Daughter of Mother Earth

Chapter Seventeen

The dragon stopped moving and creaked.

"Okay. You're going to have to trust me."
-----

It took about an hour for Crystal groan and open her eyes. She waited until her eyesight was less blurry to sit up. She looked around, rubbing her head. She saw Leo right behind the dragon's head. The metal animal was still in the net.

She felt a sudden pain in her head. She looked to her right to see a dryad tending to her head wound. After putting an odd paste to it. It immediately felt better. The dryad stood, smiling.

"Thank you." Crystal said.

She looked at the tree. A small flame had erupted on it. The dryad's dress started smoking.

"Your tree's on fire! Here, let me help." Crystal offered.

She conjured a water bubble from the air and brought it down on the fire. The act made her a little tired, but not fatigued. Leo looked over to them, smiling at Crystal. The dryad made some sort of gesture to him, that was most likely rude in her language. The tree girl turned to Crystal and hugged her, then disappeared in a puff of green mist.

Crystal tentatively made her way to Leo's side. She looked at what he was doing. It's control disk was badly rusted.

"That makes sense! It's corroded. That's a complicated piece of circuitry, so you'll have to clean it. Here, it'll take just a minute." Crystal gently took it out and slid off its back.

She wiped some oil and Tabasco sauce with her hand then rubbed off the rust as best she could with her CHB t-shirt. She got herself filthy, but it was worth it when she was done. Her hands were black with oil and her clothes were completely dirty. She wiped the back of her hand on her forehead, getting a streak of dirt on it. She handed the disk to Leo, who placed it back.

The dragon made a happy sound at its new disk. Leo and Crystal set the animal free, which took about 30 minutes. It roared happily and shot fire into the air.

Crystal laughed and shook her head. "He needs a name."

"His name should be Festus." Leo said.

Crystal nodded, "I like it. Wait, how can he fly? He has no wings."

Festus snorted steam then lowered his back. It was obvious he wanted Leo and Crystal to climb on.

Leo got on first, the held his hand out to Crystal. She hestitated for a moment.

Leo chuckled, "It'll be fine, come on."

She took his hand and climbed on behind him. Festus got impatient and started bounding off. Crystal shrieked and wrapped her arms around Leo's waist so she wouldn't fall off.

Crystal lost track of time and leaned against Leo's back, resting her eyes. She opened them again when Festus stopped.

It was a dead end.

A huge, solid limestone cliff that no one -not even Festus- could climb. Festus pointed to the cliff with one claw.

They slid off his back and walked to the cliff. Crystal thought for a moment and grabbed Leo's wrist. She brought his hand to the rock. His fingers smoldered and lines of fire spread from his fingertips. They continued to spread until an outline of a red door appeared. They backed up and the door quietly swung open.

Festus went inside and towards the center of the room and curled up on a large circular platform.

Crystal looked around in awe. "Whoa..."

Equipment was everywhere, blue prints were scattered on bulletin boards and war supplies hung all over the walls. Above Festus was a faded banner. It was written in Greek, yet Crystal could read it.

"Bunker 9?"

She walked up to a bulletin board with a blueprint that caught her eye. It was cute, drawn in crayon but very clearly a ship with a figurehead. The figurehead looked just like Festus.

"Leo, look at this!" She called, studying the drawing.

"This looks exactly like the drawing I did when I was five... Creepy."

Festus snorted, drawing the pair away from the picture.

"He's right. We don't have all night." Leo said.

Festus nudged something to him. It was a leather toolbelt. The dragon looked up and Crystal followed his gaze. She gasped.

"Leo..."

Nudging him, Leo looked up and yelped.

"We've got a lot of work to do..." He quietly said.