The Dragonstones Trilogy
Chapter 9

The ground was coming at her so fast. The air rushed by her, and Sara felt herself change faster than she ever had. In an instant, her claws sprouted, her skin became scaly, and her fangs transformed her teeth. This time, though, Sara could feel great, leathery wings growing as well. It happened in half a second.

Somehow knowing what to do, Sara used her wings. Her descent slowed. It felt strange at first. It used muscles Sara wasn’t used to using, but it got easier. Sara stopped falling, and went up instead. She flew higher and higher until she was above the house, James watching her in amazement. Sara’s heart was working overtime, and her breathing sped up. Flying was exhilarating. Her wings beat in huge, mighty strokes. She felt like a dragon. She was invincible.

She soared higher and higher, defying gravity. Soon the houses looked only big enough for ants. Sara pushed herself farther. Sara felt herself getting tired, but she didn’t care.

The air was thinning the higher she went, and when it was too much for Sara, she reluctantly flew back down. She steered herself until she landed on the roof of James’s house, shifting back into a human as she did. “That was amazing!” she exclaimed, “You should try it!”

“I’ve done it before,” James said. “I’m working on a flight spell, but it can’t go nearly as high as you did. I didn’t even see you for a few seconds.” James looked up at the now setting sun. “You were up there for a long time,” he observed. Sara looked at the sky with regret. “I guess I should go home.”

“Do you need a ride?” James offered.

Sara smiled. “No, thanks. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye,” James said.

Sara smiled, and jumped off the roof. She flew home, and promised herself that she would never turn down an opportunity to jump off a building again.

When she landed, Sara felt a little dizzy, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She ate dinner, and once again amused herself by watching her mom eat. After a while, Sara said, “Mom, did you know that the salt is shaking itself?” She referred to the shaker that had spilled half of its contents all over the table.

Mom looked up and quickly said, “Stop that.” She then turned her attention back to her plate as if nothing had happened.

Sara sighed. Mom wasn’t ready to talk about it, so Sara would wait. She hated waiting.

The rest of the week formed into a routine. Sara would go to school, then she would get into James’s car-orange, of course-and learn about different things relating to magic, mostly dealing with controlling her powers. Flying became, if possible, even more enjoyable for Sara when she learned tricks and different maneuvers. James perfected his flight spell one day, and he was able to join her.

When the lessons were over, Sara would fly home, eat, and try to get her mom to admit she had magic. It was discouraging, but Sara refused to admit defeat.

Frustration kicked in toward the end of the week, when Sara was learning to control her powers. She had been trying to only make her claws appear, and nothing else. She released a breath of air, and stopped. She looked at James. “How do you do it?”

James looked up from his homework. “Do what?”

“Magic. How do you do it?”

James understood. “It is pretty amazing, isn’t it?” He thought for a moment, his eyes faraway. “I replace the calm spot within myself. A place that I always want to go, that makes me happy.”

Sara flew home, thinking about what James had said. She wondered how he did it, how he was able to calm himself so easily. She wished she could do the same. Sara landed in the middle of her street, too focused on her thoughts to think. She heard a startled gasp. Sara turned around, to see a small child with a girl not much older than Sara. Sara shrugged, and went inside. There was nothing she could do about it now. Sara doubted that they could even see what she had done as it really was.

She found her mom was in the living room, looking out a window. It was possible that she had seen Sara change. If she did, she didn’t comment on it. Sara went up to her room, with her mom still looking out the window.

She opened the door, and shrieked. Drusk was there.

“You all right?” Sara heard her mom call.

“Yeah, fine. Just slipped,” Sara said. She glared at Drusk.

Irritation masked her fear just enough. “You know, if you want to do something to me, you should really get on with it. I’m really busy.” She hoped she sounded confident enough.

“That would not be wise of me. That piece of jewelry would protect you. I have a different plan.” He spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, which only made it more menacing.

“Then why are you here?” Sara asked him in her bravest tone of voice. Fear was starting to replace her annoyance. She hoped it wasn’t enough to show.

Drusk smiled a cold smile. “You’ll know soon enough.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Great. That helps a ton,” she said sarcastically.

Drusk laughed. The sound made Sara’s hair stand up. Sara closed her eyes, trying to block out the sound. She was more scared of him than she was admitting. Sara opened her eyes, and Drusk was gone. There was no evidence that he had ever been there.

Sara slept with the light on that night.

The night passed and the day went by quickly, and soon Sara was flying to the Robinson house. She no longer had any need to be driven places. Right as she landed on their driveway, Sara told James, “I need to talk to you and your mom,” she said. James, seeing on her face that this was important, said, “Okay. I’ll go get her.”

“Getting her” meant yelling up the stairs, “Mom, could you come down?” When they were both there, Sara said quietly, “It’s kind of private.” She liked James’s family, but she didn’t really trust Drana, who was sitting on a couch nearby. She glanced up at Sara, frowned, then looked back down at her phone. Sara still could not figure out why Drana hated her so much.

Mrs. Robinson led them outside, and climbed up the ladder onto the roof. It was a little odd, but Sara didn’t mind. She loved jumping off the roof and flying. “Is this private enough?” Mrs. Robinson asked.

“It’s perfect,” Sara said. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Okay.” She hesitated, then spit it out. “Drusk has been sneaking into my house a lot lately. I don’t know why. He talked to me sometimes, but lots of it was gibberish. He asked me for this.” Sara reached into her pocket, an drew out the necklace.

“What!” exclaimed James. His eyes on the blue stones.

“Did you have it all this time?” Mrs. Robinson asked, looking a little awed. Sara couldn’t see why.

“I haven’t had it that long,” Sara said as she turned to James. “You remember that day at the cave, and it filled with that blue light?”

“It’s hard to forget,” James said. “Did it come from that?” he asked, pointing to the necklace.

“Yep.”

“How did you replace it?”

“I don’t know. I just felt like I needed to replace something, and I found it. That’s why I went back into the cave,” she said. This was going over a lot better than she had hoped.

Sara felt a little dizzy. For a second, black spots clouded her vision. She blinked, and they went away. “When Drusk visited me last night, he said the necklace would protect me. Why?”

Mrs. Robinson thought for a moment, Sara and James both waiting for her answer. “It’s obviously enchanted, if we knew how, then it would be easier to guess.”

Sara suddenly was reminded of the vision she had seen at the cave. “It has some of the magic of the cave,” she said. “I saw in that pool that gives visions. I didn’t think it was important until now,” she added in response to their inquiring looks.

“Can you tell me exactly what happened?” Mrs. Robinson asked.

Sara closed her eyes, and told them everything she could remember. She told them about the old man, and how he transferred his essence into the cave. She told them about the man who came later, and how the necklace got its magic. She also told them about the dragon, and how the man’s descendants would guard it.

“He looked and sounded a lot like my dad,” Sara said. “If he was somehow related to me, then at least I know why I can change. That small dragon probably gave him its power.”

“That does explain a lot of this,” Mrs. Robinson said thoughtfully.

James, who had been really quiet, spoke up. “If that guy was your ancestor, then it would make it your job to guard that thing,” he said, looking down at the necklace. “Nothing good could happen if this came into the wrong hands, in Drusk’s.”

Sara nodded. “But we don’t even know what it does.”

“Experiment with it. Just don’t hurt yourself,” Mrs. Robinson said. The rest of the day was spent speculating and brainstorming theories about what the necklace did. They didn’t come up with anything useful or realistic. Sara silently noticed that the word “realistic” didn’t have much meaning to her anymore.

Sara flew home, but took a detour. She needed to clear her mind, and flying was just the way to do it. She flew far above the trees and houses, and closed her eyes for a second. She wished she could fly everywhere. When the light was almost all gone from the sky, Sara knew she couldn’t delay going home anymore.

Above her house, Sara made sure that nobody was there to see her change back, like yesterday. When she had landed, though, she felt eyes watching her. She turned around, and saw the same people she had changed in front of yesterday. Had they been there before? Sara noted that they were hiding behind a tree. That might be why she hadn’t seen them. Sara realized that they were reassuring themselves that they weren’t crazy. Sara could relate. She waved, and went inside.

Sara shut the door, and grabbed onto the wall suddenly. Blood escaped from Sara’s nose, and she felt dizzy. Maybe she was getting a cold, and the air was pretty dry. Sara took some cold medicine and went to bed. She was really tired. Sara’s dreams showed the necklace with different people. First she saw herself holding the necklace, surrounded by dragons. She saw her supposed ancestor holding the necklace. She then saw Drusk holding the necklace, laughing that same cold, humorless laugh. Sara woke up covered in sweat. Sara took a shower and took some more cold medicine. She didn’t feel any better today.

Sara, James, and Mrs. Robinson all tried to replace out what the necklace did again. They ended up doing more brainstorming and speculating. The dizziness turned on and off, until she chose to fly home early that day. James and Sara went up to the roof, and Sara had almost jumped off when James asked slowly, “Um, Sara, have your wings always been tinged with black?”

Startled, Sara tried to see her wings. Sure enough, her wings had black on them. No. I haven’t been feeling well, though. Maybe a dragon’s wings change color when it is sick. Sara had learned that dragons could speak by putting the words into someone’s mind. Sara had even learned that she could speak with smarter animals, like cats. Dogs hadn’t gotten the hang of it yet.

Sara thought about the red dragon in the vision she had seen. Had that dragon died of a sickness? Its scales had been black, just as Sara’s wings were turning.

“Maybe.” James didn’t look convinced. He looked up at her. “See you later,”

See ya. Sara turned and jumped off of the roof, ready to fly.

When she was in the air, Sara’s head hurt, and the dizziness was back. She would have to get home as fast as she could. At home, Sara was tired, but she felt a strong need to replace out what the necklace did. Sara examined it from every angle, picked it up, but nothing happened. Sara had been trying to replace out what it did, and she still didn’t know anything! Frustrated, and knowing it was irrational, Sara said to the necklace, “What do you do anyway?”

The necklace flickered, and painted the room in its turquoise blue light. The light dimmed, but it was still enough to chase the darkness into the corners.