by Jadyn Chase
What’s more, she didn’t like the idea of having him in her life only part of the time; it wasn’t what she had ever expected from a relationship. But she didn’t know how to say that without sounding whiny.
He almost sighed, and used what little patience he had to address her question. "It will not be a place for us to live. It will be a fortress. A place where we can defend ourselves and our mates, who will be living down here in the sun and warmth.
Adam stood very tall and cast his gaze over all of them. "I remember how some humans built places where they would watch for attacks and keep their weapons close at hand. You called them 'bases.'"
It was hard to argue with that. "Yes. I know that," said Rose, with a sigh. "But the threats are gone now. There is almost no chance that there are any humans left who could do any of us any harm. The power grid is all but gone. The satellites – the GPS – the Internet – it's all wiped out. Our weapons and troops can hardly work at all without all that backing them up – at least, not for long. So why – "
Adam had an odd look on his face. Rose realized with a start that she had never seen him smile, but it seemed that he was attempting to smile now. "Rose, there are still some weapons who are preparing to take over this new world. The weapons who are perfectly suited to do exactly that."
She suddenly knew what he meant. "But – but the other dragons went far away from here. I thought all of you agreed about which part of the world each group would take!"
"We did. But that was only to get away from your base and resettle ourselves. It is only a matter of time before we see the others. They will be looking for us. And we will be looking for them."
Rose began to feel more afraid than she had been since they arrived – even when flying up towards the top of Mt. Everest, even when falling down past it from The Diamond's back. "Are you saying," she whispered, "that even with an entire planet to divide up amongst ninety-eight dragons, you still want to fight each other?"
"Only one group of dragons will rule. It will not be long before the three groups are ready to determine which one it will be. There is only one way to settle a question like that."
Chapter 14
"So," she whispered, "you and your dragons intend to build a base – a fortress – from which to fight The Sapphires and The Obsidians."
"When they come, we will have an impenetrable fortress up on the mountain you call Everest. Not even the other dragons could ever break in there, for we will see them coming long before."
"So, to answer my own question," Rose said, very quietly, "the world has ended and all of you just want to fight. I'll never understand."
Adam just smiled again. He seemed to be getting better at it. "Dr. Morgan," he said, and she felt a chill as he used her formal title, "do you not recall that you, and all of the others at the base, built us as weapons? That that was our sole purpose for existence? We were meant to be the most formidable weapons you could manage to create and you succeeded very, very well. I am not sure why you should be unhappy about that now."
"But – but one of the reasons for creating the dragons was your adaptability," Rose said, determined to keep trying. "You have minds and hearts and souls. Planes and bombs do not. You can understand. You can change and adapt!"
"And so we are changing and adapting," said Adam. "We have adapted very well to our new world already. We have even learned about the limitations of our human mates and learned how to keep our mates safe."
"Yes. You have. And we are grateful for your care." Rose meant what she was saying. "But surely you want to live? Surely you want to see what you can make of yourselves in your new world? Surely you don't want to see dragonkind lost, the way almost everything else has been lost since the asteroid?"
He cocked his head again, looking out over the crowd of Dragonmen and their mates. "You seem to have forgotten one important thing. We are expendable. You made us that way. You built it right into our genes."
"Expendable? What are you talking about? The dragons were tremendously valuable to us. All of them!"
"Yes, Dr. Morgan, and part of our great value was because we could be so easily replaced. It sounds contrary, but not when you think about it for a moment.
"We became interchangeable. One dragon, especially of the same type, was as good as another. We could simply be replaced if we died, and replaced far easier and more cheaply than building another flying machine. But those machines were not alive. As long as their pilots survived, the machines didn’t matter. If they were destroyed, they could be rebuilt. Expensive, yes. But only in money and other material things."
Rose closed her eyes.
"Two of my children have already died," said Adam. "You knew that we would die. Many of us. Perhaps all of us. But you also knew that you would always have your gene banks ready at hand to create more, and more, and more – as many of us as you might ever need."
"You created us as weapons, Rose. Cheap, expendable weapons. So perhaps you should not be so surprised that that is exactly what we are. Maybe you should have thought of that long ago."
Beginning that afternoon, all of the women tried to concentrate solely on building their own world right here on this beach. They fully intended to let no one and nothing stop them.
They separated out different sections of the beach for each of the dragons and their mates, intending to build some sort of proper houses there later on. They left room at the center for a gathering place that was open to all. And they began searching through the fields and examining everything that grew in this place, to see what they could gather and store and eat.
It was a good place that the dragons had found for them. From the beach, they could easily spot dolphins and something that could only be some sort of whale. The dragons had already brought them excellent Bluefin tuna. They would have no shortage of food here.
But even as they worked, all of the women – Rose and Ellie, especially – could not keep from scanning the horizon and looking for any sign of the other two groups of dragons. Every passing bird could be one of the Sapphires or one of the Obsidians.
Although they were relatively safe now, Rose felt more nervous than ever. Was this to be their life, from now on? Frightened and on guard for every moment of every day? Perhaps things would eventually change . . . but right now, none of the women knew how to change anything.
The dragons had all the power now.
Early the next morning, most of the women were working together along the edge of the grassy plain where it met the sandy beach. They were continuing their task of taking samples of every plant they could find and trying to determine what they could eat and what they could cultivate. Their collection was getting larger, and Rose actually found it a pleasant and useful job that would certainly benefit their little colony.
It also gave the women a chance to talk amongst themselves. "You're looking pretty happy today, Rose," said Ellie, giving her a little nudge with her elbow as she walked past. "Nice night?"
Rose grinned and ducked her head. "You’re look pretty happy yourself."
"Yeah. I'm surprised how good I feel, considering it's the end of the world. And we might as well face it – we both know what we're talking about because they're clones of each other."
Rose sighed. "It's pretty weird, but that's the way it is. So I guess you've seen, too, that – that they're kind of hard to get close to."
She didn't have to tell Ellie twice. "Yeah. I know what you mean. They're like nothing else when it comes to the physical, but they're not very lovey-dovey."
"I don't know that they'll ever change," said Rose. "I'd like to reach him, but it may just be something we have to live with. They are dragons, after all."
"They sure are."
But the women had not been out there long before they all stopped and froze at the sounds of a huge uproar from back at the camp. Running a short way down the beach, the women all saw that while three guard dragons hovered over them, waving their heads and beating their wings, the other twenty
-nine Dragonmen seemed to be having an enormous fight out in the center of the little campsites on the beach.
A few of Dragonmen did wear coverings of some sort, mostly just short, woven, kilt-like garments that their women had made for them; but most were still naked, and none of them cared. Right now, there was nothing short of a huge full-blown brawl taking place on the beach, as the men paired off and fought each other with punches, kicks, and wrestling moves designed to overpower an opponent.
Rose believed she saw Adam at the side of them, trying his best to break it up. It was obvious to him, as it was to the women, that all of these Dragonmen were going to kill each other if they weren't stopped. But he was having no luck, and even when he succeeded in breaking up one match, the combatants would go right back to it once he turned his attention to the next pair.
Finally Adam stepped back and signaled to one of the hovering dragons. Immediately that dragon raised his head high and breathed a huge jet of fire right over the heads of all the fighting Dragonmen.
That got them to stop. That dragon, and the other two, began slowly flying back and forth. They were clearly ready to breathe fire again if Adam signaled them, and all the Dragonmen knew it. Finally they stood in silence and glared at Adam, breathing hard and brushing the sand off of themselves.
The women stood crowded together and stayed well away from the Dragonmen, just watching. "What are they fighting about?" whispered Ellie. "Us? I thought that was settled!"
"No, they're not fighting over us," said Rose. "They're fighting over who's going to lead them."
"But – isn't Adam in charge? He's The Diamond."
"Yes. But that was back at the base. It's different now. Now choosing the leader is up to them. You saw what Ice was like, the night he tried to take over Adam’s spot on the beach."
With the three guard dragons just above him, Adam faced the crowd of angry Dragonmen. "Since you are all going to challenge me anyway, and probably destroy yourselves in the process, I will save you the trouble. I will give us all a test, and the winner will be our leader. It will be fast. It will be simple. It will be brutal. And it will give us an answer."
"What is the test?" shouted a few of them. "What is the test? What is it?"
Rose was chilled by the way they still sounded like roaring dragons, even when in human form.
"We will begin right away. As soon as all of us can shift into dragon form. Then we will fly due west of here, to the other coast of this island. We will shift back again, into human form, and make our way back here as men. Anyone who tries to sneak past as a dragon, without shifting, will be branded a coward and as one who would never be fit to lead."
They all glanced at each other, and seemed to agree.
"The first one to return here, to our settlement, is our leader. And that will be the end of it. I will have no sympathy whatsoever for any who refuse to follow me once I have won – and I will win." There was some low hissing and grumbling from among the Dragonmen but no real objections.
"All of you will remain apart while the shifts are made. If any one of you attacks another before the contest begins, you will be banished far away from here. And you will leave your mate behind to become the property of another."
Ellie stepped up to object, but Rose yanked her back. "Keep quiet. He's doing that to keep them from fighting in the meantime. Smart of him."
"Yeah," said Ellie, with a sigh. "Real smart."
Before long, all of the men were in dragon form. They flew away in one very long, side-by-side row and headed inland.
"How far are they going?" asked Ellie. "I don't have any idea how big this island is, or even if it is an island."
"I don't, either," said Rose. "I guess The Diamond will tell them where to start. All we can do is wait for them come back."
"Come back as men," added Ellie, and the two of them nodded. "And that could be a good long time."
Perhaps an hour later, the women began stirring up their campfires and preparing to bake the fish that the dragons had left for them. "This tuna is excellent, but we've got to have some decent vegetables or fruit, and soon," said Rose.
"Even seaweed might do, at least at first," said Ellie. "We should – "
She stopped, and all of the women clutched each other as first one white Diamond dragon, and then another, and then more came bursting out of the forest and flying down over the trees and breaking through the surface of the water.
In the absolute chaos of their sudden arrival, the women held on to each other and raced down the beach. "So much for ritual combat!" cried Ellie. "This is nothing but a great big, vicious free-for-all!"
"And half of them are going to be dead by the end of it," said Rose, already breathless from the sudden sprint. "That fight we saw years ago – between the Glassy and the Shiny – that was nothing compared to this, and it still ended with both of them dead."
Finally, the two of them stopped and glanced at each other. They knew, without words, what they had to do. "Go! Go!" yelled Rose, waving the other women on. "Keep going. Don't look back!"
"Don't look back," whispered Ellie, and then she and Rose turned around and ran together towards the battle.
The two women got as close as they dared to the nightmare scene on the beach, where thirty-two huge, sparkling white dragons roared and screeched and even breathed flame at each other as they became locked into what could only end as a battle to the death.
As many deaths as possible, as far as the dragons were concerned.
The beasts tore up the sand on the beach and shredded the grass and trees on the plain. They left each other with scorch marks from their fire and with bloody slash marks on necks and bellies from their enormous hind claws. In the water, two dragons tried their best to drown a third.
Rose and Ellie held tight to each other's arms, but did not back down.
"Looks like we're back flying above Everest," Ellie said.
"You know what we have to do," Rose answered.
"I do."
With that, two women – a technician and a scientist, until the world had ended – raised their heads and walked out onto the dragons' battleground.
Chapter 15
Ellie went off looking for Ice, who was the most recognizable due to his scars. Rose looked for The Diamond, who would always be the biggest and strongest among them – and, as she ran through them dodging their slashing claws and screaming leaps and even great gouts of fire, she managed to find him.
He was right there near the middle, with two other dragons directly challenging him. One of them was Ice.
Both women did what they could do get in between the two and tried to shout up at them.
"Ice! Stop this! You will all be killed! We'll die, too! We can't survive without you!"
"Diamond! These are your children! I don't want you to lose any more of them. I couldn't save the others. I'm trying to save these!"
But it was like trying to get the attention of a raging storm. And the two small women were not going to last much longer in the midst of the furious beasts.
Both to save themselves, and in an attempt to get the attention of the fighting dragons, both Rose and Ellie got to the massive hind legs of their dragons and started climbing. Rose had a vague memory of being told that it was safer to be on the back of a dangerous horse than on the ground, because it couldn't kick you if you were up on top of it.
It seemed that dragons were the same way.
The women climbed up the rough armor scales until they reached the wings, and could go no further. But if this was not enough, it wouldn't matter anyway.
To Rose's horror, The Diamond stood up and raised his neck. Rose knew he was about to breathe fire at Ice, right in front of him – and then he caught sight of Ellie up on Ice's back.
In the instant that he paused, Rose cried out to him again. "If you're going to die, we will die with you. You are no longer expendable weapons. You are men that we love. You are no longer expendable!"
The Diamond paused
. So did Ice. And then, as the other dragons saw the women up on the backs of the two fiercely fighting creatures, Rose caught sight of the other women running out onto the battlefield to do the same – to make the insanely dangerous move of climbing up onto the back of their dragon mates, to try to save those mates’ lives if they could.
Rose looked at The Diamond's great crystal eye, wanting that to be the last thing she saw if this was how it was to end . . . and then she lay her head down and closed her own eyes, still clinging tight to the base of his wing.
Yet even as she waited for it all to be over, she became aware that things seemed to be quieting down around her. Cautiously, she opened one eye and saw that the dragons were backing off from each other, as they realized that there was a woman clinging to the neck or the wings or even the hind foot of each one.
In a moment, they had all put space between them. Rose began to feel something like hope.
But then she caught sight of something moving up above them. It was the three dragons who'd been fighting in the water, still dripping wet, and they had spotted The Diamond standing alone – and vulnerable.
She grabbed tightly again to his wing as he rose up onto his hind legs to face the three, who were clearly preparing to throw fire at him. If he would breathe flames on them first he could make them back down – he would win –
But he did not. He roared at them, but there was no fire.
And then Rose realized why. If he had breathed fire, the heat from it might well have killed her. The dragons had their own armor and could withstand it, but no human being could. Not when they were only a few feet from its source.
And so The Diamond raised himself up and placed his body between her and his attackers, preparing to take their fire himself on his vulnerable neck and chest rather than chance destroying his mate.