Shimmertail stomped his foot, and Grey could feel the vibration reverberate in the ground beneath his furry feet. "Absolutely not! It's a trap! We should leave now! He's likely told the other humans about us already."
"He wouldn't do that!" Grey spat back just as fiercely, even if by virtue of not being a dragon it didn't sound as fierce.
"And how do you know?"
The brownie didn't have an answer for that. He supposed he couldn't know, but he really, really wanted to believe it. Lucky for him, he had a pragmatic argument. "I don't. But I know we can't leave yet anyway." Grey pointed upward. "It's a new moon, remember? We can't go anywhere until tomorrow anyway." It was true; a silver dragon could never have flown without the light of the moon. It wasn't for navigation; while silver dragons needed no food and no water, their strength was completely dependent on the moon. For the same reason silver dragons were naturally nocturnal creatures.
"What about our moon dew?" Shimmertail retorted. Grey actually thought about that for a moment. Common in the Rim of Heaven was a unique species of flower. During the day and moonless nights its bud would shut as tightly as a vice, but when the moon shined on them, the petals would open, and dew would collect. The dew wasn't comprised of water like normal dew, however; it could only have been the moonlight itself, for when a dragon drank the dew they had strength and could even fly even while the sun was shining. It was almost a miracle drink for dragons, but it wasn't perfect. It's time of effectiveness was limited
"We've got a few bottles, but we'd need at least one full bottle for a whole night's travel. Don't you think we should save it for emergencies?" Grey asked that before considering what Shimmertail's likely quip would be. "Don't answer that. Look, we owe him, don't we? And we need him, too." The brownie huffed. "You didn't speak to him, Shimmertail, but I did. I know he's a good human."
As for Joseph himself, he awoke the next morning noticing before anything else his hoodie hanging from his bedroom doorknob. Under normal circumstances he would never have left it there, but he had done so with a particular reason; he wanted some kind of proof that the events of the previous night were real and true. He didn't have the bite on his leg as evidence, so he would need some other proof. If his sweatshirt had been in the closet when he woke up, he would know it was all an elaborate dream. However, if the jacket were on the doorknob where he left it but otherwise never would, that would prove it happened.
The boy struggled with removing it from the door, instead stopping to stare at it for several seconds. He still experienced a lot of cognitive dissonance regarding the event. But who wouldn't? It all seemed so impossible, but it also didn't feel like a fleeting memory or surreal experience. Joseph looked at his hand and thought he could still feel the ghost of Grey's fur on its palm. He might have stood there all day if he didn't have one good reason to leave his room. "Hey, Grey!" He called as he began descending the stairs. But the only furry creature that answered him was his dog. "Oh, shut up!"
Joseph wished he had established a more specific time frame than "tomorrow," especially because it was a school day. Geez, how was he going to focus on school work given the circumstances? It just didn't seem possible. But simultaneously it didn't seem possible for it to not have happened.
He'd have to check back for Grey after class, it seemed; he had to go. But from his bus ride on his mind was racing so fast that he hardly paid any attention to the world around him. He even almost forgot to get off of the bus, a more embarrassing moment that day. But as soon as he was off he was right back in the world of his thoughts. What sort of secrets was he about to learn? The brownie would be reluctant to give them up, so what could he do to loosen his tongue? He was also highly curious about who the brownie's companion may be, or even companions plural. Would there be multiple brownies or some other supposedly mythical creatures?
He thought of gryphons and fairies. He really hoped it wouldn't be fairies; that would be highly underwhelming. "Mr. Weller?" Maybe it would be a bad idea to get too excited; there was always the chance Grey wouldn't be back at all, considering how reluctant he was to be found in the first place. Perhaps he just used the deal as an escape. In that case, Joseph could only wonder why Grey would be so scared. He knew that he could probably get a high-definition video of Grey talking to the camera admitting he was a brownie and still nobody would believe him. Maybe he just didn't know that, though.
Bang! The noise loud as a gunshot made Joseph fall completely out of the chair in which he forgot he was sitting in the first place. The boy was momentarily stunned and shook his head to get his senses back, and when he did he discovered a classroom full of laughter. It seemed every student around him had pranked him by dropping all of their textbooks on the tile floor at the same time. His cheeks went red with the egg on his face. "Mr. Weller," the teacher repeated, this time smirking with amusement. "You know the rules. Please raise your hand and ask to be excused before you go into catatonia." Another chuckle worked its way from the front row to the back. The boy appreciated his good humor.
It turned out that Joseph's concerns about the brownie reneging were unfounded. It also turned out that his concerns about the brownie being early were completely founded. Grey was a little bit anxious, but like Joseph his curiosity overrode his caution in the case of humans. He hoped he could get what he needed without having to bring Shimmertail, though, because Shimmertail adamantly refused to show up. In fact, he didn't even know the brownie was there. To the best of the dragon's knowledge, Grey was scavenging for berries and mushrooms. Besides, the dragon would be sleeping at this point in the day anyway. It was early in the afternoon, long before he could take off.
Grey at least had the sense to sneak in this time. He didn't expect any sort of trap to be laid by Joseph, but he didn't need that mutt chasing him again. He was able to use his sharp claws to scale the house from the outside up to the second story. He was able to slip in through a window that Joseph never bothered to lock. The brownie shut it behind him and looked about the room, but rather than finding his curiosity satisfied, it only magnified. Perhaps he had been there once before, but only now did he have the time to look around it.
The light sources on the ceiling were on again, and Grey could only wonder what magic made the little balls light up. Additionally there were blades that surrounded the light that were spinning despite the fact that there was no wind pushing them. Stacks of paper folded together were mounted neatly on a shelf above a large padded rectangle. Grey was at least smart enough to infer that was a surface on which to rest. Also, in the closet from which he stole the sweatshirt was some kind of long metal tube on sticks tucked away. What could that be used for, he wondered? Oh, well, maybe he'd ask when he found the boy.
He supposed he should get on that. He figured out how to open doors the other night, so he poked his head out and called out, "Human! Where are you?" Grey knew that sounded rude, but what choice did he have? He failed to get the boy's name the previous night, so 'human' was the best he could do. It didn't matter anyway; Joseph wasn't there to hear him anyway. All Grey got were barks from the border collie that rabidly chased him earlier. He shut the door quickly at that.
It seemed there was one other area he could explain explore without opening the door, though; it was attached to Joseph's bedroom but Grey had no idea what it was used for. He'd find out, though. Its floor was white tiles, and he nearly recoiled when mounted on one wall above a marble table with a depression in it was some kind of solid surface that reflected images even more clearly than the Eye of the Moon, the grand lake in the Rim of Heaven. The clarity didn't even compare. This had to be magic of some sort!
Beside that table was a bowl of water. Drinking water? Grey tried it, and he instantly regretted it. The taste almost made him want to vomit! What was that? "Ugh... disgusting," he commented. And he thought again then, where was the human boy? There was no possibility he had the wrong house, was there? Grey looked out the window in from which he crawled. It seemed rain had begun to pour. "Bother," he grumbled. Just when he thought the situation couldn't get worse. Hopefully it was gone by sundown.
From the bus up his own driveway, Joseph was running. The rain had become the wrath of Poseidon himself. The only reason the boy wasn't at a full sprint was safety concerns; the wind was strong blowing to his side, the rough concrete was still wet enough to slip on, and the rain was so thick in the air and crowded on his glasses that he could hardly see. When he was inside his clothes felt so wet he may as well have just come out of a swimming pool, so he shook them and his hair as well as he could without taking his clothes off. It didn't help.
The border collie, naturally, barked like a crazy dog upon its master's arrival. "Hey! Quiet! I'm getting really sick of you!" he yelled with many other insults until the dog was finally quiet. "Now was that so hard?" He stomped up the stairs to his bedroom with heavy steps, weighed down by all the water he was bringing with him. The boy hoped to change out of those soaked clothes as soon as he got in, but as he opened the door he felt it suddenly stop, having bumped into something.
"Ow!" that something cried out and fell backwards, holding its nose.
"You!" Joseph exclaimed, jumping in surprise.
"What was that for?" Grey hissed.
"Hey, hey, that was an accident. I'm sorry. Are you OK?" Joseph knelt down next to the brownie then. "Hey, show me your nose." Grey reluctantly took his paw away and showed Joseph his bleeding nose. "Here, come in here." Joseph took the paw of the brownie and led him to the bathroom briskly. He was also quick to rip some toilet paper and shove it up the brownie's nose. The latter protested at first, but Joseph explained, "It'll soak up and clog the blood, which will give it time to clot and stop bleeding. But keep your head level, or it will flow down your throat." He then rubbed the nose with his hands. "I'm not a doctor - and I have no idea how your nose is supposed to be shaped - but nothing feels dislocated or broken to me. Does that sound right?"
"I think so, too," Grey barely managed to reply, very uncomfortable with the toilet paper touching his nose and lips.
"Here, let's check it." Joseph slowly pulled the toilet paper out then. "Uh, I can't get any exotic diseases from brownie blood, can I?"
"I don't think so," Grey reassured.
Joseph inspected the paper. "Hey, you weren't bleeding much at all." He then shoved two new clean rips up there and pulled them out nearly immediately. "The bleeding's already stopped. Your fine." And then he tossed the papers away just as the lights flickered. "Ah, crud. They said that hurricane was supposed to miss us."
"Are we in danger?"
"Not this second, but you might want to leave as soon as we're done here. Where's your friend?"
The brownie bit his lip. "I couldn't get him to come..." he reluctantly admitted. But hastily, before he could think about it, he added, "...until you helped me! Then he said he'd meet you." Grey regretted that after he said it, but he thought it wouldn't be so bad; he'd only go if the boy proved he was trustworthy, and Shimmertail would be so sound asleep at this time of day that he wouldn't even have to see the boy. The brownie then used, "I don't think I we were properly introduced. My name is Grey," as a diversion to get off the topic for both the human and himself.
"Joseph," the human responded, "Anyway, let's get to work." Just to be safe, with the weather outside, Joseph turned on TV and flipped it to the weather channel so he could keep up with the hurricane. The weatherman was saying it was creeping closer to Joseph's area than was previously predicted, but they expected the eastward jet stream to blow it away out to sea and spare him. Still, he was skeptical. "...but what stinks about maps is that even though they can give you clues about where you are, it can be hard to tell if the land around you has no distinguishing features that are on the map. It would be really great if I had something like a GPS to give you, but this is the best I can do. I don't suppose you can navigate by the stars?"
"Yes, actually," Grey informed, "We don't have all these human machines, so we try not to need them. I can read the stars no problem."
Joseph raised an eyebrow. "Impressive." He then thought he had found a segue into finding out more about the brownie's journey. "Where are you trying to go, anyway? I could probably find it for you right now."
Grey bit his lip again. He wasn't reluctant to share that information; he just didn't have an answer. "I... we don't really know," he admitted. "Somewhere there's no humans, I suppose. Dry climates are preferable. I don't suppose you know a place like that?"
Joseph pursed his lips, a bit flustered. "What, humans aren't good enough for you?" he quipped as his attempt to lighten the mood a bit and give him more time to think of a place. He accomplished neither objective. "That's a tough one. Humans are practically everywhere... I don't suppose you're capable of breathing underwater?"
"Do I look like a fish to you?"
"You look like a talking cat to me." Joseph stared deeply at the map. "I guess Australia might be a good try; almost everybody lives near the coast and avoids the huge desert. But I don't know how long before they'll try to really urbanize that area, and there are a lot of dangerous animals that live there. There are also the possibilities of the poles, but with the ice there melting it might not be a great choice either for a long stay. Especially if you don't like the cold."
"I don't mind the cold," Grey expressed. How could he? He came from the highest mountain range on the planet; it's more than a little cold.
"Good, because that leaves me one possibility rather than zero." Joseph lay a finger on a landmass that appeared almost completely white on the map, the only country painted in white while the rest were different colors of the rainbow. "Greenland. Population, some 50,000. For a landmass of that size there's practically nobody there. Those who are live by the coast and practically never come far inland. So if you settled around here-" Joseph lay his finger near the center but to the northeast. "-you'd probably never have to see a human." He then crossed his arms, proud of himself. "I assume what you're searching for is a new settlement or home if your only criteria for a destination are living conditions."
Grey didn't respond, so Joseph kept talking. "You don't have to tell me." He shut the atlas then. "Well, this is yours." He peered out the window then. "It might be better if you and your friend leave quick. The weather is crazy out there!" Just then the power went out throughout the house and, after being punctuated by a thunder crack, didn't return. But Joseph didn't jump from being startled until his phone buzzed loudly in his pocket, and Grey jumped along with him.
"What is that?" he cried out anxiously.
"It's OK, it's just my phone. Giving me a message." While the boy tried to seem calm he was getting scared enough that it showed in his body language. The message didn't help. "It's an evacuation order... the hurricane is coming right for us." He rose to his feet then. "You need to go now. Get your friend and leave fast as you can, ideally as far west as possible away from the coast."
Grey nodded and almost ran out of the room, but before he did he stopped and asked, "Are you leaving, too?" Joseph's face and delayed response said it all: he had to leave but was without means to do it. So Grey took Joseph's hand in his paw. "Come with me. If you're in danger, too, we'll get you out of here."
Joseph shook his head, eyes wide. "I... what about your humanphobic friend?"
"I'll make him take you! Now come on!" Jeff was glad he didn't take off his raincoat, because Grey didn't give him time to get one; the brownie tugged on Joseph and pulled him in tow across the street and into the forest.
"Where are we going?" Joseph had to yell over the wind to reach the volume of a whisper by comparison."
"You said west!"
"No, before that! How far is your friend! And how are we getting out anyway?" Many of the thinner trees were half bent over and more of the saplings trees were being simply uprooted and tossed about like twigs. It was a good thing Grey was holding Joseph tight because the boy could hardly see through his wet, foggy glasses.
"We're flying!"
"What, like a helicopter?"
"Whatever that is, no! Now keep moving!" Running was out of the question; the wind was just too strong. Lucky for them it was headed right at them, for from any other direction it would have swept them right off their feet.
"How much further?"
"Not much further! Just a few more meters!" That was a relief to the boy, who wanted to get out of the danger zone fast as he could. The weather was absolutely terrifying him, worse than bad weather ever had (which was a lot). Joseph figured the brownie must not have come from America if his default method of measurement was metric.
"You still didn't say how we're getting out of here!" Joseph then once again demanded. The truth was the answer was literally right in front of him. He couldn't see it, though, until it moved because its silver sheen didn't shine much on the cloudy, rainy day. But when it moved, shuffled away from him as if frightened or threatened, Joseph did the same for the same reason. "Oh, my god."
"Shimmertail!" Grey exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing awake already?"
The dragon's voice boomed far louder than the others' did and cut through the wind easily. "Who could sleep through a storm like this? Why is the human here?" he demanded.
"He helped us, and now we help him!" Grey commanded as strongly as he could given the circumstances and size difference. Right then a tree fell over, not nearly close enough to be threatening but barely enough for Joseph to notice and snap his gaze in its direction. "We all need to get out of here now! This hurricane will tear us apart if we don't!"
"Not the human!" Shimmertail still insisted, refusing to bend down to let either creature mount him.
"I am not having this conversation again, you stubborn winged mule!"
Joseph tried to interject then, "I don't know if I want to get on the back of an angry dragon anyway!"
"Too bad!" Grey took a hold of Shimmertail's tail. "You take both of us or leave us both behind!" He pulled on Joseph's hand then and threw the boy in front of himself. "You first! I'll be right behind you!"
"Are you crazy?" The boy rebelled.
"It's this or the storm!" the brownie pointed out, smacking the boy on his rear to try and make him move. It worked.
"Grey!" Shimmertail still continued to protest.
"I don't wanna hear it! You keep still! Human, when you get up there open my bag and toss down the bottle of clear-white fluid." He could see Joseph was hesitating as he climbed up the spines of the tail. "I don't have all day! Go!"
Joseph was breathing hard and trying harder to keep his head in the moment, but that was hard when he considered what the moment actually was. But with the little extra encouragement he obeyed. Apparently the bag in question was secured to a spine on Shimmertail's back by a leather strap. He briskly dug through the bag, ignoring its other contents until he got his hand around a bottle. "Got it! It's coming down!" he yelled. As soon as he tossed the bottle he felt the dragon shift beneath him and grabbed onto a couple of spines tight. Shimmertail wasn't trying to throw him, though; he was just so uncomfortable with a human on his back. Did Firedrake feel the same way when Ben first climbed on him?
Shimmertail doubted it. From the way he heard the story, Firedrake and Ben hit it off like the best of friends very quickly, and the first time that boy rode the dragon, the boy was being rescued from other human assailants. From there they fled together and discovered Ben was the prophesied reincarnated dragon rider destined to save the dragon race from Nettlebrand's extermination (an endeavor which succeeded). But the most recent time the dragon died young, struck down by some exotic illness even dragonfire couldn't cure. Perhaps it was because he never got the chance, but Ben never promised to be reincarnated in another life, and Shimmertail expected the Dragon Rider would never return for that reason... So the boy on his back was just another human, not a hero. Like a rat, except he had kinder dealings with certain rats.
"Open wide, Shim!" Grey declared, and when the dragon obeyed Grey was not conservative with the moon dew; he poured the whole on Shimmertail's tongue. "You'll need your strength to get us out of here, so drink up!" he tossed the bottle aside once it was empty and expertly hoisted himself up on the dragon's back just behind Joseph and began to yell at him. "Normally riding a dragon is easy, but winds like these can throw you if you don't do it right, so listen close! Those spines are gonna get wet and slippery in all this rain, so instead you have to wrap your arms around Shimmertail's neck. You won't wanna squeeze, but you have to. I promise you won't strangle him! Make sure you don't sit up, either! Stay as flat as possible so you're more aerodynamic! Most importantly, don't panic! I'm sure it's scary, but all you have to is lie down and let Shimmertail do all the work! You got all that?"
"What if I'm already panicking?"
"Then knock it off!" Grey slapped Shimmertail's sides a few times then. "We're out of time! We have to go!"
The dragon huffed. "You owe me for this favor, fuzzball!" he swore before finally swallowing all of his internal rebellion and taking off. He flew for weeks across the world, and this was his reward? Fleeing from a storm with nothing to show for it but a bunch of papers and being forced to reveal himself to a human youngling? Though he was still bitter, he took off anyway. It would have to be an issue dealt with after the danger had passed.
