Chapter 12 Hop along, little pony

I cantered past the Hancock center, grimacing at the American Girl store on the next corner. Why in the world would anyone want to buy something like that? I shook my head at the oddness of humans, and continued to scan the sky for Fiona, who was supposed to meet us somewhere around this rather famous landmark.

Duncan sat on my back, one finger pressed to his ear, where the third headset rested. I wondered impatiently what was taking so long.

Suddenly, a shadow swooped across the road in front of me, and I looked up in time to see Fiona's tail disappear over the roof of the Macy's. I swerved in the middle of the street, still seemingly going too fast to be able to turn at that speed. I ran back to the park in front of the Hancock center - and realized we had a problem. If Fiona came down to meet us on the ground, we would attract too much attention. In fact, I thought, I probably shouldn't stop at all. Duncan still has an ID to hide, and I really don't want to be seen, let alone approached yet.

I kept moving, past the Hancock center, and circled the block, trying to see a way up to where she was. I could only find one. I turned my head backward for a moment. "Hang on!"

I bunched my muscles and shot forward, pounding down the one-way street like an airplane about to take off. Which is exactly what I did. I didn't look down, just leaped. Nearly straight up, onto a two-tier building across from the Hancock. I didn't stop, I didn't even pause, but leaped up onto the second level, then swerved and pounded across the roof toward the edge. I felt Duncan's legs tighten around my sides as I tensed, preparing to leap. An instant later, we were across, heads spinning from the dizzying view of the street we had glimpsed below my hooves.

Fiona stood next to one of the huge antenna, and amused and slightly startled expression on her face. I pranced in place, trying to work off some of the adrenaline still rushing through my system.

I felt Duncan sit back, releasing his stranglehold on my mane. I stopped prancing and waited while he slid off, before changing back to human.

Fiona's eyes sparkled. "Impressive! We will make a team member of you yet!"

I blushed, feeling rather intimidated by the gigantic figure sitting in front of me.

Duncan, who was still standing next to my shoulder, snorted. "And what 'team' would that be? Last time I checked, it was you doing all the public, save-the-day stuff."

Great. Old Duncan's back.

Fiona bared her sharklike teeth, though whether it was a smile of a snarl, I couldn't tell. "Well, that's all about to change, brother."

I rolled my eyes, and turned away from the apparent sibling rivalry to take in the view of the city. It was then I noticed something alarming. "Guys! There's smoke over there!"

They broke their staring contest and looked in the direction I pointed, which was good. I was not at all sure that the surrounding air wouldn't have exploded after a few more moments. I wonder what would have happened if I had stuck a board in between them. I certainly wouldn't want to be the object that go in the way of a staring contest between a Dragon and a Wyvern!

Fiona flared her wings, making the surrounding air shudder. "It's a fire. Apartment building. Twenty blocks southwest. Dane, I need you to see how many doors and windows you can melt to let people - and smoke - out. I'll see if anyone is on the roof, and if not, I'll go in. Fire can't hurt me, so I'll head to the worst part first." Then she seemed to remember that I existed. "Oh, uh, Kerata... why don't you scout for other situations around the city? We'll be totally occupied by this fire, it will be up to you if anything else happens."

I huffed. "What were you just saying about teamwork? Surely there's something I can do to help!"

Fiona thought for a moment. "If you can get in the ground floor, you can help carry people to safety. Otherwise, I don't think there's really that much you can help with. Sorry."

I sighed. "It's okay. There will certainly be other times." I can't wait until my first car chase...

She nodded, then leaped off the side of the building, ignoring camera flashes from below. I turned to see Duncan enveloped by a swirling, pale green light. I blinked when, instead of growing in size, like Fiona's, his light cocoon shrank to about the size of a medium dog. When it faded, I couldn't help but gape. A miniature dragon stood where he had, with shimmering, poison-green scales, marked with red around the claws and eyes and wingtips. A long, thin tail whipped behind him, keeping him balanced on only two legs. His wings acted as front paws, the claws at the joints like toes. He turned his sculpted head toward me and raised a scaly eyebrow. "Like what you see?"

I really wish this guy would make up his mind about his personality! One minute he's all emo about everything, the next he's nice and sweet, and then he turns into a cocky playboy! Urg!

I squinted at him, hoping I wasn't blushing. "You wish."

He rolled his eyes. "Meet you there. You might want to change back."

I rolled my eyes. "No duh! Like I'm just going to jump off the building without..." I trailed off. He had already flown away. Jerk

I quickly shifted, then got a running start, and leaped to the next building. I started a complicated game of hopscotch, muttering to myself all the while. " 'Like what you see'? Puh-lease..."