When she had her breath back, she continued up the stairs and cracked open the door to the hallway with all the commotion. The place was a mess.
“Shoot fire at anyone in a black uniform,” she said to her dragons. “Herd them into rooms. And if any of them try to hurt you, cook and eat them. They’re yours.”
The two queens raised their heads and trilled-roared, the sounds too deep for the long, narrow throats. Their mouths gushed flames.
Slow, predatory, Mable pushed open the stairway door and stepped into the hallway. Dragons flew through behind her, shooting flames from their mouths. Small fires started everywhere.
People in scrubs were suddenly darting here and there, in a panic. Screaming.
Mable, queen of the dragons, raced down the hallway, preceded by red, green, blue, and gold mini-dragons. She pulled a fire alarm as she ran. The wail rose, hurting her ears. The dragons flew around a corner and instantly darted back. Cowering. Hovering behind her.
She stopped. A mob of emus raced across the hallway intersection ahead, along the hallway, long, hairy, bony legs striding. Stumpy wings flapping uselessly. Beaks clacking and grunting. a weird booming hurt her ears.
The tiny-brained birds disappeared, and an instant later some raced back.
Sandra. Sandra had used her power.
“Well, dang.” Mable blinked. “Four of you round up the birds,” she said to her dragons. “You may not believe it but you’re smarter and more powerful than they are.”
The two queens trilled and looked at each other, then at the stampeding birds.
“Put ’em behind the nurses desk. The rest of you, herd the people wearing black clothes in with them.”
The dragons flashed away.
In short order, the emus were in a tight mob in the small space, pecking and snapping and grunting at each other. And one man dressed in black, his pants smoking, his sleeve in flames, raced by, pursued by dragons. He barricaded himself in a storage room. Mable had a good laugh over that.
From outside, she heard the mixed sirens of firetrucks, police, and ambulances.
Some first responders wore black. “Dang.”
Mable sat on the floor, the wall at her back, legs out in front of her. She had seldom been able to practice with her power, so she had only done this once and it had taken everything out of her. Better to be sitting.
She called her babies to her. The dragons flashed close and fluttered around her, the two queens settling on her shoulders, ignoring each other. The other dragons rested on her legs and arms, and on the floor around her according to a pecking order she had never understood. “Fire-breathing stops. We won. Good dragons. Fresh meat for supper.” The queens preened.
Sandra
The FBI,SBI (State Bureau of Investigation), FeBMA (Federal Bureau of Magical Affairs) and various local fire and law enforcement agencies made nuisances of themselves all day. They blocked traffic, had to get into every room and start the identification process of every patient, carted away dozens of computers, confiscated dozens and dozens of cell phones, questioned every employee in what they called a prelim Q and A, held multiple press conferences, and tried to blame Tridevi for the situation.
When one intrepid cop tried to bully and arrest Sandra, she stared him down and said, “Those evil men attacked me. Being attacked makes me lose control of my magic. I suggest that, unless you deliberately want to cause me to lose control, you treat me with respect, young man. Or wear feathers. Your choice.”
He could have arrested her for communicating a threat to a law enforcement officer, but instead he found someone else to intimidate.
In the quiet after his departure, Sandra found a moment to approach an emu and study him carefully. Then she stretched out her hand and touched the bird, releasing her power in a slow coil. Her magic wrapped around him, soothing him. Several minutes later, a naked human plopped to his backside on the floor, and instantly covered his genitals.
She had done it. She had reversed her emu curse.
Tears gathered and fell from her eyes.Harold… I can save Harold.
She patted the confused and embarrassed man on the head and wandered into an empty patient room. There was a blanket on the bed. She gathered it in her arms and walked slowly between the law enforcement types and down the stairs. Across the walkway to the school. And around back to the petting zoo. No one stopped her.
Harold flapped his wings and raced to her in excitement. At the fence he stopped and pecked at her pocket, his beak stabbing her. “Ouch, stop that,” she said laughing. “I don’t have anything for you, sweetheart. Except this.” She gathered her power and let it swirl around her. Delicate and rich, the color blue and the scent of basil and allspice. She hadn’t known that her power was beautiful. She sent it curling to Harold.
Her magic twisted around his head, down his long neck, and began to twine into the feathers and around his body. Somewhere around his hips it broke into two strands and dropped around his legs, coiling to the ground.
A dozen heartbeats later, Harold coalesced out of the magic and the emu feathers, and sat hard, on the ground. Stunned. Confused.
Sandra wrapped a blanket around him and sat on the dusty zoo ground, wrapping her arms around him. Tears were streaming down her face.
