by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Chapter Seven

Waking to Life

Amanda woke to a wonderful feeling, one she hadn’t experienced since before her illness started so many years ago. There was no pain within her body, none at all. Even her chest felt normal, or what normal might feel like she thought. Her heart no longer pressed against her lungs and for the first time in almost two years she took a full breath without feeling pain. “So this is death” she laughed, standing on the ships bow to look up into the sky.

“This is life” a deep rumbling voice answered her. “Death is much different. You really won’t like it. It would be rather boring for you. I truly believe that you would go insane within days.”

“Marcus” Amanda labeled the voice without looking. “You voice has changed. Its lots deeper.” She turned to the voice, to find herself staring at a head twice the length of her own body. “Vitamins?” she asked with a giggle.

“Your not afraid of me are you” Marcus asked.

“I’m dead” Amanda shot back. “Besides, this pain med makes everything sorta fuzzy right now. Anyway, what’s to be frightened about?”

“You really don’t want to know” Marcus answered. “Death can often hold worse horrors. Pains worse than anything life can offer. Anyway my little student, your not dead. I’ve simply returned to my real size in order to more easily return you to land, before your Sara wakes up.”

“Sara?” Amanda turned again, looking back at the ships stern. Sara lay on the deck, her chest rising and falling so slowly Amanda couldn’t discern the movement. “She’s alive right? Please tell me she’s alive.”

“Of course she’s alive. Just like you. I do not like to kill, I certainly won’t kill lightly. Not ever. Her mind is currently experiencing your death, your burial. When all is done she will wake, then return home. We have to be gone before she wakes, which will be very soon, else she will know the truth. At this time I cannot allow that and I hate meddling in sentient creatures minds. Its icky.”

“Sara’s gonna wake up real soon now huh. So... Those weren’t dreams? Your really going to teach me magic? And I’m healed?” She giggled again, still well under the pain killers influence.

“Yes to all that little student. As soon as those chemicals in your blood wash out. We have a new life to create for you as well, before I can begin to teach you what you need to know.”

“So this is my Destiny huh? To be a witch.” She walked carefully over to Sara, kneeling quietly beside her sleeping friend.

“Pre-ordained Destiny is a crock of hog wallow Amanda. It doesn’t exist” Marcus answered. “What are you doing?”

“Kissing my bride” Amanda answered with another drug induced giggle. “Kinda seem’s I’ve married Sara. That’s gonna freak out some people I know.”

“Including yourself?”

“That’s the really big one” Amanda admitted. “When I can really understand what’s going on. I mean, I LIKE Sara and all and she’d be fun to live with but... “ Amanda shivered a bit. “Neither one of us is really like that no matter what mom told me. She just did it so I’d be married before I died. Sara’s a really unselfish woman you know.” Leaning forward Amanda studied her friends sleeping face. “Freak me out... If she ever finds out I’m still alive...” Amanda looked up at Marcus, who’s eyes closed before his huge head slowly nodded yes. “Sara’s gonna really freak out when she realizes what she did.“ Amanda turned back to her sleeping friend, “You may now kiss the bride” she whispered softly. Leaning down she hesitated several long seconds before she finally pressed her lips to Sara’s gently. It was a short kiss, though not because it was distasteful. “That wasn’t as bad as I expected” she admitted. “Had to kiss the bride you know” she explained. “Tradition. You kiss the bride or it isn’t really a legal marriage. Okay, lets fly mighty dragon” Amanda laughed almost uncontrollably as she stood. “Your really yellow” she suddenly realized. “And a really icky off color yellow.”

“Honey Mustard” Marcus corrected with a pained voice. “A very tasteful colour my wife tells me. It was what attracted her to me.” He used one claw to carefully lift the anchor meant to hold Amanda’s body. “No accounting to genes” he admitted in a more normal voice. “I’m stuck with it like your stuck with your colour. Now climb on my back, your kiss seems to have woken the fairy princess.” With a flicker of his claw he sent the anchor sailing off hundreds of feet to splash into gently rolling waves, varnishing forever from the sight of land dwellers eyes. Or so he hoped.

Amanda, still having trouble believing this was real and not some afterlife experience or drug induced dream climbed up Marcus’s right leg. “Not the neck” he warned. “When I turn to look you’d be cut in half. That kind of damage I can’t fix, even with a pot of fresh glue.” Following his instructions she settled in just behind his neck, grabbing a oddly smooth spine as the huge body lifted from the sea. In minutes they were returning the way Sara had brought them.

“So how did you heal me” Amanda asked as Marcus climbed to the clouds. “You didn’t give me someone else’s heart did you? I’d really rather be dead.”

“Soon your science will understand what I did” Marcus explained as he pushed his huge wings down, sending them up into the clouds. “Another twenty or thirty years will place them at the threshold. Each person is born with a set of instructions coded into them. I’m really amazed I must admit. I’ve never seen a civilization as advanced as yours.”

“Genetics” Amanda agreed, forcing herself not to look down as they broke through the clouds. “And I’m really, really scared of heights. Roller coasters too.”

“Then we will just stay near the cloud surface” Marcus answered. “Genetics, yes. Your heart was damaged by an outside source, a virus. I simply helped your heart return to what it should have been, along with the rest of your body. That took some time.”

“So if I’d been born with a bad heart you couldn’t help me, right?”

“Correct” Marcus agreed. “Neutral magic cannot change what nature intended. Nor may Order. Only Chaos has that ability. Since you decided to be neutral, my options were severely limited.”

“Like keeping me alive.” Amanda reached out, running her handthrough a drift of cloud. “How’d you manage that one?”

“I umm...” A heavy rumbling cough came from the dragons chest. “I entered your body.”

“You Grok’ed me huh.” She giggled again though she was careful not to look down. Marcus’s massive wingspan was enough to fool her mind into thinking she wasn’t thousands of feet above the ground, but only as long as she didn’t look down.

“Grok?”

“I’ll explain later, from a science fiction book Sara loaned me. So that’s how come you were in my dreams, and why Sara never saw you.”

Marcus decided to test Amanda’s feelings. “Yes. I’d hate to have had to remove her. It isn’t near her time.”

“Remove? You mean, like as in kill?”

Marcus turned his head, his huge right eye staring at Amanda. “Yes.”

“You ever hurt Sara and I’ll send you home in a pine box” Amanda warned, her voice suddenly becoming deadly serious. “Understand? A really really tiny pine box.”

“I think I do” Marcus admitted before he turned his attention forward. His question had been answered, he would well remember that reaction later when he needed to. Momentarily two bright dots appeared on the horizon. “What are those?” he asked curiously.

“Probably jets out of Flat Pines Base” Amanda explained. “More than likely Air Force F4-D’s. Their fighters.”

“You can see that from this distance?”

Amanda laughed. “No. They are just dots to me. I’ve lived on or around military bases since I was born.”

“Oh. What do they do?”

“Shoot things down, drop bombs on things. Kill people” Amanda answered with a trace of bitterness in her voice. “Their supposed to protect us. Instead they kill people and we’re not even at war. A ‘Police action’ the president says.” She shivered from the cold, or memory. “Dad says any time your bombing people, your losing thousands of men on a battlefield, its war not some ‘police action.’ It’s why I hated the military. Killings just plain wrong unless you have no other choice.” She patted Marcus’s neck. “What did a bunch of rice farmers ever do to us anyway?”

“I have to agree with your father” Marcus admitted as his huge wings moved downward again, sending them slightly higher. “But you have to understand my student. A military man, or woman, does what they are ordered. They may not agree with it, but they took an oath. Anyone who breaks their oath has no honor. Can never again be trusted.” He was keeping one eye on the approaching craft when two little sticks fell from the lead one. Fire blossomed behind the little sticks and they began approaching very rapidly. “And what are those” he asked, indicating the two trails of smoke approaching them.

“ROCKETS!” Amanda screamed as icy reality washed away the pain pill’s cotton cloud. Death was coming, and it was certain it would strike. She’d seen too many examples on television to believe they were immune. She gripped the spine she was holding until her knuckles turned white under her fur. “Marcus. They shot rockets at us. They’ll kill us. DO SOMETHING!”

Marcus ‘did’ something and they were suddenly somewhere else. Amanda couldn’t make out what she was seeing, images twisted, shapes blurred. For a long moment she managed to stand the sights, then her stomach rebelled.

At least she managed to lean over the dragons neck before she lost control. Spreading your last meal, no matter how small, across a dragons back simply wasn’t done in polite company.