I gasped, slapping my hands over my mouth and hoping I hadn’t been heard. The stone was a giant pearl, carved into the shape of a horse. One of the boys had told me that this world rearranged itself so that we would go the direction needed to complete our mission. They told me that the object of the quest would be there upon one of these two islands, somewhere, but I’d nearly forgotten it in my search to find a way to save them.
The flames licked up the grease from the meat that fell into the pit and rose, coming closer to the necklace around his neck. I concentrated, and asked the flames to raise even more, hoping to burn the string from the necklace. The flame blazed higher, out of control, setting the monster’s necklace, tunic, and even his blindfold on fire.
He screamed.
I winced.
He flung himself backward, yanking the shirt and blindfold from his body, the stone from the necklace clanked against the rock I hid behind. Polyphemus still swung about wildly, heading for the exit. It was my best chance. I rushed around the side of the rock and grabbed ahold of the white stone horse, about the size of a softball. The back side of the stone was round while the front had the horse carved in it.
“Come on! Let’s go while we have the chance!” Calypso called from the darkness.
I followed the dragon out the small tunnel I crawled through earlier to enter. Shouts continued from the stream beside the cliff. I found the cyclops bathing in the water, whimpering over his superficial burns. I wanted to apologize to the monster, as I didn’t mean to injure it when I was trying for the stone.
“It would be smarter if we moved farther away,” Calypso cautioned.
I nodded, and followed the dragon back the direction I’d come to start with. How did she know the way I needed to go?
“Have you been watching me the whole time?”
The small black dragon stopped and turned toward me, it’s bottom eyelids drooped as it peered up at me. “Yes. From the moment Lotus began her song on the rocks, I was drawn to the shoreline. I watched your battle against her, and the way you handled yourself. I followed you while you followed the siren. It was nice to have company for a small while, and now I no longer need to worry about the siren. Her songs may only effect the males of the species, but it’s every species, including dragon…”
I shook my head, surprised. Were there dragon bones littered among the siren’s nest? I shivered. “Is it safe here for you now? You could come with me if—”
The dragon hissed. “The Fae are dragon killers; I cannot join you.”
My heart tightened in my chest. “The Fae kill dragons?”
Calypso turned and started back toward the boat. “There aren’t many species that don’t hunt dragons. We’ve adapted. While our numbers grew smaller, so did our size. It made us easier to hide, harder to kill.”
I followed, but wanted to cry. “Are there more of you here?”
“I’d rather not say.” Calypso turned toward me once more, as we reached the opening to the beach where my friends’ ship remained beached on the sandbar offshore. “Though you may be human, you are friends with the Fae. I have helped you, so I hope that you would help me, too. Forget you ever saw me.”
I frowned. “I will do better than that, my friend. The Fae wish to make me their queen. And my first duty will be for the Fae to become friends with dragons, and not their foes. I will make laws to forbid the killing of your kind.”
The dragon tilted her head and regarded me. “A beautiful sentiment, Flora. But laws have loopholes and rules are broken. If someone finds our hides valuable, they will still hunt us. If they find our teeth worthy of being crushed to powder, they will invade our pride and kill us for our teeth. Laws forbidding such will only make our deaths more valuable.”
I blinked, tears welling up.
“Time for you to go, my friend. And forget we ever met.” With those words, the dragon spun around and leapt into the air, flying low over the trees.
The sandbar I’d created earlier endured, though portions of it had washed away overnight. I purposed the sand to push up again and become more solid to bridge my way back to the boys. I had five feathers and Poseidon’s horse in my pack. Waking the boys would be as easy as tickling under their noses with the feathers. I shook my head and took my first step on the sandbar. What would the boys say when they found out I’d completed the quest without them?
The End
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About the Author
Paula Black is USA Today Bestselling Author, Pauline Creeden. She wears many hats - and none of them is a night cap. Running on tea, Kpop, and sheer adrenaline, she battles monsters and witches with little to no sleep. She is the sleepy panda who loves to cuddle with boys, dogs, cats, and other pets. If you want to know her other identities or when she will release the next book in series, subscribe to her mailing list: http://subscribepage.com/paulablack - Water Warrior is the second novella in the Elemental Fae Series.
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