Dragonfire
Written for Yuletide 2021. For WritLarge. Happy Yuletide and Happy Holidays! hope you like this!
Characters are not mine except the ones that are. Comments and kudos are always awesome. Enjoy!
"Attention visitors, the American Museum of Natural History will be closing in thirty minutes…" comes the cheery voice over the PA system late on a Friday afternoon. The crowds are already thinning out, but now more and more guests meander toward the exits. Children are tired after a long day of experiencing all the wonders of the museum, clutching their gift shop purchases close. Their respective adults are tired, too, after an equally long day of wrangling their overly excited charges. "Thank you for coming and we hope to see you again soon."
"But Mommy!" A little boy cries out as he approaches the doors in the main lobby. "I can't find my toy!"
His mother sighs, exasperated and very much in need of a relaxing date night with her husband. At least it hadn't been his favorite toy, she tells herself as she coaxes him onward. "How about we stop and buy a new one on the way to Katie's house?" she tries, very much not above bribing her own child, especially if it means she does not have to blindside the babysitter with a very upset five-year old.
The sobbing abruptly dies out. "Really?" he asks.
"Really," she promises.
He eagerly accepts the deal and the toy he accidentally left behind in the diorama room is promptly forgotten.
It is a perfectly normal night in the museum. Down in the main lobby, Rex gives a roar upon waking, so loud that it reverberates all through the building. The Huns yell and holler as they stir, ready to set about their usual (though considerably reigned in) chaos for the night. The Cavemen are not much quieter. And, in the Hall of Miniatures, the little slices of life represented by the dioramas produce their own cacophony of sounds as they come to life, as well. Sunset is always a noisy affair.
In the West, the train whistle blows amidst the clanging of hammers on the railroad tracks. There is the shrill whinnying of horses and the sound of conversations picking up where they left off at sunrise.
However, today there is another noise.
It comes from Rome – typically there is only the sound of shouted orders (merely Octavius dismissing his loyal soldiers for the evening) and the metallic clatter of armor as the legions march off to do as they please.
But tonight there is… screaming.
Screaming, and an ominous screech from somewhere overhead.
It draws the attention of several curious Westerners, prompting several of them to head in that direction. Alarmed, Jed is the first to race toward the divide between their worlds and he finds utter chaos over the line. Something is flying over Rome, but he has no idea just what it might be. There is too much smoke to know for sure. Too much smoke and too much fire, the flames licking up from the wooden replicas of the ancient marble buildings, catching quick and spreading until most of Rome is burning. The soldiers are mostly running away from the inferno – there is nothing their weapons can do against the flames, after all – but a few stand at the ready, swords aimed at the cloud of smoke above them and whatever lies hidden there.
"Here it comes again!" someone shouts just before a bright ball of fire appears.
Beyond that, though, is something even more terrifying.
The thing that emerges from the smokescreen is unlike anything he's ever seen before. It looks a little bit like Rex. If Rex had skin. And wings. And could breathe fire. He watches as it dives down quickly, easily avoiding the shots the Romans fire off at it. Before anyone can do anything to stop it, it grabs up one of the soldiers in its massive claws and flies off. The man screams as he's taken away. Hidden by the smoke once more, there is another blast of fire, another sharp scream, and a brutal crunching noise. And then there is only silence.
"What in the Sam Hill is that thing?" Jed wonders in horror, though he tears his eyes away from the sky in order to search for Octavius while he has the chance. After a tense few seconds, he spots the General amongst those who stayed to fight, though even more are fleeing now that they've lost one of their own. He starts to work his way through the crowd, eager to get to his friend's side – they've endured many other improbable battles that way, after all.
But before he can reach Octavius, another blast of flame rains down from above. The beast is coming back for more.
As soon as the Roman's spy the creature in the clouds, they pepper it with arrows, but even when their shots land, they don't seem to do much damage to its rigid armored scales. It roars, flapping its great wings as it draws nearer and the gust it kicks up is enough to knock those on the front lines, Octavius included, to the ground. While they are still struggling back to their feet, it lands before them. It promptly snatches up another soldier – Jed recognizes the man as one of Octavius's higher ups – by the ankle and tries to drag him off, too.
Octavius is the first to get back to his feet and the first to react. Jed sees him stab his sword into the beast's side and it lets go of its captive with an angry snarl. And, while this does give several other soldiers the chance to pull the injured man to safety, it also lands Octavius squarely in the line of fire. Literally.
It lunges toward its new target, its maw opening wide enough that even Jed can see the fire catch as it prepares another blazing assault.
Jed does not think. He has no plan. No brilliant idea. Not even a dumb idea. There is only fear and dread and terror at the mere thought of losing Octavius to this winged monster. He just acts, scrambles through the jumble of the crowd and tackles Octavius out of the way of the fiery blast to take the hit himself, instead.
He hears Octavius shout his name, but beyond that is just the roar of fire all around him. He feels the heat, encompassing and intense, but suddenly there is relief - fat, wet droplets rain down from the museum ceiling, quickly extinguishing the worst of the flames all around Rome, leaving smoldering, sodden ashes behind. Jed, too, is thoroughly soaked through. There is a shrill siren wail, as well, along with some flashing, strobing light. It is deafening, blinding. Any miniatures still in range are practically paralyzed with it, and the monstrous creature is similarly disturbed. It tries to fly away, but the sound keeps it grounded. It claws at its own head in an effort to escape the grating noise, forgetting its prey for the moment.
Which is good, because, for Jed, everything fades to black.
But that is when the cavalry arrives.
The cavalry, of course, being Gigantor.
Even if Larry doesn't quite know that yet. Drawn by the sound of the fire alarm, he comes running into the diorama room as fast as he can. "What's going on up here?" He demands, more than a little surprised to see that there actually was a fire (and that the Neanderthals were not the ones to start it for once). From there, it does not take him long to spot the dragon causing all this mayhem and piece things together – some child's toy, roughly the size of a small house cat, brought to life by the magic of the tablet. He moves quickly, grabs up the creature in one hand while it's still reeling from the sound of the alarm. It struggles in his hold, tries to bite, tries to scratch, tries to breathe more fire, but Larry doesn't give it the chance. He upturns a trash bin on the other side of the room and promptly traps the beast under it. With only the heavy metal bin or the tile floor as targets, it cannot do any real damage there. That handled for the moment, he returns to Rome to survey the damage.
There, he finds Rome mostly in ruins (that will certainly be fun to explain to McPhee and the poor guy in charge of maintaining the exhibits) and the Roman soldiers in a general state of disarray – their armor is covered in soot and charred in places; there are some minor injuries, and a few more significant ones. However, it is the sight of Octavius worriedly clinging to Jed's unconscious form that concerns him most.
By the time Jed wakes, the alarm has (thankfully) stopped sounding and the world around him is blissfully silent in comparison, with only the distant chatter of museum life in the background. He blinks himself back to consciousness to find that he's no longer in the ruins of Rome, but back in the West, settled in one of the little tents there. He finds that he is not alone, either, but that Octavius is at his side. Much to Jed's relief, he looks relatively unharmed.
"Jedediah, my friend," Octavius breathes, upon realizing that he is awake. His relieved smile in infectious and Jed finds himself moving perhaps a bit more quickly than he rightly should to catch the other man in a desperate embrace. He holds tight for a long moment, glad that they survived the night's harrowing events.
It certainly wasn't how he'd expected the night to go. He'd planned to casually mosey over to Rome, wrangle Octavius into joining him for a quick drive around the museum before they met up with some of the other exhibits for a movie night downstairs. Then, maybe, if they had time before sunrise, he'd talk the Roman into joining him for a relaxing stroll through the Planetarium or a nice horseback ride through the plains in the Hall of African Mammals. Hell, maybe tonight might even have been the night he finally found the courage to tell Octavius of his feelings for him. Instead, there'd been terror and chaos and fire and flying beasts and yet another in a long line of near death experience…
"You should not have come to Rome," Octavius tells him, though the serious tone conflicts with the fact that he's still very much unwilling to release Jed from his hold. "You need not have risked yourself fighting that winged monster, nor should you have risked yourself for me yet again."
"Like I was gonna let you have all the fun," he counters, shifting away slightly. He doesn't feel great. Everything feels vaguely… raw, like someone has scraped off a layer of skin. Everything smells like smoke, too, the cloying scent seems to stick in his nose and mouth, and it makes his head ache something fierce. His clothes are an ashy mess and… he frowns, where is his hat?
Octavius seems to read his mind. He moves away, returns with the remains of what is barely recognizable as Jed's beloved black Stetson. "Better it than you," he says quietly as he passes the ruined hat to its owner.
'Better it than you.'
Jed can't help but agree, as much as he feels like he's lost a piece of himself. A small price to pay for his life, a small price to pay for Octavius's. He sets the hat aside and looks to his friend.
"I love you," he blurts out, much to his own surprise. He hadn't planned to say it any more than he'd planned to sacrifice himself to save Octavius from the fire. But it's out there now. The words floating in the space between them in the cramped little tent.
Octavius is flushed pink, stammering for words of his own and unable to find them. "I…" he starts, stops, "You do?"
"Probably shoulda realized it sooner," he says, thinking of their adventures at the Smithsonian (the last time he'd sacrificed himself to keep Octavius safe) and at the British Museum (three near death experiences in one night and the only thing that he couldn't get out of his head was "Hold my hand.") and how much time he'd wasted without a clue as to what he was missing. "You always were a step ahead of me."
"Perhaps I should have said it sooner, as well," Octavius counters, though Jed isn't quite sure he didn't say it, that he hasn't been saying it in a million other ways for years now. ("Hold my hand," he thinks again.)
"Nah, you said it plenty, compadre," Jed assures him. He reaches out, pointedly catches Octavius's hand in his own. "Just took some big dumb flying lizard nearly barbequing us to get me to man up and say it back, is all."
He leans against Octavius for a moment, reveling in this closeness, before he dares to make a move, cautiously moving in just that little bit more until their lips are nearly touching. He leaves it to Octavius to be the one to close the distance, to back away if this is too much too fast. But it isn't. Octavius pulls him into a sound kiss that's been a long time coming.
"I love you," he says again, just because he can, when they part.
"And I you."
It has been a long and eventful night (and an even longer morning spent dealing with McPhee in regards to the fire) and Larry is eager to leave for the day. But he feels compelled to check in on the diorama room before he goes.
By now, the smell of smoke has dissipated and he weaves his way through the few visitors already wandering in the area. He finds Rome curtained off for repairs, and he knows the figurines are safely boxed up downstairs. He finds the West in its usual condition, although he notes that Jed is missing from his typical place. If he had to guess, though, he'd bet he'd find the cowboy and a very out of place Roman General hidden away in a tent for the day. He's glad they're okay.
Satisfied, he turns to leave. Now, he just has to stop by the Security Office to grab the dragon toy he'd stowed in his locker so they don't have to do this all over again tonight.
"Excuse me?"
He turns to find a woman who looks to be in a bit of a rush as she lingers by the entrance to the diorama room. "Can I help you with something?" he asks, since he's still wearing the Security uniform.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but do you have a lost and found? My son left a toy here yesterday and I figured I'd stop on my way to pick him up from the babysitter and see if anyone turned it in? It's some silly dragon action figure."
Ah. "I know just what you're talking about," he says, happy to send the thing back where it belongs, where it cannot cause any further trouble for his friends. "Come with me, I'll grab it for you."
"Oh, thank you!" she says. "He'll be so glad to get it back. And hopefully we've learned a valuable lesson about leaving things where they don't belong."
If she only knew, he thinks.