Page 2 of Emerald Waves
Their laughter faded one final time, then it was gone, replaced by the image of my mountain home from high above the crest of the tallest peak. Instead of scrubby brushes, truncated evergreens and jagged rocks, my eyes were drawn to spots of color against the bright blue sky, and as I zoned in on them, I realized that they were kites of many different shapes and sizes.
I remembered making ones from paper and cloth with my mother, my brothers and I learning to fly them away from the trees, but only after several entanglements and wrecks. Once, Odem had wound up like the little boy from the cartoon strips, I couldn’t remember his name now, but I recalled the image of him wrapped in line and dangling from a tree, his kite hanging broken above him. That’s how Odem had ended up, when he’d attempted to fly a kite in dragon form, then got cocky and took to the air with it, attempting to fly it higher only to have the wind wrap the line around his wings and carry him into a towering oak. I wish camera phones had existed back then. It’s a picture I’d dearly love to have blown up to hang on my wall.
Perhaps it was time to commission an artist to paint it, just so I could enjoy the look on my brother’s face the first time he laid eyes on it. Would he even remember that day? So much time had passed since we were hatchlings that most memories were faded. That day with the kites was one I hadn’t thought about in centuries.
Was I dying?
Was that why I was seeing it now?
I should have reached out before entering the cave, or at the very least, the moment I emerged and laid eyes on the statues. How could I have been so reckless? When I didn’t return, I knew they’d go wild with worry and be forced to resist every urge to go into scorched earth mode when reaching out to me produced no response. My brain wouldn’t even work enough to reach out to them now as I watched the kites flutter below me.
I should have been down there with them.
Circling, I saw many faces I knew, and some I didn’t recognize, shadowy, so it was impossible to make out the details. There were those emerald and teal hatchlings again, on either side of Emerson, who for once was smiling, instead of looking flustered and rushing all around. The look on his face was one of peace and happiness, and there was pride there too, shining bright in his eyes.
Could he see me?
Would he speak to me if I dove low enough?
Tucking my wings back I raced towards the rock, intending to land with a triumphant snort of seawater and foam to make them all laugh. Only the ground kept getting further and further away, spinning until it was little more than a point of light at the end of a long, darkening tunnel. Then he looked up, and for a moment our eyes locked, the joy in them turning to shock as he staggered backward, windmilling his arms, the kite was gone from his hand now, but as I raced to steady him, everything shattered into millions of glittering pieces, and I was left with only darkness again.
When I could focus and finally get my bearings, it was to the dripping sound of water collecting in a puddle on the stone floor. Groaning, I rolled and shook my head to clear my vision. Nothing hurt, and when I examined myself I realized that I was human and unharmed. Somewhere in that bubble of noise and images my dragon had receded, yet when I attempted to touch base with him, he was silent. I could still feel him though, snarling and pissed off beneath the surface, hating that we’d been defeated so soundly by so little a thing as noise.
Wouldn’t be telling our brothers about that anytime soon.
Or the fact that when I turned my attention back to the shelf, almost every stone form, including the one that had looked at me, had vanished. What the hell?
Only one small statue remained, light when I picked it up and cradled it. Another artifact for the growing collection in my horde. Perhaps studying it would help me understand what happened here today.
Worry flooded me, a lingering echo of the distress I’d felt from Emerson right before the image on the mountain shattered. Had something happened? My dragon was unsettled and unwilling to press forward into the cave with that picture still burning bright in my mind. He’d been so happy, what happened to change that? No one could get into the archives without being scanned, but he’d been so frantic lately, clumsily moving around with hands occasionally flapping as he zigged one way before switching directions. Had he been careless? Hurt himself?
With a roar I spun and dove back into the water, clutching the small statue, my dragon emerging with minimal effort from me to call him forth. He was pissed, at me, at the situation, at my recklessness and the lack of mental connection with Emerson, who we couldn’t check in on from this far away.
I don’t recall ever flying so fast, even racing my brothers.
Impatient and in a hurry, I landed on the practice field behind our home with an earth rattling thud and none of the seafoam and water sparkle from my vision. Instead, there was just dust and broken bits of grass floating on the breeze. I didn’t even take the time to check that I was dressing properly as I hastily pulled on my clothes, wrapped the statue in the flannel I’d been wearing earlier, and cradled it like I was carrying one of the dragonettes. It was of little surprise to look down and see that my t-shirt was on inside out and my jeans were unbuttoned.
“A bit of a dramatic landing for someone with nothing to report,” Ionus said as he stepped out the moment my fingers touched the handle of the door to my fastest car. “You do have nothing to report, correct?”
“Nada,” I growled, heart still hammering with an unease I couldn’t shake. “I gotta go.”
I didn’t wait for him to reply, nor did I open my thoughts to him to mentally communicate. I just shut down everything as I slid inside, placed the flannel wrapped statue on the passenger’s seat, fired up the car and broke every speed limit posted on the way to Emerson’s, the scanner at his door the only thing to give me pause as I anxiously waited for him to fuckin’ respond and let me in.
“Right fuckin’ now!” I snarled into the intercom.
Chapter Two
Emerson
“Where is that logbook? I remember sliding it into this section.” Who was I kidding, as of late my thoughts were all over the place. Even on the best of days my thoughts were out of control, and I feared I had well and truly lost my mind. Not a great thing for an archivist and if I so much as mentioned this to the Denarius brothers, I’d lose the only job I’d ever loved and likely the only home where I felt I’d belonged.
As soon as I stretched, precariously perched from a library ladder long past needing replaced, the rung snapped, and down I went.
Well, shit.
There wasn’t a shred of doubt in my mind that my arm was broken, possibly my hip too. Given the searing pain, I wove in and out of consciousness, unable to move. Unable to call for help. Was this how I was meant to go?
The voice inside my head cursed me for making such a foolish mistake. My grip on reality was but a mere thread on the verge of extinction as a war waged within me. It was no longer safe for me to be left unattended.
