Page 36 of Catastrophe

Dralie felt smug as he sat back and admired his work. Baelen and Savida tried to move around the image to get a better look, their feet kicking up sand. Dralie didn’t appreciate them getting closer to his masterpiece and growled at them. “They are going to ruin it.”

“All right, Toothless. Calm down,” I replied with an imaginary eye roll.

“I have teeth. Can you not tell from in there?” He sounded genuinely curious, and I had to stop myself from laughing at him. My references were lost on him.

“What is it?” Savida whispered to Baelen as though we wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“I think it’s an animal. See the tail? Ah, and those must be ears and eyes. A cat? Clawdia?” Baelen looked up at us. “You want to know about Clawdia? She’s coping. Your bond broke, but you’re both alive and well, so it can’t be beyond repair. As soon as you are back together, we can work on fixing it.”

The relief I felt at knowing she was alive could have knocked me over if I were human. Thankfully, I was a dragon, and nothing short of a tank was knocking us over right now. The power nap seemed to have done us the world of good.

“Ask him about Zaide? Just write this letter,” I told him and tried to picture it so he could see.

Baelen thankfully understood exactly what we were asking and again told us, “Zaide is captured. We are going to get him back.”

As we suspected. I hated the thought of him locked up again. I knew how bad it was when the witches had us, but I’d been there to offer a bit of distraction. I didn’t want to think about him being there alone, and I’m sure that’s how Clawdia and Baelen felt too.

Fuck, we need to get him back ASAP.

“Are you going to turn back, or are we to guess at your diagrams all night?” Baelen raised his eyebrow, but Dralie wasn’t intimidated.

“How do I communicate no?” Dralie asked.

I had to laugh. It was so surreal. “Shake your head.”

Dralie shook his head, which felt weird for both of us, like our neck shouldn’t move like that, but Baelen got the message and sighed dramatically.

“Why not? You don’t feel safe?” he asked.

Dralie scoffed. “Drakorians are never afraid.”

Baelen’s lip twitched at whatever expression our dragon features were displaying.

“I think he’s just trying to rile us up so we shift.”

“I dislike his manipulative tactics.”

“You do not know how?” Baelen asked, interrupting our internal conversation, and Dralie shook our head once more. “I can try to talk to you through meditation, but you’ve done this enough now to know how it works, I’m sure. You had to do something similar to bond Clawdia as your familiar. And you’ve been practicing your magic, which I’m told is about using your mind’s eye and visualizing too. Even Clawdia only needed to do it once, and now she can change at will.”

“I know what you’re trying to do, you fucker, but I’m not falling for it.”

“I thought you wanted to be human again. Why has that made you so cross?” Dralie asked.

“He’s trying to make us prove we are just as quick as Clawdia at figuring out how to shift forms, and I don’t like being manipulated into doing anything.”

“Nothing is happening. Do you think he is trying? Is he trapped?” Savida asked in that same shouted whisper, which made me want to push him over. “Don’t worry, Charlie. If you can’t do it, we will figure out another way to get you back to normal.”

“He is also being manipulative?”

“No. He’s being genuine, and that’s worse. Just ignore him.”

Dralie turned around again, his back to them, but Savida just continued asking, “Do you think it’s truly Charlie? I don’t imagine Charlie would enjoy being a dragon. He can’t reply with sarcastic responses. That would bother him. But this dragon doesn’t seem to be struggling.”

“Dralie, do this.” I held an image in my mind for him to grab on to and enjoyed Savida’s shock and Baelen’s amusement as a dragon held up a … Finger? A claw? I really need to work on my dragon anatomy. Dralie held up the middle one at them.

“That seems to be Charlie.” Baelen smirked. “Perhaps we should leave you to turn in peace. I’d understand if you don’t want us to see you naked.”

“What the fuck? Did you fucking hear him, Dralie? Like I’ve got anything to be fucking ashamed of. I’m going to tell Clawdia you’re not invited to the group parties!” I shouted to Baelen’s back as he walked with Savida back into the woods, where a glowing light flickered in the distance and smoke rose in small curls in the tree line.

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