(no subject)
Title: Eruption
Story: The Dragonfire Chronicles
Characters: Jethro, Kitra, Shuang, Fai, Lana, Aldan
Flavours: Peanut Butter #1 [Fire]; Wildberry #14 [Under a spell]
Toppings: N/A
Extras: Brownie
Word count: 5,294
Rating: PG
Summary: In which there is a dragon.
Notes: Part one for Peanut Butter Week. I'm going to go back and fill in all the missing scenes after this week is done so that the whole thing makes more sense :).
Even in a place like this, where he should have been feeling conspicuous and out of sorts, Jethro found it easy enough to hide. No one looked at him; but of course not. They were here to celebrate the announcement of a wedding, an announcement that, from what he had overheard, had been a long time coming.
That wasn't why he was here. Amasai had sent him - naturally, he wouldn't have managed to get in any other way - but he had no intention of returning to his master.
He was here to steal the egg.
Whilst Jethro knew full well his moral scruples differed from Kitra's and even more so than those of her friends, he also knew that he would be better with them than with Amasai. That he could fit in better with them than he currently managed with Amasai and his thugs.
He dodged a pretty woman who deigned to glare at him and made it over to the fireplace. It wasn't going to be easy - if even possible, but he would try. He wanted their protection; would need it if Amasai ever figured out what he was thinking.
He wished, for once in his life, that he'd had a vision about this.
There were two men sitting in armchairs, facing the fireplace and the flames that danced within. They were talking in hushed tones, apparently oblivious to the festivities that were happening around them. Jethro doubted it would last if he sauntered over and took what they all thought was a priceless jewel right in front of their eyes. No. That would not end well.
He sighed and wandered around the room again, keeping an eye out for the Lady and anyone else who might recognise him. There didn't seem to be anyone; after all, it wasn't as if she'd introduced him to her friends.
Jethro supposed he was just lucky that they'd decided to have this party here. Seemed to him like the Lady had put her foot down.
One of the men sitting by the fireplace stood, smiling at the other before he walked away. Jethro frowned and looked around. There had to be something-
There was a table down one side of the room, where the drinks were sitting, waiting to be taken. A man stood by it, wearing a jacket over his uniform, clearly waiting to help someone. Jethro nodded to himself. This might just work, as far as distractions went.
He walked over to the man without being noticed, slipping behind him when someone asked for another glass of wine. Carefully, as careful as he'd ever been when pick pocketing anyone, Jethro reached for one end of the tablecloth, tucking it in the man's pocket and threading the end out through the buttonhole. It looked like it was fastened tight enough; and if it wasn't, he could always try another way.
Jethro crossed the room again, getting a dirty look from another woman when she spotted him out of the corner of her eye. He rolled his eyes. She'd get over herself, one day.
The man was still sitting alone and Jethro was careful to stay out of his line of sight as he sidled up to the fireplace. He glanced up at the egg. It was going to be a smash and grab kind of crime, he felt, which increased the risk of being caught by about a million. No wonder they'd tried to send Kit in the first time; she was much better at that whole silent thing.
Jethro heard the murmur of the servant's voice and smiled to himself, waiting for it. Sure enough, there came the crash of every glass sliding off the table when he moved and the man whipped his head around to look. Jethro ran; he snatched the egg from the mantelpiece and made a beeline for the nearest door, running blindly until he knew the way again.
He stopped near one of the doors that led outside and tried to push the egg into his pocket. It was still unbelievably obvious - it wasn't a chicken's egg, after all - but it would be more obvious if he just strolled out with it in his hands.
He hoped.
No one at the gates challenged him when he left, but he broke into a run a street away, one hand permanently on the egg to make sure it stayed put.
When he saw the House, he slowed, took time to get his breath back.
He'd done it.
He'd got the egg.
*
Lana did not seem to be happy. Kitra watched her pace, resisting the urge to scratch the itch of the now-healing cut on her cheek. Jethro was standing in the doorway and the expression on his face was more worried than she'd ever seen it. Shuang was all but sitting on his hands to keep from touching the egg and Aldan - Aldan looked the same. Fai seemed calm. Like that was new.
"Are you telling me you didn't even check to see if anyone followed you?" Lana demanded now, turning on the boy, who shrank back a little.
Kitra sighed. "I wasn't followed," Jethro replied. "I'd have noticed. I always do."
"There only has to be one time," Lana snapped. "One slip-up, one mistake-"
"How did you get it out of there?" Shuang asked now, finally tearing his eyes away from the egg. Kitra shifted in her seat. She could hear that faint humming she'd heard the first time, when she'd stolen it from the jeweller. It obviously had something to do with the dragon inside.
It was hard to resist the urge to touch it again, to see if the same thing would happen twice.
"I distracted them and I stole it," Jethro replied. "And I wasn't spotted by anyone I knew. The Lady wasn't anywhere to be seen."
Shuang frowned, but Fai murmured, "Mei Ling," and his expression cleared. He nodded.
"Well at least we finally have it," Shuang said. He looked at Lana. "And what difference does it make if we let him stay? We're all being hunted, in one way or another."
"Do you think that adding more people who are in some kind of trouble will make that better for us?" she retorted, apparently very annoyed now. "That will just send more people sniffing around who have no business being here. It increases our chances of being caught!"
Aldan stood from where he'd been leaning against the wall and smiled at Lana in what he seemed to think would be a placating manner. Kitra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. There were more important things at stake here.
"Lana, I think we'll be okay here. And if we're not - we're all in this together. What would it hurt to add one more?"
To Kitra's surprise, it was Fai who nodded first, though he didn't turn his head to look at them properly. "You've done it before," he said, voice low. Kitra noticed Shuang's eyes flick to his friend, before his gaze skittered away again. "We can all do it again."
Kitra nodded and decided to hell with all of it. "He's done the one thing we couldn't do," she said. "We couldn't get our hands on this - and he's risked his life doing it-"
Lana laughed but Kitra scowled. "And when I failed, were you just going to give me a good hiding and send me on my way?" she snapped.
Lana stopped at that, her gaze inscrutable. Finally she looked to Jethro.
"All right," she said slowly. "You can stay here. But so help me, if anyone finds us, you're the one answering for it."
She pushed past him as she stalked out of the room and Kitra settled back into her chair, looking at the egg again. Jethro was still hovering rather uncomfortably in the doorway, but that would pass soon.
"Who's looking after it then?" Aldan asked. He aimed for nonchalant but missed by miles.
"I will," Kitra said, an instant before Shuang said the same thing. He turned and looked at her, smiling.
"That might be a better idea," he said, pushing the egg across the table. Kitra didn't touch it, but the humming increased when she reached her hand out.
"Can you hear that?" she asked.
They all shook their heads and she shrugged. "Never mind, then. Aldan, what do we have to do, exactly, to look after a dragon's egg?"
Aldan frowned. "I have some notes about it, I think," he said, wandering out of the room a few seconds later. Kitra leaned her chin on the table, so that the egg filled her entire vision.
Fai shifted in the chair next to her. "Not to be the one to ask the unfortunate question, but... What do we do when it hatches?"
They'd cross that bridge when they came to it.
*
Aldan found his notes and called them for another meeting some time later. Kitra and Shuang hadn't moved from the kitchen, though conversation between them didn't flow as easily as it had. She blamed Michal for that, at least.
Fai ducked his head inside and seemed to relax when he found them still sitting there. Kitra wondered briefly if they'd ever actually acknowledge the tension, the change that had come about. She doubted it.
Jethro dropped into the chair next to her and smiled quickly. Kitra still hadn't touched the egg; she didn't dare. And yet - Jethro had said nothing about what he'd felt, if he'd even felt anything at all.
She sighed and glanced around at the others. Lana walked in and leaned against one of the counters, her expression still as annoyed as it had been before. Aldan's smile seemed odd in comparison to the mood here.
"Right, so what do we have to do?" Shuang asked, breaking the silence.
"We have to keep it warm and dry," Aldan said. "And from there... we just keep an eye on it, I suppose. It'll hatch when it hatches."
"So there's no way of telling?" This was Fai, his expression ever so slightly puzzled.
Aldan shook his head. "Not really. I mean, when it begins to hatch, we'll notice; but other than that... We just have to wait."
Kitra nodded. "Okay. We can do that, right?"
Even Lana nodded this time, though she still didn't seem that pleased about the whole thing. She'd get used to it, Kitra supposed - though she was still curious as to why the woman was going along with it. She didn't have to.
"Kitra," Aldan said, "You should keep the egg with you at all times. Keep an eye on it. That way, if it starts to hatch, we'll be ready."
"How big do you think it will get?" Shuang asked, looking at the egg curiously now.
"I don't know," Aldan replied. "I don't know if there's any way to tell until it hatches, at least, not anymore." At their confused looks, he elaborated; "When dragons were around before, there was a lot of study done about them, their habits, that sort of thing. Obviously, the majority of those records were purged after the war."
"So we have nothing to work with?" Kitra asked.
"Beyond what I managed to scavenge from other scraps of records, no. We're going into this blind."
Lana sighed and pushed herself away from the counter. "I have to go out," she said. "My employers have been asking for me. If any of you leave, don't expect to be let back in again."
They all nodded but when Lana walked out, Aldan followed. Kitra could hear their low voices in the hallway.
Shuang pushed the egg across the table. "Are you sure about this, Kitra?" he asked.
She nodded. "I think I can handle it."
*
It was an easy enough job, after all. She touched it the first time in that kitchen and though she was relieved that nothing out of the ordinary happened, she didn't show it. When she was in her room, the egg remained with her, by the fireplace. She carried it around with her and nothing about it appeared to change.
Nothing changed, not really. A week and a half passed of them all living in the same house, getting on with their lives. Jethro fit into their lives as smoothly as anyone else; though Kitra didn't see him as much as she thought she would.
When a letter came for Aldan, then, it upset the whole atmosphere.
He opened it in the kitchen - he had no choice, with Lana glaring at him like that - and when he'd finished reading it, instead of passing it to her, he passed it to Shuang.
Shuang read it quickly and when he'd finished, he shook his head. "That's not possible."
"What isn't?" Lana snapped, reaching forward to snatch the letter out of Shuang's hand.
"It's from my old mentor - Landon. He received some research from Garrett. Some research involving magic."
Lana's eyes went wide when Aldan said the name, but she finished reading the letter anyway and then put it down on the table. "Why has he told you?"
"Because he knew what I was searching for," Aldan replied. "He always knew; he'd been searching for more or less the same things himself. Garrett, though- Last I knew, he wasn't looking into anything like this at all. But I mean, you read it. This stuff is detailed. Garrett must have been working on it for years."
"What are you going to do?" Shuang asked.
Aldan shrugged. "I don't see what I can do. Landon's got the research; he'll keep it out of anyone else's hands. As for Garrett-"
"You can't do research like this without being a magic user yourself," Shuang interrupted. "You said, your mentor was looking into this. That's why he sent you the letter."
Aldan shook his head. "He can't know about what's going on here."
Shuang raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his seat. Lana sighed.
"We're going to have to go and talk to Garrett, aren't we?" she said.
Aldan nodded slowly. "Yes. See what he knows. If he knows about-" He glanced at Kitra briefly and she felt her cheeks heat. They'd discussed it, sure, but there had been - a kind of unspoken agreement to leave it alone. Leave her alone. Even Lana seemed unwilling to broach the subject and that had never been an aspect of her personality, before.
"We'll go tonight, then," Lana said. "See what Garrett has to say for himself."
*
They left that night, as promised. Kitra watched them from her window, the egg in its now usual place by the fire. Jethro had wandered into her room and said hi earlier; it was the longest conversation they'd had since he'd arrived. Something was wrong here, and it was beginning to make her antsy.
She sat cross-legged next to the egg, staring into the flames. It had been a relatively calm week, she reflected - and that was nice, even if it served as a way to highlight the rifts that were growing between them.
Kitra sighed and ran her hands through her hair. Maybe Shuang would address it soon enough, though- He'd been acting oddly - it was expected, she supposed, from someone who had faced his death not so long ago, but this was different.
Could it get better?
Kitra looked around, distracted, when she heard a noise. There was nothing there. She turned back to the flames, sighing to herself. So now she was hearing things? That didn't seem fair.
There was a sound, a loud crack, that came from her left hand side.
Kitra's world seemed to explode. The flames in the fireplace erupted and she heard herself scream. This was- This was-
*
Shuang and Fai were sitting at the table in the kitchen; not talking, not even really looking at each other, but they were positioned so that their knees touched, so that they knew the other was actually there.
Shuang knew what his own problem was. A kind of insecurity that, though he knew it was stupid, still haunted him. Fai had come for him in the end, just as he always did. He'd saved him, the way he always did. It didn't silence those niggling doubts, however; and Shuang knew he needed to quash them before their relationship could revert back to what it was.
He had a feeling he knew what was on his friend's mind, too - and knew why he couldn't voice it. Everyone knew that he'd been worried, been scared, but it wasn't the kind of thing he would admit. If Shuang was honest, even after all their time together, he still wouldn't have thought of it. He would have thought Fai was angry with him for getting into a situation like that.
But he'd seen Kitra's face, the concern that was directed half at him, but mostly at Fai. The worry from her was easy enough to read. They'd not spoken about it, naturally. None of them were speaking about it.
When he heard the scream, Shuang jumped to his feet. His chair tipped over backwards, but he was out of the kitchen before he even heard it clatter to the floor, Fai close on his heels.
There was another shout and Shuang glanced over his shoulder. Fai nodded. They'd split up.
He had to kick open the door to Kitra's room and only hesitated for a moment when he saw her - on hands and knees, her eyes red, burning. The fireplace was alight, flames looking ready to climb the walls at her slightest thought.
Shuang looked at the egg. It was cracked all down one side; he wasn't sure but he thought he saw something moving within.
Without another thought, Shuang crossed the room and knelt before Kitra, in between her and the fireplace. She looked up at him, but the flames in her eyes were still burning brightly.
He took her face in his hands. "Kitra, come on, you can control it - you know you can-"
She shook her head and whimpered, her fingers digging into the rug. "It hurts-"
The egg cracked and she screamed again, eyes squeezing shut. Shuang dragged her up and into his arms, wincing only when she put her arms around him and her fingers dug into his back. He put a hand to her forehead - she was burning up, but the fire behind him seemed to have died down, a little.
Would it be like this the whole time it took that dragon to climb free? And then what?
Shuang looked over at the egg. Pieces of shell were scattered on the floor, but he still couldn't see the dragon itself. There was another shout from below. A detached part of him noted that Jethro must have magic too.
He'd examine that later. Much later.
All in all, he wasn't sure how long it took for the egg to hatch. He knew what Fai meant though, about feeling magic even without being a magic user. It was like ants on his skin, crawling along almost lazily at times. He didn't let go of her though, held her close and murmured apologies into her hair. The only noise she let out aside from her screams was the occasional choked sob.
Eventually, it stopped.
Kitra's hands loosened on his back and when he let her go, he realised she'd fallen asleep. She looked exhausted; there were dark circles under her eyes and Shuang wondered how much it had hurt really, how she'd even been able to stand it.
The dragon was staring at him when he looked around. Shuang didn't move towards it; he stayed by Kitra and watched as it attempted to stand on tiny, shaking legs.
It was small; larger than the average newborn creature, sure, but not what he'd been expecting. Still, the length of its tail and the size of its feet suggested something that would grow far bigger, given time.
It shook itself when it managed to stand and fell over again, but the second time of standing took less time than the first.
The dragon only stopped when it heard footsteps outside of the room. Fai walked in but stopped when Shuang held up a hand.
His eyes flicked to the dragon and widened in surprise.
"It hatched?" he asked.
Shuang nodded. "How's Jethro?"
"Passed out," Fai replied. "He was seeing things. Trying to claw his eyes out, almost."
Shuang winced and the sudden movement made the dragon skitter back, fall over again.
"How's Kitra?" Fai asked.
"Passed out as well," Shuang said. "Though she wasn't trying to hurt herself. I think she was trying to exert control."
Fai tilted his head questioningly and Shuang elaborated, "The fire was still in the fireplace. I doubt it would have been, if she'd been completely overwhelmed."
Fai nodded. "Shall I leave?"
"It might be best," Shuang said, glancing at the dragon, who had managed to stand again. "I'm not sure what to do with it, to be honest."
Fai almost smiled. "You'll work it out. I'll keep watch for Lana and Aldan. Did you feel it?"
"The magic? Yes."
"I think others will have, too."
There was a sudden, sinking feeling in Shuang's stomach. "They'll find us, you mean?"
"I think so."
"Keep watch, then."
Fai nodded and left. Shuang heard him stop by one of the other doors - Jethro's - before he walked down the stairs. They might have to leave soon; very soon, if Fai's suspicions were correct.
The dragon wobbled to its feet again and only stopped when it was a foot away from Shuang, blinking up at him curiously. He stared back. Its eyes were yellow and large in the way that all newborns' eyes were. It had shimmering green scales and small wings, still flat against its sides. Shuang supposed it hadn't even thought of those, yet. It was too busy trying to work out what the hell he was.
He moved a hand from Kitra's shoulder and reached it out, slowly. The dragon took a few steps back, its head low. It made Shuang wonder - was this evolution, like Aldan had said; or was this dragon just lucky, the only one to survive the war? In which case, was it looking for other dragons, for its parents?
The little dragon lifted its head and sniffed cautiously at Shuang's hand. Shuang didn't dare move. They needed to get this creature safe, especially if they were going to have to leave.
The dragon shook itself again and walked around Shuang. He watched it, puzzled by its sudden disinterest.
It stopped by Kitra and sniffed her cheek delicately. If dragons really had expressions, Shuang would have considered this one to be wearing a contented smile.
The dragon curled up next to her shoulder and rested its head on her neck before it fell asleep. Shuang let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, putting a hand to Kitra's forehead again. She was back to normal temperature, though there was still exhaustion in her face.
He stood. He'd go and stand watch with Fai. They could work out what to do when Lana and Aldan got back.
*
Kitra woke slowly, her head swimming. There was an odd weight on her neck but she didn't think about that, instead blinked groggily and tried to work out why she felt so exhausted. She could remember watching Aldan and Lana leave, could remember sitting down by the fire, but after that-
Everything was blank.
She sighed and decided to try and sit up, leaning up on her elbows.
Something to her right let out a squawk of annoyance and Kitra froze.
She turned her head and saw a little dragon sitting there, staring up at her with something like a question in its eyes.
Kitra glanced over her shoulder. Egg shell decorated the rug and the fire in the hearth had died. The dragon walked over to her and nuzzled her arm.
She petted it without even thinking, let it crawl onto her lap and curl up again.
The dragon had hatched.
Well, Lana was not going to be pleased.
*
Far south, where the land was ice, a seal was making her way through the ocean. She slowed when she heard the crack, when she felt the water ripple. Something was wrong here - but it wasn't a predator.
She began to swim toward the disturbance, puzzled by this intrusion into her waters.
There was a mound of ice in the middle of nowhere and as she got closer, she felt that the ripples were coming from there. She swam around it; but there was nothing. Nothing she could see, nothing she could smell. And yet- the water was still moving, still being disturbed by something at this point.
The iceberg cracked and the seal propelled herself backwards a little, prepared to run. Whatever was in there - she knew it wasn't a friend.
Ice fell away and the seal turned and swam.
The man in the ice opened his eyes slowly. The cold and water seeping into his clothes didn't bother him. What bothered him was what he could feel in the air, the lazy sparks of magic that were curling in the wind.
It was why he had awoken, of course. That had been the plan before - and how long had it been, he wondered? He looked out across the ocean. Not much had changed here, but he had never expected it would. Out there - it could have been ten days or ten years, for all he knew.
The point was, that magic had returned.
A dragon had returned - and that thought made the man smile.
He'd watched the dragon killings, remembered it like it was yesterday. That one had survived had been almost too much to hope for. That was why he'd hidden himself, had waited for this- this moment.
The man felt for his bag, rummaged in its contents. Everything was there, as he'd expected.
Good.
The magic was tantalising and he reached out for it with his own. There was a new age dawning here, but he needed to find out where.
He reached out his hand and held it over the water. It didn't shake. He was sure.
The man murmured a few words under his breath and the water shifted, surged around his iceberg and lifted it, propelling it out across the waves. He leaned back and smiled.
He was on his way.
*
Kitra lifted the little dragon when she finally decided to go downstairs and froze when it mewled in her arms. It didn't wake, which she considered a bonus and she made her way out of the room and down the stairs, barely making a sound.
Fai was sitting by the front door. He didn't smile when he saw her, but she noticed a minute change in his stance. He almost relaxed a little.
Shuang wandered out of the living room and smiled. He raised an eyebrow when he glanced at the creature in her arms and Kitra shrugged.
"I couldn't leave him up there alone."
Fai's head turned slightly as he listened. "Him?"
She shrugged again. She knew it to be true, the same way she knew he felt safe with her - that was why he'd curled up next to her, after all.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Shuang sighed. "We released quite a bit of magic here tonight. We're hoping... no one else felt it."
Kitra bit her lip and her grip on the dragon tightened a little, waking it up. Michal. She was tired, too tired to fight and-
Shuang's hand fell on her shoulder and she looked up at him in surprise. "I think you underestimate us sometimes, Kitra," he said. "We can handle it, if it comes down to it. Besides," he glanced at the dragon, which was looking up at his face as well, "You have a new responsibility."
Kitra nodded. It was true, she guessed. She'd not really thought, but - this dragon she was holding, he was the last of his kind. It was a new responsibility and a big one at that.
*
Jethro woke with a hoarse throat and the sense that he was adrift, floating in some in-between kind of world. When he opened his eyes, the ceiling seemed to shift - he saw the sky in daytime, a fresh ceiling, cracks appearing in the plaster and then the night sky, again. He groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes.
He knew what had happened. He'd never felt power like it, not even when he was around Kit; that had been something that had grabbed him and wrung every vision it could from him, playing them all before his eyes. Multiple futures, of course, multiple lives - and deaths.
Jethro sighed and stood up, ignoring the throbbing protest from behind his eyes and the way the door shifted from a tree to a pile of embers. There was something - residual - about it, this time. He shook it off. It would die down soon.
He walked down the stairs toward the hushed voices and stopped when they turned to look at him. There were no clear visions - not now, he was too tired and wasn't sure there was anything left to see - but he saw Kit, saw her as an adult and a child, both. He got a sense of the story behind the grazes that remained on Shuang's neck - parts that he didn't know, didn't want to - and images of what Fai could really do, if threatened.
"Are you okay?" Kit asked.
Jethro nodded. "Just tired." He glanced at the dragon but the sense of foreboding made him look away quickly. Damn it, he was never normally this sensitive! What was going on?
"What's going on here?" he asked.
"We're keeping an eye out for anyone who might come here," Shuang said. "We're not sure how much magic Michal can sense, but-"
"It's worth keeping a look out, yes," Jethro answered without even thinking. Shuang didn't give him a second glance, but Kit did, pulling the dragon closer to her instinctively. She could feel it too, he guessed. Whatever magic he had, she could sense it without even trying, now.
He guessed the dragon had something to do with it.
"Where are Lana and Aldan?" Kit asked finally, apparently concerned. Jethro sat on one of the stairs, keeping an eye on the door as well.
Shuang shrugged. "I wouldn't have thought it would take this-"
Someone hammered at the door and everyone froze. Fai was first on his feet, weapon in hand. Shuang grabbed Kit and pulled her back towards the kitchen. Jethro stood but when Fai looked at him, he shook his head. Kit had the dragon; that was what they needed to protect, even he knew that.
"Who is it?" Shuang shouted. Fai glared at him over his shoulder, but said nothing.
"Let us in, you complete morons!" Lana shouted.
Fai opened the door and Lana and Aldan stumbled in, holding up some woman. A man, nervously wringing his hands, followed behind.
Shuang frowned at them and Kit peeked her head out of the kitchen, coming out when Fai had locked the door again.
Lana and Aldan deposited the woman on the sofa in the living room, Aldan turning to push the trembling man into one of the chairs. That done, he turned to look at Shuang.
"So, the dragon hatched, huh?"