Valley of Wings

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Time was, the dragons mixed with humans peacefully, without pain and fear. That had come to an end with the death of the last Dragon King. A thousand years of serenity had passed under his rule, with his Human Queen by his side – his true mate. But when the Human Queen had died while carrying the heir to the throne, the Dragon King had lost all hope of securing his line. And when the humans came for him, he had already given up on life. It was the first and easiest dragon hunt.

With his death, some of the dragons fled, finding secluded hiding spots in harsh and barren landscapes where humans would not be able to follow. Others had tried to hide their true nature, employing elixirs and potions to conceal their inner beings. They changed their names and moved to other settlements where they were not known. Shifting became akin to a death sentence, and for the first time in history, the moonlit skies were no longer full of dark, winged silhouettes.

Several dragon families from the capital had found the valley shortly after the fall of the royals. It was deep in the mountains, buried behind ragged peaks and impassable gorges. The families had travelled for weeks on end with no rest, little food, and nothing but fear driving them forward. The Black family, one of the most ancient lines of dragons, declared the valley safe for dragon-kind, having both a large lake and an abundance of wildlife and natural resources around for their survival.

Fifteen years – a mere breath in the life of a dragon – passed with no sign of humans. Aylmer Black, patriarch of the Black clan and former warrior to the Dragon King, travelled regularly over the years to seek out endangered dragon families. Once his sons were of age, they too joined the rescue parties’ efforts, returning every few months with more dishevelled, frightened dragons. Most were alone, had bore witness to their family’s murder, and were often too young to have shifted yet. It was a small blessing to those in the valley that dragons did not shift until they reached their thirteenth year; it kept the next generation hidden, although not by much. Most of them were too troubled to speak of what they’d seen, but Aylmer and the other warriors often brought with them reports of large hunting groups scouring the lands at night, seeking out dragons to slay. Their blood became a prized commodity, and the humans began widening their search more and more with every passing year.

“In the valley,” Aylmer had said to his children one day, “We are safe. They cannot find us here.”

He left shortly after for another mission, promising his mate and children he would return with more dragon-kind that needed a safe haven in a month or so. But when a month passed, then two, then three, and Aylmer had not returned, his sons took volunteers out into the world beyond the valley to seek him out. He was never found.

In the years since her father had vanished, Sorcha Black had stepped in to help her mother run the settlement. It had been no hardship to decide that Aylmer Black was to lead this community of saved dragons. He was the most senior king’s warrior among them, and had the lineage and temperament to lead well. With her mate gone, presumed dead, Lara Black had all but succumbed to the pain of losing her soulmate. The pain manifested itself in days of staring at nothing, refusing food or comfort, followed by weeks of sleeping as if she were already dead. She aged rapidly, her once fiery hair whitened in a matter of days, her once youthful face with sparkling yellow eyes became lined and weighted with loss. She couldn’t shift anymore. Without her mate alive and well, her dragon form could not be called forward, even to help her survive. Both souls within her lost their fight.

Sorcha had not been old enough to shift or begin her warrior training when the royals fell and the dragons fled, and so she had never been allowed to join the rescue parties. Even when she’d shifted successfully at thirteen – two years after arriving in the valley – her father insisted that she stay home until she was fully trained by him and her brothers. Her training was sporadic and only occurred when her father and brothers were home from their missions. But while they were absent, she would practice with other children of a similar age, fine tuning and honing her skill in the hopes she would be permitted to help rescue dragons when they next returned. It never happened, as when her father vanished, Sorcha had only been eighteen, and immediately had to step into her father’s shoes as interim leader of their settlement. Her brothers closed ranks, claiming if the humans were able to kill their father, she wouldn’t last so much as a day on a rescue mission.

“I’d argue you’ve all done a terrible job of training me if that’s true,” she’d sniped at them. The four of them had challenged her to a fight, and less than an hour later, they had their answer. Sorcha was not to leave the valley.

After two years of forcing her mother to keep living, dealing with the daily duties of managing their peaceful home, and training in her down time, Sorcha had the pleasure of seeing her mother recover somewhat. She would never be the same, but to have her up and about, speaking, making eye contact, it was more than Sorcha could ever wish for. It was a strong dragon that survived the loss of their mate, and Lara Black had proven herself one of the strongest. She improved daily, but a cloud followed her around wherever she went. She still couldn’t shift even now, eight years after her mate had vanished. Instead, she’d watch her children shift and barrel through the night sky with a sad smile and glassy eyes. She told Sorcha she could still feel her dragon soul, and so Sorcha had lived in hope that her mother would shift again in time. But with each year that passed that she didn’t, Sorcha became less hopeful.

Her brothers, Finn, Cal, Kai and Tristan, and the other warriors of the valley had decided a few years ago that they could risk no more rescue missions. The settlement was a thriving community by that point, with families growing and a perfect balance struck with nature; they had everything they needed without destroying the valley. With all the warriors now at home permanently, Finn, the eldest of the Black brothers had been voted as the next leader, leaving Sorcha with extra time on her hands to train, but no missions to train for. She was, once again, complaining to her twin brothers, Cal and Kai about her predicament as they walked to the shore of the lake one cloudless night.

“I just think it’s unfair,” she said as she kicked a rogue stone on the ground. “You all got to go out and help the dragons. I just wanted to help!”

“Well now you can help us by shutting up about it,” Cal said as he fiddled with the bow in his hands. On nights they shifted for training, one of them would shoot blunted arrows into the night while the others tried to evade them. Beside him, Kai laughed.

“That’s easy for you to say. You didn’t have your hopes built up and work harder than anyone just to have the opportunity taken away,” Sorcha replied as she untied her bright red hair from its leather tie. The ties always broke when she shifted anyway, and her mother was always scolding her for working her way through them faster than anyone.

“How old are you? You sound like a spoilt brat,” Kai chimed in. They reached the shore of the lake and took a seat on the large boulders near the water, where they all began dropping their bows and arrows, ready to shift.

“Yeah, you’d never believe you were twenty-six, Sorch. It’s not like we were out having fun. Those missions were hard, and we saw some seriously dark shit.”

“Please,” Sorcha said with a snort. Her brothers laughed at the sound. “I was there whenever you came home, I saw the smiles on your faces. You loved going out and saving people. That’s all I wanted, too. Am I not as good a warrior as all of you? Kai, who was it that put you on your arse just the other day?”

“All right, calm yourself, lets see if you can keep up with me tonight when it’s my turn to shoot,” Kai retorted.

“Enough children, lets shift and get on with it,” Cal demanded. He was the most serious of all her brothers, and Sorcha often found herself thinking he would make an excellent, if rather stern, leader. Finn was well suited to his role, managing to balance both social and practical skills, but he lacked the seriousness that was sometimes called for in leadership. At least, under his leadership, the valley had become a lighter place, with more laughter and less pain.

Cal was shooting first, and so Kai began stripping off his clothes, ready to shift. Sorcha made a disgusted noise in her throat and moved into the trees to shift in privacy. The bright moon overhead cast long shadows around the trees, the sounds of the lake water lapping gently on the stone shore and the occasional call of various night birds made her feel at home. In the darkness, dragons could truly be themselves, and Sorcha loved the muted blue tones and stillness of it. Her bare feet made no sound as she hopped from foot to foot, stripping off and folding her clothes neatly by the tangled roots of the tree behind her.

“Hurry up Sorch!” Kai’s voice called from the lake. She poked her head around the tree in time to watch him sprint towards the water before pushing off a large boulder and launching into the air. With an overwhelming rumbling noise, Kai’s dragon surged forward, taking over his being and causing his limbs to morph quickly into four scaled legs, his torso elongating into a large black body with a tail, and huge wings to sprout from his back. He dived right into the lake, disappearing under the water for a few seconds before resurfacing and flying straight up into the sky.

Sorcha had always envied how easily her brothers could shift, and had practiced until she passed out to be able to do the same. She smiled at the sight of Kai climbing higher into the sky, before she turned her focus inwards to her dragon form. Her yellow, reptilian eyes closed and she took a breath. Her wings began to push through the skin on her back, and she realised she wouldn’t have enough room in the trees to shift without damaging something. She turned and ran for the lake as Kai had done, and when she broke the tree line and had room, her dragon pushed forward more and she began sprinting on all four clawed legs, her wings growing and expanding, and her body forming to the comforting rumble of her dragon, and the cracking of bones and ripping of flesh.

Before she hit the water, Sorcha launched off her back legs into the air, twisting and diving around Kai’s dragon. Her dragon was black, just as her brothers’ were, but they all had unique markings; hers was red flashes through her leathery wings, Kai’s was a single white wing. It felt good to stretch her dragon’s limbs, and since they were not supposed to shift often in case any humans were nearby, she appreciated shifting all the more. Her mother argued that one day her love for her dragon form might very well get her killed, but Sorcha would rather die as herself than live a thousand years as anyone else.

A shout from far below drew her attention. Cal was standing on a boulder with his bow ready, quiver at his back, prepared to shoot. All she had to do was avoid his arrows, that were tipped with small pouches of red dye, which would enable them to know if one of them had been hit. Sorcha watched him draw an arrow, load it into the bow and pull back, aiming right for her. But before she could move out of the way, Kai barrelled into her from the side and they went tumbling towards the lake. Their multiple rows of jagged teeth snapped lightly at each other, their front legs clawed and pushed – not enough to injure, but enough to push the other away and gain the upper hand. Before they could both hit the water, Kai managed to disengage himself and shot upwards, leaving Sorcha to crash into the lake below. When she surfaced, Cal shot her with a paint arrow that hit her right between the eyes. Her sensitive nose could smell the strong scent of flowers that produced the red dye and she growled.

Those two are always working together, damn them.

And so it continued. Sorcha and Kai took an equal number of hits, and Cal soon grew bored of ‘playing human’ as they called it. Sorcha landed silently next to the trees and shifted back to take his place, and when Cal’s black dragon with a yellow starburst on his forehead took to the air, she began firing arrows as fast as she could. Even in her human form, she could smell that abhorrent flower stench from the mark on her forehead, but it wasn’t just that one – Cal had also hit her on the hind leg, the wing, and her stomach, much to her dismay. The stomach shot was one she wouldn’t live down for some time; that was a kill shot and they all knew it.

Kai shot next and didn’t even wait for Sorcha to strip and shift, never mind get into the air. As soon as he took up his bow, he fired an arrow at Sorcha’s back as she moved towards the trees to shift in privacy. In emergencies, or group situations, dragons were never shy about shifting, but when it was only family, she’d always felt a little odd about stripping in front of them. The arrow hit its mark, right between her shoulder blades and the paint pouch burst and bled through her light shirt and onto her skin. She threw a stone and several colourful words at a laughing Kai before shifting again. When she returned to the lake in her dragon form, she marched right up to Kai and roared loudly in his face. His only response was to lift an arrow from his quiver and jab it right between her nostrils, before bursting out laughing as she sneezed loudly.

Bastard.

She took to the air again, shaking her glossy black scales in an effort to shake off some of the dye. She and Cal tried their best to put the other one in the line of fire, but Kai was not the best shot among the Black family. He missed more than he hit, even with stationary targets. Sorcha was even more annoyed he’d shot her in the back because he usually managed to miss everything. Their father had always said that Kai was at his best in his dragon form, but was less dangerous than a baby when on two legs.

“Cal!” he called up into the night. “Get down here and shoot with me!”

Ah, she thought, so that was his plan. Reduce the number of targets and double the number of shooters in the hopes that she’d be scrubbing red dye off her skin for days after this.

Cal shot straight down into the deepest part of the lake. With the moon shining brightly down on the water, she could just about make out his silhouette as he swam towards the shore. He surfaced and quickly threw on his trousers before picking up his bow and quiver. Sorcha took off towards the trees, flying above them and ducking between the taller tops to avoid the arrows. They whooshed by her every now and then, but she knew neither of them could hit her as she wove between branches and leaves. Sorcha was naturally a smaller dragon, being smaller in human form than any of her brothers, and she was quicker as a result. With trees in the way, she was safer than she had been all night.

She ducked lower and turned back towards the lake, hoping to surprise them with a swooping attack that would knock them off their feet. She turned on her side as she flew between the narrower parts of the woods, before lifting herself over the treetops again to gauge how close she was to them. Immediately she did, an arrow flew right towards her and she dropped low again, narrowly missing the paint. She turned to fly alongside the lake, glancing to her right every few seconds to check where the water was as the trees passed her in a blur.

That was when the pain struck her.

In an instant, a sharp, searing pain burst through her left wing, causing her flight to stumble. She tried to right herself, but before she could, her left side collided with a large tree, and she tumbled towards the ground. She landed with a large thud and let out a growly sounding groan. When she looked at her left wing, a sharp, heavy arrow was embedded in the thin tissue.

What?!

In the distance, she could hear Cal and Kai calling for her, taunting her, but she didn’t dare make a single noise as a rustling ahead caught her attention. A low growl of warning formed in her throat, rumbling through her body and almost shaking the ground beneath her. The rustling continued until, through the shrubbery, a dark figure appeared. Her eyes focussed on a tall, broad man, dressed in dark leather clothing with a large hood covering his face. Her wings twitched with the desire to fly away, but the shooting pain in her left wing reminded her she wouldn’t get far.

The man continued to approach, arrow loaded and bow cocked, ready to deliver another blow.

A hunter.

How had a human made it this far into the mountains? The path to the settlement was well hidden, known only to those who lived there, and was not passable without the extra strength and fortitude dragons possessed. As far as she knew, there was no other way through the mountains. Her father and the other warriors had explored the valley and the surrounding mountains thoroughly as they’d built up the settlement. There was no way a human could make it this far.

It didn’t matter, he was here, he was human, and he had shot her. This was not the time for questions. She’d flown quite far from the lake, and it would take Cal and Kai a while to realise she wasn’t playing and hiding from them, but that she needed help. She was a trained dragon warrior though, and she didn’t need help fighting back against one measly human.

She stood, her wings folded back to protect them from further damage, although her left one sat at an awkward angle. She would have to shift if she wanted to get the arrow out for herself. If her wings disappeared, the arrow would fall right out, but she had no weapons or clothes on her.

He continued his approach. As he grew closer, her growl sounded again and she bared her many teeth to him. One bite would kill the hunter, but she knew better. They had to know if there were humans closing in on them. He would have to live long enough to give her that information. He halted his steps a good few feet from her and lowered his bow slightly.

“Shift,” he called out in a demanding, gravelly tone. Sorcha shivered at the sound, which she thought, in the right setting, would be comforting and warm. She hated that. And she would not shift for this human, no matter what. She was not defenceless in her human form, but she was better off as she was, even with an injured wing.

“I said shift!” he called again. His face was hidden by the large hood and the moonlight from behind him, casting him as a dangerous and threatening silhouette. She couldn’t shift right now, it would be tantamount to suicide. She took a step toward him, digging her claws into the soft earth and kicking it up. She was ready to fight for her life.

“You’re on our territory now, dragon. If you want to live, I suggest you do as I say.”

Their territory?! This is our valley!

“I don’t suppose you’re dumb enough to believe that if you do as I ask, I’ll let you walk away, are you?” the stranger said.

Sorcha shook her large, scaled head. The hunter sighed.

“Fine, if I pull that arrow out as a show of good faith, will talk to me? Person to person… or person to dragon-person, I suppose.”

He cannot be serious.

Sorcha couldn’t even begin to process what was happening. A human, here in the valley, but he wanted to talk, not to immediately kill her? This wasn’t right.

The hunter stepped forward again, lowering his bow further.

“I know appealing to your humanity is a waste of time, so I’d like to point out that you’re dead either way. If you shift or not, I can still kill you easily enough.”

Something inside Sorcha snapped – pure, unadulterated indignation. And before she knew what she was doing, her dragon form began morphing. Extremes of temper and emotion had been known to disrupt a shift before, and there was no stopping it. In seconds she was back in her human form, naked as the day she was born, and ducking behind a tree for cover. The arrow fell from her wing as it retracted and hit the soft forest floor.

“You have to be joking!” she cried as she took in her now human form. There was a pause which, to her, felt awkward, before a shuffling sound and his delayed response.

“You’re a woman?”

“Very observant,” she snapped. The silence that followed was definitely awkward. There was no denying that.

Suddenly, a heavy dark lump landed on the ground a couple of feet from her cover.

“Put that on, I won’t talk to you like this.”

Sorcha managed a couple of calming breaths and called her dragon forward enough to strengthen her eyesight. With her heightened sight, the dark bundle became clear to her – a cloak. The gesture would almost be sweet if it wasn’t for the absolute arrogance and rudeness of the person giving it. She scoffed audibly but reached out a foot to grab the material with her toes. In the darkness, a soft laugh sounded and she had to stop herself gasping at the pleasant sound.

“You asked me if I was dumb, and I said no. So what makes you think I’ll just step out where you can shoot me again? Maybe I should ask you if you’re dumb,” she said as she wrapped the cloak around herself and secured it tightly.

“Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine?” the low voice replied. He must be close, Sorcha realised, and the thought both warmed and cooled her blood in her veins.

“Why would you want to talk to me?” she eventually asked after some deliberation.

“I don’t, really. You’ve been nothing but rude so far.”

“You shot me!” she cried as she stepped out to face him. He was leaning casually back against the tree she’d hidden behind. His face was now uncovered, since she was wearing his cloak, and now the moonlight illuminated it from the side, she could get a proper look at her attacker.

He emanated darkness. Dark hair, dark skin, dark clothing, but one eye was a bright, sparkling green. Under the silvery light, it almost looked yellow. The other was completely white, and the skin around it was interrupted with a harshly textured burn scar. It ran from his hairline right down the left side of his face and neck, onto his chest, which was partially visible under the open top few buttons of his black shirt.

Their eyes met for the first time and Sorcha felt a jolt hit her spine. It paralysed her, staring at the hunter who in turn, stared back with mouth slightly parted and eyes wide. Neither breathed nor blinked for the longest time.

Shit.

“I—” he started. His eyes never left hers, and she watched him closely as his face showed every single emotion as he tried to figure out what was happening.

Sorcha had heard a lot about mate bonds over the years, and had witnessed first-hand how beautiful they could be. A mate bond was the strongest pull to another being one could ever feel. It drew dragons in and made it hard to breathe, hard to think of anything except the desire to be close to the other person. But it wasn’t all consuming as humans had always believed. You could walk away, she recalled as she thought about everything she knew about it. It was the hardest thing a dragon might ever do, besides losing a mate, but it was possible. A mate bond didn’t automatically mean you were stuck with that person, it just gave the bonded pair a push towards a strong relationship. Her parents were a fine example – they had the happiest, most secure relationship she thought she’d ever seen. But the pain her mother endured upon her father’s disappearance was palpable; she would never want to have to suffer through that herself. Her and her brothers all agreed – finding your mate was a waste of time and would only lead to pain.

It seemed the hunter made a decision, as he raised his bow again and aimed right at Sorcha’s chest. The arrow shook slightly, either with rage or unsureness, she couldn’t tell. But it wouldn’t matter if it hit her at this angle and range. She’d be dead either way.

“No,” he barked. “Stop that! Stop it right now or I’ll kill you.”

“My mate is so charming, what a lucky girl I am,” she drawled.

The arrow shook more aggressively in his bow and Sorcha decided it must be rage causing it. He was not happy about this turn of events. She took a step towards him, raising her shoulders in a slight shrug.

“I have no control over it,” she explained firmly. “This isn’t my doing.”

“Stay where you are,” the hunter growled. To anyone else, it maybe would’ve been intimidating, but to a dragon it sounded pathetic. She laughed and took another step forward. His face briefly changed from anger to delighted surprise at the sound of her laughter and that spine-tingling feeling was back again.

Damn him.

“Damn you,” he mirrored her thoughts so perfectly she laughed again. This time the sound distracted the hunter so much that he loosened his grip on the bow and the arrow he’d clearly forgotten about flew towards Sorcha. It scraped by her arm, leaving a wide, bleeding wound that she clutched at instinctively.

“Would you stop shooting me?!” she shouted as she lunged at him. She took him by surprise, calling her dragon forward enough to shift her uninjured arm into a huge, clawed paw. It slammed him back into the trunk behind him. Her claws dug lightly into the flesh of his neck and he stopped breathing, as if worried it would cause his skin to tear.

“You can’t kill your own mate, dragon,” he growled.

Sorcha let loose a cold laugh. “It doesn’t work like that. I can and most definitely will kill anyone who shoots me… Twice!”

She watched the realisation dawn on his face. If she could harm him, then…

In a flash his leg came up and barrelled into her stomach. Hard. The force sent her flying and her back hit the ground, knocking the air from her lungs. She scooted backwards as he stalked towards her.

“Listen to me, dragon,” he began as he pulled an arrow from his dropped quiver. “I do not have time for this. I don’t want this, tell me how to get rid of it and I’ll let you walk away.”

Sorcha was scrambling for an answer other than the truth – that mate bonds could not be broken, merely ignored – when the tiniest sound of a twig snapping somewhere in the trees caught her attention. She tried to keep her face neutral, staring up at the stranger with cold eyes. He continued towards her, arrow brandished and ready to run it right through her, when a flash of black and white side tackled him.

Kai.

END