Heather decided to point out an obvious truth. “But if you have them, they can’t…er…mate with the other dragons either, so…so what? You go full on to inbreeding?”
Blake literally recoiled. “What? Where do they do that at? No! My kids would not be bound by that. It’s just me. My line up until me is the law. That’s the way it was worded, so if I had sons or daughters, they could.”
Christy, clearly interested now, asked, “But your kids would be half-human. Is that not a little out of the ordinary?”
“We were all human once.”
The words took Heather aback. “What do you mean?”
Blake said, “You don’t know? Dragons were knights cursed by a wizard to fly forever. Our ancestors were loyal to a king whose banner had the emblem of a dragon. Up until then, dragons didn’t really exist; they were a myth. After? Here we are, and banished to this world forever, unless we choose to leave and never return.”
Heather looked around herself, trying to make sense of their surroundings. The mountains rose up high all around them. The grass was thick and high and the sky so blue it almost hurt to look at. She looked at the tall castle, its black spires rising high against the sky. “What is that?”
Blake said, “That’s Reganal. Max’s home, and mine too. Come on, I’m hungry, and it’s a long way.”
Heather spat out, “I am not going to some creepy Gothic castle! Have you lost your mind!”
Blake’s eyebrow rose. “Then stay here. But you should know that those are Orcs coming up the mountain now.”
Orcs? Orcs? Heather looked in the direction that Blake’s finger was pointing and a loud scream ripped from her lips. The things toiling up the side of the cliff were hideous and squat. They were also waving clubs and other weapons, and they didn’t look like they wanted to have a friendly chat.
Christy cried out, “What do they want?”
“You. Human women are highly prized, and Orcs can’t cross the portal.” Blake changed then. His body lifted slightly off the ground. His voice issued from his dragon-mouth. “Either get on and go with me or stay here. Your choice.”
That was no choice at all! Heather and Christy raced to the dragon, and he flattened himself onto the ground so they could climb aboard. Then he took off. Heather, shrieking, tried to find something to hold onto. Christy was also screaming, and her hands were grabbing at any and everything. Blake shouted, “Use your legs, dammit; use your legs to hold on before you put my eyes out!”
The earth dropped away from under them; Heather had to fight back an urge to vomit. She hated to fly in airplanes, and they were definitely safer than this! She’d already had one terrifying trip through an open sky thanks to Max, and now she was soaring upward, the wind blasting back at her from the mighty lift and beat of Blake’s wings as he turned toward the castle.
Below them, the Orcs scampered and screamed and threw weapons into the air in an attempt to stop Blake, and them. Heather’s eyes squeezed shut. This was the worst thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life, and she was pretty sure it would just get worse.
