Petra Price and the Last Dragon: Chapter 10
In theory, I'm around the halfway mark as of now. That's exciting~ This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was perfectly ordinary, until a world of dormant magic was revealed to her and she became a witch. Taken away from the life she's always known, she's faced with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. Someone's life may be at stake!
“This is ridiculous,” Petra complained to Martin, taking her frustration out on one of the many pillows in the room the genie leaders had assigned to her. It would actually be a very comfortable place to live if she wasn't as close to a prisoner as one could get.
She was allowed to leave her room, even able to go very nearly anywhere she chose to. She had to be in the company of one of the genies at all times. Martin had taken to spending large amounts of time with her. Petra felt a bit guilty that he was taking such responsibility for her, but she couldn't bring herself to let him leave her. She didn't trust the leaders of his people any farther than she could throw them and the sentiment was only slightly less powerful towards anyone who wasn't Martin.
Though among his own people, he seemed almost as much of an outcast as Petra herself had been made to feel. Everyone condescended to him, perhaps not in actions but it was plain on the faces of anyone who spoke to the boy.
“They've lived a solitary existence for far too long,” Martin told her, “They don't know how to react to such an extraordinary situation, so they've shut down completely.”
The fact that the boy sympathized with her was a very small comfort. He hadn't left her side until quite late the previous night, only to rejoin her very early in the morning. The scant few hours she had spent without him had been a sleepless affair. His presence was a soothing balm that helped Petra focus the agony of being separated from her entire world, both magical and otherwise.
Her focus was placed solely on escape.
She'd managed to think of nothing else since the moment her encounter with the village leaders had ended and they had told her she wouldn't be leaving their company, soon or ever. She wasn't going to be kept away from all she held dear on their word alone. She was going to fight. A prison was still a prison, after all, no matter how lavish and comfortable it might be.
Her mind had been spinning on the subject for hours without rest. She had grown so distracted and irritable that Martin had talked less and less before becoming altogether quiet. Petra was thankful for his understanding and hoped his patience with her could hold up. She was about to ask him to stretch it beyond reason.
As far as Petra could tell, the village's only exit laid in the hall of bottles. Even if she were somehow able to get past the guards and back into the bottle Martin had rescued her from, who was to say she wouldn't be back just where she started. Some instinct in her gut told her that the bottle would not release her as easily as it had trapped her, even if someone were to rub it as required while she was inside.
No matter what angle she tried to look at it, she kept coming up short. There would be no leaving the genie village without Martin's help.
She stood by the window for some time, wringing her hands and trying to gather the nerve to face him and let the question be uttered once and for all. The view from her room helped to steel her resolve. Some spell had been cast to create the illusion of a vast open space beyond the village walls. Knowing it wasn't truly there, Petra imagined it more oppressive than if she were surrounded by solid walls or the bars of a cell.
“It seems to me I have two options,” she finally said, turning to fix her gaze on the only person that could help her and Margie go home. At the sound of Petra's voice, the small animal stopped the frantic scampering that Petra had managed to become used to over the past several hours. The little creature seemed to be drawing off of Petra's emotions. At one point, Petra was almost certain she had seen Margie literally climb up the wall. She had almost expended the magical energies needed to join her, only changing her mind at the last second and deciding to reserve her strength.
“What would those be?” Martin prodded.
“I can either stay here and accept my lot, do whatever your leaders expect of me. I have no idea what that is, and neither do you I imagine.” At that, the boy gave a small shrug to indicate his ignorance of the matter. Petra continued, “Or, and here's where it gets tricky for you... You can help me escape. I'm sure you realize this seems like the more desirable course of action to me. I guess what I'm saying, or rather asking, is this: Would you please help me leave this place?”
He might have stormed out or yelled, he might have done any number of things. Petra didn't expect his nearly immediate grin, an expression mixed with relief and what could have passed for full scale glee.
“I was so hoping you would ask!” Martin came to her and clutched her hands in his own, possibly to stop her from constantly worrying them, “I mean, I would have tired to suggest it anyway, sooner rather than later, but I can feel so much better about the whole ordeal now that it's your idea. It's almost like I'm granting your wish, and I haven't done anything of the sort in such a long time.”
Petra was unsure of what had changed, if anything, to excite the boy in such a way. Whatever she had done, she felt she had somehow opened the floodgate and that everything was about to come spilling out.
“It saves me the trouble of dancing around, trying to figure out how to drop hints. Only just barely, mind you.” Martin was babbling a little. He noticed Petra's bewildered stare and seemed to take a mental step backwards.
“Strictly speaking, I'm obligated by the council of leaders to keep all of the secrets of my people, but you're from the worlds outside the bottles and you need my help. By a very loose translation of our laws, that makes you my master. The relationship between a master and their genie came above everything else when the old ones governed our rules and I can still apply those rules to the present day. As my top priority, I can do anything, say anything to get you home.”
Martin claimed that the story he told her after that was condensed down from a much longer tale. Even then, it was full of betrayal and intrigue and Petra fully wished she were able to concentrate on the boy's words instead of being still largely consumed with her own plight.
There was a reason the other genies looked down on Martin. He was once their leader, but as all genies were equal when it came to their magical duties he too was sent to man the bottles from time to time. His last master had wished him into his current child-like form to make him a more pleasing companion during their time together. They had claimed they only really needed one wish and that they would use their last to change him back again, but that course of events never played out. Martin had returned to his people a less powerful creature than the warrior-like man they had last seen, trapped in a state of perpetual childhood. That one of their own could be so fully taken advantage of was something that frightened the genies. They overthrew him and stopped going into the bottles to grant wishes.
Petra soon assumed that his help would come with the condition of returning him to his former glory, a price she would be gladly willing to pay. He cleared up the misconception soon, explaining that he would be happy to help her whether he was able to return to his people or not.
“There's nothing left for me here. Those that surround me are members of a stubborn race that will soon die off. I have tried to make them listen to reason for years, but they see nothing but a fool whom was tricked by a child.”
They were walking through the town again, headed in the general direction of the guarded hall of bottles. With all that she now understood of Martin, she wondered why they were allowed such freedom. She had a feeling her friend was severely underestimated.
They approached the hall of bottles in a roundabout way so that they came upon it from the rear where there was nothing to be found but a solid wall. Instead of creeping around to the front, Petra was only slightly surprised by the weightless feeling of near nonexistence she had felt once before, shortly after her arrival in the genie village. Whether they floated around through the door or seeped through whatever miniscule cracks the building might possess, she'd never know.
“We must return to the bottle you were trapped within,” Martin told her, guiding her on foot. She followed just behind his shoulder with Margie scampering after her heels.
“Weren't you afraid of being trapped in there before?”
The boy sent a smile in her direction, “That was before I knew and trusted you. At the time, you might have been a trap. Someone could have learned about my excursions into the hall and set me up to become trapped just as you were before I found you. All the bottles have been hidden away, as far out of reach as we could possibly make them and it's fairly safe to assume no one would ever be able to find the bottle and release me. That does make one wonder how the bottle that trapped you came to be found and tampered with, as it clearly was.”
Petra cast a weary glance at the door that had become their goal. She then turned the same gaze to Martin.
“We won't get trapped in there together? That's not any better than just my being in there with Margie. If we're both stuck, there won't be anyone to rescue us this time.”
Martin pulled the door open, “If you returned alone, whoever might be looking for you would simply rub the bottle and get sucked into it as you were. If I go in with you, it should upset and dissipate whatever charm has been cast on the bottle to confuse its base magic. Instead of sucking anyone else in, it'll allow me to exit. Once I'm in your world, it will be a matter of telling whoever I find out there to wish for your escape.”
He showed no reluctance as he first allowed her to pass into the bottle and then followed her, closing the door soundly behind them. It was time to play the waiting game.
They were in the middle of a game of cards when Martin disappeared without warning. The card Petra had been in the process of passing to him fell to the floor face down. It was the last thing Petra saw inside the bottle before she was again in the forest that played home to the toyffkin. It seemed like weeks since she had last been there when really it had hardly been more than a day.
The faces of Petra's friends gazed down at her, displaying various emotions that spanned from happiness to relief. Petra, having been deposited on the ground, would have been tempted to believe she'd been knocked out and had dreamed the whole ordeal if Martin's countenance hadn't been among those that hovered over her.
Petra got to her feet and was immediately crushed into a hug between Hilton, Budgerigar and Marnie.
Mister Glover rested a hand on her shoulder, “None of them would be left behind when I came back to look for you. Mister Tyler and Mister Sparks felt some responsibility for your disappearance and wanted to come along as well, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Three students was enough to have running around a darkened forest.”
The small group started to sweep towards the portal that would take them back to the school. Petra stayed behind for a moment to have a minute alone with Martin. Realizing she wasn't with them, her friends stopped at a safe distance to wait. It seemed nobody wanted to let her out of their sight again until she was back where she belonged.
Petra picked up the genie bottle, sure that it was now safe to hold. She cradled it in her arms for a moment, thinking about the trouble it had caused.
“You can take it back with you,” Martin said quietly, “In case you ever want to call on me again.”
She shrugged, “I could just make a wish now. A wish for you, to pay you back for helping me. I could restore you to your former self or wish you back into power.”
“Actually, I think I'd fancy being human. That is, if you think that school of yours would have me. You're the first friend I've had in a long time, Petra Price, and I'm reluctant to give that up. Now that you have possession of that bottle, I'm yours for the required three wishes and then I'd have to return to the land of my people, never to be seen again in this world or any other. If you made me human, I could stay here. I'd very much like to do that.”
Petra grinned broadly, “If you're sure, I'll say the word, but won't you feel bad about giving up the powers you have left?”
It was Martin's turn to shrug, “They come with too many stipulations. I've already made my choice and I know it's the right one.”
Petra uttered her wish after only one more moment's worth of hesitation, “I wish you were a human like me.”
“Granted,” Martin was smiling even though nothing seemed to have happened. Petra raised an eyebrow at him in question. He responded by shrugging off his vest and turning his back to her. The markings on his back vanished as if they were being erased.
Petra and Martin started making their way towards the others. Having temporarily forgotten about it, Petra raised the magic bottle from where she'd been hugging it against her chest.
“What do we do with this?”
“Give it here.”
When Petra acquiesced, Martin gave the bottle a good crack against a nearby tree. The violent sound of shattering glass made Petra jump. She was prepared to magic away the mess but the shards the bottle had fractured into disappeared before they hit the ground.
“These will come in handy,” Martin said as they joined Petra's friends and the group headed back to the school. He held up a jar, showing her that he had collected the fragments of the bottle.
“How did you...?” Petra trailed off, assuming she didn't need to finish the question.
“You wished for me to be human like you, and now I am. I'm like you, magic and all.”
Petra grinned up at him as she climbed down through the portal in the ground, going before he did so that he could see how it was done.
He answered with a smile of his own, glancing around a final time before following her, “You know, it's the strangest thing. Something about this forest just seems so familiar.”
There had only been moonlight in the forest. Petra got her first good look at the newly human Martin when he stepped down from the ladder. She didn't think he looked at all different than he had when he was a genie.
Then she had a sudden realization and it almost made her want to cry.
“I didn't do that wish properly at all. I should have wished for you to be your proper age first.”
Martin chuckled and placed a companionable hand on her shoulder, “That was so long ago that I can hardly remember what it was like. Besides, I've got an awful lot of things to learn about being human and it'll be nice to have all the extra time. As I understand it, youth isn't viewed quite so negatively among your kind as it is mine.”
With her conscience eased, Petra couldn't wait for everyone to formally meet her new friend.
Description: Petra Price was perfectly ordinary, until a world of dormant magic was revealed to her and she became a witch. Taken away from the life she's always known, she's faced with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. Someone's life may be at stake!
“This is ridiculous,” Petra complained to Martin, taking her frustration out on one of the many pillows in the room the genie leaders had assigned to her. It would actually be a very comfortable place to live if she wasn't as close to a prisoner as one could get.
She was allowed to leave her room, even able to go very nearly anywhere she chose to. She had to be in the company of one of the genies at all times. Martin had taken to spending large amounts of time with her. Petra felt a bit guilty that he was taking such responsibility for her, but she couldn't bring herself to let him leave her. She didn't trust the leaders of his people any farther than she could throw them and the sentiment was only slightly less powerful towards anyone who wasn't Martin.
Though among his own people, he seemed almost as much of an outcast as Petra herself had been made to feel. Everyone condescended to him, perhaps not in actions but it was plain on the faces of anyone who spoke to the boy.
“They've lived a solitary existence for far too long,” Martin told her, “They don't know how to react to such an extraordinary situation, so they've shut down completely.”
The fact that the boy sympathized with her was a very small comfort. He hadn't left her side until quite late the previous night, only to rejoin her very early in the morning. The scant few hours she had spent without him had been a sleepless affair. His presence was a soothing balm that helped Petra focus the agony of being separated from her entire world, both magical and otherwise.
Her focus was placed solely on escape.
She'd managed to think of nothing else since the moment her encounter with the village leaders had ended and they had told her she wouldn't be leaving their company, soon or ever. She wasn't going to be kept away from all she held dear on their word alone. She was going to fight. A prison was still a prison, after all, no matter how lavish and comfortable it might be.
Her mind had been spinning on the subject for hours without rest. She had grown so distracted and irritable that Martin had talked less and less before becoming altogether quiet. Petra was thankful for his understanding and hoped his patience with her could hold up. She was about to ask him to stretch it beyond reason.
As far as Petra could tell, the village's only exit laid in the hall of bottles. Even if she were somehow able to get past the guards and back into the bottle Martin had rescued her from, who was to say she wouldn't be back just where she started. Some instinct in her gut told her that the bottle would not release her as easily as it had trapped her, even if someone were to rub it as required while she was inside.
No matter what angle she tried to look at it, she kept coming up short. There would be no leaving the genie village without Martin's help.
She stood by the window for some time, wringing her hands and trying to gather the nerve to face him and let the question be uttered once and for all. The view from her room helped to steel her resolve. Some spell had been cast to create the illusion of a vast open space beyond the village walls. Knowing it wasn't truly there, Petra imagined it more oppressive than if she were surrounded by solid walls or the bars of a cell.
“It seems to me I have two options,” she finally said, turning to fix her gaze on the only person that could help her and Margie go home. At the sound of Petra's voice, the small animal stopped the frantic scampering that Petra had managed to become used to over the past several hours. The little creature seemed to be drawing off of Petra's emotions. At one point, Petra was almost certain she had seen Margie literally climb up the wall. She had almost expended the magical energies needed to join her, only changing her mind at the last second and deciding to reserve her strength.
“What would those be?” Martin prodded.
“I can either stay here and accept my lot, do whatever your leaders expect of me. I have no idea what that is, and neither do you I imagine.” At that, the boy gave a small shrug to indicate his ignorance of the matter. Petra continued, “Or, and here's where it gets tricky for you... You can help me escape. I'm sure you realize this seems like the more desirable course of action to me. I guess what I'm saying, or rather asking, is this: Would you please help me leave this place?”
He might have stormed out or yelled, he might have done any number of things. Petra didn't expect his nearly immediate grin, an expression mixed with relief and what could have passed for full scale glee.
“I was so hoping you would ask!” Martin came to her and clutched her hands in his own, possibly to stop her from constantly worrying them, “I mean, I would have tired to suggest it anyway, sooner rather than later, but I can feel so much better about the whole ordeal now that it's your idea. It's almost like I'm granting your wish, and I haven't done anything of the sort in such a long time.”
Petra was unsure of what had changed, if anything, to excite the boy in such a way. Whatever she had done, she felt she had somehow opened the floodgate and that everything was about to come spilling out.
“It saves me the trouble of dancing around, trying to figure out how to drop hints. Only just barely, mind you.” Martin was babbling a little. He noticed Petra's bewildered stare and seemed to take a mental step backwards.
“Strictly speaking, I'm obligated by the council of leaders to keep all of the secrets of my people, but you're from the worlds outside the bottles and you need my help. By a very loose translation of our laws, that makes you my master. The relationship between a master and their genie came above everything else when the old ones governed our rules and I can still apply those rules to the present day. As my top priority, I can do anything, say anything to get you home.”
Martin claimed that the story he told her after that was condensed down from a much longer tale. Even then, it was full of betrayal and intrigue and Petra fully wished she were able to concentrate on the boy's words instead of being still largely consumed with her own plight.
There was a reason the other genies looked down on Martin. He was once their leader, but as all genies were equal when it came to their magical duties he too was sent to man the bottles from time to time. His last master had wished him into his current child-like form to make him a more pleasing companion during their time together. They had claimed they only really needed one wish and that they would use their last to change him back again, but that course of events never played out. Martin had returned to his people a less powerful creature than the warrior-like man they had last seen, trapped in a state of perpetual childhood. That one of their own could be so fully taken advantage of was something that frightened the genies. They overthrew him and stopped going into the bottles to grant wishes.
Petra soon assumed that his help would come with the condition of returning him to his former glory, a price she would be gladly willing to pay. He cleared up the misconception soon, explaining that he would be happy to help her whether he was able to return to his people or not.
“There's nothing left for me here. Those that surround me are members of a stubborn race that will soon die off. I have tried to make them listen to reason for years, but they see nothing but a fool whom was tricked by a child.”
They were walking through the town again, headed in the general direction of the guarded hall of bottles. With all that she now understood of Martin, she wondered why they were allowed such freedom. She had a feeling her friend was severely underestimated.
They approached the hall of bottles in a roundabout way so that they came upon it from the rear where there was nothing to be found but a solid wall. Instead of creeping around to the front, Petra was only slightly surprised by the weightless feeling of near nonexistence she had felt once before, shortly after her arrival in the genie village. Whether they floated around through the door or seeped through whatever miniscule cracks the building might possess, she'd never know.
“We must return to the bottle you were trapped within,” Martin told her, guiding her on foot. She followed just behind his shoulder with Margie scampering after her heels.
“Weren't you afraid of being trapped in there before?”
The boy sent a smile in her direction, “That was before I knew and trusted you. At the time, you might have been a trap. Someone could have learned about my excursions into the hall and set me up to become trapped just as you were before I found you. All the bottles have been hidden away, as far out of reach as we could possibly make them and it's fairly safe to assume no one would ever be able to find the bottle and release me. That does make one wonder how the bottle that trapped you came to be found and tampered with, as it clearly was.”
Petra cast a weary glance at the door that had become their goal. She then turned the same gaze to Martin.
“We won't get trapped in there together? That's not any better than just my being in there with Margie. If we're both stuck, there won't be anyone to rescue us this time.”
Martin pulled the door open, “If you returned alone, whoever might be looking for you would simply rub the bottle and get sucked into it as you were. If I go in with you, it should upset and dissipate whatever charm has been cast on the bottle to confuse its base magic. Instead of sucking anyone else in, it'll allow me to exit. Once I'm in your world, it will be a matter of telling whoever I find out there to wish for your escape.”
He showed no reluctance as he first allowed her to pass into the bottle and then followed her, closing the door soundly behind them. It was time to play the waiting game.
They were in the middle of a game of cards when Martin disappeared without warning. The card Petra had been in the process of passing to him fell to the floor face down. It was the last thing Petra saw inside the bottle before she was again in the forest that played home to the toyffkin. It seemed like weeks since she had last been there when really it had hardly been more than a day.
The faces of Petra's friends gazed down at her, displaying various emotions that spanned from happiness to relief. Petra, having been deposited on the ground, would have been tempted to believe she'd been knocked out and had dreamed the whole ordeal if Martin's countenance hadn't been among those that hovered over her.
Petra got to her feet and was immediately crushed into a hug between Hilton, Budgerigar and Marnie.
Mister Glover rested a hand on her shoulder, “None of them would be left behind when I came back to look for you. Mister Tyler and Mister Sparks felt some responsibility for your disappearance and wanted to come along as well, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Three students was enough to have running around a darkened forest.”
The small group started to sweep towards the portal that would take them back to the school. Petra stayed behind for a moment to have a minute alone with Martin. Realizing she wasn't with them, her friends stopped at a safe distance to wait. It seemed nobody wanted to let her out of their sight again until she was back where she belonged.
Petra picked up the genie bottle, sure that it was now safe to hold. She cradled it in her arms for a moment, thinking about the trouble it had caused.
“You can take it back with you,” Martin said quietly, “In case you ever want to call on me again.”
She shrugged, “I could just make a wish now. A wish for you, to pay you back for helping me. I could restore you to your former self or wish you back into power.”
“Actually, I think I'd fancy being human. That is, if you think that school of yours would have me. You're the first friend I've had in a long time, Petra Price, and I'm reluctant to give that up. Now that you have possession of that bottle, I'm yours for the required three wishes and then I'd have to return to the land of my people, never to be seen again in this world or any other. If you made me human, I could stay here. I'd very much like to do that.”
Petra grinned broadly, “If you're sure, I'll say the word, but won't you feel bad about giving up the powers you have left?”
It was Martin's turn to shrug, “They come with too many stipulations. I've already made my choice and I know it's the right one.”
Petra uttered her wish after only one more moment's worth of hesitation, “I wish you were a human like me.”
“Granted,” Martin was smiling even though nothing seemed to have happened. Petra raised an eyebrow at him in question. He responded by shrugging off his vest and turning his back to her. The markings on his back vanished as if they were being erased.
Petra and Martin started making their way towards the others. Having temporarily forgotten about it, Petra raised the magic bottle from where she'd been hugging it against her chest.
“What do we do with this?”
“Give it here.”
When Petra acquiesced, Martin gave the bottle a good crack against a nearby tree. The violent sound of shattering glass made Petra jump. She was prepared to magic away the mess but the shards the bottle had fractured into disappeared before they hit the ground.
“These will come in handy,” Martin said as they joined Petra's friends and the group headed back to the school. He held up a jar, showing her that he had collected the fragments of the bottle.
“How did you...?” Petra trailed off, assuming she didn't need to finish the question.
“You wished for me to be human like you, and now I am. I'm like you, magic and all.”
Petra grinned up at him as she climbed down through the portal in the ground, going before he did so that he could see how it was done.
He answered with a smile of his own, glancing around a final time before following her, “You know, it's the strangest thing. Something about this forest just seems so familiar.”
There had only been moonlight in the forest. Petra got her first good look at the newly human Martin when he stepped down from the ladder. She didn't think he looked at all different than he had when he was a genie.
Then she had a sudden realization and it almost made her want to cry.
“I didn't do that wish properly at all. I should have wished for you to be your proper age first.”
Martin chuckled and placed a companionable hand on her shoulder, “That was so long ago that I can hardly remember what it was like. Besides, I've got an awful lot of things to learn about being human and it'll be nice to have all the extra time. As I understand it, youth isn't viewed quite so negatively among your kind as it is mine.”
With her conscience eased, Petra couldn't wait for everyone to formally meet her new friend.