“Time to rise!”
The shout startled me awake and I shot up. I was greeted by a faint mist that floated through the woods around me. A crackling fire staved off the worst of the airy chill of the morning air.
Tegan was bent over the fire with a skillet set on a flat rock in front of him. His transformed right arm clutched the hot handle without issue. A sizzling noise came from the pan and the scent of meat floated over to me. I inhaled deeply and my reaction earned a chuckle from my companion.
“I’m glad to see you’re not particular about your meat,” he mused as he used a two-pronged fork to move around the food.
I cocked my head to one side. “Should I be?”
He shrugged. “Well, it’s not everyone who would be willing to eat forest rat.”
My face drooped and my eyes widened. “Forest. . .rat?”
His eyes twinkled as he moved the meat about on the skillet. “I caught it only an hour ago. It should be just about ready.”
I shrank away. “What else is there?”
He nodded at his knapsack. “Bread. The cheese last night was my last morsels.”
My face drooped and I leaned over the fire to inspect the white meat in the skillet. “What does it taste like?”
“Like a very greasy pig,” he told me.
I dropped back on my legs and sighed. “Well, I guess there has to be a first time for everything.” I watched him use his transformed hand to draw the skillet a little closer to the flame. “So why are you using the campfire? Why not use your hand or your breath?” I asked him.
“My fire generally lacks the finesse needed for cooking,” he told me as he poured equal amounts onto cleaned pieces of bark. “That is, unless you want it on the crispy side.”
“I’ll have to see. . .” I murmured as he held out one bark plate to me. I accepted the food and pinched a piece between my fingers. It was slightly greasy but not so much to make a burger wrapper become transparent. I gingerly took a bite and swallowed. My eyes lit up and I turned my surprised face to Tegan. “This is pretty good.”
He grinned as he took a bite himself. “It’s the sea salt. I harvested it myself on the shores of the Meith Sea.”
My eyebrows rose. “Where’s that?”
“Far south of here and in the domain of the vampires.” I choked on my second bite of food and my bulging eyes stared at him. He burst into laughter. “You are a sight to behold, Kate. I’m guessing your world hasn’t forgotten their species. They were quite a nuisance several centuries ago and I have no doubt they made themselves the same in your world.”
I swallowed hard. “Let’s just say they weren’t well-liked, but you’re serious? Vampires?” He held up his transformed arm. I shrugged. “Point taken. You were saying something about their domain?”
“They have their own lands to the west of here.”
I lifted my eyes to the trees above our heads. “So where are we now?”
“Conas. The land of the-.” A low, far-off howl interrupted him.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I whipped my head around the area. My eyes must have been as big as saucers. “What was that?”
“A werewolf,” Tegan told me as he frowned. “And not too many miles off.”
The previously asked question about seriousness raced through my mind before it was just as quickly discarded. I slumped down and stared blankly at my bark bowl. “Vampires. Werewolves.”
“Handsome dragon men,” Tegan added.
I sighed and took another bite of my meal. “What next? Unicorns and talking birds?”
“We can only hope those are avoided,” Tegan mused as he tossed his empty bark plate into the fire. He brushed his hands together and smiled at me. “But we should get going before the werewolves find our scent. They’re not fond of sudden incursions into their land without permission.”
I looked up at the tree line and my heart faltered a little. “You sure I’m full of magic? Or maybe this isn’t a dream?”
He stood and held out his hand to me. “I’m certain.”
I sighed and accepted his hand. He helped me to my feet and began packing. The task took only a few minutes while I doused the flames of the makeshift fire with dirt.
Tegan held out his coat to me. “Take this.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not cold.”
He nodded at the foliage. “You’ll need it for the wilderness that’s ahead of us.”
I reluctantly accepted his offer, being only in the thin attire from my office job. We headed into the woods with Tegan in the lead. There was no trail to follow so the bushes and low tree branches had their way with us. I was a mess of scratches and sticky scrambles. Tegan would have been worse but for the scales he grew out of his arms and neck that protected his flesh.
I couldn’t help but gape at the abnormal skin. He spoke up after a long silence. “They don’t hurt.”
I started back. “I didn’t say anything.”
He turned his head to one side so I caught sight of a twinkling eye. “You didn’t have to. I was just answering the usual question that pops into the minds of others unfamiliar with dragon shifters.”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t wondering that. I was wondering if I shouldn’t give you your coat back.”
He looked a little surprised but a smile slipped onto his lips. “There’s no need for that.” He tapped a fisted hand against his other arm. The scales rang as hard as stone. “Brambles won’t get through this.”
“What can get through that?” I asked him.
He dropped his arm and stared ahead. “I’d rather not say.”
I winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
He shook his head. “It’s better for you that I not say.”
I cocked my head to one side. “For me?”
“My kind generally don’t tell others about our weakness because our foes would force the information out of you,” he pointed out.
“What kind of foes do you guys have?”
“There-” A howl interrupted his reply. “There isn’t any particular foe against all dragon shifters, but we live long enough that we gain some enmity with one family or another.” I opened my mouth but he continued. “We live well on two centuries. A feat far longer than werewolves but nothing compared to the near-immortality of vampires.”
My eyes widened. “So vampires really do-ah!”
My foot had stepped on a soft spot in the earth and sunk half a foot. Tegan spun around as I struggled to lift my leg out. “Don’t move-”
Too late. My struggles opened up a larger and much deeper hole that swallowed me whole. I fell into an abyss of darkness where my voice echoed all around me. My arms flailed about and my hands came into contact with thin vines. I managed to grab a bundle which I slid down for a yard before capturing a tight enough grip to come to a hard stop. My legs swung beneath me and my heart pounded in my chest.
A shadow partially blocked the hole and Tegan’s voice shouted down at me. “Kate!”
“Help!” I yelled back as I clung to the dark, dirt-spattered root.
A quick look down between my feet showed me a pitch-black abyss. The sunlight through the break in the ground allowed me only enough light to glimpse huge roots that snaked their way through one another and disappeared into the stone walls of the finely shaped tunnel. Smooth cobblestones decorated the floor and huge stone blocks were set into the walls and ceiling. A pile of rubble far beneath me was the remains of the stone block through which I’d fallen.
One of the larger roots began to move. My eyes widened as the ‘root’ slithered up the vines toward me. A pair of golden eyes stared hungrily in my direction and a long tongue flicked out to taste my fear.
“Tegan!” I screamed as I flailed in the air. “Help!”
The serpent slithered up the vines toward where I helplessly hung. I flailed my legs about and one of my feet connected with the creature’s thick head. The serpent’s head snapped to one side but it just as quickly whipped it back. Now its golden eyes were full of fury and it hissed at me. The creature slithered closer and opened its gaping maw to swallow my foot. A pair of sharp fangs on the top of its mouth dripped with poison to guarantee the kill.
I tried to climb higher up the root, but my weight only loosened more of the foliage above me. Some of the lesser roots that supported my lifeline were pulled from the earth and dropped on top of my head. Dirt fell into my hands and my grip began to fail me. My hands lost their grip one painful inch at a time and drew me closer to the creeping fangs of the snake.
I finally lost their hold on the vine and I fell into the abyss of cold stone, darkness, and merciless fangs.