Dragons Awakening
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Schooling the Scientists

Akolo stumbled beneath the press of the rotors. Brilliant spotlights blinded him. He could have been running toward oblivion for all he could see. The fingers gripping his arm never lessened, however, so he ducked his head and ran.

As the whomping faded, other sounds coalesced from the darkness. An amplified voice booming orders. Metal grating against cement. And snapping like a whip, canvas fluttering in the wind. Three dark forms emerged from the piercing glare. Strong arms embraced him.

“You’re safe!” His father’s voice dwarfed the chaotic scene.

Akolo melted against his father’s chest, ear rubbing against his father’s wild curls. They were the same height. Had they been when they’d hugged yesterday?

“Mr. Oohara apologizes if his daughter’s shenanigans caused you overdue worry.”

Akolo stared at the Chinese man, Zi’s dad’s assistant. The man’s hair was hardly ruffled from the windy ride and tumultuous copter-induced wind. And hadn’t he jumped out of a burning plane a few hours before? Man or machine?

“Thank Mr. Oohara. He should be proud of all his daughter did to see this area safely evacuated.”

The assistant grimaced. He motioned to a soldier beside him who carried a backpack, Akolo’s possessions from the Humvee. Akolo reached for the bag, but his father snared it before he could. With an arm still around Akolo’s shoulder, his dad maneuvered him into the nearby tent. Make that vulcanology lab. The familiar computers and recorders lined the interior.

“Are you hungry?” A hand on his elbow accompanied the question. Akolo glanced toward Dr. Blunk. He shook his head. The knot in his stomach might not allow him to eat for another day.

“Let’s go somewhere private.”

Akolo followed his father through the tent and into a hatch. The narrow stairs leading downward squeezed the air from his lungs. After two flights of winding stairs, a hallway opened up. Another hatchway lead into a conference room - metal table, chairs and two large media screens. Akolo froze at the sight on the display.

Two dragons plummeting toward the sea. The black beast was latched onto the strange blackened wings of the red beast. Fire spewed from the red’s maw toward the black perched on his back.

Gentle hands urged him forward. His legs turned to liquid and he plopped into one of the metal chairs. He couldn’t look away from the dragons.

“Want to start at the beginning?”

The haze in his mind parted at the sound of his father’s voice. He sat in the chair beside him, hazel eyes calm. Behind them, the hatch slammed. Dr. Blunk pulled out a chair at the end of the table, opened her electronic tablet, and began typing.

“She might not need to hear it.”

His father raised his gaze to the woman. She lifted an eyebrow and returned her attention to the device on the table in front of her.

“We’re a team. Whatever I know, Rosalie knows.”

Akolo pursed his lips. Rosalie again. He nodded.

Akolo spilled it: seeing the eruption through binoculars, talking to dragons, riding an invisible dragon and getting inside the mind of a crazed dragon. He didn’t mention the golden being, but did talk about the strange lighted portal that took all three dragons away.

“Why didn’t you tell me immediately?”

“Because you would have believed there were dragons talking to me?”

“I deserved to know.”

Akolo shook his head. His mouth fell open, so he snapped his teeth together. He had experienced all of it and the reality faded with every moment that passed. Had he imagined it all? Another glance at the frozen image on the screen convinced him it had all be real.

“We wouldn’t have believed you.” Dr. Blunk’s fingers had been flying over her keyboard while Akolo talked. Now that minor clacking stopped as she made her statement.

“But lying wasn’t the right course.”

“That was pretty much Zi Yan’s idea.” Akolo had hated it at the time, but now he admitted it had been necessary. The dragon had been defeated and the other dragon’s sent away. Things could get back to normal.

Whatever that meant.

“But these beasts are gone now?” His father waved toward the screen.

Jokul was no threat on Everest. He wanted to be left alone. The Sherpa would hide his existence from the rest of the world. Since they’d been doing it for two thousand years, Akolo assumed they would be able to continue.

“Yep. And now we’ll need to figure out how the core works when it isn’t being manipulated by a two-ton monster.”

His father’s gaze searched Akolo’s face. The pinched lines around his mouth and purplish bruises beneath his eyes seemed foreign. Yet familiar. How long since his father had worried about him?

“We’ll have plenty of time for forming new theories.” Dr. Blunk snapped her tablet against the keyboard.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been offered a chance to visit all the major Western observatories to collect data and view the aftermath of the eruptions.” Her brown eyes glowed with excitement behind her thick lenses.

Akolo’s stomach clenched. The tingling that hadn’t stopped since meeting Omni burned into his chest. “Dad?”

“It’s true. We’re going to compile the data from Vesuvius and the other mainland and Mediterranean volcanoes and then head to Iceland.”

What about their family? “Hawaii?” Akolo’s mouth fumbled with the single word as his throat constricted.

“Eventually, we’ll head there to collect data. It’s going to mean a lot of traveling.”

Traveling? That’s all Akolo had done for the past week. It didn’t hold a ton of appeal.

“We’re hoping for a week or two at each location.” Dr. Blunk stood, hand on the strange wheel that acted as a knob for the hatch out of the room. “It depends on the amount of damage to the data collecting equipment.”

What would he be doing? Was his father sending him back to Hawaii? Akolo grabbed his father’s hand.

“What about me?”

His father’s eyebrows furrowed. “You’ll help enter data, as you have been. Of course, I’m hoping you’ll want to reach beyond that function.”

The tingling spread from chest to stomach. There’s more than science, his mother’s voice whispered.

“I was afraid you were sending me back to Uncle Oke.”

The shake of his father’s head confirmed it. “You’re stuck with me, son. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

Akolo’s lips relaxed into a smile. Science had it’s place, right beside family.