Turning she looked up. Her eyes expanded. It started inside of her like she was touching a different sense and not one of the ones she heard of. It flowed through her body until it centered in her eyes. When she focused again, she saw an aerial shield covering the whole area.
“I believe that is what saved us.”
“What is it?”
“There was a time when the weather of the planet seemed to change. Our region was being hit with large balls of hail as well as debris coming from miles around as savage storms ravaged the planet. After one such storm, the king and the scientists got together and decided that we couldn’t take much more of that and survive. They came up with a solution of aerial defense. It would cover the city and the surrounding areas keeping much of the hail and debris out while still allowing the rain and the wind.
“When this war started, we decided to upgrade the shield to keep out anything that wasn’t natural.”
“The granules I see on the shield?”
“Are the remains of whatever they bombed us with that day. Over the centuries the substance has broken down.”
“Why do you believe so easily.? She allowed he frustration she was feeling to enter her voice. “You believe my story and you tell a convincing one. Why?”
“I was there Kisame. I might not know what came after, but I know what came before. I have something you don’t, history.”
It was the one thing she spent her life fighting for. If you didn’t understand what came before how could you be assured not to repeat the same mistakes? It was hard when you knew what the past mistakes were not to repeat them.
“It’s getting dark.”
“We’re almost to our destination. Do you see that tall building with the spiral on top?”
“I do, it’s rather stately and majestic. Not like the palace though.”
“You’re right. It’s a library. I thought you might enjoy spending some time there. Also, if any of my people are awake, I think we will find them here.”
She was a mix of emotions. To be given a chance to visit a library was amazing. The books, history. She was also scared that they may find others. Would they be as welcoming as the prince?
Rilan parked the vehicle high in the sky before opening the door. Her stomach kicked. She felt something or someone.
Chapter Six
Rilan led her through the door into a room filled with tables and chairs. Along the walls were stacks of books on shelves that seemed to go as high as the heavens. Her mouth opened wide, desire for knowledge blazing in her eyes. There was nothing like this in the world she came from. Everything was digitized. But it was more than that. They didn’t have this many books in their world.
“This is just the first floor.” He placed his hand on her giving her comfort in a surrounding that was foreign to her.
She wiped a tear from her eyes as the dust assaulted her. she wanted to laugh or dance through the aisles.
“You grew up with this,” the awe in her voice was thick.
“I did, but I didn’t appreciate it at the time.”
Kisame walked over to one of the shelves watching him to make sure it was okay. Her shaking hand touched the binding of a book. There was dust, but it didn’t crumble from her touch. Taking down the book like it held the secret of life in it, she opened it. It was a self-help book for the female dragon. She knew that scouring the shelves for history books made more sense, but self-help for the female dragon. How could she put it down?
Finding a seat, she half wiped at the dust and sat.
Help for the modern dragon. Chapter one: To mate or not to mate.
Every dragon and yes that includes males want to find their mate. There is no bond like it in society. That does not mean you will find your mate or that they have been born yet. You must come into your own allowing yourself to be happy as you are. When your mate arrives, then you will be ready for them.
You can also choose not to have a mate. Do not let society force you into something that may not be right for your life. Remember whatever your choice is you will have to live with it.
“Seriously?” Rilan was looking over her shoulder.
“What? There’s a chapter on shaving your legs as a dragon or not. I can’t wait to read it, but this is where I’m going next. Sex and the female dragon: does he satisfy you?”
“And that’s why I stayed away from the library. By the way, I will satisfy you, no book needed.”
Her cheeks flushed as she closed the book. some things were best read in private. A noise caught her attention.
“Rats?”
He frowned at her before he put his finger in front of his lips. He moved in the direction of the sound and she followed refusing to stay seated alone.
Every move she made sounded loud to her ears. Rilan moved with grace for a man who had been asleep for hundreds of years. Mate, the word whispered through her mind as she watched him flex. Beauty personified. Was he everything she had spent her life looking for?
His hand came back to stop her movements. What was she doing hiding behind him? They taught her self-defense for times like this. She tried to edge in front of him, to protect him. His movements stopped her.
Then a figure came rushing in from the front room. Rilan had a sword in his hand as he jumped to meet the figure. The sword clashed with another as the look on the intruder’s face went wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
“Prince Rilan?” The intruder dropped his arm, his sword falling from his bloodless fingers.
“Magnus!” Rilan greeted him with joy before he pulled him into a hug.
“My king!” Magnus sank to his knee effortlessly, bowing his head and bringing his hand to his heart. It was a show of fealty as old as time.
“Rise, Magnus, you know I never cared that much about social norms, now they are not even on my horizon.”
Magnus stood his eyes going to Kisame. He took a step closer and scented the air.
“Right, but wrong,” he muttered. “Yes, but no. Almost, not quite.”
Rilan placed himself between Kisame and Magnus. “Magnus allow me to introduce my mate to you, Kisame.”
“My queen!” He went to his knee again giving her the fealty due to her position.
“Please stand.” Queen? She mouthed at Rilan. He smiled back but said nothing.
“How is it that you are awake?” Rilan asked Magnus.
“My mate, I thought I caught her scent calling me to wake up. When I did, I could not find her.”
“Did you search for her?”
“I did, but she was not here. I have scoured every part of the kingdom.”
“Have you left our territory?”
“Only to hunt.”
“You have food?”
Kisame tuned in at the mention of food. Her rations wouldn’t last much longer if she had to try to feed three people from them.
“I do follow me.”
They walked through several bookshelves until they came to a lift. They went down instead of up. When it let them off, they were in a large kitchen.
“The library has a kitchen?” Rilan arched a brow as he looked around.
“How often did I tell you to spend more time here?” Magnus laughed as he led them over to a table. “All the food is fresh. I have salad, but no dressing.”
“Dressing?” Rilan asked.
“That is what they call it now. We called is autue.”
“Aww.” They sat at a large wooden table that was surrounded by eight chairs. The once yellow walls were crumbling with time. The gleaming white floor was several shades of brown. It did show signs of having been swept and even mopped. Age caught up with you eventually.
“I also have venison.”
“Venison?” Kisame said a frown on her face.
“You call it deer.”
“We can’t eat that. It’s against the law.”
“No wonder the deer herds are so plentiful,” Magnus said as he crossed to the refrigerator.
“Why is it against
the law?” Rilan asked.
“It just is, has always been.”
“Think Kisame, there had to be a reason. Why is eating deer against the law?”
She stopped to try to figure it out. When she was a teenager, she asked about it once, because others spoke of the forbidden food. Her mother had told her that sometimes man made laws that made no sense. That this was one of them. They were afraid of the wildness of the food would trigger something deep within them. At the time she laughed with her mom thinking it was funny, but now she wasn’t sure.
“It’s wild. In order to protect who we are, we can’t succumb to the wildness of land or beast,” she told them in a soft voice.
“They deny the dragon and fear that something like food will awaken it in some of their people.” Magnus supplied as he placed steaks on to cook.
“Do you need any help?” Kisame asked hoping to move the conversation in a different direction.
“Stay seated my queen, I have this.”
She gave a huff. She was no one’s queen. She could hear her father’s derisive tone as he told her she wasn’t a queen. Her mother's voice was bright in her mind as she told her how proud of her, she was. None of it was real just a fantasy. Were Rilan and Magnus fantasies like her mother and father’s voices?
She drifted wondering what life used to be like. The smells of the venison made her stomach growl. She hadn’t eaten anything for pleasure in months as she trained for being in the field. When Magnus put a leafy salad and the meat in front of her, she had to wipe her mouth to keep from drooling.
“It looks good.” She hesitated to take a bite. Could she break a rule that was part of the very foundation of her life?
Magnus went to speak, but Rilan raised his hand watching her. She took several bites of her salad before using her knife and fork to cut into the meat. Closing her eyes, she placed a bite in her mouth. The tang of the spices mixed with the wildness of the venison assaulted her senses making them tingle. She took a second bite waiting to become some feral animal that had to be put down.
Instead, her taste buds along with her stomach said thank you in marvelous ways.
“I’m still me,” she said, awe in every word.
“Food will not change you unless it has been changed first. That change can come through poisoning or even processing all the nutrients out. Venison is wild but will not make you wild. Either you’re able to access your dragon or you’re not.”
“How do you know how to access your dragon? Are you born a dragon? Do you come from eggs? We don’t hatch.”
“Yes and no. A doctor would be helpful about now. There are books you can look up later. Every dragon was hatched, in the beginning, females laid eggs. When males became affected by whatever illness that kept them from reaching for their dragon, females began to give birth differently. Instead of laying an egg the egg formed inside of them and hardened until it was time for the child to be born. Once the child was born then the eggshell would pass.”
“Enough, that sounds painful.”
“How do women give birth now?”
“Like everyday human women. We get knocked up, carry the child for nine months then he or she comes out, no shells involved.”
“And if one of those children is a dragon?”
“Why would they be?”
“Excellent question. I have another for you. What will happen when your people find out that the dragons are still here?”
“Invaders. They will see you as the invaders they have been warned about and eradicate you.” Her tone was sad, but she knew she spoke the truth. The minute her father found out there was someone here, he would have their territory bombed. It would not survive this time.
“Look around you. You are in a place of history. We can prove who we are.”
She did look, her heartbeat picking up as she thought of the books upstairs. Then she thought of the pitiful few books that they had.
“We are not taught to relish the past or even have any interest in it. No one is taught the care of books or that reading is a respectful pastime. Your books will mean little if no one reads them.”
Magnus took their plates and began cleaning them. “Tomorrow I will take you to my main base of operations. It will allow you to get a look at the new versions of ourselves that inhabit the planet.”
“Why not tonight?”
“I detected a change yesterday. That is why I am here looking for a book that might help me understand.”
“A change?”
“Darkness. I know that sounds like the beginning of a spooky story, but I have no other word for it. As long as I have been awake there has been nothing in our territory’s. Not even an insect. Yesterday I felt a darkness reach for me.”
“That may be what I was experiencing earlier. That thing that called to me and tried to pass itself off as you.”
“How long have you been awake?” Rilan asked him.
“Ten plus years.”
“I’m going to explore the books. Which direction is history?” Magnus pointed her in the right direction. She left them alone to talk. The more time she spent with Rilan and now Magnus, she knew her life would never be the same.
How was she going to explain him to her father? How could she allow him to be destroyed? She couldn’t, it had only been a day, but the more she was with him, the more it felt right. It felt like she waited her life moving around in a vague fog until she met him. She was already used to him. She perked up when he walked into a room. His laugh made her light up.
Mate. She didn’t believe in them, did she?
Chapter Seven
The back seat of the dragon mobile was covered in books they found last night. Each wanted the books with them for different reasons. Her books consisted of history, but she picked up several romances as well as some on contemporary society. Rilan smiled when he saw her choices but said nothing.
“Are there many types of dragons?” Magnus was flying in front of them. His dragon reminded her of the fire breathing kind. The ones found in fairy tales with the evil dragon keeping the pure princess as a hostage.
“Not that many. Man has more skin colors than dragon forms. Since royalty tends to be passed down most of us have been a wyvern, but not all. No one knows who their mate will be.”
“What do you mean skin color?”
“You did notice that Magnus has dark brown skin?”
“Yes, I didn’t want to comment on the fact that he was dying.”
“What? He’s not dying.”
“Anyone with that color skin dies. He has at most ten days left. You don’t think it was due to the venison we ate last night? I didn’t think about that.”
“I assure you his skin color has nothing to do with dinner.” They came into another building that was towering in the sky. A landing pad came out as they approached. Rilan parked there.
“Some of us weren’t forced to live in the palace,” Rilan said as they entered the glass doors.
“I feel so sorry for you, not,” Magnus replied. “My queen make yourself at home and ignore my king.”
Kisame gave him a smile and then moved into the room. It was large and airy. The furniture was large, made for men that were heavier than they may look.
“I love your place.” There were pictures on the wall that looked like they could be family.
“Those are my parents and that’s my sister.” His voice sounded a bit waterlogged.
“Did they die of the same disease that you have?” She noticed that even with age they all looked different shades of brown.
“Excuse me?”
“Magnus please tell Kisame how old you are.”
“I don’t rightly know. Before I lost time, I was over a thousand years old.”
Her mouth dropped open. “How long have you been that color?”
Magnus stopped to look at Rilan. “What are you talking about? I was born this color.”
“That’s impossible,” Kisame interjected. “Anyone not born the color of
my skin dies as an infant.”
“What?”
“It’s a genetic disease. Any child who is not born the standard color dies. The doctors and scientists have done their best to find a reason.” She shook her head as sadness came over her. “I had a sister, but she was born different and died. I remember looking at her. No matter what my mom did she died.”
“How was she different?”
“Her eyes slanted. They said it was my mom’s fault because she wouldn’t do genetic counseling.”
“Queen Kisame our planet has always been diverse with the people who live here.” Magnus stalked out to the vehicle they arrived in. He came back holding a book. “Take a look at this. This book talks about the different people who live on earth as well as different dragons.”
The first people she encountered had reddish skin and dark hair. They stood tall and proud. She dropped onto the couch and began to read. She didn’t come up for air until she devoured the whole book.
“I don’t understand.”
“Genetic manipulation, natural selection with the help of man. Genocide, have you ever heard that word? You are making sure the traits you don’t want to acknowledge don’t show up. How did you get those eyes? They are the pinnacle of being a dragon.”
“My mom. She wouldn’t let them manipulate my DNA. She didn’t believe in it. My mom didn’t believe in a lot of things. Can I use the restroom?”
Rilan stood and led her through a hallway until they reached it.
“Thanks.” She needed a break or maybe a do-over. Is this what she was looking for? She was so sure that she would find answers that were being covered up if she came here. But this, this is too much. If she listened to them then her society, her whole way of life was built on a lie. If she listened to them, children were being killed every day.
No, not every day. Most people agreed to have their DNA manipulated for that very reason. No one wanted to hold a child and watch them die in their arms. Every time a child died it was nationally reported on. Every citizen was required to watch that poor child, those helpless parents lose what they loved most.
The Dragon's Mate (Ancient Dragons Book 1) Page 4