Page 82 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
Yanking my brain away from its thoughts, I focused on what I was seeing. It most definitely was not land. The dark line on the horizon was long gone.
“Captain!” I called. “Mr. Rikell.”
Looking over my shoulder, I waved at the wheel to get his attention. The man was apparently hard of hearing because he didn’t respond until I moved almost directly in front of him.
“Yes?” he asked. “What do you want?”
Caught off guard by his brusqueness, I stammered over my response.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, not feeling any guilt over my tone. “But the people where that’s coming from might not be.”
I pointed to the line of black smoke drifting across the horizon.
The captain didn’t follow my gaze. He was staring straight ahead still.
“Smoke means fire,” I said. “Fire on a ship in the middle of nowhere is abadthing, Captain. Shouldn’t we go check it out and make sure everyone is okay?”
“No.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are you serious? People could be hurt or dead, and you want to just ignore it? For what? Your precious trading route? You’ll just let them die for no reason?”
The captain’s jaw muscles tightened. But still no response or change of direction.
“Fine,” I said, striding up to the wheel. “If you won’t take us there, then I will. At least one of us isn’t a coward.”
Thatworked. I’d employed the word carefully, hoping that Rikell, like most dragons I’d met, would not take well to being challenged on their courage by a human—and a humanwoman, at that.
Sexist jerks.
“I am not lacking in courage,” he snarled back.
“It sure looks like it from here. You’re too afraid to go help someone else out because you might run a little late.”
“You know little,” he said with a sneer.
“I know what I see, and what I see is amanrunning away,” I shot back.
There was only so much a dragon as proud as Rikell could take.
“You want to go see what’s going on?” he growled ominously.
I hesitated at the hidden meaning in his words. But I couldn’t just let someone possibly die. Not if I could save them.
“Yes,” I said sharply. “I do. Someone might need our help. Who knows where the closest ship might be.”
“Very well,” the captain said. “You have said we must go check it out. So, we shall.”
He hauled on the wheel, turning the ship sharply. I grabbed onto the nearest railing, holding on as we followed the smoky trail toward its source.
“But I make no promises as to any consequences that may befall us from doing this.”
“Consequences? What the hell would happen to us just for helping out some people?”
In response, the captain lifted his chin toward the front of his ship.
I followed his gaze.
