pulled the trigger. Did the barrel rip open? Is that what hit me?
Prodding my face with one hand, I immediately locate the tender spot on my forehead.
Shit, that’s sore. I hope I didn’t get a concussion.
“What do you want with me?” I manage.
The dragon studies the long claw on one blue finger. “It is not your place to ask questions of a superior being.”
I gaze up at him. He’s similar to Kyandros and Aragadon, but seems stronger, more in control. More commanding, in a sense. Certainly, he’s a lot more vital than the dragons without hoards.
He is jaw-droppingly beautiful, despite his blue scales. Perfect and striking at the same time, with more than enough manliness to be unique and not like a generic fashion model. He’s wearing only beige pants and black boots that go up to his knees. He has an old-fashioned aristocratic air about him, something that none of the other dragons have.
No, I can’t stand here marveling at the perfection. He’s not perfect. He’s not even a supernatural being. He’s an alien, that’s all.
“You killed Heidi.”
He gives me a sharp look. “What was that? Speak!”
“You killed one of the girls. In the village.”
He sighs theatrically. “It must be such a pitiful existence to die so easily. And to be so dependent on your puny bodies.”
I have no idea what he means, and I’m not going to ask. I have to concentrate on getting away from him. Kyandros and Aragadon are scary, but at least they haven’t murdered one of us.
Looking around without making it seem obvious, I try to get a feeling for where this is.
There’s a forest, but it doesn’t remind me of a jungle at all. The trees are almost all pine-like, with long needles instead of leaves. The air has a vaguely pine-like smell, too, like the deep forests of Canada. And the air is plainly colder than back at the village.
The grass is a different type, darker and shorter. And if I’m not mistaken, there’s a large cluster of huge, colorful mushrooms at the edge of the clearing. I never saw that in the jungle. The climate here is totally different.
I didn’t think my heart could sink any lower in my chest, but it somehow manages. This is far away from the village. As far away as Canada is from Florida, at least. As far as Finland is from Africa.
The dragon definitely flew. And he flew far, with me in his claws. Just like that.
A shot of anger energizes me. “Why did you kill her? Why did you take me?” I demand. “You have no right. I shot you in self-defense.”
“Right?” he asks, puzzled. “What right do you have to step on the grass? To break a twig off a bush? To pick that flower and put it in your hair? You never think twice about it. That is what you are to me. As low as a strand of grass that you step on without being aware of it. No right comes into it. Except that whatever I do is right and you must accept it because you have no choice.”
I discreetly reach up and search my hair for the little red flower I put behind my ear last night, finding it at the back of my head, badly entangled in strands of hair and crushed by my head when I slept.
“That’s not the same,” I try, not at all in the mood for a discussion about existential ethics. “I’m a sentient being. It’s wrong.”
Yeah, that’s the extent of my argument right now. And I majored in philosophy.
He doesn’t look at me. “Nothing I do is wrong. Now be quiet.”
The dragon is squinting against the rising sun, then slowly turns, gazing at the treetops in every direction as if searching for something.
Then he spits an intense curse and kicks up a big divot of dirt that flies thirty feet away. “This damned, pitiful human form! How do you ever get anything done?!”
In a flash he’s right in front of me, moving faster than my eye can follow.
I take a step back in sheer shock at his speed. “It works for us. Can I help you with anything?”
“Can you do anything? Nothing of importance, certainly. Except maim with your cowardly gun. You are a menace! A criminal!” His eyes burn holes in my very soul.
“I don’t understand,” I gasp, taking another step backwards.
He towers over me, a dark and terrible being made extra scary because of his unspeakable beauty. “You shot me, making