by Stella Sky
I jumped off of the dead dragon and ran to the entrance of the cave. “Amelia! Michelle! Amelia! Amelia!” There was no answer. The cave was smoldering as flames slowly went out. There was a lot of stuff in the cave, and I could not tell where Amelia was. I moved a bundle, but it was just a burnt mattress. I moved over to the table that had been kicked over. They were not behind it. I searched every inch of the cave for their burned bodies. I did not think the fire was hot enough or burned long enough to burn them to dust. Finally, I realized that they were not in the cave. I came out of the cave and looked at the bar door; it was wide open. They had escaped. I was so relieved. I flew past the door and followed the rock path down the ridge. “Amelia? Amelia?” I said over and over as I flew looking for her. I did not see her. I got down to the ground of the base camp. The king and my father were taking the prisoners. The fight was over. We had won.
“Father, where is Amelia? Do you have her?” I asked.
“No. Did you find her at all?” he asked.
“Yes, I found her and another female. But I left them in the cave in order to fight Urtrik,” I said to him.
“Urtrik?” he said in shock.
“Do you mean Urtrik, the brother of Talia? The Urtrik that we thought died two years ago?” the king asked.
“Yes, the same. It seems that he faked his death in order to be with the opposition. According to him, Talia is also with the opposition. I am sorry to say that. Please do not punish her harshly. I think she is merely a Draqua female that is scorned by the fact that she cannot produce offspring and that human females are taking the love of the Draqua males. She is young and misguided,” I said, hoping that Talia could be changed. I still had love for her even though I was not in love with her. I did not wish harm on her. I understood where she was coming from and how much it must hurt.
“I will see to it when we return,” the king said.
“But where is Amelia? She has another human female with her. We must find them,” I said.
“I will come with you, son. Let us find them,” my father said.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AMELIA SANDERS
It was absolutely terrifying when I saw Urtrik walk onto the ledge and speak to Ravinn. He had been planning this all along. He took me in order to lure Ravinn to the spot. So when I saw them fly off together in a brutal fight, I could not believe that it was happening. The red dragon scared me. He wanted me dead, and he wanted Ravinn dead in order to avenge his sister's broken heart. I ran to the ledge and watched as they fought all the way down to the ground of the battle.
“Holy crap. Look at all of these dragon men. They are all trying to kill each other,” Michelle said in shock. I looked at her and realized that I had a responsibility to her. I needed to get her out of there. She had been through enough, and I could not linger and put her in danger simply because I wanted to make sure that Ravinn was okay. He was a fierce warrior, and I knew that he could take care of himself. But I also knew that Urtrik would return to this very spot to finish me off.
“Come on. We have to get out of here. The red dragon will come back, and he will try to kill us. We cannot be here. Come with me, Michelle,” I said as I grabbed her hand and let her toward the bar door that was left open from Urtrik coming in.
“But where will we go? There is a crazy battle down there. Maybe it is better that we stay up here away from the shots from the blaster guns.”
I could see the fear in her eyes. Where could we go? We could not go down to the battle and then just hoping not to get shot or taken by another opposition dragon. Then I remembered. I had been there before. I knew the island.
“I know exactly where we can go. I know of a cave where we can hide that is on the other side of the island. Follow me, and I will get you there. Just stay low,” I said to her.
“All right, Amelia. Let's go,” she said. We ran out of the prison cell and down the rocky path along the rock wall. The battle was chaotic and all around. We had to duck and stay low in order not to be hit.
As we ran along, I thought about what Ravinn had told me. He had confessed his love to me, and I was not expecting it at all. I know that I cared for him very much, but I did not know if I loved him. It was scary to think of such a thing. How could someone that irritated me so much be the male I was in love with? He was an alien, and I was a human. He could shift into dragon form, and I was just your basic human female. We did not match together. It was a lot to think about and at such a time of danger. But I did know that when I was with him in the cave, I felt like he was making love to me, and not just mating with me. It was a lot to take in, and I had to admit that I felt some sort of relief of him telling me that I was the one that he wanted. I had spent so much time hearing him say that he did not want me that eventually I grew to want him to want me. Now he had admitted that, and it felt good.
“Which way?” Michelle said to me. I looked around. We had to get onto the beach and into the water. It was the only way.
“Over there. Do you see the shoreline? We are going to make a run for it and dive into the water. Then follow me,” I said to her. She nodded in confirmation. She was very frightened. I grabbed her hand, and we ran down from the path and across the battle, trying to stick to the wall of rock as much as we could.
Splash! We made it into the water. I swam out far and deep. I looked beside me to see Michelle swimming with a lot of energy. I motioned for her to follow me. We swam along the shoreline, and there was a rock formation in front of us.
“There!” I shouted. I swam into it. Michelle followed me. Soon we were shielded from the battle. We were in a grotto of sorts, swimming along the tunnel with a bit of sunlight filtering through. When we emerged, we were on the other side of the island.
“How did you know that was there?” Michelle asked as she climbed onto the shoreline.
“I found it when I was hunting for shells when I was here before,” I said to her. “I had found that tunnel and I could see that it went all the way through to the other side of the island even though I did not swim through it,” I said as I climbed up onto the shore with her.
“Follow me. There is a cave over here. We will be safe in there until the battle is over,” I said to her. I led her to the cave. As soon as we walked in, my memory moved to the night that I spent with Ravinn. I imagined myself in the sand with him on top of me. It was a very pleasing vision. As soon as I thought about it, I realized that I wanted it to happen again and again. We sat there waiting while I thought about Ravinn and how I felt about him. We did not need to wait long.
“Amelia? Amelia are you in here?” I heard Ravinn say.
“Yes!” I shouted as I ran out of the case and straight into his arms. He stood there with his father.
“Are you all right? Where is Michelle?” he asked as he looked over me.
“I am all right. Michelle, you can come out,” I said to her. Michelle came out of the cave. I looked at Ravinn and said, “Are you all right? Are you hurt? What happened to Urtrik? I thought he would come back to kill me,” I said to him.
“He did. If you saw the cave that you were in, you would know that he meant to kill you. He set fire to the entire thing. I am so glad that you were not in there. I thought I lost you,” he said, hugging me.
“I thought he might come back for me, so I knew we had to get out of there. I had to keep Michelle safe. She did not deserve any of the harm Urtrik wanted to do to me,” I said to him. I looked up into his gray eyes. He pushed my hair out of my face.
"Of course you thought of Michelle; you have a good heart, little human with fire hair,” he said as he pulled me to him and kissed me.
“How did you know that she would be here?” Ravinn’s father asked. I looked at him and blushed.
“Because she knows of this cave. This was where we stayed when we came on your foolish errand,” Ravinn replied.
“There you are,” we heard another voice say. We all looked up into the sky to see the king fly down toward us. There was a lar
ge number of warriors with him, but not all of them that we saw in the battle.
“I see you found the humans,” the king said.
“Yes, I found my Amelia. This is the human female Michelle that has been missing since she first arrived on Kelon,” Ravinn’s father said.
“Michelle, it is an honor to meet you. I am sorry for everything you have been through. This is not what we meant when we decided to take you from Earth and bring you here. I promise that from here on out you shall be treated with the utmost respect and care. I will take you back to my palace myself where you will be well fed, and looked after. I have many questions for you about what you saw while you were here on this island,” the king said.
“I understand. I am ready to go,” Michelle said.
“Ravinn, the battle and the prisoners are in the hands of my commanders. I believe it is time we took these humans back to the safety of the village,” the king said.
“I couldn't agree with you more, King,” Ravinn said. Then he scooped me up into his arms.
“I will take the human Michelle,” Callisto said as he held his hands out to Michelle.
“Good, take her to the palace,” the king said. Callisto picked up Michelle in his arms.
“I am ready,” Ravinn said. His father nodded at him. Suddenly, Ravinn flew into the air. We were out over the open ocean heading back toward the village. I never thought that I would be so excited and grateful to be returning to the safety of the village. I could not wait to sleep in my own bed. I could not wait to figure out what was next for Ravinn and I. But as the village came into sight, I could only think about one thing: Talia. She was still on the island, and still was heartbroken. I did not know how Ravinn was going to deal with the situation. I began to grow nervous.
“I am taking Michelle to the palace,” Callisto said to Ravinn as we flew over the shoreline and beach of the village.
“I am taking Amelia to her tree hut,” Ravinn responded to him. Then they parted ways. Callisto flew in the direction of the palace while Ravinn flew with me in his arms. I buried my head into his chest, feeling the strong muscles and safety there. I let myself relax into him. Then he landed on the veranda outside my door. He opened it and carried me inside. I was relieved to see it. It felt like home to me. He laid me down on the bed.
“How do you feel?” he said as he moved to the table and poured me a cup of water. “Drink this. You have been through a lot,” he said, handing me the cup of water. I drank the entire thing in one gulp.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Yes, I am very very hungry. I am also still thirsty,” I said, handing the cup back to him. He smiled and poured water for me once more and gave it back to me. Then he went to the shelf and started to cut up some fruit.
“What about you? How do you feel? You have just been through a battle. You just slayed the dragon. I am worried about you,” I said to him.
"That? That was nothing. I have been through many battles, and I will be through a lot more than that in time. I am fine. It is you that I worry about. You are so fragile and vulnerable,” he said to me.
"I am not that fragile,” I said.
“You might be more fragile right now than you think,” he said in a strange manner.
“What do you mean?” I said confused.
“Do not worry about it now. We will talk a bit later. You have been through a lot. There is not much to eat in here. I am going to go down to the kitchens and bring you more food. I want you to get as much rest as you can. Take a hot soak and change your clothes. When I return, we have much to talk about,” he said to me as he walked over to me and placed a longboard with cut fruit on it in front of me.
“Like what? What do we need to talk about?” I said, not wanting to wait. I did not like waiting; it only gave me a chance to build the anxiety.
“You will see when I return. For now, just rest and eat as much as you can. I will return with more food. But there is something that I need to do first. It is very time sensitive.” I knew exactly what he meant.
“You need to find Talia,” I said to him.
“Yes, I do. I need to get to her before the king returns. I do not know how he is going to punish her. I want to warn her. I want to understand why she did what she did. It is important for me to know these things and I want to hear it from her directly. There is a lot of history between her and me,” he said to me. I could see the pain in his eyes. I could see the pain of knowing that the Draqua he thought he loved was not the Draqua that he thought she was. It must be a lot to deal with after being with her for so long.
“I understand. I understand more than you might think. Go, do what you need to do. I do not blame her for doing what she did. Maybe I would've done the same thing if I had been pushed to my limit. Go easy on her. The poor female,” I said to him. He walked over to me and placed a soft kiss on my head.
“Even though she has done unspeakable things and tried to take your life, you are still worried about her. You want her to have comfort. That is the most honorable thing I have ever heard. You truly do have a great heart, Amelia, and I will say that over and over again to you for as long as he will let me,” he said with a smile.
“Anyone would do the same,” I said to him.
“No, they would not,” he said.
“You are making it sound like you have never met anyone with a shred of humanity,” I said to him.
“The word human is in the word humanity. I have not known many humans, or at least been close enough to get to know them the way I have gotten to know you,” he said.
“I am looking forward to teaching you a little about humanity and how not to be so arrogant and rude,” I said, laughing.
“But arrogance is my most charming attribute. Don't you think so? It is what made you when I get into some arguments. Arguments that turned to passion. It was your defiance that attracted me to you, my fiery human,” he said laughing.
“I will take that as a compliment,” I said to him. This felt good. This felt right. We were still arguing, but it was in a very playful way. I think this was what we were leading up to from the very first argument that we ever had. This was exactly the side I had been waiting to see from him. Now he was showing it to me. Now he was being very caring. In fact, he was being so caring that it made me a little bit suspicious. Why was he treating me like I was a fragile piece of glass?
“Go, do what you need to do. I will be here eating everything in sight, and then I will soak in the tub and go to sleep. I am very tired,” I said to him.
“Good. Get some sleep. I will return,” he said, and then he walked toward the veranda and flew away. There was a loud noise in the corner that startled me. I thought that perhaps something had fallen. I sat up in bed and looked. There was nothing there. I shrugged it off and stood up to take off my clothes and run a hot bath. But I was immediately startled.
"You think you have won, don't you?” a voice said.
I screamed. I turned to see Talia standing there. She was furious. She quickly took steps toward me before I could even process what was going on. She grabbed me by the arm and yanked me over to her.
“What does he see in you? I see nothing but an ugly and simple human female. I have seen some beautiful human females before, and you are not like them. You are plain. I do not see how Ravinn could like you enough to sleep with you when he has me,” she said.
I gasped as I realize that she knew everything. She knew that Ravinn and I had been intimate. This would make her even crazier and want to hurt me. I realize that was exactly why she was hiding in my hut. She was going to kill me.
Just then, the door first open and Ravinn stepped in. Talia grabbed a knife from her boot and held it against my belly. I sucked in a sharp breath of air.
“Talia. What are you doing? Put that knife down,” Ravinn said.
CHAPTER TWELVE
RAVINN KEED
I was feeling extreme relief to have Amelia back at her home. I now felt somewhat safe. She was
far from the opposition. But I was not going to tell her that I thought perhaps she was pregnant. Maybe she already knew? Or perhaps it was too soon to tell. There were many possibilities, but I did not want to add to the stress that she had already been through, especially if she was with child. That would not be good for her. So I kept my mouth closed about the entire issue. There would be plenty of time to speak of it later. But for now, I knew one thing: I needed to make her comfortable.
And when I was done, I needed to take care of an even bigger matter. It was something that I was driving but that I knew I had to do. I had to get to Talia before the king did. I needed to speak with her. I needed to find out why she did what she did, other than jealousy. I wanted to know if she had changed overnight. But most of all, I wanted to make sure that she had a fair chance and was not punished in a harsh manner. She did not deserve it, even though she did put Amelia's life at risk.
