Riding My Dragons (The Dragons Of Tellus #1)

CHAPTER 1

Elliot

With eyesight sharper than a human’s, and a good eye for anything that’s pretty and female, I spotted her right away from across the street.She wasn’t my usual type, but she was interesting.

I was sitting on the outdoor patio of a pub with my friends, Byron and Cade.We were having drinks before it was time for Byron to go over to the front courtyard of the Pendrake City Museum of History to give his opening address for Reconciliation Week.The three of us were talking about the wrestling match where I’d be competing tomorrow when I stopped for a moment to let my friends talk about how much they’d bet on me pinning my opponent.The girl across the street pulled my attention away from how much they had dropped on me and how I’d better pay off.She was an unusual kind of distraction.

Being a Scaler and a fairly well-known athlete, I was used to the company of women of a certain kind: “model” types, very obviously hot.This girl was hot, but not obvious.She was about eighteen, maybe nineteen, as far as I could tell.Her build was gently curved, not the thin-waisted, broad-hipped type.She was slender, trim, healthy, but not the “exotic dancer” kind of woman that I knew so well.The dark-eyed brunette with hair tumbling over her shoulders had a dreamy sort of look on her face, as if she might be looking at someone but her mind might not exactly be right there with them.And just now, she seemed as if she would rather be looking at anyone besides the three guys who had come up to her.

Scanning the whole scene, I sized up the situation.There were other people of about her age gathered nearby, and someone older, probably in his forties or fifties, standing with them.They were waiting near the stage area where Byron was going to give his talk.This, I guessed, was a group of college students who’d come to see Byron light the fire pit; the older guy must be their professor.School groups often showed up for things like this before their classes went on break for Reconciliation.The brunette must have come with her class and either lagged behind them or gotten cut off from them by these guys, who from the look of them were just plain obnoxious.They were grinning at her and leaning into her space, and from the way she wouldn’t look them in the eyes and kept trying to back off from them or maneuver around them, she didn’t appreciate that.

I frowned at the scene.She shouldn’t have to put up with that.

My decision made, I forgot my drink and got up from our table and started towards the sidewalk and the curb.Byron and Cade looked up, surprised, from their conversation.“Elliot, where are you going?” Byron asked.Leaving their drinks as well, the two of them started after me.

On the pavement, I paused to let some cars go zipping by, zipping over the pavement on the Ambience energy fields of their undercarriages.Cade said, “Byron’s talk isn’t for another fifteen or twenty minutes yet.What’s going on?”

Pointing to the girl, who was looking more and more uncomfortable with these idiots around her, I simply said, “That.”

There was an opening in the traffic, and I quickly stepped out into the street; Cade and Byron following me.We got to the other side of the street, where the damn pests just were not catching on to the brunette’s disinterest in them.With my friends just a couple of steps behind me, I walked up to where these morons had her surrounded, and asked the brunette, “Is something the matter here?”

Whatever rude, stupid banter the three fools were bothering her with stopped as soon as they saw my friends and me.Their eyes, and the brunette’s, went right to us.

“No, man,” said one of the idiots, a kid with a ring through one side of his lower lip.If I’d been in my other body, I could have pierced the other side for him with a claw.“We’re just trying to get to know our new friend, here.”The look on his face was more gross than friendly.I narrowed my eyes at him.

Then I said to the brunette, “Are these guys friends of yours?”

“I’ve never seen them before in my life.”She gestured beyond us to the school group.“I’m here with my class for the Reconciliation ceremony.”

The ring-lipped moron said, “And we were just asking her what she was doing afterwards when her class goes on break.”

“Yeah,” said one of his friends, who had a brown complexion and frizzy black hair.“We wanted to invite her someplace to go hang out, didn’t we?”

The third idiot had a more husky build and smelled of something that told me what these three liked to do when they “hung out.”The brunette’s disgusted look suggested that wasn’t her kind of pastime.She was scared and sickened by them.The husky, smelly guy said, “Yeah, it’s her break–time to get loose, right?”

I wouldn’t have minded “loosening” the teeth of all three of these slimers.They were like jackals, picking off their chosen prey from the rest of the herd.Meanwhile, the girl had mostly kept her eyes on me.I asked her, “What’s your name?”

“Jenna,” she said.

“Hello, Jenna,” I said, careful not to offer her my hand or try to touch her.These bastards had made her skittish enough.“I’m Elliot.”I gestured to my friends.“This is Byron,” I said, indicating my well-shaved friend with the slit-backed suit.

There was a flash of recognition in Jenna’s eyes.“Byron Ledger?The one who’s giving the speech and lighting the fire?”

Byron gave a gentlemanly tilt of his head and smiled.“The same.”

Gesturing to my other friend, with the scruffy goatee and the open-backed leather vest, I said, “This is Cade Taisce.”His name was pronounced tash-ka.

“Hi, Jenna,” said Cade.

I put a hand on my chest, in my form-fitting, slit-backed athletic top and slacks.“Elliot Ladon.It’s nice to meet you, Jenna.”

At the mention of my full name, the jaws of the three twits dropped open as if their face muscles were in sync.They stared over and up at me, realizing just who it was that they were dealing with.

Ring-through-the-lip stammered in a hushed and awestruck tone that I was glad to hear, “E-E-Elliot…Ladon?The Elliot Ladon?”

“The one and only,” I replied, and for emphasis, I let just my face go to my other form.The skin turned to scales as my face became a reptilian snout and horns began to bud from my forehead.At either side of me, Cade and Byron did the same.Just like that, the three idiots all took a step back.It was one thing to harass a shy brunette, but they had just enough working brain cells among them to know better than to get on the bad side of a champion dragon wrestler and his buddies.

The ring-lipped guy was suddenly nervous, which was a healthy way for him to be at the moment.“L-look, Mr. Ladon,” he stammered further, “we didn’t mean to bother her.Honest, we were just trying to talk her up a little.”

“Really,” said the frizzy-haired guy.“We weren’t trying to be any trouble.”

The husky, smelly one didn’t say anything aloud.He just backed off a little more and muttered something that no one probably wanted to hear.

I suggested with just enough of a reptile hiss in my voice, “Then why don’t you guys just move along and let Jenna get back to her class.It’s almost time for Byron here to give his speech.”

“Right,” said Byron.He glanced over in the direction of Jenna’s group.“Look, here comes the professor now.”

Sure enough, the gent with the salt-and-pepper hair who had been talking to the rest of the college group was moving in our direction, asking, “What’s going on?Jenna, what are you doing over here?There’re just a few minutes until the ceremony.”

“It’s all right,” said Byron, letting his face morph back to human.“I’m ready for my speech.We just noticed Jenna here had gotten separated from the rest of the class.”

The professor was startled for a moment, recognizing Byron the way Jenna’s “friends” recognized me.Byron, with his well-heeled and politically well-connected family, was one of the most prominent people in Pendrake City.“Oh, Mr. Ledger,” said the professor.“I didn’t realize it was you.”

“We have everything in hand here,” said Byron.Looking right at the three losers, he said with a subtle edge in his voice, “And these guys were just getting on their way.No harm done, right?”

The losers nodded nervously and answered with a chorus of, “Right.Sure.No harm; we were just going.”They didn’t say another word.The three of them just showed us their backs as they walked as fast as they could without breaking into a run across the museum courtyard.

Jenna’s whole manner relaxed, and Cade and I let our faces return to human.Exhaling with relief, Jenna showed me a soft smile that told me what a good thing I’d just done.“Thank you so much,” she said.“I’m sorry; it seemed like they knew who you are, but…um…,” she was a little embarrassed now, “I’m not placing you.”

Clapping his hand on my shoulder and giving me a friendly shake, Cade said, “Jenna, you mean you’ve never heard of Elliot Ladon?He’s one of the best dragon racers and wrestlers in Pendrake Province.You ought to see all his trophies.”

“Stop it,” I said.It was my turn to be embarrassed now.“Obviously Jenna doesn’t follow sports and that’s all right.”To Jenna, who was still gazing at me, but now with a kind of fascination that was also a very good look for a quietly pretty girl, I said, “I’m just glad we were here to help.”Tilting my head in the direction of where the three fools hurried off, I said, “It didn’t look like they were the kind of company you want.”

Jenna brushed a hand through her hair.“No, definitely not,” she said.

“It’s not social time yet anyway,” said the professor.“We should be letting Mr. Ledger get up onto the front steps.And you, Jenna, need to get back with the rest of the class.You know you’re not supposed to lag behind.”

“I’m sorry, Professor,” said Jenna.To me, she said, “He’s right; I need to get over there with the others.”

“Since we’re going that way too, we’ll walk with you,” I suggested.The natural shyness that I sensed about Jenna came over her.She looked away from me and then back at me, with another smile that suggested to me how much she liked that idea.I liked that she liked it.

As we walked with the professor back to where the rest of the class group had gathered, I stayed next to Jenna and decided I’d make another suggestion, just to see what would happen.

“If you’ve never seen a dragon wrestling match,” I said, “I’m having one tomorrow.“If you’re interested, I could give you a pass.You could come as my guest.”

She blinked at that, startled at the idea.“A wrestling match?”

“A dragon wrestling match,” I repeated.“It’s more like the kind of wrestling they do in college than those fake things with the loud, muscled-up humans.”

“Except you do it in your…other body,” she guessed, looking up at me with continuing fascination.And there was something fascinating about her too; I couldn’t exactly make out what it was.Something told me that Jenna was not the typical college girl or the typical young woman.There was something about her that seemed different from any female, human or my own kind, that I’d ever met.I couldn’t explain it, but I could sense it was there and something in me wanted to know what it was.

“Right,” I said.“Dragon wrestling—as a dragon.”

We reached the rest of her class and Byron continued on to the wide front steps of the museum, leaving Cade and me with the college group.

“Listen, if you’re not interested in sports, I understand,” I said.“I know not everyone is.I just thought my offer was more honestly friendly than the one you were getting from those characters.”

“It is,” said Jenna.“And you know, my break is starting tomorrow, and I didn’t have any plans…”She gave me a look that felt like sunshine pouring out of her.“You know, it’ll be something different.Okay, yes, I’d like to see you wrestle.”

“Great,” I said.And I imagined Jenna picturing me in my other shape, with my scales and my dragon neck, my wings and horns and tail.I actually dared to wonder just for a second if she might even picture me another way.She reminded me of the first girl that I ever went to bed with.It was her first time as well as mine.Something in the way Jenna looked me up and down took me back to my times with that first girl, and the way she looked at me when we undressed together for the first time.There was a natural sense of discovery about it.But no, I swatted that thought from my head, at least for the time being, since I didn’t really know anything about Jenna or any of her past experiences.This, I decided, was about doing something nice for her.That was all–just something nice for someone that I thought deserved it.

And maybe after the match, I could find out something more about her.

There was a nudge at my arm and I looked over at Cade, who gave me a crooked smile and a little shake of his head.I could tell what was on his mind.Elliot, she’s in college.She’s no older than nineteen.We’re twenty-five.What are you doing there, sport—robbing the nest?

Cade had a point, after all.Jenna and I weren’t exactly on the same page in life.We weren’t actually in the same book, so to speak.But for some reason I needed to get to know her.It didn’t have to mean anything else but finding out who she was.

Or so I told myself at the time.