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

“Why, you do care. Permission granted.”

On that note, he and Azania chuckled their way up to one of the entryways, and Dragon launched out into a perfect isle dawn. Rose reds blushed over the ocean. White, cream and azure seabirds were out in force on an early fishing expedition, bombing the waters offshore in great, swirling battalions. Adjusting his spectacles, Dragon looked on as dozens of Sea Serpents cut through the waves and mayhem, hunting as a pack. Frightening.

This Dragon liked his nice, new white hide minus rents and holes, he decided.

Curving westward, they set course for the Human city of Zunityne, a long day’s flight downwind. That was the saving grace, a gentle easterly breeze that buoyed up his aching wings. The route cut over the rocky coastline with its many tiny offshore islands and back over the mainland again, becoming much lower and smoother as they reached the western tip of this major island after three hours on the wing. Phew. Dragon rested on a perfect white beach in the shade of thick clumps of coconut palms, beside a sparkling blue ocean. So idyllic. He took note of the soil issues that Azania had spoken of. Much was sandy and sparse, the interior sedge grasslands and khaki green swamps they had passed over, salty and unfit for most cultivation.

Toward noon, they lifted off once more and crossed the wide, turbulent channel between Dragon Isle and Human Isle. This one had a fringing of dark cliffs again facing the east, but they were more fractured and they caught sight of their first Human dwellings nestled in a few of the pristine bays. Simple grass-woven huts with palm-leaf roofs hid in the thick tropical foliage alongside the beach, occupied by brown-skinned people.

Dragon snuck a little closer to take a look.

“They’re naked,” Azania whispered.

“You’d fit right in.”

She kicked his neck with her heel. “Behave. Azerim did say that some of the remote tribes were cannibals.”

“I guess we haven’t seen much of the more primitive side of Human civilisation, given as we’ve been hopping from one city to the next,” he agreed. “Very different out here, however. They must be very poor.”

The Princess waved to a few of the children on the beach.

One waved; the rest screamed and stampeded back to their huts.

On this island, the vegetation was thicker and more tangled, a real tropical jungle in places. The heat and humidity built up as the day wore on, but the sea breeze kept them cool enough. Dragon powered along past the first signs of active cultivation, rude roads carved through thick brush and a few small interior towns with red tile roofs and whitewashed limestone walls, before they passed around a range of small coastal mountains with the characteristic conical tops of volcanoes. The slopes were green and lush; he wondered why the volcanic soils here were not useful for cultivation, or at the very least – aha!

“Orchards,” he said, pointing with a talon.

“Aye, and vineyards.”

He swept low over the mountainous slopes, scenting the air with delight. Floral fragrances abounded, along with the more citrusy zest of fruit and the thicker, heavier scent of tropical undergrowth. Pockets of tall hardwood trees grew in sheltered gulches, and a number of rivers wandered down from the mountain slopes toward a pair of pretty lakes. Beyond that, resplendent in the red-golden late afternoon sunshine, lay Zunityne.

“Gorgeous!” Azania gasped.

Quite right. The city nestled in the arms of a bay no self-respecting artist could have described as anything but a tropical paradise. Unspoiled curving beaches, extensive flower gardens and coconut palm plantations, a gleaming turquoise ocean with the characteristic darker, dappled patches of coral reefs just offshore, hundreds of colourful houses and larger buildings with red tile roofs tucked in amongst lush stands of purple, orange and red bougainvillaea – absolutely picturesque. Five larger oceangoing vessels stood upon the sands; they must have been rolled up there somehow, he assumed, in order to keep them out of reach of the Sea Serpents.

He frowned and pointed ahead. “Why’s a flight of Dragons leaving the city?”

“No idea, but they’re in quite the flapping hurry, aren’t they?”

“Aye – go down?”

“I don’t like it either,” she agreed, shivering slightly.

His exact feeling! Immediately, he flexed his wings, hurtling them into a steep descent that concealed their approach behind a green hill just a couple of miles shy of the city.

“Are you scenting what I scent?” he said. “Wrongness –”

“Aye, I think so. It could be linked to Wave Dragonhome being empty, or not, but – are those all Dragonesses?” He agreed eagerly. “Is it just me, or are they flying … suspiciously?”

Dragon shrugged. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“Aria wasn’t –”

“Seven reds, three oranges, four yellows, a pale purple and light and dark greens numbering five, but no blues and definitely no cobalt.”

“Wow, someone was watching those tails most diligently.”

He gurgled with pleasure, touching the spectacles. “Thanks to these, I have just experienced the particular affliction known as male eye strain.”

Oh, those butterfly wings, those razor edges, those flashing glances he could only imagine from this distance. Never had feminine splendour come so deliciously sharp, so perilous, so irresistible. Was he mad to think this way? Smitten? A foolish Dragon with a death wish?

Azania pretended to preen like a Dragoness and patted her own behind. “Oh, I hope to cause Azerim great suffering.”

“I’m not sure ‘suffering’ is entirely the term we are after, in this instance.”

Chapter 24: Trouble’s Odour

LANDING ON A GRASSY slope behind the bare knoll, Dragon and Princess stalked up to the top and peeked over. The flight of Dragonesses made snappy speed toward the West. Not from Wave Dragonhome, then? Or were they? Discussing the oddity in low tones, they agreed that they had too little information about the lairs