One man stepped forward, slicing the horse’s throat. Red flowed from the magnificent beast, seeming to soak into Aodh’s very soul as his anger erupted. Another man drew his sword and approached him. The man was equal in size, perhaps one and three-quarter meters and sixteen stone, but Aodh was unarmed. Scowling at the man, he prepared himself for what he now must do. He had never required man-made weapons to protect himself.
“You really don’t want to do that,” he said, drawing laughter from the thieves.
As the man raised his sword, Aodh drew in his breath, releasing his energy outward. Just as the metal met the soft flesh of his arm, he shifted, his human exterior contorting before their eyes. They looked on with horror painted on their faces as he twisted and grew into something dark and terrifying.
The man’s sword went flying, the thickness of Aodh’s scales pushing it forcefully out of his hands. He felt another blow against one of his wings. It stung, but their puny swords were nothing more than tiny knives against his massive dragon form. Swinging his mighty neck in the direction of the leader, he jerked his head forward, grabbing him around his midriff and snapping into his center before dropping his lifeless body to the ground.
The screams filled the air all around as grown men shrieked like little girls, knowing they had made a grave mistake in selecting what was likely only one of their many victims to rob and murder. Aodh had no pity for them as they attempted to flee, rather than paying the price for their sinful behavior.
The other men turned heal and ran to mount their steed, but the horses had already abandoned them. They could be seen running from the meadow and into the woods beyond. The men decided it best to follow them and set out on foot. It wouldn’t be that easy for them. Aodh took a deep breath and lay fire to them, burning them to mere cinder and watching as their ashes flaked away into the wind.
There was nothing left here for him. The horse was dead and the wagon had been in the way of the stream of fire. It stood smoking to one side. Aodh maintained his form and flew toward home, the change in his coin purse clamped between his ferocious teeth. Shifting back into his human form in the clearing hidden by the woods that surrounded his home, he stepped out and walked through the grounds behind it to enter his home.
Nothing felt good about having to kill men, but it was an unfortunate necessity when there existed so many violent men after nothing more than to better themselves at the expense of the weak. It was their misfortune that they had selected someone who wasn’t as weak as they had thought him to be. He saw their demise as a public service. They wouldn’t be robbing any innocents who were unfortunate enough to cross their path again. They wouldn’t be doing anything at all again.
He knew that having to shift to defend himself put him in peril of discovery, which always made him cautious afterwards until he felt safe again. Though he thought he had been careful, they had tracked him and came for him in the night. It had been lucky that he had escaped, running from the back of his home just moments before they had breached his front door and begun to lay flame to everything.
Aodh had stood watching the flames that licked outward from the windows of his home. It was little more than a shack, really – an old stone cottage that had been in a state of disrepair when he had inhabited it. He had quickly made it his own with hand carved furniture and bowls, trading some of his creations for wares from the merchants in the markets in a nearby village. Now, he was left with nothing but the clothes on his back.
The thought drew a chuckle from him as he looked down at his nude form. He had shredded his clothes when he had shifted into his dragon. What he was left with was nothing more than a rag that had snagged in his scales and now lay by his side in the clearing of the woods. Peering through the trees, he noted the way the miscreants that had destroyed his home cheered and rejoiced at the destruction of the abomination as which they saw him.
“Bastards,” he muttered as he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Once the fire cooled, they would return to the shell of his home in search of his remains and, finding none, they would come for him again. He would have to get far away before that happened. It was still dark out. He shifted again and took flight to a village where he sometimes dwelled as a member of a community of rejects and misfits like himself. Later, he would find someplace else to be, but for now, he would be among friends and able to regroup a bit without worrying about looking over his shoulder, or his wing, as the case might be.
CHAPTER 2
“Princess Katherine,” Aodh said, handing off the reins of her horse to her while being cautious of making any physical contact. He was careful to only look toward the ground rather than making any inappropriate eye contact.
It was in a moment of uncertainty that he had returned here to this castle, now inhabited by the ancestors of the men that had owned it when he had grown up here as a boy. Despite his appearance as a man still in his twenties, Aodh was already several centuries old. It was the curse of a dragon shifter to live across decades of inhumanity and usually in relative isolation, if he chose to not take a mate or even worse, lost one.
He could have fled to Ireland, where many of his kin had gone years ago, but he had grown accustomed to his solitary lifestyle over the years. This was as much a home as anywhere and he could stay here until his lack of aging in comparison to those around him might become a problem. So, he constantly reinvented himself, relocating from time to time to hide his length of time on the dirt beneath his tattered boots.
“Thank you,” she replied.
Her footsteps retreating were his cue to look upward again, still careful to avert his gaze away from her direction. She and the men that served as her protectors were already on their way out of the stables that served as both Aodh’s place of employment and sometimes, his shelter. He was afforded room and board, along with a small pittance, in exchange for tending the horses and their quarters.
When he was allowed a few days off, he would return to the village on the opposite side of the island. They were accustomed to his not being there for days and sometimes weeks, but unaware of where he went during the time he was away. The castle was far too distant for a man to walk or even ride to in the short time it took him to get there in dragon form, so it was best to let them believe he was off on a hunt. He always brought fresh game when he returned.
Aodh sighed as he set about the business of cleaning the stalls while the horses were absent. Once upon a time, his kind would have been in charge of protecting this castle. In fact, his forefathers had done just that, hiding their shifting abilities and acting as the dragon that guarded the wealth of the royalty that lay safe within the castle walls. They were chained in basements and at motes, slaves to people who were not nearly their equal in might.
It was night that brought freedom, as they shifted and slid free of their confines to fly freely or explore happier lives being enjoyed all around them. Before morning, they returned to their dragon state, ready to do battle if need be. It wasn’t a pleasant life, but it afforded them a way of hiding in plain sight.
Now, they were something of legends past. There were rumors of sightings from time to time, but rarely anything taken seriously. Most men were loath to mention it if they saw one, lest they be labeled as prone to far too much drink or tall tales. Still, some were believers and when sighted by a group, it was hard to deny their existence. It was the reason he had not fled to Ireland during the worst of their troubles. This was his home and things were undoubtedly no better there.
His thoughts were interrupted as the sounds of men yelling filled the air around him. Rushing out of the stables, he found himself running along with knights being dispersed. One of them stopped him as he approached the gates alongside them.
“Stay here, stable boy. We’ve no room for the weak among our ranks.”
Aodh glared at him, but stopped and let him continue past. Whatever was going on was for them to deal with. To even attempt to interfere might force him to expose
himself and he would be driven away once again. While he didn’t mind his visits to the village beyond the nearby chasm, he had no desire to hide there for long periods of time. Too many people there were given to secrets, him being among those ranks.
“It’s Princess Katherine. They have taken the King’s daughter!” one of the women cried out from nearby.
Aodh forgot his fear of discovery and made his way to the gates, slipping out before they were closed again. It was meant to keep intruders out, but also to protect those inside and Aodh had no need for their protection, not when Katherine was in danger. As the men made their way across the green fields that spread far and wide beyond the castle, he headed for a nearby grove of trees, working through them to a center clearing where he could fly low and fast.
After stripping down, he left his clothes by the inner edge of the woods and shifted. He was upon the men before they knew what was happening. There was no sign of the knights who had gone out to protect her, but he could see her on the horse with one of the Highlanders who had apparently overcome them and taken her.
“Where did that thing come from?” one of them shouted as he flew up from the forest center and across them, his massive body blocking out the sun and casting a shadow across them as they pulled to a halt. The horses faltered, trying to pull back despite admonishments from their riders to stand steady. Aodh landed with a mighty thud on the ground in front of them.
He could see Katherine, her hands tied to the saddle of the horse on which she was perched with a fierce looking ginger highlander. Contrary to what he might have expected, she didn’t appear to be afraid. If anything, she seemed stoic, unfettered in the face of the danger she faced. It wasn’t until he landed and took a step toward her direction that he could discern any sign of fear.
“Kill it!” the one in front of the line of men yelled out.
“How?” another one replied, all of them still just standing there, trying to calm their horses as they stomped about on the ground in an attempt to move away from Aodh as he looked menacingly at them.
“Get a sword through its heart! Get all the swords into the beast” the man yelled, motioning for them to move forward.
Aodh chose his first target carefully. Most importantly, he had to get Katherine out of harm’s way. He did the only thing he could, taking flight in the direction of the men to spook their horses, catching the ties on her hands with a single claw and snatching up the man behind her as he passed. Katherine let out a scream as the horse rushed forward with her and took off galloping across the meadow with her holding on desperately.
He wanted to go after her, but if he let these men go, they would be witnesses to his presence and more would come. There was a chance that some of them might attempt to continue on their mission of abducting Katherine and go after her, as well. He would have to just trust her considerable skills with horses that he had witnessed from afar on many days past to keep her upright and safe on the horse, getting her far away and hopefully back home.
Aodh resisted an urge to go after her, hoping her expert horsemanship would kick in so that she could regain control of the horse and get herself further away from the men. Instead, he turned back on the men, who were already attempting to scatter rather than attacking. He began snatching them one by one off their horses and soaring upward out of reach of their swords before tossing their own men back down at them to unseat the rest from their mount.
Their screams filled the air as Aodh ripped them from horseback and hurled them back down to the ground. He held back on using fire, so as not to harm the horses. Their fear of him caused them to buck and stamp around wildly, throwing even more men to the ground and trampling them as they ran away one after one. By the time it was done, more than two dozen men lay on the ground, having taken their final breaths.
Aodh scanned the bodies and found one missing. The leader was not seen. Fearful that he had gone after Katherine, Aodh shot up into the air, oblivious to whether or not someone might see him. He flew off toward the direction in which Katherine had disappeared. There was no sign of her and he was growing more concerned, but then he spotted her exiting one side of a grove of trees. Moments later, the leader came riding out behind her, gaining ground as his horse began to overtake hers on the open land.
Aodh flew toward her, his heart racing beneath his heavily scaled exterior. His fearless appearance as a dragon was a contradiction to the human interior that felt fear and apprehension, but that part of him was outweighed by the primal nature of the creature he became when he shifted.
Katherine lay on the ground, her horse limping away nearby as the clan leader approached her, a sick smile on his face.
“Ah, my Princess, not even a dragon can save you from what I will do to you.”
Aodh could now see the fear on Katherine’s face. She was terrified. Perhaps earlier, she had hoped for an escape even before he had arrived. Her look of bravery might have merely been her retreating into her own hell to hatch her plans. Now, there was nowhere to go and he was upon her. Her eyes widened as the man began to climb off his horse, but not because of him.
Instead, she was focused on Aodh, watching his enormous bronze frame swoop down like a massive hawk after its prey. His claws dug into the shoulders of the man on horseback, his screams of pain filling the sky as he snatched him up and threw him back down on the ground, landing beside him as he attempted to crawl away. Aodh made quick work of him, breaking his neck with a quick snap of his jaws and leaving him there as he turned back toward Katherine.
“Please. I’ve done nothing wrong,” she pleaded. “Oh, God. I don’t even know if you can understand me.”
Tears fell down her face as he continued toward her, realizing that it was his dragon that she was so afraid of, but to shift would reveal him. He couldn’t leave her here for fear there might be other men around who would take her. After a moment of thought, he decided to take his chances, shifting back down into his human form.
Katherine’s eyes widened even more, but her tears stopped as she squinted up at him from where she lay on the ground. He extended his hand to help her up.
“It’s okay, Princess. I won’t harm you.”
“You’re…” she began to say as she averted her eyes from him.
“A dragon?” he helped her finish the sentence.
“Naked,” she replied.
Horrified, Aodh realized that he was in fact, nude. It was completely unacceptable to be in the presence of a princess without his clothes, but he didn’t know what else to do. “I am sorry, Princess. I had not expected to be before you like this,” he said, trying to cover himself.
Now, her eyes raised up towards his again, careful to focus away from his nakedness as she addressed him.
“You are a dragon,” she said.
“Yes.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, Princess. It just is and always has been.”
“I need to get back home. My father’s knights will be coming, I’m sure. They will find you here like this and come to the wrong conclusions.”
“The horses are gone except that one and he is hurt. I will get you back home, but you will have to trust me. Can you do that?”
“I can’t arrive back home with a naked man from our stables!” she said.
“No. You can’t and it is a far walk without horses. Do you trust me?”
“Trust you? I don’t even know you,” she replied.
“My name is Aodh. I work in your stables. You’ve seen me many times, though, we aren’t allowed to speak beyond mere formal greetings. I came here to retrieve you from the men that took you and return you home. Is that enough?”
“I suppose. It isn’t as if I have a choice,” she replied.
Aodh noted that her eyes had fallen downward again, blushing as she realized she was looking at his naked form once more. A smile crossed his face as she glanced back up at him, causing her to look away in shame again.
“I don’t mind if yo
u look at me, Princess.”
“I shouldn’t.”
“Probably, but it is a natural curiosity, nothing to be ashamed of.”
The sound of horses from somewhere in the distance drew their attention away from their somewhat awkward discussion and they each turned to look, though neither could see anything. It was unclear whether it was more of the men that had taken her or the knights her father would have sent.
“How do we get home?” she asked, realizing they had little time to decide what to do.
“We fly,” he replied.
“What?” she said. “No!”
“Yes. We don’t have much time. When I shift, get on my back and hold tight. Be careful. My scales are rough, but your clothes should protect you well enough. When we get to the edge of the woods near the castle, I will shift and put on the clothes I had to remove before we take you back home.”
“Aodh, I can’t…” she began to say, but the sound of men shouting in the distance told her they had found the bodies and followed the tracks from there. “Okay.”
Aodh took a few steps back and shifted, lowering his head and neck toward the ground to allow her to climb on. He felt her hand tapping on his neck once she was secure and he raised it slowly upward, trying to be as gentle as possible as he took off and soared away from the noises so that they were better hidden by the trees. Once they reached the center clearing, he dove downward, flying closer to the ground behind the bank of trees so as to be less noticeable.
They were fortunate enough not to encounter anyone within the woods. Aodh dropped to the ground and lowered his head again for Katherine to climb off before shifting back into human form.
“Step into the edge of the trees out of sight and wait for me there,” he told her.
Katherine did as he said. He could feel her gaze on his bare backside as he ran off toward where he had left his clothes, hoping they were still there. Luckily, they were. He smiled as he slipped back into them and returned to the edge of the woods, where he found Katherine looking around nervously.
Awakening The Dragon (Exiled Dragons Book 9) Page 111