by Amelia Jade
He. It’s a he.
Whatever.
“Why would you assume that I want to kill you?” it—no, he—asked.
“Because I’m naturally suspicious of talking dragons?” she quipped. “They don’t teach you this in grade school.”
A coughing rumble came from the dragon’s mouth, and she tensed for an attack, until she realized that he was laughing.
“No, no I don’t suppose they do,” he said calmly. “But I’m not going to hurt you. If I wanted you dead, I could have killed you already, or just left you out here to either die of starvation, or at the hands of another shifter that might wander by. Or a wild animal. Any of those would kill you just as well.”
Amber frowned at the calm way he dispensed the various methods by which she might find death. “If you’re trying to reassure me, you aren’t doing the best job right now,” she told him sternly.
The dragon blinked in what she thought looked a lot like surprise. “I am sorry. They don’t exactly teach me how to deal with a beautiful woman lost in the wilderness, let alone a human woman lost in shifter wilderness.” He paused, then added with a twinkle in his yellow cat-like orb. “I guess both our grade-school educations could use an overhaul.”
Despite herself and her situation, Amber laughed.
It felt good, the rolling of her shoulders and flexing of her core as the humor washed over her helped to alleviate some of the tension and fear that had wrapped its tendrils deep into her. A wave of fresh energy surged through her, banishing some of the bone-dead exhaustion she’d been feeling. It had been no more than four or six hours since her incident at the pipeline, but it felt like an eternity.
“So you’re going to carry me then?” she asked as she composed herself, getting the giggles back under control at last.
“Yes.”
Amber speculatively eyed his paws, and the long talons attached to them. “Those look like they could hurt,” she said, unsure of this idea.
“What?” The dragon sounded confused. Then he followed her gaze. “Oh, no, not that sort of carry,” he said with another coughing-rumble laugh.
“What kind then?” she asked, embarrassed.
“More like a horse,” he explained. “You sit at the base of my neck, with my shoulders against the back of your legs, and then hold onto the edges of some of my scales. It’s actually pretty natural.”
“As natural as riding a dragon can be,” she said, shaking her head as he strode closer to her.
He knelt to the ground and extended his wing to her, giving her an easy ramp up to the spot she was supposed to sit.
Amber hesitated.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, his long neck twisted around so he could watch her.
She thought about it. “What’s your name?” she asked at last.
The dragon made an angry-sounding noise. “Where are my manners? You have my apologies, Amber. My name is Ezequiel, but I would prefer it if you just called me Zeke. It’s what I’m used to.”
“Okay, Zeke,” she said, her tongue rolling around the slightly unusual name. It worked though, she decided. It fit him.
Then, without giving it another thought, she clambered up his wing and seated herself on his neck. The smooth hardness of his scales pushed against her legs, an unusual feeling that she wasn’t sure she could describe even after having experienced it. Instead, she focused on finding handholds on the edges of his scales.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“No,” she squeaked. “But go anyway!”
“That’s the spirit!” he boomed and flung his wings out wide.
Amber clamped down with all the strength she had left as they bounced into the air, and under his steady effort, slowly began to climb into the sky. She kept herself tight to his neck, eyes screwed shut as she held on for dear life.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked as the wind whipped over them.
“No,” she said, the gusts tugging and playing at her hair. “Terrifying, actually.”
“Are you even looking?” he asked, calling her out.
“No,” she replied again.
“Open your eyes! It’s not going to send you falling to the ground if you open your eyes. But it just might provide a view you can enjoy.”
“You sure know how to reassure someone,” she sent back, but despite her best efforts, her curiosity won out and Amber cracked an eye open.
What she saw astounded her. Both eyes opened as far as was comfortable, despite the wind irritating them.
“Oh wow,” she murmured, watching as the landscape below them continued to fall away as Zeke took them higher.
She looked ahead as far as she could, where the sun was just beginning to rise. Though they were high in the air, the peaks of the mountains, covered in their permanent layer of snow, still obscured much of the sky. She knew that to get above them would involve going up to where the air was too thin to breathe. And too cold. Even now she could feel the chill of the wind, though it didn’t seem to bother her.
The soft undulating hills around them rolled on into the distance, a carpet of green and yellow that seemed to sway slowly back and forth as the wind played across it. Here and there rock outcroppings broke up the picture, like unpainted parts of a canvas, still waiting for the artist’s gentle touch.
There was a source of warmth that was overpowering it, ensuring that, despite the touch of the cooler air, she was kept in a cocoon of heat. It took her a moment before it became clear that the source was Zeke himself. His scales were warm to the touch, heat bleeding off through them and into her. Yet another marvel she was witnessing after the terrifying start to her day.
Perhaps the stories of what goes on in Cadia aren’t completely true. Perhaps some of them are civilized, personable people.
Amber’s eyes continued to wander, until they fixed on the other things in the sky with them.
“More dragons,” she said louder. “Those are your friends, the ones who were with us earlier?”
She’d completely forgotten about them after they landed, having been wrapped up in Zeke and everything else. Now they were flying on his flanks, a blue one to the right, and a brilliant white-scaled dragon to her left.
“Yes. The blue guy is Dominick, and this lughead to my left is Asher,” he said as the white dragon soared closer, bobbing his head in greeting before banking away again.
“Fascinating,” she said, looking at them all. “Why are they different colors though?”
There was a pause, then she felt his neck bob. What was he doing? Was that a dragon-shrug?
“There are many different types of dragons,” he told her, his words coming slowly at first, but faster as he explained. “We all look like normal humans when we assume that form. But our dragons, well, they’re a lot more diverse.”
“How so?”
“Well, you see three here,” he replied. “Red, White—or Frost—and Blue. But there are more. Gold, Silver, Green, Black, Copper, Brass. I’ve heard rumors of others on top of that, though I’ve never seen them myself.”
“So many different colors. Why? What does each one mean?”
Amber scrambled for her grip as Zeke suddenly banked to the right, altering their course some. A few moments later she felt them begin to rise again as they spiraled upward.
“Sorry, I almost missed that thermal,” he told her as they leveled out on their original course once again. “Anyway, what have you heard about dragons in legend? What can they all do?”
She thought furiously. “Fly? Live forever? Breathe fire? Like those things?”
“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “So, Red Dragons, like myself, we breathe Dragonfire. Just like your legends tell you. Asher here, on the other hand, he breathes Frostfire. Dom, the blue idiot flying out of formation, he can use Electrofire.”
“He can shoot electricity from his mouth?” Amber asked, staring at the blue dragon.
He winked at her and bolts of miniature lightning played across his teeth.
/> “No frigging way,” she shouted. “That’s amazing!”
Below her Zeke laughed. “You mustn’t tell anyone though,” he said, sobering quickly. “I probably shouldn’t have shared that with you.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” said the Blue Dragon. “But that’s never stopped you before,” it said and then moved away.
Amber looked at the Red Dragon’s head. “Zeke, you’re not going to get in trouble because of me, are you?”
“No, no,” he reassured her. “I’ll probably be treated like a hero for finding you in the middle of nowhere.”
The Frost Dragon snorted audibly, a cloud of white fog coalescing from its nostrils before being blown swiftly away.
Amber smiled. “Okay, good to know.”
“Nothing to worry about, Amber,” he said, his yellow eyes looking at her strangely. “Nothing to worry about. Just settle in and enjoy the ride.”
Keeping a firm grip on his scales, and feeling safe with him despite the extreme altitude they were cruising at, Amber decided to do just that.
***
“Ow,” she complained without feeling, her legs protesting slightly as she slid down from Zeke’s neck. “That’s going to hurt in the morning, I know it.”
He laughed, settling into the center of the stone circle he had landed upon, tucking his wings in tight to his sides.
She stood nearby, waiting for him to tell her what to do next.
“Umm,” he said after a long awkward silence. “You might want to move back a bit.”
Amber looked to one side behind her, and then the other. “Okay?” she said, then took several steps back.
“Uh, maybe some more. Like, off the stones.”
He sounded almost embarrassed. She shrugged and moved off the stones and out into the open-packed ground.
“Better?” she called.
“Much,” he said, his voice deepening even as he spoke.
Smoke swirled up from around his paws, thick, gray, and moving swiftly. It clouded her view of him, wrapping him in a bubble that became interspersed with flame, mostly occluded by the smoke, but flashes of red and orange burst through at the seams here and there.
The cloud began to shrink, and then suddenly it disappeared, leaving only Zeke and a rolling wall of flames perhaps six inches high that spread out from his feet across the stones, dying a few inches short of the edge.
Amber was forced to throw up a hand to block the blast of heat that came with it.
When she lowered it, Zeke was almost at the edge of the circle, approaching her rapidly. She stared at him, seeing him in his human form for the first time.
He was tall. Almost a handful of inches over six feet, his broad shoulders and powerful frame were draped with muscle. It wasn’t thick, bulky, bodybuilder muscle, but leaner, more powerful slabs that reminded her of professional athletes, to a degree. She couldn’t see through his shirt, but she expected that he was ridiculously cut, with abs showing every which way.
He had light brown hair that seemed tinged with a bit of auburn, as if a reflection of his dragon. It was kept short on the sides, with the top swept back up and over. A short beard covered the upper portion of his jaw, kept short and neat. His skin looked tan, but she suspected that was natural, not the result of always being in the sun.
“Hi,” he said, stopping short at the look she gave him.
“Hello,” she replied, suddenly feeling shy at having him near her in a form she recognized. Suddenly he was no longer this big mythical creature, but a real person.
A real sexy person.
Stop it. Right now.
“Amber,” she said, extending a hand, forcing her head not to drop so that she could look up at him through her eyelashes.
She succeeded.
Mostly.
“Zeke,” he replied, a boyish grin spreading across his face.
There was a little zap of electricity as he took her hand, just enough to make her mouth drop open, but not enough to force an audible gasp.
Thank the lucky stars for small miracles. I really don’t feel like explaining what’s going through my mind right now. That would not be appropriate.
Shaking her head and trying to act like the adult she was supposed to be, Amber looked around.
“So, where are we?” she asked, trying to force conversation on a serious subject.
“This is the office of the Guardians,” he said, his tone letting her know he was using a capital G in Guardians.
“The Guardians?”
“The Border Guardians. They are the ones who patrol our borders, keeping humans out and shifters in.”
She saw him frown.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just fine. I had figured we would be greeted by now, but I guess we caught them by surprise.”
“Didn’t what’s-his-name say that word would be sent on ahead?”
“Daxxton, yes,” Zeke muttered absentmindedly.
“Right, him. So how could they be surprised?”
“I don’t know,” Zeke responded.
Amber looked around for any signs of people, but there were none. Their flight had taken them to a building in the middle of nowhere, near the base of the mountain. That, Zeke had said, was where he was currently based out of. The leader there, this Daxxton, had then sent them on into town. She was to be taken to the office of the Guardians, though she hadn’t known it at the time. He’d said he would call ahead so they were ready for them.
It appeared he had forgotten to call.
“Oh well, let’s head on inside,” Zeke said, gesturing toward the wide stairway that led up to a set of double doors.
They had crossed half the distance when the doors banged open and four people emerged.
“There we are,” she said as the figures descended the steps and then came to a halt.
Beside her, Zeke slowed. When she didn’t, his hand shot out and took hers, keeping her close to him.
“What?” she asked in exasperation. “They’re here, and now you have a problem?”
But his attention was focused on the four people arrayed in front of them.
“Those aren’t Guardians,” he said in a low voice.
“We’ll take it from here, dragon,” one of them, the leader she supposed, said.
Amber couldn’t help but notice the way he managed to make the word dragon sound derogatory. As if to be one was an insult.
“Am I to believe all four of you somehow managed to become Guardians?” Zeke scoffed.
The tension between the two groups escalated rapidly, and Amber quickly found herself feeling like she was caught in the middle of a warzone.
“Just hand over the human, and everything will be fine.”
Though the leader didn’t say it, everyone heard the unspoken “and nobody will get hurt.”
“What do you want with her?” Zeke asked.
She looked at him. He was stalling. Why was he stalling?
“That’s none of your business. Just give her over.”
“No,” Zeke said calmly. “I don’t think I’ll be doing that. Not without a Guardian present.”
The speaker snarled. “You leave us no choice then.”
“You act like there was a choice from the beginning. You knew I wouldn’t hand her over to you. If I do that, she disappears forever. Though I must admit, I have no idea why. But lately you gryphons have been acting like a bunch of weird old birds. I wouldn’t trust my pet rock with you four, let alone her.”
His grip tightened on her arm, pulling Amber behind him as the four attackers spread out.
Amber was overwhelmed. Why was she being attacked? Who were these people? How did they know she was going to be here?
Her heart nearly stopped as without warning the fight began. The first attacker rushed Zeke. It became immediately clear that while Zeke had some rudimentary training, his attacker had none.
It also became clear that Zeke was far stronger than he looked. She gasped as he exploited an
opening, driving a fist into his foe’s sternum. The man seemed to deflate slightly as the air whuffed from his stomach and he flew through the air, crashing hard into the bottom of the staircase. Stone chipped and she saw blood flowing down the attacker’s face as he rolled slightly in place.
Zeke grunted as he took a jab to the side as two more came in quick, but he replied with an elbow to one man’s head and a snap-kick that hit him squarely in the side, eliciting a cry of pain from his foe.
The fourth and final attacker came for her, but Zeke was ready for that, and he bodily tossed one of his attackers at the oncoming man. The pair went tumbling away and she moved to keep Zeke between her and them as best she could.
The move to save her opened Zeke up to a vicious blow to the back, however, and he grunted, going down to one knee. His attacker smiled victoriously. Then Zeke moved, and the look changed quickly to one of surprise as Zeke took the man’s legs out from under him. He reached up as the man was falling, gripped his shirt, and used his strength to assist in the force of the fall.
The man’s head hit the ground, bounced up, and was quickly snapped back by Zeke’s other fist. She thought the blow would have killed the man, but he grunted in pain and kicked out at Zeke, obviously more capable of absorbing pain than she thought, though the blow was definitely sluggish.
A flying tackle from the first attacker took Zeke in the waist and he went down, rolling over. She saw his hands wrap around the man’s arm. Zeke then planted his feet, leg muscles bunching as they stopped his motion, and then he reversed his motion.
The attacker’s arm snapped like a twig and Zeke let go, already spinning to meet the next attack, which came in the form of a fist to his jaw. Zeke wobbled slightly on his feet and she felt fear, but he too recovered quickly. A flurry of punches and his opponent went down. Zeke kicked him hard, and the body flew ten feet across the grass, landing in a heap.
“What do I do, Zeke?” she asked during the brief lull in fighting. “How can I help?”
“Just stay away from them,” he grunted. “Let me handle it.”