Chapter 9
Kira stifled a yawn, feeling a delicious ache run through her body as they made their way up the mountain trail.
It might not have been completely sensible to have spent half the night the way they had when they’d both known they had a strenuous hike the next day, but Kira couldn’t bring herself to regret a single moment of it. Sure, her legs had felt like jelly this morning when she’d woken up and her eyes would barely stay open… but it had been worth it.
“I didn’t keep you up at all last night, did I?” Caleb asked her, a wicked grin curving across his lips.
Kira snorted. “If we hadn’t had this hike today I would have been the one keeping you up,” she retorted with a laugh. “But I guess we can always take up where we left off once we’ve collected these mushrooms and broken your curse. Though I didn’t notice anything especially cursed about you last night – I would have said blessed.”
Or maybe that was me,she thought, as Caleb laughed.
“Oh, I was definitely blessed last night,” he said, turning his head to look at her, his eyes filled with warmth.
Kira felt her heart speed up in her chest. Part of her wanted to cringe at the cheesy lines they were exchanging, but most of her just wanted to throw her arms around Caleb’s neck and kiss him until they were both breathless.
Later, later,she told herself. There’d be time for all of that once they’d figured out just what the deal was with Caleb’s curse, and what it had to do with these mushrooms.
Thankfully, despite their slightly late start, they still made good time. They reached the steep cliff face Kira knew they had to head for right before noon, and stopped at the bottom of it to have their lunch.
“So… how do we get up there?” Caleb asked, looking up. “I take it that cave up there is where we’re heading?”
Kira nodded as she brushed the crumbs from her sandwich off her lap. “Yep. It’s not a very deep cave at all, but it’s a bit annoying to get up there – it’s easy to slip, and then there’s not a lot to grab on to once you start falling. It doesn’t look that bad, but it’s deceptively dangerous. During my field training another ranger trainee slipped and broke their leg. It wasn’t pretty.”
“No, I can imagine not,” Caleb murmured. “So I guess you must’ve brought some climbing equipment with you?”
“Yeah. Nothing fancy, but it’ll make us a bit more secure,” she said. “If we fall, we’ll be able to grab the ropes. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Or,” Caleb said, “I could fly us up there.”
“You could –” Kira blinked at him, not comprehending what he’d said for a moment or two. “You could, uh – oh. Right. I see. Fly us up there. On account of you being a dragon and everything.”
Caleb laughed softly. “Yeah. On account of that.”
Shaking her head, Kira threw up her hands. “Well, why did I bother packing all these ropes and climbing hooks then? Why did we bother hiking out here at all?!” she asked in mock exasperation. “Since we can just fly everywhere?”
“Well, to be honest, I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t sure we were completely isolated out here,” Caleb said, grinning. “Being seen in dragon form is a risk I’d really rather not run. It causes all sorts of problems, as I’m sure you can imagine. But if it’s just for a moment to get us easily up to the cave, and we really won’t be seen out here, then I can do it. Usually I wouldn’t think about shifting so close to a human town, though.”
“Oh… does that kind of thing happen very often?” Kira asked. “Shifters being seen in their shifter forms?”
“More often than you’d think, but it usually doesn’t matter,” Caleb said. “No one looks twice at a dog or a cat or a hamster, even a bear or a wolf if they’re places where those animals are common. But a dragon? Or a unicorn? That might take a little extra explaining.”
“Yeah, I can see why that might be the case,” Kira agreed. “But wait, are you saying there’s a chance that at some point in my life I’ve been looking at a hamster running on a wheel, and it’s actually been a guy?”
“Not that likely,” Caleb said. “I mean, most hamsters you’d see would be pets, right? So a hamster shifter probably wouldn’t like to be in a situation where they were stuck in a cage or something like that. I don’t think many shifters would be for sale at a pet shop, for instance.”
“Oh. Right. Yeah, that was kind of a dumb question, I guess,” Kira said.
Caleb laughed. “No – these things take some getting used to. But I’d say there’s definitely a chance you’ve at least seen a few birds who were actually shifters – to my mind, bird shifters lucked out in life. They can go pretty much anywhere, anytime, and unless someone’s a real expert on birdlife, they probably won’t get noticed as being out of place.”
“And being able to fly would be a pretty sweet deal,” Kira said enviously. “I mean, being able to fly freely like that. I guess it’s harder for you.”
“It is,” Caleb said. “But there’s places we can go – big stretches of open country owned by dragon families, where it’s safe for us to shift and stretch our wings. But it’s like I told you – I’m kind of a city dragon. Spending a couple of weeks a year out there is enough for me. Otherwise, I’m happy as I am.”
“One day I’m gonna have a lot of different questions for you,” Kira sighed, shaking her head. She felt like she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around all of this. “But for now, maybe we should just focus on finding your mystery mushroom, and get back to town as quickly as we can. We only have a few days before the end of the month now, and then Heit will be able to buy the land.”
“Sure thing.” Caleb nodded. “But, uh, you might want to stand back a little – I need a little space.”
“Oh, right. For your whole… becoming a dragon thing.” Kira laughed, realizing she sounded perhaps just the slightest bit inane. “But… if you’re going to fly up there, how will I get up?”