Dragoona Island:Finding My Dragon Mate

Dragoona island - Episode 8 - Cassie

My eyes felt heavy as I tried to open them. I winced when a sharp pain shot through my temple. I reached up and touched my forehead, there seemed to be a massive lump there. What happened?

As my vision slowly started to return to normal, I scanned my surroundings. I was on a large four-poster bed. Red velvet drapes hung round the dark highly varnished wooden frame. Someone had obviously wanted to give me some privacy, because they were loosely drawn, as if to leave enough space for someone to check on me.

I heard a woman’s voice, she was talking quietly, but I could make out a few words of her extremely thick Scottish accent. “The bairn is awake; do you want me to bring her some broth and bread rolls?”

A very softly spoken woman answered. “Yes, thank you Flora, could you also make sure Archie brings her belongings to her. I am sure the lass will want them after she has some more rest.”

I heard the click of a door closing, that must have been Flora leaving the room. So, who was still in the room with me? I did not have long to wait before finding out, as a tall, elegant, elderly woman looked at me from the opening in the drapes. She had a kind face, a beautiful face. I could tell she was incredibly old, but she was striking, a long braid of silver hair hung round her shoulder. I was immediately jealous; I had tried to braid my waist length hair before, but I could never get it to look that good. What was her secret?

She smiled at me before sitting on the bottom of the bed. “You are awake child, how is your head? You hit it quite hard on that rock when you fainted?”

I immediately reached up to touch the large lump on my head. It was now gone; my forehead was only slightly tender. “I… it was sore only moments ago, I had a massive lump right here, this is not possible” I was starting to feel like I was losing my mind. “I am a nurse, bumps that size do not just go away.”

The elderly woman looked sympathetically at me now, she remained at the foot of the bed, as if not wanting to freak me out more than I already was. Because right now I was REALLY freaking out! She spoke softly to me now in her melodic Scottish accent, “Cassie… that is your name?” I nodded. “I need you to calm down and tell me what you remember before you blacked out. Can you do that for me?”

I nodded again.

There was a comforting familiarity to her. I was not sure why. “How do you know my name?”

“Your passport, I hope you do not mind?”

“No, I can understand why you would want to know who I am; it was not my intention to show up here like this, unannounced. Things just moved so quickly after my mom died.”

A sad look appeared in her eyes before she spoke again, “We will get to that, right now though, can you tell me what you remember before you fainted. Can you do that Cassie?” She nodded at me encouragingly.

I took a deep breath and tried to recall everything; I was not sure how much this woman wanted to know.

“Should I tell you what I remember after I summoned the ferry? Or do you want me to tell you how I ended up at Aggie’s?”

She smiled at me again and moved up the bed a bit further. “Wherever you wish to begin, I am more than happy to listen. Although, I already know what brought you to Aggie’s.”

I must have looked like a goldfish right now because my mouth fell open in disbelief. “You do? Did you speak to Fiona already? Please do not blame her for any of this, she was exceedingly kind. She even made me breakfast which was delicious till she told me I was eating sheep’s hearts and lungs…  then I felt like I was going to throw up” I shuddered at the memory. “I begged her to help me… please do not throw her in the cells.”

The elderly woman stifled a smile. “Fiona is not in any danger Cassie, her and her mother are old friends and allies to our clans. I am pleased she helped you and showed kindness towards you, I will send her a gift to thank her.”

“You will? That would make me so grateful, thank you.” It was my turn to smile at her now.

She reached out and gently squeezed my hand. “Now lass, tell me what you remember…  from when you summoned the ferry?”

Suddenly, I was feeling quite overwhelmed, but I knew I had to tell the woman what I remembered, it was the least I could do after her being so kind. Just as I was about to begin there was a knock at the door.

“Enter” the woman shouted without even turning around. A tall, plump lady walked in carrying a tray with a bowl, rolls and a pot of tea on it. She tried not to make eye contact with me, but when I thanked her, she gave me the briefest of smiles before speaking to the elderly lady. “Will that be all, I can come and collect the tray later?”

“Yes, that will be all for now Flora. Thank you. Did you ask Archie about Cassie’s belongings?”

The tall lady looked slightly uncomfortable. “Archie is too busy, Blane said he would be bringing them along shortly.” She bowed slightly then left the room as if not wanting to answer any more questions.

“Now, where were we? You were about to tell me what you remember.” She pulled the tray of soup and rolls round to position it in front of me. “Eat while you talk, you have used a lot of energy, it needs replenished.”

What energy had I used? I was literally concussed on an exceptionally large bed. Hardly a high intensity workout.

“I left Fiona at the tearoom and went to the small jetty that she had pointed out to me. I tried rubbing the gold dragon on the ticket, but nothing was really happening at first. I was looking for some sort of ferry timetable or something similar, but there was none. I was looking out to sea, wondering if I should just walk back to the tearoom. Then, out of nowhere the ferry appeared. I had not even seen it approach. I boarded it and there was a huge man, he had eyes like coal, very sinister looking. He did not seem happy to see me at all, he is clearly in the wrong job. Customer service is not his forte” I took a bite from my roll and a spoonful of soup. Oh wow! This tasted good. “His eyes were weird too, they changed from black to light blue, then back to black” I took another mouthful of soup. I knew I must be sounding like a crazy person right now. “I looked back at the shore where we had literally just left, and it was gone. How could a ferry that moves that slow have moved so fast too?” I looked at the woman, waiting to see if she would react, maybe offer me a padded cell.

“That was Archie, he is grumpy with everyone. Try not to take it personally. He is just not very trusting of your kind.” She said, completely ignoring my absurd question about the fast-slow moving ferry. I did not blame her!

“My kind? Americans?”

She chuckled softly; it was such a cheerful sound. “Something like that, he does not trust anyone who is not from this island.  Now, what do you remember after you arrived here on the island?”

“Well, I thought Archie was the tallest man I had ever seen, that was until I saw the other one. He was tall, about seven feet, very muscly, he was shirtless… insanely hot… but I do not ever want him to know I think that.  I did not even know the male body had that many abdominal muscles.”

I felt the weird pleasurable tingles run through my body again as images of him played in my head.  I cleared my throat and tried to shake the image from my mind. “So, we did not get off to a great start, he wanted to throw me in to a cell. I got mad and told him I had rights and refused to walk, so he carried me over his shoulder. I was kicking and screaming, I even bit him a few times. I did not like being kidnapped at all. But if I had to be kidnapped by anyone, I guess I was glad it was him, I even found the slap on the ass he gave me quite enjoyable. Oh, but please do not tell him that either, he seems arrogant enough.”

Why was I rambling? Was there truth serum in this soup? I looked over at the woman, was it just me, or did she look like she was stifling a laugh?

“You had quite the ordeal. I am sure Blane did not mean to scare you. He was doing his job as protector of this island. He is one of my most trusted and bravest warriors, no one is more honourable or loyal than him. He was genuinely concerned about you, he carried you to this room and stayed with you till Flora and I arrived.”

“He did?” I thought he hated me, why would he do that?

“Do you remember what Blane said to you Cassie, right before you fainted?”

I thought back, a wave of nausea washed over me as I recalled his words. Now I remembered, his words had literally taken all the breath out of my lungs, I had not expected to be told that, how could I have ever prepared myself for hearing something like that?

“We argued some more, he asked me if I was a hunter, I assured him I was not. He was intrigued by this pendant, he even accused me of stealing it. I told him I had come here to Dragoona Island because I found the pendant in my mom’s belongings, I thought it might have something to do with my father. Blane said he believed me and would bring me to Cassiena MacLeod, I think this pendant might belong to her.”  I held it in between my finger and thumb as I spoke, it brought me comfort.

“Go on, what else did Blane tell you?”

“You won’t hurt him, will you?” I was not sure why I cared about what happened to him, I just did.

“No, I will not hurt him. He brought you to me, I owe him a great debt.”

Why did this lady care about me so much? Or was she just being kind?

“Well, he told me he thought my father was Robert. But he would not tell me too much more. I begged him, that if he knew anything about my father I deserved to know.” I paused, feeling tears well up in my eyes. “He told me that he was dead, killed by hunters. I refused to believe it. I said why would hunters be hunting people.”  I felt tears roll down my face, I tried to wipe them away discreetly. A warm hand wrapped around mine and I looked up to see tears rolling down the elderly lady’s face too.

“Can you remember why they killed your father, Cassie? Do you recall what Blane told you right before you fainted?” she was still holding my hand and her eyes were still brimming with tears.

I knew exactly why I had fainted; I was too scared to repeat it in case I fainted again. It could not have been true, there is no way my dad had been a huge fire breathing lizard. It was just fairy-tale. There was a part of me though, somewhere deep inside, I knew it was true. I could feel something magical and powerful, I felt it around me. I had no explanation, other than I could just feel it.

“He told me… that hunters had killed my father because he was a dragon. I know it is true… I feel it.” I looked directly into the elderly woman’s eyes as I spoke again, “You are my grandma, aren’t you?  You are Cassiena?”

Cassiena still had tears in her eyes as she nodded, they seemed like happy tears now though. “It is time you found out the truth Cassie, you are finally ready.”