“I’m much better this morning, thank you. I don’t know what came over me last night but I appreciate their hospitality.” I turned my head slightly so I was able to watch what he was doing and he lifted his head fractionally at the same time, leaving us nose to nose, and after the briefest of pauses, he quickly cleared his throat and stepped back.
“Indeed, last night was quite an eye-opener.” At the mention of the word ‘eye’ he looked down into mine and couldn’t miss the reptilian slit of the pupil but this time he didn’t flinch. “No ideas about what happened though?” he asked, and something in his tone made me pause. There was no professional curiosity in the question, nor was he asking to be polite. It was like he had his suspicions and was just waiting for me to confirm them.
“No sir.” I made a fist when he told me to and felt the cuff around my arm get tighter and tighter until he finally released it.
“Blood pressure is normal. Open your mouth for me please.” He stuck a thermometer under my tongue while he extracted his little penlight and tipped my chin up so he could look into my eyes.
“You don’t seem surprised by my eyes, Doctor.” I mused when he extracted the thermometer and gave it a cursory glance.
“Temperature is fine, back down where it should be.” He started feeling the sides of my neck, and under my jaw, seeing if I had any swollen glands and I gazed up at him steadily, almost challenging him to look down at me and recoil. I hadn’t actually looked in a mirror yet this morning but if Ciara’s response to me was anything to go by, I was a sight to see.
“Miss Williams, I may live here at the estate as the resident doctor, much like my father did before me and my grandfather before him,” he paused in his story-telling to extract a stethoscope from his bag and breath on it to warm it up before placing it just under the collar of my shirt to listen to my heart. “But I have seen a lot of different things and what I haven’t witnessed, I’ve made a point of reading up on so I know what to expect when the time comes. So no, nothing surprises me for long.” He looked back down into my sharp green eyes and smiled faintly. I held his gaze a second longer than maybe anyone else might have and I wondered, did he just admit that he believed in dragons?
“Well thank you again for checking on me last night.” I smiled faintly and so did the handsome young doctor before he stepped back and let me rise to my feet. I went back into the kitchen where my coffee sat and Dr. Andarsan called for Ciara to join him so I took her stool between the father and son and waited for the conversation I knew was about to take place.
“So lass, feeling a wee bit better this morning are ye?” Hugh asked brightly, shifting impatiently on his stool and I laughed lightly.
“A bit, yes. The head-splitting pain and upset stomach are gone which is nice, and I no longer feel like my skin is on fire, which I consider to be a bit of a bonus. I am sorry that the cabbie had to turn back last night though, that really was not my intention.” I said honestly, my gaze going back and forth between the two men and Edan pressed his lips together in a tight line as he regarded me. Hugh wanted to respond back saying that I was of course welcome to stay as long as I liked but his son had taken the reins of the estate when he had gotten married a few years ago and it was now his decision to make, so he held his tongue and waited to see what Edan would say.
“You said you’re a security guard, correct?” he asked me and I nodded.
“Yes sir. I’ve toyed with the idea of furthering my training and enrolling in the police academy but I haven’t made that leap yet.”
“What are you like with children?” his next question caught me by surprise and I blinked a few times before I answered.
“Well, I don’t look at them and think I’ll have one for breakfast.” That made Hugh snort back a laugh and even Edan cracked a smile before resuming his serious, thoughtful expression.
“I’m asking because I think I’d like to offer you a job.” At those words my eyebrows rose in surprise as did Hugh’s. This was not something I think either of us had anticipated. “There is a small cottage between the stable and the doctor’s home that you could stay in. And you could be Ciara’s personal assistant and guard.”
“I would be honored sir, but I don’t understand what made you think to make that offer.”
“I try not to be a superstitious man Kailani, but living in a country steeped in superstition and folklore, you can’t get away from it. And I must say, you went to pretty elaborate measures last night to make it clear you didn’t want to leave.” He leveled serious eyes on me and I bit my lip and ran a finger around the rim of my coffee cup as I thought how best to answer him. With the exception of Ciara, we all seemed to be dancing around a knowledge - or at least a very strong suspicion - this morning but no one seemed quite ready to voice it yet.
“Sir, I can’t explain to you what happened to me last night, or, for that matter, what I have felt since I saw the gate for your estate yesterday when our bus drove past. I have wanted to come visit Scotland since I was old enough to know it existed but my father and grandparents were very adamant that I was not to set foot here. No one ever followed that warning up with any kind of rational explanation, just that it was better for me to stay away. Now I’m here and I feel like I would sooner die than leave.” I said quietly and Hugh reached over and patted my wrist.
“We all feel the same way lass. This land that we live on isn’t just grass and stone and dirt. It is a part of all of us. We have families that live within the stone walls of this estate that have been here for generations, doing the jobs that their ancestors did, not because it is expected of them, or because they are not allowed to leave but because they choose to stay and take on the responsibilities left to them.”
“Well, as I said, I would be honored to become a part of the staff here and be Ciara’s personal assistant of sorts. That of course begs the question, is there a reason you feel she needs it? You live on a walled-off and gated property, does she have many enemies lurking out there?”
“I can’t explain it to you without sounding completely daft, but I feel like Ciara has a cloud following her, something dark that has seemed to increase in intensity since she became pregnant. I have nothing to back up that claim with, nor has she ever said that she feels like she is in any kind of danger, but it would make me feel better to know that she has someone that would protect her if I wasn’t around.” Edan said quietly and I nodded in silence. Gut instinct was seldom wrong in my experience and if he had a feeling, there was something behind it.
“What would I need to do to stay here? As an American citizen I’m sure there is some paperwork that would need to be done.”
“I will take care of all of that when the time comes, don’t worry. You can stay for six months without needing a visa so we have time. For now, why don’t you and Da take a walk down to the cottage I mentioned and make sure it is to your liking?” I recognized a dismissal when I heard one and I nodded and rose to my feet, Hugh hopping off his stool with an eagerness that made him seem twenty years younger.
“Come. I’m sure ye will find the cottage quite comfortable and if there is anything ye need we can certainly arrange to get it for ye.” He held the door open for me and I stepped outside and looked around with a new set of eyes this morning, more figuratively than literally. It was my job to take everything in, see where the areas were that would need to be checked out, where anyone or anything wishing to do harm could hide. This estate was massive but most of it was very open and flat so you could see so much in one glance.
The other resident cottages were clustered in a semi-circle around the lane way with the stable and barn in the middle. Each cottage was white stone with black or dark brown trim, doors and roof and one had a red cross on the door. Clearly that one was where Dr. Andarsan lived. People were walking around, taking care of whatever tasks kept them busy and when someone would see Hugh, they’d call out a cheerful greeting which he returned with a grin and a wave. Behind some of the cottages that we were wa
lking past was the stand of trees that I had dashed through last night so I knew on the other side of those trees was a clearing and then the sea.
“You have a lot of land Hugh.” I commented, looking around myself and he gave a nod and a quiet chuckle.
“Good thing too. Ye need a lot of land inside tall stone walls to hide something as big as a dragon, wouldn’t ye say?” we reached the cottage that would become my new home and I looked around us in a panic, making sure no one heard him.
“Shhhh! Keep your voice down!” I cast another hasty look around us as he opened the door and ushered me inside, his laugh following me.
“Sweetheart, remember what I said in the kitchen about everyone here having lived here for years and years? Believe me, there isn’t a story, fable or news event that hasn’t been told around here. Nothing is a secret, and trust me, when people start hearing your last name, they’ll know who ye are and why ye’re here.”
“I don’t know if that is reassuring or not.” I muttered, walking inside and looking around. The whole cottage was probably about four-hundred square feet, the main living space when you first walked in consisted of a sitting room and kitchenette, with a small bedroom tucked behind the kitchen in one corner, and a small a bathroom in the other corner. The walls were white stucco like the exterior, the floor was concrete and it was probably the cutest place I had ever seen. The kitchenette had a counter big enough to hold a small double-sink on top and a small washing machine underneath, and a gas-powered hotplate on the one corner. The sitting area had a small, wooden coffee table in front of a couch that was covered with plastic and two chairs, both looking like they had been made out of thick branches from a tree.
“What do ye think? No one has lived here since your grandparents left but we try to keep it clean, just in case.” Hugh looked around himself and I ran a hand over the small dining table, another piece of furniture made from branches and I looked at him in surprise.
“This was where my grandparents lived?”
“Aye, and any Williams before them.”
“Hugh, how many of us have been here?” I asked carefully, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer and he pulled up one of the chairs to sit at the table.
“According to old family journals, and believe me I went through a good number of them last night after I left your room, we have had a Williams residing here for over three hundred years. Give or take the last sixty-something years between when Dennis and his wife left and you arrived.”
“So, how many…..dragons? You said that you had lived in peaceful times for awhile so the dragons weren’t needed.”
“Aye, that’s true. According to the journals, from what I could gather, we’ve had four. You would make five.”
“Four dragons? I guess they only changed when a threat was sensed, otherwise they remained human.” I murmured, more to myself than to him and he chewed on his bottom lip where his beard started as I mulled everything over. “But what kind of threat would you be facing now that would require a dragon of all things? What good can I do?”
“Over the years we’ve faced more than our share of trespassers and gold-seekers, hoping to get down into the cliff caves where legend says a dragon’s weight in gold is hidden. Some say the dragon isn’t protecting us, it’s protecting the gold because dragons are more hoarders than protectors of humans.” Hugh offered and I scowled darkly at him.
“Great, I’m a hoarder, that’s stellar.” I fell silent again as I picked at a thumb nail and eventually I looked up at him, almost shyly. “Can I ask a question? It may sound really silly but I can’t help it.”
“Ask whatever crosses your mind lass, I’ll tell ye if I can.”
“What did I look like last night?” at that, he tipped his chair back with a hoot and when he straightened up, his whole face was practically glowing.
“Oh lass, I’ve been hoping you’d ask that! Oh, ye were magnificent! It was too dark to really get an idea of what color your scales are, but the underside of your wings and belly looked like silver when the moonlight shone on them. You were such a sight.” He said excitedly and I smiled faintly.
“Am I big? I think of dragons as mammoth-sized things with sixty-foot wingspans and I certainly wasn’t that big last night.”
“Hmmm, no ye weren’t as big as that, and some of your ancestors were certainly bigger. Mind ye, they were men and perhaps a few years older than ye so maybe that had something to do with it. You lass,” his voice trailed off as he tried to come up with the right comparison and we were so engrossed in our conversation, that neither of us heard Edan join us until he spoke.
“From nose to rear haunch, you were about the same size as the tour bus you would have traveled on with your friend.”
“Oh! You scared me!” I jumped in fright, my hand going to my racing heart and Hugh looked at his son with a speculative eye.
“So you witnessed it too last night, did ye?”
“Not much happens around here that I don’t know about. Especially when it comes to someone running out of my house in the middle of the night. Aye, I saw enough.” He nodded and walked into the cottage, closing the door behind him.
“That’s why you’re in no hurry to get rid of me. And why my eyes don’t scare you like they do with Ciara.”
“Ciara doesn’t believe in superstition and I admire that part of her. She firmly believes that everything either happens scientifically, or by the hand of God. There is no in-between, there is no magic. Folklore is nothing but bedtime stories. But she’s new to this family’s history and hasn’t experienced what some of us have. You are the first Williams dragon Da and I have known in our lives, my Gran was pregnant with him when your grandparents left so he doesn’t have the experience either. But we’ve read the journals that our ancestors have kept and while I chose to ignore it in the lane way yesterday afternoon, I knew I couldn’t ignore it forever. Once a Williams resides here, they cannot leave unless accompanied by a direct heir of the Cameron estate. If they do, it triggers a change and some never recovered quite as well as you did.”
“Wait! What? I can’t leave the property? At all?” I asked in a panic and Hugh patted my hand with a shushing sound.
“No lass, you are free to come and go as you please, but either Edan or I will have to be the ones to escort you. My Da was the one to escort your Grand-da to the airport, knowing that he wouldn’t have made it by himself.”
“So you knew my grandparents wanted to leave for good and you let them? Why? If we’re meant to protect you, wouldn’t you want us to stay?”
“You’d think so wouldn’t you? Your grandfather was very well aware of what he was. I never heard tales of him changing but he knew that there was always a chance. And Edith knew it too and neither of them wanted that life for your father. So they explained their thoughts to my Da and he agreed that they could go; he understood what it meant to protect his family and wanting only what was best for a son. They knew we may never see anyone from your family again and that had to be okay because the last thing they wanted was for someone to stay here against their will.”
“That sounds awfully noble.” I muttered darkly, biting a fingernail as I resumed mulling over my thoughts.
“What I’d like to know,” Edan began and I looked up at him, my green eyes piercing, but instead of flinching away, he held my gaze strongly. “Is what happened last night that you changed so long after crossing the property line? Was it triggered in the cab I wonder?”
“Something happened in the cab, yes.” I nodded immediately in agreement then my voice turned thoughtful. “The closer to the gate the driver got the more nauseous I felt. Then I started to feel like a fire was burning under my skin and as soon as he passed through the gate I thought my head was going to split in two, it didn’t feel like it belonged to me anymore. I think I screamed at him that he had to take me back to the estate and as soon as the cab was back on this side of the property line the nausea went away, some of the headache went away and I passed out
from the relief of it.”
“What made you run like hell for the trees in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t know. I was sound asleep in that guest room and all of a sudden this voice in my head told me to wake up and get out of the house. I needed to find some open space, preferably as private as possible, and it needed to happen right then. So I bolted for the trees because I knew, thanks to Hugh’s tour earlier that day, that the coastline was on the other side and if I was lucky, there would be a big enough clearing for me.”
“Okay, now hold on.” Hugh stroked his beard as he stared up at the ceiling, his voice thoughtful and I ran my hands through my hair and held them at the nape of my neck, waiting for him to continue. “When I saw ye enter that clearing ye dropped to your hands and knees but ye didn’t seem to be in any pain. Did it hurt? Ye said ye were in pain in the cab and ye think that triggered the change, so does the change itself hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t hurt. Or at least it didn’t last night. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing I’ve experienced but it wasn’t bad either. After I got to the clearing I started feeling very weak so I hit my hands and knees and waited to see if the feeling would pass. And I told myself to just relax and let whatever was going to happen, happen. Don’t fight it. I started watching the waves rolling in and the next thing I knew I had pins and needles all over my body, my skin was glowing and then there was a flash of light and I’m sitting on my haunches with a tail and wings, and tasting smoke.” At that Hugh snickered and I shot him a half-amused look.
“How did you change back?” Edan asked and I shrugged helplessly.
“I just thought about my human body and boom! Flash of light and I’m me again, kneeling in the mud and shivering.”
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