Page 45 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

The dragon took a deep breath, it’s nostrils flaring as it exhaled. “If you can fight me and win then you can have the feather.”

“All right, she’ll take the deal,” my mother said.

“What are you talking about?” I said. “I don’t want to fight a dragon.”

“The only way to get there is to go through it,” my mother said.

“Can I get a weapon?” I asked.

“You don’t need a weapon,” my mother said. “You have everything you need.”

The dragon came rushing at me without even giving me a moment to think about it.

I dodged to the side, knowing this was one of those surprise attacks. It didn’t matter; I needed to stay out of the way. It’s tail came lashing out and swung around; I jumped over it and as I did, I plucked a feather from the side of the beast. It screamed in pain as I came down on the other side of it.

“Impressive,” my mother said as she tried to dodge the beast’s tail. She stumbled to the ground as she reached out for me.

“The feather,” the dragon yelled at me.

I had won the feather fair and square though and I knew he wouldn’t do anything about it. Dragons were notoriously beings of their word. He had said I could win a feather in a fight, and I had won the feather in the fight.

I turned to my mother. “Come on, let’s go.” I grabbed her hand and tried to pull her to her feet, but she didn’t budge off the ground. I gasped as I saw the pool of blood gathering around her.

Chapter 32

I ran to my mother’s side. She was lying with her eyes closed and her head tilted awkwardly. I could tell she was conscious, but her face was crinkled in pain, something entirely unlike her.

“Can you hear me?” I asked, squeezing her shoulder gently trying to get her attention.

“Talk,” she rasped.

“Where did it get you?” I didn’t want to move her in case it made the bleeding worse.

“Leg,” she said.

I laid my mother on her back and saw it had gotten her on the thigh. I found the wound and pressed my hands against it to stop the bleeding. I needed my hands, though, to do a spell. My mom was weak, but I needed her to apply pressure to the wound herself.

“Mom, I’ve got to do a spell to get us out of here.” I leaned in low to say the words close to her ear.

“You don’t know the portal spell.” Her breath was shallow.

“I’ve watched you do it enough times in my life. You’d think I’d know how to do it.” I joked lightly with her.

“We could end up anywhere,” my mother said. “First you’ve got to stop the bleeding here.”

I took a deep breath in and looked at my hands as a gold light covered both of them.

I wasn’t squeamish, but I didn’t like blood. One of benefits of living in town rather than out by the ranch was I didn’t see a lot of blood. Even though sometimes there were punch ups in the bar, there wasn’t usually blood and if there was, I could kick the brawlers out because it was their own stupid fault.

Watching my mother bleeding in the jungle of Costa Rica was the last thing I wanted to experience. I held up my hands, desperate for the gold light to actually do something to make a difference, to put some pressure on the bleeding, to stop it. If anything happened to my mother...she was losing consciousness. I had to move fast to try to get back to her house.

One thing I knew was a powerful witch could create a spell and make it magic through her own will. I was a demigod. It meant I had a little extra power above a witch. I should have the powers of my father to create some things.

“Heal!” I commanded. “Heal.”

I knew the chant had to be in rhyme, but I didn’t have time. I needed the bleeding to stop, and I needed it to stop now. I lifted my hands away.

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