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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
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The dragon seemed to recognize the magic invocation, for it turned away from its fallen prey, swivelled its limber neck around, and glared at the three witches. With astonishing quickness it oriented on Vanessa and Darrell and did its flashing-eyes thing on them as well, dazing the two experienced witches. Willow, on the other hand, it menaced with a hiss of the tongue and a show of its sharp teeth, rather than any use of strange magic.
"Willow!" Angel cried out in concern, and he dashed forward past her to threaten the dragon back with the heavy mace he carried for a weapon.
Oz was running over towards Willow at the same time. "No!" he cried out, and interposed himself defiantly between the beast and his lost love. But the dragon's eyes flashed green again, knocking the vampire and wereboy back in shock. With a disgusted snort, the drake turned away from them and swung out looking for other prey. In only a few seconds it had locked onto a very nervous Cordelia. The beast gestured menacingly with its front claws and steaming drool slaverred from its mouth as it stalked towards the beautiful teenager, who stood frozen in total dread.
"No!" Amy stepped out, holding an outstretched hand into the dragon's path, and the beast seemed to bounce off an invisible barrier. It tried once again to pass through, with no better luck, and then gazed craftily at the two young ladies. Once more the green light flashed into two faces, and Amy and Cordelia wilted as the strength left their bodies. The dragon snuffled closer, the barrier now gone, and prepared to take a bite out of Cordelia's delectable body. At the last moment, though, it howled in pain and whirled around to face a new danger.
"Take that, dragon buddy!" Buffy crowed exultantly, gesturing dangerously with the sword she had just thrust into the dragon's behind with such effective results. The dragon whirled on her, but she cut at it with the sharp edge of her blade, scorring on the side of its snout and cutting a slice into its wing. The beast howled in pain and scrambled away. In less than fifteen seconds it had disappereared down between two houses.
"Yes!" Buffy called out, turning in place. "Round one to the humans."
"A little help please?" Vanessa called back to her. She was helping those who hadn't recovered as quickly from the confusion of the dragon's spell to their feet.
"Oh. Yeah, uh, sure," Buffy replied in a more subdued tone of voice, and went back over to assist.
* * * *
They sat in the Rosenberg living room again, cuts and bruises being treated. Angel scuttled quietly over to take the seat next to Willow. "I've been meaning to talk to you," he muttered, "about you know what. It shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have started it - I didn't mean to cause any problems between you and Oz..."
"Hey!" Oz called from across the room. "What are you taling to her about?" He said it challengingly, almost insultingly.
"Whatever Willow and I may or may not talk about is none of your business," Angel replied brusquely.
"What's that sup--"
Buffy decided it was best to interrupt this scene before it got any further. "Okay, people, we still have a dragon to deal with," she announced. "It doesn't seem too tough, except for that stun spell, and it couldn't use that on me the second time. Still, I may need some backup to kill it..."
"Hey!" Xander broke in. "Hold the phone. Who put you in charge? You can't just decide that you're the dragon slayer as well as the vampire slayer."
"And why not?" Buffy sneered back, making Willow gape in surprise. "One thing's for sure, you're not gonna do it."
Xander stared back in shock too, but soon rallied back. "I could do it."
"Fine!" Buffy shouted back. "Then let's make a hunt out of it. And just to make it fair, you can have your pick of backup.
"Okay!" Xander yelled back at her, and turned to look at his choices. "Angel, Willow, and Vanessa?"
"Um," Willow broke in, a suspicion forming in the very deepest reaches of her mind that she wasn't even letting herself think about yet. "I think I'd better stay on guard here. In case the dragon circles round and comes back after you've left."
"Okay," Xander muttered. "Amy, then."
"Whatever," Buffy almost spat out at him. "I guess that leaves me with Darrell, Oz, and, oh." Her face fell. "Cordelia." Rather suprisingly, Cordy was sitting up straight in her chair and smiling expectantly, as if not about to let anyone forget about her, no matter how hard they might try. "You still don't have a chance, Xander Harris," Buffy crowed. "Angel or one of your 'backup' might kill the dragon, but never you."
"Put your body where your mouth is, honey," Xander shot back. "Let's move out, team X!" Before too long, both his team and Buffy's had made their way back out the door.
Willow looked up at Giles. "What just happened there?" she complained out loud.
"What do you mean?" The ghostly watcher settled down into an uneasy sitting alignment with the recliner.
"Buffy, and Xander, acting like... well, I'm not quite sure what they were acting like," Willow admitted. "But it wasn't normal. And don't try to tell me that it's just Xander going through his usual insecurity complexes about Buffy's superstrength and Buffy getting annoyed at Xander's insecurity - it's not normal. Something is wrong."
"And what would that be?" Giles asked softly.
"I have no idea."
"Dragon-hunting now? What next?"
Willow recognized the voice coming from the top of her staircase, and called back up. "Good morning, Mrs Summers??"
"Willow?" Sure enough, fairly soon Joyce Summers reached the front hall, accompanied by the ghosts of Jenny Calendar and Jesse. "Is Buffy really trying to hunt down a dragon?"
"Yeah," Willow admitted. "Again, we just ran into it about a half-hour ago inside. That's not what's bothering me, though."
"It's not??"
Willow shook her head at the Slayer's mother. "No. Buffy was just acting really strange before they all left... arguing with Xander. And Oz with Angel, come to think of it..."
"Well, there's a perfectly good reason for Oz and Angel to be at each other's throats," Jesse quipped, winking at Willow. "They're both interested in the same pretty girl."
"Angel's not, well, uh, maybe," Willow replied, blushing.
"And maybe Buffy and Xander had a fight," Joyce continued. Willow realized suddenly that Joyce was both rather relieved that her daughter was doing something as completely normal as dating a perfectly ordinary goof like Xander, and frustrated that Buffy wasn't exactly talking to her about it. Since Buffy had found out that her Mom was also trapped in Limbo, their conversations had been marked either with stiff politeness or flaring tempers. Buffy had told Willow that she no longer blamed or resented her mother for what had happened between them, but she wasn't quite sure how to let her in or make things right. It was a difficult situation.
"Uh, yeah, sure maybe," Jenny replied, promptingly. Willow realized that they had been expecting her to comment on Joyce's theory, while she had gotten herself lost in her thoughts.
"I don't think so," Willow objected. "They seemed perfectly okay at breakfast, and it was right after breakfast that we headed out to take our first look at... at the dragon," she finished with a closer understanding of what it was she had suspected before.
"Yeah?" Jenny replied. "And that means..."
"Huh? Oh, nothing," Willow replied, quickly deciding not to tell anyone else about her realization yet. "Jenny? Giles? Have either of you got any good books on dragons?
* * * *
"All right now," Buffy called out at her ragged squad. "The enemy, I believe you know. Team X." She scoffed at the mere thought. "They are going to try to beat us to the target - nine feet of the toughest fighting reptile the worlds have ever known."
She hefted her sword, and looked closely at each of the others; Cordelia, carrying a solid club in one hand, Oz, who had armed himself with an old favorite of Buffy's, the bipennis axe, and the warlock Darrell, who was keeping his arms free for spellcasting but wore a long knife in a sheath at his hip. "Are we going to let the enemy keep us from our prize?"
"No!" the three others called in unison.
"Then let's go!" Buffy called out, turning away and leading the way down the street, tracking the signs of the dragon's passage. As her team members followed, it almost seemed that a faint gleam of green light shone in the eyes of all four.
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