Part 13 (1/2)

”I'm ready. The Incantation?” She breathed, gently, almost like she was speaking but still holding in some air. Her eyes were crackling with energy. They reminded me of Bonny's constantly crackling eye. And I wondered if my eyes did the same when I used to invoke spells.

I nodded to her and told her the incantation. She looked at me skeptically, which was way freakier than I would like to admit, with the way her eyes were pulsing and charged.

”Mother Nature,” Ettie began, before shaking her head and mumbling under her breath. Her eyes returned to looking at me. ”This can't seriously be the incantation?”

”Uh...” I started, glancing away from her.

”You made it up on the spot didn't you?” She prodded with a raise of her voice, certainly more confident now that she could prostrate me.

”Mostly.” I finally affirmed.

She shot her head down to look at the ground, lulling it to the side as she seemed to be thinking. After a moment her scary eyes were staring knives into me. It didn't last though, and her body seemed to relax. ”Then I'm making my own.”

”Good.” I said, as she skewed an annoyed but playful sneer at me before closing her eyes again. She should have known by now the majority of incantations are specific to the person when used.

”I don't know why I put up with you.” She mumbled before starting a new incantation of her own. I could feel the clouds around us bubbling even before she spoke the first word. Unfortunately I didn't understand a d.a.m.n thing she said when she did say her own incantation. It was in her language again, I knew I should have bothered to learn it.

The clouds seemed to peel away almost instantly. The ice crystals in the air seemed to hum with the cadence of Ettie's voice and scatter away from directly around us. I mostly watched Ettie though as she did it, to make sure she didn't push herself too hard. She had been firing magical bolts of energy earlier.

Her eyes opened after a trice, the air pus.h.i.+ng further out and clearing the clouds. She got the hang of it down fast and I had to wonder if she was teaching herself these days since I wasn't around as much.

My thoughts died away though when her crisp, non-crackling eyes had returned but looked like tiny specks; and she had sucked in a deep breath of surprise.

Of course, I had to turn around to see what had just put the living fear into her so easily when she should have been proud.

There, directly behind us in the air, was the entire length of a scaly red dragon. The same one Kit had changed into when I had been inside the mirror. Except this one didn't look nearly as friendly as Kit had.

I glanced back at Ettie. The fear was still tr.i.m.m.i.n.g her eyes into narrowed specks, but they focused on me.

She spoke so defensively, ”I didn't do it.”

Thirteen.

Dragon Fodder The wind was harsh and it didn't let up a single bit, despite the miasma clearing up around us so we could see the s.h.i.+p in the more defined features it had before. At least six other pirates were in my visual range, along with Ettie and Roberts.

And every last one of us was staring in awe-struck glory at the dragon that floated just off the stern of the s.h.i.+p.

You don't exactly run into dragons very often. It's not like they just patrol the skies looking for things to burn or eat. In fact, they were so rare that it was possible to go an entire legendary lifespan without ever seeing a real one.

It has nothing to do with them being extinct, because they certainly aren't. They are just rare sights, up there on par with phoenixes and unicorns. There are all sorts of rumors as to why. Some people say they just like to keep to themselves, others say they are tasked as guardians and keepers of all sorts of usually hidden things, a few believe that they only visit our world and then go somewhere else, and the majority believe that they take on a human shape to hide amongst the world.

I think it's all of them. And I had this conversation with my Grandmamma about how so many things seem to be able to take a human shape when they don't normally look human.

She said it was for their survival. Humans always seem to have problems with people who were different from them. So the non-humans learned to change to look human to survive. Similar to how some of the Pixie race had eventually learned to change into the tall, lengthy, beautiful race of the Sidhe. Although I speculate that might just be a case of pixies not liking being small.

I asked her why they would change for other people and she simply said, ”The need to survive makes people do crazy things.”

I think she had made a gross underestimate.

The need to survive makes people do impossible things.

And I was no exception.

”Hey,” I began with the loudest voice I could muster up against the tumbling winds, taking a single step forward. ”You won't be taking the Mirror spirit if that is what you came for.”

Maybe I should have amended my Grandmamma's saying to: The need to protect makes Gnidori do stupid things.

The dragon's long crimson neck stretched and tugged as he or she twisted its head to the side curiously, like a puppy wanting to investigate something. It was almost cute, if the giant gaping jaw with sharp ivory teeth and pristine diamond-like talons on his or her hands weren't obviously staring me in the face.

”I have no need for a mirror spirit.” The dragon bellowed with a voice that made me think it was male. But for all I knew dragon female voices were low and male voices were high.

I'm a dragon virgin. What can I say?

My shoulders lightened though with the relief that I wouldn't have to deal with Kit being stolen away or anything. Not that I cared if he had to be taken. He was mostly a pain in my side the whole time. Okay, maybe I cared a little but not enough to fight a dragon over.

”Then why are you here?”

”Midnight Magic.” The dragon replied with such simplicity and sharpness to his or her tone that I didn't think it was cursing.

”Uh... Gnidori?” I heard Ettie call worriedly from somewhere behind me.

I half-glimpsed back while replying, ”Yeah? Kind of busy with a dragon here.”

But the wisp and brunt force of wind nearly toppled me from where I stood, while I heard Ettie grunt. I looked over to see her hands pressed to the floor and her knees dug into the wood. Her head was lulling about like she was drunk and about to puke.

She must have been wet-sylphed.

I dropped down in front of her, both for my sake and hers. ”You okay? I need your help still.”

I realized when she looked up at me with spinning eyes that it probably wasn't the smartest thing in the world to have dropped to my knees right in front of her. I leaned on my axe, and scooted to the side, but she managed to keep her body from retching anything up other than words.

”Yeah.” She breathed heavily, her head still lulling but her body was stiffening, which I figured meant she was gaining control. ”Just had the wind knocked through me, is all.”

I met her smile with my own, before the wind picked up fiercely, whistling against us again.

Making sure she could steady herself, we both stood up, and I gazed toward the dragon still floating in peace. The sylphs didn't seem to bother the dragon, probably because they were just as afraid as I was.

”I need you to blow the sylph up. You are the only one that can do it.” I explained, leaning closer to Ettie to make sure she could hear me. The commotion around the s.h.i.+p was steady as ever, and the s.h.i.+p gave another belch that wrenched us a few steps away and forced us to lean against each other to stay up.

The other pirates around us seemed to be slowly filing away, toward the now visible ladder, despite the few trip ups from the wind spirits. I looked to Ettie, and she just nodded softly, despite her face still looking rather flushed.

”It's always you need this. You need that. You never fulfill my needs Riri.” Ettie mocked, her voice sounded strained as she gently pulled away from me and held both of her guns near her face like a boxer ready to jab with them.

”I promise, after this. I'll get right on that.” I played along, my eyes briefly flitting to look at her before falling back on the dragon.

”Maybe if you help us out, I can help you with your magic problem?” I asked the dragon, thrusting a hip out to sit my fist on, while leaning the rest of my weight on the axe pointed to the ground in my other hand.