The Light Goes Out
The lake sparkled in the sunlight. A gentle breeze rustled the grass. Fluffy clouds moved across the sky and bird sang in the trees. How could everything be so perfect when Percy was so frustrated!
You have to take it from your body heat. Just focus. You’ll get it. Shenya pressed her chest scales to his hand to help him feel her body heat.
I haven’t gotten it for nine years. What makes you think I am going to get it now? He shot back in frustration. He concentrated on feeling his body heat, remembering what Shenya felt like when she used her lava powers. He felt the heat inside him rising, and he tried to channel it, to control it. The heat turned inside him, and he felt like something might happen. Then it died, settling back into its elusive resting place inside his body.
”AHHHHH!” Percy let his frustration with himself out with scream as he kicked a tree. Then instantly regretted it as he grabbed his foot and sat down.
”I’m never going to get this. I get so close but nothing happens!” He said aloud.
You’ll never get it with that attitude. Come on. If I can do it, you can do it! That is how it works! Let’s try it once more. She nuzzled her head under his arm to help him stand up. That caused him to smile.
All right. But if this doesn’t work we have got to find another way to help me get this power. Percy stood in his “practice” spot. This lake had several lava tubes running underneath it and where he was standing happened to be the one closest to the surface, at least according the Shenya. He took a breath to calm himself but paused.
Something flashed in his eyes from the forest. He looked into the trees, suddenly alert. Shenya whipped around, looking at the same spot he did. Then a rabbit came hopping out of the trees. It froze when it saw Shenya, then bounded away.
Percy relaxed. Just a rabbit. Maybe it brushed against a wet leaf in just the right way and caused the sun to reflect in his eyes.
He prepared himself again, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.
Heat. Heat inside him, heat below him. Focus on the heat.
Let the heat be draw to your power, pull it toward you. Shenya coached.
It was close, the heat inside him woke from it’s secret place. He felt the heat from the ground. Now if he could just—
A flock of birds took into the sky with cries of alarm from the place the rabbit had run. Percy’s eyes snapped open.
”I almost had it!” He complained, then dropped himself to the ground, sitting cross legged.
”We need a new plan.”Shenya allowed him to brood for a moment, but he could tell she was thinking. And he could tell when she came up with a plan by the stab of excitement he felt through their bond. She didn’t even wait to tell him what is was, she simply rose on her hind legs grabbed his arms with her front claws and took off to the sky.
Shenya! What are you doing? he laughed in her mind. He loved flying, but this was probably the most uncomfortable way to fly. Her only response was exultant laughter. What ever her plan was, it had to be a good one. She rarely got like this unless she incredibly excited.
They rose above the trees, and Shenya hovered there, determining the best way to go.
In the years that followed, Percy wondered if things could have been different if she hadn’t paused. If she had just picked a direction and adjusted later.
It was then that Percy noticed the group of Knights on the side of the clearing. They already had two large harpoons set up, and one machine gun. His gut clenched and his eyes went wide.
”NO!” He called, trying to get Shenya’s attention. She, however, was too excited about her plan. They hadn’t connected their minds for this flight, she was in control, and she was ignoring what she thought were his protests to her plan.
The first harpoon shot through her wing. The second through her gut.
She froze in the air, her excitement turning to pain. She swung her head around and found the Knights aiming their machine gun. Already they were losing altitude, Shenya trying to keep them up with her uninjured wing.
Get to the trees! Percy screamed in her mind, knowing she couldn’t, feeling her pain through heir bond.
Shenya saw the Knights, took in the lake, the sky, the trees, and finally, bent her neck down to see the thing she loved most. Percy. She wasn’t going to let the Knights get him too.
Smile Perc. It let’s them know they haven’t won.Percy felt his stomach lurch as she used the last of her strength to toss him toward the lake. The Knights opened fire on the dragon. The ripping sensation in his heart was the last thing he remembered before he hit the beach, feet first and rolled into the sparkling blue waters.