Chapter 11 The ride of your life

The next morning, I awoke before everyone else. Quietly, I snuck between the sleeping forms of my new friends, and creaked my way down the ladder.

When the next person came down the ladder, I was sitting on a haybale, absently chewing on a piece of straw, and staring out the window.

"Does that taste good to you?" I jumped, whirling to face none other than Duncan. He was staring at me with a slightly quizzical expression. I blushed, and spat the straw out. "Um, not really."

He sat on the haybale next to me, and leaned back against the pile that was stacked along the wall. "Then why do you do it?"

I tucked my pale hair behind my ear, nervously. "Um, it helps me think, I guess."

He raised an eyebrow, then reached a hand up and pulled a straw out of the pile. "Well, in that case, I think I'll give it a try." He stuck the end of it in his mouth, and leaned back, chomping on it like he was planning on swallowing.

Nervously, I picked up another straw, and leaned back against the pile, glancing over to the side to see Duncan staring at me again. He pulled the straw out of his mouth, and stared at the frayed end, with a slightly disgusted expression. I couldn't help it. I laughed, my own straw falling out of my mouth, as I watched him try to spit out the fragments he had chewed off the end.

He glared at me, annoyed. I held up my own straw. "Here. You aren't chewing to swallow, just kind of holding it in your mouth and sucking on it." I handed him a new straw, and we both sat back again, him with a sigh. For awhile, we just sat, chewing straws and enjoying the fresh morning breeze making it's way through the windows. After awhile, I heard a creak from upstairs, and at the same time, Duncan said, "There goes our peace and quiet."

A few moments later, Fiona descended the ladder in dragon form, though this morning she appeared about the size of a monitor lizard. She descended head first, jumping the last few rungs and flapping her wings to come to a gentle landing on the dusty floor. Then she looked up and saw us. Her eyes widened, and she grinned, showing thousands of needle sharp teeth. "Well, aren't you two... picturesque."

I was so startled by the sound of her normal, slightly low voice coming from that tiny mouth, that for a moment, I didn't register what she had said. But the time I realized I should be annoyed, Duncan had already stood, and was glaring at his sister murderously. I rolled my eyes, trying to hide the blush creeping up my cheeks.

Fiona just snorted, before scurrying out the front door of the barn. I heard a slight whooshing from outside, and when I walked out, I found myself staring at the monstrous, armored chest of the biggest creature I had ever seen. I had to back up to see her head. Suddenly, I knew what ants felt like when they looked up at us humans.

Fiona's head was stuck through the hay loader window of the loft, and after a moment, I heard a startled yelp, and then a smack. Fiona's head drew back through the window, her brilliant green eyes narrowed to slits. Her forked tongue flicked out, and I heard it crack through the air, before she said, "Fine, if that's how you want to behave, I just won't wake you up anymore, and you'll have to get a car, because there will be no more rides from me, mister rich city kid!" I could tell she was trying to hold back a laugh.

Then I blinked. Rich?

I heard a mumbled apology from inside, and Fiona's scaly features softened. "Well, hurry up, ya big oaf. Wings up in ten minutes, so you better get eating."

Then she glanced down, and finally seemed to notice me. She lowered her massive head down to my level, tilting it to the side so she could look at me with one huge green eye, the size of a basketball. She barely fit in the clearing anymore, at this size. If she spread her wings, half of them could probably be seen above the treetops.

She blinked at me. "Did you catch that? We should get going. Eat whatever you're going to eat, just be ready to go in a few minutes, or your ride leaves. Unless you don't want to go?"

I grinned back at her, suddenly not so intimidated. Her voice was still the same, even when she was the size of a hill! "Oh, I want to go, but I won't be getting a ride from you. I provide my own service!"

"Oh, right."She drew hear head back, looking sheepish. If it were possible for a dragon to look sheepish.

I thought for a moment. "And also, If anyone wants to come with me instead, they can. I'm not promising a smooth ride," I smiled wickedly, "but they can come. One passenger only. I don't now how many I can carry safely." Just then, Raven poked her head out the door. "Caw Caw!" She croaked, sounding exactly like a raven.

Fiona and I just stared. Raven laughed hysterically. "Your faces!" She said, pointing at us and giggling. "That was Raven language for 'breakfast is ready!' Oh, and did I hear someone say she was giving a free horseback riding lesson?" She smirked. "I'll go tell Duncan..." She disappeared inside before I even had the time to be mortified. I turned to Fiona. "Why does everyone think I like Duncan? He's nice, and he's cute, but that doesn't mean I like him!"

Fiona rolled her eyes, then let out a snort and began to change. I shrugged and walked into the barn, crossing the floor and sitting down on the opposite side from Duncan, who was staring at me. I nervously began to eat my cereal, trying to finish before he did, so I could leave. Just as I stood, Raven finished discussing plans with Dane about the day's spying (I had guessed they had some sort of system for finding trouble, and I had my suspicions confirmed when I heard that Raven was working for a news channel and Dane was wandering the underground with a walkie-talkie headset.) and turned to Duncan and said, with a grin at me, "Oh, and Duncan, Kera's giving a ride to anyone who wants to go with her this morning."

He perked up and raised an eyebrow at me, oblivious to Raven's undercurrent of humor. "I would like to come," He said, a little stiffly. Everyone's eyes turned to me, and I blushed, my skin heating until I felt as if I should be sweating buckets. "Fine." I muttered. I turned and walked out the door, hearing a pair of footsteps following behind me. I sighed, and closed my eyes, readying myself for the change. When I opened them again, I was gazing down at the ground, which was slightly farther away than before. I turned, and came nose-to-muzzle with Dane, who took a step back, staring at me.

"Will you stop staring? It's rude." I gave him the horsey version of a frown.

He held up his hands, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Sorry, I can't help it sometimes. It's a wyvern thing."

I tilted my head to one side. "Wyvern?"

He nodded. "I'm a wyvern. We're like dragons, except smaller, and with only one pair of legs. And we spit acid instead of fire."

"Oh." I shook my mane. "Well, let's get this over with. Hop on." I turned to the side, and felt him leap lightly on my back. I braced for a huge weight, but he seemed to weigh no more than your average cardboard box. If cardboard boxes were warm and had legs and... Whoa, there, horsey! Just git a-goin', and keep yer mind outta the toilet!

I swished my tail, and trotted down the bramble-clotted lane to the road. I paused at the edge, and glanced over my shoulder. "You have a good grip?

He nodded, hands thoroughly entwined in my mane. I grinned mentally as I realized that none of the others except Fiona had seen my power yet. Abruptly, I wheeled, facing down the road, and charged, going from a standstill to a blur in seconds, defying gravity and all the laws of physics. I reached the highway in moments, and zoomed up the on ramp, leaping completely over a car that was going the same direction.

I reached the top of the ramp... and found my playground. I increased my speed until I should have been flying, the dotted lines of the lanes blurring and becoming solid, the cars alongside me becoming a solid wall of multicolored chrome. A semi loomed ahead of me, and I leaped, Going higher than expected, and soaring over the next overpass as well. In minutes, we were downtown, Dane still clinging to my back like a tick, and then I was on the lake, the water below me too slow to swallow me up. I carved a great arc in the water, sending up a fifty-foot wall of spray behind me, and approached the end of Navy Pier. I fixed my gaze on the ferris wheel, and once again, everything seemed to slow down. The waves beneath me seemed to move with the languorous grace of clouds, constantly shifting, always staying the same. The wheel's lights blinked in trickling patterns, the bulbs seeming to glow and fade like fireflies. The expressions on the faces of the people riding it seemed to become liquid, shifting from moment to moment as if magically transformed to mimic the lights. My eyes flickered to catch these details even as I seemed to run, at normal speed, toward the pier. I counted the steps, absently. Four, three, two, one... And my hooves left the water. I felt the air slide through each hair of my body, saw the droplets flick and bounce as they fell, watched the iron bars of the wheel slide by, as I slid perfectly between them. The light bounced off my hide, and I turned my head for a split second, and my eye met the eye of a young girl, sitting between her parents in the nearest bucket. I winked. Then suddenly, everything was normal, and I fell toward the water, hitting with a huge splash, my legs already churning. I heard a gasp from behind me, and smirked. Good, I've impressed him.

I shot back into the city, finally slowing near the park where I had first stayed. I trotted to a halt, only slightly out of breath, next to the thicket of pines with the boulder in the middle. "Duck," I said to Duncan over my shoulder. I turned and pushed my way in between the trees. In the center, by the white boulder. I stopped, letting Duncan drop down onto the soft needle carpet. He leaned against my flank for a moment, breathing hard, then said, "Wow... I've never encountered a Changeling like you. That was amazing! How did you judge that leap?" All the usual aloofness disappeared, and a completely different Duncan made himself known. I smiled a little, curving my head around to look at him. "You're welcome."

We grinned stupidly at each other for a moment, feeling like little kids who had just managed to climb to the top of a favorite tree for the first time. Then suddenly, he pushed off my flank, and I shook my mane, still smiling. He stood to the side and watched while I Changed, appearing in a pair of skinny jeans and a grey t-shirt. Fiona told me that she had trouble with changing in clothes at first, but I hadn't, and we both wondered why. Probably because they didn't have any mirrors in that orphanage, so I couldn't imagine myself without clothes on...

After I changed, we both sat down on the rock, silently, listening to the birds wandering through the trees, and the far off roar of the city. After a few moments, I heard a roar in the distance. We glanced at each other. "Ready for your first mission?" Ah, so kind Duncan was still there.

I glared at him playfully. "When have I not been?"