The Dragon's Scale [COMPLETE]

28.2 || Thysia

Josh's mom closed her eyes, but not before Josh saw the pain flooding them. Even expecting it, Josh couldn't have been prepared for the fist that rammed into his gut for causing that.

She turned away, shifting her position so she sat cross-legged. She rested her entwined hands on her legs and stared at them.

"Mara said something about you losing a friend in the past. Before you left," he continued. "Mom... Were you connected to a dragon?"

She pressed her lips together, shoulders pulling back and fire blazing in her eyes as if she was ready to fight something. Perhaps argue with Josh, deny everything he said. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and slowly exhaled. All the fight deflated from her body.

"It happened when I was thirteen. I started feeling Thysia's presence, and when the Paladins came to me and explained what they were and what I was becoming, I accepted that life. I became soul-bound with Thysia. I moved to the Sanctuary, and they taught me all I needed to know about being a Paladin. It was also there I met your father. He was a child of a couple who helped tend to the Sanctuary. We grew up friends, but that developed to more. At nineteen, I married him. That is also when they reassigned me to a Sanctum in Africa, so your father and I left the Sanctuary and moved there."

She paused. Her hand rose to rest on her chest, almost of its own will. The tips of her fingers hovered, half curled, reaching for something not there.

"Then, a year later, there was an attack on another Sanctum in the Amazon Rainforest."

A faint growl resonated through the bond, and trees burning with dark fire flashed through Josh's mind. His mouth ran dry. No, the two events couldn't be connected. The same battle couldn't have stolen Boomer's parents and caused the pain he saw on his mother's face.

But the name had triggered a thought in Boomer's mind: home. Two attacks wouldn't have happened there, and it could explain why Boomer never met his parents if they left before he arrived.

His mom went on, not noticing the sudden revelation. "It was a massive raid by Shadow Knights, so they called for help. I went. It was a horrible battle, Josh. A Sage had just defected to the Shadow Knights, so they had so much information they shouldn't. I got separated from my team, and I..."

A tear slid down her cheek. She choked on her words. Her lips moved in a silent word—Thysia.

Josh had a horrible feeling about where this was going, but he didn't know how it could go that way. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "You can stop now."

"No, no I can't." She dabbed the tear away and took a deep breath. "You deserve to know what she has done for me and you."

"What she did for us?" Josh echoed.

She nodded. "When I got separated from the others, I ran into the traitor Sage. I should have gone to get help. I was weak from constant battle, but I had seen so many hurt. The entire Sanctum burned. Dozens of eggs were destroyed. Dragons murdered. I acted out of anger and attacked. But my weakness let the Sage invade my mind. He..." The effort it took for her to swallow forced her face to bunch up for a moment. "He meant to pour his energy into me and crush my soul.

"It shouldn't have happened. A Sage is powerful, but they cannot have that much influence on a person unless all their defenses are down. Only my emotions were keeping me standing at that point, I think. I shouldn't have stayed there, but, well, obviously, I did. He would have destroyed me from the inside out, but Thysia intervened. She forced so much of her soul through to guard mine. She saved me, but it cost her too much."