“Jason?” Kayla asked. She ran over to him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. “You wouldn’t believe what happened here. There was an attack, but they were able to push it back.” She watched him for a moment. “How are you here already?”
“It’s over,” he said.
“Over? Does that mean that Mother is…”
“She’s alive.”
“If she’s alive, then where is she? I need to go to her. She’s sick, you know, and she needs our help.”
“I know she does, but she’s not here.”
“Jason, what did you do with her? You couldn’t have left her there.”
“I did. It’s a long story, but needless to say, she’s still in the village.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say.”
He didn’t have any way to fully explain it to his sister, but there was some way that he could demonstrate it.
He called upon the forest dragon. She’d had time to rest, and he had a sense that her strength had refreshed, replenished enough that she could help him. He created an illusion, casting one about him that formed an image of the village. Wind whistled around, whipping up, carrying the cold of the breeze. There was more to it than that, snow added to it, and smoke drifted from dozens of chimneys within the village.
Kayla’s breath caught and William lurched to his feet, looking all around.
“What is this?” he asked.
“This is an illusion,” he said.
Jason released it, letting the illusion fade. When it did, he looked over at Sarah, and then back to Kayla. “None of what we saw was real. I know how hard it is to believe, but it was an illusion. There’s a dragon with the ability to place illusions.”
“Mother was there the whole time?”
“She was.”
“So none of this was necessary?”
“It was necessary, for a different reason.” As he looked at his sister, and as he understood that she was here with him, that she appreciated the dragons in a way she hadn’t before, he realized the truth of that. This had been necessary, and if he hadn’t been drawn away, and if he hadn’t brought his sister with him, she wouldn’t have known the truth. That was what all of this was about. Finding the truth for him. In him.
“What reason?”
“So that you know.” He hugged his sister. “We both know, now. And because we know, we can change things for the better.”
“How would you change things?” she asked.
“I think that it’s time for us to bring Mother away from the village.”
“Where would you bring her?”
“We have options, but…” He looked around, glancing from Sarah to William. “I guess I was thinking that we would bring her here.”
“Here?”
Jason nodded. “I don’t know how much help we can give her, but I think she needs to be brought out of the village. And we need to stop worrying about where food will come from. We need to stop worrying about the others in the village.”
It was possible that they might even need to bring all of the village out, to bring everyone to a place where they could succeed and thrive. After what Reltash had done, the way he had been stealing food from them, and the difficulty life had taken on within the village, Jason couldn’t help but wonder whether it was time for more drastic measures.
It would be difficult, but everything he’d been through had been difficult. Perhaps it was time for things to be a little bit more challenging. Perhaps it was time for him to do something that had a different sort of meaning. After his willingness to go after the village, he thought perhaps it was time to ensure they were truly safe.
“And then what will you do?” Kayla asked.
“And then I think I need to be more involved with the dragons.”
“Why?”
“Because I think it’s something I was meant to do.”
He didn’t know what form that would take, but he understood he would have to do more. And this time, he had a feeling that it truly involved going to Lorach. They wouldn’t have to worry about trying to rescue his people. They could focus only on the dragons and what it would take to free them. And in doing so, he had to believe he could find answers.
More than that, there was someone there he needed to reconnect with, and he had to believe that understanding David’s motivations and what he was trying to do would be important.
Somehow.
For now, he would rescue his mother, he would do what he could to protect the people of the village. And then he would decide what he needed to do for the dragons. One thing was certain: He no longer would be doing it alone. With the iron dragon armor, the forest dragon’s power flowing through him, and the sense of the ice dragon within his mind, he wouldn’t have to do anything alone again. It made him stronger, and it would allow them all to conquer their fear together.
The Dragon Misfits continue with book 4: Storm Dragon
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading Forest Dragon. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful.
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All my best,
D.K. Holmberg
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Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by D.K. Holmberg
Cover by Tom Edwards
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