Chapter 7 - Sweet Dreams are made of This

A group of young adults with superpowers team up to fight a villain from another world as well as other small villains. More adorable dragon-ness, some crime fighting, and an old friend.

Kethri walked around the kitchen with the dragon in her arms, trying to get a bottle of warm milk ready for him. “Here, can you hold him?” She asked, shoving the dragon into Amari’s hands. She held it out at arm’s length. Kethri laughed. “It’s not going to eat you or catch you on fire. It can’t do either of those things when it’s small.” Amari set it tentatively on the counter.

The dragon looked up at her with huge eyes. “Merp,” it chirped.

Amari’s heart melted and she pet it, laughing. “Aww.”

Kethri walked over with the bottle of milk. Amari looked up at her expectantly. With a sigh, Kethri said,” Alright, I know you’re dying to ask, so go ahead.”

Amari sucked in a roomful of air before racing off. “Why do you have a dragon? How do you shrink it like that? Where did it come from? Can I have one? What’s its name? Is it a boy or a girl?”

Kethri laughed. “The dragon came with me from my home world, Daimne.He is the last of his kind. I never did name him, and dragons don’t really belong to anyone, but as long as it’s okay with Azaria and them, I’d like him to stay here. And as for the shrinking, it’s something they do naturally. The word I said just asked him politely if he would shrink.”

"Oh," Amari said, nodding. But then… "Wait a second! Your home world? You’re an alien, too?"

Now it was Kethri’s turn to be confused. “Wait, you’re an alien?”

"Yeah, from Terra," Amari answered, her excitement flooding through the room. "But I was sent away when I was just a baby, so I don’t remember it at all."

"Terra…" Kethri said slowly as Amari watched her expectantly. But then Kethri’s face fell. "Oh, Terra," she said softly.

"What?" Amari said. "What happened? What aren’t you telling me?" She shook Kethri’s shoulders. "Tell me!"

"You aren’t going to like it," Kethri said tentatively.

Amari shook her head. “I don’t care. I’ve never met anyone who’s heard about Terra before. I’d just like someone to tell me what it’s like.”

Kethri sighed. “Alright. I’ve never been there myself, so I’m probably not the best to tell you, but travelers have passed through my world, so I know a little.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Terra was a beautiful planet. There were plants everywhere,” she said wistfully, thinking of her own desert planet. “Like rainforests here, or like Endor! All plants and rain. The cities were built in the branches, with bridges connecting the trees.”

"Wow," Amari breathed. "I wonder if I’ll be able to see it one day."

But Kethri shook her head. “It wouldn’t be worth the trip,” she said.

Amari looked at her quizzically. “Why? What happened? Why do you look so sad?”

"There was a…disease on Terra. It wiped out the entire population. And when the people died, so did all the plants, since the people’s earth powers were keeping all those plants alive. You must be the last Terranese person left. As far as I know, everyone else is gone."

Amari looked down at her hands. “Oh,” was all she could say. Silence fell between them.

Kethri finished feeding the dragon and he burped loudly. A head poked around the door. “Is…is that a dragon?” Cael asked, coming around into the kitchen.

"No, it’s a sheep," Amari said dryly.

Cael rolled his eyes at her and then turned to Kethri. “Can I hold it?” He asked.

Kethri shrugged. “Sure.”

Amari handed over the dragon. “He or she?” He asked.

"He," Kethri answered.

"Does he have a name?"

"No."

Cael looked down at the dragon. “I’m going to call you Loki,” he said. The dragon chirped lightly and snuggled up against him.

Kethri and Amari giggled. “I think he likes you,” Kethri said.

"Can we keep him?" Cael asked.

Kethri laughed. “You don’t own a dragon, not like that. If the dragon - Loki - really wanted to go, he would.”

"How could this cute little guy get away?" Cael asked.

Kethri just smiled. “I think it would be easier to show you,” she said.

She took Loki back and led them out the kitchen door into the yard. Kethri was so glad that the Firlannas had no close neighbors. Otherwise this could cause some awkward conversations. She set the dragon on the ground. “Kamus.”

Cael’s jaw dropped as the dragon grew to be almost as tall as the mansion. “Whoa,” he said in awe. “That is so cool.”

"Right?" Amari said. She glanced at her watch, checking the time. "Umm, Cael? It’s like, half past two. What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Cael said, eyebrows raised.

"Umm, dude," Amari said, gesturing to the dragon. "Wasn’t here before."

Cael formed an “o” with his mouth. “That makes sense.”

"Artard…" Amari said, rolling her eyes. "So, again, what are you doing up so late?"

Cael shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep, so I was going to get something to eat. I have to say, though, finding a dragon in the kitchen was way more interesting than food.”

Amari put on a look of false, exaggerated shock on her face. “Something is more interesting to you than food?”

Cael gave her an exasperated look before turning back to the dragon. “Can I ride him?” He asked Kethri.

She shrugged. “I guess so. I think nomads did, but I don’t know how. Coming from a community of exclusively flying people, I’ve never seen it in person. I guess it’s up to him,” she finished, gesturing at the dragon.

Cael turned back to Loki. “How about it, boy?” He asked. “Can I ride you?” The dragon snorted in his face, blowing his hair back. Then he lowered his body to the ground. “I’m going to take that as a yes.” He ran up to Loki and did a round-off onto the dragon, pushing off from the dragon’s body and landing in the crook between his neck and shoulders.

"Circus boy!" Amari yelled up after him. Cael stuck his tongue out at her.

He looked down at Loki. “Umm…” He said. “Up?” Loki just looked at him. “Fly? Away? Open sesame?” He paused. “Kamus?” The dragon smirked and was suddenly a lot smaller. Cael fell the ten feet to the ground. “Ow,” he groaned, standing and rubbing his butt. “What was that for?” He accused Loki. The dragon snorted something that sounded like snickering.

Amari and Kethri were dying of laughter. “Good boy!” Kethri congratulated, petting Loki on the head. The dragon chirped and flew into the house. “Loki has the right idea,” she said. “Let’s go to bed.”

… . .

During the next couple weeks, Kethri started going out as Whirlwind again. Not every night, but a few times a week. She used the window in her room to sneak out. She probably didn’t need to sneak, but it was a force of habit.

One night she was about to slip out when she heard a voice behind her: “Just where do you think you’re going?” Kethri whirled around to see Amari standing in her doorway.

"Nowhere…" Kethri answered slowly.

Amari glanced at Kethri’s clothes. She was wearing her costume that she had made, complete with a gold mask. “Yeah, right,” Amari scoffed. ‘You know that I know that you’re up to something. I’ve known you long enough to know how your brain works.”

Kethri blinked several times. “That’s a scary thought,” she said.

Amari shrugged. “Eh, it’s not that hard to figure out,” she gibed.

"Gee, thanks, Amari," Kethri pouted.

"Anyway," Amari cut through Kethri’s pouting, "You know that whatever you’re about to go do, I want in, right? I haven’t been able to go before now because of my injuries, but I’ve been on to your ‘secret’ for a while."

"But," Kethri started, looking at Amari’s attire. "But you’re not properly dressed."

Amari grinned. “One step ahead of you, dude,” she said happily, pulling a black mask out of her pocket. She put it on and looked at Kethri. “What d’ya think?” She asked.

"Call that a superhero costume?" Kethri asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Wha-what’s wrong with it?" Amari asked, looking down at her clothes. She was wearing green cargo pants, a black tank top, and Converse.

"It’s so…normal," Kethri said.

"It’s better than yours, all big and flowy and stuff. You’re gonna get caught on something and I’m gonna have to save you."

"Hey, now, I look cool." Kethri tossed her head and drew herself up to her full height, which wasn’t really that tall. "And besides, I’ve been wearing this most of my life. I know how to get around in it."

"Alright, I have to give you those," Amari nodded.

"Darn right." Kethri turned back to the window she had been about to sneak out of and was going to leave when Amari caught her. Kethri sighed. "Alright, you can come along, if…"

"If? If what?"

"If you can keep up with me!" Kethri chirped. She threw open the window and dove out off the second story and into the night. Amari dashed to the window and looked out. Kethri was circling high above the house, laughing her butt off.

"Flying…figures…" Amari groaned.

Kethri soared through the night sky, loving the feeling of the wind running through her hair. She put some space between her and Amari. It wasn’t that she didn’t want the help, it was just that this was the first time she had been out in a while. She wanted to make sure she still had it. After she did some loops and spirals, she landed gracefully on top of a warehouse near a dock and thought about where she might find some trouble that she could help sort out.

"This is an interesting place to stop," she heard from behind her. She whipped around to see Amari standing there, looking around. "What’s so special about this place?"

"Um, nothing?" Kethri said. "I just sort of stopped. How did you get here?"

"I followed you, duh." Amari said, flipping her hair. "It’s not that hard to track someone, especially when you’ve trained with assassins most of your life. Besides, you were flying, so all I had to do was look up. Give me some credit here."

"No, how did you get up here? It’s a good two, maybe three stories up," Kethri said, bewildered.

Amari glanced over the side of the building where there was a stone pillar standing on the ground. “Magic,” she said, looking back at Kethri with a grin.

Kethri rolled her eyes. “Well, obviously.”

The sound of raised voices wafted up through the vents in the roof. They were just faint enough that Amari and Kethri couldn’t make out what they were saying. “What the - ” Amari started.

"Shh," Kethri cut her off, trying to listen. Amari took a few steps toward one of the vents. Apparently, the warehouse was older than they thought. The roof split and cracked and Amari fell through with a yelp of surprise.

Kethri sighed and floated over to the hole. “Go figure. I bring her along and she falls through a roof.”

Amari yelled as she fell, hoping against hope that something nice and soft would break her fall. No such luck. She landed hard on a table in the middle of the room below. Splintered wood and what looked like money rained down around her. “Ugh,” she groaned and started to get to her feet, checking to make sure nothing was broken as she stood up. Before she could, though, she heard several clicking sounds. Being raised around a family of assassins, she knew that sound all too well. She looked up and found a gun pointed directly between her eyes.

"You picked the wrong night to drop in, kid," the guy closest to her said.

"H-hey boys," she said with a nervous laugh. "Heard there was a party here. Thought I’d stop by."

"Bad idea." His finger tightened on the trigger.

Crap, Amari thought, ducking and covering her head in her hands. The sound of the gunshot was drowned out by rushing wind. Amari peeked through her hands and saw Kethri floating no far above her, her arms stretched out. She was spinning like a top, creating a tornado that deflected the bullet that had been heading towards Amari. It hit someone in the shoulder. The men around the room didn’t know how to react. A tornado forming in the middle of the room? Not a normal occurrence. Amari took advantage of the moment to jump to her feet. She quickly glanced around. There were about fifteen guys scattered around the room, all with their guns pointed at herself and Kethri.

"Nice timing, Whirlwind," Amari said as Kethri stopped spinning, deciding that it was probably not a good idea to use her real name right now. Kethri had started calling herself Whirlwind for a reason.

"Anytime," she grinned.

"What is this, Halloween?" One of the guys said, taking a step away from them.

"Halloween? How is it Halloween? It’s April." Amari asked.

"Um…" Kethri said, tapping her mask.

"Oh, right. Anyway, what do we have here?"

"Looks like drugs," Kethri said, picking up a baggie full of white powder.

"Oh you bad, bad men," Amari scolded.

"Why are you just standing there? Get ‘em!" Someone shouted. Everyone snapped into action then.

"I’ll take the ones on the right, you take the ones on the left!" Amari shouted as she dove for cover, bullets whizzing through the air.

"Got it!" Kethri called back, hurling a ball of wind at two of the men. They went flying into the air like bowling pins. "Strike!" Kethri yelled.

"That was good, but watch this," Amari said smugly. She dropped down on one knee and touched the ground. The floor beneath a few of the men turned to sand. Caught off guard, they sunk into it. She laughed and removed her hand. The ground returned to its original state, leaving the men stuck waist-deep.

"Nice," Kethri called to her.

"I thought so," Amari laughed. She hit the ground and sent a small mound of earth up, giving her some cover from the gunfire. She peered around the edge and saw a guy running at her. She waited for him to come around the corner and then punched him in the face. The guy went flying backwards into a wall, cracking it behind him. Amari shrugged nonchalantly and moved on.

On the other side, Kethri was laughing as she spun a guy around in a tornado. Upside-down.

"Whirlwind, focus!" Amari shouted. She had a guy pinned to the ground with a strap of rock across his arms and chest.

"Sorry!" Kethri threw the guy across the room.

Amari looked down at her captive. “I hope you’re comfortable because you’re going to be there for a while,” she said, patting his head and standing up. She was about to move on to the next guy when Kethri yelled at her to get her attention.

"Um, Am…” Kethri paused. Real names weren’t a good idea here. She already had one, but Amari? Time for some quick thinking. So she said the first thing that popped into her mind. “Terra? I think we’d better go." She pointed out the window and Amari could see flashing lights and hear sirens.

"Yeah, and…exiting stage right!" Amari said, taking off.

Kethri ran after her. “Terra, that’s left!”

"Hard to port! Hard to port!" Amari burst through the wall. Fortunately, it was brick, so it wasn’t difficult for her. She and Kethri went tumbling into a back alley, laughing.

"Let’s get out of here," Kethri suggested, taking off her mask.

As they walked back, Amari asked, “So, Terra, eh?”

Kethri shrugged. “It was the first thing that popped into my head.”

"I like it," Amari said. "I think I’ll keep it."

"Good," Kethri smiled. She kept walking.

"Kethri, wait."

"What?"

"You’re hurt."

"What?" Kethri looked down at herself and saw that her arm was bleeding. "Oh, so I am."

Amari took Kethri’s arm in her hands and looked at the wound in her upper arm. “Did you get shot or something?” She asked as she gently pressed her hand on the wound. She concentrated hard and a pale blue light came from her hand and started to heal the wound.

Kethri shrugged. “I don’t remember getting hit. It looks like a bullet just grazed me or something,” she explained.

"Does that happen often?" Amari asked as she finished the healing. The wound wasn’t that bad so it didn’t take that long.

"More than it should," Kethri said. "Usually Ksenia would clean it up for me."

"Well, luckily for you, you now have a friend who can heal you when you need it," Amari said as she patted Kethri’s shoulder.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Let’s get home. I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night."

… . .

It was late by the time Amari and Kethri returned to the mansion. Amari wasn’t really expecting anyone to be up. “Shh,” she whispered to Kethri as they came into the house. “Believe me, these people don’t like rude awakenings. It’s best if we’re really, really qui - Cael?” Sure enough, Cael was sitting on the couch playing with a small gray object. Loki was curled up, sleeping next to him.

"There you are. Where’d you guys run off too?" He asked, looking up at them.

"We were…just out and about," Kethri said.

"Wait a second," Amari said, taking a closer look at what Cael was holding. "Is that…that’s my duck!"

"What, this thing?" Cael asked, holding up the small, gray, rubber duck.

"Yes!" Amari said angrily, the volume of her voice rising. "I’ve been looking for him for weeks. You had it the whole time, didn’t you?!"

"Whoa, calm down. Don’t you think you’re overreacting a little?"

"You…you jerk! You idiotic, ignorant, circus freak! You knew I was looking for that!" Amari shouted.

"I thought we were supposed to be quiet, Amari…" Kethri said tentatively. Amari ignored her and stomped over to where Cael was sitting. She snatched the duck out of his grip. It took every ounce of her self-control not to punch him in the face.

“Scheissekopf,” she spat and turned on her heel.

"What’s with her?" Cael asked.

Kethri rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe she really doesn’t people messing with her ducks.” Cael shrugged and wandered off. Kethri sighed and headed for her room, deciding that now would be a good time for bed.

… . .

"Stupid circus freak," Amari muttered to herself as she crossed the lawn to her tree house. "Why does he have to be such a stronzo? Ugh, whatever." She reached the big tree and placed her hand on the trunk. A branch lowered from up above. The only ways to get up to the tree house were to either a) be a squirrel, b) be able to fly, and c) be able to manipulate the branches, like Amari was able to do.

She climbed onto the branch and it shot up into the tree, right up to the deck of the tree house. Amari sighed and went in. It wasn’t like other tree houses. It had a total of eight buildings, a small bathroom, and a Crow’s Nest scattered at odd intervals in the trees and linked together by rope-and-plank bridges. It looked a lot like an Ewok village, actually, which made sense to her now that Kethri had told her about Terra. The Crow’s Nest was at the center, at the top of the highest tree in the forest, which overlooked all other trees.

Yawning, she went to her “nest,” a collection of pillows and stuffed animals and blankets that filled a large round room. There was a depression in the middle where she usually slept. She went to put Quackers of Borg with the rest of her ducks on one side and then waded her way back to the middle. She wanted nothing more than to flop down and sleep, but something felt weird. She felt like someone was watching her.

"Um, hello?" She called to the empty room. Everything was quiet, but she still felt uneasy. "Someone there? Antain? Dude, this isn’t funny. Come out." There was a high-pitched giggle that made the hairs on the back of Amari’s neck stand up.

"You have such cute stuffed animals," a girlish voice said from underneath a pile of stuffed animals. Amari took a few cautious steps toward the pile. She hesitated before reaching out to grab a bear that was sitting in the front. Big blue doll’s eyes stared back at her from the hole. Amari yelped and jumped back. A figure rose up. "You’ve been invited to a tea party. We’re going to have so much fun," she giggled.