Authors: Rain Oxford
“They are all terrified of the dark, but she just ran
out there to get food for you. She risked it because she wanted to please you.
Not much of a wolf, is she?”
“She realizes who is in charge. Good, pet,” I
praised. She didn’t understand my words, but my pleased tone was universal and
she smiled. “I smell no poison or toxins or anything wrong with the food.” I
went to the basket and pulled out some of the bread. I gave it one more careful
sniff before handing it to Sammy, then got some of the roasted meat for myself.
Dylan pulled out a vegetable and handed it to Sammy,
who made a face as if Dylan had handed him a severed hand. Dylan had just bit
into the meat when Sammy’s vegetable plopped out of his hand and landed on the
floor.
Sammy made an exaggerated gasp and put his hand over his
mouth. “Oops! Oh, no!” he said before stuffing his mouth with bread. Dylan
turned around as if Sammy wouldn’t realize he was laughing. The baby smiled up
at me.
Rojan thought it was hilarious.
When the three of us had eaten enough, I pushed the
basket towards the woman. After that, I settled Sammy on the bed and handed him
his stuffed dragon. The little child rolled over to sleep without a fuss.
The woman took this as her chance and cautiously
approached me. She was talking, but at least her voice wasn’t irritating. Her
scent had changed a little, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I did understand
that her voice had lowered, and not in a threatening way.
When she stood right in front of me, I stared
dispassionately at her face. Yes, I knew she was very attractive, but Rojan
felt it would be weak to react to her body. When she reached for the buttons of
my shirt, I let her, but shifted my eyes for a moment.
She was a beast inside, just like the others, ruled
by her instincts and the dangerous predator she became. But she was also very
young and innocent. She had strong morals against killing. Her person side was
good, even as her beast side was strong. To her people, she was a leader that
demanded respect and submission. For me, she was willing to submit. She had
seen that I am stronger than her and neither she nor her wolf were foolish.
Rojan liked that.
Her hands shook as she undid the ties of my pants.
The person in her feared my non-reaction as a rejection even as her wolf pushed
her to act. Even while mostly naked, standing in front of a very attractive,
completely naked woman who was offering herself to me, Rojan would not let my
body react at all. She spoke again.
Can you smell that scent she is putting off? She
wants to breed,
Rojan said. He didn’t like the idea of mating with her any
more than I did. She was more beast than person as far as we were concerned,
which is interesting because my
dragon
felt she was too much of an
animal.
“She is saying that she would make a good mother,”
Dylan said.
There were too many voices in my head and the woman,
who was more wolf than person, was too close. She had just started to go to her
knees when water formed in the air, enveloped her, and slammed her into the
wall, not quite knocking her out but definitely stunning her.
“My mama!” Sammy yelled. Rojan purred with pride that
Sammy would show his dominance. I didn’t think he should learn to throw women
around, but too many men I knew were terrified of women, so it was good that he
would stand up to one. This was the second woman he threw across the room.
Unfortunately, Dylan was right about their fear of
magic. The woman started screaming and yelling and the black wolf burst in,
quickly followed by the rest of the pack. I got to work fixing my clothes. I
didn’t need Dylan to translate what the woman was saying as she yelled her head
off. They moved to attack as if they forgot how much more powerful Dylan and I
were.
Dylan sighed. “Sammy, look what you did.”
“Sorry, Dada,” he said, not sounding very sorry.
One of the men shifted into his dark brown wolf and
attacked. Dylan very calmly created an energy shield. The wolf crashed into it
and withered on the ground in pain. “I may have made it a bit electrically
charged,” Dylan explained.
This only made the wolf-men angrier. They were
afraid; I could smell it, but they would stand their ground against magic.
“They would submit to your dragon, but it appears
they have morals and think magic is evil,” Dylan said. “Let’s try to leave
peacefully.”
“We tried peaceful. They have attacked us, challenged
us, and upset Sammy. I think we should burn this place down,” I said. Rojan
agreed with me, but I knew Dylan would refuse. Dylan always refused; he was a
Guardian who had to be above vengeance.
“Okay,” he answered. I looked at him. He smiled and
nodded. “Do it. Burn it down.”
Sammy gaped at him with his mouth open.
The woman, my pet, was picked up roughly by her arm
and held by a man in the back of the group. I thought she was being protected
until the same man put a knife to her throat. She begged for help and the black
wolf turned to her, then blew her off with some cold remark and turned back to
us.
“They’re angry with her because she submitted to
magic users and tried to be with you,” Dylan said. “They’re calling us all
kinds of nasty names and they’re ready to lump her in with us. Mordon, I think
the alpha, the one who turns into the black wolf, is her father. She sounds
pretty upset that he wants her dead.”
She brought it upon herself,
Rojan insisted. I
shook my head.
“She can go with us. Maybe we can get her to another
pack. She shouldn’t be killed for doing something when she didn’t know any
better,” I insisted. Dylan glared at me. “What?”
“You’re all good with burning everything to the
ground until someone needs your help,” he accused. “That’s so dragon-like of
you.”
“How would you even know?” I asked him, then
interrupted before he could respond. “Let her go,” I demanded. “Tell them what
I’m saying; they already want to kill us. Tell them she’s my pet and they will
let her go unharmed or I will burn them all to ash.”
“I can understand them, I don’t know if I can speak
their language. I’ll try.” Dylan closed his eyes and breathed out, then looked
at them. The words that came fluently from his mouth were definitely of their
language. It sounded less guttural from him, but he had no trouble putting
power behind his words.
Their response was to collectively take a step back
and the girl gasped as she was held tighter.
“That’s a negative, captain. Should I fire a warning
shot or do you want to hail them again?” Dylan asked.
“They didn’t understand my ultimatum, so explain it
to them.” I barely got the words out of my mouth before the door behind the men
was blown to bits. The men were unharmed, but scared out of their minds.
Dylan grinned and said something else in the foreign
language. The man holding the woman let her go, but she looked like she wanted
to run out the door.
“Get over here, pet,” I demanded. She may not have
understood the words, but she got the message, and ran to my side.
“We might be at a standoff. I don’t actually want to
hurt them, but they really do want us dead. If you let the woman go, they’ll
kill her. I’m not sure if it’s because she brought us here or because she
submitted to you, but they aren’t having any of it.”
A gust of wind blew in through the empty doorway and
the grown men freaked. They all got out of the way, as if they were afraid of
something outside. I took a deep breath, tasting the night air. Not a heartbeat
thumped in the dark, as the entire pack was crammed in this room, but there was
definitely something out there…
“There’s something in the dark. Dylan, can you put an
energy field around this cabin?”
“You mean, one that would keep out that darkness of
death thing we faced in the woods? Yeah, I could do that, of course I could…
problem is to keep the darkness out, I would have to make it air tight. Cabin
this size with this many panicking people… I’d say we would have about twenty
minutes before we start to suffocate. Assuming they don’t have super-efficient
lungs.”
“Plenty of time to come up with a plan B,” I
insisted. I felt my hair stand as the shield went up over the cabin with a
cracking, live sound. The wolves started to panic even worse until Dylan
explained what he did and why. They were still cautious.
My pet tried to slide her arms around my left one,
possibly looking for comfort from a stronger male.
“Off!” Sammy demanded.
Dylan laughed as she jumped back. I caught Sammy’s
hands before he could reach into the baby bag for something heavy to throw.
Dylan took the bag.
“I can keep them away long enough for you to heal
this world,” I said.
“What about doing a little bit at a time? Weren’t you
the one saying I need to take it slow?” he asked.
Truthfully, I knew he was powerful enough now to do
it all at once, but I also knew that would be the worst thing to say. “I think
the dangers of taking it slow outweigh those of using too much energy too
fast.”
“I don’t want to strain my magic. I’m already getting
more powerful, I don’t want to increase the speed at which I become more
powerful.”
You are on a magic-fearing world with monstrous
insects, flesh-eating shadows, and people who are all part beast. It is worth
the risk. Get done and get out,
Rojan warned.
I relayed the message and added that I agreed.
He nodded. “Okay. Let’s see what healing looks like
on this monster.” He sat down on the bed and closed his eyes.
I let Sammy down and growled at anyone who looked at
Dylan in a way I didn’t like. Sammy wrapped his arms around my legs and watched
Dylan. I felt the energy engulf the room and about the time I knew something
went wrong, Dylan opened his eyes.
“I did it.”
“Already?” I asked. He hadn’t had his eyes closed for
an entire minute.
When he pitched forward, I was barely able to catch
him. He shook his head and righted himself. Without even looking around, I knew
that something was wrong. I inhaled, but there was nothing to smell. I couldn’t
smell anything except a slight mold, like no one had been here in years.
“Where’s Sammy?” Dylan asked. The two of us were
alone, and the cabin looked as if that had been the state for a very long time.
Dylan jumped to his feet with a yell, but I pushed him back on the bed.
“We’ll find him. We’ll find him. Just breathe. He’s not
the only one missing,” I said. He frowned at me, both wondering what I was
saying and worrying out of his mind. I felt the emptiness inside, as if I had
been living with someone for many years and they were suddenly absent. “Rojan
is gone.”
Dylan put his face in his hands and focused on
breathing. I sat next to him. “Why does this cabin look like no one has been
here in years? Were we thrown into the future?” he asked.
“Normally, that is something I would be able to pick
up on by smell, but not this time. My sense of smell is gone. That’s probably
what happened, so what’s the next step? Look for their Guardian?”
“Yeah.” He put his hands down. “Assuming their
Guardian isn’t like their people, he should be the best person to help us. I
could use my magic to try to go back in time, but who knows what would happen?
If we can’t find him, I can try again to heal the damage.”
“I thought you said you already healed the whole
world. I was surprised because it only took you about minute,” I said.
He frowned. “I did.”
“Then why would you need to---”
“No, I mean I did say that, but I didn’t finish. I
couldn’t have finished. I thought I had, but I still feel the damage. The world
is bleeding and growling like a wounded dog, snapping at his rescuer. The
people neglected this world and its magic.”
“We need to do this quickly.”
“Yeah, Sammy is missing,” I said.
I didn’t like the look on his face. “Yes. That’s very
important, but I feel like we’re running out of time. Guard the door while I
search for the Guardian.”
I studied the door, confused. “Didn’t you blast that
door?” I asked.
He scowled at it like it was a venomous snake. “I
did. They must have rebuilt it.”
“Priorities. So if this is the future, what happened
to Sammy? Certainly if left alone on a world with magic-fearing monsters, he
would take over and rule the world.”
“In less than a week. I don’t sense anyone powerful
around. And by around, I mean on this world.” I stared at him, causing him to
pause. “How long did I spend on that search?” he asked me.
“I didn’t realize you did a search. Something’s wrong
with time. Is it just us, or is it everything around us? Is this something
happening to us specifically? That would make me think you did something when
trying to heal the world. If it’s something that is happening to everyone
around us, I think your powers are protecting us.”
“So we have two possibilities, but no solutions. What
do we know?”
“It is time, probably not space, that is messed up.”
“It happened when you grabbed me, right after I
thought I healed the world. I sat up on the bed and then I just felt sick.”
“So this could be a magical attack of some kind.”
“We have yet to meet the Guardian or the god. I think
either of them would want to talk to us quickly, to threaten us if nothing
else.”
“My dragon and Sammy are missing,” I added. We sat
for a few minutes, thinking of what all we knew for sure. It was a pretty short
list.
“We’re in this alone.”
“We’re in this together,” I corrected.
* * *
After a lot of thought, and a little bit of argument,
we decided to leave and search the village for clues. It was still dark
outside, but there were three moons to light the village. The large one we had
seen earlier was still there, but it was now joined by two smaller ones. Dylan
scoffed when I said it was odd; Duran had two and Earth only had one. How they
could function I had no clue. More interestingly was that one of the moons was
orange.