by Logan Jacobs
I glided down to the small family, and for the first time, I realized I was carrying something in one of my paws. It was a large deer, and I set it down and let out a small roar to call my babies to me.
The children stopped playing and immediately flew toward me with excited smiles on their faces. They pummeled into my belly, and I used my head and wings to push them away playfully, only for them to return a second later.
The female let out a low roar, and the children tumbled off together to play while she walked up to me and nuzzled her head against mine. The feel of her scales against me sent a jolt of excitement and bliss through my body, and the pure love I felt was nearly too much to handle.
I blinked, and I was yet another dragon. At first, all I saw was a large green stone nearly the size of my home. The rock was so shiny I could see the reflection of the clouds in it even though the sun was setting behind it.
There were large trees all around me, except to the right where a path led out of the small clearing I was in. There was a mass of sticks and leaves surrounding me, so I assumed I was in a dragon nest like the one I’d seen the first time I’d visited Alfheim.
This had to be it, I had finally found my little dragon’s mother.
Suddenly, I was overcome with a terrible empty feeling, and the amount of sadness and despair I felt would have put me on my knees if I’d been standing.
My body ached, too, but it was nothing compared to the overpowering feeling of loss.
I let out a low huff as I set my head against the side of my large nest, and I tried to move so I was more comfortable, but a shooting pain on my right side made me cry out in agony.
I could feel the injury as if it were my own, and I knew it was bad. If we didn’t get her help soon, she could die.
I half-expected another dragon to come to my aid, but none did. I wasn’t sure what they could do for me anyway, but I knew I would be in grave danger if I didn’t get some help soon.
Still, there was nearly no fight left within me. My baby was gone, and I was stricken by a horrible, immobilizing grief.
I got the sense this baby meant more to her than she could fathom. She wasn’t a young dragon, but I suspected this was her first time laying eggs, and there’d only been the one. She felt as though this baby was her last chance to be a mother, and now he’d been stolen from her.
I tried to look around again to see if there was anything more I could see to hint at her location, but all I could see were trees and the large green rock. I just had to hope that was enough to find her.
I blinked, and I was back in Ramir’s shop sitting cross-legged in front of the fire.
“Hurry,” I said as I stood up. “We’ve got to go.”
“What’s wrong?” Kas asked.
“Did you find her?” Eira pushed.
“Yes.” I nodded and grimaced. “She’s injured.”
“How badly?” Asta asked.
“She’s going to die if we don’t get to her,” I said grimly.
“Shite,” Eira cursed. “Do you know where she’s at in Alfheim?”
“Not exactly.” I shook my head. “I know she’s near dragon valley, and she’s somewhere with a large green stone.”
“If she’s injured, we need to find her right away,” Kas said, and her violet eyes flared with fiery determination. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to have to talk to the locals,” I said, and I fumbled in my satchel to find something I could use to tie the egg to me for safekeeping.
“What do you mean ‘locals?” Eira asked, and she raised her red eyebrows high up on her forehead.
“We’re going to need to go into dragon valley,” I said.
“Is that safe?” Asta asked with a frown.
“They won’t hurt us with Rath there,” Kas said, and she looked at me with concerned violet eyes. “Right?”
“Dragons are not inherently violent creatures,” I said. “There’s no reason to be scared of them.”
“You know they’re massive, right?” Eira scoffed. “I want to help them, but I just don’t want to piss one of them off and get eaten.”
“They won’t eat you,” I chuckled.
Ramir retrieved a piece of fabric from his desk and handed it to me so I could strap the egg across my chest. The baby inside was still confused, but it seemed to sense we were going to its mother, so there was a sort of excitement muddled in with its other emotions.
“I know you’re right.” Kas nodded. “But they are intimidating.”
“I understand,” I told her. “But right now, we don’t have a choice. We need to find the baby’s mother. She needs our help.”
“Right,” the strawberry-blonde agreed with newly found determination in her voice. “Let’s go.”
“Blar,” I said as I turned to the little blue dragon. “Can you make one last portal tonight?”
The little blue dragon nodded, and a second later a portal appeared.
“Thanks for everything, Ramir,” I said quickly. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Be careful,” the old man said as the girls and I linked hands and walked through the swirling air into the realm of elves.
The sun was sinking low when we arrived at the cliff that overlooked dragon valley, and I knew the darkness only made this more intimidating for the girls, but there was nothing I could do about that. They would simply have to trust me. I wouldn’t let anything happen to them.
“Come on,” I said as I started to run down the cliff toward the valley.
Once we were a few hundred yards away from the valley entrance, the dragons around really started to take note of us. They turned to watch us walk toward them, and they all began to crowd around the path we were headed down.
“Um, Rath,” Asta said behind me. “I think they’re mad.”
“They’re not mad, they’re just curious,” I corrected. “People don’t usually venture into dragon valley, they just want to see what we want.”
I walked with my chin up and back straight to show the girls it was alright, but I could understand their hesitance. They’d been around large dragons plenty of times, but not like this.
Most of the dragons they’d seen before were trapped in cages, and even though the girls had gotten up close and personal with them, it wasn’t like what we were doing now. When the girls freed a dragon, they knew the dragon understood their intent, but here, that intent could easily get misconstrued.
Usually, the only time people wandered into dragon valley was when they were attempting to steal eggs or freshly-hatched babies, and while the girls understood the dragons weren’t violent, that understanding did nothing to diminish the creatures’ monstrous size. I could feel Kas and Asta’s emotions since we were soul bonded, and they were definitely scared, but they trusted me, too, so they were trying to remain as calm as possible.
“Hello,” I said as I walked up to the dragons and stopped in front of the largest one.
He was a light-brown color with a green underbelly and eyes to match, and he lifted his head slightly and looked me up and down. I perceived his confusion, he knew we were connected, and I could sense his interest in what I had to say.
“I’m Rath,” I introduced myself. “Someone recently stole this baby from his mother and injured her in the process. I’m here to return him. I need to find his mother quickly, and I need your help.”
The large male looked around at the other dragons around him and then back at me. He let out a low huff, and I could feel the air from his nostrils hit my chest.
“What does that mean?” Eira whispered.
“It means they’ll help,” I said without looking away from the large dragon. “I know she was near a shiny green stone, does that mean anything to you?”
The large male lowered his head slightly and looked around to the other dragons, but none of them seemed to know. I could sense the sadness and frustration among the group, and it was growing within me as well.
The poor dragon mother could
be dying as we spoke.
Suddenly, the thud of large footsteps filled the air, and the dragons in front of me parted to reveal an even larger male coming toward me. He was at least twenty feet tall, with a huge green head that matched the rest of his body and sharply raised scales above his eyes. One of his wings had a hole in the webbing, but it looked like it was long since healed, and I wondered how he’d gotten the injury in the first place.
The large dragon walked right up to me and lowered his head so he could look me in the eyes.
I held my palm out and placed it against his forehead so I could feel what he felt.
In his mind's eye, I saw the stone I was looking for.
“Yes!” I shouted as I pulled my hand away. “That’s where I need to go. Can you lead me there?”
The large dragon nodded, and then he turned to the side and lowered his body to the ground. He extended his wing out so I could use it to get onto his back, and part of me was shocked he’d offer to let me ride him so freely.
“Rath, what is he doing?” Kas asked, and her voice was high-pitched with concern.
“He wants us to get on,” I explained.
“He wants us to ride him?” Asta gasped, and she turned to look at me with round yellow eyes.
“He knows where the stone is,” I added. “He’s going to take us there.”
“Well, shite,” Eira said, and a wide grin came over her face. “Let’s go.”
I nodded and turned back to the dragon. Then I bowed to him slightly, and he returned to gesture before I walked up to his wing and climbed onto his large, scaly back.
The only other dragon I’d ridden was Ove, and it had been a short distance upward, but even then, I knew him allowing us to ride on his back had been a great honor. I didn’t sense quite the same feeling with this dragon, though, since his emotions were more of concern for the female in need than anything else.
Even though I didn’t think this male knew her, he was still willing to allow us to ride on his back just to get her help. Dragons were incredibly intelligent creatures, and riding on their backs was a thing of honor because with their intelligence it was almost as if I was riding on another Asgardian’s back.
It was this knowledge that made me all the more impressed by this random dragon we’d just met, and his willingness to give us a ride.
Once I crawled onto the large male, I slid up so my legs were straddling either side of his large spine, and Blar hopped off my shoulder and ran along the length of the male’s neck until he reached his head.
“Blar, no!” I hissed since he’d been too quick for me to stop him.
The huge dragon turned his head to look at me, and a small smile came on his face. He seemed to understand Blar was a baby, and he wasn’t upset about the little dragon climbing all over him.
Suddenly, Inger ran out to the dragon’s head as well, and Uffe tentatively followed her while Kas, Eira, and Asta climbed up the large creature’s back.
“Should we call them back to us?” Kas asked before she slipped and nearly fell down the huge dragon’s side.
“Come on,” Eira said, and she gave Kas a little push.
“Nah, they’ll be fine,” I said as I grabbed the strawberry-blonde’s hand and pulled her up the rest of the way.
Kas settled in next to me, and Eira and Asta joined us a moment later.
The girls all crowded around me and held onto me while the large dragon started to flap his wings.
Svass was still curled around Eira’s neck, but she looked out toward the three dragons on the large male’s head, so I gestured forward and told her to go.
The little girl cowered in Eira’s hair for a second, but then the redhead pulled her gently down from her neck and set her on the dragon’s back.
“Go ahead,” Eira said. “You’ll be safe. Blar, Inger, and Uffe will look out for you, just be careful.”
Svass hesitantly walked out onto the large dragon’s neck, but he lifted off the ground just then, so she quickly scurried back toward Eira and up into her hair.
“I don’t think she’s going to want to go out there now,” Kas laughed.
“You’re probably right about that,” I chuckled.
“She’s still so small,” Asta added. “Maybe she’ll want to go next time we ride on a dragon.”
“Does this happen often?” Eira asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Not very.” I winked.
I could sense the little dragon’s excitement against my chest, and I carefully laid my hand on his egg as we lifted toward the sky.
My stomach turned as soon as we were up in the air, and I looked down at the valley below us. Even though we were headed to save a dragon in need, I still couldn’t help but take in the beauty of the valley.
The cavern was filled with dragons, and the sun cast everything in a magical orange glow as it slowly lowered behind the horizon.
To think I hadn’t even seen a dragon before a couple of months ago was astonishing when I looked down at the glorious creatures below me. The massive creatures were a part of me, and I was a part of them, there was no denying it, and all I could think was how I wished I’d known about them sooner. I was sure it was fate I’d found Blar that day, but part of me wished I’d found him even before that.
The little dragon had changed my life so significantly, and I was now able to change the lives of other dragons because of it. The dragon slave trade had been going on for far too long, and even now, on our way to the injured dragon, it was only because of the slave trade we were having to rescue her.
As we flew through the air, I sensed the large dragon we were on had some sort of attachment to the place we were headed. From the flashes of memories I saw, it seemed we were headed to the nest he was born in, and I realized dragons shared nests, they weren’t all specifically made when a female was preparing to give birth. There were already nests around they could claim if they didn’t want to create their own, or if they wanted to have their babies where they’d been hatched.
The male wasn’t young, either, so the nest had to have been there for quite some time, and we were incredibly lucky he’d been near us in the valley because every second counted for the female we were headed to.
I remembered the feeling of her injury, and I had to clench my jaw against the memory of the pain. I could only imagine what kind of agony she was in at the moment, and I was sure it only got worse with every passing second.
We passed over the valley, and then the large dragon turned to the right and took us over a huge forest with white and yellow trees.
The sun was sinking lower and lower, and I was worried we wouldn’t get there before dark, but just a few minutes later, I saw a clearing down below.
The large green rock sparkled with the evening sun, and in the clearing, I could see the huge nest with the female dragon inside. The creature looked nearly dead already, and she didn’t even move as we came into view overhead.
“Oh, no.” Kas’ voice cracked with emotion. “We’re not too late, are we?”
I focused on the dragon below, and I was able to feel her loss and her pain from her injury. She had very little willpower left, and I was worried she might not make it, but we had to do whatever we could to make sure that didn’t happen.
I wouldn’t let her die, not if I could help it.
“No.” I shook my head. “I can still feel her presence. She’s alive, but she’s weak.”
“I’m ready whenever we land.” Kas nodded, and her violet eyes focused on the female below us.
The dragon lowered his head and dove down to softly land in the grass near the green rock.
The girls and I rushed down the side of the massive creature, more sliding down his scales than climbing down, and as soon as our feet hit the ground, Kas took off running.
The strawberry-blonde rushed over to the female dragon without regard for the fear she had earlier when we entered dragon valley. This mother needed her help, and that urgency took away any fear Kas might have
had before.
The little dragons flew down from the large male’s head and landed on the grass in front of him, but they didn’t play or look around. They simply sat and watched as Kas started to work on the wounded female.
The large green dragon lowered his head to watch, too, and I turned to him and gave a small bow to say thank you.
He bowed back, but I could feel he was invested in the outcome of the situation, and he wasn’t going to leave until he knew she was going to be okay.
Against my chest, I could feel the little dragon in the egg stir. He started to swirl around in an excited panic now that he sensed his mother was nearby.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, and I laid my hand on the egg. “She’s alright, we’re going to fix her right up.”
The mother raised her head slightly when I put my hand on my chest, and I realized she could sense her baby.
I walked to her, took the egg out of the sling, and held it out for her to sniff.
The mother was a beautiful deep silver color with ruby-red eyes, and her lip twitched slightly as she sniffed the egg and then let out a low moan.
“He’s okay,” I told her, and I laid my hand on her head. “He’s waiting for you. Once you’re healed, he’ll come out to see you, but you have to hold on for him.”
The female sighed deeply before she laid her head back down on the edge of the nest, clearly too weak to hold it up any longer.
I set her egg next to her head and then made my way around to where Kas was bent down near her front leg.
The dragon’s limb was nearly torn off, and there was a large pool of blood around the wound. I was positive I could see the bone protruding from her body, and the sight of her exposed muscles made my stomach drop with despair.
“Kas,” I whispered as I crouched down next to the strawberry-blonde. “Is she going to be alright?”
I was so focused on the dragon’s feelings, I hadn’t noticed Kas’ until I got right down on her level. The sorceress had her hands placed on the piece of leg that was still attached to the dragon, and red magic sparkles swirled around her fingers, but her face was pulled into a terrible grimace, and hot tears streamed down her face.