To Wake a Dragon: Venys Needs Men

by Lucas, Naomi

  What if? What if she is suffering what I suffered?

  My nostrils flare. It cannot be. The poison dragon has long been dead. My human was never bitten. And though we are bonded, it would be impossible for something like poison transferring between us.

  Unless…

  I jerk away from her.

  The banging and yelling from the door grows louder.

  My eyes widen in horror. Unless it was in my saliva and my seed.

  A crash sounds behind me. I twist to see Zaeyr and Aida with several other females of the tribe stand at the door. I growl in warning for them to stay back, but I am thrown away. Zaeyr leaps on top of me, baring his teeth, and I do not fight him. Stunned, I lie there, as limp as my human.

  “Kill me,” I rasp. “Please.”

  Zaeyr’s brow furrows.

  Milaye’s tribe mates rush to her side, trying to rouse her as I had.

  “What did you do to her?” one of them cries.

  My lips part, but nothing comes out.

  I poisoned her.

  Zaeyr rises and I clench my hands. But before I can taunt him back to me, to end my horrid life, he goes to Milaye’s side. I surge up, shoving him away from her.

  “Stay away from my female,” I roar.

  He growls but remains where he is. A female rushes into the hut—his mate, I recognize—and goes to his side. I turn back to Milaye and the others around her. I growl again in warning and, to my surprise, one of them growls back.

  The rest are undressing Milaye and splashing her with water. “What’s wrong with her?” the one who growled demands. “She’s unresponsive.”

  “Tell us! Was she bitten by something? Could it be vine drought?” another asks.

  “No, she’s not turning green,” one of them responds.

  “Jungle serpent venom?”

  “There’s no puncture wounds.”

  “There’s bruises.” The female who said it narrows her eyes at me.

  I push the women away and grab Milaye’s form to my chest. “It is none of those things,” I hiss.

  “Then what is it?”

  “Me… It is me.”

  19

  Fighting Fire

  “Milaye, fight it!”

  I hear Drazak’s voice.

  Fight what?

  My skin is tight, as if it’s been stretched like an animal hide across curing poles. But it’s the sensation of being uncomfortably full that stirs my mind. And I am full. It’s this fullness that’s made my skin taut, I’m sure of it.

  Every second that passes, my body grows even fuller, my skin tighter. I want to scream, but my mouth won’t open.

  Make it stop! Please make it stop!

  But I make no noise.

  Though something does answer me, I realize it after a moment of anxiety. The lazy, relaxing heat I felt earlier roars to life, spreading through my limbs. The warmth takes away the pressure, easing my flesh to loosen up.

  Though I still remain excruciatingly full, and that same heat has only worsened it.

  The fire tells me to let it in, to surrender into it, to let it consume me. To let it keep filling me and filling me until I burst. I want to do as it asks… but something in me fights it. Fear. I think I’m afraid.

  I don’t want to burst open. There will be nothing left of me if I do. I have a mate to live for, a baby to live for… I can’t burst. I can’t.

  Someone takes my hand and raises it to their mouth.

  Drazak. My heart thrums. He’s my fire. It’s because of him that I’m feeling better.

  I fall back under and sweet, restful oblivion takes me again.

  I wake to screams. Wrenching, ear-splitting screams, unlike any I have ever known. There’s screaming all around me, on every side. It’s coming from within me as well, but so many others.

  Why are people screaming?

  Pain rips through me, and I lose consciousness.

  The third time I wake, I’m being carried. Someone is running and I’m in their arms. Each step sends blazing jolts of lavafire through me.

  Drazak. I’m in Drazak’s arms. I want to smile, but my mouth falls open instead. Several of my teeth fall out. The pain returns, hot and fast.

  “Milaye! Hang on!” Drazak roars.

  And then I hear the screams again. This time they’re all mine.

  20

  To Wake A Dragon

  I rush away from the humans, down the lift, and out onto the beach. Dragon fire rages behind me, but I do not stop. Zaeyr follows, helping me with my precious burden.

  Milaye is in my arms, but she is not the Milaye I know.

  She was not poisoned. After several days of caring for her with her tribemates, it became clear that what Milaye suffered was not what I had. She did not have poison dragon venom festering inside of her. No, I learned that was not the answer when she grew scales, her skin tore open, and her limbs expanded.

  No, she is not sick at all.

  She is transforming into a dragon.

  The alpha dragon that I felt nearing, the one Zaeyr had felt as well. It was not this Kaos from another tribe; it was Milaye. She is the alpha closing in on us. She is becoming one of us.

  A scream rips from her throat, and I tighten my hold. Her back arches, and a loud cracking fills my ears. Zaeyr stops next to me and sets Milaye’s tail in the sand beside her.

  It burst from her backside just as we decided to leave, because with it, dragon fire began escaping from her lungs. She bathed the ceiling of her hut in flames that seemed to never end, and by the time it did, the tribe was in chaos, and I was covered in blood and soot.

  Milaye’s screams have been unending since. Her mouth still smolders, the flames returning at random.

  “I need to go back,” Zaeyr says quickly, rising to his feet. “They will need my help putting out the fire.”

  “Go.” I lay Milaye’s convulsing body down.

  “I will be back soon.”

  Milaye writhes and anything else Zaeyr says is lost. He worries for his mate and younglings, and that is an honorable thing to do. Though he laid his hands on Milaye, I do not loathe him as much as before. He stopped my female’s sisters from gutting me.

  He and his bonded, Aida, have offered my mate and me a haven. One for her to transform in, one that contains me while I watch over her.

  I pet my human’s beautiful hair back.

  Milaye’s eyes snap open.

  “Human?” I grab her to me. Her gaze fixates on mine. Her mouth strains open into a silent scream. Sharp, pointy teeth have replaced her blunt human ones. She coughs and chokes and spits out a fallen tooth.

  Fear and pain etch her face. My chest squeezes. I would do anything to take the pain from her.

  “Mate,” I say as calmly as possible. I am not calm at all.

  Tears well in her eyes.

  “It is okay,” I say.

  Her mouth moves but no words come out.

  “Let it happen, little human. Do not fight it. Fighting will only make it worse.” I wipe away the tears falling down her cheeks. Her head drops back and cracking sounds fill the air again. Something wet and slick pushes against my arm. Laying Milaye on the sand, I discover that a wing burst from her back.

  She screams, curling her legs into herself. “Drazak,” she whimpers. The sound is meek but I am so relieved that she speaks.

  I take her wing and spread it out. It grows and grows. The other pops out with another shriek. Dewy and wet, the wings straighten, shedding a glistening filminess. Stunning white hide appears between the shimmering gold joints. They fold and open, and when they expand again, they are bigger and longer than before.

  In awe, I stare at my female’s coloring.

  It is not like mine at all, it is light itself, borne of sunshine. My throat tightens in wonder. What kind of dragon is my female? If she is not of me?

  “Drazak,” she groans, tears streaming from her eyes. “It hurts…”

  I caress her face. “I know, little femdragon. I would t
ake it from you if I could.” I would take the pain a hundred times over and more. “If it pulls you under, let it. I will be here.”

  Her mouth purses, and she shuts her eyes tightly. I lean in and press my brow to hers, giving her the darkness from my jewel. She opens her eyes.

  They are no longer dark, but metallic gold. They shine like the stars at night.

  I whisper my lips along her cheek when a burst of air rushes over me. It swirls in ever-quickening gusts, and when I pull back, Milaye is staring at me, her body expanding.

  Bright light explodes from within her, and her scream assails the air, morphing into a rumbling, heightening roar. I wince, blinded. Something hot pushes against my side, and I fall back, tumbling over and onto Milaye’s wing. It rises under me. Through our bond, chaotic shocks of energy grapple me. It is a power I had long forgotten. A dragon’s power.

  The birth of an alpha.

  Milaye’s soul invades mine, taking it over. Her roar grows louder, stronger, overpowering the cracking of her bones and shredding of her human skin. I peer through my fingers, forcing myself to look though it burns my eyes.

  Her human body is gone.

  All that remains is her glorious new one. I sit upon my knees. The light fades.

  Feathers cover her back, reaching over the tops of her flapping wings. Each wave of them sends my hair flying in the air. Like her wings, her body is pearly white and rimmed with gold, accented with crevasses of amber red veins. She is covered in soft-looking scales from her long neck, down to the tip of her coiling tail. Tufts of gold and dark red feathers sprout out the end of it.

  Where I have two arrow-pointed tails, Milaye has the power of one. I long to curl mine with hers.

  Her dragon is lovely and soft, and everything that would make a male alpha dragon envious and desperate to bear young with her. I stand, covetous, ready to defend my right to be with her.

  Milaye turns to me. Her golden eyes enrapture mine, and love explodes my heart. I am torn asunder by the mere sight of her.

  “Mate,” I say in reverence. “You let me in.”

  “Mate,” she rumbles back, speaking in my ancient dragon tongue.

  Pride swells. Excitement builds. She lowers her head, and I lay my hand on her snout. Gold dust sticks to my palms. Rays of golden sunshine streak across her form, and darkness floods from my jewel to eat it up. The light is balanced between us. Never have I heard of a human turning into a dragon.

  Never across the lands of Venys has such a show of magic been done.

  A dark dragon and a light dragon, two rarities in a large world, finding each other. I clutch my chest, wiping Milaye’s gold dust across my coverings. Inside, I feel what I have always longed for. A profound sense of rest.

  Ownership, belonging. Darkness and light, and all the suffering I endured to receive such a gift. Power, the power I once wielded over all the lands I claimed. This is the pleasure of soaring over the ocean, of breathing fire. It has all returned to me. Through Milaye.

  She stumbled upon me. Touched my dead dragon form. And revived me with her strength. There is human and dragon in both of our souls now.

  It makes sense. She is my tough, human huntress. She did not allow an alpha male to do all the protecting. She just needed to save me first…

  And she needed to wake herself up as well.

  Now that she is a dragon, there is no place in all of Venys we cannot go. We need no tribe, no other. Only each other. She and I against the world.

  My light bringer. My lips cock into a smile. I am the luckiest male in all of Venys.

  Milaye, panting, cants her sleek, feathered head in question at me.

  But she is not fully a femdragon yet… The power she now wields is nothing to the greatest dragon gift of all. To experience invincibility.

  She has no idea. No idea at all.

  But soon she will…

  “Fly,” I yell.

  And I watch her assail the sky, vanishing into the setting sun.

  21

  Home

  Two Weeks Later

  * * *

  I stomp the ground, pounding out the jungle soil around the old naga’s nest. I have spent the day clearing a path from the cave’s entrance to the beach. Not only that but, as to Drazak’s instructions, I have claimed the land north of Sand’s Hunters, marking it with my pheromones so any animal or beast that dwells here knows who it belongs to.

  Me.

  Nothing will harm me or mine once the creatures know my scent.

  Drazak teaches me more every day how to be a dragon. There is much to learn.

  I swing my tail out and snap two jungle bushes in half. Then I crush them into the ground as well. Birds flutter into the sky, and I lift my neck, gazing down the path towards the sea.

  “Is it clear?” Drazak asks beside my wing.

  I shimmy. ‘Yes.’ It’s easier to have him read my body’s language than to talk in a tongue that twists my mouth.

  “Good.” His voice is deep and filled with appreciation.

  It makes me preen.

  He is my male, and he has won the right to rut me. Now that I am a femdragon, it makes perfect sense in my head. When I needily bare myself to him, he just laughs, ordering me to reshape into my human form for that. He runs his hand over my wing and steaks his fingers through my feathers, telling me how beautiful my dragon form is, and that there will be plenty of time to rut later… when I am truly ready.

  Which relaxes me because I don’t want to release this ball of fire burning within me. Two weeks have passed since I transformed, and I’m afraid if I let the fire go, returning to my human form, that I might not be able to experience this again.

  Not only that, but the sun is blissful on my scales.

  Besides, I am much more useful as a dragon right now. I can help my sisters and brothers at Sand’s Hunters rebuild their huts, the ones I accidentally destroyed. It is much easier to gather wood, to drop them off a tree in this form. I have done it many times now, foraging for other resources in the process. I can access places I couldn’t as a human.

  Rocks. Reeds. Even mouthfuls of fish. I load my body, carrying everything I can between the other tribes along the Mermaid Coast. Granted, most of the other tribes fled when they saw me, and I’ve learned to remain away from the villages between trips. But they know me by now.

  They know Drazak too.

  A new surge of supplies isn’t the only change to the tribes my new form has brought.

  Not all the changes are good…

  There’s been a resurgence of huntresses questing for dragons. I told them there were none nearby—I don’t sense any but Drazak, Zaeyr, and Kaos—but they would not listen. My words have only led the larger hunting groups to travel farther afield.

  I know some will never return.

  All I can do is scent my tribe sisters, to keep them safe during their journeys. Each member of Sand’s Hunters now wears one of my dragon feathers in their hair for protection. I will not stop them searching for a mate of their own. If they are willing to face danger for the hope of a family, who am I to stop them?

  “I have finished clearing the hole,” Drazak says.

  I twist my neck to the cave entrance.

  The tree that once hid the hole from view is partially fallen over. It fell when Drazak turned human, causing the hole to fill up. I ripped out the broken roots, and opened it up enough for Drazak and I to dig. He did most of the digging since I had enough to do: exploring all that is now ours, gathering everything we will need for our new home.

  The familiar scent of the cave’s cool darkness releases into the air, pulling me from my thoughts, and I am eager to feel it upon my human skin. My nostrils flare. Excitement fills me.

  I am desperate to be back in Drazak’s arms again. Not everything about being a dragon is great. I cannot be as close to my mate as I want. As I need. But will I be able to change again?

  Ugh.

  At least I am comforted that Drazak remains with me always, t
hat our child is nestled safely inside me.

  Drazak wipes his brow.

  The smell of his sweat spreads through the air. My wings flutter. I miss having him inside me. Tonight, I want to sleep nestled in his arms, in our cave. Soon it will be a homey den for us and our younglings. I want to journey into it with him. This first time, together.

  It is time.

  Drazak straightens and steps away from me. Tense, he pins me with his dark eyes. He knows. I see the anticipation on his face.

  The need.

  I reflect it back to him.

  Shaking my sleek frame, I loosen up. I focus on the fire within and imagine it sputtering out, cooling off, becoming smaller. I envision my body fading away. First my wings, my tail, my large, crooked legs. I see my scales drop off, my feathers flying in the breeze, and I feel an ache as my neck and snout pull in.

  The fire dances, becoming a core deep within. As the flame pulls inward, my dragon limbs grow cold. My weight and strength disappear. My head spins. I implode.

  I black out.

  When I reawaken sometime later, I’m being carried. I open my eyes, and darkness meets them. The rich scent infuses me. Drazak’s delicious smell fills me too. I curl my arms around his neck. His hold on me tightens.

  I’m naked in his embrace.

  “I’m human again,” I say aloud, curling my toes.

  He laughs. I love the sound. “Yes,” he agrees.

  He lowers to the ground and I peer out curiously, seeing the ledge beneath us. He slips us over it without ever losing his grip on me. When he straightens again, I press my face into his neck.

  Then we’re at our ‘camp’ and a feeling of nostalgia zips through me. The dark is not as dark anymore. I can see through it, even lighten it some with what I am now. Lightness. Though I have no jewel like Drazak. The aroma of charred root and wood, even fire moss still threads through the chilly air, welcoming us. Drazak lowers my feet and I stand. He lays out a thick hide onto the ground which he had draped over his arm.