The Gifted (12 page)

“Lava?” said Han.

“Yup,” I said.

“Is the drop far?” asked Tracy.

“Yup,” I said.

“Are we in trouble?” asked Guido.

“Yup,” I said.

Turning back to face them, I saw something I
had missed when we first came in. The door we had entered through,
and left ajar, was covered from top to bottom with dark scratches.
I don't mean like the scratches of little animals, I mean marks
that gouged the metal deeply. Only something with huge, sharp claws
and a lot of strength could have done that. I debated whether I
should tell my friends, but decided it would not be especially
helpful.

I faked a smile, “Well, let's see where it
goes?” I said. The others followed as I stayed to the right, on the
path before us. No one noticed the marks on the door behind
them.

I didn’t know where we were going, but I had
to act confident for the others. I was so tired I don’t think I was
thinking too clearly either.

“Go ahead,” Guido said from somewhere on my
left, “We’ll follow.”

There was a wide bridge ahead of us, so
someone had been down here. It was made of stone like everything
else. “How can this be underneath the school? It had to be made by
someone,” I said. “It seems unreal, like in a dream.”

“Or a nightmare,” said Tracy. “Is there
anything that will burn around here?”

“If you’re thinking to make a torch, I don’t
think you’ll find any wood around here,” I said. “This place is all
rock and dirt and lava. Where are we trying to go?”

“Out the back way,” said Tracy.

“There’s a back way?” said Guido.

“There might be,” said Tracy.

On this side of the bridge we saw a walkway
that quickly sloped downward. There was no lava here, so it was
darker.

“Tracy,” I said. “Anything to burn here?”

“Didn’t I just ask you that?” she said.

“Wait!” said Guido. “Look way over
there!”

In the distance we could barely distinguish a
faint glow. “I wonder what that’s all about,” I said. “I don’t see
any lava.”

We walked slowly in the dark, taking each
step carefully, until we got to where it was a bit brighter, but
the source of the light was still far off around a corner and the
color was more white than red.

I broke the silence in a whisper, “There may
be guards down here. If there is electric light, there must be
people.”

“Good point,” whispered Han.

I felt something at my feet. It was Hayasa.
He seemed to be agitated by something. “Shhh, boy.” I whispered.
“It’s okay.”

Once around a corner, we saw a series of
lights along the wall. Han and Tracy were near me on the right.
“Guido?” I said.

I heard his voice from the other side of the
corner. “Coming,” he said, “just checking something out.”

We moved on faster now with more light. This
part was man-made with fluorescent lights along the walls again,
and the rock had clearly been carved out by tools. We picked up the
pace quietly, watchful in case we ran into a guard.

It was long and straight and stretched out a
long ways. As we walked, Hayasa seemed to get even more agitated.
Now he was zipping back and forth and hopping up and down. “What’s
wrong with your dog?” whispered Guido.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

Tracy whispered, “You know dogs have really
good noses, right? They can smell things we can’t.”

We walked another hundred yards of straight,
narrow cave when suddenly it ended. At the end was another large
metal door. This was identical to the earlier one, but locked. “How
are we going to get out of here?” said Tracy a little louder.

“Well, what do we have with us?” I asked.

Tracy spoke up, “We have a fire bringer, a
guy no one knows is around most of the time, an origami master, and
someone who makes people like him. “

“And one dog,” I said.

“Who can run through walls and is faster than
lightening,” said Guido.

We all turned to Hayasa. He was jumping up
and down. “Hey, Hayasa. Boy, can you get through that door? Can
you?” I took him back a few yards from the door.

He jumped up and down excitedly. “Sure you
can. You can do that, can’t you?” He wagged his tail and whined.
Then before I knew it he streaked off toward the door. He bounced
off with a loud clanging noise. He whined a few times, then he got
this determined look on his little face and backed up a lot further
past me. His paws scratched the rock as he spun out before getting
traction. He charged the door again and went through it like a
piece of cheese. Cheese never made that much noise though. A hole
was torn through the door with shreds of metal and slivers of wood.
Some of the edges were actually smoking.

“I love that dog!” said Guido.

“So do I,” I said.

We crouched down, and each of us, careful not
to get our clothes torn by the sharp bits or hot pieces, crawled
through the hole. As we did so, I was shocked.

It was Han who first said, “A dog can do
this?” The door was nearly a foot thick and was made of two panels
of inch thick steel filled with a wooden core. It would have taken
a blow torch and several hours work to get through what Hayasa got
through in a second.

“How can this even be?” I said quietly as we
all crawled through. The path continued, but now there was a deep
pit to the left. The hole didn’t bother me, but coming out of it
was the head of something impossible. It was red and had glowing
eyes and I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing when Guido said,
“Holy cow! It’s a dragon!”

It was a dragon. Something totally
impossible. They didn’t exist. They were only for kid’s stories and
fantasy novels. I couldn’t decide whether to run or scream or pee
my pants. I saw Hayasa running around excitedly and the dragon,
because there could be no doubt that’s what it was, was licking our
dog. Both seemed to be having fun.

At that, I calmed down and decided I didn’t
have to pee my pants after all.

“I must be in a dream,” said Tracy. “This
can’t even be happening. A dragon? After all I went through, I run
into a live dragon?”

“Huh?” Han and I said together.

She continued as though we weren’t even
there, “I used to love dragons. I had posters of them all over my
walls in my bedroom. But then my mom had this big talk with me. She
said that dragons were only make-believe. She said they were no
more real than the Easter Bunny.” Tracy had tears in her eyes
now.

Guido spoke up, “You saying the Easter
Bunny’s not real?” I just stared at the dragon, but it wasn’t
moving.

Ignoring Guido, she continued, “I used to
draw pictures of dragons all over my notebook in school and the
teacher would get mad at me because she said I seemed to be losing
touch with reality. I remember even my Dad had to come into it and
he explained to me that dragons were only in kids stories. That I
should focus on what’s real. He even tried to get me into horses
because he said at least they were real.”

“I used to believe in the Great Pumpkin,”
said Guido, “until Mom said Charlie Brown was just a drawing. I was
devastated, I can tell you. I wanted to be Snoopy when I grew
up.”

“Oh, very funny!” said Tracy. I could tell
she was mad, but I was still zoned out, staring at this massive red
head, smoke curling out its nostrils, while the rest of him was
still hidden in a deep cavern below.

I finally snapped out of it, “All I want to
know is this,” I said. “Is it a magic dragon?”

“I suppose that depends on what you mean by
magic,” the dragon said in a low but pleasant voice.

“It talks?” said Tracy. “Not only are they
real, but they talk? You’ve got to be kidding me! It took me two
years to get over my dragon craze, and now I’m standing in front of
a talking dragon?”

Turning toward the dragon I said, “What do
you mean by it depends?”

“Well,” said the dragon in a low, but
melodious voice, “I can do magic after a fashion. I am talking to
you, for instance. And if you will notice, my lips are not
moving.”

“Holy Cow!” said Guido for the second time,
“It’s a telepathic dragon!”

“So, do you have any other tricks you can
do?” I said.

“That depends on what you mean by tricks,” he
said.

“You couldn’t just answer a question?” I
said. “No, you have to give a question for a question. What is it
with you?”

“Do I?” said the dragon.

“Aaarrrg! You’re doing it again!” I said.
“Okay, we get that you’re a dragon. But where’s your gold?”

“Ah,” he said, “Now we get to the crux of the
issue. Do you think I have gold?”

“Another question!” I said. “What is it with
this guy?”

“Ever heard of the Sphinx?” said Guido.

“Huh?” I said. I had no idea what he was
talking about.

“Some mythical thing,” said Tracy.

“I read about it in a book of legends and
myths,” said Guido. He was touching my shoulder this time so I
noticed him. “The Sphinx only spoke in riddles. Only the one who
could answer his riddles could conquer him. Otherwise the Sphinx
ate him.”

“I don’t like the getting eaten part,” said
Han.

“Neither do I,” I said.

I spoke up louder to the dragon, “Do we have
to answer a riddle to get by you?”

“No,” he said without moving his lips. “But
you must answer a question. Each of you must answer one question
and it must be the truth or I will end your life. If you know about
dragons, you know that I could kill you before you took two steps.
But this is the way the game is to be played.”

“And what happens if we don’t want to play,”
I said.

“Then you are as good as dead.”

“What happens if only one of us gets it
wrong?” said Guido.

“Then that one alone loses his or her life,”
said the dragon.

“Great!” said Tracy. “Sounds like fun! Let’s
go.”

Han and I exchanged glances, shocked at
Tracy’s change. A minute ago she was crying and now she wanted to
play a game of questions to the death with a dragon. And she was
totally fine with this?

She smiled excitedly, “I’ll go first.”

Without moving his lips or changing his
expression, the dragon said, “What is your greatest fear?”

She paused for just a moment and then
answered, “That’s an easy one. My greatest fear is that this is not
real. That this is a dream and dragons really are imaginary.”

“Good,” said the dragon. “You have passed and
may live.”

Guido, seeing how easy it was for her, said,
“Okay, my turn.”

The dragon closed his eyes for a few seconds
and then said, “What do you carry with you everywhere?”

“Huh?” said Guido.

“Tell him,” I said. “It’s an easy one. Just
tell him what you carry.”

Guido turned pale and silent. Then he said
much quieter than I ever heard him talk, “But I can’t. I’ve never
told anyone. How could he know?”

“Guido,” said Tracy, “he’s going to eat you
if you don’t tell him!”

“Not eat,” said the dragon, “incinerate.”

“Well then, that’s much better. Guido, you’ve
got to tell him
now!
” she yelled.

“It’s a bell,” Guido said.”

The dragon said, “Your answer is honest and
true.”

“A bell?” I asked.

“It’s the way my mom knew where to find me.
When I got home from school I had to wear a bell on a string around
my ankle so she knew where I was! I felt like such a nobody that
even my own mom didn’t know I was there even if I was right in
front of her.”

“It’s your gift, Guido!” I said. “It’s not
that she didn’t love you. She just couldn’t find you, like with
us.”

“I know,“ he said, “But I couldn’t get over
the fact that she must not have loved me very much if she couldn’t
find me.”

“That’s just not the way it is, Guido,” Tracy
said. “I’m sure she loved you. Did she ever pick you up when you
hurt yourself as a little kid?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Did she ever kiss you goodnight?” Tracy
said.

“Yes,” said Guido.

“Did she ever tell you she loved you?” she
said.

“Yes,” said Guido.

“Then she loved you,” Tracy said. “She loved
you completely!”

Guido was crying quietly, but I think it was
a good thing this time.

Han spoke up, “My turn.”

The dragon looked up at the ceiling of rock
and then said without moving his lips, “What is the one thing you
wish you could change about yourself?”

Han said nothing for a few seconds and then
said, “Easy. I wish I was not so quiet. Others love loud people.
They get heard. They go to parties and have fun and are never left
out. I’d want to be like them.”

“That is correct,” said the dragon.

I could tell it was hard for him to answer,
but he did well. I wondered what heart-wrenching question would be
asked of me. Would he ask about my past? About the time I was
captured and how lonely I felt? Would he ask me about my worst
nightmare or my most embarrassing moment?

“I’m ready,” I said. “Give me your
question.”

The dragon closed his eyes in concentration.
“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“What!” I said. “You ask everyone else
questions that at least they knew the answers to, but then you ask
me a question I don’t even know?” I threw down my pack.

“What was that?” he said.

“I can’t even see your hands! I don’t know!”
I threw up my hands in anger, but also in fear of the fire that was
coming.

“Are you certain of your answer?” he
said.

“Answer?” I said. Then I thought about it. I
had said that I don’t know. Could that possibly be the answer?

“Yes,” I said. “I don’t know. How could
I?”

He paused for a moment and looked at me as
though looking through me into my very heart. Then he said, “You
have answered wisely and truly. Keep this answer close at hand for
the things ahead. You are free to go.”