Friday Fanfic

Buffy the Dragon Slayer

(An obvious continuation of last week's story)

Chapter Thirteen-Alpha

The dragon's attack was hardly the first time Buffy felt the impact of a dragon's flame upon her body but it was the first time that she experienced it without her magic potion. And yet Jamie's spell worked. To Buffy's surprise, her transformation into a dragon really did make her fireproof and once Buffy opened her eyes and realized that she was still alive, she felt a lot more optimistic about her chances against the dragon.

She started humming an odd tune she had heard earlier -- some strange little ditty that began with a wolf's howl and a few notes from a church organ -- and then realized something else. She had wings! Jamie had given her wings!

She could fly around the dragon now.

The dragon started to roar again and this time its roar was accompanied by some strange foreign music Buffy had never heard before. A real ominous tune that seemed like something one would hear from a foreign army on Judgment Day.

Buffy started to use her wings to rise up off the ground, only to hear a voice cry out, "Dragons are so stupid!"

As Buffy watched in horror, some short little knight with a red mustache started waving his sword in the dragon's direction, only to immediately perish when the dragon turned and gifted him with the same type of flame he had previously bestowed upon Buffy.

I need to end this because someone else gets hurt, Buffy thought.

Buffy started to fly up to the dragon's face so that she could attack. But before she could get there, she was swatted out of the sky by a sudden swish of the dragon's tail.

Next thing Buffy knew, she was landing in a nearby forest where she hit the ground with an impact that was not at all pleasant. Then she lost consciousness.

xxx

Jamie Madigan had always lived in fear of dying by fire. It did not help that her own mother -- hardly the kindest woman who ever lived but still in her own way a loving parent -- had died by fire, executed by the Watchers Council for charges that were considered either legit, bogus or unbelievable, depending on whom you talked to.

Jamie still remembered standing in the crowd, silent with stark raving fear, as the flames had consumed her mother. She had kept expecting her mother to do something -- to call out a curse upon her executioners, to extinguish the flames with a sudden rain storm, to do anything apart from what she actually did -- which was to die screaming as a crowd composed of her former friends and clients silently stood by and watched her burn.

That was just two years ago but after all this time, her mother's screams still echoed within Jamie's head and though part of her told herself that her mother had deserved her fate -- that she had done great harm to a great many people -- another part of her told herself that no one -- no matter how bad -- should have to die the way that her mother did.

Perhaps that was why she chose to reach out to the dragon slayer. Up until this night, Jamie had believed that all dragon slayers were arrogant little women whose sense of entitlement made your average princess seem quite humble. Yet tonight she had not seen such a creature. She had seen a frightened little girl who was trying very hard not to sound like a frightened little girl. A girl who, like Jamie, feared death by fire -- and had no idea what to do about the imminent prospect of such a death.

Jamie liked to think that she had dealt with her fear by striving to prove herself the exact opposite of her mother. Instead of performing black magic, she performed white magic. Instead of using her powers to perform evil deeds, she used them to perform good deeds. And yet despite all that, she had always lived in fear that it would not be enough. That, in the end, the Watchers Council would consider her to be as guilty as her mother, no matter what she did, and send her to the stake to burn.

But by helping the Slayer, she was helping herself. At least, that's what Jamie told herself. After all, the Watchers Council might be a corrupt bunch of hypocritical old bullies but even they would not be foolish enough to execute someone who had actually proved to be of use to them. After all, they might need her help again in the future.

And yet despite all that, Jamie could not help thinking: what if the spell wasn't enough? What if Buffy wasn't able to defeat the dragon? Death by dragonfire did not seem like much improvement over death by Council fire.

So Amelia walked outside of the Violet Moon and watched Buffy fight the dragon, only to see poor Buffy flung off into the wilderness. Great Goddess, Jamie thought. Is Buffy dead? Did my spell just ensure that Buffy would die a different type of death by dragon than the one Buffy had originally feared?

No, wait, thought Jamie. Dragons are almost indestructible. More importantly, Buffy in her dragon form was almost indestructible. And even if she wasn't, there was no way a mere flick of the dragon's tail could have killed her.

Buffy was still alive, Jamie thought. She just knew that had to be true.

Indeed, she could see Buffy in the air right then. She was flying back to the village in the opposite direction from which she had been flung but she was returning.

But wait!

Why would Buffy be flying in from that direction? And why was she ignoring the big dragon that had just knocked the stuffing out of her. And more importantly, why did this Buffy look so different from the Buffy Jamie had seen much earlier?

A nasty thought crept into Jamie's head. And though she knew that she should be using her powers to defend herself, she could not help but just stand there as she looked at the approaching dragon.

And as the dragon drew closer, Jamie found herself unable to move. In fact, she seemed unable to do anything save focus on just two thoughts:

1. The small dragon flying in her direction was not Buffy.

2. Jamie really was about to suffer the same death by fire that she had always feared.

To be continued...