Dragon Adventurer collection

by K V Deal

  The two women were standing a few feet apart glaring at each other. Carah had stepped back a few feet to watch the other two. Her arms were crossed and a single eyebrow was raised.

  “You just said I'll get used to it!” Rachel snapped, gesturing at the bodies. “This is something you get used to? Why the hell would I want to get used to this?” By the end, she was screaming.

  I looked down at Emma's body.

  That...was a good question. When had this become normal?

  From the look on Axle's face, the same question was crossing his mind.

  When I thought about it, I’d been fighting since almost the moment I had woken up after the change.

  Charlie gave Rachel a flat stare. “I never said it got easy!” she hissed.

  Carah suddenly stepped between the two women, pushing them apart. “Alright ladies. Let's stop this before we get to the name-calling phase.” She turned to Rachel. “Look, none of us like this. Hell, I know a few people who would do just about anything to make things go back to the way that they were. But this is a part of our life now. There are times in this new world where it’s kill or be killed. We’ve been in that situation more than most, I’m guessing. And yes, it doesn’t get better, but you do get used to it.” She shoved a cloth into Rachel’s hand. “Now clean your sword and remember you’re still alive.”

  Rachel stared down at the cloth as Carah turned to Charlie. “And you might want to be a little more understanding.”

  “This is a part of life now. Ya said it yourself! She’s got to get used to it?” I wondered if Charlie knew how pouty she sounded.

  “Really? This is her first time dealing with having to kill somebody! And before you say anything, I’m not counting that thing before,” Carah countered, crossing her arms. “And I happen to recall your telling B and me a story about your first fight with an inquisitor! How did you phrase it again? Something about–”

  “Fine!” Charlie said, cutting her off, “I get your point!” She turned and stomped her way over to me and Axle.

  Axle blew out a breath. “Well, that’s gonna put her in a great mood,” he said very quietly.

  I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to hear that.

  Charlie threw herself down into a cross-legged sitting position next to Axle and put her head in her hands. There were tears running down her face.

  Axle and I looked at each other in surprise and then he put an arm around her shoulders. “Hey beautiful, you okay?” He spoke quietly, leaning in close to her.

  I wasn't really sure if I should be listening — kinda felt like a third wheel here.

  “It’s still in my head…” she muttered.

  “What?” Axle blinked.

  “That thing is still in my head.”

  Oookay…maybe I do need to hear this.

  If she meant that brooch, then this may be pretty serious.

  “It’s still talking to you?” I could hear the alarm in Axle’s voice.

  “No…” Charlie wiped her eyes. “That’s gone, but…Axle, I didn’t see them as people. Ya know?”

  “Charlie…” There was a worried look in Axle’s eyes as he watched her.

  Me though? I wouldn’t say I relaxed, but that sounded pretty familiar.

  “Axle…what’s going wrong with me?” she muttered.

  “Know I’m not Axle, but nothing’s wrong with you,” I shrugged.

  “Nothing?” She snapped, dropping her hands to glare at me.

  “I heard it from a very good source,” I nodded.

  “What the-” She spluttered, her face starting to turn red with how angry she was getting.

  “I heard it from you.”

  Her head snapped back, almost smacking into Axle’s face. “What?”

  “That’s not the brooch. Well, at least it doesn’t sound like it to me. That sounds a lot like my own instincts.” I gave her a wry grin. “Hard to control, aren’t they? Just sneak up on you, and you don’t even notice unless you’re looking for it.” I paused, looking up at the dancing flames as they flickered and leapt in their trough just below the ceiling. “For me, the hunt can take over. I have to fight not to chase somebody down if they try to run from a fight. I have to fight the urge to think of them as prey.”

  I looked down to see both Axle and Charlie looking back up at me.

  I just shrugged. “That’s life now. Just gotta roll with it.” I stood up. “Anyways you’re normal. Well, at least you’re as normal as I am. I’ll give you guys a minute.”

  I turned and walked over to the other ladies.

  Carah must have dragged Rachel over to the door to the next room. Both of them now stood on either side of the door watching the shadows.

  “Hey! How’s it going?” I asked.

  Carah looked up at me with annoyed eyes. “Just great.”

  Rachel, for her part, just ignored me. She was still mimicking Carah as she gripped her sword with white knuckles, watching through the door.

  Okay. Just lovely.

  “Hey Carah, can you watch by yourself for a moment? I need to talk to Rachel.”

  “Please do.” The emphasis was definitely on the ‘please.’ Guess Rachel was starting to get to her.

  “I don’t really have anything I want to say,” Rachel said.

  That’s the way this is going to go? Lovely.

  “Fine. Guess I’m just going to have to carry this whole conversation myself then. But we’re still going to talk.”

  “It can wait,” Rachel’s tone was cold and final as if that closed the conversation.

  That pissed me off.

  “Nope. But you wanna have this out right here? Fine.” I lifted up a fist, palm out. “Two things. One,” I flipped up my pointer finger, “you know all those instincts? Yeah. Like the one I’m betting is keeping you looking like Carah right now? Well, we got them too. You’re in a group with three predators. You want to know why we’ve adapted so fast? That’s part of it.”

  I brought up the second finger. “Two! I’ll bet that out of all the teams in the Adventurers, we’re the ones that have been in the most fights. Life and death fights. Monsters, Inquisitors and, oh yeah, Edward. Just about everything has tried to kill us. If we scraped and moaned every time we were forced to kill somebody to survive, like you want us to, we wouldn’t have lived this long.”

  I flipped up a third finger, as my anger drove me to add one last point. “One more just for fun. You’d still be laying on your own house’s floor unable to move if we hadn’t been through what we have. No way we would have survived the Inquisitors or Edward.”

  My tail was lashing out a heavy beat as I glared at the shapechanger. “You want to be a bitch about this? Fine! But before you decide to take out your nerves on Charlie…!”

  I caught myself. I was about to say something I couldn’t take back. Instead, I spun on my heel and marched away, not trusting myself to keep quiet.

  All I was hoping was that there was something in that next room for me to fight. I really needed to burn off some anger.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Chapter 7

  The rest of our work in the room was done in silence. The only sound was the steady tapping of Charlie, who was once again pacing out the room, and the occasional scratch of her quill.

  Carah and Rachel still stood guard at the door to the next room. They watched the shadows but stayed firmly in the reflected red glow of the fire above us. The tinted light had no effect on the complexions of two red-skinned women.

  Axle, on the other hand, looked almost half-devil in this light what with how his skin picked up the color. He was at work searching the bodies, trying to figure out why the hell we had been attacked. I could see by his strained expression that this was not how he wanted to be spending his evening.

  For my part? I was...well, indulging the mood I was in. That little talk with Rachel had really pissed me off. I sat in a corner of the room cleaning egg off my sword. The extreme heat of the room had done its job. It had baked the
slime into a white film that covered most of the actual blade.

  I chewed on a bit of Warg jerky as I worked. Wargs were tough creatures and the jerky produced from them was just as tough. Still, it was a good protein for us predators. The taste was nice too. Each bite of that spicy meat let out some of the flavor, helping to keep my mind off the reek of Rachel's vomit.

  I pushed that thought out of my head and focused on what I was doing. The act of chewing something as hard as this helped. It gave my mouth something better to do than snap at people.

  Axle stood up with a sigh and worked his way over to me. “No luck,” he said as he plopped down next to me. “No notes, no signs.” He shook his head. His long ears bounced just a little as he did. “No survivors either. We killed them all.”

  Usually, that wasn’t really an issue, but we could’ve used some more information.

  I gave the blade a particularity hard scrub. “So,” I started, doing my best to keep my voice calm, “we have no idea if we’re going to be attacked by more of them when we get up top.”

  Axle grimaced. “No. We don’t.”

  I leaned away from him, swallowing my jerky before spitting a small ball of fire onto my sword. The flames crackled and danced for a moment, eating their way into the egg, before going out. The egg stuff was pretty flame-resistant, but I’d found that my fireballs did at least loosen its grip a little.

  “Damn! Warn a guy before you do that?” Axle scooted a little bit away from me.

  “You’re fireproof right now. Remember?” I pointed out.

  “Well yeah, but it's still nerve-wracking!”

  I rolled my eyes. “Sorry.”

  Axle looked at me for a moment. “You know, that may have been a bit harsh.” He commented quietly.

  I glanced up at him.

  “Not to me. That thing to Rachel.”

  I glowered at him and turned back to my sword. Scrubbing extra hard for a minute on a particularly stubborn bit of egg. “I tried to be nice about it,” I growled.

  “It didn't seem so nice,“ he said.

  I didn’t say anything. Instead, I scrubbed even harder at the crap on my sword.

  Axle let out another sigh. “Look I understand you’re angry, but we have to work together. Maybe an apology is in order? If only to clear the air.”

  I gave him a flat look. “No.”

  He winced. “I...take it you’re set on that.”

  “Yes.” I turned back to my sword.

  She had been damn rude, and he wants me to apologize?

  I spat another ball of flame that splashed along my sword's blade.

  Charlie must have heard us since she stopped making notes in her book to walk over. Not really surprising. Axle had been trying to keep that volume down. Me? Not so much.

  She stopped in front of me, hands on hips. “Really dragon? Ya can't even say you’re sorry?”

  Why the hell is she getting involved in this anyways?

  “I say sorry all the fucking time. I just don’t feel like apologizing for something I'm not at fault for.” I looked pointedly at her book. “You done?”

  “Don’t think ya can sidetrack me that easy?” she said, her voice edging into a burbling hiss. Guess her instincts were stepping in. “I understand how you feel, but that doesn't mean ya get to just say whatever you want!”

  My temper flared. I’d been trying to defend her, and this was what I got? And where did she get off trying to push me around?

  “Charlie—” Axle started.

  Charlie ignored him. “Well what are ya waiting for dragon?” she snapped. “Get over there and apologize to her!”

  You know what? I’m not going to take this from some squid girl.

  I surged up to my feet and looked down at Charlie. “No.”

  Charlie took a step back. She blinked once, then a thunder cloud settled on her face. “What did ya say??” Charlie's legs seemed to thin as she drew herself up. Somehow, she added an extra foot to her height.

  Still doesn’t match my size, though.

  Axle scrambled to his feet. “Guys?”

  “I said, ‘No.’ I didn’t do anything to apologize about,” I growled. My tail was beginning to lash as my hand gripped my sword tightly.

  It was that grip that somehow woke me up to the fact that I was drowning in my own instincts. I needed to take a deep breath, try and get a—

  “Jake, back the hell off!” Axle snapped. He was standing next to Charlie now.

  I had been so lost in myself, I hadn't even seen him move.

  “Who was in the wrong doesn't matter. Just go over and apologize!” he snapped.

  Wait! What?

  I opened my mouth to say something and then stopped. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  Alright. Fine. I forced my hand to unclench from my sword.

  Long term, it didn't mean a damn thing. I could go over there and say I was sorry. It wasn't a big deal.

  I turned and began to walk over towards Rachel and Carah.

  Carah was looking at me with worried eyes. I must have—

  “That's right, Dragon. Do what you’re damn told,” Charlie said smugly from behind me.

  “Charlie!” Axle snapped, but too little too late.

  I was barely holding on to my temper now and as far as I could see it, had two choices. One was to give in and beat the crap out of that smug bitch. The other was to get the fuck out before I just gave in.

  I spun around and stomped back to Axle.

  He took a step back, and I could see fear in his eyes. Thank God for that. It helped me keep myself in check.

  “Tell Cyrus I'm taking a few days off. I'll know soon if I’m going to quit or not,” I growled.

  Axle’s eyes widened. “What?”

  I turned and walked towards the exit.

  “H-hey. Jake! Wait!” Axle called out from behind me.

  “Jake? What's going on?” Carah sounded confused.

  I couldn't stick around. I would have to explain that to her…later.

  Hopefully.

  “Ya idiot! The rest of these guys are still up there!” Charlie called out.

  I ignored her and stomped my way across the marble floor as my tail lashed behind me.

  This is so stupid. Why the hell am I just leaving like this?

  Now that I wasn’t in the same room as Charlie, I was calming down enough that I could think about it. Not that I had any good answers.

  Even as I reached the stairs and began to climb, I still didn’t really know what had set me off.

  Had I been challenged?

  That was about as close as I could figure, but it didn’t feel like that really covered it either.

  “Jake?” Quick footsteps sounded on the steps behind me. Multiple footsteps.

  I glanced back to see everyone behind me, hurrying to catch up. I glowered at them.

  Didn’t they get it that I didn’t want to be around them?

  My eyes flicked to Carah. Well, I didn’t want to be around most of them at least.

  Turning back to the steps, I began to climb faster.

  “Hey!” Carah called out. “Big guy, slow down!”

  Without thinking about it, I slowed my pace. It was only for a moment, but it was long enough to let the others catch up.

  “Jeez, Jake! You sure can put on a head of steam when you want to!” Carah was panting a little from running up the stairs but was still able to throw me a quick smile.

  I really don’t know how she can just keep smiling sometimes. Out of our whole group, she was the only one who was right now.

  “Jake...” Axle said worriedly. “I know this has been kinda hard right now, but saying you’re going to leave? Isn’t that a bit...abrupt?”

  I didn’t answer. Just continued my climb.

  “Ya just gonna sulk?” Charlie said in a grumpy tone. I didn’t even need to look to know that she had her arms crossed and was glaring at me.

  “I'm being an adult,” I growled.

  “Guys..
.” Axle sounded exhausted.

  “Oh, so that's what they call it now?” Charlie replied.

  God! I just wanted to turn around and smash her right back down the stairs! When the fuck did she turn into such an ass?

  “Yes.” I forced myself to stick to the single word. Sudden pain made me flinch and look down at my hands. I had been clenching them so hard my claws had pierced my palms. I forced my hands to relax and kept climbing.

  “Charlie! You gotta keep it under control!” Axle hissed at her.

  “Why? He isn’t!” she snapped back.

  I stomped my way up into the single room of what used to be my house. “You have no idea,” I growled, heading for the door.

  “Oh, so the big bad dragon is holding himself back? What, ya wanna flex your muscles and try to intimidate me muscle brain?”

  “Charlie?”

  That's it!

  I spun around, my hands opening as I flexed my claws. “You wanna fight? Fine! Bring it, squid girl!” I snarled.

  Charlie took a step back in surprise.

  “Okay! That's enough!” Carah stepped between the two of us, hands raised. “Axle! These guys need some breathing space. You take Charlie and Rachel. I'll take Jake. Let's meet back here in two days.”

  Charlie glared at Carah. “You think I'm afraid of fighting that big lizard!?”

  “I think that once you both calm down, you won't want to,“ Carah said. She shrugged and looked at Axle.

  “I...” Axle sighed. His shoulders sagged. “Fine. Sounds good.”

  Charlie looked at him, at Carah and then at me. Our eyes locked.

  I knew Carah was right. I didn’t want to fight Charlie. Not because I thought I would lose, mind you, but because my rational mind told me I really didn’t want to. There was some kind of dance of dominance going on here I didn't understand, even though I was a part of it.

  Charlie and I held our stares for just a moment longer. Then, using every ounce of will power I had, I dragged my eyes away. “I'm not going to play right now. You want to fight when we meet back up, let me know. We'll do it then.”

  Hopefully, that was enough to allow her instincts to let her bow out gracefully.

  There was a moment of silence, and then she stepped back. It was only when her fingers relaxed that I realized she had been carrying them funny—all bunched up and tensed.