Dragon's Lady

By: Neko-chan

A/N: Gah...sorry it's taken me so long to update. After a lot of my reviewers mentioned how similar my story is to "Dragon's Bait," I finally decided to borrow it from the library and read it. And you guys are right. There ARE some similarities, but I do also want to point out that there are differences as well. Our stories may have started out the same, but from about chapter five or six on, I'm doing something completely different. And I don't really want to change the beginning because I HAVE had this idea for awhile and I really want to write it out like it was originally planned. Please don't think that I'm plagiarizing, because I'm not. It wasn't until recently that I read "Dragon's Bait." Also, several people asked me about Morgan's personality. The truth is, no matter how hard I try, a lot of my characters end up having one or more of my personality traits. Morgan seems to have more than one of them. Trust me, if I was upset enough, I would be kicking a dragon, too. Stupid, I know; but everyone I know always tells me that I have a nasty temper. (That's what happens when you're a red-head AND Scorpio. LOL.) So, anyway, I just want to clear all of that up. And the story IS going to be different from around chapter five on up. Besides all that horrible mix-up, I hope you guys ARE enjoying my story. So...on with chapter nine!

Chapter Nine

My feet flew upon the ground and I never accidentally ran into a branch---my sense seemed to extend and reach out all around me. I was one with the forest and the little ball of fluff wrapped safely in my arms. I wouldn't let him catch us. I _wouldn't._ I was mad and frustrated and he had killed something deep within me. I wouldn't let him touch me ever again.

"What's that, sister?" Claw asked, looking up at me with huge amber eyes. They were adorable, those eyes. But if you looked closer, you could see that an alien, foreign being lived deep within those eyes. Claw was a Hunter and those eyes would always remind you of that fact.

"It's Draco," I pant back, putting on an extra burst of speed. I can feel the wind that his huge wings create swirling around me, picking up dust and tossing it back into my face. He was getting closer and I was running out of time.

Claw was silent for a moment, then his plaintive voice asked, "Draco? The Dragon King? _He's_ the one following us?"

I snort, not knowing whether to burst into tears or roll on the ground, howling with laughter. Was it possible to do both? "Yes, Claw," I answer. "Draco...the Dragon King. Who _else_ would be following us?" Once again, I snort, swallowing a hysterical laugh. I was bordering on hysteria, but I had to remain calm. One, Claw needed me. As mature as he acted, he was still just a child. And I had to take care of him because he decided that I would be his older sister. Also, my own determination and anger at Draco kept me from falling apart. I was angry, and most people learned very quickly _not_ to get me angry. Draco hadn't seemed to realize that yet.

I growled deep in my throat, a very feline sound. Claw blinked in surprise and looked up at me, but I didn't notice. I was lost in my own little world of pain and blood---and most definitely not MY blood.

'He used me. He knew that I would be the only one that could help him and he USED ME. He toyed with my emotions and strung me along, making me hope against hope. He knew that my father was my weak spot and he used that one weakness without caring about the consequences. As much as I don't want to kill in order to honor Father's memory, I want to kill him. I hate him.'

"Morgan?" Claw asked in a small voice, as if afraid of interrupting my thoughts.

"Yes, Claw?" I ask the small cub, looking down at him and smiling faintly, trying to show him that I wasn't mad at _him._

"If you turn right at the next bend, the game trail would lead us to a grouping of caves and we can hide there until Draco leaves."

I laugh happily. "Oh, you're such a clever little boy, Claw!" I crow as I put on an extra burst of speed, looking for the bend with falcon-sharp eyes. A chance to hide and recuperate? A miracle sent by the little ball of fluff cradled in my arms.

My feet are hardly touching the ground, I'm moving so fast. Logs and stones didn't stand in my path---I just jumped over them easily and continued on my way. Nothing would stop me. Nothing could stop me. Nothing ever _will_ stop me.

There! I see it! It's not a cave, really. More like a hole in the ground. But it was enough and it was a hiding place. Without a second thought, I dove into the cave, Claw cuddled against my chest. I close my eyes---they would only distract me and have me strain to see what I couldn't see anyway. It was pitch-black. No light seemed to filter through the hole. I reached out my free hand, searching for a wall, a ground protusion, _anything_.

With my eyes closed, my other senses seemed to improve. I could feel the different air currents as the gentle wind moved pass my face. My touch sharpened as did my hearing.

It was then that I heard a deep pounding, as if someone was panting...or breathing heavily.

"Claw?" I whispered to the young mountain lion.

He paused and I could feel him tilt his head to one side. It seemed as if my faerie ears were more sensitive than his own cat ones. A moment later, he replied softly. "I hear it, too, sister. What is it?"

"I don't know." I pause for a minute also, my own head tilted. "It sounds...big...whatever it is. Can't you hear the size in its breathing?"

"Morgan...what are you talking about?" Claw sounds generally puzzled, not mocking. My eyes snap open and they blink. It this another aspect of being Sidhe? Being able to determine size just by breathing alone?

When Claw first appeared, I knew that whatever was in the bushes was small. I didn't know WHAT was in the bushes, but I could easily tell that it was small. And...thinking back on my first meeting with Draco, I hadn't seen him first. I had heard him. And I knew that he was large. Huge, really. Like right now.

It interested and puzzled me.

I wanted to find out more about my ability, but now was most definetely not the time. Later, yes. Now? No. I could hear the...the...whatever-it-was move, what sounded like claws scrape along the ground. I didn't like the sound of it. Not one bit.

"Weeeeeeelcoooooomeeeee tooooo myyyyyy caaaaaaaveeeeee," it hissed out. It snorted and the dark hole was lit with fire momentarily. And what I saw scared me like nothing ever before. Not even Draco had ever scared me as much as what I had just seen.

Draco had threatened me many times while I had been with him---but he had never threatened anyone else. What I had seen in that one fiery moment wouldn't harm _me_. It couldn't. It was beyond its nature. But it could harm Claw.

My grip on the mountain lion tightened. "Morgan, what's wrong?" For the first time since I had met him, I heard an undercurrent of fear in the small lion's voice. And the creature in the darkness laughed.

"It's one of the Herding Boys," I whispered to my little brother.

"Huh?" Claw replied, not sounding scared anymore. Instead, he sounded a tad bit...shocked. Surprised? Most definetely. A little let down? Probably. But instead of being relieved, he should be scared.

At the same time Claw had made his shocked reply, the creature had snarled: "Use my proper name, Sidhe. I'm a Herding Boy to the peasants. I'm something much more to the Court. And you know that."

I swallow and close my eyes. Finally, my mouth opens and my voice sounds hoarse. "You're one of the Buachailleen. In the Court, your purpose is to help the Dark One punish and torture those that make the Queen angry. But your main purpose is to torment and kill animals."

He---it sounded like a he---laughed. "Oh, very good, Princess! Your mother would be so proud. Now---"

But I had interrupted him. "Don't mention my mother to me! You have no right to."

He laughed at me then, and it soon became a snarl. "Don't tell me what I have a right to do or not to do. _You_ are in _my_ world, after all. _You_ are at _my_ mercy. Or, to be more exact, your little friend is at my mercy."

I can feel Claw start in surprise, then growl as we both sense the Buachailleen slither closer to us. He wouldn't touch Claw. I wouldn't allow it. He was mine. He was under my protection.

A ghost of a memory came to me. I could barely remember it, but I sensed that it was important. Instead of questioning it, I closed my eyes and let it fill me. Even as I did so, I could feel the black creature come ever closer.

Without realizing that I was doing so even as I did it, my mouth opened and a very old song came to me. My mother had sung it to me every night before she had left. When she did leave, I had gone up to my father and had asked him to sing it to me instead. He had opened his mouth---and nothing had come out. He had looked sheepish and had said: "I can't, little one. It's a Fae song and only the Fae can sing it."

I hadn't heard the song since that day. But I had never forgotten it. I was, after all, Fae.

"Over the moors and under the moon, here is a song, my darling. Sing it to me, O sing it to me. Sing it to me while we dance." The eerie melody rose up around me and soon filled the room. The Herding Boy stopped, as if frozen where he stood. The song continued of its own violation: "Here do we stand, O here do we stand, O here do we stand in the moonlight. The trees stand to watch, the wind joins our song, and the stars come join our dance. Over the moors and under the moon, you sing your song to me. It lasts through the night and is sung in the day and lasts through all the ages."

"You...you know the...?" the Buachailleen whispered harshly.

"It's a song that my mother used to sing to me."

"But...how is that even _possible_?" he seemed to wail. "Only the Fae can sing that song. And even then, only those with the _royal_ blood can sing it to its end! You're just a half-breed bastard! It isn't possible!!"

I just blinked and continued with the song. It was true, I had reached its end. But it didn't feel...complete. And so I completed it. "Over the moors and under the moon, I'll be with you, my darling. Come sing with me, O come sing with me, and we'll banish the dark and the night."

The Buachailleen screamed its fury. "NO!!!!! It isn't true! She _CAN'T_ be the one!!!!!! NOOOOOOOO!" And then he just seemed to...fade away.

"Morgan?" Claw whispered when all was quiet once again.

"Yes?" I whispered back.

"What was that that you were singing?"

"My mother used to sing it to me a long times ago. I've never forgotten the words, but I've never felt the need to sing it like she did. Something just...come over me...and I felt that I had to sing it. But the song has always felt incomplete to me, and so I sung the...the ending, I suppose. Why, Claw?"

He was silent for a long while. I knew that he was debating whether or not to tell me something. I was quiet. If he wanted to tell me or not was his own decision, not mine to make. I didn't want him to tell me if he didn't want to. Everyone has their own secrets and they're entitled to them. Finally, he spoke. "Nothing, Morgan. Nothing."

I waited for moment, but he didn't add anything. "I think I want to leave this place, Claw. I don't like it down here at all."

He snorted. "I agree with you, Morgan. Let's go. I'd rather take my chances with that Dragon King of yours than face another Buachailleen." He shuddered. "Is it really true that they torment and kill animals for no reason at all?"

"Yes," I answered shortly. I held the little mountain lion closer to my chest. I needed to feel his warmth radiate through my clothing. I needed to know that he was there. "Let's go." And, with that, my hand once again reached out, searching for a wall and hopefully the exit.

Even with my sharp hearing and Claw's hunter's reflexes combined, we both didn't sense yet another dark prescence lurking into the shadows, drawn deep within the cave by my song. It didn't do anything---it just stood there and watched. Then, cat-quiet, it followed us.