The smell of burning metal permeated the air like a thick fog. Cat slapped her welder's helmet up as the sound of a new engine roared down the drive. Something well-tuned and looked after, not suped-up and pushed to it's limits or falling apart like most of the vehicles that came to her garage.
She recognised the car once it rounded the corner of the forest. She watched Kass park and then step out of her sensible sedan in decidedly unsensible shoes. She kept watching as the woman picked her way carefully across the uneven gravel.
"What do you want?" Cat asked Kass a little harshly once the other woman reached the edge of the garage.
Kass pressed her lips together and glanced at the floor hesitantly, but she continued anyway. "I heard some rumors about some activity out in the desert. In a particular area of the desert."
"Oh."
"Want to take and SUV an go check it out?"
“What? Now? Just us?” Cat took her welding helmet off and set it down on a nearby bench.
Kass nodded. “Figured we’d be faster. I don’t want to do anything, just get a look. If they’re rebuilding sooner than we thought, it could mean trouble, given what we left down there.”
Cat ran one hand through her hair and considered it. “I wouldn’t take an SUV through the Dragon Mountains and I doubt Coal will let us use another teleport.”
“He might if it’s to fix a problem with something he was involved in.” Kass shrugged. “Or we could take something else. I just figured it would be more stealthy, that’s all.”
Cat was quiet for a few seconds then she asked, “For how long?”
Another shrug from Kass. “A night? Maybe two, depending what we find out there.”
Cat nodded. “When?”
“Now?”
Cat frowned and glanced out towards Kass’s sedan. It was grey, functional, understated, just like Kass. She gave Kass a surprised look. “You’re already packed?”
Kass nodded.
“Okay, give me 20 mins. We’ll take my car. Desert racing’s a thing, should blend in well enough.”
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They were on the road in no time, Cat behind the wheel, Kass riding shotgun, almost literally. She’d thrown a rifle in the boot and one smaller box that Cat suspected was another gun on the back seat. Cat hadn’t asked although she wondered exactly what Kass had planned. It was possible the one in the back seat was also a rifle. Even though the box didn’t look long enough, some of Kass’s guns were materiokinetically telescopic.
They drove swiftly and in silence all the way out of Little Rock and through the inland town of Marblewood. Cat kept checking the rear view mirror, half expecting a cop car to suddenly show up in pursuit. They never seemed to leave her alone.
But the roads stayed empty. They often were out here. Not many people drove in the Greenstone Valley this far inland. The mountains were for people who weren’t afraid of dragons.
“You want to stop for anything?” Cat asked as they approached the last fuel station this side of the mountains. This would be their last chance for a couple hours. It was generally ill-advised to stop in the middle of the mountains.
Kass shook her head so Cat kept driving. She already had a full tank, enough to get them through to the other side.
The road wound its way up and Cat took the corners at high speed.
Kass seemed unbothered and didn’t say a word. She just watched the road in front of them and the view out the window. Cat appreciated the silence, it let her focus on the driving and the feel of the car. She relished the excuse to drive this road. The curves and the views were something to die for, and many people had.
The mountains were beautiful and the road a flawless dark river that cut through them. Cat couldn't imagine the work it had taken to seal this road but she was glad they had. Many considered it a folly, even now. It was the sorcerers who had built it or funded it or whatever. Cat didn't know why and she didn't really care. She was just glad it was here.
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Cat didn't glance back towards Little Rock. There was nothing there except for the sea. She preferred the inland views, rugged cliffs reaching up, and pointy trees, sturdy and strong, dark green even in winter, not that it was quite winter yet. But it was cold enough they should hit snow at some point.
The main road was made with a magic that was intended to keep it largely clear of snow, except in the worst storms, but occasionally the ice still formed a slick almost invisible layer over the top. As if the dragons weren't enough to worry about, she'd have to keep and eye out for the subtle sheen of ice as they got higher up and deeper in.
She caught Kass glancing back behind them once or twice with an expression she couldn’t read.
Cat checked the rear view mirror again but the road behind them was still empty.
Soon the sea disappeared, hidden by towering hills too steep to simply walk up. Occasionally the road went through tunnels and then sprung back out into open air bordering steep drops that fell away to stunning valleys. Other times the edge of the road was lined by trees and the view was hidden.
Cat cracked a window for a brief period and let the smell of pine fill the car. Outside, the engine purred softly and the sound of it brought her great satisfaction. Every turn and dip and swoop of the road made her feel almost like she were flying free. Out here she was in control. She owned every inch of this road and none could tell her otherwise.
Except for a dark shadow that soon fell into line above them. Cat caught sight of its shape on the road behind them. A dark blot soaring high up in the sky. Leathery wings pulled taught by the upper air currents.
Cat knew the road, and she knew how these creatures hunted. A few twists and turns on and she pulled to a smooth stop in a tunnel that had a little off-the-road shoulder in the middle of it, made exactly for moments like this. There, Cat waited and she watched. Beside her Kass sat still and straight, alert but not obviously nervous.
Eventually Cat pulled out of the tunnel. She increased her speed slowly, not wanting to make any more noise than she needed to. Her car was as quiet as she could get it. It purred, it did not roar. Even the angle she took the corners at was intended to minimise any screech of the tires. Her driving was smooth and fast. Her lines direct but never over the centre, not unless she could see up ahead. The road may be rarely used but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t encounter company.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong kind of company that found them again. Barely 10 minutes later the shadow was back behind them. She could see Kass glance behind a couple times and at Cat as well. It was almost a question but not one she said out loud. Cat had no idea what sort of experience Kass had with dragons but she seemed to understand Cat’s need for focus. And because of that, Cat decided she deserved to be rewarded for it.
“It’s high up at the moment,” Cat told her. “It’s circling, figuring out if we’re worth it. It won’t come down for a bit yet, not unless we stop somewhere obvious. There are places we can hide but not for a little bit yet. I just need to keep an even pace for now, not let it know our max speed but not go too slow either. If it thinks we’re predictable it might fly ahead and wait at certain points or it might come down into a valley at a spot where it thinks it can keep up. If it does that then I might be able to lose it.”
Cat shifted easily between gears as she talked. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kass nod.
They kept driving.
They shadow got larger. The dragon dropped a little closer.
Cat bit her lip, willing it to stay up there just a little longer. There was a twisty valley coming up that if it chased them there then she knew she could lose it on the road. But if it came down before they reached that point then there wasn’t much she could do. They were bordering a steep gorge at the moment to the driver’s side, with vertical hard rock on their outside. There wasn’t enough room to maneuver or hide. The road wasn’t narrow and twisty enough to dodge it, nor straight enough to out-accelerate it. The perfect kill zone. Perhaps the dragon knew it.
At that moment another car suddenly veered around a blind corner in front of them. It was half across the centre line and Cat was forced to react fast. She swerved to the side, closer in against the rock wall. So close, she heard her wing mirror clip against stone. The other side was worse as the driver’s side wing mirror was completely smashed off by the other car.
Cat hissed and then swore.
The other driver blared their horn, then accelerated off with a growl of their engine.
Between them, a shadow rose.
Then Cat laughed as she watched the dragon in the rear view suddenly turn and fly in the opposite direction, after the other car.
Kass twisted in her seat to watch.
Cat didn’t bother. “They’re dead,” she said. “Dragon food. Count your blessings it’s not us and don’t look back. Fuckers!” She swore under her breath as she glanced in the direction of her damaged mirror. It was still hanging on at least but that was going to need completely replacing, and she’d just waxed it the other day. Still, they’d gotten lucky with that dragon.
But the journey wasn’t over yet. They still had many more miles to go before they were safe, if safe was even a place they were going. Cat didn’t think about it too long. In her experience, focusing too much on the future was what got you killed in the now.
The road dropped down a little, into a windier valley. The rock walls here weren’t as steep but they still would have been hard to run up and in some places between the cracks where the sun found it hard to reach were little patches of white snow. It wasn't long before they came across their second dragon.