Nadine Book 4

72. Ka-Boom

We read for about 20 minutes. Then Thora goes to help Omar with something.

The first ones back are Dipak and Elek. Elek's eyes darken. Dipak's not happy.

"This is funny. I'm sitting in a trashed apartment on a crooked couch reading a book."

Dipak finally smiles. I reach for him and he comes over. He sits by me and I lean on him. I feel him slowly starting to relax. I keep reading while everyone else shows up. They are killing animals on the table. It's getting to be quite a mess.

He puts his arm around me. "You ok?"

"I'm getting hungry." I snuggle in to him.

"It's about time for lunch. We should probably cook some of this stuff." He whispers. "I'll make you something sweetheart."

I lay my head on his shoulder. "Thank you."

He kisses my head. "Try to stay awake. I'll cook fast."

After about 10 minutes, the boys are cooking. Tye brings me a plate of food. "Dipak said you would want the boar."

"Thank you."

He sits beside me. "I'm sorry I turned the water on you 2. I didn't think about what it would do to the dress."

"You don't like me in his shirt."

He shakes his head and stares at the ground.

"I'm sorry, I guess I shouldn't have put it on. I didn't think about it at the time."

"It's not your fault. You need to let the dress dry."

"Next time I'll steal your shirt."

"Please do."

I pull him back and cuddle him. We share the plate of meat. After we eat, he kisses my head. "I'm going to go see if they're dry."

Dipak comes over and sits with me. "What's wrong with Tye?"

"The shirt."

He throws some meat in his mouth. "That joke came back to bite him in the ass."

"Yea, he's upset. Ran out to see if the dresses are dry."

Tre sits on the other side of me. "What's Tye about to cry about?"

"The shirt."

"Serves him right."

I give him a dirty look. "It was a joke, Tre. It would have been funny at home or if one of you had an extra shirt."

Dipak nods. "He is still a kid too, and he is going to play jokes that come back to bite him in the ass for a while. He'll learn."

I tune them out and wiggle my feet up on Tre. Then I put my head on Dipak's lap. Neither of them say anything.

Over an hour later, I wake up under a blanket. I get up and stagger back to the bathroom. Elek, Tre, Tye, Dipak, and Omar are in it. I grab the door frame, so I don't fall over.

"Wow your hair."

I look at Tre and blink.

Omar nods. "She was sleeping hard."

Elek smiles. "Did you need a nap?"

I nod.

Tye hugs me. I snuggle into him and close my eyes. "Let's go get you fixed up." He leads me to a different apartment and pulls the shirt off me. "Get that shirt off you finally." Then he puts my dress over my head and buttons it up. He messes with my hair, then he gives me a kiss. "So pretty."

I hug him. "Mine."

"Yours babydoll."

We get back to the bathroom and Tre smiles. "Much better."

The portal's black now.

"I got it open, so we can see the other side, but it's dark. It's nearly impossible to see. We're keeping an eye on it."

Stupid men. I go to where they cooked the food. I light it back on fire. Then I take a burning stick and throw it through the portal. Now they can see. It's not much but they get the point.

Dracul smirks. "That was a good idea."

Dipak kisses my head. "Kane is with Thora. They're searching the other side of the hallway now."

I find Thora in the last advisor's room.

"This is the last one. There were only 2 that had people in them."

"Nice. You want to do the sitting rooms next?"

"Yes. I'm tired of searching empty rooms. Let's start with one with the book."

We go by Elek's room and I yell, "BOYS GOING TO THE SITTING ROOM."

Omar comes running out. "I want to search in there too. I'll stay with the girls. You can help them with fire Kane."

So we gain Omar and lose Kane.

I find a box at the back of a bookshelf on the bottom row. A magical box and we have a key.

"I FOUND A BOX." I nearly tackle Omar.

Thora grabs my arm. "WHAT'S IN IT?"

"I have to open it." Omar pulls out the key and sticks it in. I still have hold of his arm and Thora has mine. He turns the key and pitch black.

"This ain't good."

"I don't like black."

"Give your eyes a second to adjust girls."

"Oh fire over there." I run for the fire.

"Teleporting boxes. I have not seen these in forever."

"I FOUND ANOTHER BOX."

"That was fast. Let's try to figure out where we are. And this takes a different key."

A stick of fire flies in, and I know exactly where I am. Kind of. I'm in the room the boys are staring at.

"OMAR."

"YEA."

"WE FOUND THE ROOM THE BOYS ARE THROWING FIRE INTO."

"THAT'S DIFFERENT. I'LL BE RIGHT THERE."

I pick up a stick of fire. Both my feathers light up.

I connect the feathers. "DO NOT COME IN HERE."

Tre asks, "Where are you?"

"Can you see me?"

"Yes."

"I'm in the room you are throwing fire into."

I can hear the stress in Dipak's voice. "How did you get there?"

"Omar said something about teleporting boxes."

Dracul asks. "Is Omar with you?"

"Yes, him and Thora are trying to find the way out."

Kane says, "f**k this." Then he takes my fire and walks away.

"Kane's here too. He took my fire."

An actual torch lands at my feet.

"This is nice. Thank you."

Elek says, "My pleasure."

Then Tre asks, "What exactly happened?"

"Me and Thora went to the sitting room with Omar. We were searching and I found a box. Omar had a key, so we tried to open it and I guess it was a teleporting box. Here we are."

Tye asks, "But you don't know where you are yet?"

"Right. There is no one here. The place is empty. Trying to find a tunnel or something out."

Dipak says, "You have 5 minutes."

Omar grabs my arm. "Teleporting boxes. I have not seen one of those in 50 years. Anyway. We seem to be in no danger. Working on finding the way out in the pitch black. I'll take that." He takes my torch and roams off.

"He stole my fire too."

Another torch lands at my feet. "Thank you."

"My pleasure again."

Thora runs up and grabs my arm. "I WANT ONE." A torch lands at her feet. She grabs it and runs away.

"I'm going to search the edge too and help find the door."

"Keep the feathers on." Dipak does not sound well.

"Can you boys see us with the fire now?"

"Yes we can. We are watching you all." Tye sounds like hell again.

"I think they found it. Omar is saying something."

The 3 of us converge on Omar. He doesn't say anything. He grabs onto us and opens the next box.

The entire part of the cave the boys were seeing collapses.

"BOYS."

"We're ok sweetheart. What the hell happened?"

"They opened another box. The part of the cave you were seeing collapsed. Definitely do not come through. You will die."

Tye says, "We're ok, we're still in the bathroom. The portal closed."

Kane grabs my arm. "A second room opened up when it collapsed. We're heading in now. There are boxes here. Wooden boxes sealed shut. Not with magic."

Dracul yells, "DO NOT TOUCH. THEY COULD EXPLODE."

"THORA STAY AWAY FROM THAT. DO NOT TOUCH THE BOXES."

"Ok Kane wow. Don't have to yell at me." She roams in further. "Hey, I found the door."

Kane grabs my arm again. "We have a door. I see light on the other side. I do believe it to be outside."

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

"f**k"

"WHAT?"

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Yea sorry that scared me. I wasn't expecting to fall to my death when I opened the door."

Tye yells. "WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

Me, Thora, Omar, and Kane are in a pile now.

Omar says, "Thora opened the door and tried to step out. But we are on the side of a cliff. We're ok."

Kane stands up. "We found the outside."

I hear a sigh of relief out of the boys, Dracul and Elek included.

Kane grabs my arm again. "I'm going to fly out and see if I can figure out where we are. NO ONE TOUCH THE BOXES."

"I WASN'T GOING TO."

"Alright, let us know."

I peek outside. "We are high on a cliff. I can't even see the ground. It's foggy. And the door is on the side of the cliff. You can't even step out without falling."

Tye says, "Step back away from it and wait for Kane to get back."

"Ok. Not much to do in here. A bunch of those boxes."

"DO NOT TOUCH THE BOXES."

"I KNOW. WE'RE NOT TOUCHING THEM. 5 OF YOU YELLING AT THE SAME TIME WILL MAKE ME DEAF."

Thora cracks up laughing across the room.

Kane flies in the door and grabs my arm. "We are really high on a jagged cliff. It's too foggy or cloudy for me to see much."

"Woman, you are going to have to throw a feather."

"No I don't want to."

"You need to."

"I DON'T WANT TO."

"Sweetheart, throw my feather."

"Are you outside?"

Elek chuckles. "No, we're still staring at the bathroom wall. But there are cliffs not far from here."

Tre says, "Give us a minute to get to the roof. We'll have you throw Dipak's feather to be sure."

After a minute, Tre says, "We're on the roof now. Throw Dipak's feather."

"I don't want to."

"WOMAN THROW THE FEATHER."

"NO."

"It's 1. You'll still have 1. Throw Dipak's feather so we can come and get you."

"FINE." I take Dipak's feather out and throw it out the door. "I don't have it anymore."

"I will give it back. I promise."

About 2 minutes pass. "I feel it. That way. Is that the way to your cliffs?"

"Yes."

"We're turning to dragons. We'll be with you shortly."

"Ok."

I sit on the floor and wait. 5 minutes later I get Tre again.

"Baby, I need you to throw the other feather. It's really foggy out here. We're having a hard time."

"NO."

Kane runs up and grabs my arm. "What?"

"We need that other feather in the air."

"Then I won't be able to talk to either of you."

"I know baby. But we are very close. We need a little more help."

I start sobbing. "But no. It's mine."

"It's still yours. I will put it right back. But I have to find you."

"Ok. I love you."

"I love you baby."

I take the feather and throw it.

A minute later, 5 dragons fly in the door.

Tye gets to me first. He hugs me 47 times and spins me in a few circles. Then he changes back to a dragon. He pulls a feather out, turns back to human form and sticks it in my arm. Right on my forearm. Then he hugs me more. The other 2 show up and do the same thing. It is chaos.

I put my hands up. "Go hug Thora for a minute, boys. I'm dizzy."

I sit on the floor while they mess with Thora. I trace my finger around Tye's feather.

I feel my dragon relax. He may be young and make mistakes too. But he loves me more than anything. He will do anything to make sure I'm ok too. I smile and trace it some more. All mine.

Tye is smiling at me. Tre and Dipak are messing with Thora. Dracul and Omar are doing something with boxes. Kane and Elek are standing by the door talking. Watching the chaos. I hug Tye. "My feather."

"Yours."

Dracul points at the door. "Yes, these are explosives. It's time to go now."

"Old old explosives. Go now." Omar shoves Kane and Elek out the door in human forms.

He grabs Tre and tosses him out, holding onto him.

"GO I'M SETTING THEM TO BLOW."

Dipak grabs Thora and runs for the door. She wraps around him as he jumps.

Tye throws me out and jumps after me. We get a good distance away and turn around. Dracul comes hauling ass out of the cave towards us.

He gets to us.

KA-BOOM. Part of the cliff falls. Huge boulders fall. We float and watch it happen. Half the mountain gets taken out.

Dipak smacks peoples' wings with his. He gets everyone's attention and leads us back to the Borin castle.