by Stella Sky
“I had to. I did not really lie; I just did not tell you my latest conversation with my father and his schemes. I did not want to alarm you any more than you needed to be. That is all,” I said to her.
She narrowed her eyes at me in hate. “Even now you still lie!”
“No, I do not,” I said to her.
“Yes, you do! You told me you went to an island on a mission alone. But now I have heard that you were with the human female Amelia! She was with you! Your father forced you to take her with you. Why did you not tell me this? What happened while you were there? You cannot tell me that you did not mate with her!” she shouted at me between tears.
I was in shock. How did she know such a thing? Amelia must've told somebody. After she promised me that she would not. She promised to keep it a secret, and she had betrayed me. I looked at Talia with sorrow in my eyes.
“I knew it! It is the truth isn't it?” she said.
“It is. I am sorry. I lost myself in the moment. It is no excuse. You have every right to hate me. I am not worthy of your love,” I said to her.
“Do not apologise. That is not what I want!” she screamed at me as she stood up.
“Then what is it that you want, if not my apology and admitting that I was wrong?” I said to her.
“I want you to fix this. I want you to make it like it was before. I want you to go to your father and to tell him that you will not marry the human, no matter what. I want you to tell him that you and I are going to marry once and for all and there is not a damn thing that he can do to stop us!” she said as she stomped in the sand away from me.
Her anger and hurt stabbed me with pain right in my gut. I had to fix this. I had to make this right. Yet a part of me felt some relief that she knew. It was a weight that I had been carrying for days. I knew that she would never get over it and that it was over between us. But I had to try for her sake. I spread my wings out far and then took off into the air. I flew to my father’s home. I landed on the veranda and walked in.
“Father! Father, where are you!” I shouted as I walked into every room. He was not in his living quarters. I opened the door and went to find one of his posted guards.
“I am looking for my father. Do you know where he is?” I asked.
“Yes, he is at the port. He is overseeing a merchant trade to be shipped to Tiok. You will find him there,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said as I ran and jumped off the bridge and flew to the busy port. There was a lot of activity, and I finally found him looking over some information.
“Father,” I said as I walk to him.
“Son, what can I do for you? I am very busy here,” he said as he handed the information off to another warrior, who nodded to him and then walked away.
“I have to speak with you it is very very important,” I said.
“I am listening. You have my attention,” he said.
“I have come to tell you that I am going to marry Talia once and for all. If you do not allow it, then I am going to do it without you. I do not care if I have to run away with her to live on Tiok. I will do what I have to do,” I said, making my stand.
“So being with the human female overnight did not change your mind?” he asked.
"It did not,” I said to him.
“But yet you mated with her?” he asked quietly, looking around to make sure that no one hurt us.
“I did, but that is none of your business. It is no one's business. Talia found out about it, and she is very hurt. I'm going to fix things with her, and I am going to marry her,” I said in anger.
“But what if she is already with child? Have you thought of that yet? The human female is not like Talia. The human female is fertile,” he said.
The moment he said it, I remembered releasing inside of Amelia. I was so caught up in the fact that I had betrayed Talia that I did not give it another thought. But he was right. It was possible that Amelia was already carrying my child. I could not abandon my child.
“Callisto! I saw it! It took her!” a warrior said as he came running. It was the same warrior that my father had handed the information to only seconds before. The warrior was very panicked.
“What is it?” my father said.
“It took her. It took a human female. She was screaming for it to let her go!”
“What took her?” I asked.
“It was a dragon. It was a red dragon, an opposition elder,” the warrior said.
“What did the female look like?” I asked, already knowing the answer. I felt it in my gut.
“I could not see her. But I did notice her long red hair, like fire,” he said.
“Amelia,” I said, looking at my father. My father went into warrior mode. Hearing that his possible grandchild had been taken, if Amelia was pregnant, threw him into action.
“Then you know exactly where they are taking her,” my father said.
“Yes, I will go now,” I said, knowing that only my father and I knew about the opposition base camp on the island that he had sent me to. I was ready to take off.
“No! You are not going alone! Come with me now to the king. We will rally forces in a matter of minutes and go after her together,” he said as he took off straight into the air. I followed him. Together, we flew recklessly through the trees, almost hitting the tree trunks. It was then that I knew that I was more like my father than I ever wanted to admit.
Together, we landed on the veranda outside the Kings living quarters.
“We must see the king; it is of the utmost importance! The opposition is here!” my father shouted to the warrior stationed outside the door. He nodded and disappeared into the Kings quarters. Then he came out and let us in.
“Callisto? What is this all about? You have news of the opposition?” the king asked my father.
“She has been taken! The human female Amelia has just been taken by a red dragon! We must go after her. We must go to the base camp I told you about,” I said to the king. I could not wait for my father to answer him. I was in a crazy rage knowing that Amelia had been taken. I did care for her even though I did not want to admit it to myself. But now, realizing that she probably carried my offspring, I felt a deeper connection to her than I ever did before. My father had been right. I did want to produce offspring. Just thinking that one would soon to be born in my likeness and shared my own blood created a different feeling of joy inside of me than I had ever felt in my entire life.
“What my son means to say, King, is that the human female that you assigned him to and that he has already mated with has been taken. He has a mind to go after her alone. I have a mind to let him, but I stopped him and told him that we must see you first. What should we do, King?” my father asked, being the logical one.
“Gather forces. My scouts have returned with the information and the numbers on the island. We will send double the amount. Let us go meet at the training grounds,” the king said. Then he looked at his card and said, “Go ahead of me and gather a force of 200 of the best and have them ready for me; I am only five minutes behind you,” he said.
The warrior nodded and took off running and flew at a high speed in the direction of the barracks.
I was glad that I was not going to have to take on the entire opposition myself. But waiting five minutes was excruciating. But as I waited, I had time to think. She was right. Amelia was right. She had overheard Talia saying that she wanted Amelia gone; now Amelia was gone. This could not just be a simple coincidence. There was no way. My sweet Talia that I thought of as a kind heart and pure soul was actually a very vindictive, envious, and dangerous Draqua female. She was willing to take the life of another simply for her own happiness. That was wrong. That was very very wrong. I realized how awful it was that the Draqua female that I loved had put into action the possible death of my unborn child.
“Let's fly!” the king said as he shifted. He ran and jumped off the veranda, and my father and I followed him. We were a force to be reckoned with.
CHAP
TER NINE
AMELIA SANDERS
I was so angry that I could barely see straight. How dare Ravinn accuse me of lying about Talia? He wouldn't even listen to me. He was the only one that could talk her out of whatever the hell she was doing, and he wouldn't even take me seriously. I had to admit that it really bothered me. Not just because Talia was a danger, but because I did not like the fact of Ravinn seeing me in that way. I did not like thinking that he thought I would lie about such a thing just for attention. That was what really, really bothered me. I did not want to admit that to myself, but I knew that was what it was.
After he yelled and scolded me, I needed to let off some steam. I went for a walk. I needed to be alone. I needed to be with my thoughts and figure out what the hell was going on with me. I would have to figure out another plan to deal with Talia. I would have to go to Ravinn’s father because he was the only one in a position of power that I could talk to. I was stuck.
As I stomped through the jungle path, I was not paying attention at all. I was in such a heated rage over what Ravinn thought about me that I did not notice anything amiss until a large gush of wind hit my face.
“What the hell?” I said, looking around expecting that it would start raining at any second and I was caught in a windy storm. But then I saw a large and dark shadow on the ground. I had seen this shadow before. It was when I was in the ocean after crashing in the ship. It was when I saw the dragon take Michelle.
I froze. I looked up in the air, and sure enough, there was a red dragon coming down on me. Its clawed feet were spread out, ready to grab me. I started to run as fast as I could, dodging underneath giant tree limbs. Perhaps if I could put the limbs between the dragon and I, then I could crawl to safety. I crawled underneath a very large limb with vines growing all over it. The rocky surface hurt the palms of my hands and knees, but I did not care. I needed to find safety. But then I felt something latch onto arms. I screamed. I realized that the red dragon had me just like it had Michelle during the battle.
“Let me go! Let me go!” I shouted as loud as I could. I looked down and saw a Draqua warrior staring up with his mouth open. I screamed. “Help! It is taking me! Help! Help me!” I continued to yell and scream as much as I could as the dragon flew higher and higher.
I wanted to get anyone's attention. Someone would report this. I had no doubt that the message would get to Ravinn. I suddenly wished that he was at my side now. Even though he was a pain in the ass and did not trust me, I did feel very safe with him. I knew that he was a very skilled warrior because I had already seen him in battle. I had already seen him go out alone on that island when we were in the cave simply to find out more about the opposition base camp. He made it a point to be brave and courageous. I needed him now. I needed him to rescue me.
“I don't know who you are but I know that you are working for Talia! But she has her information wrong. This is all wrong!” I shouted, trying to change the mind of the red dragon that was taking me. But it was of no use. The dragon continued to fly off the island and out to sea.
The view was very familiar to me as I saw the sun beginning to fall on the horizon. This was exactly what I had seen the first time that I had gone in this direction with Ravinn. That let me know that we were going to the opposition base camp. That was a good thing, at least. Ravinn would know where to look and the king would send backup. I just hoped that they would get to me in time. I remembered the words that Talia used. She wanted me gone. She didn't just want me to be taken; she wanted me dead. I hoped that this dragon would not kill me. But I did not know exactly what it was going to happen; I could only hope for the best and for my safety.
As the island came into view, I felt some relief. At least the dragon was not going to drop me into the middle of the ocean. The dragon was going to take me to the base camp. At least there I could hopefully buy some time until Ravinn came for me. I knew that he would. Even though I knew that he was angry at me and was in a complex love triangle, I knew that deep down he cared about me. I knew because of the way he took me that night in the cave. It was obvious to me then. Just then, the cave came into sight as the dragon flew straight up over it on top of the mountain ridge. When I saw it, the sensations that I felt when Ravinn was touching my body came flooding back to me. I wished that I could be in that moment again.
“Another human female?” a voice said as the red dragon landed in the base camp. I fell to my knees as he let go of the grip on my arms. My arms were scratched and bruised from him carrying me. I turned back to the red dragon. He shifted into man form. His hair was black, and so were his eyes. There was something very familiar about his face. I guessed I had just seen him around the village at some point because I could not place why he was so familiar.
“Yes, I found this one on one of the outer islands. I don't know what she was doing there. But I figured we could place her with the other one. We could use her as leverage in a battle, or take her to be sold the next time we go to Tiok.”
"You lie. You took me from the village!” I shouted at him as I start up.
“Shut up!” he shouted at me.
“Is that true, Urtrik?” the other warrior said to the red dragon man called Urik.
“It is not. She is just trying to be taken back to the village. She was probably sent away from there. Now she is trying to use us to get back,” he said.
“Fine. Urtrik, take her and put her with the other human female,” the warrior said.
As soon as he said it, my heart rejoiced. Could it be? Could it be that Michelle was still alive and she was here? My heart was racing as the alien dragon shifter known as Urtrik push me toward the rock ledge overhang.
“Do not speak of the village, human female. Or I will have to kill you. Right now you are on borrowed time. I was supposed to kill you. But I see value in you, and I will not waste a good human female. But if you continue to tell that I took you from the village, then I will have no choice but to slit your throat. Is that clear?” he whispered to me.
“Yes. I will say nothing,” I said. I was not going to get this dragon angry at me. All that mattered was I was going to find out who this human female was that they were talking about.
He pulled open a bar door on the rock wall.
“Get in there,” he said. I walked in, and he locked the bar door behind me. I was surprised by what I saw. There was a very long ledge overlooking the ocean. It was actually a beautiful overlook. Then I saw the entrance to a small cave. I walked inside of it. There was a woman sleeping on a soft mattress on the ground. She had a blanket on her. In one area, there was a table with food and drink. This was not the prison cell that I was expecting.
“Michelle?” I whispered.
The woman stirred and then she sat up.
“Michelle, is that you? It is Amelia,” I said walking over to her not wanting to startle her. She sat up and looked at me. There was a big smile on her face; it was Michelle.
“Oh my God! Amelia! I am so happy to see you!” she said as she ran to me and gave me a big hug. There were tears coming out of her eyes.
“Oh, Michelle. I am so sorry that you have been here so long. I have been trying to get the others to come get you for a while now. They have been scouting the island and gathering as much information as they could in order to come get you and defeat the dragons that are here. How are you? Are you all right? Are you hurt? Please tell me if you are okay?” I said hitting her with as many questions as I could.
“I am actually fine. Surprisingly. They have left me to myself. Yes, they feed me and give me water and such. But I have just been living and this little cave apartment by myself. As you can see, right outside the cave is a very large terrace,” she joked.
“Yes, I did see it. It has a very lovely view,” I said smiling with her. I was happy that she had just been living here in this place and it was not a dump. It was actually quite beautiful. I was glad that they had left her alone, though she must have been very lonely all this time.
�
�Yes, and this cave here has some light coming in through the small holes and a fire over in the corner for night time. It is a good shelter from the rain and harsh sun.”
“Yes, I can see it. I have stayed in a similar cave, and it was quite comfortable,” I said still hugging her.
“So you are here to rescue me then. Am I rescued? When can we leave? Where are we going?” she asked.
“No, unfortunately, that is not the case. I was captured as well by the same red dragon that captured you. It brought me here just now. There are reasons for it, and it is a very long story,” I said to her.
“But Amelia, you said that the others knew about this place and had been planning my rescue. Are they coming?” she asked.
I grabbed her and set her down on the mattress. I needed to whisper to her.
“Yes, they are coming. I promise you that. We must be ready for it. I don't know exactly when they're coming, but they saw that I had been taken. They already know where this place is now and they know what to expect. They are going to come for us, Michelle, and then you will be free, just as you should have been all along,” I said to her.
