Adventures in Summoning

Chapter 18

If you're planning on trashing high tech military grade equipment, I highly recommend having an upset dragon by your side. Our original plan was to use the grenades in the storage room to blow up the helicopters and Hummers, as well as all the gear in the storage room itself. However, Quin assured us she could handle taking out the vehicles and copters on her own, so Helen and I set out to ruin the rest.

Working together, we hoisted two crates of the rockets into the passageway, hoping that if and when they blew up, that it would collapse the tunnel and slow down people going to and from the nexus. We took some of the rockets out and let them lean against the crates and dumped out some of the crates of grenades as well. I did grab a few combat knives and first aid kits that we stuffed into backpacks, as Quin said those wouldn't corrupt her citizens, but for the rest of the gear we just made sure the tops of the crates were open. If we were lucky, any fires from the explosions would set off the rest of the ammo and keep the invaders that were outside in the base from resupplying. That might make any future battles easier.

Dee kept peeping out the window of the door near the hanger, and she said that she could see some people moving around from tent to tent, but so far, they weren't approaching the hanger. That wouldn't last though. Once Quin started crushing the bigger equipment, they would be here in a hurry, even if they didn't know what was happening.

"This look good to you?" I asked Helen, as I dragged the back of my hand across my forehead to wipe away the sweat. Those crates were heavy!

"Yeah, I think this is as good as we can do. If Quin can crush the rest, we can toss a few grenades over here to hopefully set off a chain reaction," Helen decided.

"Well, let's go see Quin do her stuff then!" I grinned at my big sister. Truthfully, any excuse to see Quin was a good one.

Quin was over near the helicopters, looking them over with malice evident in her eyes. "These have killed all too many of my kind," she growled at them. "Are you ready for me to do my part?"

"Yeah, just be as quiet you can!" I grinned at her, trying to make a light of the situation in spite of the fear in my guts.

"Stand back, I don't want to accidently hurt you when I change," she shooed me back with her hands. I smiled in response until I realized she wasn't kidding.

She stood in between the copters and the Hummers and crouched down. In moments, she started to grow, her already large wings folded back against her body while her torso started to expand. And expand. And she just kept growing. Helen and I had to back up against the wall as Quin's tail snaked towards us, pushing one of the hummers out of the way with a squeal of rubber on the concrete floor.

She was enormous.

I've seen paintings of dragons and knights, I've played dungeons and dragons and heard about what dragons should look like and seen movies like the Hobbit with Smaug, but nothing prepared me for Quin in her dragon form. Her body was long and sinuous, but with muscles bunched all over her body that reminded me just how much power she must contain within her. The copper from her hair in the other form shifted to a pair of jutting horns on her head and a row of spines that lay along her back. Quin was just as stunning in this form as all her others. She lifted a claw up and slowly pushed it down on one of the helicopters, squishing it like a frat boy with an empty beer can. It collapsed with a satisfying metallic pop. The other two copters took just as little time, and the Hummers followed soon after. It was an amazing sight.

"People are coming! I think they heard the metal crushing!" Dee called out as she rushed over to us.

Helen quickly hit the big green button on the wall that raised the hanger door, and a beeping alarm alerted all nearby that it was opening. Quin lowered her head, and the three of us clambered up and onto her neck, hanging on to the row of flexible spines that lay along her back. I was entranced at how soft and supple her hide was, as I had been expecting hard scales instead. I ran my hands along her body, marveling at how amazing of a creature she was.