Fire Proof

Chapter Twenty-One

"Who are you?" Jupiter asks Aislee, looking up from the forest ground as we walk, his hand still tightly gripping mine.

Our sister looks back from her pace in front of us and stops, turning around and crouching down to his eye level. "I'm Aislee, your sister."

His eyes stretch open. "Ry, you told me about her!"

I smile, "yes I did. She helped get you and I to safety in the attack that brought us to the woods."

"I remember the story now." He nods and we start walking again. Aislee falls in pace next to me.

"Does he know Latin?"

I nod, "that's the main way we communicated all these years. I wanted him to know it in case we ever got the okay to come back. And then as the years went on I lost my way home." I sigh and a flash of the last couple months fly through my mind. "Since coming to the Pack, we haven't used it nearly as much."

She growls lowly, "you mean because you got so comfortable to Wolves!"

"Hey!" Jupiter pipes up, "wolves aren't bad! They saved us!"

Aislee rolls her eyes. "Jupiter listen, maybe you had a good experience with a couple of wolves, but know that most will not be your friend. And most dragons do not get along with the wolves."

Jupiter side glances at me and I shake my head softly, telling him not to listen to everything she says. Thankfully, Aislee doesn't notice.

"He's shifted right?" I nod and she grins at me. "Let's fly, it will be much faster."

Aislee shifts first, and then I push Jupiter to change forms before finally following after them. We soar above the trees, as the Pack is no longer in sight, it's safe to fly in the open.

Dipping in and out with the wind, we mostly glide our way across the midnight sky, a couple hundred feet above the ground. Hours go by of endless forest zipping by below us, and several times an image of Bryce will appear in my head, making me lose balance and nearly my wing's grip on the air. I need to forget. I need things to be normal, the way they should've been if I never left; if we'd never met.

But he's my mate. I remind myself. I can't just forget that can I? The simple answer is no. It might take me months to get over him, but in the dragon world, we don't have soulmates. It's a battle between the males to win the females, as it often is for animals in the wild. So why did I end up with Bryce? Why did I get a mate but no one else does where I come from?

That's why I have to convince myself that leaving was for the better. I'm going home, where things will be normal, at least the normal that I grew up with and not the normal he grew up with.

Suddenly our date comes back to my head. And the kiss he gave me before sending me inside. I couldn't leave all that behind could I? I mean that had to mean something! What if I'm making a huge mistake?

I dip in time with my heart, nearly spinning out of control and smacking my muzzle on the topmost tree branch of a tall oak. Snorting, I flap my scaly wings and catch up with my siblings; neither of them seem to notice my fall.

The sun is well above the horizon by the time I see the cave mouths dotted in the mountain. Kenna soars towards it at first sight, and I suddenly forget all my doubts as I see home waiting for me. Aislee's dragon snorts with glee and pushes faster to catch up with me. Jupiter follows closely, although I bet he doesn't recognize it at all. His dragon might though.

Aislee leads us down to the base of the mountain. On either side of the main entrance stands a Darkness Dragon. Their shiny black scales light up almost violet in the sunrise lighting. Both spring to their feet immediately when they smell me and I don't blame them, I bet I smell like wolf. They look ready to attack until they see Aislee arrive beside me. Instantly they lower their heads and I tilt my own, but in confusion. Did Aislee have some sort of status here now?

They let us pass, and with Aislee in the lead we pad into the looming darkness of the tunnel. When the mouth and the guards are out of sight, we shift. Jupiter collapses to the stone ground the second he's in human form.

"Jupiter!" I shriek, crouching down beside him. "Are you okay? What's happening?"

"One thing I wish I could do, is give myself energy." He whispers just before his eyes close and he goes limp in front of me.

"It was a long flight for the little guy," Aislee says as I scoop him up. I cradle him in my arms as we walk down the tunnel lit by a Fire's flame torches.

"Are our quarters still here?"

Aislee nods, turning down a path I don't remember being here. After a short time, the path leads to stairs carved out in the stone, climbing up.

"Is this new?"

"Yes, after the attack we had to change most of the design of the Caves. Some of it is simply gone forever."

I brush my shoulder against the stone wall as we walk. It feels familiar, but very foreign as well. I find myself already missing the wooden, painted walls of Jasmin's house.

By the time Aislee stops at a closed door, my feet are aching, and so is my back. I'm exhausted from the night we had and my heart misses what had become home. I thought I'd be so relieved to be back in the Caves but part of me just wants to go back to the Pack.

When Aislee opens the door, I know immediately that something is off. Walking inside, I know what it is. "This isn't our room."

I turn to ask where I am, but Aislee has already closed the door and is nowhere to be seen. I stare at the door completely dumbfounded. Something strange is going on, and I don't like it one bit.