Heatwave

Part 5

A clap of roaring thunder shook the glass of my window and then my chest. The hall light blinked as the thunder growled away from the house opposite the way it came, lightning flickered outside and heavy rain began tapping restlessly on my window.

Thunder thudded over and over, lightening flashing brighter and longer each time. The lights in the house would shudder and the whole house creaked. I sat up in my bed, not frightened of the storm but curious about the number of booms compared to the flashed of light.

Lightning struck followed by thunder roaring, and then there was a second bought of thunder unconnected to the storm. I stood up and went to the top of the stairs, listening intently to the storm going on inside the house.

The thudding of thunder turned to the thumping of footsteps and the thudding of closing doors. The ravenous storm was masking the sounds of something else, some other storm going on inside. I raced down the stairs and swung into Darpik's empty room.

I called his name tentatively and was and answered by a muffled voice. Kip yelped and growled in her kennel but she was nowhere to be seen.

The back door was cracked open and struggling silhouettes in the lightening fought outside being pelted with icy rain. I ran out to them, locking my eyes on the hostile Darpik as tall men in black and silver uniforms pulled him away.

I called his name again, he tried to answer through a cloth over his mouth and Kip growled. Another man in a black and silver uniform passed the kennel off, shouting quietly as the metal began to grow red and hot. The uniformed man jogged back towards the house.

I froze, I initially was running to get Darpik back, but now the danger he was facing has been turned on me and I didn't know how to react. I didn't know how to save myself.

The uniformed man pulled a weapon from his silver belt, a shocking stick or taser of some kind. I couldn't ever be sure, when I'm running; everything is vivid around me but when someone's running at me nothing is clear, especially through the wind and rain.

As the man closed the shortening distance between him and me, my window for escape closed tighter and tighter, I felt again the eyes on the back of my neck and from out of the shadows burst a dazzling, grey wind-dragon.

The creature was roughly the size of a horse, with bright grey scales that glittered covered in the clear rain water. He blocked the man's path and hunched himself forward, growling low in his chest and barring his teeth, extending his claws. The man in the black and silver uniform stopped dead in his tracks, his hands trembling and fled the creature, returning to his troop which now included Darpik and Kip.

After the horde of uniforms had fled the property, the great grey dragon disappeared back into the storm. Mom and Dad burst out of the house still in their night clothes, demanding to know what I was doing out here.

"Darpik," I muttered, still hardly ably to think let alone speak, "They took him. Darpik's gone." I started to shake, my hands and chest trembling with the pressure of the past few moments.

And just like that, my whole world was shattered. I thought everything was going to be perfect for the rest of forever, but now I don't know how to even walk back into the house. I just stood there in the rain, watching the place where the great grey dragon appeared, hoping he'll come back and hoping he'll save Darpik.

"Come inside, Eamon." Mom ordered, "You'll get sick in the rain, you know that." But the rain had come to a slow stop and I was now standing in the silent yard with my bare toes in the mud.

"We'll find him, little man, it'll be alright." Dad offered, but it didn't stick I was still scared for my big brother, and for myself.