Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Ah, silence! Well, not exactly silence but no fairy giggles.
Raxtus lay relaxing in the shady cool grass. His platinum scales and blue spikes occasionally shimmered with rainbow iridescence as the sunlight broke through the fluttering leaves of the tree overhead. He stretched out almost the full length of the thirty foot long swimming pool and enjoyed the virtual solitude, the lack of fairies swarming over him and their accompanying continuous giggles. Kendra didn't normally exert her control over fairies, but today she had banished them from the pool area while he was there.
It was not silent though he could hear his human friends, Seth and Kendra, racing each other in the pool, splashing their way from one end to the other. That was a nice sound, the sound of his friends having fun.
They had spent the morning flying. Seth and Kendra were about to go back to school. Even though they didn't attend public school, their parents made them follow the school year for their home schooling. This weekend summer would be over and Raxtus wanted to take them fancy flying. For a last 'rollercoaster ride', as Kendra described it. Their happy laughing and their enthusiastic squeals as he spiraled and looped greatly enhanced the pleasure he always felt when flying.
One thing he hadn't expected was that Seth had grown quite a bit since the last time he had taken the two flying together. Though younger, Seth was taller and heavier than Kendra was now, and it made fancy aerobatic flying with the two of them extremely challenging. On the last loop he caught a bad gust of wind and with the extra weight throwing him off balance it was more difficult to compensate. They landed safely but he was feeling the twinge of a pulled flight muscle in his back.
That would be the last time he could do loops and spirals with them together. Regular flying was no problem; getting the two of them from one place to the other was easy especially with Kendra's unique ability to boost his strength and stamina with just her touch.
The splashing stopped; it sounded as if their race was over. They were at the other end of the pool, in the far corner talking softly but their whispered words began to reach him.
"Don't you dare ask him," Kendra's voice was vehement.
Raxtus wondered what they were talking about and listened closely.
"But if he has an avatar, he can go swimming with us. I'd love to play with him," Seth said, excited.
Oh no, Raxtus thought.
"No, he can't," Kendra denied.
"Can't…?" Seth prompted her.
"Can't go swimming," she replied. She had told Seth that Raxtus had an avatar but she hadn't described him, she had kept his secret. She had never seen a fairy or fairy-like creature submerged in water, at least not on purpose. They bathed and splash around like birds, but did not swim. Their wings were the problem and would be Raxtus' also, in his avatar form.
"Why?" Seth asked, confused.
Raxtus listened intently. What would she tell him? What had she told him?
"Look, Seth, just forget it. Take my word, he won't do it, so don't ask," she said exasperated, wondering what brought on the sudden 'need' to swim with Raxtus. She had told him about Raxtus having an avatar almost a year ago. Why did he suddenly think of Raxtus in avatar form anyway?
Seth wouldn't let it go. "Why?" he asked again irritatingly.
Kendra sighed, "He… he says the fairies giggle at him so he won't…."
"Well, you banned the fairies so that's not an excuse," he retorted and looked at her cynically. He wanted to see, to know, to have someone to play with other than his sister.
"He won't do it. Please don't even ask him," she said pleadingly with her best puppy dog eyes, the ones she saved for her most serious of favors.
Seth caved.
"Ok, I won't ask but I will bug him to come swimming; maybe he will do it on his own since the fairies aren't here," he said hopefully and started swimming again.
Raxtus sighed. He wished he could swim with his friend. Kendra was right, in his avatar form he couldn't swim, he wouldn't know how. He would love to play with Seth but the way his avatar was, he wouldn't invoke it and wouldn't even if all the fairies were banned from the earth to the fairy realm. It wasn't just fairy scorn that kept him from changing.
"Hey Raxtus! How ya doing over there?" Seth called from the edge of the pool, his fingers gripping the tile edging and his chin bobbing just above them.
"Great! The grass is cool and the shade feels nice," he answered, thinking that the lack of fairies climbing all over his body made all the difference.
"Too bad you can't get in the pool," he said for the third time.
Now knowing what was on his mind, Seth's request made a little more sense.
"Well the water would overflow and leave you with a half full pool when I got out," he repeated for the second time, not revealing that he heard their conversation.
"Yeah, yeah," Seth conceded. He swam away and climbed up onto a float. He gave up and closed his eyes. In his mind, he replayed the exciting last looping maneuver Raxtus had made before they landed, it was amazing.
I wish I could swim with you, I wish I had a normal avatar that could play, Raxtus thought. For some reason he closed his eyes and he wished real hard. Somehow… Someway… Please!
He heard more splashing and sighed, not the question again.
Raxtus watched through half open eyes relieved as it was Kendra who got out of the pool. She wrapped a towel around her waist and came over to him.
"Where does it hurt?" she asked, sitting next to his head.
"What?" he asked confused. He looked up at her, opening his half-veiled ice blue eyes.
"Where does it hurt?" she asked again the concern on her face was plain.
"How did you know I'm hurt?" He lifted his head from the grass to her eye level.
"I could tell. So can I help? You know massage a muscle or something?" She smiled and looked down the long line of his spiky neck to his wing covered body. She held up her arms wiggling her fingers as if she was actually going to try.
"I don't think so," he said dubiously, wondering if a massage would do anything for his aching muscle. He, of course, had never had one and only knew about them from the TV programs he had seen. "I'll see Bracken tomorrow afternoon, he can fix it then. It's not that bad." He doubted that she even had the strength to get through his scales to his muscles. Maybe if she jumped on them. He laughed to himself picturing her jumping up and down on his back.
"Oh look," she said excited and leaned toward his raised head. She reached out and pulled something from the flattened grass where his head had just been. "A four leaf clover," she giggled and held it up for him to see. "Do you want to make a wish?" she asked.
I just did, he sighed to himself thinking of his earlier stupid unachievable wish. "No, you go ahead," he said and shook his head.
She closed her eyes and mumbled.
"What did you wish?" he asked curiously when she opened her eyes again.
She looked up at him with a big smile on her face. "Mom says if you tell your wish it won't come true, but I don't believe it. I wished…."
His stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly. She laughed at the noise and he laughed too. It growled again.
"Hungry? Or is something trying to get out?" she asked with a laugh.
"Now that I think of it; it has been a week since I last ate. Hmm. Stan has some good looking elands on the ranch; I think I'll go eat before I leave. I should be leaving anyway. I'll go tell Stan I'm taking an eland and maybe a goat too if I'm still hungry. Tell Seth I'll leave the horns for him," he said raising his head higher.
She laughed at the thought of him eating an eland. His body was about the size of an eland. Granted his long neck, thicker legs and tail made him larger and heavier but there was no way he could eat a thousand pound eland or could he? He seems serious, she thought.
Kendra sat watching his head rising higher and higher as he got to his feet.
"Thanks for the reprieve from the fairies," he said smiling his toothy grin at her as he towered over her.
"Anytime," she smiled looking up at him.
She raised her hand above her head, palm outward. He lowered his head and nuzzled it. He felt her warming fairy magic flow into him, and it eased the pain in his back more than a little. She was a wonderful friend; she hadn't told Seth about his avatar, only that he had one. He was glad she hadn't told her wish, she deserved to get it, whatever it was.
Kendra felt his smooth scale hard nose and cool breath on her hand and could feel the magic flowing into him, warming him. She hoped that it would help ease his discomfort. She wasn't sure what had happened just before they landed but she knew that the wind had caught him wrong and the jerk in the air was not intentional. She was glad he would see Bracken tomorrow; he would heal him.
Her mind wandered effortlessly to her busy and often absent boyfriend. Tall and handsome with long white blonde hair and piercing dark sapphire blue eyes, healing was just one of Bracken's many inherent talents. Another of his talents was kissing, she thought dreamily and butterflies suddenly fluttered in her stomach. Tomorrow he would be right here for the end of summer party. A smile crossed her face, she couldn't wait.
"You leavin?" Seth asked as he sat up on the pool float and looked up at the dragon now towering over the pool.
"Yes, I'm going to get something to eat. See you tomorrow afternoon," he replied.
"Yah, see you tomorrow – party time!" Seth whooped and lay back on the float.
Raxtus headed toward the open yard on the other side of the hedge, he needed room for his wings to spread out. He knew Stan and some others were at the ranch. He had seen them while they were flying overhead.
In the garden Fairies swarmed him. With a little leap and a great sweep of his wings, he was airborne. Fairies swirling in the backwash giggled and, once righted, followed him up and out of the garden. They gave up as he sped off; they couldn't keep up.
Fablehaven was a secret sanctuary, one of many, where magical animals and creatures lived securely. These were creatures, some dangerous and some benign, most humans didn't know existed or thought were myths.
It was a big preserve with very diverse 'wildlife' and the need for food animals was great. The Caretakers, Stan and Ruth Sorenson, Seth and Kendra's grandparents, had made a great effort to keep large herds of animals for the various beasts and creatures that were meat eaters. Raxtus tried not to take advantage of the availability of prey at Fablehaven but it was difficult when there was so much from which to choose.
Dragons needed special permission to eat at Fablehaven otherwise they would have wiped out the ranch in days. Being the smallest dragon he easily got permission from the Caretakers to take a herd beast twice a month. Eating wasn't a big deal to him. It filled his belly and gave him energy. He knew he needed to eat but he didn't take pleasure in killing his prey like other dragons.
Kendra had laughed at him when he said he would eat an eland. True, the animal was almost as big as he was, but he could eat most all of it and it would fuel his body for almost two weeks. He had others that enjoyed the meal with him also. As he neared the ranch he trumpeted a call to the local scavengers. Immediately dwarf vultures, harpy gulls, and young griffons filled the air around him, and on the ground below a small herd of four footed scavengers tracked his flight.
For some reason Seth liked the horns of the eland. They were visually a cross between a unicorn horn and a small dragon spike but not precisely like either. Raxtus didn't know what Seth did with the horns but if he could provide his friend with something he liked, he didn't see any reason not to choose an eland for dinner.
Stan kept the majority of the herds, the breeders and the young, behind specially warded areas so nothing could molest them. There was a two hundred acre 'feeding area' where mature animals were brought to graze. There they took their chances at become someone's meal. Raxtus and his hungry and quarrelsome entourage headed there.
