The plane engine’s volume roared even louder. It was picking up speed, the momentum pushing Sally back in her seat, and she had to look away from her ex and the window a few seats over on his other side. The scenery zipping past made her stomach turn. She stared straight ahead, practicing deep breathing exercises to combat the nausea, and then the plane lifted off, and her stomach did a complete flip.
Her ex reached for the barf bag.
She gripped the arms of the seat so hard her knuckles turned white, keeping her lips pressed together.
Inhale, two, three, four; hold, two, three, four; exhale, two, three, four.
She had to exhale through her nose instead of her mouth until the plane leveled off.
“Thought you were going to lose your lunch there for a minute.”
She exhaled in a rush of air. “Me, too. You can put that away. And, thanks, Harry.”
“No problem. I don’t like vomit, either. So… who are you leaving the kids with? Your parents?”
She nodded. “Seth tried to convince me to leave him in charge, and he’d probably be fine if I did that, but he’s seventeen. I know I was a responsible teenager, but I still made stupid decisions.”
“Yeah, he’s a good kid, though. And Gracie is almost thirteen.”
“Going on sixteen.” Sally rolled her eyes. “She’s getting very obstinate and moody lately.”
“Well, that’s a teenage girl, right? She’ll grow out of it.”
“I hope so.”
This wasn’t that bad, actually. After the initial shock and irritation at seeing each other, she and Harry could talk like normal people. Their marriage had lasted for fifteen years for a reason, after all. They’d always clicked.
The problem had been work-life balance. They were both workaholics, but maintaining a relationship with each other and raising two kids meant somebody needed to make sacrifices. And that somebody had always been her.
Eventually, she got fed up.
But a separation and then a divorce had meant even more sacrifices on her part. Sometimes, she wondered if she’d just made things harder for herself and everybody else for no good reason.
Another ding overhead. The seatbelts light went off, and the pilot told them their altitude, the flight duration, and the weather in Paris.
Sally returned to her laptop and her phone. Nine new messages. Lizzie, Dr. Glazier, and her mother.
She frowned and opened Dr. Glazier’s first. Just an apology for bothering her, a brief rundown of Muffin’s presentation, the trends in the dog’s vital signs and diagnostic parameters throughout the day and the adjustments made to her intravenous fluids and medications, and a question about a puzzling result in her most recent electrolyte panel. Sally had seen something similar in a previous diabetic ketoacidotic patient, and she typed up a quick response with her recommendations.
Then she opened Lizzie’s texts.
A picture of the flowers Teddy Boo-Boo’s family sent her, along with a card and a box of chocolates.
Sally was blinking back tears again when she opened her mother’s texts.
Mom: Hope the flight is going smoothly. Just thought I should let you know Gracie went to a friend’s house after school
Sally frowned. She hadn’t given Gracie permission to do that.
Sally: Which friend?
Mom: Idk. She wasn’t there when I picked Seth up from school. That’s what he told me
Mom: She hasn’t replied to my text yet
Sally sighed and massaged her temple.
Sally: I’ll text her. Thanks for letting me know
“Problem?” Harry asked.
“It’s your daughter. She apparently went to a friend’s house after school without asking permission from me, and now, she’s not replying to Mom’s texts.”
“My daughter? I think you have a share in her, too.”
Sally shot him a look. “When she’s in trouble, she’s your daughter.”
He laughed. “Hey, that’s not fair.”
“Parenting isn’t fair.”
Sally pulled up the thread of texts to and from Gracie. Nothing since yesterday.
Sally: Where are you? Your grandma said you weren’t there when she picked your brother up from school. If you’re at a friend’s house, I need to know who they are
Sally: And you need to ask permission before going off like this
Sally: Your grandma and I are worried about you
It was hard not to go into overbearing mother mode sometimes. Especially since Gracie had been acting up so much lately, and especially since Sally was on a flight to Paris and an entire ocean would separate her from her children for a full week.
She spent the next hour finishing her notes and texting Dr. Glazier, Lizzie, and her mother. Muffin seemed to be doing well, and Gracie still hadn’t responded to anybody, not even Seth. Sally was trying not to get too worried, but she was a mother.
A ding overhead signified an announcement coming up.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have received reports of a dragon flock migrating across our intended path, so we will have to make some slight adjustments to avoid them. We anticipate this delaying our arrival by no more than an hour. There may be some turbulence up ahead as well.”
Sally frowned. “A dragon flock?”
“This isn’t the season for a dragon migration,” Harry said, pulling up the search on his phone. “It’s too early. They should be staying in the southern hemisphere until spring.”
A generalized murmur arose in the cabin as people looked up dragons and migration paths, asking each other questions and positing theories. Sally pulled up the Veterinary Information Network and navigated to the exotic animal forums.
There was nothing more exotic than a dragon, after all.
The plane jolted. Her phone nearly shot out of her hand.
“What was that?” she asked, looking past Harry and the other passengers in their row to the window.
“I’m not sure, but if that’s what the pilot meant by ‘turbulence’...”
Harry trailed off, and Sally’s stomach turned, this time, out of a sense of foreboding.
Her phone chimed.
Lizzie: Teddy Boo-Boo’s owner called back. They want the necropsy now
Sally stared at the text. Dr. Glazier had never done a necropsy before, and everything in her recoiled at the thought of cutting Teddy Boo-Boo open herself when she got back. She wanted to know what was wrong with him, though, and she was glad the owners opted for a necropsy.
Sally: Okay, let’s send him to Rollins. Can they pick him up?
Lizzie: I didn’t even ask. They were crying on the phone. Luke said he’d take him
Sally: Okay, good. Call the crematory and let them know
Lizzie: 👍
The plane jolted again.
This time, Sally caught her phone in midair as it chimed. “What is going on?”
Harry shook his head, eyes plastered on the window. “I don’t know.”
Mom: Gracie still hasn’t texted me back. I’ve tried calling and texting, and so has Seth. He even tried using that phone tracker thing to find her, and she’s not coming up
While Sally was still processing that, her phone chimed again, and a notification popped up on the screen with a text from Gracie. She immediately tapped it.
And saw a picture of Gracie gagged and bound to a chair.
Her stomach dropped all the way back to earth.
“Oh, my gosh… Harry…”
He looked over her shoulder and gasped.
Gracie: If you want to see your daughter again, do not call the police. Ransom is $500,000
Sally’s head was reeling. She didn’t have that kind of money. One frightened look at Harry and his drawn face confirmed he didn’t, either.
Sally: Please, don’t hurt her! I don’t have that kind of money!
Gracie: You’re a veterinarian
Great. This was somebody who assumed veterinarians made as much money as human doctors. Only the specialists made that kind of money. Sally was still paying off her student loans.
Gracie: You have 24 hours
Sally: I don’t have that much money! I’ll scrape up what I can! How do you want me to give it to you?
No response.
She stared at the phone, sweat trickling down her forehead.
The plan jolted again.
There was a ding overhead. The fasten seatbelt button lit up.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have run into slight complications. It seems the dragon flock was closer than expected, and we’re right in the middle of it.”
Something large and heavy hit the right side of the plane, tossing it and the passengers to the left. Somebody screamed. Green scales now blocked the window completely. They were moving, climbing up and over the plane as it pitched and floundered about. Parts of the blue sky returned as the body passed and the tail came into view, and then the tail whipped away, and a large golden eye with a black vertical slit of a pupil appeared.
Sally’s phone chimed.
Mom: Sally, I just got this text!
Her mother forwarded the same image of Gracie and the same text messages from the kidnapper to Sally. Sally thought she would be sick. The walls were closing in on her.
Literally.
A solid thud hit the roof, and the ceiling dented inward.
“Hello? Yes, I’m calling to report my daughter has been kidnapped!”
Harry was on the phone now, relaying everything about Gracie to the police while the plane received more blows and other colors of scales flew past the window, some far enough away to see most of the dragons’ form. They were the common type. Long necks and tails, thick bodies, stout legs ending in razor-sharp talons, massive wingspans.
And they were agitated.
Sally’s phone chimed.
Mom: Sally? Are you there?
She shook herself. This was not the time to freeze up.
Sally: Yes, I got that, too, and I told them I don’t have that kind of money. Harry is calling the police now. We’ve flown into a flock of dragons, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. I love you
She copied the last sentence and pasted it into messages to every family member and friend she could think of, with slight modifications for the message she sent to friends. Her heart was clamoring in her chest. There was no way they were coming out of this alive.
Her phone chimed with all the responses pouring in.
There was a ding overhead. Oxygen masks fell out of the ceiling.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please put your oxygen masks on. The stewardesses will assist you. We are going to have to make a crash landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Rescue teams have been notified and are already on the way.”
Dr. Glazier: Please come back safe! 🥺
Lizzie: Muffin just died. Idk what happened. Praying for you! 🥺
Mom: Praying for you! I love you! 🙏
Seth: I love you, Mom! Please come home safe!
The messages were coming in too fast for Sally to read them all, and she didn’t have time to read them, either. She stuck her phone in her pocket and put on her oxygen mask. Harry had already done the same. He typed something in his phone and turned the screen toward her.
Harry: Police are contacting your mom and Seth right now. They’ll find Gracie. She’ll be okay. I promise. I love you ❤️
Tears welled up in Sally’s eyes. She nodded, and he pressed the “send” button. Her phone chimed again.
Another thud above them. This time, talons punctured the ceiling, long, hooked, black talons piercing the metal. People screamed. The plane was going down fast. The talons shifted with more thuds and thunks, but it seemed like the dragon was stuck.
Harry reached out and took Sally’s hand. She clasped it tight.
She barely heard the ding overhead.
“Ladies and gentle… life vests and… stewar… crash landing… Atlantic…”
She could barely hear the pilot over the screaming and noise of dragons hitting the plane, and static and interference interrupted what little she could make out. She squeezed her eyes shut.
Please, God, save Gracie! Please! I don’t want to die!
She’d never prayed so much in such a short period before. The inner monologue continued in a steady stream—right up until they hit the water.
Screaming.
Plane flipping and rolling.
People flying from their seats.
A dragon roaring.
Water pouring in through the holes.
The scent of salt and blood and fear.
The stewardesses were on their feet as soon as the plane righted itself, taking charge and directing people to inflate the rafts, pull up their seat cushions and turn them into life vests, open the emergency exits, controlling the chaos. The pilot was there, too, his booming voice much louder than the PA system ever broadcast it.
Sally developed a new and immediate respect for them at that moment.
She didn’t let go of Harry’s hand until she had to.
The stuck dragon was still roaring and struggling, tossing the plane about as everybody made a rapid exit. Sally slid down the exit ramp to the waiting raft and regained her footing as soon as she could, spinning around to watch Harry descend, and she saw it.
A black dragon, smaller than the first green one she’d seen in the window, probably a juvenile. There was something anguished and frightened in its cries. It was beating its wings, tugging at its trapped limb, but it couldn’t break free.
Harry engulfed her in a hug.
“We have to do something for that dragon!”
He and everybody else who heard her stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s just a baby, and it’s stuck. If it can’t break free, it’ll drown when the plane sinks,” she explained, breathless from a flurry of emotions and adrenaline.
Harry shook his head. “I know you want to help it, but there’s no way to get close to it without it hurting you. There’s nothing we can do.”
“No, there is something we can do. I was looking dragons up on VIN when we first heard about the flock, and I know how to calm it down. It’s not aggressive. None of them are being aggressive. Something has them scared. This isn’t normal behavior for them.”
“Normal or not, I can’t let you take that risk. What if—”
“I’m doing this,” she interrupted him. She set her jaw, and in the reddening light of the sunset, her red hair seemed to be on fire.
“Alright, everybody,” the pilot called out in his booming voice. He and the stewardesses had finally exited after they ensured all the passengers were safe, at least one member of the flight personnel per raft. “We just need to stay calm and stay here. I have a radio, and I’m in communication with control right now. A rescue team is on the way. Please stay calm.”
Comparatively speaking, everybody was calm, as calm as could be expected in this situation. They were all eyeing the dragon, though, nervous about its continued thrashing and roaring.
ns216.73.216.252da2
and then Add to home screen.