Still, he also wasn’t wrong. The humans in the valley we’d lived in before were building a castle, enormous and stone and permanent. Everywhere they went, they settled and took over. If we let that happen here, where would it end? We had let them push us out of the valley. These craggy shores were the last refuge left to us. They were inhospitable enough, fit for growing nothing, but at least we could still fish for food. We couldn’t move into the ocean itself, and the mountains were almost too cold to survive. They were barren and gray and we’d likely starve to death up there.
No, a line had to be drawn, and if it ended in our deaths . . . well, this situation was going to do that anyway. Better to die fighting to survive than accept our fate and wander into the frozen mountains to starve.
“We burn the huts,” I told them. Gareth gasped and opened his mouth to protest, but I held up a hand to forestall him. “We round up the humans living in them, and take them back to the castle they’re building where they killed Eilonwy. But first, we burn the huts. We make sure they know this is where we live. They can live peacefully in the castle, or elsewhere further south, but this land is ours. This tiny patch of nearly-barren land shouldn’t be worth fighting for, to them. They have the whole of the south and west. They can go anywhere.”
Harri clearly wanted an angrier response, and Gareth a kinder one, but neither of them protested. Bran was the one to point out the obvious. “They’ll try to kill us. Both when we destroy the huts and when we return their people.”
“Then we’ll die fighting for this pathetic corner of land. We can only run so far away.”
Harri scowled and grumbled, “It’s barely worth fighting for.”
He wasn’t wrong, but it was what we had left, and that made fighting for it necessary, if not a choice we’d have made under other circumstances.
It was only ten humans,and I didn’t like to be the arrogant dragon who underestimated people, but it wasn’t that hard to round them up and burn their huts. Frankly, it made me feel every bit the violent monster they all thought me.
They all stared on in fear as the huts burned, my brethren holding them back. So I turned to my two-legged form and stood before them. Apparently I was an unsightly human to them, because most of them gasped and looked away, shocked and horrified.
That was fine.
If anything, it helped our cause.
“We intend you no harm,” I said.
One of them scoffed, so I lifted a brow at him and waited. He glared at me. “You’re burning our homes.”
I looked at the hut, then back at him, unimpressed. “Humans have taken every other part of the land for themselves. This tiny inhospitable corner is ours. We have ignored every other part of the land you’ve taken, but you’ll not take this bit. You’ll not shove us right into the sea.” I stepped in front of him and looked him in the eye, holding his gaze for as long as he would. “This is where the line is. Go back to your castle and live your lives in peace, as we wish to do. Leave us to this tiny corner of rocky land. We will not interfere with you, if you do not interfere with us.”
“This land is owned by Llangard,” he insisted, though he didn’t look up and meet my eye again.
I didn’t know who Llangard was, but damn him, this tiny corner was not his or his leader’s. “Then you go tell her she must fight my clan for this corner of rocks and water. See if she’s willing to die for it. Because we will. It is our home. You will not take it from us.”
Then each of us, in our shifted forms, snatched up armfuls of humans and took off toward the castle.
It was bigger than the last time I’d seen it; a sturdy square foundation, with walls so thick I doubted a dragon would be able to topple them once they were finished.
I had no interest in toppling them, though. Only making sure the humans stayed in their place while my people stayed in ours.
Peace.
Still, that didn’t stop them from shooting at us the moment we drew near. “We are returning your own,” I shouted from the air, but they heeded nothing, only shot flaming arrows, trying to take us in the wings.
Damn them and their intractability.
I motioned to the others. “Fly low and drop them in that field, then go.”
“Andreas,” Bran said, clearly concerned I was going to get myself killed, and . . . well, I might. But I needed to distract the humans and give my brethren a chance to get back home. Also, I didn’t want to hurt the humans I was carrying.
I tossed my head in the direction of home. “I said go!”
Then I aimed for a spot between the field and the castle, tucking my wings to avoid being shot in one of them, and roared my irritation, making both the humans in my arms and at the castle cringe away.
One didn’t, though.
As I landed, one human rushed forward. He was wearing full armor the others weren’t, and carrying an enormous shiny sword.
“Run,” I growled at the humans as I let go of them, and they did. They ran faster than I had imagined them capable of running, toward the castle and their fellow humans.
The one with the sword kept coming toward me, though.
