by S. E. Smith
Who are you? Trisha asked silently. What are you?
I am a part of you, your dragon. It whispered softly. Please, I want my mate. We need our mates.
Trisha slammed down on the creature when it tried to make a soft coughing sound. She could feel the sound building in her chest and throat. She clenched her jaw tight and closed her eyes, focusing on pushing the creature into a large metal cage. She could feel it struggle to resist her but she was determined. Trisha learned at an early age how to create large, solid, strong places in her to put unpleasant things she didn’t want to deal with. At this moment, the creature, or dragon, inside her was one of those unpleasant things. She needed to make sure she was safe before she let it out enough to examine it. Trisha opened her eyes and began moving again with a focused determination. She thought she saw a cave up ahead where she could seek shelter from the storm. Trisha couldn’t help but think as she made her way through the thick undergrowth if she would ever find a shelter strong enough to help protect her from the storm of need brewing deep inside her, begging her to return to Kelan.
Kelan let out a roar of helpless rage. They lost her tracks again. If they didn’t find something before the storm hit, it might be impossible to determine which way she went. When he found the body of the semi-conscious guard tied up in the alcove three days before, he feared the worse. He quickly called for his symbiosis to come to him, wondering why it had not protected her or warned him of the attack on his mate. He was shocked to find out it was Trisha who was responsible for the guard's condition. Fear turned to fury as he tried to understand why she would do such a thing. After searching the palace, Kelan questioned each of the other women Trisha had been with in an attempt to try to understand why Trisha would run away from him. It was Abby who gave him his first insight. She said she noticed a change in Trisha after mentioning her ability to change into a dragon. She said it was more of a feeling than anything else. Abby mentioned while the others joked about it and teased each other, Trisha only particpated when she noticed someone watching her. She seemed distracted, maybe even upset. His visit with Ariel gave him the direction he needed to know where to start looking for Trisha. Ariel was worried when she heard Trisha had disappeared. She said Trisha always disappeared for a while when she was upset about something or needed to think things over. Kelan's mind drifted back to what she told him right after he discovered his mate was missing.
"Trisha would disappear for days, sometimes weeks into the mountains by herself. Her dad used to track her to make sure she was okay, but Trisha wised up to it one time when she was about fourteen. Some of the girls in town were giving her a hard time about being such a tomboy, calling her names and putting her down. When some of the guys started in calling her things and pushing her around, Trisha just got up and walked out of the class. She was gone for almost three weeks before she came back to school. Her dad found her living up near Bear Creek. There were some caves up there. Whatever happened up there she never told me but she back quieter, more reserved. She focused on making good grades and didn't hang out with anyone but Carmen and me after that." Ariel paused as she looked out the window. “If she is gone, she would have headed for the forests and mountains. It's where she feels the most at home.” Ariel turned to look at Kelan. “You won't find her unless she wants to be found. She's good, really good at disappearing. I honestly don't think even her dad could find her if she didn't want him to.”
Kelan frowned as he stared over Ariel's shoulder into the distance where the forest rose up to surround three sides of the city. “Why? Why would she run from me?”
Ariel smiled sadly at Kelan before softly replying. “You were changing her without giving her a choice. Trisha seems tough on the outside but inside all she has ever wanted was to be accepted for who she is. She's tried to be the perfect son for her father, the perfect daughter for her mother, the perfect friend, the perfect wife but it never seemed to be enough. Now, she isn't even just Trisha anymore if what Abby told us is true. We are doing the best we can to adjust to everything that's happened to us. Some of us are just better at it than others. Trisha needs time to accept what is happening and accept who she is becoming.”
Kelan looked at Ariel and, for the first, understood why she was so important to Trisha. She accepted Trisha for who she was and loved her unconditionally. He was wrong to have judged her so harshly. Ariel's quiet strenght and support helped his mate survive many painful events in her life.
Kelan walked over to Ariel and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek. “Thank you for all you have done for my mate. She is very fortunate to count you as her sister.”
Ariel's eyes filled with tears as she smiled up at Kelan. “Just bring her home to us. Bring her home, accept her, and love her. That is all she ever wanted.”
“You have my promise.” Kelan vowed softly before taking his leave. He had a forest to scour and a mate to find. Calling to his symbiosis, Kelan shifted as soon as he was out of the palace. Four of his brother's best trackers following him.
"Lord Kelan." Jaguin, one of the trackers Creon recommended, called out from high up in one of the trees.
Kelan jerked back to the present. He quickly shifted and lunged up to where the warrior was kneeling on a large branch forty feet in the air. Kelan landed lightly, shifting at the same time. He carefully worked his way over to where the man was kneeling.
“What have you found?” Kelan asked. He looked down at the ground far below and couldn’t help the thought that his mate needed her ass spanked for taking so many risks with her life. If she were to fall from this height she would be killed.
“Here, there is an impression and some slight scrapping of the moss covering the limb. I also found what looks like wood shavings.” Jaguin replied.
Jaguin frowned as he held the tiny specs of wood in the palm of his large hand. He couldn’t make sense of it. If the female were cutting on a branch, there should be more shavings. He looked around, studying each branch along the limb carefully. It didn’t make sense for the female to carry a branch up the tree. He was still shocked by all he was learning about the human female Creon asked him to help find. Never in his life had he tracked anything this difficult. At first, he and the other three trackers thought the female was just lost. If that were the case, it would only take them an hour or two to find her. It soon became evident the female knew what she was doing. The first day she moved at a fast pace. She was careful about not leaving obvious tracks but did not try to hide them. It was as if she were putting distance between her and those that might follow her. He, Palto, Gunner, and Kor all thought by the end of the first night when they still didn’t catch up with her that she would make a camp for the night and it would be easy to find her. After all, the night could be the most dangerous. The Werecats were nocturnal and so were the BearBeasts. It would make sense for the female to hide until first light. Instead, they discovered she kept moving deeper into the forests. They lost her tracks dozens of times. The first time it became clearer that she was now covering them was when they came across a set of Werecat tracks. Kor discovered the barest impression of her boot before it seemed to vanish. Two steps later, the huge paw prints of the Werecat were found. Lord Kelan, Palto, and Gunner quickly shifted to dragon form to see if they could scent any blood, the Werecat would have sliced through the female’s stomach and eaten her right there. None of them could detect any trace of blood. Palto finally found a small section missing on the mossy bark of a nearby tree where it looked like something knocked it loose while climbing. Lord Kelan shifted back at the finding and slowly climbed up the tree until he came to the limb where it appeared something had laid down, crushing a few of the ferns growing along it. The marking of a boot heel was outlined on one of the large leaves. That was their first clue the female was using the tree limbs as a way of moving. Now, three men covered the ground looking for tracks while two others were in the trees at all times. Their tracking slowed to a crawl as it became more difficult to find any tracks.
“She was here.” Kelan said quietly looking around. “Look at the impressions in the moss. They are several hours old.”
Kelan stood up and looked around. What was she doing? Kelan moved over to several branches hanging down. He moved several aside before he found what he was looking for, the fresh bark of a cut branch. Kelan touched it and felt the still sticky sap. He looked in the distance trying to figure out what she was doing.
“She continued along the branches. I can see where the moss is smudged from her boots.” Kor said. “She is very good. I don’t think I have ever hunted a more worthy adversary.”
“She is not an adversary.” Kelan responded quietly. “She is my mate.”
“I’m sorry, Lord Kelan, I meant no disrespect.” Kor said. “You should be very proud of her. I do not know many warriors who could have made it this far, not with the five of us following.”
Kelan nodded in agreement. “We don’t have much time. The storm is moving in rapidly and it looks to be a bad one. Can you tell which way she went?”
Jarquin nodded towards the northwest. “She changed direction again. She is headed that way.”
Gunner growled out low. “The forests thicken and become more dangerous the closer you get to the mountains. My home is not far from the valley leading between the two highest peaks. Only the experienced warriors go there to hunt the BearBeasts.”
Kelan looked grimly at the darkening skies and then at the mountains in the distance. “Gunner, you lead the way. You are familiar with the area. Where do you think she would seek shelter?”
Gunner was silent for a few moments as he thought about the terrain they were about to enter. “If she continues towards the mountains, there are many caves lining it. There are at least six big enough for your human female to seek shelter safely. If the female was able to reach the beginning of the mountains and if she was able to find one of the caves then that is where I would look first.”
A flash of lightening streaked across the sky followed by a loud rumble of thunder. “I suggest we find shelter in one of those caves, as well. The storm will be here soon and from the way my dragon is acting, it is going to be a nasty one.” Palto said as he joined the others.
Kelan looked at the men with him and knew they were right. As much as he would prefer to continue searching, doing so in one of the fierce electrical storms that were common to their world was suicidal. Kelan looked at Gunner who was studying him and gave a sharp nod.
Gunner didn’t say anything, merely shifted to his dragon and lifted up into the air. Kelan followed last. He let the sharp eyesight of his dragon look for signs as they moved in and out of the trees. He could see the path she followed through the trees. When the trail vanished, three of them moved closer to the ground while the other two continued to search the branches in an unspoken pattern of teamwork.
A bright streak of lightening flashed close by just as Gunner landed on the ground, shifting. “We need to take cover. It is too dangerous for us to be out in this.” He shouted above the rising winds.
Kelan landed beside him and nodded. Gunner led them a short distance until Kelan saw the odd rock formation jutting up from the side of a rock mass. Gunner drew his gun and approached slowly. He let his eyes shift to his dragon’s to search the inside for other creatures who may have taken refuge from the storm.
“It’s clear.” Gunner yelled moving into the darkened space.
Kelan nodded to the other men to enter before he did. He took one last look around the darkening forest, letting out a snarl of frustration. He knew they were getting closer. He could feel it. Yes, find my mate. I need my mate. His dragon coughed out softly. Soon, my friend, soon we will have them both with us, Kelan said soothingly.
Trisha pulled in the last of the larger branches and stacked it near the pile of moss she had gathered earlier. The storm was now raging fiercely outside and she was shivering from the combination of being drenched to the skin, the coolness of the cave she found, and the wind whipping through the narrow opening. First things first, get a fire going. Trisha pulled the leaves containing the shavings of wood closer to her and grabbed a small mound of dry moss she gathered before the storm hit. It took her almost an hour to get enough wood, moss, and leaves gathered once she found the small cave. She worked quickly clearing out an area big enough for her to create a small hide-away. The cave, if you could call it one, was probably no more than a ten by ten bedroom but it was relatively clean and dry. She almost missed the entrance to it. The one rock area she thought was a cave turned out to be an oversized trunk of a tree hollowed out against the side of a rock face. It was as she was turning away that she caught a glimpse of the small, dark cut in the rock face about twenty feet higher. Once she explored it, she discovered it was perfect. It was on high ground with little chance of a rock slide, the opening was barely big enough for her to fit through giving her protection from the larger creatures she noticed during her nightly travels, and unless you stood just right, you wouldn’t be able to see it. The storm was moving in faster than she liked and she didn’t know how long storms could last on this planet. She didn’t want to get stuck with no heat or food in the off-chance it lasted more than a night, so Trisha made a judgment call – get what fuel and food she could and hope the storm covered her tracks. She was able to get enough wood to last her a couple of days if she only used a small fire and several more seed pods, as well as, some of the fruit she recognized from eating at the palace that was growing wild. She made a ring of some of the loose stones and carefully piled some moss in the center. Taking one of the leaves, she opened it and piled some of the shaved wood on top of that. Trisha reached over for two of the rocks and began striking them against each other. After a few minutes she saw a small amount of smoke. She gently blew on it until the dried moss caught fire. She slowly added slightly larger sticks until the fire was going well enough she could add some of the bigger ones, making a small teepee.
Trisha stared at the flames for a moment, holding her hands over the heat to defrost her frozen fingers. Once she was satisfied it wasn’t going to go out, she picked up several of the larger branches and carefully used them to create a door over the crack leading into the cave. She cut strips of bark off and used it as roping to hold the pieces in place against the wind. She could already feel a difference as the small area began to warm up. Using the light of the fire, Trisha glanced around. There was water seeping in from a tangle of roots through the ceiling of the cave dripping into a shallow, bowl shaped rock formation. She would have plenty of drinking and bathing water. As the cave grew warmer, Trisha removed her wet clothing, just keeping her bra and panties on for the time being. She used several long sticks to make a lean-to near the fire and draped her clothes over it so they could dry. Next, she used some of her precious moss and formed a thin padding for a bed. She covered it with several large leaves. She took one of the seed pods and gently laid it in the fire over some of the hot coals. She would let it roast while she weaved a blanket out of the other leaves she had. Trisha sat for the next two hours carefully cutting the leaves into long strips then weaving them back and forth like the old time yarn pot holders Ariel used to make for her mom. She stopped several times to add more wood to the fire, to turn the seed pod, and to rinse some of the fruit in the water. She didn’t need to worry about washing away her mud and leaf camouflage. The rain did an excellent job before she got into the cave. She checked her clothes and was pleased to find they were almost dry. The sharp crack of lightning followed by a loud rumble of thunder filled through the air and shook the ground. It sounded like the demons of hell were having a party outside, Trisha thought with a small smile. She was glad she wasn’t invited.
Trisha was soon dressed again in her warm, dry clothes. Her belly was full from the roasted seed and fresh fruit and she could barely keep her eyes open. She banked the fire, adding just a couple of pieces of greener wood to keep it burning a little longer before she curled up on her make-shift bed, the knives and gun within
easy reach. She was laying watching the shadows dance across the ceiling of the cave when she felt the now familiar stirring deep inside her.
Trisha closed her eyes and focused inward. Tell me who you are. She whispered softly.
The creature deep inside her moved slightly. It laid curled up in a ball, shivering. I am you. You know me. It whispered back faintly.
Trisha frowned. She looked closely at the small, shivering creature. It was so beautiful. Bronze, gold, and black scales covered its delicate body. It slowly raised its head to look back at Trisha. Trisha bit back a cry at the despair she saw in its eyes.
Why are you so sad? Trisha asked in a quiet voice.
Because you don’t want me…you don’t want our mate. I cannot live without my mate. I need him. We are one. We will all die without each other. Why do you not want him? He is so strong, so beautiful. He will protect us. It whispered back.