by Katie Cherry
The meeting comes to a close, and Dexter quickly stands and strides out of the room, summoning a portal as he does so. Continuing through it, he instantly arrives at Astrid’s castle in Lii. Taking a deep breath, he knocks, then enters the room. Astrid looks up at him with a disinterested gaze, leaning back from her desk, piled with books and papers. “Report,” is all she says, grabbing a small knife as she does so. Turning her attention to the knife, she plays with it as she waits. Dexter is always grateful for her habit of pretending to not pay attention- it eased the pressure of her intense gaze, and felt like it lowered the importance of what he had to say.
“Hunter has decided on his first move,” he begins. “…He has planned an attack on the werewolves, hoping to get them out of the way before turning his gaze back to the Dragon family and those that surround them.”
Silence follows his short report, and he watches her carefully as she continues to spin the knife around her fingers. After a moment, she nods. “A smaller mission like dealing with those mangy mutts would be a lower-risk opportunity to see what the boy is capable of.”
“He has your approval to continue with his plan, then?”
“Of course. Let me know how he does as a war general,” she instructs, her white teeth flashing at him as she grinned- more feral than happy. “Unless, of course, he simply becomes puppy chow, and you have to take over the Zilferian area of our operation.”
Holding back a frown, Dexter bows and leaves the study room, again summoning a portal as he walks. That boy better know what he’s doing.
<<
We’ve been roaming the chasm, searching desperately for a sign of the Kronogrix, whatever attacked it, or Nathan for nearly an hour, and I can sense the others giving up. There isn’t so much as a bloody scratch on the rock to give us a clue, no imprint on the sand, no scent in the water. Everything is too dang clean- and dark. Though our ScubaSpecs light up the water around us, they only extend so far. My voice is giving out from calling, but I can’t stop. The others have grown used to it. At the beginning, they warned me to keep my voice down to keep from attracting predators. I ignored them, and when nothing came to eat us, they left it alone. I guess everything down here is so scared of whatever attacked the Kronogrix, they vacate the area for a long time after it appears.
I’m exhausted and my body barely listens to me as I force it to enter tunnel after tunnel, shouting Nathan’s name until I reach a point that I know I need to turn back- or I reach the end. Most of them seem to be connected, but I’ve still run into plenty of dead-ends. Collapsing on a rock beside another tunnel, I start crying again, hopelessness burning away at my heart. He can’t be gone. One last, soulful cry for my best friend escapes my lips. As it echoes away, this time, I think I hear something echoing back.
I sit up with a start, electrified. “Nathan?!”
The reply comes back stronger now, and I can just hear his voice. “Crystal?”
“Nathan!!!” The screech that comes from my throat would have embarrassed me if my focus wasn’t completely on the liberating sound of his voice. Swimming toward the sound, I’m unaware of the group following behind me. My focus is straight ahead, straight toward my best friend… lost and returned again.
At long last, I see his head poke out of one of the tunnels. His face lights up when he sees me, but before he can say anything, I’ve slammed into him, wrapping him in my arms. Tighter than I probably should have, I’ll admit, but I’d rather die myself than have him taken from me again like that.
“Whoa, hey there,” he chuckles, the sound of his voice soothing my frayed nerves. One arm goes around my back, returning the hug, while the other smooths down my hair. “I’m okay.”
“How are you alive right now, man?” Aren gapes.
Finally forcing myself to pull back, I see a bright smile on Nathan’s face. He seemed energized, unlike the rest of us. “Oh boy, you guys have no idea.” Pausing, he lets everyone draw in closer, the pain of not knowing on their faces. “…The legendary water dragons are real.”
“I knew it!” Jax exclaims, glee shining in his eyes. “I freaking knew it.”
Everyone chuckles, then Sivam speaks up. “That doesn’t explain why it saved you from the Kronogrix.”
Nodding his agreement to the statement, Nathan continues, “Apparently they eat Kronogrix. It was just on a hunt. I got lucky.”
“I KNEW IT!”
“Jax, enough, we get it,” Kenyan laughs, giving him a friendly pat on the back.
“Alright, well, let’s get out of here before the dragons decide to try human rather than Kronogrix,” Drake chuckles, waving for us to head back to the boat.
We trail a little behind everyone else, thanks to my exhaustion, and Nathan takes advantage of it to whisper what really happened in there to me. “Her name was Raziel,” he begins. “She was… she was stunning. What I said about them eating Kronogrix is true, but she said she really helped me because she felt a dragon was in trouble.”
I frown. “Huh, I didn’t know I could call dragons to me without trying- especially water dragons.”
Grabbing my arm, he gets me to stop for a moment. “Crystal… she said I was the ‘Dragonkin’ she got the SOS from.”
“Yeah, okay,” I scoff, turning to continue after the others. Again, his fingers grasp at my sleeve, tugging for me to turn back to him. When I see the look in his eyes, my stomach plummets. “No. What? How…” Glancing over at the others, I see them continuing on, slowly drawing further away from us. No one is paying us any attention. My throat constricts on the words I’m about to say. “You’re part dragon?” Dread fills me as he nods. No. No, this can’t be happening. I was the prophesied Dragongirl. How could he be half dragon as well? “H-how?” I manage to choke out before turning and leading him toward the boat, not wanting to get left behind.
“One of your ancestors came here a long time ago… I guess since Beryl is from Quagon, she must have been from that bloodline. So I guess we’re kinda related. Like, super distantly,” he amends, his face torn between different emotions. I turn my own face away from him, pretending to focus on swimming as I scold myself for my emotions. Nathan wasn’t there to replace me, steal my thunder, or rub my own missing dragon half in my face. He didn’t intend for any of that. This was… this was just… strange. He was blessed with dragon powers, it didn’t mean she was as useless as she nonetheless felt.
Sobbing, I swim harder away from Nathan. My emotions were controlling me rather than the other way around, and I didn’t want to lash out at my best friend. I just got him back, after all. And it wasn’t his fault his confession was tearing me apart.
The water around us starts to lighten as the light from the setting sun illuminates it, but the darkness that seems to surround my mind only deepens. Having someone like me should have eased my pains of loneliness, but I’d never felt so alone in my life. It felt more like he had surged ahead without me. Strong, sure, and powerful, he would be the savior of the realms.
They didn’t need me anymore.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Happiness Amidst a War
Crystal is silent the rest of the ride back to Davenport, and doesn’t ever look at Nathan. He can’t help but feel guilty, like he’d done something wrong. He did feel bad for bringing up his newfound dragon part so… tactlessly, in the face of the loss of her own. It just hadn’t crossed his mind, and he’d completely forgotten about her fragile hold on her emotions since she’d been doing so well recently. When they pull into the dock, the sun has set. Crystal makes sure to thank them all- still avoiding Nathan’s gaze- and begins the walk home. The silence grows more and more uncomfortable as he can sense the turmoil bubbling up inside of her.
Finally, he speaks up. “Hey… I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she immediately replies, clearly having rehearsed the line in her head.
“I… well, the situation isn’t, but I’m still sorry for how it’s affecting you,” he continues. “I underst
and if you need some time alone.” After a pause, she nods with a small sniffle. “…I’m not tired, so I’ll just… be in the ocean. I’ll be back tomorrow, maybe around noon, if that works?”
“Whatever you want to do,” she replies shortly, pulling out the house key and sliding it in. She then walks into the house, leaving him standing awkwardly on the steps.
“…Alright, then,” he mutters to himself, feeling an odd tension in his chest. He hated to leave things like this with Crystal, but she would still be there tomorrow when he got back. She even agreed that she needed alone time, so this was just the best way to deal with the huge revelation that had shattered his world.
Is it so wrong, he wonders as he jogs back toward the water under cover of darkness, for the thing that makes her so miserable, to make me so happy? I mean, I can’t really blame her- if I lost this part of myself… well, that would not be a joy ride, and I only just discovered my dragon side. She’s always had her dragon eyes, so some part of herself always knew. All I ever knew was that I loved the water. Thinking about the feeling of tapping into the dragon part of him causes an ache on his back. He jumps as he realizes his wings had started to emerge, shredding his shirt as they do so. Ahhhh shoot! Quickly shoving them back, he tears off his shirt. Luckily completely changing forms changed the clothes he was wearing too, but apparently if he did it partially, his clothes weren’t spared. Tossing the shirt to the ground, he continues jogging, his skin feeling hot as he craved the cold water to wash over him.
He reaches the edge of the city without warning and topples into the water less than gracefully, sending up a small splash. Diving far enough that he’s sure no one would see him from the city, even if they were looking for him, he shifts into his dragon form, trading his clothes for nearly impenetrable scales, a long tail shooting from his lower back. Letting loose a happy growl, he twists in the water and continues to dive. Despite not having huge flippers like the Kronogrix, he’s able to move shockingly quickly in the water, likely thanks to the aid of magic. His wings are surprisingly strong, considering their more wispy nature, helping to make quick turns in the water.
Floating along in an underwater current, he smiles a toothy dragon grin at the pure pleasure of it all. He seemed to have boundless energy as a dragon, and everything was easy to do. Movements happened at the speed of thought, and he could sense everything around him in a way he couldn’t dream of accomplishing as a human. To his right, five hundred yards out, was a small cluster of turtles. Below him, he could sense the plate fish, while above him swam tiny, silver fish traveling in large schools. He could feel the life around him, and the ocean was teeming with it.
As he swims with the countless forms of life, he loses all track of time, letting his worries drift away with it.
<<
By morning, my feelings are more balanced, but I still feel irritated and on edge. Ugh, I wish I could just turn it off. Why do I have to be irritated at everything? Why can’t I just move on and get over it? Why do things like this have so much control over me? Sighing, I reach over my bed and grab some clothes, sparing them only a glance to make sure they don’t clash. Staggering over to the bathroom, I stare at my puffy red eyes in the mirror, grimacing against a headache. I’d need to make sure to drink plenty of water today. I’m dehydrated from the hours of crying yesterday and last night.
When I join Hannah and Chester for breakfast, they give me confused faces. “Where’s Nathan?” Hannah asks, concern ringing in her voice. I realize I didn’t tell them about last night. What was I supposed to tell them? Nathan was choosing his dragon over comforting me? No, thank you.
“He needed some alone time, but he’ll be back around noon, he said,” I tiredly reply, purposely skipping any details. Like how he wasn’t here all night, leaving me to sleep alone in a room that felt strange without his comforting presence.
Glancing at each other, they nod understanding and hand me a bowl of grains, which I eat without complaint, hardly noticing its dull flavor. I mostly focus on drinking the cool water in my glass, thanking Hannah as she refills it. Again and again.
“Are you feeling alright, sweetie?” Hannah cautiously probes, sitting in the chair beside me.
“Just feeling exhausted from yesterday, I guess,” I reply, scooting the now empty bowl away from me, passively noticing the odd sound it made on the table.
“What are your plans for today?” Chester asks.
“I don’t know,” I slowly sigh. “I’ll probably stay here until Nathan gets back, then head back to finish up with the vendors at lunch.”
“Is there anything we can do to help while you wait?” Hannah asks, her voice sweet. “We can go over names again- of the King and his two sons, the Quagon money, or the things that live here.”
“Um… actually, I don’t remember much about the Watchers. What’s that again?” I ask, happy to move my focus to something other than my emotional pain.
“The Watchers are something fairly unique to Quagon,” Chester begins, “but likely only because they were somehow cut off from the other realms.”
“Cut off? After the realms split from the original one, or at the same time?”
“We don’t know much about the Watchers,” Hannah hesitantly replies. “So it’s all mostly speculation, but probably after. It could have something to do with the magic in some of the realms weakening; causing the realms to lose some of their connection to each other.”
“The Watchers are highly magical creatures themselves,” Chester continues. “They’re almost more of a physical representation of the magic woven into the realm than anything else. They can take the form of whatever pleases them, though their bodies appear to be made of fog, or mist, regardless of their chosen shape. They guard the realm from evil or destruction.”
“That’s amazing,” I murmur. “How many of them are there?”
“Well, that’s kind of the complicated part,” Hannah admits. “We may call them Watchers and refer to them as though there are more than one, but they stick together as though one being, so we can’t actually be sure if it’s one creature, or many. It’s rarely been seen, but when it… they… have been seen, it’s only in one place at a time. The Quagonians see it as a harbinger of destruction, but that’s more correlation, as they don’t cause the destruction, but show up to put an end to it, banishing whatever person or creature causing the destruction from the realm. Quagon will likely be the safest realm you visit, thanks to their presence.”
Thinking of King Thayre, who wants us dead just for being outsiders, and the Kronogrix that nearly killed us yesterday, I shake my head and chuckle. “Of course, it is,” I mutter under my breath.
And here I thought it was more dangerous here than First and Second Earths.
“We don’t want to alarm you for the other realms with that,” Chester adds, trying to comfort me. “Just try to enjoy your time here, alright?”
“Sure,” I sigh, sighing as I push the chair back and stand. “Nathan didn’t say where he wanted to meet me, but I don’t want to sit around here and wait for him. If he shows up, tell him I’m looking into the street merchants and getting lunch and to join me when he feels like it,” I instruct, pulling on a jacket as I walk toward the door. I don’t mean to go back in the water today, but everything here is water resistant anyway, including the jacket.
As I walk toward the ever-busy street, I can’t help but think about Nathan, flying beneath the waves as a dragon. Reveling in his time alone… as a dragon.
It’s an image I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to.
<<
Alyssa watches the sunrise with trepidation for the first time. I wonder if this day will be my last. The parent dragons were, after all, suspicious of her, and wary of having her near their clutch of eggs. Hence, her sleeping in the open rather than in their cave, with Eric as her guard. She couldn’t blame them, but she was still afraid of what might happen. She had no intentions of doing anything to their hatchlings, but s
he also knew that accidents happen. Should an accident happen with her involved… well, she knew the dragons were more likely to take her out than listen to her try to explain herself.
Glancing over at the heap of scales curled up beside her, she watches as the young dragon sleeps. Still… they are fostering a dragon that Crystal herself supposedly raised. They can’t be too set against humans. I also… believe Gale is trying to protect me. He wouldn’t send me to dragons who would kill me without a chance. She takes in a deep, cleansing breath of the fresh mountain air, returning her gaze to the sunrise. I can do this. I can learn to see the dragons a different way. Even if they aren’t actually trustworthy… I’ll do it so I can survive this. She considers what the dragons might decide should she make the transition they demanded of her. Would they let her go? Maybe, but they would send her to the Dragon family to be watched over, at best. At worst… she’d be kept to live with the dragons, forever under their watchful gaze… never seeing Hunter again… possibly being accidentally demolished by him in one of his attacks on the dragons.
Sighing, she lets her head hang, her shoulders slumped. She was signing up for a short lifetime either way, now caught in the middle of the war, not having a true claim on either side. If she was to survive being with the dragons and have a hope at a life, even if it was a life different than she’d ever wanted, she’d had to give up any claim on the Dragon Hunters. She was now truly alone.
“Not alone. You’re with us.” Startled, Alyssa spins to find the young dragon now awake and looking at her with his blue eyes.