CH35
"Hi Mom." Kate entered the house just ahead of Rick and Alexis and was greeted by two very happy dogs followed a moment later by a third bounding puppy. "Katie!" Johanna made it past the dogs to hug her daughter. "How was your trip?" she asked not knowing what they had really been doing. "Your timing is almost perfect, I was thinking about starting dinner for myself. Now I can add 3 more people." Which got Johanna to head for the kitchen.
"You want to help? I need the chicken cut into smaller pieces," Johanna said. "Sure, just let me wash first," Kate told her since she and Rick had been cleaning up blood and hauling dead bodies. She elected to wait for Rick to dump the bodies at his home with Alexis.
She was soon back to cut the chicken up into parts and then into pieces. "Are we going out to look at the restaurant tomorrow?" Kate asked her. "We can do that but don't you have work tomorrow?" Johanna replied. "My car broke down so I don't know what I'll be doing," she admitted since she and Rick needed to discuss what to do about the last two days.
"I plan on going during lunch, so if you can make it that's where I'll be," Johanna told her. "We'll just have to see Mom. When is Oscar coming back out again?" Kate asked innocently only to see Johanna fumble with the wood spoon she had in her hand then dropped on the floor. "I don't actually know. He talked about coming out in a few weeks and then again a week before we open." Johanna picked up her spoon and washed it in the sink.
"So you like Oscar?" Kate teased her mother. "WHAT!?" Johanna turned on Kate to question her about where that came from. "Come on Mom, you… OW!" Kate yanked her hand up to her mouth and stuck her finger in her mouth. "Let me see Katie," Johanna coaxed. "Take your finger out of your mouth and show me what you've done." She pulled Kate's finger out of her mouth and looked at it as blood quickly welled up. She grabbed the first thing she could find so she could hand it to Kate which turned out to be a paper towel; she pressed it to Kate's finger. "Hold that and let it stop bleeding and go clean up," Johanna instructed her.
Kate headed for the downstairs bathroom and started working on her finger. Eventually she came back to finish cutting the chicken. "Oh no, you'll get blood all over our dinner. Get out and go do something else." Johanna gave her a little push. "It's just a little cut Mom, I'll be fine," Kate insisted. "You'll get to keep the finger, yes, but look at it, it's still bleeding," Johanna pointed out as she handed her another paper towel and pushed harder to get her out of the kitchen.
"I'm going, I'm going," she grumbled and went for her bag she dropped at the door. "I'm going to look at this book again," she said loudly as Rick stepped into the kitchen to take over for Kate.
Alexis was on the floor playing with Patch while Midas and Maggie tried to get her to play too. "Now how do you open this thing?" Kate started turning it around in her hands with a Band-Aid® over her cut as well as a paper towel.
"You sure there's no…" Kate stopped talking when one of the bands holding the book closed suddenly unwound itself from the book like it was being un-stitched. "IT OPENED! IT OPENED!" she called out excitedly. Rick, Johanna, and Alexis hurried over to look. "What's inside?" Rick asked as he got to her. "I don't know. Only one of the bands has let loose," she said. "Well, how did you do it? Just do it to the other one," he suggested. If she did it once just do it again. "I didn't do anything except for turning it over and over in my hands," Kate admitted.
"Do it again then," he said as they watched her do it over and over again getting nothing. "What did you do the first time that you didn't this time?" Rick asked. "HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW?" she snapped, and looked at the strap that was now loose.
One end really did look like it had literally been stitched into the book. There was no slot in the book to fit the end back into; it was just hanging loose. Kate took her paper towel off her finger to wipe the blood that was now on the strap. Rick quickly stopped her. "Did it have blood on it before? I mean was it already bloody or did you do it?" he asked her."I don't know, I don't think so," she replied which gave her an idea as she took her dried up bloody Band-Aid® off. She squeezed her finger to get it to bleed a little again and smeared it across the remaining band that locked the book closed.
They all watched as the band un-stitched itself from the book and fell away. All of them stood there staring at it. "Are you going to read it?" Alexis broke the silence while looking at Kate. She breathed in deeply, let it out slowly, and opened the book to the first page. What happened next astounded all of them.
Suddenly there was a huge head of a dragon hanging above the book. It was translucent and had a silvery color to it. Its eyes looked old, like they had seen way too much. Where once it looked like they knew rage, it now looked like they were weary and knew pain. It had two large horns that reached up into the ceiling and disappeared. Its mouth was full of teeth that were still dagger sharp.
"You are the Last of the Dragons, an Amethyst Gem Dragon. A true neutral dragon. Not all good, not all evil, you are from a family of Black Dragons. Everything you need is in this book. There is no one to teach you and for that I'm eternally sorry. My personal prayer is that you have someone who loves you and that life will grant you many children so that our race does not completely die out. However if that is not the case, do not feel sad for us. In life there is death - for everyone. You are now the most powerful living dragon on the planet. Read, practice and live. That is all I really ask. May your ancestors smile on you and your life and any that love you."
They watched the giant dragon's head slowly fade away while smiling a smile filled with teeth. He left silence in his wake. "I love you." Alexis broke the silence with her declaration. Kate opened her arms wide to lift her up and hold her. "You're not afraid of me?" she asked. After all she was a dragon. She felt Alexis shake her head which earned her a kiss to her head. "I'm really a dragon," Kate stated not sure if she even believed it even if she had lived it.
The head had been huge and it was intimidating even if it wasn't real. "The last?" she whispered. How could she be the last? Just what did a last of anything do? "If I'm the last dragon then Dad must have been the last dragon. Why couldn't he open it?" she wondered but began looking at the book for answers.
"What does it say? Can you read that scribble?" Rick asked because the markings in the book were unfamiliar. Kate, however, was shaking her head. She didn't have a was obviously written by hand as the outer edge of the 'words?' was ornate and likely filled with gold leaf. It was beautifully illustrated, the painted colors vivid and still bright as the day they were done. The book having been closed for centuries had protected the colors, the gold leaf, and the pages themselves.
'In the ages long past, before man became the dominant life form, the skies were filled with dragons.' Kate heard the dragon inside her telling her what the book said. She just let it continue and turned the page when her dragon was done.
"It talks about a time long ago when dragons filled the land with both good and bad. The father of us all was a good dragon, however his wife fell to evil and so began a war. A war between dragons. Men were only a side show, a nuisance, and were forced to watch as the world burned," Kate told them. "You can read that!?" Rick asked incredulously. "Not me, my dragon can. She's reading to me then I'm telling you what she says," Kate informed them.
"Well, I'm going to go finish making dinner, you can give me the highlights later," Johanna said. "You want to take the dogs outside and play pumpkin? It's too small in here for Midas and Maggie," Rick said. "Okay." And out the front door all the dogs went after Alexis called to each of them.
Kate kept turning pages until she got to the first illustration of a dragon. It was amazingly detailed and filled with color. "It's a Gold Dragon, a good dragon that obeyed the laws of the dragon land. It talks about it having two different types of breath weapons. One was fire and the other was a gas. It could breathe underwater and it had powers." Kate accentuated that last part. "Do you have powers?" Rick asked already knowing that she could breathe fire.
She turned the page and found what powers it had on the back of the page as well as a drawing of the next dragon. "It's a Silver Dragon, another good dragon. It says its breath weapon was cold or a gas, and it has powers too." Kate turned the page to see its powers and the picture of the next dragon.
Copper Dragon, Brass Dragon, Bronze Dragon. She turned page after page. "WOW, that one is right out of the movies." Rick pointed to the next one. "It's a Red Dragon, an evil dragon with a breath weapon of fire only. It also has powers," she told him and turned the page.
"A Black Dragon like my father. MOM COME LOOK!" she yelled which got Johanna to hurry from the kitchen, step in behind Kate, and look over her shoulder. "Your father. All black with black eyes, except for the teeth," Johanna recalled, not having seen her husband looking like this in a very long time.
"It says black dragons are sometimes known as skull dragons because of their skeletal faces. Adding to the skeletal impression is the gradual deterioration of the hide around the base of the horn and the cheekbones. This deterioration increases with age and does not harm the dragon. They have a breath weapon of acid. They can breathe underwater Mom and they have powers." She turned the page to read about them and saw the next dragon to be read about.
"It says Dad could create darkness around him. Do you know how old Dad was? It says the older he was the more powers he gained." Kate turned to look at her mother who only shook her head. "We only kept track of his human years, not his dragon years," Johanna was forced to admit; she had never seen her husband display any of his powers.
White Dragon, Blue Dragon, Green Dragon. "Turtle Dragon?" Kate was shocked. It even looked like a turtle. Deep green shell with lighter colors of green and blue highlighting it. It even had flecks of gold leaf mostly around its head and tail. "Up to 25 feet in diameter and weighs as much as 32,000 pounds," Kate read as Rick whistled in amazement. "It breathes steam. It can breathe water and can capsize ships just over 60 feet in length," she read, or more accurately, explained what her dragon was telling her. "It has powers too," she mentioned.
They could see the picture of the next dragon just as Johanna called out that dinner was ready. Rick went to the door to get Alexis and the dogs back inside. "Have you found you in that book?" Johanna asked as they sat down to eat. "Not yet but I have a lot of pages to read still. You're sure Dad never read this book?" Kate questioned her mother again. "Not that I know of. I'd almost forgotten that I still had it. I'm not even really sure why I kept it. Your father was gone, you didn't show any signs of being a dragon..." She could have easily tossed it in the trash.
Johanna was cleaning up after dinner. "We need to come up with a plan about what I'm going to do about my car, the bugs in it as well as the one that was on my tool belt. Not to mention what to do about our beloved sheriff," Kate pointed out. "How about you go back to reading and let me think. How would I write this for us to come out on top?" he mused. "I need my laptop," he announced and went out to his truck.
"Crystal Dragon, the friendliest of the Gem Dragons. …I'm friendly," Kate said in relief. "Breath weapon is a blinding light." She turned the page and read its powers.
"Emerald Dragon, the most inquisitive of the Gem Dragons. I'm inquisitive, too," she told herself. "Breath weapon is sound. …Interesting." She turned the page and read about its powers.
"Sapphire Dragon, territorial and distrustful of others. Well, that's not me," she murmured. "Breath weapon is sound again. Fascinating." Kate turned the page and read its powers just as Rick came back and sat in the living room to start dreaming up how they were going to get out of the mess with the sheriff's department.
"Topaz Dragon, unfriendly and selfish. Well, that certainly isn't me," she remarked. "Breath weapon is dehydration. Suck the water out of the victim. Oooo, sounds bad." She turned the page to read its powers. "I FOUND ME, I FOUND ME!" she shouted which got everyone including Alexis to come running.
"That's you Kate." Alexis remembered that look from before. "Yes sweetie, that's me. Dang I look good." She was impressed with herself, but then she always did love the color purple.
"Amethyst Dragon, wise and regal," she read. "Humph, fat lot this book knows," Rick teased. "Careful babe or I'll breathe on you." Kate glared at him knowing that he was just teasing. "They have lavender skin with small scales of a light, translucent purple that as they grow older will gradually darken and take on a crystalline quality. The scales are shaped like mineral crystals. Their primary power is Psychokinesis. …What the heck is Psychokinesis?" She had never even hear the word before.
"Psychokinesis is an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Used to influence external objects or events without the use of physical energy," Rick told them the description that was in his head from all of his reading. "Which means what?" Kate was still lost. "Think of it as a form of telekinesis which is the ability to move objects with your mind," he told her. "YOU'RE KIDDING ME!?" She had never done such a thing or even thought about it. 'Only in dragon form,' her dragon informed her. "Only as a dragon," she whispered to herself, though everyone heard her.
"What are my powers?" Kate turned the page to find more writing on the next page, though there were a number of pages yet to read. "I can spit a gem up to 75 feet away that instantly explodes doing damage to anyone in the blast area. …I can spit a grenade!?" She was shocked. She just thought she could do a breath weapon of intense fire.
"When I was born I had immunity to poisons. That certainly explains a lot," Kate commented. "That day when you were bitten by a copperhead as a child...your father and I just about had a heart attack. We rushed you to the hospital and they found the bite but told us that you had no symptoms so they decided that the snake didn't inject you with its venom." Johanna still remembered that day. They both thought their little girl was going to die.
"Resistance to heat when I was very young. What age am I now?" she wondered since it was all related to the age of the dragon. "Juvenile!? I'm a kid? How can I be a kid when I'm an adult?" Kate was pissed and offended. "What ages are there?" Rick inquired. She went down the list. "Wyrmling 0-5, very young 6-15, young 16-25, juvenile 26-50, young adult 51-100, adult 101-200, mature adult 201-400, old 401-600, very old 601-800, ancient 801-1,000, wyrm 1,001-1,200 and great wyrm 1,201 or more," Kate read off.
"I guess that explains why you're a juvenile instead of an adult," Rick remarked. Kate, however, didn't hear a word he said. "I'm going to live to be 1,200 years old!?" She started having trouble breathing at this revelation and turned to look at Rick as her tears started. "I'm going to live for hundreds of years after you die! That's not fair, so not fair," she wept. She didn't notice what she had just revealed to her mother, not that she cared at the moment.
"Not necessarily," he replied as he took her hand, dragged her outside, and closed the door behind him. "RICK!?" The thought of watching him die and then living without him was shattering her heart. "You remember when we bonded and we exchanged chemicals and hormones?" he prompted her and watched Kate wipe at her tears and nod her head.
"Well, when I did that I was increasing your human lifespan to basically match mine. But you're a shifter, so when you gave me your chemicals and hormones, you increased my lifespan to essentially match yours. It's not a perfect match by any means, but it should be something close," he said comfortingly.
"You mean…you're not going to…I won't…" She launched herself into his arms and kissed him with as much passion for their future as she could put into it.