A Dream of Dragons Part 1

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Dreams

Let not the dreams die
For true freedom is lost
when they can not soar.

Not one step has been made
Not one goal achieved
Not one life fulfilled
Without dreams to reveal the path.

Grover
inspired by
Langston Hughes

Disclaimer: This is fiction. All the characters and events portrayed here are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely accidental and unintentional A big thanks goes out to Paula for helping proof and generally make this readable. Another big thanks goes to Cathy who pre-read this. Any remaining errors, or mistakes are mine! Enjoy!

A Dream of Dragons

Part 1 of 3

by

grover

Pensacola Fl. May 1990

“Where am I?” Jake had just gotten to sleep, when he found himself standing alone on the side of a mountain. He’d had strange dreams before, so real that waking was disorienting and confusing. Those dreams paled beside this and made him wonder if this was real.

He could scent the sea nearby and feel the cool breeze ruffling his hair. With an eerie calm, he looked about. The mountain was odd appearing, because it looked like nothing else but a huge dragon in slumber.

Jake studied the rocky formation, from the dragon-skull shaped peak to the huge jagged boulders that his imagination said were claws. The whole mountain looked so like a dragon. However, he was certain no living creature had ever been this tremendously large. It was in a Godzilla scale of huge. Just the dragon claws shaped boulders dwarfed the tall trees growing on its flanks.

With a detached sense of curiosity, he saw that he was dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt. This shirt was one of his favorites because it let him express his fascination with transformations without anyone being the wiser. It boldly bore, 'Ninja Teenage Mutant Elephants' as a pun on the popular comic series.

It was worth noting that he was male for this dream because sometimes in other dreams he was a she. He had come to grips that sad truth that he was, at least in some fashion, gender bent. Jake sighed, for he knew that his fascination with all things feminine wasn‘t the usual male preoccupation with sex. Their clothes, the way they move, and even the way women carried themselves fascinated him.

He had cross-dressed before and it had left him with conflicting feelings; on the one hand, feeling ‘so right’ and on the other, guilt because he was a guy and it just wasn’t the kind of thing a male was suppose to do. Jake wasn’t sure if he was transsexual, that is, a woman in a man’s body or just some variant of cross dresser.

It was grim knowing that those in the transgender community actually had a name for all the times that he’s thrown all of “her” stuff away only to re-buy it a few months later. Purging, they called the process of repeatedly getting rid of your “forbidden stuff” only gather it all together again to repeat the process all over again.

These last few weeks had been a little easier, since he mustered out of the Service. He’d worked in the Air Force intelligence community where any “irregularities” could cost you your security clearance, and privacy was an illusion. The sense of freedom, of being released from those pressures, was as real as that proverbial weight being removed from Atlas’s mythical shoulders.

Jake had a role-playing, gamer buddy from the service, who had mustered out of the Service a few months before him. John lived in Florida, not far from the beach. He had offered to put Jake up until he could find his own place. He had taken John up on his offer and had found that he enjoyed walks on the beach. He'd felt a sense of peace listening to the surf.

A few days ago, while just letting his thoughts drift one morning, he’d discovered an odd blue stone on the beach, which at first he thought was a sapphire. Curious and excited he'd shown a jeweler the stone who told him it was only some sort of sea glass.

Sea glass was glass that had been smoothed and polished by the sea, but had become somewhat rare since dumping into the sea had became illegal. His blue stone while unusual had no real value, but the jeweler had offered him five bucks for it anyways. Jake had decided to keep it and use it as a good luck charm. He used some copper wire to form a primitive setting for it and wore it as a necklace.

Part of the strangeness of this dream was that while he didn’t have his wallet or watch with him, he did have the stone. Jake rubbed the stone’s coolness thoughtfully wondering at this most peculiar dream he was having. He never knew you could day-dream in a dream.

Jake was thrown abruptly from his feet, but was able to land without harm. “Great,” he thought to himself, “it’s a dream about an earthquake.” Moving quickly, he avoided getting brained by the shower of fist and head sized rocks rolling down the mountain side.

Dancing manically about, trying to dodge all of the debris coming at him, Jake glanced up searching for some sort of cover. He ran for the Dragon’s claws as he had come to call them, at least their overhang would give some protection.

Cursing all the way, Jake couldn’t remember when he’d every experienced pain in a dream before. The collection of bruises from the rocks he couldn’t avoid stung with a vengeance.

Jake thought that pain was supposed to wake you up, and he was beginning to have the unpleasant inkling that this wasn’t a dream at all. He’d nearly reached the Dragon’s Claws when damn it, they began to shift too!

Jake tried to a stop, but he already had that icy shock of looking at his death crushed by the rocks of the dragon’s claw as he continued to slide forward. Desperately, Jake rolled to his right fighting to survive.

A booming laughter began, “Ha ho ho, it’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone move so quickly!” Impossibly the dragon-skull, mountain peak moved! A cavern-sized mouth spoke with an amazingly loud voice, but left no doubt in his mind this was a female dragon.

Although most of the dragon looked to be made of rock, Jake could see about a third of the face was scaled as well as parts of one leg. The scales were rainbow hued and shimmered as they moved.

The odd mix of rock and flesh gave it the appearance of the ravages of some terrible disease. The one remaining, golden, slitted eye, the size of a small car, gazed at him and despite the grim thought that this wasn’t a dream and he was indeed in harm’s way, Jake couldn’t find fear in himself.

Ever since he began reading science-fiction and fantasy as a lonely youngster, he’d loved the strange and wonderful creatures in them. Unicorns, griffins, and dragons, Oh My! One of his favorite authors had a great series about Dragon Riders, and now here was a dragon right in front of him!

Speechless, he tried to absorb every feature and impression so he wouldn’t forget. The dragon towered over him and the pure vertigo of watching something so gigantic move wasn’t too unlike the first time he looked up at a skyscraper. The feeling was completely overwhelming, Jake found himself leaning further and further backwards until he fell. Great, another pain for the collection, groused Jake.

Another snort of laughter escaped it causing another shower of dislodged stones, “I must apologize for my behavior Little One,” rumbled the dragon, “But I couldn’t resist. Well, I am a dragon after all.” As if that excused everything. The dragon continued, “It’s been many millennia since I last spoke with a human.”

She paused for a moment, with that one great eye looking at him while the garage door sized nictitating membrane blinked and the mountain peak of teeth and rocks moved closer. “No, it’s been millennia since I’ve spoken to anyone at all because of my affliction.”

The dragon gestured with a tremendous pillar of rock that was her leg. The mountainous craggy face of stone with its one good eye had the hideous effect of an eye-patch in reverse. The orb was the last sign of life among the pitted lifeless stones.

That reptilian eye peered into Jake's soul as she spoke, “I am old beyond belief and cursed with a malady that torments me into near madness. Death is my only escape, but before I succumb, I want to truly live one last time.” That terrible eye burned as she continued, “To do so, I need your help Jacob son of Michael of the house of Morgan.”

Jake licked dry lips and did his best to keep his voice from wavering, “I am honored that you would ask me, but I don’t see how I can help. I am not a doctor or wizard, and I don’t have any special skills that could help you.”

“Silence!” she roared. Only part of my brain has turned to stone, not all. I am the last of the first and have outlived all of my peers. I know who can help and who can not.”

“You stand in front of me with full knowledge I could squash you flat, but you control your fear well. Many of my enemies have perished, because they either feared too much or not at all. The most dangerous of all acknowledged that fear and used it as a tool.”

“I have learned being fearless is not an advantage but a weakness. Fear like pain is a message to us we have the choice to ignore or follow. Like pain, fear can not be allowed to rule one’s self, but instead ask why you are feeling it and then decide your course of action.

Your control of your fear is one of the reasons why you were chosen, but another and the more important reason is because you are a Dreamer. Imprisoned beneath my mountain of fire, I sent out thousands of Dream-Stones like your blue one searching for the right person to aid me.”

Pointing at his lucky charm, she said, “The jeweler was correct it is a piece of glass sanded smooth by the sea. Volcanic glass, I had mystically spelled to seek out the dreamer I needed, and thousands of dreamers I have visited in my quest.

“You are the best choice.” The dragon settled herself somewhat, if it was possible for a mountain to relax. “I remember when humans first began, and I thought nothing of them. Many species I have seen come and go extinct. You humans were different I thought because you thrived in places where most perished. In just a few thousand years I found myself competing against them and their gods.”

She laughed harshly, “Some even thought I was a goddess. I fought the humans and many died beneath my claws, but still you increased your numbers. The few children I bore couldn’t compete with your thousands.”

The dragon looked at him with pain from long ago in her single living eye, “If I killed many of your kind, you humans killed my children.” she said sadly. “Dragons are made of magic, our very fiber is filled with it, and you humans hunted us for it as you would the hart or the rabbit for its fur and meat.

Hide, teeth, claw, they could all be used to create magic weapons or used as parts of spells. They called my children monsters, and used that as an excuse in their harvesting. Despite all I could do, one by one they died. Many dragons retreated from human lands altogether and some even left this some-when for some other-when.”

“I was too proud! I stayed, but grew weary of the struggle. Finally one of your ancient kings made me an offer. If I would help protect his realm, he would keep the hunters from my children. My merely being in his lands would be enough to keep any ambitious neighbor away.”

“He knew I was using him, and would turn on him given the chance once my children were weaned, and of course, he was using me. What I didn’t know, was that he had tunnels dug into my chambers, and was harvesting our castoff scales and claws as if Dragons were nothing more than sheep to be sheared.”

“I was furious when I found this monkey with delusions of grandeur treating ME and my hatchings like we were nothing more than livestock. In my anger and arrogance, I crafted a spell that would use the magic remaining in such castoffs and change it to stone.”

“It would use up the magic in the scale and claw to effect the change rending useless. I thought myself clever and laughed when I imagined the look on his face when he found his “rocks”.

She paused remembering that long ago time, “He was vain man who sought immortality though whatever magic he could find, and I was full of pride and vowed that nothing of mine would profit him.”

The dragon looked at Jake and sadly shook her mammoth head, “I was a fool. The human king had taught himself magic seeking to prolong his life, and he saw the great flaw in my spell casting. He too was angered for he was depending on that magic to give him his greatest wish, immortality. In his fury, he found inspiration and found a way to turn my magic against me. Today you would call it a virus, for his spell merged and altered just a few critical parts of my own magical working.”

A single enormous tear flowed like rapids down her craggy face from her one living eye, “Rather than wait for a scale or claw to be discarded and then activate, the spell became active while the scales and claws were still upon the body.”

“Since it was feeding off the magic of the very essence of draconic being, rather than just the remnants in the scale or claw, it happened much faster and worse I couldn’t stop it. I first knew that it had gone horribly wrong when my precious little ones started to turn to unfeeling rock. Since they were smaller, my children felt its murderous effects first and they were quickly overcome by it and became nothing but stone.”

“Only one survived the spell, only to be called a monster herself and finally slain. I went insane and vowed vengeance on my betrayer, but he had called on his gods to save him and his pitiful city. Seeing an advantage, rival gods convinced me to ally with them, and I went so far as marriage to seal an alliance with them. With hate in my breast we threw ourselves with ferocious abandon against our enemies and the battle we fought shook the very pillars of the sky.”

“Powerful was I then, but not a god. I was defeated along with my allies. With my children slain, I retreated to heal my wounds while seeking a way to defeat this hideous affliction.”

“It used my own vast strength against me. I could only slow it, but not stop its deadly progress. I increased my size to slow the spell and went to others of my kind for help.”

“They refused and called me a fool. In truth I think they knew they couldn’t help and refused because they couldn't admit their own weakness. When the pain of my affliction became too great, I found that heating my rocky skin eased the pain and restored some measure of movement.”

“Casting a spell to give greater protection from the fires of the earth, I burrowed deep down into the Earth Mother. For thousands of years did I nest there, secure in my hate and unable to even walk the earth again because of my great size and affliction.”

“Then seeking any distraction from my endless torment, I started listening to your human dreams. Dragon’s dreams are full of might and fire because that is what we’re made of. Your dreams were different for they were of love, conquest, marvelous places, and terrifying truths. You see I was wrong. It wasn't your breeding like rats that make you human special, it was your dreams.”

“I found all human successes began in their dreams and found myself increasingly captivated by them. For every wonderful dream that a human forges into reality, a hundred more glorious ones simply fade with the dawn.”

“I have experienced many wonderful stories of love as well as tragic ones which mirror humans’ waking hours. In time I lost my hate of you and came to cherish the dreamers for all the things that dragons lack.”

“I had thought myself wise and knowledgeable, but what humankind had taught itself exceeded anything I‘ve could have ever imagined. Putting my pride aside, I took up the challenge of learning from the dreamers. Many years have passed since then, and I have come to terms with my ending. But one last time I want to give the gift of life. I want to create something new and wonderful to walk underneath the sun and for that I need your help.” She gently stated while streams from her tears splashed to the cooling earth.

Jake with tears welling up in his own eyes, gently rubbed the dream-stone, seeking comfort in the smooth blue. He asked softly, “Are you asking me to help you die?”

The massive head shook, “I am not asking for your hand to wield the blade but for you to grant me one last taste of freedom before my ending. As you can see, even in my dreams, I am trapped in stone. What you can do with the help of the dream-stone is to free me for one last night.”

“You are a lucid dreamer and can harness your dreams to your will. That can break me free and with that freedom I mean to once more be the maiden, the mother and the bringer of life,” she told him.

Jake was a little confused but thought he understood where she was going, “I know that you are a dragon but don't you need a mate to do something like that?”

It was hard to believe that such a huge creature could speak so gently, “I do and I have found him.” she said grazing at him with one moon bright eye.

Feeling his legs starting to turn to jelly Jake fought to not look for some place to hide, “Hmmm. I honored that you would ask me but...” he stammered nervously out.

Half expecting another roar he almost flinched, but the mountain peak skull simply pleaded, “Please don't refuse. All I ask for is to share a dream and if you find pleasure that I be allowed to enjoy it with you. You are the dreamer. You alone control what happens within your realm. Please Jacob son of Michael, House of Morgan?”

Jake taking a breath to calm himself before baring his soul, “I, I, have a problem you see I'm....”

“Shh, I know of your conflicts within yourself. Your clay is of a son of Adam but your heart and soul are of a daughter of Eve. There are other dreamers but only you have a body that will rise to my fires and the soul our daughter will need.” she consoled.

He was taken a little aback that this dragon knew his inner most secrets, but she had said after all, she had been listening to his dreams and based on those he was her choice. Of his life he couldn't say that it had been bad, but couldn't claim that he was happy either.

Jake's parents although they loved him didn't know what to make of him because he fell so far from anything they knew. The trouble was, he knew that he was different and everyday was challenge that had become, over time, a battle he was weary of fighting.

He’d known for quite sometime that he was only partially functional in his own way. It was only while in the dreams of others though his cherished sci-fi fantasy books or the shared one when engaging in role-playing games with his few friends that Jake had found he could be himself, whoever that was.

Jake's dreams were his escape from his intolerable everyday life. They were the flights of fancy that took him far from his mundane pains, and were his release that enable him to survive. Now here was a fellow traveler, who although monstrous beyond all comparison, by her own admission, was also filled with pain and hurt that she too could only escape through dreams.

The compassion and empathy that was so much Jake's inner heart and soul couldn't, wouldn't let him turn away from her distress.

“If I agree to this, what do I need to do?” He asked the mountain in front of him, feeling apprehension, but determined to ease her unhappiness if only for a single night in a dream.

“Just close your eyes and dream, Jake. Imagine me not as a diseased mountain of stone, but alive and well,” she guided him.

Doing as she asked, Jake let his emotions and imagination loose to give form to his feelings. The wistful scent of the sea and the lonely rocky coast remained but her sad voice conjured a different vision.

Without being told Jake opened his eyes to find silhouetted against the ocean sky a woman wrapping her arms about herself. Her mid-back length, red hair was flowing with the gentle sea breeze. Her body was slim and full of grace that her womanly curvatures transformed into a work of elegant art.

Not knowing if he had done rightly or not Jake was still enchanted by what his dream had wrought. Her face, fair complexion, expressive green eyes and her lips finished a painting of all that he had ever desired. Not to just love but to dare to want to become. An illusion shattered when he saw her tears.

“I'm sorry” Jake said fearing that he had done wrong, “What did I do wrong? I didn't mean to make you human. It just sorta happened.”

Her green eyes looked into his, “Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to feel the wind? How to have two eyes to see the sky? To smell the sea? These are not tears of hurt Jacob, but of joy that my terrible pain is at last banished!”

Taking his hands in her so feminine ones, she smiled. “Eons past I would have cursed you for envisioning me as such a fragile creature but I have learned to appreciate the dreams of the dreamers.”

Releasing his hand she flung herself into a spin reveling in her freedom, “You are human and you have dreamed me beautiful. How could I fault such a gift from the heart?”

Speechless, Jake could only watch her dance, lamenting that no reality could match the vision before him. Her joy shone from her, as the rising sun in the dawn. As she grew aware of him raptly watching, her dance grew from one of joy to an older one of promises made by a woman to her mate.

The dragon-maid waltzed to him and took his hand, “I can't dance” Jake blushed and protested.

She laughed smiling at him, “But of course you can. This is a dream!” as she moved close to her chosen one.

Enthralled, Jake never noticed when he began to lead as they swirled together in dance on the high cliff above the crystal sea. Many such dances had ended in the soft green clover and this one was no different. Their dance was transmuted by passion into kisses and caresses and as he entered her, she greeted him with a song of her passion and desires.

***

Dimitri Mitsopoulos jerked himself rudely awake as alarms blared. He was a grad student at the University of Athens working as a technician during the summer. Dropping the book he had been reading to help keep himself awake on his shift at the small Seismography Research Station on the small Greek Mediterranean island of Angelo Echidna. It was just one of the over fourteen hundred Greek islands but was noteworthy only for its ancient semi-active volcano.

Modern science said it shouldn't be still active at all. So the mystery rated a small, one man, research station mostly just to look after the equipment and it gave Dimitri a summer job. He didn't need the seismograph to tell him that a major eruption was, astonishingly, happening without any warning at all as the floor rumbled underneath his feet.

Quickly he double-checked to make sure the data was feeding to the mainland before running outside to try and determine just how much danger he might be in. Dawn was just breaking, but the fires within the mountain illuminated the sky in fiery red.

The thunder grew till Dimitri was thrown from his feet. In awe he watched, as the ancient mountain fired a concentrated bolt of superheated gases and ejecta miles high into the morning sky unlike anything he had every seen or heard of before.

Inside, the banks of computers and recording equipment faithfully relayed the information to scientists across the world. Unknown to the young technician, it was also sent to someone else who wasn't the least bit interested in advancing the study of Mother Earth but in the monster that poisonously laired within her breast. Just as it had years ago, when a shower of volcanic glass had flown from the mountain's maw, the spoor of the prey was sent to the hunter.

***

Within the bolt of fiery gases, a moving-van-sized chunk of ejecta flew to near orbit along with its sisters. Cunning pockets of gas within the vaguely organic-shape rock vented to help guide and stabilize its flight as while its sisters protectively shepherded it behind vented gases of their own to safeguard their sister.

Reentering the atmosphere, ablative sheets burned off not only protecting it from the fires but for concealment. More gases vented slowing and continuing to guide as it passed over the Atlantic Ocean. Its sisters flew a madly divergent course all over the planet, but not a one would find the Earth Mother again as they would completely burn up to create brilliant displays to distract the hunters from their stealthy sister.

***

Inside the United States Air Force tracking facility at NORAD a state of controlled pandemonium reigned as ground and space based tracking sites followed the unidentified swarm of objects that fit the profile of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) too damn closely.

The Officer in Charge (OIC) General “Rich” Ironhorse knew that he had to set an example of calmness to keep that pandemonium from turning into panic. When he had what looked to be over forty unknowns maneuvering under-power after a mass launch that was little short of impossible as he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.

Confidence even in those numbers were low as some of the damn things were acting like decoys while others looked to have deployed some sort of radar jamming material like chaff.

The OIC knew that of nothing could intercept all of these contacts that were closing in not just on the US but other locations though out the world. The Star Wars Defense System was still officially years from being ready, but they could attempt to engage. The problem was which ones? With all the decoys they had just as much chance of hitting one of them as they did what ever the decoys was protecting. As for retaliation this didn't look like an attack by a hostile nation. Greece didn't even have ICBMs for God's sake.

Quickly reading a report an airman passed to him, the OIC picked up the RED phone and made his report. “Sir, it is our opinion that this is not an attack by a hostile nation. Based on the available information at this time, it is most likely a supranormal action Mr. President.”

***

Jake turned to his lover as she rested in the crook of his arm amid the cool soft clover. He had trouble believing what had happened between them but sorrow darkened his joy. “What happens now my dragon-maiden?”

Her green eyes looked up into his, “Life goes on as it always has. Without endings there are no beginnings. I am so old my dear one despite this wonderful form you have dreamed for me. I have seen such sights that none would believe and have had great happiness as well as pain no being should have to bear” she told him softy.

“Soon the last Thunderwalker will be no more. All but one of the Firsts have fallen and my time is past. Grieve not my dear one for you have given me a gift not even the gods could bequest,” She said with calm serenity while touching his lips with her finger tips to quiet his protests.

“I was trapped unable to die but living only in agony. My very essence and strength kept me alive only to suffer. By surrendering all that I am to our offspring to be, that terrible spell that I cast upon myself will finally be complete and I will end.”

“Yes I'm going to die but my death is a blessing not because of the ending of my pain but because by giving all I am, to our child she will be the start of something new and wondrous.”

Smiling mischievously she said, “You're going to be a father and its a girl! Don't worry my dear one, she will be taken care of my dear one, but it is time.”

Shocked, Jake stuttered, “W-w-who going to look after the b-baby?”

“Shh, she'll be protected as no child has ever been before and you'll always be with her as will I.”

With his heart weeping, Jake was furiously determined that her last moments would be unforgettable. Smiling into her eyes, he stepped backwards over the high cliff.

Dragon though she may be, still fear stole her breath as he fell from sight, for she knew for a dreamer, the old wife’s tale told true. To die in this dream world would mean his death.

Rushing forward her fear for him vanished, as the male dragon nearly bowled her over as he raced skyward! Her old temper flared, but vanished as the male dragon made a clear invitation for her to join him.

Joy filled her as the rightness of her choice of the dreamer filled her and she trusted him more than she had any mortal, god, or dragon flung herself off the cliff. She felt herself transform and a roar of delight rushed from her as her strong wings carried her into her rightful element.

Together they raced the clouds drifting over the sea as she showed him a different dance among the clouds. As the final moment got closer and closer she somehow knew it had been his intention. With her last breath she showed him passion could be embraced among the clouds as well as clover.

***

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes the Dimitri would never have believed that incredible sight. Geothermal events just don't act this way! It was if the entire Volcano had become a monstrous gun firing freight train sized rocks into the sky.

According to his instruments, after the first sudden unexplained eruption, the pressures that had begun to ease, just as inexplicably began building again. This time it was as if a somehow a huge inert mass had blocked the primary vents.

The pressure was building very quickly and the hurried evacuation had him scrambling to ensure that his instruments would continue sending until the last moment.

The tremors were getting worse and worse and he rushed, gathering precious records to flee from the coming catastrophe. The few island fishermen were already gone and the crew of the Greek Navy boat were gesturing frantically for him to hurry as he raced down the dock. The sailors caught him as he leapt aboard as more tremors shook the small island.

They rushed out to sea with the helmsman recklessly pushing his craft pass any reasonable limits. Spray flew and foamed behind them in their mad flight as each man looked fearfully over his shoulder at the monster waiting behind them. Just over the horizon, just over an hour from the first eruption, Angelo Echidna Island blew itself up.

Hanging on for dear life, Dimitri saw the pillar of fire arch towards the heavens. Shouts from the Greek sailors warned him to hold on as the grizzled helmsman twisted his craft about to ride bow first into the oncoming shock-wave.

With a deceptive slowness the white wall of the wave rose up to meet them. The power of the explosion shook their small craft, but was much milder than Dimitri had feared. 'This wasn't right' he thought. While the Greek Navy sailors celebrated their survival, he wondered just what had really happened to Angelo Echidna.

In the coming years scientists would debate why the explosion that had been powerful enough to completely destroy the island, had been so mild that it had done little other damage.

In fact the most telling effect from the eruption had been the incredible brilliant rainbow hued sunsets instead of the usual red expected from debris in the atmosphere Why the explosion hadn't been on the scale of a Krakatoa, because of that mysterious blockage, was a subject for debate.

A learned panel of geologists ruled that the ancient volcano must have had a honeycombed structure that simply collapsed like an imploding building when the magma chamber blew.

Dimitri knew that was complete rubbish. He had been there and the instruments clearly revealed that no such “honeycomb” was present. Gathering his papers he left the meeting knowing that the answer to why was contained in the materials from that impossible first eruption. All he had to do was find a sample.

***

The OIC rubbed his eyes as the first eyewitness reports came in. A Volcano? He didn't believe that for a moment. Volcanoes don't launch devices that maneuvered for re-entry much less spit out chaff and decoys.

If that wasn't enough reason the two civilians who had presidential authority to enter NORAD while in lock-down was more proof. When the President says open the doors and let them in, doors got opened.

They had the look of spooks to them and if the United Law-enforcement Tribunal for Metahuman Affairs, Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial called ULTIMATE by the press, was the world's answer to the meta-human question the OIC knew the USA had its own solutions to that problem.

The good news was so far the bogies hadn't caused any damage. Reports were still coming in but no poisonous gases, virus, explosions, or other ill effects aside from one hell of a light show.

The larger of the two men was extremely imposing, broad of shoulder, bald, and dark complexioned perhaps of Arabic origin. He moved with the pent violence of a large predator, but it was the smaller swarthy man who seemed to radiate presence and confidence. A little more than 5' 5” guessed the OIC with the experience eye of a trained observer.

It was his eyes that convinced the OIC it was indeed the smaller man, who was known only as Hunter like out of some bad spy novel, who was truly the more dangerous of the two.

“Relax.” Hunter assured the OIC, “We're not here to undermine your authority but instead to find clues as to where to begin our search. We agree,” he nodded to his bald associate “that it appears that this was just an elaborate diversion and not an attempt to deliver a weapon but perhaps for an escape.”

The OIC's eye bugged, “From a Volcano?” he choked in disbelief!

The bald, suited companion in a surprisingly soft voice for such large man, quoted “There were Giants, in the earth in those days. (Genesis 6:4)”

Hunter solemnly exchanged a look that acknowledged something that passed between the two of them. The OIC firmly decided that he didn't want to know more. After all being a guardian of the United State's nuclear might was more than enough to disturb his peace of mind without adding threats of biblical proportions.

***

As the organic shaped rock shed more and more material, other gas pockets continued to blast forth carefully keeping its velocity high enough to make it difficult to intercept but low enough to be maneuverable.

Across the Caribbean it streaked, visibly, but not brilliantly, across the tropical skies. Very much like an ICBM it zoomed down upon its target in Pensacola Florida. Final course corrections were made and the remaining gas pockets fired like the retrorockets they were patterned on.


***

John Jefferson Jones worked at the local Navy base repairing helicopter jet engines at the depot. He'd been able to snag such a primo position because of his disability retirement from the Air Force. He should have crashed already because his job required him to rise early, but he was concerned about his friend Jake.

He knew that there was quite a bit of culture shock to get use to after leaving military service. The lifestyle was completely different and John wondered if that was why the quiet Jake had been even more moody than normal.

John had just set his three alarm clocks. He was such a heavy sleeper that he needed all the help he could get to wake up in the morning. Sliding underneath the covers he heard the roar and at first thought it was Navy flight trainees flying night qualifications.

The roar got louder and his trained ear warned him that wasn't a jet motor instants before he was thrown from his bed by the explosion!

With his ears ringing, John pulled himself up shaking his head. He grabbed at the flashlight, a habit from the Air Force made him keep it near at night. John could smell smoke and the smoky beam revealed a buckled wall that was blacking as he watched from the heat.

Snatching his blanket from his bed he quickly tested the door for fire on the other side and went to find Jake. The first thing he saw was the other bedroom door had been blown clean off its hinges.

Using the blanket to help shield himself from the heat radiating like a furnace from Jake's room, he feared the worse. Braving the inferno to peek a little further inside all John could see was the burning ruin of Jake's bed. What freaked him out was the huge rocky white hot egg sitting in the middle of it and the flames licking at the edges of the gapping hole in the ceiling above it.

***

Bernard Johnson suppressed a yawn. He had just gotten to sleep a scant few hours ago after dealing with a young mutant who was having problems with his passive telepathy. He'd had problems himself before he had learned to shield, and dealing with a hysterical teenager who suddenly had it thrust upon him all at once was no picnic.

He had just gotten home when he found a pair state cops on his Tallahassee doorstep set and determined he was going to investigate some strangeness in Pensacola. They had hustled him into a plane and the few winks he caught on the flight didn't do much to help him feel better. As soon as they had landed he was rushed to a waiting car and escort, and they hurried off with a scream of sirens

The clutter of fire-trucks, emergency vehicles, and police cars clued him in that he had arrived. One side of the apartment was threatening to collapse and the obvious fire damage made Bernard fear that a mutant may have gone into spontaneous combustion precipitated by mutation syndrome or ‘spontaneous mutant combustion’ by the popular media (SMC).

Mutants that manifested during puberty had their share of problems but the worse ones were those that missed puberty. The unexpressed mutation could just suddenly be triggered and the host unable to contain all the energy just went up in flames. Depending on the mutation it was very possible for SMC to cause fires and in some limited cases explosions.

True to form the people who was chaperoning him had no clue about what had happened so he was operating in the dark. Because of his gifts of ESP and PSI powers it wasn't the first time he'd been to a scene like this one, but it never gave him any pleasure for the news was usually bad.

Carefully lowering his shields he received some impressions of despair and others of helplessness. More prevalent was the generally feeling “of what do we do now?”

Bernard felt feelings of guilt coming from a young man who, it seemed, was the roommate to whoever had been in that burned out room. The young man had been burned and pushed himself beyond his limits to try to go to his friend.

Reaching gently with his powers Bernard left a “suggestion” he had done all he could and that there shouldn't be any reason for guilt because he had done his best. It would've been immoral to do more than suggest, but it might save the loyal John from more anguish.

Entering the apartment he saw the fire damage was consistent with other cases he'd seen of “SMC” until he reached the bedroom. The firemen had soaked the entire area with water and fire retardant foam but he could still feel the heat radiating from the rocky object sitting in the charred remains of the room.

Bernard didn't want to call it an egg because if you give something a name you tend to focus on that possibility, while it very well might be something else all together. The problem was it looked so much like one of those eggs from that movie “Aliens” he could understand everyone’s uneasiness.

There wasn't any sign of a body but he had gathered that indeed a young man had been present when this “meteor”(?), thought Bernard as he looked up at the hole in the ceiling, had crashed into this room.

Leery of “reading” a death with his powers which always was most unpleasant he reached out to try and find what had happened here. Strangely he was getting a feminine impression, maybe a previous occupant?

Some Navy guys had shown up with arm loads of equipment that from what Bernard could overhear indicated no radiation or toxic fumes. It was ‘just one very big piece of charcoal’ as one in Navy uniform, joked morbidly.

He could get just so close as he worked his way pass the burned, water soaked debris of a person's life. Bernard used his power to 'touch' the egg but to his surprise he got nothing at back all. He should have gotten something if it had killed that man, but he didn't even get a background feeling from the bed.

Shocked Bernard realized that it was if the egg was shielded! Working his way around it he found that there was a circle around the Egg that indeed seemed was shielded but he didn't get an impression of a person.

Realizing there was another explanation, he reached into his pocket for the small packet of useful tools he kept with him. An old friend had given him this years ago while at school and the tools had proved useful from time to time.

Unwrapping the silk covered crystal, Bernard daring the heat held it as close to the egg as he dared. A small flash of light from it was his reward and he quickly left the room. It took him a few minutes to consider a course of action, but he had gotten the idea that the military was planning on moving it and if he was right that really would not be a good idea.

Hitting the speed dial on his cell phone, “Yes, connect me with Dr. Herman Ross. This is Bernard Johnson. I think I have a “situation” here.

***

Jake stirred a bit but it was so warm and cozy he didn't want to get up. “Shh” a gentle muse whispered to him. “Go back to sleep.”

Sinking back to sleep, “Yes Mama” Jake muttered.

***

The Ottoman Paranormal Studies Institute (OPSI) recovery crew all relaxed somewhat now that they had moved the “egg” safely from the soon to be demolished apartment and into the secure room that was second only to the Vault for protection.

The damn thing just looked too much like something might hatch from it and start looking for lunch. The trip by train had been uneventful and the most stressful part of the whole trip was convincing the Navy that OPSI did indeed have authority in this case.

Dr. Ross rubbed his tired eyes again as he read the report on their mysterious “egg.” Its official name was Anomaly #1703, but everyone just called it the egg. The staff psychics were unable to get anything from it at all because of some sort of shielding and Bernard Johnson had been correct when he suspected magic. The Mages had done their best but hadn't any more success than the psychics to their disgust.

Their best guess was it was the product of a very powerful neutral mage which was an oxymoron. One way to achieve great power as a mage was to strike deals with the greater powers. To have something this powerful but neutral, while not as troubling as something evil might be, was still puzzling. Even more so when you add in the possible death of that young man Jacob Morgan.

The technicians had been unable to get any readings from x-rays, ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It just soaked up the energy like a sponge. Attempts to take samples failed to even scratch the surface.

When asked if a person could be trapped inside, all the techs could do was weigh it and make some guesses, and say maybe, which helped him not at all. Dr. Ross, weighing the possibility that Mr. Morgan's remains might be within, decided to approve more rigorous testing.

***

The three scientists stood around the “egg” surrounded by everything from mega-watt lasers, power tools and jackhammers. The two men and one woman had tried everything they could think of to get inside the damn thing and now was down to 'Well, what do you want to try next?' stage.

The ventilators were still working at removing the smell of burnt metal after ruining a set of diamond tipped drill bits and the aftereffects of the plasma torch. Pushing up his safety goggles “Well, I say we get permission to go for broke. Let's submerse the thing in liquid nitrogen then blast the top with the plasma torch again. If that doesn't work I'm out of ideas.”

The other two nodded their assent and began setting up for their 'Hail Mary' try as they nicknamed it. They were going to run the whole thing remotely because there was a chance the entire thing could spectacularly and explosively shatter.

If someone's life was at risk Dr. Ross wanted to be present because it was his decision and responsibility. The Rube-Goldberg contraption his technicians had set had a fog of liquid nitrogen coming off of it underneath the plasma torch cutting head.

The senior tech looked over at the Doc, “We are ready Sir.”

Dr. Ross was praying this was the right action, “Begin!”

The plasma torch flashed to life and began its preprogrammed cutting routine. One the techs let out a breath, “Nothing, not even a scorch mark.”

The senior tech ordered, “Alright going to procedure two.”

The egg began to slowly rotate in its frozen bath and the torch's cutting path altered to just a straight cut. Fog rolled only a short distance up the egg, as the once immersed portion came under the torch and everyone waited for something, anything to happen.

Anticlimactically nothing at all happened to the slowly rotating egg under the torch. Dr. Ross could see the frustration in his techs faces and he was guessing that this not what they were expecting.

“Is there anything else you can try?” He asked the frazzled men and one woman.

The young man shook his head in disgust, “Well you can drop it into the sun or maybe Nuke it but I wouldn't take any bets against it.” He said taking his goggles off.

Dr. Otto remembered Bernard Johnson had suggested the strange shielding from the anomaly could have been erasing any of Mr. Morgan’s PSI signature as well as for protection.

The tests here proved that there might be something to that, if the initial heat from the anomaly was to keep people away until it had done its work. Certainly nothing they had found here gave a reason why it stayed so hot at its landing point.

He supposed he could always ask the Academy for advise but seeing as one life had already been lost he wasn't willing to risk another to the anomaly. If it couldn't be cracked then he would have to settle for containment as he signed the order to seal it into a cryogenic capsule in OPSI’s high security vault.

***

A dreaming Jake, child-like asked his story teller, “And what happened next?”

The serene voice sang, “The great ball of fire fell from the sky. Thunder shook the heavens and a terrible wind blew over the great forest. Many Thunder-walkers fell and couldn't go on, but as a long cold rain, rained and rained, many changed.

From the great to the small many began to learn how to talk. It was the time of the Great Fall. Times were very hard and food was scarce but those who lived learned much and those lessons helped bring on the new beginning and the re-birthing.”

A sleepy Jake asked, “What was the name of this story again?”

The gentle voice answered, “Where dragons come from.”

***

Octavia Washington grew excited as she read the twelve year old report. It looked like they had tried everything to just get a sample but the anomaly had resisted all of them. It had a great potential and now all she had to do was write up the funding request and deal with the bureaucracy.

It should help that she'd had a great deal of success translating mutant and paranormal effects into workable everyday solutions. Of course, she wasn't the only scientist who was researching how these amazing people and artifacts managed to do what they do.

After all, knowing it was possible was always half the battle and her patents from her work had enriched not just herself but her employers as well. Her latest work on Aero-Gels would help reduce weight for the automotive and the aerospace industry. Octavia couldn't wait to get started!

***

Hunter slammed the funding request down on the Director's desk “Save us all from inter-service rivalries! The Air Force is looking for UFOs and one falls into the Navy's backyard. Do they tell anyone, no! Then what did they do? They give it away! For thirteen years I've hunted this monster and where is it but in someone's downstairs freezer!”

The director smiled, “I would hardly call OPSI's cryogenic vault a downstairs freezer Mr. Hunter. We are fortunate the request for the release of anomaly #1703 passed though our department and got flagged.”

Mr. Hunter and his team were a very special resource that he had inherited along with his position. They were very good at taking care of problems that eluded the ULTIMATE and he was well pleased with their successes even though sometimes like now “special” handling was required.

Hunter's eyes almost glowed with anticipation at the hunt coming to its climax and the director was well aware of how persuasive the smaller man could be. He however hadn't achieved this position by being intimidated by anyone and if his department had a rather vague name The Office of Research and Archives with a modest budget, his black project budget was more than many other countries Gross National Product.

“According to OPSI's report they tried just about everything to crack the anomaly,” said the director holding up a hand to forestall Hunter's objections.

“Yes, I know you have your own methods, but the oversight committee has taken an interest in Miss. Washington's project. They have visions of impenetrable body armor and tanks, and have directed me to “guide” her project to a favorable outcome for the department.

Hunter's displeased expression spoke volumes, “The fools know not what they meddle in. I have fought this monster's brood before and it is best caught and killed in the egg.”

The director's smile broadened “Of course not! That's why I have arranged for you and your team to be the security for Miss Washington's project. If anything say was to happen, you would be there to “take care” of matters. At your usual rate of compensation naturally. Is that a good enough solution for you Mr. Hunter? ”

“I would have full authority over security matters?” Hunter looked sharply at him.

“Thinking of a “stalking horse” Mr. Hunter?” The director prided himself on effective management of his “special resources.”

“Indeed, the monster was always protective of its spawn. If it is still alive we might very well lure the beast out. If not, well like you Americans say, ‘Shit happens.’” Hunter smiled back at the Director. “As you said, a good enough solution.”

End of Part 1

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Comments

Oooh, the story is familiar,

Oooh, the story is familiar, but at the same time unique! Good stuff, I'm curious to see where this one's going.

--Angie "kitn" Hughes

Very nice.

Good setup in the first chapter. Now, to wait and see what happens next!

Once again, you prove

that you are the Mistress of packing feelings into a story. Wonderful story, wonderfully told.

Hugs 'n love from,
Catherine Linda Michel

As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script. Y_0.jpg

Fantastic Real World Fantasy

terrynaut's picture

Hey. I like this. I love anything to do with dragons. :)

Some of it was a little hard to follow but I think I have most of it all figured out. I'm still not sure I understand what happened to Jake.

I look forward to the hatching.

Thanks and please keep up the good work. I'll be watching for the other two parts of this fun story.

- Terry

Very interesting!

Thank you! :-)

-Liz

Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"