Fraction

Fraction Chapter 10 - Behind The Scenes

As if on cue, a giant dragon flew in from the horizon. It was massive. When it descended, it seemed to cover the entire sky. Each of the millions of shiny red scales on its body was as large as a grown person and wide enough to cover three people. "Okay, I'm going to start walking away now." Pony stated. "Likewise..." Morning agreed as he held her hand and turned around to walk away. Chris stared at the titanic reptile. A vision flashed in his mind. Eve held a bright red shield in her hand... was it a shield? Then he saw the scales on the dragon's body. "Wait." He said, "This dragon... I feel it is important for us." Then the dragon breathed in. A deafening roar filled the sky. Chris felt the waves of wind beating against his face. Just the dragon's roar was producing this much force. The buildings in the town cracked under the impact. "Screw your feelings, Chris! We have to get out of here!" Morning shouted as he grabbed Eve and pulled her away. "Good point." Chris said as he too turned around and began running.

He ran as fast as he could. Absolute fear. This was his first time feeling it. For once in his life, he forgot about anyone else. The dragon had begun its rush towards them. For once in his life, his body worked perfectly to protect itself from certain death. In those few moments, his powers of Clairvoyance were blocked. "Never mind the rest of the world. Run for yourself..." This was the one thought that filled his head. Like a horse which has had both sides of his vision blocked, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him, staring only forward... down the path... at end of which lay the rest of his life. Then, a face blurred into his mind. This was not Clairvoyance. This was not a vision. This was purely emotion. Eve. He turned to his side and what he saw made him stumble and fall. Eve was so far away from him. She stood silently on the field and faced the dragon rushing at her. It was ridiculous. Morning and Pony stopped too. The three of them watched as the dragon rushed towards Eve...

And then she disappeared. The dragon pointed its nose upwards and flew into the zenith. Chris shifted his gaze and found her standing atop a rock far away from where the dragon had been. He looked back at Morning and Pony. They were as speechless as he was. "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle..." a voice came from behind them. They turned around to see an old man. "Hey guys!" came Eve's voice from behind them. "CAN EVERYONE STOP SPEAKING FROM BEHIND US?!" the three shouted in unison. The old man clapped his hands and laughed. "You were pretty fast back there..." he said, "I'm guessing you're no ordinary hero..." His statements were thoroughly ignored by everyone. They were busy examining Eve. Literally. Chris went close to her and looked directly into her face. Morning lifted her arm while staring at her fingers. Pony lifted her hair and stared into her ear. "Um... guys..." Eve said with a red face, "this is... kind of creepy..." She noticed that her nose was just less an inch away from that of Chris. She moved forward slightly. The moment their noses touched, Chris was thrown back by an invisible force. The old man caught him and set him down on the ground. Morning and Pony stepped away from her. "Be careful, young lady." The old man said, "Vector is an absolute control over forces... if you want something to fly forward... it WILL fly forward... Also, you might want to be careful where you swing that dragon scale... It may feel light as a feather to you but you've already seen that it's heavy enough to crack boulders just by being on them."

Chris, Morning and Pony, in that alphabetical order, sat on the couch while Eve paced back and forth in front of them. "Ah, sorry to keep you youngsters waiting." The old man's voice entered the room before him. He walked in with the dragon scale. Its shape had not been altered in any way. The only difference was that it no longer had the large piece of dragon skin attached to it. It was clean and smooth on both sides... except for the two straps of dragon skin. "It will be easier to carry it by strapping it to your hand." The old man said, "Don't worry. It's no longer dragon skin. I tanned it using my family's secret technique which is especially used to tan dragon skin while it still attached to the scale." Eve took the scale and strapped it to her arm. "So..." she said as she posed, "How does it look?"

The official responses were as follows:

"Awesome!"

"Like a warrior knight!"

"Amazing!"

The unofficial responses which were spoken out in their minds were as follows:

"This is so stupid..."

"She is so cool!!!"

"Oh Eve... You make my heart melt..."

Eve turned to the old man and said, "What about the rest of the dragon skin?" A little girl ran in and shouted, "Grandpa! It's ready! I've decolorized it just like you asked me to!" The old man nodded and smiled. "I think this is something only you should see, young lady..." he said to Eve. Eve walked into a room with him. A few minutes later, the old man was thrown out of the room, right through the brick wall. He got up, shook his head and laughed. Chris, Morning and Pony just stared blankly. At this point, it would take a lot more than that to get a reaction from them. He seemed to have a red mark on his cheek, closely resembling a hand. Eve walked out angrily. Her face was red. "Now, now, there's no need to get so flustered..." the old man grinned and raised his hands up. "SHUT UP!" Eve shouted as she grabbed her friends and stormed out of the house. The little girl walked to her grandfather. As the old man watched Chris, Eve, Morning and Pony walk away, the little girl held his hand and said, "Grandpa... what did she mean when she called you a perv? I've heard a lot of other customers call you that... but she is the only one who sent you through a wall." The old man coughed and said, "N-nothing dear... now, I promised you I would buy you ice cream if you decolorized that dragon skin for me... come on my little Lily. Let's go." The girl's face lit up. "Yay! Ice cream!!!"

Chris pondered over whether he should ask Eve about what happened back in the room... but he recalled what had happened to the old man and decided to stay safe and be quiet. "That old geezer told me what happened to my powers..." Eve spoke and broke the silence. Everyone looked at her. "My Vector powers still work... but only on my own body and anything that is in direct contact with my skin. That's why I was able to move so fast back then... and that's why I accidentally sent Chris flying when I tried to ki- I mean, sorry about that, Chris..." Chris looked away and said, "That's okay. Um... about the old man... shouldn't we at least thank him? He turned that dragon scale into a shield for you... and what happened inside the roo-" he stopped when he saw the expression on Eve's face. He had never before believed that looks could kill...

"Go on... buy whatever you want..." the old man said to Lily as she peered over all the different flavours of ice cream. "How did it go?" asked the ice cream vendor. The old man grinned and said, "Really? An ice cream vendor? Is that your big disguise, Adam?" The ice cream vendor grinned back.

"You know I like to make clever entrances... anyway, answer my question."

"Yes, I made the scale wieldable. She seemed to like it. She didn't care much for the skin-tight invisible dragon skin body suit though..."

"Punched you through the wall?"

"Punched me through the wall."

"As expected... what a troublesome bunch they are... I supposed I'll have to find another way to convince her to wear it..."

"But why...? Her Vector gives her absolute control over forces. She could very easily repair any damage done to her body. She doesn't need the dragon skin."

"That's not why she- wait a minute... you didn't tell her about me, right?! RIGHT?! You didn't tell her that I was the one who gave you her measurements, right?!"

"Relax. She didn't give me the chance to do that. She angrily demanded to know how I knew her measurements and the next thing I know, I'm thrown right through a brick wall before I can say 'Adam Fort'..."

"Why you son of a... Er... Yes, sweety, one giant mango cone coming right up!"

Morning walked in front of Eve. It was an arrangement. That way, if he suddenly fell asleep, she would catch him and carry him till he woke up again. Now that everyone understood how her Vector worked, they also understood that she was the only one capable of carrying him for 12 hours without getting tired. He pondered over the dream he had. What did it all mean? He then felt his legs slip. His eyes closed. "This gives a whole new meaning to the term 'falling asleep'..." he thought unconsciously. He was pretty sure Eve had caught him before he fell and that he was now being carried. Of course, there was no way to know this for sure. He would know only once he woke up. He wondered what strange dream awaited him. He heard a voice. "Stick with me... and I promise to make you the greatest archer in the country." The boy turned around, faced the teacher and said in an obedient voice, "Yes sir."