Asher
He awoke with a start, reaching out to stretch, and promptly fell off the bed.
“Ow,” he cursed.
Couch. Right. He had fallen off the couch. Because he wasn’t sleeping on his bed that night.
Why wasn’t he sleeping in his bed again?
Quinn is using it. You gave it to her because you’re a polite moron.
Why am I a moron?
You brought a human female to your house in the middle of the night. One you don’t even know.
Right. I am an idiot.
Fuck. FUCK. What the hell were you thinking?
He looked down at his crotch. “Backstabber. I trusted you, and look what you did.”
Blaming his manhood wasn’t exactly accurate, and Asher knew it. True, she had had an effect on him that he couldn’t begin to explain. His dragon, that mystical entity inside of him, had recognized something within her that drove it crazy. When Asher had first emerged from the wisps of steam that covered the hot springs, he had been stunned by her appearance.
To say she was gorgeous was an understatement of epic proportions. Even now he could remember the way her brown hair, dyed with some streaks of purple had been plastered to her skin, framing her round, freckled covered face perfectly. There was the nose ring, a small hoop in her left nostril that spoke of a slight bit of rebel.
And her courage. He remembered that too. Coming into Cadia wasn’t brave. That was stupid, as far as he was concerned. But though she had been terrified at his presence, not once had Quinn broken down, freaked out, or been overwhelmed. Her fear had been present, but she had harnessed it, except for a brief stutter of her words at first.
That was what had intrigued him. She was scared, but something was driving her to overcome it.
She’s searching for her mother. That is as powerful a force as there is.
Asher knew that if his mother went missing, though she annoyed him, he would tear the earth apart to find her. That was just the way it was.
And as soon as I found her, she’d probably ask me whether I brought any grandkids along.
He snorted and picked himself up from the floor with a sigh, reaching up to the ceiling and stretching, joins and tendons creaking and popping as he did. The couch was too small for his tall frame, and so he had slept cramped through the night.
The few hours of it he’d slept, at least. By the time he’d gotten Quinn back, fed, changed, and into bed, he got no more than a handful of hours. It was enough though. It would have to be.
Today was a big day.
He was to report to Top Scale Academy in an hour and a half. As a recruit.
It still didn’t entirely sink in, and now he had thoughts of Quinn swirling around as well, no matter how he tried to put her aside. There was just something about the human woman that he couldn’t ignore. Some of it was the sheer exoticness. Asher had not met many humans during his life, and even fewer of them had been young women near his own age.
He was intrigued, and his attention wasn’t completely where it needed to be. He couldn’t get her tall—for a woman—form from his mind. The way she had felt pressed against his chest, the way her head had rested there as he carried her over mile after mile of terrain. The scent of coconut in her hair that had made its way to his sensitive nostrils. The way she had snuggled in tight to try and steal as much of his natural heat as possible.
Even now his dragon tried to exert some control, his feet turning to face the direction of the upstairs bedroom where she was currently passed out.
No. You are not that type of person.
He would let her sleep. Grabbing a piece of paper and a pen from a drawer, he scribbled words on a piece of paper as they came to him. Then he grabbed some food from the cupboard, shoved half of it into his mouth, and changed into some fresh clothes that he had set aside the night before, so he didn’t have to wake Quinn in the morning.
Taking a look around, and with a whisper of a prayer that she would not do anything foolish while he was gone, Asher swept out the door, wondering if that was the last time he would ever see her. He hoped to see those purple locks later though, even if just for her own safety. Going out into Cadia during the daytime would be a death sentence for sure.
Moving to the stone circle in his backyard, Asher took a knee and summoned his dragon. The white mist whirled up and around him as the change came over him, once again scattering frosty icicles around the circle and coating it in a layer of frost half an inch thick.
He hoped one of the first things they taught him was how to change effortlessly, without threatening everyone around him as he did it. The way Blaine had changed in front of him the other day had been so impressively smooth. Asher wanted that sort of skill.
At least now I’m going to be taught it. I just have to excel. At everything.
“No pressure,” he said aloud as he prepared to take off.
Closing his eyes, he remembered how Blaine had done it. How Rhynne had done it. One single powerful swoop of his wings and a perfectly timed push from his legs. Focusing on that, he beat his wings and launched himself into the air.
He might have gone higher than normal, but his momentum stalled and he touched back down. Grimly determined, he continued to beat his wings and pushed off again, moving forward like normal. This time, instead of needing a third push off, his talons scraped the stone and then he was in the air. Working hard, he gained air swiftly. It might have been his imagination, but Asher was positive that was the shortest takeoff he had ever managed.
I’m coming for you, Top Scale.
The ground moved by swiftly as he headed northwest, toward Forlorn Peak.
Calmly now. Use the thermals. You’re anxious, but arriving drained of energy is not going to be the best way to do this. Odds are they’re going to beat you up with physical activity today, and you’ll want all your energy for that.
Taking his own advice, he banked toward the nearest thermal his eyes could spot, and let the hot air spiral him upward with far less energy than he would exert on his own. Reaching a comfortable cruising height, he carefully angled out of the thermal, unimpressed with his aerial maneuverability as he did. It was a rough, jerky movement that exited him from the hot air, not a smooth glide like he had seen other shifters perform.
Just another thing he needed to learn.
With his increased height, Asher was able to glide most of the remaining distance to Forlorn Peak, greatly conserving his energy. He used several more thermals to get him all the way, but it was a fairly uneventful flight, thankfully.
As he was coming in for a landing, a shadow descended over him. Asher reacted immediately, trying to bank away, but the shadow stayed with him. At the last moment, something tagged his right wing, pulling it out of place. Asher snapped both wings in close and hit the ground, curling into the best impression a dragon could make of a ball as he skipped and skidded across the rocky terrain.
As soon as his claws hit after the first roll, he dug them in to the ground and rose up on his hind legs, wings sweeping out wide to arrest his momentum.
“What the hell is your problem?” he snarled at the red dragon circling around.
Wait a minute. I know that dragon.
“Hello Rhynne,” he said glumly. “What are you doing here? And why did you feel the need to do that?”
His scales had protected him from a lot of the damage, but his pride and ego were severely wounded.
The red dragon landed, and in a burst of intense fire that wrapped up around her body, she shrunk to the size of a human. The fire disappeared without even a whiff of smoke, and a raven-haired women stood in its place.
“First lesson of the day. Always check your six. You never know who might be after you.”
Asher stared in awe at the ease with which she shifted, then blinked rapidly and focused on her.
“Is it that dangerous out there?” he asked, nodding to indicate he had heard her lesson.
“More than you can know,” she told him. “Now watch.” She pointed back up into the sky.
Asher did as he was instructed.
There was nothing there, but as he waited, shapes eventually resolved themselves out of the clouds. He saw another fire dragon in a brilliant ruby red of similar size to himself begin to descend.
And there above it, a green dragon was shadowing it, being careful not to allow its shadow to be seen.
“Is that Blaine?” he asked Rhynne, who was standing several feet to his left.
“Yes,” she said simply, knowing he meant the green dragon. The red dragon was another recruit. His clumsy course corrections and ungainly movement were too much like Asher to be anything but.
“He’s going to play the same trick, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
Asher smiled to himself and watched as the red dragon also was forced into a rough landing at the hands of Blaine. His shoulders bobbed up and down in a silent laugh as the same rough lesson was taught.
A sharp glance from Rhynne caught him by surprise. Why was she so mad? He hadn’t done anything wrong! Unless he had. The lessons seemed to be coming fast and furious he realized, as the red dragon stomped angrily around the cleared area, none too pleased about his treatment at the hands of Blaine.
So what was it he was missing? Why would Rhynne do what she had done? Asher was beginning to suspect not much of anything that happened from then on out would be accidental. No, she had glared at him for a reason. Was he not allowed to enjoy watching his fellow recruit go through what he had?
Of course not! She didn’t want him to watch to be amused. She wanted him to watch his brother’s back for him.
In the sky, a dot resolved itself into that of a blue dragon as it descended out of the sun. Asher furiously looked up and above him, knowing that he would see something. But where? Where was it?!
There.
The speck became a dot, well above and to the side of the blue dragon as it began to coast in for a landing.
Asher stepped forward and began to wave his arms, trying to get its attention.
“What are you doing?” Rhynne asked, sounding unimpressed.
“Teaching,” he replied, gritting his teeth. It wasn’t working. The blue dragon wasn’t looking at him.
“Come on,” he said to the red dragon, who still hadn’t shifted back.
He ran forward until he was clear, and summoned his own dragon.
“Asher. What are you doing?” Blaine asked in a commanding voice.
“Teaching,” he replied as the frost swirled up and over him, before exploding outward and coating his instructors, who raised their arms against the storm.
The red dragon was just looking at him.
“Join me,” Asher said, and beat his wings furiously against the ground.
The blue dragon had picked up on what was going on now as Asher rose to meet him, but it still didn’t look behind him.
Asher felt his throat go dry as he got his first good glimpse at the dragon pursuing the next recruit.
Its scales were the color of pure gold.
There were very few Gold Dragons on the planet, and they were the most powerful of their kind. They were generally bigger, stronger, and faster than their kindred. And they could use any of the primary breath weapons.
Asher could only use his frost. Or at least, he was hoping to learn how to. The red dragon recruit who was still on the ground could only use fire. The blue dragon he was approaching was limited to a bolt of lightning.
The Gold Dragon could use any of them at any given time.
And the only Gold Dragon that Asher knew of in Cadia was Daxxton Ryker. Wing Commander of Top Scale Academy.
Gulp.
Still, Asher knew his course of action was the right one. He was ascending several wingspans to the right of the blue dragon, who was looking at him with confusion written clearly across his dragon face. It was a human emotion that translated quite well to the dragon one.
Asher wished he had control of his Frostfire. He could shoot a blast of it past the blue dragon, to indicate he should turn around. But now he was committed to his course.
At the last moment, he saw the blue dragon recognize the shadow descending over him. Asher dug his left wing in deep and his body whipped around in a tumbling curve. He snapped both his wings in tight and the solid mass of dragon passed over top of the blue dragon just in time to cause the Gold Dragon to veer off.
Asher was now heading toward the ground faster than he cared to. His wings snapped out and slowed him down as the stones came up to meet him. His fall eased.
Somewhat. He still hit relatively hard, his massive legs bending to absorb his motion. He growled out with pain, but it was far less painful than his earlier tumble. He got up and looked over at his fellow recruit.
The blue dragon glided peacefully to the ground, looking over at him with fear written on its face.
Fear? Why would it be—
A shadow loomed up over Asher as the massive golden dragon landed next to him.
“And just what do you think you’re doing?” the voice growled menacingly.
He swallowed hard. The Gold Dragon was much larger than he was, easily an extra twenty feet longer. If it wanted to kill him, he was dead.
“Protecting my fellow recruit,” he said.
“At the expense of yourself?”
“Preferably not,” he replied, some of his wit returning. “But we’re going to be in this together. May as well start working like a team now. It’ll—possibly—make things easier.” He shrugged, the motion awkward in dragon form, unsure of what else to say.
The Gold Dragon smiled, and then laughed. “It will not make it any easier, but it will not make it harder, that I promise. Follow me,” he said, turning and walking toward the building that awaited them on the plains ahead, where the rocky ground of the mountain that rose to their left faded away.
As the Gold Dragon walked, a similarly colored globe of liquid gold seemed to swirl out from its feet, until it covered the entire dragon. It then shrunk until it resolved into a figure clad in gold. Asher watched in astonishment as human features formed out of the gold, and then eventually took on a more human coloring. The entire time Daxxton had never stopped walking.
It was the single most impressive thing Asher had ever seen. The power displayed in such a small gesture was beyond impressive.
“Welcome to Top Scale,” Daxxton said.
Asher hurried to follow after him, feeling extra clumsy and awkward as he shifted back to his human form in yet another shower of hail and frost.
The building they approached was a simple, squat affair, three stories tall at most. There were three distinct sections to it, each joined by a single-story corridor. He wondered about the clear-cut separation.
“Recruits, follow me,” Blaine said as they entered the front doors.
Daxxton didn’t say another word as he disappeared to the right.
Asher followed Blaine as they moved into the left-hand section of the building. They were in a common room that extended the full three stories of the building. It occupied fully half the section of building. Windows on three sides let in immense amounts of sunlight. The fourth side, directly opposite of where they had entered, was filled with a staircase that led to the next two floors. A walkway ran from left to right, pure glass with metal casing. There were doorways set into each floor, six apiece.
“This is where you will live for the duration of your time spent at Top Scale,” Blaine said. “Pick a room. Dorms on floor three. Study rooms are floor two.”
Asher froze. “We’re living here?” he asked stupidly.
Blaine looked at him with a gaze that was equal parts annoyed and condescending. “Yes, you will. Is that a problem Mr. Owens? If it is, I could always have Rhynne here drop you back off near the border.”
He gazed at the floor sullenly as his cheeks burned from the embarrassment. The other recruits didn’t laugh, but he could sense their amusement nonetheless.
“No, that will be fine,” he said.
What the fuck am I going to do now? Quinn is expecting me to return later today!
He was so fucked.