Legacy of Dragons- Emergence

by T D Raufson

  “Father, you can’t be serious. You know how much the humans have advanced, and our magic...”

  He turned his face away from her and refused to hear her arguments. “None of that matters. It will be decided in the conclave, child. Mind your place.”

  She adjusted her tone to be more respectful of her father’s position and attempted a different approach. “If you would just stop and review your memories and stop letting the emotions of your human form drive you, you might save yourself from a mistake.”

  “I’ll not be afraid of the humans, their magic, or their weapons, and just who are you to lecture me about my human leanings? I’m not the one sleeping in their buildings and turning back to my human form.”

  Melissa dropped her head at this statement. She could not argue with him in this state. There had to be another way. She couldn’t fight the feeling that he was overstepping his authority, but she held her tongue.

  “I don’t believe dragons should return to their true form and risk conflict with the humans until more can be learned about what has happened. Dragons must, as always, be discreet.” The claw talisman on her chest flashed again and drew her father’s attention. Something in her mind clicked. Sharp pain filled her head. Her mother’s intake of breath was nearly a hiss.

  “Whatever your concerns, they will not stop us from returning to our grand place over this world. We will resume our place and finally wipe human magic from this world.”

  Melissa started to argue with him again when her mother joined her in her mind. The feeling was euphoric but fleeting. “Let them have their conclave. They need to vent some anger. They can do it in that setting without hurting anyone. Once they’ve had a chance to release some of the rage they’re feeling, it will be better. The males have always needed their meetings. Don’t steal their power from them. There are others who may be able to speak reason in that conclave. You cannot imagine how much rage is among our kind. Something important is missing, and we need to find it before we lose control like the half-dragons. You are wise to require discretion. There is too much chaos in our minds. We must restore order to our memories.” Wisdom filled those words, and Melissa fought with childish anger from her human form.

  Listen to what she says. Her advice is sound.

  Her mother’s color turned pale with an obvious shiver of pain. It was affecting all of them.

  “I will await this conclave’s findings,” she said as she raised her tail from the floor and pointed at her father. “But don’t act on anything, for your own good. I warn you to wait.” Again the talisman flashed.

  Her father looked at her with surprise. “You warn me? You should embrace your dragon form, child, and stop living among them. Perhaps, then you will understand better. We have forgotten what it was like to be the most powerful race on this world. We have forgotten how we ruled. We have been in human form, subjugated by them for centuries. We are letting that weakness control us. I, for one, will not continue to bow to them. I’m not sure how we ever let them overcome us like this, but I’ll be damned if I will ever be a human’s toy again. And, if I ever remember who was responsible for this, he will pay with his hide along with his entire lineage.” He turned his head and body away from her and lunged toward the exit cave.

  I am here father, take your retribution now. She thought to herself and dropped her head to stare at the pentagram on the floor.

  In her mind she suddenly saw the painting on the ceiling of the library. The smaller female dragon in the painting sat higher than the male around the castle and only her tail touched the gem encrusted egg in the courtyard. The image was fleeting, surrounded by pain and disappeared quickly. Her mother was looking at her nodding, while struggling with her own pain.

  She smiled and turned to follow him. “I will encourage him to be discreet until the conclave has met and a course of action is decided. It has been spoken, it will be done.”

  “I’m not sure we ever ruled the humans the way you seem to think we did,” she said to the empty space where he had been.

  Her mother looked over her shoulder and smiled at her. The green and black ridges on her back shimmered in the firelight. “Patience child, you’re well equipped for this challenge. More than I ever knew. He will never make it as far as you have. They hardly ever do.” Her mother’s eyes seemed to swallow her for a moment and a tear appeared at the side of her face. Her tail swished behind her. “We will talk as soon as we can. Eat child, your color is off, and it is such a beautiful color you have acquired. Your grandmother would be proud.”

  Melissa cocked her head at her. What did she mean by that? The woman who had been her mother did not like her grandmother at all. That had been a serious part of her human anger. Her mother had never been happy with how much time she had spent with Helena.

  Heliantra. Melissa nodded.

  Her mother had been sour at the reading of the will because she and her father had both been left out of it. As her mother followed her father out of the cave, she kept her forelegs on the ground and kept her head below Melissa’s. It was a ridiculous pose, and Melissa had no idea why she had not stood back up. Her mother hopped only a small height and glided to the entrance where she flapped to the landing and then disappeared.

  “Thanks.” It was a small gesture, but her mother deserved it. She had changed a lot overnight, and Melissa missed her presence both in the cave and in her mind.

  “Mel.” The calm and assured voice of her mate carried across the mosaic from behind her. The scales and whiskers behind and around her ears twitched and her tail shifted to point at where he was standing. There was no other dragon in the room with her so she dropped onto her forelegs and turned to face him where his human form stood in the doorway leading to the long staircase to the surface.

  “How did you get in here?”

  He raised his hands in a peaceful gesture and stepped away from the door; his face was anything but peaceful, and she felt agitation surround him. “That’s not how I hoped our reunion would go. Why so nervous? I’m here to talk to you. You wouldn’t listen to reason last night; I thought a calmer mind with more perspective might rule today.”

  “That is not an answer to my question.”

  “I guess I was wrong. Same mind is in charge today. Where is my Meliastrid? Where is my mate and the future queen of our kind?” He crossed his arms behind his back and stood defiantly in front of her. “Why don’t you take the form you have forced me into so we can talk?”

  The whiskers around her ears twitched again and a cold knot formed in her stomach. Two questions wrestled in her mind. Does he know I cast the spell and Where is Charles tormented her for a moment as she considered the man standing before her. With her memories askew, she didn’t trust the fond thoughts of him, but she also knew how much he and her father had struggled for their homeland as humans. It was all part of the whole now, even the painful cauldron of memory she could not access, and it defined who she was just as it defined who he was now. Not wanting to appear out of control, she transformed into her human form. She chose the same relaxed jeans and sweatshirt she had started the day with in an attempt to relax him.

  Just as she completed the transition, she realized it was a mistake. Nickliad was across the distance before she could react. His hand flew from his side and struck her across the right cheek with a resounding smacking sound. Fire enveloped her ear, cheek and eye and she nearly collapsed to the floor. An angry growl escaped her throat as she took a step back and raised her hands to defend against further attack. She had transitioned into a scaled partial human form and she stood before him covered in coppery scale armor with viscous claws extended to take his next attack.

  “I see you have not lost all of your dragon instincts, but that human you love has polluted you. You never should have let your guard down. Not even for me, love.”

  The new honorific irritated her as much as the old one. “I’m still not sure how you came to be here, but you should leave.” Her suddenly battered mind still
spun; she was leaning on instinct until she could get her wits back.

  Where is Charles? The fear that human question raised tormented her.

  “First, I owed you that. The knee to the eye last night hurt, but that is not why I’m here. As I said, I came to appeal to the mate I once knew to join me. Take your place as the future queen of your kind. Form the future that is before us when we take vengeance on the humans who have done this to us.”

  “That covers why, now how?”

  “Of course, you’re worried about Charles.”

  Nickliad had stepped back from Melissa’s reach but remained in his human form. Melissa still could not focus her mind well enough for this intellectual fight, and that was exactly where he wanted her. She didn’t rise to his bait this time.

  “I wanted to kill him. I’ve wanted to kill him all night. I stood up there on the lawn and ached to kill him, but no matter how much I wanted to kill him I couldn’t. Why is that Mel? Why can’t I kill one human that has wronged me so much?”

  She shifted her weight to leap at him. She suddenly tasted his blood on the back of her tongue. She wanted to kill him. He raised a hand to ward her off as he saw her anger, and a smile filled his face.

  “It is good to see that there is still a dragon in there. I came to talk, not fight, but we can fight if you want.” A grin flashed across his face, and Melissa felt dirty.

  She marshaled her anger somehow and transformed back into her fully human form. “Get to your point or get out. I have no time for you and I need to check on my butler.”

  “He’s fine—well, he will be fine. It’s just a bump and he will survive. I’m sure he’s had worse.”

  She recognized his manipulation and forced herself to ignore Charles and focus on the immediate threat. Why was Nickliad here?

  “The point?”

  “Like I said, I came here to appeal to you to stand with me like you should. With your support I know we can rule this world.”

  A sudden coldness replaced the confusion and fear she had been fighting. With no pain from her ancient memories, she knew she could not accept his offer. She had no desire to rule this world.

  “Then you should leave.” The claw amulet around her neck suddenly warmed against her skin. “Do not return here Nickliad. I will have nothing more to do with you or your plots.”

  He growled at her and transitioned into his full dragon form. She transformed with him until they were facing off across the pentagram with their wings raised and claws extended. She prepared herself to defend against his attack, and the amulet flashed with her defiance.

  He cocked his head and looked at the amulet for a moment. He sniffed the air around them and growled at her. His long nose and jaws shifted into a dragon scowl and his eyes danced with hatred.

  “Why do you defend them so? Why do you protect the humans who deserve so much of our hatred?”

  “Why do you hate them so much, Nickliad?”

  He roared at the use of his name. “I do not have to explain myself to you. You will never again call me by that name. Forever more you shall refer to me as Nethliast. I shall lead our kind to their appropriate place. Never again will I allow you to subjugate us under them. When I find out how they were able to trap us, I will expose their true colors. Even you will have to surrender to the inevitable rule of the dragon.”

  “She said you should leave.” Charles’ small voice challenged Nickliad from the doorway at the base of the stairs. Melissa glanced toward the door while keeping her eye on Nickliad. Charles was leaning against the stone archway with a short tube extending from his fist. His voice carried defiance. He could never stand against a dragon, but he was willing.

  Now we see why we respect humans and why you are right to stand the way you do. This is what infuriates Nickliad and what I had forgotten. We have stood beside humans for generations because their heart will always triumph over tyrants.

  Nickliad roared at them both and staggered back a step. He inhaled sharply, and again Melissa was sure he was preparing to release fire into the cavern.

  “Nickliad, you should leave here now.” This last challenge came from her mother, who had landed in the outer chamber and was now shifting away from the only exit available to the enraged black dragon that was wavering between decisions. Melissa moved into the path of any attack he had and stared into the flashing eyes of her mate.

  “Nethliast, you will leave here now. We will have no more of this here. I am the master of this cavern, and you will respect my words. Depart now before I must expel you.” This time the flash from the amulet included a pulsing wave of force that pushed at Nethliast to back up her threat.

  With a departing flash of anger, he turned away from her and charged out of the cavern.

  Melissa relaxed her wings and settled onto her forelegs with a cleansing sigh of exasperation. She looked around her at those who had come to assist her against her mate. Charles was still leaning against the door, nearly unable to stand up and struggling to point the rifle stock with the short tube on its end at the cave entrance. She transitioned to her human form and rushed to catch him before he fell to the floor.

  Kaliastrid was with her when they made it to the doorway. Melissa looked at her with concern.

  “Your father is pursuing the wrong course. He will wander a bit until he realizes the truth. I’m going to let him wander alone, my alliance belongs with you, my daughter. Let’s get this brave and foolish man up to the house where he can lie down.”

  Her mother’s calmness under stress reminded her of Helena, or Heliantra as she would be known among dragons. Melissa felt the moral support bolster her as she gently lifted Charles with the talons of her foreclaw. Together they walk him out into the chamber where Kaliastrid lifted him from the ground and carried him out of the cavern on the short flight to the yard above them.

  June 22 – 1230 EDT – Signal Mountain, Tennessee

  They settled Charles in a chair in the library against his protest that he was all right. Melissa felt the irritating chills of an unknown emotion racing through her. Her mother was beside her and looking at the gash Nickliad, now Nethliast, had left on the back of his head. Charles, ever vigilant, had not been able to defend against Nethliast’s assault and was lucky he had not been killed.

  Melissa considered that for a moment. Nethliast had not killed him on purpose. He had told her that himself. He had wanted to kill him, but had not. Why not? Melissa was more confused now than she had been when she first woke.

  Her mother, who had until that morning been her worst human enemy, was now standing in her newly acquired library helping tend to her injured butler. One night, out of all of the nights of stupid decisions in her life, none had caused as much chaos as this one. Anger at Helena’s decisions to keep all of this to herself bubbled up inside Melissa. She had never been angry with her grandmother, but this mess was all her making. Why had she not just told Melissa about all of this?

  Melissa paced the floor in front of the desk and looked at her mother and Charles helplessly. She could not help him. She could not help anyone. She had barely made it through college, if she finished the next semester and graduated. Why couldn’t life just go back to being what it had been before her grandmother had died? Why did her childhood friend want to take over the world?

  That question caused her to laugh a little as she paced a five-foot hole in the floor.

  “What’s so funny?” Her mother asked.

  “What?”

  “What are you laughing at? If you have a joke, share it. We could use a laugh.”

  Charles, who looked much better now, grinned at her with a worried look and nodded.

  “I don’t know. I’m losing my mind. I’m trying to figure out why this is all messed up and why Nethliast wants to take over the world. I realized out of everything that has changed, he is still honest to his goals. He has always wanted to take over the world.”

  That is true.

  “Who?” Charles asked.

 
; “Nethliast. Great Nickliad has changed his name to Nethliast. Until I referred to him that way he would not leave.”

  Kaliastrid laughed a gentle laugh that had been absent in her human mother. “He’s been raised to be king.”

  “You make excuses for him?”

  “No. Explanations.”

  Melissa launched into another round of pacing trying to figure out what that really meant.

  “So what have I been trained for? It seems he thinks I am to be queen, but I have no such aspirations.”

  “No, you don’t, do you?”

  Her mother, who was so much not like her mother anymore, looked at her with concern and what seemed to be admiration.

  “There is something different about you that I noticed when we arrived this morning. Since that moment, I have deferred to you out of habit, but I can’t remember why and every time I try to remember, I get the most excruciating headache. There is something different about you. Something regal.”

  “Yesterday I was not a dragon.”

  “Oh, that is where you, Valdiest and Nickliad are wrong. Yesterday you were a dragon. Everything about Melissa is important to what Meliastrid is. Valdiest is angry because he lost years he cannot account for and his throne to humankind. Nickliad—I guess Nethliast now—is angry because he has always been young and impulsive. That is why the two of you were together. You will be surprised by this, but you calmed him and kept him stable.”

  Your mother speaks the truth as well. The two of us were a balanced pair. Without us, he could be unstable.

  Memories she could reach agreed with that assessment, but she had not calmed him last night. Her mother and her own mind helped her fight back the emotion that was threatening to consume her, but she felt its tendrils at every corner.

  “I don’t know what to do.”

  Kaliastrid turned to face her now. “Are you sure?” Something in her piercing eyes made Melissa think.

  “She wants me to cast the spell again.” The words were out before she could pull them back. Something about her mother’s actions made her think she could trust her; that and something deeper, in a pain-fringed corner of her mind, told her Kaliastrid was an ally.