Julie Wetzel
For the Memory of Dragons
Dragons of Eternity - 3
For my favorite brother, Forest.
I love you. Call home!
Prologue
Beating his wings hard, Alex pushed past the pain and raced higher into the sky. Droplets of water brushed over his face as he broke into the cloud cover. Safe.
Without a direct line of sight, the mage firing at him wouldn’t be able to get a clean shot in. His muscles quivered from the two glancing blows he’d already taken while trying to escape. Swallowing back his grief, he clutched his leather bag against his chest. He had to get this information to Daniel before more dragons died at the hands of these monsters.
Pushing himself as fast as his injuries would let him, Alex pulled a sharp turn, hoping his attackers would follow the original course he’d set. He turned a few more times before letting his instincts take over and lead him off in the direction he needed to go.
The soft caress of the clouds lifted, and Alex found himself in open skies. The whip of the air lapped the moisture from his scales, cooling his heated skin. It felt wonderful. For all of ten seconds.
White-hot currents of electricity cracked across his hide, taking him by surprise. How the hell had that mage tracked him through the clouds? Alex tried to roar in pain, but everything had seized up as the bolt of magic raced through his body. He clenched his twitching muscles around his satchel as he spun out of control. No matter what happened, he couldn’t lose that bag and its contents.
Forcing his unresponsive wings out, Alex tried to right himself, but he only managed to propel himself into an odd spin. He tried to gain his bearings so he could pull himself out of the fall, but his muscles refused to work properly. Everything was numb from the electrical shock. The only thing he was sure of was the ground was closing fast and this was going to hurt. A lot.
1
An explosion rattled the windows of the old farmhouse, wrenching Terra from her book. She cursed as she fell off the couch and scrambled towards the windows at the back of the house. It was nice, living out in the middle of nowhere, but it meant that she had to be more aware of the things going on in the area around her.
Sure she would find a fireball that went with the explosion, Terra scanned the skyline. A cloud of dust rose from the cornfield just behind her house. Cursing again, she dropped her book on the floor. Something had to have come down over there, and someone could be hurt. She thought about grabbing her cell phone, but the reception out here was crap.
First aid kit! She grabbed the box from the kitchen and jammed her feet into her shoes. Possible fire! Nabbing the fire extinguisher from the stove, she raced out the back door.
Terra’s thoughts turned to what could have fallen from the sky as she pushed through the rows of corn. A plane? Surely there would have been a bigger explosion if some aircraft had come down. A meteor? That would be cool to see. Racing through the rows, her mind worked on the possibilities.
Completely distracted by the potential of the fallen object, Terra missed the huge groove the thing had cut in the crops as it dropped from the sky. Tripping on the edge, she tumbled down into the bottom of the furrow. Pulling herself up, she looked around for the wreckage. Oddly, there was none. No scraps of metal or chunks of anything that could have broken up upon impact.
Getting to her feet, Terra clutched her fire extinguisher. Just because there wasn’t a fire to put out didn’t mean that she didn’t need it. Something had to have torn the great crater in the ground. If necessary, the heavy object would be great for bludgeoning whatever alien popped out of the corn.
Carefully, she made her way down the churned-up path. Seeing movement at the end, she raised her fire extinguisher, ready to swing it. The dirt exploded from the ground, and a mythical beast popped out.
Terra screamed and scrambled away as a dragon thrashed about, trying to stand up. It let out a weak roar and collapsed in a heap of wings and tail.
Terra peeked out from where she had taken refuge in the cornstalks.
The creature took a deep breath and snorted.
Of course, Terra knew dragons weren’t really mythical creatures. Although she’d been very young at the time, she still remembered when the dragon king had paraded his entourage around, showing off the fact that dragons were, indeed, real. And there were plenty of dragons on TV, but to have a real-live dragon in her backyard was something else entirely.
Or dead. Terra eyed the great, blue beast as it lay in the dirt. It was unnervingly still.
Creeping closer, Terra reached out to touch the shimmering scales on the thing's shoulder. They were smooth and hard like polished glass or carefully chiseled bits of sapphire. She stroked the warm scales, awed by their iridescent quality. Logically, she knew this was an intelligent creature, but it looked so much like an animal, with those wickedly pointed horns and razor-sharp teeth, she wasn’t sure what she should do.
The dragon let out a groan and shivered. Magic shimmered across the creature, reducing its massive bulk to the size of a man. He curled on his side in the dirt, naked as the day he was born.
Shock rooted Terra to the ground for a moment before she could shake it off. Now this she could handle. A man, even a naked man, was a whole lot better than that towering bulk of dragon.
“Hey.”
She patted him gently on the shoulder, but he didn’t move. Grabbing his shoulder, she pulled him onto his back. Reaching down, Terra checked his pulse, praying he was alive. A steady beat met her fingers. Good. A live, naked man was much better than a dead, naked man any day of the week.
“Hey fella.”
She tried smacking him on the cheek lightly, but he was out cold. Great. She glanced around at the cornfield. The weather was starting to turn a little chilly, and she couldn’t leave him out here, exposed as he was. She looked back down at him. He was easily twice her size and stacked to hell and back. There was no way she was going to be able to get him up and out of the cornfield by herself.
Standing up, she dusted the dirt off her pants and tried to get her mind back in gear. For goodness’ sake, she was a farm girl and had dealt with bigger issues than this. Running her eyes over the fallen man, she couldn’t help but notice other things about him that she would consider a big issue.
Jerking her eyes back under control, she grabbed up her safety kit and fire extinguisher and headed back to the farmhouse. She dumped her supplies off in the kitchen and went to the living room. A blanket—that’s what she really needed. Ignoring the small afghan on the couch, she decided to go with the much larger quilt from her bed. So what if she got the handmade bedding a little dirty? When someone dropped that much beefcake in your backyard, you needed something extra large to cover it.
Stopping on the porch, an idea hit Terra. She may not be able to lift him by herself, but she could probably roll him into something and drag his ass back to the house. Heading into the barn, she spied an old wheelbarrow. Perfect! She flipped it over and dumped her bedding in the cart. Now all she needed to do was get him in it. No problem.
Problem. The man was a whole lot denser then Terra ever dreamed possible. That much limp bulk was proving to be a pain in her backside.