The woman grabbed the man by the elbow and pulled him back toward. “Unseelie fae don’t like humans. Let’s go.”
The man followed the woman as they backed away, a confused look on his face. “Why would they come here then?”
The three of us looked to the only human in our group, and Daria returned our glares with a sheepish smile. “I think we all need a drink.”
I rolled my shoulders back. “Yes, multiple drinks and one of those meat sticks.”
Daria squinted her eyes, confused. “Meat sticks?” Her eyes suddenly widened with understanding, and she giggled. “Oh, you mean, turkey legs. Yes, we can get you one of those.”
I gave a curt nod and dug into the pocket of my pants, pulling out a small rectangular card. “In exchange for some items from the fae realm that are quite valuable here, Daniel allowed us use of his card of compensation.”
Marcus snorted, eyeing the attendees around us as they passed by. Snorting seemed to be his favorite past time as he was not much of a talker. He wasn’t a solider, but he was definitely something similar. He seemed to be in a constant ready state of action if needed. “You mean a credit card?”
I shrugged, heading to a booth that advertised a banner holding pictures of beverages above it. “Same thing.”
He followed me, the women close behind. “Not really.”
I slapped my card down on the counter of the booth, startling a young woman dressed similarly to Daria, her blonde hair in two braids. “Young miss, please give us four glasses of your finest mead. I will pay with this card of-”
“Credit card,” Marcus muttered.
“Credit card,” I said, my throat tight. “It does not flow off the tongue as well as card of compensation.”
The booth bar maid remained unmoving, eyes wide and confused.
Marcus leaned into me, arms crossed. “No one knows what that is.” He looked over to the woman. “Four of your house beers. This is going to be a long day.”
I raised an index finger in the air. “That’s why we’re drinking.”
I couldn’t say how long we were at the festival, but I hated to admit, humans knew how to have weird fun. However, despite the many fae we encountered, no one knew of any spells that could work to help me. When we found the dragon exhibition, the line to the tent was extremely long. We had hopes it would die down as we explored more of the festival but had no luck. Left without any options, we got in the line to wait our turn to gawk at a fellow dragon as if he or she were some art. I hoped whoever this dragon was, they were getting paid well.
Once inside the massive tent, I saw a large crowd sitting on benches wrapping around the space facing a circular center. Above us was an opening, wide enough for a gigantic animal todrop in or fly out. The ground was not earthen like I expected. It looked wooden with what appeared to be a large square outlined in the center.
Suddenly the space grew dark except for the light from the sky. Loud music blared around us, hushing the crowd. A spotlight appeared, lighting the center. The square outline in the center shifted, the wood moving upward. Slowly the head of a black scaled dragon began to appear under the rising wood. Her yellow eyes opened up, and soon we were graced with a massive dragon. She had to be around 75 feet tall, which was on the smaller size. This made it likely she was a shifter like me. Most dragons over 100 feet tall were not shifters or hybrids and could not shift to human or fae. I was slightly under that at 90 feet tall in my full form.
Ridges spiked around her face and over her massive wings, which I assumed, when fully flexed, might take the length of the space. Flashes from the various camera phone contraptions I’d come to learn about went off around the tent, emitting tiny sparks of light in the dark space. The dragon seemed to preen under the attention, and she blew out tiny balls of fire that had the crowd oohing and aahing.
The temperature in the space grew warmer from the heat, and I wondered if anyone was concerned at all at the possible danger they were in if this dragon decided to lose her mind and kill us all. It would be all so easy. I also wondered if there were any precautions I did not see that were in place. I didn’t understand being in dragon form when not needed. There were two times I would do so, when in battle or resting alone. If left in dragon form outside of those options, it was possible to forget oneself and go into defense mode. Intergenerational trauma from humans and fae being the cause. If the unseelie fae hated humans, dragons absolutely despised them ten times more. I wasn’t sure there would be enough coin in the world to get meto dance like some performance animal for this smelly horde. I suppose they were lucky she was likely a shifter. More self-control. There was no world where a non-shifter dragon would do this willingly.
Daria leaned toward Jalisa. “Inappropriate question, but is this dragon a male or female and how can you tell? I was expecting to see a giant peen or vag in my face, but I see neither.”
Jalisa cackled. “It’s hidden in a slit.”
Daria cocked a brow. “Like a pocket?”
Jalisa wrinkled her brow. “Sort of?” She elbowed me in the ribs, and I tried to ignore her. “I know you hear us. Answer her question.”
I ran a hand over my face. The things you do for friends you barely know. “Yes, like a pocket. When I’m in dragon form, I just snap it off and put it in my built in pocket.”
Daria’s eyes widened and Marcus snorted yet again, eyes still wearily on the dragon, probably plotting how he could get his fiancée out of this death trap if things went south. “Really?” she questioned.
Jalisa shook her head. “No. Stop lying to our new friends, Ivy. We need less enemies, not more.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “It stays inside, and then when it’s ready to be used, it comes out.”
Daria squinted her eyes, head tilted. “So, there’s nothing down there?” She made a waving motion with her hand over her lap.
I looked at Jalisa, who quickly turned her head from me. That didn’t stop me from glaring at the back of her head as if she would be able to feel the heat of my stare. This uncomfortable line of questioning felt like her fault. “That is not how it is when I’m in fae form. I don’t walk around like some neutered puppet.”
