The Last Dragon’s Baby

9. A pregnant pause

Unknown point of view

Alev entered my office, his eyes were changing colors and slits were growing in his irises. It was rare to see my old friend this anxious, he could hardly control his inner beast. 

I stood up with a jolt, fearing for the worst: an imminent attack or a trap from the coward and obnoxious Red Clan. 

“Two Red dragons were seen roaming around this area, Levi. Daniel is trying to find more clues, catching the lingering scents in the surroundings, he will inform us about what happened soon,” Alev informed me.  

I exhaled sharply. They were getting close, perhaps it was time to move again, adopt a new identity and start a new life elsewhere, away from the danger. I hated to run away, it wasn’t in my nature, it actually contradicted each and every one of my instincts. However, I didn’t have a better option, I couldn’t risk my people’s lives. 

“We should get ready to move and adopt new identities,” I told him.

He sighed looking away but didn’t question my decision. Yet I could notice his hesitancy, he didn’t like the idea. Alev didn’t want to leave once again, I knew that he liked this city and our new life. 

We have already changed our location, names, and scents numerous times through the last decades since the last direct confrontation with the Red Dragons took place. After so many losses we were both at such a point that a direct confrontation was too risky for both sides. 

Our small clan was here, in this city, and using these names for a little more than four years, which meant nothing in the large spam of our existence. 

Lately, our lives had been only fleeing and fighting silently in the dark. Fighting for survival, for revenge. Fighting with no hope and knowing that in a matter of centuries our clan, our legacy, and all that mattered for us would disappear forever, swallowed by forgetfulness, as soon as the last of the six remaining members of our breed fell.  

I wouldn’t ever give up protecting and guarding the five remaining golden dragons, not even for myself. I was their leader and had already failed them too many times. 

We were a people with no future, no possible offspring, but I would relentlessly put my life on the line and face our enemies bravely for us to have a present. 

We were a breed condemned to watch our own disappearance hopelessly as we approached extinction. 

We had to move away, as far as possible. Fast. 

~*~

(An hour earlier)

 Alma

I pushed my leg muscles as fast as I could, putting all my remaining strength on the last stretch. The shadow over us grew further, I looked back at the flying dragon, he was getting closer. I took the last vial from my purse and threw it on the dragon as if it were a baseball. It didn’t reach his face as I aimed, but his wing. I didn’t stop to check the damage, only speeded my steps, feeling the heat of the approaching fire. 

I breathed with difficulty through the pain and panic, eyes on the slight shining door. We were almost there. 

Witches and wizards can identify the doors of the shops, houses, and establishments of our fellow people by this glow. Niki and I knew that these doors were sealed with protective spells, so monsters like dragons couldn’t get inside without an invitation, and no one would ever invite a dragon for coffee, obviously.

The flap of his wings overflew me causing a new wave of panic, he was once again close. I filled my aching lungs with air and ran faster, pulling Niki with me. She opened the door and we jumped inside it without looking back, closing it behind us with a loud bang. I breathed in peace and as the adrenalin in my blood was getting lower, my dizziness grew. 

A small and tired smile crossed my lips, we were alive! 

I rested my back against the door and my shaking body slid down until my butt met the floor. I blinked twice before finally peeking at the surroundings; it was some kind of almost empty restaurant. I couldn’t see much of it before my heavy eyelids gave up and closed on their own accord. I tried to open my eyes, but it didn’t work, it felt like my eyelids were glued under the burden of exhaustion. 

I only heard a few whispers and people calling out to me, but I was too numbed by pain to be able to understand their words. 

I opened my eyes a few minutes later. An old elementary witch who could control air was floating Niki and me into a room.

“We called a healer. You two are badly hurt, especially you.” She flashed me a look of sympathy.

I looked at Niki, she seemed okay apart from her broken arm. 

“We barely made it,” Niki whispered, which was quite unlike my spirited friend.

Well, I couldn’t blame her, we almost died.

She gently landed me on a sofa and Niki on a chair.  

“Take this, it will help you with the pain and the bleeding while the healer doesn’t arrive,” the Elementary witch gave me a spoon full of some kind of cherry-flavoured potion. 

I looked at Niki, she was seated on a comfortable chair beside me. Her arm was indeed broken. 

“Why were dragons after us? I don’t get it! What can they possibly want with us? We are just witches! I’ve never even seen a dragon before? Have you?” Niki asked me. 

I was wondering the same thing. Why were they chasing us? 

“No. Maybe they were hungry and thought that we would make a good dinner,” I mumbled, still in a haze, my brain was half numb because of pain.

“Dragons never hunt like this. They also don’t attack in the open. Those are cunning and extremely clever hunters, choosing their aim with precision before going after it and leaving only ashes and smoke in their rise. What happened today was quite atypical,” the lady explained, her forehead creased in contemplation. 

“Why us, then?” I asked, looking into space. 

“Alma, he was clearly aiming at you,” Niki replied, wrapping her hand around my arm. 

I took a deep breath. She was right. 

Why the chaos to hunt after poor me? I couldn’t think of any reason. 

Two healers strode in our direction, looking calm and serene. Healers always had this calm aura that could make you feel better just by being close to them. 

“Jen, take a look at her, I will fix the arm,” one of the healers said to the other before she hovered her hand over Niki’s broken arm. 

Jen hovered her hand over my stomach and a soft white light entered my body. I closed my eyes and felt the tingling sensation of my bones being put back in place and my tissues wrapping together once again. It felt warm and nice and soon the pain was almost all gone. 

I was enjoying the comfort of having my pain subsiding, when the healer gasped loudly, bringing me back from my haze.

I opened my eyelids slowly and saw the wide-eyed witch in front of me. 

Wait, was it that bad? But I was already feeling much better! Maybe the dragon poisoned me. 

I trembled at this thought and asked her, my voice quivering a little, “Is everything alright?” 

“Yes... you are out of danger. But you are pregnant and I don’t know how the child could survive such a violent attack, your baby is fine too,” she informed me. 

My blood froze for a moment in utter shock and I reached for Niki’s hand, still trying to process the words. 

I couldn’t even say a word, feeling as if time itself had stopped all of a sudden. 

She was kidding, right? I just did it once in the last few months, with that human man. It was almost the opposite of winning the magic summer solstice lottery! 

It couldn’t be! 

“Did you say pregnant?” Niki cut the healer off, “as in expecting a child?” 

“Yes. She is around two weeks along. This isn’t all, I’m afraid.”

“Does it get worse?” I asked, more surprised than sad about my new situation. I was about to become the almost magicless single mom of a cat and a baby. 

“The baby isn’t fully a witch, but I can’t say what kind of hybrid this child is,” she added, her serene expression replaced by confusion. 

“Human, the father is human,” I muttered, swallowing hard. 

He was human and I didn’t know anything about him, because my crazy butt panicked and ran away in the morning. I could even write a book, ‘how I met and lost your father in a matter of hours’. It would be the best seller of the petrol stations.

“No, he isn’t,” she said patiently, her hazel eyes were half sympathy and half astonishment.

“What? He is human!” Niki exclaimed, as confused as me. 

“I’m sorry, but it’s clear that he isn’t either a wizard or a human. He is something else, what I can’t say.” Jen sighed.

I blinked twice, as a shaking tear of shock slid down my face. 

I didn’t even know what my baby would be. I had no clue about what to do, or even how to feel. 

“Could the baby be a dragon and that’s why the dragons were after us?” Niki asked, attracting my attention to her. 

“Why would they attack us then? Kill one of their own? Besides, I didn’t lay an egg,” I mumbled, trying to think about an explanation to make sense of it.

Because dragons lay eggs, right? 

“He can’t possibly be a dragon. They can only reproduce with individuals of their species, more precisely true breed. There are three dragon clans, Red, Silver, and Golden. The red ones can only conceive with red dragons and the same applies for the other clans,” Jen explained patiently. 

I breathed in relief, knowing that I wouldn’t lay an egg anytime soon.

I placed my head between my palms, trying to think hard about how to figure out this mess. 

“Dragons normally don’t like werewolves, they have an old rivalry. So, I could imagine that if you are carrying a werewolf hybrid, they would have a reason to attack you.” The healer’s words made me swallow hard. 

A werewolf baby! 

I knew that Egan was too handsome and looked too magical to be human. 

I was pregnant, with an aim on my back (or on my bump, better said), and pretty much totally lost. 

* * * 

T. R. Durant / Dreame/ Ringdom/ Innovel / Stary - All Rights Reserved.