Dragons Awakening

After nearly a week camping outdoors, Zi resembled a homeless street-dwelling drain on society. When she walked into the hotel lobby and flashed her identification, none of that mattered. This five-star establishment lived up to the rating. A maid waited in her suite of rooms, quick to draw a hot bath in the three-person ceramic tub, lay a pile of fluffy white towels within easy reach, and hang a soft robe on the back of the bathroom door.

As muscles sagged into a cherry blossom spring - the bathwater, Zi spun a single-serve bottle of sparkling juice beneath her strumming fingers. At last, her own body odor disappeared. If she never slept outside again, it would be too soon.

Waiting on the roof, came the voice in her head.

Zi braided her hair into matching ropes and pulled on the hotel-provided loungewear.Now, to meet the dragon and finish her part of this quest.

A set of stairs at the end of the hallway granted access upward, as well as downward. Two flights later, Zi pressed her thumb against the sensor and shoved against the heavy door. A pool cabana, chairs and a mid-sized pool stretched along the roof. Shadows lurked at the base of unidentifiable machines and vents in the opposite direction. Zi shrugged away the chill playing slip and slide down her spine and walked toward the shadows. Her slippers whispered across the cement.

Still behind the large wall around the roof, Zi felt none of the evening breezes, but the scents of rubber, garlic and cooling asphalt drifted over her.

“The mountain stirs from slumber,” Ezer said.

Zi leaned against the cement wall, turning slightly to the hulking shape emerging from the corner of the rooftop.

“I have a plan,” Zi said, glad she could use her mouth to communicate once again. She kept her voice low, unsure if employees or other patrons might be in the pool area.

“You will make contact tomorrow. We will leave immediately for Everest.”

Zi shook her head, shivering when her wet braid slapped her jawbone.

“My pilot is securing supplies and will have them delivered to Base Camp. This boy and I will fly by my jet into Kathmandu and meet guides who will take us to there.”

Ezer growled, but Zi continued, ignoring the menacing sound. No one told her arm hair, however, and it stood at attention.

“Look, we need some supplies. Climbing Everest isn’t some spur of the moment thing. We need to acclimate to the altitude change.”

“We have no time for these delays.”

Zi nodded, “Which is why I’m arranging to have some blood oxidizing serum flown in. If the boy and I take that daily, it should help us acclimate more quickly. Do you know how high up we’ll find this friend of yours?”

“Measuring altitude wasn’t my priority when last I saw Jokul.”

Zi grinned. “Did you just use sarcasm?”

Only a curl of smoke from the dragon’s nostrils replied.

“You don’t have to worry about me running away. I’ve come this far, and it’s obvious you need me to help you save the world.”

“I need the boy.”

“You won’t get him without me. Aren’t you happy I’m fully cooperating?”

“Your visions should have immediately compelled compliance.”

Zi sighed, rubbing her hands over her thick cotton sleeves. “Most of the time, I wish the visions would disappear. Once I see something, it happens.”

“You believe the future is set. This countryside will burn no matter what we do?”

Zi glared at the dragon. She couldn’t see more than a vague outline of the spikes crowning his head.

“There’s more to the world than Italy,” she said, and hated how she heard her father’s voice, making a business deal.

After a pause during which Zi’s shallow breaths sounded loud in her ears, the dragon said, “I have found a location near the center where you will meet the whisperer. Can you convince him to join us?”

Zi shrugged. “I’m expecting him to think I’m crazy. Sounds like he’s the scientific type, so some physical support for this dragon-induced eruption theory would help.”

“Just bring him to me.”

“But-”

A picture flashed in Zi’s mind. Not only could the beast intrude with audio, he had visual tricks. Zi watched the curving road by the garish museum descend, a brushy lane and then the ramshackle building, barely as tall at the dragon.

“I will be waiting.”

A gust of wind pinned Zi to the wall when Ezerhaydn leapt into the air and beat his wings a single time. His black body melded into the nighttime sky.

“And I thought my father was the most domineering person on the planet.”

In person, the stucco museum resembled warm-water coral. On this weekday, only a handful of patrons visited the exhibits in the original Vesuvius Observatory. Zi sat on the stone steps after a quick walk-through, determining an outdoor meeting was preferable. With one eye watching the path that led to the low-lying building behind the museum, she commenced shopping with her handheld device. She selected the winter gear she wanted waiting for her in Nepal’s capital. No chance she would rely on the dragon’s body heat to keep her warm in the Himalayas.

A pebble skittered across the cobbled pathway, and Zi glanced toward the sound. The dark-skinned boy from her vision strolled toward the museum, hands buried in the pockets of his khaki chinos. The thin navy blue polo shirt clinging to his sculpted chest made him look older. Maybe even her age. With pale green eyes, he glared at her. Just like her, this boy had been cursed with eyes that were genetically impossible. His islander heritage should have dominated and given him brown eyes. Just like her and her blue eyes.

He mounted the stairs with athletic grace. Zi stood up, slipping the portable into its pocket on her small leather bag. The designer jeans and Egyptian cotton shirt felt like silk against her skin. If she never wore riding pants again, she wouldn’t mourn their loss.

“Do you work here?”

Zi’s question stopped the boy from pulling the door open. He faced her, sliding his gaze over her with barely a flicker. The square line of his jaw hardened.

“What’s it to you?”

“I saw you walking from the observatory,” she gestured toward the building now hidden from view. “I didn’t think a young guy like you would be here with all the science geeks.”

“Science geeks could predict the next eruption.” He scorched her with another perusal. What was so offensive about the way she looked anyway? “Not that a girl like you would consider that.”

A girl like her? Zi straightened her spine. “I have a theory about all these eruptions and quakes.”

“Wild speculation from the general public isn’t helpful.”

Zi narrowed her eyes. Her lips smacked together, and the boy scowled, turning away.

“Wait.” She grabbed his arm. The rippling bicep beneath her fingertips made her stomach jump. Impressive.

“I don’t have time for this,” he said, prying her fingers from his arm with disgusting ease.

“What if I told you that a fire had burned from the planet’s core for two thousand years. It melted a pathway through the solid inner core and pushed through the magma-like outer core.” Zi clasped the soft leather bag against her hip and shifted toward him. “As it liquefied the mantle, the tectonic plates became unstable. More earthquakes and more volcanic eruptions resulted.”

The boy grimaced but intrigue brightened his eyes to sparkling peridot. Wonder if Ezer eats those gems?

“As the source of fire burns nearer to the surface, it seeks the path of least resistance - a volcanic tube. Eventually, it will cause a chain of eruptions which will devastate the surface.”

“There was a chain of eruptions on the Pacific Rim,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s why I’m here.”

“So my theory is valid.”

He narrowed his eyes. “No fire could burn hot enough to liquefy the inner core. What would be the source of such a fire?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, a challenge. His full lips twitched. This island boy thought he had put her in her place. Obviously, he’d never sparred with an Oohara.

“What if something combustible ignited in the presence of the gas and pressure?”

“Fire needs oxygen.”

“Flame needs oxygen,” she argued. “The inner core is so hot, it’s hard to imagine it getting hotter, melting to resemble the outer core. They’re basically the same elemental makeup.”

“Basic geography,” he said with a shrug of one shoulder. “Too bad you don’t understand the physics behind converting solid rock to liquid.”

“You could explain it to me.”

“Too time-consuming.” He reached for the door again.

“There’s an expert you could talk to,” she said, stepping closer to him, blocking the door with her sneaker-clad foot.

“I’ve lived with an expert my entire life,” he said.

“Not someone like this.”

“I don’t have time for this.” He leaned away from her like she had halitosis.

“How about when you’re done working for the day? I can meet you here and take you to him.”

“Where is he?”

“Nearby. A few kilometers away.”

Silence stretched between them. A tree branch creaked, bending beneath the weight of some animal. Leaves rustled together, rattling like crinkling paper.

“Fine. Whatever.”

He glared at her foot. Zi pulled back. What on earth had she done to generate such animosity? Was he really that busy? It didn’t matter. She had convinced him to go with her to meet an “expert.”

She smiled, thinking of the boy’s horror when he saw her geological expert had scales and claws. Oh, and he talked directly into your mind.

Akolo groaned when he saw the skinny Asian girl sitting in the guardhouse. His mind spun, unable to settle on a plausible excuse. Anything to escape her misguided clutches.

The driver stopped beside the booth, unusual on the exit.

“Miss Oohara says she has an appointment with young Mister Duboff,” the guard said in accented common tongue.

With a fresh set of numbers to study, his father remained glued to the tablet on his knee. Akolo elbowed him until he earned a mumbled reply that sounded like permission for anything.

The guard held the back door of the miniature sedan while Akolo stumbled out. Unlike his father, he carried nothing in or out of the laboratory. His job involved entering facts and figures into the expansive database designed to track volcanic activity around the globe.

“Will you be able to drop him at the hotel or do I need to return?” The driver asked the girl who leaned in the passenger window to answer him.

At least her shirt didn’t gape open. The neckline didn’t plunge to nether regions either. He shrugged, unwilling to change his earlier assessment. The designer clothes and pushy manners marked her well enough. She belonged in the “Dangerous Women who should be Avoided” club. Thankfully, his father’s attention never wavered from his portable. She wouldn’t be snaring him any time soon.

Akolo scowled at the girl when the car pulled away. She thanked the guard, who watched her backside as she turned to walk away. More confirmation of her dangerous status. Akolo fell in beside her, leaving enough space to avoid accidentally touching.

Pebbles skittered beneath their feet. The cobbles turned to rougher pavement. The girl neither looked at him nor spoke a word. Apparently, she spent all her charm on the guard.

With a sigh, Akolo asked, “Where are we going?”

“Nearby. Another kilometer or so.”

“Am I going to know this scientist who’s underwriting your crazy theory?”

She shook her head. Long, black locks bounced against her shoulders. Cherry blossoms released their fragrance. Akolo clenched his fists and sidled onto the uneven ground beside the narrow roadway.

“He’s an unknown. Your dad is famous. Dr. Maddix Duboff, the first to propose that volcanic activity stirred earthquakes when the commonly accepted theory stated the reverse.”

“My mom helped with that. She was a seismologist, and they formed the theory after years of debating it. I’m hoping we get enough data to confirm it.” What made him offer all that information? He gritted his teeth.

“With the abundance of activity, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Akolo shrugged. His father’s work wasn’t top secret, but he didn’t feel comfortable discussing it with this girl. She might be a spy, working for a vulcanologist who hoped to document facts that proved the theory. He ground his teeth until his jaw ached. Not before his father. His parents deserved recognition for this breakthrough.

The girl cut in front of him. Branches criss-crossed to form a natural gate. She shoved the shrubs aside, revealing a narrow lane.

“I’m Zi Yan Oohara, by the way,” she said, glancing at his face while she held branches out of the path.

Her pale blue eyes chilled him, a cube of ice dropped down the collar of his shirt.

“Akolo,” he said, his voice gruff. Just because they knew each other’s names didn’t make them friends.

“The one who promotes the theory I shared with you,” Zi said, “will not be what you expect. Try to prepare yourself.”

“Is he old and shriveled? Young and inexperienced? Both kinds work at the observatory.”

No reply. A ramshackle barn stood in a not-really-a-clearing at the end of the dusty lane. Weathered wood gaped. Stones fallen from the lower wall littered the way. The fourth side of the building was completely gone. Dust motes circled overhead. A strange mix of mildew, smoke, and sulfur drifted on the air.

The interior of the building hosted a collection of shadows. Trepidation crept along Akolo’s spine, slowing his footsteps. His special sense scanned ahead, finding a dark void.

Zi stopped beside the right-hand wall a few steps inside the barn. A huge shadow separated from the back wall. Akolo blinked his eyes, wondering what would cause such movement. The shadow swayed, closer. The ground trembled. Akolo blinked several times and took a half-step back at the same moment something pushed through his extra sense, scraping against his mind.

We meet at last, whisperer, a voice echoed inside his head.

The shadow loomed over them. Akolo’s jaw dropped. In front of him, an enormous lizard head materialized from the gloom. Behind it, a scaly body, still mostly shadow, shifted from side to side. A golden eye blinked, dilating in the fading light from outside.

A dragon? Akolo shook his head, stumbling backward in an attempt to put space between himself and the shard-like teeth. The maw dropped level with his face. Hands gripped his shoulders from behind. Dryness in his mouth prevented him from snapping his displeasure, but nothing inhibited the glare he stabbed her way. Or the brisk shake of his shoulders to dislodge her hands.

“Covering your ears doesn’t help,” she said.

“Huh?” Brilliant, but what on earth was she talking about?

“The voice in your head.” She stared around him at the beast, “you did speak to him, didn’t you?”

The beast. Akolo shook himself. No need to feel intimidated when facing an animal, regardless of size. He pushed his thoughts at the dragon and encountered sludge-like thought waves, thicker than anything he’d manipulated before. Undaunted, he pressed harder, slogging through an almost-wall to impress upon the dragon to withdraw, step backward.

A gravelly sound emanated from the bulky black chest. “I am not an animal you can control so simply, whisperer.”

Akolo gritted his teeth and pushed harder against the mire of the dragon’s mind. He may as well have banged his head against a brick wall.

“I see you have some experience, but not the skill you will need to convince my brother.”

A throb beat behind Akolo’s temples. An animal had never resisted his suggestions. Nor had he ever encountered a mind so densely structured or well-fortified. Once he had communicated with a porpoise, and its thought waves felt like water. Most animals had thoughts as thin as air. His experience hadn’t prepared him for the dragon’s resistance.

“I am Ezerhaydn,” the deep voice said, “Chieftain of Metallica Clan. I will forgive your trespass since you are the whisperer.”

“What do you mean - whisperer?”

“A whisperer interprets the thoughts of others and can create thoughts in another creature’s mind. Animals have done your bidding, true?”

“Sure. Lots of times. I don’t whisper, though.”

The girl behind him exhaled. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the dragon. She leaned toward Akolo. “What’s he saying?”

“Can’t he talk to you?”

She nodded. “But it makes my skull fracture into millions of pieces.”

Exaggerate much?

“Perhaps we were having a private conversation.” Ezer’s voice boomed.

Zi’s eyes bulged. Hands covered her ears. The short, thin fingers trembled. “We’re supposed to be a team.” Her words were almost a wince.

“A team? Why?” Akolo drew his eyebrows together.

His question earned him a piercing glance from her weapon-grade eyes.

“Her mind is weak, so you should speak verbally to appease her.” Akolo grinned at the dragon’s comment. A thread of camaraderie stretched between them. Men humoring women, an age-old social dance.

“A whisperer is the terminology used in prophecy for a human who communicates telepathically with animals.”

“Has he been calling you that?” The girl. “He likes to call me seer. I think it makes him feel superior if he doesn’t use my name.”

“I am superior.”

“See what I mean?” Zi stared a him, turning her back toward the dragon.

Akolo’s thread to the dragon strengthened. For three years, he had longed for such a men versus women battle, he and his father against the college girls who paraded through their life. Instead, his father caved, allowing the women to flatten him. This dragon wouldn’t do that.

“Okay, Zi Yan,” Akolo said, nodding toward the girl, “and Ezerhaydn. What’s this about?”

“Call him Ezer. Less of a mouthful.”

Akolo glanced between the dragon and girl, both faces stoic. Could a dragon have a stoic expression? With teeth protruding like that, he could probably be nothing less than fearsome.

“You may call me Ezer,” the dragon said. “Names have power. Dragons don’t use them flippantly.” Was that his rebuttal to the girl’s accusation about calling them by titles?

“Just Zi,” the girl said, tossing her black hair over her shoulder with a twist of her head. The cherry blossoms hovered again, mingling with the sulfurous smoke. It reminded Akolo of a Hawaiian breeze after a volcanic eruption, flower and flame.

“Why am I here?” Akolo crossed his arms over his chest. Meeting a dragon, unexpected as it was, didn’t answer his questions about the crazy theories. A rumble in his stomach reminded him the time for supper was passing.

“I assume the seer told you about the exiled dragon at the core of this planet.”

“What?” An exiled dragon trapped in the earth’s core had not been mentioned. Akolo glared at Zi.

“I know crazy. That would have been it.” She shrugged.

He would have laughed in her face and walked away. In fact, he might have commented about that sort of insane theory in the afternoon digital message he’d sent to his uncle.

“So there’s a dragon melting down the core and causing all the volcanic eruptions.” Akolo let sarcasm reign in his response.

“You said it.” She pointed at him like a game show host announcing a winner.

“Qwystanak is far from the core. The regularity of eruptions indicates he has reached the mantle, nearing the crust. We must prepare to fight him when he emerges.”

“Hold on,” Akolo stepped back with the force of that declaration. “I can’t fight a dragon.”

“Of course not.” Did the dragon have to make the thought seem ludicrous? “Jokul and I will defeat him.”

“Jokul?”

“That’s the ice dragon sleeping on Mt. Everest,” Zi said, leaning toward him and exaggerating a stage whisper. “You’re going to wake him up.”

“Wake up a dragon-”

Akolo’s legs turned to jellyfish. He stumbled into the Chinese girl, who guided his unresponsive body to the the wall. He slid down the ancient wood, gathering a few slivers before collapsing like a heap of dirty clothes in the dust.

A laugh erupted from his lips, a maniacal bark. Dragons were real. He could communicate with them using his gift. One emerging from the center of the planet was causing all the earthquakes and eruptions. Another one slept on the tallest mountain in the world, and he was supposed to wake it up. He shook his head. Waking up his dad in the morning could be unpleasant. A dragon? No thanks.

“I will relay the story to you,” the dragon said.

Akolo held up his hand, shaking his head like a bobble-headed hood ornament.

“Give him a few minutes to process things,” Zi knelt in the dust beside him, surprising since it would soil her expensive jeans. Her hand rested on his shoulder. Her pale eyes warmed, the heart of a gas-induced flame.

“It’s a little much to take in,” she said. “I know.”

“Time waits for none,” the dragon said. “A monumental task lies before us. We must not delay.”

“For someone who’s immortal and has been hanging out on earth for a couple thousand years, you sure are impatient.” She glared at the dragon while delivering her reprimand. When she turned back, her cheeks were flushed. She really was striking.

Akolo squashed the thought and looked away from the face hovering close to his.

“I can’t just take off for Mt. Everest. My dad needs me.”

“The world needs you more.” What do you say when a dragon tells you that?

“Save it, Ezer,” Zi said, standing to her feet in a single smooth motion. “Your father is a scientist. We can explain what’s happening. He’ll want you to help.”

The burst from his mouth could only be described as a guffaw. Tears blurred his vision while his body spasmed with laughter. Both girl and dragon gaped at him, neither sharing his glee. A deep breath curtailed the hilarity.

Akolo wiped his eyes. “My dad’s a scientist. He’ll never believe this dragon tale.”

The black beast growled. Hair stiffened along Akolo’s spine. The empty pit in his stomach flopped to the ground.

“No offense, Mr. Dragon,” he said, using the wall to climb to his feet. “My dad and the other scientists would laugh me out of the lab if I gave them this story.”

Zi Yan turned and stared at the countryside. Shadows from the trees danced across her face. Akolo studied the dragon, amazed that such a huge beast had survived on earth for thousands of years. He thought dragons were part of the fictional realm - fairy stories and knight tales.

“I only recently returned to this form,” the dragon said. He must have been reading Akolo’s thoughts. Convenient but a major social faux pas.

“What’s the whole story?”

Akolo listened while Ezer described a world filled with dragon warriors. When they began to destroy each other, their creator had exiled them to Earth. The meanest one had been confined in the core of the planet. What sort of amazing physiology could withstand temperatures of 5000 degrees? How could a dragon melt solid iron and nickel? Or withstand the pressure?

“I’ve got it,” Zi walked toward them, smiling.

Akolo and the dragon stared at her.

“We’ll use the same story that got Akolo here. I’ll pose as a student assistant to a seismologist studying the activity in the Himalayas. We have to travel there to retrieve his data.” As if sensing objections, she waved her hand, “ That backward culture in Nepal.”

Akolo furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips pursing.It was a plan. But was it a good one?

“With the two major quakes there this spring, it might work.” He rubbed his chin. “We’ll need facts and figures. Something to make him crave more information. But why would I need to go?”

“The old scientist can’t travel but insists on delivering his data to the renowned Dr. Maddix Duboff.” Zi rubbed her palms together.

Will Dr. Duboff try to go himself? The dragon brought up a valid consideration.

Akolo drummed his fingers on his lower lip. His dad was immersed in the studies here, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince him to stay. Would the lure of data be strong enough? Could anything convince him to allow Akolo to travel to a remote part of the world with a stranger?

“It might work.”

Zi nodded, started to speak.

Akolo held up his hand. “You need some realistic facts and figures, though. Nothing abstract.”

The girl’s smile fell away.Without it, her eyes widened, doubling their eerie impact.

“I’ll help you come up with something,” Akolo said. Did he really expect a girl to know anything about volcanoes? “I’ll need the Internet.”

His stomach gurgled. First, he needed food. With a double helping of good luck.