“We’ll leave you to handle this, then,” Thomas said, nodding around them.
“No, wait. I’m sorry. Let’s talk about why you are here. Come back with us to the shelter, and we’ll discuss whatever it is you really came here to do.”
“I don’t think there is anything for us to discuss with you anymore,” Thomas said, before dropping his head.
“I have a feeling that not everyone in your party would agree,” he replied, nodding toward Kara.
Thomas sighed and looked at her. She knew that he would do what she wanted, because he knew this had been important to her. They had come all this way, and it would be a shame to go back home having learned nothing from their trip.
“Do you want to talk to these people, Kara?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said quietly, her voice almost a whisper.
“Then we will go back and let you do what you need to do,” he replied before turning toward Josh. “Josh, there is no reason for you and Barb to stay. If you want to get yourselves back to the hotel and make arrangements to go back home, then I support that notion fully.”
“Barb?” Josh asked, pulling her toward him. She shook her head solemnly as she spoke.
“I’ll not leave here without them, and I know you don’t want to either,” she told him.
“I don’t, but it is unfair to you to not give you a choice,” he said.
“Our choice is made then. We’ll stay here with Kara and Thomas.”
“All right then, some of the guys will take care of this little problem and we’ll get back to the shelter. We were nearby, following at a distance to be sure you left when we heard the shots and ran in, so we’re on foot. Might take too long to walk back in human form.”
“I agree. We’ll shift and meet you back here,” Thomas replied.
“And your human?” the man asked.
“Josh will give her a ride. He’s like a giant pet to her,” Thomas laughed, surprising them all with any sense of discernible humor in their current situation.
“Very well then,” he said, turning toward his men that were working on freeing the elephant. “Get that elephant free and just leave the tiger cages open like I said, then come back to the shelter.”
“What about the men?” one of them asked.
“Just leave them there. I’m sure someone will tip the rangers off anonymously, and they can try to figure out what happened to them. The trucks will trace back to someone and those rhino horns laying on the bed will be enough to resolve what they were doing here when some sort of animal got the best of them. Be careful, though. I doubt that those two managed this alone. There could be others lurking about somewhere if they haven’t had sense enough to get far away from here by now.”
“Will do,” the man told him, helping the others get the wide wooden planks they had found alongside the cage into place so they could coax the elephant down.
“How will he find his way home?” Barb asked, concerned about the young creature.
“His mother will hear his cries and come for him. This part of the sanctuary is bordered on three sides by water and on the other by an artificial wall that makes it inaccessible except by water or access from a gate built into the barrier, so she can’t be too far away. Hopefully, they didn’t harm her in the process of taking her baby.”
“If it’s closed off, how did they get in here?” Kara asked.
“Good question. One that they’ll have to sort out, no doubt. All right, let’s get going.”
With that, he and the remaining men shifted and went bounding off into the night. Kara, Thomas, and Josh followed suit, soaring quietly overhead with Barb perched on Josh’s back as they passed overhead, arriving at the shelter area well before the others.
“I wonder if there is any food left in the kitchen,” Thomas said.
“Seriously? How can you even think about food right now?” Kara asked.
“Hey, I didn’t get to finish my food earlier! I’m hungry!”
“You’re unbelievable,” she said with a little laugh.
“I know. You’re stuck with me, though,” he said.
“Not a chance. I can walk away any time I want,” she replied.
“Can you?” he asked, reaching out to stroke his hand across her belly.
“Oh, God. Do you think he is right about that? I mean, could I be?”
“I don’t know. I thought we’d been careful, but I guess we’ll have to find out when we get out of here. Are you upset about it if you are?”
“Not a chance,” she admitted, smiling up at him.
“You two should get a room,” Josh commented as he walked into the door.
He had been a little slower in flight so as not to lose Barb in the trip. It was harder to hold on if he went at his normal speed, and he usually had sort of a makeshift saddle for her to keep her from falling. It was something that Thomas poked endless fun at, but he had found his friend Owen appreciated that he had made him one, too, so that his wife, Amy, who was also human, could be safe if he wanted to take her out for flights above the water.
Chapter Twelve
“I’m sorry for the way we have behaved toward you,” Omar said as he entered the shelter a short time later.
“I can say that is something we agree on,” Josh replied in a snippy tone.
“Listen, you have to understand where we are coming from. We were once slaughtered on this land, and it took a great deal of time for us to make our way back here and take our rightful place. This used to be our land; now we only have use of it. When Khalib came home and told me that you were dragon shifters, I didn’t know what to make of it.”
“How did he know that?” Kara asked. “It is not as if we told him.”
“He could smell it on you. Your kind has a very distinctive scent. He knew that one of you was human and two were dragon shifters, but you were something different. Your scent was confusing to him, something that he had never detected before.”
“I am a dragon shifter just like Thomas and Josh,” Kara replied.
“No. You only think you are. You are a dragon shifter, but not like the other two that are with you. I’m not sure what you are either.”
“You sounded earlier as if you were saying that I’m pregnant. Perhaps, if that is true, you are sensing that as my difference.”
“No. A woman, shifter or not, has a very distinct smell when she is with child. It has nothing to do with her overall being. It’s more of a heightened odor. We attribute it to the increased richness in the blood as it nourishes her unborn. In your case, it is very strong. You might want to sit down for his next part, since it is now apparent that you didn’t know you were pregnant.”
“Sit down? Why?”
“Because you are expecting twins, and that is enough to make anyone woozy,” he laughed.
Kara did feel a bit lightheaded at the thought of having two children at once and immediately sat down in the nearest chair, looking up at Thomas as if he could do something about it.
“It’s not my fault,” he said with a smile.
“I believe that it might be,” she gasped.
“Congratulations. I think,” Omar told them.
Josh and Barb stood by, looking wide-eyed at the news. It was obvious that they were in just as much shock as the parents were. Finally, Barb broke the spell and announced that she was going to the kitchen to find what there might be to eat.
“Oh, no, we’ll take care of that,” Omar replied, motioning for one of the men with him to go to the kitchen. The man headed in that direction as Omar turned back to them. “Amur is a world-class chef. When he’s not running across the plains, chasing small animals for sport, he works in one of the top restaurants in the city. He’ll whip us all up something delicious.”
“I could stand it,” Thomas replied. “My meal was abruptly interrupted earlier.”
“Ah, yes. Once again, I’m sorry for that. Come, let’s sit down and discuss what it is you are doing here. Did you really just come down f
or the tour without knowing about us, or did you have ulterior motives?”
“Kara, do you feel up to taking this one?” Thomas asked her as he took a seat on the arm of the chair in which she had sat down.
Kara took a deep breath and told him the story of how she had come to be here and why. When she was done, he nodded his head solemnly and seemed to be lost for words for a moment, but then he began to speak.
“So, that is what happened to Khaleel. There were stories about him, tales that he had escaped, but no one knew where he had gone, and he was never seen again. Our ancestors told us they thought he was lost like so many of the others, but there were those that claimed to have seen him get away. Since no one ever saw him again, it was just assumed the tales were wrong.”
“Yes, they were wrong. He found great happiness in Ireland, but then it was taken from him. His only joy was his son, his little Tiogar, as he called him. Still, he died with a broken heart, thinking he had no family, and his one and only love was lost to him.”
“That saddens me greatly, but it also explains you. It is a special gift you have been given, the ability to shift into multiple animals.”
“What? No? I can’t shift into a tiger, only a dragon. It was explained to me that only the men in my family can shift into tigers. The women shift only into dragons. That is the way it works.”
“No. That is not the way it works. I’m afraid that young Khaleel, in being separated from his pride, did not learn the ways of our kind as many of us were allowed to do.”
“What do you mean? I think he would have known if his son or the women in his family could shift into other things. The fact that none of us ever have is proof of that.”
“No, my dear girl. It is proof of nothing. If you have only shifted into a dragon, it is because you have only tried to shift into a dragon. This is the reason it is forbidden in most shifter families to breed with shifters of another kind. The offspring are unpredictable, and thus, something to be feared.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When different species of shifters breed with one another, it creates a sort of mutation, and that mutation can take many forms. They may be more powerful. They may be faster. They may merely be more colorful or of an abnormal color, but they have one thing in common.”
“And what is that?” Thomas asked curiously, a hint of fear showing in his eyes, whether for himself, Kara, or their unborn, she couldn’t be sure. Perhaps for all of them.
“They can shift into any animal they choose.”
“That’s impossible. I told you. I can only shift into a dragon.”
“You only know how to shift into a dragon. You possess the ability to shift into whatever animal you choose. When you were old enough to shift, I am guessing that your parents told you that you were a dragon and taught you to shift into one. You do this by seeing yourself as a dragon, yes?”
“That’s correct.”
“Shifting into something else is still as simple as that, except you tell yourself to shift into a different animal. Do you want to try it?”
“What? Now? No, I can’t.”
“Don’t worry. You will be just as much in control of yourself as when you are a dragon, and it will not affect the babies.”
“Are you sure? I mean, how can you be sure?”
“Because you aren’t the only one.”
Kara stood and looked at him, glancing at Thomas uncertainly for a moment. He shrugged and nodded, an indication for her to do as she wanted. With the blanket still wrapped around her, she closed her eyes and imagined another animal. The blanket dropped into a pile, and Thomas looked frightened, reaching for it and yanking it upward to find a tiny hedgehog beneath it. He stared down at it, speechless.
“Hardly a good choice for fighting,” Omar remarked with a laugh.
Kara began to change again, returning to human form. She looked at him and laughed as she wrapped herself back up in the blanket.
“That was crazy, but I must be limited as to what I can change into,” she told him.
“Why do you say that?” Omar asked.
“I tried to switch from the hedgehog to a panther, and it didn’t work,” she replied.
“Only because your animal form lacks the ability to change into anything but human. In order to become a panther, you have to come back to your human form and then imagine yourself as one. You just can’t go from…” he began to say, but she was already ahead of him, her body contorting and hunching downward until she assumed the shape of a sleek, black cat.
“Well, this is going to get interesting,” Thomas said, still looking at her in disbelief.
“What is?” Josh asked as he and Barb returned from the kitchen where they had been helping the chef pick out food. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the panther.
“Relative of yours?” he asked Omar.
“As a matter of fact, yes. A distant cousin, apparently,” came the reply just as Kara shifted back into human form. She pulled the blanket back around her as the two of them stood looking at her in complete shock.
“Hey, guess what I just learned? It seems that I can shift into whatever animal I like,” she quipped.
“You’re shitting me,” Josh replied incredulously.
“I shit you not,” she laughed, shifting into a bear and causing Barb to scream before she thought about it. Kara quickly shifted back to human form as Barb clamped a hand over her own mouth.
“I’m sorry, Barb. I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she said, realizing she was out of breath.
“Oh, yeah. By the way, you don’t want to overdo how many different animals you shift into. It takes a toll on your strength, and you’ll end up shifting into a ferocious animal that is too tired to do anything but take a nap.”
“Got it. I see what you mean. I feel drained after just those few shifts. Quite the party trick though, eh?” she laughed.
“Oh, boy,” Thomas groaned, dropping fully into the chair now. “I think I might need a drink.”
“That can be arranged,” Omar told him.
Walking toward a cabinet that they had hardly even noticed, Omar unlocked it, opening the doors to reveal a fairly well-stocked bar for a ranger station.
“They allow drinking on the job with the rangers here?” Thomas asked in disbelief, though it obviously wasn’t the strangest thing he had witnessed today.
“No, we don’t give the rangers a key,” Omar laughed.
Barb turned down a drink, no doubt in solidarity with Kara, who they now knew shouldn’t be imbibing. The men had a couple while they waited on food, and then everyone sat down to eat a hearty stew he made from the leftover roast and some vegetables, along with some fresh bread that he felt the need to apologize for since he had used a quick mix.
“I didn’t have time to make the bread from scratch. It takes a while to rise properly. Not my best effort, working from leftover ingredients, but hopefully everything has a good flavor,” he said.
“It’s delicious,” Kara told him, enjoying the savory stew and the piping hot bread he had prepared.
“He’s just being modest. Even with leftovers, he is brilliant. You just can’t tell him that. Such a perfectionist!” Omar groaned.
The chef smiled and shrugged, dipping his spoon into his own bowl of soup. The conversation shifted toward family, with Omar telling Kara all about her relatives here and inviting them all to join them at his house unless they were still more interested in the safari.
“We honestly just came for the safari as an excuse to get to know some of you and find a way to break the ice,” Kara said bashfully.
“Right, and after the events of the last couple of days, I think I am not off the mark in saying we are all safaried out now,” Thomas laughed.
“Understandable. It’s been a bit of a comedy of errors, hasn’t it? We are usually more professional with our tours. I think part of it was being wary of why you were here, and part was just unexpected misfortune,” Omar replied.
“And part of it was leaving us to get out of the middle of nowhere by ourselves,” Josh added, obviously still not happy with the way they had been treated.
“Yes, there is that. I hope that you will believe me when I say that I am very sorry for the way we behaved,” Omar told him again.
“We’ll live,” Josh replied, stubborn to a fault.
“All right, well, I don’t know about the rest of you, I but I’ve had a long day. If you don’t mind, we are going to head back out to check on our crew with the poacher situation and make sure they are okay. I would have thought they would be back by now. Then, we’re going to head back home. I’ll make arrangements there for your stay.”
“You are going to leave us out here alone?” Thomas asked, seeming concerned again.
“Oh, no. Khalib will be back out and probably one of the others. In the morning, he’ll get you and all your gear out to the boat and bring you back in. I would say for you just to fly out, but the rangers will be full of questions that I don’t want to answer if you simply disappear.”
“Wouldn’t they have asked those questions before when we were going to fly out?” Thomas asked.
“Yes, but it is a bit different when you are gone and not sitting in my house when they look for you.”
“Makes sense, I guess,” Thomas replied.
“All right. Help yourselves to the liquor cabinet. I’ll leave you the key, and you can give it back when you come to the house tomorrow. Just make sure you lock it up before you leave.”
“No worries. You can go ahead and lock it now. I think we’ll probably just call it a night and get some sleep,” Thomas told him.
“Very well, if you are sure,” Omar replied.
“I am,” Thomas told him.
With that, he left, and only the chef remained. He excused himself to clean up the mess in the kitchen, gathering plates and glasses from their meal.
“Oh, let us help you with that,” Barb offered.
“Absolutely not. Guests should never have to clean up after their meal. Just relax, and I’ll get this cleared away. I apologize for a lack of a proper dessert, but there is some chocolate if you would like something sweet.”
Journey to India (Exiled Dragons Book 7) Page 7