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All three grimaced. I tried to pick apart their expressions, and realized I got it. To a degree, I got it. Loss touched everyone.
I thought about the display at the bar of the couple. The necklace with the two wedding rings. Who were they? Had one of the dragon’s lost their father too?
That hollow feeling knocked around in the chest again.
“The first dragon had shifted in these mountains, causing chaos that no one had ever seen before,” Philit continued before my misery tried to consume me again. “A massive fire broke out, turning the sky blood red, even in the middle of the night, and sending all the beasts running. They ran into a nearby village where a young girl lived. Just a few months before she had woken up with pure white hair.”
Philit’s voice softened and he reached out, briefly touching my hair with the same reverence he had the tree.
“This was way back at the start of the war and her village had been attacked repeatedly from the Fae, and she and her people had fought back tirelessly with little success. One day she got it in her head that something in the mountains was pushing the beasts out. So she went on her adventure to find out. The Fae hunted her down, and instead of going back home like many would have done, she pushed forward, refusing to give up.”
“So, she was a full on bad ass?” I whispered, suddenly wishing I knew how to fight and not milk cows. Hell, if I ever stopped tripping I would be even better off.
“Exactly.” Philit nodded with a soft smile. “She worked her way through the mountains, across valleys, through roaring rivers. She climbed cliffs, and even fell off one or two.”
Well, at least that sounded like me.
“She traced the source of all the beasts’ fears to one particular cliff,” Philit continued. “The Preika Cliffs. The land around canyons was scorched, and there in the middle was a beast she had never seen before. She went in, not sure what she was going to find, only to spot the half man, half beast with the leather wings, long tail, and long spines down his back.”
“Let me guess, it was happy ever after,” I said, that was how all the stories I had grown up with ended, after all.
Landers chuckled. “No. They tried to kill each other.” I hadn’t expected that. I mean, I looked at Landers and wanted to jump him.
“This part I know,” Zilon said as he held a branch out of the way for me. “The girl believed the monster needed to die so that her village would be safe, and he didn’t like her invading his territory. So they fought. Clashed over and over for days, neither side got the upper hand. Both were too stubborn to give up. They’d stop to recuperate, and then they’d battle again. It went on like that for days. Fighting and resting and fighting, a war just between the two of them. Relentless, brutal, and bloody.”
“Stop here,” Philit announced, holding up his hand. He clearly had been too lost in the story and had lost his better judgment. This was the worst possible time to stop, not only was the story just getting good, but we were only a few yards from a cliff. The wind was brutal, my hair whipping everywhere and tugging at the sagging, soaked skirts of my dress.
“We’ll stop here for now. The sun is about to be too low to keep going and we need to rest up for tomorrow.” Philit couldn't be serious. I gave him a look that said as much, which he of course ignored.
“If I end up at the bottom of that ravine I’m haunting all of you.” I was serious. They just laughed.
We worked quietly to set up camp, the others collecting wood and digging a fire pit, while I helped to clear the area from twigs. It was the only job they trusted me with after a fell down small rise and got stuck in a bramble last night.
I was going to have to start counting how many times I would have died.
I went over to Zilon as he began arranging sticks in the fire pit.
“How’d it end?” I whispered, throwing some of the dryer twigs on his pile. “How’d they realized they were meant to be mates?”
Zilon grinned, the smile making that itch in me burn bright. I took a step back, down girl.
“One day, the Fae tried to get in on the fight. They had been watching, waiting for one of them to finish the other off, but it was clear that it wasn’t happening, or maybe they were on time restraints. So, the Fae joined in and the dragon and rider joined together. She hopped onto the dragon’s back, and it only made the two of them more powerful. They destroyed the Fae. And realized who they were to each other, why they fought so hard against each other, and yet neither side could win.”
I swallowed. I couldn’t imagine myself fighting a dragon, let alone holding my own for days. The academy in Fyre better have some kind of weapons class or I was doomed.
“The first dragon and rider pair,” Landers said, coming over and dropping two dead squirrels beside the fire. “The true representation of strength that a rider and a dragon can have. You could probably take notes from her with how much you kept stumbling through the woods, Rayna. You’re too clumsy.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. It’s not like I’m trying to fall all over the place, you know.”
“My offer still stands,” Landers leaned in, his breath warm on my face even in the chill of evening. I could practically smell the smoke on him, even though I had never seen him breathe fire. “You can ride me anytime.”
“Landers!” Zilon growled out, pushing him back.
Landers shrugged, his grin spreading to reveal a perfectly straight, perfectly white row of teeth. “Just stating a fact. She’s rather weak for a rider, isn’t she?”
“You’re rather cocky for a dragon,” I snapped back, Zilon chuckled darkly, but Landers just leaned in, smile still in place.
“If you want, I’ll show you just how cocky I am.”
