Chapter 8

Ray felt a cool breeze blow on his face and woke up. He was laying up against Firedrake, who was still asleep. Sorrel was gone, however. It was closer to the evening now. He stood up and stretched, letting Firedrake sleep. He walked across his backyard and back onto his porch. Ray entered his house, and sure enough Sorrel, was in his fridge.

"Sorrel?" Ray grunted.

She spun around. "Oh, hey?" She backed away nervously.

"You're more than welcome to eat anything, but just leave some for me and don't leave a mess alright?" Ray stated.

Ray plugged his phone in and turned it on, then turned to Sorrel. He explained what had happened and where he'd been. "So, it really does work on humans, then," She said. "All this time I've been wondering."

"Do dragons do that to heal each other?" Ray said.

"All the time, actually," Sorrel responded. "I've been healed once when I broke my arm."

"So where's this new motorcycle, or whatever it's called, of yours?" Sorrel crossed her arms. Ray lead her to the garage. "Check it out."

"How fast can it go?" Sorrel asked. "

Really fast, up to two hundred miles per hour," Ray said.

Ray pulled it out of the garage and let Sorrel sit on it. "How could you even keep your balance on it, anyway?" She said as she tried to keep her balance off of the kickstand.

"You just," Ray paused. "You just do it. And it's something you'll never forget after you can."

"Can I try it?"

"Uh.. I," Ray stammered. "I couldn't really afford for you to scratch it up or crash it right now. I can take you for a ride on the back of it, though."

"Sound dangerous, based on what you told me," Sorrel replied.

"Yeah, but I'm a real good driver. You'd have to put on some clothes on though if you want to."

Sorrel thought for a minute. "I'll stink of humans for days, but okay."

Ray grabbed some clothes and shoes for her. She slipped into them, and Ray gave her his spare helmet.

He fastened it on for her and flipped down the visor, then turned the key in the motorcycle. "Let's go!" He shouted over the engine. Sorrel hesitantly got on the back of the motorcycle. "Okay, put your arms around me and hang on," Ray said.

Sorrel did as she was told, and Ray slowly drove down the driveway.

"Don't go too fast, please," She told Ray. Unfortunately for her, that's something Ray heard too many times.

He turned off of the country road, and pinned the throttle. Sorrel held onto Ray for dear life. She was screaming in fear, but Ray was laughing hysterically. He hadn't put this bike to the test yet. It accelerated faster than his old bike, and rode much smoother as well, even with two people on it. He drove side to side in between the dotted line separating the lanes of the street.

Sorrel dug her claws into Ray, but he ignored the pain. She chattered on and on for Ray to stop, but he kept going. He hit ninety miles per hour, climbing every so slowly due to the extra weight of a passenger.

The front wheel wanted to lift up, but Ray pushed it back down. He shifted all his weight forward, away from a panicking Sorrel. Sorrel leaned with him, about to drop dead. The needle dangled between one hundred and a hundred and ten, and refused to climb any further due to the excessive weight. At this point the world around him began to blur.

Ray laughed, and let go of the throttle. He cruised until he came to a safe speed, and turned around, driving casually back to his house. He pulled up the long driveway, let down the kickstand, and killed the engine.

"So, how'd you like it?" Ray turned around. Sorrel was trembling. She got off the motorcycle, not even removing the helmet or clothing, and sat down up against the wall of Ray's garage.

"Sorrel?" Ray laughed. Sorrel looked up at Ray. She pointed her finger at him. "Never. Again."

Sorrel closed her eyes. Ray burst out laughing. "Consider us even for the food and the mess you made the other day," he grinned.

The sky was turning dark, and the moon was starting to come into view. Ray parked his motorcycle closer to his garage and put a rain cover over it, weighting it down with a few rocks. He did have a car, but he preferred to drive his motorcycle and only drove his blue, beat up Honda Civic when it was raining or winter. He parked his motorcycle next to his car, which had a thick film of pollen on it from disuse.

Ray heard heavy footsteps coming across the grass and turned around. They must have woken Firedrake up. Firedrake took one look at Sorrel sprawled out on the ground, wearing a helmet and clothes, and then back at Ray and his new bike. He seemed to have figured it out what just happened.

"What did I miss, Ray?" Firedrake laughed.

"Oh, nothing much," Ray removed his helmet. "Come on, get up Sorrel."

Ray stuck out his hand and pulled Sorrel to her feet. He removed her helmet and set it down in the garage. She slipped out of Ray's clothes and handed them to him, which he tucked under his arm. Ray put his clothes on the kitchen counter and recovered his fully charged phone. He had over thirty new text messages and many, many missed calls. Then his eyes went wide. "I forgot about Ben!" Ray thought. He went to his call history and found Ben's number, grabbed his laptop, then ran back outside. "Hey, I forgot to tell you both!" Ray panted as he sat down in the grass of his backyard. "I talked to Ben before I got into the accident two days ago."

"What?" Firedrake and Sorrel said simultaneously.

"What did he say?" Firedrake craned his neck out to Ray. "Does he still live with the Greenblooms?"

"Did he ever try to come find us?" Sorrel asked.

They bombarded Ray with questions, ones that he didn't know the answer to. "How about you ask him yourself?" Ray set his laptop down on a glass patio table and logged onto Skype. He saw that Ben was online. Ray requested a video chat, and Ben immediately accepted the request.

An image of a pale, skinny teenager with dark hair appeared on the screen.

"Ray!" Ben cried. "What happened to you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ray replied. "I had some stitches done, but Firedrake healed me."

"That's great!. Where are they at?" Ben responded eagerly.

Ray turned his laptop, the built in webcam was now positioned looking at Firedrake and Sorrel. Ray made the video of Ben full screen so they could see it better.

"Ben!" Firedrake gasped.

"Firedrake, I missed you guys!" Ben wiped a tear off his face.

"You're looking taller, Ben," Sorrel blushed.

"Sorrel, I didn't forget about you!" He laughed. "You look," He paused. "You look about the same height."

Sorrel laughed.

Ray was ecstatic he was able to get them together again. Maybe not physically, but through the internet it was almost like he was here. They still hadn't really touched the subject of getting the pair back home, but Ray supposed they'd cross that bridge when they come to it.

"Ah, Ben!" Barnabas chimed in as he pulled up a chair next to Ben and set a small, human like creature down on the table next to him. "I see Ray's gotten in touch with you. Hello, Ray!" The professor waved.

"Hey, Professor."

"My dear dragon and brownie, good to see you again!" Barnabas said.

"Likewise, professor," Firedrake said.

Ray watched the small, human-like creature standing on the desk next to Ben. "Um," Ray tried to pick his words carefully, trying not to offend anyone.

"Oh!" Ben exclaimed. "Ray, this is Twigleg, Twigleg this is Ray."

"It's a pleasure," Twigleg looked up at the screen.

"Same here," Ray laughed. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"

"Well, you might say I'm a toy human," He said. "I'm a homunculus, created by an alchemist back in the middle ages."

"You must be over four hundred, then," Ray said.

"Oh yes, but I spent a good bit of it being a-" Twigleg stopped. "Never mind. Ah yes, glad to see you're both alright, Firedrake, Sorrel."

Firedrake, Sorrel, Barnabas, Ben, and Twigleg chattered on, catching up on the past seven years they'd been apart. Ray began to space out, thinking about his exams tomorrow. He also wondered if he'd been fired. Missing a day of work would be like giving Bob the middle finger. He made a mental list of things he needed to do before tomorrow.

"What do you think of that, Ray?" Ben interrupted Ray's train of thought.

"Hm?" Ray looked up at the iSight camera built into his laptop. "Oh sorry, I was kind of spacing out. Think about what?"

"About how we'd get Firedrake and Sorrel back on their way to the Rim of Heaven?" Ben answered.

"Yeah," Ray said. "Well, traveling over Europe, Africa, and the Middle East is one thing. But The United States is almost completely urbanized."

"Urbanized?" Sorrel asked.

"Cities everywhere," Ray explained. "Not only that, but the actual flight and distance would definitely be something to worry about."

"I agree," Barnabas interjected. "Staying hidden would be one thing, but flying back to the Rim from North America is another."

The professor mopped his brow. "I suppose the best way to do it would be to fly North, through Canada, Alaska, and Russia. But that would be a hefty distance, easily two or three times the distance than the original flight you made to the Himalayas."

"Yes, but let's not forget about my wing," Firedrake gestured at his splinted wing with his head.

"And we were already going on about how to get him home," Ben laughed. "How badly is it broken?"

"It's fractured," Ray said. "Since I splinted it in time, it should grow back correctly."

"Oh, and about the windstorm," Twigleg chimed in. "I believe we've found something on it."

"Thank you Twigleg, I was just getting to that," The professor said. "I did some research on wind activity, and it seems something strange was happening in that area."

"Go on," Sorrel said,

"Yes, it seems the Chinese and Russian Armies had tested a weapon on the day you said the incident occurred." The professor nodded.

"Now, they had announced this publicly to the UN and whatnot, I assume you know what that means, Ray."

"I know what the United Nations is," Ray said.

"Alright, the weapon was an Electromagnetic Pulse, or more commonly known as EMP. The energy created when the bomb detonates can stir up the wind, cause electrical storms, and in some cases distort reality."

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Sorrel crossed her arms.

"That makes sense," Firedrake said. "We were a bit far away from the Rim when it happened."

"Was there anyone else with you?" Ben asked.

"No, we were alone. Another dragon had gone missing and we went out to look for them, a few days journey from the Rim of Heaven."

"What happened during this windstorm? Was there a loud 'bang', or any thing else that happened?"

"Not that I can remember, I just remember it seemed like we were flying for an entire night over the mountains, and I was caught in a wind cyclone. I was spun around so much, everything was such a blur. After I got control again, everything was different."

"Yep," Sorrel interrupted. "The first thing I noticed was how humid it is here. It makes my fur curl sometimes, it's that bad."

"I'm afraid you might have wandered a bit too close to a Chinese military testing site," Barnabas sighed.

"But why?" Firedrake asked. "Why would they set off something like that in the middle of nowhere?"

"That's what the government does when they need to test weapons," Ray said. "They test them in areas away from people, so they won't kill civilians or cause unwanted effects to towns and cities."

"Enough about that," Ben said. "Ray, I was talking to my dad." Ben gestured to Barnabas. Ben got a bit shy. "Go on, ask him," Barnabas smiled nervously and nudged Ben. "Do you think maybe Twigleg and I could," Ben looked away from the screen. "Maybe, come stay with you, for the summer? Maybe we could try and figure out how to get Firedrake back on his way to the Himalayas."

Ray smiled. Firedrake and Sorrel looked at him longingly. How could he say no?

"Of course you can!" He laughed.

"Ray, do I need to speak to you parents or anything about this?" Barnabas asked.

Ray paused. "No. I'm alone until late September. I think it might even be best if my mother doesn't know about this. Firedrake's wing should heal in the next few months, maybe weeks."

"That's good," Ben was beaming with happiness, but he shyly turned his head to hide his smile.

There was a familiar beeping sound, and looked up in the upper right corner of the screen. Ray's laptop was low on battery, so he had to let The Greenblooms go. He closed his laptop just as the screen flickered, and stuffed it in his backpack. They were going to send him Ben's flight information so Ray could pick him up.

For now, Firedrake and Sorrel explored his vast backyard, and Ray went back to his room to study for his exams. He called Bob and explained to him the accident, but that he was wearing his jacket and rolled so he suffered no damage.

"I'd love to see the new bike, maybe wrecking it wasn't a bad thing, eh?" Bob laughed over the phone. "Get your rest, but I'll need you to work at least on Friday. We've got about twenty bikes and they need to be done by this weekend."

"I've got exams everyday this week," Ray said. "How about Saturday? I could be there all day."

"Okay, I've got you down from Saturday at nine to six, sound alright?"

"Sounds good, I'll see you saturday,"

"Be careful on that new bike, Ray. Have a good one."

Ray hung up his phone and stared at a pile of books, then out his back window. The sun had set, and since Firedrake and Sorrel were nocturnal, they weren't just going to sit around all night. He told them there was a lake farther back on his property, which consisted of about 50 acres of woodland, surrounded by pastures and cornfields.

It really was a house in the middle of nowhere, another reason Ray's grandfather insisted he get a rifle and take a gun safety course at an early age. He lived with his mother, but since she was gone so often during most of his life, he became very independent. He could cook, clean, do laundry, and keep the yard in order. Thanks to his job, he could repair problems to his motorcycle, and was able to fix basic engine trouble on his car.

His eyes started to get heavy at one in the morning, and decided to call it a night. He didn't feel too confident in what he'd just studied, but it would have to do.

Ray crawled into Bed, his mind racing on school the next day, the exam, Ben coming to visit, and what he'd tell the hospital.

What could he tell them? He just healed and the stitches undid themselves with no scarring? They would probably put him under some medical tests to see what's going on. His thoughts were racing so much, an hour had already gone by that he'd been kept up. Ray opened a drawer next to his bed and withdrew a bottle of sleeping pills. He popped one into his mouth and swallowed it, then laid back in bed.

Ray just decided he wouldn't return the hospital's calls and not go in for the check ups, even if his mother would call and demand he go. It wasn't worth exposing them. The sleeping pill had gone to work, and he felt close to sleep. Soon enough, he was out.