Torran
“This is bullshit.”
Rowe didn’t respond. Instead he just slowed his wingbeat and dropped back until he was almost behind Torran. The pair of dragons flew through the night sky over the rural landscape below. Farmers’ fields and untamed forests scrolled by in an endless sequence, the unsettled nature of the land the only thing that let them utilize their nonhuman forms.
He tried again to engage his fellow emerald dragon in conversation. “You know you agree with me.”
The entire trip had been made mostly in silence, flying across the land, circling wide around cities of any size and only in the depths of night. They had just started the day’s journey, which would see them reach their destination shortly. Torran had hoped to be there yesterday, but a late start and an early sunrise had cut short their flying time, leaving them a little over an hour from Palin’s farm.
That was both the end-point of their journey, and also the entire reason for it, if one counted what the building stood for. It was also the source of Torran’s irritation.
“Yes, I agree with you,” Rowe snapped. “Now will you shut up about it? The elders gave us orders, and we’re going to follow them. Is that really that hard?”
Torran wanted to yell at Rowe. Why couldn’t the other dragon just get all upset and angry like him? He just wanted to have a nice venting session before they arrived. Logic and reason were not high on his priority list at the moment.
“It is if I think the orders are stupid.” He sounded like a child and he knew it, but Torran wasn’t entirely sure he gave a shit. The orders were stupid.
Originally the trio, including Palin, had been sent to liaise with the human military. As representatives of the only known enclave of dragon shifters they were to determine the seriousness of the war humans were supposedly fighting with a race of aliens known only as Outsiders. The situation was complicated, but both Rowe and Torran had believed that the humans had all the assistance they needed from a group of dragons awakened from centuries-old sleep.
They didn’t need the help of the enclave. So they’d returned to say just that. Palin had remained, however, against Rowe’s wishes. As the leader of the trio, he had tried to order the unruly dragon to join them. Things had disintegrated from there, eventually resulting in dragon-on-dragon violence.
“The orders aren’t stupid,” Rowe countered. “I disagree with them like you, but I’m wise enough to realize that my view of things is not the only one. The elders are elders for a reason, because they understand how to look at things from different perspectives.”
Torran cursed silently. He hated it when Rowe acted as if he were older and wiser. He was a grand total of thirty-seven months older than Torran. Even to humans that wasn’t considered much. To dragons it was nothing.
“I still can’t believe Palin sent back a report of his own.”
“You can’t?” Rowe sounded skeptical. “What would you have done in his place? It only makes sense. He believes he found his mate in a human. If he’s correct, that could explain a lot of issues the enclave has been having of late.”
Torran fell silent. He knew all about the issues, of dragons pairing up and mating simply to create more dragons, not because they were actually mated to one another. What he didn’t want to acknowledge was that the solution perhaps lay with humans. That was just beyond his ability to accept. Dragons were superior. Period.
“Still getting all worked up over that?” Rowe asked with a soft laugh.
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe not me, but you need to fuck something. Hopefully it would help you unwind a little,” Rowe fired back. “You’re nothing but a whiny hatchling lately, Torran, and I say that as the truth, not to try and insult you. I’m not sure what’s bothering you so much, but you need to deal with it.”
“What’s bothering me is heading home only to be turned around and sent right back out like some sort of errand boy. If the elders are so damned sure about this, why the hell don’t they come out here and inspect it themselves?”
Rowe didn’t have an answer for that one, and Torran knew it. They’d both discussed their thoughts on that early in their return journey.
“I don’t want to live among the humans,” he continued. “I want to go home. To my home. I spent a long time getting it the way I liked. Now I have to go live on a farm, with Palin and whatever other humans are there? No thank you.”
He hit a thermal and spread his wings wide, the huge membranes creaking as warm air filled them, pushing his huge body up higher into the air with little effort. Rowe followed suit, even pulling alongside him as he did.
“I suspect the elders have their reasons,” the other emerald dragon said as a brightly lit homestead came and went below them.
Torran craned his head around behind him, his long neck letting him watch the huge farmhouse fade into the distance, even as he continued to fly alongside Rowe. His wings beat every so often to keep them aloft and headed in the right direction. He had seen plenty of figures moving about inside the house. A big family. He envied those who lived there for that.
“Maybe they think we’ll go crazy like Palin did,” he joked to distract himself, drawing a hissing laugh from Rowe. “Mating a human. I swear during our time with the military that they were all on crazy pills. You saw how they doted over the fragile human women they had chosen.”
“I did,” Rowe agreed. “And it got me thinking.”
Torran groaned. He hated it when Rowe “got to thinking” as he put it. “I’m not sure I’m up for your reasoned thoughts right now, my friend.”
“Too bad. I’m going to give them anyway, because I cannot seem to unwind this mystery myself.”
“Mystery?”
“The human mates, you dolt. Are you not paying attention to what you’re saying?”
“I am,” he snapped, tossing up a mild cloud of noxious gas in front of Rowe’s flightpath.
The other emerald dragon easily dodged it, banking out and then back in. The gas was meant more as a show of Torran’s indignation than it was to actually hurt Rowe. Not that he wished to tangle with the bigger dragon anyway. Not right now.
“Even you have to admit that most of the dragons we met seemed sane. They didn’t exhibit any characteristics of being crazy.”
“They claimed that they had found mates in human females instead of dragons,” Torran countered. “That’s pretty crazy to me.”
“How is it then that all of them are afflicted by the same disease?”
“Maybe it’s something they’ve been exposed to from the Outsiders.”
Rowe fell silent as he thought that point over. “So you’re saying that something about the Outsiders has messed with their brains?”
“Exactly.”
“So what about the humans then? And what about those dragons who’ve never fought an Outsider, awakened after the Outsiders that were left were killed off? Oh, and look out.”
Torran’s head snapped around just in time to see the radio tower he was headed straight for. Bellowing loudly in surprise, he flicked himself up on his side, then tucked his wings in tight and kept rolling. First thing he had to do was get out of the way of the tower. Then he could worry about the ground that was rushing up at him far too fast.
The iron bars grazed the scales of his stomach, sparks erupting as he passed by far too close for comfort. With the tower behind him Torran went to spread his wings, only for his ultra-sharp eyes to pick out one of the support cables coming at him in a hurry.
“Shiittttttt.” He ducked his head low, and the cable scraped down his spine. “OW!” he yelped as a spike was caught by the cable and ripped from his back near his tail.
Then he was past and he spread his wings, beating frantically against the pull of gravity, lifting him back into the air.
Rowe’s chuckles reached him as he pulled alongside the other dragon, breathing far heavier than his friend, who had wisely been paying attention to where they were going and had banked around the offending tower by a wide margin.
“You couldn’t have warned me any earlier?” he growled.
“I thought you were smart enough to watch where you were going. We’re not flying very high tonight and you know it. Keep your head in the game, and stop daydreaming.”
Torran mocked him under his breath, but he kept his gaze focused forward. “To answer your question, I don’t know.”
“Exactly. I think we would be wise to at least consider the fact that there may be some truth in what they’re claiming, Torran.”
“Ridiculous.”
“All right, fine. Have it your way.”
“Finally.”
He could all but see Rowe rolling his eyes, the catlike pupils managing to look rather similar to humans when they did. Torran knew; he’d seen it many a time. Often directed at himself.
They flew onward in silence. The ground below them became more and more dominated by farmsteads. Some were the massive facilities of mega-corporations, while others had the smaller more traditional look and feel of family-operated businesses. Torran didn’t know much about farming itself, but he was well versed in humanity.
Palin knows something about farming now. What a schmuck. I can’t believe the big dope actually let himself be pulled in to doing manual labor!
“There,” Rowe said a few minutes later, and together the pair began to circle as they descended toward a brightly lit farmhouse.
Torran eyed the grounds around it. They were all but covered in snow, the early winter storm having passed through a few days ago. The roads were clear now, but the fields were frozen and still held drifts of snow here and there where the ground dipped or rose slightly. Most of them looked untouched, lying fallow. He knew this was because until Palin had come along, his mate—Torran shook his head at that in disbelief still—had worked the land by herself, which meant much of it went unused.
The two dragons touched down in the front yard with a grace that might seem out of place with their outsized fifty-foot size. Torran felt his claws dig deep into the frozen dirt. His wings creaked and settled against his sides.
“What are you waiting for?”
Rowe was already in his human form, heading toward the front of the house. Torran shook his head. “You first.”
“What the hell do you mean ‘me first’?”
Torran flashed him a smile full of teeth, but said nothing.
Clearly irritated, Rowe walked up to the house and rapped smartly on the door. It opened to reveal an agitated Palin, his face showing signs of stress that Torran thought shouldn’t have been there until he recognized Rowe.
The elder dragon began to speak. “Palin, I—”
CRACK!
Rowe tumbled backward down the steps, landing on the frozen ground and holding his nose as it poured blood. Palin came fully outside, shaking his fist from where it had slammed into Rowe’s face.
“Like I said,” he repeated as Rowe got to his feet. “You first.”
Palin glanced up, as if seeing the dragon in the yard for the first time. “What the fuck are you two doing here, and give me one reason why I shouldn’t beat the piss out of you right now?”
Rowe climbed to his feet, hands out to his side. “Or’bers,” he mumbled through his mangled face.
Torran hissed, laughing at the sound. Rowe would heal soon, but the mangled speech in the meantime was great. He wished he’d caught it on camera.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Palin growled. “I’ve got other shit to worry about besides you two right now. Explain, and quick.”
Torran’s mighty lungs rose and fell, but he still didn’t shift. Not yet. “We got sent back to spend more time among the humans with you. Apparently the elders favored your report over ours.”
“Is that so?” Palin glowered at Rowe in triumph.
“Yes.”
“Well you sure as shit aren’t staying here.”
Rowe spoke up. “We have orders—”
“Calm down, chief, I didn’t say I’m tossing you out into the wind. I have somewhere else to dump your annoying asses. It’s close by, just in case shit goes downhill.”
“You know, I don’t recall doing much to get put on your shit-list,” Torran muttered. “I was just following orders.”
“Yeah well, sometimes you need to learn when those orders are dumb, and thus need to be ignored. I hope you find a way to look past the bullshit that’s been spoon-fed to you,” Palin retorted. “But if you want to stay off my shit-list, then you can come with me.”
Torran, not wanting to be around Rowe just then, started to shift, but Palin waved him off as he saw him concentrate. “You don’t want me to shift?”
“No. We’re in a hurry. Cars would take too long.”
Palin stalked away from Rowe until he was in an empty space of the yard. “You stay the fuck away from the house until I get back. You can crash on some hay in the barn if you need to sleep off your boo-boo.”
Torran watched intently, curious as to where the newfound strength and power Palin had found was coming from. He glanced back at the house and saw a figure standing in the doorway. That was the source, he realized, his mate Sandy. Finding her had imbued Palin with a confidence he’d not known before. Torran eyed the bald-headed shifter curiously, watching as he shifted in the blink of an eye, his human figure replaced by a viridian-green colored dragon.
“Let’s go.”
“Where, exactly are we going? I’m kind of tired.”
Palin spread his wings and prepared to leap from the ground. “To get someone from the city.”
Torran scoffed and made no move to follow. “I am not a taxi service for anyone, let alone humans.”
The other dragon jumped, mighty wings beating down so strongly that Torran was forced to close his eyes against the dirt and debris they stirred up.
“She is my mate’s best friend. And she’s in trouble.”
“Trouble?” he looked up, his innate desire to protect women in bad spots cropping up at the worst possible time.
“Someone is threatening to hurt her if we don’t get there in time.”
“Aww shit. Why the hell didn’t you say so?” Torran leapt into the air, his dragon lips pulled back, exposing his predatory teeth meant for ripping flesh from bone.
If there was one thing he couldn’t abide in the world, whether human or shifter, it was when the strong picked on those weaker than them. He had an especially soft spot for women. Even human women; he would do whatever it took to ensure they were safe if he could.
Knowing that this particular woman was a friend of Palin’s mate, and someone was threatening her physically was all it took to get Torran on board.
“Let’s go,” he growled, beating his wings hard, catching up to Palin and passing him. “We can’t be late.”
It didn’t matter that he’d flown all night and was exhausted. Torran wasn’t going to let her come to harm while he could still do something about it.