Chapter 4:
Tredorphen
“What is it, exactly, that you think you’re doing?” Aurlauc whispered through clenched teeth. Despite the precarious situation.
I couldn’t help but find the humor in his tone.
“You always do cheer me up, Aurlauc,” I said with a grin while patting him on the arm.
“I’m serious!” he jerked away.
We stopped walking and were trailing far, far behind the women who had agreed on a temporary truce with us. We’d all been quiet on the walk back to their people until the raven-colored shifter couldn’t hold back any longer.
“I’m devising a plan; can’t you tell?” I said with annoyance as my gaze shifted up, watching as Khrelan approached, fluttering his wings gracefully before landing in front of us.
“Oh, great,” Aurlauc continued shamefully. “Okay, Tredorphen! Explain it to the man!” I opened my mouth to speak but Aurlauc quickly stole my thunder. “He made a deal with the humans!”
“What?” Khrelan seethed severely. “Why would you do such a stupid thing like that?”
“It’s for our benefit,” I said. “Trust me.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Khrelan said with a roll of his eyes. “Seriously, I’m not cooperating with these creatures until you tell me what the plan is. Period.”
“Period, he says,” I repeated. “Look,” I said in such a way that both shifters knew this wasn’t a conversation for prying ears. And there was a myriad of those around now with all the humans scampering about.
“Have you heard of the Earth?” I asked, my tone calculating.
“Only about a million times, from you,” Aurlauc said.
“I’ve heard rumblings,” Tredorphen said impatiently. “That’s where those things are from,” he pointed out, regarding the humans. “What about it?”
“It’s lush with fruitage. Fields of food. Literal fields. There’s more than we could ever ask for,” I explained.
Aurlauc raised a brow and crossed his arms, leaning back against one of the strange molten mountains, setting a foot on its base with trepidation, as though it might burst with even the slightest form of pressure. He seemed to think on my point before looking beyond stumped once again.
“So?” Aurlauc asked dimly.
“So he’s implying we should befriend the humans and take over their planet,” Khrelan said at a fast-pace. Then he looked to me. “Right?”
I spread my hands before my brethren as if to agree and waited to see what they thought.
“How do you know so much about it?” Khrelan asked.
“Don’t ask!” Aurlauc said with a laugh. “You haven’t seen the cave yet?”
Khrelan looked at me as though I had no head and I could feel the heat creeping up my face. I gave the shifter a warning look, and he snapped his mouth shut comically, letting out a chuckle as he did so.
“What are you guys talking about?” came the bouncing, suspicious tone from Athena as she barged into our huddle, unafraid.
I set my jaw and stared the girl down, incensed. “That was awfully brave of you,” I said sternly.
“Well, we are comrades now, right?” she snipped; her sister followed closely behind, offering me a small smile as she passed.
My eyes followed her swiftly as she moved, unable to drop my gaze on her. I watched the curves of her and was overcome by a raging lust. Her eyes were a deep hazel that seemed to cast a spell on me, though she said nothing at all.
“Right,” I trailed off absent-mindedly, and Athena let a pleased squeak escape from her lips.
“So, what’s going on? Are you going to lead us deep into the planet? We have the coordinates for where we’re supposed to be… If, uh,” she gave pause and tapped her nose, “if you guys know how to read.”
I rolled my eyes and ripped the paper from her hands, staring down at it curiously. “What happened?”
“Huh?” she asked.
“If you were supposed to land there then why are you here, in the red fields?” I clarified.
“The red fields?” she asked and then looked out at the tube worms that writhed in a field of crimson. “Oh. Duh.”
‘Charm her,’ I mouthed to Aurlauc and he rolled his eyes at me before moving next to what we were told was their female warrior.
I walked ahead of the group, my eyes desperately tracing the fair-skinned blonde who didn’t slow her pace, even as she noticed my footsteps behind her.
“Marina,” I said, making my way to her side. “Your sister doesn’t trust us,” I said casually.
“Well,” she said with a big breath. “My sister is pretty intuitive, so, what does that say about you?”
“But you do… trust us?” I asked, raising my brow ever so slightly. “We didn’t steal your ship, after all.”
“Well, first,” she said, extending a finger to me, “our ship crash-landed here, so it wouldn’t even leave off the ground, and second, you probably don’t know how to pilot, so…”
With that, she offered me a charming grin and raised her brows as if to say ‘your move, ’ and I gladly obliged.
“I suppose we’ll just have to prove it to you,” I dared.
“And I look forward to the outcome…” she hesitated, as though she couldn’t remember my name and I felt a flutter in my stomach.
“Tredorphen,” I said.
“Tredorphen,” she repeated as though she never forgot. “Now if you’ll join me, I have a very interesting story to tell my crew.”
The three of us stood before the expansive crew Marina spoke of and she, with all authority, explained to them that we would be joining them on their expedition. Some reacted with shock, others with fascination, while most of their men grunted and wouldn’t give us another look. Soldiers, mostly.
I grunted in return and felt the weight of my mistake on my shoulders. I couldn’t express any doubt to my brethren, nor could I express outrage at the disobedient humans. As far as we were told, Marina was their leader.
Back home, not following the D’Karr meant death.
I ticked my brow up quickly and lingered on that thought. I cared not for the males. They were quick to try and show us up, even as we descended into the sea of red before us. I was determined to show them all that they needed us. I explained carefully to Aurlauc and Khrelan the importance of our seeming like obedient protectors.
Besides, I insisted, maybe there would be food in it for us.
Surely, if nothing else, the humans would share their rations.
We trudged through the great valley of tube worms and watched as they carefully emerged: a slight slither that caused instant alarm now that the sisters knew what they could do to a beast.
We’d already battled a dozen Drogs, making sure to keep the Earthlings safe from the acid and the swamp-like sea that separated the massive lands.
In truth, we hadn’t explored the planet thoroughly yet, but my mind was already deadest on a new mission. We would lie to the crew and tell them we’d been across the continent over and over again and there was nothing but Drogs as far as the eye could see. We would convince them to come back to Dobromia and make peace with our people. Study us.
It was the perfect tradeoff. Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.
“You should tell them,” Khrelan began quietly, “to stop kicking the worms.”
“Why do you whisper?” I asked with a heady laugh.
“I…” Khrelan flushed and gave a dismissive expression. “They consume the Drogs and harbor their acid. If they feel threatened, they will shoot it back out.”
“What?” Aurlauc said with quickly widening eyes. He reached over and slapped Khrelan in the back of the head, causing the shifter to whip around with his wings and charge at the black dragon. “You knew that this whole time and you’ve let us spend the day trouncing around here?” Aurlauc shook his head in disgust. “I hate this. I hate this place. I hate this truce. I hate these squishy worm things and you know what I hate most of all?”
I deadpanned. “What, Aurlauc?”
“I hate that I’m starving when the whole point of this ridiculous farce was to get food in the first place!”
Khrelan clapped his hands unenthusiastically at my friend and in a flat tone said, “Well done.”
“Shh,” I dismissed them both and then looked back to the broad, navy dragon. “Go tell the girl. The sister,” I insisted. “Athena. Make her warm up to you.”
“I thought that was my job!” Aurlauc whined.
I laughed. “You couldn’t cut it, though I’m not exactly surprised.”
“Why do I have to talk to her?” Khrelan asked skeptically.
“Because we’re trying to win their trust, if you hadn’t remembered. And this is the way to do it. Share information, but never too much. Be open, but not honest. Make them believe they have reason to need us and trust us. Then we can see if we can’t relocate. Now go!”
Khrelan set his jaw and flew over to the Athena. She was defiant: that I could see. Not like her sister. Her sister had watchful eyes that I admired. Eyes that I wanted to prove wrong, even with a lie.
The other two shifters with me still hadn’t transformed into their human-like forms. I was lost as to why. I thought I’d made myself clear that we were supposed to put these people at ease, and here they were with wings spread and scales that ran across their skin practically yelling, ‘Fear Me!’
I watched as Khrelan murmured something to the girl and she offered him a deep frown, gripping her rifle harder at her side. While I couldn’t hear the contents of their conversation, I could tell it wasn’t going well, especially when Khrelan made his way back to our party with a defeated expression.
Aurlauc and I laughed hard at his misfortune, but I was glad he at least informed the girl of the dangers the worms posed.
Khrelan didn’t talk much for the rest of the day.
We spent the day defending the scientists as they gathered their research samples. I bit my lip unsurely as they transported the sneaky, dangerous creatures back in hard, clear bins and brought them back into their spaceship.
The ship had been stale and cold feeling with bright white walls and fluorescent lighting that burned my eyes. But I was fascinated by their toys. Their foods and blankets and privileged items.
Weredragons had become well-accustomed to scavenging ship wreckage; we had come to learn how to make clothes and cook food based on our findings, but we’d never had the privilege of being in an operating vessel. It inspired me. Earth would be just as beautiful, I thought. Just as abundant.
All we had to do was see how fierce these human warriors really were. That would be the one tell.
I walked Marina back to her ship, doing the polite thing of escorting her home. My eyes trailed over her small waist and ample breasts that seemed almost unnervingly plump. It felt like every time I turned around I was staring at her. I wasn’t sure if I was doing it according to my plan, or if I was truly fascinated by her beauty.
As we approached the door, I began to walk into the ship, and the blonde put a weak hand on my chest.
“I don’t think so,” she snipped casually. “The ship is for humans only.”
“Then why do they get to come?” I asked playfully as my eyes darted toward their samples from the day.
“Ha-ha,” she mocked, tilting her head to the side. “Thank you, for today. I’m sorry you weren’t able to find any food.”
“It’s been a bit of a letdown, I’ll be honest,” I said and quickly caught myself. “The lack of food. Not meeting you,” I corrected, and she smiled. “You sure you want to call it a night?”
Her brows shot up, and she laughed out loud at the comment. “Yes! I’m fairly certain, but thanks for asking.” That, along with a simple ‘goodnight’ was all it took for the slender, yet powerful steel door to slide closed between us.
I made my way to the nearby encampment Khrelan and Aurlauc had established, a bright fire blazing on some kindling in-between the pair as they slept. I sat on a long cooler brought out by the humans and sat watching the fire for some time before I heard the ships door slide open once more.
With a long exhale, Marina took a seat next to me by the dimming fire; it was the only thing we had to light up the night. There were no moons surrounding Ceylara, only bright stars that shot by every so often and a sun that was too lazy to emerge.
I felt the cold creep over the land and moved in closer to the blazing fire, warming my hands by its flames.
“You decided to talk after all,” I said lowly.
All I had to do was get her to like me. Then we would be golden.
“What can I say?” she said seductively, stretching out before the blaze so that her fingertips nearly touched the heat. “I felt bad for leaving you out here. I wouldn’t want you to get scooped up by our strange little friends.”
“Funny,” I said slowly, “I thought we were your strange little friends.”
“Not little,” she laughed genuinely as she looked at my massive stature. “But sure. For now. You called it a truce, I believe. But friends, sure.”
She handed me a tray covered in a shimmering foil. I received the plate hesitantly before tossing the foil to the ground and reveling in the smell of warm, cooked meat that lay strewn before me.
It was all I could do not to leap up yelling in celebration. We hadn’t eaten in cycles now. “Thank you,” I breathed carefully: gratefully.
Now was the time.
“You know,” I began, “We’ve been searching these lands for cycles now.”
“Cycles?” she asked.
“Um,” I stammered, still not entirely familiar with human terms and phrases. “From… um… When the night sun sets to the–”
“Oh, days!” she interrupted. “We call those days. From when what we call the sun rises to when the moon appears. Or, really, how long you’re awake for. Though, I guess that’s not a good technical term for it…’
I laughed at her long-winded explanation. I enjoyed hearing the differences in our planets. If anything, it made me more excited to see the Earth.
“Right. Days,” I tested the word out. “Well, I’m not sure what you were searching for, but there’s nothing here except for the two creatures you’ve run into already, and some plant life.”
She blinked, and I watched as the orange from the flames washed over her visage. Her golden hair fell in front of her face with thick bangs and curls. She had large, expressive, almond-shaped eyes that flicked toward me and made me feel a pang of distress deep in the pit of my stomach.
There was something calculated there. Something knowing.
“Regardless,” I dismissed. “When the darkness comes, it takes cycles for the suns to return, even by Ceylara standards. Unless you have adequate light, you’re going to be doing a lot of waiting around.”
“Well,” she shrugged. “Even if there’s nothing else to find… which could be true. Could be very true, actually. We still need to fix our ship. That’s going to take some time.”
I smiled and offered an indifferent shrug. “We’ll stay with you as long as you keep feeding us, but I can’t promise it’s going to be interesting.”
She laughed again. “Oh, I think you’ve kept it pretty interesting so far. It’s not every day you get to meet a Weredragon. And such a gentleman, too.”
“Want to know a secret?” I asked playfully, pressing my fingers into a steeple.
A shy grin crawled up the corner of her mouth, and she said, “Always.”
“I believe Khrelan is enamored with your sister.”
Her eyes darted toward the sleeping shifter and then widened in surprise back to me. She giggled into her hands and shook her head sternly. “Never gonna happen,” she said positively. “She’s… not… Just no.”
“She’s been claimed already?”
She stared at me and cocked an intrigued brow. “No,” she said, still shaking her head. “But she would never trust you.”
“You said she jumps in with her heart and not her head.” I narrowed my eyes curiously. “Why not now?”
“I don’t know,” she said playfully. “She just… she’s wild, yeah, but she takes time to warm up to people.”
I gave a nod but I wasn’t sure I really understood. “And how about you?”
“Do I take a while to warm up to people?”
“Do you, Marina?” I said in my most seductive tone. She let air out of her nose in a bemused breath. Blinking with no real answer, she finally said, “Not really.”
“Good to know.” I stretched, extending my feet toward the fire. Part of me wished I could spend the entire night flying, but I knew it would be impossible. I was already worn out from battling all day. Instead, it seemed I would be spending an uneasy night worrying about being shot with acid.
From a worm, of all things.
I looked over at Marina and somehow felt instantly better. Perhaps, because I knew there was a mission to be had in all of this. A purpose. Sooner than later, I was going to get her to come with me. As quickly as possible, I was intent on taking them away. To Dobromia.