Fire, Frost, Shock

Part 1 Chapter 14

Macy's POV
Before our departure, I had figured that flying would be like the easy way out. Clearly, I was wrong. After the fight that Justin and I had, the day continued to drag along; every minute prolonged through the unyielding silence. I made a mental note to save up for plane tickets instead of a new phone in case another unexpected long journey came up again.

I was flying at about 50%, but being dreadfully out of shape, my arms were already burning. Flying uses different muscle groups than that of what people use, and having never flown for an extended time period before, it was hard on me. But I could tell from my dragon build: the thick, heavy, dragon scale armor, the flexible neck (like maneuvering a canon), and even just the huge bulky shape that the form wasn't even the least bit streamline or ideal for flying in any sense, rather it was built for combat.

I looked down below me. The three of us were currently soaring above a nearly-trafficless freeway. The thrill was amazing; I could feel the wind beneath my scales making me feel refreshed with every enormous flap the of my wings. I took a deep breath of fresh air and let myself be consumed with feelings of freedom and invincibility.

•••••Time Skip•••••

After several more hours of tedious travel, Justin, Peris, and I all agreed to take a break at a public restroom. The building was off the freeway at a rest stop, not too far from picnic tables and a sunny parking lot. The building itself was composed of old, mossy, stone and had two doors on the sides: one for men and the other for women. Against the front of the building was a vending machine containing a pack of Juicy Fruit gum, five bags of Cool Ranch Doritos and a lone can of Monster energy drink.

"I got dibs on the Monster!" Peris declared, ignoring the fact that it was probably way too old to even taste remotely good. "Anyone have any money?"

"I got nothing," Justin admitted.

I dug in my pockets, pulling out a single one dollar bill. I doubted it would buy anything unless the vending machine hadn't see the light of day in decades. Nowadays, the value of our currency had declined so drastically that it was to the point where money couldn't buy very much. The government gives a little money to some of the poorest people, but for the most part we still have to find some way to earn it. To complete all of your schooling (including pre collage, community college and university to obtain a degree high enough to scrape by) is so much money that that itself can be hard just to get in to the school you want unless you're like a Mozart was music to all the other subjects. Knowing this, I reluctantly held out in my hand wherever what I had fished from my pocket and announced to the guys, "I got a dollar."

"I think that'll be enough. I'll treat you on a date sometime, you're the best, Macy."

"Thanks," I shrugged, handing him the bill.

Peris tried to insert the bill into the machine, but it didn't budge. Justin checked around the side, "It's plugged in."

Peris frowned. "It must be broken. It looks ancient."

"Cool," Justin said and before we could stop him, he picked up a rock and threw it at the machine. The glass shattered with a loud CRASH!! and it rained all over the dirt around it.

"Nice work," Peris complimented.

They took a step to the machine but I stopped them saying, "Maybe we shouldn't."

His brow furrowed. "What do you mean, Macy?" Peris inquired.

"I don't know if we should take it. That stuff isn't ours, so it's stealing. If we give Nemisan something to oppress, he'll take the opportunity."

"But we have to fight for our freedom. He's not going to just hand over power to us. It doesn't work that way. If we want it, we have to earn it," Justin told me.

"I agree with you, Justin. However, you have to remember that in doing that, we have to anticipate what our opponent is going to do before we can plot how to strike back."

"You have a very valid point but we just don't have all the man power and resources to execute any sort of revolution in that sense. Before we took any action—even planning—first we'd have to make sure that—"

"Who's talking about revolting?" Peris cut off. "This is for Lena. And this food is on Nemisan's property anyhow, so it's his but it hasn't been touched for years so I doubt he would care or notice, meaning finders keepers still applies."

"That's part of my point. Everything is his, and his alone. We're even considered his property! He doesn't give a crap about us but he expects us to pay all of this attention to him like he's some kind of idol. Don't even get me started on the taxes. Why should we do favors for him when he treats us like pawns in his mission for world domin—"

"That's enough politics!" Peris abruptly cut off. "We have to keep our goal in mind: to rescue Lena. I don't like Nemisan anymore than you do, but we don't have the time for discussing that sort of thing right now. As it stands, we can't do anything against him in this moment and even more so we can't afford to get distracted."

"Alright. I'll save it."

Justin picked up the snacks and divided them up. We walked down a deer trail while we munched.

"I have an idea," Justin announced. "I think that all four of us should do something together after this quest."

"A double date," I said.

"Yeah," agreed Peris. "We could go to a theme park or play frisbee in the lake..."

"Now that's my idea of fun," replied Justin.

"Lena had mentioned that she thought maybe you could come to my place sometime," I told them.

"My pleasure."

Justin exhaled. "We should hit the skies soon."

I groaned. "Point."