He has brought a human here, to Sky Home, the same dragon coldly continued. That, more than anything, shows his lapse of judgment. I say let us restrain him before he causes further destruction in his madness.
The sound of mighty wings beating the air made them all fall silent. When Naomi turned, she saw that the dragon on the other plinth had spread his wings, descending towards the ground of the cave. A second later, his form shimmered before her eyes, and human feet landed on the rock.
“The water element votes to give him a chance to prove himself.” The dragon spoke confidently, then flashed Naomi a smile that was nearly cocky. “You all heard him. He found his mate; he even brought her before us. I can’t sense any madness in him—and who of us hasn’t been itching for a fight for a while now? The council’s peace is all very well, but who wouldn’t lash out if some other dragon laid hands on our mate? Fire dragon or not, I say Gregory’s completely sane. Only you really should’ve shared the excitement with us, cousin.”
Gregory seemed unperturbed by the water dragon’s amusement.
“I’m serious,” Gregory said flatly. “Timothy. Damon. Set aside our differences for a moment. This is bigger than me. A fire dragon, when there has been no sight of one for centuries. That’s what we should all worry about.”
“You have no vote in a meeting called to judge your—”
“I’ll vote anyway,” Gregory said coldly, fury in his voice at the earth dragon’s challenge. “The element of air votes to investigate the dragon of fire, and where he vanished to.”
There was a moment of silence.
Naomi chose that moment to speak out. “I’ll vote as well. I don’t care that you dragons think I’m just a human. I’m the one who was attacked. I’m the one who was abducted! And while you just sit here like big, lazy cowards hiding in a cave, it was Gregory who went and fought the dragon. He nearly got himself killed trying to defend me! So I’ll vote as well, because this damn well concerns me too, and I vote that you go and look at that bloodthirsty fire dragon yourselves, because if there is one dragon here that’s mad, it’s that fire dragon.”
For a moment, the dragons stared at her in startled silence. Then the earth dragon reared up and spread his wings, descending from his plinth to join them on the ground. Naomi could see the by now familiar shimmer as the powerful body of the dragon turned into that of a human.
“Damon Drago,” the man who was the unfriendly earth dragon said, giving Naomi a polite bow, even though his eyes were still full of suspicion. “No offense, but you’re just a human, and you don’t understand—”
“Enough.” Once more the mysterious voice came booming out of the darkness before them.
Naomi shivered instinctively. She still couldn’t see who it was who was speaking. Every now and then, the flickering shadows on the rock before her almost seemed to form a picture—but she could never make out more than the form of a goat’s head, or a serpent’s tail, before the shadows shifted and scattered.
“I am the master of the council. I will have no quarreling here. Human, come forward.”
Naomi swallowed, her throat dry. She hated to admit it, but she was terrified. Furious with anger on Gregory’s behalf—but still terrified of these strange, powerful creatures that shouldn’t even exist.
What would Mom do? she asked herself as she took a tentative step forward.
Mom would... Mom would lecture them on hospitality. No guest in her house would ever go without being offered a seat and something to eat.
Her lips twitched a little at the thought of her mom—a small, curvy woman rightly famous for her formidable anger—giving one of those dragons a whack on the nose with a towel.
She would. She really would! Because unlike these dragons, she knows that manners are important.
Emboldened by the thought, Naomi continued forward on her own, until it felt like she‘d entered the shadows racing across the wall of the cave. Everything around her seemed to have dimmed. She couldn’t see very well in the gloom, and she could no longer hear the dragons behind her.
“I’m here,” she said boldly, hiding her fear.
I am here, and I am my mother’s daughter. “What do you want from me?”
Tell me, Naomi, the voice now whispered in her mind. Does Gregory tell the truth?
Naomi opened her mouth, indignant that no one seemed to believe their story when she had nearly died—but just then she was hit by an avalanche of images and emotions.
Fear. Loneliness. Fire. Sorrow. A power larger than anything she could imagine. Destruction that could wipe out an entire town in the blink of an eye.
Her heart was racing. It was difficult to breathe. She couldn’t understand what she was seeing—but even so the images didn’t stop coming, overwhelming her until the cave had completely vanished.
Gasping for air, she found herself standing before a precipice. Before her, an abyss loomed. Behind her, some dark and terrible power was gathering, the air sizzling with energy.
Whatever it was, it was coming closer, and closer, and closer...
It was coming for her. She realized it with sudden awareness. The monster of fire and darkness was coming for her—and there was power enough in her to meet it.
She would only have to turn and laugh in its face. Then she’d spread her arms, and they’d turn into wings. She’d shift, her body filled to bursting with power—and she’d spew it into her attacker’s face. She’d take him out with one gust of her dragon’s breath, the power within her so vast now that she’d take out everything around them—and why would that matter when her enemy had dared to come here, to threaten her at her height of power?