In Form

Meat and Mountain Climbing

I awoke on my side. My eyes flashed open but my body felt calm as my fingers moved back and forth in some warm moss. I looked around to notice that I was in Mistory's nest. I could tell it was hers because of loose sticks that dangled on the ceiling of her nest. Dragolya was more of a clean nest, dirty house type of person. I lifted my head and turned over to look at my side, it didn't hurt anymore.
    I could barely remember what happened before I passed out. I flipped to my back and breathed. As I breathed though my nose softly I rubbed my side. My eyes suddenly widened as pictures of my memories flashed in front of me.
   The black dragon.
   Onyx.
   Dragolya and Mistory.
   Pain and relief.
   The scream.
   I gasped as I realized I was holding my breath. I sat up and looked around. Did that just happen? What in the world just happened?
   I took a few more pants as I got up and went to the entrance of the nest. It was dark outside, and the moon was quite a ways away from the horizon so it was either a few hours till sunrise, or it's been a few hours since the sun set. I could use a compass right now.
    Mistory wasn't in her nest, I looked down and searched the ground. Shadows from the pale moonlight outlined Mistory's dragon body curled up at the foot of the tree.
    "Mistory." I whispered.
    No answer.
    "Mistory!" I whispered louder.
    Still no answer.
    "Mistory!" I yelled in her mind.
    Startled, she leaped up and snarled glancing around. Finally realizing it was me, she looked up. She sighed and bent down to stretch. She then looked up to me and flicked her head to the side gesturing me to move. I moved back to give her room. It was a only a minute before I saw her large dragon head poke through the nest entrance. Her eyes were barely open when she sat down and looked at me.
    "How are feeling?" She asked, sounding sleepy.
     "Fine. Hey can I ask you something?" Without even pausing for her answer I continued. "Is it possible to see into the past?"
    She tiredly nodded twice.
    "I saw-" I was cut off by Mistory grunting loudly on purpose. I sighed, annoyed that she did that.
    She roared and clicked at me.
    Not knowing what she was saying, I sighed heavily again and looked away from her.
    She clicked from of her throat, causing me to shiver. I looked back sheepishly. She roared and flickered her head to come to her. I lowered my head and shuffled over to her. She nudged me with her nose and guided me to the other side of her where she faced the wall of the nest. She laid down and closed her eyes.
    Great. I guess I have to go to sleep now too, but I wasn't tired. I made my way towards the nest entrance, I first had to get past Mistory. I looked up the tall mountain that was Mistory, this was going to be a challenge. I placed my foot on her leg and tried to reach her back, but I slipped. Multiple times. This wasn't going to work. I walked over to her tail and tried to step over it as much as a person could when the head of the tail was taller than your waste. As I touched her tail though, she grunted and moved it to where I tripped and fell backwards.
    I sat there for a second to catch the breath that was kicked out of me. I looked over at Mistory and glared. Her eye was open and was watching me humorously. She tiredly blinked her eyes closed and I heard the heavy exhale of sleep.
    I huffed out a frustrated breath and rolled over to her warm neck to rest my head on. I closed my eyes, but couldn't
    I stretched and yawned, the soft moss beneath me was warm and filled in the equal comfort to a blanket. I sat up in realization that I was still in Mistory's nest. I plopped back down onto my back and sighed.
    I looked around the nest, Mistory wasn't in here anymore.
    I got up, went to the entrance of the nest and looked down. She wasn't below the tree, neither was Dragolya. I craned my neck to look at Dragolya's nest. "Dragolya?" I called out.
    No answer.
    I called out again. "Hello? Mistory, Dragolya? Hello?"
    There was only silence. I sighed and sat at the edge of the nest entrance swinging my feet from boredom. I leaned forward and put my elbows on my knees as I stared at the ground.
    "Hello?" Dragolya's voice said through my head.
    Her voice scared me so bad that I jumped from fear and just about fell to the ground, but I reached out and grabbed the edge of the nest and dangled there. I screeched and held on tight, breathing like I just ran twelve miles.
     "Sorry we missed your call, please leave a message after the beep... Beeeep." Dragolya continued.
     I took a few more panicked breaths before answering. "Dragolya..." I said shakily.
     "What?" She sounded concerned now.
    "Please... Please quit screwing around and get back to the nests quickly."
    "Ya ya, we were just getting breakfast."
    I hoisted my forearms up to hang over the ledge of the nest, which calmed me down and was more comfortable. "You guys must be pretty close by for us to talk through our minds like this."
     "Okay first of all, it's called 'silently speaking. Second, we heard you calling so we're not far, we're actually almost there so hang tight."
    I huffed and just hung loosely onto the nest by my forearms. The twigs began to poke through my sleeves and it itched, I moved my arms around uncomfortably. I began to kick to try to boost up my body, once I thought I had kicked hard enough I reached out to grab the bed of the nest so I pulled myself up, the sticks just tore from my weight and I slipped backwards, I was dangling from my fingers now.
    From this angle I saw a branch lingering just above the nest entrance. I used my mind, afraid to lift even a finger, to control the branch to grow towards me.  The branch grew slowly towards me, I reached out for it. At my touch the branch grew black and shriveled, the needles turned orange then brown and fell to the ground. I gasped as I grabbed it and it snapped. Gravity took its tole and pulled the rest of me down towards the ground.
     I gasped and swallowed my breath. This was going to be a quick fall, I braced myself and closed my eyes. I hit something softer than the ground and heard it say "Oof!" I sat up and looked down to see what I landed on. Dragolya was below me, glaring. I quickly scrambled off of her.
     Dragolya slowly sat up, looking sore and creaky. "Your heavier than you look."
     My eyes narrowed. "Are kidding me?" I asked offended.
     "No, I wasn't."
    I kept that narrowed face at her direction.
    "You wanna fight about it?" She said standing up, her eyes turning gold.
    I took a step back. "No." Even if she was joking, something told me to back off.
    "Psh." She laughed. Her eyes went back to their differing colors.
    Mistory came into view dragging a doe by its back leg. "That sounded like it hurt." She said stopping and dropping the deer leg.
    "What's that?" I asked pointing in disgust at the deer carcass.
    Mistory looked at the deer then back at me. "It's a dinosaur."
    I raised an eyebrow at her. "No-I meant, what are we going to do with it?"
    "Well, if that's what you meant then say what you mean. Geez, people this past century..." She trailed off. I rolled my eyes. "This is obviously a female, mule, doe. And this doe will be breakfast."
    My face scrunched up. "Gross! I'm not eating that! For breakfast? No way!" I looked away and raised my hand up to the deer in disgust. Then it hit me. "Breakfa..." I mumbled to myself. "Wait, breakfast? What time is it how long was I out?"
    "Um... All day since last night, you remember last night don't you?" Mistory asked.
    I nodded slowly. "Ya, yes I do. I guess I just wasn't thinking straight that night." My mom must being freaking out right now. My eyes flicked around the ground from yesterday, last night and today. "What happened to that man, an-and Onyx? Are my powers failing?" I looked down at my hands.
     "That man, was the same black dragon that tried to eat you the first time you two met. He was wild, but now he's dead, he bled too much from the wound that Onyx made. Onyx is also dead, Dragolya got her really good with her trusty daggers." Mistory said. Dragolya straightened and smiled at the compliment.
     I took in a reality checked breath. Two people just died... "What a-bout..." I swallowed hard. "My p-powers?" I looked at them with a shaky look in my eye.
    Dragolya looked up at the blackened branch above the nest. "What has been your diet, Amber?"
    "Why?"
    "More specific, meat." Mistory said. "You were wiped out and weren't healing until, you healed yourself."
    "What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
    Dragolya rolled her eyes and walked over to me. "Watch." She brought out her knife and slit her hand, she winced from the pain.
     "What are you doing?" I cried.
    She grabbed my hand and I tried to pulled away from her bloody hand. There was a golden glow and Dragolya pulled away, her hand was no longer slashed, the blood was still on her hand but there was no wound. I felt as if the very energy was sucked out of me.
    "I did that?" I asked examining her hand.
    Dragolya nodded as she wiped off the blood from her hand onto her pants. Dragolya was pretty dressy today compared to her slacker days, wearing jeans, a tank top, a brown and black vest and a red scarf that loosely hung around her neck.
    "When you reached for your side yesterday," Mistory said. "You healed yourself then passed out."
    "So have you been eating enough protein lately?" Dragolya said.
    "Ya, of course, I had eggs yesterday." I responded.
    Dragolya sighed. "No, meat, have you been eating meat?"
    I let out a laugh. "Ha, no. I'm a vegetarian."
    There was a a long silence before they burst out laughing. Dragolya even went to her knees out of laughter.
    She waved her hand around while holding her stomach. She wiped tears from her eyes. "Okay seriously!" She let out a few more chuckles before she stopped laughing fully.
    "I was serious." Their smiles faded away. "I'm really a vegetarian." I said gesturing to myself.
    "Okay, some things are only funny once Amber." Mistory said leaning on one side of her hip with a look of disbelief on her face.
    "I'm. Serious." I said again, nodding my head once at each word.
    "Whoa." Dragolya said putting her hands up. She still didn't understand and I sighed. "Forealskies?"
    My brows furrowed at that last word. "Oh my gosh you guys! Yes! I. Am. A. Vegetarian!" My goodness these guys can't get a simple thing!
   They looked at each other and Mistory bit her lip, holding in a smile. I glared at her.
    "How are you still alive?" Dragolya yelped, looking me over. "We can't survive without eating meat!"
   Mistory looked at me as if she was trying to figure me out.
   "I've been eating this way for as long as I could remember." I said, almost asking myself that.
    "I don't see why your dragon father, and and Elder at that too, would let this happen?" Dragolya questioned.
    "Hey! My father left my mom and I when I was just a few years old!" I said defensively. She had no right to talk about bad parenting and my dad.
    Mistory snapped her fingers. "Amber can heal!" She loudly exclaimed.
    We looked at her strangely, since we have already established this.
    "Don't you get it? She's been healing herself! Every time she would weaken from her lack of meat, she would heal herself unconsciously." She explained.
    Mistory made a lot of sense, considering that I don't remember taking a sick day from school, or being sick at all. It all came together, yet my life still had spaces to be filled, like a thousand piece puzzle, you find one section, then another, and soon it all comes together.
    Mistory continued. "You must have used up your energy from just eating, whatever vegans eat, and from using your powers so much during lessons."
    Dragolya pointed at Mistory knowingly. "That would explain a lot." She turned to Mistory, "Here." She said uncoiling a rope that played as a belt around her waste. She tossed the rope on the ground at Mistory. She turned into form and turned towards the deer. Mistory grabbed the rope from the ground and tide it around the deers ankle, she then dragged it up to a tree, scaled the tree, still holding the deer in one hand, tide it to the closet tree limb, and jumped down.
   Dragolya walked up to the carcass and took in a breath. There was a hiss, then fire burst from the sparks from the spark tooth. The orange, yellow and red  flames engulfed the carcass to where I couldn't see the deer anymore. She turned her head to get some of the back side of the deer, like a rotisserie chicken. She stopped when the deer fell to the ground. The rope was burned all the way through.
    Dragolya turned out of form. "Oops, ya I meant to miss that."
    Mistory tilted her head in annoyment. She bent down and picked at the burnt rope.
   Dragolya kicked the still steaming carcass. She bent down and peeled back, what was the skin of the deer, like a giant burnt potato chip, to the meat underneath. Steam came up as if Dragolya had just opened a hatch on a spaceship.
    The smell was wonderfully intoxicating. My eyes glowed at the smell, my senses sharpened for only two seconds. I stared at it not wanting to look away.
    Dragolya looked at me and smiled. She tore off a piece of meat, that now looked like jerky, from the deers shoulder and walked it over to me. "Here." She handed me the strip of meat. "Eat." She said nodding towards me. I looked over at Mistory who had a stuffed mouth full of meat and was attempting to lick her fingers. I inspected the piece of meat and smelled it. I looked at Dragolya in disgust. She looked annoyed that I wouldn't eat it.
   I closed my eyes and popped it in my mouth expecting the worst. But as soon as it touched my tongue and as I began to chew, my eyes opened and widened at the flavor. Every chew was a new burst of flavor. It was smoky and sweet, it was as if it was marinated and seasoned.
    I looked at Dragolya with the face of pleasure. "Hey, that's not that bad."
    She nodded as she looked pleased as well. "Come. You need all that you can get." She had a laugh at the end of her sentence as she led me to the deer.
   My stomach felt swollen when I was finished eating. I've spent maybe ten minutes looking at how the dirt beneath me moves when I blow through my nose, waiting for the other two to finish eating. I was in form now.
    I focused on the dirt and willed it to grow a sprout of grass as tall as my pinky. I smiled with joy and wagged my tail that my powers were back.
    My stomach started to feel better so I decided to do something other than lye here. I got up and trotted in circles for a while, then I decided that I should practice flying on my own. I ran off to a small tree that wasn't getting enough sunlight and used that as a starting point. I opened my wings a little, man that felt good, I rotated them back and forth with my new back bones and muscles. I aimed at my target, Dragolyas tail. My plan was that I'd run, take a leap off of her tail and flap as hard as I can.
    I got low and moved my shoulder blades up and down like I was going to pounce on something. I leaped forward and ran two feet at a time, like a cheetah after a gazelle. By now, Dragolya and Mistory watching me. I leaped up off of Dragolyas tail and opened my wings.
    *flap* *flap* I was doing it! *flap*
    I accidentally moved my wings at different times and began to twirl. I spun maybe twice before hitting the dirt face first. I laid there embarrassed, feeling like a fool.
    "Well you didn't get very far."  Dragolya silently told me.
    I turned my head to her and glared.
    She only laughed. "Your not ready to fly yet." She paused and sighed. "You remind me when I was your age. Wanting to be older than I really was."
    "Your talking like a grandma." I laughed.
    She raised where her brow would be. "Maybe because I'm five hundred years older than you."
    I lowered my head. I don't know why, but I did. Dragolya put her tail under my chin and lifted my head. She was right up to my face now. "Don't do that."
    "Do what?"
    "Cower. Don't cower, ever." Her tone was serious and it frightened me. My webbed ears went to the side and I attempted to look down again, but Dragolya's tail kept me at eye level. She growled a low growl and showed her teeth.
    Mistory grunted and snorted through her nose. "She gets it Dragolya. We can still teach her."
    Dragolya backed off and went over to the carcass. She picked up what was left of it a flung it a ways back into the bushes.
    What was that all about? Don't cower? Wouldn't that be natural for a young dragon like me, to an older dragon like her.
    She came to me again and turned sideways. "Come on, we're going for a fly up the mountain, you can learn something." She said flicking her head for me to get on her.
    I heisted but climbed on. "The mountains huh? What are we going to do there?"
    "There's more privacy up in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The humans won't be able to hear or see us." Mistory said.
    I clung onto Dragolya as hard as I could with my claws. It became easier the longer I stayed on. I got the hang of swaying with her movements.
    Mistory climbed up her nest and leaped off, opening her wings and pushing her body up made a thundering noise, like a fighter jet from the '40's. She went above the tree to where we couldn't see her. Dragolya's head was up and alert, ears like satellites. She finally moved after a second, I suspected that she and Mistory were speaking silently. She climbed up he nest, opened her huge magnificent wings, and leaped off of her nests and thundered over the woods. We glided over the road, which no one was driving on at the moment, and began our journey to the mountains ahead.
     We would soar for maybe three to five seconds then Dragolya would have to flap her wings again in order to stay in the air. On the back of s dragon, I could see everything. The forest went on for miles. Miles and miles of green evergreens and brown leafless deciduous trees freckled in places. It wasn't cold up where I sat, I only felt freedom.
    Mistory and Dragolya clicked back and forth, speaking to each other in a way I didn't understand.
    Mistory flew up next to us. "Amber,"
    "Ya?"
    "We're going to play a little game." The way she said that gave me the shivers. "We're going to drop you off in the woods and you have to find one of us." Sounded easy enough. I nodded. "We won't be too far, but we will be separate."
    I nodded again. "Okay, I got this..." I said silently, while I looked back in front of me.
    Mistory laughed. "There's a catch." She sang in my head.
    "Oh?"
    "One of us, you have to avoid. One of us will be playing as a hungry dragon that you don't know, the other will be, well, us. You have to figure out who is who."  She flew off to the side and father away.
    Uh oh. What if I choose the wrong one? How am I going to even find my way through the woods? What if I run into a bear?
    Dragolya circled and gradually came closer to the ground. We landed and Dragolya tilted her body letting me go to the ground. I landed in a huge fern that looked like it could eat me.