Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight (6 page)

After gym, Danny skulked his way to science
class, noticing that he seemed to be the center of attention.
Everyone looked at him with a mixture of fear and awe. Danny didn't
feel like a hero, as the day went on, he began to feel more and
more awkward. It was not what he had expected.

Science class ended with Danny in a daze. He
was so focused on the events of the previous day that he didn't
even acknowledge Sabrina Drake, she was sitting right next to
him.

The bell chimed, echoing through the small
science lab, marking the end of the period.

Still going through the motions, Danny placed
his science book back into his backpack, got up, and left the room.
Lost in his own thoughts, he almost failed to hear Matt call
out.

"Danny, wait up!"

In a dazed state, Danny stopped and waited
for his friend.

"Are you okay?"

"Yea, I guess so."

"Stephen Rooney, wish I could've seen that.
How'd you pull that off?"

Danny turned and continued down the short
hall, Matt followed him. "I wish I knew."

Before Matt could continue, Danny heard his
name uttered lovingly by Sabrina Drake.

"Danny Firoth," she said in a soft alluring
tone, materializing out of the crowd.

Danny held the door open and allowed her to
breeze past him.

"Thank you," she said with a slight smile,
the faint aroma of wild roses followed in her wake. "That's the
second time you've held the door open for me," she said, flicking
her long black hair back behind her shoulders.

Stunned by this sudden interaction, Danny
nodded.

"Would you walk me to my locker?" Sabrina
asked him, reaching out, grabbing Danny's right hand with her left.
Pulling him gently, she urged Danny into submission.

The slight contact sent a shiver down Danny's
spine. His previous distracting thoughts vanished quickly as he
focused on one thing and one thing only—Sabrina Drake.

"I'll catch up with you later, Danny," Matt
said, as if sensing Danny's sudden distraction.

"…Yeah, later." He followed Sabrina up the
stairs, his eyes never leaving her back.

At the top of the stairs, she relinquished
her hold on him, strode through the threshold, and into the hall.
"Do you need to go to your locker first?" she asked, stopping,
turning to face him.

With the soft touch of her hand fading, Danny
refocused. "Um, no," his voice quivered, showing his
nervousness.

"Okay," she said with a gleeful smile, "my
locker is on the other side of the school, near the cafeteria."

"Oh, okay," as if he didn't already know—he'd
scoped out the location of her locker on the second day of school.
His stalking behavior had become a ritual after science class; he
always took the long way to his own locker so that he could follow
Sabrina to hers. He'd never expected that she'd invite him to walk
with her.

Sabrina looked at him curiously, as if
waiting for something. "You coming?"

"Uh, yeah," his tone rose two octaves.

"So, you broke Steven Rooney's nose, huh?"
Sabrina asked, gracefully weaving through a mass of fellow
students.

"So you heard about that, didn’t you?"
feeling stupid for answering her question with a question. He
followed her through the crowded hall.

"Actually, I saw it," Sabrina said with a
smile. "I was standing on the sidewalk by the bus. It was strange.
You moved as if you knew what Steven was going to do."

"Yeah, I was pretty lucky," still finding the
event quite strange himself.

"Yeah," agreed Sabrina. She squinted at him
for a second but the look disappeared as she replaced it with a
smile. Two small dimples appeared in the corners of her mouth as
her lips creased the soft skin of her face.

The pair rounded the corner, walking past the
office.

"This is mine," said Sabrina, stopping in
front of an olive-colored locker.

"Oh," Danny said, trying to act surprised.
"It must be nice to have a locker located more or less in the
middle of the school."

"Yeah, it is," twisting the combination lock,
opening the slender metal door with a clang.

While trying to think of something clever to
say, Danny heard the warning bell through the intercom. He'd have
to hurry if he wanted to get his books before class; he didn't want
to be late.

"I just forgot—I need to go to my locker,"
said Danny, starting to walk backward down the hall.

"Okay," said Sabrina, throwing another
hypnotic smile his way.

Danny was about to turn and run when
Sabrina's yell stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Hey!"

Danny turned back patiently.

"I have choir practice after school. Do you
want to stay and hang out after? You can even come and watch me if
you want."

"Sure," knowing that his mother had grounded
him, he couldn't pass on this once in a lifetime opportunity, no
matter what might happen later.

"Meet me at my locker after school," finished
Sabrina, throwing a red book in her bag. She shut the locker,
waved, then disappeared into the flow of the crowded hall.

Danny's heart fluttered as he turned and ran.
Feeling light as a feather, he leapt down the stairs that led to
his locker, taking them two at a time. He passed through a pair of
double green doors and as he rounded the corner, Danny felt a
profound exhilaration. Twisting the combination lock, Danny found
it hard to concentrate—his thoughts remained on the past few
moments he'd just spent with Sabrina Drake. Finishing the ritual,
he opened his locker, grabbed his history book and bounded off to
class. Unfortunately, the tardy bell rang seconds before he passed
through the doorway.

"You are late, Mr. Firoth," said Mrs.
Hershberger, jabbing the air with her finger. Older than most of
the teachers, Mrs. Hershberger wore a wig of curly, thin hair the
color of silver, she sported a pair of bifocals with thick lenses
and always dressed in the fashion of her generation, whenever that
might have been.

Danny nodded, "Yes, Mrs. Hershberger." Under
the current circumstances, Danny couldn't care less. He felt
amazing. As he took his seat, he could still feel his heart beating
a mile a minute.

Daydreaming of the events to come, the rest
of the school day went faster than Danny ever thought possible.
Before he knew it, the final bell rang, signaling the end of art
class and school.

Danny gathered up his belongings and made
straight for his locker. He organized his homework, gathered his
books into his backpack and finished in record time. Slamming the
locker shut, he made his way up to Sabrina’s locker.

He waited for five minutes, no sign of her.
Five minutes more, still he waited. A few minutes later, he spotted
her as she rounded the corner, looked up and smiled at him. Again,
his heart fluttered, his breath caught in his chest and his palms
began to sweat.

At some point, during the past three classes,
she had gathered her black hair up into a tight ponytail and draped
it delicately over her right shoulder.

"How long have you been standing there?"
Sabrina asked, dialing the combination of her locker.

Danny shrugged, "About a minute," he said,
lying.

"So, are you going to be okay if you don't
take the bus?" Sabrina said, as she opened her locker door.

"Yeah, I live fairly close. I can walk home.
How are you going to get home?"

Sabrina smiled, rifled through her book bag
and produced a silver phone. "I can call my father, he can pick me
up."

"Oh."

"I could give you a ride home, if you
like?"

"Sure, that would be nice."

Hefting her bag over her shoulder, Sabrina
closed the locker and walked down the hall toward the choir room,
Danny walked beside her.

Danny found a seat out of the way and watched
devotedly as Sabrina took her position at the base of the elevated
stand. During practice, Danny concentrated on singling her out, he
decided that her singing was easily the most wonderful sound he'd
ever heard.

As soon as choir practice ended, Sabrina
smiled, said her goodbyes and approached Danny. "You ready to
go?"

Danny stood, nodded and said, "You have an
amazing voice."

Sabrina flushed at the compliment, her creamy
cheeks turning a soft red. "Thanks," she said, swiveling on her
right foot, causing her ponytail to whip around behind her.
Turning, she eyed Danny with a focused intensity, her bold eyes
pierced him.

Together, the pair turned the corner and
walked down the hall, side by side. They left through the pair of
glass doors at the front of the school, rounded the small
elementary school building and headed toward a large, fenced-in
playground, complete with teeter-totters, basketball equipment,
swings and a rounded set of monkey bars that jutted up from the
ground in a half-globe.

Sabrina took off at a slow jog and planted
her right foot on the first steel bar that made up the base of the
spherical jungle gym. Hand over hand, she climbed to the top and
stood daringly at the summit.

Danny followed her, but instead of climbing
he slipped between the bars and eyed Sabrina from beneath.

"Can I ask you a question, Danny?" she asked,
staring down at him.

At that moment, she could've asked him
anything and he would've answered without hesitation. "Sure."

"Do you believe in dragons?"

Danny looked down in confusion. The question
left him dumbstruck. He did believe in dragons—now more than ever;
he had seen one with his own eyes. However, he wondered if she
would think he was odd or dumb if he answered her truthfully. This
day was beyond amazing, Danny didn't want to ruin it by sounding
stupid.

"Well?" said Sabrina softly.

Her musical voice yanked him from his trance.
Danny gazed up at her.

"Yes, I believe in dragons."

Sabrina's mouth parted in a slight smile that
quickly vanished as she hunkered down, her facial expression
turning serious. "Do you believe in the Dark?"

Again, the question stirred memories of the
night before, the dark creature with red eyes had haunted his
nightmares. "What do you mean?"

Sabrina leaned down farther, "True darkness,
a malevolent force whose only goal is to destroy all life as we
know it."

The statement, so bold and imposing, caused
Danny to shudder. He'd seen just such determination in the gaze of
the dark creature the night before. "Why are you asking me
this?"

The sky rumbled as if answering Danny's
question. The once-white clouds turned dark, blotching out the
comforting amber rays of the setting sun. The gloomy clouds began
to swirl, producing a wind tunnel.

"What's happening?" Danny asked. A jagged
bolt of lightning jutted out from within the whirling storm,
perhaps a warning.

Before Sabrina could answer Danny's question,
something shadowy and sinister fell from within the tempest,
leaving a trail of billowing black smoke through the sky. Landing
soundlessly on the ground, the dark smolder swelled outward in a
wave.

Peering into the ominous haze, Danny came out
from under the bars of the jungle gym. Taking two bars at a time,
Sabrina climbed down and stood beside him.

The wind picked up, its strong breeze
dissipated the murky mist, revealing a slender silhouette beneath.
Thin red eyes flashed within the gloom as the creature took a
silent step forward. The thing smiled, revealing a wicked array of
sharp, silvery teeth.

Danny's breath caught in his chest. He knew
this creature. It looked exactly like the monster he had seen the
night before. However, this time there was no dragon to protect
him. "Get behind me!" Danny yelled, pushing Sabrina behind him with
his right hand, while he stepped in front of her.

In the distance, the shadowed creature
stalked beyond the veil of black smoke. Its hands twitched with
anticipation as a set of razor-sharp fingernails extended to the
length of daggers.

"No,
you
get behind me!" Sabrina
yelled, her voice lost its melodic timbre, it turned deep and
throaty. Stepping beside him, she pressed her left palm to his
chest, she pushed him backward with a sudden surge of strength that
Danny would've never thought her capable of.

Danny landed roughly on his rump ten feet
behind her. However, before he could comment, his eyes were drawn
to Sabrina, her body began to glow.

Taking on the characteristics of the sun
itself, Sabrina emanated a brilliant amber light. A pair of
beautiful wings sprouted from her back. Her arms and legs extended
to impossible lengths, bulging with masses of lithe muscle. Her
neck stretched and a nimble tail blossomed from the base of her
back. Rosy red scales completed the transformation.

Danny looked at the fully-formed dragon that
stood where Sabrina had been only an instant before.

"It was you," he said after stepping back to
what he thought would be a safe distance. "You're… you're the
dragon," jabbing his finger in her general direction.

The dragon angled its snake-like neck in
Danny's direction and eyed him, unblinking. Sabrina's soft brown
eyes, now larger, with a slit pupil like that of a lizard,
narrowed, as if in warning.

Seeing its chance, the dark creature took two
quick lunges forward and bounded into the air.

"Look out!" Danny yelled, seeing the
creature's movements in his peripheral vision, pointing.

Lightning-fast, the dragon swiveled its head.
Letting out a low, rumbling growl, Sabrina planted her front claws
in the ground and thrashed the back of her body forward. The sudden
movement caused her elongated tail to whip behind her, catching the
creature in the torso, flinging it back through the air.

The creature tumbled end over end before
colliding with the far fence. The chain link fence groaned and
warped before pitching the creature to the ground, where it
remained slumped forward.