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Amaru’s eyes widened. “That’s horrible. I literally cannot express how horrible that is.”
Sam sat forward eagerly. “It’s why I went looking for your clan. I had hopes you could fix me. Not right now, of course, but after your clan has been awoken and rescued, can I ask for your help?”
“Of course!” Amaru felt like that was a given, not even a question to be thought about. “For all the help you are going to give me, I think it only fair I help you. As soon as I have everyone awake, and my lab returned to at least a semi-functional state, you will be my first priority.”
Sam’s expression was one of utter relief and anticipation. “I cannot tell you how much that means to me. Thank you very much.”
“If I was faced with this problem, of not being able to bind myself to my own mates, I too would’ve turned the world upside down for any clue. Trust me, I will fix you one way or another.” In fact, Amaru had a very good idea of what was wrong just by looking at Sam right now, but he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. A little bit more time to study him was called for before Amaru blurted anything out.
A broken sob escaped Sam, making Amaru jump. He watched as Sam fell into Dimitri’s arms. The dragon hugged him so tightly the little mage nearly disappeared in the bigger man’s frame. After several seconds, Dimitri helped Sam out of the tent while the mage continued to cling to him, his shoulders still shaking.
Someone touched Amaru’s hand and he looked over to see Luka smiling at him. “Sam has been searching his entire life for a way to fix his core. He has a brother who took more after his mother’s side of the family and his core is fine. Sam is an archaeologist and studied what little could be found about your people in hopes it would lead him to a cure.”
Amaru sat there, expression pained. “I can’t believe that much knowledge was lost. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
It was Sora who answered, looking sad. “My clan was the one who retained most of its medical knowledge, but we have never faced a problem like this one before. We studied it, we’ve tried different methods, but nothing seems to work to heal the core.”
Amaru now saw exactly where the problem lay. Healing was not the right tactic.
Hopefully, Sora inquired, “Would you mind if I studied with you?”
If that much knowledge had been lost, then… “I think you should. This is no time to be keeping secrets, and I owe all of you for your help anyway.”
Sora’s expression was one of absolute relief and anticipation. “I am truly looking forward to learning from you.”
“I can assure you, we will be learning from each other. I have a lot of questions for you too.”
“Thank you, Amaru,” Rodrigo replied. “But I would very much like to know why your entire clan, along with several lightning dragons, is under the lake and has been for the past five hundred years.”
Amaru slumped in his folding chair, picking at the rough fabric on the arm. “Well, it wasn’t supposed to be for five hundred years, I can tell you that. I told them not to go with Irany’s design. I warned them it was going to have issues, especially when there were that many dragons locked away with us. But did they listen to me? No! Irany’s design was faster and easier. It didn’t have half the precautions it should have had!”
Amaru lifted his head to find everyone staring at him. No one blinked. No one said a word. Yeah, they hadn’t been expecting that outburst. Maybe he was still frustrated and a touch bitter over sleeping for five centuries.
Though, he shouldn’t complain too much. This little time hop had handed him two sexy dragon mates. Maybe he got two to make up for the trouble.
He rubbed a hand through his hair and huffed an awkward laugh. “Sorry. Umm…what’s under the water is about a third of my clan and just a fifth of the old Tupã Dragon Clan. This plan was a final desperate effort to protect my people while they tried to destroy the Woodsfather.”
“The Woodsfather? What’s that?”
“Powerful, colossal giants. Are they not around anymore?”
“We certainly haven’t seen them.”
Amaru was actually relieved to hear that. “Then I’ll explain further. The Woodsfather dwell in the wild woods—or at least used to. They have enormous claws and are taller than any tree. Normally, they avoid humans, but someone stumbled across one of their dens and they took it as an attack upon their territory. Just one would give a party of dragons and mages trouble to defeat because their hide is practically impenetrable. In this case we had a full clan attack us. We feared what would happen if some of them got loose and chose to attack their territory. Those who couldn’t fight, as well as a few specialists like myself, were left to sleep under the lake. We’d be protected while the rest of my clan and the dragons fought the Woodsfather. We thought it would take only a few weeks. Maybe a few months at most. Then the survivors would come wake us up. But if no one came to wake us up, it must mean there were no…” His voice drifted off as the lump in his throat grew larger and larger.
