Strachana by Judy Colella (i like reading books .txt) 📕

“Ah, Zela.” The man/dragon pulled his wife close and gave her a fierce hug. “I would never let any harm come to him – I love him, too, you know.”

She buried her face in his strong chest and sighed. “I know you do. But that was…had either I or his sister been between the cave and that tree, we’d be dead.”

Neri frowned. That hadn’t occurred to him for some reason and his penitence was immediate. “I wasn’t thinking, my love.”

She gave him a quick hug and pulled away. “I forgive you. But be more careful, will you?”

He nodded and watched her walk to the other side of the cave where she picked up a basket and went outside. She was aging. Not much by human standards, but he could see it and it hurt him. As a dragon, he had the gift of a life that would span two thousand years or more. Her lifespan was less than half of one-tenth that long. Already he’d lived fourteen hundred years, but began to wonder how many more centuries of life he would be able to tolerate once she was gone.

Still, he knew he’d regret not a single moment of the time he had with Zela. And then there were the children – they would also outlive their mother by a vast number of decades, perhaps even by several centuries, although certainly not as many as Neri. More sorrow. Unless…He gave his son’s shoulder a gentle shake and asked if he would be all right.

“Of course,” J’nah mumbled, but didn’t try getting up yet.

“Good. I shall be back.” Neri strode off, leaving the cave in search of his daughter. He found her by the cliff that gave out on a breathtaking view across the valley and all the way to a horizon defined by lower hills.

She didn’t turn, but indicated her awareness of his presence behind her by raising a hand.

“Vorel, what are you doing right now?”

“Staring.”

Neri laughed and came to stand beside her. “Yes, I can see that.”

“You’ve been working with J’nah again, have you?”

“How can you tell?”

“You’re in human form.”

“Ah.” He said nothing for a while, admiring the view with an enjoyment that never faded, then glanced a the girl beside him. She looked exactly like her mother and nothing like her. The same perfect profile, but her skin had a slight silver cast that was enhanced by a tinge of rosiness on her high cheekbones. Her eyes, completely silver except for the elongated pupils, were larger than her mother’s, but had the same almond shape. Her hair, like Zela’s, was thick and wavy, falling in a foamy wave to her waist. But where his wife’s hair was the color of summer honey, the girl’s was like pure, untouched snow. The blue satin ribbon holding it back made a lovely contrast, and matched the color of her soft cotton gown.

No one would ever mistake her for a common human.

“What would you speak about, Father?” She turned to him and smiled, displaying teeth as white as her hair, straight and strong, only the unusually long canines furthering the alienness of her appearance.

“I…I began thinking about the future today.”

“Only today?”

“That isn’t what I meant, girl, and you know it.” He tried to look solemn and failed. “I was thinking specifically about yours.”

“Mine? However do you mean that? And please don’t tell me I have to start learning to shape-shift, too.”

He shrugged. “Well, you will, eventually. But no, not now. I was thinking more along the lines of your future as a, well, one day becoming…” This was much harder than he’d anticipated, but he tried again. “You may not wish to remain alone your whole life. Yes, you’ll have me and your brother, and for a while, your mother as well, but…Vorel, have you ever…”

“Father. Stop. I’m sixteen, and I know exactly what you’re trying to say. To which I have to reply, who knows? I mean, really, Father. What human boy would want me? I have only to smile at him and he’ll run as far and as fast as his legs can carry him.”

“But surely there are others like you.” Her candor was making him uncomfortable, but he couldn’t ignore the importance of talking this out. “I can’t believe I’m the only dragon among the shape-shifters who fell in love with a human and fathered children.”

“Where would they be, then?”

“To quote you, my love, who knows? But I think we should look.”

“Or perhaps I can find a willing human male to be my consort?”

“Ah, I see you’ve been reading again. You’re right – your mate would be called a consort.”

She grinned.

“I’m delighted you’re so pleased with yourself, but I hope you were careful when you went to visit Welan.”

“Of course. You needn’t worry about that.”

Welan, Zela’s father, had learned of his daughter’s fate one year after Vorel’s birth. Labor had been difficult, but Zela was strong, stubborn, and had recovered well. As soon as she could travel, she’d begged Neri to let her visit her father to tell him she was alive and that he had a granddaughter. He’d agreed, but insisted that she tell Welan the truth – about everything.

So it was, then, that Welan the Scribe had experienced the unexpected joy of finding his erstwhile bereaved child alive and well, followed moments later by the shock and delight of meeting his new granddaughter and son-in-law, and then nearly knocked over with disbelief over the true identity of this man. And all in the span of fifteen minutes. Neri suspected the succession of shocks may have nearly killed him. The speechless man had needed to lay down for more than an hour afterward, but upon recovering his wits, had begun asking a lot of questions.

It took very little after that to convince him that Neri was a good husband despite his being a dragon, and because Welan watched little Vorel grow, her odd appearance only bothered him in that it made him fear for her safety, a concern he shared with her parents. Other humans would never be as understanding, he had pointed out when Vorel was about three years old. But J’nah’s birth four years later (despite her rapid recovery, birthing a half-dragon was still a painful and taxing task and Zela had needed the four-year respite) he had given Welan yet more happiness. By that time, he could admit to having reconciled himself to the reality that both children would grow up knowing they had to keep themselves away from human society for their own well-being and safety.

All of that aside, however, the scribe had insisted that the children be at least as well-educated as their mother. He had devised a plan for teaching them with her help, making sure the two youngsters were provided with a goodly supply of reading material every month. Neri would change into dragon-form and fly his family to the town late at night, alighting in a field behind Welan’s cottage where he would shift again into human form. From there, they’d walk to the cottage, spend a pleasant evening together, and leave with armloads of new books and scrolls, having returned the previous batch at the same time.

Vorel laughed suddenly, startling her father. “Can you imagine the look on Lord Gravnel’s ugly face were he to meet you?”

“Why would that cause a laughable facial expression?”

“Oh, Father, think! Mother and Grandfather have told us what a horrible little prig he is. Out of jealousy for you and anger that she survived, he would order his soldiers to arrest you both, and then you’d feel compelled to return to your true form, splintering his castle in the process – ” She burst into infectious giggles. “I doubt we’d have to worry about him trying to take me as a wife after that!”

Neri rolled his eyes. Sometimes his daughter’s thought processes baffled him. Who had said anything about Lord Gravnel? He had, in fact, wondered from time to time over the past seventeen years what that nasty man had done with all the virgins. They would have been found alive, still tied to that stupid Dragonstake, the morning after being offered. Were they being executed instead? Or was the nobleman allowing them to return to their families?

It was probably a good thing Neri didn’t know the answer to that, Gravnel’s solution being much darker and more disgusting than anyone with a good heart like the dragon’s could have imagined.

“Anyway,” Vorel said, patting his hand, “I’m still very young. You’ve told us we’re going to live at least a few hundred years, so what’s the hurry?” She offered him a huge grin, then turned away, staring out at the view once more.

Neri had a feeling she was doing more than sight-seeing. Vorel was a thoughtful girl, her active mind always busy with one thing or another – memorizing spells, solving math problems, associating various ideas with the possible ways to use them. He gave her shoulders a quick squeeze and headed back to the cave. She was right, of course. Her future could be determined later, while the state of her brother…well, that needed tending right away.

As he neared the mouth of the cave, he allowed himself a quick glance at the remains of the tree, shuddered once, and went inside to make sure J’nah was well.

If one dragon existed who wished to see a restoration of relationships with humankind, then one or more would exist somewhere as well. Neri knew this simple fact because it applied to everything in life. No one and nothing was exclusive, solitary. At times it might feel as if one was completely alone in thinking or behaving a certain way, alone in experiencing a thing, but beings that had drawn breath for as long as dragons did, knew better.

He also knew there would be distrust; finding another dragon who felt as he did about humans would not be that difficult. But would this other dragon believe Neri's claim about his relationship with Zela? Probably not - his confession would most likely be viewed as a trick meant to obtain a similar confession that would result in that other dragon's betrayal and ultimate harm. There was no evidence that the overwhelming majority of dragons continued to detest humans. So intensely was this hatred, he knew, these dragons wouldn’t hesitate to destroy any of their own kind who showed the smaller beings mercy and kindness, never mind friendship. And love? Ah, that was the worst offense to man-haters.

The only way to win trust, then, would be for him to bring Zela with him on his quest for a consort for Vorel – J’nah was still much too young for a mate, or even to consider finding one. Time enough for him, and only after he’d achieved the ability to shape-shift. He wouldn’t let himself entertain the notion that the boy would fail.

“And where will we seek such dragons?” asked Zela the next afternoon when Neri broached the subject.

He had returned from hunting a short while earlier, and having cleaned himself in the cave’s pool (eating several cows was a messy business, even for a gargantuan dragon), he’d asked her to join him in the meadow to talk.