Hollie

She awoke in the morning with a start.

Something was wrong. Struggling mightily to bring herself to a full state of alertness, Hollie slammed her eyes open, ignoring the complaints as light seared them. The sudden shock brought her further out of her sleep-induced daze, and after a moment the room snapped into focus, revealing a problem.

Obsidian was gone.

“Shit.” Throwing the blanket off, she slipped down out of the bunk, even as her brain started telling her that this wasn’t the thing it had sensed as wrong. Slowing down for a moment, Hollie took a deep breath and listened, trying to detect what was bothering her.

The only thing she heard was the soft ringing silence in her ears that was a result of too many years of loud music as a youth. Nothing seemed amiss. There were no sounds of screams or yelling. No gunshots. It was peaceful. Which is when it hit her. The camp was silent. Her phone was plugged into the wall where Sid had left it, showing a time of nearly eight in the morning.

“Where is everyone?” she wondered aloud, stretching out the kinks that always came from sleeping in one of the too-hard cots.

By this time the place should be alive with people and the sounds of work. The clang of metal carts as tons of crushed earth were brought to the surface and then trucked away to a disposal site. Of course, they couldn’t start drilling without her, but by now someone should have located her.

Throwing open the door to outside, she peered around.

“Sid?” she called quietly. Had something happened?

Hollie’s imagination began to run wild with various scenarios of what might or might not be occurring. She was more than surprised that the entire camp had been vacant the day before. Had whatever Obsidian done reached out that far? It seemed likely, unless the folks at the camp had just become swept up in the panic the others had instilled. All it would take was one panicked remark about the mountain not being dormant for the company to pull everyone back to a safe distance while they investigated.

But where was Obsidian? That was her most pressing concern. Had he lied to her? Hollie felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. He was down in Drake’s Crossing now, probably killing everyone. How many were dead because she’d slept? What was she thinking leaving a dragon alone?!

The smell of wood burning reached her nostrils.

She wanted to cry. That was the smell of her town burning. More than once she’d dreamt of its destruction at Obsidian’s hand when she was unable to convince him otherwise. Each time people died, it was her fault. But that had only been a dream. Now she was living it out in real life! Thousands dead because of her…

Her shoulders weighted down with the knowledge of what she’d wrought, Hollie trudged around the corner of the building toward the scent. The least she could do is witness everything, and carry that memory forward.

“Good morning!”

The deep voice boomed loudly as she walked into the opening, scaring Hollie so badly she screamed and scrambled backward. “Don’t hurt me!” she shouted, reflexively throwing her hands up over her eyes.

“Why would I do that?” Obsidian asked calmly from where he was crouched in front of a small fire, slowly turning something over.

She paused to recover her wits before responding. “Am I talking to Sid or Obsidian?”

The dragon-man frowned. “Are they not one and the same?”

“No.” She shook her head in the negative to emphasize the point. “Obsidian is all, I am dragon, see me smash, this is my mountain, everyone who comes here dies. Sid is more understanding and he gets it. He’s willing to use his voice instead of his strength.”

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” he said, ignoring her question. “How is it that you so easily accept the fact that I am a dragon shifter?”

Hollie immediately latched onto that new word. Shifter. Shapeshifter. Is that all he is? “So wait, are you a human that can shift into a dragon, or a dragon that can shift into a human?”

“Yes.” Obsidian grinned at her.

“Grrr.”

“If I had to pick, I’d say you are still talking to Sid,” he offered before she lost her temper with him. Again.

God he’s infuriating. It’s a good thing he’s cute or I’d—

Hollie cut that train of thought off immediately, but it was too late. Her eyes had already latched on to his face. Was he truly cute, she wondered as he stood up from his crouch. It was tough to tell. He was tall, and muscular, that much she’d noticed yesterday. But for the first time she realized she hadn’t truly looked at him yet. So much of the prior evening had been focused on preventing end-of-the-world type of destruction that she’d not actually given any attention to Sid the person.

Much of his features were clouded under a beard, she realized with a start. Not nearly as big as she’d expect after five hundred years of not shaving, she thought with a little smile, but it still worked. His long messy dark brown hair was pulled back behind his head, secured in place with a band of what looked to be gold.

From what she could see of his face, his nose and cheekbones were borne of classic strong beauty. Then there were the brown-gold eyes which she’d spent far too much time looking into yesterday as she pleaded with him not to destroy everything. Those were something else, and they definitely spoke of his uniqueness. Every time she looked into them, Hollie felt herself being pulled in, forcing her to work against getting lost in the ancientness they seemed to contain. She wondered just how old he truly was.

“Well Sid, to answer your question, I actually have no idea. If I had to guess, I’d say it was because I was too worried about stopping you from being a murderous thug to truly give thought to the fact that you’re not human. Or not completely human. Or whatever the hell you are,” she finished with a shrug.

“Do you wish to talk about it?”

Damn him and his gentle act! She cursed herself because her mouth had been open to respond before she’d even thought the question through. “Stop using your dragon magic on my mind,” she snapped, more angry at herself than anything.

Sid frowned. “I did not do anything. Controlling someone’s mind is beyond my control.”

Shit. That meant it was all her doing, that Hollie on some level wanted to cave and let him draw her in to him.

“What is there to talk about?” she said instead.

“Whatever you wish.” He looked down at the fire. “Aha, breakfast is ready!” he pronounced.

It was only when he reached down and grabbed the stick off the fire that she noticed he’d been cooking something on it.

“Hungry?” he asked, giving her what was likely supposed to be a charming smile.

Unfortunately for him, the sight of a dead squirrel skewered and cooked was enough to turn her stomach.

“No.” Disgusted enough to forget her manners, she went rummaging in one of the many pockets of her work coveralls until she found the package she was looking for. “A-ha!” she pulled out the metallic-wrapped item and opened it with a flourish.

Working overtime was a given in her profession, and Hollie had learned long ago to always carry food on her. So she had two or three protein bars always stashed on her person at all times. It was a little warm and squished from being slept on, but when she considered the alternative, it tasted like a meal prepared by a five-star chef.

“Ew,” she said around the cookies and cream-flavored mix as Sid took a bite of his meal. “Neanderthal. Couldn’t you have at least found a rabbit, or maybe a duck or something? I’m sure there are deer around here too.

Sid looked at her, his face tight. “A deer would be a waste of a life,” he said rather sharply. “Unless you can eat far more than it would seem, much of the animal would stay unused. I won’t kill such a creature like that just so I don’t offend your delicate senses.”

The sharp rebuke took Hollie by surprise, and revealed a side to him that she hadn’t noticed before.

“So you do care for life. Just not human life.”

He sneered. “Humans breed like rabbits, and destroy everything around them as well. Often they are little better than vermin.”

“Tell me what you really think of me,” she snapped back. “Boy, no wonder dragons of legend have reputations as being loners. If they’re all assholes like you, no wonder nobody wanted to be around them. If you wanted people to leave you alone, maybe you should try using words instead of threatening to burn anyone who comes near.”

Men, she thought with a mental snort, walking away from Obsidian and his fire. Just a bunch of primitive pigs, whether human or dragon. Why is it so impossible to convince them to use words, instead of just targeting violence against anything that doesn’t immediately serve their needs? How is that so hard to understand?! She raged like that for a good five minutes before Sid came over to her.

“I’m sorry,” he said after she finally decided to acknowledge his presence.

“What are you sorry for?” she challenged, downing the last of her bar and crossing her arms. It was time to see if he understood just where he’d gone wrong.

Sid was silent for a moment. “For comparing you to the worst of your race. Not all humans are good, but that doesn’t mean that not all are bad either. I should not have accused you of being in that group, or implied it either, which I suppose is more accurate.”

Well I’ll be damned. Maybe he does know how to talk to a lady after all.

It didn’t register to Hollie that she was thinking of herself as the lady and Sid as the gentleman. If it had, she probably would have freaked out. But Sid drew her attention to another topic.

“Shall we meet with the chieftain today?” he asked.

She sighed. “You didn’t do your research,” she complained.

“I…no,” he admitted. “I spent much of my time familiarizing myself with the events of history since I was last awake, as well as learning as much about human technology as I could. So much of it seems fascinating. You truly have metal contraptions that move around on wheels without horses? I’ve seen the, um, what did you call them, vid-eyes?”

“Videos,” she corrected absently.

“Right. Videos. I wish to ride in a car. Can we do that?”

Hollie laughed, a sharp barking noise filled with sarcasm. “Oh, I wish I could ride in a car as well. But unfortunately, when you did your whole little ‘Everyone run in fear’ thing yesterday, they all took their cars. Since I carpool here, well, we’re SOL.”

“Sol? I don’t understand what this has to do with the sun.”

She hung her head, feeling defeated once more. “Okay, it’s a good thing we have a long walk ahead of us. Crash course on acronyms and the new form of government, coming up.”

“Oh boy,” Sid said dryly as she led the way down the winding road, her feet already hurting as she considered the five-mile trek ahead of them. “I haven’t been to classes in a long time.”

Hollie’s elbow caught him in the ribs, and he was polite enough to say “Ow” halfheartedly, even though the both of them knew it hadn’t hurt at all.

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him.

If that were true though, then why was she helping him?