Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
This is the life. To the crooning of Elvis from the many hidden speakers in the yard, I lazed in the pool, floating under the stars, my wings stretched, keeping me afloat, utterly relaxed, knowing I had nothing to worry about.
“We’re almost out of cheese puffs,” lamented Tutu, my Grand Vizier and bestest friend after Iolana.
Calamity! In a panic, because my tummy immediately rumbled in consternation, I began sinking and had to kick to the surface to sputter, “What ever shall we do?” Apollo’s excellent chef couldn’t make more of her bite-sized pastries until she returned in a few days.
As if meeting her new grandson were more important than feeding me.
To add to that inconvenience, Iolana and Apollo had left for the evening, stating they needed a romantic evening alone.
“Why can’t they do that here?” I’d complained to my Grand Vizier.
Tutu explained. ‘They don’t want you watching while they indulge in sin.’ AKA tried to make a baby the human way.
Humans could be so strange. As if I cared about their grunting and moaning. I even encouraged it. “That’s it, Apollo. Put a baby in her belly.” I could use more servants. Did they appreciate my helpful advice? Not one bit.
To add to my chagrin, Iolana wouldn’t return for bedtime. The betrayal. She knew that for the past several nights I’d been having nightmares and only plastering myself to my first servant provided any comfort.
Tutu rolled from the lounger he’d been lying on and cinched his robe, declaring, “Fear not. I shall find us some more snacks.”
“I knew I could count on you!” Tutu never let me down, and he never kicked me out of his bed; however, sleeping with him meant controlling an urge to suffocate. The man snored something awful.
Eyes closed, I resumed floating in the pool and found myself thinking about the father I’d met recently via video conference.
A human man who could transform into a dragon.
A wondrous ability, but not as great as mine.
Poison breath to smite my enemies, but at the same time, I had the opposite gift of healing.
Way better than Abaddon’s fire, or Pollita’s lightning.
Although, Persephone’s ice power did have me a little jealous once she showed me how she could make instant popsicles.
The reminder of those delicious treats had me yelling, “Tutu, check the freezer for some Rocket Pops.”
“Are there enough to share?”
The sudden voice had me yelping and flailing in the water, only to find myself plucked free of the liquid and dangled by a dragon I recognized.
“Abaddon? What a nice surprise.” I grinned despite Iolana advising me my smiles showed too many teeth.
“Glad to see you, too. I hope you don’t mind, but I didn’t come alone.”
“Are Pip and Maddox with you?” I asked even as movement drew my gaze upward.
I gaped as the lights from the yard illuminated the pink of Pollita’s scales, but my eyes rounded as a shimmering beast alit, massive in comparison to Abaddon who, larger than me already, meant I was bug-sized to the newcomer.
But I wasn’t afraid. I wiggled until Abaddon set me down and I raced for the big dragon. “Father!” For who else could it be but him?
To my shock, he transformed before I arrived and held his arms wide open to scoop me into a hug.
“Hello, son,” he stated, and I almost burped gas in excitement.
“I can’t believe you’re here!”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, as well.”
“No welcome for me?” sassed Pollita.
I turned my head to offer her another wide grin. “Your turn is next.” My little legs pumped as I went to greet one of the females of my clutch and a possible future mate for when I chose to reproduce.
Or maybe not.
I noticed Abaddon scowling as she hugged me to her bosom. And was the steam huffing from his nostrils tinged in green?
“Why are you all here?” I asked, choosing to stay cradled against Pollita, despite it obviously antagonizing Abaddon. Let him steam. As Tutu liked to say, competition never hurt anyone. Of course, he said that in regard to commerce, but I thought it could apply to other situations.
Speaking of whom, he emerged, arms laden with snacks, only to drop them. “Tigger!” He shouted my name in panic.
“Fear not, Grand Vizier. They come in peace. I think?” I glanced at my father.
“Sorry for the lack of warning; however, we are here on an important mission and didn’t dare announce it beforehand lest our intent be intercepted.”
No need for father to explain who he feared hearing. “Malone,” I growled. “I guess he didn’t die in Scotland after all.”
“Not according to my dream,” replied Abaddon.
Dream? I opened my mouth to ask what he meant when father said something that distracted.
“While Malone is still a problem, there is an even greater one we need to concern ourselves with.”
“The monster sleeping inside the mountain.” The words blurted out. Judging by the grim expressions and lack of surprise, they knew what I spoke of.
“You’ve had the dream,” stated my father.
“For several nights now. But, oddly enough, I’m not me in it, but a woman, who stands atop a mound of snow facing a wall, only it’s not a wall, for within it, a giant eye opens.”
“When you say giant, how large would you say it is?” Father canted his head.
“Taller than Abaddon, maybe more.” A reminder that had me shivering.
Pollita gave me a little squeeze. “You’re safe.”
“For now,” Father murmured. “But once the destroyer awakes…”
“Our world as we know it will cease to exist.”
The new voice startled everyone, except Father. He smiled as the pale blue dragon alit, her wings almost soundless.
“Persephone? What? How?” Abaddon appeared at a loss for words.
The dainty dragoness waved her paws. “Someone named Astaria called me a few days past and suggested I visit Tigger.”
“Who’s Astaria?” Tutu asked, sucking on a rocket pop that led me to wiggling until Pollita set me down. My tummy had a rumble that needed filling.
“A friend of mine,” Father murmured. “A selkie who gets glimpses of the future. Strange she chose to call you.”
“She said you were taking too long to gather the hatchlings and that we needed to be moving faster if we were to arrive in time to make a difference.”
“I don’t suppose she told you where to go?” Father asked.
The riveting Persephone shook her head and her horns sparkled. “No.”
“Have you been dreaming of an ice cave?” Abaddon inquired next.
“Volcanoes, actually. Four of them, exploding one after another in a place of—”
“Ice and snow,” we all said, interrupting her.
“Well, yes. How did you know?”
“We’ve all been having dreams,” Pollita stated.
“Not everyone. Father hasn’t,” Abaddon chose to interject.
“Likely because I’ve learned to better guard my mind given my age and experience.”
“What have you dreamt?” Persephone treaded in my direction, and I quickly snatched a Rocket Pop to offer.
“A cave of ice, which I think is the same one Tigger’s seen.” Pollita replied taking a popsicle from Tutu and eating it in a single bite.
“Mine’s a little different in that I’m seeing it from the perspective of a human female, and there’s a ginormous eyeball that appears,” I corrected rivetted as Persephone used her ability to increase the size of her rocket pop.
She pointed it at Abaddon. “And what of you? What have you seen?”
“A shaking mountain at first, but the other night I saw Malone heading for it. Likely he’s the reason why your dream shows those four exploding volcanoes.” The mad scientist had a method for making even dormant ones suddenly rouse with a magma fury.
“He’s going to wake an old dragon. A big one,” my father’s ominous prediction.
“And?” I queried in between sucks of my rocket pop. All eyes turned on me. “What’s the big deal? I mean, Malone woke us up, and the world is fine. Because of him, we met our father. Who’s to say waking up this dragon is bad?”
For a second, no one replied. Father broke the silence. “Tiamat referred to it as the Destroyer.”
“I thought it was understood our mother was power hungry and saw all dragons and even humans as a threat,” I reminded.
Again, everyone looked at each other.
“What do you think, Tigger?” Father sat down cross-legged in front of me and reached for a melting rocket pop.
“I think that if this dragon’s been asleep a long time, it’s going to wake up confused. Maybe feeling lonely. But if we’re there to greet it—”
“It will eat us, most likely, since it will be hungry,” Abaddon predicted.
“Or like me, it will be happy to have friends who understand it.”
“In any case, we need to figure out where this mountain with the nearby volcanoes is. The fact they’re obviously covered in snow should help narrow down the location.” Father’s popsicle fell from the stick into his lap. He stood, letting the slush hit the pool deck before diving into the water.
“Could be the Rockies, I guess,” Abaddon stated. “Although, I don’t remember seeing a cluster of four volcanoes, even dead ones, when we were scouting out places Malone might hit next.”
“Are we assuming these mountains have snow all year round, or is it just their season to be snowy?” Percy queried.
Which led to them discussing the Andes and Himalayas.
In the midst of the arguing over which location seemed most likely, Tutu returned with an armful of boxes.
“Cookies!” I exclaimed, diving on the ones with the rainbow chocolate chips.
“You know, I recently watched a documentary on Antarctica,” Tutu interjected. “Did you know there’s a volcano active there, and it so happens to be near three others that aren’t.”
“I remember that show. They had funny names. Erebus for the lively one. Mount Terror, Mount Bird and Terra Nova.” I paused with my cookie halfway to my mouth as I added in a shout whisper, “And not far from them is a giant and long mountain.”
Father vaulted from the pool and slicked back his wet hair. “Percy, would you recognize the volcanoes if you saw them?”
“I think so. In my dream, I’m flying above them before they start blowing.”
“We need to do an image search on the internet,” Pollita stated, heading for the house, which led to Tutu huffing to race past.
“Give me a second to grab the laptop because I don’t think the lady dragon will fit inside the house.”
Persephone preened at the compliment about her size and Pollita scowled, which led to Abaddon’s tail twining with hers. Definitely something going on between them. Good, because I only had eyes for a certain ice dragoness.
In short order, with father sitting at the outdoor dining table typing, and the dragons huddled around, he managed to find a satellite image of the volcanoes in the Antarctic.
Immediately, Persephone shouted, “That’s it!”
Only I heard Abaddon’s softer whisper of, “There’s the mountain from my dream, and it’s even bigger than expected.”