by Calista Skye
“Much to your detriment,” he says and turns away again.
I suddenly realize that we’ve been speaking English all along. The girls have talked about how fast the dragons are to pick up languages. It happens just about instantly and is one of the semi-supernatural things about them that we can’t explain yet.
I have to come up with a plan. This guy has already murdered one girl. I will do whatever I can to not be the second.
Oh my God. Heidi is dead!
My mind blanks out. It’s too much to deal with right now.
But I have to force myself to think of a way to get out of this. Being abducted by a dragon is different from being alone with a caveman. They are basically human, and most of them have a great sense of honor and warm hearts. Dragons are totally different, and both Eleanor and Mia went through all kinds of life-threatening trouble before their dragon realized what he was feeling for them.
Caronerax is injured. That can be a good thing for me. His powers are less, he said. What does that mean?
“Caronerax,” I call as sweetly as I can right now, “how are your powers lessened by the injury?”
He doesn’t respond or react.
Fine.
I take stock of myself. The headache is not as bad as right after I woke up. I’m not as dizzy, either. I’d kill for a cup of coffee, but that’s quite simply not available here on this planet and I should stop thinking about it.
I’m still wearing my worn and ugly dinosaur skin dress from last night. Around my neck I’m carrying the pouch with primitive matches and a light little knife.
My pockets are empty.
And that’s it. No weapons, nothing I can use.
I’m scared out of my mind. That dragon is bad. And I’m helpless.
Caronerax turns his head. “Are you growling at me?”
“It was my stomach,” I explain, trying my best to keep my voice steady. “It means I need food.”
He raises one perfect eyebrow. “Yes? What happens then?”
“When I get food? It means I can go on being alive. Are you going to stay here? Because I have to get back to the village.”
3
- Caronerax -
I bend down to impress this on her, keeping my annoying hair out of my face with one hand so she can see my eyes clearly. “There is nothing you ‘have to’, little female. Not unless I tell you. You are in the presence of a superior. What you think you wish is of no concern.”
Her clear, dark eyes have such innocence and youth in them when she looks up at me. And fear. Indeed, terror. Her breath is fast and shallow, and she smells of fright — the intoxicating scent of prey.
It’s only appropriate. But she’s not nearly as scared as a soft, round female should be of a dragon like me. Certainly she has known other ones. In her own village, even. But that shouldn’t lessen my impact this much.
“It’s of concern to me.”
Her voice is small, and she can’t take my gaze. But still she’s not backing down. Remarkable!
I’m surprised to find it gives me a bit of a thrill. Every lesser being cowers before me. Every single one. They can feel in their very center that I am more powerful, more ruthless, superior. And they grovel. But this female… doesn’t.
She must feel it. She must feel the danger, that I could kill her on the spot without any effort at all. And yet here she stands.
She stands! In front of me! She’s not throwing herself on the ground, mewling for mercy.
This is almost refreshing.
Let’s see how much she can take.
I reach out with both hands, make sure she sees the claws, then touch each claw to the sides of her face, lightly.
“You have a rebellious streak? Not a healthy thing. If you wish me to tear your face off, all you have to do is keep resisting.”
She trembles, but remains standing and dares to give me a sour glance.
I have a strong urge to pierce her skin in ten places, see the little beads of blood drip down her face, hear the squeal of pain and the fear of death in her eyes. Judging from the tiny red veins in her eyes, her blood must be dark red, creating a striking contrast. The beauty of it!
But that would be too easy. And ultimately the pleasure would be less than toying with her for a while.
“I can do whatever I want.” Impossibly, she’s able to find her voice, even now, even like this. A thin voice it is, but she’s not reduced to babbling.
I laugh in delighted surprise, then let one hand stroke along the side of her head, like a soothing caress across her mess of dull hair. “Oh, I will have some fun with you. Now tell me this. You’re used to being this low, bound to the ground at all times. I am not. I always soar above, free and mighty. In which direction is your village?”
“It’s far away.”
“Was that the question?” I tilt my head and lean in.
“I think it’s that way.” She quickly raises one hand and points in the same direction I would have guessed. But being on the ground is not something I’m used to, and the confirmation is welcome.
“Indeed,” I state with certainty. I sense no deception in her. “That is the way. Now if you wish to remain alive for a while still, walk ahead of me and make for your village.”
She looks at the woods, then at me. “It’s too far to walk. You should fly instead.”
This genuinely confuses me. “Are you giving me advice, little lesser being?”
“You seem to need it.”
No, this is too rich. My hand shoots out by itself and grabs her throat.
She gasps and desperately holds on to my forearm with both her hands.
For a moment we’re locked like that, her rapid heartbeat resonating up along my arm and clear fluid leaking from the corners of her eyes.
“I will say this again, because you appear to be a slow learner,” I drawl. “Keep resisting, and I will tear you apart on the spot.”
I stare her down for ten beats of her heart, then let go of her.
She almost falls to the ground, but catches herself and stands on trembling knees, breathing hard.
“We will walk,” I state. “Now walk.”
She pulls herself up and staggers away in the direction she indicated.
I can’t let her know that flying is probably not an option right now. We only came to this spot in the woods because I fell out of the sky.
Indeed, she must not know how weak I’m starting to feel. If she knew, she would pounce and finish the job she started.
That sliver of poison in my chest is rapidly taking away my normal powers.
I felt it the moment it hit me — not just the incredible sensation, which I immediately realized was something as outrageously beneath me as pain. But also the fact that it penetrated me at all. I have never been injured before now. Never in my life.
My first impulse was to kill my attacker, who was lying lifeless on the ground and so an easy kill. Then something else kicked in: curiosity for the only creature that has inflicted a wound on me. As well as something else — the unpleasant, instinctive realization that this particular wound could be hard to heal. And an ancient, half-remembered riddle about what it might take to heal a dragon.
It’s total superstition, of course. Surely, there are many ways to heal the wound. But on this unbelievably primitive planet, I can’t take any chances.
An almost sure way to heal me is to get to my cache so I can regain my strength. It’s not at her silly little village, of course. But she’s right — this is far away from there, and the general direction should be the same until we get closer.
I shouldn’t have flown so far with her. But in my dragon form, that distance is trivial. It never remotely crossed my mind that I would be walking back.
She can find the way there easier than I can. She has been walking all her life, while I have never had to find my way on foot. Soaring majestically above the landscape was always my way. The only way for any dragon, let alone a dragon of my stature.
&
nbsp; I try to put the constant ache from my chest to the back of my mind, almost impossible though it is.
It’s in fact quite pleasant walking behind this female. She has an enticing way of swiveling her hips, with a fluid jiggle of her feminine shape. Before I end her for good, I will most certainly take some pleasure from that living flesh. It’s been a long flight through the Void to get to this useless planet, and I would like that diversion very much. Indeed, I think I need it. Perhaps that act would help to heal me, as well.
The female ducks under a branch and into the woods, and I follow, not ducking.
The trees are pretty dense in here, but nothing like in the jungle where she shot me. I can easily walk in an almost straight line among the thick trunks here.
The word is sour in my mind: Walk.
I’m walking on a planet, and not from choice.
The disgrace is too much to bear. When have I ever walked any longer distance before? Never. The sheer humiliation!
She did this to me. Her poisoned dart is sapping me of strength. It aches in my chest and sends sharp barbs of pain all through me, all the way to the tips of my fingers. It’s remarkably uncomfortable.
She will pay for it.
I round a tree trunk and notice the female is gone from view. Her fast footsteps on the dry, crunchy ground are barely perceptible to my ears.
Lifting my hair out of my face once more, I chuckle as I get a glimpse of her movement. She’s running from me!
Wonderful. I’ll let her run for a while. And then, when she thinks she’s safe, I will stand right in front of her.
And then… well, I may be weakening. But I’m not too weak to enjoy her and end her now. She’s becoming an annoyance. She must know that annoying a dragon gets her killed.
4
- Jennifer -
I sprint as fast as I can, zigzagging among the trees.
It’s much easier to run here among the alien pines than in the dense jungle. The ground is hard and crunchy with dry, fallen not-pine needles. There are no bushes in the way, and the branches only begin ten feet up the slender trunks, so I can run mostly unhindered.
I couldn’t stop myself. Caronerax was being so mean, threatening my life, that the fight-or-flight impulse overpowered me as soon as I entered the forest.
I don’t stop to see if he’s following. I can’t hear any other footsteps than my own, but that doesn’t mean anything. Dragons can run silently, and apparently this one can still fly. It shouldn’t be possible — none of the other dragons can, except Kyandros and Aragadon.
Life on Xren has gotten me into pretty good shape, and I run for a good while before my breath starts going ragged in my ears and I get the familiar metallic taste in my mouth.
I don’t slow down. If I’ve lost him, then I have to make sure he stays lost.
Maybe that injury in his chest has made him so weak he can’t follow.
The terrain starts going downhill, and I keep up my speed as well as I can.
There’s movement off to my left, and I veer to the right without checking what it might be.
Then there’s movement to my right, and I veer left.
And then there’s a dinosaur right in front of me, standing still with its gape open, as if expecting me to run right into it.
I almost do before I deliberately crash into a tree and come to a complete stop five paces away.
There’s a dino in front of me, and there are others on either side. Three of them that I can see.
They’re surrounding me, so close I can pick out each old sliver of rotting meat between their needle teeth.
Well, I can’t get more panicky than I am already.
The dinosaurs are the usual kind of not-velociraptor. They often hunt in packs, they’re pretty smart, and they’re just as deadly as they look.
My foggy brain notices that they’re smaller than the usual ones back in the jungle, where they can grow to the size of pickup trucks. These ones are only the size of motorcycles. But they can kill and eat me with no problem at all.
All three are standing there, looking at me from ten feet away with small, unblinking eyes. They smell of decay and death.
I’m still breathing hard.
Shit. That this should happen to me so close to finally going home to Earth.
My jaw clenches by itself, and acid tears burn in my eyes. So freaking close...
Well, I’m not going to wait for their convenience.
I take off again and run right at the not-raptor in front of me. If I hadn’t been so out of breath, I would have yelled, too.
The raptor lowers its head and opens wider, showing row after row of brown, triangular teeth. It tenses up, and just as it pounces I dive to the right.
The air pressure from the charging dino washes over me with its stench as I land awkwardly on the crunchy ground.
I’m barely able to get up into a crouch when the two others jump right at me.
I throw myself down and close my eyes, waiting for the intense pain of their teeth ripping my body apart.
Time stands still.
There’s a meaty crack, and then silence except for splashing liquid.
I glance up.
Black boots and beige pants. Vivid yellow stripes on blue scales. Golden locks hanging in a dense curtain over an angelic face.
“It feels like I told you about resisting me and its consequences,” Caronerax says calmly. “And yet, here we are.”
He’s holding one not-raptor by the throat in each hand, and the predators hang limply as their watery blood splashes down on the ground from their severed arteries.
The third raptor is wisely bounding quickly away among the trees, not looking back.
Caronerax casually tosses the two dead raptors ten feet away at each side of him. They must weigh five hundred pounds each. “And now I’m all dirty.”
I stay down, trying to catch my breath.
My impulse is to thank him for saving me, but I’m not at all sure that I’m safe.
He keeps saying those nasty things, and I don’t know if he’s planning to kill me himself. If so, the raptors may have been better.
Shit. He took me away from the village and the escape ship. He may have totally ruined everything for me.
“You’re lucky I don’t pierce your heart right now,” the dragon says, leaning against a tree. “But you can still be useful. Keep going towards your village. Get up now.”
I don’t look up. I’ve had it with this bullshit, and I don’t care that much what happens now. “Oh, go fuck yourself, you pompous ass.”
For a long moment there’s only silence. Then he grabs my hair and pulls me up to a standing position.
The pain and fear brings tears to my eyes.
His eyes flash in blue and yellow. “Keep going towards your village. Count yourself lucky that you still have some uses for me.”
He lets go and pushes me away.
But the pain in my scalp, the desperation and the sheer humiliation brings me over the edge. I have really had it, and my mind flashes with uncontrolled rage.
I bounce right back and punch his chest, putting my full weight and all my anger and fear behind it, aiming right at the wound that’s still seeping golden liquid.
Caronerax staggers backwards and hisses viciously, then stands there with both his hands on the wound, staring down at me with an astonished look on his face.
He’s going to kill me now, of course. And I can’t run much further.
But I can try to mess with his mind the way he’s trying to mess with mine.
“Just testing to see if your wound is really that bad,” I tell him quickly. “And I think it is. I can still treat it, you know. You don’t want it to get infected.”
He frowns. “You dare attack me again?”
I examine my hand. The knuckles are bleeding where they struck his scales, and there’s a bit of his ichor on them as well. “It was not an attack. I told you. Why would I attack you after you saved me from the dinosaur
s? You really should let me look at that injury.”
He gazes down at me with great suspicion. “So you can make it worse, no doubt. You want nothing more than to torture and kill.”
I shrug. “I never want to kill anyone. That’s all you.”
“Everyone wants to murder a dragon and then brag about it,” he scoffs. “You will find that I am not nearly as easy to kill as you seem to think.”
I brush the withered not-pine needles off my dress and my hands, hoping I got away with it. “Suit yourself. The offer stands.”
Well, at least I was able to trick him. I think.
And I was going to the village, anyway. If he wants to tag along behind me, then I’m sure the caveman dragon slayers will take good care of him when we get there.
If there even is a village anymore.
If any of the other girls are still alive.
If the girls haven’t already run all the way to the escape ship and left the planet. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to stay here after that dragon attack that killed at least Heidi and maybe more of us. I mean, the earthquake was bad enough on its own.
So many ifs.
The last one is the worst, for some reason. I can’t imagine a more terrible fate than being left behind here. The only girl on the planet, while my friends have escaped.
The thought sends another wave of coldness through me.
I only know that the village is probably to the south of here. Far, far to the south. This is a cold area, while the jungle is hot and tropical. From where the sun rises, I can tell which way is east and which is west. That gives me north and south, too.
Of course, this could be the southern hemisphere of the planet, which would mean I should walk to the north to get to warmer places.
But I have to pick one. So south it is. If things get colder, I guess I can always turn around.
I aim in what I hope is the right direction and start walking, fast.
Caronerax follows, keeping his distance. I can feel his intense blue and yellow gaze on me.
- - -
