Maggie’s eyes widened; she obviously hadn’t even considered her mother while focused on her father’s injuries. She followed him and kissed him quickly on the lips before shutting the door. He heard the wooden board slip across to block the entrance as he raced up the steps and out the front door. Within yards of the house, he was met with a sword-wielding man in chainmail.
“Stand aside and let us have what we came for,” the man demanded.
“You’ll have nothing of mine,” Tio replied evenly, grateful that the man seemed to be a human and not a dragon. He wondered how he had managed to get the best of Maggie’s father, and why he hadn’t shifted to protect himself and his wife. Perhaps they had caught him off guard was all he could come up with.
“Have it your way. I’ll dispatch of you and then have everything of yours, including that pretty wee ginger maiden I saw through your window,” the man said with a snarl.
Tio had no time to waste with him; he dropped and shifted, his powerful tiger form letting out a mighty growl as he lunged at the man who now looked horrified. The man screamed as Tio tore at his flesh, dispatching him in pieces across the field before running for the main house. Inside, he found Maggie’s mother. She was held down across their kitchen table by two men while a third prepared to take liberties with her. Elsewhere in the house, he could hear crashing noises, the plunderers no doubt tearing the place apart in search of valuables.
As the man at the end of the table began to pull his pants downward, Tio jumped him from behind, knocking him forward onto the screaming and kicking mother-in-law. The men on either side let her go, and she shoved the man forward off of her, looking horrified, but he was unsure if it was a result of the attack, the sight of him, or both. He quickly dispatched the men around her and bound up the stairs toward the sounds he had heard earlier.
“Dear God, how can they have a tiger?” one of them managed before Tio pounced on him. The other man tried to run away, but Tio caught him by the ankle as he attempted to descend the stairs. The man whirled around with a large knife, trying to catch him in the side, but Tio was too fast, clamping his powerful jowls down on the man’s neck and snapping it with a quick jerk.
Roaming around the house, he saw no other threats, so he made his way back down the stairs. There he found his mother-in-law standing with her back toward the table, a knife now in her hands for protection as she attempted to smooth down her previously upturned dress. Her pantaloons lay nearby, ripped in disgrace. He shuddered to think about what would have happened had her husband not managed to escape to their house.
“Don’t hurt me,” she said weakly, her voice trembling as she held the knife out toward him.
Tio stood looking at her for a moment, and she met his tiger’s gaze. There was a moment in which he thought maybe she recognized something and understood, but she said nothing. He turned and walked out, running across the field in the darkness as workers who had finally stirred at the noises coming from the house came running toward it. Back at his door, he shifted and ran inside, jumping into fresh clothes before heading back to the cellar.
“Maggie, it’s me. You can open the door now,” he said.
Slowly, the door opened. She was as white as a sheet as she let him in and motioned him toward her father.
“Help him, Tio. I don’t know what to do,” she begged. “My mother. Oh God, my mother?”
“She’s fine, Maggie. Just shaken. Listen, you are faster than me in the air. I need you to fly. Go get the doctor in the village and bring him back here. I’ll try to stop his bleeding.”
“Yes. Yes. Okay,” she said, running up the stairs and disappearing into the night. It seemed like an eternity before she returned, a doctor in tow. Tio helped him bring her father back upstairs and lay him out across their table so he could work on him in the light from their lanterns. Maggie went to retrieve her mother from the other house, walking the still badly shaken woman across the floor to where her husband was being tended to.
Tio looked at her, and she met his gaze. Something passed between them as she took in the blood splattered all over him. While it could have easily have been from her husband’s injury, they both knew it was not. He was sure of it, but she said nothing. It became more evident later, when she was asked to recount what had happened that night. She maintained that Tio had been the one to come to her rescue, fighting off the men that had tried to rob and rape her, as well as attempting to kill her husband. The fact that he had been in the form of a tiger when he did so seemed to have escaped her mind, and she never mentioned it to him or anyone.
“Is he going to be okay?” she asked the doctor.
“I don’t know. He’s lost a lot of blood, but the blade doesn’t seem to have nicked anything important, so that is good. We’re just going to have to clean it up and let it heal. He’ll need to shift as soon as he can. His dragon form will help accelerate the healing. Until then, we can just keep it clean and dry, and hope for the best.”
“Thank God,” she said.
“How about you? Are you okay?” he asked, looking up at her.
“Yes. Just frightened is all. I don’t know what I would have done without Tio,” she replied, looking at him in that same way she had before. The unasked question in her eyes would go unanswered, they both knew that, but, from that day on, they had a renewed respect for one another.
Once Maggie’s father was stable, they helped him back to his own house and got him settled into bed. Tio, Maggie, and her mother set about putting the house back right with the help of some of the field hands. Much had been broken, and some thieves seemed to have gotten away in the night before Tio had made it over to help. He could only hope they hadn’t seen him before then.
After everyone settled in for the night, Tio crept from the house and into the woods nearby. Shifting into his tiger form, he searched the woods and the nearby roads for the thieves who had escaped. He returned to the farm a short time later, far away from the screams of the men he had caught unaware as they sat discussing what they had claimed for themselves and waiting for their associates, who they had no way of knowing wouldn’t be returning.
Perhaps they had thought that by getting in the house and bringing down the dragon shifter that lived there before he could change would allow them to get whatever they could take, including liberties with his wife. Tio had been thinking about this on his way back and understood why her husband had not shifted due to his injury, but why had she not shifted when attacked?
He would come to know later, pure panic that had prevented her from changing. Dragons shift when threatened or angry, but her anxiety at what was happening and having seen her husband stabbed with the sword earlier had overridden her natural instincts and rendered her helpless.
Perhaps this was part of the reason that she kept his secret. She chose not to tell about his true form, if he didn’t reveal that she had not protected herself in the way a dragon should when it had really mattered. She couldn’t have anyone thinking she had wanted the men to take her, sullying her reputation and her dignity. It was something that would have been questioned by her husband and the clan, but Tio didn’t question it. He knew exactly how much fear could paralyze one into not doing the one thing they should do.
In fact, he spent many days after the events of that night considering that very thing as he continued to struggle with his decision not to tell his mother who he really was. It was his own fear that drove him to keep that secret. He was not proud of that weakness. But there was little he could do to change it, unless he could overcome his unwillingness to risk everything to have the relationship with the woman who gave him life.
He had hoped, in his continued friendship with her, that one day she might confide her transgression to him and give him the opening he desired, but it seemed that his mother was equally as paralyzed by her own fears of what might come if she revealed the truth.
So, everyone’s life continued, full of secrets and untruths meant to cover the things that they could
not voice. Maggie’s father began to get better, but it was slow healing for him. Once he was able, he prepared to shift to speed up the healing of his wound, asking Tio to come fly with him out over the sea in case he failed in his weakened state.
“Oh, he can’t do that,” Maggie’s mother exclaimed. “He promised me he would go into town and retrieve some shopping for me.”
“So, he can do that later,” her husband responded.
“No. I need it to be done much sooner than that. I know how you get when you don’t eat on time. Besides, you are weak. Shift and take a short flight around the cove. You’ll be fine. I’ll go with you instead.”
“Surely we have something in the house to eat without you having to send the poor man all the way into the village to run your errands. Send one of the farm hands instead.”
“No. They’ve worked all day and are exhausted. Tio was off today. He can do it,” she said, turning toward Tio. “Now, go.”
Tio had no idea what he was supposed to get in town, but then again, he knew she didn’t either. He used the excuse she had given him and made his way into the village, stopping for a pint with his mother before gathering up a few cuts of meat at the local butcher shop and some sundries from the grocer to return to her rather than look just as sneaky as they were being.
He laughed to himself as he made his way down the trail back to the house. Wasn’t it ridiculous the lengths that one must go to in order to hide their inner selves? If you thought about it, there were many people like him in the world. They might not be tiger shifters hiding from dragon shifters or dragon shifters hiding from humans, but there were many out there hiding their true selves from everyone around them.
It was a hard life for anyone, and he wished it didn’t have to be that way, but there was little he could do to change it – not for himself, nor for anyone else. It was just the way of the world. You hid away things you couldn’t afford to reveal to others lest they be offended, angered, or driven to scorn or harm of your person. His father’s face came to him again, and he realized his life could be far worse than it was. He had one thing that his father did not have.
He had the love of a wonderful woman and the affections of his mother, in her own way. Perhaps she didn’t know who he was, but she cared about him, nonetheless. He had noted that singular truth about her as he had spent days in the pub watching her with friends, kin, and strangers. People gravitated toward her warm and caring nature, and she embraced them all. It was only in his thoughts about her nature that he began to wonder where she learned it. From what he had seen of and heard about her father and mother, they weren’t exactly the most caring people. He could only believe she had found herself despite them and that led him back to the path of where she might have learned such a thing. The answer was always his father. It was the way of his father and there was no doubt in his mind that his loving way and caring demeanor had spread itself to her during their time together. Their love might have been brief in the physical sense, but it was a love that spanned all time and places in the end.
It was the same kind of love he shared with Maggie, the same kind he had been willing to give up to protect her. The same kind he knew he could never let go. It was in that moment that Tio realized something about himself: he was just as much like his father as she was. He couldn’t put his finger on quite when it had happened, but at some point, he had grown into his father’s shoes. He had become his father. His love for Maggie was modeled after his father’s love for his mother, the dragon.
Chapter 12
For a while, things seem to move along smoothly for Tio and Maggie. The winter was slow at the inn. With fewer people traveling, guests were scarce. Fortunately, they had plenty of food stored to get by, and it was nice to be able just to be alone for a bit without tending to others.
“I made some fresh bread,” Maggie told him as he came back into the inn with a load of wood to replenish the fire.
“Yes, I can smell it. It smells wonderful,” he replied.
“I made a hearty bone broth stew to go with it and brought up a bottle of wine from the cellar,” she told him.
“Wine? Are we celebrating something?”
“Not yet, but I thought that perhaps we might eat and then settle in by the fire for a bit,” she said seductively.
“What are you up to, my darling wife?”
“Can’t a woman treat her husband to a nice, relaxing evening every once in a while? You work so hard around here making sure the guests are happy. Even now, with the inn empty, you continue to make improvements and prepare for when the thaw brings them back to our doorstep.”
“I am only doing what I need to do to take care of my family, to take care of you, and one day, our children,” he told her as he threw a log onto the fire and laid the others in the metal rack that sat to one side.
“I know, my darling. Come, eat,” she said with a lighthearted smile.
The two of them settled in to enjoy some nice, hot soup. It tasted heavenly after having been out in the cold, gathering the wood. The snowcapped mountains around them were majestic, but they were also a reminder of how harsh the climate here could be. His life would have been very different had he remained in the south – lonely, with nothing but work to console him.
Looking over at Maggie, he thought how lucky he was that she had come back to him. He thought of his father again, how he had waited for Cassi, but not been as fortunate. He had died longing for her. Thinking of that, knowing now the full extent of how it must have felt for his father was heartbreaking for him.
“Tio, what is wrong? You look like a ghost walked over your grave!” Maggie said, reaching her hand out and softly stroking his arm.
“Nothing. I’m sorry. Just an old memory of my father.”
“Not a good one, from your expression.”
“No, not really. I’m sorry, Maggie. No need to dwell on it now. It was just a passing thought. Let’s enjoy our soup and bread. Oh! Shall I get the wine?”
“Please do,” she replied, her eyes following him as he walked across the floor to the large table where she had left the wine and two goblets.
“Promise me something, Maggie.”
“More promises?” she said with a smile.
“This is the last one.”
“Okay.”
“If something does happen to me, don’t live your life in sorrow. Move on. Find someone to love and take care of you,” he told her.
“Nonsense. I don’t want to even hear such a thing!”
“I just don’t want you to ever be alone.”
“I will never be alone. You will be here and, if you aren’t here in the physical sense, then I will know you are looking upon me from another place.”
The expression on her face told him he would never get agreement out of her, but, still, he persisted. As much as he never wanted to think of her with another man, he could bear it even less to think of her reduced to the kind of sorrow he had seen his father endure.
“Just know that, if you don’t feel you can go it alone, I will never think less of you for getting on with another life once this one we have together has ended.”
“And just so you know, you will be my only husband ever, my only love ever. If I spend a thousand years missing you, then I will only look forward to the day that my time here ends so that I can be with you again in another life.”
“It is easy to say that, but it is a lot different when you live it. I watched my father yearn so miserably for my mother,” he said, his voice trailing off.
Maggie reached for his hands, pulling them toward her as she met his gaze, her eyes curious.
“Why do you not tell your mother who you are? Why do you not tell her of the way your father missed her all his life?”
“I can’t, Maggie. I think she has closed that door, and I don’t want to reopen it for her.”
“What sort of mother leaves her own son?” Maggie asked, her voice sad, rather than judgmental.
“One who is a
fraid. She was young, Maggie. She was young, and her father was very controlling. He frightened her.”
“Still, he is old now, and she is a grown woman.”
“I think that she stayed away to protect us. I think her father would have disowned her and exposed us out of spite. He seems that sort.”
“I don’t mean to be indelicate, but perhaps that is just what you want to believe.”
“Maybe so, but if I ask her, if I find out something different… I don’t know how I would feel. I don’t want to be alienated from my mother, and I don’t want to cause her more pain. I’d rather maintain the relationship we have and just remain silent.”
“It is your choice, Tio. I will never spoil that for you.”
“I know you won’t. Anyway, let’s stop with the sad talk and drink our wine. Why don’t I get one of the books and the lantern? We’ll read by the fire.”
“That sounds lovely,” she replied.
While she cleared away the bowls, he retrieved a book of handwritten poems a traveler had bartered to him in exchange for a night’s lodging. It had been a meager payment, but the inn was not yet finished and ill prepared for guests at the time. The man was willing to overlook this, and so Tio had made him a bed in one of the nearly completed rooms.
“You are a constant, a dream breathed into life. It is with you that I am complete. Without you, I am but a fraction of a man, a misery infested shell. It is within your heart that I dwell, your love stoking the flames of my existence. The loss of your affection would only spiral me into cold darkness, the fire dwindling until I ceased to be,” he read to her.
“That is beautiful. So sad and touching. Who wrote it?”
“The man that gave me the book didn’t give me his name. The inside cover of the book says only that it belongs to A. Sevan.”
“He obviously loves someone very much.”
“Yes. He told me that he was traveling to her, but not where his destination might be.”
“I hope he made it there,” she said thoughtfully.
“I do, too,” he agreed. “Shall we read some more?”
Seeking The Dragon Page 7