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Title: Silver Storm
Please respect the rating. The characters, settings, and plot all belong to me. Please do not alter, distribute, or archive without my permission.
It is said that only a dragon whelp taken from its parents
before it is a year old can be tamed to human hands.
However, no whelp has ever survived the loss of its
parents and so this theory has never been proven.
Chapter One
There was blood in her mouth. It was in her mouth and on the ground; she could smell it in the air and feel the way it still throbbed so weakly against the bruises covering her skin. Her tiny silver wings were clamped tightly, painfully to her sides as she bore the brunt of the attack from the group of humans. They were taunting and jeering as they kicked, calling her names that didn’t hurt while landing blows that did. She wanted to close her eyes against them, to let herself go to the blackness that threatened along the edges of her vision, but she didn’t dare.
They would kill her.
Blood everywhere her senses screamed. Every time she blinked she was confronted with what she had seen earlier that day; poison arrows and razor-edges wires, shrieks of pain, cries for mercy…
They had killed her parents.
The villagers that had befriended and loved her parents had killed them as soon as they discovered their true identities. They were afraid; as thickly as she had smelled the blood on the breeze so too did she scent their fear, their terror. Her parents had been citizens of the town, farmers on the edge of the lands, well known as crafters of jewels in their spare time. They had been good people, and yet the moment they revealed themselves, the moment their showed their draconic forms, they had been turned upon by all those they loved.
Not one hand had tried to stay their slaughter.
Not one hand would stay hers now if she did not escape.
She cried pitifully at them once more, pleading in the only tongue she knew how to speak, but her plea was met with cruel laughter. She hurt, all over, but they had her surrounded and there was no getting away now. Her parents had taught her to never harm a human being. “Never put your teeth to flesh that lives,” her mother’s voice whispered in her mind. “Never hurt them for you cannot tell where your kin hide amongst them.”
These boys were not her kin. The thought was scathing with hatred, with fear of them. These children, her mind spat, would never be her kin even if their forms could change like hers could. They could wear the mask of dragon kin but they would no more be dragons than she would ever be human.
She shrieked as a heel connected with her broken wing and fire shot through her body. Her vision blacked and her world became nothing but the burning sensation emanating from the snapped bones. She couldn’t help the way her body spasmed, the way she lashed at them with tooth and claw and voice, screaming like a banshee. For such small lungs her voice was sharp and loud, painful enough to their ears for them to take a step back in fear. It was haunting enough to hear that their adrenaline coursed anew.
They were still scared enough that when the human shout came, they scattered like broken glass.
Closing her eyes, she curled in upon herself, knowing what was coming. One of the villagers, one of the elders, had found the boys and their crippled prey. She closed her eyes, listening dispassionately to the footsteps as they approached. Swallowing the blood in her mouth she thought ‘this is it.’ The townsfolk had shown her parents no mercy that morning and she would be shown none now. She shuddered at the thought. She didn’t want to die- not here, not like this.
The quickly drawn breath of the new arrival grated against her ears, shivering across her abused skin. She raised her head and squinted blearily at the newcomer, an involuntary keen rising in the back of the throat at the pain of the motion. Despite his pale white hair he appeared young; as young and as scared as the boys he had just frightened off with his shout. The fear in his icy-blue eyes spoke volumes; clearly he had not been expecting what he had found. He had not expected that the boys had cornered a dragon.
He stood there on the edge of her blackening vision for a long, silent moment. She could see the debate in his features. His brow furrowed just so, his jaw slackened and clenched with every swirling thought, his hands fisted at his sides. She could almost hear his thoughts against her own-
Leave to get help or… kill her here?
She closed her eyes wearily, concentrating on breathing. He wasn’t leaving but he was not coming closer, either. Perhaps if she mustered enough strength she could get away from him before he made up his mind. Before he killed her. They remained silent and still as she rested, breathing through clenched teeth, warding off wave after sickening wave of pain.
Though she knew she needed help, she knew not where to ask. If she could get to her feet she might reach somewhere safe enough that she could slip into a trance and heal herself. She wished she could right then and there, but with this white-haired, blue-eyed monster standing so close she dared not lose herself so completely.
It had gotten so silent and so still after a while that it startled both of them when the human boy took a stumbling step closer to her, as though he had been pushed. She flared up without thinking and was rewarded with crippling bursts of pain all over her body. She collapsed under the intensity, blacking out momentarily. She did not notice how he stepped close; she did not hear him call out softly to her with a cracked voice.
She did not see the tears in his eyes even after her vision cleared.
As soon as she was able she bared needle-like teeth and hissed, using a precious amount of time to do so. The sound caused him to halt again, staring with his brows drawn together in worry. Panting, she collapsed back into the dirt, sides heaving with the effort it had taken to get even halfway to her feet to attempt to defend herself. This was no good, her mind screamed. He was coming and she couldn’t run; he would kill her!
“What did they do to you…” the boy breathed softly, shuffling himself another inch closer to her. He ignored the hiss, the fangs, the hackling scales. “Oh lovely, what have they done…”
His heart hurt to see her in so much pain. He had seen the slaughter of the two dragons earlier that day, had seen them weakened with poison-coated arrowheads and brought to the ground with iron strings that cut like knives. He had seen the way their blood stained the ground and their cries filled the skies. He had come too late to save them. They were beautiful even to their dying breath and he regretted the actions of his fellow man. He regretted it enough for all of them, enough to make his heart ache at the thought of what they had done to the two beautiful creatures.
At what the boys had done to the mess of a youngling before him.
Your fault her eyes said as she glared, and his heart broke to see it.
“Oh sweet, shhh,” he cajoled softly as she keened, wishing he could see her better through the tears gathering in his eyes. “It’s okay now, it’s all okay…” He swallowed against the lump in his throat as she valiantly tried to clamber to her feet once more. She nearly made it before falling to the dusty road again. “They won’t hurt you anymore,” he promised sweetly. “I won’t let them, beauty.”
His voice was soft and soothing to her ears and it hurt to be spoken to so kindly. Her eyes burned but she did not cry; dragons did not know tears as humans did. They did not cry as humans did, but oh how she wished she could then. His pleading was enough to make her cry; and she would have had she been human. How she missed the warmth of love from her parents already. How wonderful it sounded to hear the caring note in his voice, in anyone’s voice, after that horrible morning.
One of his work-roughened hands settled smoothly, gently upon her flank and the burning pain cooled, dissipated beneath the pressure. Her eyes closed involuntarily at the relief; her breath caught in her throat on a choked noise. It hurt so badly and his touch was so cold, so calming that she allowed it. She enjoyed the feel of him against her, of the subtle magic he spread beneath his fingertips and across her scales. For a few moments she welcomed the touch, relished the healing resonance between herself and the human.
The human her mind echoed.
Humans were not kind. They did not want to befriend dragons, she thought. They only killed them viciously; take them apart at the seams and bring them crashing to the ground. Their streets ran thick with dragon blood earlier that day and there was rejoicing amongst the humans. There was celebration.
She howled. Anger welled within her as her thoughts swirled madly. Her teeth had sunk into his arm before she even registered the motion and she gave a vicious twist, stomach turning queasily at the sickening crunch of his wrist snapping. He muffled his cry of pain valiantly and though his body twitched to retaliate against the one who had harmed him, he did not move to hurt her.
Silence fell as the scent of his blood ran metallic in the air around them.
Had he been wrong about her, to think he would be safe?
Was she just as vicious a beast as the villagers had made the other dragons to be?
No. He knew better. Behind her eyes, behind the burning anger in her silvery gaze lay a pain he couldn’t touch, couldn’t heal. There was fear, terror as strong as his own had been only minutes prior. She had not lashed at him out of spite. Something had provoked her, something he did not yet understand. Something that was not her fault.
He swallowed the pain and ever-so-slowly reached out with his still-free hand. He ran a finger along her snout, stroking gently back into the hollow, silver spines along her neck. She shuddered at the contact, vice-grip of her jaws loosening. Thick, rich blood began to flow across her tongue and into her throat at the loss of pressure and the taste made her sick.
“It’s okay,” he crooned again, cradling her rough jaw in the palm of his hand. He could see that she was not looking at him but through him, seeing the past, reliving the horrors of that morning. It was unbearable to see. “I won’t hurt you, little one.”
She looked up at him, terror thrumming along every nerve in her body. You killed my parents. The thought reached every corner of mind, spilling over into every part of her existence. You murdered them. She could see the group humans from the town as they shouted, firing arrows at her parents. They trusted you. She could see her mother’s pure, silvery form as she reared and struggled against the ropes and nets and razor wires the villagers had gotten around her neck and limbs. They asked you to trust them. Her father’s copper and red form already on the ground, writhing from the poison laced bolts in his flanks. You killed them, her mind whispered.
They loved you.
Through it all she could hear them screaming in her head, dying before her eyes, the smell of blood all around her… the smell of blood… so much blood-
“May I have my arm back, please?” the human murmured, bringing reality crashing back to her. She startled and her jaws squeezed tight in response. He made a similar noise and his fingers scrabbled as gently as possible at the edges of her muzzle in a futile attempt to get her to release her bite. “You’re hurting me, little one.”
His voice was the barest pained whisper but it touched her somewhere inside, a soothing feeling to her panicked mind. The metallic taste of blood was thick in her mouth and the smell was everywhere. It was her fault this time. She’d done that. She’d caused the blood.
Never put your teeth to flesh that lives.
Never hurt them.
Your kin hide amongst them.
His fingers left her jaw and ghosted along the edge of her half-open wing. For an instant pain jolted along her bones, lanced into her shoulder and turned her thoughts to fire. “You’re hurt, too, little one. Let me go. Let me help you.”
His voice was smooth and soft like her father’s had been, begging for her understanding. She looked up and caught sight of his eyes, his icy blue, beautiful eyes. Pain had begun to cloud them, to taint the welcoming warmth that he was trying so hard to keep there for her. Was he… could he possibly be…?
Her jaws snapped open as though she had been the one bitten and she scuttled backwards, claws scrabbling at the dusty dirt beneath them. Immediately he cradled his injured wrist and forced a smile for her. Guilt flushed through her at the sight of his bloodied flesh but the memory of her parents’ deaths was still too fresh for that feeling to last. The humans had slaughtered her parents when they had once called them ‘friend’. She was certain this human was no exception and so she regarded him warily.
He could not be kin.
“Thank you, little one. You’ve got quite a bite for such a small beauty.” He was examining the wounds she’d made very carefully, never fully removing his attention from her.
The oval rows of puncture wounds she’d made were deep and torn around the edges. He could feel himself growing a little dizzy at the sight of all the blood- there was so much that he wondered faintly if she’d hit a vein. He pressed his palm against the worst of it, biting back a groan at the pain that lanced across his skin from the break. He clambered wearily to his feet and blinked slowly as she skittered away from him again. Her strength was returning as her magic continued to heal her slowly, as the ill-gotten blood revived her.
“Don’t worry, sweetling,” he said calmly. The adrenaline coursing in his blood from the scare of her strike was dulling the pain but it would not be so much longer. “I’m going to fetch Liana. She’s a real healer; not like me. She could fix you too if you’d come along with me…”
She bared her tiny fangs at him and hissed, remaining solidly where she was. Did he honestly think she would follow him anywhere, much less into the hands of another human? She’d seen what they could do, what they were capable of accomplishing in packs. Her desire to live was stronger than her pain. Recoiling from him as he smiled and turned away, she glared sulkily.
“Okay, but if you change your mind, it’s that house down the road- the one with the blue light,” he said quietly, as if it didn’t quite matter whether or not she followed. His voice held just a hint of promise, enough to spark her curiosity the tiniest bit. He had played this game with many a cat before- they balked at the idea of being ordered about but would take up any challenge to their dignity. “She can fix your wing if you come. If you don’t want to follow, I’ll bring her back to help. Promise.”
Kedreeva watched him go with a spiteful glare, claws sinking into the dirt as she swore she would not follow him. She wouldn’t. She refused. She could see him walking slowly down the dirt road, steps faltering a little the farther he got. In the distance smoke colored the night sky from the blue-lit house; Liana’s house. It must be warm if there was a fire, she thought, but remained rooted to the spot, glaring. She wouldn’t go. She didn’t need a human to help her heal.
She didn’t need to follow him, she told herself as she took the first shaking step.
She was only taking another step because she wanted to know what he was going to do- how he was going to fix his bloodied arm. Humans didn’t heal like dragons did- they couldn’t because they did not have magic.
She was only nosing her way through Liana’s front door because it was ajar and the inside of the house seemed like it was warmer than the outside. Or at least, that is what she told herself.
Liana’s house was indeed every bit as warm as the yellowed windows had promised. A fire crackled merrily in the hearth, flames licking up into the chimney with red and gold tongues. Kedreeva’s nostrils flared at the scent of blood and she quickly spotted the two humans sitting at a round, oak table. One was the boy who had found her and the other was a young woman with light brown hair and weather darkened skin. She was already setting his bone, putting flesh back where it belonged and Kedreeva could see the white cotton wraps sitting idly on the table beside them waiting to be used as bandages.
The boy nudged the woman the second she paused in her mending and she turned just slightly. Kedreeva sank back against the wall with a hiss, nose crinkling as she bared her teeth again. Aches flamed all over her body, but they were already getting better. The bruises and scrapes would be mere memories in a day or two; the wing would take longer.
The woman smiled sadly at the reaction and whispered something to the boy and they returned to their business. A tiny flare of indignation at being ignored cropped up inside of her and she took a few hesitant steps toward them, making certain that she was absolutely silent. They didn’t acknowledge her in the least.
Finally she reached their side and peered tentatively around the legs of the chair under which she’d chosen to hide. She could see the man, face screwed up in silent pain as the lady wrapped his arm in the clean cloth strips. Again guilt washed through Kedreeva at her earlier actions; that man in particular had done nothing to her or her parents. She could not remember him having been there when the villagers brought her parents to the ground.
“Shall I fix your wing, little beauty?” came a voice from behind her. Kedreeva squeaked and scuttled away from Liana, knocking over the chair and nearly breaking her other wing in the escape attempt. She ended up in a pile on the floor, thoughts clouded in pain after she’d hit her injured wing against something. She barely registered when the human lifted her onto the sturdy table and allowed her to remain there. “It’s not a bad break, but if someone doesn’t mend it, you won’t fly again. That would be a shame…”
Liana’s voice was tender and sweet, higher than the boy’s and full of almost well-masked fear. Kedreeva regarded her with the same amount of spite, keeping her wings pinned tightly against her body despite how painful it was to do so. There was no way she would let these humans touch her wings- surely they would snap the other one as well. She hissed and snarled when the lady made as though to touch her injured wing and the human froze, regarding her with a blank, careful smile.
“If you’re going to bite me, you may as well go on and do it,” she said soothingly. Her voice trembled the tiniest amount; enough for Kedreeva to hear plain as day, although it seemed to escape the boy. “I’ll fix your wing while you’re busy gnawing on my arm, how does that sound?”
A moment of tense silence passed where no one moved. The boy glanced nervously between them, worried that perhaps Liana was being a bit too careless; after all, he’d been on the receiving end of the little dragon’s bite once tonight and didn’t want to see that repeated on anyone. But Liana simply waited until Kedreeva was not quite so tense and then continued her forward reach until her fingers brushed the edges of the dragon’s wings. Kedreeva hackled at the touch and darted her head forward, jaws clamping around Liana’s wrist… but not closing. She didn’t break skin, though the pressure was close enough to doing so.
I’m warning you, Kedreeva thought, growl rumbling up from her chest.
“I know, lovely,” the human said sweetly, as though she were talking to a complaining kitten. “It’s going to hurt for just a minute. If it hurts too much, you let me know. I’ll wait but I’m not going to stop, do you understand?”
There was another few seconds’ pause and Kedreeva prepared herself to tear into the woman’s arm but the opportunity never came. White hot pain flared outward from her wing, ensconcing her mind in a tomb of endless black. Somewhere it registered that she had cried out, thin voice wailing at the top of her lungs as the bones in her wing were set almost forcefully back into place.
But Liana was true to her word and the pain lasted for only a moment’s time before it dulled to the same throbbing, bitter feeling as it had been before she started. Kedreeva allowed just enough time for the woman to salve and bandage her aching wing before she practically threw herself off the table and disappeared beneath the cloth-wrapped chair closest to the fire.
“Are you all right?”
From beneath a swath of cloth, Kedreeva glared in their direction for a moment before she realized that she was not the one to whom the boy had spoken. The question had been directed at Liana, who was clutching her arms and wiping crimson blood off her skin. She didn’t even remember breaking the human’s skin but she could now taste fresh blood in her mouth. Desperately she wanted water to cleanse herself of that taste, to wash the sticky substance from her face and claws. She hated it. Turning away from them she focused her attention on the flickering flames of the fire and attempted to ignore their conversation.
“I’m fine,” Liana said quietly. The note of fear that had nearly disappeared had returned full force. She was trembling enough for even the other human to notice now. “She didn’t go deep. What are you going to do with her, Kal? You can’t keep a dragon in your house, even if she would follow you there!”
“I know,” he replied miserably. “But you didn’t see what they were doing to her, Ana. Those boys were going to kill her.”
“Maybe you should have let them.” Liana gave him a significant look, guilty that she might have ever suggested such a thing but knowing she couldn’t lie to him. Dragons were not pets. They were not like humans, though they weren’t like wild animals, either. They were something Else, something Older, something… different than anything on the rest of the planet. “She’s broken your wrist and bitten me and both of us were only trying to help.”
“She’s scared,” Kal pointed out heatedly, desperately. “Once she calms down I don’t think she’ll hurt anyone.”
“She is a dragon, Kalstralev. She may be a little dragon right now but she is still a dragon. She is still a wild animal. She is still a predator.” Liana shook her head, leaning back in the old wooden chair. “You don’t know what she eats or how big she’ll get; what if she gets as big as those this morning? What are you going to do then? I highly doubt that no one will notice you’ve got a giant silver dragon in your care.”
“I have to try. Mak’ai and Geroth were good people, right? For Light’s sake, they were villagers, Ana! Just like you and me!”
“They were dragons! What part of dragon do you not comprehend?” she said scathingly, catching Kedreeva’s full attention.
“Before they were dragons, had you ever spoken to them?” Kal asked, barely a whisper. “Did you know them? Had they ever caused a problem? Had they ever hurt anyone?”
“No,” Liana said guiltily, lowering her gaze to the table top. They had been good people, as far as she knew, but surely they… surely their deaths had been necessary. Dragons and humans could not live together. “But the dragons off the coast attack our fishing ships. They’ve drowned people before, Kal. They’re a threat and they couldn’t even get onto land. I can’t imagine the damage dragons on the land could do. Don’t you think?”
Kal nodded in agreement and then shifted to rest his forehead against the table. “I can’t believe that they were bad, though. I can’t. I won’t. They never hurt anyone. I don’t think Beauty over there would hurt anyone, either. Not if she didn’t feel threatened.”
Liana seemed to resign herself to her fate, heaving a weary sigh. “Fine,” she said tiredly. “Say for the sake of entertaining your little fantasy that you are able to keep her alive and fed like she needs. Say that you’re even able to get her to be nice to you and not kill anyone. What then? What are you going to do with a dragon? If you get caught harboring her, they’ll kill you when they kill her.”
He lifted his head and gave her a silly grin, tainted by the faintest hint of sadness. “Well then it looks like I’ve really got my work cut out for me, haven’t I?”
Her eyes narrowed at the comment and she leaned closer. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I’m going to have a lot of convincing to do. I’m going to have to convince Beauty that humans aren’t as bad as she thinks and I’m going to have to convince the rest of the town that dragons aren’t as bad as they think.” He paused for a second and gave her a quick, surveillance once over before smiling weakly. “You’re going to help me, aren’t you?”
Liana groaned, closing her eyes just a little too late to miss his puppy-eyes. “You’ve bitten off more than you can chew this time, Kal. I wish you’d think before you pick up broken winged doves with a vicious streak a mile wide.” When he tilted his head, brows furrowing pleadingly, she finally acquiesced. “If you need my help, you know where I am. I won’t tell anyone what you’re doing but so help me if you get caught I won’t claim I knew a lick of your business. And,” she added as an afterthought, “she can’t stay here.”
Breaking into a huge grin, Kalstralev nearly tackled her in a hug. Only the table between them prevented the action. “You’re wonderful, Liana. I’ll take her home and hopefully I won’t have to take you up on your very kind offer.”
“Yeah, yeah, go on then. Let’s see you take her out of here.” She leaned back in her chair and looked pointedly to the fire, where the little dragon had only just begun to fall asleep while listening to them. The firelight played red and gold shadows across her silvery scales, flickering in soft reflection.
He shot her another smile and began to pick his way carefully to the fire-side. The salve she’d put on his wounds was already taking effect; the pain was gone. Unfortunately so was the rest of the feeling in his arm. He made very sure that he didn’t hit the bandaged, splinted limb against anything as he knelt at Kedreeva’s side and kept his voice gentle and soothing when he addressed her.
“Beauty,” he whispered, and her silvery eyes cracked open so she could see the source of the noise. “It’s time to go home. We can’t stay here all night.”
She made a grumpy sounding noise, growling low in her throat, and tucked her snout a little more tightly into her paws. Still, she didn’t close her eyes with him so close, or take her attention from him at all. It was clear she didn’t trust him one bit but she was making no uncertainties about how unwilling she was to move from the warmth of the fire. The spring evenings were cold still. He could see the way her muscles bunched beneath her skin, ready to fight if he tried to make her move. Little did either of them know that the sedative in her salve had begun to take action and she wouldn’t have been able to get up if she’d wanted to, anyway.
With a sigh he stood up and glanced to Liana, who only returned an amused, slightly smug smile. “Looks like this might… be a little more work that I thought,” he said, scratching the back of his head with his uninjured hand and giving her a sheepish smile.
A lot more work, he thought to himself as Liana began to laugh.
