by Celeste Raye
I looked down at the 100-foot drop and shook my head. “Nope. No thanks. You’re saying there’s really not a ladder to get down from here?”
She shrugged. “There’s a latch that heads back into the ship, but it’s locked from the inside.”
“Well, that was a poor design choice,” I swore. “And you’re just… okay with this? You seem pretty calm, considering, well, you’re you.”
Athena laughed. “And you’re pretty worked up considering you’re you.”
My brows creased into a frown and scoffed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Marina, you are calm, cool, and collected. Basically always. So do what you do best!” she raised her brows as I watched her with confusion. Then, she enunciated, “Make a plan.”
I stared at her seriously for a moment and then closed my eyes. I rubbed my tongue back and forth against the inside of my teeth and then looked back to Athena.
“Do you think they mean to harm us?” I asked. She shrugged one shoulder, and I sighed. “Okay,” I breathed. “Call me crazy, but studying the Weredragons would mean a lot more than studying some plant life here.”
“Debatable, but the council would probably love it back home. They’ve been trying to get a hold of these things forever.”
“So… We befriend them?” I asked.
“Again, a questionable plan there, sis.”
“Hear me out,” I said, halting her words with my hand. “We get close to them, give them what they want, and then get them to take us back to their planet. What’s the downfall?”
“Okay, where to begin?” Athena said, tapping her skeptical face with her pointer and index fingers. “First, they could eat us, kill us, and rape us, though not necessarily in that order. That’s one. Two would be that they don’t need anything from us. And why’s that, you ask? Because they can take whatever they want. If you hadn’t noticed, they are dragon people. With claws, and fangs. They could basically kill us and take what they want.”
“If they wanted to kill us, they wouldn’t have protected us from the arthropod
“Ever the optimist,” she said, her eyes widening.
“Have we switched roles here?” I asked with a laugh. “I thought you were the adventurous one and I was the cautious one?”
“Yeah,” she downplayed, “But it’s also my job to protect you and use my head. I can be adventurous in my private life, but not when my sister’s life is in jeopardy.”
“You?” I offered her a stunned expression and began to laugh. “My sister? The girl who doesn’t take crap from anybody?”
“And yet, oh look!” she mocked. “Here I am, taking crap from you. Ha!”
We laughed until we could feel the ship jostling beneath us from the Weredragons rummaging in the deep decks below.
Athena sighed and pointed to her laser rifle. “I’m firing off a warning shot,” she announced and aimed the weapon into the air. “At least it’ll alert some of our crew that we’re up here.”
“And get them killed? No!” I protested.
“They are my crew, you know,” Athena insisted. “The soldiers, anyway.”
“Yeah, and your soldiers ran over there,” I pointed. “They’re probably fighting the dragon who ran off. A distraction, obviously.”
With that, the two Weredragons emerged, stomping their large, loud feet on the top of our ship. The black-scaled dragon had thick brows that furrowed with delight as he shoved a banana into his mouth. Our banana.
“That’s our food,” Athena protested with a frown.
“That’s what you took?” I asked in surprise.
The other WereDragon approached me slowly. He had deep blue eyes and a cleft chin. Like some kind of ridiculous superhero. I felt saliva release in the pit of my mouth as he walked up to me, standing tall above my 5’4” stature.
“It was a distraction,” he said with a blink; a smile. “My name is Tredorphen. That,” he pointed, “is Aurlauc.”
“And you stole our food?” I repeated, my tone unsure.
He shrugged. “Sorry.”
I thought on that; our eyes watching each other’s in a silent battle of wits. They took our food but weren’t going to steal our ship? It didn’t make any sense.
“What do you want?” I asked slowly, my brow cocking slightly as I questioned him, completely oblivious as to what the answer might be.
There were shimmering golden scales with the hint of rosy tones basing Tredorphen’s color. He took a moment to look me over before his scales seemed to fade into his smooth skin. With a grunt, I could hear the slick movements of his wings as they retracted into his body as though they never existed at all.
My eyes skimmed the back of him and saw that his tail had disappeared as well. I looked up at him curiously and couldn't help but smile.
“I thought this would be a...” He hesitated, watching his words. “A less frightening form for you to see.”
“What's that all about?” my sister said skeptically. “What you did there.”
“We are shifters,” he said plainly. “We can shift back and forth from this form to—”
“A dragon?” I asked quickly, and he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “We are partial shifters.”
I nodded slowly, a dawning horror crossing my mind but never showing on my face. I rolled my tongue in my mouth and couldn't help but marvel at how seamlessly he appeared as a human. Handsome, too.
He had an undeniable sex-appeal; like the hunky guy you know would never go for you. I looked at his square jawline and crooked smile and thought... if I passed him on the street in Sydney, I would never know he wasn't human.
The thought made me feel sick.
“And you guys are after… what, exactly?” my sister repeated, glancing at me before fiercely meeting the eyes of the shifters. My sister wasn’t afraid of anything.
“Obviously, you’re not our biggest fans,” Tredorphen said with a bemused smile. “But, I’d like to establish a truce.”
His dark shaded shifter partner widened his eyes in surprise and looked over to Tredorphen with no small amount of shock. Aurlauc set his jaw and shifted his eyes back and forth before lowly asking, “Tredorphen… a word?”
The rose-gold dragon waved him off without taking his eyes off of me and said, “It’s obvious you are… looking for something here.”
“We’re researchers,” I offered carefully. “Scientists.”
He tipped his head back as though he were going to nod, but didn’t follow through. His eyes steered toward my sister’s gun and then back to me.
“Well,” I sighed. “She’s not. But my crew is. She is here with her own crew, hired to protect us.”
“Ah.” He said. “Well, we are looking for food to bring back to our people. So how about we make a deal. You need protection from the Drogs, and we need people who can tell us what’s safe to eat and what isn’t.”
“The Drogs…?” I repeated.
“Those beasts, obviously,” my sister rolled her eyes.
“Correct,” Tredorphen said. “You’ll need protection.”
“We have protection,” my sister corrected, gripping her gun harder. “But thanks.”
“I’d venture a guess to say this,” Aurlauc said, whipping to my sister's side, his wings still sprouted from his back, and he tore the gun from her grip, “isn’t going to do a thing to the Drogs. Besides, they’re acidic. You shoot at them, and they drip on you, you’re dead.”
“Hey!” my sister yelled, reaching for her gun and standing childishly as the black dragon held the weapon high above her head. “Give that back!”
“You need to beat them down,” Tredorphen added. “We can do that. Help you get on with your research.”
“And why should we trust you?” I asked, crossing my arms and feeling surprisingly intrigued.
“Because we saved your lives,” the sexy male before me said, his tone almost daring me to object.
“And then you robbed us,” I added wit
h a laugh.
“We took some food,” he reasoned, spreading his palms before me. “And for that, I cannot apologize. We are starving; our land is low on resources. But… we didn’t take anything else.”
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to think. Poor things? I felt empathy for them if they were actually starving, but I was incredibly wary about trusting their word. Getting burned by an alien alliance wasn’t exactly foreign to the Earth, after all.
A deep exhale left my mouth, and I gave a simple nod. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll have to talk it over with my crew but, it sounds like a plan.”
As soon as the word left my mouth, Aurlauc lowered his arm and gently handed the gun back to my sister, who took it eagerly and backed away from the man. This was of no use, of course, as he scooped her up by force into his arm and flew her to the safety of the ground below.
“So,” I said.
“So,” Tredorphen repeated with a grin.
“My name is Marina,” I said, extending my hand to his.
He stared at it plainly for a moment and quizzically dipped his palm into mine. “A pleasure,” he said.
Tredorphen
“What is it, exactly, that you think you’re doing?” Aurlauc whispered through clenched teeth. Despite the precarious situation.
I couldn’t help but find the humor in his tone.
“You always do cheer me up, Aurlauc,” I said with a grin while patting him on the arm.
“I’m serious!” he jerked away.
We stopped walking and were trailing far, far behind the women who had agreed on a temporary truce with us. We’d all been quiet on the walk back to their people until the raven-colored shifter couldn’t hold back any longer.
“I’m devising a plan; can’t you tell?” I said with annoyance as my gaze shifted up, watching as Khrelan approached, fluttering his wings gracefully before landing in front of us.
“Oh, great,” Aurlauc continued shamefully. “Okay, Tredorphen! Explain it to the man!” I opened my mouth to speak but Aurlauc quickly stole my thunder. “He made a deal with the humans!”
“What?” Khrelan seethed severely. “Why would you do such a stupid thing like that?”
“It’s for our benefit,” I said. “Trust me.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Khrelan said with a roll of his eyes. “Seriously, I’m not cooperating with these creatures until you tell me what the plan is. Period.”
“Period, he says,” I repeated. “Look,” I said in such a way that both shifters knew this wasn’t a conversation for prying ears. And there was a myriad of those around now with all the humans scampering about.
“Have you heard of the Earth?” I asked, my tone calculating.
“Only about a million times, from you,” Aurlauc said.
“I’ve heard rumblings,” Tredorphen said impatiently. “That’s where those things are from,” he pointed out, regarding the humans. “What about it?”
“It’s lush with fruitage. Fields of food. Literal fields. There’s more than we could ever ask for,” I explained.
Aurlauc raised a brow and crossed his arms, leaning back against one of the strange molten mountains, setting a foot on its base with trepidation, as though it might burst with even the slightest form of pressure. He seemed to think on my point before looking beyond stumped once again.
“So?” Aurlauc asked dimly.
“So he’s implying we should befriend the humans and take over their planet,” Khrelan said at a fast-pace. Then he looked to me. “Right?”
I spread my hands before my brethren as if to agree and waited to see what they thought.
“How do you know so much about it?” Khrelan asked.
“Don’t ask!” Aurlauc said with a laugh. “You haven’t seen the cave yet?”
Khrelan looked at me as though I had no head and I could feel the heat creeping up my face. I gave the shifter a warning look, and he snapped his mouth shut comically, letting out a chuckle as he did so.
“What are you guys talking about?” came the bouncing, suspicious tone from Athena as she barged into our huddle, unafraid.
I set my jaw and stared the girl down, incensed. “That was awfully brave of you,” I said sternly.
“Well, we are comrades now, right?” she snipped; her sister followed closely behind, offering me a small smile as she passed.
My eyes followed her swiftly as she moved, unable to drop my gaze on her. I watched the curves of her and was overcome by a raging lust. Her eyes were a deep hazel that seemed to cast a spell on me, though she said nothing at all.
“Right,” I trailed off absent-mindedly, and Athena let a pleased squeak escape from her lips.
“So, what’s going on? Are you going to lead us deep into the planet? We have the coordinates for where we’re supposed to be… If, uh,” she gave pause and tapped her nose, “if you guys know how to read.”
I rolled my eyes and ripped the paper from her hands, staring down at it curiously. “What happened?”
“Huh?” she asked.
“If you were supposed to land there then why are you here, in the red fields?” I clarified.
“The red fields?” she asked and then looked out at the tube worms that writhed in a field of crimson. “Oh. Duh.”
‘Charm her,’ I mouthed to Aurlauc and he rolled his eyes at me before moving next to what we were told was their female warrior.
I walked ahead of the group, my eyes desperately tracing the fair-skinned blonde who didn’t slow her pace, even as she noticed my footsteps behind her.
“Marina,” I said, making my way to her side. “Your sister doesn’t trust us,” I said casually.
“Well,” she said with a big breath. “My sister is pretty intuitive, so, what does that say about you?”
“But you do… trust us?” I asked, raising my brow ever so slightly. “We didn’t steal your ship, after all.”
“Well, first,” she said, extending a finger to me, “our ship crash-landed here, so it wouldn’t even leave off the ground, and second, you probably don’t know how to pilot, so…”
With that, she offered me a charming grin and raised her brows as if to say ‘your move, ’ and I gladly obliged.
“I suppose we’ll just have to prove it to you,” I dared.
“And I look forward to the outcome…” she hesitated, as though she couldn’t remember my name and I felt a flutter in my stomach.
“Tredorphen,” I said.
“Tredorphen,” she repeated as though she never forgot. “Now if you’ll join me, I have a very interesting story to tell my crew.”
The three of us stood before the expansive crew Marina spoke of and she, with all authority, explained to them that we would be joining them on their expedition. Some reacted with shock, others with fascination, while most of their men grunted and wouldn’t give us another look. Soldiers, mostly.
I grunted in return and felt the weight of my mistake on my shoulders. I couldn’t express any doubt to my brethren, nor could I express outrage at the disobedient humans. As far as we were told, Marina was their leader.
Back home, not following the D’Karr meant death.
I ticked my brow up quickly and lingered on that thought. I cared not for the males. They were quick to try and show us up, even as we descended into the sea of red before us. I was determined to show them all that they needed us. I explained carefully to Aurlauc and Khrelan the importance of our seeming like obedient protectors.
Besides, I insisted, maybe there would be food in it for us.
Surely, if nothing else, the humans would share their rations.
We trudged through the great valley of tube worms and watched as they carefully emerged: a slight slither that caused instant alarm now that the sisters knew what they could do to a beast.
We’d already battled a dozen Drogs, making sure to keep the Earthlings safe from the acid and the swamp-like sea that separated the massive lands.
In truth, we hadn’t explored the plan
et thoroughly yet, but my mind was already dead set on a new mission. We would lie to the crew and tell them we’d been across the continent over and over again and there was nothing but Drogs as far as the eye could see. We would convince them to come back to Dobromia and make peace with our people. Study us.
It was the perfect tradeoff. Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.
“You should tell them,” Khrelan began quietly, “to stop kicking the worms.”
“Why do you whisper?” I asked with a heady laugh.
“I…” Khrelan flushed and gave a dismissive expression. “They consume the Drogs and harbor their acid. If they feel threatened, they will shoot it back out.”
“What?” Aurlauc said with quickly widening eyes. He reached over and slapped Khrelan in the back of the head, causing the shifter to whip around with his wings and charge at the black dragon. “You knew that this whole time and you’ve let us spend the day trouncing around here?” Aurlauc shook his head in disgust. “I hate this. I hate this place. I hate this truce. I hate these squishy worm things and you know what I hate most of all?”
I deadpanned. “What, Aurlauc?”
“I hate that I’m starving when the whole point of this ridiculous farce was to get food in the first place!”
Khrelan clapped his hands unenthusiastically at my friend and in a flat tone said, “Well done.”
“Shh,” I dismissed them both and then looked back to the broad, navy dragon. “Go tell the girl. The sister,” I insisted. “Athena. Make her warm up to you.”
“I thought that was my job!” Aurlauc whined.
I laughed. “You couldn’t cut it, though I’m not exactly surprised.”
“Why do I have to talk to her?” Khrelan asked skeptically.
“Because we’re trying to win their trust, if you hadn’t remembered. And this is the way to do it. Share information, but never too much. Be open, but not honest. Make them believe they have reason to need us and trust us. Then we can see if we can’t relocate. Now go!”
Khrelan set his jaw and flew over to the Athena. She was defiant: that I could see. Not like her sister. Her sister had watchful eyes that I admired. Eyes that I wanted to prove wrong, even with a lie.
