We get there and The Dark Dragon is waiting for us, apparently impatient. The Main Room is blue and it's at least 10 meters high.
"What if they heard us?" I whisper to Fu.
"They didn't. I put a spell on our cell so that they couldn't."
I nod.
"So... I see you have been crying." The dragon says in his dark voice. "What a pleasure to be the cause of these tears."
I want to punch him so badly, but it's obvious I can't. Besides, it'd be really stupid. His head almost touches the roof.
"Don't brag." Trixie says. "You're not all that, you know..."
"Really?"
And with one kick, the creature who brought us here makes Trixie fall off her chair; and she stays on the ground, unable to get up.
"Let's stick to the point, right?" He says to Fu and two dragons come and break him free, dragging him towards the dragon.
I look at my friend. He's mumbling something really fast, like a text of which he knows every word.
Or maybe... A spell.
"Any last words, underdog?"
Fu stops mumbling and smiles. He looks up, confident and strong. "Towsd"
The dragon looks down at him, and at us. He laughs and rolls his eyes.
"Is that a bad word in another language?! Oh, never mind..."
After that, everything happens so fast. The dragon is about to pick a knife from the table next to him, but before he does anything, Fu screams and falls to the ground.
The Dark Dragon gets desperate as his body starts melting; and tries to grab a torch that hangs on the wall. Now that his power is fading, Jake is able to use his dragon head to burn the chains; while Trixie tries to crawl to her chair.
What used to be the Dark Dragon was now a figure screaming and trying to reach for an invisible hope; while the torch falls, catching fire right after, and making the whole structure of the place start getting weak.
Jake and Gramps manage to break themselves free. Gramps runs to do the same with Spud and Haley; and Jake runs to help Trixie. He puts her on her chair, turns it on, and comes to burn my chains.
The whole room is burning; and still I feel like I'm underwater: every voice and noise sounds so distant that the only thing I'm actually able to hear are my heartbeats.
I see Fu's body on the ground, helpless. Jake's face appears in front of me, and I think he's shouting for me to run, but I can't really tell.
The next thing I know, I'm running towards Fu and catching him in my arms. I turn around and follow Jake's silhouette, among the smoke.
Haley starts running and we follow her, until we reach the green area. There's a glass wall on the back of the corridor, and that's where they're going to. Haley turns into a dragon, breaks the glass and jumps, followed by Spud, Jake and Gramps. Trixie uses her chair to jump. And when I reach them, carrying Fu, I don't even think twice: I jump.
And now I'm free falling.
—
Cold winter wind dances on my stomach, and the weird sensation of falling takes control of my body until I hit the water.
It's so cold it's hard to breathe. The weigh of Fu's body pulls me down, while I struggle to reach the air. The ocean pushes me to all directions.
Suddenly, I feel something grabbing my shoulder.
"GET OFF!" I scream as soon as I'm taken from the water, although I don't know how I was able to do that. But when I see it, I'm flying.
Jake is rescuing me.
He's got passed out Haley in one paw and me on the other, while Luong's got Spud and Trixie flies on her automatic wheel chair. We fly away from the mysterious building, as it burns down.
When we reach the sand, I cough, letting Fu go. He lays down on the sand, with his eyes closed.
I crawl towards him and put a ear on his chest.
And silence has never made me feel so empty.
Jake returns to his human form and manages to wake Haley up, who had water in her lungs. When he looks at me, I'm hugging Fu's body and kissing his forehead.
I break down when I'm forced to shake my head.
Jake rushes at my direction and I take a few steps back, allowing him to hug his friend. He sobs and hugs him so desperately, so helplessly, as if trying to bring Fu back by squeezing every cell of his body, until they're alive again. And I feel so useless that I want to disappear. But I won't.
After some time, Haley approaches and kisses her brother's cheek, offering him a hand. But never looking at Fu's body. Guess she can't manage it. Jake takes her hand and gets up.
"Let's go" he says, coldly.
I've never seen Jake like that; but, although I want to hug and comfort him, I know he needs to be alone for a while.
I turn around. No one is looking at me. I take my dreamcatcher out of my pants and put it on Fu's chest. Maybe this will keep his nightmares away.
We start to walk away and, after a few silent steps, I turn to Fu's direction and gasp when I see Lao Shi is with his dragon head, setting fire on Fu. I stand there and stare at it. I'm about to say something, but I feel a hand on my shoulder.
"Let them." Spud says, shakily. "Fu said he wanted his body to be burnt after... Ya know. And Gramps needs some time too."
I nod, and start walking again, as I've always done during my life. If there's nothing to be done, you walk away from it.
But, sometimes, it never walks away from you.
—
(15 years later)
"It's a lovely morning in New York, traffic is not so bad actually, and there's lots of-"
I turn the radio off. I had a dream. I was running and a fairy kept screaming by my side.
Once my dreams made sense, but I'm not certain if I really want those times back.
There was something I had to remember. Today is... Today...
Christmas eve!
I jump out of my bed and open the curtains. Indeed, it's a lovely morning. There's snow all over the ground, but not a cloud in the sky.
I open the door and walk to the pink door next to mine, opening it too. Summer is still sleeping.
I walk in, open her window and the sunlight reflects on her brown hair.
"Wake up, Sam! It's 9am."
She opens her blue, tired eyes and mumbles.
"Mom..."
"What? You know what day it's today and you surely don't want to miss a thing, right?"
She takes a while to take it in.
"Christmas! Tomorrow is Christmas!"
"Hell yeah!"
She jumps out of the bed and looks at me.
"Don't talk using slangs from 20 years ago..."
"You make me feel old."
"I make you FEEL old?!" She smiles at me.
I throw her pillow at her face.
"Shut up, smarty. Now make your bed, I'm gonna wake your brothers."
I walk out of my 11year-old daughter's room and open the door of my 11 year-old sons.
And as soon as I do, I have a heart attack.
One of the beds is on fire. I run to the end of the hallway and pick one of the fire extinguishers, running again to their room to put the fire out.
After it's over, I breathe heavily and look to the side, where they stand, smiling as if trying to avoid a discussion.
"What THE HELL were you thinking?!" I shout at them. "I think was pretty clear, NO DRAGON HEADS INSIDE THIS HOUSE!"
They look at each other.
"NOR AT SCHOOL OR ANY HUMAN/ANIMAL PUBLIC PLACES." I take a pause. "Was I clear?"
They nod.
"Was I clear?!"
"Yes, mom."
"Great. Now clean this mess up and get ready for breakfast..." I change the tone of my voice to a lighter one. "And PLEASE, no dragon anything tonight, cause my parents still don't know you're flying lizards."
They laugh when I say the last word, but nod.
—
I walk down the stairs and I spot Jake behind the kitchen table, which is full of breakfast food.
I smile at him.
"Hey" He says.
"Hey yourself... You did this?! On your own?!"
He walks towards me and kisses me.
"Yep"
"And you didn't even interfere when I was scolding Nick and Conor... Wait..." I look at the stove and use a more serious tone of voice. "There're eggs on the table and the stove looks untouched..." He looks away, like he's trying to hide something. "You used your dragon fire, didn't you?"
Silence.
I follow him when he tries to walk away from me. "How many times do I have to say it?! No dragon heads allowed!"
"I'm sorry! Don't worry, I'm not gonna set fire on you or on anything."
I couldn't help it. I grab his shirt and pull him, so that our noses touch.
I smile and whisper: "You know you don't need your stupid dragon head to set me on fire."
He smiles. "Yeah..." He puts his hands on my hips and pulls me too, giving me a passionate kiss. When we stop, our foreheads are still in touch.
"I love you." He says, kissing my nose.
"I love you too." I smile. "But you're still not allowed to use your dragon head inside his house."
"Dammit…"
—
Summer, Jake and I prepare the Christmas supper, while the boys clean the house up. Amazingly, without a mumble.
When all is ready, the guests start to arrive. First, it's "uncle Spud" and "aunt Haley", who is 8 months pregnant. Then, Jake's parents and a 90 year-old Lao Shi walk in, followed by my parents, Trixie and her fiancé. They all bring presents, which are left under the christmas tree, to be opened at midnight.
We eat, chat and laugh. Trixie talks about her new job as an art teacher. After the accident, she was able to find another talent and passion.
Spud and Haley are really happy, because of the baby. Haley tried for many years, but she never got to get pregnant. Now, it's finally happened.
—
It's midnight, time for the Christmas tree. We sit around it, and each one of us receive the presents.
"Okay..." I say. "This one is for my boys."
Conor takes the gift, and both of them kiss my cheeks, opening the little box afterwards.
"WOW!" Their eyes shine as soon as they see the new video game I bought them. "How did you know?!"
"Summer told me."
They run to hug their sister. "Thanks!"
"No big..." She says, smiling.
After a while, when everyone had received their gifts, I'm ready to walk to the kitchen to get the desserts.
But then my daughter finds an extra package under the tree.
"Look" she says. "There's one left. It says 'For the longs'."
I stand up and look at it. It's basically blue paper wrapped around something, with a white tag where the message is written.
I start to open it, but Nick stops me.
"No! What if it's poison or a bomb?!"
"Use this." Conor hands me an oxygen mask.
I raise an eyebrow and laugh. "How did you get this?"
He wears it and says. "Are you my mummy?"
"Stop it." I say, taking the mask from him. I wear it anyway; and it's good that I do.
Cause what I see takes my breath away.
My dreamcatcher.
How... How is that even possible?
Haley speaks. "It's..."
"Yep."
"How..."
I shake my head. "No idea." I take the mask off.
Jake looks at his grandpa. "Gramps, did you..."
And Lao Shi simply shakes his head too.
I keep staring at it, and start to tear up. But it takes a while until I see Summer's face full of shock. I'm about to ask her what happened, when she runs to her room, and Jake and I follow her way.
She opens her wardrobe and picks a black folder.
"What is that?" Jake asks her.
"Drawings." She answers. "Every night, if I'm able to remember my dreams, I draw them. And..." She paces around her room. "Last night, I had a dream. A friend of yours handed me this dreamcatcher, saying that we should keep it, to keep the nightmares away. He said you'd know what to do with it. Mom... I'm scared, how could this have..." She sits on her bed; and I sit by her left side, while Jake sits by her right.
"Was this friend..." Jake began. "A dog?"
When I hear the word I raise my head immediately to look at him. Does he REALLY believe this?! Fu's dead. It hurts to think about it, but it's the truth; no more than the truth.
But when Summer nods, everything falls apart.
I touch the folder. "Can I..."
She smiles and hands it to me. I open it, and there he is. Summer has an incredible talent with a pencil, getting it right at each of Fu's details. I try hard to hold my tears back.
"I'm gonna go there" she says, pointing at the living room direction. "Just to tell gramps and grandma everything is... 'Fine'." She walks away.
"Jake..." I speak. "If he went inside her dreams, he is alive. He must be."
"I know."
Suddenly, everything makes sense. The Huntsman was able to survive because of his power. But Fu also had power. And I think Jake thought the same I did, because when I look at his eyes, they shine, along with his big smile.
"Do you really wanna do it?" I ask him. "Isn't it stupid? He'd say we're wearing stupidity glasses."
He laughs a little. "Yeah, he would… But what do YOU say?"
"That it's stupid anyway. We're bringing us false hope."
"How can you tell it's false? You know how powerful he was… and maybe, he still is. How can you explain about this?" he points at the dreamcatcher. "He's still around."
I look at his eyes. Then I rest my hand on his and get closer to him. "Then we'll be looking after him."
I thought that getting over Fu's death would be an eternal nightmare; the pain was so strong that I thought I'd feel it forever and never get to sleep well again. But I never thought how it would be like to know he's safe, even though he's not with us.
Maybe we can bring him back.
I take Jake's hand and squeeze it hard, resting my head on his shoulder. Let the nightmares come; they always do. There's no way to avoid it. This is why we love, this is why we long to be loved, because love is that tiny light you see miles away from you, when the darkness tries to wrap itself around your mind. We do anything to reach that light and get our dreams back.
Those dreams are the key to any door; we must reach for them and keep them. After all, we were born to fight for the right of being what we should be.
Dream keepers.
—
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Author Notes:
HEY GUYS! I want to thank all of you, who read it till the end! It means a lot to me.
Don't forget to check my other stories out ;)
I wish all of you a good year! I hope you enjoyed it.
xoxo
See ya ;)
THANK YOU!
