Blowing out a breath of air at the amount of information he had to take in, it all sounded more than a little frightening to the young dragon... having the shopkeeper inside his head, sharing all his feelings, his deepest, darkest secrets, not that he considered that he had any really, well... apart from JANICE! But time was running out, and he was committed to helping Richie, and would do ANYTHING he could to that end.
"Let's do it!" he quipped, without hesitation.
"I think we should both sit," suggested the old dragon, plopping down onto the rocky floor, the scales on his belly wobbling like a plateful of jelly.
"Here?"
"It's as good a place as any."
Sitting down opposite his friend, Peter crossed his legs, looking like a very well behaved school child.
Pushing his glasses as far up his nose as they would go, the master mantra maker studied the parchment in front of him, as his young charge focused on his breathing and tried to remain calm. Finally the old dragon looked up.
"Okay, I think I'm ready to proceed. It will take a lot of magical power to make this work, but I think we'll be alright here. Some of the objects may indeed help us out if we get stuck. Once we start, you will have to focus intently on that memory, and nothing else. No distractions, just that one memory. But know this, as with everything, there comes a risk. There's no certainty that this will work... it might well fail spectacularly, and we both might get hurt in the process. I'll ask you one last time. Are you really sure you want to do this?"
Gritting his teeth, Peter nodded, and very calmly replied,
"Yes."
"So be it!" exclaimed the old dragon. "Let us begin."
Bowing his head, in an ancient tongue Gee Tee began muttering guttural and torturous sounds, some so incomprehensible they might well have come from a wounded animal, or indeed a different planet. Closing his eyes, Peter brought forth the memory of going to give Richie a lift to the lacrosse match. Almost instantly, she was there, opening the door to her flat, yawning away, inviting him in. Watching himself slipping past her and climbing up the staircase felt weird in the extreme. And then it happened! At first it felt as though something were pushing on the back of his eyeballs, but after a split second or so, the bizarre and uncomfortable feeling encompassed his entire skull, almost as if a giant hand were squeezing it uncontrollably. Fighting off the urge to be sick, his eyelids slid closed. Still the squeezing continued. Reaching the top of the stairs in the flat, the image started to blur and fade. Redoubling his efforts, and ignoring his body's doubts, he concentrated solely on that day, that moment. It was all or nothing.
'I haven't felt this odd since I took the form of that bat, and spent the whole afternoon flying around the rafters of the shop, waiting for Tank to come back and realise exactly what I'd done to myself,' thought the master mantra maker, looking at a tiny little room, feeling as though it should be more... organised! Though he wasn't quite sure, that might not have been it at all. The sensations he was feeling were unusual to say the least, and with Peter's human body moving, talking and thinking all of its own accord, he just seemed to be a passenger, along for the ride. It was strange though. Then he found himself staring at the boy's reflection in the glass of some kind of cabinet... showing off, trophies of some sort.
'Ahhh... they must be for the sport she plays that Tank's always harping on about. La, laa, laaaaa. La something, anyway,' he mused as the body he was in started thinking there was something wrong with all the trophies and turned away. All of a sudden, he started to be overwhelmed. In his vision, he could see the young female dragon in her human form, wearing only a handkerchief by the looks of things, apparently searching for something or other. But that wasn't the problem. Flooded by feelings, deep rooted, primal feelings, he felt both dizzy and nauseous at the same time. His head swam, his vision started to fade in and out. This was all so unexpected. It was all he could do to cling on and hope for the best.
From Peter's point of view, it was all going wrong. Right now, he wished he'd never agreed to do this. It was as if he'd blocked this moment totally from his mind. But every single feeling, the wanting, the longing and the physical feelings for his friend threatened to bubble over. But worse was to come, he knew. While Richie tried to engage Peter in chit chat about his hockey match and he fought off the image of his friend semi-naked, something else popped into his imagination, a love so pure, burning so brightly, that instantly it pushed away all thoughts of his long term friend. JANICE!
As quickly as they started, the primal feelings halted. But what halted them and brought the old dragon back into the memory, was shocking.
'A HUMAN!' he thought, as events continued and his mind spun. But there was no time to dwell on that. According to the youngster, what he needed to see was about to happen, and he had to pay careful attention.
Both watched for all they were worth, one for the first time, one for the second. The moment was astonishing, and if Peter had had any doubt about what he'd told Gee Tee, it was all washed away the instant Richie turned round to go back into her bedroom. There it was, larger than life, almost more impressive than before because he knew what to look for, knew what to expect. It was the most stunning, eye catching and life changing event he thought he was ever likely to experience.
In what he thought of as a grotesque masquerade of her true beauty, the female dragon turned to go back into one of the other rooms. He was ready; he knew it was about to happen. But to be honest, deep down, he'd never really believed it. Not until that very second. As time slowed, he studied the young dragon's human shaped back. Still showing all the signs of the significant injuries she'd sustained in the bomb blast, in looking on he wondered if the alea had done her any favours at all. It probably had, and she was probably better off alive than dead; still, all that pain, with everything that was to come on top of it. You never really knew, and this from a dragon who cherished life, who'd done everything he could to try and cheat death and more. With the image seared into his memory, along with Peter's overpowering sense of shock, Gee Tee used his mind to negate the mantra, freeing the two of them from its powerful grasp. Gradually the images faded away, replaced slowly by a world coloured terracotta.
Reliving the shock of the whole thing again, totally disorientated Peter. He had no idea where he was, or even if he was dreaming. All he knew was that his head and the back of his eyes hurt beyond belief, and all his body wanted to do was throw up. But as quickly as it had come, the pain, the pressure and the nausea disappeared, and he found himself back on the floor of the vault, sitting opposite a very shaky and very confused looking Gee Tee.