Here I was again.
Days and nights of no sleep with one situation after another consistently keeping me on my toes.
Life and Death.
I took a life.
Now the most important life to me was taken.
My remorse was intensely substantial, overtaking my actions.
Jacob was still unconscious and presumed dead. Bada was knocked unconscious to what degree of injury I didn't know. She was trying to save Jacob. Trying to save our friend from death at the hands of …
Demons!
After staring at my body of my grandpa with a demon's horn lodged in his heart, unable to believe what I was seeing, the monster who was responsible came back. And he came back with his friend.
They surrounded Bada and Jacob, with me still being incapacitated from the shock of seeing my grandpa in such a pitiful condition. No longer breathing life. No longer here to guide me, to protect me, to love me.
I fell to my knees near his body, sobbing. My form changed back to human. What was happening around me was being shut out.
The demons attacked my friends, and I wasn't cognizant. My mind was swimming in sorrow, rage, hate, and back to pure sadness. To me, nothing else was happening at all.
Bada blasted one of the demons back with her torrent of water and its ugly friend, who had just one of two horns on his head, grabbed Jacob, laughed with a sinister cry, and threw the lifeless boy off of the cliff!
I held my grandpa. I didn't want to believe it. I placed my head on his chest as I did when I was a small boy taking a nap in the splendid afternoon sunshine while the breeze slightly chilled my body as the sun and grandpa's embrace kept me warm and safe.
Bada reacted quickly! She sent a giant sloping waterfall under Jacob to slow his descent! It would have worked too, if not for the dastardly demon. Pure evil. While she concentrated on saving her friend, while I was out of my mind, the demon charged her and struck her with a backhand so intensely she flew backward, the waterfalls stopping, and she hit the ground completely getting knocked out. Jacob resumed his descent and crashed into the woods below. He was gone.
Did I do it again? This time by NOT acting? And to a friend, no less?
Before Bada lost consciousness, she cried out,
"Druk!"
I heard her. My eyes turned emerald green. The red center was back! With my skin changing and fangs growing, I stood and stared at the demon. I stared directly into its black eyes. It wasn't intimidated. I wasn't intimidated. Its fury rose to the hilt. My fury boiled my blood.
Hate meeting hate.
The second demon and smaller one came running back on all fours from the woods where he was previously blasted. He lept at me and caught a full explosion of searing fire from my breath that incinerated it immediately.
The demon with one horn who killed my grandpa killed Jacob and may have even killed Bada lowered his head and fired his remaining horn my way.
It was too fast to stop. It struck me. In the chest. The same place as it struck grandpa.
I gasped.
I felt nothing.
"Grandpa? Is it time to come to you?" I muttered.
Blood dripped from my mouth.
The end flashed before me as I began to see my life pass before my eyes, then, was suddenly interrupted by a voice. A strong voice. A wise voice!
Grandpa!
"Druk. Don't let this demon fool you. You are in the real world now. HE is out of HIS natural home. He can do harm to those who cannot understand this. Look to my body. Is there any blood? No. I didn't die because of his horn. No. It stays there to fool you. I died because of the shock. My old soul was too weak to ward off his frightening appearance to me. My heart started to fail because of old age. His horn did nothing to me. I wouldn't let it! Don't let it defeat you!"
The fire burned around me, on me, inside me! I was completely engulfed by my own soul's burning flames! The horn sizzled away, and the blood ceased to drip. The wound healed itself, simply because there was actually no wound at all!
I spit.
Yes, I spit on the demon.
Not with common saliva though. With lava!
It covered the monster and slowly burned him to the ground until nothing remained.
I immediately came down from my enragement, eyes losing the red center, and turned to Bada who, thank goodness, was waking up.
"Bada! Bada! Are you okay? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to leave you like that! And Jacob, oh my, it's my fault, Jacob is gone."
I cried again.
And again, my form changed back to human.
Bada, who was also in human form after her injury replied while groggily lying on the ground with my arms cupping her closely,
"No Druk. It was all a trap. Jacob may still be alive! He was on the waterfall. If he was close enough to the ground when the demon struck me, he may still be breathing! We must find him!"
"Make another waterfall. Then freeze it. We can slide down." I said. I was sure of myself.
"What? I can't do that! I'm not Shiver!"
"And thank goodness for that! You have the power though. Shiver is a human with power, yes. We are different. We can do more. We were meant to rule. If I can change the form of my fire, even make lava, I'm sure you can freeze your water! Concentrate! Try!" I shouted as my eyes glowed again, and my form changed back to my dragon.
Bada changed as well and her wounds healed as she stood up.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. Her hands began to swirl with water. Her concentration was there. She was hesitating. She was doubting.
"Bada! Think of the winter! Of snow and ice! Make yourself stand there, as it snows, on a frozen lake, and feel the bitter coldness of the air! Let it flow from your hands!" I told her.
And she did.
Instead of blasts of water, two slides made of ice shot out and formed, going down in a slope and stopping near where Jacob may be in the cluster of giant cypress trees.
We jumped on and slid down, using our claws to keep from going too fast.
At the bottom, we saw him! Jacob! He wasn't alone either.
"Padmasambhava!" I declared and bowed reverently.
Bada bowed as well even though she was confused and asked,
"Who is that man? He looks like a monk?"
The legendary Buddhist monk took his hand off of Jacob's forehead and declared,
"He will be fine. Leave him to rest with me. I will care for him. You must go now. More adventure awaits you." He spoke.
"My grandpa! I can't leave him up there like that!" I exclaimed. Grandpa's body. Sitting out waiting to become worm food. No, I couldn't bear it!
"Worry not. Our monks are already going up to lay his body to proper rest. We will inform your family as well. Look up!" he pointed, "I believe that is for you."
A helicopter hovered over the cliff and started slowly lowering towards us.
I looked back, Padmasambhava was gone! A group of monks was there, laying Jacob on a make-shift stretcher, and began carrying him away. Upon the cliff, I could see more monks gathered around grandpa's body.
"Druk!" a voice inside said to me, "Go now! I am finally home!"
I slightly smiled even though sorrow still filled my mind. I knew he would be properly cared for.
"I will come back to pay my proper respect. Thank you, Grandpa, for fulfilling my life!" I said to him in my mind.
"Your life is not yet fulfilled! For that is your job! I raised you well, and you are fully prepared to handle what may come. I will be with you, always!" he replied.
The chopper was as close as it could get with the trees being so tall. How they spotted us under the cover here, I don't know. Regardless, our ride had come.
"Do you think Jacob will be alright?" Bada asked.
"Yes, certainly. The monks will care for him well. I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again before too long." I replied.
A zip line was extended, and downward someone came dressed in all black military-style gear.
It was Nidar!
"Druk, Bada! I knew you would be here! Do not ask me how. I have my ways. Regardless, I need to bring you back to Belarus. Idhar is in need of you seriously right now! Come!" he said as he waved us hither and let down two more lines that were attached to his own.
We grabbed them and up we went.
When we reached the inside of the chopper, it began to spin out of control!
In the cockpit, the driver was passed out, or perhaps dead!
Next to him sat the copilot who looked back at us with an elongated face, an open mouth in the shape of a giant oval with one scraggly tooth in the bottom, and one eye, opened wide, screaming at us incoherently in a terrifying tone.
"Likho!" Nidar shouted, "Not the right time for this at all!"