Dragon Summer, Ch2 excerpt

She didn't like the aftermath; she felt empty, depleted, tainted. She couldn't quite relate to the self she had been for much of the day. The thoughts that had so energised her now appeared rather sordid. It was disconcerting; like being embarrassed by the peculiar actions of a staid friend. She was left with a familiar yet potent sense of shame that framed and undermined what had once been merely a secret, idiosyncratic pleasure.

Katie yawned, clambered into her pyjamas and trudged to the bathroom, accusatory thoughts circling. It wasn't until she had dried her hands and switched off the light that she noticed the oddly bright sky shining through frosted glass. She bit a knuckle hard and stood irresolute.

'The dragons' dream,' she said aloud against the silence. 'This is a dream.'

Dream or not, it had been beautiful last year and fear only heightened wonder.

She floated barefoot down the stairs, entranced by nascent awe. Through the kitchen window silvered branches climbed aloft, shadowed leafage lit by argent glimmers. Slow with reverence, Katie loosed the bolt and passed outside.

A mighty forest lapped the terrace walls, dark against the cobalt sky. The path flowed soft and dry beneath her feet; a silent, certain guide wending ever upwards. She felt no breeze though all around the forest breathed its rhythmic murmur: vast, majestic, measured. Aware, she guessed, but not of her; so brief a life and briefly lived.

She topped a crest and paused enthralled. The trees rolled on, pouring down the slope to rise and fall in waves that broke about the knees of distant mountains, their bitter heights made keen and near by lucid air. A hint of ice sharpened scents of moss and humus. Katie shivered.

Star-like radiance glittered blue upon the dusky mountain sides below the promised sunrise whitening the sky. There the path would lead her, through the endless whispering gloom, at last to flowered meadows, rich and sweet, and bright-limned dancers waiting on her fire.

She knew the starlit dancers, knew the sorrow they endured though not its source. Standing there so far away she felt the ache enfold her, felt her own remorse emerge: huge, hungry, ugly. Against desire she turned away, afraid to stain such luminous regret.

Behind was only wasteland; frost hard, black and barren. Drops like tears smudged the dusty path.

She turned again.

The foothills writhed with bramble, briar and thorn. Twisted trunks with limbs both gnarled and worn wore sores of moss and leprous sponge like foam on stagnant water. Noisome vapours drifted, dank and dead.

Katie screamed and ran. The stars had gone, the sky was burnished chrome. The air grew thick and rank, the path dissolved, the forest corpse decayed about her, splitting, melting, merging. Dread engulfed her, weighed on sluggish limbs.

She could not move. She could not move!

She fought the thickening air, thrashing and flailing in terror-born strength.

An urgent challenge sounded high above. She scoured the heavens, near blinded by the shine. A circling blur. It spiralled down, graceful, immense.

Dragon.

Katie howled in desperation and defiance both. The serpent wheeled and flapped, fanning Katie's hair about her face. She glimpsed the raking talons set to strike...

...and found herself aloft, hauled vertiginously upward, whipped by draughts from flailing wings...

...then wondrous silence, riding currents, reading streams, membranes rippling. Strength and power.

She swept across the sterile plain. The cold increased, sapping heat and will. The very air solidified, scraping wings, tearing, biting, viscous, hard to move, hard to breathe...

There!

The heart: the lake. And there: the terrace; cased in rime, brittle, fragile. Home. Hope.

The dragon screamed and sucked in viscid air. She felt the chemicals react.

Flame erupted, green tinged, searing through the bitter atmosphere. Owen's house disintegrated: those on either side collapsed to ruin. Katie shrieked denial. The dragon plummeted, following its fire through hissing steam.

Drenched and frozen, Katie cowered at the threshold. Frantic fingers scrabbled at the stubborn door.

It's bolted! It can't be. I left it open.

Ice creaked. Cracked.

The door crashed inwards. Glass exploded. Katie stumbled through the portal, landing hard upon the tiled floor, cut and bruised.

Don't look back.

Frigid air assaulted her. Rime crept across the tiles. Whimpering, she fled through the hall and up the stairs. The walls cracked and crazed. Frost crackled. Wood splintered. She slammed into her room and threw herself beneath her covers. She heard the glass in her window splinter.

If ice could reach her here, reach right into her heart...

Hot tears welled. They could never be enough. She let the sobs flood through her until her chest heaved for air, saw again the flames that drenched the terrace...

Katie.

...saw the rubble, the wreckage, the barren plain...

Katie.

...saw the forest shrivel and rot...

'Katie. Katie, it's okay. Katie, stop crying, it's okay. Katie, honey, love, you're alright, it must have been a dream, a nightmare. Katie. Katie?'

Gran.

It took a long time for the weeping to subside. Gran sat with her, stroking, patting, calming, until her tremulous breathing began to even out.