Dragons vs. Drones (14 page)

Dree shrieked with laughter as it started floating into the air. “I can't believe it,” she said, grabbing Marcus by the shoulder. “It's amazing—”

The words were barely out of her mouth when the engines sputtered and went out. The hybrid fell three feet onto the hard stone floor, and one of the huge legs snapped right off at the weld. The entire thing slammed into a heap and went dark. Dree and Marcus just stood there for a moment, unable to speak.

Erdath and the other dragons chuckled and left. Lourdvang pawed the hybrid, as if testing to see if it was really defunct.

Marcus shrugged. “Let's try it again.”

That night, Marcus and Dree sat across from each other examining the hybrid's wiring. Marcus was explaining how it worked, and Dree listened, fascinated. Even Lourdvang was curled up beside them, watching intently as Marcus explained about electric transmissions, polarization, and programming. These were things Marcus had loved since he was a kid, and he wasn't used to anyone listening so intently, never mind a girl and her dragon. He was flushing as she asked questions and shook her head in amazement.

“Does everyone know these things where you come from?” Dree asked.

Marcus smiled. “No. I was a bit . . . keen on this stuff.”

“So you must have been important.”

“Not quite,” Marcus said awkwardly.

They had a small lantern lit beside them, which Erdath had kept stored from years earlier when humans used to frequent Forost. Dree had lit it with her finger, and Marcus had stared at her in wonder of his own as the freshly born shadows leapt over their faces.

“They don't really value these things in junior high school,” Marcus added. “I didn't have a lot of friends. Never did, really.”

He was exhausted, with dark circles around his eyes and bags below them. His hair was tangled and greasy, matted against his forehead with long-dried sweat, and he didn't even want to know what he smelled like.

But he knew Dree didn't care. For one thing, she was just as dirty, and maybe worse. Her face was scorched black from the welding, and her hair was a knotted mess.

“Me either,” Dree admitted.

“Why not? An awesome girl like—” Marcus stopped, flushing.

Lourdvang snorted. “I think he complimented you.”

“I got that,” Dree said dryly. “Thank you, but I have Lourdvang and Abi. They are all I need.” She paused. “And I guess I never really took the time to try. I was thinking about other things.”

“The past,” Marcus replied quietly. “Same with me. I just wanted to find my dad.”

“And I just wanted to save my brother,” Dree whispered.

They were silent for a moment.

“How about we save Dracone instead?” he offered. “And call it even.”

Dree smiled. “Deal.”

They sat there until the torch had burned out and then lay down next to Lourdvang to sleep. Marcus stared up into the darkness, his hands behind his head.

“That was pretty sweet today.”

Dree smiled. “Yeah. By the way, what's with the name Baby Hybrid?”

“I don't know. I was just calling it that in my head all along, and so I programmed that name into the processor. What do you think?”

“It's stupid,” Lourdvang rumbled.

Dree burst out laughing. “Sorry. We're still working on his social skills.”

“I see that,” Marcus said sourly. “Well, I can change it if you want.”

“No,” Dree replied. “I like it. Let's make Baby Hybrid fly.”

Marcus looked over at her. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“The fire you started . . . with your hands. What is it? Have you always been able to do that?”

Dree stared up at the ceiling. “For as long as I can remember.”

“It's only started recently for me,” he said quietly. “I started melting things. Does anyone else have that power here?”

“Not that I know of. It's rare. There were a few riders who had it, but not many. What about in your world?”

Marcus snorted. “Definitely not. We don't have a lot of . . . magical things.” He paused. “What do you think it's for? Why do we have it?”

“I don't know,” Dree said. “But I'm guessing we're going to find out.”

They both drifted off to sleep, but soon Dree woke with a start. She'd just been in a fire again—the house was collapsing, her family screaming. They were all there, trapped, and she couldn't get to any of them. The fire was coming fast, and she had to save them.

Leaving Marcus on the floor, she grabbed her torch and got to work.

The next morning Lourdvang took Dree and Marcus to a small waterfall in the valley below Forost—a place that Dree had never seen. They had slept for an hour or two at most, and they were both absolutely filthy with sweat and grease and dirt. Dree reluctantly agreed to go with Lourdvang so that they could all wash themselves off.

As Lourdvang swept to a landing on the shore of the river, Dree was instantly glad she'd agreed. The waterfall spilled off a thirty-foot sheer cliff lined with brambles and ancient-looking oak trees that soaked up the mist. The water then crashed into a rocky pool before racing down through the valley, settling there like glass. Marcus smiled.

“It's beautiful,” he said.

“Even dragons bathe once in a while,” Lourdvang replied. “This is where we go. We call it the Mountains' Tears. The water is cold, but it's very fresh.”

Marcus and Dree tentatively approached the water, sneaking an awkward glance at each other. It was late summer and cool in the mountains, but the sun was shining down through the peaks overhead, and it was warm enough that the water was tempting.

Dree turned and slipped off her filthy woolen shirt, leaving just a hide undershirt. Marcus immediately flushed and looked away. He had long ago taken off his fire-resistant armor, but he self-consciously stripped down to his boxer shorts and tip-toed into the water, hoping to escape notice.
He didn't really want her to see his pale, bony arms and stick legs. Lourdvang did though.

“You look like a snow rabbit,” he commented, curling up by the rocks bordering the falls. “After the winter. Maybe we need to get you more food.”

Marcus flushed even brighter as Dree broke out laughing.

“Lourdvang! Social skills!”

Lourdvang closed his eyes. “Just an observation.”

Feeling his cheeks burning, Marcus quickly waded out into the water. Goose bumps raced up his entire body. The water was freezing cold, but it was incredibly clear and the current was gentle and relaxing. Dree shot Marcus a lopsided grin and then dove into the pool like an otter, disappearing below the surface and splashing Marcus with icy water. He gasped as she emerged in the middle of the pool, heading for the waterfall.

Dree climbed up onto the rocks and proceeded to wipe the dirt and grime from her body, letting the water crash around her.

Dree looked at him. “You going to join me or what?”

Marcus hesitated and then climbed up onto the rocks beside her. They both laughed as the water pummeled them like torrential rain, and Dree had to grab Marcus's arm at one point to keep him from spilling backward into the deep water.

“Clean yet?” she called.

“I guess,” he said.

“Good!”

She pushed him right off the rock, and he yelped and
plunged into the water, the current carrying him back into the gentle eddy in the middle of the pool.

After a while, they both climbed back onto the shore and dried themselves in the sun.

“Well?” Lourdvang rumbled.

“It was a good idea,” Dree said.

“A very good idea,” Marcus agreed, stretching out.

Marcus turned back to the sky again, looking at the snowcapped mountains and the brilliant morning sun, realizing with a start that he had barely even thought about Jack or Brian the entire time he had been in Dracone. What was wrong with him? Why did this place feel so much more right than his life in Arlington?

He tried to shake the feeling, but as he snuck a glimpse at Dree, he realized that he wasn't even sure he wanted to go home.

Beside him, Dree was thinking that she didn't want Marcus to leave either.

Two days later, the three of them gathered around the hybrid once again. If they were tired the first time they'd tested her, they were well beyond that now. They had checked over every section, and Marcus had finally realized that the power cells weren't quite aligned, which he hoped explained the outage. But Dree also had to weld the leg back on, and while she was at it, she had fortified every single joint and
pivot and surface on the hybrid. She had even double plated the wings for more armor.

It was a little bulkier, but far stronger. Baby Hybrid was ready.

Without thinking, Dree reached out and took Marcus's hand. Heat raced between them, shooting tingles up both their arms, but Marcus held on. They were both nervous.

Dree nodded at Lourdvang, and he bent down in front of the shaft again.

“Here goes nothing,” he growled.

He breathed a stream of fire into the hybrid, and once again, it lit up.

“Baby Hybrid,” Marcus said, squeezing Dree's fingers. “Fly.”

The hybrid thrummed and shifted as it stood, the engines immediately kicking in and lifting it off the ground. It was silent and smooth, just as they had hoped. It rose higher and higher, stopping about five feet from the ceiling, which was also a good sign. It meant the sensors were working and it wouldn't fly into a wall.

Marcus and Dree exchanged an anxious look.

“Follow us,” Marcus said.

They hurried out into the main cavern. Baby Hybrid followed closely behind, moving slowly and shakily as it floated through the opening. The other dragons looked at them in shock as they hurried outside to the ledge, the hybrid still hovering along behind them. Its eyes blazed orange, and its metal jaw caught the morning light. It looked like
some nightmarish version of a dragon, but smaller and more awkward. It was flying, though, and there were machine guns beneath each wing, as well as ten missiles sitting in the bay in its gut, left in place from the original drone.

It had all the firepower of the drones, along with the fire of a dragon.

As they walked out on the ledge, Dree and Marcus turned to the hybrid.

Marcus smiled. “Initiate flight test.”

Baby Hybrid took off, still moving a bit unsteadily through the air. The engines under each wing hadn't been designed to be apart, and it was clearly trying to balance itself. But the neck straightened like it was supposed to, the legs tucked themselves in, and Baby Hybrid took off into the open sky.

Dree felt her eyes water unexpectedly. It was as if they had just created life.

The hybrid soared around for a little while, its wings shifting ever so slightly to gain height or send it into sharp turns and spirals. Marcus had programmed the drone to test itself on its first flight, and it was clearly doing that. It wasn't perfect, but it was functional.

“How do we get it to come back?” Dree asked suddenly.