Objects: Chapter 2: Into the Mystic

Your Current Location is Chaos Keep : Stories : Miscellaneous : Objects: Chapter 2: Into the Mystic

Surenian glided low through the warm afternoon air. Ecstatic to be stretching her wings after so many years underground she was afraid she was acting a bit like a hatchling on her first flight.

On her back Frances was holding onto her scales as tight as he could. He was trying to keep a strong enough grip not to fall off as she moved through the air.

She tilted her head back a bit, far enough that the young human entered her field of vision. She gave a soft chuckle; the human looked absolutely panicked.

"Relax," she said, the wind carrying her voice to his ears. "You're perfectly safe, you can't fall off."

He looked up to her. "Are you sure?" he asked, her hearing picking up his voice even as the wind whisked it away.

Her response was a soft hissing laugh. "It's part of how I fly. You will not fall from my back unless you remove yourself."

"Are you sure?" he asked again, digging his fingers a bit deeper under her scales. That reaction was beginning to cause her pain.

She reasoned that a demonstration was in order. She banked gently against the wind, rolling her body as she turned, and continued to roll until she was flying upside down. Glancing back she saw that the human was perfectly fine, not even a hair out of place. He was starting at the ground above his head, his jaw hanging open.

"Satisfied?" she asked with a slight smile over her lips.

He nodded vigorously. "Yes, greatly. Now could you please fly upright again?"

She laughed under her breath, pulling her wings close and snapping herself around in a tight roll, easily uprighting herself. Then with a gracefulness that many birds would envy she continued to slowly wing her way over the sky.

"I think I have an idea of where we might start," she said.

"Where?"

She twisted her head back around to look him in the eyes. "This is your world and your life. Why don't you show me why you wish to leave it?"

He frowned. "Are you sure you want to see that?"

Surenian nodded, moving her head back around to watch where she was flying.

Frances sighed. "I see. Well then, we're going the wrong way. I live in Westland, about ten miles southwest of Baker's Hill."

She raised the tip of one wing to start a slow bank against the clouds. "We should be there in a few minutes. I think you should decide where we need to go first."

He nodded his head. "A quick question. Can you hide us from radar? I really don't like the idea of being shot down."

She paused in her flying for a brief second. She had forgotten how fast mankind was making advances when she went to ground. It was quite possible that they could see her even while flying above their sight. Probing gently into the lynkxs she asked for some help. Many responses came back telling her how to make herself invisible to all eyes, real or created.

Casting the spells over herself and Frances she gave a stronger downbeat with her wings. "There, we are now hidden from any who would seek us."

He looked back and forth down her length. "I don't see any changes."

"Of course not," she said with a laugh. "You are inside of the spell."

He shifted on her back. "Spell? Like magic?"

"All dragons can do magic, child," she answered.

He laughed softly. "I knew that," he said, the tone of his voice, though, said that he didn't.

"For someone who loves dragons, you have some gaps in your knowledge."

He scoffed. "Renie, some doesn't even begin to cover it. Everyone has a different opinion about dragons and what you are. The only real source is from myths and stories thousands of years old."

She nodded her head a bit as she slowed their flight. "We are coming to your home. Where should we go first?"

Frances bent over her back, one hand still keeping a firm grip. He scanned the streets below as they skimmed only fifty feet above them. "Turn to the left," he said, pointing, "along that street. And keep it slow."

She turned again, this time sharper to keep above the street. Her altitude decressed as she slowed down, now just skimming twenty feet above the road. She was low enough that the wind from her wing beats were sending leaves scattering under them.

They turned twice more, each time going deeper into the houses that circled the city. A mass of wood and stone, it looked to be the residential area of choice.

Frances called for a stop, pointing to a brown house that looked no different than any of its neighbors. Surenian came to a slow stop, landing gently in the front yard, just skidding over the damp lawn a few inches.

Sliding off her back the young human made a soft landing in the lawn. Looking around as he stood back up he seemed to look amazed. "Renie," he said, "you make the grass look pale."

She lifted her eye-ridge at the comment, but did look to herself and then at the lawn. He was right, the bright green of her scales made the grass look like only a shadow of itself. "Yes," she said with a smile.

He returned the smile as he started for the front door. "We are still invisible, yes?"

She nodded. "Correct, I won't remove the spell until we are out of the human lands."

He nodded again. "Could you at least make me visible for now. I don't think walking around like a ghost would help anyone who's home right now."

With a quick wave of her foreclaw in his direction she changed the spell. "There, you can now be seen by humans when not with me."

He nodded again. Turning back to the front door he unlocked it and stepped inside. "I don't think you'll fit through the door," he said, looking back outside. Renie tilted her head at the statement of the obvious.

"I'll open a window up on the far side of the house. It should be large enough for you to put your head through."

He vanished into the house before Surenian could say anything in response, so she starting walking around the building. She easily moved past the metal fence that separated the back half of the yard from the front and settled down in the grass, waiting.

The wait was a short one as one of the large windows to one side of the house opened and Frances put his head out. "Over here," he said, waving one hand towards her.

She walked over, slipping her head in through the open window and into a large room. It was decorated and looked well used. The two side walls each had shelvs over their whole length, with one gap for a door on the left wall. The facing wall also had a case against it, but this time it was a trophy case. Each of the five shelves was full of different awards. Next to the case was a second door.

The last wall was left as a wall. Hanging along it's length were many framed awards and a handful of diplomas. The center of the room was dominated by a large oak desk; stacks of papers covered its surface.

"What is this room?" she asked.

Frances pulled out the thick leather chair that was behind the desk and sat down on it. "This is my fathers office. At least it is when he's here."

She cast her gaze over the two doors. The one on the wall with the trophy case was open and lead out into the hallway. The other door was closed. "Where does that door lead?"

"Into my parents' bedroom." He answered. "Dad had it installed when he was running his company. It kept him from having to go very far during the day."

She turned back to look at him. "And where is your mother?"

He shrugged. "I don't know and I really could not care less. If I must guess, I would say she's out hobnobbing someplace. Probably acting like I don't exist."

"That's a very cruel thing to say about your mother."

"Yes," he said with a sneer, "it is." It was clear that was exactly what he had intended.

"See those over there," he said, standing up and pacing over to the trophy case. "Every single one of those belongs to either my Mother, my Father or my sister. Not a single one of them is mine, nor are any of the other awards in the house. I'm the son of a decorated soldier, jock and successful business man. My mom is one of the smartest people in the state and trades the stock-market like I would play cards. My sister is my parents' child, twenty-three years old, two degrees and with her own business."

He sighed, turning around to look at the dragoness. "And then there is me. I never played sports, I refused to enlist in the military. I have a C average in school; it will take an act of God to get me into any 'real' collage as they like to call it. What it amounts to is that I'm a disappointment to them, and they handle it by ignoring it. So I don't exist around Mom's friends, or Dad's anything! I'm not even in any of the family pictures they show on the news. As far as the people who elected my father know I don't even exist!"

She slowly nodded. "I see. You don't live up to what they expected for you, so you don't exist to them outside of where they want you."

He smiled. "Beautiful summation of the situation."

"Then why not leave? You are an adult, why stay here?"

He shrugged. "Many things, mostly because I have a few more months until I graduate school. Until then I can't get any kind of job, and even after that it's iffy."

She nodded again. "Where is your place of rest? Your escape from the world?"

"If you mean my bedroom, it's in the basement. You should be able to get your head through the emergency window down there. I'll meet you there, you can't miss it."

She pulled her head back out of the window as he closed it right behind her. Glancing around the house she saw the window he meant. It was a large one, large enough that a person could get through it in a hurry.

Lowering her head into the dugout around it she looked through the glass. On the far side was what looked to be a bedroom. Smiling to herself she decided to give him a surprise. Phasing herself out from the rock she slowly sank down into the soil. Then quickly she slipped through the cement foundation of the house and into the room.

As she came back into phase with the stone she settled down in a relatively uncluttered place on the floor. Seconds later Frances entered the room and jumped in shock to see her. "How did you get in here?" he asked.

She had to suppress a laugh. "I'm a stone shifter. I can move my way through most types of rock and stone. It's a rare ability but can be worth while."

He nodded in agreement as he sat down on the unmade bed. "Well, here it is; this is my room."

Looking around she was a bit amazed at how little there was. There was the bed itself, a dresser, a small stereo system and stack of tapes. There was a pile of books and papers on top of a small desk in the corner. Three of the walls in the room were made of cement, the last wall, the one with the door in it, was made of wood.

"Your parents make you live down here?"

He shook his head. "No, this was my choice. I did this so I could stay in the house when Mom had her friends over." The tone of his voice added many level of contempt to the word 'friends'.

"Is there anything else you wish to show me?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing now, not really. School's out for the week and Dad's away in D.C. for at least another month."

She lowered her head a bit to look at his eyes. "So, this is your reason for dying?"

"No... yes... hell! I don't know. I just know that I don't want to live, I've know that for years. I just don't know why anymore." He shook his head slowly. "I used to think I did once, but now I just don't know."

She placed her foreclaw on his back. "Are you sure you want to die?"

He looked down at his feet. "It's the only thing I'm sure of anymore."

"Very well, then, if you have nothing more to show me here, maybe we should continue on our way."

Frances nodded, picking up a backpack from the clutter on the floor. Dumping out its contents on the bed he put in some clothing. "Should I go back outside?" he asked as he placed the pack on his shoulders.

She shook her head and motioned for him to get on. "No, I can phase both of us through the rock again, just like before."

A few minutes later the pair was once again in the air over Westland. "So, where should we go next?" Surenian asked.

Thinking about it for a moment Frances answered, "I want to know why you spent the last hundred years in a cave?"

She nodded, "That will take a trip around the world. Brace yourself."

Surenian then let her mind open the gates of her speed, and in an instant they were moving faster than sound, and into a new horizon.

To Be Continued...

This story is copyright 1999 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.

Your Current Location is Chaos Keep : Stories : Miscellaneous : Objects: Chapter 2: Into the Mystic
Page last updated: 02/19/2012