The gush of wind in the stillness of the night was more than enough to punctuate the fluctuation of electromagnetic signatures her equipment picked up. She bum-rushed the back doors of the van, determined to catch any possible glimpse of paranormal movement. Or, if she were so blessed, the disturbance was extraterrestrial activity instead of the standard ghostly fare most tried to pass off as evidence. Amber's body took over, propelling her out the back of the van in time to see it.
She'd endured mosquitos, prowling night creature sounds, no hot water, and a cramped living and workspace in the back of an old van to conduct field research. If her eyes weren't deceiving and in good working order, Amber was close to positive she'd prove what everyone else with any sense of scientific intelligence ignored--the invisible world that coexisted with ours was just as real and possibly more powerful. She'd prove it and that Dr. Amber Chastain wasn't a "stubborn sophomoric know-it-all who'd lost her way," as her supervisor had put it.
That embarrassing event might have been a blessing in disguise. Amber hadn't suffered a single severe panic attack since leaving BMEG. On her terms, everything was right as rain. To top it off with a cherry on top, she was about to have a breakthrough. The certainty of it sizzled through her gut.
Tingles of excitement followed as they raced throughout her body with no discernible destination. Unable to look away from the sight far above, breath refused to release as the sight unfolded. There, in the night skies of a place in Georgia too insignificant to place on a map was the most exciting scene. A faint but real outline of an unidentified flying biological object flew through the air.
The sight was enough to shake her out of the stupor and into action. Amber reached back into the van, found what she sought, and captured photos with her specialized night vision camera equipment.
"Got you." It took a few seconds for the tug of muscles that made what was sure to be a huge smile riding her face to come to her awareness. The situation was fitting. On the viewing screen of the modified digital camera showed a clear outline of what looked like the stuff of folklore, fairy tales, and prehistoric conjecture.
With the aid of her invention, in her hand was the start of her successful return to a reputable scientist. Looking at the screen of her modified camera, the image that stared back at her was too fantastic to comprehend for a moment. Clear as the night sky above was an image described as—a Dragon.
2
Noran—Lieutenant of the Dragon's Bond Clan Dragon
Lair Sanctuary, Rural Georgia, USA
The pulse of electricity directed at him in flight wasn't a good sign. It had come from the ground below--from that vehicle with the pesky female inside. An odd mixture of shock and fascination for the female's prowess welled up within, but not enough to make Noran forget himself or the mission.
What type of new human technology was able to reach and lock onto his flight path like this? It was too efficient, accurate, and steady. The strange pulse tracked his movement like nothing the Earth's people had used before to locate his kind. Flying in a mix of serpentine and circular patterns to break the vibrating connection, Noran honed in to isolate and identify the energy source.
It was different. Unlike the typical regularity of power favored by the humans, it used a type of magnetic resonance that was closer to his natural frequency--interesting and potentially dangerous. The female below had some contraption that might be able to track his appearance in a way that could prove problematic.
Never before had Noran felt as potent a force like this on the Earth’s terrestrial plane. It felt stable enough to connect and document his path with accuracy--again, not good.
His current aerial show was the seventh in as many nights in a row that he'd been out here taking one for the team. As the second-in-command to the leader of the Dragon's Bond Clan and as such the Lieutenant over security and protection, his duty was to be the scout, and the first point of contact intruders would encounter when encroaching on the Clan's land.
When the female in the van showed up last week, trekking slowly in a clandestine manner onto the outer perimeter of the group's sanctuary, and appearing to set up equipment to measure the atmosphere, he'd made her presence known to the leader, Bladorn.
"You know the protocol. If she doesn't leave from your usual enticements, escalate. Report back only if you and your team need backup or foresee additional problems. This is your area of command. Handle as you see fit," was Bladorn's instruction and one he'd expected.
Not one to rely on others to do his duty, Noran had commenced to performing nightly shows to divert the van away from the sanctuary only to find the next day that the van hadn’t moved far from its previous position. Frustrated and yet unable to bring himself to do a scorched earth level of intimidation, he showed the interloper patience like never before. Why was it so hard to get her into the adjoining territory of neglected and overgrown farmland?
His mission was simple—get the human off their land. A week later and she hadn’t moved more than a mile.
Rethinking the idea to burn her out, the notion of what the aftermath could wreak recoiled his sense of honor. Plus, it would have been too messy to deal with if the human female had incidentally tripped one of the border wards. The last thing Noran wanted was to have to deal with a dead human female and the possible unwanted scrutiny from the locals.
Years of peaceful co-existence would continue on his watch. Now wasn't the time to slip up and let a nosy female invade his clan's lands. To get her completely moved away, he'd flown lower and with more force. Less than a half mile away and she'd move off the sanctuary and become someone else's problem.
Always cloaked in invisibility to humans and their technology, and at a frequency of energy neither humans or the lesser animals could detect, Noran still took greater risks than normal to move the van along and out of his territory. Over time, Dragons had learned how to manipulate the energy signature humans latched onto in hopes of finding those with energy signatures different from that of Earthborn dwellers. He used this register to both send deceptive signals and to lead her in the direction away from his Earth home.
Even with great stealth and practice, his actions were risky and might be less than wise to fly so low and close, but it had been over a week, and she still wasn't gone.
Clearing the worrisome thoughts of what that electric pulse was, Noran continued his flight pattern, leading the van farther away and into the neglected land of the neighboring absentee owner.
When the van started up and followed his trajectory, the relief he'd expected didn't wash over him. Instead, ominous tones of something yet to come settled in like an annoying unreachable itch.
Another rumble of the storm in the distance wasn't enough to deter Noran from this relentless quest to get the pesky intruder off sanctuary land. Circling high to survey how far away the storm was, he allowed his massive wingspan to power through the barometric pressure of the lower layers of air.
High enough to shorten the distance, Noran spotted the storm as his body took in information about its power and possible impact if he stayed out in these conditions in his dragon form for too long.
Fast approaching and threatening in wind strength, that storm wasn't one he wanted to tangle with if at all possible.
Repositioned to move with speed, his substantial, sleek dragon form dove down, slicing through the clouds to eye the van. Thankful the rain hadn't started, and for the clear visibility, Noran searched for the little speck that was the female’s vehicle.
Eyeing it in a clearing that straddled the boundary lines between Dragon territory and the adjacent land, he descended lower and flew farther away to get her to make the final push off his territory.
A few more circles and the van made a slow approach as if looking for a solid piece of Earth in which to park. Thunder, louder and piercing to his heightened Dragon hearing and internal radar threw him off balance. The disruption was short but enough for Noran to become wary of keeping up this show for much long
er.
His ire rose with each minute as the stubborn little vehicle meandered along, like a wayward puppy looking for the perfect spot to take a piss. Why was it moving so slow?
Piercing and almost vengeful, the streak of white-hot lightning moved fast and sure. Like a firefly in purposeful flight, the lightning danced atop the clouds as it skimmed and gathered more force with each inch of advancement. Electric fingers of exponential power grew before his eyes until it threatened to explode through the clouds to the surface below.
Noran traced the path of where it would strike in his sight line. Menacing and pulsing with kinetic energy, the lightning drew itself into a compact bolt prepared to break through the heavens. Noran calculated its trajectory in time to see the horror that was about to befall the female.
Unwilling to ignore the pang of jumbled emotions rising within, he dove down to do something, anything to divert the vehicle from the path of the lightning rod.
Go, go, go—a primal command intoned for his beast side to barrel through the air in accelerated descent. Protect life. No longer concerned with a simple case of trespassing, the Dragon’s base nature rose to the forefront. His behavior wasn’t usual or customary. There had to be something about this particular human that made his Dragon override normalcy. His job and tendency was human prevention instead of protection. However, he now found himself compelled to race against a lightning bolt to protect this one.
Out the periphery of his vision, the thunderbolt of lightning penetrated a large canopy of rain-laden clouds, which had accumulated in the last few minutes. With its deadly point inching down toward Earth's surface, Noran watched as more ripples of current skipped along the top of the clouds. They all converged and gathered in an accumulation of energetic ions that would form the deadly strike on Earth’s surface. The dance of light that skipped and shimmered in the cloud cover continued to grow. When the lightning struck, it could prove deadly for the human below. She was in the direct path of the bolt.
Closer, got to get closer.
Noran’s beast bounded to the surface of his essence demanding more control, pushing reason and thought to the further reaches of his mind. In a race to beat the speed of light, the Dragon race downward to do something, anything to lessen the impact and damage that was coming.
Eating up the distance between him and the ground, Noran's velocity and acceleration threatened to become too volatile to control. Still, he pushed to make it to her in time.
Almost there.
Challenging the pull of gravity to slow down, the Dragon extended his wings to capture as much air as possible. Mere hundreds of feet separated the van and him. Veering to the right of the vehicle by a few degrees to allow ample space, Noran planned to become a buffer between the van and lightning, reasoning he could better withstand the impact as it made contact with the Earth.
Born of fire and electromagnetic energy, that part of a collision with lightning would do him no harm. It was the difference in electrical frequencies and velocity of the strike that had him concerned. If he miscalculated in the least, it could mean a direct hit from the large stream of pure power emanating from the heavens.
Coming in a little too hot for a landing that would put him less than fifty feet away from the female, Noran pulled back as much as possible and allowed himself to glide toward the ground.
That's when it happened.
She was out of the van, pointing something in his direction as blinding white hot flashes of lightning zinged his tail and surged up the length of his body. The last thing Noran remembered was the smell of burning flesh, a collisional impact with the ground so profound his body bounced, and the high-pitched screaming of a frightened female.
3
Amber
“Oh, God—I killed it!”
Not sure when and how she got that close to the monster, Amber stepped back a few steps in a futile act of safety. With how large the creature was, the slightest movement in retaliation from its tremendous claws could render her as nothing more than a splattered blob on the ground. Despite this, she stood frozen to the spot. This close and the being cast a presence of majestic beauty and mystery.
Light from a pale moon was enough to make out its outline and more prominent features. As Amber had guessed, it most resembled what she would call a Dragon.
Intense heat wafted off the beast like that of embers of a dying fire. The effect was hypnotic and melted her frozen limbs. Unwilling to blink or try to comprehend how to do anything, her feet took over and advanced of their own accord. Waves of curiosity doused her ability to register the rising temperature of the air as a magnet pulled her in desiring to get as close as possible.
Standing closest to its neck region she dared to take in the span of a massive wing that rested folded along the exposed portion of the body. When she collected enough courage to move her eyes upward, the gasp that escaped her floated on the air. Two of the thickest pointed horns protruded out of the top of the creatures elongated head. Instead of looking like an incarnation of a devil, they more resembled an organic crown that showcased the oddly distinguished slope, contour, and rugged elegance of its visage.
"Whoa—I‘ve got to document this."
Scrambling back to the van to grab her camera again, Amber thought she might have heard a faint rustle from behind. Deciding that if it were the monster come back to life, she'd be able to pick up breathing and movement coming from something that large, Amber dismissed it as a field rodent. That had been what her trusty air rifle handled. Tonight, the weapon had saved her life.
A shudder rippled down her spine at the flash of seeing the beast headed straight for her. Everything about this moment was surreal. Sure, she thought she might be able to prove phantasms, or in her wildest dreams, even some anomalies in energy signatures that might lead to fissures in the fabric of our reality, but a real-life Dragon? Never.
With the air rifle still in one hand and her trusty modified camera in the other, she hiked it back over to the creature who lay not twenty feet away from her van.
Grateful for fast thinking that she'd had the good sense to remember her air rifle when the monster came out of nowhere to attack her, Amber had enough time to grab, load, and explode on it in the nick of time. She wasn't a large animal trophy hunter, but at this moment she could imagine the adrenaline rush they felt when confronted with the extreme ferociousness of the predators turned prey. Even as she thought it, the idea of killing anything soured her stomach.
Making it back to stand next to the body, sadness at what she'd done intensified with the first drops of large pelting raindrops. She'd have to work fast, get the pictures and get her camera out of the rain. Amber turned on the flash and was struck dumb by the sight that rested at her feet.
Beautiful.
Instead of illuminating a bizarre creature of inhuman origins, the unforgiving, harsh, artificial, LED light from her flash did nothing to dispel an otherworldly beauty the being possessed, even in death. More sorrow flooded her at being the one to have killed such a magnificent discovery.
Its hide, if that was the proper term for it, was a beautiful cluster of iridescent hues of honey-cognac brown, ruby red, glistening gold, and vibrant green. The ground beneath, with its boring, meandering brambles and wild grass, paled in comparison. Moving around the beast to capture every angle, Amber cursed the rain that picked up its intensity and kept her from getting clean shots and video of the sight. After a few more pictures and video and fear her equipment would get damaged from the water, Amber took a break and headed back to the shelter of her van. It was apparent the rain wouldn't let up for a while.
As she turned her back on the Dragon, a pang of sorrow and guilt lanced her heart. It was as if she didn't want to leave it out here alone and unprotected from the elements.
Back inside the back of the van and setting up to upload the images and the quick video from her camera, the scientist, rose to the surface. She had to protect her find until a plan to reveal her discovery was ma
de. Lost in a flurry of activity for the rollout of the Dragon find, her heart jumped at the piercing sound of thunder that splintered her concentration. That poor beast was out there—dead and alone.
Memories of packing a tarp flooded in as she tried to figure out how to cover it up and protect it from some of the rainfall until morning. Thunder grew louder and came faster. Oh, no, if what she'd learned as a child was true, that meant the storm was moving closer. Another ear-splitting thunderclap had her rushing to locate the tarp.
"Yes. Got you!"
Triumph at finding the tarp had her almost tumbling out of the van. Running back toward the creature Amber almost screamed at what wasn't there—her Dragon. In its place was a naked man, lying on his side, bruised, and with what looked like a nasty burn on his perfectly shaped butt cheek.
Amber stood there trying to process the scene for a long while. It was so long that she had to wipe away rivulets of water that streamed down through her braids, the side of her face, onto her jawline, to pour into her bra that supported an ample set of breasts.
No, this didn't make sense. Where was the creature? She had proof it was real and who was this He-Man sprawled out butt-naked in its place? Reason flew fast and far away as the realization that in the dark Amber had killed a guy in a storm while trespassing on what must be private land.
This life-changing situation couldn't be happening. Amber's life was over. Just like that, the most exceptional experience had dissolved into the most significant tragedy. Rain beat a staccato pace on her head as if counting down the fleeting moments of her freedom.
She'd killed a man.
Unable to decipher between the tears she shed and the rain cascading down through her braids, Amber fell to her knees, weighed down by the remorse and heaviness of becoming a murderer.
Thoughts of all the what-ifs and possibilities of doom galloped in, overtaking her ability to concentrate. The edge was sharp, and she couldn't risk falling off. Not now, not here, not alone with no one to help her with the body. Her hands felt detached as she tried to coordinate thoughts with movement.
Dragon's Curvy Invader Page 2