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Damien
The next day brought Damien some hope.
He woke in the morning to the sound of children playing, and laughter outside his door. Popping his head out, he saw the younglings running up and down the hallway being chased by a student in the typical Winterspell garb, including cloak and shin-high black boots.
The shrieking giggles and innocent noises echoed up and down the hallway, bringing a warmth to his heart that he’d been sorely missing. Damien grinned and waved at the student to carry on after she paused upon seeing him.
Thank you, Anna, he thought to himself, grateful for the support the woman had shown to him and his people. They were fed, sheltered, and the children were playing. For the moment, there was little more to ask for than that.
Plus, he was going to get to see Anna later that night.
Her offer to meet up with him again in secret had struck Damien by surprise. But after how wonderful and warm she’d felt in his arms when he’d spontaneously hugged her goodbye, he wasn’t going to complain. There was something about this woman that had called to his dragon since the start and was now starting to make itself known to the rest of Damien.
“Excuse me, sir?”
Blinking rapidly, he realized that the student was no longer chasing the children around, but was now instead facing him, her face excited, happy even.
“Sorry,” he muttered by way of apology. “Was just lost in thought. What can I do for you?”
The children, he noted, were standing off to the side, bouncing up and down. What was with the excitement?
“I just thought you should know that I saw them coming in just now.”
Damien stared blankly.
“Through the window?” the student said, pointing behind her. “Over there.”
He walked over to take a look. Down below in the main courtyard was a sight for sore eyes. Just viewing it lifted his shoulders, alleviating some of the stress that he’d begun to pile upon himself as decisions loomed.
“Rokh,” he said quietly, watching the giant red dragon join one of his slightly smaller kin who had already landed.
There was no mistaking the massive red fire dragon. If the size alone didn’t give him away, the pair of horns jutting from the crown of his skull would do the trick. Rokh was the only fire dragon Damien knew of who had one snapped off halfway to the top, courtesy of a brutal fight with an Infected in the closing days of the war.
“I was going to let the children go down to say hello, if you thought that a good idea?”
Damien frowned. He wasn’t sure when the students of Winterspell had stepped in as caretakers to the dragon children, and he still didn’t know how he felt about it. They barely knew one another, and the remaining young were the best chance his race had to continue its existence. To trust their safety and wellbeing to these humans seemed risky.
“Not yet,” he said tersely, realizing that whether or not he approved of that, having them stay in the tower was infinitely better at the moment. “Things are bound to be...tense. Please, keep them occupied up here.”
The student nodded, but she couldn’t conceal the confused expression on her face. Unfortunately for her, however, Damien didn’t have the time to explain everything to her. He had to get to the courtyard, and fast. Before things went sideways. Rokh wasn’t exactly the most patient of dragons.
Racing through the hallway, he slowed only slightly as both Altair and Rane peaked out of their respective rooms. “Come on, hurry!” he shouted, waving at them to join him.
The storm dragons didn’t hesitate. They took off after him, the trio pounding along the stone, down stairways and out into the open air. Normally, Damien would spend some time simply appreciating the flow of air over his face or the beat of the sun’s rays, but he could tell there was no time to dawdle. Things were already on edge.
The two red dragons were both looking around left and right as crowds gathered, stamping their feet uneasily. A quartet of witches—a new term Damien had learned that the magic users preferred to be called—was busy shouting at them, haranguing the dragons and trying to get them to do something.
Smoke curled up around Rokh’s nostrils. Not a good sign.
“Rokh!” Damien shouted, trying to distract everyone, to pull the attention onto himself. “Rokh is that you?”
Big mistake.
The giant red dragon reared up, wings spread wide. “What is this? Have you already imprisoned one of my people? You will let him go already, or I will burn this entire place down around you!”
“I would like to see you try that,” one of the witches snapped, brandishing a little wooden stick at the mighty dragon. “You might not wish you had.”
Damien skidded to a halt. What the hell was going on here? “Rokh. It’s me. Damien. I’m not a prisoner. These witches have agreed to give us sanctuary. We aren’t enemies.”
The big red lowered himself back to all fours. “That’s what they said,” he rumbled, pointing with a wingtip to the sky.
Craning his neck, Damien spied more of his people in the air. A handful more dragons, with figures on their backs.
“But when I landed, this one here began snapping orders at me. Telling me to do this, to do that, and that there’d be trouble if I did not obey her orders.”
Damien sighed as he recognized Master Loiner as the witch in question. A quick glance confirmed his suspicion that Initiate Bowen was one of the others in the quartet.
“Master Loiner?” he inquired, trying desperately to keep the situation calm.
“He is to return to his human form at once! All of you are confined to levels five through seven and are not to leave without express permission. Did the Coven grant you permission to come down here?” the master snapped.
“I’m pretty positive we were never barred from going outside, Master Loiner,” he said calmly. “Nor are we not allowed to go elsewhere. Given, for instance, that the kitchens are on the second floor. Are we to starve then?”
Master Loiner trembled with fury, but she couldn’t refute his point and they both knew it. “Get him inside. He is causing a nuisance!” She waved her wand at Rokh.
“A nuisance?” the massive dragon rumbled, crimson scales glittering in the sunlight. “I’ll show you a nuisance.”
“Rokh.” Damien’s voice cracked across the courtyard. He’d never spoken to the mighty red like that before, but he wasn’t going to let the thin-tempered flame dragon ruin the peaceful accords he’d luckily managed to establish for them here.
“Oh, very well.”
Smoke billowed and the dragon shrank. When it cleared, Rokh was standing there.
Ah shit.
He was also very naked.
“Excuse me!” Master Loiner shrieked and waved her wand at Rokh.
Magic spat from the tip before any of the dragons could react. A glob of black draped itself over Rokh’s body from shoulders to feet, obscuring his nudity from sight.
“This is a place of study, not a harlot house. I will not have such displays of vulgarity here. I will not!”
Damien thought about asking when it was that she’d become the one in charge but refrained from going down that particular path just yet.
“What is wrong with her?” Rokh asked, looking down at himself, trying to peel the magic away. His fingers kept sliding through the material, unable to grasp it. Which, given that it was a spell, not real clothing, made perfect sense. “What is this?”
“It’s called magic,” Damien said. “They have powers similar to us. Like how they ride the winds the way I can. But they have more. They aren’t locked to an element.”
Rokh lifted an eyebrow. “Fascinating.”
“Indeed. There is a lot about them that is...fascinating,” Damien agreed, trying hard to hide his smile as he thought of Anna. “And I promise you, most of them are not like this one.”
“Really? Because I’m not getting a lot of welcoming feelings from the others,” Rokh said under his breath. “What kind of place is this that you’ve found, Damien?”
“That’s a very good question,” he answered. “Let’s get everyone inside.”
By now, a line of witches had formed, making a cordon of the part of the courtyard designated the landing zone. As Rokh had said, none of them looked like they were feeling particularly inviting toward the next group of dragons. Damien glanced around him at the lines. Only the way back to their building was free.
“Did they not tell you that clothing would be necessary upon shifting?” he asked, deciding to just go without issue.
Rokh shook his head. “No. They just said you were with them, and that they would show us where to go.”
“You trusted them.” Damien was surprised by that. Rokh didn’t strike him as the sort to trust someone without good reason.
“I asked enough questions to ensure they were telling the truth,” Rokh said quietly. “Besides, the young needed out of the storm. The cold was getting to most of them despite our efforts. There was no food, nothing.”
“I know,” Damien said, hearing the same feeling of helplessness in Rokh’s voice as he’d heard in his own. “I know.”
He spied Anna in the back behind the front row of witches, pacing them as they walked. She didn’t look happy about anything either, her normally happy features pulled tight. There was almost a sadness in her eyes.
She must not like the way the dragons were being treated by some of her comrades either. The most unfortunate part of it all was that Damien had no idea just what he was going to do about it. What any of them were going to do about it. For now, they just needed time. Time for the witches to get used to the presence of the dragons, and for the dragons to show that they were friends, not enemies, of the witches.
I just hope they give us enough time to do that before something goes wrong.
