Page 19

Bravery

Fae

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F ae’s feet are caked with dirt and dust, but what else can she expect from a wasteland like Sapphire Island?

The friendliest island of them all, Fae was greeted by civilians who always thank people for visiting or welcoming people back home. Even with how late it was when she arrived. She found a spot under the station platform and fell asleep until the morning.

The only perk to its desolate state is it gives more freedom for dragons to fly about. If only Fae can scream to all of them to be careful, even if the murders are happening elsewhere but Sapphire.

“That’d be too easy,” Fae whispers, walking down a barely visible street through a foggy stretch of buildings. Mildred is clever enough to not draw attention to the quietest island on Zeala.

Nothing ever happens here.

She’s so tired but she’s out of coins to spare for food or rest. She’s light on her feet, still to make sure no one spots her. Even if nothing happens here, Mildred has something brewing. Guards may prowl or not if they aren’t expecting Fae to be this close to the action.

She slips between weathered cars and through deep alleys by dumpsters. Two kids are playing sidewalk games they drew with a worn rock as they talk about not having chalk. They ask her to join because well... she looks like she belongs here. Her heart strings tug forward to join and be part of something fun, to belong, but her reality is much different from theirs. Her heart drops when she can’t find a single Trace Mark on either of their arms.

“I’m starving,” she whispers. “Is there anything open right now?”

“There’s a pub at the end of the street, friend. They’re known to help with free food,” the boy says. Dirt smears his face and mats his greasy hair.

“Thank you.” Fae bows to both kids and ducks back out onto the main road. She stays on the sidewalk, walking by people who don’t pay her a second thought.

Fae believes she’s found the pub with its rickety, faintly flashing “Open” sign hanging by one makeshift wire thread. She crosses the street at the same time a wingless dragon lands on the roof of the building.

Weariness becomes Fae; she’s gone too long without tea and if she overdoes it with her powers, she’ll go Berserk.

The golden scaled, white bearded dragon looks down at her. Golden horns protruding from its head.

“I’m sorry. I can’t talk right now,” she whispers.

The dragon doesn’t move or even acknowledge her. They look onward at the sky and growls. Fae rushes inside the pub, stinging relief spreading through her blistering feet as she settles into the wooden floor.

A man with bruises and musky overalls immediately approaches her with his heavy boots, olive skin obscured by his thick arm hair and scrapes.

Fae inhales and cringes backwards, until the man smiles.

“Come, come. You look like you needa food,” his guttural voice says. Fae stays planted by the door, but her curiosity betrays her when she smells the heavy richness of some kind of pasta cuisine by the empty bar.

Jazz music is faint in the background, but the man returns with a plate of sushi rolls, and fettuccine noodles coated in a creamy white sauce. Fae inhales the whole plate with her bare hands, not waiting for a fork to be given to her. She had better manners before running away, but the luxurious life under King Remington’s roof feels like decades ago. The man comes back with a steaming mug and a tea bag steeping.

“Isa black tea,” he chuckles bashfully with a twang. “I saw that Trace Mark of yers and figged you need sum.”

“Thank you, sir,” Fae says quietly. The mug almost slips from her saucy fingers, so she grabs the base, ignoring the heat radiating to her palm. Warmth was also returning to her body and limbs, restoring her concentration and motivation to keep going.

As nice as the treat is from a stranger, Fae has to keep moving.

When the man turns away, Fae chugs the hot tea down her throat and drops the plate before dashing out of the building and running down the street. She doesn’t look back but doesn’t hear anyone after her either. Maybe it’s expected, but she still appreciated the kindness and didn’t expect anything different from a Sapphirian.

Turn a sharp left at the street corner, the white bearded dragon from before descends in front of her. Fae’s mind tingles.

“Friend, what’s wrong?” she huffs, quickly scanning her surroundings.

“I need to help my friends.”

Fae nods. “Do your friends happen to be trapped in a warehouse?”

The wingless dragon groans and bows its head.

“Yes. Please hop on. I can take you there.”

She wastes no time climbing up the large snout and holding onto one of the horns as the dragon soars upward and takes off.

The caffeine finally hits when the jitters take over Fae’s legs as she shifts on the dragon’s head frequently. Her flying friend growls a few times but doesn’t say anything in displeasure while soaring through the gray sky.

Her heart beats too close to the walls of her chest as the warehouse comes into view, but Fae instructs the dragon to land sooner so they aren’t spotted by Guards on guard. She hasn’t thought through how to get in or what the plan will be.

The dragon parks itself two blocks away from the expansive field that houses the giant warehouse, tucking itself between buildings because it doesn’t have wings. Fae slides off without thinking and sprints for the building. Whatever is happening in there, she needs to stop it.

She weaves through the last few blocks with a straight shot to the warehouse. There’s a large entrance where cargo trucks are exiting from, so that’ll be her entry point.

With no plan, Fae ceases the pattern of patrolling Guards, disregarding cameras and runs when there’s an opening. Her dragon friend flies by the warehouse, catching everyone’s attention, letting Fae slip through the giant double doors, heart racing and anticipating the worst.

She immediately rolls to the side to hide herself behind an unknown machine when she hears voices from the other side of the room. Cages are everywhere.

All full of captured dragons of different sizes.

Maybe it’s the tea, or the determination but she isn’t sure how she managed to propel herself this far. Maybe she can do this by herself after all.

No time for stealth. She takes a moment to catch her breath but follows where the voices are coming from. In his glory, bulging veins and all, Fae spots the cheddar cheese man of fake tans with his blue dress suit.

Roon.

Fae maintains her crouched position and waits for Roon to storm out the room while he screams at Guards on the operations. She stares at the dozens of caged dragons whining and begging for help. Her mind is so overloaded that her vision tilts red briefly.

Her head pulsates from the building throb on the side of her head. Too many trapped dragons and each has their own latch to free them. Fae looks up and sees the steel panels of the ceiling that look capable of opening. If she can find the switch to that, then she can free the dragons.

“Are you here for us, human?” one dragon asks. Fae looks at the cage she’s next to. The big eyes of the violet scaled dragon squeezes her heart as tears the size of her head leaks from the stunning creature. Another wingless one.

“Y-Yes,” Fae whispers.

“You understand me.” The relief is apparent in their silky, shaky voice. “We’ve been trapped for so long, but we don’t understand why or what’s happening. I feel the world dying. Is someone intentionally killing us?”

“Yeah, and I’m trying to get you all out before that happens. Can you breathe any magic?”

“One dragon did and scorched a Guard badly. They were taken away shortly after that and never seen again. I can’t believe it’s for a good reason either.”

Yikes.

“Okay, well uh, I just have to find the switch and—”

“FAAEE!” Roon’s singsong voice burst back into the room from the exit. “What a lovely surprise. I wondered if you’d show up here eventually to talk to your buddies.”

Fae wastes no time and runs for the grated stairs above the exit, keeping her eyes open for any switches or levers she can pull but none is within her reach. Roon and two Guards are hot on her heels that she shivers every time she feels a trace of someone touching her back to grab her. The grates bother her feet, but it’s either pain or torture.

It’s like a fire escape that Fae keeps climbing up and running across, and eventually there’ll be an end and hopefully a door to slip through.

Someone grabs her ankle and yanks her abruptly that she drops to her knees.

“Come, honey, Mildred has been waiting for you.” The crazed stare in Roon’s eyes only proves Fae’s point further in needing to stop the madness. She tries to kick with her spare leg and crawl away, but Roon’s tattooed hand has a firm grip as he pulls her closer until Fae wraps her fingers around the grates of the walkway.

“Let go,” Roon growls. He looks back at a Guard. “Grab her hands!”

“No!” Fae screams.

A dragon crashes through the window, spraying glass everywhere and cutting Fae’s exposed skin.

The golden wingless dragon from earlier.

The commotion only halts Roon for a second as he continues his advancement toward Fae. She gets up and rushes to a window, contemplating if she’d even survive jumping several stories out of a building. But her chance to ponder it is cut short.

The dragon blasts through the Guards wrapping ropes around them and forcefully bumps into Fae, pushing her right out the window.

No, no, no!

The last thing she sees is the dragon being muzzled and pulled from the window as Roon looks out with blood dripping from his face. Her senses snap shut upon impact that darkens the world around her.

F ae wakes up drifting in the sky. She gasps and sits up, searching her surroundings. The spiky scales she lies on brings her back to Gigi until she looks down and realizes...

She’s riding on her back!

“Gigi?!” Fae screams.

“Hush, Fee. Gigi is concentrating.”

“On what?” Fae looks up to discover another small dragon in front of Gigi leading the way. She’d recognize those sparkling silver scales and butterfly wings anywhere.

Poppy.

“Did you both follow me to Sapphire?” she asks. “Wh-where are we going?”

Gigi groans and ignores Fae.

“Garnet. A lot of our friends went to Wave Riding Season. If something is happening, I want to be there and be... brave,” Poppy says.

“I... I don’t understand. Why follow me to Sapphire?” Fae asks.

“Maybe because we care about the only human who can actually understand us,” Gigi says. “It was actually thanks to that dragon who pushed you we were able to grab you.”

The white bearded dragon. They must’ve been caught by the Guards.

Fae shudders, itching to go back to Sapphire. But the operation is beyond what she can do alone. Garnet is the best option and the most dangerous. She’s going right to Mildred, but if she can find Alice and help warn the dragons at Wave Riding Season, then maybe it’ll slow Mildred down.

“We should go to Elite,” Fae suggests. “Poppy, do you remember where it is? You can drop me off there.”

“Actually, I don’t. It took me days to find that building, but I think it’s closest to the station heading to Topaz if that helps.”

Fae readily grips Gigi’s shoulders. “Drop me off there!”

“Okay, so flying down in the middle of a crowd at a train station on a dragon while also being actively hunted by someone who resides there sounds like an awful idea, Fee,” Gigi mutters.

She has a point. Shockingly.

Fae bites her lip, eyes narrowing through the wind. She tries to focus on only Poppy and Gigi because if she sees the vast ocean beneath them, she might holler her vocal cords away until she loses her voice.

She’s desperate for help though. The warehouse is a bigger undertaking than she ever imagined and Mildred clearly has been busy. Where has Alice been?

“Let’s... find a forest nearby Central Square. That’s where Wave Riding Season will be.”

“Will you see your friend there?” Poppy asks.

“Not sure. But if I gotta choose between finding Alice and warning the dragons, I choose the dragons, even if I gotta do it alone.”

Poppy and Gigi nod to Fae’s resolve. She can only hope Alice will attend the event and save Fae the trip of finding her, IF she’s not on Mildred’s side since the last time she saw her. Wave Riding Season will end badly if she doesn’t make it in time.