Dragons Awakening
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Team Meeting

The driver maneuvered along the curvy mountain highway and would have passed the turn toward the peak if he’d been speeding. The narrow track, woven with potholes and hardly wide enough for the Humvee, turned sharply toward the summit. The road dead-ended into a graveled parking area lined by a short fence on one side. A dirt trail continued higher through rocks and shrub toward the summit.

“Wait for us here,” Zi instructed her driver. “Come replace us if we aren’t back in two hours.”

The driver nodded. He leaned against the green-and-brown-mottled side panel of the vehicle, arms crossed over his chest, watching them from behind aviator glasses. Zi took her tablet-sized communication device. Akolo strapped on a waist pack with two bottles of water and a supply of protein bars. In his front pocket he carried the designated satellite phone linking him to his father. Zi had expected it to light up as soon as the volcano erupted.

“Do you think Dr. Duboff misplaced his phone?” She pointed to the clunky device Akolo tucked deeper into his pocket.

“Why do you say that?”

“Thought he would have called when Vesuvius went boom.”

Akolo shook his head, pulling his lips into a tight line. “Shows what you know. As long as there is new data, that’s all he’ll be able to focus on.”

So the good doctor was more like her own father than she’d originally thought. His resistance to the Everest trip was a red herring distracting from his true obsession. She shrugged into her backpack, nibbling on the straw to the bladder while she secured the waist strap. She adjusted the hood on the windbreaker, hoping it would keep the worst of the lightly falling ash off her clothes.

“We should be wearing masks,” Akolo said.

The driver opened the back of the truck and handed each of them a thick cotton mask. No matter how Zi tugged at it, the elastic straps rubbed the back of her ears. Better than breathing poisonous ash though.

Zi led the way up the path, noting two metal poles near the trail-head that might have supported a sign at some point. When she turned back at the first switchback, mostly shielded by the bushes, the driver had returned to wait in the cab.

“Do you have any ideas?” Akolo asked when they stopped a quarter of an hour later, sipping water.

“To defeat the dragon?” When he nodded, she said, “Maybe. If human weapons can do some damage.”

“What about keeping the existence of the dragons from the rest of the world?”

What about that? Zi shrugged a knot out of her shoulders. It would certainly cause the least havoc once the red dragon was defeated and the other two returned to their own realm. If the dragons couldn’t win the battle on their own though, what other choice was there?

She shook her head, trudging upward. The path steepened. Half-buried rocks zig-zagged through the glorified rut they called a trail. Focusing on where to place her feet helped her avoid the bigger problems. A fire-breathing dragon might be the biggest problem ever.

After a steep ascent, a nearly sheer sandstone wall rose up. Akolo peered at the top of the wall, barely above his head. A black face appeared.

“We will be done replenishing ourselves when you reach us,” Ezer said. Zi didn’t flinch at the sound, wondering when she’d accepted his intrusion into her mind as a normality. And where was the pain?

“Watching you devour his waste is more than my stomach can take,” Zi said. Eating diamonds wronged her on many levels. That these gems came out the back end of a dragon made her shudder.

Akolo stifled a grin, turning toward the wall in front of him. Trying to hide his amusement from he? After all they’d been through, he still didn’t like her. If she understood why, maybe she could fix it. Zi shrugged, and her pack resettled on her shoulders, reminding her to take a swallow of water.

At the top of this peak stretched an expanse or rocky ground no bigger than the commons at the academy. A few shunted trees lined the northern edge. Zi stepped over a few large stones and slid onto a boulder which sat as tall as her waistline. She sipped water, watching Akolo fumble with the phone his father had given him.

Jokul ground rocks to dust between his teeth, swallowing them at a rate that could clear the area if he continued for more than ten minutes. He turned an icy eye toward her. No sense pretending she wanted to stare him down. She twisted away. Her gaze landed on Ezer who used his tail as a toothpick. More exactly, one of the spikes. Glittering dust cascaded from his mouth. His grey tongue, the shape of an overgrown eggplant, flicked out and caught the sparkling fragments.

“Wouldn’t want any diamonds going to waste,” he said. Zi rolled her eyes at him.

Both dragons lumbered over to stand near Zi’s boulder. Akolo stood a meter away, arms crossed over his chest. Zi noticed smoke rising from Ezer’s lower back.

“You’re leaking,” she said, pointing to the smoky area.

Ezer turned his head back for a glance.

“A small injury. It barely pains me.”

“It looked like you got scalded a few times,” Akolo said, aloud. Zi smiled at him, thankful for this courtesy. He could converse silently with the dragons, leaving her out of everything. He rolled one shoulder, a half shrug, “We need everyone’s brain power to form a new plan.”

“The earth’s core changed him.” The voice in her mind sounded higher than Ezer’s. The ice dragon.

“He looked like he wore metal armor,” Zi said.

“His scales have metamorphosed into a solid sheet of metal,” Ezer said, sliding his tail so the mace-like end rested near his front feet. “It is more than metal.”

“A hard protective coating,” Jokul said. “His inner heat is also magnified. My deep freeze should have stiffened him for several minutes.”

“Barely lasted a second,” Akolo said.

“Melted while you were still breathing it,” Zi said.

“Talons don’t pierce it,” Ezer said. “And there’s something wrong with his wings.”

Akolo nodded. “He held them stiffly.” The boy moved closer to Ezer’s side. “What are they made of?”

Ezer extended a wing toward Akolo, who ran his fingers over the edges, traced the webbing and peered at the top and bottom.

“The support system - bones?” Zi paused, glancing between the two beasts.

“An ore-based cartilage,” Jokul said.

“So the cartilage framework that supports the wings appears to be magnified on him. Maybe even moved to the outside of the tissue.” Zi stared upward, visualizing the red dragon. A shiver raced across her exposed hands.

“They were also changed in the core,” Jokul said. “The wings are thicker, more leathery than ours.”

Jokul held his wings away from his body almost all the time. Not unfurled and ready for flight, but tilted out. Perhaps the cold from his body bothered them.

“This tissue is somewhat leathery,” Akolo said, face pressed close to Ezer’s wingtip. “If it also contains ores or metals like the under-structure, it makes sense that it would be affected by the intense heat and pressure in the core.”

“How could he survive that?” Zi asked. “Isn’t it like 100 times boiling in there? More pressure than at the bottom of the ocean?”

“Try 5,500 degrees Celsius,” Akolo murmured, stepping back from examining the wing. “Thanks, Ezerhaydn.”

The giant black head dipped toward Akolo. Zi fought her urge to snap at the dragon, bit it back by grinding her teeth. He wouldn’t even address her by name, but he bowed toward Akolo? Dragons must have a misogynistic society.

“Nothing could survive that,” Zi said.

“Obviously, The Chieftain of Clan Inferno survived.” Ezer’s comment made Zi blink. Didn’t he understand her sarcasm?

“Usual attack methods will not destroy him,” Jokul said. “It barely hindered him.”

“Knocking him off-balance proved the most effective tactic,” Ezer said. “We must replace a way to push him into something that would destroy him.”

“Not fire,” Zi said. “He paddled around in that boiling lava like he was taking a swim in the sea.”

“Perhaps a missile,” Ezer said.

Akolo shook his head. Zi wanted to agree with the island boy, but kept her head still. Hadn’t they been trying to keep the dragons secret? But based on the battle, she wasn’t sure if Ezer and his friend could defeat the red monster. She knew if the media discovered the dragons, only bad things would follow. The reporters would have a heyday. Worse-case: the military might destroy the dragons. Best-case: they ended up as lab specimens somewhere.

“We can’t let the military see you,” Zi said.

“Can you verify they didn’t see us during the battle?” Jokul asked.

“We can’t,” Akolo said, “but it was difficult for me to see you from only a few kilometers away with high-powered binoculars. They are more than a hundred kilometers out at sea.”

“I think the ash shielded you,” Zi said.

Akolo nodded. “The flames probably registered but could be explained away as pockets of combustible gas escaping with the lava.”

“We two cannot knock him down or penetrate his armor,” Ezer said. “Aid from your military may be what it takes to defeat him.”

Jokul shook his head. “You can’t believe that, Ezer. Wasn’t there some sort of promise from that tyrant-who-pretends-to-be-a-god you idolize?”

Ezer snapped his jaws at the white dragon, who didn’t even flinch. His own open maw seeped an icy mist. Zi shivered, rubbing her hands over her arms.

“He said we must face Qwystanak, not that we would defeat him on our own.”

“There is no possible way to defeat him,” the white dragon sounded almost bored, “unless we can penetrate his armor.”

“That’s why we want missiles,” Ezer said. “They demolish metal. Qwystanak stands no chance against such a weapon.”

“No,” Akolo said.

Zi opened her mouth to add her own negative response.

A rock-strewn street stretched in front of her. It looked like a war zone. Jokul was pinned beneath an electrified netting of some sort, surrounded by a platoon of soldiers with weapons drawn. Ezer lay on his side, blood spattered across his chest, mouth held shut with a thick wire noose.

“Would you rather see this planet destroyed?”

“You’ll be captured,” Zi said, gasping out the words. Her chest ached like she’d sprinted up the mountain.

“A vision?” Ezer lowered his head so his amber eye stared into her face.

She nodded. “It was like when the kids at school mentioned a certain event and then I saw the outcome. The same thing happened just now.”

“Your visions always come to pass,” Ezer said. “Whatever you saw is destined to happen, regardless of if we seek aid from the military or not.”

Akolo stared at Zi with wide eyes. The dragon’s word echoed what she had told them before. She slowly shook her head.

“I think we can avoid it if we don’t involve the military in our plan.”

“You think?” Ezer huffed out a cloud of silvery smoke. “Has it ever happened this way before?”

“I’ve never considered various outcomes before,” Zi said,shaking her hands at him.

“Let’s test it. Come up with another plan and see what she envisions.” Akolo stepped between Zi and the black dragon.

“Why doesn’t this Visionary just look into the future and see how we defeat the dragon?” Jokul’s question stopped them all.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Zi said. Which wasn’t completely true. She envisioned events in detail. Not always the ones she wanted to see. Like her mother and uncle dying.

“Worthless.” Jokul scuffed the ground with his front claws.

Zi wanted to feel offended. In fact, normally she would have struck out with a scathing rebuttal. But there was no arguing with the facts. If she could only see some future events, her ability wouldn’t aid them in planning.

“Let’s focus on what we know,” Akolo said. He straightened his shoulders, appearing taller. “Were his scales made of the same thing as yours? Before the transformation, I mean.”

“Inferno has mostly rock-like scales, something impervious to their high body temperature,” Ezer said. “My scales include an iron sulfate. Crystalline scales actually have gemstone properties.”

“You mean he’s actually covered in diamonds?” Akolo stared at the white dragon, who shifted his scales and shimmered out of view.

“Another hard crystal gemstone resistant to extreme cold.”

Zi stared at the empty space where the white dragon stood. Surely, she would have felt it if he flew away. Even the indentations from his feet were almost imperceptible. They could use this in the attack.

“Why didn’t you go invisible when you attacked?” Zi asked. “You could have had the element of surprise on your side.”

“The sunlight couldn’t penetrate the ash cloud,” Ezer said. “The light reflects off his scales, shielding him from view.”

“A light-refracting cloaking device,” Akolo said. His eyes glittered and he looked toward the empty space with wonder.

“Not a device, whisperer,” said Jokul, “just the skin I was created with.”

“How about if you flew into him while invisible?” Zi sat up straighter. “You could topple him like you talked about. If you can get him out of the air, he won’t be able to fly, isn’t that what you said?”

“Of the three dragons, I am the smallest,” Jokul said. “With his increased weight, I doubt I could move him far on my own.”

“Both of you hit him at the same time,” Zi said, glancing toward the black dragon. “Ezer unbalanced him alone today. If both of you hit him-”

“The wings keep him aloft,” Ezer said. “It will take more than a hit to bring him to the ground.”

“It’s sound strategy, though,” Akolo said. “We just need to figure out something bigger to hit him with.”

“Or we could drag him,” Jokul said. “Latch onto those foul wings and carry him where we wanted.”

“Possibly,” Ezer agreed.

“We still don’t know how to destroy him once we get him on the ground,” Zi said. Her heart pounded but her stomach clenched. Hopeless.

“How do we destroy metal without explosives?” Akolo scratched his chin, staring past the dragons.

“If we remove that armor,” Ezer said, “regular attacks would work. Do you agree, brother?”

“Your smoke didn’t affect him, so I don’t know.” Jokul reappeared, scuffling the dirt in front of him, uncovering a stone as big as Zi’s foot. Was he seriously going to eat while they were talking?

“Lots of toxic air in the center of the earth,” Akolo said. “He must have developed a tolerance.”

“His eyes were strange looking,” Zi said.

“You noticed his eyes from this far away?” Jokul’s head snapped up.

Zi opened her mouth, closed it. How did she explain?

“Actually, she went into some sort of trance and watched it all inside her head,” Akolo said. “I was the one with the binoculars.”

Ezer stepped closer, his nose nearly touching Zi’s knee. She bent her legs and shuffled farther up the boulder until it rounded toward the ground again.

“Your visions are changing?”

“This is the first time something like that happened,” Zi said.

“I thought you only saw the future,” Ezer said. “What reason would there be for a prophetess to see something as it happened?”

“It looked like I was a few meters away from the action,” Zi said. “Thankfully, I couldn’t feel the heat or hear anything.”

“What was different today?” Ezer asked. “How did you trigger this change?”

Zi shook her head, rubbing her palms on her jeans. “I woke up. I had seen the same dream several times during the night. I knew it was going to happen today.”

“Premonitions,” Jokul said, “many with the sight have them.”

“Not me,” Zi said.

“Until today,” Ezer added.

She couldn’t refute that. Maybe the premonition is what began to change her ability. That might also explain why she could see a possible outcome for the dragons, based on a specific choice.

“As soon as we could see the mountain,” she said, “I went into a vision. It seemed the same as every other one I’ve had except-”

“You weren’t seeing the future,” Akolo said, “you were seeing the present.”

“I could hear Akolo talking,” Zi said, “and that’s different, too. I usually leave my actual surroundings and transport into my vision. I don’t know what’s happening around me.” She straightened her back, leaning forward. “Today I could hear him and feel the driver touch my leg.”

“Evolution,” Jokul said. “Likely the constant use of your gift is stretching it. The same for dragons.”

“What do you mean?” Akolo asked.

“Some dragons can heal themselves and others. The more they do so, the more effective their magic.”

“Magic? I don’t have magical abilities,” Zi scoffed.

Jokul chilled her with another stare. “Magical. Mystical. Something out of the ordinary. What would you call it?”

Visions were anything but ordinary. She had been set apart from her peers her entire life. But magic? Hardly. Didn’t magic imply some sort of control?

“Perhaps we can use this too,” Akolo said, pulling the radio from his pocket. “I’m going to contact my father and ask him about destroying metal.”

“He’s going to ask why you want to know,” Zi said.

“You don’t think he’ll buy a story about a metal dragon from the center of the earth?”

His grin stretched his lips and put a sparkle in his eye. Her stomach flipped over, and Zi couldn’t stop herself from returning his smile.

Akolo walked to the edge of the plateau, ignoring her completely. He doesn’t like you, remember?

Why that was important in the face of total world destruction, Zi couldn’t say.