Heatwave

Part 9

It was just before noon when we approached the city, just as Rahn had predicted. The eastern most entrance to the fortress was marked by a gleaming metal wall, lined in gridded solar panels and a single, arched doorway.

"I'll stay above the city until you come out on the other side." Rahn unfolded his sinuous wings.

I nodded, feeling slightly nervous at the thought of being alone again. Rahn walked back a way up the previous hill and took to the sky, he wound in tight circles up and up until he was barely a bird among the clouds. No one inside Wormster would think anything of the cloud colored speck thousands of feet over their heads.

I reached the polished gate and was stopped by a pair of guards, one standing on either side.

"What's your business here, young man?" Asked one in an awkward city accent.

I froze for a second, not prepared for the interrogation. "I'm going to visit my Aunt," I lied, "she lives on the coast side of the city."

"Is anyone with you?" Asked the man on the right, looking out across the expanse of hills for my guardian.

"No sir, Mom sent me to visit her sister."

"It's a long walk, young man." He said, not buying me lie.

I laughed through my nose, "You're telling me." I left it hanging.

He nodded accusingly, opening the bulky doors to the city skeptically.

I was surprisingly easy to lie; it was like telling the story of the alias I had created for myself. I marched with a renewed spring in my step down the crowded streets of Wormster, my backpack bouncing on my shoulders.

The outer walls of the larger buildings were lined in dark, silvery solar panels and the corners of the streets were marked by hovering street signs with blue, incandescent lights glowing within them. The people were all too busy with their own affairs to notice the lonely young boy walking among them, although I noticed them a great deal.

Most of the men wore stiff work suits and most of the women were dressed similarly for their gender. The few other children I saw were led around forcefully by parents' hands with looks of fatigue and boredom on their pale faces. Some even cast questioning glances at me and stared as they walked by. The air was filled with a constant murmur of voices, some on their phones, some to each other and some to themselves. Everyone had something to do, and if they had a little less to do their city would be smaller or wouldn't exist at all.

I couldn't decide if I liked the city of not. It was just too different from where I grew up, I couldn't be for sure, but I should have an idea because maybe Darpik's academy was in the city. And I will go to his dragon academy.

"Careful." Accused a business man, frowning more at his phone than at me.

This broke my train of thought; I looked up at the man and noticed the crowd again. As well as the sea of random faces that had changed and been revised on the crowded streets of Wormster, this time I noticed news boards. Upon which were stapled pictures of my face.

I was smiling as I had in my school picture and underneath are the printed words DRAGON-RIGHTS ACTIVIST WANTED $1,000 REWARD.

I stared at it for a second, not believing my eyes. I am a wanted criminal? And how can I be what they say I am if I didn't even know dragon-rights activists existed? Then I felt hundreds of eyes on me and the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I suddenly felt like everyone was my enemy. Everyone who walked on this street since the poster was put up has seen my face, my school-boy appearance coupled with my apparel and my being alone gives everyone the chance to earn $1,000.

I put my hood up and pulled it down in front of my face, casting wary glances at every passerby. A pair of men in black and silver uniforms watched me board a trolley on the corner and their eyes followed me down the street, understanding finally and speaking quickly into radios on their shoulders.

The trolley turned the corner and rolled achingly slow away from the pair of villains, and then out of a set of spinning double doors ventured another man in a black in silver uniform, his head cocked violently as he listened to the voices from his radio. His head jerked up and he looked me square in the eyes, I burrowed my head further into my hood and turned, backing into the crowed on the trolley. While it rolled on, more and more men in black and silver noticed the trolley that had been pointed out to them over radio.

When finally there was a band of uniformed men following the trolley, one poor, anxious man hopped into the caboose of the vehicle and began pushing through the mob. My heart pounded in my chest and I could hear my blood rushing behind my ears as one of my brother's kidnappers closed the shortening space between me and my freedom.

"Hey, you!" Shouted the black and silver uniform forcefully.

Breathing rapidly, I pressed my way through clusters of unsuspecting trolley passengers. They were all around me, black and silver closing in. Seeing no obvious escape, I shoved my way through to the side of the trolley and crawled, step by step, over the railing. Tucking and rolling off the short, wide vehicle I then took to my feet immediately, sprinting through the surprised bystanders as Rahn roared over my head.

As I ran, other people began to notice the oddly familiar face bursting through them but no one followed me save the black and silver uniforms. Groups of families and useless business men ducked and cowered at Rahn circled down from above. I glared up at him, "What do you think you're doing?" I yelled to him over the screaming crowd.

Rahn dropped his large, grey form onto the roof of a stout little house. Thin, black cracks ran up the solar panels along the siding of the building as he growled menacingly down at the crowded street. A racing man in a bright pink business suit shoved past me to escape Rahn and knocked me to the ground, and then a government man in a black and silver uniform reached out to pull me to my feet. From above, Rahn reached out and with one white claw plucked me up from the cobbled road and flew off again.

Holding me like a rag doll, Rahn set me carefully onto his back between two of his wide, silver spikes at the base of his head. The city was still screaming as we rode higher and higher into the sky. I clenched my eyes shut tight, holding onto fistfuls of the silvery tufts of hair sprouting from the base of his spikes. The rate of my pounding heart only rose after we had escaped from the metaphorical claws of the government men, but then I noticed the cool, damp wind in my hair.

It ripped at my clothes and pushed my hair flat back against the top of my head. It was just like running, just like go-karts, it was fast. And I like fast.

I whooped and opened my eyes, letting the sky fill me. There was no one, nothing but Rahn and me and the open sky. From up here, I could see the huge body of water, the Greenbriar, and the red fireball sun setting atop it. The trees and hills rolled away like the water and dwindled away to nothing but more sky. I was part of the sky, looking down at the landscape as if it was I who was the flying creature.

I was born to fly.

I could see Rahn rolling his ice blue eyes up at me as I sat, whooping and hollering atop his back. I couldn't contain the smile on my face.

"I guess we can't use the airships anymore."

"Why can't we just fly all the way over?" I wondered, not ever wanting to put two feet back on land.

"It's too wide, Eamon, we don't have the time or the supplies to fly all the way over."

My heart sunk, "And the government men have my face on wanted posters, how are we going to get any airship?"

Rahn and I thought in silence for a while, gliding easily on a hyper airstream. "We'll play their game then." Rahn concluded, flapping smoothly a few times. "They label us criminals so let us abuse a criminal's assets."

"I don't follow." I admitted.

"Hire a smugglers airship."

"Won't they be dangerous?" I shouted over the wind, not wanting to trust criminals with my life.

"I doubt they'll threaten someone who has a dragon to protect them." His head shook as he laughed and I widened my smile.