𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇 》 LEO VALDEZ ¹

―seven. wings for a fetus

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𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐀𝐍
𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇, 𝐈𝐓'𝐋𝐋 𝐆𝐎
𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐈'𝐋𝐋
𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐋
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FRANKLY, CHARLIE WAS VERY BORED. If she had known capturing dragons would take such a long time, she would've laughed in Leo's face when he asked her to help. Instead, she had agreed, thinking she would finally live out her 'How to Train Your Dragon' dreams, and now she was stuck in the middle of the woods with nothing to do and an incredibly numb butt.

''Hold still!'' Leo scolded, tugging the dragon's head back into position. The dragon made another creaking sound that might've been a whimper.

Charlie was distracted from watching Leo at work by a sound in the woods. Lazily lolling her head to the side, she spotted the tree spirit — a dryad — putting out flames in her branches. Fortunately, the dragon hadn't started an all-out forest fire, but still the dryad wasn't too pleased. The girl's dress was smoking. She smothered the flames with a silky blanket before glancing at the two of them.

Smiling widely, Charlie put her hand up in greeting. She received a gesture that she knew was rude in dryad, and her smile was instantly replaced with a very confused-looking angry face. Sticking up her finger at the poof of green mist that had once been the dryad, Charlie laid back down, nestling her hands behind her head as she grumbled angrily to herself.

From above, Leo chuckled slightly, patting the dragon as if to say 'get a load of this'. He turned his attention to the wiring. It was ingenious, definitely, and it made sense to him. This was the motor control relay. This processed sensory input from the eyes. This disk...

''Ha,'' he said. ''No wonder.''

''What, uh, what is it?'' Charlie said, leaning up on her elbows as she turned her head to the side, nodding at the dragons head as she pretended not to be interested.

''He's got a corroded control disk. Probably regulated your higher reasoning circuits, right? Rusty brain, man. No wonder you're a little... confused.''

Confused? Charlie snorted. Confused is what she was in fourth grade when she saw Amber Miller at the school Disco, not what you call a huge metal dragon on a rampage.

Rolling her eyes, she laid back down and let Leo get back to his crazy ramblings.

''I wish I had a replacement disk, but... this is a complicated piece of cutlery. I'm gonna have to take it out and clean it. Only be a minute.'' He pulled the disk out and the dragon went completely still. The glow died in its eyes. Leo slid off its back and began polishing the disk. He mopped up some oil and Tabasco sauce with his sleeve, which helped cut through the grime, but the more oil he cleaned, the more concerned he got. Some of the circuits were beyond repair. He could make it better, but not perfect. For that, he'd need a completely new disk, and he had no idea how to build one.

He tried to work quickly, not only was he not sure about how long the dragon's control disk could be out without damaging it — maybe forever, but he didn't want to take his chances — but if he had to listen to Charlie ask 'how much longer' one more time, he'd let the dragon trample all over her. Once he'd done the best he could, he climbed back up to the dragon's head and started cleaning the wiring and gearboxes, getting himself filthy in the process.

By the time he was through, his hands were black with grease and his clothes looked like he'd just lost a mud-wrestling contest, but the mechanisms looked a lot better. He slipped in the disk, connected the last wire, sparks flew. The dragon shuddered. It's eyes began to glow.