1.

 

 

Norris scanned the room, his silver eyes glittering as he looked over the restaurant. His stomach growled quietly as he attempted to use his Dragon senses to locate the possibility of a meal his sensitive palate could tolerate. So far, the other Dragon shifters had been very pleased with breads and the occasional fruit or fresh vegetable, but anything else was out of the question.

A fruit salad, he decided, sitting down at his table and locating the menu that had been placed there long before he had even arrived. A fruit salad and a bread basket.

It was nice to be in a restaurant without the heavy pressures and expectations of locating his fated mate. Dating had never quite been his cup of tea, to borrow one of the quaint human phrases he didn’t quite understand. He didn’t like tea very much himself; he much preferred the crispness of a cold glass of water.

“What can I get for you, sir?”

The waiter’s sudden appearance startled Norris out of his thoughts and his eyes flashed menacingly, revealing, just briefly, the stormy Dragon beneath the surface. The waiter backed away, opening his mouth and holding his tiny pad of paper and pencil in front of his body protectively, as if that would do any good against a fiery breath weapon.

“Sorry,” Norris mumbled. “I didn’t quite hear what you said. Are you all right?”

“Uh…”

Norris waited patiently for the waiter to recover. He felt bad playing it off as if it were the waiter with the problem. Out of all the other Dragon shifters he had been banished with, Norris had been having the most difficult time in reigning in his inner Dragon. In fact, they had begun keeping him at the house with Gavin to help him to craft their underground base rather than having him out on the field doing work to seek out descendants with the sacred Sun Dragon/Loni shifter blood.

It was the most important thing they could be doing right now; they could feel the shifter magic in the universe slowly waning. Without finding his sacred mate and populating the realms with more of the beautiful children that kept that magic alive by the very merit of their existence, it was highly possible all of them would meet a grisly fate. The sacred carriers of magic were endangered; targeted by dark forces that worshipped chaos and wanted to destroy all chances of true peace, preventing them from existing anywhere in the universe.

“Do you need me to call someone?” Norris asked, starting to get up from the table. He felt awful gaslighting people like this, but their Dragon identities had to remain a secret. Gavin had made a disturbing discovery of a plethora of negative energy headed their way. They had to work hard on the base at all costs, and make sure it was secure enough to store all of their sacred artifacts; including the device that made it possible to sense all the potential descendants.

Those descendants, when mated with a pure blooded Sun Dragon, would ultimately carry the sacred children and make it possible for the shifter magic to remain present in all realms. Losing that device would be disastrous.

“N-no. I’m fine. What can I get for you today?”

Norris relaxed back into his seat, pushing away the guilt. He had done what was necessary to protect his identity. The man was probably in the middle of thinking he was having a nervous breakdown or something. Which was sad, but it was for the best. There was so much at stake here.

“I wrote it down for you while I was waiting,” Norris said, handing the waiter a slip of paper. “Don’t mess it up.”

The waiter seemed surprised and Norris sat back thoughtfully, checking his watch. Ken should have been there by now.

Ken was a man Gavin had hired to help with inventory for their moving company. It had been a choice they had thought long and hard about, but ultimately, it had been deemed for the best. There were several Dragon shifters attending college courses now, while others were hard at work raising their families and protecting the sacred children. Norris, Gavin, and TJ were the only ones who hadn’t met their sacred mates on Earth at that point, so it was hard getting anybody to do the meticulous inventory work when the others were at school.

“Hey,” Ken said, sitting down across from Norris. “Sorry to have kept you waiting. There was a lot of traffic, and someone stuck this flyer under my windshield wipers that just kept flapping around. I had to pull over and get it out of there because it was distracting me. I didn’t see it before I left.”

Ken tossed the flyer onto the table and pursed his lips. “Whoever did that obviously doesn’t care much for the safety of others on the road.”

“Or maybe you just need to be more observant before you go starting your car in random places,” Norris retorted.

Ken laughed and shrugged. “I guess that wouldn’t hurt.”

The waiter came back with Norris’ drink and looked apprehensively at the new person at the table, studying his eyes closely as if to check and see whether or not there was some sort of strange Dragon look about Norris’ companion as well. When he was satisfied that everything was as it should be and well within the realm of normalcy he was used to, the waiter asked Ken what he wanted, and took the man’s order quietly.

As he did so, Norris turned his gaze to the crumpled up piece of paper on the table in front of him. The first word leapt out at him in bold, large letters. “Dragons Welcome!”

He furrowed his brow and snatched the paper up, uncurling it and studying the words intently. It was an advertisement. Apparently, there was a new bar in town called Dragon’s Tavern and it had a specialty drink called the Magic Dragon, all on sale for their grand opening.

“Where did this come from?” Norris demanded, shoving the flyer at Ken once the waiter had left. Ken frowned, not knowing what to make of the sudden serious expression on Norris’ face.

“I told you, man. I found it on my car. It was probably people who are being paid to promote the bar or something, who knows. This kind of stuff pops up everywhere. Helps people make money.”

“Can I keep it?” Norris asked, excited by the possibility of finding a place in the small area of Brookside that might cater more to a Dragon-loving crowd. Norris had come to love the human interpretation of dragons and magic, and always enjoyed talking to humans with a more mystical way of viewing the world. Of course, most people didn’t believe in shapeshifters in these parts, but it was widely known they were thought to exist out in the northwestern areas of the country. Maybe someone from the area had come to Brookside and opened a place for people who had more of an interest in things outside the ordinary.

There was also the possibility of other Dragon shifters from Fiora being banished to Earth and putting out feelers for more of their kind. It was an exciting possibility, and Norris was convinced that now was the time to seek out his brethren and explore this new lead.

“Yeah, keep it. Sure. Whatever.”

Ken was oblivious to Norris’ excitement. He was a human and found nothing at all interesting or exciting about another new bar in town. In fact, most Dragon references went over his head.

“Thank you,” Norris exclaimed.

“Really, it’s no problem. And honestly, it’s nothing compared to the way you like to treat me to these incredible restaurants all the time. You act like you’re royalty or something,” Ken said, laughing and shaking his head. Norris considered this with a slight frown. He was royalty. Why shouldn’t he treat himself that way? Many humans did not seem to grasp the significance and importance of their rank. And they were especially oblivious to the ranks of the sacred Dragon shifters in their midst. It was very discouraging, in fact, to go from the sophisticated and lavish lifestyle that he was used to on his own planet, being of Royal Dragon shifter descent, to the lackluster human way of life.

The only way he had managed to make himself feel better about it was to stay entertained by learning everything he could about human technology. The information was easily absorbed by his analytical mind, and he chose to focus on it, so he was able to become a stronger and more sophisticated man for it. If nothing else, it gave him something to do as he attempted to work with his brethren toward finding a way back to their home planet once and for all.

“Hey, speaking of that stupid flyer thing, I actually brought the van down here. I was going to return it back to the HQ but I kinda just heard back from this girl I really like. We have a date, so I was thinking maybe you could just drop me off at home and take it back with you? I know you don’t drive much.”

Norris considered this thoughtfully. He was not a big fan of being behind the wheel, although the machines themselves were incredibly fascinating. He could look the engines over for hours if he had to. As far as driving the death traps went, he didn’t trust the mechanics as far as he could throw them. No matter how carefully a vehicle was tended to, the wear and tear was inevitable. And you certainly couldn’t trust the other drivers on the road or the road conditions to treat the machine very well either. He would just as soon avoid the whole mess altogether.

“Sure, I can do that,” Norris agreed, giving a slight nod. What could it hurt? He had his license, and Ken was a good guy. It would be nice to help him out. Norris just didn’t really like to drive.

“Thanks, man,” Ken said, clearly relieved. “I can’t wait to go out with this chick tonight. She’s so hot!”

Norris smiled slightly and nodded, unable to help being overtaken by the weight of his responsibilities. He was supposed to be going on dates to try to find his fated mate as well. It was one of his most sacred responsibilities. He couldn’t let his brethren down. He would fail everybody if he somehow slipped up and let his fated mate pass by.

With a heaviness in his heart, Norris finished his meal quietly and prepared himself as much as he could for the eventual drive back to Wyvern Mover’s headquarters.