Soulbound to a Dragon

by Kurtis Eckstein

  “Mine too,” Risa admitted.

  I was shocked. “Really?” I wondered. “I would have thought that being free was your deepest desire.”

  She shook her head. “Yes and no. Certainly, I would never want to go back to that, but what made it so unbearable was that I was alone. Everyone else had accepted their fate, and that made them automatically hate me for not giving in. I think it would have been a little more bearable if I had someone to call a friend, but I never did.”

  “Well, now you do,” I said confidently, before pausing.

  Eli had just appeared at the entrance to the room again, looking at me expectantly. I quickly held up a finger for him to wait and then spoke to her again. “Risa, will you be alright if Eli talks to me? Or do you need us to go into the other room?” I wasn’t trying to be overly dramatic, but I still felt bad about the situation.

  She shook her head, leaning back against the couch. I slowly sat back down next to her as I watched her examine him for a few moments before glancing away. He was waiting patiently, but he was also not looking at us. Satisfied that she was going to be okay, I looked back up at him.

  “What is it?” I wondered.

  He met my gaze again. “Tobias has offered to let us stay here for the night, I just wanted to know what you thought about that.”

  I immediately considered the fact that I was still being targeted by the elderfel, but then thought about the tall electric fence surrounding the property. “Probably would be safer than an inn,” I admitted, trying not to give too much away. I didn’t want to put any of their lives in danger, but I also didn’t want to risk my life by sleeping exactly where an elderfel assassin would expect to find me.

  Eli nodded in agreement. “I was thinking that too, although I think we should share the details of why we had blood on us.”

  I hesitated briefly, trying to determine if he was suggesting what it sounded like. He wanted us to tell them about the real danger, but he intentionally hadn’t given away too much, in case I wanted to just go with the same story we had told Lucius. He was giving me the choice of how much I wanted to share, although I could tell from his expression what he thought was right. I stared at him for a few seconds, before sighing heavily. “I agree. If they’re going to offer us lodging, then they have a right to know the danger that puts them in.”

  “What’s this?” Tobias asked, reappearing around the corner next to Eli.

  I took a deep breath, glancing at Risa and Mira, before explaining. “The elderfel are intent on killing me. I was told it’s because I’m half-elderfel and they despise me for it, but really I have no idea why. They have literally been stalking me for the last eighteen years.” I sighed again. “I was being protected by the elves – it’s complicated, so I’ll just leave it at that. But when I was forced to leave their protection earlier today, I was attacked immediately. They have been waiting for me all this time. I’ve been attacked twice already, and there’s no reason to think they’ll stop anytime soon…” I hesitated, biting my lip. “Which puts all of you in danger if we stay here.”

  Being in the middle of the summer, we had plenty of time before it would be dark outside, so I knew we had the option of getting a few miles away from town before the sun set. It was an alternative to staying at the inn, in the event they decided to ask us to leave.

  I briefly considered my newfound friendship with Risa and Mira, suddenly afraid I might have to leave them so soon. I felt a little foolish having already made promises to protect Risa without considering the fact that she might not want to travel with me.

  Risa clasped her hand in mine reassuringly and Mira grabbed my other hand. Yet they both waited for Tobias to respond. It was clear he was deliberating over this new information. “There must be something else going on,” he finally deduced. “While rare, there are other elderfel pantherians that exist, and I’ve never heard of one being targeted by them.”

  I shrugged. “Like I said, I really don’t know the reason why, but I can guarantee they don’t plan on stopping. One of them actually told me I’d be dead by sunset today…” I paused, hoping that wasn’t true. “So whatever issue they have with me, it’s serious.”

  “And you don’t know anything about your past?” Tobias wondered. “Anything about your mother or father that might shed some light on the situation?”

  I shook my head. “Only that my mother had to sacrifice something very valuable in order to secure the elves’ protection. I’ve never even met her because of it, and have no idea if she’s even alive. But otherwise, I have nothing to go on. Not even a clue.”

  Risa’s hand abruptly tightened, prompting me to look at her determined gold eyes. “I’ll learn ice magic as fast as I can,” she whispered, “so I can protect you.”

  My eyes stung slightly at her words, and I tried to swallow the sudden lump in my throat, because I could see she really meant it.

  Mira surprised us all by chiming in then, her green eyes intense. “I think the fact that her mother found it necessary to give over custody of her daughter to the elves for protection is enough proof that they won’t stop. Clearly, something big is going on here, although I can’t even begin to fathom what.”

  I hadn’t really thought about that, but she was right. The other elderfel pantherians, as few as they may be, hadn’t needed the elves protection. Only I had…

  So then, why? Why was it necessary for my mother to seek out their help right after I was born? Why did she have to give me up? Why did the elderfel want me, and only me, dead so badly? It just didn’t make any sense.

  Tobias was pensive again as he considered the situation. “Well, this is part of the reason why we have the fence in the first place. If it can’t keep out a handful of elderfel then it’s practically useless. They may be strong, but they can’t scale a twelve-foot fence without touching it, nor can they survive if they tried.” Tobias looked at Eli, before focusing his gaze on me. “So then, I would still like to have you both stay the night, and then tomorrow we can discuss what to do from there. I might actually even be able to give you a ride further up north in a couple of days, if you are willing to help out a little.”

  I glanced at Eli before responding. “Well, I’m not completely opposed to the idea, but my overall goal is to head west as far away from the elderfel as possible.”

  Tobias nodded. “The place you’d be going is Vanardis, which is northwest of here.”

  I glanced at Eli one more time before agreeing. “Then, that sounds good to me.”

  Chapter 8: Gift

  Once we decided to stay, Landon took Eli to the entrance to close the gate for the day and inspect the fence around their property. Tobias left the house as well to make some preparations for tomorrow, and Mira had some of the older pantherian children help her clean up the dining room and kitchen, as well as help prepare dinner.

  Cooking was its own fulltime job when there were so many mouths to feed.

  That left Risa and myself standing outside, away from the house, after she had practically begged me to keep teaching her how to control and use her magic.

  “I think I know what I did wrong,” she admitted when I was reluctant. “While that feeling always kept me calmer at the brothel, using it earlier had the opposite effect. It reminded me of a bad memory. I suddenly had the urge to protect myself from it, which is why I accidentally covered myself in ice. I was trying to stop the memory using my magic.”

  Looking up at her, I nodded, completely understanding what went wrong now. “Yes, that’s it then. Your magic works by slowing things down, so trying to stop something entirely is going to cause a stronger manifestation of it. And since you were trying to stop a memory inside of you, you ended up pulling the ice to your body.” I sighed, running my fingers through my black hair briefly. “Which means you need to be really careful if we try this again. You can’t use your magic to stop memories – all you’ll do is bury yourself like last time…” I paused. “And even if it’s hot outside, Eli’s not here
to thaw you out. I’d almost rather wait until he gets back.”

  Risa bowed her head, pleading again. I could still see her face fine though, since I was half a foot shorter than her. “Please teach me. I’ll be more careful. I want to be able to protect you…” She bit her bottom lip. “And if that’s not enough reason, then I’d like to be able to protect myself too.”

  I dropped my own head in defeat. She knew how to get to me, because I also wanted her to be able to protect herself. I had promised to protect her, but I knew in reality we might not be together for very long. However, I quickly pushed that thought aside, not liking how it made me feel.

  I smirked when I noticed her black furry tail wagging slowly behind her, giving her away. I glanced up to see her gold eyes reserved, yet hopeful. She suspected she had convinced me, but didn’t want me to change my mind by admitting it.

  I reached out to poke her in the stomach, teasing her. “Your tail gave you away Risa, you can’t hide your thoughts from me.” Her tail immediately stopped wagging and she looked at me concerned. I sighed. “Okay fine, I’ll do it, but you have to do exactly what I say…” I paused again. “And I know it’s difficult, but you have to try not to think of bad memories.”

  Her ears perked up at the same time her tail resumed moving. Her hands clasped in front of her chest like she was praying. “I will!” She promised excitedly.

  I decided to begin with a small bucket of water, so she had something in particular to focus on. We both sat on the ground beside each other with the metal pail in front of us about a foot away. I first asked her to try to concentrate and imagine just slowing down a small amount of water in the middle of the pail. Surprisingly, she did it fairly quickly and a piece of ice floated to the top. I was so shocked that she had done it so easily, that I had her do it a few more times just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

  Once it was clear she already had that part down, I had her focus more on the shape of the ice in order to control what she was doing. At first, I asked her to make a sphere, which she unsurprisingly struggled with, although not as much as I would have predicted. Thus, once she managed to do it a few times, I had her work on making a perfect cube of ice. I tried to reassure her when she started getting frustrated.

  “Risa, you’re doing amazing. I’ve seen elves struggle months with just making a sphere of ice, and you’ve already done it in less than half an hour of trying.”

  “Really?” She asked, sounding hopeful that what I was saying was true.

  I nodded. “Yes, seriously. Your ability to control your magic and make it do what you want is already really advanced. So you shouldn’t feel bad that you’re struggling to shape it into a cube.”

  “How does this training ultimately help?” She wondered tentatively.

  I rubbed the side of my arm briefly as I tried to think about how to explain. “Well, the best way I can describe it is like learning how to use a sword. Anyone can take a blade and swing it aimlessly, but if you want to be skilled then you have to learn how to control your swings. It matters how and where you swing. Magic is the same way.”

  I smirked at her. “This part might be a little boring, but eventually you’ll be doing more detailed work like making flowers out of ice.” Risa’s eyes widened in shock, quickly shifting to excitement as I continued. “And once you have that much control, you’ll be able to do almost anything. You can do something as unrefined and massive as creating an ice storm, which actually requires a lot of effort on the ‘how you swing a sword’ part. And you’ll also be able to make something as specific as an unbreakable ice sword, which requires a lot of effort on the specific ‘where you swing a sword’ part, because you have to focus specifically on where your magic is manifesting at all times. Granted, you’ll have to learn how to use your magic to make your body more resistant to the temperature first, or else you’ll freeze your hand off.”

  Risa blinked at me in surprise. “How can an ice sword be unbreakable?” She wondered.

  “Well, creating the ice sword isn’t too difficult, but once you can make a flower of ice then you should be able to use your magic to force the sword to retain its form no matter what – thereby making it unbreakable. If you think of the ‘slowing down’ analogy, you’ll essentially be forcing the ice in your weapon to stop completely, making it impenetrable so long as your magic is forcing that condition on it.”

  Risa smirked at me. “I can’t wait!”

  I was about to reply, but I heard my name whispered far behind us. Risa heard it too with her sensitive wolf-ears, and we both turned to see Eli standing at the edge of the house. I knew he wanted to talk, but didn’t want to get close to Risa when she clearly didn’t want him around. I quickly turned to her, seeing that her gaze was still cautious when looking at him, so I asked her to keep practicing while I went to go see what he wanted.

  “Do your best!” I teased her, feeling confident she would be fine on her own after watching her exert such precise control with making spheres of ice. “No slacking while I’m gone!”

  When I got close to Eli, he turned and motioned for me to follow him. I quickly caught up and fell in step at his side.

  “What’s up?” I wondered.

  “Well,” he said tentatively, rubbing the back of his neck. “We might have a problem. There’s a small tear in the fence that looks recent.” He glanced down at me as he continued. “It’s not big enough for a person to fit, but Landon suspects someone was trying to cut their way in with a sword before the electricity came back on.”

  My eyes widened as I considered what he was saying. “And you didn’t see anyone?”

  I remembered that Tobias had been confident someone would die if they tried to scale the fence, although I didn’t know what a momentary shock would do. But the question still remained: had someone managed to scale it beforehand? Was someone already hiding on their property?

  Eli shook his head, responding to my spoken question. “No, there was no one around. But the air does smell faintly of burnt hair…or maybe fur. I figured your nose might be better than mine.”

  I nodded in agreement. I didn’t know how strong dragon senses were, but it was already clear that my sense of hearing was stronger than his. However, as I looked up at his expression, I felt like there might be something else on his mind. “What’s wrong?” I wondered.

  He met my gaze, and then slowed to a stop, turning to face me. “I just want to make sure you want to stay here tonight.”

  I stared at him for a moment, suddenly worried that he thought I had made the wrong decision. “Do you think we should leave?” I whispered.

  He shook his head. “No, it’s just I feel uneasy about putting everyone in danger, not to mention the children, but…” He hesitated, looking at me meaningfully. “I also don’t want you to be in danger either.” Between his words and his intense gaze, I couldn’t help but blush and look away. Thankfully, he continued with a sigh. “If we do stay here, I may try to stay up most of the night to keep watch and then sleep tomorrow morning.”

  “Really?” I asked in surprise, stunned that he would do that to protect me.

  His cheeks flushed and he looked away, only to clarify with a shrug. “Yeah. I don’t want to wake up with a knife to my throat.”

  Both my ears and tail dropped, my tone suddenly defeated. “Oh. Of course.” I felt stupid for thinking he would do that to protect me specifically, especially when there were others here too. I wasn’t the only one who would benefit from him keeping watch.

  It was obvious he noticed my disappointment, but he didn’t comment on it.

  We started walking again so he could show me the gash. Sure enough, it was a tear about half a foot long where a sword had probably been slammed into it repeatedly. Looking back towards the house far in the distance, I was surprised no one heard it. Although, at this distance even I may have struggled to pick up on the noise.

  “Landon said they will try to fix it tomorrow morning. They don’t want to turn off the fence rig
ht now when it’s this late in the afternoon.”

  I nodded as I examined the gash. I almost wanted to reach out and touch it, but knew that would be a stupid idea. As far as I was aware, the entire piece of metal had an electric current constantly running through it. I looked down and saw that there was about an inch gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground. For a second, I wondered if someone could just dig under it. But then, as I looked closer, I saw that there was a second fence that began at the top of the ground, going down into the earth an indeterminate distance. Whoever had installed it had really thought of everything as far as I could tell.

  When we walked back, we were both fairly quiet. Eli eventually decided to ask more about Risa, wanting to know why she was so afraid of men. I didn’t think it was necessarily a secret, so I decided to tell him the basics of her past.

  He seemed really shaken by what I disclosed, although he didn’t share what was on his mind. I thought about asking, but I suspected I knew the answer. He had said his mother ‘raised him right,’ and since he only lived with her it made sense he might have been fairly sheltered. Granted, it’s not like my reaction was much better.

  I echoed Risa’s comment to him that she wanted people to view her as her, rather than only seeing her for her past. He glanced at me then as he thought about that, before quietly nodding. When he left me to go back inside the house, he seemed a little more determined to focus on the person rather than the past.

  Risa was still where I had left her, trying to practice her magic. She surprised me by smashing something on the ground and picking up the bucket to cover it up.

  “Everything alright?” I wondered as I reached her. I thought about seeing what she had broken, but didn’t want to invade her privacy. Obviously, she didn’t want me to see.

  She looked up at me hesitantly, giving me a suspicious smile. “Yep, just trying to get that cube down.” She then hesitated again. “Umm, would you be alright if I practiced by myself for a little while longer?”