Page 17 of Rescued By My Dragons

”If I show you that,” Jenna replied, “we’ll never get out of here, and we’ll have to take care because Nana is awake.”

He chuckled.“No, not that.”He glanced at the bed and rubbed his chin, considering.“I mean, we’d all love that, but I had something else in mind.Remember when you were telling us about the so-called ‘dragons’ you have here on Earth?”He glanced over at the desk in the corner of the room where Jenna’s information-processing device—a ‘computer,’ she called it—sat.“Do you think you could bring up some pictures of them on there?”

”Yeah,” said Elliot.“I’ve been wanting to see what passes for ‘dragons’ in this world too.Just quick, before we go?”

“Oh, right,” said Jenna, turning up one corner of her mouth.“Naturally you’d want to see the nearest things on Earth to what you guys are when you’re not the way you are now.I don’t know, guys; you’ll probably be disappointed.”

But now they’d gotten me curious too.“Just a little look, that’s all.”

Jenna, arching her brows and tilting her head, said, “Okay, guys, just give me a moment.But remember, a ‘dragon’ is a very different kind of beast here.”

She went to the desk and sat down.We stood behind her as she turned on her computer, which was named after an apple—something we’d get her to explain later.She went into what was called “the Internet” here on Earth and called up images of “Komodo Dragons.”

When the pictures came up and she enlarged them for us, and opened up some videos about the subject, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.Byron jerked back his head and made a screwy face.Elliot made sick, gagging noises, and I scratched my head and laughed.“You’re kidding,” I said.“These guys are what you call ‘dragons’?Seriously?They don’t evenwalk on two legs.Where are the wings?And look at the slobbering!”

Byron said, “These guys aren’t even as evolved as gorillas and chimpanzees.I wouldn’t even call them throwbacks, compared to us.”

”Different world, guys, different natural history,” said Jenna, letting us go on watching the videos of the Komodo Dragons shambling along on their four legs, low down to the ground, and chasing goats and pigs and buffaloes to eat.We all felt like gagging at the sight of them bolting down whole animals and even acting like scavengers, eating dead things that were lying around.We couldn’t see anything we’d have in common, in our other bodies, with these brutes.They made my stomach turn.

Jenna explained, “They’re called ‘dragons’ because they reminded people of mythical animals that should be a little more familiar to you, even though they weren’t supposed to be intelligent, like you are.”

“Can you show us?” Byron asked.

She asked the Internet for pictures of other dragons, not the Komodo type.Onto the screen came all sorts of drawings and paintings, a lot of them looking pretty realistic, of big reptiles, some of them as big as houses or bigger, that reminded us a little more of “us.”They were four-legged, like the Komodos, but they had horns and spines and wings.These imaginary dragons could fly, and another thing surprised us:they could breathe fire!

My buddies and I got a good laugh out of that one.Cackling with disbelief, I said, “Are you kidding me?Breathing fire?Look at ‘em—belching flames, smoke curling out of their noses, burning down forests and villages and shit!People really believed in these things?”

”It’s like I was telling you before,” Jenna replied.“Dragons take up a lot of space in people’s imagination.Every culture in the world has myths and stories about them.They’re one of the ideas we’re most fascinated with.”

Byron said, “Well, people certainly get ‘fascinated’ with all kinds of things, don’t they?”

Jenna did a half-turn in her chair to face us and said, “They sure do, that’s true and some fascinating things are more fascinating than others.”

Quick to change the subject, I said, “And I’m gonna find it ‘fascinating’ to get into that ‘hybrid’ car and ride on wheels on a road.”

She got up, smiling, looking a bit tickled.“You’re really intrigued with that, aren’t you?”

”Well, remember,” I said, “we’re used to flying.”

Chuckling, she turned around and turned off her computer, then motioned to the bedroom door.“Come on then, guys.This will be something new for you.”

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Jenna had a car of her own that her father had given her as a present, but it was a little two-seat jobber that the four of us couldn’t use.That was why she had the idea of using her father’s car.Compared to hers, it was a big, hulking thing with thick wheels made of rubber and steel.At those times when we actually did use a vehicle back home, we were used to gliding over roadways in sleek, Ambience-powered things.This really was going to be different.

But Jenna was able to take the top off of the half-electric “SUV,” which she said was perfect for the ride we would be taking.“Plus which,” she said, grinning, “with the top off and the wind whooshing by, it’ll almost feel like flying.”

Rolling along what she called the Pacific Coast Highway was a totally new thing for us, just like Jenna promised it would be.Elliot took the front passenger seat next to her; Byron and I took the back seats, and Jenna, in the driver’s seat, pulled out of the family garage and in a few minutes got us down her house’s private drive and onto the road.It was strange!Byron and I traded the weirdest looks at what we felt, and Elliot looked back at us with the same expression.Those rubber and metal wheels rolling along in direct contact with the road made a rumbling, grinding, vibrating feeling we could all feel in the pits of our stomachs.Jenna didn’t even notice it; she’d been riding this way all her life before crossing over to our world.But it was the strangest thing, and it made me think Earth should learn how to tap into the Ambience and use it to travel with.That way they’d finally learn how it felt to travel like civilized people.

It started to make us feel a little nauseous, especially Byron, and once or twice we thought we might have to get Jenna to take the car off the road so Byron could climb out and empty his stomach.But luckily the rushing of the breeze against us with the top of the car down made our bellies calmer, and we all had the chance to appreciate the coast of California and the Pacific Ocean rolling and lapping up onto it without having to get sick by the roadside and it was as beautiful a ride as Jenna said it would be.The road twisted and turned between hillsides and rocky beaches.We watched how the Pacific washed up onto the shoreline.Here and there were places that were dotted with more human houses, not as big and grand as the Callaway’s house, but pretty just the same and I thought if someone was going to live on Earth, this was probably one of the nicer places for them to live.

This was Jenna’s home.She belonged here; we only looked like we did.Looking at some of those houses, I wondered what the people who lived in them would think if they knew justwho—or what—was riding by them right now.Would they even believe it?And if they did, what would they do?

When visiting some places, I thought, it’s just as good that no one knows who’s passing through.Sometimes you’re just a stranger and it’s best to stay that way.

CHAPTER 9

Jenna

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