The Lost Dragon Princess

Chapter 12

You’ve never spoken of her.

We don’t have a lot in common.

Does she like jaguars?

It hasn’t come up. Normal people do not talk about jaguars or big cats as their pets you know?

Strange.

Yes.

I thought that you were adopted.

I am. Yes.

Then she is your adoptive mother, is she?

You know for an ambassador from a different realm you are quite nosy.

I know. It is one of my better qualities.

I could not help but sigh. I called by father.

“Dad, are you back home?”

“Yes Sig. I am back home but where are you? And more importantly why are you not home till now? With the cyclone and now you are still outside on a school night? I know that you have your choices of college made but you still have to graduate from high school!!” said my father and I knew that he was correct.

“You see Dad, I have been in an accident again. The place where my teacher lives has just blown up,” I said and Dad shrieked on the other side.

“What? Where are you? Tell me right now…I am coming to get you…” he said.

“That isn’t necessary. I am going to get a ride with a friend. Don’t worry. I am coming back home,” I said and he mumbled something akin to kids of these days and all and then the call was disconnected.

Reaching home did not take long for me and I had already sent Damas back to my realm and saying that I was going to get him back when I took Lily to my mother’s. Damas had said that I better do because in case I came across the dragon then at least he would have the chance of saving me once. I rolled my eyes but I did not think that it had any effect on him at all.

“I got pizza with your favourite toppings,” said my Dad once I joined him in the living room before the television. This was our dinner ritual. He had checked me over once and for all if I had been injured in some way or not but when he found that I was in perfect health even after being in accident he had raised his brows but did not react.

“Thanks Dad. But I thought that we were going to have Chinese take out,” I said as I plopped on the couch and then put on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix. Even though my dad was too old for this stuff he still liked watching these fantasy series with me and as you have already understood, my reasons for watching this was absolutely connected to my specific increase in powers and the strange sense of keenness that was increasing inside me every day.

“How did you not get hurt in that cyclone when it took the Jeep on the top of those trees?” he asked and I winced inwardly. Talking to insurance agents was something and telling people who knew what I was dealing with was something however how was I supposed to tell my father about my encounter with a dragon?

He would have me committed almost immediately.

“When I saw the cyclone rushing at me I did not think I just jumped out of the jeep and just within a minute the car was on the top of the trees. It was a scary experience, Dad. Not one that I am going to like facing again,” I said with a shudder and dad rubbed my arm in a comforting manner.

“What is with that animal carrier there?” he asked and I told him about my teacher’s animal and how she has been taken to the hospital and everything and my father nodded. Then I dropped the bomb.

“I think I shall go and visit mother tomorrow with Lily if you don’t mind. It is weekend and she loves animals…with Boogie and she living in such a remote town I think that she will like it if I go and see her,” I said tentatively and my dad kept on watching Sabrina talking to her aunts and then after a while said,” You have been in two accidents in the same day, Sig..do you think that it will be good for you?”

“The therapist I went to see today, Mary, she told me that my life lacks any kind of meaningful connections at all. And that all the relationships which I have kept away from me in the fear that it is going to hurt me badly. I mean, I know that I don’t have friends and I am adopted…but I still think that going to visit my mother would be good for me.”

“You know when we saw you, I knew from the first moment that you were supposed to be mine. Your mom always thought that a son would have been better but the way you caught hold of my thumb and the strength in your hands…I knew that you were destined for us. But yes, you are correct…it will do you good to visit your mother. You can go for visiting her but you have to be back by Monday. Can you do that?”

“Yes Dad,” I said as I took another slice of the pizza and bit into it.

It was a lot sunnier and warmer on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains. A lot browner, too, with the densely packed firs and spruce and ferns of the western side of the mountains giving way to more sparsely distributed ponderosa pines and junipers and eventually just sagebrush as I drove down Highway 26 toward Madras. When I’d packed, I’d grabbed my duster, jeans, and durable polyester tops. Maybe shorts and tanks would have been a better choice.

Bend, where my mother lived, was another hour out and six hours total from Seattle. The cat had complained the whole way.

Lily was part Siamese, a breed, the internet informed me, known for vocalization. Even though the car was climate-controlled, and I’d stopped often to check her food and water, it was clear she did not like her road trip. Or maybe the fact that she was stuck in a cat carrier for it. But I didn’t want to risk her escaping, especially not when I’d seen a coyote cross the highway earlier.

The only good thing about the trip so far was that some of Lily’s hairs were floating out and nestling themselves into the fabric of the seats. I didn’t know how much longer I would have this car, but the idea of Lieutenant Mood getting it back covered in cat hair pleased the immature part of my soul.

At a rest stop by a boat launch, I brought Damas out for company. For the majority of the trip, I’d deliberately avoided doing so, lest his looming tiger presence scare the cat, but there was also the possibility that it would cause Lily to fall silent. My rattled nerves were frayed after five hours of feline complaints, and an hour of quiet would be blissful.

Have you brought me into this realm to hunt vile enemies? Damas asked when he formed between the car and a field of waist-high yellow grass with a few meandering trails through it.

No, to babysit the cat and talk to me.

Already, Lily had fallen silent, though that might only be because I’d opened the passenger door and she could see the roadside wilds.

Babysitting is demeaning. Damas’s nose twitched. I smell deer.

Which you wouldn’t be able to eat here.

True, but I can still chase prey.

Let’s not terrorize the prey, eh? Here. You can have the whole back seat. I opened the door and patted his spot.

He eyed the back seat of the sedan. This is very small. Your other vehicle was also too small when the roof was on it, but it was better than this.

I know. This is temporary.

Damas, amid grumbling noises, climbed into the back seat, knocking my sword scabbard, pack, and g*n off to make room for himself.

“Get comfortable, will you?” I mumbled.

The small feline rides next to you in the front? Damas sniffed the ventilation window in the back of the cat carrier.

Lily hissed.

She has to. You wouldn’t be able to fit up here. You barely fit back there.

This vehicle is not suitable for my large majestic form. It is… Damas shifted so he could look out the window and toward the sky.

“What is it?” I asked warily, tired of being followed and tired of being surprised.

The sky was blue without a cloud in sight. Just that very large bird.

No, that wasn’t a bird. Nor was it an airplane.

Dread took up residence in my stomach even before it—he—flew close enough for me to sense.

The dragon, Damas informed me.

Is it the same one?

How many dragons were you expecting?

I wasn’t expecting any, and then he showed up, flambéing a forest to try to get to me.

You did kill his wyvern.

That was my wyvern, damn it.

I stared at the sky, debating what I would do if he landed. Would he? Was he keeping tabs on me and annoyed that I’d come back to Oregon? Did he consider the whole state his territory now? We were more than a four-hour drive from where the wyvern had been, though I supposed that was a much shorter distance as the dragon flew.

Fortunately, the dragon kept flying and soon soared out of sight.

“Let’s hope it’s a coincidence,” I muttered.

Hissing came from Lily’s carrier.

I frowned at Damas. “Are you doing something to that cat?”

Absolutely not.

Why is she hissing?

She finds my size and magnificence intimidating, a reminder of her small and diminutive stature, which would put her at the mercy of wolves and cougars if she were in the wilds.

Or maybe she just doesn’t like you.

Another hiss came from the cat carrier.

As any feline will tell you, it is more important to be respected than to be liked.

I got into the car. As I headed back to the highway, Lily hunkered down in her carrier. She switched from hissing to glaring frostily through the grate toward Damas.

Even though it was the silence I’d hoped for, I felt bad about cowing the cat.

“You’ll like my mother’s house,” I told her. “It’s got all kinds of bookcases to climb on, and there’s a loft with tons of junk in it. She’s got a golden retriever, but you should get along fine. Rocket likes everybody. Cats, rats, squirrels, people. Everybody.”

Jaguars?

We’ll see.

As I drove the car onto the highway, I realized something with a sinking feeling. We were heading in the same direction the dragon had been flying.