by Julia Mills
Leaning back in her seat, the elf was thoroughly enjoying herself, not paying attention to anything but the view before her when Muriel, the sister only ten years her senior burst through the door and screamed, “Oh my Goddess, it’s a naked man!”
Wishing she could disappear in a puff of smoke, Elsa threw her hands over her eyes and groaned, “What I wouldn’t give to be an only child.”
Chapter Four
The next twenty-four hours or so were difficult in ways Elsa would be trying to forget for years. After Muriel had burst into the barn and busted the youngest elf watching the man they were now calling Dragon because, well, he could turn into a dragon, everyone had decided to try to help their visitor get his memory back. That, of course, included teasing Elsa at every turn and making sure she and Dragon were never, ever alone.
It all started with Mom trying to find something for him to wear, stating, “Well, we just can’t have you catching your death after finally thawing out, now can we?” Which Elsa knew translated into, “You’ll not be parading around showing your naked man flesh off to any of my daughters, especially the youngest one, mister.”
Long ago the youngest of the O’Leary daughters had learned to speak what she affectionately called Mommaease. She knew all too well that Carolyn could say absolutely anything with a smile on her face and make whoever she was talking to believe she was being nice. It had once been said that the matriarch of the O’Leary family could tell someone to go to Hell and they would look forward to the trip.
‘Dressing Dragon’, as the chaos that ensued would forever be called, had included Carolyn digging out every pair of pjs, long johns, work pants and sweat pants her husband, Donovan, owned. When none of those were long enough and most were too big around the waist because of Mr. O’Leary’s ‘bowl full of jelly tummy’, she resorted to making Dragon stay in her bedroom while she cut the legs off one pair of her husband’s flannel pajama bottoms and sewed them onto the legs of a pair of grey sweatpants, stating that Dragon could tighten the drawstring in the waist to keep them up.
When that was done, she found him a flannel shirt that more or less fit everywhere but the sleeves which she made him roll up. It was all Elsa could do not to bust out laughing when Dragon appeared at the top of the stairs wearing pants that were grey on the top and red, white and green plaid flannel on the bottom and a navy, grey, green and white plaid flannel shirt that stretched so tight over his chest, she feared the ricochet should a button pop off. The elf actually felt bad when her sisters wouldn’t stop snickering but had to smile when Dragon took it all in stride and just shrugged.
The next step in Carolyn O’Leary’s plan was to feed the man every time he even looked in her direction. She used her famous, ‘feed your body, feed your mind’ motto and jumped into action. And because Dragon couldn’t remember what he liked or didn’t like, Carolyn started with everything in the refrigerator for breakfast.
“Alright, we have eggs, scrambled and sunny side up, sausage, bacon, gravy and biscuits, pancakes, grits and toast,” she sing-songed as she dropped all the plates on the table in front of him. Then pointing at the jars she’d gotten from the fridge, “And there is strawberry and grape jelly, plum and peach preserves and orange marmalade for you to try also.” She wiped her hands on her apron, looking pleased as punch when he took a bite of her pancakes and groaned, “This is good,” with his mouth full.
Patting him on the shoulder, she beamed, “You eat up. We’ll have you fit as a fiddle and ready to roar in no time.”
The rest of the day pretty much followed the same routine. Dragon ate and slept and ate and slept and ate some more and much to Elsa’s surprise every time he emerged from the guest bedroom he looked larger, more muscular and damned if his eyes didn’t sparkle every time she caught him looking at her.
Elsa’s dad called to say he needed yet another day or two at market, which was fine with his youngest daughter since her mother had already told him about Dragon. Carolyn made everyone laugh when she told them about Donovan grumping and griping about Elsa bringing home strange frozen men the size of Thor. Even Elsa chuckled, until she realized that she would be getting the same speech when her dad got home.
Walking downstairs, the elf started to jog when she heard her mother ask, “How short do you want it, dear?”
Rounding the corner, Elsa skidded to a stop, grabbed the refrigerator for support and stood gawking at the most handsome man she’d ever seen. It wasn’t that Elsa doubted Dragon had a handsome face under the mass of messy whiskers she’d found him with, the Goddess knew she’d had a hard time looking anywhere else since digging him out of the snow but nothing could have prepared her for the shock of seeing him clean shaven.
Handsome was a mere adjective compared to him. The jawline she’d original thought was strong could only be described as carved from granite and ruggedly masculine. His lips that already caused her to lose her train of thought every time he spoke were positively kissable and basically irresistible without the beasty beard to cover them. High cheek bones added to his regal look and accentuated the emerald of his eyes in such a way that Elsa felt herself falling into their shimmering depths.
“What do you think, Elsa?” His low baritone voice rolled through her from all the way across the kitchen.
“I…well…that is…ummm…what did you say?” Elsa stammered, having been caught ogling Dragon instead of paying attention.
Grinning like he knew exactly what she’d been thinking, Dragon opened his mouth to respond just as Mona pushed past Elsa, intentionally bumping her shoulder and sassed, “Stop drooling over the previously frozen man, Elsa. Goddess knows he’s probably got a wife and a houseful of kids in whatever hell on earth he came from.”
Running at her sister with the full intent of tearing her long black braids from her head, the youngest elf once again found herself sliding across the kitchen floor in her socking feet as Dragon stood up and announced, “My name’s Quinn. Quinn MacKenna and…” He paused, slowly turned and looked Elsa right in the eye before adding, “and I have no mate.”
The world seemed to stop spinning. There wasn’t enough air in the room. She and Quinn were suddenly the only two people on earth. The weight of his gaze, caressed its way to the bottom of her soul. Elsa felt a light that before had only been a spark for all her life, burst forth. There was no doubt in her mind the man standing before her was the key to her future, her happiness, her forever.
Taking a step forward, Elsa stopped short as the sounds of whispers and giggles broke the spell Quinn’s memory had caused. Clearing her throat and acting as if nothing earth-shattering had just happened, the elf plastered on a smile as Carolyn patted the Guardsman on the back and cheered, “That is fantastic! You remembered your name. See? I told you, nothin’ good food and rest can’t cure.” She nodded to all her children before going on, “Now, sit down and let’s get to this hair.
Watching Quinn just as closely as he watched her, Elsa finally had to turn away before her sisters caught them and started butting in again. Making her way towards the door, Elsa grabbed her coat as she slid on her boots and called, “I’m going to feed the calves. Be back in a bit,” over her shoulder.
“Okay Darlin’.” She heard her mother answer right before Quinn said, “No shorter than shoulder length. I like it a bit longer. I always wear it tied back.”
Shutting the door just as Carolyn was congratulating him on remembering something else, Elsa shuffled her feet through the fresh snowfall, and grumbled about nosey sisters and sexy men with green eyes who both made her act like a goofball. She knew it wasn’t her imagination. She had most definitely felt his eyes on her back when she left the house. It was also obvious, at least to her, that he felt something weird happening between them and was just as confused as she was.
“Or is he?” The elf asked out aloud while tugging the side door of the barn through a snow drift Penelope had neglected to shovel earlier in the day. “I could tell Mom and get her in trouble,” she s
ighed, walking inside and shutting the door, “but then I’d just be as big a tattle-tail as Mona and that is a ‘hell no’ in my book.”
Taking off her boots and slipping into her fur-lined clogs, Elsa hung her coat on the hook before heading towards the baby reindeer. “And they may think it’s okay to act like teenagers at our age but not me.”
Walking to the feed bins, she grabbed a bucket mushrooms and a bucket of reindeer moss before making her way to the calves. “Look what I’ve got for you guys. I bet Ivey didn’t even bother with treats or fresh water when she was cleaning out your stall, did she?”
Talking to the ‘babies’, as she thought of the reindeer calves, always made Elsa feel better. She figured it was their big brown eyes that looked at her with rapt attention and the way they followed her every movement as if she was doing something amazing that made her feel like they were truly listening. There was also the fact that animals had always been attracted to her. It didn’t matter what kind of furry, scaled or slimy creature it was, if it was nearby, it was sure to find the little elf and she was sure to fall in love with it at first sight.
“Must be what attracted me to him. You know…the dragon,” she sighed while splitting the mushrooms between the two and then filling their basket with the moss.
“I don’t know what it is about him, but he makes me a little crazy, ya’ know what I mean?” Laughing out loud, Elsa added, “And if you answer me, I will have confirmation that I have lost my mind.”
Grabbing the water bucket, she clomped back to the sink, visions of the man she now knew as Quinn came back along with the way her fingers had tingled with the need to touch his bare skin. The sound of the water filling the bucket made the elf think of a babbling brook in a green meadow which brought back memories of her dream. “I had forgotten all about that,” she mumbled as images of her kissing a tall dark stranger took front and center in her mind.
She easily imagined the man in her dreams as Quinn and the dragons flying in the air as other dragons from his clan, at least she thought that was what a group of dragons was called. “I’ll have to ask him about that,” she said before moaning, “If I ever get up the nerve to talk to him again after that debacle in the kitchen.”
Turning off the water, Elsa hoisted the bucket full of water out of the sink, carried it back to the calves and filled their trough. Grabbing the milking stool from the incubation pen, she opened the babies’ stall, went inside and took a seat as she asked, “Okay, if I hang out with you guys for a while?”
Both the calves padded over and licked her hands while making little happy grunts. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she snickered, patting the female, Daffodil, on the head before she said, “I just don’t get my sisters. Are they gonna live at home forever? Do they not have dreams or goals? I mean, come on, Mona is two-hundred-years old. I know that’s not really old for an elf but she’s gotta be ready to get out see the world.” Elsa huffed. “I know I am. I bet you will be, too, when you get bigger. Isn’t that right little girl? We’re not like them.” Her fingers rubbed under the calf’s neck. “We’re gonna get out of this frozen wasteland and have an adventure, aren’t we?”
The male, Trigger, as she’d named him because he was up and raring to go less than an hour after his birth, nudged her free hand with his snout and gave a little grumble for attention making Elsa giggle, “You can come too little man. The more the merrier.”
“And can I come?”
The sound of Quinn’s voice had Elsa spinning around so quickly she almost fell off the stool and had to grab the rail of the calves’ pen to avoid landing in the straw on her butt. Immediately irritated, she snapped, “Why are you sneaking up on me? What are you doing here?”
Looking like she’d slapped him but still slowly moving forward, Quinn held up his hands in surrender and said, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to see what you were doing. It got a little, well, crowded in the kitchen during my haircut.”
Now that he’d mentioned it she was impressed with what a nice job her mom had done and quickly said, “It looks nice,” before turning back to the reindeer while trying to think of something, anything to say.
“Thanks,” was all he said as his footsteps sounded behind her right before she saw him lean over the rails of the pen out of the corner of her eyes. When he spoke, it was hard to stay irritated at his intrusion. “So, this is where you hide out from all the commotion?”
“Yeah, the rest of them complain that the calves stink or that they don’t want to feed them but I like these guys,” she ruffled the fur on the tops of their heads. “I talk. They listen. I give them treats. They think I’m cool. We’ve gotta good thing goin’ on.”
“I can see that,” Quinn chuckled, making Elsa turn on her stool at the shock of the wonderful sound.
It was the first time he’d done little more than mumble an answer except for when he first woke up and was screaming and it was nothing short of amazing. His deep baritone laugh was warm and inviting. It made her think of sitting in front of a crackling fire on a cold winter’s night with a cup of hot cocoa. Of course, her mind kept going with the scenario and Elsa imagined Quinn’s arm wrapped around her, his deep woodsy scent filling the air and the wonderful way he whispered in her ear that made goose bumps raise up and down her arms.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, Elsa noticed the knowing look on Quinn’s face and began to ask, “What are you…”
But her words were cut off as one of the huge doors at the end of the barn flew open and Harmony came running in screaming, “Auntie Geneva is coming around the bend! Auntie Geneva is coming around the bend!”
“Oh, penguin poop on a popsicle! Not today, Satan, not today!” Elsa squealed, jumping off her stool and telling the reindeer she’d be back later before grabbing Quinn by the shoulder, looking him in the eye and ordering, “Stay here. I’ll explain later.”
Hoping he agreed but not waiting for an answer, Elsa ran out of the stall, slammed the gate behind her and ran for the door, kicking off her clogs as she went. Sliding her feet into her boots and throwing on her coat with the skill of a fireman answering a call, she heard Quinn ask, “Who is Auntie Geneva and why do I have to stay here?”
Stopping just as she crossed the threshold, Elsa spun around, looked right at the dragon and with her hand on the doorknob answered, “She’s an evil gnome who steals magic and thinks world domination is a board game,” before slamming the door and praying Quinn would stay put.
Chapter Five
“I guess we’re on our own until Auntie Whoever leaves,” Quinn mused, rubbing the fur on the head of the calf nearest to him. He could tell it was the female from her bright eyes and the sweet way she moved her head to the side to get his fingers in just the right spot. It was obvious Elsa spent a lot of time with these animals from the way they responded to human, or sort of human, touch.
“Aren’t you a cute one?” He smiled then chuckled when the male butted his leg and made a kind of grunting noise until Quinn was also paying him the same attention. “I understand. Can’t let your sister get all the love.”
Enjoying the quiet, the Guardsman simply let his mind wander. He thought about Elsa and the way she made him feel. It was foreign and unfamiliar but also something he knew without a doubt, he had been longing for most of his life. He could hear her thoughts, always knew what she was feeling and had the irresistible urge to wrap her in his arms and never let her go. There was no doubt he had been born to love her.
She added life and sparkle to everything around her. A true bundle of vim and vigor from the tantalizing tip of her ears to the bottom of her tiny feet. His elf may have only been five feet tall but all of it was purely explosive and wholly delightful. Elsa literally effervesced everywhere she went. It was so natural, so free, so intoxicating that Quinn wanted to be nowhere but by her side.
Hazy and out of focus, his first glimpse of her had been only a flash after she’d unceremoniously dumped his frozen backside out of that blo
ody box and onto a pile of snow. It had taken all his strength to fight the ice and black magic to get a glimpse of the wonderful creature who had come to his rescue. One glance and for just a moment, his sluggish heart had beat stronger. She was beautiful, inside and out, her aura so bright it nearly blinded his newly opened eyes.
Quinn’s fingers rubbed together as he remembered the silkiness of her hair and ached with the need to touch her porcelain skin. Her easy smile and the way her freckles kissed the bridge of her nose and danced across her permanently blushed cheeks made the dragon’s heart soar. Again and again, he’d dreamt of kissing her, wanted to tell her of the amazing future Fate had in store for them and wanted more than anything to claim her as his own, but he waited. He needed to have all of his memories to be able to tell her who he was, not only what he was. The Guardsman needed to assure her of their future together, so he had waited…and was still waiting.
His dragon, who still suffered the effects of what Quinn could only think of as a forced hibernation, stirred at the thought of the little elf. It had been the first signs of waking up the beast had shown aside from healing the Guardsman’s wounds since they’d thawed. Giving a little mental shove to the being he shared his soul with, he teased, “Time to get up, ya bum. How about you help me remember the good old days?”
“Speaking of the good old days,” he mused, “from the look of things, I’ve been asleep quite a while.” Glancing around the barn, taking in all the equipment, that was more like something out of a comic book than machines used for raising reindeer, Quinn had to wonder why not one of the elves had mentioned what year it was. At first, he’d thought it was to avoid shocking him but now after almost a day and a half of good food and lots of sleep, he was more than ready to face the reality of his situation.
