Dragon

Chapter 14

"You lost her?" Karoc roared. He stood in the main cavern, flanked by the rest of the council, his body made plump by his fluffed-up, golden feathers – most notably those forming the crest on his head and the ridge down his neck and back. "The last fully dragon female we've access to, and you lost her!"

"I did not lose her," Jaimin replied. Head held low, he glared up at the ancient. Shadowy figures lurked on the edge of his vision. The dull scrapes of their silent shuffling echoing through the tunnels to merge with Karoc's voice. "She fled upon hearing your plans for her."

"Were you not ordered to be silent on the reasons for her being here?" Teero snarled, top lip lifting to bare his fangs. The heavy ruff on his shoulders had risen. His pale eyes flickered with the light as well as an inner fire.

"I told her nothing," he snapped back. His gaze once more fell on the ancient. "Your knight did."

"Mara." Karoc's head swung towards one of the side tunnels as the old woman stepped out of the shadows. "Is this true?"

"It is." She stood before her stunned dragon, hands on her hips. "And you should be ashamed of yourselves. That girl barely knew of mating and you all sat there, plotting to have one of you take her against her will!" She shook her head, greying bun bobbing. "If she hadn't fled beforehand, she certainly would have afterwards. Then what would you have done when she was egg heavy and terrified?"

Jaimin caught the one of the two grasslander ancients nodding – in the shadows he couldn't distinguish between the brown shell-brothers. The scraping of claws and tails on rock increased as others seemed to find wisdom in her words. It never should've left them. How could these ancients, the oldest and most experienced of them all, have lost the good sense that should've come with their age?

Had any on the council ever had it? The lairs had followed these dragons and their predecessors for centuries, but look what had become of their kind. Near extinct. Could his sire have been right? Was the council flawed?

"I'm sure an arrangement can be made," Karoc said. The ridge of stumpy feathers on his back had flattened. "Best we wait until sunrise before searching for her. She couldn't have gotten far on foot and will likely be more amenable after a night alone in the wilderness."

Jaimin's stomach churned at the idea. He'd tried his best to follow Maay as she'd fled through the forest, surrendering only when it had become apparent that she relied on the dark shadows and thick foliage to hide her from him. Even without such hindrance, it had been a struggle to keep up. Like many of those originating from the clans lying deep in the mountains, he wasn't built to match the speed of smaller dragons.

I should've told her. She wouldn't have taken the news any better than she had with the old knight. I shouldn't have left it to Mara. At least he could've stopped her from leaving the lair. Now she was out there. Alone. A dragon like him would've been large enough for predators to evade without question. What of Maay? "She can fly," he mumbled. Her dragon form wasn't much bigger than her human guise and he'd yet to see her sleeping as her true self. Would the wolves and bears of the land know her for what she was if they stumbled upon her while she slept?

"What was that, midling?"

The churning in his gut took on a sudden iciness, matching the chill of Karoc's words. "I said, she can fly." Would she risk leaving the cover of the forest to seek the sky? As long as there wasn't a sudden side gust, he'd absolute faith she'd stay aloft. The blessing of being hatched small. If only his own first attempt at flight had been so graceful.

"I see." Karoc glanced to his left. Jaimin didn't need to follow the gaze to know the ancient had looked towards Teero. He could see that pompous smirk well enough without giving the elder any satisfaction of knowing. "It is apparent to me now that you cannot be trusted to obey the council's will."