“Oh my GOD!” The Muse of Mischief exclaimed as soon as she and Agent Brzko were on Zri’s ship.
“Are you OK?” Zri asked with concern.
“Yes, I’m fine. I just want to take a shower!” She turned to Brzko, “I really wanted to kick her ass. And Agent Strno… I’m sorry, apparently he missed the memo that says no one wearing a cowboy hat can be condescending! ARRR!” She roared in frustration.
Zri stayed silent, knowing that the two of them would bring him up to speed once M had calmed down.
“M, I’m not sure I want to explore the other universes. Something doesn’t seem right about Clyrea X9.” Brzko said.
“I agree. Can you believe the two cowboy clowns we met.” M said. “They were nothing like The Muse of Banter and Agent Qmos, these two seemed skanky and…. Brzko what’s wrong.”
Brzko looked like he was about to faint, he grabbed the railing near him and steadied himself. He closed his eyes and threw an image to M. “I’m going.” He said before disappearing.
Ferocity was in trouble, he had given M an image – the view from Ferocity’s own eyes. He seemed to be surrounded by moulton fire. His skin was burning, but worse, the atmosphere was almost gone. He couldn’t get enough air.
“Zri! Call Lelelu, find out where they are and if anyone else needs help!” M didn’t wait for a response, she opened an aperture and went to the image Brzko had sent her.
She was hit with instant heat, it was so hot she couldn’t open her eyes. She forced them open and they instantly flooded with tears. She looked for Brzko, he was just ahead of her.
“M, help me. He’s not breathing!” Brzko projected. Even without spoken word she could detect his panic.
M ran toward them, knelt on the other side of Ferocity, taking his arm, and threw Brzko an image of the lawn in front of Ferocity’s home on Misko, they went. It was a relief to be away from the heat of the red giant, but they had to work fast to assess Ferocity’s condition.
“I don’t think he’s breathing M, what do we do?”
“Hold on!” She opened an aperture and arrived inside Ferocity’s house, in the kitchen. It was a good guess, Whotov was there. “I need Nguvu here NOW!” She left, returned to Brzko.
“Any change?” Brzko shook his head.
Whotov came running out of the house, wringing his hands. They heard Ferocity’s ship break through the atmosphere and begin to descend above them. Whotov had been successful at reacher Nguvu. Before the ship even touched down, she jumped from the open doorway. Extending her wings, gliding down to where they were.
“Get back, get back!” She took a deep breath and blew a layer of ice over Ferocity. She knelt next to him and put her snout up to his ear and purred, making the same sound that Ferocity had used to resuscitate her when they removed her from the stasis tube on the VReoria ship.
It seemed to go on forever, the ice layer had melted from everywhere but the claws on his toes. Nguvu was having a difficult time deciding if she would stop purring long enough to cover his with ice again, she kept purring.
First the toes on his right foot twitched, then his foot moved. He opened his snout and drew in a huge breath and slowly let it out. Ferocity was wracked with a coughing fit. He turned his head to the side and spit red bile. He was taking very shallow breaths in order to avoid coughing again. Too weak to stand up, he first turned toward Nguvu and said “Even” and then he reached toward Brzko.
Brzko settled on the ground next to him. Explanations would have to wait.
“C’mon.” M said to Nguvu, leading her away. “Let’s let them have some time alone. You handled yourself well Nguvu, I’m impressed.”
At this she absolutely beamed, a compliment from The Muse of Mischief was not something to be taken lightly. “May I ask a question Muse of Mischief?”
“Nguvu you never need permission to ask a question, you should question everything, and after today, please call me M.”
As her smile widened, even more of her teeth were showing. Dragons were one of the many species that were not attractive while expressing joy.
“What do you think Ferocity meant when he said even? I, my, well my purring was consistent and steady so…” She noticed that M was smiling so she waited for the forthcoming explanation.
“I suspect he meant that he had saved you, and you have now saved him. Repaying the debt so to speak. It means you are two are even. You have become his equal.”
“Oh.”
“Nguvu, do you have the same telepathic link to other Dragons that Ferocity has?”
“Yes.”
“Good, contact Kwaai and tell him what’s happened. I’d like a Dragon with medical training to come to Misko and check on Ferocity.”
“Understood.” She nodded and turned away from M to find a quiet place to complete her task.
“Lelelu, are you on?” M asked as she activated her earcom link.
“Yes M, I’m on. Where are you?”
“Misko. You?”
“We’re all with the Dragons, offloading evacuees on Gcugrawa. We can be there within the hour. M, something terrible has happened. It’s Ferocity, he…”
“He’s here Lelelu, he’s on Misko.”
“How did you find him? The last time we saw him was on Jastea MJ, he was with the last few evacuees when the planet started breaking apart and falling in on itself. All at once the atmosphere disappeared.”
“He managed to get an image to Brzko. We got him back here, and Nguvu helped to revive him but we need a Dragon with medical experience to…”
“Hold on.” Lelelu interrupted.
Within a minute there was a flash above M as a ship entered the atmosphere. A ship that looked a lot like Ferocity’s landed in an open area near M. A Dragon walked off of the ship and came running toward her, it was Hasira.
“Where is he?”
M looked over her shoulder toward Brzko and Ferocity in the lawn. Hasira went to them without saying another word. M followed him.
The Muse of Mischief 