Rory POV

“Athyra! Come back!”

Roar!

The loud bellow of Athyra forced my eyes open in the dead darkness of night. My head pops up, examining the starry sky for a giant white lizard, but my shadow has disappeared. I look around to see what’s going on. Smoky embers were cracking a few feet away where Myrra’s party was sleeping. Myrra was standing next to me shouting at the sky for Athyra to come back. I watch as she sinks back to the ground beside me, and I feel my body tense as she settles next to me.

Myrra steadies herself against my side. “Shush. Keep quiet, girl. Athyra flew toward the other side of the clearing. It’s like she’s hunting something.”

My ears spring up at her words. Athyra is hunting something? Is it…Ema? Shit. I rustle myself up onto my feet. My body aches from my injuries, and my stomach growls in the silence of the night. I ignore all of it. My night vision allows me to see Athyra landing on the ground across the clearing, and I just take off, leaving Myrra behind.

“Wait!” I hear her cry out to me, but time isn’t on my side right now. I know Athyra has been waiting for Emalynn to reappear, and I refuse to let Athyra take her revenge.

My paws carry me across the icy landscape as ungracefully as possible. I trip and stumble through the darkness because my body was still injured and everything was slick. Athyra has landed on the ground on the treeline ahead of me. Panic has set in causing my heart rate to accelerate. If I don’t get there… No! Just run, Rory.

Athyra creeps into the forest ahead. Trees and other obstacles were crushed under her weight. Her head lowers into the trees, and a few screams sound off from the treeline. Damn it! Ema’s voice reaches my ears as she shouts out of panic. I am too late! Athyra has started closing in on my best friend, and there’s no way I could stop Athyra in time. A cold, thin wave of smoke floats through the air, causing my body to shiver while I run forward.

Athyra has stopped moving. My pace slows as I try to quietly figure out what’s unfolding in the forest in front of me. She doesn’t seem to notice me as I begin crawling along on my wounded belly into the flattened debris around the giant lizard to get a better look at what’s happening. The sky has started to brighten above the forest, warning me that sunrise was fast approaching.

Finally, I can see the scene unfolding with Athyra. Ema has backed herself against a tree, keeping her eyes locked on the dragon. A familiar-looking heavily armed, green, tattooed person stands between Ema and Athyra. The massive green person reeked of putrid sweat, blast powder, and the steel of a sword. Everything about him screamed at me that I had seen him before. Was he an orc, maybe? He looked like he was ready to defend Ema, which was surprising and welcomed for the moment. Athyra was frozen in place, but I don't think the orc or Ema caused Athyra to stop in her tracks. What was she looking at?

Athyra has her eyes locked on the figures to her left that I hadn’t noticed before. Shifting around, I saw two males looking up at Athyra, but everyone was silent. One male was a plain, young adult human dressed in blue and brown worn threads with an obsidian cuff on his wrist, short black hair, and concerned brown eyes looking up at Athyra. His scent wasn’t threatening like most males because he smelled like cinders cooling in the fresh snow. The other male was a fancier dressed elf in high-quality leather with long black locks, pale skin, bright eyes, and… Was that? It had to be! He smelt of leather-bound books, pen ink, and a burnt musk fire like a candle! Just like before. The stalkers were here, and the orc was defending Ema?

Nothing in this scene made sense to me. When did the stalkers appear? Why was Athyra stunned by the human? Did Ema bring all these random people together? I had questions with no way of asking them. The sky had gone from a deep purple to a radiant orange, and still, no one moved. Ema’s eyes shifted in my direction a few times as I lay hidden in a pile of broken limbs from the newly fallen trees not far from Athyra’s giant butt. This whole thing was getting more ridiculous with each second, but I didn’t have the strength to take on Athyra right at that moment. Plus, Myrra wasn’t far away, which meant this situation would only get more complicated. I may as well be the one to move first.

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Ema was glaring at me as if willing me not to move from my spot, but there was no point in hiding when more people would be showing up soon. Myrra had called Athyra a guild mate for heaven’s sake. We were all connected although the two stalkers still made me uncomfortable. With a single exhale, I step out slowly from my spot. All the males fix their eyes on my ragged red form while I trot toward Ema. Athyra didn’t seem to care as her eyes never left the human beside her.

The green, military-styled orc watched me as I neared him. He looked back toward Ema for a moment, but she waved at him to move. The stalker had been promoted to bodyguard in my absence, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. My paws carried me past him to my best friend as she crumbled down to hug me. It was warm and welcomed like Myrra cuddling me only an hour before.

“What the hell happened to you?” Ema whispered in my ear. I wish I could answer her, but I can’t talk in this form. I licked her face, causing her to smile. “That’s gross, Ro-” she murmured.

Maybe it was gross, but at least she knew I missed her. The warmth of the sun rolled through the forest as the sunrise finally came over the horizon. I found myself wondering if we were finally coming over the horizon since Athyra hadn’t moved in quite a while. My appearance hadn’t changed the thick tension that fell over everyone, which was a good thing. I guess.

“Athyra, say something,” the human male asked in a weird voice.

“Eriz…” Athyra’s voice boomed in my ears. This was different from hearing her in my mind. “You…you survived the arrow.”

Oh. So, Ema’s arrow did hit Athyra’s companion like I thought. Her companion was the human named Eriz, whom Myrra had asked Athyra about. Things were beginning to make sense now. Eriz was technically my guild mate like Athyra. This feels like some complicated tale about how all the nobles were actually related to each other in the Morning Tea section of the newspaper. The question was will Athyra still attempt to attack Ema and me or could we end this peacefully?

Athyra’s gaze shifted back toward Ema and me. “You shot that arrow, you little shit!” Her anger had returned.

“Athyra!” The man named Eriz ran in front of us before Athyra could attack. “Wait a minute!”

“Get out of the way,” Athyra growled. Icy fog leaked from her nostrils, causing nearly everyone to shiver.

“Listen, Athyra!” Eriz forced Athyra’s attention back to him. “Emera accidentally shot off the arrow. She wasn’t hunting you. In fact, I wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t convinced this orc to heal me.”

Another low growl escaped from Athyra as the ground froze into solid ice under her. “She almost killed you, Eriz. She’s a pathetic little shit head just like the annoying mutt. They are worthless-”

“Hey! You are angry and hurt, dragon lady. We can all see that, but the monkey and her mutt didn’t mean to hurt your friend.” The slender, hot male elf cut in.

Did I just call the elf hot? Wait, he called me a mutt! I would growl at him and bite his fingers off, but I might need him in a minute. Damn.

“And, what do you care, fancy pants?” Athyra scoffed at the elf. She bared her teeth at the elf.

“Stop, please. Don’t kill them, Athyra.” Eriz pleaded with her. “We need to stop for a minute because the constant fighting and reacting to everything hasn’t helped you. I don’t want people to hunt you, Athyra. At least for a minute, let me be a friend to you. I want to hear what’s going on instead of watching you react in pain. You aren’t alone.”

Suddenly, I feel bad for Athyra. Eriz wants to listen and console her, which must feel foreign to her. Dragons don’t grow up with close relationships. Even when they mate every ten years, the dragons don’t connect more than they have to. At least, that’s what I learned in school at the guild. Athyra looked young, so Eriz might be her first real friend. Will she listen to him?

Athyra’s eyes are full of emotion. Pain, anger, and sadness come off her in small waves while the air grows cold from her raw emotions. She lets out a bellowed roar that causes everyone to fall to the ground from the power behind it. No one can keep their eyes on Athyra as the ice around us cracks and refreezes over like a scar. Protrusions of ice pop up out of the ground and out the trees around us like a cage blocking us in. A chilled thick fog envelopes the area, and several cracking noises follow the end of Athyra’s roar.

And, as if the dramatic moment needed more theatrics, my own body erupts into pain. Ema lets go of me as I let out a pained howl. My whole body morphs amid the chilled fog as the fur recedes, and the tail curls back into my body with speed. Hands, feet, ears, red hair, and normal teeth reform. The wolf features vanished entirely, leaving me to appear human. I would be celebrating right now if it wasn't for the excruciating pain I felt. My body was battered with bruises, gashes, burns, and scars. All I could do was lay at Ema’s feet, tucked into a ball as I hugged my legs. Shivers wrecked my body as the ice beneath was causing my temperature to drop.

The fog began to clear around us, and a new wave of panic set in. Everyone would see me naked. I was a naked woman lying where a red wolf had been. I can’t let that happen. Ema throws her cloak at me as I force myself to crawl around the base of the tree to hide. My whole being was shivering and shaking, but I managed to wrap myself in Ema’s cloak. Tears streamed down my face from pain, panic, and relief because on the third day’s sunrise like always I shifted out of my wolf form. It’s always at sunrise.