Chapter 6 Freyja
1681 Words
Freyja
We arrived at Fire Eater an hour and a half later, and I was a little underwhelmed with the size of the tribe. There were maybe fifteen warriors and twenty women and children. If we were back in ancient times, Fire Eater would have been eaten alive.
“Protector,” a tall, blonde-haired man greeted me when I entered the main house. “I'm Paul, Head warrior of Fire Eater; how was your trip?”
“Fine, Joshua filled me in,” I said, getting straight to the point. I could still taste Gwen’s candy kiss on my tongue, and it made me miss her terribly. “Have you sent out any scouts?”
“Yes, but like before, we didn’t find anything,” he said. “They just vanished.”
“Dragons can do many things, but vanishing into thin air is not one of them,” I said. “I’m going to take a look myself, is your land protected?”
“We have patrols running,” Paul said.
“No, I mean like protection spells, will humans be able to see me if I shift and fly?” I asked.
“There are protection spells for that?” He gasped.
“Okay, guess that answers the first question,” I said. “How close is the nearest human village and will they be able to see me?"
“There’s a human town about sixty miles away,” he said. “As long as you stay within that radiance, you will be fine, but it’s riskier the closer you get to town.”
“Can you spare a man?” I asked. “I’ll need someone to help me stay within the boundaries.”
“Joshua can go with you,” he said. “I’m sure you have noticed that we are a new tribe and have a limited number of members.”
“I have,” I said.
“Joshua, show the Protector to her room and drop off her bag,” Paul instructed. “You are to be at her disposal while she is here. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Joshua said with a smile. “Follow me, please.”
I followed the eager Joshua to a flight of stairs and went up. He led me down the hall of the first floor and to a bedroom on the left. I looked inside and saw a small room with a single bed, a dresser, a mirror, and an opened door showing a small, compact bathroom. It reminded me a lot of an economy motel room.
“I know it’s nothing like the rooms at Black Wing,” Joshua said. “But it’s comfortable.”
“It’s everything I need,” I said. “Can you give me a few minutes to change, and ill meet you at the front door?”
“Sure thing, Protector!” Joshua said, barely containing his excitement to be assisting me.
“Please, call me Freyja,” I said. “I answer to Frey too.”
“Okay,” he said with a nod. “Freyja, I will meet you downstairs in five minutes?”
“Perfect, thank you,” I said.
Joshua bowed to me, which was kind of weird, and he must’ve thought so too by the funny look on his face. He smiled awkwardly and turned to hurry down the hall to the stairs. I closed the door to my room and took a better look around.
“Gwenny?” I called through the mind link. “Gwenny, I’m here.”
“How is Fire Eater?” she replied, and I smiled at the sound of her voice.
“It’s small,” I said. “But the people seem nice. I’m going to out with Joshua to scope the area.”
“Be safe,” she said. “I miss you.”
“I miss you more,” I sighed. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said. “Link me later?”
“I will as soon as I can,” I replied.
I closed the link and opened my duffle bag to get my workout clothes. I wasn’t going to need them, but it’s easier to change in and out of them. When I was ready, I zipped everything up and headed for the stairs to meet Joshua, who was waiting patiently for me by the door; his eyes widened when he saw me approach. I smiled at his nervousness, and he gently touched the mark on his collarbone. Joshua’s eyes flitted to the mark that I wore proudly, and he smiled.
“Show me where Megan was last seen,” I instructed.
Joshua nodded, and we went out the front door. I quickly noted that though Fire Eater has a handful of members, they had abundant land. Several acres of lawn and gardens surrounded the main house, with a few cottages clustered around. Joshua brought me further into the gardens and a small section with a tiny koi pool and a beautiful vase-shaped hazel tree.
“This was Megan’s favorite spot,” Joshua said, looking around the serene scene. “She would come here to read and eat the hazelnuts.”
“It's beautiful,” I said, admiring the gorgeous tree that looked full with its fruition. “Did Megan ever go walking through the woods?”
I asked because a grove of ash trees surrounded this spot. There didn’t seem to be any noticeable paths, but you won't need one if you know an area well enough. Joshua shook his head no.
“Megan liked to hike, but she would never go alone or not tell someone where she was going,” he said.
“You don’t have security cameras, do you?” I asked, feeling as though I already knew the answer. Joshua frowned and shook his head. “I thought so.”
“We aren’t that big of a tribe,” he said. “We all just branched from our tribes and formed our own.”
“Why did you leave your tribe?” I asked.
“Most of us are from Dragoon,” he said. “Well, my mate is anyway. She’s a dragon, and I’m not.”
“Oh,” I said with surprise. “My brother is mated to a hybrid from Dragoon.”
“Rebecca Oakley?” he asked, and I nodded. “I've heard of her; she's pretty well known there.”
“For what?” I asked curiously.
“The reason my mate and I left Dragoon was that they were biased against non-dragons and hybrids,” Joshua explained. “ The Chief allowed them to stay there because of their mates, but non-dragons and their hybrid children are treated differently. Rebecca stood up for herself one day and earned the respect of the dragons. Then she got a job and got out of there. I’m happy she found her mate finally.”
“I had no idea,” I gasped. “Poor Becky. I’m sorry you had to go through that. How long did you live in Dragoon before starting Fire Eater?”
“We made it through three years,” He said. “As soon as we heard that Greg was creating a new place, we jumped on board.”
“Was Greg from Dragoon too?” I asked.
“Yeah, him and Megan,” he said. “Greg is a dragon, Megan is a wolf, and as soon as they met, they planned to get away from Dragoon.”
“Dragoon sure has a lot of hybrid mates,” I said. “You'd think they figure it out that the world is changing and accept everyone as is.”
“Does Black Wing have any non-dragons?” Joshua asked curiously. “I’m a hybrid too; I’m part bear and part dragon.”
“You have the wings?” I asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered. “But I can only fly in my human form; my bear is too big to get very far off the ground. But I have the fire breath!”
“Oh, that’s cool,” I said. “Let me shift, and we can start scoping the area.”
I went behind a tree and shimmied out of her workout clothes. I still wasn’t comfortable with stripping down in front of strangers. I peeked around the tree to see Joshua standing with his wings out and facing away like a gentleman. Being an all-powerful dragon, all I had to do was jump into the air, and I transformed.
“Wow,” Joshua gasped when I flew over his head. “You’re even magnificent than I heard!”
“Thank you,” I mind linked him.
“How did you do that!” he replied through the link.
“I can communicate with anyone,” I said. “Let’s go; we are losing daylight.”
“As you wish,” he said and jumped into the sky with his bright orange wings.
I followed Joshua and used my other sight to scope out the trees below. I saw no sign of anything besides trees and regular animal life. Joshua took me through the entire territory, and I found nothing. There were another four or five miles of woods to check, but it would be by foot. I shifted back to human and grabbed my workout clothes to change into.
“Did you find anything?” Joshua asked.
“No, but we need to look further into the trees,” I said. “We can’t do that in dragon form, so we will have to hike through.”
“That’s a massive area,” Joshua said. “That would take days.”
“Not for me,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“Shouldn’t we get some other dragons to help?” he asked.
“I think we can do it,” I said. “I can use my other sight to check more ground; it’ll be like having a twenty dozen eyes.”
- Writer
