by Alexa Locke
To her father she may have looked formidable, but she felt like a child playing dress up, beginning to feel nervous and fearful at what was to come. She could not let her father see that and so she simply smiled, leaned down, and placed a kiss upon his head. “I’ll see you when we get back.”
“Take care of your mother and uncle,” he told her, and Fawn knew in that moment that he was trusting her with everything. She knew he was fearful of sending her in his place. She also knew how difficult it would be for him to let them go without him after so many years of being their leader.
“I’ll do my best,” she promised.
Chapter Four
They left at midday. Lilly stood in the doorway of the small cabin and waved eagerly as she watched them leave. Fawn waved back at her sister wondering whether she would ever see her again. There was no guarantee that she would ever return home, many hunters hadn’t survived their first mission.
Fawn tried not to think about that too much as she followed her mother and uncle down the village lanes in the direction of the mountains beyond. It was a two day trek to their destination, and it was also the furthest Fawn had ever travelled from her childhood home.
The trip was long and hard on her feet. By the time they reached the peak of the first mountain, she was barely able to walk, and she felt as though she had several blisters on her heels and toes.
How are you holding up?” Alec asked, as he placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze of encouragement
“I’m fine,” Fawn insisted. She didn’t want to show any weakness even in front of her family. She had to prove herself. It was at the forefront of her mind as she kept her eyes fixed on her mother’s shoulder blades following her up over the peak of the mountain.
The sky began to darken and just as the first darkness of night enveloped the mountain, Fawn heard a loud swooshing sound coming from above.
“Do you hear that?” Liv hissed under her breath as she stopped and pulled her bow off her back, slipping an arrow from her quiver and readying it against the string. Alec slipped his own bow off his back and Fawn followed suit. Her hands were shaking, and she barely managed to hold the arrow in place as she turned her eyes toward the sky.
That’s when the huge blue lizard appeared above them. Its blue wings were veined with purple, and it seemed to glow in the late evening light.
Alec was the first to let his arrow fly. It barely skimmed the creature’s stomach before falling back toward them. Alec cursed and dodged out of the way of his falling arrow
Liv let hr arrow fly in the direction of the dragon, but yet again it fell short and back toward them. Fawn knew then that it was her turn. She followed the creature’s flight as it swooped past them, aiming for the soft flesh between its foreleg and chest, the place her father had always told her to aim for. Taking a deep breath, she released it along with her arrow. The iron tipped arrow flew up and up and up until Fawn was sure she had missed completely.
“You hit it!” Alec screamed in elation as the arrow struck the dragon right where Fawn had meant for it to hit. The creature let out a loud roar of pain, and its flight faltered, dipping left
“Follow it!” Liv yelled as she broke off at a hard run in the direction the dragon had suddenly disappeared. The sound of crashing told Fawn that the creature had hit the trees and was falling still. Liv and Alec disappeared into the trees as though they had completely forgotten about her, too focused on their hunt.
Fawn followed as quickly as she could, trying to ignore the pain that was pulsing through her feet. The sound of groaning hit her ears then. Her heart pounded as she slowed to a walk, pulled an arrow from the quiver over her shoulder, and slipped through the bushes as silently as possible. She held her bow ready to let an arrow fly at the slightest hint of danger. Blood pounded in her ears, and her heart beat so fast that she was sure it was going to explode.
Chapter Five
The clearing opened out in front of her lit by moonlight. The man was slumped against the tree trunk directly ahead of her. His hand was clamped around the arrow that was stuck in his soft flesh under his arm. Fawn’s mouth gaped as she recognised the green feathers that decorated the end of the arrow. They were the same feathers that decorated the ends of her father’s arrows, just like the one she had shot at the dragon. Does that mean…she thought and had to quickly shake the thought away. It can’t be.
Lowering her bow, she dropped the arrow back in her quiver and placed her bow over her shoulder. As she stepped out of the bushes and into the clearing, the man looked up. His blue eyes sparked, and he was trying to struggle to his feet
“Please, don’t move,” Fawn told him gently. She raised both of her hands to show that she was not a threat. “I am not going to hurt you.” She could see the pain burning in his eyes. Fawn was struck instantly by his good looks. Not only were his eyes the crystal blue of the clearest water, but his hair was jet black and glossy, glistening in the moonlight that filtered down through the thick canopy of leaves above their heads.
He remained silent but glared at her as though he was ready for any sudden movements. Fawn slowly moved forward, careful not to move to quickly and scare him. “Let me help you.” She dropped down onto her knees in front of him and gazed at the arrow that was stuck in his chest. He was breathing heavily, struggling for air. Fawn had to force away the feeling that she shouldn’t be anywhere near him. She raised her hand toward the shaft of the arrow and asked, “May I?”
The man seemed to grit his teeth before he nodded. Fawn took hold of the arrow, placed her other hand on his shoulder and before he could protest, pulled hard to remove the arrow
A small groan came from between his gritted teeth. Blood bubbled forth from the wound, and Fawn pressed her hand as hard as she could against it, feeling the blood seep between her fingers
“Fawn! What are you doing?” a familiar voice erupted from behind her. “Get away from him!” Still pressing her hand into the man’s wound Fawn turned to see her mother standing on the other side of the clearing with her bow held in front of her, aiming her arrow directly at the man’s chest. Alec appeared behind her, his eyes widening with shock as he saw the scene in front of him.
“He needs help!” Fawn insisted. “He’s hurt badly.”
“Of course he is!” Liv glared at her daughter as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You shot him you stupid girl!” Fawn’s suspicions were confirmed as she heard her mother’s words, yet still she couldn’t bring herself to believe them.
“What are you talking about?” Fawn asked still not removing her hand from the man’s wound. Suddenly he shifted beneath her hand, and she was flung backward. He was up in a shot and running away from the clearing, disappearing through the bushes.
“Go after him!” Liv yelled at Alec giving him a shove in the man’s direction. Alec instantly set off. Fawn jumped to her feet about to follow her uncle when she felt a hand grab hold of her shoulder.
“You are not going anywhere,” her mother hissed at her. She pulled Fawn back and turned her to look at her. “What the hell was that?”
“I could ask you the same thing!” Fawn demanded as she snapped her shoulder away from her mother’s grip and glared up at her. “I think you have a lot to tell me.” Liv sighed and nodded as she removed her arrow from her bow and placed it back in her quiver.
“There’s much you don’t know about dragons,” Liv explained as she placed her bow over her shoulder. “They aren’t just dragons. They are also part human. They can shape shift.” Fawn felt the earth move beneath her and suddenly she couldn’t stand. Her knees grew weak, and she found herself falling. Then Liv was beside her, holding her up so that she couldn’t hit the ground.
“Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?” Fawn asked as she began to feel the full weight of what she was being told. Everything she had ever known had been a lie.
“You are brave Fawn, but you have a soft heart,” Liv sighed as she held on to her daughter’s sh
oulders to steady her. “Your father and I have watched you grow, and we’ve seen how you treat every creature. We’ve seen the way you watch the butterflies and feed the birds. We’ve watched you flinch away from the killing of chickens and seen how you’ve cared for the stray cats around the cabin.
“Your father and I decided that in order for you to become the hunter you were meant to be, we had to make you believe that dragons were simply mindless beasts only capable of killing. We knew you’d never agree to kill anyone that looked even remotely human.”
“So you weren’t ever going to tell me?” Fawn felt betrayed. Her gut churned with anger as she pulled away from her mother’s grip.
“We didn’t think you needed to know,” Liv explained. “We never thought you’d find out, and I certainly never meant for you to find out this way. It’s not very often that dragons change back to their human form. Only when they are too seriously wounded to hold on to their larger form.
“The war between our races has been waged for many centuries. It’s not for us to question, only to do our duty to our people and protect them,” Liv continued on as though she was trying to find a way to justify her actions. In Fawn’s eyes, there was no way she could ever do that.
Chapter Six
Fawn ran from her mother before she could say another word in her defence. She couldn’t listen to it anymore. All she wanted to do was go home and forget all about it. As she raced away from the clearing, she realised she had no idea where she was going.
Before long she was wandering and hopelessly lost. When the sound of running water hit her ears, she suddenly realised how thirsty she was after exerting her energy so badly. She headed in the direction of the sound and found a small stream bubbling over a bed of pebbles. Pulling her bow and quiver from her shoulder, she set them down on the ground and crouched down beside them. Cupping her hands beneath the water, she took a long drink before swilling the liquid over her face in the hopes that she might be able to cool down a little.
The moon was high and sent its bright light down onto the surface of the stream turning it to silver. The sound of footsteps alerted her to someone approaching. She didn’t bother to look over her shoulder. “Leave me alone mum.”
“I’m not your mum.” An unfamiliar voice hit her ears. Fawn’s hand automatically came to the nearest of her blades, and she slipped it from its sheathe as she whipped around. The man who stood before her was the same man her mother had accused of being a dragon. His shirt was still ripped where the arrow had pierced him, but Fawn could no longer see the wound beneath. The blade suddenly dropped from her hand, and she found herself walking toward the man.
As though she was in a dream she stepped in front of him and grabbed hold of his shirt, pulling at the rip to make it bigger so that she could see the perfectly taut flesh beneath. Her mouth gaped open, and she felt the man’s chest rumble as he laughed.
“Your mother is right,” he told her. “I am a dragon. We heal quickly once the weapon is removed.” He took hold of her wrists then and pulled her hands away from his shirt. She turned her gaze up to look at him. Part of her knew that she should have been terrified, but as she looked into his blue eyes, she couldn’t help but feel anything but breathless.
“Don’t worry,” he told her gently. “I didn’t come here to hurt you. I just wanted to thank you for helping me.” Fawn had no idea what she should say to him. Instead, she simply remained staring at him. Her fingers itched with the urge to touch his glossy hair and run them through it. Her heart beat so loudly that she was sure he would be able to hear it.
His eyes sparked much like they had the first time she’d seen him yet this time he didn’t look frightened. Instead he leaned down and pressed his lips firmly against hers. Part of her wanted to pull away, yet the other part of her never wanted him to stop. His hands released her wrists and came up to her cheeks. He held her there as though he didn’t want her to move away. She placed her palms against his chest.
Suddenly he pulled away from her as though she’d bitten him. His hands clasped her shoulders, pushing her away. “You need to run!” His voice was urgent as he pulled her around him, forcing her behind him. “Run now!”
The beating of wings came from above, and Fawn realised why he had switched so quickly. His shoulders were tense as he looked toward the sky. Fawn’s eyes followed his, and she saw the huge green dragon that was swooping down toward them. Behind it came a second and a third.
Instinctively, Fawn reached over her shoulder for her bow. Her heart sank as she realised it was not there and glanced sideways so see that it still lay beside the water. The first dragon dropped suddenly, and instead of a green winged lizard, a human hit the floor. The man stood over a foot taller than Fawn though he was around the same height as the first man who stood protectively in front of her.
“Ash, what is the meaning of this?” the man spoke in a barely human voice as though it had been a long time since he’d used it. “What are you doing with this human?” he was one of the largest, scariest men Fawn had ever seen in her life. His face was crisscrossed with scars as though he had been cut hundreds of times over. His bald head was a mass of scar tissue as though he had once been burned. Even through his shirt Fawn could see the bands of muscle that wrapped around his bones, and she had every faith that if he got hold of her he could crush her skull between the palms of his hands.
“She saved my life,” Ash replied, holding on to Fawn’s hip as though he hoped to stop her from running out in front of him. The second man roared with laughter as though Ash had just told the funniest joke. His face dropped back into a deep frown then, and he glared at Ash, angrier than he had been before.
“Humans do not save lives. They take them,” the second man insisted. “Hand her over.” He held out his hand as though he expected Ash to shove her into his grip. Instead Ash shook his head and his grip tightened on Fawn.
“I won’t let you harm her,” he told the other man. He flashed a look at Fawn over his shoulder then and whispered, “Hold on tight.”
Before Fawn could ask him what he was talking about, he grabbed hold of her, pulled her close to his back and suddenly jumped up into the air. All she could do was grip the back of his shirt as they suddenly rose high into the air, bursting through the canopy. Below her there was no longer a man. Instead, she found herself sitting on the neck of a large blue lizard. Her hands clasped around the thick spikes that covered his spine.
The creature dove around the other two dragons, and he was off, flying through the cloudless sky at a speed that Fawn had never known possible.
To fly was an amazing feeling. To be able to see everything below them as though it was insignificant. To feel the wind whipping through her hair as they soared higher. Over the beating of Ash’s wings, she could hear others following them though she did not dare to look over her shoulder.
Ash’s wings beat faster as though he was trying to outfly however many dragons were on their tail. Fawn gripped the spike in front of her even tighter, pressing herself down against his body to stop the wind from ripping her away from him. The fear of falling to the ground now was enough to keep her pinned to him.
There was a flash of green out of the corner of Fawn’s eye and her heart stopped. The dragon to her left swooped and opened its jaws in an attempt to clamp them down on Ash’s wing. He swerved out of the way, narrowly missing the fangs that snapped with a loud cracking sound. Fawn felt dizzy as Ash spun and flapped his wings hard to bring on more speed.
They sped away from the three dragons that were still desperately trying to catch up to them. Their wings beat hard against the air as though they were pushing themselves harder than they ever had before.
Fawn felt as though her world was changing all around her. Everything she had known was falling away from her as she soared higher and higher into the air.
Chapter Seven
Ash dove and descended toward the tree tops, dodging through them for a few miles before surging back up into
the air. Whatever he was doing seemed to work. Before long the sound of the wings behind them began to fade, and it seemed that they had lost their pursuers.
Ash’s huge head turned and he glanced backward, his eyes glinting as though he was pleased. His head dipped, and he began to descend toward the closest mountain peak. Fawn screamed as they fell faster and faster toward the ground. Ash’s wings pressed against his sides as he fell like a dart.
Fawn squeezed her eyes shut and clung on to his back until her knuckles grew white. Then she was jolted as Ash suddenly straightened out and landed calmly with a soft thud in a clearing at the top of the peak.
Fawn kept her eyes tightly shut. She felt his form changing beneath her. When she finally dared to open her eyes, she was staring at the back of his glossy black head. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, almost choking him. She let go, dropping backward as she felt her weak knees wobble. Ash whipped around and had hold of her in an instant. He held her up so that she could no longer fall, and Fawn felt his hands holding on to her hips.
“Are you alright?” he asked as he gazed at her with a look of concern in his eyes. Fawn nodded and gripped tightly to the chest of his shirt. “You are shaking.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her as though he was trying to warm her up. In truth Fawn had never felt so warm in her life. She was exhilarated, burning after their flight. She looked up at him and smiled and, in that moment, everything changed.
She no longer cared that her mother had lied to her. She didn’t even care that there were now dragons looking to kill her. All she cared about in that moment was being close to him.
As though he felt the same way, he moved his hands from her hips and cupped her face in his palms again. The mountain tops melted away into nothing as he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. Fawn closed her eyes and breathed in the wild scent of him as she fell into his embrace.
