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He had come from nowhere. Was he some kind of sentry? Was he a wild dragon? I wasn’t even sure if earth had wild dragons. Worse… was he from the other thunder? I noticed him looming over me like a dark cloud and all I knew was that I had to escape. If he caught me, there would be hell to pay and I needed to try and elude him, to think and plan my next move. If he was from my thunder, then he was going to take me back to Ilvar and I would have to bear the brunt of his disappointment. Knowing him, he would never let me out of his sight again. This was my one chance to be free and I wasn’t going to waste it.
I hurtled through the sky, moving at a speed I had never reached before. I thought I might be able to lose him in the cliffs. I tried to use my agility to my advantage, but he proved to be my equal in every measure. I just couldn’t seem to lose this relentless pursuer and so I ended up taking a risk, a risk that hadn’t paid off.
It was all my fault as well. I should never have looked back. I should never have taken my gaze off the path ahead. But it was too late. I felt the impact in every part of my body. It shot through me like a wave, and everything went dark immediately. I’d like to say I was aware of the falling sensation, but in truth that time was lost to me. It was as though it had not happened at all, for the next thing I knew I had awoken on the ground, or more precisely on the dragon.
At first, I wondered whether I had killed him. He lay there, this huge, sprawling thing with crimson scales, head lolled back. I gasped and pushed myself away from him. I staggered back. I twitched my limbs and my wings and tail. Everything wasworking properly, even if the echoes of pain still sang through me. I looked to the heavens and summoned the strength I needed to escape when he twitched. His tail curled around him like a whip and his beady eyes gazed at me. I froze, wondering if he was going to attack. We stood there for a few moments, my breath was shallow, but as I gazed into his eyes, I didn’t get the sense he was going to prey on me.
Then, he bowed his head in a show of supplication, and I watched him shift back into his human form. He was a man around my age, perhaps a few years older. He had long dark hair that swung freely and brushed his shoulders. His face was wide, his eyes soulful, his lips full and expressive. He was in good shape, wearing a tank top that left his arms exposed. His jeans were tight around his trim waist. His biceps swelled every time he moved his arms, and breath caught in my throat. It was implicit among dragons that when they shifted to a human form, you had to turn as well.
Soon enough, I was staring up at him, but I kept my distance.
“Are you okay?” he asked. His voice was deep and rolling. I nodded. He stepped towards me, and I stepped back, as though we were caught in some strange dance. He pursed his lips and nodded with understanding. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re okay. That was a pretty hard crash up there,” he said, angling his gaze towards the cliff. I followed the direction of his eyes, looking up to the hole we had created in the trees. I couldn’t help but laugh, although I steeled myself against the reality of the situation because I still had no idea who he was.
“Why were you chasing me?” I asked. I attempted to make my voice sound strong, but I wasn’t sure I had quite managed to quell the nerves within.
He snorted. “I wasn’t chasing you, I just wanted to talk to you. I haven’t seen any dragons around these parts before. I’m Buck.”
“Kadie,” I replied. He nodded. Silence lingered between us.
“So… are you going to tell me what you’re doing out here alone? Are you an outcast like me?” he asked.
“Outcast?” I asked.
He grinned. “Well, outcast by choice, I like to say. I didn’t want to stay there, so I left. Is it the same with you? Our elders can be damned suffocating. Were they all about tradition and everything like that? I’ve heard enough of the old ways for a lifetime, and I sure got tired of keeping ourselves a secret,” he said. He hadn’t told me enough for me to glean whether he was from my thunder or not. It was impossible to know everyone, so the fact that I didn’t recognize him wasn’t enough of an indication.
“Do you serve Ilvar?” I asked, my heart in my throat. I was ready to soar away if he said yes, even though I wasn’t sure how far I would get. I still might have to flee even if he said no.
“I don’t serve anyone,” he replied. He was so brash and confident. I admired this about him, even if it scared me at the same time. I wasn’t sure I could ever be this brave.
“That must be nice.”
He rolled his shoulders. “Can be, but it can get kinda tiresome. So, what’s your deal, Kadie? Were you just out for a flight, or were you running from home?”
I folded my arms across my chest and looked at him uncertainly. I cast my gaze to the ground, wondering how much I could tell him. I needed help if I was going to get through this myself. The people of Earth didn’t deserve to fall at the whims of Ilvar, and at some point, I was going to have to tell someone.It might as well start with Buck. There was something easygoing and charming that put me at ease, that inspired me to trust him.
“I think I need to tell you something, but I’m not sure what to do about it exactly. It’s something big. It’s something that could change the world.”
“Sounds serious,” he spoke in such a way that suggested he wasn’t taking it seriously at all. Well, by the time I finished speaking I was sure that he would. I took a step forward. My words were frantic.
“It’s Ilvar. He’s the man who leads our thunder. He wants to get back to Drakon and he thinks he’s found a way only… only it means draining this world of its heat and energy. He says that he’s going to turn the world to ice and take us back home to Drakon, but if that happens then what’s going to happen to the humans?”
“They’re all going to die,” he said in a voice as soft as a whisper. He may have been carefree before, but the magnitude of the situation wasn’t deserting him now. He furrowed his brow and paced back and forth.
“This is bad, this is really bad,” he said with more urgency and more strength in his voice. He wrung his hands together and then he tapped his finger against his lips. “So, you’re from the Children of Drakon then?”
“Yes, but I’m not… I was born here,” I said, my words uncertain.
“And you’re sure this is actually happening?” he asked.
I nodded. Ilvar would not be the type to say something he did not mean. Promises were important to him, as was living up to expectations. Buck pursed his lips and then stopped suddenly, gazing up at the sky.
“So, your lot finally did it then? You actually want to break the world.”
I stared at him, gaping. “My lot?”
“Your thunder. They’ve been threatening this all the time, but I never thought they would actually do it. All the stories my Dad used to tell me about your thunder, I thought he was exaggerating. I never actually believed… I mean, they’re going to break the world. How is this even possible?”
“I don’t know,” I said, suddenly feeling ashamed of who I was and where I had come from. Was this really what people thought of us? I had always believed we were normal, that we just had some strong beliefs, but now… it seemed as though I had always been mistaken.
