Free Fiction Friday: Fairy Dragon Blues

Every Friday I post a short story here in its entirety. It stays up for one week and then I post something new. When I do, the old one is taken down. So please enjoy the story of the week while it lasts.

Description:

Soggy leaves squished under Janie’s boots.

Fixing the back fence wasn’t a fun job but it would go quick with the whole pack. At least until they reached the unnaturally flooded stream.

Crossing a swollen stream shouldn’t be deadly but Janie found a way to risk her life doing it.

The question wasn’t whether she’d survive–it was whether her pack would survive what she found on the other side.

Fairy Dragon Blues

By Meyari McFarland

Soggy leaves squished under Janie’s boots. They were slippery enough that Janie set her feet carefully so that she wouldn’t land on her ass. Her little sisters, Mimi and Cece, had no such restraint. Mimi giggled as she slipped and slid through the forest towards the back fence. Cece’s feet went out from under her and she ended up on her back, feet in the air, eyes wide and bottom lip already starting to pout out.

“Oopsies,” Janie said, grinning down at her instead of fussing so that Cece wouldn’t immediately decide she was dying and wail. “Slippery.”

Cece started giggling instead of crying. “Slippery!”

She waved her arms and then scrambled back to her feet, backside muddy and wet, not that Cece cared all that much. Neither she nor Mimi really minded when their clothes got wet. They just stripped them off and then shifted to wolf form even though Mom had said that they needed to stay clothed for this little expedition.

The back fence was a perpetual work in progress. No surprise given that the pack owned a hundred acres of northwest forest full of ferns, cedar and maple covered with moss. They had a little salmon river that cut through the property and deer moved freely through the property, more or less managed by the pack.

As far as Janie was concerned the best part of their land was that it was well away from town and they really only had one subdivision on the other side of the land from them. It really felt like they had the whole world to themselves when they were out in the forest.

Up ahead, Mom caught both Cece and Mimi by the waists, hoisting them up for kisses that made the girls laugh and hug her with wet muddy hands. Mom laughed and passed Cece over to Dad who used his magic to dry Cece out. She cooed and curled up in his arms just the way Janie always had when she was little. Nothing was nicer than feeling the heat that always roiled off Dad.

The rest of the pack, or at least the majority of the adults and teens, carried boards and posts, hammers and saws. It shouldn’t take too long to fix the fence with all of them working together, unless something had come through and torn down bigger sections than they thought. Always possible if not especially likely.

“It really is slippery,” Roger said. “Not used to this sort of wetness at this time of year.”

His voice was starting to get deeper as he transitioned. There was fuzz on his chin now and his shoulders were broader. Janie was pretty sure that he’d put on a few more inches soon and then he’d look even more like he should. The witches the next town over had promised that by the time he was done with his transition no one would be able to tell he’d been assigned female at birth.

“We have had way more rain than normal,” Janie agreed. “Kind of odd since the cloudbursts haven’t hit most of the surrounding area.”

Roger looked up, squinting at the sky between the branches overhead. “Think there might be something more going on?”

Janie shrugged. There really wasn’t much chance of her knowing if there was. Her gifts were all for shifting and fire, not for rain. They didn’t have anyone who was good with rain in the pack. It was probably something that Mom fretted about in her spare time, you know, the five or so minutes between putting Cece and Mimi down to sleep and then having to hurry off to deal with other crises each night.

Certainly wasn’t anything that Janie could do about it. Or Roger. Roger was a normal human, no gifts at all other than pissing his idiot of a birth mom off by being who he was instead of who his mom wanted him to be. At least he was safe with the pack. Even Roger’s mom wasn’t going to go up against a wolf pack to get him back, though she did complain endlessly and misgender him every time they saw each other in town.

It’d be nice to find a way to get Roger’s mom to leave him alone. Wasn’t likely to happen right away but Janie had overhead Mom and Dad talking about other packs they knew in different parts of the country. They’d find a place for him to move, a pack to live with, and it would be fine. Eventually.

For now she’d just keep an eye on him and let her girlfriend August know if anyone gave Roger trouble. After August’s blow-up at Danny at school no one messed with her, not even parents and teachers.

The stream, once they reached it, was a lot higher than expected. It looked nearly like a proper river, banks swollen and water flowing so fast that Mom grabbed Mimi by the back of her shirt and Dad scooped up Cece before she could run straight into the water. Janie came over and tugged on their hair, distracting the girls from struggling free.

“Safe to cross?” Janie asked.

“Doubt it,” Mom replied. She manhandled Mimi around until Mimi was draped over her shoulder, legs kicking and arms flailing. “The water’s way too high. This isn’t right. You two feel any magic?”

Janie blinked and then shrugged. When she shut her eyes there was the feeling of magic all around them. It felt wet and cold, like falling into the Puget Sound in the middle of winter. She gasped and shuddered, her lips and fingers tingling with cold.

“There’s something here,” Janie said.

“Definitely,” Dad agreed. His lips had gone blue and Cece patted his face with her wet little hands, whining. “Not one I know. Animate, I think.”

That was a problem. Janie stepped back away from the swollen stream, rubbing her hands together. She jumped as Mori, her little dragon-runt adopted brother, tugged at her pants. When she picked him up Mori wrapped his tail around her waist and tucked his head under her chin.

“You feel it, too?” Janie asked.

“Dragon magic,” Mori said. “Different dragon. Not like me or like Youneda or Fuwa or Louis or any dragon I know.”

That rocked Janie back on her heels. She looked at Mom, then Dad. Both of them looked and smelled just as surprised as Janie was. Most of the pack looked the same way, shifting their feet in the wet leaves and eyeing the evergreen shrubs around them.

“How big?” Roger asked Mori. “Little like you? Big like Youneda? In between?”

“Um…”

Mori stopped and stared around them, looking not out into the shrubbery or up towards the sky but down into the stream itself. He flipped his wings a couple of times, and then hesitantly held them out about a foot apart.

“That big,” Mori said.

“That’s a baby,” Janie gasped. “What’s a baby doing out here?”

It certainly wasn’t unheard of for dragon children to be turned out of the nest. Mori had been pushed out just that way. Though in reality his dam had picked him up by the scruff of the neck, flown over to the house and deposited him firmly in Mom’s arms with a few choice words about runts, doomed to die and households full of rejects that had set Mom to cursing and poor Mori to sobbing his heart out.

He was fine now, growing like a weed and delighted by his strange new family that didn’t hate him just because he was small for his age.

The point was, though, that the pack was always ready to take in children who needed a place to stay whether it was short term or for the rest of their lives. There was no need to abandon a baby out in the woods when Mom and Dad would have gladly taken it in, no matter how odd or different it was.

“Not a baby,” Mori said so firmly that Janie’s rapidly rising temper at whoever had abandoned a child instead of just giving it to the pack subsided. “Grown up but little bitty.”

She stared at Mori who ducked his head and hid it under his wing. Mom stared too. Mimi tried to take advantage of her distraction by squirming free but Mom’s grip around her waist was firm enough to keep that from happening. Even Dad had a puzzled expression on his face and Uncle Ron muttered under his breath as he set down his stack of lumber so that he could peer into the water, the sky, the shrubbery as if looking for their hidden tiny dragon.

Roger gasped and then nodded as he pointed towards the stream. “It has to be a fairy dragon! I can almost see its outline in the water.”

Janie crouched down, Mori slithering around so that he was perched on her back like a backpack. There was something moving in the water, fast and limber, like a snake but not. It was blue, teal and purple with hints of gold flashing when it moved just right.

“Oh yeah,” Janie said. She set her fingers at the edge of the water and leaned in closer. “I think I see it. Weird. Never heard of a fairy dragon before.”

“Me, neither,” Mori said.

He reared up high on Janie’s back, wings flaring out wide to keep his balance. Janie gasped as her hand slipped in the wet leaves. Mud, slick mud underneath kept her from stopping her fall. She shouted, pushed backwards with one hand to dislodge Mori, but it was too late.

Janie tumbled into the stream, got caught by the current and dragged under before she had a chance to even gasp for breath.

Ice cold water caught her like the time she’d tried to wrestle with Tom-Tom, the giant’s son. It dragged her down, into water that went way too deep for the little stream that Janie had grown up splashing through. There was a huge pond underneath her, bigger than she was, as big as a car, a bus, their three story monster of a house.

She couldn’t tell which way was up or down and the cold, cold water stole Janie’s ability to sense her family, to feel her father’s magic. Even Mori’s fire-filled little body disappeared from her magical senses as if she was suddenly a million miles away.

Janie clapped a hand over her mouth, staring around as she realized that she was far away, very far away. The surface of the water was a portal to another world, a pocket dimension, one crafted for the fairy dragon and deadly dangerous to her.

Blue and teal flashed against the indigo background. Golden eyes blinked once, twice, only to flare wide as if in shock.

The fairy dragon slipped away into the water. Janie’s lungs heaved. Air, she needed air, there was no air. Everywhere she looked there was nothing but water and indigo darkness that extended forever above, below, and all around her.

Fire started to burn inside of her, just as hot as her desperation. Air, could she boil the water and get air? Was there air in this pocket dimension? How the hell could she get out of here?

All around her the water started to boil, first little bubbles that drifted sideways, and then bigger ones and bigger ones. Janie blinked and then began to swim desperately towards the entrance to the pocket dimension. The bubbles had to be going that way. They wouldn’t drift down. Air bubbles only went up, out.

It felt like she could swim forever and never reach the entrance. But she couldn’t be that far away from it. There was no way. She’d only just fallen in. Unless the magic of the portal was very strong, Janie couldn’t have gone too far.

One of her hands broke the surface, the sudden shock of cold air like a knife after the chill of the water. Janie flailed and kicked twice as hard even as her lungs heaved and the water boiled around her. Her head burst through the surface and Janie gasped.

“Get her!” Mom shouted.

The stream surged around Janie, trying to drag her back down, but magic ropes wrapped around her flailing wrists, clinging tight to her. Janie grabbed onto them and kicked with all her might. Someone shouted ‘heave!’ and then the ropes hauled hard on Janie. She surged out of the water and onto the shore. Wet leaves filled her mouth, splattered her face.

Janie coughed, crawled further up the shore and into her pack’s arms. Mori was right there, sobbing tears of fire and shooting blasts of steam from his nostrils. Mimi and Cece were both in their wolf forms, ears plastered against their skulls and fur poofed out from fear.

“Oh thank the Goddess,” Dad moaned as he brushed leaves off Janie’s face, patting her and smoothing too-hot hands over her face. “Thank all the Gods!”

“Daddy,” Janie gasped, coughed and then tried not to sob as he hugged her and then Mom hugged both of them. “Dad, I saw the dragon. It’s a pocket dimension. I was dragged right in. I don’t think it set up any wards to keep people out. It looked surprised that I was there.”

He nodded, hugged her again, and then let her go so that Janie could stare into Mom’s eyes for a long moment. Even as chilled and rattled as Janie was, she could see that Mom wanted to tear the fairy dragon apart for endangering her.

But that wasn’t right. Wolf packs welcomed everyone. If the fairy dragon was building a pocket dimension here there had to be a reason for it. And it wasn’t as if the Puget Sound was an inappropriate place for a water-based entity. They sure as heck got enough rain. She grabbed Mom’s arm so that she couldn’t stand, couldn’t immediately try to attack the fairy dragon.

“Mom, what if it’s building a nest for its eggs?” Janie asked. “It didn’t attack me. Heck, it headed in the same direction as the entrance to the pocket dimension, like it wanted me to follow it.”

Mom growled, her arm like steel under Janie’s fingers. She kept her grip, kept it as Roger muttered something about attempted murder, kept it as Mimi and Cece whined pitifully. After much too long Mom sighed and nodded. Her arm relaxed and she patted Janie’s hand.

“That’s about the only explanation I would accept,” Mom said.

She helped Janie stand, glared at the stream that had already started to go down. The rain had slowed down overhead, too. They still had droplets hitting them, one smacked Janie right in the corner of her eye, but that was from rain making its way down the leaves, not fresh rain falling from the sky. In seconds the stream was just a stream, small enough for her to step across. Even Mimi and Cece would have had a hard time getting in trouble in its slender flow.

“It closed the door?” Janie suggested.

“The magic does seem a lot less,” Mori murmured. His wings trembled until Janie reached down and petted his head. Then he smiled and wagged his tail. “I think you scared it, Janie.”

“I’m not scary,” Janie huffed.

“It’s little,” More said, eyes wide and solemn. “Littler than me. Littler than Mimi and Cece. It’s probably afraid.”

Janie huffed as she struggled to her feet. The fairy dragon sure as hell hadn’t seemed small in the pocket dimension. It’d been bigger than the biggest dragon she’d ever seen. Even Youneda, fat old dragon that he was, would have seemed tiny next to it.

It was a struggle getting her feet under her. Her whole body felt like it was made of chunks of ice. Her feet were just about as sensitive and flexible as wood and the bones in her fingers creaked when she tried to make a fist.

“Go easy,” Dad said. “You might have a bit of frostbite, baby.”

“It was really cold,” Janie said, nodding. “Really cold. And big. Dark. Indigo blue.”

Mom growled as she strode over to the stream, crouching down where Janie had slipped in. There was a distinct patch of mud where the leaves had been scraped away. Looked to Janie as if they’d been dragged in with her but she didn’t remember seeing any leaves in the water on the other side. Maybe they got carried off in the stream?

The water in the stream went from clear enough to see the pebbles on the bottom to indigo blue in one spot about the size of Janie’s head. She stumbled over, pulling Mom back from the edge even though the hole was way too small for Mom to fit in it.

“Get out here,” Mom snapped at the fairy dragon.

“Mom, you’re going to scare it,” Janie said. “Come on. I’m okay. Mostly.”

A little dragon’s head, about the size of Janie’s thumb, poked out of the surface of the water. The fairy dragon was blue, that same deep indigo blue, with teal and purple accents. Its eyes truly were gold. When it blinked it looked so tiny and afraid that Janie’s breath caught again. She didn’t know what gender the little dragon was but it was so delicate that she had to believe it was female. Most male dragons tended to be burlier for their mating battles.

“Mom, if you hurt her I’m going to yell at you,” Janie declared and then snorted at the way the little thing stared up at her.

“You nearly died,” Mom said with a glare over her shoulder at Janie.

It wasn’t a huff. Or a growl. Or even a snarl. Janie smiled, a little weak and wobbly but the cold still soaked into her bones could explain that if Janie really wanted an explanation. Either way, Mom had seen how tiny the fairy dragon was and how fragile or she would have been a heck of a lot more fierce.

“No, I didn’t,” Janie said. “I mean, yeah, I was short on breath but I’m pretty sure I would have escaped no matter what. She could have locked me in to drown.”

The fairy dragon gasped, coming up out of the water to float on the surface and then come up onto the shore. Her wings were gossamer thin, teal membranes edged with purple and gold, all dripping with water that might be part of its actual body because none of the drops ever fell. She sat back on her haunches and tail, tiny doll-like hands clutched to her breastbone.

“Would not have,” the fairy dragon protested in a voice higher and smaller than even a single pixie’s. “Should not have fallen in. Showed which way to go. Too big to carry. Stretched the space by entering.”

“See?” Janie said, waving a hand that was slowly regaining mobility at the fairy dragon. “She just wants to make a home. We got room. Heck, we could just build a little bridge over the stream and then she’ll have a nice cover of the entrance so no one can fall in.”

The fairy dragon gasped with delight this time, itsy little ears coming up to satellite straight at Janie. “Will make home safer? Thank you!”

Mom groaned as her chin dropped to her chest. She shook her head and then looked to Dad who’d scooped up the twins, holding them both by the waist so that they wouldn’t run over to try to pick the fairy dragon up. He shrugged and nodded towards Mori who had matched the fairy dragon’s crouch, clapping his hands in delight.

“We got the room out here,” Janie said. “She’ll be safe. As long as we know not to wade through the stream where her entrance is then it’ll be fine.”

“I can’t believe you’re taking the dragon’s side,” Mom sighed. She waved a hand when both Janie and the little dragon opened their mouths to protest. “All right, all right. We’ll build a bridge over the stream. You can stay. Just please don’t make it rain all the time here. Other areas need the rain, too. And no letting Mori here spend all his time in the pocket dimension. He’s a fire dragon, not a water dragon.”

“Door is closed to all but my kind now,” the fairy dragon said with a delighted flick of her tiny tail and a flutter of her wings. “Can talk but no going in. Thank you. Will make sure forest never goes dry, never goes water-logged.”

Mom chuckled at that, offering one finger to the fairy dragon. It put both hands on Mom’s finger, leaning in to lick a tiny wet stripe up Mom’s finger. Mom laughed for real at that. She waved for the fairy dragon to return to the stream and then stood. The entrance stayed open, a tiny indigo patch in the middle of the stream.

When Mom turned to shoo them all back to the house for a completely different set of tools and supplies than what they’d started with, Janie grinned. She waited as the others gathered up their things and then looked at the little fairy dragon.

“See you later, cutie,” Janie said.

“Bye,” the fairy dragon replied, blinking her eyes several times and then laughing, her eyes squinting shut and her ears going floppy on the sides of her head, “hottie!”

Janie burst out laughing. She waved. The fairy dragon waved too and then dove into her pocket dimension. Well, scary as that had been, it looked like Janie’d made a new friend. Mimi scampered over and whined until Janie picked her up, wet fur and cold nose notwithstanding. Mimi changed back to a naked human toddler, patting Janie’s cheeks.

“Oopsie?” Mimi asked, her bottom lip just barely starting to quiver as if she’d only now realized that something dangerous might have happened.

Janie grinned. “Yup, oopsie. I fell down and got wet. Better go change clothes, yeah?”

Mimi blinked and then laughed, clapping her hands. “Yeah!”

She squirmed until Janie set her down. Mimi immediately changed back into wolf form and then ran to catch up with Mom and Cece, Uncle Ron and the others. Roger was there to offer a shoulder when Janie’s legs weren’t quite strong enough to keep the same pace, his slowly broadening face wary until he realized that Janie’s smile wasn’t just for the twins.

“You’re so hopeless,” Roger chuckled.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Janie replied. “We’re a werewolf pack. What’s one more strange person moving in? We’ve got the room and hey, she seems nice enough, right?”

Roger laughed and shook his head, eyes shining with gratitude and amusement. “Yeah. Now come on. Let’s get you clean and warm. You’re like ice.”

He supported Janie all the way back to the house. Janie let him. After all, wasn’t that what family, pack, was all about?

The End

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