Jesse James and the Dragon's Egg

Egg Scramble

That fateful fence-line. Standing in exactly the same spot the boys stood more than a week ago, Jesse, Kate and the rest peered down at King's Field. The moon was dim, but they were just able to see the roof of the barn floating above the ghostly gray mist.

"This is so ridiculous." Jesse is absolutely terrified.

"This is awesome!" Brad is absolutely gleeful.

"Yeah, awesomely the worst idea ever."

"I know. Isn't it great?"

"No," Jesse said quietly.

"Hey, man, you're not thinking about backing out, are you?" John asked. He leaned his bike against the fence.

"Yeah, Jess. We'll be right here with you." Lamar dropped a heavy hand on his friend's shoulder.

Jesse stared over the fence. Sweaty palms, dry mouth, a mild nausea creeping into his belly.

"Jesse?" He turned. "You okay?" Kate was smiling. Her eyes were particularly dark against the night sky and her pale skin nearly glowed in the moonlight.

"Yeah." Jesse took a deep breath, pulling in the tiniest bit of courage with it, and turned back to the fence. "Yeah, I'm okay. Let's go."

The trek to the barn was long and perilous. Their tiny flashlights were useless against the fog, thick as oatmeal as they pass through. They tripped and stumbled over every exposed root, broken limb, old tire, and charcoal tree stump they came near. Jesse had been leading them at a snail's pace in what the others were beginning to believe had been one giant circle.

"Jesse, are you sure we're going the right way?" John, the fronts of his legs covered in soot, has just picked himself up off the ground. He had stumbled, falling hard in the smoky dark.

"Yeah, I think so."

"You sure? Because I'm pretty sure I tripped over that same root about fifteen minutes ago," he said, rubbing at his still aching knees.

"Can't you hear that sound?" Jesse was cupping one hand to his ear.

"What sound?" Lamar craned his head to one side.

"The sound with the power." Brad said quietly.

"Oh!" Lamar replied. He continues in a sing-song voice, "What power?"

"The power of VooDoo!" Brad retorted with a grin.

"Who do?"

"You do?"

The two continued this bizarre back-and-forth dialog for some minutes, giggling and speaking quietly to each other in the background.

"Jesse." Kate approached him. "What do you hear?"

"It's kind of like a video game, or a bird sound." He turned to face the young girl. "Don't you hear it?"

Kate listened. "I don't think I hear anything except thunder."

Jesse's blood ran cold. "What thunder?"

At first he heard nothing, intent as he was on zeroing in on that little trill. He now realized that other than the trill, there was no real sound at all. Usually, a night like this filled with the sound of crickets, tree frogs, coyotes, and owls. But now, there was nothing.

Then he heard it. It was quiet, distant, unique, a soft, rhythmic booming. It sounded just like distant thunder. Only now, to Jesse's ears, it wasn't like the sound of thunder at all. It was like the sound of giant footsteps.

"We've got to get out of here!" Jesse hissed, his eyes wild.

"Why?" John asked.

"Sh-h-h!" He warned him, warned them all, to be quiet.