It sniffed the air and cautiously stepped forward. Its skin was leathery and scaled at the same time, similar to what I’d seen of alligator skin. The black leather upon the creature shined in the firelight. It had both reptile and mammal features combined in an adorable way.
“Easy there, little guy. No one’s going to hurt you,” I lied. I was prepared to hurt the cute thing if I had to. But for now, curiosity got the better of me.
It sniffed the air again and drew closer, its eyes suddenly fixed on my left hand. The energy bar.
I moved the bar closer to the creature. “This? You want this?”
Its eyes remained steady on the energy bar as I moved it back and forth a bit. Once I knew for sure, I tossed it in the direction of the small black animal. It jumped back and away from the energy bar, flapping huge, bat-like wings with a four-foot span.
The sudden appearance of wings startled me, and I jumped back as well, tripping over my feet and landing immediately next to the fire. My knife hand landed in the coals of my fire.
I screamed, and pulled my hand away, leaving the dagger in the flames. Tears sprung to my vision. The pain seared into my flesh, and when I looked my skin had begun to bubble and blister, discoloring slightly. Not a thought could go clearly through my head for the pain. My jaw clenched, and I held the hand with my other one, trying to take deep breaths to calm my tears and my pain.
When I opened my eyes again, the creature stood directly in front of me, its eyes now fixed firmly on my injured hand. A long pink, forked tongue whipped out of its mouth and rubbed softly against my flesh. I winced, expecting pain, but was surprised to find the pain quickly subsiding, replaced by a cooling sensation.
“No way,” I whispered as the creature’s tongue came back for a second swipe across my hand.
The blistering had disappeared, and my skin returned to its usual tone. Although the area was a shade or two lighter than it had been before, I was thankful to the creature for healing my hand.
Then it quickly turned around, flapping its wings once more, so that it flew a few feet off the ground before it pounced on the energy bar I’d tossed its direction earlier.
I blinked. The vision of it reminded me of a nature documentary, where foxes jumped on prey in the snow. It made me smile. The creature was no danger to me, I now believed. I pulled myself to my feet, my gaze drawn to the dagger that slowly turned red hot in the blaze of my fire.
Now that my mind was no longer impaired by the pain in my hand, I realized I likely could have healed my hand myself. Kyle had taught me that human flesh was clay to a Talamh, and Uisce had control of blood since it was mainly water. But right now, I needed the power of Doitean. I placed my hand, palm out toward the fire and the dagger within, I purposed the heat to be removed from the metal. All of it, from each and every molecule. I watched as the metal slowly returned to its normal color, then past it into a darker, grayer color, like heat-tempered metal quenched with water.
Cautiously, I touched it lightly a few times with my fingertips to test the temperature before pulling it from the ashes where it sat. Smiling, I returned the blade to my holster and turned around. The creature was now snuffling its nose in my pack.
“Hey!” I yelled, rushing toward it.
The animal flapped its wings and jumped back four feet, crunching on another energy bar in its mouth, consuming it, wrapper and all.
I opened my pack and found I only had four energy bars left out of the original ten. I sighed and shut the pack. “No more for you. I don’t know how long I’ll be out there, and I need them!”
The creature kept its distance, but laid down on the ground, curling into a ball with its burgundy eyes still watching my every move. Exhaustion overtook me, and I plopped down on the ground before my fire with my back leaned against the tree. My pack remained in my arms, hugged against my chest until I fell asleep.
Chapter 7
The next morning, I woke, wondering if I’d made the right decision to go after the siren. What if the boys had woken on their own this morning? What if I couldn’t find the siren, or it wouldn’t tell me how to wake them? Maybe I should have stayed at the ship. But I remembered when I touched their skin, they felt feverish, and my magic seemed to have no effect on them. I remembered the Fae elders saying something about how the covenant my mother had created when she suppressed my powers could only be removed by her. Likewise, only the siren could break her spell. So, I started the trek after her.
I nodded, resolutely, and started to get up when I realized there was a body lying across my legs. In the sunlight I realized what the black skinned creature I’d met the night before finally was.
“A dragon.” I whispered, my heart racing in my chest. On my legs the dog-sized dragon’s leathery skin appeared black in some angles of light, dark red in others. Its warm body kept my legs from getting a chill.
I tried to move them again, pulling them out from under the dragon’s body. It woke, and blinked at me, its bottom eyelids drooping, exposing the
