Read Online Dragonsapien by Jon Jacks - Free Book Online

anxiously, immediately rushing to her daughter’s side. ‘What
have you done to her Jake?’ she screamed accusingly,
whirling on him as soon as she saw that Celly was unresponsive and
deathly still.
    ‘Me?’
    Jake was still
dazed from the fall. He frowned, shook his head in an attempt to
clear the confusion he felt in his mind.
    What had
happened?
    He couldn’t
remember exactly.
    ‘I told Celly
she shouldn’t try and fly with him,’ Leon insisted innocently,
taking advantage of Jake’s bewilderment.
    Is that what had
happened?
    Again, Jake
couldn’t be sure.
    It didn’t seem like it could be true. He had never asked, let alone
insisted, that Celly should fly with him.
    But,
undoubtedly, he could remember that he and Celly had
fallen.
    And
Leon?
    He had been
there too, hadn’t he?
    Had he gone for
help when he had seen them fall?
    Jake shook his
head again; he couldn’t recall everything that had
happened.
    Celly’s father
Erdwin was now also kneeling beside her, carefully inspecting every
inch of her body.
    ‘We shouldn’t
move her until we’re sure we won’t make her injuries worse.’ He
turned to the apprehensively waiting Hincheley and Mary. ‘Put
together a stretcher of some kind, quickly,’ he
commanded.
    As they rushed
off, Perisa broke off from her anxious caressing of Celly to
furiously glare at Jake once more.
    ‘What were you
doing, Jake? Making her give you lifts !’
    ‘I’m…I’m not
sure that’s what really happened.’
    The confused
images flitting through Jake’s befuddled mind were beginning to
come together in a more coherent sequence.
    ‘There was an
argument…an argument between me and Leon.’
    ‘Of course there
was an argument!’ Leon persisted. ‘I told you to leave Celly
alone!’
    Jake felt
bewildered once more.
    Yes, that was true, wasn’t it?
    Wait,
wait!
    What was he
doing?
    Here he was,
involved in a stupid argument about who was responsible, while
Celly was lying injured – perhaps even dying! – on the
floor.
    He spun around,
falling to his knees alongside her as near as he could.
    ‘How is she?
Will she be all right?’
    ‘I think she’s
been badly winded by the fall,’ Erdwin replied distractedly as he
continued his careful examination of his daughter.
    ‘Winded?’ Jake
said, puzzled. ‘How can just being winded have left her like
this?’
    ‘Being winded is
highly dangerous to us!’ Perisa irately snapped at him. ‘Our lungs
control far more of our bodies than yours do!’
    ‘Yes, and
thankfully, because of that, they’re more resilient,’ Erdwin said.
‘But she took one hell of a fall here, obviously.’
    ‘She’s so light .’
    Reaching for
Celly’s hand, Jake gently held it in his. It felt so delicate, so
incredibly weightless. Yes, when he’d held her earlier, she’d
seemed similarly weightless; but in moments of ecstasy, your senses
could be fooled, couldn’t they? Now she felt physically insubstantial.
    ‘She weighs
nothing at all!’
    Of course she
weighs nothing, idiot!’ Leon sneered behind him.
    ‘That’s how we
fly, Jake.’
    Perisa’s anger
had dissipated a little as she gently caressed Celly. Signs of life
were returning, with the merest flicker of Celly’s eyelids, a
whispering moan.
    ‘That’s why our
lungs are so important; they force helium throughout the
capillaries of our bodies when we prepare to fly.’
    ‘Mum? Dad?’
Celly groaned uncertainly, smiling weakly.
    ‘Celly!’ Perisa
exclaimed joyously, gratefully and tearfully kissing Celly on her
cheeks, her nose, her forehead. ‘How do you feel?’ she asked
urgently. ‘Can you tell us where you think you’re
injured?’
    ‘I’m okay; I
think!’ Celly chuckled quietly in reply.
    With what little
strength she had, she clutched Jake’s hand.
    ‘Jake; you’re
okay?’ she said happily.
    ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m
okay,’ Jake answered hoarsely, choked by his anxiety for Celly.
‘Thanks to you Celly, thanks to you.’
    Celly
smiled.
    Perisa
smiled.
    But