15

I woke up and the sun was already up. I was laying on a bed of hay that had a few furs overtop it so it would be soft. I also had a silk blanket over me. There was a small tent over me and I could hear horses outside. I moved the blanket I noticed the pain in my arm was back but my army had been wrapped. My dress was torn at the top, which a big slit through the front of my skirt and was ripped in multiple spots at the ends and most of my dress was red now from blood.

I threw the silk blanket around me so I could walk outside without showing my boobs and so it would be able to hid my dress. Outside was two shining white horses, neither of them were tied up and the one came over and nudged me. It was the horse I had been riding and taking care of the last few days, since Liz had been over. I pet her soft fur. I saw Corey making a hut. He was almost finished, but I had no clue where we were. We right next to a big body of water and there was a opening which is where he had built the hut but it was at the edge of a forest. That's when I noticed other animals farther at the edge. They were bisons. They were so much bigger than anything I had ever seen my tribe bring home. They had longer horns too. Corey must of noticed I was outside and looking at them.

"They are Gaur. They are a type of Cattle that people from the old world in certain countries bred and owned for food."

"Oh, I've never seen one before."

"You wouldn't they normally stay closer to the water and to areas that don't get as cold during the fall."

"Where are we?" I realized if I hadn't seen them before that we probably were far away from where the breeding grounds are and were the other tribes are.

"This is a way the herd that we normally follow goes. It's far enough away that you will be safe and we can go back when we know for sure. Liz and Sam know where we are and will make sure that anyone who's looking doesn't go this way."

"Why wouldn't I be safe?"

"Last night, when you wondered off."

"Oh.."

I didn't really remember what happened but I saw some blurry parts.

"I found you with a bunch of men on the ground and you bleeding and another guy was there. He said he found you and they were trying to rape you but he didn't know how far they had actually gotten. He also said I need to protect you and keep you away from you human tribe because they would stone you to death if you had gotten pregnant. Then he turned into a dragon and flew away. I didn't even know dragons could take human forms."

A dragon, no dragon would of protected me u less they knew me which means uncle might still be alive. My family might still be alive and they might of been following and watching from the sky. That might of been the best way they could to keep me safe.

"What did he look like?"

"What do you mean?"

"Corey, you have to remember what the man looked like."

"I don't know he was tall, he had dark hair. He was probably about 6 or 7 years older than us."

Ian, who he was tall and had dark hair and was 6 years older than us. I know Corey saw my expressions change, because it meant that he didn't really die. He found a way to slow his pulse enough to live but appear dead making it so he could spend more energy on healing.

"Wait, why?" Corey looked confused.

"I have to go."

My wings started to split out of my back, transforming was painful since I hadn't in so long and I wouldn't be able to change into a dragon very quickly. Meaning if Corey really wanted to kill me and be a dragon hunter as they had claimed he could try and be. I let out a scream, because of the pain.

A dragon hovered over the area and a voice said "stop!"

He turned back to human form and was back at my side.

"Megan, stop being stupid. Your a hybrid and your already hurt you can't transform. You know you haven't in years and you've spent more time in a human form than dragon you body doesn't even remember your other form or what it feels like anymore. If you want to transform now is not the time or place, plus there's a dragon hunter right there next to you what happens if he decided now is the time to kill you and he could claim you were pregnant. It would make him a hero to the humans."

I stopped my transformation and reverted back to my normal human body. I hugged Ian. I didn't say anything just hugged him. Corey walked over to us.

"Megs are you ok? I need to check on you arm you night of hurt it further. If it isn't treated and it doesn't heal properly than you will always have issues."

He didn't care about me being able to turn into a dragon or that there was a dragon in front of us who looked similar to me.

"Your boyfriend here is right. You need to listen to him. I also need to go, if other dragons smell me here they will come looking for a fight. I won't endanger you. Mom and uncle died to ensure you would be able to be safe and I won't let all of that be for nothing. The life you created for yourself you need to be able to live. When the time is right I can come back but until then I need you to stay safe and heal."

With that Ian left. I watched him fly away and I could see rain clouds in the sky. He had lived all these years probably by himself looking after me instead of living his life and finding a new clan. Now he was worried about me being pregnant but I couldn't even remember all of that night and the small things I did were all fuzzy, no strong details.

Corey helped me up and took me into the hut. He went grabbed the blankets and furs from the other tent and he also got some of the hay and brought it to the hut.

"I need to build another shelter for the horses before the rain starts otherwise they will be wet and cold and they might get sick."

"I can do it if you want."

Corey smiled and laughed at me, which made it so I wanted to prove him wrong. I got up and knelt down next to the hut. I put my fingertips on the ground and focused.

With that the trees began to move and roots started coming out of the ground and they formed a structure. It had four walls and too opening and a ruff just like at his village except this was small than that.

I looked back at Corey was face looked confused. He looked down at me.

"You shouldn't use magic it pulls from your life force. It could kill you."

"No, it does for all of you but I can pull from other energy around us. I was pulling from the waters and plants energy to do it. It makes it so it doesn't have any effects on me. My uncle and mother taught me how when I was little, that way I would always be able to protect myself and I can still use some magic because I would sneak out and practice. I just can't transform anymore and I can only do so much magic before I feel tired."

"How, anytime we use our abilities we get tired and it's always caused others in our tribe to die when they do it."

"I really don't know but it took a lot of practice, I needed to be able to feel all the different energies around me and be able differentiate all them to their own individual sources. Then I learned how to focus on one or two of them and pull from it. They taught me this from a young age though. I was able to do it before I was able to walk. I was told if I didn't when I was young that it would be more difficult when I became older and for some they wouldn't ever be able to achieve it."

"Why would some be able to but others not."

"The more dragon you have in you, the more power you have and the more in-tacked you are with nature and the energies around us. Almost everyone in your tribe is a hybrid but the amount of dragon they have is all different you could have as much as 65% dragon to as low as 1% and still be a hybrid and have some concept of being able to use magic, but concept and abilities aren't the same. I'm a high percentage since my mom was a pure dragon but I have no clue what my father was, I just know I'm still more than 50% dragons since I am capable of transforming into one."

"You know a lot for being around humans your entire life, but it's obvious it has worn down your senses so your sense of smell isn't as strong anymore or you would be able to tell more things apart and you would know the rain was coming before it was here." Corey said as he smiled at me. He was right some of my senses has become weak such as my sight and smell, I could see in the dark while having night vision like a cat does if I had used the skill and I would of been able to smell the rain or snow potentially days before it's arrival if I would of wanted to when I was young. I had embraced the human side of me and choose it over the dragon parts so that way I could survive in the human tribe.

Corey walked the horses into the structure then come back out and we went back into the hut he had build. He took a look at my arm and grabbed some seaweed that he had gotten almost freshly since it was still all wet and slimy. He put it on my arm and wrapped cloth over it again. Seaweed was know to help numb pain and help you heal faster. Then he gave me a dress that I could change into. It was silk and see through portions of the fabric were the arms top of my chest so the top of my boobs were barley visible through it and then again at my stomach. It went see through fabric then a strip of silk that covered my boobs then see through fabric and then a silk skirt. The dress was black so the see through parts were already dark and you couldn't see very much. Corey said it was his sisters dress and most of her dresses were this way or would have a V neck to them as most the women in their tribe weren't concerned with covering up. In their tribe they wanted women to sleep with the men and have sex even if they weren't married because it meant all the men were competing for them and the strongest genes would be the one who the women most likely slept with. They also wanted them to become pregnant even if they weren't married because it meant more people to be able to allow the tribe to grow. He told me it's normal for a women to have slept with 5 men before marrying someone and it was normally pretty typical to of already have a child before you were married or a child born from another man within you first 8-9 months of a marriage. They also had ways to kill a child though, if a women was pregnant and didn't want the child they had medication that could kill it.

The rain had started already and it wasn't a light rain but the starting of heavy showers that came along with the start of spring. The looked of the cloud it would probably rain for the next few days meaning that everyone would be inside because it was cold and to dangerous to be out. It also meant any tracks that would be left for my tribe to try and follow would be washed away if they hadn't already been cover up from the herd or by other people traveling back to their huts last night.

It was cold so I went and laid down on the little bed and Corey started a fire then sat on the ground. The bed was big enough for the both of us and with it being cold outside, I invited him over to the bed to lay down that way he wouldn't get a cold.

We only became closer the next few days of rain, we shared a bed and started laying closer to each other. We cooked together and ate together. This is what it must be like once you marry and live with someone that you trust and want to be with. The feeling happiness and wholeness is almost overwhelming. I almost forgot that i had just lost my best friend and the person I was closest too and that whole it was filled by Corey. I wasn't thinking about what had happened that night or why we were here because I was happy, Corey have me every reason to never think of it again. I wasn't alone and I didn't feel alone anymore.

I had noticed the flower bracelet though because for some reason that was a detail that I began to remember anytime I had a bad dream about that night and that detail helped calm me. It took me a few days to realize where I had seen it before.

I had meant Corey before this which is why he felt so familiar, I had spent months with him in secret four years ago. There was a familiarity to it and him even before that but I couldn't figure out where I had seen it before that.