A Dragon's Mind: A New Adult Fantasy Dragon Series (The MINATH Chronicles Book 1)

by A. L. Tippett

  "Little brother, you look well." Her voice was full of pride and her eyes shone with affection for Arius.

  Arius nuzzled her back. "It is good to see you too, sister." He blew a gentle puff of smoke towards her.

  "Son." A crisp nod from the second dragon was all the notice he was given as his father folded his golden wings tightly into his body.

  Arius nodded curtly back.

  The black dragon seemed to materialise out of the gloom, his colour blending with the night. He snaked his head forward, his teeth bared in a menacing grin. "Hello, little brother."

  "Desamor, it is good to see you." It seemed to Sera that Arius was hiding a layer of sarcasm in his greeting.

  Desamor snorted. "Just as it is good to see you, I am sure."

  She shuddered. This creature was more like the type of dragon she had expected when she first met Arius. His thinly veiled aggression made her skin crawl.

  Would you please stop it? Your fear is very distracting. Arius' voice rang in her mind, but no sound came from his mouth.

  Sera started at the unexpected contact before scrambling to exit from his consciousness, but only succeeded in tangling herself up further. She continued to struggle to extract her mind from his but couldn't find the way out.

  Just be quiet and don't do... whatever it is that you're doing.

  She stilled and tried to make herself into a small ball in the back of his mind, so as not to disturb him.

  "Arius, my dear one, you seem far away. Are you all right?" His sister cocked her head as she scrutinised him.

  “There had better be a good reason you have broken the terms of your banishment, Arius.” The golden dragon’s voice was severe as he peered down his snout in disdain.

  "Thank you for your concern, Aliah, I am fine, but I have come seeking guidance." Arius paused and began pacing, trying to explain the situation clearly. "I requested this meeting with all of you to discuss an issue that has me confused as to what the right course of action is. I was hunting near the Mandar Ranges two nights past when I sensed a foreign mind enter my own.”

  The three dragons shifted uneasily at his words, and his sister asked, “What were you doing so far east?”

  “I normally don’t fly so close to that Goddess-forsaken city, but I was following up on a tip from a Lynx. When I felt my mental defences had been breached, I followed the magic trail and came across a human woman. She appears to have no knowledge of what she did or how she did it. She did not attack me or try to take control, but I don’t understand how she entered my mind without force. I have taken her captive and am holding her in my cave at present. Before I decide on whether to allow her to return home, I would ask your opinions on the matter.”

  Talegar eyed Arius almost lazily as he used a talon to pick at his teeth. “You don’t think your ability to shield your mind has simply become weak over the years of your exile?”

  A quiet growl rumbled from Arius’ chest at his father’s jibe. “No. I am as strong as I ever was, both in body and mi—” An invisible force smashed into his consciousness, cutting him off mid-sentence. He bared his fangs and threw up his defences. Sera huddled low behind the wall he had created in his mind to stop the attack. As quickly as it had begun, the attack stopped.

  “I see you tell the truth.” Talegar flared his wings slightly, seeming annoyed at not being able to gain access into his son’s mind.

  Desamor spoke then. “If his mind isn’t weak, and the human gained access as he claims, then she poses a distinct threat to our kind. We must protect ourselves and remove the danger.”

  Aliah interrupted him. “Brother, we cannot decide here and now on the woman’s fate. We must speak with her.”

  “But if she has access to his thoughts, who is to say she doesn’t have access to his secrets… our secrets! We have no time to lose! We must attack now!” Desamor growled, his tail whipping from side to side in agitation.

  Arius snarled at his brother. “She deserves a fair trial at the very least!”

  Talegar watched his children bicker between themselves for a few moments more before loosing a deep-throated roar. “Enough. Arius, you will keep the human contained for the time being. See what you can learn of her abilities over the next few days. We three will travel to you and meet her following the setting of the next full moon. We will ascertain the truth, observe her abilities and pass judgement. If you deign to ignore my instructions, you will suffer the consequences. And I swear to Caelhi, if you choose not to heed my command, I will make you miss your days in exile.”

  Without waiting for a response, Talegar leapt from the mountaintop and disappeared into the storm. Aliah cast a sad glance back at Arius before she too took off. Desamor crouched in preparation to leap into the sky but first flung a contemptuous scowl towards his younger brother. His piercing eyes shone with a deep-seated hatred that left Sera reeling. She felt herself being sucked backwards, out of Arius’ mind and back into her regular dreams.

  Chapter Ten

  A peculiar chittering sound roused Sera from her slumber. Opening her eyes, she observed the pink light of dawn dust the world in a rosy hue. Glancing through her prison bars towards the back of the cavern, she noted that Arius hadn’t returned from his hunt yet. The cave echoed with the noise again. Somewhere between giggling and shrieking; she recognised the call of a night scamp. The noise amplified as more night scamps joined in. She looked up to find the vicious little creatures crawling down the wall of the cave towards her. The claws on the end of their leathery wings dug into the rock as their round, voluminous eyes fixated on her. Their disproportionately large ears constantly swivelled, ensuring they were rarely surprised by would-be attackers. The night scamps were only small, but they travelled and hunted in large colonies of a hundred or more. This meant that, even though their sharp, needle-like teeth were tiny, when the colony attacked they could strip the flesh off their prey in minutes.

  Sera remembered her training on night scamps well; the best way to deal with them before they attacked was to blow a high-pitched whistle. Their massive ears kept them safe from predators but were also a weakness to be exploited as they couldn’t stand any shrill noise. All Trackers and Hunters were equipped with a whistle as part of their standard survival kit. Unfortunately, it was still in her backpack at her campsite. She knew from her studies that the next best thing was fire. The bonfire Arius had lit before leaving was dwindling as it devoured the last of the logs. In any event, she couldn’t reach it from her cage. So, there was no hope of help there either. She frantically flicked her eyes around, hunting for anything she could use as a weapon. Her eyes fell on the heavy metal water pitcher Arius had left with her. Very slowly, she edged towards it, careful not to make any sudden moves. She wrapped her fingers around the handle and, ever so cautiously, rose to her feet, never taking her eyes off the night scamps. The closest one was only a few metres away from her now, with the rest of the colony close behind it. Their chittering rose into a crescendo before abruptly going silent. They had all stopped deathly still, and a hundred pairs of eyeballs glowered at her. All that Sera could hear now was her panicked breathing and her racing heartbeat pounding in her ears. She tightened her grasp on the pitcher, ready to swing it when they attacked, knowing it was futile. One blunt weapon was no match for thousands of savage little fangs.

  In the blink of an eye, the colony launched as one and flew down to attack her. The night scamps had to break formation to manoeuvre through the rib cage that surrounded her, giving her a chance to fight them in a more disjointed group than she would have if she were out in the open. Wildly swinging her makeshift weapon, the heavy jug connected with several little bodies. Their lifeless forms fell broken to the floor, causing their comrades to shriek in anguish. She screamed as she swung her arm, praying that her piercing yell would affect their hearing as well. They continued their violent assault on her and the skin on her forearm started to tear. A wild little scamp had clamped down on her arm and hung on desperately as she
tried to shake him off. Unable to dislodge the creature, she dashed her arm against the closest rib, killing the creature instantly. His teeth were buried so deeply in her flesh that he stayed lodged in place, fierce even in death. More night scamps fell to her heavy blows with the jug, but many more were there to take their place. She could feel the cruel slice of their sharp teeth all over her body and knew it wouldn’t be long now before they found an artery. She would be damned if she gave up without a fight though, a mantra her father had instilled in her from a young age.

  She directed all her energy to taking out as many of the scamps as she could, her world shrinking to the small bubble of chaos around her, so it was a great surprise when a stream of fire blazed above her head. Charred frames fell out of the air, while the rest of the scamps screeched and attempted to fly away. Another jet of flames destroyed any hope of escape for them. Sera looked around in a daze, still clutching her pitcher, and saw him; Arius, in all his glory, wings fanned open in aggression, fire spewing from his maw, with the sun rising behind him. She had been so sure death was near that she nearly collapsed from relief. Reaching out a taloned hand, he deftly scooped her out of the ribcage and placed her softly down beside the stream.

  Worry clouded his features as he asked, “How serious are your injuries?”

  As the adrenaline of the fight began to wear off, Sera assessed the damage to her body. “It hurts, but it’s not life-threatening.”

  Baring her teeth in a silent snarl, she began working the scamp’s small body back and forth, slowly prising its fangs from her arm. She cringed as she felt its fragile bones snap under the pressure from her fingers. Throwing its crushed body away, she winced as she lowered herself into the stream and began gently washing her injuries. Gritting her teeth, she hissed in pain as the water washed over her wounds. She knew she had to clean them if she was to avoid any of them getting infected. It was hard to watch as her shredded skin wafted in the stream.

  “Are you all right?” Apprehension rolled off him in waves, but she wasn’t in the mood to deal with his unwelcome concern.

  “I’m pissed off, actually.” She glared at him. “I nearly died from a simple night scamp attack because I didn’t have any way to protect myself or anywhere to hide. It’s your fault that I am so helpless I could have been taken out by those little bastards. I need my knife. I need my rifle.” She groaned as the pain obscured her ability to check her words. “I need my old life back! It wasn’t anything special, but it was mine. I at least had some semblance of control. I wish I had never decided to go camping. I wish I had never met you! You ruined everything.” Tears leaked from her eyes and she fiercely dashed them away, frustrated to show weakness in front of a dragon.

  “Are you quite done?” Arius’ voice was an icy rumble, threatening to consume her like a winter’s storm, the earlier concern for her wellbeing expired.

  She turned away from him and refused to answer, petty as the action might be, as the blood seeped out of her torn flesh.

  Arius snaked his head forward until his right eye hovered directly in front of her face. “The way I see it,” he mused, “is that you should be thanking me.”

  “Thanking you!” Sera exclaimed and tried to leap up, but the pain in her body prevented her. With a splash, she thumped back into the stream and wiped her tear-stained cheeks. “Why in the name of Ghaia should I be thanking you?”

  “Well, I did save your life,” came the smug response.

  Sera opened her mouth to argue and closed it again. She frowned sullenly as the slitted pupil in the emerald iris filled her vision. “Technically, yes. You did save my life. But I wouldn’t have needed saving if you had left my weapons with me. Or better yet, if you had left me alone in the first place.”

  Arius turned his head so he faced her. “I will apologise for taking you against your will. However, I still stand by the fact that I believed you were a threat. Try to see it from my point of view. If you were Tracking a mythic and stumbled across someone acting abnormally, would you not report it to your Hunter?”

  Sera sighed begrudgingly. He has a point, I suppose.

  Chapter Eleven

  Arius moved his snout forward and gently pressed it against her chest. She gasped at his touch. A low hum rumbled in his throat as he closed his eyes and froze in that position. Sera marvelled at his great head, her injuries momentarily forgotten. The power he exuded was almost overwhelming. The copper scales covering his jaws shone in the morning light as if lit from within. Reaching up, she placed her hands on his skin. The warmth that flooded her from the contact made her heart pound and her breath hitch. It was a surreal moment in time, one that she could have never imagined, even in her wildest dreams. How could she regret meeting him? She caressed his cheek, running her hands over him, awestruck by his magnificence. He exhaled softly and opened his eyes, contemplating her for a moment more before withdrawing. The loss of their physical connection hit Sera like a brick wall, and she tried to hide her face as tears spilled unbidden onto her cheeks once more.

  This isn’t right. I am not upset about him pulling away. My cuts hurt, that’s all it is. The pain worsened as she returned her attention to the lacerations covering her body. Keeping her eyes lowered, Sera murmured, “Thank you, Arius. If you hadn’t arrived when you did, I don’t think I…” she shivered, unable to finish the sentence, knowing how close to death she had come. “I’m… sorry. That I lashed out. I don’t regret meeting you.”

  “I too am relieved I made it back in time,” he murmured, eyeing her tattered flesh.

  “If only I had my backpack,” she cringed again from the pain, “I have a poultice in it that would accelerate the healing process and halt any infection.”

  At that, Arius briskly turned away from her and padded quickly past the large boulder that hid the mysterious opening. When he reappeared, something brown and bulky hung from his mouth by straps.

  “My backpack!” Sera exclaimed. She glared at him. “You lied to me! I thought you said you didn’t find it?”

  Dropping the backpack on the floor, Arius shuffled his feet sheepishly. “Well… technically, I did not lie. It was not I who found it. A friend of mine did, and he gave it to me. Therefore, not a lie. I simply decided not to tell you the whole truth. The important thing is that you have it now.”

  She frowned at him sternly, then dropped her shoulders in defeat, unable to hold onto her anger any longer. He had saved her life, after all. She grimaced as she struggled out of the stream and shuffled over to the bag and quickly pawed through the contents. Finding the white container of Heal, she liberally applied the cream to the lacerations on her legs, arms, neck and torso. She sighed in relief as the healing balm took effect. It should only take a day or two for the cuts to mend now, with little chance of infection.

  “That is intriguing,” said Arius. “I can see your poultice is already mending your wounds. Is that not magic?”

  “No, but I can understand why you would think so. Our alchemists’ abilities are very impressive. We don’t have magic, so we utilise technology and science to keep the balance of power even between mythics and humans. Our alchemists develop weapons and medicine that allow us to complete our missions with minimal loss of life on either side.”

  A nasty little voice inside her wondered if she was giving away too much information to a mythic that she hadn’t known still existed until a few days ago.

  The path to peace lies in trust. There will never be true peace if one of us doesn’t take the first step.

  “Fascinating,” he said then paused, as if contemplating whether to tell her a secret. “I imagine I must have given you quite a fright.” The tip of his tail twitched, and he sighed before continuing, “In truth, you have frightened me. When I sensed your presence in my mind that first night, I had no idea who, or what you were. That has never happened to me before. I pride myself on my ability to shield my thoughts from any creature who attempts to broach my mental defences. And you...” he looked at her with a tr
oubled gaze, “you were just there. There was no attack, no hint of you attempting to enter, when without warning you could see what I saw, feel what I felt. I could feel you with me but I was helpless to stop you. You have great power and you don’t even know of it. Which worries me even more. What could happen with your power unchecked and untrained? Having gotten to know you a little more, you don’t seem particularly threatening. However, if another human were to discover your talent, they may try to manipulate you, and then all of dragonkind would be at risk.” He scrutinised her for a moment. “It may not be limited to dragons either. All of the mythics could be in danger if you were to take advantage, or be taken advantage of by the wrong human.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “Why are we limiting the danger of my manipulation to humans? If you think I have such great power over the mythical world, which, side note, I don’t think is the case, couldn’t a dragon take control of me?”

  Arius’ tail flicked like a whip as he rounded on her. “How dare you suggest that? No dragon would ever stoop so low. We are not a lesser class of intelligence who are obsessed with selfish goals of controlling the world.”

  Her cheeks flushed with fury at his insinuation. “Really? How dare I? How about how dare you? To suggest that humans are a lower form of intelligent life whose only goal is to take over the world. I can’t believe you.”

  She stormed away from him, towards the mouth of the cave. Standing legs apart, arms folded, she stared unseeing into the clear sky. She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. A little voice in her head reminded her of Tyler’s past actions.

  Technically, when it came to Tyler, Sera knew that Arius’ suggestion of danger was a real threat. He could manipulate any situation to work in his favour. Whether that was bribing an MRO employee to look the other way, or by using his well-known family name to sway the thoughts of a government official to be in line with his desires, Tyler knew how to influence others. She just didn’t want Arius to think the worst of the human race as a whole.