Caught By the Dragon: Maiden to the Dragon, Book 1, - [ebook reader with internet browser txt] 📗

My heart sank as that last bit of hope inside me died. Stephanie set her hand on my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

I gave her a bitter smile and shrugged. “I was just-”

“Dragons!” someone yelled.

We turned to one of the gray monks. He pointed at the sky, and we followed his direction. Six large forms flew through the sky. These were the true dragons, those of myth and legend. The entire length of their bodies from nose to long, whipping tail was fifty feet. The wide span of their leathery wings carried a great weight of claws as sharp as knives and scales as hard as steel. Their long heads ended in mouths full of razor-sharp teeth. Four thick, stubby legs were tucked against their scaled bellies. The end of those legs held long claws covered in silver talons forged by man.

One of the gray monks staggered back and tripped over his own feet. He fell onto his rear and gaped up at the sky with wide, terror-filled eyes. “The Bestia Draconis!”

Xander hurried over and stood between me and the shadows. His green eyes flashed and his lips curled back in a snarl.

Cayden grabbed Stephanie likewise. The young dragon lord looked to his elder. “How can they be this far from the coast without our knowing?”

Xander’s eyes never left the shadows in the skies as he shook his head. “I cannot understand it, but we shall make them regret this intrusion.”

His hands at his sides lengthened into sharp claws. He pulled me to the side and Cayden did the same with Stephanie so we stood shoulder-to-shoulder. Xander turned to me and grasped my shoulders as he looked me in the eyes.

“Remain here.”

I frowned. “But what are you going to do?”

“I will fight them, but you can do nothing against these fiends,” he insisted.

I shook my head. “What can you do-”

“Promise me you will remain here.” I pursed my lips, but nodded. He smiled. “Then wait for me. I will return.”

Xander stepped backward and off the platform. He spread his wings out on either side of him. My mouth dropped open as I watched his skin thicken with scales. A tail burst out from his back and stretched itself onto the ground. His limbs stretched and twisted into four thick legs. He settled onto his four legs as the rest of his body transformed into monstrous shape of a huge green dragon. The handsome face vanished into the lengthened mug of the beast.

He whipped his head up and snarled at the red forms that flew over the clearing. His wings flapped and took him airborne. Cayden reluctantly separated himself from Stephanie and took Xander’s empty place. He, too, transformed into a majestic dragon, but a smaller one with golden scales. He sailed into the sky after Xander.

Four of the dragons broke off and headed for Xander and Cayden. They collided in a vicious battle of teeth and claws. Cayden dodged a double attack on his wings and flew around the enemy dragons to attack them from behind.

Xander just rammed through his foes, tearing and snapping at their wings and bodies. One of them let out a terrible screech and fell to the ground. The earth shook as it struck the dirt near the platform. Stephanie cried out and clung to me. I watched in a stupor as the dragon’s body shrank to that of a naked man. He lay face-down and blood pooled beneath him from wounds that matched the damage on his previous form.

The other two dragons swung around the battle and aimed downward at the platform. The five wizards raised their hands and chanted phrases I wouldn’t have understood even if I could have heard all the words above the screeches of the dragons. Light respective of their cloaks burst from their hands and flew up at the dragons.

One was hit, but the other did a barrel roll and dodged the attacks. The unscathed dragon swooped down and grabbed one of the gray-cloaked men. He flailed in its grasp as it flew to the portal and released him.

Stephanie and I ducked as he flew past. The man collided with the Portal and let out a horrible scream before he burst into dust. The injured dragon dropped to the ground, but landed on all fours. It swung its tail in a full circle and knocked away all the men in robes, the colorful ones included.

Its red eyes fell on Stephanie and me. The creature curled its lips back in a snarl as it marched toward us. Its silver talons clinked as it walked onto the stone platform.

I shoved Stephanie to our right. “Run!”

She stumbled in that direction as the dragon let out a screech. It opened its wings and threw itself at us. Stephanie fell off the platform, but the dragon cut me off with its long neck and wide body. It lowered its head and hissed at me.

I held up my hands and backed up toward the Portal. “Can’t we talk about this?”

The creature roared and lunged at me. That’s when a dark shadow fell from the sky and landed atop it. It was the green dragon. My dragon. Xander clamped his jaws onto his foe’s neck. The dragon screamed and flailed, sending its tail and wings thrashing about.

I stumbled back and my heels tripped on one of the stones. My arms flailed at my sides to stop me, but gravity took hold.

Xander turned around. His green eyes widened. He leapt off the dragon and toward me. He stretched his neck out as I stretched my hand. Our flesh grazed each other and then fell away. The last I saw was the dragon beneath Xander lifting one of its silver-taloned feet to strike him.

A moment later I felt a warm pool of liquid wrap around me like a spongy blanket. The world of dragons was blotted out by a world of warped gray liquid. It pressed all around me. I couldn’t breathe. My vision began to blur.

Just as I thought I would pass out the suffocating world around me opened up. I dropped back-first out of the vortex and landed hard on the ground. What little air was left in me was knocked out in a short wheeze. As I lay there trying to suck in air the portal in front of me shrank to nothing.

I had ample time to study the black sea of twinkling stars that was above me. Electrical wires and poles cut the sky into squares. The far-off sounds of traffic came to my ears. I sat up on my shaky arms and looked around. My eyes widened.

I was home.