WREN Book Three Prince of Dragons

Home of the soul

"You are not even trying!" Zelzada yelled at me.

Sweat poured down my face. The heat of the afternoon sun burned over us. I had only shorts on as we worked in the sand. It had been days of this physically exhausting work outs. My body was stronger, my mind... well according to Zelzada, was weak. I huffed, straitening up. The staff was clutched in my hand. Since I began this bizarre workout, I hadn't been able to awaken the heart.

It lay dormant within the wood. I felt nothing from the stick! The stones were the same. They laid like an anchor around my neck. I wanted to rip them off! Throw everything into the ocean! Turn my back on this ridiculous chase! I wasn't what they wanted! I couldn't become what they needed!

"He's doing it again." A soft chuckling voice echoed around me.

"As always. You would think she saw it by now." I tried to ignore them.

They stood off to the side, laughing at the failure of a son they had raised. I could sense them. Why were they always watching?

"If you two think you can do better..." I cried.

"Of course we can." Greyson grinned as he walked across the warm sand toward me.

"We raised you, didn't we?" Shea asked as he positioned himself behind me.

"You use your wrong eyes!" Greyson whipped a paw like hand toward my face.

I dodged, bending back and away from him. This only put me in striking range of Shea. He didn't hesitate to prove the point. The blow struck the side of my head. He wasn't holding back, either. The world wavered around me from that blow. I twisted. Try as I might to get the two of them before me, or at least in a spot where I could watch them at the same time. Yet they had fought together since before I was born. They kept a respectable distance between them. I was getting my ass kicked.

For the fourth time I shoved myself up from the sand. This time, I left the staff lying there. It was doing nothing for me. How do I fight against the man who had created the weapon? I raised my bare hands, swinging wildly, Shea simply batted my hands away. It was as if I was nothing but a child again.

'To become something different, we must rebuild what we know.' The voice was cool, detached. It drifted around me.

I could see Greyson and Shea, but their bodies shimmered as if they weren't real. Was I even real? My head felt heavy. My body weighed more than the universe around me. It was too much effort to even lift my arms.

'Rise up, Zyn!' the cry came in the sharp tone of the dragon I had known all my life. To hear her voice again. I reached out towards its trailing stream.

'You are stronger than the others, braver, kinder to all manner of beings. Do not toss me away!' Quincy, how I missed her.

The pain stabbed me in the chest, or maybe it was the blow from the bear shifter that sent me flying backward. I landed in the sand flat on my back. I felt the anger in her passing consume me. A feeling I hadn't allowed myself to give into. I had grieved her, but I still blamed her for leaving me! There was so much I didn't know. Things she could have taught me! Why had she abounded me?

I screamed pounding my fists into the sand as if I were a toddler throwing a tantrum. I even considered kicking my feet, but thought I would look utterly insane. Maybe I am insane. I mean, I talk to the voices in my head. I chuckled as I rolled over. Pain flooding my body.

'I never left you, Zyn. You stopped listening to me.' The clam soothing tone was there.

The staff lay before me. I reached for it, but it was like a spell had been cast upon it. I couldn't touch it. A blinding pain slammed into my head. I screamed out in agony. Clutching my head I tried to think, tried to see around the white pain that consumed everything.