Soulbound to a Dragon

by Kurtis Eckstein

  After only half a minute, the electrical storm stopped, and the dragon circled once more before letting out individual strikes of lightning that were more precise. As he attacked individual elderfel, I finally realized which of Eli’s senses was above normal. While his hearing didn’t seem much better than a human, and his sense of smell may have only been slightly better, it was clear that his eyesight far surpassed mine, being able to see great detail even from his height in the sky.

  After about twenty more peals of thunder, Eli finally stopped attacking and flew around surveying the land for any more stragglers he had missed…

  Which meant, he had initially killed at least eighty of the elderfel in a matter of seconds.

  Never in my entire life had I ever seen a creature with so much raw power. I couldn’t imagine a single thing that could stand against this beast, and I found myself realizing I had made the right choice when wanting to summon a dragon – only to get lucky and summon a half-dragon who wouldn’t instantly kill me.

  Unexpectedly, I felt Eli demanding something of me, sensing it even from this distance. It was just as strong as if he were standing right next to me. I quickly tore my eyes from his monstrous, yet beautiful, form and looked down at the fields below.

  And then I realized the problem.

  Despite his efforts to avoid using fire, his electricity had still sparked fires in many of the fields. And none of us had the ability to put them out. None, except one person. I looked up again to see that Eli was already coming back, the demand growing stronger – not because he was getting closer, but because it was quickly becoming more urgent.

  I looked over at Risa to see that her golden eyes were wide with shock, her hands still covering her wolf-ears from the thunder. I focused on Eli again as he landed a few hundred feet away, the ground rumbling underneath me, before hurrying to Risa’s side.

  “Risa,” I whispered to get her attention. Even though I was standing right in front of her, she had ignored me, staring over my head at Eli. Her eyes finally focused down on mine. “You need to go with Eli and use your magic to put out the fire.”

  “What?” She exclaimed, completely shocked. She looked over at the dragon and immediately shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Risa, look at me.” I brought my hands up to her face. “You made me a rose out of your ice! Conjuring an ice storm will be no problem for you, but you need to get closer and you need to do it now.”

  “But I can’t,” she exclaimed again breathlessly.

  I smiled at her. “Which part? Ride him? Or create the storm?”

  “Ride him,” she admitted.

  “Risa, please, I beg you. These fires are going to wipe out this entire town. The ground is too dry. Please do it for me. Don’t think of him as a person. Just think of him as a dragon.”

  “That doesn’t really help,” she replied in a rush. “Dragons eat people.”

  “They do?” I asked in confusion, before shaking my head. “It doesn’t matter, because that dragon is my friend. And you are my friend, and I need you to work together to put the fire out. Risa, please!” I dropped my head, my voice full of desperation. “Please do it for me.”

  I heard her take a sharp breath, and then sensed her nod hesitantly. I met her golden eyes again, before quickly grabbing her hand and leading her over to Eli. The dragon immediately flattened himself on the ground, so she could climb onto the base of his neck. She tried hesitating, but I didn’t let her. I pushed her forward and made her straddle him.

  I was glad his scales were smooth. He didn’t have any spikes or rough patches for her to get hurt on, and the leathery skin around the front of his neck was perfect for holding onto.

  Risa screamed as she held on tight while Eli reared up on his hind legs to leap into the air. And she kept screaming, until they were soaring over the land. When she finally stopped and nothing happened, I was afraid she might have forgotten why she was up there in the first place. However, after a few more seconds, a trail of ice crystals began to follow Eli as he flew. Risa was still holding on tight, not needing her hands to use her magic.

  The trail of ice crystals grew thicker and thicker as he circled the area, until a large cloud developed that began dropping melting ice onto the fires below. Within a few minutes, Risa had really conjured a small ice storm, the sight surreal as it snowed in the middle of the summer. Granted, it never snowed this far south anyway, even in the winter.

  As I watched in awe, I glanced back briefly to see Regulus and the other two elves shocked out of their minds. I wished I had looked sooner to see how they reacted to the almighty destruction Eli rained down on the elderfel army, but I already had a pretty good idea based on their current expressions. It was like they still hadn’t recovered from their initial shock.

  When I looked back up at the dragon, fear gripped my chest again when I saw Risa had passed out and was falling off.

  “No!” I cried out as I took off running, but it was too late.

  Risa began to fall.

  Eli immediately began to fall too, rapidly growing smaller until his more humanoid form was holding her limp body in his arms, his smaller wings beating furiously to slow them down.

  I raced onward as they landed, but they were so far away that it took me several more minutes to finally reach them. I stopped dead in my tracks when I got close enough, thankful to see that Risa was alive but then immediately stunned to see her expression. She was laying in his lap, her hands clasped in front of her chest, her golden eyes gazing at him with adoration and trust.

  For a split second, I was glad that she finally felt safe around him, but then my next thought was one of jealousy because she felt safe around him. And she was gorgeous, and she could probably have any guy she wanted, including Eli, and…

  Stop it, I chastised myself. Eli doesn’t belong to me.

  My heart broke at that realization, and I tried to hold it together as I processed what I was seeing. Eli’s expression was more reserved, but of course he would be interested in her. I knew that had to be the truth. She was beautiful – more than beautiful. She was better looking than most elf women, who were all as attractive as goddesses.

  And I…

  Well, I was not.

  But that truth wasn’t enough to make my jealousy dissipate. I didn’t realize I was thinking it so strongly, but when Eli’s head snapped towards me, I realized I had accidently communicated to him what I wanted. Because he immediately did it.

  I wanted him to get the hell away from her.

  He stood up with her in his arms, no longer looking at her, and gently set her on her feet. His eyes remained on me, although I could tell he just didn’t want to needlessly piss me off more. Risa’s intense expression shifted to confusion before she followed his stare and glanced over at me too. Immediately, she appeared apologetic and stepped away from him, which only made it worse, because it was like I had caught them together.

  I supposed I had, in a way, since he was naked.

  After a second, I felt bad again for being so irrationally jealous. Because Eli really wasn’t mine. He didn’t belong to me. And if Risa had found a man she could trust, then who was I to stand in her way? She deserved that, especially after all she had been through. She certainly deserved it more than I did.

  I sighed heavily and averted my gaze. Feeling too many confusing emotions to process them all.

  Tobias surprised me by suddenly passing me up. He had Eli’s discarded clothes in his hands. I heard Risa walking towards me then, and I looked up to see her face was still exceptionally apologetic. I realized I must have been doing a horrible job of hiding my feelings, and it made me feel all the more ashamed.

  When she got close, she stopped, unsure of how I was going to react to her. I took a deep breath, and then reached out to pull her into my embrace. I buried my face against her upper chest as she wrapped her arms around my head. “I’m glad you’re safe,” I whispered. “I thought you were going to die.”

  “Me too,
” she admitted, her silky-smooth voice sparking a small ping of jealousy again. “Although, I thought that at the beginning. I don’t remember falling.”

  I sighed, pushing my stupid feelings aside. “It was really scary to watch. But Eli caught you almost immediately. You were never in any real danger.” I hesitated. “Thank you Risa. Thank you for putting out the fires.”

  She tightened her embrace slightly, surprising me by abruptly changing the subject. “Are you really going to leave?” She whispered, sounding devastated. “I really don’t want you to leave. Please stay.”

  I pulled away from her slightly so that I could look up into her eyes. I knew she really meant it. No matter what thing had just been going on between her and Eli, she sincerely did want me to stay. And I suspected if she had to choose between me and him, she would pick me without hesitation. Which was comforting.

  As my determination set in, I nodded. “You’re one of the first friends I’ve ever had Risa, and I’m not about to leave that behind, no matter what. I’ll never leave you of my own free will. I promise.”

  Tears appeared in her eyes so quickly that one second she was fine and the next second she was crying, her cheeks already wet. My eyes started to sting seeing her reaction, and I quickly buried my face against her shoulder again, holding her tight.

  We held each other while Eli got dressed. I was thankful Tobias had thought about bringing his clothes. It would have been awkward having him walk back with us naked.

  The elves hadn’t budged from their current location, so I had to walk all the way back to decline their offer. Needless to say, Regulus wasn’t very happy about my decision, revealing his true colors when I declined again. He was pissed, which didn’t make sense unless he was losing something in this deal. If he wasn’t expecting anything from me in return, then it shouldn’t have mattered so much that I didn’t want to go. And yet, his anger went far beyond an annoyance for putting in the effort, only to have me reject it.

  Needless to say, once he left after calling me a ‘bitch’ in elvish it became pretty obvious that he was probably planning on calling in on that favor that I ‘supposedly’ owed him the moment we got back to the elven forest, possibly even forcefully. And I was all the more thankful I hadn’t accepted.

  I was also unexpectedly very appreciative of Eli, who stepped in front of me the moment Regulus became more hostile and demanding. It almost seemed as if the elf wasn’t going to give me a choice – that he would take me back by force if he had to. But Eli’s intervention changed Regulus’ attitude real fast. Because no matter how strong he and his guard buddies were, they had seen for themselves how outmatched they were against Eli.

  Never mind that they had no idea that, in addition to electric magic, he could also use fire, illusion, and transformation magic, the latter two being forms of dark magic like my binding spell. I discovered after the elves departed that transformation magic was why Eli was able to transform into a dragon for up to a day at a time, as well as how he probably came into existence in the first place. His father had likely done the exact opposite, transforming into a humanoid shape for short periods of time.

  Really, Eli was in a classification of his own, being able to use three branches of magic and having enough power to comfortably destroy a small army. It far exceeded what any of us had seen in our lifetimes. There weren’t many mages who could take him on, and I had already seen firsthand that his physical prowess was beyond even the toughest of elf men. Even if he lacked skill in other areas, I had no doubt his raw power would make up for it.

  It felt like I had my own personal demigod watching over me, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if that might actually be the truth in a way.

  The humans in the town had panicked when the attack happened.

  Whereas some workers in the fields had noticed the elderfel, most of the humans hadn’t realized that anything was going on until the black dragon in the sky attacked. The sounds of the hundreds of simultaneous lightning strikes, and the accompanying earth-shaking thunder, was enough for them to think it was the end of the world. By the time the guard and a few brave men had shown up to find out what was going on, the elves had already left, and Tobias had sent us pantherians back to the house.

  Eli already had his wings concealed again with his illusion, in case anyone saw us leaving the area. And the three humans explained what they had seen to their fellow men without giving away any details about Eli or me. I was surprised that Tobias seemed so calm about Eli. I was having a hard time myself fully wrapping my mind around the idea that he could turn into a dragon. It was hard to look at him the same, but in a good way for me.

  Now that my life wasn’t in immediate danger anymore, a part of me was now jealous that Risa had been able to ride him first. I knew it was petty, but I wanted to know what it was like to fly. I wanted to know what it was like flying with him.

  As we walked back to the house, Risa walked on my left side, holding my hand, while Eli walked on my right. Now that I had gotten over my moment of jealousy and overall ridiculous feelings, I couldn’t stop praising Eli for how powerful he was.

  “Eli, seriously,” I continued. “I’ve lived with elves all my life and have never once seen anyone display so much power. And you don’t even look slightly fatigued!” He was blushing, with his hand rubbing the back of his neck, but he didn’t say anything. “Are all dragons that powerful?” I wondered.

  He sighed. “I’ve actually never met a dragon before,” he admitted, “so I really don’t know, but I would assume so.” He glanced down at me again. “Dragon’s don’t live on the ground like we do. They live on massive floating islands up in the clouds.”

  “That’s real?!” I exclaimed, hardly believing it. While there were several books on dragons back in the elven village, none of them had mentioned where the dragon’s lived except one. And it was more of an educated guess by the author, based on a rumor of an island-sighting in a human town further north. But I never imagined that it was anything other than that – a rumor.

  Eli nodded. “My mother happened to notice one a few years back, floating so far away that it was barely visible, and so I got the chance to see it with my own eyes. My eyesight is pretty good, so I was able to confirm it was an island.” He took a deep breath. “My mother said there were a lot of them that were so large they could comfortably fit several human towns and still have room for forests and wildlife to roam around. She never visited one herself though – it’s just what my father told her.”

  “Why not?” I wondered hesitantly.

  He shrugged. “She said something about it being difficult for humans to breathe up there, but I didn’t really understand what she meant. I’ve flown pretty high before and have never found it hard to breathe, but then again I’m half dragon so maybe that’s why.”

  I looked up at Risa. “Is that why you passed out?” I wondered. “I assumed it was from overexerting your magic.”

  Risa glanced up at Eli briefly, before looking back down at me. “No, you’re right. I overdid it a little. I guess I need some more training to get used to it.”

  “Yep,” I agreed. “It really is a lot like using your muscles, except that your abilities don’t get weaker from lack of use like your muscles do.” I smirked at her. “You can only move forward from here, and you’ve already come so far in barely a day!” I sighed, looking down at my small black boots as I walked. “I’m actually a little jealous of you both. My magic is nothing in comparison.”

  Risa immediately tightened her grip on my hand. “Please don’t say that,” she whispered. “I want to be your friend, not your rival.”

  I glanced up at her, surprised by her assumption. “Oh, no. I don’t mean it like that. I know it’s not a competition, and I’m happy for you. I just wish I could be more useful in a fight. You both have the potential to do so much more than me. Granted, I’m just glad to be able to use magic in the first place.”

  Eli surprised me by chiming in, changing the subject slightly.
Other than him telling me about the transformation magic, and him answering my questions about dragons, he had been fairly quiet when Risa was around. He now spoke up in a whisper, almost as if he was just thinking out loud. “I wonder if she had a mage parent…” He paused. “Or if she’s a fons’radix.”

  “What’s a fons’radix?” Risa asked just as quietly, seeming hesitant to speak to him again after earlier.

  I glanced back up at Eli, seeing that he was looking down at me from the corner of his eye, hoping I would know and could tell her. I sighed, feeling uneasy about their behavior. I squeezed Risa’s hand and explained. “A fons’radix is a mage who doesn’t have at least one parent touched by magic. They are extremely rare, but always tremendously powerful. In fact, they are supposedly the most powerful mages in history – the originals essentially. The elves estimate that less than one fons’radix is born every century, causing them to be almost mythical in nature – beings of legend.”

  I evaluated her shocked expression as I continued. “Given what you’ve already accomplished so far, Eli might be right. But it’s just crazy to think that you’re really the one-out-of-everyone fons’radix who has been born in the last hundred years.” I then smirked at her. “But if you are, it means all your children will be very powerful mages, guaranteed. Supposedly, there’s not even a chance one will turn out normal.”

  Risa’s expression abruptly dropped, and she turned her face away. “I can’t have children,” she whispered.

  I immediately stopped walking, causing her to stop too and turn to face me. My shocked expression quickly turned to a pained one when I saw the torment in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

  She looked at me for a moment, before glancing up at Eli and then away. Her voice shook slightly as she continued. “They have a procedure they do…” She paused. “To make women infertile. They do it to all the women at the brothel to avoid problems…” She sighed heavily. “They pour a liquid inside of you that feels like fire…” She grimaced, a new wave of pain washing over her expression. “It’s…horrible…”