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Shortly before dawn . . .
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Shamira sometimes wondered exactly how much money Shane either had personally or had access to, because overnight he had managed to acquire a one-hundred acre farm up near Ellijay, GA with the possibility of buying more of the surrounding area. There was an old hay barn on the property which was spacious enough to accommodate two dragons, a dozen intact eggs, and tons of guards. Apparently the Tribunal had already heard of the young dragon and the return of Shadow Wing, and their safety was top priority.
Shane was waiting at the farm when Shamira and the young dragon arrived. The smaller newcomer followed its larger counterpart’s lead in just about every way to the point that it was creeping her out. She was glad that she temporarily had four feet, because the little one was constantly on the verge of tripping her up.
“He seems quite attached to you,” Shane chuckled from a safe distance. He and the other guards and members of his house that had come with their boss had been told not to rile the young dragon, who was staring at them all with great suspicion while simultaneously hiding under Shamira’s massive bulk. “The Tribunal is sending the world’s foremost expert on the history of the Greater Dragons here. He should be able to help us figure out what to do with your charge here.”
* Thank goodness, * Shamira thought. * I have absolutely no idea what to do with him. *
“Can you tell us anything about him?” the Representative asked, her eyes wide with wonder. It was hard to surprise someone going on a thousand years old, but this was new to her.
“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” Shane said.
Shamira nodded, then had to turn around to see why the smaller dragon was pawing at her hindquarters. She connected directly with its mind as Shadow Wing had told her to do. Dragons had little need for a “language” of their own, as they were able to project thought, intention, and feeling directly to one another. She had been communicating with the younger dragon on the flight up and had gotten some ideas about what had happened, but the thoughts were jumbled and disoriented.
* The young one is hungry, * she thought. * We need to come up with a name for it at some point, but I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, and it has little understanding of those concepts.*
“There are cattle on the ranch. Do you think that would work?”
Shamira sent the image of a cow to the young dragon and while there was little recognition, there was a great deal of interest. So she nodded, then started looking around. Shadow Wing had imparted some instincts to her, but she was having trouble making sense of them. There was still some hay at one end of the barn, and she started pushing it into a circle . . . into a nest.
By the time she had finished the structure (which aesthetically made her cringe) they had gotten a cow isolated in a nearby field. So Shamira and her companion went hunting. Admittedly, “hunting” a cow was a bit of a misnomer. Shamira swooped in and broke its neck in one bite. The thought made her cringe briefly, remembering when her own spine was shattered. But dragons had to eat, and wanted to teach her young ally to hunt efficiently and, if possible, humanely. The dragon observed her shrewdly, then just stared at her. Shamira was confused.
“You need to watch more Animal Planet,” Renata shouted. Her predator instincts were trying to deal with having a much bigger, much badder predator in such close proximity. “Lesser animals are supposed to wait until the alpha has had her fill.”
* Wait, I have to eat raw cow? * Shamira’s stomach growled, and the idea suddenly did not seem quite so unappealing. It smelled VERY good. She sniffed it again and started to nibble. Before she knew it, she’d eaten half a flank. ‘Wait,’ she thought to herself, ‘Need to let him . . . her . . . it . . . eat.’ She looked at the youngster, then nudged the carcass towards it while projected an image of the small dragon eating. It looked at the carcass hungrily, then at Shamira. Then the carcass. Then Shamira. Then it slowly extended its neck, keeping an eye on the big dragon. It took a bite, then another and another. Finally, any nervousness about pecking order was overcome by just being damn hungry.
After it had eaten its fill, Shamira walked it back to the barn and into the nest. It was exhausted but seemed to be too nervous to sleep. Shamira projected the notion of safety and that she would stay nearby. It then put the image of her human body merging into a dragon and then back again into its head. The young dragon seemed confused, but its ordeal combined with a long flight and a great deal of stress allowed it to slowly nod off. With the young dragon asleep, Shamira willed her body back into its bipedal state. Shane admired the currently-naked view, then handed her a robe. How he had thought to bring one with him was beyond Shamira.
“Might I say,” he started, his voice full of warmth as he stared at her repaired body, “that it is good to see you up and about.” He pulled her into a firm embrace and, just like that, the dam broke.
Silently, everyone from the house who was present and everyone that knew here moved forward in a large, amorphous, evolving embrace. A few drops of blood leaked from her eyes as an intense, relieving, overwhelming joy flowing into her. These were her friends and, when Clara pushed her way through and pressed her lips to Shamira’s, the sometimes-dragon remembered how much more they could be. Finally the little love fest broke up enough that Shamira could sit down.
“Yeah,” Shamira started, almost relieved to be using her normal voice. Telepathy was really for for her. “This is all kind of a bit much, isn’t it?” She stood back up and started walking around. She never thought she would be able to do this again, so she was going to enjoying it for a while. No one seemed to mind, and most of them were actually smiling when they saw her upright.
“Start at the beginning,” the Representative said firmly, though her mouth was quirked in a smile. And her eyes kept darting over to the slumbering dragon at the other end of the room.
“Okay, I’m assuming that everyone knows what happened up until the point that our guest arrived?” Shamira said, thumbing in the general direction of the dragon. “Well that was when Shadow Wing decided it was time to have a little chat.”
“What I would have given to be a fly on the wall for THAT discussion,” Shane said.
“It started off unpleasant,” Shamira agreed. “I had a lot of issues but –” She paused, unsure of how much she wanted to share. “I’m okay. I don’t think I’ll hold a grudge against Shadow Wing for this.”
Shane’s mouth and eyes opened wide in mock shock. “Who are you and what have you done with Shamira?”
“Very funny.”
“I’m just saying that if it were ME, you’d hold a grudge until –”
“Can I please get on with the debriefing?” Shamira smiled. She and Shane were going to be okay. “When I first heard about Shadow Wing and all that, I thought that maybe this conflict with Lacroix was the ‘big thing’ that was pulling the powers out of hiding. Then I thought it might be the magical races outing themselves to the public, but I think THIS is it,” she continued, waving her hand at the sleeping dragon.
“He sensed that whatever Lacroix and his house were doing was going to work. The Greater Dragons were coming back and . . . and I guess that he regretted that they had left. Yeah, he was saving the human race by fighting in the Dragon Wars, but his kind was gone from the Earth. They’re getting a second chance, I guess.”
The Representative’s eyes went to the eggs that were currently resting in another nest built by volunteers. “So those –”
“Are viable now,” Shamira said. “Those ones may wind up hatching. I have no idea how Lacroix and Jonas did it, but he brought life back to them. I mean, there’s only a dozen or so eggs remaining –”
“– but it’s a start,” Shane finished. “And you shall lead them.”
“Huh? I thought I just had to rescue them!” Shamira shivered. “I thought the Tribunal –”
“Who better to lead the Greater Dragons back to promise than the chosen one of the most powerful Greater Dragon to ever live? The last Moon Dragon chose you,” Alessandra said. “We know he did not choose you lightly.”
“But . . . but . . . I don’t want to be a mom! I didn’t really want to do that when I was alive!”
“Then don’t be,” Clara said, walking close to her agitated girlfriend and taking her hand. “Be a friend and a mentor and a source of inspiration. Those things you can do. Just ask anyone.”
“But . . . I wanted to come home!”
“And you will,” Shane said. “But this is more important right now. The fate of one of the great races is in your hands now.”
‘Yeah, great,’ Shamira thought, looking at the enormous reptile snoring at the back of the room. ‘No pressure.’
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The next evening . . .
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Shamira was glad that dragons apparently slept most of the day away, because the young one was far too exuberant when it was awake. It did not seem to have any problem obeying Shamira’s commands while she was in human form, but she still morphed back into a dragon most of the time because telepathy was more efficient with the youngster. One thing she discovered . . . convincing her companion to bathe would not be a problem. They went out exploring the property under cover of darkness and found a large tank stocked with fish. The little dragon dove right in and seemed to be having the time of its life. Shamira joined in and admittedly had a lot of fun splashing around.