Last Road To Walk

Chapter 5: Vibrant Vocals

Calder held back a frustrated sigh as she heard her name called out into the dusk, followed by running steps. She turned around to glare at Jace approaching. She'd avoided him since the incident the past Saturday, just as much as she'd avoided Fay and Lizzie. Calls went unanswered, sent to voicemail and ignored.

"It seriously took me four days to find you out and about?" he laughed, out of breath.

"Clearly."

"Are you heading home? Where were you all day?"

"I live here," she pointed to the house they had stopped in front of. "I went out for a walk." she nodded her head towards the expanse of whistling grasses.

"All day?"

"No." Only about half of it, she thought. The mock duel with Beckins had only taken fifteen minutes, but the existential pondering that followed had taken a bit longer. Snuggling with a sized-up Storm was something she didn't have the opportunity to do very often. Storm had long since hopped back home, and was likely curled up in her favorite chair with Tempest.

Calder walked up her porch and unlocked the door. As it swung open, Jace spoke up again.

"Hey there's something I need to talk to you about. Mind if I come in for a few minutes?" She froze in the process of yanking the key from the lock.

"Why not?" Came the answer. He nodded and followed her in.

There wasn't much inside that struck Jace as out of the ordinary. A loveseat and another cushy armchair were in the center of the living room, sitting around a glass coffee table. Off to the left was the kitchen, half walled-off by a low breakfast bar which seemed to be really the closest thing to a kitchen table. A closed door, probably leading to the bedroom, was to the right. Two gallon jug sized speakers accompanied the stereo system set up against the wall behind the couch, and along that entire wall were CD racks that ranged from the early 2000s to albums released last month. Most of it was alternative rock. The collection was probably worth hundreds.

There were small dragons everywhere. They were lounging about the house until they realized there was a new, unfamiliar human in the building, and then they all took great interest in Jace. They were beginning to flutter about, landing on his shoulder and head and clinging to the soft fabric of his sweater.

"Uh- ok, hold on-" he attempted to pry a set of needle-like claws from where they were digging into his arm. "Ow ow ow ow ow-"

"Hey," Calder barked from her armchair. "Chill out, pissbabies. Quit clawing the poor man apart." Miraculously, they lifted off and scattered, retreating to a number of baskets hanging from the rafters. Jace rubbed his arm.

"I can't believe that worked," he muttered.

"Dragons are wild. Born to be aggressive, especially those juvies. You want them to listen, you gotta be just as assertive." She was gently scratching Puff behind the ears as he purred. As Jace moved to sit down on the loveseat she asked, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Uh, well-" He hesitated now. "The guys and I were thinking, since you seem to have taken an interest in the band..." He paused and rethought his sentence. "Actually let me just ask this straight up: can you sing?"

Calder raised an eyebrow. "Last I checked, but it's been a while."

"Well how about you come over--we rehearse at Seb's place--and give it a shot? We could do some cool harmonic stuff with a second vocalist and Glenn's always onto us about how we never sing if we don't have to. Because we suck." He coughed. Calder chuckled.