The Lost Dragon King

Chapter 8

​Mia broke into a wide, triumphant smile as her feet dangled in the empty air, looking down at Elijah with pure joy.

​"See?!" Mia cheered out triumphantly, her dark ponytail swaying gently in the breeze. "I knew all along you could do it, Master! I knew it!"

​She turned her head to look at the old man floating right beside her, whom she addressed as Master Caleb, and teased him with a mischievous grin.

​"Master Caleb, you must be enjoying this immensely, right?" Mia giggled, though her face looked a little pale. "Knowing full well that I have a terrible fear of heights and get dizzy whenever I'm floating in the air like this!"

​Master Caleb retorted dryly, glaring at her while floating awkwardly in his formal suit. "I have been teaching you for years, Mia, and you still haven't learned a single thing about composure!"

​Elijah, staring at the two of them suspended completely in midair three feet off the ground, backed away until his shoulders hit a nearby lamp post. His brain was completely malfunctioning.

​"How... how the hell are you doing this?!" Elijah demanded loudly, his voice shaking with pure shock as he pointed a trembling hand at them. "Are you magicians?! Are you doing some illusion trick right now, or what exactly are you?!"

​Master Caleb looked down at him with extreme reverence and replied calmly, "This is not our doing at all, Master. It was yours."

​Elijah, completely baffled, repeated the words back in utter confusion. "My doing?! I did this?!"

​"Yes, Master," Master Caleb confirmed with a serious nod.

​Elijah swallowed hard, rubbing his eyes aggressively, but when he opened them, they were still floating there like two human parade balloons.

​"Fine!" Elijah yelled, waving his hands frantically at them. "Fine! Then go back up—get down, actually! Get down right now! Watching the two of you float like this in broad daylight is making me super dizzy!"

​Master Caleb sighed helplessly, hovering in place. "Master, we cannot come down on our own. Only you can bring us down."

​Both Mia and Master Caleb exchanged a helpless, awkward glance with each other, suspended helplessly in the air above the pavement.

​Master Caleb looked back down at Elijah, frowning slightly. "Master... why are you being so surprisingly calm about all of this?"

​Elijah let out a dry, sarcastic laugh, throwing his hands in the air. "Because I have no idea if I can actually bring you down! I don't know what's happening!"

​Mia whimpered slightly, crossing her dangled legs in the air. "I tried the exact same thing to force myself down just now, and I got nowhere! We're totally stuck!"

​Master Caleb looked at Elijah with unwavering belief in his gray eyes. "It does not matter. I trust completely in Elijah's abilities. You will figure it out, Master."

​"Well, I don't even trust my own abilities!!" Elijah retorted loudly, glaring at the old man in disbelief. "I have no idea what powers I supposedly have! I don't know why I have them, or what they are even meant for! And yet the two of you expect me to suddenly have full command over them like a wizard?!"

​He rubbed his bruised face, joking bitterly with a hollow chuckle. "Honestly, someone should come take a picture and make a meme out of this whole ridiculous scene right now. In fact, Kathy should just come back here and beat me up for good measure!"

​Mia instantly protested from midair, her brows furrowed in disgust. "Master! A horrible woman like that doesn't deserve to be involved in your life at all! Especially right after such a cruel, heartless divorce!"

​Master Caleb cut the tangent short, coughing sternly to silence Mia. "Enough! Let us not let the story drift away from the main issue here. Bring us down first!"

​Elijah wiped sweat from his forehead, trying to focus. He tried again, shouting at them, but then admitted helplessly, "I simply don't know how to do it!!"

​"You clearly do!" Mia urged him on loudly from above. "You just did the floating part a few moments ago! Just do it in reverse!"

​Elijah panicked. He cleared his throat, raised his right hand toward the sky, and started yelling out a random string of nonsense phrases, one after another, treating the whole situation like a magic trick straight out of a fairy tale!

​"Abracadabra! Hocus pocus! Simsalabim! Open sesame! Land down! Fall!" Elijah shouted, making weird hand gestures toward the ground.

​Nothing happened. Master Caleb and Mia just floated there, staring at him.

​Frustrated and embarrassed, Elijah dropped his hands, admitting loudly, "Look, I've run through every single incantation and magic spell I can remember from childhood storybooks, and none of it is bringing you down!!"

​Master Caleb shook his head with a patient expression. "Master, those storybook words are all pure fiction. You need to draw on your real, authentic power, not cheap tricks."

​Elijah asked, completely bewildered and spreading his arms wide, "What power?! From where?! This is literally the very first time in my entire twenty-four years of life that I am even hearing something like this!"

​"It is within you, Master," Master Caleb told him softly. "It has always been inside you."

​Elijah replied dryly, looking at them with total skepticism. "I'm not even sure the two of you are fully real to begin with! For all I know, I'm hallucinating from a concussion! The last time I went to fight someone in that restaurant, even the doctor who treated me afterward kicked me out in utter exasperation because I couldn't pay the bill!"

​He broke into a half-laugh, half-sob, pointing at his dirty hospital gown. "Are you two absolute sure there really are magical powers inside a broke loser like me?!"

​Mia groaned loudly in frustration, dangling her arms. "Master! Only a few moments ago I was completely ready to eradicate those evil people on your behalf because I believed fully in your powers! Which is exactly why I am now stuck floating in midair like a kite! Ugh, there is no use having powers if you can't even reverse them!"

​Master Caleb ignored her grumbling and stroked his chin thoughtfully, looking down at Elijah. "Let us think this through logically, Master. What exactly triggered your power the very first time just a minute ago?"

​Elijah paused, scratching his head as he recalled the moment. "I... I was furious. I was super angry at both of you for bothering me."

​Master Caleb latched onto this piece of information immediately, his eyes lighting up. "Yes! Exactly! Your powers first awakened through intense anger! So you simply need to summon that exact same anger again right now to bring us down!"

​Elijah sighed deeply, shaking his head. "I can't just be angry on command! I need a reason to be angry!"

​Mia leaned forward in the air, suggesting urgently, "Think of your ex-wife! Recall the horrible, disgusting way she treated you at the gates! Think of how she threw your ring in the dirt!"

​Elijah shook his head, a sad, distant look entering his eyes. "No... I'm not angry at Kathy anymore. She... she was actually right to leave a man as broke as me. I couldn't give her anything."

​He reasoned quietly with himself, even though he had been crying about her cruelty just moments before.

​Mia rolled her eyes in disbelief, trying again. "Fine! Then think of her trashy boyfriend instead! Think of Jordan Langford punching your face and throwing mud on you!"

​Elijah shrugged that off too, looking completely drained. "The man had a point too, honestly. Dating another man's ex-wife isn't exactly a crime. I lost, and he won."

​Mia let out a massive, dramatic sigh, slumping her shoulders in midair as she looked over at Master Caleb.

​"Master Caleb, he is a lost cause!" Mia grumbled in complete despair. "He's too nice and depressed to get angry! We might just be stuck floating up here forever until the wind blows us away!"

​Master Caleb looked down at Elijah, a subtle, mysterious glint flashing in his sharp gray eyes as he smiled faintly.

​"Do not worry, Mia," Master Caleb said smoothly, his tone filled with absolute certainty. "I know exactly how to make him angry."