Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Nikki’s wild cackle could just barely be heard over the commotion Ravi was creating. “I don’t think this is what Gregori had in mind!”
Ravi stopped, his tongue briefly hanging out the side of his mouth as he panted like a giant, blue-scaled dog begging for treats. “I didn’t want to walk anymore. This spot just needed a little tidying up.” After a couple more turns, Ravi shifted into his human form and ran the back of his hand across his sweaty forehead.
They were just stepping into the clearing when Gregori arrived with a black backpack slung over one shoulder and huffed, his eyes dancing across the various piles of trees and bushes.
He moved to the center of the clearing and carefully placed the bag on the ground. Their little group quickly gathered closer, trying to peer inside as soon as he opened the bag. Amaru had blown up plenty of things over the years, but it had all been magic based. What kind of explosions could he make with black powder and C4?
Gregori reached inside and then stopped and jerked the bag closed again. “Exactly what were you planning to do with this stuff if I did loan it to you?”
Ravi and Nikki exchanged a look.
Oh, this was going to be good!
Nikki shrugged one shoulder. “I was just telling Ravi that I was tired of all these dark skies and gray clouds.”
“We thought it might be interesting if we could maybe blow the clouds apart to see the blue sky again,” Ravi continued.
Nikki pulled a colorful cloth bag out of their pocket and held it up. “I might have also snagged a few fun spell ingredients. If we can’t blast the clouds apart, maybe we could change the colors from gray and black.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Vasily asked in a flat voice.
Nikki spun toward Vasily and shook their head, a broad smile on their lips. “Nope. Not at all. The clouds can already change from white to gray on their own. I was thinking we could use a little moonlight to wash the clouds white again, a touch of rainbow mist for color, Ravi’s wind power as an activator, and then the black powder to blast it everywhere across the sky.”
“You’re going to need a special casing to keep the moonlight and rainbow mist separated,” Amaru chimed in, luring everyone’s eyes to him. “If you try to combine the moonlight and rainbow mist into a single potion, the moonlight is going to wash it out every time. To keep the colors crisp, you’re going to want a phased release. Moonlight to wash out the clouds first, and then the rainbow mist mixed with the black powder. When Ravi’s wind magic hits the container, it should activate the moonlight a second or two before activating the rainbow mist and blasting powder.”
“Oh my god! I love this idea!” Nikki grabbed both of Amaru’s shoulders and gave him a little shake. “How do we do this? We need to do this now! How do we do it? Should I run back to the camp? What can I get?”
“We don’t need anything.” Amaru turned his gaze to Gregori and smiled his most winning smile again. “We just need to borrow some dragon ice carefully shaped into a pair of capsules that can fit inside each other.”
Gregori held up a hand over his eyes. “Stop with the cute faces. I can’t take it. I’ll do it. Not because you looked like that, though. I really want to see if this would work.”
A squeal of mischief and excitement escaped Amaru as he squatted on the ground and grabbed a stick. He quickly sketched out a rough design of what he had in mind and how Gregori should shape the ice.
“Not to rain on your parade or anything,” Luka began as he looked over Amaru’s shoulder. “But won’t you need magic words for this spell? Ravi can’t cast a spell and there’s no fucking way we’re going to let any mage attempt this insanity.”
“Dragons are durable. Mages are not,” Vasily added.
Amaru violently shook his head, sending his hair falling into his eyes. “No. No. No spell words because this isn’t technically a spell. We’re just using each ingredient’s natural power. Ravi’s wind magic will give it an added boost so we don’t have to use a ton.” He pushed his hair back and grinned at his mates. “This might still do nothing other than cause a little explosion.”
“But that’s fun too!” Ravi said.
He held his breath, waiting for either Luka or Vasily to shut down the idea as too dangerous, but both dragons surprised him by sitting down in the dirt and creating tubes of ice in their hands.
Almost from the start it became a competition between Luka, Vasily, and Gregori as to who could make the best ice tubes with the correct thickness that fit inside of each other. Many, many efforts were tossed aside. There might have been a few dick-shaped tubes that were also tossed aside as they grew more creative in their efforts. Amaru cackled with Nikki as they shouted out advice about the shape of the head and whether the ice dicks should include balls.