I was never good at the game of chicken. You know, that one game where two people run, or drive, or ride their bikes directly at each other and the first one to bail loses. Every time I was challenged I talked a big game, but when the chips were down and the game began I was always the first to steer away. It was never close either. I would always give up a few seconds into the game because I just didn’t want to get hurt.
Yeah my friends would call me names like wussy and baby, but the joke was on them when inevitably they were all too stubborn to bail and they crashed into each other. Most of the time they would only walk away with a few scrapes and bruises, but there was the one time when Eric, the same one I played pool with, wasn’t wearing a helmet and ended up in the hospital with a broken arm and a concussion. When he finally returned to school with a cast over his arm, it was finally my turn to call him names, like idiot and dumb ass. But just like in the game of chicken, I bailed.
I wondered what he would think of me if he found out that I drove straight into a cloud of fireball spitting monsters. He probably wouldn’t believe it. And I wouldn’t blame him because part of me didn’t believe that I was doing something that insane. But it was also in that moment that I knew playing this game the way I used to would only get me killed. And so it was that in my second encounter with the Dragon’s Minions, I was speeding down the highway in a VW Beetle with two guns and a rocket launcher, and for some reason screaming in some half lame attempt at a war cry.
Several fireballs rained down on me, making me speed up and jerk the wheel side to side to avoid the explosions. I didn’t dare look in any of my mirror’s at the risk of being blinded by the flash’s after fireballs blew up. I fired a rocket into the lower part of the cloud hoping I would hit one of them, but the smoke was so thick I was unable to tell if I hit anything.
More fireballs were launched towards me, but they arced so far above and away from me that I didn’t have to attempt to dodge them. I thought that was kind of weird as I approached the edge of the smoke cloud and fired my twin rifles.
Like an airplane entering a rain cloud, my car was fully engulfed in the smoke for a few seconds and my entire view was obscured. Despite my newfound bravery, part of me was worried that I would crash right into the minions and I would have to make a trip right back to Harvey’s. But as I made it to the center of the tower of smoke, I realized that not only was the worry unfounded, but my bullets had completely missed.
For the few seconds I was in that eye-of-the-hurricane-like clearing in the center of the smoke, what I saw was pretty strange, which was saying something considering all that I had seen so far. I had expected something similar to the goblin buggies, but instead I was greeted by four vehicles that resembled parade floats.
Each one of them was a flat platform on the same kind of wheels you’d see on construction vehicles, and each one of them were decorated with colorful dragon’s that looked like they were made from rainbow colored paper mache and wood. The smoke spewed from their mouths and into the cloud, while their tails had catapults embedded into them. None of them appeared on my windshield long enough for their name and info to be displayed.
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As I passed through the other side of the cloud I laughed, hard. So hard that it threatened to break my ribs. I laughed at the absurdity of it all. Of Nova, of everything I’ve experienced so far and of course of the dragons that looked like they belonged in a renaissance faire.
“This doesn't seem like the best time for laughing,” Tooty said with an air of concern.
I ignored her and pressed on the gas before pulling the steering wheel fully to the left and hitting the brake. The tires squealed and the engine whined as I turned the beetle 180 degrees. It wasn't as smooth as I had hoped, and I ended up clipping the guard rails which bent my passenger side mirror in. The damage screen, which was now on the dashboard screen next to my odometer, ticked down from 100% down to 98% on the left side of the car indicator.
Staying to the one side of the highway I fired my rifles straight ahead and fired a rocket to the side of my target. While I couldn't see the full explosions, the resulting fire peeked out of the cloud confirming their destruction. I cheered and moved to the other side of the road, following the other two dragons like a hunter after their prey. To my surprise the dragons made no attempt to turn around or attack me. To confirm my suspicions I told Tooty what I thought. If I was correct she was allowed to tell me.
“Yes, Milo. The Dragon's Minions only move in one direction.”
I let out a breath. All the hype I had built up for this fight deflated out of me like a balloon. It was surprising how disappointed I was considering all the times I had almost died over the past couple days. Once the cooldown for the rocket launcher and the reload time for the rifles expired, I unloaded onto both remaining dragons and they too exploded and burned away. The cloud of smoke also disappeared along with their bodies leaving no evidence that they had ever been there. With nothing else, I turned the beetle around and continued to my destination.
—
“We’re here Milo,” Tooty said. Her telling me this was pretty redundant since the GPS had told me as much.
A yellow diamond was painted onto the road in a similar fashion to the blue cross that allowed me access to the dirt track. I parked on the diamond and a garage door similar to Harvey’s opened up in front of me. As I passed through it the highway transformed into the concrete interior of a parking garage.
The door closed behind me and I pulled up to a glass security box with a drop down barricade that blocked my path. A window slid open to reveal a dryad woman who looked similar to Havarti, only with shorter hair and wearing a light blue security guard shirt. I rolled down my window as she spoke.
“Welcome to Garage Zone 1 Dash 5 Point E06 nicknamed the Dragon’s Mall. My name is Lira. Will you be needing repairs during your stay here?” The woman did not look at me while she spoke.
“No,” I said. That 2% damage I had gotten earlier didn’t seem like it would be worth the hassle.
Lira pressed a button on the keyboard in front of her. “Will you be purchasing any upgrades?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Lira nodded and pressed a few more buttons. A small piece of paper printed. Lira ripped it out and handed it to me. “This is your parking pass. Proceed to the designated location and leave this on your dashboard. If the patrol sees your vehicle without a parking pass, they will have it towed and thrown away, and you will be ejected from the zone. Do you understand?”
I took the paper and nodded slowly.
“I need a verbal affirmation please.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Lira nodded. “Please enjoy your stay.” She closed the window and the barricade lifted.