Chapter Twenty-One
“Aaron wants us in the village at two this afternoon,” Thomas told her the following morning.
“What for?” she asked, feeling more than a bit of trepidation about going into the village.
“I am not sure. He’s called some sort of public meeting and wants us to be there.”
“I don’t know, Thomas. I don’t know if I’m ready for all of that just yet.”
Thomas sat down and looked at her, holding her hands in his own as he spoke softly. “You have to go out eventually, Kara. They aren’t going to throw rocks at you or anything. Of course, there may be some that are rude or distance themselves from us, but no one is going to harm you. You have to get past this mentality they all view you as some sort of monster. There are a few who can’t grasp this and are best avoided, but overall, these people know you are the same Kara they have always known.”
“I’m just scared, Thomas,” she admitted.
“I know you are. I’m a little scared of all this myself. It’s only natural, but we have to bite the bullet sometimes. It might as well be today.”
“Okay,” she replied.
Though she felt terrified, she knew he was right. Maybe things weren’t as bad as they seemed, and she could use the fresh air. She tried to focus on other things, making some breakfast and then immersing herself in housework until it was time to get ready to go. When the time came to leave, she found she was shaking all over.
“Don’t be afraid, my love. I’m here with you,” Thomas told her as he kissed her head and held her close.
“Don’t get too far away from me, Thomas. While we are out today, don’t leave me alone.”
“I won’t, Kara. I won’t,” he assured her.
Kara hoped he was right. She was afraid his duties would pull him away at Aaron’s behest and she would find herself alone. She feared that something would happen, something that would force her to change and everything would come rushing back to her again–her fear, her shame, even the hopeless void that seemed to have sucked her in after the events of this past week.
Shortly before two, they found themselves sitting in Aaron’s office, waiting for him. He arrived a few moments later and leaned against his desk to speak to them.
“Kara, Thomas. Thank you both for coming this afternoon.”
“What is it that we are here for, exactly?” Kara asked timidly, her anxiety already rising in her chest.
“I’ve decided that the best way to get things back on the right path is to hold a public meeting and address everyone’s fears directly. Rather than letting them wonder about what has happened and continue to speculate in a negative fashion, I want to set the record straight about what happened, and I want the two of you by my side when I do it.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no,” Kara began to say, panic setting in at the thought of sitting on a stage to be gawked at by the masses.
“Kara, just breathe, babe. It’s okay. Just breathe,” Thomas said to her before turning back to Aaron.
“I’m afraid that is out of the question,” he told him.
“Listen, I know this is hard, and I know you are afraid, Kara. I need you there, though. I can tell these people whatever I want, but what is really going to get through to them, what is really going to settle down their irrational fears is to see you on stage, to see that you are the same old Kara they have always known. You’ve waited on them in the diner when Cassi was alive. Your family has been here for years. This isn’t just about you, Kara. Your grandfather is in hiding, too.”
Kara’s head shot up at him, a look of anger in her eyes. In all of this, she hadn’t even considered that her grandfather was affected, but of course he was. Worse yet, he was being scrutinized and had just as much to hide as she did…well, as much as she had before she was forced to reveal herself. How dare they persecute him, too?
“Fine. I will do it. I won’t let them hurt him like they are hurting me,” she replied.
“Good. Then we will walk out there, heads held high, and they will see how wrong they are today.”
“What should I expect out there?” she asked, her fear once again peering through the anger from just seconds ago. “What are they saying?”
“Many of them support you, Kara. Others, mostly the older people, want me to exile you. They think you have no place here. I don’t want to paint you a pretty picture about everyone rallying behind you, because that isn’t the case, but you do have support among them. It is just a matter of reasoning with as many of the rest as we can.”
“Why bother?” Thomas asked. “Why not just let those that don’t like it get over it however they need to and mind their own business?”
“Because, unfortunately, some of those…many of those who don’t approve are on the Council and insisting that I perform my duties and exile both of you, as well as Kara’s grandfather. They want me to enforce the archaic rules they’ve put into place, and I have no legal standing not to do so. My only hope is to change enough minds to overturn the law that supports their line of thought.”
“And if you can’t?”
“We will cross that bridge when we come to it, but I don’t think we will. I think we can turn this around and, in the process, make this village a better place for everyone.”
“I guess we will see,” Thomas said, sounding a little uncertain himself.
“Okay then, let’s do this,” Aaron told him, standing for them to follow him to the door that led out to the public circle where village meetings were commonly held.
A small stage and podium had been set up to one side, with chairs for Thomas and Kara to sit in. A third chair was already occupied, and as they approached, Kara saw that it was her grandfather. He smiled up at her as she bent down to hug him and sat in the chair beside him, taking his hand in hers while joining the other hand with that of Thomas. She gave them each a gentle squeeze as Aaron made his way to the podium amid whispers from the crowd.
“Good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate all of you taking the time out to come to our meeting today. I apologize for the short notice, but I felt this was important and has been put off long enough.”
“Why are the freaks here?” someone yelled out angrily, causing a rising mumble from many of the others and agreement from a few more.
“First of all, I need everyone to remain silent and hear me out. Outbursts of that nature will not be tolerated during this meeting. I want each of you to sit and listen intently as I say what I came here to say, and then we can all get on with our lives.”
He paused, scanning over their faces as Kara shifted in her chair behind him. She dropped her head for a moment, but found her grandfather reaching over to cup her chin in his fingers and raise it back up. Glancing in his direction, she watched as he raised his head a little higher and turned back toward the crowd, staring at them defiantly. Kara understood his unspoken gesture and did the same.
“Those of you that live in this village do so for a reason. We all know that it is because you are protected from an outside world that doesn’t understand you, doesn’t know how to cope with what you are. If you were to expose yourself as a dragon shifter to them, most would run away in horror, a few would find you interesting, and the authorities would lock you away to study you. Why?”
There was another mumble as he hesitated again to let this thought sink in.
“I will tell you why,” he continued. “Because you are different. To live among them, you would be forced to hide what you are so that you don’t bring harm to yourself. We all know this to be true. If it were not, many of us would move away to bigger places and explore the world in a way that we are not afforded due to our long-term needs as dragons. Can you imagine living in a place where you were afraid to reveal your true identity to anyone?”
There were whispers and nods. Of course, they knew. They hid it from every human they met.
“Now, at least you have the ability to show yourself, your true self, in your own village, among others like you, others that accept you for what you are because they are the same. But what if you had no one? What if you spent years forced to live a lie, so that you weren’t sent out into this world you don’t belong in by people that don’t belong there either? That is the life that the Sheaver family has lived since they arrived here centuries ago. Every Sheaver male has known that he didn’t belong anywhere, because he wasn’t a dragon and he wasn’t a human. But they share the blood of a dragon shifter that everyone in this village knew and loved.”
The whispers in the crowd grew louder, and Kara clasped the hands of the men beside her tighter. No, he couldn’t. He wasn’t about to do this. As if to confirm it, he turned and looked at her for a moment and nodded knowingly before turning back around.
“Long before Christ returned from the grave, there was a family that owned all of this land. They were the ancestors of our recently departed Cassi Baker, and they left her everything when they died, just as she left everything to Kara Sheaver. In case you were not aware of it, Kara recently deeded the entirety of our village to the Dragon Council without asking for a cent in return. Now, you might ask yourself why this came to be, and it is a very long story, but I am going to share with you a small portion today.”
The crowd was completely silent now, listening intently to his words. Kara couldn’t help but marvel for a moment at his command over them, the way he held power over them with such little effort as he spoke.
“When Cassi was a young woman, she fell in love with a man named Khaleel. Cassi was fully aware that their love was forbidden, as he was a tiger shifter that had migrated here from India when his family was destroyed. Now, Cassi’s father obviously did not approve of such a liaison and forbid it, but Cassi was in love and fled with Khaleel to the south, where they married and had a child.”
The crowd grew loud with chatter, drowning him out until he had to stop for a moment to settle them down.
“Cassi’s father went after her and brought her home, threatening her that our kind would do harm to Khaleel and their son if she tried to go back to them. It broke her heart, but she never went back to them. At first, because she feared for their lives and later, because she thought it best after so much time had passed. What Cassi didn’t know was that her love passed away and that, on his deathbed, he sent his son back here to find his mother. That man’s name was Tio Sheaver, and he lived among us without revealing his identity even as he lay dying.”
The crowd was full of chatter now, making it harder for him to settle them, but he eventually did.
“The man that sits behind me is a direct descendant of Cassi Baker. He is also a tiger shifter, as is his granddaughter, Kara. This is something he has always known and kept hidden for fear of being sent away from the only home he has ever known, but it is a recent revelation for Kara, who until recently knew nothing of her relation to Cassi or the fact that she could shift into anything other than a dragon. Likewise, even Mr. Sheaver has not known he could shift into anything other than a tiger.”
“Rules are rules! This is a dragon shifter village, and they are not our kind!” someone yelled, causing another stir that Aaron had to settle down.
“This village is what we say it is. The only reason it is a dragon shifter village is because that is how it started out a long time ago, but what is this village really? It is a safe haven for people, who are different than the outside world. I had thought that accepting humans into our midst would help to open the eyes of some of you, but even they have trouble here at times. Now, we have this situation with multi shifters, and everyone is running around, panicking over nothing.”
“Nothing? Did you see that thing she became?” someone else yelled.
“Yes, I did. I also saw what she did to the men that had chased her, my accountants. She did it to protect herself, and any of you would have done the same. I ask you to look at it this way. Who here has done more for this village than Kara Sheaver and her ancestors? Cassi built this village. Tio Sheaver was a cornerstone of the community, as has been every member of their family since then. Kara has gifted us not only the land we live on with no request for compensation, but also revealed two common crooks that had been bleeding our village finances dry for years. What has she received in return? Nothing but attacks, first from the culprits themselves and now from the people of the village she and her family have saved time and time again.”
There was a quiet among the crowd as Aaron paused once again to let them think it through. When no one said anything, he began to speak again.
“I am asking each and every one of you to stop persecuting the Sheavers, right here and right now. They are just like us, just with different abilities. They belong here just as much as we do, if not more so. I am here to tell you that I will be holding a meeting in my chambers to eliminate the laws that discriminate against those that are different. Anyone capable of living in peace and keeping the secrets of our village will be allowed to live here among us without fear of any actions against them.”
“What if we don’t approve?” a voice yelled out.
“Then I suggest you find another village, as this one is moving forward and will no longer tolerate such a narrow-minded vision from anyone. This meeting is over.”
With that, Aaron turned and began to walk toward them, holding his hand out to help Kara’s grandfather up and off the stage. Kara and Thomas followed behind.
“How do you think that went?” Thomas asked once they were back inside.
“I don’t know. I’ll tell you after this meeting today, but at least now they all know the truth and have something to think about before they jump to any more wrong conclusions. The Dragon Guard will remain with you for the rest of the week, and then we will see how it goes. I have also posted some with your grandfather, and we have builders repairing the accounting office at the village’s expense. We retrieved plenty from the McCallum’s hidden fortune to make a lot of improvements around here,” he said, shaking his head in disgust.
“All right. Well, I guess we will get back home then, Thomas told him.
“One more thing,” Kara added, pausing as they headed toward the door. “You didn’t mention my pregnancy. Why?”
“One thing at a time, Kara. Let’s get them to accept that you are here to stay before we let them know there are more on the way. I know that sounds terrible, but I think we can agree that the small minds in this village only have so much room in one sitting.”
“You are probably right,” she laughed. “We’ll let you get on with things, then.”
Thomas and Kara left under escort, but she felt better. For the first time in a while now, she felt like she didn’t need to hide or be afraid anymore. The worst was over, but there would still be some trials.