Rask
“Have you seen any ships today?” I asked Lawrence.
“Nay. Not since before the storm. Nor the silver hunters.”
I turned my attention back to the horizon. We saw ships – great huge ships, I thought – often enough in the distance. Every day we saw them, unless a hurricane was near. It worried me that none had returned.
“Why do you wish to know?” Lawrence asked.
I shrugged. “Just wondering,” I lied.
Truth be told, I was starting to consider trying to reach one. Long ago we tried to signal them with smoke, but none had ever come our way. Ever since the silver hunter killed Ben, we had stopped signaling. We doused our fires and hid if a silver hunter flew too close and we watched the distant ships in concern. Once, one came close enough for us to see it was similar to the silver hunters. It had no sails and appeared to be made of metal instead of wood.
But unlike the flying hunters, we didn’t know if it was designed to hunt dragons. I was starting to think a ship might be our way off of the island. If they were designed to kill dragons, wouldn’t that be better? To die in an instant like Ben, instead of starving to death? Maybe it was a kindness that no ships had passed by yet. I had yet to be forced into a decision.
“Rask?” Florian’s voice. He stepped up next to me. “Have you seen the sky?”
I looked up at it. “Aye?”
“The eastern sky.”
We saw more ships to the west. I turned around, lifting my head as I did in anticipation of looking over the trees. The storm had flattened the island so thoroughly that I could see clear to the other side, beach, ocean, and all. I was so distracted by that horror, that I failed to see why Florian was calling my attention to it.
“What am I looking for?”
“Look at it.”
I looked. And then I really looked. My heart skipped a beat. The distant sky held a sick yellow hue that had not been present this morning. I spun to the clear blue sky behind me. A yellowing sky was often the first sign of an oncoming storm. It was a shade that had faded into the distance as the devastating storm passed. Going west. I whipped my head back to the east.
“God in Heaven,” I breathed. “Not another. Not so soon.”
“What do we do?”
For a moment I felt helpless. I steeled myself and took a deep breath. I was the alpha, I had to lead us. Protect them. “We prepare,” I heard my voice say.
I strode across the beach to where the others were rebuilding our homes “Stop!” I boomed. They turned to me, faces a mix of surprise and curiosity. They watched me, waiting. I swallowed hard. “My friends… look to the east and tell me what you see.”
One by one, they saw it too. Was it my imagination or had the sky already become yellower?
“What do we do?” Abe cried.
“The island can’t survive another!” said Umber.
“We need to tear all this down,” I said, gesturing to the half-build huts. “Move it all against the cliffs, with whatever supplies we saved. Create the most secure place we possibly can and weather the storm there.”
We rushed to tear down the huts and move the wood. The most sheltered place at the cliff wasn’t much, but it would have to do. With luck the storm would strike at night. Dragons would fare much better against it than humans. Nevertheless, we couldn’t get caught without a more solid shelter again. Usually we took the high ground in the stand of trees. Until the last storm flattened them, leaving us to rush to the cliff and huddle against it, exposed and terrified. The high ground was useless as a shelter now, without the trees to buffer the winds.
After sunset we stood around a bonfire in what was left of our little village and watched the distant sky. It was too dark to see the yellow tinge, but the wind had noticeably picked up and we knew the storm was close. Would it hit during the night? There was no way to know. It was already growing late enough that even if it did strike in the night we would probably turn human again smack in the middle of the thing. I could feel my inner dragon pacing. He sensed the storm.
“We’re going to run out of wood,” Umber said suddenly.
I looked at the fire and the stack of wood next to it. “We have plenty.”
Umber shook his head. “I mean the island. Even if some trees manage to survive, it’ll be years before they’re big enough to start using for fuel.”
My heart sank at the revelation. I didn’t question our ability to stay warm if need be, I couldn’t remember night or day of being too cold, but we needed the fire to distill drinking water. We’d be dead from madness in days if we drank just the salty sea.
“I think the waves are getting higher,” Abe said quietly.
“High tide?” asked Lawrence.
Damn. I was so busy putting together the shelter that I hadn't really concentrated on the sea level. Everything was so washed out from the last storm it was impossible to tell where the usual high water level hit. This could certainly be high tide, but it could just as easily be the beginning of a storm surge.
“Is there naught else we can do?” Umber asked.
“Nay. We must wait for it to come,” I said.
“What's that? On the horizon. I think there's actually a ship out there,” said Lawrence.
We turned to follow his gaze and sure enough there were lights in the distance. They were low against the horizon, which indicated it was most likely a ship and not one of the flying hunters.
“Mayhap the storm will not be as bad as we thought,” said Florian. “Not if there's a ship out there.”
“I pray you are right,” I said hopefully. The ship looked small, based on the way the lights were configured. Surely, a ship that small wouldn’t be out here with an oncoming storm. “I need my night eyes,” I warned them.
First, I carefully stripped off my clothes. We were fortunate enough to count two large chests of clothes among the items rescued from the ship. Our clothes were a patchwork of minor mending and major repair. I hardly knew what color my original shirt was. I wondered what we’d do, if we survived this, when the fabric finally ran out. Florian took my clothes from me and stepped back a safe distance.
I closed my eyes and imagined my inner dragon. As my scales rippled out over my body, my wings sprouted almost painfully from my back. The rest of me warped and changed. When it was done I felt my wings stretch out behind me and flap once. The dragon looked around. It was like this with every shift, the brief battle for control between man and beast. It had grown easy for me over the years, there was never anything different to contend with. The dragon surveyed its island and gave a cautious sniff at the humans nearby. Recognizing them as pack members, the dragon snorted a column of smoke, gave itself a good shake, and relinquished control to me. I turned my gaze to the boat in the distance. It was coming toward us.
“It looks as if it is coming this way,” said Umber.
‘It is,’ I said into his mind. ‘In fact, I think it is coming here!’
I quickly focused on my human form and changed back. By the time I had redressed, the boat was even closer. There was a sound now; a strange, increasingly loud roar.
“How can a boat move so quickly?” asked Lawrence.
“Is it being pulled?” Abe suggested. “Some sort of aquatic shifter, as the horse pulls the carriage?”
“If so, it left no wake,” I said.
“Should we douse the fire?” Florian moved closer to it.
“Nay, they've seen us by now,” I said. I knew it was a risky choice, but our resources were limited. If this was a rescue, then we were finally safe. If it was an attack, we could overcome them and take the boat.
The little boat stopped close to the island. We could just make out a dingy in the shadows as it detached from the bigger boat and came toward us. We could see three figures the board. They had no oars, yet the boat came toward us anyway, faster than the current could have carried it. The roaring sound was different now, but still present and getting louder. It seemed as though the boat was making it.
The dingy stopped on the beach and the figures hopped out onto the sand. We stayed by the fire, making them come to us. They started toward us and the one in the middle caught my attention and held it. He was only a silhouette in the dark but there was something familiar about him. Something impossible. He started to run as the other two trudged through the sand. We all tensed bracing ourselves for a possible fight. And then the first tendrils of firelight reached his face… Even though it was barely illuminated, I recognized him. I knew him. My heart skipped a beat and my mouth went dry. Without even thinking I started to run too.
We stopped just short of crashing into each other, skidding on the sand until we were practically nose to nose. It was him. We stared at each other. His eyes were as wide with shock as mine must have been.
“How is this possible?” I whispered.
He shook his head slowly, clearly unable to believe what he was seeing. “You… You’re real.”
I nodded, momentarily unable to speak. I swallowed hard. “What is your name?” I finally asked. Countless years of dreaming about him and as realistic as the dreams seemed, and as well as I remembered them, yet somehow I had never learned his name.
“Chandler.” he said softly. “My name is Chandler.” He reached up his hands to unconsciously rub at the base of his neck. He was feeling the ache from meeting his true mate already. I knew that for a fact because my own neck had suddenly become stiff. He licked his lips and I couldn’t resist licking my own. “What's yours?”
Still mesmerized by his face, it took me a moment to realize what he had said and think of the answer.
“My… my name is Rask,” I told him.
“Rask,” he murmured. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard, right after the sound of him saying his own name.
“I don't understand…” There were too many questions tumbling around in my head for me to put into words. How could the man I dreamed about be real? How had he come to be here? Why now? And how, against all odds, was he actually my true mate?
Chandler shook his head slowly. “I don't…”
As the conversation went on, we slowly drew closer and closer together. His last words brought us nose to nose. His breath was warm against my chin, and his scent was intoxicating. He smelled impossibly like he did in my dream, but so much better. Our eyes locked together, as I gazed at the man I had never in my wildest dreams hoped to ever meet.
We kissed. I can't say more than that, because I don't know how it happened. One moment I was staring into his eyes and the next our lips were pressed against each other, my hands were fisted in his hair, and his hands were grabbing my hips, pulling me close. He tasted better than he did in my dreams as well.
I lost myself in that impossible kiss. Our tongues dueled, as our hands sought to touch anywhere and everywhere. As if any moment we might wake up and discover that this was all a dream too. When we finally did pull apart I realized that almost everyone was looking at us. The only exception was Florian and a woman he was kissing as eagerly as I had kissed Chandler.
“I assume you are acquittances?” Abe said, holding back a grin.
“It is difficult to explain.” I realized then that I couldn’t recall ever telling them about my dreams of Chandler. I looked back at him and took his hand; warm, and solid, and real. “I confess, I do not understand it myself…”
A throat cleared. We all turned our attention to the third person from the boat. It was a dark-skinned woman. I could tell she was an alpha.
“We need to go if we want to get back to the island before the storm hits,” she said. Her accent was strong and strange to me. I almost couldn’t understand her.
“This is an island,” I said.
“A bigger one.” She gestured around at the flattened landscape. “One with buildings built to withstand the storm and out of the direct path of the hurricane.”
I nodded, only understanding half of what she said. I glanced to Umber and raised a questioning eyebrow. He shook his head slightly.
“Camille is right; we need to hurry,” Chandler said. “You should pack your things so we can get out of here.”
I laughed. “I have nothing to pack.”
The others shook their heads. “Nor do we,” Lawrence said.
“Then let’s go.”
Hardly able to believe it, we followed them down the beach to the little boat. We were finally being rescued, after all this time. Together, we shoved the boat into the waves and climbed in. As I looked around for oars, intending to help, there was a sudden roar.
“What is that sound?” Abe cried.
The boat surged forward through the waves and out to sea.
“It moves without oars or sail!” gasped Umber.
I clutched the side of the boat, watching as a powerful wake crashed behind us. The boat sailed so fast the front of it lifted from the water.
“This is like flying!” Florian said.
In moments we were alongside the larger ship. I had never seen anything like it. It was sleek and solid, and appeared to be made from metal and glass. The woman – Chandler had called her, Camille – tied the dingy behind it, then jumped easily from the side and onto a platform.
“Sully! Get her started!” she called, dashing up a small set of stairs and onto the ship. I watched as she rushed up another stairway to a level above us.
We followed Camille up the first stairway and found ourselves under a small overhang. A moment later the entire floor began to vibrate beneath us. There was a loud roaring and the sound of crashing water. I looked back and saw the water churning and rushing out behind us Then, just like the boat, the ship suddenly began to move.
Lawrence grabbed onto a pole in surprise. “What magic is this?” Umber moved automatically to steady him, then cast a nervous glance at the other woman and my mate.
“I think we have a lot to talk about,” Chandler said. “Let’s go up.”
He led us up the stairs after Camille. The deck was enclosed and surrounded by large glass windows. I could see an already distant flicker of flame and the dark outline of the island. I watched it fading quickly away. I had never imagined we’d truly escape. When it was gone, I turned to survey the rest of the room. A man was sitting by a strange desk, covered in flickering lights and knobs. He had one hand on something that looked vaguely like a ship’s wheel and must have been steering the ship.
“What manner of ship is this?” I asked.
Camille answered. “This is my tour boat. I give eco tours around the Caribbean.”
“Your boat?” I asked, focusing on the only part I had understood. “You work aboard it?”
“I own it.”
“A woman?” Lawrence said in surprise.
“An African?” Abe said at the same time.
She turned a death glare at Abe. “I’m Jamaican.”
“Ah, the rum island?” I said quickly, diverting her attention. “I hear it’s lovely there! Were you born there or were you sold to someone there?”
Camille’s expression went rapidly from shock, to fury, and then to shock again. To my relief, it changed once more to laughter. “Exactly how long have you been on that island?”
“I know not,” I said. “Our ship went down in the Year of Our Lord Eighteen-oh-Three.”
“Ah…” she said. Like her, Chandler and the other woman looked quite surprised. “I suppose I can forgive you in that case. But don’t go around saying stupid things like that, okay?”
“Okay…” I wasn’t quite sure what I was agreeing to.
“Let’s go talk somewhere privately,” the other woman suggested to Florian. He eagerly followed her out.
“I say we do the same,” Chandler said to me.
“I’ll be back,” I told the others. They nodded to me as I departed.