“Those are some tough boys,” Sir Rey says, coming up beside me as Barry and Jed's footfalls fall too far from the top of this little outcropping directly before the Nova's cave for even my ears to make out.
The rest of the pack gave me a wide birth, going about tasks and getting down the tents and supplies from Nova as I reunited with my brothers. I just wish it would've gone differently.
“They shouldn’t have to be.”
I turn away from him without another word, not sure I can take anything more. My nerves are close to combustion.
The blackness within wakes at my turmoil, sleepily testing the bounds of its cage. I shove it down with the force and anger I can’t escape nor show, and it recoils, almost seeming to whine.
I shove the door shut and lock it on the thing, making certain it won't escape.
Nova keens a soft song when the last of the Shifters gather the supplies from her back, stretching out her wings to their full capacity and arching her neck in a stretch. Her tail snakes along the ground, accidentally catching and shredding a tent.
She looks back, her wide eyes and ears laying flat back on either side of her horns saying, ‘Oops.’
The dragonlets burst from the extra large doors with excited squeals, and before I get the chance to get my shifters out of harms way, the wee dragons barrel through them like a Berserk through saplings.
Most Shifters hop out of the way in time, some supplies getting trampled in the process, but, well, there are a few unlucky ones.
Namely—me.
All three pounce with purrs and bubbling laughter as they press me deeper into the rocky soil. My dragon laughs above my head, her chuckling mirth and bobbing head not helping my situation one bit. “Help,” I wheeze as the dragons have all but smashed the air from every pore of my body.
This makes the momma laugh harder. “First, you dump me with water. Now—this? What have I ever done to you, you big crazy lump of scales?”
She trills a disappointed breath, showing when I teased her with a feather, tickling under one of her large scales. She snorted fire at me that burned the feather to ash in my fingers and left me without eyebrows for a couple hours until they grew back.
Then she shows me calling her a pet. She snorts with disgust. “WHAT ELSE ARE YOU?!?” I ask desperately. She pins me in place with her gaze and snorts fire, her nostrils flaring with the flame that comes within inches of singeing the hair from my arms.
Wrong answer. Entirely wrong answer.
Ahhh, that was idiotic even for you, idiot, Cynic comments, amusement flaring from within.
If you're not going to help, SHUT UP!
A grumble of laughter, but thank all that is good and holy it's quiet in my head once more.
Nova proceeds to show me the time I called her a mean dragon in the morning… how it had deeply hurt her feelings — “HOLD ON! That did not hurt your feelings. You just wanted to toss me off a cliff. Entirely unfair!”
She grumbles deep in her throat, throwing an exaggerated pouty face my way, complete with wide eyes and drooping ears, before waddling off.
“Alright. ALRIGHT! I’m sorry! Please call the execution squad off!” I send the words straight into her mind as the boogers on top of me lick me from head to toe. They are adorable. And their breath stinks. And — I AM CURRENTLY THEIR CAPTIVE!
Nova turns back slightly, contemplative. “Ok. Fine," I grumble. "I am so very sorry, Your Greatness. I will rub your feet and scratch the itchy scales on your back if YOU WILL JUST CALL THEM OFF!”
She chortles, taking her good ol’ time. She lumbers over, gently licking each dragonling on the head. They all turn to her in excitement, trilling and cooing in contentment as they rub together as one big, happy family.
Tears stream down my face, but not because of the heartfelt reunion. It’s currently wet because of a particular little black fur ball who stomped on we-shall-not mention-where while enthusiastically greeting his mother.
Chuckling, Sir Rey comes to sit beside me as I gather pain-filled wheezes of air. “You weren’t kidding about the baby dragons. I just didn’t realize that’s what it would take to bring the mightiest prince to his knees.” His eyes still show he’s wary of me, but he’s trying. It probably helps to see I feel pain just like the rest of them.
I choke on a laugh. “I will kill you,” I wheeze out. He jerks around, but I give him a crooked smile to show I’m joking. He shakes his head, a small furrow in his brow as if he questions my honesty and a hint of uncertainty reaches my nose… but then he looks and sees the other Shifters watching.
He slaps me on the back, making me lose the small breath I just managed to gulp. “You’d have to survive the baby dragons first.”
Shouts and exclamations of surprise come from the doorway that is currently being blocked by a certain big dragon’s large behind. Her tail twitches, and her head snakes around to give me a wink. I roll my eyes, and I swear I hear laughter run rampant in my mind.
Sir Rey meets my gaze, and a look passes between us when we smell cat. He growls, but I urge him back with a wave of my hand.
“They should be friends.”
He gives me a look. “Should be?”
I wince as I get to my feet. Then I smell cedar and fresh air. I smile. “Flash, you big baby, what do you think you’re doing scaring my wolves?”
“ME scaring THEM? HAH! Call off your guard dogs!”
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I heave a wheezing laugh, squeezing around Nova’s wing and through Shifters to find a bug eyed Flash and five other Werecats surrounded by hostile Shifters. Thier pointed teeth are bared in warning and their eyes are slit, making them look more like deranged half-snakes than cats.
“I do believe you meant there to be a please in that sentence,” I tease the black-haired Were.
He levels me with a glare of those slit eyes. “I am surrounded by naked steel. Would you say please, Your Oh So Gracious Highness?”
I snort. The Shifters are as bug eyed as my Werecat friends. It’s as if they think I’m crazy. A few lower their weapons, slowly. I nod at the rest. “They’re friends.”
“Clawed hybrids are never friends,” a bitter voice snaps off to my right.
It belongs to a Shifter with beady eyes and rippling muscle. I sigh. I just knew something like this would happen. “Put it down, Hank.” The volatile Shifter is a good fighter, but his temper is short.
“Forgive me, prince, but I fear they will only betray you in the end.” He gives a slight head tilt my direction.
I rub my forehead, then get between the sword point and my friend. “I was betrayed by my pack. I was exiled because of an accident. Did my kind come to help me then? Was I rescued when it was in my best interest?” My voice is soft, gentle, but stern. I look around, my black eyes drilling holes into the eyes of the Shifters. The only one who holds my gaze is Alyssa, and the compassion there helps me to draw back some of my anger.
“No,” I whisper. “These Werecat’s behind me came to my aid even when I had been taught all my life that they are less than us, nothing more than a rapid pack of hybrids. This is wrong. They healed my wounds, treated me as pack, and saved my life. They will be treated with respect. Am I understood?”
They all nod. I direct my next words to the wolf in front of me. “I know it’s odd, and I understand. But these men behind me are also on the run from the usurper on the throne. They are friends. They are pack.”
Gasps come from around the circle, and I can’t quite define the emotions on the air. Surprise is the reigning scent. But I also smell earthy bitterness, tangy amusement from Sir Rey, broiling disgust and apprehension from Hank, and the scent of pride mixed with brotherly love from behind me.
I turn to see the Weres watching me with slack mouths. For a wolf to declare a cat a pack mate is borderline insanity and completely unorthodox. It’s quite similar to a chicken flocking with a parrot. It just isn’t done. The species are the same but… different.
But I’ve come to learn that perhaps we are much more alike than we ever realized, and perhaps this is why lasting peace has been beyond our nations. Both species are territorial, aggressive, prideful, and not one bit afraid of a fight. But we’re also loyal to a fault, caring of our own, and unafraid to fight for what we believe in. Perhaps we don’t get along because we are so much alike. Too much alike.
Now to help both sides of my pack see that. I scoff internally. I’m better off trying to get the chicken to fly with the parrot to the Halls of Ice in the north.
I turn back to Flash, and the emotions roll off him in waves too quick for me to identify. He sets a hand on my shoulder. “You are pride too, my friend—my brother.” His eyes convey a seriousness that is not at all like Flash and makes him look twenty years older.
Then he sniffles and flicks a tear from his eye. “You are too sweet.” His high-pitched voice rings in my ears, and I rub at them with a wince.
I slug his shoulder. He grabs me in a headlock. I have him on the ground and my hands pulling up on one of his legs as my knee presses into the base of his spine before he can blink. “Uncle! Uncle I say!”
A few of the more open-minded Shifters chuckle. I release my unorthodox friend and hold out a hand to help him up. The glint in his eye should have warned me.
He grabs my hand then locks both legs around my chest in a feat of acrobatics I would be hard pressed to duplicate. He twists, throwing me over his head. I land with a grunt on my back. Flash holds me there as Alyssa pours water on my head. “No FAIR!” I sputter. “He had outside help. Foul! I’m calling foul!”
“Poor baby. I think he needs further help knowing his betters.” Alyssa pouts above my head. She looks over at Sir Rey.
Sir Rey hands over his water canteen with a flourish, the other Shifters finally sheathing their swords as they realize there is no fight. “By all means, my lady.”
I try to wiggle out, but the laughing cat above me pins me as the lady gives me a washing.
“Fine. I give,” I grumble.
“What was that?” Alyssa asks as she somehow magically appears with another canteen and threatens to upend it.
“What is it with you and water?”
She smirks, and instead of replying, dumps the freezing stuff on my head, thoroughly dousing me.
“I surrender!” I yell.
A cheer goes up, and Flash winks at me. “I like your girlfriend.”
“Wha—? Huh? She’s not—“
“I think you broke him,” Sir Rey says in passing as he goes to set up the camp and the Shifters finally retreat, even if they still watch the Were with suspicious glares.
“Who? He-hoo-ha?” I’m not sure what I meant to say, but it wasn’t that. Even if I'm acting the dunce, I typically have more self-respect than that.
Are you certain? Cynic asks, amused enough that a suppressed chuckle lines his voice. I ignore him.
“Poor kid. Couldn’t handle the riggers of an adventurous life. It was too much and the young prince came to a tragic end at the hands of—“ Alyssa pauses, running out of her thought.
“Baby dragons,” Sir Rey throws in, then continues past to set up the canvas tent overflowing in hands. I hope he trips over the fabric. Alas, it is not to be. He sets it down and lets the Shifters get to work as the Were watch with narrowed eyes.
“The world is against me,” I mutter from my place in the dirt.
Alyssa nods in thanks to Sir Rey and ignores me. “The young, flamboyant prince came to a tragic end at the paws of the baby dragons, who took pity and licked him to death.”
As I lumber to my feet, Flash’s guffaws reach the far reaches of the valley. “I—like her—a lot.”
“You. Shut. Up.” I punch his shoulder with each word. Then a devious smile overtakes my face. “There’s a certain red head I’m certain would love to hear of how you like—” I make quotation marks in the air “—another beautiful lady.”
“You wouldn’t,” Flash says at the same time as Alyssa says—
“You think I’m beautiful?”
My face grows red, and I try to ignore them both as I walk off to help with the tents.
“He’s blushing,” Flash whispers. “The grand and mighty as—“ he chokes suddenly, as if his breath is cut off, and I give him a straight look that he misses because he’s still trying to get air back into his lungs. Thank goodness he’s under oath and isn’t physically able to tout most of my secrets to the world, even by total accident. After he hacks in a large breath, he continues, “The grand and mighty warrior is actually blushing?” The incredulousness in his voice actually sounds completely... sincere. My mouth pops open and my cheeks grow redder under Alyssa’s smiling eyes.
“You broke him.” Sir Rey shakes his head in sorrow, once again passing by with an armful of stakes and little hammer like tools for the tents.
Laughter abounds, and I can’t help a wry smile that touches my cheeks despite the redness.
I can’t remember a time when I was this—content. Almost happy. The people I have come to care about during the trials and triumphs surround me, supporting me in their own ways. I’m grateful.
But life must go on. And Jed and Barry need to meet with their father and I need more information on what’s going on past the desert and what’s happening in Videlia while figuring out the best way to appease Yellow without putting Ma in more danger and without killing the princess.
Flash must read the sorrow that crosses my face. “I’m with you, kinko. Whatever will be, I’m with you.”
I clasp his shoulder, unable to find the words for my gratitude.
Alyssa sets her hand on my other shoulder. I flinch, trying not to pull away. “I don’t know what he’s speaking of, but your pack is here. We’ll follow where you lead.”
I give her a grim grin. “Even if it’s crazy?”
She gives a gentle smile. “From you, it’s certain to be crazy. Someone has to be along to make sure you survive.”
My mouth pops open again. “Wha—? Hoo-hee-ha?”
“You definitely—“ Sir Rey starts.
“Broke him,” Sir Rey, Alyssa, and Flash finish with matching grins.
I throw up my hands and stalk away, mumbling to myself about crazy, sociopathic pack mates.
The laughter behind me makes my lips twitch. Were anyone to tell them that, I’d cut their tongue out.