The Dragon Tree (25 page)

             
“Hurry, Hiro! Hurry!”

             
Hiroki turned off the paved road and onto a dirt road that led into the forest. There were still a few other cars on the road. They had to go deeper. The Buick started leaning heavily to the right under Billy’s rapidly increasing weight. Hiroki fought the wheel to keep the vehicle on a straight line, but he had his foot on the floor and the Buick kept pulling onto the shoulder.

             
Billy’s pants were stretching as his legs grew and the nub of his tail pushed its way out. His wings were emerging under his bare arms as he frantically unrolled the passenger door window.

             
“What are you doing?!” Hiroki cried.

             
Billy forced his expanding torso through the open window frame. He was hanging out the window when his pants finally tore off. His blue tail whipped around the car’s interior and knocked the gearshift into neutral. Hiroki frantically dodged the swinging tail that was growing right before his eyes and put the gearshift back in drive. Billy kept pushing himself through the window, but his body was now stuck. It kept expanding until the door ripped off its hinges and his body tore the metal window frame.

             
Hiroki watched in the rearview mirror as the destroyed door flew into the road behind the Buick.

             
“I don’t see any other cars, now!” Hiroki yelled.

             
Billy wasn’t listening. He was climbing onto the roof of the Buick.

             
The metal roof buckled immediately under Billy’s weight. He spread his thick limbs to keep his weight on the sturdier frame at the edges of the roof. His wings were still expanding, spreading wide enough that the blue tips were ripping through tree branches on both sides of the road.

             
As Billy’s neck grew and his head thickened, he leaned out over the hood of the car and looked back through the windshield at Hiroki. His jaw was hanging open and his hands were loose on the wheel as the straining Buick swerved all over the road.

             
The frame of the Buick was creaking as Billy reached half of his full bulk. He was twenty feet long and perfectly proportioned, but still growing and getting heavier by the second. One of the Buick’s tires exploded and the car swung sideways, tearing up the dirt road and sliding toward a row of trees.

             
“Billy!” Hiroki yelled.

             
Just before the Buick slid into the trees, Billy unleashed a throaty screech and leapt off the roof. He flapped his wings furiously and soared up through a gap in the foliage, headed straight for the gray clouds overhead.

              Hiroki crawled out of the Buick and surveyed the damage. The door Billy ripped off was a minor flaw compared to the completely mangled frame of the car, the axle that had snapped in half and the thick white smoke pluming from the engine block. Fluid ran freely from the cracked radiator and the windshield had cracked in a dozen places.

             
My car is ruined. My car… my car… my car is RUINED!

             
The sun was close to setting. If only he hadn’t eaten the leaves he would be changing any minute now. But wait… He felt an itch all over his skin and an ache in his bones that could only mean…

             
I am changing!

             
Still furious that Billy had destroyed his Buick, he kicked off his shoes and tossed them in the crippled car.

***

              Eva had to get off the track.

             
She saw volunteer medics up ahead at the first kilometer marker and slipped through a few racers to reach her. She lowered one sweaty hand to her thigh and winced melodramatically.

             
“I think I tore something,” said Eva.

             
The medic reached for the keys to her golf cart, parked a few feet away.

              Eva’s parents were distraught that she was injured and she had to pull out of the race. There was no room on the golf cart for them to ride along with Eva, but they promised to meet her in the medical tent. She insisted that she was fine and they should stay to finish watching the race. To her relief and amazement, they agreed.

             
In the medical tent, she informed the medics that she had only gotten a cramp in her leg and that she actually felt much better. She ignored their protests, climbed off the examination table and strode through the tent flaps.

             
She walked straight into Hideo and Reiko.

             
“We saw them cart you off the track,” said Reiko, concerned. “Is it bad?”

             
Eva had to get away from these two. She had to find the boys as quickly as possible and then… and then… She wasn’t sure what happened then.

             
“No, Mrs. Tanaka. It’s just a cramp.” A thought popped into her mind. “Actually, could you ask the medics what kind of fluids they were recommending? To replace my, um, my electrolytes or something? I wasn’t totally paying attention while they were talking and I’m embarrassed to go back in.”

             
Reiko rubbed Eva’s arm affectionately. “Of course, dear.” She disappeared inside the tent.

             
Eva moved to hustle off but she felt Hideo’s hand clasp her wrist. When she turned to face him, she saw great intensity in his sharp eyes.

             
“Mr. Tanaka, I think I better find my par—”

             
“Three flying beasts, before,” he muttered. “I sense this morning, feel in old bones. Today,
four
beasts.”

             
Eva gulped down her discomfort. “I saw it. I
think
I saw it, in the clouds.”

             
Hideo nodded gravely. “
Red
beast… most dangerous.”

             
Eva remembered the streak of red she had seen through the cloud cover. The bulk of the creature’s body was surely reflective and nearly invisible – just like her own – but the dragon must have tilted its wings.

             
Hideo latched onto her shoulders and pulled her close. “You foolish children. You make great danger… Now you
stop
great danger.”

             
“We can’t fly now. We all ate the leaves.”

             
“You
can
fly. You must fly. Find boys now. Do what must you do. Is
duty
, foolish child.” Hideo pulled a scrap of cloth out of his pocket and pressed it into Eva’s hand. She felt a lump inside its folds but could not determine what it was.

             
“Is
duty
,” Hideo urged quietly enough that only Eva heard.

             
That moment, the entire Diaz family arrived at the medical tent. Rosa was frowning – a sign Alpine had not fared well in the race – but still produced a smile as she approached. The twins were so far past caring about the race they were giggling and high-fiving each other repeatedly in front of Salvadore’s face.

             
“Clean bill of health, sweetheart? Ready to go home?” Salvadore called hopefully.

             
Reiko returned from the tent. She waved at Eva’s parents and sisters, and she handed Eva a sports drink. “Eva, if it’s all right with your parents why don’t you come over to our house for dinner tonight? I think Hiro would love it. Okay, I confess. Living in a house with two males for so long,
I
would love it.”

             
“Um, maybe… I just have to—”

             
Eva’s family crowded around her. Rosa looked her up and down as if checking for visible evidence of her injury. “Let’s get you home first and make sure you’re not hurt worse than you think.”

             
“That’s a good idea,” said Reiko. “Just give Hiro a call later if you’d like to join us. Or if you feel better, just… run on over!”

             
“I will Mrs. Tanaka. Thanks.”

***

              Billy knew the reflective surface of his belly would help shield him from view, but it was an imperfect camouflage. If he turned sharply and leaned to either side, the mottled blue of his wings and back and tail would be visible to anyone who happened to be looking up. He needed to get above the cloud cover and stay concealed until the sun went down.

             
Fortunately, it was nearly touching the horizon already.

             
He probed the sky with his mind, trying to use his telepathic abilities to locate the red creature that made an appearance above the race. He felt a vague ripple of energy somewhere to the north. He wasn’t sure of its source or its meaning, but the overcast sky was too vast to search methodically so he bent his tail downward and pivoted toward the ripple.

             
Hiro, I’m probably too far away for you to hear me but if you can… I’m heading north.

             
Billy tucked his four legs close. He held his heavy head directly ahead of his body so the line of his spine was perfectly horizontal. He concentrated on pushing the maximum amount of air with every flap of his wings and was sure he was flying as fast as he ever had before.

             
The ripple he felt in his mind was getting stronger. No,
thicker
. It was like a mass hanging in the air. It was moving away from him, but at such a slow pace it almost seemed to be waiting for him to catch up.

             
The ripple slowed to a halt. When it started moving again, it was flying straight toward him… and moving very quickly.

             
A streak of red exploded from the cloud cover only a few hundred yards from Billy. It was already incredibly fast, but Billy’s own speed – headed the opposite direction – made it appear to be traveling twice as fast. In the split second his dark eyes were able to track the red object before it disappeared again all Billy could determine was its size.

             
Longer than me. Not quite as thick.

             
Billy hadn’t seen telltale wings flapping, but unless it was a missile there was only one answer… the answer he knew to be true the moment he heard the beast screeching above the event grounds.

             
He turned his body skyward and broke through the top of the cloud cover, then arced backward. He maintained an elevation just above the clouds and used his telepathy to lock onto the red dragon and give chase.

             
I’m catching up.

             
A gulf opened up between two clouds and Billy saw the red dragon dart across it. It was just below Billy now and he matched its speed and direction perfectly. He was once again flying over a cloud as the red dragon flew through it but he felt a sudden surge in his mind as the ripple produced by his quarry came much closer.

             
Before Billy had time to realize what was happening, the red dragon burst through the top of the cloud in a tight spiral. Its jaws were gaping as it closed the distance aiming straight for Billy’s throat.

             
Billy instinctively reared up and placed his talons between himself and his attacker. The red beast screeched and veered away just in time to avoid having its eyes torn from its leathery face. As it dove back into the clouds, Billy whipped his body vertical and followed.

             
The heavy gray clouds were blinding but Billy could still sense the mind of the creature as it swung left and right in front of him. He caught fleeting glimpses of crimson whenever the cloud thinned, but the patches of color were gone as soon as they arrived.

             
Have to get a good look at it. Have to get out of these clouds.

             
And then Billy realized there was another option. His bony jaws parted in a mischievous grin and he flexed the muscles in his neck. He could feel the tiny valve deep within his throat where the fluid spewed forward. He could feel the gland that scraped and produced a spark. The column of fire that rocketed up his throat and burst past his teeth warmed him but caused no pain. And as the flames tore through the dense clouds they dissolved the moist air particles in great swaths.

             
Billy now had an unobstructed view of the red dragon just ahead of him.

             
The dragon’s flesh was blood red but broken by a pattern of black stripes that ran vertically – like tiger stripes – from back to belly. Its spine protruded strangely from its back, its vertebrae like the uneven peaks of a mountain range. Where Billy’s tail – and the tails of Hiroki and Eva – all tapered to a point this creature’s tail was split in two like the dual tines of a forked tongue. Its bony head featured a thick brow that extended over its deep-set eyes. The slit of its closed mouth ran all the way to the base of its pointed ears and turned up in a maniacal grin.