Searching for Thanksgiving (Dragonlings of Valdier)

Chapter 20

20

C rystal cursed as she stopped and leaned heavily on the hiking stick. She was lost. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. She had lost the trail, if you could call it a trail, a while back and now it was too dark to even see where she had walked.

“ARGH!”

The smothered snicker to her frustrated cry wasn’t helping her mood. She scanned the area, wishing she had the eyesight of a dragon. She had known the dragon-cat was following her, but she hadn’t realized his master was as well.

I should have known knocking him in the jewels wouldn’t stop him, she thought with a sigh.

“You might as well come out,” she called.

“Is it safe?”

Her lips twitched at the cautious note intermingled with the amusement laced in his deep voice. She tried to pinpoint where his voice came from, but it was impossible in the darkness. Everything seemed to echo in the forest.

“Probably not,” she warned.

His low chuckle was closer. She turned and found herself face-to-face with him. Her breath caught when he reached out and caught a strand of her hair that blew across her face in the light breeze.

“You are heading the wrong way,” he said.

“Tell me something I don’t know. The least your pet could have done since you insisted it follow me was keep me on the right path,” she retorted.

The symbiot, invisible in the darkness, snorted at her referring to it as a pet. She knew she was being catty. It was because the guy made her feel?—

Everything.

She felt off-center, clumsy, vulnerable, and worst of all… feminine. The realization made her realize how much she had tried to shield her heart from heartache after her first and only attempt at romance.

This ISN’T romance. This is some other sort of… something.

She blinked when she felt his hand brush along her cheek again. His lips were curved into a bemused smile. It was as if he were experiencing the same conflict that she was.

“I can almost hear your mind churning.”

“You can?”

She inwardly winced at her breathless response. Disappointment filled her when he stepped back. She pulled her trekking pole in front of her and leaned into it.

“I’ll return you to your home,” he said in a gruff tone.

Before she could respond, his body shimmered, and in its place stood a silver and black dragon. She had seen Christoff transform dozens of times since she first met him. Heck, she had even watched her grandmother change, but there was something more intimate about watching Devon.

She reached out and stroked the dragon’s jaw when he bent his head toward her. Her fingers traced the deep grooves. Christoff had told her that most of the time, a dragon… or his more human form… would heal with few scars thanks to their symbiot. The only time it couldn’t was if the wound was too grievous.

She slowly traced the four deep marks. They ran from his jaw, down the right side of his neck and across his chest. Her eyes turned to his claws. The wound had obviously come from another dragon.

The man his symbiot showed me.

The dark-haired man’s features had been contorted with rage when he spoke to Devon. There had been an edge to his voice and in his eyes that spoke of cruelty. She wondered who the man was, and why Devon was arguing with him.

The dragon must have sensed her questions. He rubbed his cheek against her arm. An overwhelming desire to comfort the beast filled her. She understood the deep emotions that ran through a warrior’s dragon and his symbiot, thanks to her visits with Christoff. He had patiently answered her youthful questions.

“Everything will be alright. I’ll keep you safe,” she promised, caressing the strong jaw.

She knew Devon was deep inside the dragon and could understand her. She would have been too shy to have made such a vow to him. It was easier to make them to his dragon and symbiot. Their pain and grief matched her own in many ways.

Her lips curved when the dragon lowered himself to the ground. He turned his head and motioned for her to get on his back. She walked along his side, sliding her hand along his neck. An intuitive part of her seemed to recognize that his dragon needed her touch.

She braced herself against his side and slid her good leg over his back. Once she felt balanced, she adjusted her bag and retracted her trekking pole until it was a quarter of its normal length.

“Whoa,” she laughed when Devon stood.

She leaned forward and gripped one of the black ridge-plates that ran along his neck. She tightened her legs as much as she could. Memories of horseback riding flowed through her mind. The memory brought a bitter sweetness with it. For the two friends, riding horses had been one of their favorite things to do after school and on the weekends.

She gripped tighter when she felt the muscles under her tense. She expected him to fly, but instead, he began a slow, lumbering pace through the forest.

“When I was young, before the accident, Stacy and I used to go horseback riding every day. My parents bought me a horse when I was seven. I met Stacy at the barn. Her parents owned it. We became best friends,” she shared. She lowered one hand to her left leg. “I miss it. I miss Stacy.”

She breathed deeply, letting the emotions that she normally kept tightly under control free. For some reason, she… wanted to share this with him. He paused mid-step and turned his head to look at her. She rubbed his neck.

“Stacy had this goofy laugh that the other kids used to tease her about, but I thought it was great. She said she did it to annoy them, that they were just jealous that she could sound like Fran Drescher. You probably don’t know who that is. She is a really cool actress back on my world. Stacy loved watching her and would mimic her,” she continued.

She bent when they went under a branch. The slow rocking pace was relaxing. Through the branches, she could see the glow of stars. Around them, glowing insects flashed while some of the unique planet’s flora glowed as the dragon’s body brushed against it. In the illumination, she could see Devon’s symbiot walking beside him.

“We had been to a riding competition. Stacy and I got into a fight. She was upset that I had dropped out of one of the events that she was competing in.” She blinked back tears as she remembered the fight. For years, she had pushed it to the back of her mind. She lifted a hand to wipe at her cheek. “I had forgotten that. I knew I was better at barrel racing than she was. My horse, Babydoll, was a quarter horse and could hug the barrels on the turns. I didn’t want to beat her. There was a group of kids from school there, and I had overheard them making fun of her and her horse, Twinkie. I wanted her to win. When I told her why, she got mad. She said she didn’t need me covering for her. That she didn’t care what those kids said, but I knew that she did.”

“She sat in the front seat with her mom instead of the back with me like we normally did. It might not have mattered, but… maybe it would have. I was in the hospital for six months after the accident then I went into rehab. After… afterwards, I shut down. My folks were hoping I would get interested in riding again, but I didn’t want anything to do with it. I didn’t want anything to do with anything anymore. Life had lost its magic,” she softly confessed.

Devon’s muscles rippled under her. Before she could understand what he was about to do, he launched himself upwards. Her startled gasp was swept away as he bounded from one low branch to the one above it until they were near the top of a large tree.

She laughed when he pushed off. His wings extended, and he stroked them up and down, climbing higher and higher above the forest floor. The wind swept through her shoulder-length hair. Beside them, the dark shadow of his symbiot flew in the shape of a winged-cat. In the moonlight, she noticed streaks of gold running down along his body.

She straightened. Keeping one hand on the spike on his neck, she cradled her trekking pole across her lap and held out her hand. She spread her fingers so the wind could flow around and between them.

Ahead of her, stars glittered like fairy lights down to the horizon. The twin moons hadn’t risen yet. In the distance, she could see the scattering of lights from the village. She scanned the area, trying to locate her grandmother and Christoff’s home. It was closer to the river.

From up here, she could see for miles and miles. Colorful lights dotted the forest from the exotic flora that lived there. Her lips parted when she spotted a pack of bioluminescent mammals running along the forest floor.

Laughter bubbled up at the feeling of freedom soaring through her. She couldn’t remember the last time that she felt this light—both mentally and physically. She wanted to bottle this moment and keep it where she could drink from it again and again.

I was wrong. There is still magic in the world.