Magic Reactor

I had been feeling dizzy all day and I hated it. I'm not the kind of person, who often gets sick, but from time to time it happens. Then I'm bad-tempered and usually stay at home, but today I needed to visit the doctor. That was why I was walking along the pavement and not lying in bed, complaining about life. I was living in a sleepy town in Germany and usually I enjoyed the peace, I needed it to conserve my inspiration, but this day I cursed the long distances to any doc. The unnatural heat this summer didn't make it any better. I leaned on a lone lamppost to rest a while and get rid of the dizziness. The sun flared down from the sky and I cursed at it. I closed my eyes, feeling the drops of sweat gliding down my face, soaking my white T-Shirt. Damn it, I will better keep moving. Slowly I continued on my way through the village.

When I reached the white painted house of the doctor my head was spinning and my throat screamed for water. I rang the door-bell and a kind woman opened. I looked into the dark corridor and felt the spinning of my head increasing.
"Catch me please…" I managed to say before I felt the darkness pushing in.
"Sorry?" The woman said, then she saw me and her eyes went wide.
I felt how I was falling down, endlessly, unbraked. Then something soft stopped me, before I must have been crushed on the ground. Someone shouted unintelligible words. Then nothing.

I woke up, lying on the couch in the treatment room. The room held little more than the couch and a small medicine cabinet which held some medicine. The white painted walls, together with the blindingly bright sunlight, made the room appear endless, intimidating. I started to feel dizzy again and I closed my eyes in hope to block out the light. It didn't work. The golden sun-rays burned themselves straight through my eyelids and stung into my eyes. I felt my heart rate increasing, slowly starting to panic. Then the door opened and I heard steps. Quickly I turned, what made my head spin again, and opened my eyes. The woman which had opened the door for me had entered the room and looked after me.
"Oh, good you're awake. I'll go get the doctor." She said and disappeared again.
I sighed. My heart slowed down and the dizziness disappeared, leaving only a frustrating headache behind. I sighed relieved, when Dr. Wegner opened the door and looked at me.
"Well, we don't see you around here very often", he said, "and certainly not often like this! So tell me, what did you do to end up like this?"
"Don't ask me! I have no idea what I did to deserve it."
I groaned. Talking made the headache even worse.
"Ok. Then let us have a look at you."
Dr. Wegner smiled and continued. He let me breathe in deeply and monitored my lungs with his ice-cold stethoscope. Then he checked my reflexes with a small rubber mallet. Finally, when I was about to become impatient, he let me look into the light of his flashlight and follow it with my eyes. The light made my head spin again.
"Ok, I think I know what you have. Do you want the scientific explanation or the short one?" Dr. Wegner loved to tell his patients what exactly had gone wrong in their bodies and usually I told him, to tell me, but today I just wanted to get home.
"The short one, please." The doctor looked at me disappointed. "Ok then. You have just overheated. My tip: Get yourself a cool drink and try to cool your apartment down a little bit. You will need a day or two to recover, but then everything will be fine again."
"Ok, thanks then."
We shook hands and I left the room which made me feel so uneasy, happy to be able to flee. I hurried through the air-conditioned corridors, grabbed the metal door handle which would let me out and pulled the door open. The hot air hit me like a fist in my face. I stumbled back a few steps. I had forgotten how hot it was in the open. The hot air shimmered in front of me and I felt the dizziness returning. I walked out again. It was as if I had stepped into an entirely different world. The air shimmered everywhere and the black street seemed to melt like butter in the pan. I started to walk home, but soon noticed that my strength was vanishing. But I fought back, fighting against the darkness which was once again trying to overwhelm me. If I fall now, it would definitely mean death. I raised my foot and sat it down again. One step nearer to home. My vision began to blur and I felt how I began to sway. Another step. The sun burned from the sky, drying my skin, blinding me. Another unsteady step. I couldn't bear it any more. I fell to my knees. Tears ran down my face, leaving traces of salt behind. The darkness narrowed my view. I tried to shout for help, but my throat was dry. All I produced was a quiet rasp. A shadow appeared in my vision and seemed to hurry in my direction. When the shadow covered me and hid the glaring light, my sight cleared a bit. What I saw let me breath in deeply. That was enough for my body and I fell unconscious.

I slowly woke up. I sighed in relief. I was lying in my bed, but even so I will never forget what I had seen in this strange dream. I pulled away the blanked and froze. That wasn't my blanket, not my bed and not my room! Where am I? There was a window, but the shutters were closed, so I couldn't see anything. I swung my legs out of the bed. Someone had taken my jeans and my shoes off, but they lay on a chair next to the bed. The room was dark without the blazing sun, so I opened the shutters and looked around. I could tell that the room was big, but it was filled with many wardrobes and so the entire room seemed stuffed. I heard steps from the other side of the door and turned around, to see who entered. When the massive oak door opened my eyes went wide and I coughed in surprise. A dark-blue scaled dragon had stepped into the room and stared at me. The dragon was standing on his hind legs, stopping surprised. The creature wore modified jeans, which had a hole, so his long tail was left free. Two large wings were folded on his back. He smiled, obviously not knowing what to say, bearing two rows of sharp teeth.
"You're up already." The voice was obviously male.
I tried to speak, but the surprise had robbed me the ability to do so. I swallowed to loosen the knot in my throat.
"What… How…" I interrupted myself. I couldn't find the right words.
The dragon smiled, bearing two rows of sharp teeth.
"Come with me. We will get you something to drink and then we will explain it all to you." He said aloud and then added muttered: "Let's just hope you're more like my old friend than I think."
I didn't understand what that meant, so I just shook my head and forgot about it. The dragon turned and walked out of the door. I hurried to follow him. The dragon led me through a narrow corridor and into a small kitchen. There were low hanging cupboards and a small table surrounded with chairs. The dragon pointed at one of them.
"Sit down and wait here." The dragon turned to walk away, but then faced me again and laid a small book on the table. "Oh, and read this. It will explain a lot to you."
Then he left the room. I looked at the book. It was an old, dusty notebook, which was half fallen apart. I opened it carefully; I didn't want to damage it. The small handwritten letters were hard to decipher, but I followed the story of a soldier from the First World War. I hated what I read. Part of me hoped that what I was reading was just a story, but on the other hand, I knew it had to be the truth, since I had seen the dragon. When I finished my eyes were wet with tears. Two kids entered the kitchen, a boy and a girl. I quickly rubbed my face with the back of my hand, so they didn't see me struggling not to cry. They were followed by the dragon. The kids sat down on the opposite side of the table and the dragon sat down to my right. The boy looked at me as if he was about to tell me that I was going to die. I smiled at the thought, but stopped when I noticed, that they might even do exactly that. I had, after all, discovered their secret. I knew about the dragon. He kept staring at me, but said nothing. I got nervous. Something was not adding up, I didn't know what, but suddenly the kitchen felt small, menacing. I thought about it, until I knew what was wrong. Why would they show me the book if they wanted to kill me in the first place? Suddenly the girl broke the silence.
"You can't tell anyone about Cain. You owe him one!"
"I know." I said and turned to face the dragon, who watched me carefully. "So you're the Cain from the book?" I pointed at the diary.
"Yes." He answered shortly.
"So you're more than a hundred years old, I guess."
"Right."
"Ok." I paused, not knowing what to say next. I turned to face the kids again. "What about you two? What's your role in this play?"
"Well, we are the great grandsons of the soldier." The boy said, pointing at the book.
I sighed and stared at the dragon again. I couldn't bear it anymore. The excitement of a seeing a dragon, actually sitting next to one, finally broke free.
"Where were you?!" I shouted, facing the dragon again. "I've been looking for dragons all my life! If there would have been a hint or even the hint for a hint I would have done anything to find you! And now in some god damn hot summer you appear out of nowhere to save my life! Where have you been?!"
"The god damn hot summer", the dragon smiled, "that's the reason why I'm here."
I calmed down and waited for Cain to continue.
"You humans are very interesting creatures. In most of your time you are building things just to destroy them right after. Or you're preparing your own species' destruction. Now I know that not all humans are like this. I hoped that my old friend's descendants would be able to help me with this new threat. When I came here I had only found these two", he signaled at the kids, "and they told me that their parents are unlikely to help me. Now it seems that I must face this alone. I was about to leave, when I found you." He stopped talking with a sigh, which revealed his frustration.
I didn't know what threat the dragon was talking of and I didn't know if I was even capable of helping him, but the way he spoke his last words made it clear that he would die trying to stop it.
"Listen, I don't know if you know what this is, but I'm a dragonkin. I don't know if I can help you or if you even accept my help, but I am willing to help, whatever it costs. All my life I just wanted to meet a dragon, now I won't let the first one die in a suicide-mission!"
The dragon seemed impressed by my little speech.
"I know what a dragonkin is, but do you just believe in it or do you know that you are a dragonkin?"
"I believe it to such an extent that there is no other possibility than being a dragonkin."
Cain smiled.
"The more you believe in something, the harder the shock can be when the truth is revealed."
Fear gripped my heart, but I fought it down.
"I know."
"Good. We're going tonight."
"Ok, but where are we going?"
"Not far from here is a secret facility. We need to break in there."
Cain stood up and left the room. I quickly stood up to follow him. I still had questions. I hurried into the corridor, but he was already gone. I turned to walk back, but then I saw a tail tip disappear in the room where I woke up. I followed Cain. I opened the door and the dragon smiled.
"I didn't want to keep talking while the kids were in the same room with us. The truth is that the place we want to break in tonight is heavily guarded and the soldiers have the command to shoot all intruders. We might as well never get out. This might really be a suicide-mission."
"Well, in most movies the hero now says it has to be done, but I don't think it fits now." Cain smiled sadly.
"No, not really. But it gets even worse. If we fail the machine they're building will destroy all life on the planet. You're feeling it even now. The hot weather out there is not natural. What these people are trying to control is too strong to be controlled. What you feel as heat I feel as pain."
"But what are they doing? What are they trying to control?" I sat down next to him, turning my head to look at the dragon.
"A power that's too strong for a normal being. They're trying to control the magic itself! But their machine can't hold it back. These men are too blinded by the power they're willing to use, that they don't see the catastrophe they're creating instead!"
"I don't understand this. We have this hot weather for more than a month now! How can they ignore that?!"
"They can ignore it, like the men in Chernobyl ignored the simple fact that the shut-down of the cooling-water pumps would be devastating! Or earlier, they can ignore it, like all the British politicians, who ignored the obvious imperialistic advances of the Third Reich!" Cain was shouting the last words. He was obviously angry. His outburst surprised me.
"I know. We humans are that stupid sometimes. Power, or even more, the promise of power is changing the people, they're only focusing on their path towards their might, not noticing what they're destroying in the process. Not infrequently, they destroy themselves." Cain seemed to calm down a bit.
"You're right, but that doesn't solve our problem."
"Well, it seems that now I get my chance to be a movie-hero. We need to go in there, and die if necessary. Happens what happens, we must stop these people. It has to be done!" I said dramatically. Cain smiled.
"That's right. I'm glad that you will risk your life with me. I hoped that I won't face the death alone." I got serious.
"I'm afraid we all need to face death alone, but at least we will be together in our last moments." Cain nodded.
"Get some sleep. We will go when it gets dark and then we will need all our strength." He said and then left the room, closing the door behind himself.

I tried to sleep, but, rolling me from one side to the other and back, I found that I couldn't. I had been unconscious for several hours and I wasn't tired, not even a bit. I faced the ceiling and thought about what I was about to do. Cain was right, we would most certainly die. It was hard to accept that. I thought about my other options. I could stay here, or go home and do nothing, but what would happen then? I would certainly die. No hope, no chance. The men would not stop their experiments; they would destroy the planet. If I go I still have a chance to survive. Not a great deal, but still better than nothing. The urge to do at least something finally forced me out of the bed. I entered the corridor, searching Cain or the kids. Then suddenly the dragon stepped out of the kitchen and stopped dead when he saw me.
"We must leave immediately! The parents of the kids are returning."
We hurried through the corridor, until we reached its end and stopped in front of a door. It lead to the garage. We heard the kids talking with their parents.
"Mom! Dad! You got back so soon!" Liz sounded surprised and a woman sighed.
"What have you done now?" A female voice said.
"Nothing!" Drake defended himself. "We have found a strange book!"
I pressed a small button on the garage door, which locked it. Steps were getting nearer and then someone tried to open the door.
"Oops", Liz said, "We must have locked the door accidentally when we left! Let's go to the main entrance."
Again we heard steps, but this time they moved away. I slowly opened the door and when I didn't see anyone we entered the garage. Together we hurried out of the already open gate, when the door, which led into the house, opened. Liz came out.
"Be careful." She said. "You must return! Promise it!" I smiled.
"Of course we will come back!" I smiled at her, but when I turned to walk away my face was stern.
She waved at us, while we were leaving. I waved back knowing, that I might never see her again.

We left the shadows of the garage and the heat greeted us. The sun was already setting, but even so the air shimmered over the pavement. I sighed and followed the dragon, who quickly walked along the street, leaving the village behind. When the last houses were out of sight Cain stopped.
"I will now fly directly above you", he said and flapped a few times to test his strength. "I will be able to see enemies soon enough to warn you."
Before I could say anything he jumped high in the sky and started flapping his wings. I smiled and shook my head. I would give anything to be able to fly. I shrugged and continued walking. Cain followed me in the air, occasionally disappearing to scout the way.
When the sun finally touched the distant horizon Cain landed a few meters ahead and waited for me to catch up.
"What's the matter?" I asked searching the street for something unusual.
Cain has landed on a small crossroads with a path leading away from the tarred road and into a dense forest.
"The facility is over there." Cain pointed at the forest. "We will walk to the timberline and the wait until its dark. Then we walk in and sabotage the machine."
"And how will we do that?" I said, expecting some genius plan.
"I still don't know, but we will come up with a plan when we reached it."
"Ok." I was disappointed. "And how will we get there? I mean, do you know where this mysterious machine is? This complex could be huge!" My words made Cain angry.
"What have you expected, a perfect plan? Have you really thought that I know the exact floor plan of the building, together with the route of the patrols? You knew from the start that this would be desperate."
"Desperate, yes, but not sure suicide! I hoped for at least a small chance to survive!"
"You can still stay here!" His words hurt me and I looked to the ground.
"You know that I would never do that." I whispered quietly. "I would never leave you behind."
"Then why are you complaining?!" Cain was still angry.
I didn't answer. I heard something, but it took me a while to recognize the noise of motorized vehicles. I threw myself at Cain and we fell into the undergrowth. The suddenly the lights of three trucks appeared on the street. They slowed down and turned off onto the path. Slowly they rolled through the forest. When they were out of sight Cain and me stumbled out of the forest and looked along the path.
"Are you all right?" I growled.
"Sure." Cain said and nodded. "I'm glad you're here." He said and smiled.
I smiled back and together we walked through the forest. Finally the sun disappeared and suddenly the night became cold. Silently we hurried between the trees, following the trucks trail. Suddenly Cain reached out and grabbed my arm.
"Wait."
In front of us lay a huge dark clearing and in its middle was a huge facility which seemed to be a military compound. The area was brightly lit and everywhere soldiers were patrolling. Huge searchlights were mounted on watchtowers and even more soldiers were standing guard at all entrances. I stared at one of the patrols, which was passing our hiding place. All men carried rifles, pistols and a knife. They were armed to the teeth. I swallowed. How will we get through this?
"Do you have any plan?" My voice was stronger than I actually felt.
"No, not yet. We will need to wait and hope that the time will bring us a chance." Cain sounded confident.
Suddenly something fell to the ground next to me. Hoping that it wasn't a grenade I walked over to it. I stared at the thing which was lying in the undergrowth. It was a fish, which was floundering on the floor. I frowned. What the… Suddenly a building in the clearing began to shine in a blue light. Cain grinned.
"Now we know where we need to look."
Suddenly another fish hit the floor. I looked up and my mouth fell open in disbelieve. It was raining fish! One of them hit me on the shoulder and I gasped in pain. They crashed down from the sky, hitting the soldiers, who fled in panic. I wheeled around, when I heard the rattle of a rifle, but the soldiers were firing on the falling fish, what didn't solve their problem. They seemed to note that, too, because they turned around and fled into a big building near the fence of the facility. I grinned. It was just too funny, but Cain looked seriously to the building.
"It's worse than I thought. More magic is leaking out. We must hurry; we don't have much time left." I nodded.
Together we hurried to the fence and Cain breathed a small flame on it. The thin wires melted like ice. The fish were still falling from the sky and they hurt, when they hit you, but he managed to cut a hole into the fence, where we could slip through. We ran towards the blue light. There were no soldiers left, who could stop us; all were hiding from the fish. It didn't take long and we had bruises all over our bodies. Suddenly two soldiers stepped around a corner trying to protect their heads with their rifles. We both stopped and stared at the men. My eyes went wide with shock. The soldiers looked surprised, then raised their weapons and took aim. I couldn't move; the fear paralyzed me. The rattle of the guns sounded distant, as if the soldiers were miles away. Cain tackled me and we fell to the ground, barely avoiding the bullets.
"Run!" Cain shouted.
I stumbled to my feet and ran panic speeding my pace. I turned to see if Cain was following and then stared, as the dragon turned and attacked the men. He charged at the soldiers, but they just fired again. Cain ducked, then jumped and flew the last meters. He came crushing down on one of the men. They struggled for a second, then the soldier was dead, deep cuts in his face. Cain stood up, blood dripping from his claws. The other man quickly recovered from his shock and raised his gun. I started to run towards him, to help him somehow. Cain charged at the other soldier, trying the same trick as before, but when he jumped the man raised his gun and fired. Cain got hit. He lost his balance and fell to the ground. The man could not believe his luck; he just stood there and stared at the wounded dragon. I was still charging at the man, he hadn't noticed me. Here comes my chance! I jumped and hit the soldier with my shoulder. We both fell to the ground. The soldier was surprised, but recovered quickly. He punched me in the face and I fell back dazed. The man took out his knife to slice me open, but in that instant my whole being was reluctant to die now. I took all my strength and grabbed the soldier's arms. He struggled hard to plunge the knife into my heart, but I fought to hold it back. He tried to kick at me, but I used his movement to turn him around. The fish made the ground slippery. I used all my strength to bring the knife down. I couldn't think about what I was doing, just that I didn't want to die. Suddenly it was all over. The soldier lay still, the knife sticking out of his chest. Has he killed himself? Or have I… I stared at the body. Have I killed him? A groan remembered me of Cain. I ran over to him.
"You must finish it, now!" He said, grimacing in pain.
The bullet had hit him in the hip and he was losing too much blood.
"I won't leave you here!"
"GO!"
I grabbed Cain's arm and helped him to stand up. He pressed a hand against his wound.
"I told you that I would not leave you behind!"
I helped him walk towards the building, which radiated the blue light. There were no guards. I silently opened the metal door, and stepped inside. There was no one in sight. I carefully looked around. There was a huge circular capsule in the middle of the room. Some tubes were leading to it, disappearing in the walls and in a huge pit below the container. Two doors were leading out of the room. A circular gangway ran all the way around the capsule. Directly over the container there was an observation platform, many of the tubes led there and most of them had valves. Everything seemed normal. I let Cain sit down on a wall near the entrance and walked over to a small desk with touchscreens on it. I activated one of them and tried some of the buttons. I wanted to get over with this as soon as possible. I still couldn't believe that I killed someone. Nothing helped. I pressed more buttons. Red ones, green ones, blue ones. The magic was still contained, the reactor activated. Then, suddenly, I saw a button, which looked promising. It was red and the word "Release" stood in white letters on it. I was about to press it, when a man appeared on the observation platform over the capsule. He reached out for a valve on one of the tubes and started to close it. I didn't move. I didn't want to be discovered. When the valve was closed the man turned around and froze. He had seen me. His stare wandered from my face to my hand and he saw my finger already pointing at the "release"-Button. He went pale.
"Don't do that boy!" He shouted.
I took that as a sign that I was on the right way.
"That's for the 'boy'." I murmured and pressed the button.
The capsule seemed to explode. Blinding blue light streamed out and I closed my eyes, surprised. I raised a hand to cover them, but I touched something hot. I opened my eyes. My hand had sunken into a strange blue ball, which hung in the air. Suddenly there was a new flash of light and the ball exploded. While I was tossed away I saw scales appearing on my hand, which had been in contact with the magic. Then I hit the floor and lost consciousness.

I woke up in my bed. I raised a hand to my face. What a dream! I yawned. The sun was already standing high and it promised to be another hot day, not so promising. I heard steps and turned to see, who dared to enter my room. My eyes went wide, when I saw Cain standing in the door.
"But… But… But it was only a dream." I silently whispered, the dragon didn't seem to hear it.
"I'm sorry for what happened to you." Cain said.
I didn't understand. What does he mean? Cain saw my puzzled look and pointed at my hand. I looked at it. Black scales covered them instead of soft skin. Suddenly I was fully awake. A single tear ran down my cheek. Is it possible that my dream finally had become true? I sat up. A strange feeling below my back disturbed me and a black tail came into view. I quickly pulled away the blanket and stared at my new body.
"I'm a dragon now…" I still couldn't believe it.