I thought about that for a second. “Huh, I’ll ask my dad when he gets back, but you’re probably right. My fire doesn’t always burn things either.”
Asher nodded more assuredly now. “Yeah, that sounds familiar, now that you say it. Demon fire is like the magical embodiment of flames, whereas the fire I just created was normal fire magic.” He paused. “But my magic is orange, actually. Whenever I enhance plants, sometimes you can see an orange glow inside of them.”
Unexpectedly, Jasmyn peeked her head into the kitchen and spoke up. “That sounds really pretty,” she whispered shyly, still not used to being around someone new.
He grinned, revealing his dimples. “My mom thinks so,” he agreed, before returning his gaze to me. “Oh, and about the rabbits – I have a little of my mother’s ability to sense things through plants, so I found a den and grabbed a couple of them with some vines.” He then turned to snatch a knife and began cutting the meat off.
Now that the confusion was gone, I found myself just curious. “And how did you skin them?” I asked.
He paused again to glance over his shoulder. “Umm, my claws…”
My eyes widened. “You turned into a dragon just to skin them?”
He shook his head, looking embarrassed for some reason. “Not exactly. I can sort of transform partly, but it’s really uncomfortable to stay like that.”
Jasmyn and I exchanged a glance. I imagined it must be something like how I looked, assuming my full transformation was comparable to his partial one. Then again, if his head had to shift into a dragon’s, then maybe he looked more different than I assumed.
Was that why he was embarrassed?
Either way, the fact that he had made himself uncomfortable to skin rabbits for us reminded me that I had been rude to him in the first place – and yet, here he was going out of his way to make it up to me, as if he had truly been in the wrong.
Unexpectedly, I found myself feeling a little nervous as I began to apologize. “Oh…And, I’m sorry for–”
A knock on the door caused me to shift forms instantly, all my senses focused on the porch, my posture automatically defensive. My overcautious reaction was enough to put Asher on edge too. However, much to my shock, even before I could call out to ask who it was, he bolted for the door with the knife still in hand.
Afraid he would stab whoever it was without question, I rushed after him, intercepting him easily to grab his wrist just as he opened the door. Surprisingly, he didn’t glance back at me, being wise enough to not let his eyes off a potential threat.
My eyes widened in shock when I saw who it was, my grip tightening even more when I registered Kain standing before us, along with Kaylee just behind him to the side. My voice instantly caught in my throat when Kaylee’s eyes widened at the sight of my demon form, instinctively taking a step back.
“Can I help you?” Asher demanded of our uninvited guests, almost eye-level with the seventeen-year-old despite a six-year gap.
Kain’s eyes were wide too, as he looked from him to me, and then down at my hand on his wrist, only to meet his gaze again. I wasn’t sure if he noticed the knife.
“Who in the world are you?” Kain asked, sounding almost indignant.
“I said, can–” Asher began in a surprisingly haughty tone.
I cut him off, having gathered myself enough to realize this could quickly turn into an unnecessary fight if I didn’t speak up. “This is my cousin, Asher,” I quickly explained before looking up at the person in question at my side. “They are classmates from school. It’s fine.”
“But then, why–”
“I almost died a few times this last week, so I’m a little jumpy.”
Asher hesitated for a moment, his surprisingly toned muscles relaxing a little. It had never really occurred to me how strong he might be in his elf form, but the fact that I suddenly felt like I could move his arm, whereas before I couldn’t at my baseline strength, prompted me to realize a half-dragon’s physical prowess might be vastly different than I assumed. I certainly knew that my dad’s strength was bound by human limitations, since he was truly a human when he wasn’t a dragon, but clearly that might not apply to my cousin.
I quickly continued. “But they’re fine,” I reemphasized. “And I’m really looking forward to breakfast,” I added, hoping he’d take the hint. I felt uncomfortable with the way Kain was staring him down, and felt like the best way to avoid them having an issue was to just remove Asher from the situation.
Thankfully, he nodded, his expression initially pleasant again as his other hand rose like he was going to greet them. However, he quickly stopped himself when he met Kain’s gaze again, seeing the look in his eyes.
Asher’s expression and tone were instantly sharp. “You’ll have to excuse me. I was in the middle of something important.” And with that, he turned around and headed back to the hearth.
Again, I was a little surprised by Asher’s arrogance, wondering if it was an elf thing, but really it was Kain who had been rude to begin with. I was just glad my cousin decided my human friends weren’t important enough to mess with.
With him back inside, I grabbed the door and stepped forward as I closed it behind me, glancing to make sure Jasmyn’s tail wasn’t visible in the kitchen. That would be just another problem to deal with – explaining who the blue tail belonged to.
“He’s your cousin?” Kain repeated the moment he believed he wouldn’t be heard. “He looks nothing like you,” he added.
I shrugged, not surprised since my human-demon origin was quite different from Asher’s elf-dragon origin, even if technically our dads were brothers. Honestly, when I thought about it, Asher and I were more different than Kain and Kaylee were, since technically they were at least the same race. “What are you two even doing here?” I asked, focusing on Kaylee.
She had her hand up to her mouth, her eyes still wide, her body visibly trembling.
She didn’t respond.
“Oh.” I shifted back to my human form. “Better?” I asked her directly.
She swallowed loudly. “S-Sorry,” she stuttered.
I shrugged again, pretty much over it now. “Well?” I prompted, returning my gaze to Kain.
He began scratching the back of his head. “I came to walk you to school,” he admitted, seeming a little embarrassed about it. He glanced back at Kaylee. “And I guess we both had the same idea.”
I supposed I wasn’t too surprised that Kain was here, but Kaylee was a different story. I looked at her, seeing that she had relaxed some, my thoughts returning to her hugging me in our classroom. “You wanted to walk me to school?” I whispered hesitantly. “Why?”
“I…I don’t know,” she admitted.
I waited for her to say more, but she didn’t.
I took a deep breath. “Well, I’m actually not going today, or for the next few weeks.”
“What?” Kaylee finally asked in surprise. “Why not?”
I began chewing on my bottom lip for a moment, as I thought about how to respond, only to stop when I realized Kain was staring at my mouth.
If I told them I was just staying home, then they might come back again, only to discover we weren’t here. Which meant, it was best to tell them the truth.
I sighed. “Okay, look, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else. Promise?”
They both nodded.
“We actually have to leave for a couple of weeks – sort of a family issue has come up. But you can’t tell anyone we’re gone, because otherwise someone might try to burn our house down or something.”
“What?” Kain said in surprise, before quickly continuing. “Well, if you’re going, then I’ll go too.”
I gawked at him. “Y-You can’t go,” I retorted.
“And why not?” he asked, crossing his arms. “I can use healing magic, and sure I struggle with it, but I could be useful if someone gets hurt.”
I just stared up at him before stating the obvious. “Well, if you go, then people will know we’re g
one!”
He shook his head. “No, my dad was planning on making a trip to Birchwood anyway. I can convince my parents to say I went along.”
I finally looked at Kaylee, as if wanting someone else to jump in and help me out, but she took it the wrong way. “I…I can’t go,” she whispered, looking ashamed of that fact.
“Well, of course not!” I agreed, focusing on Kain again. “And you can’t go either.”
He scoffed. “We’ll see what your dad says about it.”
“Seriously?” I exclaimed. “Why would you even want to?” I asked, only to immediately regret my question, considering his reaction as he averted his eyes and began rubbing the back of his neck. It wasn’t like he knew we’d be making the trip by flight, so I knew that had nothing to do with it.
I quickly continued, before he had a chance to respond. “Never mind. We’ll see what my dad says,” I agreed, hoping he’d side with me. Besides, where would Kain even ride? If Jasmyn and I were on my dad’s back, then my older friend would be forced to ride on Asher, who at this point probably wouldn’t allow it considering their initial interaction.
Then again, my dad was humongous as a dragon, so we could possibly all ride on him, my cousin included. But that would just be awkward, like four people riding a horse. I didn’t want Kain’s arms around my waist, or Jasmyn’s waist for that matter. That would be way too personal.
So no, he couldn’t come.
Unfortunately, my dad did disagree, thinking it was a great idea, much to my chagrin. Granted, it was my fault for not pressing the issue too hard. I supposed my bad habit of not telling my father how I really felt wasn’t an easy one to change, with part of me feeling like I shouldn’t put my annoyance with Kain over the benefit he could provide by coming along.
I mean, if Jasmyn got hurt, I wouldn’t be able to do anything to help her, whereas he could.
And like I had predicted, Asher was not interested in having Kain on his back at first, although their attitudes toward each other changed when my dad finally revealed that he and Asher could turn into dragons.
Surprisingly, Kain suddenly thought they were the two most amazing people in the world, and didn’t hesitate to comment on it repeatedly, which was the turning point in Asher’s attitude, since it seemed he appreciated the flattery.
Kaylee had already left at that point, having to depart before my dad returned in order to make it to school on time, which meant it was time to bring Kain in on all the secrets, including the existence of Jasmyn.
I was seriously reluctant at first, but he responded so well to finding out about the dragon thing, that I ended up agreeing to introduce my best friend, since it was kind of necessary and all if he was really going to come.
Thankfully, that went well too, with him treating her with the respect I felt like she deserved. And I would be certain to ensure he continued to treat her respectfully too, not opposed to the idea of knocking him down if he was ever rude to her, like he had been to Asher.
After that, Kain left to go pack a bag for the trip, as well as to retrieve a long leather strap to have something to hold onto. It had actually been Asher’s idea, commenting that he wasn’t in the mood to catch the human if he fell.
I wasn’t sure how we were going to handle the return trip though, considering my cousin might not be coming back. I mean, it really depended on what my aunt decided to do once she was able to freely leave the elven forest. I wondered if I could convince her to come live with us, or at least close by, so that I could see both her and Asher on a regular basis.
Once Kain returned, my dad transformed in the forest, and I gathered his clothes in my pack, before waiting for Jasmyn to get situated on his back. Once she felt secure, I handed her my pack to shoulder and then climbed up to sit in front of her, patting my dad on the neck in appreciation.
We then all three watched with some amusement for several minutes as Kain tried to figure out how best to avoid falling off the smaller black dragon, who was impatiently waiting for him to get settled.
I actually laughed when Asher rolled his massive slitted blue eye, clearly becoming annoyed again.
Once Kain was finally situated, my dad turned his massive crimson draconic head to nod at me, getting ready to take off. Jasmyn wrapped her arms more tightly around my waist in response, resting her chin on my shoulder.
“I’m really looking forward to this,” she whispered as we felt my dad’s muscles tense in preparation to jump. “I’ve never gone on a trip before. And I’ve never flown either.”
I didn’t respond right away, just because I hadn’t really considered that this trip might be ‘fun.’ But, I supposed with Jasmyn coming along, there was really no reason why it couldn’t be. After all, we would get to spend all day together soaring high in the sky for the next few weeks, seeing all of the world from a viewpoint many didn’t get to experience.
“Yeah,” I finally agreed, turning my head to rest my temple against hers. “I’m looking forward to it too.”
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to:
Esther Eckstein
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About the Author
Kurtis Eckstein is a huge fan of books, anime, and coffee! He has always wanted to create his own stories, but never felt like he had the time to invest in a full book.
Finally, he decided to settle with writing short-stories, only to discover he loved it so much that it became his primary hobby. Within six months, he had written three novels and was over halfway done with two others. Within a year, he had published six books total.
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