Chapter 28 Oh, brother!

I stood, my paws rooted to the floor, staring at this guy like a moron. Well, I guess I had a right to, I mean, I just met him, and he's claiming to be my brother!

"How do I know you are telling the truth?"

He smiled. "I thought you might ask that. Very well, you want proof, you will have it." He threw off his cloak, and immediately, liquid light began to swirl around his feet, though his had somewhat more of a greenish glow than mine, and instead of expanding to accommodate a larger form, like mine, his seemed to shrink, until it was about five feet tall. When it faded, I saw what looked like a miniature, green, two-legged version of myself. I cocked my head in confusion, staring down at his tiny form. "what are you?"

He reared his head back, looking slightly offended. "I'm a wyvern, duh." he said in a surprisingly deep, throaty voice. "Wyverns are in the dragon family. In fact, they are very closely related." he winked.

"Ah. That's what you mean by evidence." I stared down at his tiny form, which was slightly smaller than my head. "Well, I guess you do somewhat resemble me. Except for the fact that I could swallow you whole."

He snorted, and to my surprise, used his wingclaws as front paws, to stand on, folding his wing-fingers up over his back. I noticed, then, that he had two wingclaws, instead of just one, like me, and his were bigger, and appeared to be more flexible. Clever.

"Yeah, well, I'm supposed to be small. Wyverns generally are." He snorted, but no smoke came out.

"Uhh, can wyverns breathe fire?" I asked, eyeing him sideways.

"No, we spit acid." He demonstrated, turning toward a nearby door and spitting a gob of bluish-colored saliva at the knob, which instantly began to melt.

I blinked. "Woah, cool!"

He ducked his head, the fanlike spines that lined his jaw fluttering. "Oh, that was nothing. But you still have not said wether you believe me or not."

I cocked my head, trying to decide wether to trust him. If he turned out to be lying, well, I didn't think he posed much of a threat. "Okay, I'll give you a chance. But there are rules. One: You will not come to my secret hideout. Two: You have to tell me everything you know about our heritage, and about the shadowshifters. Three: You will not touch, interfere with, or harm my friends in any way."

He stared up at me. "Are these friends... human?"

"Yes."

He reared back. "What?! You have had contact with humans? You have spoken with them? As a Changeling?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!"

"No, of course not! Why should I be afraid of the people who I grew up with? What reason can you give me to mistrust them?"

He looked astounded. "They're humans! How can you not mistrust them?! Given half a chance, they would lock you up and dissect you, never mind you have twice the intelligence and half the pride that they do, yet they would treat you like a common animal!"

I rolled my eyes. "If that were true, I would have been dead for the last sixteen years! How do you explain that?" And I don't think it's the humans that have pride issues...

He flicked his tounge nervously, and I noticed that it was a brilliant blue color, the same as his acid spit. I wondered absently if that was where the acid came from.

"I... I must assume that you fell into the hands of a very rare breed of human. Personally, I have never seen any that wouldn't lock you up on sight."

"Well," I said, turning to leave, "Then you must not have met very many humans." I glanced back over my shoulder. "But if you can't get along with humans, then we have no agreement."

He looked around, as if he thought the answer might be written on the walls. "I... accept." He said finally, turning his head back to me.

"Good. Just so we're clear, no harming my friends, no following me to my secret lair, and please don't compromise my privacy."

"Your... privacy?"

I grimaced. "I, well, the media seem to have suddenly grown an insatiable appatite for dragons. They won't stop following me."

He nodded sympathetically. "I see. I won't let them bother you." He trotted and flapped his way until he caught up to me, walking, or rather crouching, my way down the hall. "By the way, you never asked my name."

I paused in mid-stride. "Oh, I didn't even think of that. I'm sorry."

He chuckled. "It's okay. You have a lot on your mind. My name is Duncan."

I smiled, and for once, the person I smiled at didn't flinch. "Well, Duncan, my name is Fiona. But maybe you already knew that?"

"No, actually, I didn't."

"Oh."

We walked on in silence for awhile, and then, suddenly, I had an idea. "Hey, um, Duncan? I think, since we just met, and you're my brother and everything, we should have some sort of a party, you know, to celebrate."

He looked surprised. "I would be honored. Thank you."

"Where would you like to go?"

He looked puzzled. "Go?"

"Yes. Go. Do you prefer pizza hut, Shake 'n' Steak, Culver's, what?"

He looked confused for a moment, then horrified. "You want to have a party in a human restaurant?! Are you crazy? They would lock us up at first sight!"

I shook my head. "Duncan, don't tell me you've never been out to eat before. I'm not planning on showing up looking like this! I'll show up in my human form. Nothing remotely suspicious about that. You should really be more open-minded. Humans aren't all bad." In Rib Lake, going out to eat had been the be-all and end-all of things to do. We did have a pretty nifty little ice cream shop.

He looked skeptical, but agreed. By this time we had reached the blown-out window, which had apparently already been discovered by the local pigeons. Several were already settled on the empty frame, but were startled into flight by our sudden appearance.

Duncan flew out the hole first, then me, dropping out and down, then flapping to gain altitude. Duncan's wing strokes were much quicker than mine, and he had to flap constantly to keep up.

Suddenly, I remembered my earpeice. I twitched my ear back, turning it on. Immediately, a staticy voice crackled deafeningly through the other end. "-are you?! -fzzzzzzzffff- been trying to call you for- zzfffffffzzzzzz- ong does it take to stop a fi- zzfffssszzzzzz!"

I winced, then cocked my ear to one side. "Calm down, Dane! I can barely hear you over the static anyway! I'm on my to the college. I'll meet you there. There's someone I want you to meet."

Duncan was looking at me quizzically from several yards away. He was having a hard time flying any closer, because of the huge downdraft my wings created. "Who was that?!" He roared over the wind.

"That was one of my friends!"

"You communicate with them?!"

I stared. "Duh. How could they even be my friends if I didn't?!"

He turned toward the front, staring. Sheesh, my brother has some high standards! Kind of a prick, really. I frowned. I hope he will learn to like my friends. Or at least get along with them.

We flew on to the college, each thinking our own thoughts.

We landed on the roof, trying not to be spotted this time. Dane was already there, leaning against the roof access. When we landed, he jumped up, then stared at Duncan with a startled and fascinated expression. Duncan stared back, with his expression veering more toward fear and disgust.

Dane turned to me. "Is this who you wanted me to meet? Another dragon? I thought you said you didn't know any more."

I sighed. "I didn't until today. Dane, this is Duncan, my brother. Duncan, this is Dane, one of my 'human friends'."

Dane held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Duncan."

Duncan just stared at his hand with a faintly mystified expression. After a moment, Dane dropped his hand to his side. I shook my head. This was not going well. I turned to Dane. "Where's Raven? I thought she would come with you."

Dane shook his head. "She's off looking for a job. Apparently they have a space open for a reporter's assistant for a channel eight newscaster, and she thought it would be the perfect job."

I grinned, once again remembering too late that that particular expression didn't look too good on my face. This time, however, I didn't get any reaction at all. "That's perfect! Make sure you remember to give her a radio. If she gets the job, we'll be able to get the jump on any important events going on in the city."

He nodded. "Already did. She's wearing it right now."

I flicked my tail approvingly. "Right. Well, Dane, I told Duncan that we were going to throw a little party, you know, to celebrate the..." I trailed off. I just remembered, Dane didn't know that I could turn into a human... or that I was a human that could turn into a dragon? Either way, he didn't know. And if we were going out to eat, I had to become human... oh, this was going to be fun.

Dane was staring at me expectantly. "I... er, well, um...Dane, I need to show you something..."

He climbed up my shoulder and settled on my back, ignoring the incredulous stare my brother was giving him. I took off, rising toward the Sears tower again.

I landed softly on the roof, scattering a flock of pigeons from one of the great antennae. Dane jumped straight off my back, landing with a roll. "Dane! You could kill yourself doing that! Be careful!"

He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Couldn't resist. I've been wanting to try that for awhile. I was going to practice with the barn roof earlier, but I realized it wasn't round enough to be realistic..." He raised an eyebrow challengingly.

I growled, narrowing my eyes. "You did not just call me fat!" He jumped up from his position on the gravel where he had landed, and, grinning wider, ran off toward the other side of the building.

I charged after him, leaping and hopping to avoid the wires, vents and pipes sticking up all over the surface, as well as the giant support cables that kept the huge double antennae upright. Dane scrambled between a pair of vents and ducked down behind a large exhaust fan. I stopped short, pretending to be confused. "Dane? Dane, where are you? This isn't funny!" I heard a faint snicker from behind the vent, and snuck quietly up behind it, stretching my neck as far as it would go. I gathered myself, then snaked my head quickly around one side of the fan- just as Dane jumped out the other side, laughing. I snapped my jaws and slithered after him, flowing over and around all the obstacles. Finally, I got close enough. I reached out my head, and snapped the back of his sweatshirt in my teeth, picking him up like a kitten. He yelped, then went limp, letting me carry him toward the middle of the roof, where I had made a sort of nest, for days when I had watch duty and there was nothing much going on. I set him down gently, and curled around him like a cat, resting my head tiredly on a curved aluminum heat vent. Dane sighed, sitting down and leaning his back against my side. He yawned, and I echoed him, which made us both giggle. Dane closed his eyes, resting his head against my elbow. I sighed, and slowly, my eyes drifted shut.

Faintly, I heard Dane mumble, "What was it you wanted to show me?", but I was almost asleep, and only mumbled, "tell you later," before falling asleep.

And I dreamed.