Dragon's Claim

Chapter 6

Vincent returned after a long while, leisurely taking a stroll through the woods, his mind far away in the distant past. The melodies of the wind sang through his hair, gentle like a mother's caress. It was different than what he usually looked like, Catriona thought. Well, with what she had known of him in the last fifty hours or so. The glum atmosphere made him straighten up almost instantly. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to understand what was making everyone look anywhere but at him. Stopping a few feet away from the rest of the immortals, he tried to read their faces.

"What happened in the last fifteen minutes?" He asked, exasperated. It was clear to him that his troupe was incapable of surviving without him, even for fifteen minutes.

"We were waiting for you to come back before relaying any information that might grant anyone any leverage over the dragon-born," Nicolas stated, making Catriona flinch involuntarily and look away as Vincent's eyes snapped to hers, his gaze questioning.

Nicolas' statement got him a whithering look from James, making him roll his eyes and look away.

Accepting that he wouldn't get any direct answers unless he probed, least of all from Catriona, Vincent sighed in defeat.

"And may I ask what brought this on?" He asked calmly, as he could tell that his troupe was anything but calm. Silence reigned supreme momentarily until Domenico decided to break it.

"No offence to Catriona, but we don't even know why her kin wants to kill her. We think it wouldn't be prudent for us to take her to Draseqa when we know nothing about her." He said, and it was very clear that he was extremely uncomfortable wording what was on everyone's mind if the grimace on his face was anything to go by. His statement prompted Vincent to gain a thoughtful look. Nodding to himself, Vincent looked up, his attention focused on Catriona, his gaze expectant.

Catriona wasn't sure how she could just reveal such sensitive information to them. She was afraid of the way they would surely view her if they found out. Would they even consider taking her with them if she were to reveal the truth?

"You know what you need to do. They are right; we cannot help you if we know nothing about you. You need to tell us why your own kind wants to kill you." Vincent said to her when she didn't utter a word. She knew that they were making a valid point; it didn't make it any easier, though.

"I went against my parent's wishes." She finally said, building up her lie. "They wanted me to mate with a male of their choosing, and I couldn't do that, so I ran away from my wedding. They wish me dead as I have ruined their reputation along with that of the village." She continued, not looking up from the ground that was subject to her intense stare.

"That is why you found me on that island in the middle of nowhere." She added, her voice wavering due to her lie.

"Weren't you abandoned there by your lover?" Domenico asked, confused. His statement instantly had Catriona internally panicking; she wasn't sure how much of her inner turmoil was apparent on her face.

"Yes, it was a sorcerer. I caught his eye while on the run." She said, and the dragons nodded in comprehension.

Sorcerers were not to be trusted. It was a well-known fact in their world, so her statement made perfect sense.

"I wasn't aware that female nymphae were expected to mate according to their family's decision," Lucas said thoughtfully. "It is so great that you were able to escape, though!" He continued as he clapped his hands together, smiling at her sweetly.

"Yes, your courage is commendable indeed, Ms Catriona. We are glad we were able to be of assistance." James nodded at her understandingly while everyone else sighed in relief as the tension dissipated.

"So it is settled then? We are taking her with us? If you would like to come, of course," Lucas said hopefully, as he made eye contact with her to acknowledge her.

"We still haven't told her anything about Draseqa, though," Sebastian added softly as he scratched his head.

"True, and it seems like words haven't eluded you today, my brother." Domenico grinned as he tried to shoulder-bump him, but Sebastian hardly budged while he gave Domenico an unimpressed look.

All this while Catriona was gauging Vincent's reaction. He was again gazing at the sky, contemplative, making her wonder if it was difficult for him to not be flying. As if feeling her gaze on him, he looked at her abruptly, making her gasp softly and take a step back. Rolling his eyes at her skittish behaviour, he sighed as he turned away from her and put his hands in his jeans pockets.

Vincent looked around at his brothers, who were a lot more at ease than they were moments ago, and told them, "Gather around, boys and build a fire. It's story time."

She didn't expect the cheering that followed, predominantly by Domenico and Lucas. The dragons clearly were not adults. Except for Vincent, perhaps. And Zayerr, maybe? Okay, too soon to be making assumptions.

Catriona watched on as the dragons got to work. As a nymph, she was pointedly asked to wait for the work to be done, at which she rolled her eyes. Just because she was a nymph didn't mean she couldn't do some hard work. However, as she watched them fall trees by just thumping their palms against the trucks, and assemble logs, she realized it was better she wasn't asked to help.

Even though the dragons were busy building a fire and hollering slurs at each other, she could tell that their senses were attuned to her every movement. As she moved around, a branch snapped under a foot, making the troupe whip their heads to look at her in sync, proving her intuition.

Sighing, she realized that that was just something she would have to deal with if she decided to go with them, which, at some level, she already had decided. She doesn't want to seem too eager, though; they already had a lot of power over her.

She watched as James manifested a matchbox seemingly out of nowhere. It was more than a little weird to watch dragons using a matchbox.

Everything that James did was very proper, and that included lighting a fire. With a prim flick of his wrist, if a flick could be prim, the wood caught fire. As they all settled around the flickering flame, their eyes latched on to her, beckoning.

Catriona answered the call and took a seat at one of the logs that were empty of occupants. Vincent, who was sitting on a log opposite hers, gave her a meaningful look, his forearms on his thighs as he slouched a bit. The flames painted danger on his face in yellow and red.

Nicolas and Zayerr were nowhere to be seen, making Catriona wonder if they were keeping watch or hunting. It must have been a while since the dragons last ate anything.

"Alright then, I'll keep this brief and only tell you the things that you need to know for now. The rest, you can learn on your own if you choose to come with us." Vincent said, his voice grave.

"I know that you, surprisingly enough, do not know much about Draseqa," He continued, subtly rolling his eyes at her staggering ignorance, "but I imagine that you understand that it is the homeland of the dragon-born. As you can probably guess, we have certain customs and traditions that you would be expected to know and follow lest you go on making social blunders." He said, as if he totally expected her to make exactly the kind of faux pas he was imagining, and all the explaining was a moot point, but he was doing it anyway.

"The dragon-born are proud people," Vincent told her, willing her to understand.

"I can tell." She said, cutting him off in between, making him inhale for patience while he looked like he didn't get paid enough for this.

"Most of us do not take to deviant behaviour kindly, especially the elders who will consider it an insult if you took a wrong breath in their direction." He carried on, puzzling Catriona as the other dragons nodded in agreement. How could one breathe wrong?

"Therefore, it would be better if you didn't wander, especially during your initial days there. The way of dragon-born is something that you will only understand by witnessing and imitating, and until you are able to do that, it would be best for you to lay low and stick by our side. We would not want you to graduate from nymph to roasted meat on your first day." He said calmly as if he wasn't about to make Catriona have a panic attack.

Roasted meat? Seriously? Were they really that bad?

"They aren't bad per se; it will just take a while for them to accept you. The dragon-kind are set in their ways." He told her, making her realize that she had loudly conveyed her concerns to him.

"Don't be worried; we will protect you when you upset the other dragon-born." He added thoughtfully, considering the fear etched on her face.

"Do you have any questions?" Vincent asked her, imploring. Taking in a shuddering breath, she answered with a shake of her head.

Straightening, he told her, "Well, if you need to ask something...," letting the statement hang in the tense air.

Catriona was left to her thoughts as the dragons realized it was finally dinner time and all but Lucas left to hunt, whooping and hollering as they disappeared in the woods with Vincent taking the lead as was expected, Domenico hung on to Sebastian's shoulder, chattering his ear away, and James stiffly followed not too far behind.

Catriona and Lucas shared an awkward smile before they went back to staring at the steadily flickering flame.

Catriona wondered if there was a limit to how many times someone's life can do a 360 degree? She didn't know the answer to that question. What she did know was that it was about to happen once more.