by Lisa Daniels
Then the most recent events flooded into her consciousness.
She sat bolt upright, her eyes wide and wild. There was a fire and she could see the meat cooking, but Elian was nowhere to be found.
Quickly she stood and threw her clothes on, unable to look back at where she had slept out of shame. The dragon hunter reached the mouth of the cave when something to the right caught her eye. Turning, she saw a large black dragon flying toward the cave. Instinctively, she moved back into the cave. It was all she could do to fight the instinct to draw her weapons. The dragon was soaring toward the mouth of the cave, and just before its front claws touched, the image in front of her blurred, and then Elian strolled into the cave.
Annora’s hand covered her heart as she watched him enter. It took only a few seconds for his vision to acclimate to the cave, and then he turned to where she had been sleeping. When he saw that she wasn’t there, his head turned toward the food. She stood close by it, looking at him with what appeared to be fear.
Holding up his hands, Elian stepped toward her. “I’m not going to hurt you. Look, breakfast.” His hands were up in a nonthreatening stance and he gestured toward the food.
The dragon hunter’s eyes looked down and then back at him, her heart still racing, her eyes still wild. She said nothing.
Keeping his distance, Elian moved to the fire and removed the meat. “Sorry for being gone when you woke. I returned Lilou to the clan and told them I still had some unfinished business. I tried to make it sound official, but I think Leonides is onto me.” He felt the food, the put his fingers in his mouth. “It’s done. Would you like some?”
Annora swallowed and her eyes darted toward the mouth of the cave. All she wanted to do was get out of the cave and away from the shame and disgust she felt toward herself.
Elian put the food down and stood up. “Are you alright? Here, let me fix your-”
She wanted to run, to get away, but she found it impossible to disobey him as he sat her down near the medicine and he adjusted some of her bandages. It was then that she realized he had already treated the ones she had neglected after the fight.
Looking at the top of his head while he checked her ankle, she asked, “Why?”
He had been chatting, about what, she was not sure. His eyes looked up at her, and her heart sped up. “I don’t understand the question.”
The pain on his face was there, although he was trying to hide it. Annora tried to choose her words carefully, but she always found it difficult to express emotions. Primarily she was both scared and confused.
“Why are you still helping me?”
His hand reached up and felt her forehead. “Are you fevered?” A frown crossed his face. Apparently Elian was not satisfied with the results, so he moved up and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. Both of his hands held her face as he pulled back. “You don’t feel like you are fevered.” He wanted to say something else, but only his eyes hinted at what it was.
Annora looked at him. “Why are you still here?”
The question clearly pained him. Standing up, he looked down at her. “Do you want me to leave?”
Shaking her head, the dragon hunter tried to figure out what she was trying to say. Bree was the one who had experience with this, an area of life that Annora had been desperate to avoid for over a decade. “I just thought… Don’t men usually leave afterward?”
Elian blinked at her a couple of times, then laughed. Annora’s face flushed as she looked up at him, her eyes threatening. He lowered himself and took her hands in his own. “Good. I thought we came to something of an understanding earlier.”
Annora’s face radiated confusion.
Searching her eyes, the shifter continued, “I thought you were willing to… give up hunting.”
Annora’s eyebrows drew together. “So you stayed to keep me from killing more of your kind? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just kill me?” Her voice had a chill to it.
The pained expression immediately made her feel guilty.
Shaking her head, Annora tried to fix what she had said. “Wasn’t what happened just a way for you to get leverage? I thought that this sort of thing…” She lost her voice as the young woman had not the ability to bring up what had happened. Her face was bright red as her voice trailed off.
Elian stared at her for a few moments before saying, “I don’t know if you are really that innocent or that repulsed.”
Annora pulled her hands out of his and ran them through her hair. “This is Bree’s area, not mine. I’ve always believed this kind of thing was just an exchange. A way of negotiating. Why else would people do it?”
Elian’s expression was priceless as he looked at her. For her part, Annora could not look at him directly any more. His voice was low and warm as he asked, “And what were you trying to negotiate this morning?”
“I don’t know!” Her breath started to quicken and she felt like her head was going to explode. “I thought you were going to die. Once it was obvious that you weren’t, I was so….” Her voice faltered. Turning her eyes toward Elian, they were pleading with him.
He reached a hand out and touched her face. “You were so pleased that you didn’t care what happened?”
She nodded, her mind distracted by the fact that Elian was being so kind. The feel of his hand against her skin made her heart race, and Annora tried to fight down the excitement it inspired.
Elian moved towards her, and the dragon hunter did not pull away as he gently kissed her. She did not resist as his hand rubbed her neck and down her back. Placing his forehead against hers, the shifter closed his eyes. “This is not a negotiation. More like a confession.”
Annora put a hand on the large hand cradling her face. His fingers wrapped around hers and she squeezed back. She murmured, “What kind of confession? That even I can act like a stupid woman?”
His head gently bumped against hers as he laughed. With a single motion he stood and pulled her up. Without a word, he carried her over to the fire. “You need to eat or you will never properly heal.”
“I’m glad to see you are so amused,” she mumbled, trying to cover her own disappointment as Elian moved away from her. They ate in silence, the dragon hunter keeping her attention trained on the food and cave entrance, the dragon shifter’s attention on her.
As soon as the food was gone, Elian quickly put out the fire and removed the remains that could not be eaten. Annora had not moved from her spot as she tried to sort out her feelings. It had always been so easy because she preferred to avoid emotions. They tended to make her careless.
Elian sat down beside her, his hands in front of him as he talked. “You seem to be having a really hard time with this. If you are not comfortable, you are free to go. I will report back that the problem has been resolved as they had expected without talking about The Fiend.” He paused. “If that is what you want.”
Annora looked at her own hands. Her head shook back and forth. “I don’t know what I want anymore.”
With a deep sigh, she talked about the memories she had spent most of her life avoiding. “Both of my parents were killed in dragon attacks. Not at the same time. First my father, then my mother a few years later. I was an orphan by the time I was 12 years old, and had lost three homes, so I had always thought that my fate was obvious.” She felt Elian’s tension as she proceeded to relay the worst of her memories. “Someday I would be killed by a dragon. It just seemed like the only possible outcome. Dragon attacks are pretty rare, and yet, I had been in the wrong place at the wrong time on three different occasions, and it had cost me everything. Not long after that, I met Bree. She thought I was a boy for nearly three years. I kept my hair short, wore boy’s clothes, and always carried weapons. I suppose it was the daily training that really made her feel safe around me despite the fact that I wasn’t that much older than her.
“It was only when we encountered Naya and Nyle that she learned I was always a girl. I never cared about my gender, so when it came time
to wash, I went with Nyle. He was quite shy, so despite being older than Naya, he usually let her do all of the talking. I was trying to get him to talk to me as we got ready to clean up. We stripped down, I got into the little pond, and started splashing around. When I turned to talk to him, Nyle was just standing there, half-dressed, staring at me like I was crazy. ‘You’re a girl!’ were the first words he ever said to me.” She laughed. “I think he was about 13 years old at the time. Maybe older. I’m not good with that sort of thing.” Her hands were in front of her, and she was peeling at the piece of wood that had held her meat.
“It was the first time it ever occurred to me that it could be an issue, but I didn’t want to show how embarrassed I felt because of it. ‘So is Naya. Now get in here and clean up or I will tell her that you are neglecting yourself.’ Well, it was obvious that he was torn. The poor boy didn’t want to be naked in front of a girl, but he also didn’t want to get in trouble with his sister. She could be so fierce when it came to properly taking care of themselves. Finally, he removed everything except his inner pants, and that boy ran like he was on fire into the water. When I tried to approach him to wash up, Nyle quickly swam away, saying he could take care of himself just fine. He also asked me to leave. ‘But you have no undergarments now because you wore them into the water. What is wrong with you?’ He glared at me like I was making fun of him. ‘You’re a girl. You shouldn’t be here.’ At no point did he blame me for his actions; Nyle was never one to accuse others for the decisions he made. I got out and found him a new pair of inner pants. Since he clearly didn’t want me in the area while he washed, I ran into the clearing, threw them down, and ran back out.
“I was chatting with Bree and Naya when he finally emerged, his eyes looking from me to them. Naya saw his expression. ‘What is wrong with you, Nyle? Are you hungry?’ He shook his head. She pestered him for a bit, but he didn’t say anything. Nyle’s eyes kept shifting to me as if asking why.
“When it was bed time, Naya put her arm through Bree’s and said the girls were going to head off to bed in a little space I had secured just inside the wall of one of the towns. Can’t remember where now. Nyle looked at me, then at them, then without warning, he shoved me toward them. Immediately his sister started to tell him he shouldn’t be so rough, that she and Bree would be fine, and on and on. When she finally stopped talking, his gentle voice spoke up, ‘You said the girls will go to bed. Are you really going to leave her behind?’ The look on their faces was priceless. Bree burst out laughing as Naya began to lay into him about how rude he was being. As she menaced in front of him, I put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Why are you so offended? He’s right.’ I think that Bree nearly died of a heart attack at that moment, because she had been under the wrong impression for so long. Naya’s face turned to look at her. ‘But you said…’ I walked off, hoping they would follow. ‘I don’t see what the big deal is. I would rather be mistaken for a boy than be treated like a girl. Come on. We will all sleep in the same place.’ And that took care of it. Saskia joined us later that year, and she was quite the handful. So full of questions about why a girl would dress as a boy. I suppose by then my figure made it easier to tell that I wasn’t a boy because the first thing she ever said to me was, ‘Why do you dress like a boy? You would be so pretty in a dress like mine!’
“It wasn’t long after that when I learned about Nyle’s prophetic dreams. It happened several times a year, and they were always terrifying. Saskia still had her father, so she stayed with him most of the time. Naya and Bree always slept through his panic because he was quiet, but I was a light sleeper. Whenever he would wake up shaking, I knew why and I would immediately hold him until he stopped.
“He got better at hiding it as he got older, and Nyle stopped telling me about what happened because one time I nearly got killed trying to keep one of them from happening. I was successful, but I was on death’s door for several days. He was already making a life for himself as a merchant, but he put all of that on hold to take care of me. At that time, I had already killed two dragons, and he wanted me to quit. Nyle proposed to me, saying that he would rather keep me safe than see me get killed in such a dangerous profession. I thought his proposal was out of pity, so as soon as I could walk, I left the town. It took more than a year for them to track me down. The three of them were living comfortably in a place above his shop. Bree was already working in her current profession by then, and Naya was helping her brother. Saskia was Saskia, doing whatever ideas came to her mind, unable to do anything for too long. It was Naya who finally tracked me down. The only way to get her to leave me alone was to go back with her to see everyone again. That’s when Nyle said he was going to become a dragon hunter, too. He was terrible at it; his weapon skills were pretty bad.” She smiled faintly at the memory.
“It was only the following year that I learned why he had suddenly made that decision. He had never asked Naya to bring me back, and been willing to leave me to my travels, but as soon as he saw me, Nyle didn’t hesitate. Naya was furious and said that she would shut down the business if he did that to her. Of course she didn’t do it, and by then she and Saskia had plans for expansion (Saskia’s idea, but Naya saw that it was a market that would attract a lot of attention and potential buyers). I tried to refuse Nyle at first, but when it became obvious that he was doing it with or without my help, I started to train him. While he was never great, I found him to be very skilled at learning. His executions were always a little… forced, but his ability to remember a lot was pretty staggering.
“We were in a small village when the dragon attacked. He died saving me. Nyle knew it was coming and that was why he changed his profession. I could have saved him several times. He loved me, but I turned him down because I didn’t realize…” Her voice faltered.
Suddenly an arm went around her shoulders. She lay her head on Elian’s shoulder and cried. He stroked her hair saying nothing as she tried to pull herself together.
Annora wiped the tears from her face as she sat up. “I’m so sorry. This has nothing to do with anything.”
Elian’s hand gently turned her to face him. “No, it explains a lot. Don’t apologize.” He ran his hand along her face. “I’m sorry for everything you have been through.”
He sighed and looked away. “Most shifters prefer to just stay in the mountains because life is so much simpler, easier. But there are always those who want to destroy and prove that we are better than humans. Others go insane. It’s pretty common for shifters. We try to monitor for the cruel and the insane, but we can’t always catch them before they do something destructive.”
Annora looked up at him. “Are all dragons shifters?”
Elian shook his head. “No. Most dragons are just dragons. They keep to themselves and humans will almost never see a pure-blooded dragon. It’s always a shifter who attacks, though. As the head of my clan, I am responsible for keeping everyone in line. Lilou was the first to attack from our clan since I took over.”
Annora patted his hand, not sure what to say.
“Humans don’t usually bother us, but when they do, they really make a mess of things. Our young are more likely to become violent and vicious towards them. I am one of the few who spends more time in human form because I spend much of my time monitoring people who are likely to cause us problems. Leonides spends nearly as much time as a human because he refuses to leave the full burden up to me. He’s a good man. I think he was originally afraid that I was going to lose it after Lilou disappeared and Phelan was exiled. I wasn’t the leader back them. Leonides has kept an eye on me ever since. It’s funny since I am considerably older than him, but it does help me stay grounded.”
Annora looked up at him. With so many questions going through her head, she wasn’t sure what she could ask.
Elian looked down at her. A hand went to her face and he caressed her cheek with his thumb. “I suppose he was trying to keep me away from you as well. Leonides has me figured out so well, he knows what I am feeling
before I realize it. Well, he was right, and now I’m not quite sure what to do.”
Annora looked away. “You have responsibilities. You have to take care of them first.”
The man laughed. “Yes, that is a nearly perfect imitation of something he would say.”
“He’s not wrong.” She looked up at him.
“No, that certainly isn’t wrong, but my responsibility goes well beyond just my clan now. He knew by the way I treated you that I had made my choice, and he will also tell you that can’t be ignored either.”
Annora frowned. “I don’t know what you mean. Responsibility is always first.”
“Yes, and I took responsibility for you that night. Nothing you say or do now is going to change that. It will just change how I act to fulfill that responsibility.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that.”
Elian leaned in, his mouth close to her ear. “Say that you will allow me to fulfill the responsibility by your side. It will make things so much easier.”
Annora pushed him away. “Easier for who? Certainly not easier for me. I do not want to be locked up and guarded for the rest of my life.”
“Nor do I want to lock you up. Often,” he grinned down at her. “If The Fiend were to join my clan, do you have any idea just what that will do?”
“Make a lot of your people hate you?”
He laughed, “No. You have a reputation as being ruthless, but never without cause. Your name is invoked to keep our young in line.”
“So I’m a boogey man to your people?” Annora wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or insulted with this revelation.
He smiled at her. “Not to me.” His hand stroked the back of her head. “If you were to join me, we would rest better knowing that we had our own protector.”
“That makes no sense,” she tried to find his lie in his eyes, but they were sincere.
“No one was even sure if you were human, they certainly have no idea that you are a female human. Your species does not have a great… track record for the way women are treated. A sword-wielding woman is pretty much unheard of, which kind of baffles shifters. Most of our best warriors are women, especially the mothers. I feel humans are really missing something to sideline women.” His hand gestured toward Annora. “Case in point right here.”