[Repair, Battle]

  Before I went to sleep I’d asked Doug to show me an iconic war movie scene to inspire me. He showed me ‘Apocalypse Now’ the 'Ride of the Valkyries' scene. At first it looked cool until you see the cost of war, the teacher running, leading her class away from the classroom, seeking safety, but is there really any safety at all in war, especially when death reigns down from above.

  I slept really fitfully but I knew how to end this war for good and that was worth much more than a bad night's sleep. I’d need Draco’s help of course. But when I went down to his lair, I found the door open. Later I learned he went out for a plan he’d come up with.

  I afterward heard what occurred from a gnome who’d been part of the plan and had witnessed the attack in its entirety. Draco, with a stone necklace first landed in a prearranged spot in the forest to orchestrate today's series of attacks then he flew around behind the enemy and starts a fire breathing strafing on the road, the army sees a fire breathing dragon coming straight towards them the fire breath so hot it turns the dirt road to glass. Almost the entirety of the army scatters into the woods, anything to escape that hellish flame. Where the gnomes who have been advised of the plan lie in wait.

  The gnomes start zapping the fleeing soldiers willy nilly, so many soldiers are fleeing in terror. The gnomes don’t even have time to bind them just zap one and then another, by the time that they got back to bind them, they often had to zap the soldiers a second time as they had started out of the initial shock.

  This would have all been fine, except the leader of the army and a small group of his officers were armed with machine guns, guns I learned later that fired many, many bullets per minute and instead of scattering they stood their ground and fired those guns at Draco, but watched as those bullets just bounced off. The Leader had directed his subordinates to target the eyes, he assumed probably correctly that it would be the softest spot and the most direct route to a dragon's brain.

  Lu and I had just arrived at road portal number four for the first time today. Thirty or forty soldiers were bound and stacked. When I heard a terrible roar of pain, a tremendous crash and felt the Earth shook. I knew it was Draco, nothing else could make the ground shake like that. I didn’t think, I just portaled to road portal number three. The enemy hadn’t reached our ale trap yet. I looked around for any sign of Draco.

  I could see thick black smoke rising from the north side of the road in the forest. So I ran in that direction. I ran as fast as I could, but I was slow on the best terrain, a forest without a path, rocky and uphill my breath was soon coming in gasps. I probably would have been lost as well if it hadn't been for the fire which, even my insensitive nose, could clearly guide me in at least a general direction.

  This was all my fault, for trying to live up to Tolkien's principles, this was a war and I’d hamstrung my greatest ally and friend and mentor. I was sick of war, Harris’s and this army. First I would help Draco, then I would end this war, maybe people would think twice before they ever sent another army this way again. Not one of them would escape my wrath, not one of them. Next, I’d find out where this army had come from, and I’d deal with them too.

  I don’t know how many times I fell on that run, slippery leather shoes and skirts that catch on every bush and fallen branch, not the ideal attire for a forest jaunt. Eventually I reached the first small fire that proved I was on the correct path. The smoke was less of a guide now and more of a hindrance. As soon I was coughing and choking, I tried not to let it slow my pace. It's my fault I have to fix it.

  Finally I saw the giant body, in a deep furrow that he’d made when he crashed. I can’t portal him to the tower because he is in his full dragon form, not the cute pony sized dragon he transfigured into in order to live in the tower with us. So I portaled him to the town gate. Then I portaled immediately to the tower, to get Opal. Thank Fortuna she was reading in the library.

  She was startled as I rushed toward her. I couldn’t talk properly. I was covered in soot except where my tears had little rivers worn through the black. I just portaled us to the gate without a word. When she got a look at her teacher, she burst out crying.

  But I finally found my voice and I grabbed her shoulders and spun her gently toward me. “Heal him.” I croaked.

  She began to pour magic into him, I watched the magic flow out of her forehead and into Draco’s body. It didn’t have any noticeable effect on Draco, but after three or four minutes I could see the effect it was having on Opal, she was sweating and her breath was really getting shallow.

  “How much magic do you have left Opal?”

  “Ten percent, but I can do more Rose.”

  I would have been flat on my back, if my magic had been that depleted.

  “Wait, honey you need some magic, I’ll create a magical field you just absorb it. I did it the old way it was quicker, I made the magic field as large as I possibly could.

  “Alright honey, you go ahead and absorb the field, I’ll create another. So when you start to get low again, pause the healing and refill your magic.”

  “Yes, Rose.”

  I switched to Nyx’s method of gathering ambient magic, as I had little to no magic left in my body. Luckily her method didn’t require much magic from me, I soon had a huge field of ambient magic floating in front of me. I looked at Opal and her breathing was getting shallow again.

  “Opal, refill your magic, honey.”

  She did without comment and went right back to healing, then Lottie and Arjun arrived. Someone must have run to let them know that a healer was needed at the gate. Lottie couldn’t do anything, Dr Denton would have more luck healing a dragon then a Harvard trained surgeon like Lottie. Veterinarians have to know more varied anatomies than surgeons.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Arjun had started to pour magic from his hands into Draco’s body. Who still looked exactly the same as he had when I’d found him at the crash site. The magic didn’t seem to be having any effect at all. Had he already been dead when Opal had started? Well we weren’t going to give up. I loved this haughty dragon. I gathered more magic and absorbed some myself still leaving a vast pool waiting for Opal to absorb.

  She soon refilled again, Arjun watched with wonder as Opal absorbed the magic from that field, then instantly went back to healing. But he understood what we doing, the very thing that Draco had warned not to let happen. As he healed Draco he watched me accumulate more and more of the ambient magic. Suddenly I heard Draco’s tail thump against the ground. He was alive, the magic was working.

  We kept it up for hours. Some time during it, Lu portaled in.

  “Rose I was so worried, I portaled everywhere looking for you. What can I do to help?”

  “Please bring us drinks, and something with sugar. The magic may be less limiting than our physical stamina.”

  Opal was filling her magic back up more and more quickly and the strain on her face visibly showed. Ruby had arrived, word must have been filtering through the town, because I saw Dogberry in the crowd of onlookers. But he was soon ushering the crowd back into town, to give us space and privacy. Lu was back with food and drink. I forced Opal and Arjun to stop, one after the other to drink and eat something.

  About an hour later, Draco woke up. Seemingly embarrassed he popped into his smaller form. And we portaled into the tower. Draco walked somewhat shakily to his lair. Lu portaled back to Road portal four and began moving, bound but reviving bodies off of the road, bending rifle barrels so they could never be used again. She wanted to make sure that none of the army that still wandered free, would find and free and rearm their comrades.

  “Draco, I’m sorry, this was all my fault.”

  I began my apology, while Opal and Arjun continued to pour magic into Draco, I gathered another great vast field of ambient magic so Opal and Arjun could reabsorb the vast amounts of magic that had been poured into Draco’s body.

  “No, it wasn’t Rose. Every baby dragon knows that you tuck in your wings when you are doing a strafing run, it’s been so long since I did one, that I’m embarrassed to admit that I forgot and that’s why I had my little mishap.”

  “Little mishap, are you insane, I thought you died. Opal and Arjun have been pouring healing magic into you for hours. I meant I should have just let you destroy that army from the beginning.”

  “No, I was wrong to suggest that. How many of the soldiers did the gnomes manage to capture?”

  “I don’t know, I have been out there since early this morning. There were thirty or forty piled up before you crashed. But I just left them lying there.”

  “Well get out there and get them off world before someone frees them and we have to go through this again. Please I’m fine, I don’t need any more healing. If you don’t portal out there I’ll do it myself.”

  “Fine you stubborn old dragon.” But before I portaled away I went over and hugged his neck and kissed him on his snout.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m properly telling you that I love you, and I’m glad you are your grumpy old self. Opal, Arjun, don’t pay any attention to him. Continue healing him, please. I’ll be back soon, to generate another field if you need it.”

  “Yes, Rose.”

  I found Mossbeard in the library waiting for news on Draco’s condition.

  “I think he’ll be just fine, he’s already complaining so that’s a good sign, I just need to move prisoners to War World and I could use your help.”

  We portaled to road portal number four to find Lu waiting. She showed us where she'd stashed the one hundred and twenty six bodies and the ruined firearms. I jumped all of us to War World, where I set Mossbeard to work making a portal drawing. Which he finished before Lu had unbound and I had erased the memories of half of the prisoners.

  “Mossbeard, please have Opal activate the drawing and then portal back here to test it.”

  He was back before we’d finished with the last of the prisoners. He gave me the portal drawing. I made a few copies and handed him one for his wallet. Then I shrunk one to postage stamp size and gave it to him as well.

  “Please test this little one for me, Mossbeard.”

  He portaled away but was back a few seconds later.

  “Yeah the little one works fine, Rose. We’ll be able to fit a lot more in a portal wallet if you shrink them all down to this size.”

  I thanked him and we portaled back to road portal number four.