afraid of water.” She threw Javan a towel. “What are you going to name her?”
“Good question.” Javan dried his face, picked up the baby, and wrapped her in a towel. “You have any ideas? I had the name Shakeer all picked out, but that doesn’t seem to fit for a girl.”
“No. That doesn’t fit at all.” Taliya slid over, and the dragon crawled onto her lap. Her breathing turned to wheezing.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Javan put his hand on her back as she worked hard to draw breath. “Is she okay?”
