Page 47 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

Then I follow him down the tunnel to where the others wait in the cave with lots of tunnels. Sturrm holds up the map, using the other glow stone to light it.

Bella’s head swivels back and forth between it and the various tunnel openings until finally she points at one on the left. “That one.”

“You’re certain you read the map correctly?” Sturrm growls.

“I am.” She sounds affronted. “Dragons study from a young age, and maps are one of the first things taught.”

He grunts. “I will go first, then Selena, then Dash, with Bellavesaria bringing up the rear.”

“Will you two be okay without a glow stone?” I ask.

“Iwill be,” Bella says. “Dragons are superior beings, and that includes our eyesight.”

Dash snorts. “I’ll be fine.”

“I still don’t see how you’re going to fit,” Sturrm eyes the unicorn skeptically. “You barely made it through that first tunnel, and that’s probably the largest one we’ll pass through today.”

“As to that…” Magic shimmers in the air, breaking Dash into wavery lines like looking at him through the heat haze coming off Florida blacktop. When it clears, a black pony stands in his place, shorter than me, but with stocky legs and a barrel chest. He still has Dash’s golden eyes and whorled horn.

Sturrm grunts his surprised grunt.

“I thought you said animal fae can’t shift now that all the doors of Faerie are closed,” I say.

He scowls. “They aren’t supposed to.”

“Dragons don’t have the ability,” Bella says, sounding personally affronted that Dash can do something she can’t.

“It’s true we can’t shift into our bipedal elven form,” Dash says. “But pooka are special. We’ve always had lots of forms instead of only two or three. When the doors of Faerie are open, we can shift into anything we want. Even with the way things are now in Faerie, we can access this, the oldest pooka form.”

“Why didn’t dragons know this?” Bella’s wings rustle on her back. “Dragons knoweverything.”

“Clearly not.” Dash laughs, his amused whinny the same.

“You look strong,” Sturrm says. “Will you carry the packs so that I can fight, if need be?”

“If I have to,” the unicorn teases.

Sturrm lifts the saddle onto Dash’s back, and his large green hands stroke over the leather. With a tingle of magic, the cinch belt shortens, adjusting to Dash’s new size. Instead of hanging the packs on the sides, Sturrm uses more of his magic to create new fastenings and straps them to the top of Dash’s back, laying everything as flat as possible.

Soon the only thing left is the guitar. Sturrm starts to sling it onto his back, but I say, “I’ll carry it.” When he glances my way, I add, “You might need to fight, and it doesn’t weigh much. I can carry it.”

“Thank you.” He hands over the case like it’s his baby, and I suppose in many ways it is.

A sprout of warmth and hope blooms in my chest that he trusts me with his prized possession. I take it carefully, shoving one arm and my head through the strap and making sure it lies flat against my back.

“Let’s go!” Excitement skitters through me. Who knows what we’ll find? More magical moss caverns? Lost cities?

But as Sturrm’s wide shoulders enter the tunnel ahead of me, I know what I most wish for.

I want Sturrm to find his way to me, to the possibility of us.

It’s a lot less exciting than I hoped at first. I wanted all of us to talk, but Sturrm quickly put a stop to that. “Sounds echo and carry in these tunnels. We don’t know who else is down here.” He even went so far as to make little leather booties for Dash’s hooves to keep them from clattering against the stone.

We walk on and on, most of the time spent in tunnels instead of caverns. I’m glad to be the smallest.

Sturrm has to turn and sidle through the narrow places sideways, making me glad I have the guitar, because he’d have to move it around constantly to keep it from hitting the walls.

Bella’s the widest of us, but she’s also able to bend and twist her spine with a reptilian sinuousness none of the rest of us can match. Even so, her sides scrape the narrowest passages, and I make us stop for a moment so I canheal her.

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