The femdragon looks to the sky, then towards the right, in the direction Issa ran.She senses it too. She is weak and young, but she feels a frenetic build like I do.
Her gaze snaps back to mine. “You do speak dragon tongue,” she rasps. “Have you turned? If not, where is my mate?”
“I have turned, female, over a day ago. I was to be your mate.”
Black eyes flare, teeth flash. “No!”
“You know I do not lie.Wedo not lie.”
She hisses raspily, and her wings expand furiously, slicing through several tree trunks with force. “I will not be bested by a human!”
“I was not trying to best you, great one, but it is too late. I am bonded, and you will find no mate here.”
Steam begins to pour from her snout. I do not have much more time before she strikes.If I die, Issa dies.Growing tense, I ready myself. I will not let Issa die.If she dies, our young dies. Our future young will cease to exist.
“I will destroy you, undragon! Then we will see who is right. Your touch will not take my immortality.” She pulls back her tail to lash out.
“Femdragon!” I yell in response. “Do you not feel another, more worthy mate rising as we speak?”
Her tail stops.
“He will be seeking you soon, do you want to stoke his ire by making him search you out in another alpha’s territory? Do you want to risk my touch before he finds you?” I lie.
She stares at me keenly, her long, black body stilling, considering my words, feeling out with her own abilities to sense the other alpha rising. Knowing she could brutalize me at any moment, I tense and glance to the ledge on my right, readying to make for it if things go sour. Cursing under my breath, I pray that my new limbs do not hinder my speed.
“Another alpha,” she hisses.
“A stronger one.” I cant my head. “He is heading for you now.”
She drops her jaw and a mating shriek assaults the air. “A stronger one,” she rasps after, agreeing.
A day ago, I would have killed the other alpha for her words alone. Now, I could care less.
“A larger one.”
“A larger one!”
“He will give you the strongest dragonlings this part of the world over. He is ancient and powerful. I can sense it.Youcan sense it.”
The femdragon swings her large head up and a ball of hot, blue flames shoots into the sky, charring the remaining branches. It disappears into the dark clouds above, turning them a brilliant, electrifying sapphire before vanishing.
Heavy thunder follows.
“Go, femdragon, and meet your mate!”
“My mate!” Her wings flap, her talons spread, she pushes off the ground and rises into the air. Shielding my face, I watch her ascend, just as the first drops of rain hit my face.
And before she slides into the clouds, I pivot and jump off the ledge.Issa.
I had not lied that another was coming. Another, one I have not encountered in countless years, long even before the first comet.
One who can conjure storms from his territory at will.
He rises in the direction Issa ran, the direction of her territory, the direction the femdragon will be going once the other alpha roars his call. Neither dragon must catch her.
And the farther Issa gets from me, the harder it will be to track her. Clawing my way through vines, even now her scent is faint, growing fainter still as the first rain makes its way through the trees.
Animalistic instincts course through me as my feet hasten, blood pools from my skin, rushing through overgrown thorny plants.
