Racing the Storm

Chapter 10

"Took him? How? Were you not with him?" Hastings asked.

The girl hiccuped and sobbed harder, shaking her head, "I was. We-w-were fly-flying out and-" another sobbed wracked her body. A twinge of guilt flashed through Hastings for pushing the poor girl to talk about it so soon. Losing a dragon was like losing a piece of your soul.

"Alright alright, hang on. Let's go to the lake house and get you cleaned up first," He guided her towards the home, Thalia sobbing the whole walk there.

The blue water of Dragonnet Lake shimmered in the sunlight but Thalia couldn't even bring herself to look at it as they approached the large A-frame house.

Hastings opens the door and jumps when he sees Devon ramrod straight on the couch, staring at the now open door. He's looking right at Thalia and for a second he seems happy to see her. The boy leapt to his feet and started towards her, until he notices the tears streaking down her face. He froze, looking to Hastings.

"You should go, Devon," The adult said.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Devon asked as he looked towards Thalia again.

"I realize that came off as a suggestion. It's not. Leave," Hastings ordered.

Devon frowned, huffing as he turned to go out the backdoor. He leapt off the patio to mount Nuri, who flew up in to the sky. The pair did not leave and instead dove back down in to the water, far from the house, and swam back over. Dean Baxter had forgotten she had left the window open so now Devon could hear what was going on inside.

Dean Baxter, Mrs. Baxter, and Mr. Hastings gathered around Thalia. When Dean Baxter saw her face she strode over to the kitchen and began making some tea for her. Mrs. Baxter took a blanket from Devon's makeshift bed and wrapped Thalia in it. The girl clutched the binding of it, trying to let the fabric devour her whole as Hastings gently pushed her down on to the couch.

Dean Baxter came back over with a cup of chamomile tea and set the black cup down on the coffee table. She took a seat next to her wife on the floor, looking up at the student. Thalia had stopped crying but now her nose was blocked and her head hurt even more than it did before.

"Would you like to go take a quick shower hun?" Dean Baxter asked.

Thalia shook her head in response.

"Can you tell us what happened? Maybe we can find him if you remember enough," Hastings hummed.

Thalia took a deep breath, one that caused her to shudder as she prepared to talk again.

"We were flying...And we were over the ocean..and I saw ships. Really big ships. I should have never flown towards them but they looked like battleships. And on the sail...the tree-" her voice cracked and she stopped speaking, trying not to cry again. She had to tell them everything. They had to find Tuuka.

"The sail had the tag on it so we attacked it. When the ships went down dragons came out of it so I...kept attacking...and then there were more. A whole extra fleet. I didn't even see them and I thought we could handle another round but they had weird arrows and a thousand archers and we-" She felt the tears pricking her eyes again and she stopped, burying her face in her hands.

Hastings rubbed her back and picked the cup of tea off the table, offering it to her. Thalia's hands left her face and instead grabbed on to the warm mug. She took a slow sip and took another deep breath.

"Tuuka tried flying away but the arrows did enough. He threw me off and we both fell. I don't know what happened to him after I hit the water. It was cold and I felt like I was gonna vomit," Thalia finished.