Chapter 3: Iniko

I am completely, totally, and utterly in love with this woman. She is everything that is good and kind and gentle in this world. She's the only one that I've ever met who is that way. Everyone else that I've ever encountered has tried to hurt me.

She thinks that group that was chasing us was after me. They aren't. They want her. I know they want her, but she never remembers that. And I don't understand why she can't remember when she turns into a dragon.

I lift off with Eliane on my back and go in search of food, thinking back to the first time that we met. Well, we didn't actually meet, but it was the first time that I saw her. It was her first shift. I didn't immediately recognize that the large dragon that she had shifted into was the same young woman whose pained screams I'd been hearing for who knows how long.

She had destroyed the laboratory where we were being held captive and I had been terrified, having suffered my own pain at the hands of those crazy men. She had shifted into this big, beautiful dragon, and she had brought the entire roof down around me. Then she had shifted back, and I had been so scared that I had tried to kill her. I was shocked when, months later, that same beautiful dragon had saved me from the Mean Ones. They had cornered me on the top of a mountain where I had made a home for myself. I thought I was safe, but the Mean Ones had attacked me there. She had come out of nowhere, blowing her fire which is much hotter than mine and helping me to get out of there. I followed her and she had allowed it. She allowed me into her space, a hiding space much better than my own.

When we landed that first time together, she had given me the remnants of a deer that she had caught. I was so hungry that I ate it all. She had asked me my name and I told her that my name was Iniko. She told me she was a dragon with no name. That’s only because she doesn’t remember her human name, doesn’t remember that she has a human form at all. I told her I’d call her Jewels because her scales are like the jewels of all four elements - rubies, emeralds, opals, and sapphires. She’s the most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen. She seemed to like that.

She had apparently seen the group that attacked me before. Although she said that it was the first time that she had seen the girl with the blue scales working with the other group. In the past, she had only seen the girl on her own.

We went to sleep, and I felt safer than I had felt probably ever in my life. Eliane is a strong dragon, as big or bigger than the others that I've seen and I knew that she could protect me. However, the next morning, I realized that we had a problem. She had shifted back into her human form in her sleep and when she woke up, she was terrified of me and completely bewildered about how she had gotten on the mountain. She could no longer understand me, and she had no recollection of rescuing me the night before. It had taken everything in me to show her that I was not going to hurt her.

Once she realized she was safe and I wasn't going to hurt her, she began talking to me. I can understand her perfectly. But she is not able to understand my dragon speak. So, she called me dragon until she came up with the name Snow. She still calls me dragon sometimes, and that's okay. I like it. I like that she thinks of me as a dragon because even though I'm nearly fully grown, I'm so much smaller than all of the other dragons we've ever seen. And I’m much smaller than she is in her dragon form.

So now, she's the one who finds the places for us to land and to stay, the safe places for us. But she never remembers that once she's back in her human form. She always thinks it's me that does it. But it's her, I follow her lead. She is at least twice my size in her dragon form, and she is incredible. Where I have the ability to manipulate air and some earth, she can manipulate all four elements. She doesn't have good control of her elements and of course, she doesn't remember it in her human form, but that is why we've been able to escape so many times from the Mean Ones.

I've tried to tell her that she has a dragon form, but of course she doesn't understand me. It's so frustrating to me that I can understand her, but she doesn't understand me. We've gotten by and she's learned to trust me.

As we fly, I feel her hands gently stroking over my neck. It makes my scales and my body quiver. I know that she loves me, but since she doesn't remember that she has a dragon form, I have no idea if she loves me the way a dragon loves, or if she only loves me the way a human loves. I know that I love her the way a dragon loves - with every part of my being.

“You're going to shed again soon Snow. We'll have to make sure we get rid of it. We don't want them using your scales to track us.”

I don't mind that she calls me Snow. I know I'm not as beautiful as the white dragon I've seen flying around. Ancalagon, that’s the name he gave us when he and his father, the dragon who calls himself my father, attacked us. My white scales are dull in comparison to his, so for her to equate my looks with something as beautiful as snow makes me happy. Plus, she says my scent reminds her of pictures of mountains with snow on them. She’s never actually smelled them, but she says that my smell makes her think of that, something crisp and clean. Someday, I’ll take her there and let her smell it, see if it really does smell like me.

“Yes, I agree,” I say out loud, excited that she at least understands when I'm saying yes to her now.

I know she struggles with killing animals, but we both have to eat. And I'm a dragon. I need fresh meat. Eliane on the other hand prefers to cook hers. Thankfully, she's learned that I have fire, and now that she trusts me, we’re able to cook the meat without having to start a fire.

As we fly, I catch a strange scent. One scent I know, it’s an elf. But the other scent is one that doesn’t make sense. It’s a blend of multiple types of beings, fire dragon, polar bear, and what I think is a Lycan.

I make my way closer to the tops of the trees. I don’t blend in, not like the green dragons would, but hopefully, the two individuals won’t notice us.

“Snow, what is it?” Eliane asks from my back.

I rumble softly, hoping she’ll realize that I need her to be quiet. It isn’t long before I hear voices.

“Just relax my beautiful dragon, I’ve got you,” a male voice says.

“Yeah, those are the same pretty words you used that got me pregnant, Fen.”

“It’s not my fault, Tesha. I told you, I tried using those condoms, but you are so smoking hot that you burned them all off.”

“You’re really not upset, Fenian? I mean, we’re both so young.”

“I know, but we’ll find a way to make it work, Tesha. I love you. I’m never going to leave you or our little dragon-elf hybrid.”

The girl snorts. “Are you sure we’re having a dragon-elf hybrid?”

“I have a good nose, my little dragon.”

“I’m a Lycan too….” Her voice breaks off mid-sentence.

“Tesha?” the man, Fenian, asks. She doesn’t respond and the forest becomes quiet.

“Get out of here, Snow. She either smelled us or spotted us. Go. Quickly,” Eliane says, quietly but urgently.

I turn from where their voices were coming and I begin flying away.

“Wait! We won’t hurt you,” the woman, Tesha, cries out.

I hear the earth rumbling under me and see it starting to move to block my escape.

“Fenian, no! You’ll only scare them,” she says, and the earth stops moving.

“We won't hurt you. Please, come back,” Tesha says.

I turn my head slightly and look at Eliane. She shakes her head. “Keep going. We don't know them, we can't trust them.”

I nod and continue away from the others.