All down the street, there were no lights, save for the corner streetlamps. Asleep in his upstairs bedroom lay Tucker, clothed in his nightwear, laying in bed with the covers tossed to the side. In his arms he cradled the Fentonfinder. The LCD screen was still lit, the dull glow giving the interior of Tuck's bedroom a rather ghostly mood.
The sky outside was dark, yet the night was quiet; somehow, it knew its end was near.
Samantha lifted her eyelids, feeling the warmth of the sun against her face. Sighing, she stirred, rose to a sitting position, then stretched her arms and yawned. She looked around, blinking. She had apparently fallen asleep in the same orchard she and Danny had landed in the night before...
Danny!
She didn't have to look far to find him; he lay next to her, on his side, still fast asleep, still a dragon. His eyes were closed, and his slow breathing was steady. She must have curled up next to him before she had gone to sleep, considering the fact that she had woke up laying next to his head. She looked at his scaly blue dragon face, which gave subtle confirmation that what had happened the day before was not a dream.
She sighed again, and got up onto her feet. She approached his face and knelt down next to it, getting a closer look. Indeed, the broad matting of white scales that ran up the back of his head and cascaded down toward his nose was not scales at all, but instead was his hair. She gingerly reached out and touched it, gently running her fingers through it. It felt soft and springy, just like his hair used to feel under her hand, back when he was human.
She slowly dropped her hand down to Danny's face, touching his cold, dry skin, running her fingers along his nose to the end of his snout. In a way, he resembled a horse... A giant, glowing, winged horse.
She sat down, laying back against the side of his head, silently debating with herself on whether or not she should try to wake him up. He desparately needed the rest, but if they were going to try and head back to Amity Park sometime today, he was going to have to get up soon. Also, off in a clearing in the distance, she could see a farmhouse. If the residents happened to find the both of them here with Danny still asleep, that would only spell bad news for him.
"Alright, Danny... Time to get up..."
Normally, she would just shake his shoulders, but in his current state, that would be out of the question; she couldn't reach both of them at once. Instead, she walked around him until she reached the base of his neck, then put her hands against his right shoulder and shoved hard.
"Come on, Danny, wake up."
She heard him sigh, and he shook his head slightly.
"Just five more minutes, mom..."
He moved his arm forward, and Sam had to step back away from him so not to get squished as he rolled over onto his stomach. His right wing came down beside him, brushing against the limbs of a nearby tree, causing a number of small objects to rain down on the both of them. He became still again, having only shifted his position.
Sam hesitated, then stepped forward to try again. She put her hands down on the same shoulder, this time shoving it back and forth.
"Come ON, Danny..."
"Zzz..."
"It's time to get up. Wake up!"
"Don't wanna..."
Sam, feeling a little frustrated, stepped back before she felt like screaming at him. She nearly tripped on something and she looked down; there on the ground lay one of the things that had fallen out of the tree. An apple. This was an apple orchard, apparently. She knelt down to pick up the fruit, then stood back up, looking at Danny. She then threw the apple as hard as she could, aiming for his head.
"Wake UP!!!"
The small projectile struck him square in the ear-fin. He awoke with a start.
"Ow!... Eh? What's going on... Something's wrong with my neck..."
He moved his arms underneath him, attempting to get up on his hands and knees. Sam stood back against a nearby tree, giving him room to move. His neck still dragged the ground; then he leaned back on his knees, and figured out how to lift his head. He looked around, and saw Sam looking up at him.
"Sam! ...How did you get so small? And what's with all these weird-looking bushes?"
Sam's jaw dropped in surprise; he had forgotten what had happened. She slowly reached up with her hands, putting them on top of her own head in a silent gesture, motioning for Danny to do the same. He reached up and felt only the sides of his long neck. Leaning his neck downward, he found the top of his head. He felt the spikes on the back of his head, and his eyes widened. With both hands, he felt his face and nose, his mouth hanging open, his frightened green eyes staring blindly into space. Watching Danny, Sam was able to find her voice.
"...Do you remember? Yesterday?"
His hands slowly descended down his neck to his chest, and he looked down at them, his expression changing from fear to dejection.
"So... I wasn't dreaming..."
Sam ran up to him, reaching up and grabbing his hand, holding it in both hands. She looked up into Danny's eyes, meeting his sad gaze. She swallowed, then began speaking to him, accentuating her speech by shaking his hand.
"Do you remember... what I told you...? I said... And you heard me, I know it... I'm going to stick with you... And I'm not gonna rest until I find a way to make you normal again. Me and Tuck... We're not going to let this go, Danny, we want to help you."
Danny blinked, sighed. He looked down at the ground, then back at Sam's face. She wrapped her arms around his hand, a determined look on her face.
"I'm not leaving you."
"And I'm not saying you're not. I'm just worried for you."
"You don't have to worry about me. You don't even have to worry about yourself. I'm here to take care of you. That's what friends are for."
He looked at the ground again, and raised his eyebrows, realizing Sam's point.
"I guess so."
Sam let go of Danny's hand and stood back, smiling. Her expression changed suddenly as a thought crossed her mind. She raised a finger, turning her gaze to the ground.
"I just had an idea... It might not be a very good one, but I want you to consider it anyway... What would happen if you switched out of ghost mode? Do you think that maybe the amulet would reappear?"
Danny got up off his knees and rose to his full height. Leaning his neck down, he scratched the back of his head in thought. He then nodded, and dropped his arm to his side.
"You might have something there. I'll give it a shot."
It was like mentally letting go of the reins. A bright flash of white light caused Sam to have to shield her eyes as the ground began to shiver under her feet. Kneeling down, she spread her fingers to see a wide band of light--a ring--surrounding Danny's draconic form. With what seemed like a massive amount of effort, the ring split into two, then began repelling itself, with the top ring heading upward and the lower ring moving down toward the earth.
As the rings began moving apart, Danny felt a strange sensation in his midsection. Where the rings had scanned him, there was no feeling; it was like he was being erased from the inside out. Soon after, he lost feeling in his arms and thighs, followed by his wings and tail. As the bottom ring disappeared into the ground, the top one was still scanning his neck. It was then that he realized what was happening to him, and with that, what might happen to Sam afterwards.
"Sam! Ru--"
He was unable to finish the command, as control of his vocal cords was suddenly torn from him. There was another burst of white light as the ring dissolved in the air above his head, and his vision was thrown into darkness. But then color and form began to return to his surroundings, and he found himself in a familiar place; he could see Sam from a normal perspective, yet he was nothing but a sense of sight, suspended a few feet off the ground. Sam was staring at something a few feet above where he thought he was, and he saw her raise her hand and point at it, a look of triumph on her face.
"Look, Danny, the amulet! You're wearing it again!"
A deafening roar exploded from somewhere just above Danny's head in response to Sam's remark, and she recoiled, all her nerve drained from her. As the dragon rose up to attack Sam, she heard a cry that seemed to come from within her own mind, although it also vibrated in her ears with unnatural clarity.
"Run, Sam! RUN!!"
She dashed behind a tree just as a blast of green-tinged flame scorched the grass where she had been standing just a second before. Peeking out from behind the tree, she watched as the dragon flapped its huge wings and took off into the sky. She stepped out into the clearing, watching it leave.
Suddenly, another glowing ring surrounded the dragon in midair. Caught off guard by the light, it roared in defiance as the ring separated and began scanning over its thrashing body. Between the rings, the black and white jumpsuit reappeared, covering the dragon's skin. As this happened, the amulet seemed to fade from sight. The dragon suddenly became still as the rings faded out over its head and the tip of its tail. Doing nothing to keep itself airborne, the dragon dropped out of the sky like an enormous stone, disappearing into the treetops and then slamming into the ground, sending a tremor throughout the orchard and knocking Sam off her feet.
She leapt to her feet almost immediately afterwards and ran towards the point of impact. Seeing as how the dragon didn't get far before Danny forced it back into his control, she didn't have to run for very long until she found him.
Danny lay on his back, half-conscious, his wings spread underneath him. Broken twigs and leaves were scattered all over him, some of them caught in his hair. He curved his neck in order to rub the back of his head with his hand as Sam approached him.
"Are you okay?"
"I think so... Don't think anything's broken... Head hurts, though."
Slowly and carefully, he pushed himself into a sitting position, then leaned forward to get up on all fours. He then turned around to face Sam, who was staring up at him with a very unusual expression... Could it be empathy?
Sam was glad to see that Danny hadn't been damaged much by the fall, and that he had prevented the dragon from harming anyone, but... They had made no progress. Once Danny switched out of his ghost form, it was like the dragon had taken complete control of him and his body. There was no way they would be able to remove the amulet if they couldn't get to it without getting injured or possibly killed. It was back to the drawing board for them.
And now, Danny was back to being a dragon. Back to the scales and the wings and the claws. As she looked into his eyes, she could tell that he was absolutely sick of being a monster. She could feel how badly he wanted to be back to his normal self. She herself knew that if she ever woke up one day and found herself in the body of such a huge, terrifying creature, she would want to make it so that even she wouldn't have to see herself, even if it meant ending her own life. She would do that to save her friends the pain of never seeing her human again, by never letting them see her again at all. That must have been how Danny felt, back at the lake, when he had seen his own reflection in the water. That must have felt absolutely terrible. As Sam looked up into Danny's eyes, she couldn't help but shed a tear for him.
"I'm so sorry, Danny..."
He looked down into her violet eyes, surprised by the sudden change of heart. What was going on with her? So I fell. Okay, maybe I banged the back of my head on the ground, but that shouldn't throw a girl into tears. Jeez, I hope she isn't going through that thing that Paulina had happening with her every few weeks. She'll end up having mood swings left and right. I don't know if I'll be able to handle that. But then again, compared to having to handle being stuck in this body, why should I be worried about handling a girl who's going through her phase? I mean, what's she going to do, punch me? Big deal. I don't even think it would hurt if she bit me. Not saying that I don't mind being bitten. But for Pete's sake, I hope she doesn't go on crying like that. If I were a girl, I'd probably cry, too. I mean, honestly, that last idea of hers didn't go too well. I do hope she comes up with something better, though...
"It's all right. We can try again later."
He reached out and touched Sam's cheek gently with the side of his talon, wiping away the tear. Sam looked up, having suddenly spotted something sparkling in the corner of her eye, something near the base of Danny's neck.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out in the distance, and she was startled out of her concentration; the glittering object faded from her vision. She turned and spotted a group of people heading towards them from the farmhouse. She could hear one of them shouting at the others.
"I'm telling you, Harry, it was too loud to be a sonic boom. It had to 've been a bomb going off!"
Sam suddenly felt herself being bodily lifted from the ground. Danny carefully took her up into one of his hands, setting her on his shoulder, where she then instinctively swung her leg around his neck and got into position for takeoff. The owners of the orchard had just set eyes on him, when all of a sudden he seemed to disappear into thin air. A strong gust of wind swept the ground where he once stood, and he took off into the sky, Sam clinging to his neck.
Soaring over the treetops, he turned until he was heading toward the skyscrapers of Amity Park, off in the distance. The mid-morning sun shone on the city, the metal structures gleaming like fire as they reflected the light. As he neared the city, he could see the familiar tower that stood atop his house.
Whatever lay in store for him next, lay in waiting for him there...