The mage light went out, leaving Elouan with only the moon’s glow. “I’m here.” What else was there to say?
“Are you a mugger? I’m warning you, I’m armed.”
Armed. “I’m not a mugger.” Elouan wracked his memory. What weapons did Terrans have? A bright flash showed him more choices than he had ever known existed. He suddenly missed his sword. Where had Sakaris left him?
“That’s what a mugger would say,” the voice answered, a male’s by the sound.
Elouan followed the voice, spying the flicker of a small fire. He stepped from the trees to find a young man clutching a branch like a club. Armed? Really?
“Who…who are you?” No missing the guy’s trembling. He must be terrified.
Elouan kept his voice low, calming. “My name is Elouan Thor—” What had Sakaris called him? Oh, right. “Elouan Aaron. And you are?”
“Cu… Curtis.”
No last name. Elouan would have to work to earn trust. “I’ve no intention of hurting you. What are you doing here, and where, exactly, is here?”
“Where? You don’t know?”
“I was…dropped off, so no, I don’t.”
“Oh,” The man, no, Curtis, dropped his branch onto the ground. “We’re at a state park, a few miles from Asheville, North Carolina.”
Which told Elouan precisely nothing until those invasive thoughts entered his mind, giving him a better idea of his location. He moved slowly closer, noticing the burnished highlights in Curtis’s copper hair and his bright blue eyes. Curtis couldn’t be much older than nineteen summers.Nineteen years.The breeze brought a hint of something familiar. A dragon? No. Or not entirely.
“What are you?” Elouan blurted out before he could stop himself.
“What do you mean?”
Elouan sniffed the air again. “You smell like….”
Curtis took a step back. “Smell. You can smell me from over there? All I smell is the fire.”
“Yes.” Couldn’t everyone?
The guy narrowed his eyes, squinting in Elouan’s direction. “What are you? Where did you come from?”
Elouan folded his arms over his chest, which might have been more intimidating if he’d been dressed in more than an undersized, far-to-short robe. “I asked you first.”
Curtis ignored Elouan’s words. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“I am a…traveler who’s just arrived from…someplace else.”
Curtis stared, then did a little air sniffing of his own, inching closer. “Holy shit! You’re a dragon!”
Elouan sat by the fire in a pair of strangely stretchy pants, sipping what Curtis called a root beer. Not bad at all, though the fizziness tickled his nose. “Sweats,” his subconscious supplied about the pants. Like the robe, they were too short, but were far more comfortable, especially paired with a T-shirt.
“So, there’s a portal in the cave?” Curtis asked, sounding hopeful. “Can we go through to your world?”
“No. A mage opened the portal, kinda shoved me through, and left. He said all portals are being shut down, and he’d come for me when the time was right.” Nothing ominous about that at all. Elouan might remain deserted on Terra forever.
No Adrakus. No Teron. No Daire. No Anrai.
No Father. Elouan squeezed his eyes shut, the image of his father dying etched forever into his mind. Everything he’d known and loved, gone in an instant. His heart might ache if he weren’t so numb.
“You’re an alpha?” The words pulled Elouan from the dark place he’d wandered into. Curtis sat nearby, similarly attired, with his knees drawn up to his chin.
Elouan sniffed, blinking away tears. “Yes, I’m alpha.” Maybe Curtis would attribute the tears to the wood smoke if he’d noticed them.
