Dragon's Claim

Chapter 6-1

Chapter 6

Layla loved running. It made her feel like the wind, untouchable and invincible. What could stop the wind? Layla leapt over fallen trees and jutting rocks, careful to keep an eye on the unfamiliar landscape. It felt a little like home, but she couldn’t let that lull her into carelessness. One tumble and she’d risk a broken limb, leaving her to heal or to wait for someone to come along and carry her back to the center of the Territory.

The world here was relatively flat for the first twenty minutes. Then, she noticed more rocks budging their way out of the earth. They got bigger and bigger until they created hills and mounds upon which trees grew. A familiar scent wafted to her on the breeze and her heart leap.

Drake and Luc were going to be relieved, she thought. As long as Marc was in one piece. She hadn’t thought that far. She hoped he was still alive. Even if he was unconscious, she would carry his heavy form all the way back to the center of the Territory if she had to.

Layla didn’t want to see the even-headed leader lose his cool like that again. It angered something inside of her that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. She didn’t look too closely at the emotion for fear of what it might uncover. She was doing perfectly fine without whatever lay beneath it.

The breeze moved around her and her eyes were drawn to a rocky outcropping that grew out of the ground. As she came around the corner, she saw a familiar form leaning against the rock, legs sprawled out before him.

For a moment, she feared the worst.

“s**t,” Marc breathed when he saw Layla approach. It was only one word but it conveyed a million things all at once. It conveyed relief. It conveyed fear. It conveyed anxiety. His face was lined with all sorts of emotions, ones that she didn’t have time to pick apart.

All she knew was that she was relieved to see him in one piece. She told herself it was because she didn’t have to drag his body back to the center of the Territory.

She opened her mouth to yell at him for not returning to the center of the Territory sooner when she noticed the dragon in question paced outside a small, rocky outcropping. A dark hole marked the entrance to a narrow cavern, one that Marc never strayed too far from. Marc paused and turned his gaze back to the entrance.

“A great number of odd things have occurred today,” he said. “I would have called, but getting hit by lightning, even when in your dragon form fries your electronics, apparently.”

She gave him a questioning look, eyebrow raised. How did that even work? No one bothered to look too closely at the magic that allowed dragons to change shape at will, often replacing clothing and personal items when the human form returned. She’d always assumed it truly was a replacement created by magic, but if his cell phone had been fried, perhaps she was wrong.

Marc sucked in a breath and began to relay everything that happened since the storm.

Of course, the storm had followed Isaac, Marc acknowledged. They should have known it would track him away from its normal course. Storms sought the dragon out like he was a lightning rod. They would have known if only they’d bothered to check the weather forecast. Then, they could have tucked Isaac into the convertible with Drake and Layla and the world would have been right again.

But, Marc seemed kind of grateful that they hadn’t. Even if lightning had struck him from the sky and the traces of it still bruised across his skin in lines much like the roots of a tree, Marc didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he knelt beside the entrance to the tiny cave.

“When I fell from the sky and hit the ground, I was in my human form. I struck my head on one of these rocks and was out for quite a while. It was this one who pulled me out of the storm and shared her food with me.”

Layla’s lips formed a question that never left her mouth. She knelt beside Marc and summoned a small flame to her hand, letting the blaze inside her warm the two of them in the cool forest. The light in her hand flickered inside the small cavern and washed over a tiny form. It took a moment for her brain to recognize the shapes. A tiny, heart shaped face. Thin arms wrapped around knobby knees. Little toes covered in dirt.

Her heart stuttered inside her chest.

The head perked up at the sight of her light. A hand rose to cover the child’s gaze.

Layla pulled back and met Marc’s eyes. He shrugged, anticipating her question. He knew as much as she did. The monster inside her writhed with anger. It wanted to tear apart whoever had abandoned the small child. It wanted to claim blood on her behalf. But, Layla told the thing inside her to hush.

Now was not the time for anger and revenge. The child didn’t need revenge. It needed safety. Instead, Layla laid flat on her belly and stuck her head inside the cave’s entrance. The flame in her hand was a soft glow, one that the child’s eyes would adjust to. Layla used her other hand to cushion her chin.

She’d been this scared child once. She’s been without her parents, alone in the world. Yet, she had one thing the child did not. Layla had her brother, Rhys, to scoop her up and love her.

“My name is Layla,” she began. Her flame nervously danced over her fingertips like a tiny dancer.

The child’s eyes were entranced by the dancing flame, so she encouraged it. She lifted her fingers and let it fall from tip to tip in a show, something she’d only done out of boredom before.

“I came all the way from Wales,” Layla informed the child in a conversational tone. “I flew here to live with some friends of mine. It just so happens that you helped one of those friends.”

She should have sent a fire bolt into the sky, should have called Luc and Drake down with the flare. She had a feeling the small child would not have been too keen on the big, angry men. Luc was still seething from everything that happened and Drake was reeling from stupid feelings of inadequacy.

They’d all made a simple mistake. No one had died for it. Instead, that mistake had led them to find another life in need of help. Perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps it was fate.

Layla laid her head on the ground like she might take a nap, averting her gaze to a rocky wall. Beyond her burning hand, she heard a small scuffle of rock against rock. She froze, not daring to move for the fear she might scare the child back into the corner.

Little fingers touched her skin and she stilled. She fought the urge to pull back her flame for fear of startling the child. But, what happened next amazed her. The fingers closed over the flame in her hand, but the child didn’t cry out.

Instead, Layla looked up to find the child cradling the flame in her tiny, cupped hands. Layla felt her eyes grow wide and forced a soft smile to her lips. The flame hovered over the child’s skin and made her wonder. What had they found?

Now lit by Layla’s flame, the child became clearer. Her body was unbearably thin. Layla could not tell if the girl was five or ten, from the size of her. It made her heart ache in a way she did not want. She pressed her forehead into the cold ground and fought back the warmth inside her chest. She would not grow attached to this small thing.

The child most likely had a home. She most likely had parents searching frantically for her. They would coax the girl out and send her to loving arms. That was all.

But, as her forehead pressed into the ground, Layla felt tiny fingers push the tendrils of her hair back. The child uncovered Layla’s face and she let her head fall to the side and saw the smile on the girl’s face.

They were two of a kind, two lost souls.

“Will you come out of the cave with me?” Layla asked, her voice as soft as she could muster. She was amazed at how easily the gentle voice came to her. It felt at odds with the person she’d become.

The child’s eyes darted to the entrance beyond her. Fear was clear on her face, but Layla reached out and grasped the fire in the girl’s hands.

“Don’t worry. I will protect you.”

The child met Layla’s eyes and Layla noticed the slight flare of the girl’s nostrils taking in her scent. The little girl swallowed, a small motion, before nodding. Layla had to shimmy backwards on her stomach to get out of the cavern entrance. Cool air greeted her face like a breath of nature. She leaned back on her haunches, avoiding Marc’s gaze. Instead, her eyes were trained on the cavern.

Would the little girl come out? Would she trust Layla?

They waited a long moment. She was afraid the girl would never come out. She felt her heart sink and she hated herself for it. Layla shouldn’t have expected the child to trust her. She should have simply reached in and dragged the girl out so they could take her to safety, even if that meant kicking and screaming.

Then, they heard a soft scratching sound and looked down to find a small head appear in the cavern entrance. Layla felt her heart lighten and sucked in a breath. The girl stilled, taking in Marc with wide eyes full of fear until she remembered who he was. It passed when Marc stepped away from them and the girl darted out of the cave. She crashed into Layla’s chest.

The two of them rocked back and Layla’s arms instinctively rose to wrap around the girl’s fragile frame. The two stayed like that for a while, huddled into one another. How had this girl come to be in a cave, half starved? Where had she come from?

Would Layla bear to part with her when that time came?

Finally, she remembered her job. She reluctantly pulled an arm away from the child and let loose a thin, bolt of flame into the sky. It snaked through a small opening in the canopy above them and fizzled in the open air. It was hard to tell from the ground if the other two dragons saw her flare.

She didn’t bother searching the skies. Layla placed her arm back around the tiny form currently hanging on to her for dear life and tucked her head over her like she could shield her from the world. Smells of earth and body odor assaulted her senses, but Layla didn’t pull back. The monster inside her shifted nervously. They both knew what this was.

It was weakness.

Even if Layla didn’t want to admit it. Instead, she thought of all the ways she could be strong while they waited for Drake and Luc. She would shield this small being from the worst of the world for as long as she had to. She would keep it safe and happy.

Two heavy thuds echoed in the forest. The child in her arms jerked away in fear, but Layla reached out and held on to the child’s hand. Her grasp was soft and she hoped her face was, too.

Luc crashed into Marc, enveloping his twin into a broad hug that should have crushed a lesser man. Marc groaned in his grip, still feeling the effects of being struck by lightning. It was a miracle the man was still alive.

The girl watched this all with wide eyes as she inched closer and closer to Layla’s chest until she could fold herself back into Layla’s safety and watch everything from there.

*