Next day...
I hold the drawing paper in my hand, like I'm clutching all the secrets to the world. An adult hellhound hand drawn onto the paper. The picture copied from the local library, Magical Creatures of the Old Kingdom.
The hellhounds are going to grow up to be huge. I don't mean a little huge like a really big dog. Draft horse size huge. My notes on various topics of Old Kingdom flora and fauna burn a hole in my backpack. I copied from the books as much as a could. Some things I already knew other things I had no idea about. One thing for sure I'm not feeding them enough meat. Meat that has magic in it.
When an animal eats grass that has pollution it concentrates the pollution into them. That pollution gets concentrated at higher and higher levels. When you go up the food chain, more magic gets charged into the creature and the food. It's why military bases and pockets of deep magic go hand and hand.
The government wanted that magic in their soldiers, even if the soldiers weren't going to use it. A human with magic pollution can move slightly faster. It's like taking a vitamin combined low dose of coke. The result is almost always the same bigger, stronger, faster, beast and people.
An arrow points at the direction of the defunct Air Force base from the sign. I take the opposite direction. I walk behind the Air Force base back towards the dragons vast property. My house is like a zit next to the dragons holding in deep magic.
I walk past the half burnt mailbox at the end of the street. The mailman doesn't drive down the dragon's road. They keep putting in a new mailbox every time the dragon takes it down to char. The mailbox gets further and further back from the actual road. If the mailbox moves back anymore it's going to be on a whole other street. I don't blame the mail people. That's a lot to ask from a postal worker, and no amount of good pension can fix eaten.
A blonde man with a cowboy hat on walks on the other side of the street. A chill burns deep into my skin. The wave of fiery power coming off the man is unmistakeable. It's like trying to hit a fly with a baseball bat complete overkill. He doesn't bother to hide is very destructive magical potential. Unmistakeable dragon.
He wears cut off shorts with ragged edges. His with loose blonde hair under a cowboy hat was those surfer salt waves to it. He has no shoes on the tough asphalt without a second thought. He gets to the mailbox blowing a casual wave of flames at it from his mouth. Like a child who is given the worst chore in the world. His hand opens the mailbox and then he flips through his mail. His bare feet walk him back to his property. The magical dragon shadow spreads in his wake. It hints at his true nature.
The dragon drops his junk mail to the ground piece by piece. The junk mail lights itself on fire on the way down turning to ash disappearing into the wind. His hair under the cowboy hat waves as if the next surf wave is incoming.
It's one those moments, that's so normal but it's not normal. It's almost like he's any other neighbor example he's The Dragon. I freeze mid-step to watch him with my eyes like a mouse caught by a cat who really doesn't seem to care about it.
The Dragon has a surfer cowboy look and I'm not sure what to make of it. I go out of my way to not make eye contact with him. My fucked up sense of humor has even come up with a don't eat me jingle complete with dance moves.
One of the pieces of mail fall to the ground unburned. He blows a stream of fire from one nostril at the piece of junk mail. It turns to ash. I jump sky high. He keeps flipping through his mail.
I've gone years and have never seen the dragon. I've got this kind of good bad luck.
The dragon goes back to his property. You can barely see it. A field of pasture and some woodland in wild disarray. I wonder if this is what Alice thought looking into the looking glass. His land is like an unfinished world waiting for you to step through. With a section of Dry Creek river winding through it drizzling the rare bit of water we get in Sacramento. The longer and deeper you look into his land. The more you see from his land warped distortion of thick deep magic.
He walks back into the open pasture fields. The Dragon is swallowed into the deep magic. His human form becomes just a tiny dot in the landscape. He shifts growing larger filling up space almost like he's walking forward but he's not.
Nope, he's just a big ass dragon!
I'm caught by the whopping sound of wingbeats as the dragon lifts slowly into the sky. His dragon form filling the air. The jeweled scales glittering in the sky with each undulation. He flies higher in the air. I am frozen. A mix of fear and awe because dragon or not he is absolutely terrifying in his beauty.
Ferocious in his majesty.
Breathtaking.
My fingers itch to draw his body on paper. Following the path of hard lines and curves as he arcs across the sky. He dances with the air currents in the cloudless sky. Pulls the world under his wings. My feet stumble as I track him with both my eyes and my body. I can't keep up with his movements.
I wander into the street tracking his progress through the sky. His near translucent wings with warm deep red veins glow. They give life to his flight. I trip on a pothole in the street and tumble to the ground.
Beautiful.
A sports car rumbles down the street. The bumper stops inches from my face. The door opens and golden legs exit the car. The woman's in a deep slit pencil skirt. She has on high heels on the uneven pavement. The door slams shut. She walks down the street her heels click in time to her step.
My eyes come up from the heels. She has a Native American ankle tattoo in my face. A mother bear with a cub leads up her leg into a mural of only a lonely cub. The tattoo of the cub has black birds circling the lone cub. Blackbird tattoo disappears under her skirt, and reappears on the side of her neck. The tattoo design goes all the way up into her side shaved hair on her head.
She gathers her long hair that passes well beyond her backside into a quick bun. The blackbirds fly up her neck into her deep night-colored hair. She steps in front of the bumper with me.
"I work for The Dragon, " she says without preamble with a smile. She ha a soft southern drawl. The impact of her words punches through me. The fear the kicks in hard.
"Don't know any dragon," I hop up from the ground and I walk for home quickly.
"I see? So, a great big bastard of a dragon didn't attempt to break your ward?"
"Need to go home, sorry lady."
"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm a lawyer; can I have a moment of your time?" Her smile never fades for me. The smile reaches her eyes but I don't trust it. "My name is Nita, not lady. It means 'bear' in Choctaw."
She looks young to be a lawyer. I wasn't going to stay and find out if she ate her black girl with a side of hot sauce. She had power. Not as much magic power as The Dragon, but she wasn't a weak magic user either. Far from weak, she has real scary power.
Was she Old Kingdom something... ?
Guardian an offshoot of a witch born with magic. Very powerful.
Trouble for sure.
"Yeah well, nice to know. My mom said my mine means 'one to be cuddled' in Yoruba. That doesn't mean I'm going to let you wrap me up like a nugget to be eaten." I say to her quickly without stopping for breath. I purposely don't tell her my name as some Fae use naming base spells to control people. I wasn't spending hundred plus years as a fairy play thing or a quick snack.
"No." I say to her as nicely as I could muster.
"Mayb-"
"No," I cut her off harshly moving quickly back to the ward and crossing it. I put the shimmer light between me and her.
She smirks at me. Nita doesn't seem deeply impressed with my escape from whatever she was trying. Her eyes flip over taking a long look at the foreclosure sign.
"I came to offer you a job," she says smoothly like a forbidden fruit she waves in front of me. I need a job so bad it isn't funny. The puppies eat five percent of their weight in meat meal. How long can I keep scrounging food?
I lick my dry lips.
"Meet me at the edge of The Dragon's property tomorrow?" Nita offers.
A/n: Had post issues if you see problems with the post please tell me. I will try and double post again this week. See you soon, same bat channel Thursday :).