B0075M2D1U EBOK (15 page)

“
You can see why we never told anyone of our presence in your world,” Anya said. “It is just so much safer for everyone involved if we keep our secrets. Your modern world is simply not capable of accepting fairies, let alone dragons. There are no more slayers. There are no more well-known, human-accepted Wizards, like the great Merlin…they’ve been written off simply as lore. Could you imagine if a dragon was caught? There would be all kinds of scientific experiments done, or he would be kept in a zoo, instead of being treated as a living, breathing, intelligent and powerful being.” I sensed an air of disgust in her tone at her revelation of a dragon being kept in a zoo, but she kept her royal calm as she stood next to Brennan. They both somehow seemed like they aged ten years since I last saw them.

“
Of course! Of course!” Jeremy whole-heartedly agreed and started wildly flaying and gesturing his hands all over the place, as he continued, “But now that I know, I can totally help you guys! I mean…this is soooo exciting! Dragon slaying and fairy magic! It’s like I’m stuck in the middle of a Harry Potter book! This is so excellent!” He was actually giddy.

I just shook my head. “It’s not so great, Jeremy. We have got a craptastic problem on our hands. I actually came face-to-face with Sirrush and he is one nasty dude.” Just then, Brennan angrily marched over to me and grabbed my shoulders, practically shaking me, “You WHAT?!” Anya stood there, as every muscle in her body appeared to stiffen with tension, and stared at me with wide eyes.

“
Chill, Brennan! Geesh,” I frowned, pushing him away from me. “I was gonna tell you guys…Remember?
I
called
you
and left a message last night? But then you all decided to soda-pop fizz in front of Jeremy and blah, blah, blah…Gimme a break!” I was so annoyed that he was acting like I had kept something from him. It’s not like I was going to keep it a secret. We just had gone through the whole ordeal of filling Jeremy in on everything and I just hadn’t gotten to telling them about my run-in with Mr. Crazyass Dragon yet.

“
So what exactly happened with your ‘face-to-face’ Ruby?” Anya asked, looking only slightly less-pissed at me than Brennan did.

“
Wellll…it’s like this. See, me and Nick rented a boat from Paddletime and we went out to watch the sunset. Nick took us near the island – you know the place Jer – I saw something that I thought could be Sirrush’s nest. Then, the crazyass beast decided to show himself!”

Jeremy covered his mouth with his hand and gasped like a little girl while Anya and Brennan stood frozen, looking shocked.

“
He came up behind Nick. Thankfully, he didn’t notice –”

“
Ha. Big surprise,” Brennan sarcastically interrupted. He seemed to have come out of his state of shock. I shot him a nasty warning glance and continued on, “But it was close. I swear, that crazy dragon looked right at me and then knocked on the bottom of our boat a few times…he actually made me fall out!”

Jeremy bobbed his head with understanding, exclaiming, “Ohhh! That’s how you ended up soaking wet!”

I nodded, “Exactly. But thankfully, we got the hell outta there before anything else could happen.”

Anya still looked worried as her pale face was serious and full of concern as she asked, “Nick doesn’t suspect anything?” I stood firm, shaking my head, sure of my answer. “Nope. Don’t think so. I stood up in the boat to distract him and he thought I just lost my balance and fell out because I made the boat rock.” Brennan snickered again and I shot him another evil look.

“
Well, that’s good,” Anya sighed with relief, and seemed to slightly relax. “At least we don’t have to worry about him telling the whole town about our little problem.”

“
But how do we catch him?” Jeremy anxiously asked. He was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, “I mean, what do we do next?”

Brennan’s posture stiffened as he puffed out his chest, putting on an air of regality. “Well, first we need to go check if that’s really Sirrush’s nest,” Brennan calmly stated. Sure, now all of a sudden he was all business again. Snickering at me falling out of the boat with Nick was okay, but now that talk has shifted back to Sirrush, he’s all formal and direct. Looking at him stand there so stoically and….majestic…was just so weird. It was so unlike him. This was a side to Brennan that I never saw before. He continued with a serious look etched into his face, “Then we should report back to my Father and the Royal Counsel to let them know that we’ve located his hiding place. Maybe they’ll have more information for us as to how to proceed.” Although I did hear a slight hint of worry in his voice, I didn’t understand how he could seem so calm about all of this. With Jeremy so jacked up feeling like he was Ron Weasley, and my stomach nervously twisting with anticipation, I was growing more uneasy about this entire situation.

I asked the all-important question, “Soooo, when do we have to go? I mean, can’t you just go tell the Counsel and get some kind of fairy police to come and handle this? And why do the two of you seem so darn calm about this?!” I barely contained my anxiety as I looked back and forth between the two royal fairies standing in front of me. I’m just a kid for Pete’s sake! What do I know about catching a dragon? I can tell you what I know…nothing! I shouldn’t be doing this!

Anya spoke up, “We aren’t that calm, Ruby. But we have seen problems like this before. The situation is serious, but we need to be careful and react accordingly. Things could go awry faster than you can blink. A calm and focused approach is necessary. It is how we have been taught to react. But, trust me, we are anxious too.” I heard the bit of tension creep into her voice at the last statement. She continued with a bit more urgency in her voice, “Well, we know that Sirrush is nesting somewhere around the Lake. We need to find exactly where his nest is soon. The Royal Counsel is anxious to proceed. Dragons sleep most of the day. So it’d be safer for us if we go during the daylight.”

“
Oh yeah…I suppose that makes sense,” I agreed, “Every time he’s been spotted, or has caused some damage somewhere, it was in the evening or at night. Well, except for the first time I saw him in the water, that Saturday afternoon when we met to swim and I thought it was trash bobbing around in the water.”

Anya nodded, “That’s right. But that Friday before was the night of the Blue Moon, so he had just come through the portal. He was swimming in the water to accelerate his healing time. And his biological clock was probably off due to shifting worlds.”

Jeremy piped up, “Oh! You mean like jet lag or something?”

Anya smiled, “Right. Something like that.” She went on, with a more serious tone to her voice, “And now that he has fully healed and is causing more trouble, we need to take care of the problem. Immediately.”

“
Okay,” I sighed, tension heavy in my voice, “So when do we go check out old Cyrus’s nest?” I knew I wasn’t saying the slimy beast’s name correctly, but I really didn’t care. I silently hoped to hear, ‘Never.’ (And I even crossed my fingers behind my back, just for good measure.)

No such luck.

“
Right away…as soon as you’re dressed,” Brennan answered quickly as he ushered the others out of my room. Oh sure, now he seems to be all impatient and ready to get moving. Brennan’s mood swings from his calm, royal act to swift urgency was making me nuts. I blew out a big sigh, hoping to release some of the tension I felt crawling through my veins.

I threw my hair into a pony tail, dressed quickly, and slipped on my old, ratty black converse. Old and ratty, yes. But broken-in and super-comfy.

“
Okay guys,” I announced as I firmly marched out into the hallway, “Let’s go find a dragon’s nest!” I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt.

Chapter 19

We hurried over to Anya and Brennan’s cottage so we could take their speedboat over to the island. (Of course, they have a super-fast, super-nice boat. What kind of fairy royalty would they be if they didn’t?) Jeremy was practically skipping with excitement and I was just nervously trying to make my feet work. Brennan and Anya moved with quick confidence. I, however, wasn’t so confident. I had seen this monster before and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing it again. As we all piled into the boat, I noticed Anya’s arms were full of strange grasses and flowers and asked, “Whatcha got there? Dragon treats?” I was hoping to lighten the tension in the air with my little joke. She firmly shook her head, “Just some plants from home. We might need them.”

“
Need them for what?” I asked.

“
Hopefully nothing,” Anya said as she looked away from me. Ahhh. One of those excellent, cryptic fairy answers that I loved so much. Not.

We got there much quicker than Nick and I did the other night. With their super-fast boat we were there in less than ten minutes. Brennan slowed the boat down as we came closer to the island. He looked around at each of our watching eyes and said, “I’m going to anchor it on the other side and we’ll have to wade in, okay?” We all nodded.

As we made our way quietly through the murky water, all I could think about were those
Rambo
movies….you know – where the army guys are creeping through gross, jungle-y weeds and stuff? That’s what I felt like. (Only without the firearms…or the Comanche helicopter back-up.) I should’ve thought to bring something to defend myself against a dragon. But what could I have brought? A garden trowel? A kitchen knife? Darn it. Why do I always think of these things
after
the fact? I followed Brennan onto the shore of the island, with Jeremy behind me and Anya trailing him. The fairies wanted to be on either side of Jeremy and I, ‘in case anything happened.’ Yeah. That thought didn’t make me feel so good. Brennan looked back at me and I pointed ahead to where I had seen the nest. We carefully made our way through the branches, brush and fallen trees.

Nothing could prepare me for what I saw. Sure, I saw part of Sirrush in the water. But he was under the cover of the blackness of night. Out here, in broad daylight, seeing him curled up in the sand under his cave-like structure was freakishly amazing and scary all at once.

It was like looking at a small dinosaur. His back was to us and he was curled up, much like you’d see a dog curled up on his bed. His body was covered in brownish-green dark scales, and just like I thought when I saw him in the water, there was iridescence to them. I could see that his wings, which had to be at least six or seven feet each, were folded across the front of his body. Since I didn’t plan on getting too close, I couldn’t make out any other details of them. His back had a row of spikes down the middle, and went all the way down his long, thick powerful-looking tail which was curled around the front of him. I had misjudged his size in the water for sure. He must be at least twelve, maybe fifteen feet tall when he was standing. I could see that his breathing was slow and even, as I watched his body raise and lower in restful sleep. I felt like I was on the wrong side of an exhibit at the zoo. What the heck am I doing here? Why did I think it was a good idea or that I could be of any use? I’m just a regular 17-year-old girl who likes to garden! What was I thinking?

It seemed like we were all standing there, frozen in our spots, for hours. In actuality, it was about one minute.

Jeremy interrupted our silent stance, “Uhhh. Okay guys. I’m ready to leave. Anybody else?” he nervously whispered.

“
Shhhhh!” I hissed.

Brennan and Anya gave us both warning looks and signaled with their hands to head back out to the boat. We got what we came for – to confirm where Sirrush’s nest was. We silently turned to head back to the boat, when suddenly I heard that all-too-familiar sound of a whale’s blow hole. Only it wasn’t a whale. It was Sirrush, blowing steam out of his huge green nostrils. And then I suddenly felt the powerful swish of his tail, clipping the back of my legs as he swished around to face us.

I gasped, tripped and fell forward onto the driftwood-littered beach from the blow of Sirrush’s tail as Anya and Brennan came protectively by my side. Jeremy took off running towards the boat, screaming like a girl, while I scrambled to right myself and follow him. Anya and Brennan followed close behind. I swear, we must have looked like the gang in an episode of
Scooby Doo
…Running from the big scary monster at the fairgrounds. Only this monster wasn’t the disgruntled old groundskeeper dressed up in a costume. This was a
real
monster.

Anya and Brennan turned towards the dragon to cast some frozen spell or something. I don’t know, it sounded to me like they were trying to freeze it in its spot, or put up some force field to make him stop in his tracks. Whatever they were doing, it seemed to be working, but not quite well enough. Sirrush, although staggering, was still struggling wildly, madly flapping his wings and swishing his tail. And he was still coming towards us.

I did the only think I could think of.

I took off my shoe and threw it at him. I hit him square in the head with my ratty, old Converse. Boy, was he startled! I guess he wasn’t expecting a shoe in the head. I quickly grabbed the other one and chucked it even harder. I nailed him right in his bright, fiery orange eye. “Ha Haaa! Take that – crazy ass!” I giddily screamed as we all ran like hell back to the boat. I was almost deliriously happy as we darted across the beach. Between my shoes to the head and the fairies’ spell, it slowed down Sirrush just enough to give us time to scramble into the boat. We took off like a shot and sped across the lake. Anya continued to cast spells in the direction of the island the entire time, to keep Sirrush trapped where he was. It wouldn’t last, she said, but if she kept up the chanting, it might just slow him down enough to let us escape. It was the middle of the day, and now I was worried that Sirrush would take out his frustrations on the poor people of town. Oh crap. What would we do if a giant dragon suddenly flew down Main Street? It was right about then that Anya grabbed the grasses and flowers she had brought on board and POPPED off the boat.