"Let me sort the worst of it out and we'll get you into the incinerator. It must be important if you're trying to use this entrance?" Simon enquired.
"More than you could ever begin to know," ventured Flash, as Simon started to cast his healing mantras.
Flash could feel the wounds on his face healing right up, the bones in his nose and cheeks knitting back together, the swelling above and around his eyes returning to normal, and the cuts that littered his lips and forehead binding, so that not even a single sign of the battering that he'd taken at the hands of the naga remained. Despite all of this, he felt absolutely rotten. Rather than coming and going, the pain in his back was constant, and felt like a raging fire burning him. Worryingly, that feeling had started to spread to other parts of his body, namely his arms and legs. As well, he just had no energy. I don't mean no energy to run, jump or swim. I mean he simply wanted to give up, curl up in a ball, never stand again, never take another pace, not possessing either the physical or mental energy to go on. Simon seemed to sense all of this as he continued healing Flash, and as well as healing all his wounds, offered up a significant amount of magical energy, something Flash gladly accepted, startling him out of his morbid thoughts, and producing a faint smile.
"Thank you," whispered Flash.
Abruptly, Simon stood up.
"They're coming," he uttered, a far off expression on his face. "We have to hurry."
Taking Simon's proffered hand, Flash let the other dragon help him to his feet and then followed him over to one side of the room. Pulling one of the undamaged computer servers aside, Simon revealed what looked like an old maintenance hatch.
"It'll get you in there okay," added Simon. "Just watch out for all the medical waste on the floor once you're in."
"Thank you," said Flash sincerely.
"You're welcome," replied Simon. "Don't worry about naga boy here, we'll await the king's instructions and make sure he's totally secured. Oh and by the way, you should get somebody to look at the damage to your back, pretty damn quick."
Flash turned inquisitively to face him.
"Field medic, that's my normal role," said Simon, answering Flash's unasked question. "It needs attention, soon."
"I'll get it sorted," announced Flash, climbing into the cramped maintenance tunnel.
"Good luck," shouted Simon, before securing the door back in place, and moving the computer server back to its original position. The other guards were only seconds away from the control room.
'Now to use my imagination, and explain all this away. There are just some parts of my job I really hate,' Simon thought, still slightly in awe of meeting one of the legendary Crimson Guards.
Flash, meanwhile, moved steadily along the tunnel, passing through two more doors, following its mazy path until he dropped down inside the incinerator itself.
'Simon was right,' he thought, looking across the floor that was scattered with all sorts of medical waste, despite the fact that it had been recently used, given away by just how hot it was. Scrabbling away through needles, syringes, rubber gloves and all sorts of glass and plastic, he eventually found what he was looking for. The metal plate didn't look very special at all, quite the opposite in fact. Shoving everything around it out of the way, he sought in his mind the instructions on what to do. In doing so, he became aware that the magical energy Simon had shared with him was being consumed at an alarming rate, his body clearly struggling in the fight against the poison. Urgently, he read the instructions in his mind, pressed down on the edges of the plate in certain places and waited to see if he'd done it correctly. Sure enough, a second or so later, a human sized hole opened up for him. Relief washed through him, taking away some of the pain temporarily, as he jumped feet first into the darkness of the hole, and began sliding to what he hoped was the conclusion of this nightmare mission.
8
My Kind of Scrum
Peter arrived at the sports club just after lunch. His hockey team were playing away today, but he'd come for a totally different purpose, here first and foremost to see Janice, but also to watch Tank play rugby and Richie play lacrosse. As he walked into the half full bar, he knew it would become busier as the day progressed, culminating in chaos at about 5pm when all the rugby, hockey and lacrosse teams that had been playing at home would come in along with all of their opponents, as well as some of the away teams returning from their matches.
Standing at the quiet end of the bar, his fingers tingled, arms and legs weakened and his stomach auditioned once again for the Olympic gymnastics team. Lately, he tried to pay close attention to all the things going on within his pretend body, and today he'd found out something startling. After leaving home, the closer he got to the sports club, the more powerful the sensations had become. Now that he was standing at the bar, it was all he could do to remain upright, the feelings were so overwhelming.
'Nothing makes any sense,' he thought, trying to catch a glimpse of Janice behind the well stocked bar. Smiling to himself, he knew what Tank and Richie would say. At least he thought he did. Tank would tell him to obey the strict dragon rules and leave all this behind. Richie would undoubtedly tell him that he'd fallen head over heels in love, hence the strange goings on within his body, and that he should follow his heart. For goodness sake, he was a dragon, he had no heart, well he did, it just wasn't like a human heart. It was all so complicated, he felt like banging his head against the solid wooden bar.
Suddenly soft hands swept around his head from behind and covered his eyes.
"Guess who?" whispered a squeaky voice in his left ear.
Feeling his heart rate quicken as a weak and wobbly feeling shot upwards through his body, he responded with the first words that came into his head.
"Tank, how do you keep your hands so wonderfully soft?" he asked playfully, knowing full well it was Janice.
Before she could remove her hands, he grabbed them, turning around quickly to face her.
"Just kidding," he whispered, before she had a chance to be offended. "Hello gorgeous Janice."
She popped up and kissed him slowly on the lips.
"You're cheekier than a field full of nudists."
Peter smiled.
"Thanks for a great night last night," he stuttered.
"Hmmmm... it was good, wasn't it?" she replied dreamily.
Slowly, she pulled away.
"Sorry, I've got to get back to work. They don't like members of staff fraternising with the customers, not when they're on duty, anyway."
"No problem."
"I finish at five, so what about a drink then?"
"Sure. I'm gonna watch the ruby and the lacrosse so I won't be very far away."
"See you at five," she said, winking as she picked up some empty glasses from the top of the bar, before heading on through to the kitchen.
Realising that once again his stomach had gone somersault mad, his legs even weaker than before, he knew he needed to sit down. Heading over to a table by the window, he flopped down and took a deep breath. Inside, he knew that he really shouldn't be doing any of this, but it just felt so... right.
Sitting there thinking, he pulled his chair in as somebody moved into the seat directly behind him. That person leant back and bumped into his chair... twice. He ignored it.
'Some people are just so rude,' he thought. After a few more seconds, the person behind him did exactly the same thing again. Never normally able to say 'boo' to a goose, he'd had enough, and was about to tell the banging chair person exactly what he thought. As he whirled round, a grinning face greeted him, causing all his frustration to just melt away.