Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Leander opened his eyes and saw the ceiling of a dimly lit barnlike building. He didn't know where he was. He blinked his eyes trying to shake off the fuzzy feeling in his brain.
"Seth said you will be drowsy for a while," a girl's voice said sadly.
He looked over into the girl's teary eyes.
"Who are you?" he asked. He had his head in the lap of a very pretty but very sad girl. Her warm hand was holding his hand resting on his chest. Her other hand caressed his cheek.
"I'm Kendra, your friend," she replied. "Do you know who you are?" she asked. She didn't want to panic too soon, after all a wraith had zapped him and Seth had been in his mind messing around.
Who am I? He thought staring at the ceiling.
Who am I? He thought again and the answer that came to him was unexpected.
Oh! Huh? What am I? He thought surprised and confused. He lifted his head and looked at his body he was definitely human. He lowered his head back into her lap and looked into her eyes.
"Um, I'm Leander Day but somehow I think I'm also a dragon named Raxtus. Is that right?" he answered reluctantly. He expected her to laugh at him but she didn't laugh. She just nodded.
Suddenly it sounded like all hell had broken loose just outside the door. Leander jumped up, got his bearings and stumbled to the door. He walked out into the bright sunlight looking for the source of the horrific caterwauling and screeching metallic noise.
Also curious, Kendra followed Leander out of the building. Her eyes widened in alarm when she saw Bracken and Seth armed with swords. Then she stood frozen with terror as she caught sight of the demon moving into sight from around the corner of the building. Demons had that affect on most humans.
"This is crazy," Leander muttered staring wide eyed at the bizarre fight happening in front of him. He didn't notice Kendra freeze at the doorway.
Seth and Bracken were in combat against a nine foot tall foul looking demon. Bracken had one of his swords and Seth had the other. The caterwauling and screeching metallic sound was coming from the demon that was attacking them with ten inch claws and poison breath.
When unicorn horns transformed into swords it did not diminish their capacity to heal their wielders; therefore, the swirling poison cloud surrounding them had no effect. However, their small advantage was not gaining them any ground against the demon. The distractor spell had no effect on the demon or Bracken but Seth was limited to five feet from the building or the spell would send him running for the other side a thousand feet away.
The demon caught sight of Kendra and Leander as they appeared at the doorway and spat a concentrated cloud of poison toward them. Still able to move, Leander managed to jump away from the oncoming cloud. The roiling green miasma grazed his arm but Kendra, frozen with fear, received the full hit.
Leander saw her fall.
Several things happened at once in Leander's mind. First, he panicked seeing Kendra's face instantaneously turn a blistering red and he feared for her life, and then he felt his own excruciating pain. The skin on his hand and arm were blistering but the poison went deeper slowly worming its way into his body, causing his nervous system to shut down, the pain was so horrible. Then the voice he heard in his delirium came back to him; the voice that identified itself as his magic. "Use me! I am at your service," it stated calmly. Leander felt anything but calm, he felt he was dying.
"No! Kendra!" Bracken screamed and tried to get to her but the demon saw his movement and counter-moved to block him.
Knowing he was probably dead anyway, Leander screamed at the demon to gain its attention, hopefully at least, to allow Bracken to save Kendra. It turned back toward him. The demon growled and opened his maw to exhale more poison.
"No!" Leander roared. He reached deep inside himself and pulled the magic to him, all of it. He threw his hands up, palms forward. "Destroy," he breathed vengefully, believing it was his last breath. Chaos exploded in front of him and raced toward the demon. Lightening, ice and fire caught the demon in the chest. Instantaneously, it burst into thousands of tiny sparking burning hailstones, swirling in a bizarre crackling blizzard they rained across the grassy lawn.
With Leander's distracting scream, Bracken raced to Kendra's side, his sword shifting back into a unicorn horn, a healing wand. Even before the demon's dramatic explosive disappearance, he fearfully watched her as he neutralized the demon's poison and channeled his healing power. When she took a breath, he almost collapsed with relief. Leander's diversion allowed him to get to her in time. The crackling, icy heat of a spell racing past him and the exploding demon were something that occurred just on the edge of his awareness. His relief was stronger with the knowledge that he didn't have to return to the fight and leave Kendra again.
Seth tried desperately to use his shadow skills to influence the demon to stop or leave. He watched amazed as a speeding fireball hit the demon. Stunned he watched the demon explode and its burning remnants blow away from them. He wondered where the fireball had come from but was grateful for its appearance. He ran to his sister, gasping at the bright red burns and blisters on her exposed skin but sighed with relief when he realized she was still breathing and the redness was lessening with Bracken's healing ministrations.
As soon as the chaotic madness that had formed in front of Leander sped toward its intended target, he fell to his knees and began coughing. The spell drained the rest of his energy and left him weak. The nerves in his arm had shut down. His lungs burned as if he were on fire; he knew when his lungs shut down he would die. He collapsed to the ground but continued to cough feebly. He knew he was near death, with each breath he was surprised that he wasn't already dead.
Bracken sensed Leander's weakened condition when he heard the desperate wheezing cough. He looked over where Leander had fallen next to him and noticed the red burns on him also. He lifted the horn from Kendra and reached out; the tip of it touched Leander's chest and healed him, neutralizing the demon's poison. With Leander's comforted sigh, Bracken's attention moved back to Kendra.
Leander breathed easier; the burning in his lungs was gone, the nerves in his arm started to tingle uncomfortably but healthily. He closed his eyes, relieved he wasn't going to die but he felt so drained, he just wanted to sleep.
Seth, tired from the fight, sat with his unconscious sister. He was gaping at the spectacle on the wide expanse of the grassy lawn. The small clumps of dirty-brown ice were still burning and sparking. It was definitely a weird and wonderful sight.
"Bracken, where did that come from?" Seth asked him waving his hand toward the field littered with burning ice and handed him his sword.
"I don't know," he replied, replacing his sword in its sheath, with a surreptitious look at Leander. "Let's get them into the building," Bracken said to Seth.
"I can't move," Leander whispered weakly.
Bracken picked up Kendra and carried her back into the relative safety of the building.
Seth crouched next to Leander's head, slipping his hands under Leander's arms and around his chest. He easily lifted and pulled his friend up from the ground. He was surprised how light Leander was, he seemed so muscular and he ate so much at every meal that Seth expected him to weigh about the same or more than he did. Seth quickly moved him inside the building. Leander didn't open his eyes or respond at all, his heels dragging in the dirt. He settled Leander flat on the floor next to where Bracken had brought Kendra. Seth thought he looked uncomfortable with his hands at his side, so he placed them on his stomach and rummaged in the backpack for something to put under his head. He found a towel and rolled it up like a pillow. He put his hand under Leander's neck and raised his head.
Leander gasped and cursed. "Well, that did it," he sighed, his voice a soft whisper, his eyes still closed. Bracken who was cradling Kendra's head in his lap looked up at the unexpected and uncharacteristic outburst.
"Did I hurt you?" Seth asked stopping his attempt to move Leander's head.
"No. I'm screwed," he sighed again. "I'm human now no matter what."
"You renounced your dragon form," Seth said sadly, remembering the reason Leander went into the little barn in the first place.
"No, I didn't. I changed my mind," he whispered sadly.
Bracken looked back at Kendra relieved with the news, but he continued to listen to their whispered conversation.
"What is the problem then?" Seth asked, confused.
"When I woke up I didn't know myself… I heard the … screams. I saw her fall … you couldn't get to her. I had to do something … so I threw all of me …" Leander's voice faded into silence.
"All of you? What do you mean?" Seth asked puzzled not sure he had heard his soft voice correctly.
"That was powerful dragon magic. That was you?" Bracken said with sudden realization at what had happened. He hadn't actually seen anyone cast the spell. He had only heard and seen the result. Leander had done it, somehow.
"What? You found your… dragon magic?" Seth stammered looking from Bracken to Leander and back again.
"What did I do?" Leander asked, his voice a gravelly whisper. He was unable to open his eyes or turn his head he was so exhausted.
"Well, if you did that, you cast a spell, a massive spell. I felt fire and ice and maybe lightening or electricity," Bracken told him.
"I saw a crackling fireball hit the demon and explode it, and I saw wind, if you can see wind. It blew all that burning demon ice away from us. None of it hit us or even came close," Seth added, thoroughly awed that it was Leander who had cast the spell.
"You are going to be very tired for a while since you have never cast spells before, it could have killed you. That was quite a feat of magic, but I think that if you had held back anything we would still be fighting the demon," Bracken told him, worried but very impressed.
"Can't revert to Raxtus anymo…" he said and his voice faded away again.
"No one saw what you did, except us," Seth told him. "We killed the demon, well, you killed it," he admitted.
Bracken reached over and laid his hand on Leander's chest not exactly healing him but giving him more strength.
"Doesn't matter," he moaned feeling some of his strength return. "If Raxtus is anywhere near another dragon they will know."
"Know what? That you have dragon magic now?" Bracken asked.
"Yes … I cast frost magic," Leander answered softly, reluctantly.
"Oh crap," Seth gasped, he could barely hear him but he did catch the last two words. The two words Leander considered his death sentence.
"Oh Leander," Bracken sighed sadly. It was the worst good news that the boy could get.
"Uh huh!" he sighed, he wanted to cry but he didn't have enough energy.
"But how will they know?" Seth asked him.
Long moments passed as Leander gathered enough strength to speak again.
"Dragons have their way of knowing. Once you reach a certain age a mature dragon can scan you and know you…." His whispered voice faded away as tears formed in his eyes. He remember his recent dreams, his father scanning him, knowing him…
"So if they scan you, they know what you can do, but only if you are in your dragon form," Bracken clarified.
"Yes," he hissed and several tears ran down his cheek.
"So now you have to deal with magic," Bracken said wondering what had happened to cause the dragon magic to appear suddenly. He was certainly grateful that it had, for without his help Kendra would have died. Leander was definitely a mystery.
"Yes, that too," he sighed and took a moment to breathe slowly. The tears stopped forming though his sadness had not. His heart ached with the thought that he was indeed a Frost dragon. He did not want the dubious distinction, and just acknowledging it felt like a horrible curse.