Page 36 of Upon Buried Embers (Upon Buried Embers #1)

Elf

Drogonah growls, propelling us higher into the sky. I fall back onto Rohan from the force, and he bands an arm around my waist to hold me steady.

“Look for it, Drogonah, quickly.”

A roar comes, and this time, others answer. I look around the sky but see no other dragons.

I hold onto the saddle for dear life, trying not to look down too much as nausea rises.

“Hold on,” is the only warning I get before I’m screaming. Drogonah has tucked his wings in, close to his body and then we’re diving, headfirst.

The ground is coming closer and closer, and I scream again, my hands scrambling for purchase as Rohan lets go of me and the reins. Drogonah’s wings snap out and we land on the ground.

I fall forward from the harsh impact, the front of the saddle hitting my stomach. Rohan leaps off of Drogonah with an axe, rolling to a stand as he lands.

Where did he even get an axe from?

I try to catch my breath as a roar comes from ahead, and my eyes snap to the sound. Drogonah restlessly shuffles on his feet.

A blue dragon is up ahead, growling and snarling, teeth bared as it crashes into tree after tree, looking unstable on its legs.

What’s wrong with it?

It’s a little taller than Escor, and nowhere near the size of Drogonah, but when it opens its mouth and fire bursts from it, its size doesn’t matter. It can still burn everything in its wake.

“Oh Gods,” I gasp, looking at the now burning tree.

He’s not far away from camp at all.

Drogonah takes a step forward, and to my horror, Rohan approaches the dragon, axe in one hand while his other is held out to the dragon that’s still roaring, but there’s something else wrong with it.

I rub at my chest.

The dragon roars again, his throat glowing that orange-red and I scramble up from my seat, bracing myself as I look at the drop to the ground.

I don’t think Drogonah will help me down.

Deciding it will have to do, I grab the edge of the saddle with one hand, and slide down Drogonah’s scales, feet first, wanting to get as close to the ground as possible.

To my surprise, Drogonah moves his wing in front of me, and hesitantly, I grab onto the spiked tip with my free hand, and then the other so I’m dangling in the air.

He drops his wing, none too gently, but I land on the ground all the same, stumbling before righting myself.

I can’t believe I just did that.

“No, you will not hurt my people,” Rohan shouts at the dragon, twirling the axe in his hand by the handle. “Calm down .”

His tone is full of command and authority, and I would cripple under the weight of it, but this dragon seems lost to it.

He releases another stream of fire and I stumble back in shock as it aims directly at Rohan.

Oh no.

Rohan rolls away quickly, and the dragon moves with him, leaving the ground scorched in its wake as Rohan tries to get closer to him.

“Help him, Drogonah.” I say, panic in my throat, looking at him as his head lowers, gums peeling back.

I step aside, making room as Drogonah moves forward, a growl ripping from his throat. The blue dragon stops his fire and snaps his head to him.

That’s the moment Rohan needed apparently, because in a show of speed and strength, he runs up to the side of the dragon, grabs a hold of a spike with one hand and hauls himself up onto him.

I stare in disbelief as Rohan straddles the base of his neck and the dragon goes wild . It bucks and twists its body, head snapping back in an attempt to remove Rohan, but he never gets him.

“Calm down!” Rohan shouts again, and the dragon rears its head back, breathing fire into the sky erratically. Rohan fumbles on his back, and I look more closely to see what he’s doing. That’s when I realize there’s some sort of net around the dragon.

That’s why he’s behaving so erratically.

Rohan keeps trying to free it, the blue dragon acts crazier, bashing into trees, spewing fire here and there.

It won’t stop.

“Drogonah,” I whisper, not knowing what to do. Can’t he do the claw on the neck thing like he did to Escor to keep him still while Rohan removes the net?

I take a step closer to them unconsciously, and a wave of pain hits me. I almost teeter to the side because of the force of it.

It… hurts.

Confused but compelled, I move forward, Drogonah’s growl rumbling as I catch sight of the blue dragon’s tail. It swishes back and forth, knocking into the trees at its back.

Blood flows on the ground, and I realize with horror that the net attached has hooks that have penetrated in between the scales. It must be causing so much pain.

Breath catching, I run forward, Drogonah’s head whipping to me and taking a step closer as he growls like he’s telling me to stop, but I don’t.

Rohan slips a little, his head smashing against the dragon’s scales, and when I see the blood coming from his temple, my concern for him overrides my fear.

“Stop!” I say as I get close enough to the dragon, my hands held out. I sense Drogonah at my back, his shadow enveloping me.

“Elf, get away from him, now!”

“Shh, it’s alright,” I tell the dragon as its head whips to me, then Drogonah. “It’s okay.”

The dragon thrashes more, snarling, and a wave of pain hits me again. My hands go to my chest, breathing through it.

“We can help you,” I choke out, my breath catching as that pain turns to a sharp stab. “We can get the net off of you, you just need to keep still.”

The dragon halts for a moment, its eyes on me.

“Drogonah, get her out of here!” Rohan sounds furious, but there’s almost…panic in his tone.

“Please,” I plead with the dragon as he blinks his eyes at me. “We can get it off, it won’t hurt anymore.”

He looks at me and then Drogonah at my back, releasing smoke from his nose.

“Drogonah, what the fuck?! Get her away from him!”

But he doesn’t move.

The blue dragon growls low, Drogonah answers, and I realize they’re talking.

Rohan sits up, and the blue dragon jolts, his pupils widening, body tensing.

“Rohan…”

“Elf, I will—”

“You need to get off of him, you’re hurting him.”

“What?!”

“You’re hurting him.”

“I’m not—” the blue dragon roars again, but this one has a whine in it.

Rohan pauses, then slowly, he drops down off the dragon, mindful of the net, and makes his way to me. When he reaches me, anger spreading over his face, he hauls me behind him and points the axe at the dragon.

“Enough.”

“Rohan,” I dare to place my hand on his back. There are scratches I assume were caused by the dragon’s scales, and he tenses, but I think it’s from my touch and not the wounds. “He’s hurting, the net has hooks in it. I think when you climbed on him it dug it in further.”

Rohan grunts, but he looks the dragon over.

“You put yourself in danger,” he grits out.

“And so did you.”

“I’ve been around dragons all my life, I can look after myself.”

“But someone should look after you. I… I can help look after you.”

“Do not say things like that to me, Elf,” he rumbles, chest heaving.

I move to his side and his hand snaps out. “We can help him.”

“He’s dangerous, you need to go back, you could get hurt.”

“I won’t.”

He stares at me and I stare back, showing him I’m serious for the very first time since we met.

“Now is the time to use that fire of yours?” He mumbles, and I frown in confusion. He releases my arm slowly, eyeing the blue dragon who has stilled, and then Drogonah, until eventually his eyes come back to me.

“He hurts you, I won’t hesitate. Do you understand?” I nod, swallowing. He turns to the blue dragon, and in his most dominant voice, he tells it. “Stay. Still.”

The dragon shudders a little, but he stays very still.

Voices sound behind us, people from the camp coming to help. Rohan tells them to stay back, but my eyes are on the blue dragon, that pain radiating through me.

“It’s okay.” I reach out a hand like Rohan does to Drogonah.

“Elf,” Rohan warns, “Drogonah will have to hurt him if you don’t stop.” So that’s why Drogonah hasn’t intervened yet.

I ignore Rohan, accepting whatever punishment he has for me for doing so.

“I’ll help you get better, I promise.” The dragon blinks slowly, his lighter blue eyes roaming over me.

He pauses for a moment, but then he leans forward and ever so slowly, his snout touches my palm.

I release a shuddering breath.

“I’m here now,” I soothe while rubbing circles on his snout, and the dragon’s eyes flutter, another low whine coming from him.

I swallow roughly at its pain and then I make my way to the net wrapped around its wing.

Anger courses through me when I spot the hooks, and the trickles of blood leaking from their entry.

I’m not tall enough, and not really strong enough to remove them.

“Rohan, can you come here… please?” He’s there in an instant, his eyes on the dragon as I put a palm against the warm, blue scales. “Can you remove the hooks first, then we can untangle his wing?”

Rohan grunts, and I see the anger in his eyes as he looks at the net and the wounds. Rohan grabs hold of the first hook, and I soothe the dragon as he pulls it out with a sickening squelch. The dragon flinches, but otherwise stays still for him.

Rohan removes the hooks one at a time while I talk and hum to the dragon, who is now purring occasionally.

It takes time to get all of them, even some on the other side of his spine, but eventually, all the hooks are out.

“Let’s get the net off his wing now,” Rohan says, “be careful of the webbing in between, it’s easily torn with hooks this sharp.”

I nod, and begin at the bottom, collecting the net in my hands, gently easing it back as far as I can with my height. One of the hooks slips, and I grab it before it can hurt the dragon, hissing when it cuts my palm.

Ignoring it, I wait for Rohan to meet me in the middle as he gently drags the net down, taking what I’ve collected from me and then with one last heave, the net flies off the dragon’s wing.

We step back and the dragon instantly stretches its wing up high, releasing a sigh of relief.

I smile, feeling the trickle of my blood running down my hand, but it was worth it.

“Good job, Little Whisperer,” Rohan rumbles, coming to stand next to me.

“Will he be okay?” I ask as the dragon turns and begins to lick at his wing.

Rohan nods. “He will.”

That’s a relief.

“What happened?” Rohan demands, grabbing my hand and I whimper as he grazes the wound.

His body tenses, and he instantly moves his hand to my wrist, inspecting the cut.

“I got caught with one of the hooks is all.”

Rohan frowns down at it, then rips some of my tunic and wraps it around my palm carefully, then he holds my palm to his mouth blowing on it gently before he lets go.

“Thank you.”

No one has ever cared for me like that.

“We’ll see the healer, come.”

“It’s a scratch.”

“Healer,” he grits out between clenched teeth, and I nod.

“What about the blue dragon?”

“Drogonah will let him know he can stay as long as he doesn’t hurt my people.” Sure enough, Rohan rubs Drogonah’s side as he passes the dragon, and I watch as the younger blue one lifts his head, staring at Drogonah as they make rumbles and growls, chuffing and other noises to each other.

“Are you okay, Dragonbond?” Darcia comes rushing forward, frowning at his bare chest full of scratches.

I look away, only to find the clan staring at me.

I look down at the ground.

“Yes,” Rohan replies, brushing past her.

Darcia’s face falls when he doesn’t give her more, then she sneers at me before Rhett walks over to her.

“Grab the net, and tell the others we will have a meeting tonight,” Rohan instructs Kaldar when he appears next to him, but I also feel his eyes on me.

“Who would try to capture a wildling?”

“I don’t think it was one.” Rohan says, and the temperature suddenly drops cooler than the winter wind.

“Rohan, what are you saying?” Kaldar frowns.

“I think the dragon came from The Glade.”