Dragon Captain

by Kendal Davis

  “I don’t have enemies! Our world is not like that.”

  He grinned. “What about the man who holds the lien on your boat?”

  Ah. Touché.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “I guess maybe I do have an enemy. I keep thinking that my world is so different from yours, but maybe people are the same everywhere.”

  “If that is so, then you may take heart in the fact that I know how to handle such a person.” Cobalt lifted a hand and pointed to a small cove, close to where we had descended from the hiking trail. “First, though, we need resources. We will go this way.” Without looking to see if I was following, he made his way through the sand and rocks toward the little hideaway that he’d shown me.

  “Wait a minute,” I grumbled under my breath. “I’m not as fast as a dragon!”

  Cobalt laughed, the wind carrying his voice back to me. “It is true that, even though I am in the form of a man right now, I have the powers of my dragon self still.”

  With effort, I ran and caught up to him. I turned to peer into his face curiously. “Really? Do you mean that you can breathe fire, even now?”

  He shook his head. “Not that power, no. That is more of a physical trait. But I have all the magic that I was able to bring from my world. It means that any human would be a fool to trifle with a dragon shifter, even in two-legged form.”

  As we turned a corner, I saw the cove beach from a new angle. Pulled up against a rock was a tiny, dilapidated rowboat. Cobalt smiled at me and gestured for me to stand back while he pulled it into the water.

  “Are you serious?” I choked. “There’s no way that craft is seaworthy. Are you stealing it? You told me you wouldn’t do that.” Then, as understanding set in, I groaned. “Oh, I get it. You think this will replace the boat I’ve lost? I think we’ve had a major miscommunication here.”

  Cobalt snorted at me in amusement, but did not answer.

  “Really, now. I’m not sure how to tell you this…” My voice sounded squeaky to my own ears. I realized that a wave of disappointment was threatening to wash over me and set off a bout of tears. “How can I explain it? This stupid little rowboat doesn’t help me at all. Did we really hike out here so you could give me this as a gift? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

  I had been walking next to Cobalt as I fussed at him. When I ran out of words, I looked up from the sand to see that he had gotten the rowboat afloat and he was holding out his hand to help me aboard.

  I sputtered, trying to find words to explain just how much this wasn’t helping me. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I would if I had to.

  There was no way that I was stealing that thing with him. It was worth maybe a cup of coffee on the island. And thievery was, you know, wrong.

  Cobalt waded over to me, moving through the clear water with simultaneous power and grace. His eyes were dancing with laughter, but his tone was firm.

  “My dear Kat. I am not stealing this boat, merely borrowing it.” He put an arm around my shoulders and softly turned me to face out to sea. He pointed in the distance. “We only need the boat to explain to the world how you got out there for your dive.”

  “What dive? What are you talking about?” I shook my head, aware that I was always missing some component of what he was trying to tell me.

  “Your fortune. The money that you need. By the end of the day, you will be rich beyond measure. You will be weighed down with gold ingots from another time.”

  “Wait...we’re diving for treasure?” I could hear the skepticism in my voice. People always came out here thinking they were going to make it rich from an old Spanish galleon. Nobody ever did. “We can’t do a dive, for so many reasons. I don’t have any equipment and I don’t know where to look. That’s two good reasons, right there.”

  “Well, not to worry then.” Cobalt tugged at my hand, leading me to the boat. “I can see into the water, for miles out there, just as well as you can see your hand in front of your face. I know exactly where we are going.”

  “And the small problem of diving equipment?” I hardly even bothered to ask. I was beginning to understand where this was going.

  “I will shift into my dragon form, of course,” Cobalt said. “I may come from a desert land, but a dragon can swim in water just as well as he can fly.”

  “How do you know? Are you sure about that?” Fear clutched at my heart. What if he was wrong and he drowned? Maybe he was overestimating his own abilities.

  “Of course I’m sure,” he answered. “I have done this many times, right here in your world.”

  With that tantalizing piece of information, he began to manoeuver our tiny craft out onto the rippling blue waves. The salt water smelled like heaven to me. It had been too long since I’d been out in any kind of craft. A thrill of hope shot through me at the idea that we were going out on the water, my favorite place in all the world, together.

  I could see two possible outcomes here. By the end of this afternoon, I would be rich, or I would be at the bottom of the ocean myself.

  Chapter 4: Cobalt

  My intention in bringing Kat with me was not to make her nervous. Not at all. I had hoped that she would feel at home out on the water again and gain confidence. Even when she had frozen up, afraid of falling from the cliff side, she had been so close to being able to find the strength to move ahead. She just needed a little help to get where she was going.

  My Kat knew who she was, even when everything about her life had changed. She was a Captain who belonged on the waves, taking charge of everything around her. I could see that, plain as day. All I wanted was to help her remember what she already knew about her own power.

  If this diving trip did not provide her with the jolt of renewal that she needed, I was not sure what to try next. Certainly, I could dive for treasure in the ocean without her. It was a simple matter. But how would she explain it when she returned to town? I had dealt with humans enough times to know that they liked matters better if they understood them. Even a fantastically improbable story was preferable to none at all.

  If Kat rowed around to the other side of the island, she could make it look as though she had found the gold herself. She would clamber out of the rowboat at the marina and show everyone her riches. Her troubles would be over. More than anything, I wanted to be able to ease her mind. It would only work, though, if it happened through her own actions.

  She was no dragon’s plaything, to take what I offered her and be happy making herself available to me as a form of payment. There were women like that in every town in every world. Men, as well, of course, although that was not my style.

  No, I had been sure of it from the moment I saw Kat standing in the wreck of her own boat in the sands of my home world. She had been as angry as she was scared. I had watched her, riveted by the vision of this woman who wanted to shape her own destiny.

  Kat was worthy of a dragon’s highest regard.

  She was my mate. I had searched all my life for her, and now I was sure of it. She simply had not realized it yet. The more time we spent together, though, the more our attraction would build. Humans were not used to the passion that came with finding one’s fated mate. It was going to be a pleasure to show her.

  Reaching the spot where I had seen the shipwreck took longer than I’d hoped. I was happy to row the tiny rowboat out to sea, but as Kat had already commented, it was a poor craft for the task. My assurance to Kat that I could see for miles was not an exaggeration. She was trying not to ask, I could tell, but her patience was wearing thin.

  Finally, she gave in to her own temptation to question me. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she wrinkled her nose at me. “We’ve been out here for a long time, Cobalt. When will we get to the spot where you saw something?”

  “We are almost there,” I answered her.

  “How can you be so sure? Can you really see that well? There’s been a steep drop off down there.” She rubbed her nose, where the effects of the morning sun were beginning to show. “I have to a
dmit that I would never do this if I wasn’t with you. This is a really dangerous stunt, being out here in such a tiny craft.”

  “It is.” I spoke seriously. “You must never try this without a dragon by your side.”

  “That’s what I just said,” she retorted. “I’m not crazy enough to do something like this. It was all your idea. I just have to keep telling myself that if we capsize, you’re flying me out of here.” She cast a glance around us at the blue horizon, scanning for cruise ships. “Or swimming, or something. Whatever doesn’t get me in the newspaper as having been photographed with my pet dragon.”

  I snorted in amusement. “It would be fine. I have spent enough time in your world to know that there are many ways that humans protect their credulity when it comes to the unknown. Even if there were photos of us, or rather, you, with a dragon, people would explain it away. That is what always happens.”

  She scratched her fingers along the edge of the rowboat, getting up the nerve to ask something. Finally it came. “So you have been here a lot? Have you spent time with other women in my world? Is that why you like it here?”

  I suppressed a smile. “If you are asking if I have ties to another woman, the answer is that I do not.” She listened, but did not relax at the answer I’d given. I went on. “I have visited your world so often that I have made...friendships, that is true. But it has been a very long time. A dragon seeks his eternal mate above all else.”

  She widened her eyes at that, then shrugged, letting it go. “How is it that you have traveled here so freely? I thought that the interdimensional portals were not used much anymore.”

  “They are not used for war. Long ago, we invaded many worlds, including this one, using that mode of travel.”

  “I remember somebody telling me that our world was backward because dragons had been here to take our resources long ago.” She sounded resentful, but she also held back a grin at the idea that her people were not currently fulfilling their potential.

  “That may not have been the most diplomatic way to put it...but, yes. It is accurate.” I leaned forward to rest on the oars.

  I had taken off my shirt to enjoy the breezes that skated across the waves. I could not explain my fascination with water. It was a very recent thing in my life, relatively speaking. I had been coming to the Caribbean for only a hundred years, which was nothing at all in the life of a dragon. Now I was beginning to suspect that it was Kat’s life force that had been drawing me here, long before I met her. So many decades before she was born, this place had called to me. Life prepares us for what we need.

  Yet I did not meet her until she traveled to my world.

  It was as if some of the properties of my dragon magic had conspired to bring us together when she most needed my assistance. I knew she thought that I was helping her out of kindness or some sense of responsibility for her safety.

  Did she not realize how much I needed her?

  I shook my head to clear it. There would be time enough for that later.

  “We have arrived,” I announced. “This is the spot where I will dive.”

  There in the boat, I began to remove all my clothing, carefully folding each item and setting it aside in a pile. As I did that, my skin prickled with the heat of Kat watching me.

  “I know that you remove your clothes before you take the form of a dragon. I remember that from before.” She was striving for a tone of matter-of-fact curiosity, but her voice was a little more high-pitched than usual. It pleased me to think that she was enjoying the sight of my body. She cleared her throat. “But why are you folding everything so carefully? I don’t know anybody who does something like this so neatly. Not that I’ve seen a lot of men take off their clothes.” She added the last part hurriedly, as if she was hoping I wouldn’t hear it.

  I heard it, and with her admission came a thrill of excitement that surged through me. When it was time, I would show her so many things.

  My answer was calm, though, betraying none of the passion that I harbored for her. “It is important to dragon shifters. When I leave my clothes like this, I am making a promise to myself that I will return to the form of a man. If I did not, I might be lost to my dragon form forever.” Her eyes widened, but she did not ask more.

  I stowed the oars and tipped myself easily into the warm ocean water. I enjoyed watching Kat’s gaze linger on my strong back and shoulders as I did so. She was beginning to think of me as a potential mate, I knew it. She might not be aware of what that really meant, but she would be soon.

  I swam with powerful strokes away from the boat, to make sure I would not put it in danger when I shifted into my dragon form. Kat watched wordlessly, perhaps fascinated by my imminent change of form, perhaps wondering silently if there was really any treasure below us.

  She would see, soon enough.

  Without calling attention to it, I began to alter my form. I sent my senses out into the air and water around me, pulling as much strength as I could from the natural world. It was far harder to shift my form here than it was in my own world. I knew that if we were near one of the portals between the worlds, I could gather more energy. For now, this would have to be enough, even if it left my stores of magic alarmingly low.

  With a twist of heat and light that must have been perplexing to the sea creatures below me, I achieved the transformation. Water surged around me, lifting from my great wings in rivulets and splashing into the air. My bright blue dragon form was almost entirely hidden by the water.

  As I saw Kat’s eyes widen, though, I understood how hard it was for her mind to take in the idea of a man shifting into a dragon. She had seen it before when she visited my world, but it still challenged everything she thought she knew about life.

  You astound me in your own way, Kat. I sent her the thought with a light touch, not wanting to shock her with a sudden realization of how close our minds were becoming.

  “How did you know what I was thinking?” She sat tall in the rowboat, taking in what she saw, but not cowering from it.

  I listen because I care about you.

  “I don’t know what to say to that. People in my world don’t do that. Or can’t. I’m not sure which it is.” She looked sad now. I was sorry to make her feel so much regret, when she had been through all that she had in the last few days.

  I know you want to return to your old life. I will dive now, so that I can make that happen for you.

  I ducked under the water. The last thing I saw before I began my descent to the bottom of the ocean was a look of uncertainty on her face. If she was not sure that she wanted things to go back to how they were before, then perhaps she was wondering if we might be together after this.

  As I dove, I swore to myself that I would find a way to make that happen.

  It did not take long at all to reach the shipwreck that I knew was there. It was hundreds of years old. How odd that something could seem so ancient to a human, when that was nothing to me. It had been degrading, here on the ocean floor, for a time period that was hardly noticeable to me.

  A few hundred years ago, I had already been the Captain of the Guards. I had known what place was meant for me. I had excelled at every duty at home, met every task that confronted me. My physical form had been right for the job, and I had trained my mind to be ready for anything.

  Perhaps on the very day that this wooden boat had left a city an ocean away, I had been anointed Captain of the Guards. I might have donned that blue cloak, with the emblem of the captaincy on its shoulder, on the same day that this ship sank.

  For a human like Kat, it was ancient history.

  But I was not in the past.

  I was a dragon who could see all this and understand that our place was together. I was a vital part of her future. I was certain of it.

  My strong wings were furled at my sides as I dove smoothly down to the sunken galley. All creatures of the water, even those who thought themselves the fiercest, scattered around me. I sent them a firm injunction not to trouble me
and they complied. A sleek gray tail swished away as a massive shark left the scene. He knew better than to trifle with a dragon.

  My front legs were shorter than my back legs, but fully capable of holding what I needed. I poked carefully through the remains of the ship. When I found what I needed, I wrapped it up in some tattered, brown netting. The package was heavy, but it was no match for my strength. It was an easy matter to hold it against me and use my wings to propel myself to the surface.

  When I broke through the water, even before seeing Kat, I could sense that she was scared. I saw, as I peered at her, that she was close to tears.

  “Where have you been?” She tried to cover her worry with anger, her voice coming out in a shout.

  Knowing that it would put her at ease, I quickly shifted back to the form of a man. In m two-legged shape, I remained in the water, still effortlessly holding my bag of treasure. “I merely took the time I needed to perform the dive.” I kept my tone moderate with her.

  “Nobody can hold their breath that long. I was worried.” She ducked her head, seeking to conceal the depth of her feelings.

  “I can. I am a dragon. I was soaring through the water in my own true form, with the power of my wings and the magic I was born to wield.” I shook my head, sending water in every direction. As she wiped the drops from her face, she recovered her equilibrium. When she noticed that my arms were no longer empty, she beamed at me.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “Ha!” I shouted in triumph. “I certainly did. Wait until you see the riches that were waiting for you on the ocean floor, so close to your home.” I mock-saluted her as I gripped the edge of the rowboat. “Permission to come aboard, Captain?”

  Kat smoothed her wet hair back from her face in a gesture that made me long to stroke her long locks. Everything about her was perfection. How was it that she did not know it?

  She sat up straight, with more confidence than she had shown since the debt collector came to her door. It was a joy to see. With a chuckle, she answered me. “Permission granted.”