For the Heart of Dragons (12 page)

Pulling his attention away from the room, he hurried to catch up with Kara.

Once across the short bridge, she turned to the right, towards an alcove that held two elevators. There was a surprisingly large group waiting.

Glancing at the crowd, Kara looked down and gave Byrd a pained smile. “I didn’t realize there would be so many people,” she explained. “I usually get here a lot earlier.” She looked back at the line for the elevator. “Would you rather take the stairs?”

Noah counted the people he could see. There were a lot. “How high?” he asked. He was surprised that the words had actually come out as sound.

“Six floors,” Kara answered.

Noah considered the options. It would probably be faster to walk than it would be to wait for a ride up. He poked at Byrd, but the dragon was too awed by the number of people and the new space to have an opinion. Nodding his head, Noah made the call for them. “Let’s walk.”

He turned away from the crowd and wandered back into the open space of the lobby. It was surprising to have control of his body again. He stretched his wings before folding them in against his back once more. It was a weird sensation, but something he was getting used to. The desire to go sniff at some of the plants overwhelmed him, and he gave in before Byrd stepped up and took over. The depth of the smells he could now pick up was amazing.

“Byrd,” Kara called from behind him.

Byrd whipped his head around to look at her.

“This way.” She nodded to the far wall.

Noah let out a sigh as Byrd took over and loped over to meet her. It had been nice having control while it lasted. A questioning feeling from the dragon hit him, and he laughed. “
Yes, Byrd, I do like being in control.”

“Why?”
Byrd asked as he caught up to Kara leading the way up the steps.

“Well…”
Noah paused as he tried to find a way to explain it to the dragon. It was hard to describe what it was like, riding around as a passenger in his own body. It wasn’t like he was helpless or frightened anymore. Those feelings had passed after he started understanding Byrd’s mind. This was more like a part of him was missing. “
It makes me feel whole,”
he finished. That probably wasn’t the best way to answer Byrd’s question, but Noah felt the dragon consider his words. After a few moments, he felt Byrd let go.

Noah stumbled as he tripped up the steps. He paused to catch his balance before he landed on his face and slid down the stairs. The fact that Byrd had relinquished control had surprised him.

“You okay?”

Noah looked up to find Kara had stopped a few steps ahead of him. She watched him with concern in her eyes.

“I’m fine,” Noah reassured her and started up the steps again. It took him a few tries to get all of his legs working together to climb the steps. It was different than walking on flat ground, but he quickly got the hang of it and was soon hopping up the steps with ease. When he reached the top of the steps, he turned back to Kara. She stood on the stairs, watching him with a look of confusion on her face.

“Are you coming?” Noah called down. He turned circles on the landing, getting used to the way his muscles worked. Watching as Byrd moved them around was a lot different than actually doing it himself. He stretched his wings again, feeling the pull of new muscles. That adventurous part of him wanted to jump up to the railing and see what it was like to fly.

“Flying fun!”

Noah chuckled. “
I bet it is.”
He tucked his wings back in. “
But not now.”

He could feel Byrd’s disappointment.

“Kara has stuff to do right now,”
he explained. “
We can ask her if we can go flying later.”

Byrd let out a rumble of agreement before settling back down at the edge of Noah’s perception.

It was the most distance he’d had from the dragon since he’d woken up to find Byrd still sleeping. After having the dragon pressed so close to his mind, it felt a little odd to be alone in his own skull. Shaking the thought from his head, Noah looked back down to where Kara had stalled out on the steps. Her mouth hung slightly open as if she were ready to say something.

“You coming?” Noah asked again, turning another circle. It felt good to move about under his own volition again.

“Yes,” Kara squeaked and hurried up the steps.

Noah paused and looked down at her. Her voice had cracked with a note of surprise. He looked around for what had startled her but couldn’t see anything unusual. He turned another circle as he waited. The joy of being able to move again made him giddy. As Kara topped the steps, he slipped around her and brushed up against her legs in passing. If he had been human, he would have grabbed her and jumped her feet into motion to some snappy Latin beat.
I bet she can dance a mean samba!
Byrd’s wholehearted agreement set Noah’s toes tapping, and he wiggled after her towards a stairwell door.

With Kara holding the door, Noah slipped passed her and danced up to the sixth floor, humming an off-key tune as he went. When he got to her floor, he sat down to wait for the woman, claws tapping out the catchy rhythm against the tile floor.

Slowly, Kara followed him up the steps, a perplexed look on her face.

“Come on,” Noah called to her as she climbed the last set of steps. “Sixth floor, right?”

Not waiting for an answer, he stood up and pushed the door open with his shoulder. It opened onto a carpeted lobby. Two plush couches were arranged against one wall, and a high counter was tucked neatly into the far corner. One whole side of the room was made up of the glass-and-metal work seen from the outside of the building.

“Nice,” Noah said as he strolled across the room to look out the glass wall.

“Byrd?” Kara called as she followed him into the room.

Noah turned and looked up at her. If he had had eyebrows, he would have raised them in question, but seeing that he didn’t, he cocked his head instead.

Kara opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.

“Kara!” A younger woman came rushing from one of the open doors. “God, I’m glad you’re here this morning. Explain this!” She held some papers out towards Kara and shook them.

Letting her question go, Kara turned around to address the woman’s issue.

Noah turned back to the window to take in the amazing view while he waited for Kara to finish. A strange rumbling in his stomach cramped his gut, and he dropped down to the floor, unsure what was going on. It felt like breakfast had finally hit bottom and did not like being there.

“Poop!”
the dragon cried as he took control back from Noah. Byrd looked around until his eyes landed on a beautiful ficus tree tucked in the corner near the elevator. Picking himself up from the floor, he started towards the plant.

“No, Byrd!”
Noah cried as the dragon closed on the innocent plant. “
We can’t do that here!”

Byrd stopped and danced in place. “
But, poop!”
He started towards the pot again.

“No, Byrd. We can’t poop in the plant!”
Noah tried to stop him, but the dragon’s desire to relieve the pressure in his gut overrode anything Noah tried.

Byrd paused and shifted from foot to foot. “
But…?”
Memories of relieving himself in the pine trees filled Noah.

“That was different,”
Noah insisted.

Cocking his head, Byrd looked at the little tree. “
How?”

Noah let out a sigh. “
Taking a pee outside is nothing like taking a dump in a potted plant. Besides, I think that plant might be fake.”

Byrd eyed the perfectly round top and lack of fallen leaves and agreed with Noah. “
Fake. But poop!”
The dragon shifted, trying to ease the discomfort in his bowels.

“I’m sure there is a restroom around here somewhere,”
Noah reassured him. He looked around until he saw something promising. “
Come on.”

Taking control back from Byrd, Noah headed over to a hall leading off the main lobby. Sure enough, there was a door at the end with a small plaque reading “Restroom.”
“Here.”
Noah leaned on the door and it swung open, letting them in.

The door opened into the middle of a long, thin room. With the door open, Noah could only see the counter and washbasin at one end of the room. Wiggling around, he shut the door and turned to the toilet in the center of the far wall. It was an odd setup for a public restroom, but it would ensure that no one accidently walked in on someone using the facilities.

Byrd looked at the deep bowl filled with cool water and smacked his dry lips. Most of his breakfast juice had been spilled, and that water looked very refreshing.

“No, Byrd,”
Noah said, stopping the dragon from dipping his head in the toilet. “
We don’t drink out of that.”

“Why not?”
Byrd asked, staring at the clear water.

“Because it’s a toilet,”
Noah answered. “
We don’t drink out of the toilet. We poop in it.”

Byrd cocked his head in thought. “
But… that make water taste like poop!”
He danced around in distress. “
No want poop water!”

Noah laughed out loud at the absurdity of Byrd’s logic. “
It’s okay, Byrd,”
he reassured the dragon,
“just hop up there and poop in the toilet, and we’ll get a drink out of the sink.”

Byrd looked back at the bowl at the other end of the room. It was large with a lever that he could easily manipulate. He glanced back at the water readily available, but on Noah’s insistence, he gave in. “
Okay.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Noah relaxed back and let Byrd do his thing. Life was starting to look up. Now it would be nice if they could just keep things going in that direction.

***

Kara watched as Byrd wiggled up the steps ahead of her. His butt bounced around in an odd way as he walked.
Is he hurt?
That slip on the steps hadn’t looked bad, but then again, it had taken a moment for him to get it together enough to get up the steps. The noise he was letting out sounded like he was in pain. Kara opened her mouth to say something, but her breath caught when the tortured noise took on a familiar rhythm.
Is that… a beat?

Listening hard, she watched as his back end bounced to the beat of the song he was attempting to hum. He wasn’t hurt, he was
dancing
! Astounded, Kara followed him up the steps. In the short time she had known Byrd, he had done many odd things, but dancing just didn’t seem like something he would do.

Kara’s head rang as she hit upon an idea.
Noah!
Her surprise turned to elation.
This is fantastic!
She knew dragons who had taken years to work through their separation issues. For him to have found some kind of balance so quickly was remarkable, but she had to find a way to verify her assumption. That was the tricky part. Sometimes bringing up separation issues could actually regress a patient’s progress. She didn’t want to complicate his problems further. Kara mulled over the best way to assess him.

A chirp from the top of the steps drew her from her thoughts. “Come on?”

She looked up at the small dragon waiting at the top of the steps. He twitched and swayed in place as his claws rapped out a rhythm on the tile.

“Sixth floor, right?”

Before she could answer, he hopped up and shoved his way through the door.
That was definitely not Byrd!
The dragon she was coming to know wouldn’t have waited. She caught the door and followed him into the room. The best way to find out what she needed to know was to engage him in some kind of conversation. “Byrd?” she called, drawing his attention from the view out the wall of glass and steel.

He turned and looked at her. The cock of his head held a question in it.

“Kara!” Beth called out from her office.

Kara spun to face the woman before she could say anything to the dragon.

Beth bustled out with a handful of papers. “God, I’m glad you’re here this morning. Explain this!” She shook the stack.

Taking the papers from her, Kara glanced at the Eternity logo on top of the official-looking pages.

“They’re orders,” Beth squeaked before Kara could get into the body of the text. “Honest-to-God
orders
. You’ve been reassigned!” Beth’s voice was filled with shock.

“I know,” Kara said as she calmly read over the orders Daniel had sent.

Beth stared at her openmouthed. Shock and rage mixed on her face. “When were you going to tell
us
?”

Kara let out a sigh and folded up her orders. “I just found out last night,” she explained. “There was an emergency at headquarters that needed a specialist. Daniel called me.”

“An
emergency?
” Beth squeaked in outrage. “You’re a therapist! What kind of emergency can
you
handle?” She paused as the accusation in her words hit her and she saw how insulting that statement could be. “I mean,” she backpedaled, “you deal with long-term treatment, not emergencies.”

Kara chuckled. “I thought the same thing. But it turns out, they really did need a specialist. Let me introduce you to Byrd.” She turned to where the little dragon had been, but he was gone. “Byrd?”

Beth looked around the empty lobby. “I didn’t see anyone.”

“He was here just a moment ago,” Kara said as she walked over to the spot where she’d last seen him. “He’s stuck in his lesser form.” Standing where he had been, she scanned the room, looking for where he might have gone. “I swear he was just here.” Heading back to the stairwell door, she pulled it open to see if he had gone back in. “Where could he have gone?” The sound of a toilet flushing answered her question. Kara let go of the door and turned towards the sound.

“Is that him?” Beth looked towards the hall that led to the bathroom.

Kara joined her to wait for Byrd to come back. “I sure hope so.” Anxiety held her until the door opened and Byrd came out. She sighed in relief as he headed her way. “That’s him,” she said in relief.

As he drew closer, she watched to see if she could tell what part of his personality was dominant. The bounce in his step and out-of-tune song were gone, but that wasn’t much to go by. Her heart dropped when he stopped at the end of the hall to sniff at the carpet. Noah wouldn’t enjoy sniffing the floor. Byrd had to be back in charge. “Byrd,” she called.