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Teagan approached one of her favorite hiding spots as a child, nestled between two hills. One of the bushes moved in the opposite direction of the wind, signaling that something alive was there. She folded her wings against her back and dove down.
The next instant Aaron jumped into the air and used the combination of the wind and his powerful muscles to fly away. Male dragons had slightly larger wingspans than most females, but females were lighter. Teagan embraced her beast and beat her wings as hard as she could.
Aaron dove toward the lake, but rather than pull up, he went into the water. Teagan hovered in the air above and waited for him to surface. As long as she was in the air, she had the advantage.
When Aaron didn’t come up for air, she wondered if he’d hit his head on one of the large rocky outcroppings beneath the water’s surface. Many parts of the lake were deep, but the shallower areas had caused more than a few injuries to young dragon-shifters in the past who had acted before assessing anything.
Her beast spoke up. Give him another minute. Otherwise, he might be playing on our concern for others.
She wanted to argue that concern shouldn’t be seen as a negative trait, but her dragon was right. When it came to a challenge, a good Protector would use whatever tools they had at their disposal.
A green dragon head popped out of the lake close to the shore, followed by the rest of his upper body as he stood upright in the shallow water. Snapping his wings, water droplets danced in the air before Aaron jumped into the sky o
nce more.
Teagan swooped toward him and managed to collide with his large green body. Opening her wings to slow their descent, they hit the ground softly enough to not do any damage. As they rolled on the ground, Teagan noticed Aaron had a harder time gaining control from the left side. So she changed her movements to keep forcing him to move to the left. She nearly had him pinned, but Aaron finally managed to use his heavier weight to flip them over. Before he could pin her shoulders, she smacked her tail against his testicles. Aaron roared, and Teagan rolled out from under him and jumped onto his back. Wrapping her forelimb around his throat, she applied enough pressure to make his breathing ragged, but not enough to suffocate him.
Aaron tried to knock her off with his tail, but Teagan ignored the sharp stings with each slap. She growled in question—Would he cede?
For good measure, she placed the talons of her free hand at the major artery running down Aaron’s neck and pressed gently.
Aaron’s entire body went limp, and he gave a low roar.
Teagan had won.
Jumping back, she waited for Aaron to shift. His wings melded into his back, his stature shrunk, and his green hide faded into the olive complexion of his human form. Once the shift was complete, he glared at her. “What the fuck was that? You slapping me in the balls is against every rule I’ve ever seen in a dragon competition.”
Teagan shrugged a golden shoulder. In her experience, major challenges like those for a clan leadership never followed all the rules. She also had stated earlier the only restrictions were to not kill or permanently maim. Stinging balls was certainly within that purview.
Not that she was going to shift and explain it to Aaron. Teagan crouched down and jumped into the air. It was her turn to hide.
As she flew away from Aaron, she just made out his “Bloody hell.” Smiling as much as a dragon could smile, she flapped her wings harder. One round down, another to go.
~~~
Aaron watched Teagan’s golden form disappear into the horizon. He’d lost and rather easily, too.
His pride might be hurt, but his defeat only fueled him to defeat her. There literally didn’t seem to be any rules beyond don’t kill. He wasn’t going to hold back any longer.
His dragon growled. I told you not to go easy on her just because she’s female.
Believe me, I’m not going to do so any longer. She wants a challenge, and I’m going to try to give it to her.
He envisioned his body changing shape again and once complete, he jumped into the air.
Since Teagan was a gold dragon, she would need to be more creative with her hiding spot. There wasn’t much gold or brown to hide her in the summertime.
Aaron might not know the area, but that didn’t mean much to a Protector. Enemies often didn’t show up in one’s neighborhood, but they still needed to be defeated. With her limited options, she either had to hide in a lake or in a big enough copse of trees.
His dragon chimed in. Or in a cave, or even a large hole.
I know, dragon.
His beast huffed. Just making sure. If you don’t give her a decent showing, then I may have to take control. Otherwise, we’re not really helping her prepare for any possible challengers.
Until this round ends, she’s the enemy and nothing more.
You just want to impress her.
