The Dragon's Eyes

by Oxford, Rain

  Sammy made an exaggerated gasp and put his hand over his mouth. “Oops! Oh, no!” he said before stuffing his mouth with bread. Dylan turned around as if Sammy wouldn’t realize he was laughing. The baby smiled up at me.

  Rojan thought it was hilarious.

  When the three of us had eaten enough, I pushed the basket towards the woman. After that, I settled Sammy on the bed and handed him his stuffed dragon. The little child rolled over to sleep without a fuss.

  The woman took this as her chance and cautiously approached me. She was talking, but at least her voice wasn’t irritating. Her scent had changed a little, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I did understand that her voice had lowered, and not in a threatening way.

  When she stood right in front of me, I stared dispassionately at her face. Yes, I knew she was very attractive, but Rojan felt it would be weak to react to her body. When she reached for the buttons of my shirt, I let her, but shifted my eyes for a moment.

  She was a beast inside, just like the others, ruled by her instincts and the dangerous predator she became. But she was also very young and innocent. She had strong morals against killing. Her person side was good, even as her beast side was strong. To her people, she was a leader that demanded respect and submission. For me, she was willing to submit. She had seen that I am stronger than her and neither she nor her wolf were foolish.

  Rojan liked that.

  Her hands shook as she undid the ties of my pants. The person in her feared my non-reaction as a rejection even as her wolf pushed her to act. Even while mostly naked, standing in front of a very attractive, completely naked woman who was offering herself to me, Rojan would not let my body react at all. She spoke again.

  Can you smell that scent she is putting off? She wants to breed, Rojan said. He didn’t like the idea of mating with her any more than I did. She was more beast than person as far as we were concerned, which is interesting because my dragon felt she was too much of an animal.

  “She is saying that she would make a good mother,” Dylan said.

  There were too many voices in my head and the woman, who was more wolf than person, was too close. She had just started to go to her knees when water formed in the air, enveloped her, and slammed her into the wall, not quite knocking her out but definitely stunning her.

  “My mama!” Sammy yelled. Rojan purred with pride that Sammy would show his dominance. I didn’t think he should learn to throw women around, but too many men I knew were terrified of women, so it was good that he would stand up to one. This was the second woman he threw across the room.

  Unfortunately, Dylan was right about their fear of magic. The woman started screaming and yelling and the black wolf burst in, quickly followed by the rest of the pack. I got to work fixing my clothes. I didn’t need Dylan to translate what the woman was saying as she yelled her head off. They moved to attack as if they forgot how much more powerful Dylan and I were.

  Dylan sighed. “Sammy, look what you did.”

  “Sorry, Dada,” he said, not sounding very sorry.

  One of the men shifted into his dark brown wolf and attacked. Dylan very calmly created an energy shield. The wolf crashed into it and withered on the ground in pain. “I may have made it a bit electrically charged,” Dylan explained.

  This only made the wolf-men angrier. They were afraid; I could smell it, but they would stand their ground against magic.

  “They would submit to your dragon, but it appears they have morals and think magic is evil,” Dylan said. “Let’s try to leave peacefully.”

  “We tried peaceful. They have attacked us, challenged us, and upset Sammy. I think we should burn this place down,” I said. Rojan agreed with me, but I knew Dylan would refuse. Dylan always refused; he was a Guardian who had to be above vengeance.

  “Okay,” he answered. I looked at him. He smiled and nodded. “Do it. Burn it down.”

  Sammy gaped at him with his mouth open.

  The woman, my pet, was picked up roughly by her arm and held by a man in the back of the group. I thought she was being protected until the same man put a knife to her throat. She begged for help and the black wolf turned to her, then blew her off with some cold remark and turned back to us.

  “They’re angry with her because she submitted to magic users and tried to be with you,” Dylan said. “They’re calling us all kinds of nasty names and they’re ready to lump her in with us. Mordon, I think the alpha, the one who turns into the black wolf, is her father. She sounds pretty upset that he wants her dead.”

  She brought it upon herself, Rojan insisted. I shook my head.

  “She can go with us. Maybe we can get her to another pack. She shouldn’t be killed for doing something when she didn’t know any better,” I insisted. Dylan glared at me. “What?”

  “You’re all good with burning everything to the ground until someone needs your help,” he accused. “That’s so dragon-like of you.”

  “How would you even know?” I asked him, then interrupted before he could respond. “Let her go,” I demanded. “Tell them what I’m saying; they already want to kill us. Tell them she’s my pet and they will let her go unharmed or I will burn them all to ash.”

  “I can understand them, I don’t know if I can speak their language. I’ll try.” Dylan closed his eyes and breathed out, then looked at them. The words that came fluently from his mouth were definitely of their language. It sounded less guttural from him, but he had no trouble putting power behind his words.

  Their response was to collectively take a step back and the girl gasped as she was held tighter.

  “That’s a negative, captain. Should I fire a warning shot or do you want to hail them again?” Dylan asked.

  “They didn’t understand my ultimatum, so explain it to them.” I barely got the words out of my mouth before the door behind the men was blown to bits. The men were unharmed, but scared out of their minds.

  Dylan grinned and said something else in the foreign language. The man holding the woman let her go, but she looked like she wanted to run out the door.

  “Get over here, pet,” I demanded. She may not have understood the words, but she got the message, and ran to my side.

  “We might be at a standoff. I don’t actually want to hurt them, but they really do want us dead. If you let the woman go, they’ll kill her. I’m not sure if it’s because she brought us here or because she submitted to you, but they aren’t having any of it.”

  A gust of wind blew in through the empty doorway and the grown men freaked. They all got out of the way, as if they were afraid of something outside. I took a deep breath, tasting the night air. Not a heartbeat thumped in the dark, as the entire pack was crammed in this room, but there was definitely something out there…

  “There’s something in the dark. Dylan, can you put an energy field around this cabin?”

  “You mean, one that would keep out that darkness of death thing we faced in the woods? Yeah, I could do that, of course I could… problem is to keep the darkness out, I would have to make it air tight. Cabin this size with this many panicking people… I’d say we would have about twenty minutes before we start to suffocate. Assuming they don’t have super-efficient lungs.”

  “Plenty of time to come up with a plan B,” I insisted. I felt my hair stand as the shield went up over the cabin with a cracking, live sound. The wolves started to panic even worse until Dylan explained what he did and why. They were still cautious.

  My pet tried to slide her arms around my left one, possibly looking for comfort from a stronger male.

  “Off!” Sammy demanded.

  Dylan laughed as she jumped back. I caught Sammy’s hands before he could reach into the baby bag for something heavy to throw. Dylan took the bag.

  “I can keep them away long enough for you to heal this world,” I said.

  “What about doing a little bit at a time? Weren’t you the one saying I need to take it slow?” he asked.

  Truthfully, I knew he was powerful enou
gh now to do it all at once, but I also knew that would be the worst thing to say. “I think the dangers of taking it slow outweigh those of using too much energy too fast.”

  “I don’t want to strain my magic. I’m already getting more powerful, I don’t want to increase the speed at which I become more powerful.”

  You are on a magic-fearing world with monstrous insects, flesh-eating shadows, and people who are all part beast. It is worth the risk. Get done and get out, Rojan warned.

  I relayed the message and added that I agreed.

  He nodded. “Okay. Let’s see what healing looks like on this monster.” He sat down on the bed and closed his eyes.

  I let Sammy down and growled at anyone who looked at Dylan in a way I didn’t like. Sammy wrapped his arms around my legs and watched Dylan. I felt the energy engulf the room and about the time I knew something went wrong, Dylan opened his eyes.

  “I did it.”

  “Already?” I asked. He hadn’t had his eyes closed for an entire minute.

  When he pitched forward, I was barely able to catch him. He shook his head and righted himself. Without even looking around, I knew that something was wrong. I inhaled, but there was nothing to smell. I couldn’t smell anything except a slight mold, like no one had been here in years.

  “Where’s Sammy?” Dylan asked. The two of us were alone, and the cabin looked as if that had been the state for a very long time. Dylan jumped to his feet with a yell, but I pushed him back on the bed.

  “We’ll find him. We’ll find him. Just breathe. He’s not the only one missing,” I said. He frowned at me, both wondering what I was saying and worrying out of his mind. I felt the emptiness inside, as if I had been living with someone for many years and they were suddenly absent. “Rojan is gone.”

  Dylan put his face in his hands and focused on breathing. I sat next to him. “Why does this cabin look like no one has been here in years? Were we thrown into the future?” he asked.

  “Normally, that is something I would be able to pick up on by smell, but not this time. My sense of smell is gone. That’s probably what happened, so what’s the next step? Look for their Guardian?”

  “Yeah.” He put his hands down. “Assuming their Guardian isn’t like their people, he should be the best person to help us. I could use my magic to try to go back in time, but who knows what would happen? If we can’t find him, I can try again to heal the damage.”

  “I thought you said you already healed the whole world. I was surprised because it only took you about minute,” I said.

  He frowned. “I did.”

  “Then why would you need to---”

  “No, I mean I did say that, but I didn’t finish. I couldn’t have finished. I thought I had, but I still feel the damage. The world is bleeding and growling like a wounded dog, snapping at his rescuer. The people neglected this world and its magic.”

  “We need to do this quickly.”

  “Yeah, Sammy is missing,” I said.

  I didn’t like the look on his face. “Yes. That’s very important, but I feel like we’re running out of time. Guard the door while I search for the Guardian.”

  I studied the door, confused. “Didn’t you blast that door?” I asked.

  He scowled at it like it was a venomous snake. “I did. They must have rebuilt it.”

  “Priorities. So if this is the future, what happened to Sammy? Certainly if left alone on a world with magic-fearing monsters, he would take over and rule the world.”

  “In less than a week. I don’t sense anyone powerful around. And by around, I mean on this world.” I stared at him, causing him to pause. “How long did I spend on that search?” he asked me.

  “I didn’t realize you did a search. Something’s wrong with time. Is it just us, or is it everything around us? Is this something happening to us specifically? That would make me think you did something when trying to heal the world. If it’s something that is happening to everyone around us, I think your powers are protecting us.”

  “So we have two possibilities, but no solutions. What do we know?”

  “It is time, probably not space, that is messed up.”

  “It happened when you grabbed me, right after I thought I healed the world. I sat up on the bed and then I just felt sick.”

  “So this could be a magical attack of some kind.”

  “We have yet to meet the Guardian or the god. I think either of them would want to talk to us quickly, to threaten us if nothing else.”

  “My dragon and Sammy are missing,” I added. We sat for a few minutes, thinking of what all we knew for sure. It was a pretty short list.

  “We’re in this alone.”

  “We’re in this together,” I corrected.

  * * *

  After a lot of thought, and a little bit of argument, we decided to leave and search the village for clues. It was still dark outside, but there were three moons to light the village. The large one we had seen earlier was still there, but it was now joined by two smaller ones. Dylan scoffed when I said it was odd; Duran had two and Earth only had one. How they could function I had no clue. More interestingly was that one of the moons was orange.

  It was a short search; everything was exactly how we left it, down to the size of the vegetables in the garden… but they were covered in dust. It looked like everything had just stopped, the people had disappeared, and the only thing that continued was time. Decay.

  Several things seemed to have been abruptly abandoned, such as a half-chopped pile of logs and a clutter of books that had fallen from a table. I didn’t really notice the books other than to see that they had not been picked up, so I was turning to leave when Dylan went straight for them.

  “What are you doing?”

  He looked up at me as he plopped down in front of them. “Books can be so dangerous. What better place to start than by digging through books that were thrown on the floor?”

  “How do you know they were thrown?” I asked.

  He pointed at the pile. “Look how they are separated. Someone had either pushed them individually off the table, or scattered them out while looking through them. Ooh, check this out.” He held open the book for me to look, but it was written with weird, squiggly shapes.

  “Can you read that?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Sort of. I know it’s a recipe book for potions.”

  That could definitely be something. “So on a world where everyone fears magic, one of the villagers uses it?”

  “Not just any old villager’s cabin. This is the alpha’s cabin. I was watching where everyone went.” He searched through other books and said that they were all magic books; mostly they were about mind-control and persuasion.

  After that, we saw no reason to stick around his place. A quick search of all of the other cabins took up time we didn’t have. Every cabin had a few books and Dylan had to check every single book, only to find they had nothing to do with magic.

  We were arguing whether or not to go back into the jungle when we both felt static in the air. The little girl appeared again, this time with an ethereal glow. Her image flickered, which added an extra level of spookiness.

  “I tried to warn you,” she said.

  “When? What did you warn us of?” Dylan asked.

  “He’s coming.” The whisper in my head was her voice, but her lips never moved.

  “At the springs?” Dylan asked. “That was three years ago. You knew a demon was coming and you couldn’t have been a little more specific? You were a ghost then… or you are now. Was that now for you?”

  “You are difficult to find. I need your magic,” she said.

  Dylan pulled out his pentagram. “We need help, too. We’re lost. How do we get out of this place? Where are we? Where is Sammy?” he asked her.

  “You are where you are supposed to be, and so is the child.” She looked at me. “You are not. You should not be here.”

  “I go where Dylan goes. Where is here?” I asked.

  “Skrev
. It is a world that relies on balance and harmony; a world that suffers in silence and has been for so long.”

  “Why should Mordon not be here?” Dylan asked.

  She looked at me. “How long did it take Dylan to heal this world?” she asked me.

  “He didn’t heal it; he said he didn’t finish,” I answered.

  “How long did he spend trying to heal it?” she reiterated with frustration in her voice.

  I shrugged. “About five minutes,” I answered.

  She vanished.

  “Five minutes?” Dylan asked, looking at me. “You said a minute. One minute.”

  I shook my head. “No, it was five minutes. I said five minutes. You must have misheard me,” I insisted. I had a good grasp of time. Dylan and I looked at his pentagram, which he still held. “She didn’t take it.”

  Just as the last word left my mouth, the pentagram vanished and the world around us changed. When the scene rematerialized, we were standing in a new place, and we were not alone.

  * * *

  Sunlight streamed through the patchy ceiling. The floor we stood on was straw, and it looked like the walls were just as unstable. The only furniture in this precariously designed structure was a lavish chair, upon which the only other person in the room sat. The woman sat with her head held high and the posture of a woman confident in her place. Rojan would have had something to say about that.

  More important were the creatures surrounding her and us in the room. These things were long and thin and slithered and hissed; we were surrounded by snakes. I tried to smell their intentions, but I got nothing again.

  “I can’t identify any of the snakes, but the shape of their heads suggest these are a venomous variety. It’s always good to be wary of snakes,” Dylan said.

  Most were thicker around as my arm. “Do you fear snakes?” I asked him. I couldn’t imagine my friend’s downfall would be a small, poisonous reptile.

  Dylan nodded. “My mother was one.”

  The woman before us was definitely on the attractive side. She had long, slightly curly brown hair and soft, symmetrical facial features. While she had nothing particularly unique about her, she came together very nicely. I could tell exactly how nicely because her clothes were at a minimum. Her chest was covered with a shaped brown corset that barely covered her navel. The matching loin cloth was one stiff breeze away from…