A Touch of the Master's Hand

Of Birds and Cats

As the smoke and dust cleared, Nya's eyes fixed instantly on Jay. She turned again to Zane, also unconscious; though at least he had stopped smoking or sparking. She barely gave a thought to the dragon as she tried to stand up, to see Jay first only a couple yards from her. As she stepped on her ankle weird again, she fell back down into the dust very dry now from the electric storm.

Her noise made the dragon turn to her violently with a sharp snort, and Nya threw her head up at hers. Their eyes met, and although the dragon looked at her dangerously, Nya looked just as dangerously back. Though, she had no strength to fight and she knew it, maybe the dragon really didn't either. The dragon arched her back like a cat and swished her tail in warning as she lowered her head to the ground and clenched her weary teeth into a growl.

The friction between Nya and the dragon was almost a physical, tangible thing. Jay was still in between them, though he was closer to Nya. The silence was like the silence before a pointless dual to the death in a Samurai movie, but Nya had her water ready. It was the only thing she had. Maybe if she washed the dragon hard enough, the dragon would electrocute itself.

In the silence, there seemed to rise up a most cinematic quiet sound. It suspended both ninja and dragon in time.

It was a song on the breeze. It was a sigh in the trees and an echo in the canyon. Maybe Nya was going crazy, but it started to take shape into a real solo piece. A real song played by a real instrument. Maybe she was so hurt and devastated by what was happening that she was half hallucinating.

Nya's glare faltered. Her eyes softened, and as she looked up at the animal, the dragon's eyes seemed to soften also. She gasped.

Either she really was hallucinating or the dragon was hearing it too.

"Please..." Nya said as quietly as the music. "Please let's just end this... we both know we're good at acting like tough girls, and we both know inside we're as soft and gooey as jelly. Please..." She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jay..." she whispered.

Just as the words past her lips, the music suddenly became the distinct sound of a flute like nature itself was playing it, but it was definitely a flute. Now, she knew for sure she was hallucinating. It sounded so much like Master Wu's flute— the same flute that had calmed her as a child.

She was practically adopted by Master Wu, after all, and she remembered his flute like the words to a lullaby. She remembered evenings when she felt sulky or worried and she would be noisily shifting in her cot bed after a few minutes of first lying there. The boys would all be instantly dead asleep like fallen logs in the next room, and she would be by herself. Then she would her hear Wu's music wafting from another room like a pleasant aroma for the ear. She would relax and fall asleep like one drifting on a warm bath-like current on a gentle river.

That flute from the other room was the best times she would hear it, because it would sound like it was coming from the wood of the dojo or, later, the structure of the airship. It would be like music from her own heart like water down a pleasant falls or like steam from Master Wu's favorite tea.

How befitting that she would hallucinate it at a time like this.

Tears fell from her eyes.

The music tamed the beast in her heart— its fear and its rage. As she opened her eyes, she saw that it tamed the dragon also.

She was taking up her egg!

With a limp and a babyish pout, the dragon spread her wings, and, after a few moody flaps, she took flight.

Nya crawled forward with the flute even louder. With it, came the sound of a quiet but distinct engine.

The Bounty, thought Nya.