by N L Nold
The great dragon was said to be the wisest most powerful creature in all of Taru and they hoped he would have the power to end the war and bring peace to the four lands. They wandered the mountains for weeks growing tired and weary and eventually loosing hope of ever finding the dragon.
The group decided they did not want to return to their homes and be separated from each other as the love they had amongst the group had grown and developed into a true relationship in the months they had been on their journey.
Finally, they agreed that they would not return instead they would build a home on the mountain and live out their years together away from the war and suffering that plagued the rest of the world. They found a shallow cave carved into the side of the mountain to bed down for the evening.
The group fell asleep huddled together towards the back of the cave joyous thoughts of their future filling their dreams.”
One of the pups popped her head up and asked the leader.
“What happened to the great dragon, why didn’t they find it?”
Nizhoni looked to the pup
“Patience little one the story is not yet finished”
The small pup settled back in and Nizhoni continued
“The four were woken from their peaceful slumber by an earth-shaking roar. Quickly springing to their feet, they started towards the entrance to the cave only to find themselves blocked in by a giant beast.
Not just any beast but the great dragon stood before them in all his glory as large as the mountain itself, scales the color of night, and eyes completely black but for the small specks of light that floated about them appearing as if they held the galaxies themselves.
The great dragon looked upon the small traveling party.
“You have traveled far, faced many dangers, and all to save your people. Now you intend to stay on my mountain and run from the war that plagues Taru.”
The three men bowed before the great dragon showing respect, but the human woman could not bring herself to bow before the beast. Instead she looked to him with disappointment
“You the great dragon hide in these mountains when you could end the war, you reprimand us for our decision to stay, but we have ventured for weeks to reach the mountain and spent several more weeks searching you out. Only did we give up hope when we could not find you.”
The great dragon scoffed at the small human
“Who are you to seek me out, you are but a simple human not blessed with magic there is nothing special about you. Why do you deserve my help, my glory?”
The woman was so angry with the dragon she picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the dragon. The males all gasped and reached for her fearful of what the dragon might do next.
“You a small human dare to defy me?”
The dragon asked with an intrigued expression.
“Yes, I do dare to defy you. Your right I am a human, small, simple, and without magic. You however are a great dragon, capable of conquering worlds, of saving the races yet you cower here in the mountains refusing to help. I may be nothing but human, but I am more than you will ever be oh great dragon of the south.”
With that the woman turned around and began to walk back towards her bed roll. The dragon laughed, the sound echoing through the mountains and bouncing off the cave walls making the very ground shake.
“You little human have proven your courage and so will be rewarded with what you seek.”
The woman turned back to the dragon a look of surprise on her face.
“A test? This was all a test?”
With a small chuckle the dragon looked to her face once again
“Yes, a test, and one that you have passed. Now let’s get down to it. You wish a way to end the war and bring peace back to the four lands?”
The woman nodded
“Yes very much I want end the war and live out the remainder of my short years with my men.”
The dragon looked to the three men surrounding her addressing them
“You immortal fae, mage, and shifter wish to love and stay with this woman until she reaches old age and perishes?”
They all responded immediately and in unison
“Yes!”
He lowered his head to meet the woman’s eyes.
“You my dear are with child, not just any child though you are carrying a child of all four races. Each of these men has lain with you and each of them has fathered the child you now carry.”
The woman was so shocked she fell to her knees. The dragon pushed his snout further into the cave releasing a breath of flame directly at the women. All three men attempted to jump to her aid but could not get near the fire for it burned too hot.
He released the flame and as the air cleared the woman still knelt in the same spot head bowed. As the dragon retracted his head from the cave the woman’s head lifted her eyes meeting his once more. Her eyes where no longer the same. They now reflected the great dragons black and filled with specks of light.
“Your daughter will be born to rule all, she will possess the healing white magic of the fae, the mist magic of the mage, the shifting magic of the wolf, and finally the wings and heart of a dragon. She will be the most powerful divine creature to ever exist.
You will be charged with raising her to lead justly, to care for her people and to protect her people. For she will not be a leader of any single race but as she is a part of all races, she will also lead all races.
She will live as long as the world needs her and one day when the world no longer does. She will return to the mountains to me. Until the world finds itself in need of a savior once more.
She will be immortal, but her magic will not as she returns to me so shall her magic to be tucked away until the world finds itself in need of a savior once again.”
The woman began to shake and sob
“Thank you great dragon, thank you for saving our world.”
She managed to get the words out before her body started to glow white and raise of the ground. Once again the dragon spoke.
“This magic like all great magic comes with a price. The price for the gift of a savior will be your life. You will harbor her magic until she is ready to receive it. You will bear this child and raise her until the age of fifteen. Upon her fifteenth birthday the magic will leave you rendering you a shell and your daughter will become Valdraken, great leader of Taru.”
The glow grew even brighter halting in an explosion that shot from her body sending the men flying and rendering them all unconscious. When the party woke the great dragon was gone and the woman’s body was marked with runes of black seared into her skin.
Nizhoni paused for dramatic effect noting the entire pack was enraptured by the story, no matter how many times some of them had heard it.
“The Runes were said to depict the deal made with the great dragon. It is said that every woman destined to bring a Valdraken into the world gains the runes when she becomes pregnant with the child.
Over the last thousand years three Valdraken’s have been born to this world, and for each Valdraken that is born a single shifter, a single mage, and a single fae are born to be her mates.
The original was born and went on to rule for one hundred years bringing peace to Taru and the nations. The same happened with the two that followed. We have been without a Valdraken for three hundred years and in that time the world has once again started to fall into darkness.
The time will come when Taru needs another Valdraken and when it does, we shifters must do as we always have and serve our new queen providing her a mate who will love, protect, and choose her above all others.”
As the images started to fade Reign could feel the love Maikoh held for his mother. She wanted to open her eyes, but the wolf was not done, there was still more he needed to see.
The scene changed as well as the feelings that came with them. She could feel fear, hatred, and regret surrounding the new pictures.
An adolescent Maikoh lay at the back of the den his m
other had made for them as she lay guard at the front.
The young wolf drifted in and out of sleep when suddenly a light flickered at the front of the cave. His mother growled at him to hide and took a defensive stance. Maikoh tried to stand with her but she snapped at him to obey her command.
Maikoh slunk towards the back of the cave to hide as his mother commanded. A torch followed by angry shouts appeared at the mouth of the den. His mother looked back to him, love and pride reflected in her gaze. She then leapt from the cave leading the angry horde away from him.
Reign felt a warm tear slide down her cheek as she watched Maikoh’s pain and fear at the loss of his mother. The young shifter lay dormant in the den for days not moving, never eating, and unable to sleep.
Maikoh was lost, he found himself filled with not sadness but rage. As the days progressed the rage he felt only grew.
A week had passed, and the wolf decided he could no longer stay in the den, he would leave the pack and seek out the men that took his mother and he would kill every single one of them.
Images flashed by quickly of Maikoh hunting and tracking his way across the world. He chased after the men who took his mother from him for weeks. He finally caught up to them outside of Wargra at a little tavern called the tricky Trollip.
Chapter 11
Broken Promises
Reign couldn’t believe what she was seeing, the tavern looked exactly as she knew it only different, through the eyes of the wolf. The details sharper, the sounds louder, and the smells more intense.
It was late afternoon just after lunch. The afternoon crowd having slowly trickled out over the last fifteen minutes. Maikoh snuck around the back of the tavern keeping to the tree line. He was headed towards the stable.
He could smell her, the smell he had been tracking for the last three weeks, fresh snow, pine needles, and love. The smell of his mother was one he would never forget.
The wolf was slowly exiting the edge of the forest when the back door of the tavern opened, and a beautiful young woman crept out. Maikoh was entranced. This girl was close to the same age as him being that shifters reached maturity faster.
He was roughly thirteen in human years and form. The wolf felt a tug in his chest towards the girl. He took a step forward to confront her when a breeze once again brought the smell of his mother to his nose breaking the trance.
Reign recognized the girl as a younger version of herself and realized the day she was seeing. She began to struggle against him, not wanting to revisit that day. The day that everything went to hell.
Maikoh was not releasing her though he forced her to continue to see the image.
The wolf waited outside the stable hoping the girl would leave quickly instead a man stumbled out of the tavern and into the stables. Shortly after he entered the wolf heard shouting.
He could barely make out the words through the walls of the stable, but his supernatural hearing caught the word “Demon” being yelled followed by the drunken man running out.
He waited for a few moments but did not see the girl. Deciding to take his chances he snuck into the stable finding the girl unconscious.
This girl was not the same as when she entered the stable, however. Maikoh approached her prone body cautiously noting the newly attached wings. He was curious about the girl and felt drawn to her in an unmistakable way. His wolf was reacting to this woman as it would to a mate.
Maikoh gazed at the beauty before him, milky white skin perfect and unmarked, Raven hair so black it was almost blue, soft pink lips, and she smelled of Thunderstorms and fire. Maikoh’s snout was inches from the girls face as he heard a whimper from the stall next door. Hesitating for only a moment he stepped back and headed towards the next stall.
Maikoh quickly shifted to his fae form and opened the locked gate. As the wooden gate slipped opened it revealed the thing he had sought all these weeks. Lying in the hay towards the back of the stall was his mother. An iron collar wrapped around her throat and an iron chain attached her to the wall.
The iron was poisonous to shifters. It kept her from accessing her magic, and if left on long enough would kill her.
Maikoh heard the heavy footsteps of men and the angry ranting of the one he saw flee earlier. He had to do something, and he had to do it quickly.
His mother looked to him and shook her head pointing her snout towards the stall he had just left and the girl.
Maikoh refused to leave his mother. He gripped the iron chain between his hands and pulled with all his might the cold metal burning into his skin.
He knew the chain would leave scars, but he did not care. The chain didn’t budge the first or even second time, but the third time he used all his strength and pulled with all his might. Finally, the chain broke free of the wall as the voices grew closer.
Knowing he didn’t have time to remove the collar he grabbed the chain and led his mother from the stall. He risked one last glance at the girl filled with regret for having to choose between saving her and his own mother. Walking to the end of the barn he and his mother escaped into the woods as the group from the tavern made their way into the barn.
Maikoh made his way into the forest, his mother walking weakly behind. They stopped next to a brook that edged a clearing. He kneeled down and began to work on the collar.
It took him a few tries to break the lock on the collar, but he was able to use the bolt he yanked from the wall to pry the lock away.
Once free his mother fell to the ground Nizhoni did not move and did not shift back like he expected. He tried several times to shake her awake but to no avail.
She was still breathing so he decided to walk to the brook hoping the cool water would ease the pain from the burns that now marred his hands.
Once the sting had ebbed from his red, soon to be scarred skin he shook the water off and returned to Nizhoni’s side. Nothing had changed so he shifted back to his wolf form and lay next to her waiting.
A full night and day had passed and still nothing had changed. As the sun began to set on the second day Nizhoni stirred and opened her eyes. Looking to Maikoh she spoke in his mind.
“My son, I never thought I would get the chance to see your beautiful face again.”
She tried to raise her head but didn’t appear to have the strength to do so.
“I am sorry my son I have failed you.”
Shaking his head he placed his head upon hers.
“No mother, it is I have failed you and I’m so sorry.”
Tears stained his white fur.
“Listen to me my son. Do you remember the story I told you about the Valdraken?”
Maikoh nodded to his mother.
“Yes, mother I remember”.
“You my son are destined for great things, you bear the signa of the Valdraken. You are fated to mate with the next Valdraken as your ancestors before you. The day will come when your find yourself being pulled towards your destiny. Follow the pull my son don’t fight it promise me Maikoh. Find the Valdraken love her, protect her, and be happy above all, be happy.”
With that Nizhoni closed her eyes for the last time succumbing to the hardships of the last couple weeks. Maikoh raised his muzzle to the sky and let out a long low howl in mourning of his mother, the leader of the traveling pack, and the only family he had ever known.
He howled deep into the night standing guard over his mother’s body expressing his pain to the moon and stars.
As the sun crested the mountains the rest of his pack began to emerge from the trees bowing their heads in respect to their lost leader. Maikoh stood from his mother’s side looked to the pack and spoke
“Take care of her, send her to the afterlife like the leader she was.”
With that Maikoh turned and began to run.
As the images faded from her vision Maikoh’s voice broke through her mind. Her eyes opened meeting his.
“I am sorry my Valdraken I failed you then. I promised to protect you to love you and I left you there to th
e mercy of those men. For this I can never be forgiven. If you’ll allow it I will spend every day for the rest of my immortal life trying to make it up to you.”
With those words he lowered his head once more. Reign was so shocked by what she had seen. All these years she thought the wolf had abandoned her only to realize the wolf before her was the son of the one chained in the stable.
She couldn’t hate him, if she knew her mother and Reign had the chance to save her, she would choose her over a complete stranger as well.
With a new-found outlook Reign once again looked to the three men bowed before her. She understood what this was, she had heard the legend Nizhoni recited to her pack, and knew she was different.
She glanced down to the new armor that adorned her body replacing the training leathers that brought her comfort with their familiarity.
Black scales glistened in the white light of the fire that burned around her body. The scales extended from her right shoulder, angling down her chest just covering her breasts before stopping leaving the runes that decorated her midsection exposed.
The scales continued an inch and a half below her naval winding their way down to mid-thigh and covering the inside of her legs fully before wrapping around completely just below her knees. Her feet where left bare as well and her skin had taken on the same silver hue as the claws that adorned the tips of her wings.
