Rhiannon left the house, and he stood at the door for a few moments watching her leave and already missing her vital presence.
“I should be the one going with you,” Gwendolyn sighed, feeling as impotent as someone watching an accident happening without being able to do a thing to stop it.
She didn’t consider herself a white witch like people called the healers and seers, but her instincts had always been a lot more accurate than most people’s. She used herbs and beverages to help people heal, and she had never found that a special gift. She just read more and knew more than most people.
But her instincts were something else. She could always read a person, from the moment she met him or her. When she had found Kael in the woods, she had been sure he was meant to do great things for her people, and she hadn't doubted helping him and taking him into her home.
What she hadn't expected was the obvious attraction between Rhiannon and Kael. It was possible to see the sparks flying between them, and she was sure all the promises they could make would burn in the fire of the passion burning between them.
In other circumstances, she would have been happy for her granddaughter, but she knew Kael wouldn’t stay. He had a mission that didn’t include Rhiannon, and he planned to fulfill it.
Wishing she could do anything to protect her baby girl from suffering, she let out a deep sigh and returned her attention to the washing of the dishes.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Kael asked, a few moments later, walking away from the door.
“You could get me some more firewood. I never have enough of that. Just make sure to stay away from everyone. Being seen right now would ruin all our plans,” Gwendolyn warned him.
“I’ll be careful.” Picking up his hood from where he had left it, he walked out of the house and headed to the woods.
Things were coming out better than he expected. If people were right about those mountains, he would find enough gold to buy him a boat so that he could sail to America. It would also help him repay Gwendolyn for all her help and made him feel better about it.
He knew she was worried about the idea of having her granddaughter and him spending the nights together, all alone, for two weeks. He was sure she was aware of the attraction he felt for Rhiannon, but she shouldn’t worry about it.
A woman like her would never look twice at a man like him. He was too different from her species, and so far, she had shown nothing he would consider a hint of interest in him, and he would never impose his presence on any woman. No matter how much he craved for her.
And he had never craved for one as much as he did for Rhiannon.
He helped Gwendolyn to prepare all the things they would need for the trip, including a pick and a shovel, in case they found the gold.
That night, after they had gone to bed, the demons flew over the village, with their scandalous yelling, but they didn’t stop.
“They’re probably going over to the next village,” Gwendolyn grumbled, half relieved, half worried, as she came out of her bedroom.
“Go back to bed, I’ll be keeping watch for any problems.”
Intrigued, and wanting to see what he was up against, he decided to follow them and check what they were capable of. He couldn’t tell the old woman that, so he just waited for her to go back to sleep, before he left the house, locking the door behind him.
Once outside, he ran into the woods, looking for a clearing where he could spread his wings. In just a few moments, he was up in the night sky following the noisy group of night creatures.
Kael found them the minute they were raiding the defenseless village, and he was able to observe them from a safe distance. His ability to see clearly at night, allowed him to see the creatures in detail. Their grotesque bodies were the only resemblance they had with humans. They had two legs and two arms, but instead of hands or feet, they had formless limbs with deadly claws. They had leathery wings similar to his, but a lot smaller, and filled with small claws, turning them into lethal weapons. But it was their heads what made people call them demons. They were horrible as if taken out of a horror tale, with all the wrinkles, the flat nose, the pointy ears, the three small horns coming out of the bald heads and the vast number of sharp teeth in their mouths, not to mention their long, forked tongue.
They weren’t a pleasant sight, that was for sure and to top it off they didn’t wear any clothes. Every monstrous part of their bodies was exposed, including their penises.
There was no one outside of their houses, so the creatures spent their time trashing everything they found on their way. There were around twenty of them, and they didn’t carry weapons, but their strength and claws seemed to be more than enough to make people hide from them.
He wanted to destroy them, shift into his drogon form and take care of them one by one, but to blaze them out of the skies might torch the whole village. It was too dangerous. He would have to lure them away from there.
He was still thinking about it when he noticed a small movement, to his left. There was a young boy hidden underneath some wooden boxes, piled against a stone wall. He was trembling so hard, the boxes where he was hiding, trembled with him. It didn’t take the demons long to notice him.
In a blink of an eye, they surrounded the boy, and their laughter showed they were mocking their victim.
Unable to stand and watch how they killed an innocent person, Kael shifted into his drogon form and got closer to the group, ready to act in case they tried to hurt the boy.
At first, they only poked the child, kicking the boxes and pulling some of them, but when one of them picked a large piece of wood from the ground, Kael was sure they were going to hurt the kid.
Furiously, he inhaled all the air he could before he let out a powerful flare that enveloped a few of the demons, including the one with the wooden bar. They were turned into ashes before the others could react, but by the time they did, Kael was already turning them into demon torches.
One managed to escape the blaze and flew right up to face Kael, but a couple of seconds later, he was falling to the ground turned into ashes.
The boy’s cries caught his attention and distressed, he realized the wooden boxes were on fire, and the boy was still caught underneath them. Quickly, he flew there and kicked the boxes away before he pulled the kid out of there, ignoring his horrified cries.
Once he was sure the kid was alright, he put out the flames, using a barrel of water he found not far from where he was. The kid was still shouting at the top of his lungs, so he returned to where he had left him, wanting to be sure he was alright, that the flames hadn't gotten to him.
“Please, stop yelling, the demons are gone,” he said, checking the kid’s trembling body for burns.
He still yelled for a few more seconds, until he realized Kael meant no harm. “Who are you?” he asked, still sobbing.
“A friend. Are you hurt?” he asked, getting closer, now that he was calm.
“No, the flames didn’t get to me,” he mumbled.
“Good, I didn’t mean to endanger you, but there was no time. I had to attack them, or they would have attacked you,” he explained, with a faint smile.
“What are you?” the boy asked, with awe.
“I’m a drogon, and as you were able to see, the demons aren’t my friends, either.” He helped the boy to get up. “Now, what were you doing out here at this hour of the night?” he asked,
“My mother wasn’t feeling well, so I was going to the healer’s house to ask her to come see her,” he explained, wiping the tears from his face with the sleeve of his shirt.
“And where does this healer live?” Kael asked, with a slight frown. The kid was too young to be on such a mission.
“In the nearest village. Miss Gwendolyn is the only one we know,” he explained.
Kael wasn’t that surprised to hear the old woman’s name. She certainly was an extraordinary woman.
He crouched in front of the kid until they were at the same eye level. “What’s your name?”
“Joshua.”
“Well, Joshua, I’m Kael. Do you trust me, Joshua?”
The kid slowly nodded, as if he wasn’t quite sure, but that was enough for Kael. “I’ll take you to Gwendolyn’s house. We’ll get there in a blink of an eye. Will you let me take you?”
It was imperative to bring Gwendolyn to see the kid’s mother. She had to be in bad shape to allow her son to go out at night.
“Yes, please,” he accepted.
“Good.” Kael stood up and displayed his wings before he picked up the kid in his arms and flew away.
At first, Joshua was too scared to move or even open his eyes, but soon, he had forgotten all that, and he was watching the world underneath them.
A few minutes later, Kael was dropping the kid in front of Gwendolyn’s front door.
“Joshua, can you do me a favor?” he asked before he opened the door.
“Yes, of course.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you saw. Can you do that?” he didn’t want Gwendolyn or Rhiannon knowing about his drogon form, at least, not for now.
“Yes, I can. Either way, no one would ever believe me,” the kid said, with a naughty grin.
Kael ruffled his hair, smiling and putting away his wings and claws, he unlocked the door and went looking for Gwendolyn.