Dragon Master by Alan Carr Read Free Book Online

hand on the handlebar. It was no good, I let go with my right hand and fell, dangling from the bench by one arm. Daija was laughing. So this was it, the final night of the festival and finally here I was making a fool of myself in front of everyone; in front of Daija. I looked over expecting to see her pointing and laughing at me. Instead, she was floating off the bench, suspended in midair, completely upside down and not holding on to anything. She wasn’t laughing at me, she was laughing in happiness. I let go of the handlebar and let myself free fall as well and felt the delight of it.
    We were flying through the air, out of reach of the dragon. Everyone else was still tightly gripping their handlebars, and many were letting out yells of excitement and fear and rage. Nobody else could really hear Daija and I as we shared our laughter. I reached out to her and she took my hand. The log flipped over again so that we were right side up, and we fell back into our seats. I squeezed Daija’s hand and she squeezed mine in return.
    Torches were lit as the light from the fog subsided and the narrator started to speak again, telling us about how we narrowly escaped death at the talons of a dragon or some such. I wasn’t listening. I was just looking at the dancing green sparkle in Daija’s eyes, and this time I understood why she was looking back at me.
    Boe’s parents were waiting at the exit to the ride. They told Daija and Laciann that it was time to retire for the night, and to say goodbye. There would be a long journey home beginning tomorrow and they intended to start at the first light of sunrise.
    I didn’t say anything, and neither did Daija. She waved at me and smiled, and I returned her wave and watched as she walked away. I didn’t even notice Boe standing right next to me until he gave me a small shove to snap me out of my stupor. I lost my balance and fell, and was surprised when I didn’t float in the air but instead hit the ground. Still, it didn’t hurt. Not at all.
    ***
    I don’t know if Boe slept, but I do know that he climbed out of his bunk before I did. There wasn’t a hint of the first light of dawn, but still he got himself dressed and I climbed out of my bunk to do the same. Boe had a sense about time, especially in the middle of the night, that I envied. I supposed that he was watching for some star or other to appear in the window of the bunk, but I didn’t really understand how any of that worked.
    We hadn’t talked at all. I didn’t really want to say anything, and I definitely didn’t want to get teased about Daija. Boe had his own stuff on his mind. We just marched out of the bunk in search of his family and Laciann to say our goodbyes to them, silently understanding each other. It was our way.
    Despite their threats to get an early start, I could hear Boe’s mother loudly snoring in his parent’s guest cottage. Boe stopped outside the cottage, but I swept past him intending to knock on the door and let them know that morning was coming, and that we were there to say our goodbyes.
    “Wait up,” Boe said. It was the first thing he’d said at all since Laciann’s kiss.
    “Don’t want to wake your parents?” I asked, concerned.
    “I don’t want to wake anybody,” he replied. “We should talk.”
    “Really?” I raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t our way at all.
    “Never mind,” he said, and then stalked past me and rapped loudly on the front door of the guest cottage. I winced at the harshness of the sound.
    “Okay, never mind.” I said.
    “Yeah,” he said, “never mind.”
    “Okay,” I said.
    “Okay.”
    We waited in the cold until the front door opened. It was Tahlor, Boe’s mother. She asked us to wait for a minute while everyone got decent, and then came back out and invited us in for a cup of leftover broth. There was light in the sky now, and I could see that Tahlor still hadn’t had a chance to apply her makeup. I’d never seen her without it before. She