The Intuitives(96)

“How does it feel, Rush?” Ammu asked, beaming with their success.

“It’s not fighting me at all, like the bad thing did,” Rush said, “but it’s not like the gryphon either. The gryphon feels almost like a pet. This feels more like a wild thing, but a wild thing that’s willing to work with us, if that makes sense.”

“It does. Perfect sense,” Ammu said, clearly pleased. “See if it will do something for you.”

Rush considered his options. He couldn’t ask it to sit, like a dog. It felt too regal for that. He understood what Ammu had meant about working in partnership with the higher spirits, rather than commanding them. This creature felt elegant, noble—more like a fairy tale prince than a wolf. It was a citizen of its own world, with a keen intelligence—an intelligence that was not even remotely human, to be sure, but nonetheless equal to his own.

“I don’t know what to ask it,” Rush said finally.

“Good,” Ammu reassured him. “We are in uncharted territory together. Anyone? Suggestions?”

“Can we see its battle armor?” Sketch asked Rush.

“Oh, that’s a good one. Do you have armor that you could show us?” Rush tried asking it. “How do you look when you fight?”

The pterolycos looked around itself immediately, but seeing no obvious threat, it did nothing but return to staring at Rush, its thoughts unreadable.

“No, it’s OK,” Rush told it. “There’s nothing to fight right now. I just wanted to see what it would look like. Your armor, I mean. If you have any?”

The pterolycos tilted its head as though trying to understand his words.

“Its armor is tied to its emotions,” Daniel suddenly blurted out.

“Excellent, Daniel,” Ammu prompted him. “Trust your intuition. What does that mean, that its armor is tied to its emotions?”

“It… when I think of it like this,” Daniel said, trying to feel out exactly what it was he was sensing, “I hear the tune I sang when we summoned it. But when I think of it fighting, well, I don’t know what that looks like, but it feels… not angry, exactly, but more… energized? The tune gets a lot more intense, like a symphony going through a different section of the music.”

“Fascinating!” Ammu exclaimed. “Can you sing it, Daniel?”

Daniel imagined the tune again with the intention of humming it, but as soon as he heard the first few notes in his mind, the pterolycos snarled, showing its teeth, and the hackles raised up on its back, the fur bristling all along its body.

Kaitlyn, who had been standing the closest, jumped backward so fast that she fell down on her rump, but Rush helped her up and dragged her out of harm’s way. Ignoring them, the creature snapped open its wings and raised itself into the air, shimmering into its less physical form, and before their eyes, its body transformed with a single ripple, looking as though it had been coated with the finest steel plating, every feather of its wings suddenly glittering like diamonds.

“It’s even beautiful when it’s mad,” Kaitlyn breathed.

“It wants to know where the danger is,” Mackenzie said suddenly.

“And when it’s coming,” Sam added.

“You can hear it?” Ammu asked excitedly.

“Not in words,” Mackenzie said, clarifying. “It’s more like… sensing a request for information.”

“Ditto,” Sam agreed.

“It’s mad?” Miller asked, walking toward Kaitlyn. “Why is it mad?”

Seeing the motion, the pterolycos snapped its head toward Miller, growling deep in its throat.

“No!” Daniel shouted, but his sudden fear seemed to agitate the creature even more, and it furled its wings, preparing to dive toward this new threat.

“Stay!” Rush yelled, throwing both hands into the air instinctively, trying to hold the creature back long enough to keep it from ripping out Miller’s throat. The pterolycos snapped its wings back out immediately, braking hard and hovering in place, but it glared at Rush, baring its teeth and snapping its jaws in annoyance.

“It’s just trying to protect us,” Rush said, the tension in his voice reflecting the mental strain of holding such a powerful and intelligent creature against its will. “I can’t hold it for very long. Get Miller out of here. We need to send it back.”

“Stop!” Sketch shouted at it, his voice as commanding as Rush had ever heard it. Sketch remembered what Ammu had told them about the dangers of trying to control powerful things, and he was frightened by the toll that Rush’s efforts were already taking. “Miller’s our friend!”

Sketch usually saw a pod of miniature dolphins swimming around Miller, but he was afraid the pterolycos would not understand the image, so he turned to the man now and imagined instead an aura of golden light shining around his body. He had never before tried to imagine someone in a way he did not actually see them, but he could sense the creature questioning Miller, seeking his nature—and where this creature came from, a being’s alignment with the forces of good or evil was usually reflected in its form.

“Look!” Sketch shouted. “See?” But even before he said the words, the creature’s armor was already disappearing back into its body.

Rush released it with a groan, falling to his knees and holding one hand to his head, continuing, nonetheless, to watch it warily, but it merely landed back on the floor and nodded regally toward Miller, who was staring helplessly at Sketch, clearly trying to figure out what in the world was going on.