by A. Mashburn
Gretchen gasped and screamed, “Mora—”
“She’s going to be okay, Gretchen,” Nicoli insisted, but she heard the fear in his voice as they touched the ground and bolted to their unmoving friend.
“Nicoli—she’s not moving.”
They stood next to Mora and Gretchen lunged for her, taking stock of her injuries as Nicoli rummaged through the sacks and untied the dìollaid from around Mora’s massive body.
“She needs to shift back, now,” Nicoli explained.
“Well, how do we do that? She doesn’t appear to be conscious.” Gretchen frantically called Mora’s name as she settled by the dragon's large face. “Please Mora—Please be alive,” she began to sob; her silver tears running down her face to Mora’s snout.
“She’s got a heartbeat, so she is not dead Gretchen—she just needs time.”
Gretchen directed her thoughts to Mora. Mora, please, I can’t lose you guys.
I’m—I’m exhausted, Gretchen. I can’t open my eyes. Her voice was a mere whisper even in Gretchen’s mind. I just need to sleep.
Gretchen focused on her wolf, remembering that she was supposed to have some powers. Is there anything we can do, Genesis?
I am still partially bound so I don’t know how much we can help but I will try. Place your hand between her eyes. Focus on the light you see in your mind’s eye, the feel of the grass, the rain against your cheeks and pull from the energy that the world is providing.
So, she did. Gretchen cataloged her feelings rapidly and directed each of them, the anger, the pain, the fear into one simple thought—heal her. She heard Nicoli saying something but couldn’t make out his words as she focused all her energy on the beast before her.
Nicoli watched as Gretchen’s eyes clouded over as though she were speaking with her wolf. He watched as the tears slid down her nose to Mora’s scaled snout and she began to shimmer. He couldn’t explain what was happening but the more he tried to speak with her the more he realized she wasn’t listening.
A barrier began to form first around Gretchen’s body, then expanded, starting with the spot where her first tear landed on Mora’s nose. The tear infused its essence between the dragon’s scales and expanded over her frame. A luminescent shimmer emerged between each leathery plate and as it reached each wounded area it glowed and began to knit the pieces of burnt flesh back together.
He was in awe; this shouldn’t be possible, Xander. How is this possible if she’s still bound?
She is very powerful and she has connected with her wolf—look closer.
As he looked, he saw that light sprouts of white fur shimmered over Gretchen’s body and her nails were now the sharp claws of her wolf. This shouldn’t be possible.
The binding is breaking my friend, this is very painful for her and we will not be able to leave until she is rested, Xander explained.
Mora let out a deep breath and he saw her large body begin to quake and collapse in on itself as she transformed into Mo right before his eyes. Mo blinked a few times to clear her sight as she took in Gretchen in front of her.
Gretchen touched the side of Mo’s face. “You will be okay, my friend,” the dual voice of Gretchen and Genesis cooed, “you will be alright. But we are so very tired now.” She smiled at Mo, then at Nicoli, “we need to rest.” Her eyes drifted closed as she collapsed into Mo’s arms.
Mo’s jaw hung open and she began to sob, “Foolish woman—I would have been okay. Why would she do this, Nicoli? She wasn’t strong enough—she wasn’t ready.”
Nicoli came over to Mo with a change of clothes from her bag. “You know just as well as I do how far she will go for the ones she loves. All we can do now is make her comfortable; she will wake, she just needs time to recharge.”
Nicoli handed Mo the tent and once they’d set it up, they carried Gretchen inside. They made a fire and camped for the night. No one talked much, they hunted, ate and took turns checking on Gretchen as she slept soundly, soft snores coming from her sleeping bag.
When morning came, Mo was laying by Gretchen’s side while Nicoli stood guard patrolling the area. Gretchen stretched her sore muscles and Mo squealed as she hugged her barely awake form. “Don’t you ever do that again; do you hear me?” Mo said into her friend’s hair.
Gretchen’s laughter lightened the weight on Mo’s shoulders, “I’m okay, Mo. Please—you’re smothering me.”
Mo leaned back smiling. “I’m glad you’re okay, but that was stupid dangerous. Gretchen, I would have healed, you didn’t need to put yourself at risk.”
“That may be so, but we’re both okay now. Did it work? Genesis and I weren’t sure.”
Mo jumped up and showed Gretchen her arm and leg. “Not even a scar, Sweets; I’m completely healed.”
Gretchen smiled with the knowledge that her friend was in good spirits and healthy again. Gretchen’s body however, ached fiercely, specifically her arm and thigh; she needed to talk to Genesis. “Mo, could you get Nicoli for me? I know he must be worried, too.”
“Of course.” Mo exited the tent and Gretchen took the time to speak with her wolf.
Genesis?
Aye?
Are we okay?
Oh yes, her wolf assured her. We have some residual pain we absorbed from Mora, but we will be fine after we eat. When I’m unbound though, this won’t be a problem. Just stretch our legs and go eat. I need some more sleep; it took a lot out of me. But I want you to know, I am so proud of you.
Sweet dreams, Genesis. And with that, Genesis faded back into the darkness. Gretchen smiled as she stood and walked out of the tent. The smell of eggs and bacon hit her nose and strong arms engulfed her.
“Hey, Nicci,” she laughed as he hugged her tightly and kissed her temple.
“How did you know you could do that?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I didn’t, but Genesis said we could try, so we did; I’m just glad it worked.”
He sat her by the fire with a heaping plate of food. She started to say she couldn’t possibly eat it all but the moment she thought it, her stomach growled. She began to eat and before she knew it the plate was empty and Nicoli was already piling on more. “It’s normal for you to be ravenous after exerting so much energy. That was really amazing,” he mused.
Gretchen smiled and began the second helping of food. Her mind drifted back to the conversation they were having on the way here. She was content with what she already knew but needed to know why Jayce would do what he did.
“So, if Jade was my best friend and you were my guardian, then what about Jayce?” At Gretchen’s random question, Nicoli frowned.
“Well, Jayce is the oldest of us. He would teach you strategies and how to wield a sword. He also taught you how to fight at a young age. He was severe though, about anything that had to do with you. He thought Jade played too much and that I wasn’t deserving of my role. He loved you in his way, but if you got so much as a scraped knee; it was hell for Jade and me.” Nicoli ran his hands through his hair as he gazed at the sky.
“The day my brothers came and attacked me was after they’d heard I shifted and hurt you. They thought they were protecting you. Jayce had convinced Jade that I was manipulating you and had injured you on purpose under the guise of an accident, as a warning to them. Jade confided in me that day in the hall. He told me that Jayce thought I was obsessed with power and I wanted you to myself. My own brother called me depraved and a maniac.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“I couldn’t understand it, but he was so convinced of this that he started a war to remove you from the kingdom to keep you safe. It was the only logical explanation, but I suppose the only way to know for sure, would be to ask him if we ever got the chance.”
“Nicoli, this is very confusing. Are you telling me that the war began because of jealousy?”
“All in all, it’s just a theory. I wish I had more for you, but my knowledge of it is limited since I left with you. If your parents ever found out definitively the reason, I wouldn�
��t know.” He shrugged. “The fact is it happened. Does it matter why, as long as we can stop it?”
“That is a silly thing to say, Nic. Of course, it matters. If we could figure out the why of it all, we can make sure it never happens again and fulfill my parents’ wish for a peaceful kingdom.”
Nicoli smiled at her and held out his arm, “C’mere Aingeal.” She crawled into his embrace. “You know, you think like a queen already.”
She snorted into his chest, “I speak like a person with common sense. Maybe if your brothers had some, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“You’re not wrong, Princess. You’re not wrong.” He squeezed her shoulder in a half hug.
Mo emerged from the woods and began to gather the tent. “You two, get packed up and ready to go. After I’m done here, I’ll shift and we can get to Romania.”
They finished up quickly and Gretchen watched as her friend's slender figure morphed and expanded into her majestic dragon. Nicoli secured the dìollaid and they soon settled in the magical contraption again. Once in the air, the sky was clear and Gretchen laid back and enjoyed the sun and the wind as it caressed her body. A few hours later, Mora let out a soft screech as she signaled the mountain range ahead. Nicoli stood and Gretchen followed. They could see the Carpathian Mountains in the distance and Nicoli began to get their things together.
“Are we in Romania?” Gretchen asked, looking around.
“Aye, we are close to where we’ll land and camp for the night. Then tomorrow, we’ll head to Slovenia’s cottage.”
Mora let out a low rumble as they began their descent into a clearing between two mountain peaks. “Hold on,” Nicoli urged as they got close to the ground. As Mora landed Gretchen took in her surroundings; the forest was thick and the mountain peaks were snowcapped. Nicoli and Gretchen climbed down and began to set up camp while Mora slept; Gretchen marveled at the serenity she felt there.
“Nic?” Gretchen asked over her shoulder.
“Hm?”
“Between the storm and the flight, she seems exhausted. What do dragons eat? I would imagine, not cooked food…” she trailed off, gazing into the woods.
“Are you suggesting that we go hunting?”
“Maybe.”
He grinned as Xander went bonkers in his mind. “Sure, I can shift and you can take the crossbow and a hunting knife. We can try to find something for her to eat when she gets up.”
Nicoli began to unbutton his shirt and slid it off his shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. “What are you—” Gretchen asked, watching him intently.
“I don’t want to ruin a perfectly good outfit when I shift,” he said as he strolled towards her. She watched as he closed the distance between them. “Do I make you feel uncomfortable, Princess?” The side of his mouth quirked into a half-smile, causing her to shake her head.
She cocked her head to the side and sucked her teeth. She waited a moment as if she were thinking about her response and reached up on her tiptoes close to his ear, “I’m not the one holding out—remember?” She licked up the side of his neck, but before he could respond, she turned around and walked off towards the tree line. “Coming?” she cooed.
A low chuffing sound came from Mora and Nicoli glared at her. “That woman’s going to be the fucking death of me and you’re over there laughing it up.” He shook his head as she rolled to her side and her chuffing got louder. “Fucking dragons—” He took off his pants, shifted into Xander and they ran after their female.
When Xander found her, she was perched behind a shrub waiting patiently as a hare hopped in her path. He ignored the need to kill it so he could admire his female. This wasn’t the first time that he’d seen her hunt. She was a good shot; the arrow pierced through the hare’s neck, making it a clean kill. He nudged her arm to get her attention. When she turned her body towards him, he thumped his tail on the ground and licked her face.
“Xander,” she breathed out and he let out a little yip so that she knew it was him.
He looked to her fresh kill and yipped again, wagging his tail and she laughed, “I assume that means you approve?”
Usually, Xander would grumble that he had to overact to get someone to understand him, but this was his mate. He knew it, even if his foolish human half wouldn’t admit it yet. Nicoli laughed in their shared mind at his wolf’s behavior, but Xander wasn’t worried. This wasn’t just any person, it was Gretchen and he was simply happy that he was with her. He pushed his big body against her thigh as they strolled to gather the hare.
Gretchen smiled and reached over to pet his scruff, “You know, you’re bigger than I expected.” He pushed his chest out proudly and Gretchen laughed. “Don’t tell Nicoli but I think I like you better,” she teased, kissing him on his snout. “Let’s continue to hunt, one hare won’t fill Mora up and something tells me you’d like to show off your skills, too.”
Inside their shared mind Nicoli groaned and Xander teased him mercilessly. Xander pranced at her side until a foreign scent hit his nose.
Xander placed his big body in front of hers and gently nudged her away from the perceived threat. He growled in the direction of the intruder as a Eurasian lynx stepped out from behind the brush. Xander was nearly four times the size of the medium-sized wild cat, but he watched as its spotted body paced back and forth, calculating the odds. It took a couple of steps towards them, sat on its haunches, and began leisurely cleaning its face with its paw.
Xander cocked his head to the side as he studied the animal’s strange behavior when he smelled the scent of the witch. Slovenia was a shapeshifter and he should have expected this from her. The cat stared intently at him and Nicoli rolled his eyes as he began to shift into his human form.
Noticing Nicoli was shifting, Gretchen reached in the bag for a pair of running shorts and stepped in front of his naked body, shielding him from the intense stare of the feline.
Gretchen couldn’t explain why but she had a feeling that this was more than just the average wild cat. Once Nicoli finished his shift, he grinned at her and took the shorts. “You know she’s seen me naked before, right?” Gretchen glared at him and grumbled incoherently.
“Awe, you’re adorable when you’re territorial,” he laughed and put his arm around her as he kissed the top of her head. “Hey, Vinnie,” he greeted the lynx. The wild feline continued to stare at the twosome as it began to walk towards them, circling as it did. After Slovenia’s inspection, her eyes widened in shock and in less than a moment's time, Slovenia’s voluptuous humanesque form stood before them.
“Nicoli is this—can it be?” Slovenia gasped in excitement and awe. She reached towards Gretchen’s face. “My, you are the perfect blend of your parents,” she marveled.
Gretchen’s eyes roamed the witch’s naked body with curiosity as she came closer. Slovenia smiled at her perusal, “Not what you expected, Princess?”
Gretchen cleared her throat, “Not really, but lately, it seems nothing is.”
“Go ahead, take a gander; you won’t see anyone quite like me,” Slovenia stated confidently and Nicoli rolled his eyes. In truth, Slovenia was an exquisitely unique creature. Not only was she a witch, but also part Fae, which gave her the ability to shift into any living form she wanted.
Nicoli was surprised she had exposed herself in her true form. It was a sign of great reverence and respect for the Princess, as it was the form she was most vulnerable in. She was about the same height as Gretchen, her skin a deep purple with luminescent golden runestones spread over her skin. Her intelligent blue eyes shone with joy.
Slovenia stood patiently as Gretchen continued her inspection. “Come here, child, you’re making me dizzy,” she laughed lightly as she took Gretchen by the hand.
“You’re beautiful,” Gretchen whispered reverently.
“Aye, my dear, dear friend. Oh, how I’ve missed you.”
A look of confusion passed over Gretchen’s face and Slovenia continued, “Ahh, yes. I know why you’ve come. I’m sorry,
to understand why I’ve missed you so, you will need to remember your past. In answer to the question swirling in those pretty eyes of yours—I can and I will help you. After all, I was the one who created the binding potion to begin with.”
Gretchen beamed at her. “Thank you.”
“For you, anything, dear. Now, go back and feed your dragon. Mora must be famished after such a long journey. I will come to you in the morning and bring you back to the cottage.” With that, Slovenia disappeared into thin air, leaving not a trace of her behind.
Gretchen looked around. “Well, that was weird.”
Nicoli laughed, “Yeah, she’s a character. But I had no idea she was so taken with you. I might have competition other than my brothers to worry about,” he teased and removed the shorts. Gretchen’s eyes widened as she drank in his form. “Or not,” he grinned as he shifted back into Xander.
Xander brushed against her leg with a low grumble and pointed in the direction he wished to go. Gretchen followed closely next to him, sometimes taking a moment to pet his soft black fur. She paid close attention to the nuances of Xander’s behavior, as he put his nose to the wind and began slowly crouching down, she knew he had found a trail.
“I’ll wait here,” she whispered.
She watched as a doe walked into the clearing ahead. The animal began grazing without a care in the world while she unwittingly became Xander’s prey. Gretchen marveled at how quiet Xander was as he stalked the animal. When he got close enough, he pounced at the doe’s neck, his teeth tearing at the delicate flesh of the mammal as he made quick work of his prize.
Xander sat back on his haunches as he waited for Gretchen to come closer. Once she was near him, he nudged her bag with his snout. “Oh, the shorts,” Gretchen mumbled, realizing what he wanted. She took the shorts out of the pocket and handed them to Nicoli once he completed his shift.
