A Laird to Hold by Angeline Fortin (free children's ebooks online .TXT) 📕

“I hope you find the young lass you’re looking for then,” Ashling said, sweetly.

“Judging by all the kissing and hugging you’ve thrown my way, I believe I’ve already found her,” Sean said, chuckling.

Their romantic bantering was interrupted when a group of trainees began shouting for help. Sean and Ashling rushed to the small group gathered together. They were standing around an eighteen-year-old young man lying on the ground.

“What happened?” Ashling asked, as she knelt beside the young man writhing in agony.

“I’m not sure,” a lovely, blonde-haired girl said through her tears. “We were sparring with clubs and I managed to hit him twice. The first hit was on his shoulder and wasn’t that strong. He swung a hard blow at me and I moved behind him while he was off balance. I punched his kidney, and he went crazy.”

A young, slender boy next to her said, “She’s right, he just went berserk. David was shouting and screaming and then just fell on the ground and started rolling around.”

Ashling had been examining David, while she listened to the girl and boy’s explanation. “It’s all right, Susan,” she said to the distraught young girl. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Sean, please get everyone back at least fifty feet. I think I know what the problem is,” Ashling said.

“You heard the boss lady!” Sean shouted, as he started motioning for everyone to get back. They responded quickly, seemingly anxious to get away from the struggling boy.

Ashling had already turned her attention back to David and placed her hands on his temples. She listened to his troubled thoughts for a few moments and nodded her head slowly.

She quickly began pounding on his chest and legs, while shouting angry words, in a language no one else understood. Ashling slapped his face multiple times while she continued shouting.

After a few moments, David began shouting, which quickly turned into a guttural growl. It appeared to the onlookers like he was having some type of seizure.

Slowly, his muscles began to ripple and twist as he cried out in pain and agony. Ashling touched his mind tracks, trying to control what was coming.

“Sean, I need you over here now!” she said urgently.

He rushed to her side and asked, “What is going on?”

“No time to explain. I need you to transform into your dragon-self right now!”

He was dying to ask more questions, but when Ashling spoke in this tone of voice, he did what she asked immediately.

Sean focused hard for several moments before he felt the change coming. He quickly morphed into his dragon-self and let loose a mighty roar. This is what always happened with the change. It was as if his dragon persona was celebrating its release from confinement.

As Sean’s dragon-self flapped its massive wings and stomped around with thunderous steps, Ashling watched David very closely. His muscles continued to ripple and twist and turn even faster, while he screamed over and over. Slowly, the screams began to sound more like an angry roar.

“Okay Sean, give us a gust of fire!” Ashling said.

Sean raised his mighty dragon head and released a fearsome burst of white-hot flame into the air. The young trainees reacted in several different ways.

Some of them stood their ground and watched what was happening with fixed fascination. Others backed away and were silent, keeping a close eye on the massive red dragon which Sean had become. A few of them cowered and turned to run away as fast at their legs would carry them. Even though she was preoccupied with helping David, Ashling made a mental list of those who turned and ran. They would require special mental training before they ever went into battle.

David was now writhing on the ground in what appeared to be complete agony. His muscles bulged massively, and his skin seemed to turning a dark brown.

“Now Sean!”, Ashling shouted, “Into the air with you!”

Sean burst into the air, rolling and twisting and turning as he flew. He released a series of fiery bursts as he roared his challenge to any and all dragons.

The effect on David was immediate. His young body convulsed as he twisted and turned even harder. When Sean roared out another fierce challenge, David’s transformation finally erupted. To almost everyone’s amazement, the young man burst into the air and began flapping his new wings.

“I knew it!” Ashling shouted, I knew it!”

The young trainees all gathered back around Ashling and watched in wonder as a long, slender dragon joined Sean in the sky. He was slow and a bit awkward, but he was flying!

“He’s going to be a brownie,” Ashling said.

“A what?” one of the trainees asked.

“He’s a brown dragon!” Ashling said, smiling brightly. Not counting Sean, he’s the first dragon to morph since we moved Rundimahair to America almost three hundred years ago.”

“That is so cool,” Susan said, smiling. “David’s a dragon!”

* * *

After flying together for several minutes, Sean recognized the symptoms of fatigue in David. He remembered them well from his own first time flying.

Suddenly, David began to revert back to human form. Sean saw what was happening and quickly flew under David, as the boy passed out and began to fall.

Sean slowly glided to the ground about fifty feet from where the trainees were gathered. Ashling quickly dismissed the children and asked them to be back at nine the next morning. She grabbed a blanket from the medical supplies on hand and rushed to David’s side.

“That was totally amazing,” Sean said, after Ashling had examined David and covered him with the blanket.

“You have no idea how amazing it truly is, Sean!” she said, as she watched him approach, while pulling a white t-shirt over his head. Apparently he’d heeded her advice about keeping a stash of clothes nearby for emergencies.

“I thought you said we weren’t likely to see anymore dragons born to our people,” Sean said.

“It had been so long since we’d had a new dragon that we all thought we’d see no more,” Ashling said, with tears of joy in