Disclaimer: I own Rachel and Erica. All 'Dragonheart' characters belong to Universal Studios and the script/books author Charles Edward Pogue.


2009

At one point in her life, if someone had told her that she would be willingly staying in school after classes had let out, Rachel would have laughed in their face and told them they were crazy.

She would have been wrong.

Sighing, Rachel rose a hand to rake her fingers through her tousled auburn hair and hurried down the main hallway of the High School, vainly hoping that this afternoon would be different than all the others past.

"Hey freak! Where you think yer goin?"

Right on time, as always. I should enlist in Track & Field, I certainly get enough practice. Not even bothering to look behind her, the seventeen year old shifted her backpack onto her right shoulder and broke into an all-out run. Her sneakers barely made a sound on the tiled floor, letting her hear the pursuit behind her as she sprinted down the hallway.

Salvation lay ahead, like it always had. She skidded around a corner, dodged around a giggling group of the 'in-crowd', and hit the library doors without ever breaking stride. The Librarian let out a started gasp before recognizing her, and Rachel thanked whatever Gods were listening for the much-needed break as she darted into the rows of bookshelves.

It took only seconds for her to weave her way to the back of the library, taking shelter amongst the books as she listened for the inevitable arrival of her pursuers. Sure enough, she could hear the Librarian scolding the four teenage boys for barging into the library like 'a pack of stampeding mules'. The woman who tended the school's library gave them a rather sharp dressing down, along with the promise that she would be informing the principal of not only their apparent lack of good manners, but the reason behind their banishment from the library for yet another week.

Rachel grinned, peering out from between the stacks as the Librarian drove the four bullies from the library wielding only a sharp tone and a rather impressive glare. Damn. I'm glad she's on my side!

"Rachel? You can come out now. They're gone."

Heaving a sigh, she stepped out from her hiding place, mustering up a tired smile. "Thanks. That's another one I owe you."

The elder woman smiled. "Don't worry about it. I used to have the same problems when I was your age."

Rachel snorted. "Nothing changes, hmm?"

"I'm afraid not. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Just pissed off. 'Scuse the language," she added quickly when the woman arched a brow at her. "Sorry. Seriously, though, you'd think those four morons would have something better to do than chasing me around the school."

"You'd think," the Librarian agreed. "Weaker people always go after those who are different. You shun the 'in-crowd', and follow your own path. They're afraid of you, dear. They bully you in an effort to lower you to their level."

"Fat bloody chance of that. Three more exams, then graduation, and I'm gone." Rachel forced herself to hold back the anger and bitterness that welled up in her, shoving it back into the pit inside her before moved to lean against the desk. "I'll miss you, ma'am. But even that isn't enough to make me come back here."

The woman smiled, albeit sadly. The teen in front of her had always seemed more mature than her peers. Different somehow. That difference had always kept her apart from the other students, and had marked her for the bullies. But the teen had survived, even dared to go out of her way to protect others from the bullies, even at the expense of her school records. She had been suspended for fighting, marked as a 'bad seed' by some teachers, branded as an outsider, bullied, excluded, not only at school but at home as well.

And it hurt the woman's heart to know that the teen believed that she deserved every last mark against her.

Pushing that ache aside, she let a genuine smile tug at her lips as she pulled out a wrapped book and offered it to Rachel. "I have something that may help cheer you up. Consider it a graduation gift."

Curious, Rachel accepted the gift, eyes widening when she felt the weight of it. A glance at the Librarian gave no clues, so she quickly ripped the plain brown paper from around what she thought was a book, perking up when she spied the cover. "Oh!"

"It's a first edition. I was hoping that it'd come in before you left."

The teen brushed her fingers across the pristine book, lightly tracing the embossed 'A Book of Dragons' title. "I-I..." She bit her lip, hating the weepy tone of her voice as she met the Librarian's gaze. "This is the nicest thing anyone's ever given me. Thank you so much."

"You are very welcome, Rachel." A series of harsh laughter from outside the library doors made her frown, eyes darting to the quartet of teenage boys. "Honestly don't they have anything better to do?"

"Nope." Rachel buried her fragile emotions under a perfected mask of snark. "That would require an imagination and working brain cells."

The Librarian shook her head and went over to her desk, opening the top drawer and pulling out a single key. "Here."

"What's this go to?"

"The back door." The woman smiled and pointed to the door at the back of the library. "It leads out to the corridor attached to the drama rooms."

"Sweet." Rachel paused to carefully ease her new book into her backpack, then resettled the heavy bag on her right shoulder. "You sure you don't mind?"

"Not at all. Get going before they come back. The Principal's already left for the day, so my threats of reporting them don't have a lot of 'oomph' behind them."

"Thank you." Rachel moved to leave, then hesitated, and rushed back to the desk, hands clenching the edge uncertainly, unable to meet the elder woman's kind gaze. "Thanks again for, y'know, everything. A-And the book. I... I'll write you or... or something, yeah? Yeah. Right. Okay. 'Bye!"

A wistful smile tugged at the woman's lips as she watched the flustered teen rush out the back door. "I'll miss you too, Rachel."

Rachel slipped out into the drama corridor, her gaze warily darting from one end of the hallway to the other. Satisfied that she was alone, she turned away from the main hallway and headed for one of the service doors that led out to the school's rear parking lot. Pushing the doors open treated her to a sound that usually belonged in a b-movie horror flick, the high-pitched, rusty, shriek of hinges making the filings in her teeth vibrate painfully. The shrill sound of the rusted hinges moving echoed down the hallway, and was probably echoing throughout the entire first level of the school. That's gonna cost me...

Cursing under her breath, she flung herself through the doorway, stumbling as the bright sunlight seared her eyes. It seemed to take her sight far too long to adjust, but as soon as she was able to make out shapes, she was moving again. A quick jog around the main building and a sprint to the bike racks took only minutes, but despite that, her hands were shaking as she fumbled with the lock that secured her bike.

"There she is!"

Oh, fuck me. Growling in annoyance, she yanked the combination lock open and jerked the security chain free of the wheels, pulling her bike free of the rack afterwards. Only lots of practice allowed Rachel to jump on her bike in mid-stride, legs burning as she pedaled for all she was worth. If she hadn't been trying to out race the four idiots behind her, she might have enjoyed hitting the speed bumps at a pace that left her weightless for a few seconds.

Reality, however, sucked.

The catcalls and jeers from the ones chasing her let Rachel gauge how close they were, and she used that to her advantage as she swerved around an oncoming car, jumped the curb, and shot across two lanes of traffic. Her goal was forest at the edge of the small rural town. If she could make it to the woods, she could lose them. She had done it before. She had to do it again.

Her thoughts raced through her mind as she sorted through what little options she had while trying to keep well ahead of her pursuers, weaving between streets, cutting through yards and barely managing to skid past parked cars. They were getting smarter, she realized as she dared to glance back at them. They were trying the divide and conquer route this time, trying to flank her and force her into the center of the street. Three. There's only three. Where...? Oh. Oh shit.

One of the bullies had grown a brain and figured out where she had been heading. He was parked right in the middle of the gravel path that led into the forests, a grin spreading over his face as he hefted a fairly large tree branch and took a batter's stance. I'm going too fast to stop! Oh, this is going to hurt.

Rachel ducked her head and braced herself, raising her left arm at the last second. The branch smashed against her forearm, at the same time that she stuck out her foot and caught him at the knees. He went down, and nearly brought her with him before she wrestled her bike under control and coasted into the forest.

Bloody hell, my arm! Ow, ow, bloody, ow! Fairly certain that it wasn't broken, she gingerly shook feeling back into her fingers then forced herself to grasp the left handlebar. The rough trails in the forests were the last place she wanted to ride without full control of her bike.

By the time she passed through the forest and reached the gravel road that led home, Rachel's mood was far from happy. Her arm was turning an interesting shade of blue, and she was desperately hoping that her foster parents weren't home.

A hawk cried out above her as she began the tedious task of peddling uphill to her Aunt's house. There was no love between them, however. Ever since her mother had died and Rache had been sent to live with her Aunt, things had been hell. Ten years of hell. Living with her alcoholic Aunt and her gambling, deadbeat, boyfriend - who liked to not only beat on her Aunt, but Rachel as well - sucked. She stayed there because the cops would hunt her down if she ran away. But once she turned eighteen, freedom.

And she would never look back.

"Rachel! Where have you been?"

She looked up at the cry and blinked at the red haired girl that was running towards her. What's she doing here? Oh. Right. We were supposed to get together after school to study for my math exam.

Mustering up something that she hoped resembled a smile, Rachel let her bike coast to a stop a few feet away from her friend. "Hey, Erica. Sorry. I, uh, got hung up at school."

Erica frowned at the hollow look to the other teens eyes. "The moron squad again?"

"Yeah." Tired, Rachel dismounted her bike and walked it over to the side of the two-story house, letting it lean against the siding a little ways away from Erica's own bicycle. "Still got away though."

"Oh, yeah, your arm certainly tells a tale of a clean escape." Erica rolled her eyes when her friend merely shrugged in response, and followed her up the old porch steps. "Your Aunt's home, by the way."

Rachel frowned. "That's not necessarily a good thing."

"Right. Sorry," Erica murmured, taken aback by the harshness in the other teen's voice.

Said teen winced. "Sorry, 'Rica. It's been a really bad day. C'mon, let's see if we can get upstairs without getting screamed at." As it turned out, things went smoother than she had thought. It helped that her Aunt was passed out on the couch.

Rachel ushered Erica into her room and sighed in relief as she closed the door slid the lock into the deadbolt, turning to lean back against it afterwards. Took a moment to let her gaze roam around her room, checking to see if anything had been moved or taken. The only possessions that she gave a damn about were her dragon statues and posters, and a small safe she kept hidden under a loose floorboard, and she nodded in satisfaction when she saw that they were all accounted for.

"Hey, your arm is starting to scare me," Erica said worriedly. "Come here and let me take a look at it."

Rache shrugged and dropped her book bag on her bed before sitting next to it, letting her best friend take hold of her left arm. Pain lanced up to her shoulder as Erica carefully tested her range of movement and the feeling in her hand, even going as far as to carefully prod at the growing bruise. "Survey says?"

"Not broken," Erica murmured, used to her friend's snarkiness. "Though I can't be sure it's not cracked. You'll have to be careful. What happened?"

"Eh, one of them beat me to the forest and tried to use my head as a baseball. Damn near ran his ass over."

The red-head sighed. "I'm sorry." She looked around at the sparse furnishings of her friend's room, just a bed, a pile of boxes as a night table, a dresser missing a drawer and a small, rickety bookcase. Posters hid cracks and holes in the walls. So little compared to what Erica had in her bedroom. Even Rachel's clothes were worn, most of her jeans had rips that had nothing to do with the current fashion trend. "I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault." Rachel shrugged and reached for her bag. "Guess what? I got a present from the Librarian."

"You and your dragons," Erica chuckled when she saw the book. "'A Book of Dragons', huh? You think there's something in there that you haven't memorized yet?"

"Maybe. Even then, I don't care," Rachel smiled as she gingerly opened the book and flipped through the pages. "I am so looking forward to turning eighteen so I can get out of this town."

"You're always thinking that," Erica teased as she sat cross-legged at the end of her friend's bed, smirking when Rache rolled her eyes at her.

"Well, yeah, but I was thinking that I'm gonna get myself a place in the country. Near a forest. Away from most people. Maybe on a lake."

"Very picturesque," Erica agreed, raking her fingers through her short hair to pluck the stupid barrettes her private school made her wear. "You could open a kennel for dogs, or raise horses. Or become the area's insane, scary, hermit-lady. Sittin' on your porch with a shotgun full of rock salt."

Rachel grunted in mock-anger and smacked the other teen with a pillow. "Oh, aren't we funny today."

A snicker and a grin was her response. "If only I could draw the image in my head."

"I think it's best for everyone if you keep your warped mental images to yourself."

"But I like sharing!" Erica batted her eyes at her friend and shrieked a giggle when Rache whacked her with the pillow again. "Hey!"

Rachel smirked and flopped backwards, lying across the blankets. "'Hey' yourself," she drawled, staring up at a poster of a dragon that she had tacked onto the ceiling. "Not my fault you're so touchy."

"'Touchy' my ass."

"Sorry, hun, I don't swing that way."

Erica rolled her eyes and swatted at Rachel's nearest foot before following her friend's gaze upwards. "That's why you love dragons as much as you do, isn't it?" she murmured softly as she took in the image of the dragon relaxing in a spot of sunlight. "Because they symbolize freedom?"

"Not sure. It isn't something I can describe. Maybe it's 'cause most of my memories of my mother are of her telling me stories about dragons." Rache gave the poster one last look before sitting up again and looking at her friend. "Did you want to go over what we studied last week?"

"Sure, but... I though you already mastered that spell."

Rachel smiled and reached for the worn-out looking book sitting on her night table. The two of them had been studying the spell book for a little over a year. Said spell book was one of the only things Rachel had left of her mother. It had been locked, impossible to open, until, on her sixteenth birthday, she had entered her room and found the book laying on her bed, open, as if waiting for her. She had greedily read it from cover to cover, twice, before approaching Erica with the idea to try to learn the spells written within.

They had gone through the book before carefully selecting which spells appealed to each of them, and which spells didn't. It had been a lot of hard work, but Rachel had mastered every spell that had interested her. Erica, however, found herself stumped by some of hers. "I did. But, I don't mind helping you."

"It comes so naturally to you, doesn't it?" Erica said wistfully. "I wish I could learn that easily."

"Maybe it's the ears," Rachel snickered, tucking a lock of her auburn behind her right ear, letting her friend see the unnatural point of it. "You wanna go outside and practice this?"

"Yeah. Um, do you have an extra pair of jeans? I don't think I'm dressed for a hike," her friend said, gesturing to her school uniform of a medium-length skirt and blouse. Her parents had thought her too civilized for the public school, hence the fact that they had forced her to enroll in the best private school in the area. It forced Erica up at five in the morning to catch an hour-long bus ride to the school, and then another long ride back home. They didn't realize how much she hated it there. All the rules, the dress codes, the snobbish attitudes of most of the students. They simply didn't understand how much she wanted to be a normal teen.

Rachel nodded, knowing 'Rica's hatred of the outfit she was wearing. She rose and went to rummage through a dresser drawer for a moment, smiling triumphantly as she pulled out an extra pair of blue jeans, and a t-shirt. "There ya go. It's a good thing we wear the same sized clothes huh? Oh, and there's an extra pair of sneakers in the closet."

"Thanks. I'm gonna take over your bathroom for a minute," Erica smiled as she gathered the clothes and headed into the little side-bathroom.

A sigh left Rache as the other teen closed the door, leaving her to reach out and grab her new book. She flipped through the pages aimlessly before stopping and staring at a picture of a golden dragon flying over a forest. Freedom... She turned the page frowned at a painting of a knight fighting a dragon, before turning the page again, ending up at a picture of a dragon peacefully speaking with a peasant. It'd be nice. But like my bitch of an Aunt, and Erica keep telling me, dragons aren't real, no matter how much I wish they were.

"Ready!" Erica announced as she walked out of the bathroom, pirouetting as she did so. "How do I look?"

"Like you're going hiking." Rachel smirked as she set the book aside and grabbed her backpack, upending it to dump her school stuff on the floor before shoving the 'Book of Dragons' and the spell book into it. Once they were safety tucked inside, she went to the bottom drawer of her dresser to grab a pouch of herbs and a pouch of gemstones, turning to smile at Erica as she added them to her bag. "Good to go."

Her hand had just landed on the doorknob of her bedroom door when she heard a familiar car pull up outside, and she froze as she listened to the engine cut off before footsteps stomped up the porch stairs, the front door bursting open moments later. "Um. Let's take the back way. Hurry."

Erica nodded and went over to the window, opening it fully and looking at the large maple tree that overhung the house before reaching out to grab a thick branch, pulling herself outside. She hung there for a second, looking back towards Rachel to make sure her friend was following before she set her foot on a lower branch and started to climb down.

Rachel's heart was hammering in her chest as she followed Erica. And despite her best efforts, she couldn't muffle a gasp of fear as the sound of her bedroom door being kicked open registered. Knowing what would happen if she was caught, she let go and dropped the last six feet, landing on all fours in front of a startled Erica. "Run!" she hissed as she lunged to her feet and grabbed Erica's arm, dragging her across the unkempt backyard.

"This is nuts! You shouldn't have to sneak around your own home!" Erica gasped as she let her friend pull her across a dead field and into a small patch of forest, falling silent when she heard loud curses from behind them.

"I shouldn't but I do," Rachel said as she sped up, propelling Erica over a small rock bridge that spanned over a stream and following her seconds later. "We're okay now. The spells I placed on the bridge keeps him away. Gods. Talk about your close calls. You okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm alright. You?"

"I'll live. C'mon."

Erica followed her friend deeper into the woods, frowning as she recalled the look of fear on Rache's face when she had heard her Aunt's boyfriend arrive. She knew that Rachel's Aunt and her Aunt's boyfriend were messed up. Had one of them actually gone as far as to abuse her? "Rache?"

"Hmm?"

"Did... Has he ever?"

Rachel paused and looked back at her friend, sighing when she saw the intense worry in her expressive blue eyes. "Hit me? Only when he can catch me. Which isn't often. At least not anymore. C'mon, we're almost there."

Erica sighed and nodded, walking by her side as the other teen led her deeper into the trees, unerringly heading towards a small patch of clear ground. "This..."

"This is where I run to. I made it last month," Rachel sighed as she stepped over a tiny bed of herbs and strolled over to the makeshift tent she had made out of a tarp.

Erica stepped over the old wooden threshold and looked at the 'tent'. It took everything she had not to let tears flow. Though, as she took a better look, Erica had to admit, it wasn't as bad as she had first thought. The tent was made up of three tarps, one to line the ground while the other two were placed to keep out any rain or wind. There was a large Rubbermaid container inside, the clear plastic letting her see the clean blankets and pillows that were stored inside. Another container held an array of canned goods.

Still, her conscience nagged at her. "Rache... You know that you can always come over right?"

"Yeah, but your folks'll kill me if I show up at three in the morning again," Rachel shrugged. "Besides, I like spending time here. It's... calming. So. You up for a little magick?"

"Sure," Erica murmured, turning away from the tent and following Rachel over to a small patch of moss. It didn't surprise her to see that the moss was formed into a perfect circle, just big enough for the two of them to sit in. She's been experimenting with her magicks again... "How long did it take you to form this?"

Rachel grinned. "Twenty minutes. It's a sort of casting circle, though I've only really used it for protection while I dabble." She said as she dropped down onto the soft moss and set her bag in her lap, pulling out her spell book and grinning up at the still standing Erica. "You gonna gawk at me for the rest of the day?"

"I might!" 'Rica laughed as she moved to sit across from her friend. "I'm starting to envy you. You learn things so quickly!"

"No biggie. You're more of a Medium, anyway. It's why you can do that empathy mojo with animals," Rachel shrugged as she opened the spell book, her attention wandering as she took another look at the forest around them, the sight bringing up a mental image of the poster that was tacked to her ceiling.

"Yo! Erica to Rache! You awake?"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. I kinda... drifted off."

"Do tell. Woolgathering?"

"Gather-whating?"

"Dragon-dreaming."

She blushed. "Maybe."

"Uh huh."

"Okay, so, yeah, maybe I wish that they really existed. Hell, I wish I had been born in a time where I wouldn't be arrested for beating the livin' daylights out of someone who tried to brain me with a baseball bat!"

"There wouldn't be baseball bats in the those times," Erica pointed out with a smirk.

"You know what I mean!"

Erica's smile faded as she met her friends haunted gaze. "Yeah. I know. People suck."

Rachel nodded morosely and stared down at the spell book, fingers digging into the old leather cover as she fought to keep her depression from taking over. "I hate it here, 'Rica. If you weren't here... Gods, I would have slit my wrists years ago! I'm tired, 'Rica. I'm so damned tired."

Tears clouded Erica's vision as she rose to her knees and reached out to drag her friend into a hug, shivering when Rachel sucked in a breath and hid her face against her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry." She pulled back a few seconds later, gripping the other teen's shoulders as she met Rachel's gaze. "I wish you could be safe, too."

The words had barely left her lips, when the spell book in Rachel's lap started to glow a bright green, making both girls scramble to their feet. Both of them quickly wiped tears away, trying to focus on the brightly glowing tome. They would have run for cover had the Circle not closed, an invisible wall trapping them in the mossy circle. The old book's pages flipped on their own as the book rose into the air, wisps of light curling around it, seemingly extending from the pages before curling inwards and vanishing again.

"What's going on?" Erica cried, grabbing hold of the other teen's arm.

"I dunno!" Rachel yelled, automatically moving to shield Erica. "I think we activated a spell!"

"No, shit! Really? I hadn't noticed!"

Rachel glared at her for a moment before she turned her gaze back to the book, frowning at the very visible wind-like fog that billowed out of the open book, filling the Circle until it was nearly to their waists. "Rica, hang on! Don't let g-!" A blinding flash of light cut her off, Erica's frightened yelp the last thing she heard before the world tilted and turned upside down.

When the fog cleared, both girls and the book were gone. Only the charred circle of moss remained. A silent testimony to what had happened.

tbc