There Be Dragons!
AN: Hey, this is my first chapter with all-original characters, so I hope it isn't terrible.
As Monday approaches, Becca finds it harder and harder to concentrate on her schoolwork. After all, she could be on a rollercoaster, or in space, or the Medieval Ages right now if only she had told Brad she wanted to. Who else has that opportunity? Who could turn down that excitement?
Well, Becca can, especially as her mom bursts into her room. "What is this?!" Becca's mom demands, holding up a test that Becca thought she did a good job of hiding. On it is written a "D+" and "See me after class."
Becca gulps. "I know this looks bad. I just didn't have time to study, because that was the day I was helping my friend, remember?" Actually, that was the day Brad stranded her at school, but the excuse Becca made up was that she was helping a friend that was way behind on a class project.
Her mom frowns. "That better be what you were doing. I've heard about those raves some of you teens go to. If you were doing any kind of drugs…"
"Mom! You know I don't do that!"
"I hope not. I don't need another disappointment like Maggie. Your older sister is not a good example to follow," Becca's mom warns. "There's a reason she keeps asking me for money, it's because she can't afford anything from her fast-food job, and as a high-school drop-out, that's the best job she's going to get. I should have been stricter with her…" Becca's mom trails off, looking guilty.
"You did the best you could, mom," Becca soothes. "And I'm going to college, I promise!"
Becca's mom snorts. "Not with more D+'s, you're not!"
"I know, I usually do better. I'm sorry," Becca says, feeling bad for worrying her mom. This is why, while Becca would love to just time-travel all the time like Brad does, she can't. She needs to be responsible and make other people happy.
This Monday, however, Becca doesn't have too much homework, and is thrilled to go time-traveling! When Brad taps her on the shoulder after History class and asks "You ready to go?" she replies with a loud "Yeah!"
"Wicked!" Brad grins, pushing the travel button on his vortex manipulator. Their school hallway fades into blackness, then gradually gets replaced by a bright green hillside with various colorful flowers on it.
"Well, here you are. The Middle Ages, around 1050 A.D. or so."
Becca raises an eyebrow. "'Or so?' Are you sure this is the right time period?"
"Yep. I checked this place out yesterday. There's a town right over there," Brad says, pointing to a dirt trail that leads to the town. "I figured we should walk there, instead of, you know, teleporting into the middle of the town and scaring everyone."
Becca smiles. "I'm impressed that you're thinking about others for a change."
Brad makes a face at her, then grins. "Bet you I can get to the town first!"
"Bet you can't," Becca challenges, grinning back.
"Oh, it's on!" Brad yells, sprinting towards the road. Laughing, Becca runs after him. They only have to run down the road for a minute or two before they come around a curve and see the small town in front of them. The "town" is barely even that, containing only about ten to twenty small, straw-roof cottages, a mystery building, and a small church. Brad hops over a small wall that is surrounding the city, which seems like a half-hearted attempt to keep people out, and announces "I win!"
Becca, however, hardly cares that Brad just won the race. Instead of saying anything to Brad, she hops over the wall and goes straight up to a nearby cottage and touches the cottage wall. "Wow," Becca breathes. "I'm here. I'm really here, in the time of kings and queens, knights and dragons!"
Brad snorts. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but dragons aren't real."
"How would you know?" Becca retorts.
"Because there's no alien invasions right now."
"Well, maybe dragons aren't aliens. Maybe they're native to Earth, or they just appear by magic."
Brad shakes his head. "Magic doesn't exist, it's just science you don't understand yet."
"Good day!" A man with a British accent interrupts, coming out of the cottage Becca was staring at. "May I help ye?" he asks, staring curiously at Brad and Becca's non-time period clothing. Becca gazes at his clothing as well, noticing that it is beige and has soil on it, probably because this guy is a farmer.
"No thank you, we are just strangers passing through," Becca politely replies.
"Then good day," the man says, smiling slightly.
Becca walks away, Brad following suit, when Brad swears. "Shit!"
"What?" Becca asks.
"That guy had an English accent, which means we must be in England, which means my dad might be here!"
"Why would your dad be here?" Becca asks.
"Because he's English."
"Wait, I thought you were aliens?"
"We are, but my dad spends a lot of time in England. He even has an English accent. I spend more time in America, so I have an American accent."
"Oookay..." Becca says, majorly confused. "Ooh, look at that!" she exclaims, wandering over to a courtyard where people are trading goods. As Becca watches, two men exchange a sheep and a new outfit.
"Wow, they're living just like the people in the stories I've read. That's why I wanted to come here, after all. All the cool stories. Of course, the stories had a bit more excitement, like knights and dragons."
Brad shrugs. "I'll see if I can find you some knights," he says, starting to set his vortex manipulator, "but there's no such thing as—"
"DRAGON!" a man yells.
Becca's eyes widen. "Brad!"
Brad sighs. "It's a fake. Or that guy has some kind of mental disorder. They didn't exactly have treatments for that in this time period. Now let's go already! I have a headache."
"They don't think he's crazy," Becca says, pointing to the people around her. The men look furious, and are putting on armor and swords, while the women are rounding up their children and taking them home.
Brad sighs. "Fine, I guess we can check this out. I really wish my headache would go away though," he grumbles.
Suddenly, a bunch of people gasp! The two time-travelers look where the people are looking and see fire shoot up into the sky!
"OMG, IT'S DRAGON FIREBREATH!" Becca yells.
"Or a volcano erupting," Brad counters.
Then a loud "ROOOOOAR!" is heard.
"Do volcanoes usually roar like that?" Becca asks.
"Well… no," Brad replies.
Suddenly, a knight in singed armor comes riding into the city! "The dragon hath burnt me!" he yells.
This causes the village men to get in an uproar. "I can't believe it's happening again!" one man yells.
"Why, I'll kill that beastie myself! Let me at it!" another man snarls.
As the men argue about what to do, Becca turns to Brad. "Still think it's not a dragon?"
Brad sighs. "Ok, it's probably a dragon."
Becca smiles. "Told you! I'm surprised you were so closed-minded. I mean, I never would have thought dragons were real a few days ago, but all this time-traveling made me consider anything is possible."
Brad sighs. "Yeah, I guess I was kind of close-mi—OWW!" Brad yells, clutching his head. "On second thought," Brad says, his face suddenly grim, "maybe I've been too open-minded."
Becca is about to ask Brad what he means, when she hears a young woman yell "STOP! CAN YOU NOT SEE YOU ARE KILLING THE DRAGON?!"
"That's the point, woman! To kill it before it kills us, and to taketh the gold it so ferociously guards," a man who is sharpening a sword replies.
"Wait, there's gold now?!" Becca exclaims, expecting Brad to say something like "If it sounds like it's straight out of a fairy tale, it's too good to be true." However, Brad doesn't say anything, and when Becca looks over at him, she sees he is clutching at his head in pain again. Becca frowns at this, and frowns even more when she sees the woman who was concerned for the dragon's life being dragged away by her angry husband. However, the woman does manage to say "WHY DO YOU NOT LISTEN?! YOU ARE KILLING HER CHILDREN!" before her husband drags her out of sight.
Becca looks over at Brad, and sees that he is in some kind of trance. She considers trying to figure out what's going on with him, but decides to follow the woman instead. After all, Brad has somehow managed to survive time-traveling before she came along, so she figures Brad can survive whatever weird headache he's having for a few minutes without her. This woman, on the other hand, will soon be out of sight, and Becca wouldn't know how to find her again, which would be a shame, if the woman is right about knights killing the dragon's children…
By walking down the road a ways behind the woman and her husband, Becca is able to follow them without them noticing her. She feels kind of stalker-ish doing this, but she doesn't want the angry husband to prevent this woman from talking, so she has to wait until she's alone.
Fortunately, Becca doesn't have to wait long. The two medieval people go inside their cottage, then, less than a minute later, the man comes back out carrying armor and a sword, and hurries back towards the center of town, probably to join the dragon-killing group. The woman, however, stays inside.
Hoping the woman will be willing to talk to her, Becca knocks on the cottage door. There is a bit of a wait, during which Becca fears she will not, but then, "Why come you here?"
"I heard what you said earlier, about the dragon," Becca begins. "I'm from out of town, and don't know much about what's going on here. Would you mind explaining it to me?"
"There is nothing to explain," the woman replies, her eyes hollow, as though she's worn out from crying. "The dragon guards gold. The dragon could be dangerous. The dragon must be destroyed. So that's what the men-folk are going to do."
Becca frowns. "'Could be dangerous'? So the dragon has never attacked anyone?"
"This one, no. But a different dragon attacked our town in the past, so it is only a matter of time, or so they think."
"And what do you think?" Becca asks. "And what did you mean about 'killing the dragon's children'?"
The woman sighs, her gaze falling to the ground. "You would not believe me if I told you. Even you, with your strange garb and different tongue."
"Try me."
"It does not matter," the woman replies, seeming to shrink into herself. "Even if you believe me, there is nothing you can do. The knights are nearly at the dragon's cave by now. I can feel it."
This makes Becca angry. It's one thing for people to doubt you, and it's another thing for people to doubt you so often that you doubt yourself. Becca remembers the day when her sister, Maggie, dropped out of high school without her parents' permission. She remembers her mom screaming at Maggie, her dad stomping out of the house to get drunk, and her, unable to do anything helpful, anything that would cheer people up, except to not follow Maggie's example, to get good grades. That's why, when she sees this woman feeling equally as down, and Becca can help her, that's what she is definitely going to do.
"What's your name?" Becca asks.
"Amice," the woman replies, briefly looking up, then back down again.
"My name's Becca. Nice to meet you," Becca replies. "Now, Amice, do you really think I would have walked all this way to talk to you if I didn't care what you have to say? Because I do care. Oh, and don't you worry about saving the dragon being impossible," Becca says, grinning, "because I have a friend who does impossible things every day—"
"BECCA!" Brad yells, bursting into the room. "WE HAVE TO SAVE THE DRAGON!" he yells, running towards her, but in his hurry to reach Becca, he trips over a broom and falls flat on his face.
"—and is also an immature idiot," Becca finishes, glaring at Brad. Hopefully, he didn't completely ruin her chance to get Amice to talk.
Amice, however, seems slightly curious. "You wish to save the dragon too?"
Brad nods. "And not just that, I saw your latest vision. Look!" Brad exclaims, putting his hand on Amice's forehead. Her eyes widen, and she looks at him in a new understanding. "You have seen! Then you know how terrible it is!"
"Yeah," Brad says, looking serious for a change. "Killing an innocent creature of any species is not cool."
"Uh, Brad? What's going on?" Becca asks, majorly confused.
"What's going on is that Amice here is telepathically linked to a dragon, or it's telepathically linked to her, or something. Anyways, since I'm a Time Lord, I overheard their last 'chat.'"
"…Come again?" Becca asks, even more confused.
"Time Lords are telepathic. Like, I can read people's minds and stuff."
"WAIT, WHAT?!" Becca yells, horrified. If Brad can use telepathy, that means he might have heard some rude thoughts she had about him when he kept ignoring her pleas to travel somewhere safe, or worse, the fact that she likes him! "You didn't overhear… I mean, I wasn't being serious when I was thinking…"
Brad's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. "Whaaa… wait a minute, are you worried I read your mind?"
When Becca nods, blushing slightly, Brad laughs. "Hahaha! Your face is just… but no, I can only read people's minds when I'm touching that person, or when someone else is transmitting something telepathically, in which case, I might pick it up. Plus, mind reading is exhausting, so I'm too lazy to do it much."
"Oh," Becca replies, feeling even more embarrassed now for freaking out about nothing. "So wait, the dragon is telepathic?"
"Yep," Brad replies.
"And Amice here is too?"
"Nope. The dragon just chose to share its thoughts with her… I think." Brad frowns. "Maybe I should let Amice explain."
Amice nods. "I was out picking herbs, a bit further away than usual, when I saw the dragon for the first time. My first thought when the dragon touched down in front of me was that it was going to kill me, but then the dragon spoke in my mind, telling me not to be afraid, that she did not want to harm us townsfolk, only find a cave to lay her eggs."
"The dragon kept her word, but she did need to fly around to hunt animals, and it didn't take long for people to notice her. The other dragon that I mentioned before, the one that nearly destroyed our town, it left the townsfolk feeling anger towards all dragons. I tried to explain that this dragon is different, that I had heard her say so, but people called me crazy. It doesn't help that the eggs the dragon laid are a bright gold color. The villagers think the eggs are gold nuggets the dragon has stolen from a previous town it destroyed, and I have been unable to convince them otherwise."
"So, let me get this straight," Brad says. "These knights think they're saving the village AND they're going to get rich doing it? Well, shit! They aren't going to listen to me saying otherwise. Hmm… what to do… got it!" Brad says, snapping his fingers. "We're going to visit the dragon."
With that, Brad grabs Becca's hand and they teleport away… and land right on top of the dragon! "Oops, I set the height wrong," Brad says, stating the obvious, as the dragon turns her head around to glare at them. However, instead of roasting them with her fire breath like Becca is afraid she will, the dragon irritably knocks them off her back with her tail, causing Becca and Brad to land sprawled out on the cave floor.
As Becca groans and pushes herself up into a sitting position, she notices they are inside a cave, more specifically, the cave the dragon laid her eggs in. Becca notices they are gold and rather small; one egg is about the size of both of her hands when they are side by side. No wonder people mistook them for gold from a distance!
Curious what they feel like, Becca reaches out a hand to touch one… that is, until she hears the dragon snort and stomp her foot angrily. Becca slowly backs away from the egg, looking at the dragon all the while. She is about the same size as Becca's school bus, although much more graceful. Her scales are mostly orange, with some red and yellow ones mixed in. Just the dragon's scales remind Becca of fire, as well as something else that she can't quite remember.
Just then, Becca and Brad hear angry voices outside the cave. "Shit! The knights are here!" Brad exclaims.
"Then hurry up and fix things!" Becca exclaims.
"I will as soon as I have a plan," Brad replies.
"WHAT?! YOU JUST TELEPORTED IN HERE WITHOUT A PLAN?!" Becca yells.
"It's a plan in progress," Brad replies, walking over to the dragon and putting his hand on her forehead. Becca realizes that he is communicating telepathically with the dragon, so she gets worried when Brad pulls his hand away from the dragon's forehead looking unusually sad.
"What did she say?" Becca asks hesitantly.
"That there's no way to move her eggs, and there's no way she's going to leave them, so she's going to stay here and fight.
"Oh no!" Becca exclaims. "How are we going to prevent the fight?"
"I don't know," Brad says, not sounding hopeful. "I'm usually the person starting fights, not preventing them."
"Hmm," Becca says, thinking of ideas because she refuses to give up. Then she snaps her fingers. "I've got it! What if we bring an egg out to them and show them it's not gold? If the knights realize that, they might believe the other things Amice said as well."
Brad nods, looking impressed. "Sounds like a plan." He reaches for an egg… and immediately gets growled at by the dragon. "Hey, we're trying to help you!" Brad exclaims, putting his hand to the dragon's forehead again in case she didn't understand. The dragon, however, still refuses to let Brad touch an egg, and the knights are shouting a war cry!
"Amice!" Becca exclaims. "The dragon didn't choose to talk to you telepathically, she chose Amice. Maybe she'll let Amice pick up an egg."
Brad shrugs. "Worth a try." He then presses buttons on his vortex manipulator…
Outside, the knights come charging towards the cave, expecting a fearsome dragon to come out. Instead, they find themselves skidding to a halt when a young woman comes out of the cave holding something golden!
"AMICE!" Amice's husband yells, rushing forward to protect her from the dragon he is sure is just waiting to attack.
"I am well, my love," she says, trying to get her husband to stop worrying about her and stop the attack on the dragon instead. When her husband insists on checking her for injuries while the other knights start surrounding the cave, she shouts. "I AM NOT IN NEED OF PROTECTION, BUT THIS EGG IS!"
"Egg? That is gold you are carrying!" her husband exclaims, touching the egg. Inside the cave, the dragon growls, and the knights tense. Brad quickly gives the dragon a soothing memory, so that she will not scare the knights before they are convinced of her innocence. Fortunately, Amice's husband does not scare easily, as he continues touching the egg, and discovers... "It is not solid!" he gasps. "There is a sloshing inside. It is an egg!"
The knights become confused by this, unsure who to attack. So when the dragon comes out of the cave with Becca and Brad in their futuristic clothing walking beside her, the knights wonder if they should be attacking them.
"See, the dragon's cool," Brad announces. "She's not attacking us, and she won't attack you."
Unfortunately, the knights aren't convinced. "SORCERY!" a knight shouts, thinking that Brad, Becca, and Amice are witches.
"Shit!" Brad exclaims. "Time for plan B." With that, Brad teleports himself, Becca, and Amice back inside the cave and out of sight to see what will happen next.
What happens is that the knights charge towards the dragon… and the dragon just sits down in front of the cave and does nothing. A knight swings his sword at the dragon, causing a small red gash to appear on her leg. The dragon growls, but does not attack. Another knight slashes at her, and then another, and then… "Why does it not fight back?" one of the knights asks.
"Perhaps the woman was right, this dragon is peaceful," another knight replies.
"Well then, I suppose we should return home in victory!"
With that, the knights turn around and go home, already making up stories of how they valiantly chased the dragon away, each story more embellished than the last. Meanwhile, the dragon limps back to her cave with gashes on her legs, while Amice gently sets her egg back down.
The dragon moans, and Amice gasps as she sees the dragon's sorry state. "I am sorry!" she exclaims, rubbing one of the dragon's legs, then burying her head against it as she sobs. "If there were any other way…"
Brad looks at wounded dragon and her sobbing friend and sighs. "Well, shit. I guess I better do this." With that, Brad walks towards the dragon, an orange glow building up on his hands. He places the palms of his hands on the dragon, and the orange glow spreads from Brad to the dragon and heals her wounds.
"Wow!" Becca exclaims. "How did you do that?"
"Not easily," Brad grumbles. "Stupid regeneration energy! That's five hours of my life I won't have to beat my Crash Bandicoot video game!"
Becca isn't sure what he means, but she notices he's upset, so she decides not to pry. Amice, and the dragon, however, are only grateful. "I am forever in your debt," Amice says, bowing to Becca and Brad. The dragon makes a purring sound to show she's thankful as well.
"Hey, don't thank me. Becca's the one with the plan," Brad says.
"I would have never known about the dragon if it weren't for Amice. She's the real hero," Becca replies.
"That is why I requested her help," the dragon says, speaking to everyone telepathically. "Amice has a kind heart, so I knew I could trust her."
"Hey, Becca's kind too," Brad pipes up. The dragon doesn't reply to this, however, or if she does, she does not include Becca in her telepathic conversation. Becca guiltily thinks about how she was the one to come up with the plan B, that the dragon should just let the knights attack her and not fight back. It seemed like a good idea at the time, when Becca was under pressure, but, although it worked, the dragon ended up with terrible gashes because of her. Maybe if she had been more caring, thought of a better solution… well, maybe the dragon had a good reason for not letting her touch her eggs.
"See you around Amice," Brad says, waving at Amice as though they might actually see her again, when, being from another time period, they definitely won't. Then Brad turns to the dragon and says "See you, Scarlett," like talking to a dragon is totally normal. Well, maybe when you're a time-traveler, it is.
Becca just happens to be thinking about how Scarlett would be a better name for a dragon with red scales instead of orange ones, when she gasps! She just remembered what the dragon remind her of: a dinosaur! Back when the Silurians and their dinosaurs were going underground, Becca noticed a pteranodon, a winged dinosaur about the same size as a person with red and orange scales heading underground with the other dinosaurs and Silurians. It had caught her attention because most of the dinosaurs that were the Silurian's pets didn't fly, but now she can't help but think when she asked Brad if all the dinosaurs really died out, and he didn't know. What if some dinosaurs survived? What if the pteranodons survived and evolved into dragons?
Becca opens her mouth to ask Brad if he thinks that could be the case, but before she has a chance to speak, Brad pushes a button, and the two of them head away through time.
AN: So I got the idea of telepathic dragons from the Eragon book series. I made up the thing about dinosaurs evolving into dragons though. Also,
Delta General 42: Thanks for your help! I will refer to them as Silurians from now on.
Next chapter will involve Jenny, the 10th Doctor's clone daughter, so stay tuned!