And what if he didn't like what I had to say? Olivia was a decent sort. She was okay.
But I didn't want to be replaced.
I rubbed my face in the rubble to scrub the thoughts away but they wouldn't go. A man ran past my head, taking pictures with a camera that was bigger than his torso. I snorted at him and let him flee. There was no reason to hurt the curious.
Did that include her?
Hadn't she come to us denying who she was, what she could do for our eggs, and the rest of dragonkind? Why should I give her enough rope to hang herself when she could, potentially, take everything that was mine?
I kicked the damn door and shattered it. Whoops.
Nariti came out, carrying a pack in his arms. "We're almost ready. Is there anything you want?"
I mean, I could have lived with taking the video game systems with us, but there was nowhere to plug them in when you were surrounded by granite. I gave him a flat look and snorted. He rubbed my cheek in a friendly way and kissed the side of my snout. Then he dropped the pack and shifted in a flurry of motion that made most humans dizzy to watch.
Eskal, Olivia, and Iyadre followed soon after. I watched as my wingmates transformed and Olivia climbed aboard Eskal. I rolled to my feet and shook off the dust, and heard the shot from the tank before I saw the tank itself.
It missed. And we flew.
Chapter 16
Olivia
The hills turned into mountains and rose to kiss Eskal's belly as we soared past them, the clouds darkening once more. I sat huddled in my blanket; the eggs wrapped up with me. Though I doubted the cold would do much to them, who knew how long they'd been underground, it felt right to hold them and let them know someone was watching over them.
"We really have to find a name for you," I told the whelp as he slept across my leg. "Maybe something that's red, like you. Crimson? Berry?"
He turned away from me, ignoring my attempt to give him some sort of identity. I tucked him close to my body heat and tightened my hold on the blanket. Though it left me unable to cling to Eskal, he'd taken to carefully gliding around clouds to try to keep me drier and warmer. He was also trying to keep from tilting in one direction or the other suddenly, or making it any riskier for me than it had to be.
"Did I mention that I want a saddle the next time we do this?" I asked him.
I felt him laugh more than I heard it. "Three or four times. We shall see what we can create in the mountains. Hold tightly. I intend to land in the next moment or so."
The warning was greatly appreciated. I wrapped my arms around the eggs and let my legs slide apart on him, riding him as much as I could like someone would a horse, but it didn't work when the horse was too damn broad to hold on to like that.
Down we went, bit by bit, the rest of the flight behind us. We landed in the soft soil, all flint and loam, outside of the mouth of a cave that could fit fifty of the dragon I sat upon. He didn't bother to let me off before he headed into it, breathing flames on a pile of logs as we went past it. I bit down a scream, not having expected the wood to explode as it had.
"Could you warn me the next time you do that?"
He blinked back at me. "You truly expected a dragon to not breathe fire? After calling me a fire-breathing freak?"
"It's the first time you've done it!"
"It is the first time it has been relevant and necessary to do so. We do not find comfort in the cold, nor will you. And we will need those flames to again attempt the ritual, if you are still interested."
"We're not going to throw the eggs in the fire, are we?" I wasn't about to do some Mother of Dragons thing and end up burning to death to try it.
Iyadre shifted back into human form and laid his bags down upon the ground. "Why would we do that?" he asked, mystified.
"There's this show-"
Eskal sighed. "That sort of thing only happens in fantasy novels."
I tightened my blanket around myself and tied the two ends together so I wouldn't have to hold it. We unloaded the eggs from Eskal's back in silence, and though they didn't end up in the fire, they were pretty damned close to it. The whelp threw himself off my shoulder, splatted on the ground, shook himself off and scampered over to look at the flames.
Then he snapped at them and Vadriq sighed, picking him up. "You can't do things like that. The humans won't like it."
I paused, watching him with the whelp. If they were so cozy, would I be needed after I'd hatched the eggs? The idea didn't please me. Though I hadn't been with them long, it'd been... nice, to be needed by such strong, powerful guys. And maybe it wasn't even the fact that they were so tough; it was just that someone actually required me and not just someone like me.
Though I'd been important to the museum, they'd thrown me away the second they suspected me of being a problem. And they were technically right; what I'd done was against the law. Ultimately, I understood the decision. I just didn't agree with it.
As Vadriq and the whelp played with one another, as cute as it was, I turned my attention to Nariti and Eskal. They'd shifted back to human form by
