Dragon Tamer

A shadow jumped in front of me, hands outstretched to the fire. As if it was hit by a bat, the fireball went flying in the opposite direction, hitting the manticore head on. It erupted into an inferno of red flames that rose up to lick the cage ceiling. The cage caught fire, the wooden structure already beginning to crumble.

The dragonlings ran to our sides and pushed us to the ashen ground. They hovered over us, spreading their wings to envelope us in a fireproof, leathery embrace. The person--man, judging by his build--who had saved me, held me tight, tucking my head into his chest just in case the dragonlings’ embrace failed us. It didn’t. Beams fell from above beating the dragons’ backs over and over. They didn’t falter, even when I saw Xanu wince when something particularly heavy landed on him. Forever grateful for their sacrifice, I stroked the muzzle of every dragonling brushing up against us. If it weren’t for these four brave creatures I would have died long before their pen had the chance to collapse.

And then it all stopped. The manticore’s cries. Elesor’s furious snarls. The intense heat. Sounds of wood snapping and crackling.

The dragonlings eased their grip on us, one head popping out of the embrace at a time until they deemed it safe to fold their wings behind their backs and step away from us. Fire flickered around us, no taller than my hip, but most of the ground was in embers. The entire corral had been destroyed, turned to ash at our feet. The wind stirred it into the air, making me cough.

A hot hand laid on my cheek. Having completely forgotten I was huddled up against someone’s chest on the ground, I looked up into a pair of intense green eyes; they were as wild as the fire around us. But that wasn’t what caught my breath. They weren’t human. Instead of a rounded pupil, it was a vertical slit like. . . a dragon’s. Or I could be seeing things, because when he blinked, they rounded normally.

It must be all the smoke you’re inhaling.

“Kali?”

I gaped. That voice. . . . raspy, because of the smoke, but still utterly sexy. Those undeniably gorgeous green eyes. . . . The faint scent of the sea breeze. . . .

Only one person could feel like him. But it couldn’t have been him. It was impossible.

“Camden?” I coughed. Gods, my throat was so dry. “Wha-what just happened?”

One minute he was supposedly on the other side of town--actually, I guess, that was a long time ago now--and then the next he was standing in front of me, shielding me from a fire blast that should have killed us both. He must have been the one calling my name earlier. And now I was sitting in his lap, surrounded by his arms as if he hadn’t just stupidly risked his life for me. By all accounts, we should be dead.

The thought was terribly unsettling.

Horrified that he’d sacrifice himself for me like that, I pushed out of his lap and stood up. “Get away from me, you lunatic!”

He rose to his feet, dusting ash off his pants indignantly with a scowl aimed for me. “Me? I’m the lunatic?? I’m not the one who went on a suicide run! Admit it, if I hadn’t been there, you would be dead!”

“We both would!” I shouted back, furious the idiot had somehow survived his stupid stint and was now lecturing me on being suicidal. “That blast would have killed us both! I don’t know how you did it, but don’t be getting any ideas rushing in to do that again!”

“I’ll do what I want!” he barked, stepping for me to prove a point--not that I was trying to stop him. Despite how stupid he was, after almost dying, it was nice to be near someone, to remind myself that I was actually alive, that this wasn’t a dream. “Just be grateful I saved your life!”

“No! You’re not supposed to go around throwing yourself in front of fireballs!” Not to save me. Gods, it would have been such a waste if he’d died saving me. “You’re supposed to do great things, save entire villages, protect important people. Not save nobodies like me!”

But it was more than that. I didn’t want him dying, period. The thought shook my core. It terrified me.

Like hell I was going to let him know that. People weren’t supposed to have this effect on me, that right was reserved solely for my family.

“I’ll save whoever I want, Kali,” he snapped, sticking his chin up defiantly. “It’s what I’ve been training for. I’m prepared to die for another person--whomever they may be. . . . But you’re right. I should have died.” He gazed at his hands in silent wonder. “My brothers are impervious to fire, but only after they were Bound. I’m not Bound. I don’t understand.” His anger at me deflated, replaced by his confusion. “How are we alive right now, Kali?”

On the off chance his hands held all the answers, I studied them with him, holding them in mine and inspecting his palms. Aside from the soot and ash, there wasn’t anything on them, no wounds, no burns, no evidence he had swatted a fireball away from me. A supposedly impossible feat.

“Are you sure you’re not Bound?” I asked him curiously. My brothers had said it felt different for every partnership. As doubtful as I was that he could miss his soul binding to another being’s, it was possible.

He shook his head in frustration, pulling his hands away. “Yes. All of your dragons despise me.”

“They don’t despise you.” As I said it, little Xanu came to our side and rubbed himself against us. The six foot long dragonling was too small to push us over, even when he put all his weight into it. Smiling, I stroked the length of his blue neck. Once I’d given him a satisfactory amount of scratches, he moved onto Camden, curling his tail around his feet in a possessive gesture. “See? I think Xanu has adopted you as his human.”

His features softened as the dragon thanked him for saving my life. He scratched under his chin, after watching me do it at least a thousand times. As the dragon purred, he knelt down in front of him and cupped his scaly face, gazing straight into his eyes.

His smile only lasted a moment then a frown took over and Camden dropped his hand. “No, I’m definitely not Bound--whether they hate me or not.”

I opened my mouth to quiz him further on this phenomenon, but a couple of dragons flew low above us, chasing the last of the manticores. The wind knocked us to the ground. I cried out, landing on my side where the manticore had hit me with its wing.

“Kali?” Camden helped me to my feet, arm wrapped around my waist. “Let’s get out of here. Your Dad’s going to kill us if he finds out we’re not home.”

True. I’d been beaten enough today, let’s not add to Dad’s beratement to the list.

Elesor rounded up the dragonlings and followed us through the streets. The manticore had done a good job in wrecking the front of store fronts anyway, so I didn’t see the harm in letting the dragons walk through the streets with us.

The dragons from the nest had come at some point while I was fighting in the dragonling pen and had helped our warriors clean up the rest of the manticores. A few of them plucked the bodies off the streets to clear paths and people’s yards. Seeing that the threat was gone, everyone left their homes and began the long process of tidying the village, putting out fires, and healing the wounded. We caught Amelia leaving the house with Giles escorting her to the healing hut. He paused, mouth open when he saw me. He had soot staining his face, his nearly black hair sprinkled with ash. I was pleased to see a few holes in his shirt and pants but no injuries. The surprise on his face quickly went somber and he squeezed my shoulder. “Tread carefully in there, Kal.”

I didn’t know what he meant until I heard the raised voices inside the house. I hadn’t heard them over the dragonlings behind us, but now all I could hear was Dad yelling presumably at Tallinn.

A heavy sigh escaped my lips.

Giles patted my shoulder in sympathy then hurried Amelia down the street.

I looked back to Elesor and the dragonlings crowding around her. Trinatar pulled on her tail, Kylie climbed up her back, and little Xenu hung around her legs, tail curling around one of her legs. “Will you be all right with them for a bit?”

The dragon nodded, wincing as Jizen yanked on her wing. She barred her teeth at him, and the young dragon jumped and bowed his head.

Camden followed me into the house. Stepping over the warm threshold should have been pleasant as it brushed the chill of the night off my shoulders, but I was so sweaty from fighting and thoroughly toasted by the fire that it didn’t bring me any comfort. In fact, I would rather be outside with Elesor and the dragonlings than be inside the hot house with the furious man filling the living room with his shadow.

“You left your sister behind!” Dad shouted at Tallinn. “She’s alone with a herd of manticore tearing up the town!”

Tallinn was sitting in the armchair while Harry, Kaden, and Casper were in the middle of putting their gear back on when we walked through the door. Dad’s back was to us as he loomed over my youngest brother. His shoulders were heaving, as they did when he was angry with us.

“They’re all dead or gone now,” Tallinn said too casually for one being the target of Grant Dricino’s wrath.

"And?” Dad snapped, fists clenched. “I don’t see Kali anywhere! If she’s hurt. . .”

“Dad,” I butted in before he could unnecessarily threaten my brother further. “I’m here.”

He whirled around, gray eyes whirling like a thunderstorm. “Where have you been??” he demanded crossly. I’m sure if he wasn’t so pissed that I’d left the house after he specifically told me not to, he would have been relieved and maybe even happy to see me, as any father who had been worried about his daughter would be.

“The dragonlings--they needed help, so I-”

Dad interrupted me before I could finish, “Left your brother and Prince Camden to fend for themselves while you risked your life for a couple of baby dragons?”

“I. . .” I swallowed, feeling the weight of my brothers’ gazes on me; their pity borrowed into me, but also their smugness, because I wasn’t usually the one who got in trouble. “They didn’t need me. They’re skilled enough fighters--and I had Elesor.”

Dad crossed his arms. His hair almost looked black in the lighting, curling around his ears with gray swirls whorling in the tufts of brown. He seemed older than I remembered him being. Lines etched into the sides of his eyes and across his forehead I hadn’t noticed before. “We’re stronger together than we are apart, Kali, you know this.” His tone had softened, a tad, but it was enough for my brothers to relax, taking a moment to strip out of their armour once again, and for Camden to finally step away from me; I hadn’t noticed how closely he’d been standing behind me until the heat of his body was gone and left my back feeling utterly exposed to whatever attack might throw its way at me from behind. “You’re always needed, Kal. You should have waited for Tallinn. You three should have gone together.” Dad shifted his eyes to Camden, who was now leaning casually on the side of the couch. “Thank you for bringing her home in one piece, Prince.”

Camden shrugged and raked a hand through his hair; it was an amber orange in the fireplace lighting and the green in his eyes appeared to have flecks of gold in them as the fire flickered. “I’m just doing my job, just as you are all doing your jobs to protect this town and the dragons that live with you.”

I couldn’t help the smile cracking on my lips; I didn’t think I’d ever come across someone who would defy Dad, for me, no less.

Dad glared at me, as if it was my fault the prince decided to turn his defiance on him for once instead of me, then turned to Casper. “Make sure your siblings go to the healing hut. If they so much as step off the street, carry them kicking and screaming.”

Tallinn rolled his eyes, peeling himself off the armchair. “Don’t worry, Da, there’s no danger for us to idiotically run towards. I’m sure we’ll survive the trip to the healing hut.” He waltzed out the door, Casper following right behind him, muttering something about there having to be no danger around for Tallinn to act idiotic.