I am Dragon (Dragon Fires Rising Book 2) by Marc Secchia (famous ebook reader TXT) 📕

Pah. Enough of the jaundiced thoughts already. Chalice the Grinder, peering out of the mouth of the cavern where she must have rested, was giving him the kind of fiery eyeball he was most definitely not used to receiving from any Dragonesses.

Not that he should be complaining.

“Dragon, where’s Azania?” Inzashu asked, stepping out of Juggernaut’s lair.

“Curled up with me last night,” said he, tilting his wing so that she could see. “You know what your sister’s like.”

“I’m like what?” Azania yawned, stretching. Her eyelashes fluttered. Human males were supposed to fall for tricks like that, similar to how Dragonesses flicked their eyelids, he supposed.

“Ah, I’ll think of something. Best friend in all of Solixambria.”

A slow grin lit up her face. “Scale check?”

“Call me snow white.”

“Huh, and here I thought you’d be a nice creature of colour, like me. You’ve gone over to the dark side – uh, alright, that failed rather miserably. The lighter and brighter side, right?”

“I still have one paw in the brownish gold camp,” he sniped, “and what’s all this silliness about colour anyways? Have you ever met a person who is of no colour? It’s completely illogical. Everyone has colour! It’s like saying, ‘A Dragon of scales.’ ”

“Really?” she said.

One sarcastic warning shot. He refused to listen.

“Let me warm you up to the facts, Princess. White people are not white, they are a pale pink with nasty hairy bits. You can’t hide them in a snowfield with the best will in the world. Black people are not black, or they’d blend in with the average lump of charcoal. They are various shades of brown, again with the socially unacceptable hairy bits. You Humans are completely unreasonable when it comes to colour. And hair.”

“Connotations, Dragon. ‘Black’ means much more than –”

“Lunacy. Don’t tell me to see what isn’t there. You are not a black Princess, you are a shade of brown – a very pleasing shade, may I add? At least, seventeen kingdoms’ worth of Human males agree with me on the subject.”

“Dragon, it’s far too early for you to be so feisty. Go work off some energy. Flirt with whatshername over there.”

“Look, brownness of skin does not equate to fitness for slavery.”

Princess Azania rose, stretched once more, and promptly kicked him beneath the jaw!

“What was that for?”

“I like kicking white things.”

“WHAT?”

“Oh, whiteness doesn’t equate to fitness to being kicked when I please?”

He glowered at her. “Very clever lesson, Princess.”

“Aye. Anyone would think that with a lifetime’s being the wondrous Black Rose of the Desert, I might have had a chance to reflect upon a few of the issues. While I value your perspective on the subject, Dragon, I …” she chuckled softly. “I guess, what with you having literally just changed your hide, you will enjoy a number of insights all too soon. One such insight is skulking over there hoping you’ll go give her polite greeting. Go on, Dragon.”

“Azania, I –”

“Shoo!”

“I don’t wear shoes,” he groused.

Reaching up, she touched his jaw where she had kicked him. “Much as I wish you could sometimes live within my skin for but a day, I imagine the reverse is also true. Are you really alright this morning, Dragon?”

“Far, far better for having a friend like you.”

Turning, he waggled a talon at Princess the younger, standing wide-eyed in Juggernaut’s entryway. “No, I am absolutely not sweet, nor sappy, nor anything else you were just thinking! In a male world, you now pretend I said nothing at all.”

The girl giggled, “Men are so weird. Males, even.”

Linking arms with her sister, Azania said, “You don’t know the half of it. Come on, Inzashu. Let’s go do mysterious, inexplicable female things that completely bamboozle the macho mind.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Inzashu agreed at once. “Dragon –”

GNARR-OFF WITH YOU!!

Chapter 11: Rushing On

JUGGERNAUT THUMPED DRAGON UPON the shoulder. Fly with me.

Busy times at the lair, Master Juggernaut?

Shut your oversized, flapping gob and get airborne before I kick you so hard, you’ll bounce off the moon!

Clear enough.

Raising his wings, he roused himself into a proper flap.

As they worked hard to gain altitude, he called over, How’s it working out with your new armourer?

Very good. She knows her business – no experience with Dragon armour as yet, but the skills are solid, as is the attitude. I will be pleased with her work.

Unusual for the gruff Dragon to be so effusive.

Could this strange business of regard for Humans be infectious? Watch out, mighty Dragon! Cough, sniffles and an appalling case of Humanitis?

Your sire took a great risk, he commented. I never would have thought it of Blaze the Devastator – but I don’t know that your old Clan will be so forgiving. Will you search for your dam in the North?

Aye, Master.

Good. Consider this an essential part of your formation. A true warrior understands who they are. They might not like or accept everything they discover. That is a different issue. Tracing the pattern of who we have been informs our present, and allows us to hone our training for the future. You see, Dragon, some things we cannot choose about ourselves, but some things we can shape, actively and mindfully, to become who we want to be. Your scales will be the colour they will be. Nothing can change that. But you can choose to hate your sire, or shun him, or accept his flaws, or anything between. Understand?

I do. He looked to the day, to the soft azure-orange sky and a towering weather front building in the East. It isn’t easy, Master Juggernaut.

Aye. It will take time, is all I can say. No other can fly this course for you.

What nuances of memory traced his words, Dragon could not say.