understood each other, and there was a strange trust between us that felt easy
and ancient, like it had been there forever.
“Blar,” I called out, and I spotted him chasing a butterfly across the
clearing. “Let’s go get some water.”
I stood up and walked to the opposite side of the clearing, since the
stream was just beyond the trees. Blar followed me and walked just to my
right, and his small, slender body bobbed slightly back and forth as he stared
ahead.
We made it through the trees and to the stream, but when I saw it, I
remembered the current was somewhat quick. It was easy for me, a full-
grown man, to walk across or stick my hands in to get a cool drink, but I
wasn’t sure if Blar could drink from it on his own, not quite yet at least.
I looked down at my companion, and he walked right up to the water,
though, and reached his little foot out to touch it.
“Wait,” I said, and I walked to a nearby bush and grabbed a large leaf.
I cupped the green leaf in my hand and filled it with water from the stream,
then I set it down next to Blar so he could drink. “There you go.”
The little dragon lapped at the water in the leaf, and I smiled at him
before I lifted some water into my hands and brought them to my mouth. The
water in Asgard always tasted wonderful, and our irrigation system made
things incredibly convenient most of the time, but there was something about
fresh stream water I could never get over. It was cold and refreshing, and I
could never stop at just one mouthful. I refilled Blar’s leaf, then took a few
more drinks before I wiped the wetness off from my face.
“Do you want some more?” I asked, though there was still a bit of
water left in the leaf.
Blar walked back over to the tree line, though, so I followed him, and
we made our way back into the clearing.
“Alright,” I said once we were back in the safety of the trees. “We’re
going to look for portals but first let’s practice a few things. Can you go
left?”
The little dragon darted to the left as I pointed, then he looked at me
and waited for the next command.
“Good job,” I chuckled. “Now, come here.”
He scurried over to me then and was on my shoulder before I knew it.
“Right,” I said, and I took out a little piece of pumpkin from my pocket
to give him. I thought he’d earned a little treat.
I trusted him to do what I said, but I wanted to make sure that if we got
into any trouble, he’d follow my command to come back to me. I figured we
were about ready to set off looking for portals, but I let him eat his pumpkin
as I stroked his scaly tail.
Then my hand paused at the tip of his tail when I heard the crack of a
tree branch behind us.
I spun around before I could think and locked eyes with the beautiful
girl from Ramir’s shop.
There I stood, in the middle of a clearing with a small blue dragon
eating pumpkin on my shoulder.
I had to think of something, and fast.
Chapter 4
I was frozen in place, and I could feel Blar was stiff on my shoulder as
well. Nobody said a word as Kaspyr and I stared at each other with just ten
feet between us. Her violet eyes were unblinking, and the only movement
was her curly strawberry blonde hair as it swayed gently in the wind. Her
body was still as a statue, much the same as mine, and all sounds seemed to
fade away until it was only the two of us, with our eyes locked as each of us
searched the other for answers.
I licked my lips and let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding
in, then I held up my hands in a show of surrender.
“Kaspyr, right?” I asked, and I swallowed hard. “This isn’t what it
looks like.”
She blinked at me, then, and her blonde eyebrows pulled together in
confusion.
“It looks like you have a dragon on your shoulder,” she said calmly.
Why had I said it wasn’t what it looked like? It was clearly exactly
what it looked like. I’d never seen a dragon before, but I’d known exactly
I should have led with something else… maybe she would buy I was
magical? That this was an illusion of some sort. I had to think of something to say, I couldn’t just stand in silence forever.
“I, uh,” I stammered, still not sure where the hell I was going with this.
Blar could tell I was upset, and he crouched down on my shoulder
while his tail wrapped around my neck for balance. I knew instinctively that
he was ready to strike if necessary. He could feel my tension, and he was
scared, so I reached up and stroked down his back.
“It’s okay,” I whispered to the dragon, and he relaxed slightly as I
turned back to Kaspyr. “Did you follow me?”
More than anything, I didn’t want Blar harmed, and right then I had no
idea what would happen if he was discovered. I knew I had to do whatever I
could to protect him.
“You are changing the subject,” she stated.
“But you did follow me. Why?”
“Are we not talking about your dragon?” the beautiful woman scoffed
as she eyed me up and down. “How in all of Helheim did you get a fucking
dragon?”
Her voice rose as she spoke, and though there wasn’t really anyone
around, I was concerned someone else might hear her.
“Shh,” I hissed as my eyes darted around. “I’m sorry, I’ll tell you what
I know, but it’s not much. He came from an egg I found after our battle yesterday.”
“An egg?” she asked, and she shook her head as if to clear it. “You’re
telling me you hatched a dragon egg?”
“Yes,” I said, and I reached up to stroke Blar again. “He’s sweet and
docile, and I think I could hatch another egg if I tried. That’s why I asked
your father about dragons.”
“This is insane,” Kaspyr muttered as she began to pace back and forth.
“I know,” I sighed. “But Blar is a nice dragon, he won’t harm anyone.”
“You named it?” she gasped as she whirled around to stare at me.
“Shhh,” I repeated, and I put both my hands out to calm her. “Please, I
don’t want anyone to hear you.”
“This is exactly why my father liked you so much,” she grumbled as
she continued to pace. “I knew there was something off about you. He
wouldn’t tell me what it was, but I knew you were hiding something.”
“So, you followed me?”
“Well, there was something… strange about you. I sensed your
power.”
“Power?” I echoed with a frown. “I… don’t have any magic.”
Even as I spoke, my eyes drifted down to the blue dragon, and I knew
what I’d said wasn’t exactly true anymore, even if I didn’t know what my ability to communicate with dragons meant yet.
Kaspyr cocked an eyebrow at me. “I don’t believe you. I know I felt
magic from you in the shop, a magic I’d never experienced before, so I
endeavored to find out what it was. What else should I have done?”
“Uhhh, how about minding your own business?” I suggested.
“But you coul
d have been a threat to us, and now I see you have a
dragon, so it appears my senses were correct.”
“Maybe you sensed the dragon, I was hiding him in my satchel,” I said
as I gestured to Blar, and I wondered if Ramir had known, too.
“So, he was in our shop?” Kaspyr asked, and she paused her pacing to
eye me curiously.
“Yes,” I confessed. “He’s very well behaved.”
She stared at me, then, and her violet eyes took in the whole of Blar
and me before she stepped toward me.
“Can… Can I touch him?” she asked, and her eyes were unblinking as
she stared at the little blue creature on my shoulder.
I thought for a second about whether she would try to hurt him, but I
didn’t think she would, and if she did, I wouldn’t let it happen. Besides, if she
saw he was sweet and friendly then maybe she would calm down and agree
to keep my secret.
“Sure,” I said, and I turned to Blar. “Let her pet you.”
Kaspyr’s eyes darted to me then when I gave him a command, but she
still took a couple more steps forward and hesitantly put her hand out. She
lifted it slowly until it was inches from my shoulder, but then her body went
still again.
“It’s okay,” I said as I moved forward just enough so her hand collided
with Blar’s head. He rubbed his little nose against her fingertips, and her
violet eyes grew wider and wider. I could see her chest rise and fall with each
heavy breath, and I knew adrenaline was coursing through her veins then.
“He likes to be scratched under the chin.”
She turned to look at me, then she licked her plump, red lips, and
slowly moved her index finger to scratch under his chin.
Blar purred and rubbed against her more.
“This is incredible,” she whispered.
“I know,” I said with a smile.
“But,” she said with a frown, “dragons haven’t been in Asgard in
centuries. They’re said to be dangerous.”
“Does he look dangerous to you?” I chuckled.
“Well, no,” she conceded, and just then Blar hopped from my shoulder
over to hers.
Kaspyr’s eyes went wide as her body went rigid, and I had to stifle
back a laugh at how panicked her face looked for a second.
“Blar,” I scolded, and he poked his head out from behind her curls.
“Get back over here, you can’t just jump on people without their permission.”
“It’s… it’s okay,” Kaspyr breathed, and her body relaxed a bit. “I
suppose I don’t mind.”
“I think he likes you,” I said as I watched him lay down with his face
and front paws on one shoulder and his back paws and tail on the other. He
had wrapped his body around the back of her neck like a little blue reptilian
scarf.
“I-I think I like him, too,” she admitted with a smile, and she reached
up to stroke his head. “But I still want to know what you’re doing with him.”
“I need to know you aren’t going to tell anyone about him,” I said. She
was warming up to him, and I needed to use that to my advantage.
“Fine,” she relented after a moment. “I’ll keep your secret, but only if
you tell me what you’re planning to do with him.”
“I’m not sure right now,” I confessed. “I just want to take care of him.
He only hatched last night, but he listens to me, and we’ve bonded somehow.
I think maybe if I could find more, then I could prove dragons aren’t the
bloodthirsty monsters the old Aesir thought they were.”
“So, that’s why you wanted to find more dragons?” she questioned.
“You want to see if others will bond with you like he did?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I see,” she murmured, and I noticed then it looked like Blar was
asleep nestled in her strawberry-blonde hair. Then Kaspyr abruptly looked up
and met my eyes. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“What do you mean you’ve changed your mind?” I asked, and my
heart rate spiked as I took in her words.
“I have another condition,” she added.
“You can’t just add more conditions,” I protested. “You said you
wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“I want to go with you,” she said sternly, and her beautiful face was
stoic as she stared at me with a calm expression.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked. Two minutes ago, she’d been scared of
Blar, and now she wanted to come with me to look for more dragons? Was
this woman serious?
“I want to go with you,” she repeated.
“Why?” I asked, unable to hold back the question.
“My mother was a Valkyrie,” she explained and shrugged. “I have
powers like my father’s, but I was also blessed by a goddess so I can practice magic using dragon scales.”
“That’s why you had the big red scale on the desk,” I mused as I
remembered the dragon scale that looked so much like my own.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s the largest one we have right now. The bigger
ones are really rare.”
“I saw a bunch of small ones on one of the shelves,” I recalled. “Do
different scales give you different powers?”
“Not exactly,” she said with a shake of her head. “But the more magic
the dragon had, the more I can feed off it for my own. I don’t want to hurt
any dragons, either, just like you. But if I could find some scales from actual
living dragons, it would change my sorcery so much. I believe that is why I
was drawn to follow you.”
I thought about what she said, but I was still hesitant to let her join us.
Her magic could come in handy, but it was clear she still didn’t trust me, so I
wasn’t sure if I could trust her.
I opened my mouth to respond, but I suddenly heard male voices in the
air, and they weren’t far away.
“Quick,” I said as I opened the satchel. “Blar, get in.”
The little dragon dove from Kaspyr’s shoulder down into the satchel,
and I quickly closed the top of it just as three large men broke through the trees.
They stumbled slightly, and it was clear they were intoxicated, not just
by the leather flasks they had in their hands, but also by the stench of alcohol
and sweat that emanated from them.
The biggest one had long black hair and a gray tunic on. He carried a
battle axe around his waist, and his short beard dripped with mead. He was
large, much larger than I was, and I figured he had to be from another
warband. He was muscular and tall, and I thought I’d seen him around a
couple of times, but there were so many men around that it was hard to recall.
The other two men were slightly smaller, but they wore gray tunics as
well, though one had brown hair, and the other blond. Each of them held a
leather flask that men often filled with mead so they could carry it with them
without having to worry about a glass. The bars would fill them for a small
fee, and the men would wander around town and try to hit on the women. It
seemed these men had started early in the day, though, since festivities like
that were usually reserved for after dark.
“Well, look what we have here,” the largest, dark-haired man slurred
when he spotted Kaspyr and me
.
“You’re awfully pretty,” the brown-haired one said to Kaspyr, and
though I didn’t know her well, I instinctively wanted to step in front of her.
These men were trouble.
“Yeah, she is,” the blond one added. “What are you doing out here?”
“And with him?” the black-haired one snickered, as if being with me
was some sort of joke.
I was the outcast of the warbands, after all.
“What I’m doing anywhere is none of your business,” Kaspyr said in a
clipped tone, and her eyes narrowed as she regarded the men.
I was hoping this wouldn’t lead to a fight considering I didn’t have my
battle axe on me, and the only thing I carried was a small dagger I kept in my
boot, but it depended on how the men chose to react. I wouldn’t let them
disrespect Kaspyr or me, so if it came down to it, I’d have to take them on
even though they were well equipped for a fight.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, little lady,” the blond one laughed, and he started
to circle us. “We just want to see what a guy has to do to get you all to
himself.”
My stance widened while the man walked around me, and I could feel
Blar tense at my hip, though I wasn’t sure if he knew exactly what was
wrong.
“I want nothing to do with any of you,” Kaspyr said as she glared at
the men. “Leave while you still have the chance.”
Was she making threats? Men like this weren’t known to turn down a
challenge, and her egging them on was only going to make them attack. Still,
their behavior had already pissed me off, and I was ready to step in whenever
they decided they needed to prove their manliness.
“Tell us why you’re out here with him,” the brown-haired one said as
he started to circle us as well.
“Yeah,” the black-haired man added. “He’s an orphan, see the lack of a
banner on his attire? So, wouldn’t you rather have someone more impressive
than that?”
“I’d rather not have anyone, thank you,” Kaspyr growled through
gritted teeth. Her violet eyes were shining with rage now, and she looked like
she was about to tear all of their heads off.
Maybe her threats weren’t quite as empty as I thought they were at
first. She was magic, after all. I didn’t think she could beat them in a battle of
strength, maybe of skill if she was good enough, but I imagined she had more