Dragon's Heart

Chapter 2

Sean

Before leaving the clan lands, I knew that it would be a long time before I could shift again into my dragun. I left my bags packed on my bed in my home, I walked out the front door and towards our flying grounds. Our area, our land was kept safe from human eyes. When my grandfather's grandfather's first came to this land he had a very powerful cailleach cast her magic over the land to keep humans from seeing our dragun forms. Ever since this land has been a haven for not only my clan but other clans if need be. There has been once or twice that a war broke out between the other clans and their women and children needed a haven. My land is considered a neutral area and the women and children of both clans come to stay here during times of war. Draguns value their honor overall, they will not hurt a woman or a child. But casualties do tend to happen more from the damage of the area that's fought in than anything else.

Half my land is forest the other half is rolling hills, my dragun loves both. He loves hiding within the trees, flying over them, finding a strong tree to perch himself on. Yet, he loves to roll around on the grass of the rolling hills. Our clan is the Earth clan, our draguns feel a strong connection to the earth and all its wonders. It is why our land has not been modernized, we try to take care of our land. We make it thrive and would never do anything to hurt it. Yes, we have houses and everything a normal human would have. Everything we have is recycled or reused in some way, we import reclaimed wood for our homes, solar panels for energy, etc. We try to keep this area as green as possible while being comfortable. Humans do not see the value in this and continue to destroy their home, the earth.

I came to a stop at the edge of the forest and took a deep breath, I let the change move through me. I felt my bones snap and grow, move, change. Eventually, it all stops, and when it does, I'm no longer a man... but a dragun. My clothes shredded and laying on the ground around me. I should have taken the time to take them off before shifting, but I was a little impatient, wanting to fly around my land one more time before I leave. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take to find her, my Maite. I lifted my powerful wings and pushed, I felt myself lift into the air and soon enough I was gliding over the foraoise dóiteáin. We call it the fire forest, for the leaves in the fall turn orange and red making it seem like the forest is on fire. It's no wonder my grandfather's grandfather settled here; he was attracted to the fire. We are draguns after all.

I spent the next few hours letting my dragun side take over and let him do whatever his heart desires. He spent hours flying as fast as he possibly could, diving from the sky only to pull up at the last second, rolling in the hills. It felt freeing, I will miss it while I'm gone. When it was finally time to go, I landed in front of my home and shifted, I walked into my house to replace my destroyed clothes. I grabbed my keys and bags and left files my brothers will need for when I'm gone. I walk from my kitchen to a door connecting it and my garage, I choose a car and placed my bags inside. I took one more long breath and got in; it was going to be a long drive. Me and my dragun reached inside—looking for our souls and where they join together. Once we find where our souls connect, we searched for the line connecting us to my Maite. Our connection line was not usually used for hunting down our females it was usually to keep in contact with her after she finds the male. But in the rare occasion of a female not finding her other match, the male will sometimes have to step in and help and use their connection line. It's more tradition than anything that the female finds her male, but it's been long enough, and I was tired of waiting. So, I used our soul connection to point me in the right direction.

When I found the line; it was glowing this beautiful green, I grabbed it and yanked on it. I gasped and felt her do the same, she wasn't far...this doesn't make sense. If she wasn't far then she should have known I was here and come searching. Something was wrong. I lifted myself from that place and returned to the world. It took a minute to myself to get my bearings and swiftly got into the car and shoved my keys into the ignition. I backed out of my garage and started my drive; she was at least two hours away, or so my dragun says. I drove in the direction her soul line was leading and knew then and there nothing was going to stop me from getting to her.

Dalia

It's been hours since I felt that tug in my chest... I had greeted the stranger that had walked in and quickly found what they needed. I still felt somewhat anxious but as the day passed, I noticed I was slowly calming down. I was thankful that it stopped. I felt like I was lonely… that something was missing…everything felt wrong and almost painful. It was horrible, I wasn't sure what caused it either. Stress maybe? I was about to close up the nursery when a black Ferrari pulled into the parking lot, I gasped and gaped at the car. First, who had that kind of money? Second, what were they doing here? I stayed out of sight of the driver so he couldn't see me drooling over his car. After a few minutes, I wondered if maybe they were in the wrong place? No one came out of the car, they stayed inside.

Suddenly I felt that tug on my chest again, except it was worse, much more intense than it was before. It was even more painful, and it took me by surprise. I gasped and grabbed my chest almost falling over but catching myself on one of the tables I have in the nursery to display some of my plants. I heard a car door close. Yes, maybe they would see me and take me to a hospital obviously I'm having some sort of heart attack. I tried to take breaths in and our trying to lessen the pain, my door rang as the person walked into the nursery. I looked up to see a man had come in, he was looking around the store like he was looking for someone. I couldn't say anything, this odd pain was too much to do anything but try not to waste my breath so I wouldn't pass out. If this were in any other situation, I would take the time to stop and admire this man... he was beautiful. He had to be at least 6 ft tall, it was a little hard to tell with me being hallway to the floor and all, but I could see that his arms were muscular. He was someone who obviously worked out, his hair this blend of brown and blonde highlights. He had a sharp jawline, and his stubble was kept neat, his nose you could tell it was crooked like it had been broken at some point. His eyes... I couldn't see the color.

While I was glancing him over the tug on my chest worsened and I yelped before gasping for breath. At the sound his head snapped in my direction, I gasped again but not at the pain. But from how beautiful his eyes were. They were green... this bright green color. I knew that if I didn't look away from them, I would lose myself in them. Neither of us moved from our spots, him standing in the front of the doors staring straight at me and me leaning on one of my tables and one hand against my chest looking at him in complete surprise. A few minutes passed when he moved, he started walking towards me and tried to back up to keep the space between me and this stranger. I did not like the vibe he gave off and I had a feeling he was the cause of my odd chest pain, as weird as that seemed. He was quicker and when he reached me, he wrapped his arms around me trapping me from going anywhere. He stared right down into my eyes, and I didn't look away. I should have but I didn't. He chooses that moment to finally say something. " My Maite, gra, anammate I have finally found you."

I didn't say anything in return, stunned at how his voice sounded, strong, smokey. I didn't understand what the words he called me meant but they sounded like they were meant to be intimate. I didn't know why he was looking for me in the first place. He asked a question next that didn't make any sense either, " Why haven't you come looking for me my Mathair?"I shake my head in response not understanding what he meant, and he frowned. He shook his head and smiled down at me, " Never mind, it doesn't matter. I have found you now. What clan do you belong to? " I tried to step away from him not liking how weird this was getting, nothing he was saying was making any sense. He let go of me but not without looking like he was in pain. " What are you talking about? What do those words mean? I don't belong to a clan as far as I know of. Unless you mean a cult."

He looked at me confused; he tilted his head. " Fire, Water, Light, or Dark. Which do you belong to?" I looked at him like he was crazy, he must be on something. I shook my head, " Fire, water... what the hell are you talking about? " He looked like I just slapped him, " Wait..." He took a deep breath in and stilled. " You're Duine."