*Saoirse*
Damn it.
I ran my hand through my hair for the fourth ti, frizzing the curls into an untaable ss. Pacing the length of the pack house was not helping to produce any new or enlightening ideas. I glanced out the window and confird that my prison guards were still set in place.
Unlike the last ti I was held captive, these guards knew how to do their jobs and weren’t leaving any openings. Another frustrated sigh escaped my lips as I sat down at one of the community tables.
Sothing hard pressed against my leg. I reached down and fished out the compact cara I must have slipped back into my pocket. Without a mont’s hesitation, I turned on the screen.
The first picture surprised . It was of the ruined clearing, but the main focus of the picture seed to be Rhys instead of the evidence. I hadn’t even noticed, but I had taken a picture of him instead of the ground.
Looking at the picture caused my stomach to clench in worry again. I wondered where Rhys was and if he had found the dragon yet.
I distracted myself from my thoughts by pushing the little arrow on the screen and moving through more photos. Besides the first one, I must have refocused. All of the other photos were of the intended matter.
As I got to the pictures of the weird mound Rhys had found, the uneasy feeling in my gut strengthened. There was sothing off about the unnatural mass. It was not just because that was where the dragon had sprung from.
Well, one of the dragons...
Rhys had said that the dragon wasn’t the one from his visions. It ant there was a good chance at least one other dragon was in the area. The thought did not make feel any calr.
I was hit with a realization.
The mound had to be so sort of a nest.
The dragon must have had babies.
I felt a sense of horror with that realization. If the n acted rashly and hard those babies, then Hunter’s Glen would face the wrath of the mother and the other dragon, not to ntion possibly other dragons. It was impossible to know for sure at the mont how many we were dealing with.
I picked the cara up and hurried to the kitchen, where I knew I would find my mother.
"Oh, hello, dear," my mother greeted as she saw walking into the kitchen. "Are you here to help with the dishes?"
"No ti, Mom, listen," I explained my theories, showing her the pictures as I went.
As I talked, my mom’s face got more and more frightened.
"Saoirse," she finally said in a shaky voice when I finished, "if you’re right about this, then we have to make sure the babies are protected, or there will be no peace in the Dark Realm."
"I know," I agreed. "If those babies are hurt, there will be no saving Hunter’s Glen. We have to let Father know–"
"No," my mother said quickly and forcefully.
I was startled by her tone and looked at her more closely, but she busied herself in the kitchen again and refused to look at .
She knew more than she was saying.
"Mother, what is going on?" I asked slowly.
She didn’t answer. She kept walking around and ignoring . I knew she heard , which made wonder why she wasn’t answering.
I reached out and grabbed her arm, bringing her to a stop. "Tell what you know."
She tugged against my grip, but I just squeezed harder. There would be no escape from my hold or my questions. If she knew sothing, I needed to know what it was.
"Mom." My voice held an edge of desperation I had never heard before, and my mother looked surprised as well.
It was enough of an opening.
"Please. I need to know."
She looked into my eyes and sighed. I knew I had won over my mother.
"There is an ancient legend," she said in a hushed voice, leaning closer to . "According to the legend that has been passed down for generations, the Hunter’s Glen pack has a mystical dragon guardian that had once protected it in tis of strife."
There was only silence for a mont.
"What?" It was the only word I could manage to get out.
My mother let out another sigh. This ti, it sounded like it was out of irritation instead of defeat.
"That’s all I know, Saoirse. The elders don’t like to talk about–"
"The elders know about it too?" I asked in disbelief. "Then I need to talk to them. Take to them now."
"Saoirse..."
"Mom, I am not joking. It is bad enough that you didn’t tell any of this yourself, but now you’re saying others know more." I took a breath to calm myself. "We need to learn as much as possible before they make a fatal mistake."
"Fine," she whispered quickly. "I’ll take you to the elders, but you can’t tell your father."
At least she wasn’t arguing with , so I wasn’t going to argue either. With a nod of agreent, she grabbed my hand and led to the pantry just off the kitchen.
"What–" I started to ask, but my mother shushed .
She closed the pantry door behind us. I watched as she moved a giant bag of rice and leaned down to the floor. Without a sound, a piece of the flooring swung up at my mother’s grasp, revealing a ringed ladder leading down into darkness.
"What the–"
Once again, my mother shushed before gesturing for to start down the ladder. I stared at the ek woman I had known my whole life. She never seed the type to have a secret passage anywhere.
In fact, she didn’t seem the type to have secrets.
I moved forward and descended the ladder swiftly and smoothly, not even stumbling as I heard the wood above close, and the darkness deepened. My mother reached the bottom of the ladder only seconds after .
As soon as she reached the bottom, I heard a click. We were suddenly surrounded by light. I blinked quickly, trying to adjust my eyes faster. When they finally started to focus, I frowned in confusion again.
It wasn’t so rudintary tunnel made by one person. It was a fully developed hall. Instead of dirt, there were smooth steel walls. Rows of lights were screwed along the entire length, not allowing for even one spot of darkness.
Many questions were on the tip of my tongue, but I shook my head in an effort to refocus. They weren’t the important things, at least not right now.
"Lead the way," I said, wincing as my voice echoed down the tal hall.
My mother began to walk, and I fell into step behind her. It wasn’t long before the hall opened up to an antechamber of sorts with multiple halls leading off of it. It wasn’t my mother’s first ti down there because she turned and went down another hall without a mont’s hesitation.
I brushed off the surge of questions the situation brought to mind and kept my mouth closed. The second hall felt a little longer, but it ended with a ladder similar to the one we had descended from our ho. I followed as my mother began to climb.
The door opened before my mother even had a chance to knock. I tried to look past her to see where we were, but it was impossible on the small ladder.
"Ah, hello, Nora," a woman’s voice said in greeting. "What a lovely surprise. We haven’t seen you in a while."
"This is urgent business, Ruby," my mother said in return. "My daughter and I need to speak with you and the other elders."
"Then please, co in," the lady, Ruby, said in response. "I will fetch them."
My mother continued to climb. I heard the sounds of footsteps above my head. By the ti my mother was helping through the small trap door, the sound of the footsteps returned.
I looked up to see an elderly woman with bright silver hair walk into the small coat closet we appeared to be in. She glanced at my mother but then focused her eyes on . Her eyes looked familiar to , but I was sure I had never seen her before.
"Everyone is gathered in the sitting room. Follow ," she said as the two of us stood up.
I again found myself following won who gave more questions than answers. I bit my tongue hard enough that the coppery taste of blood beca just noticeable. It was enough to focus again.
I would save those questions for another ti, a ti when my village and Rhys were not in danger.
The silver-haired woman led us to a large room. It was so filled with books that I would have considered it a library more than a sitting room, but I was more focused on the other two won sitting in the large, backed chairs facing us. Ruby took her spot in an identical chair next to them as my mother stepped forward and gave a respectful bow.
I followed her example. These three won had to be the elders.
"Ruby said that you had urgent business. Nora, please speak," the older woman in the middle gestured.
She looked very similar to Ruby, with wrinkled skin and intelligent eyes. The main difference was that despite her age, her hair was still pure black, even darker than Rhys’ black hair.
I wondered why I kept thinking about him.
"Thank you, Onyx," my mother said. She then turned to . "It is actually my daughter who needs your guidance."
"Speak, young Saoirse," Onyx said in acceptance of my mom’s plea.
I didn’t even question how they knew my na. "I need to know everything you know about the legend of the dragon guardian."
The three elders looked at each other before answering .
"For what purpose?" Ruby asked. "And why so urgent?"
"Because I witnessed a winged beast in the eastern woods, and I went to recruit aid from the royal family in dispatching the threat to our village," I said plainly.
"You did what?" Onyx asked, sounding appalled.
"And they are here now, searching for the dragon, so I need to know everything now." My tone ca out harsher than I ant. "Ma’am."
"The legend of the guardian of Hunter’s Glen is no myth. It is a fact," Onyx answered imdiately. "The winged beast you witnessed was indeed a dragon. It is one of the last surviving descendants of the dragon guardian of ancient that defended our village."
"What?" I asked. "If we have so protector, how co nobody knows about it? Why didn’t anyone say anything to ? Does my father, the Alpha, know?"
I saw my mother shake her head.
"A few centuries ago, the Alpha of Hunter’s Glen started to feel threatened by our impressive guardian and sought to destroy him and all of the dragons," Ruby said. "He was a paranoid man. The dragon’s family had grown so large that he worried they could overtake our pack easily."
"He did sothing horrible and began targeting the dragons, hunting and exploiting them to no end. Over a decade or two, he managed to nearly wipe them from existence," Onyx continued. "One of the neighboring packs, your mother’s, in fact, took in the dragons and protected their secret, helping them to escape the cruel Alpha."
"From that mont on, it was decided that the dragon’s existence would remain a secret. Nobody could know about them. If they knew, they would hunt them."
"Just as you chose to do."
I frowned.
"Because I didn’t know the truth," I snapped, turning to my mother. "I told you that I had seen this beast. You should have told then. All of this could have been avoided."
"Do not bla your mother," Onyx said in a stern voice. "She swore an oath as a little girl to always protect the guardian bloodline from potential destruction at the hands of outsiders, and that included keeping the secret."
I stared at my mother, but it wasn’t my mother sitting next to . It was a woman I wasn’t sure I knew anymore. Although part of felt proud to know she had so secret tough side I had never seen.
Maybe we were more alike than I thought.
The rest of felt guilty as I realized this had all stemd from . I could bla my mother if I wished, but she had tried to talk down. I just hadn’t listened.
And now we had a pissed-off dragon I had turned toward our village. I had brought an imaginary threat to a very real one. If we didn’t stop them now before any more damage was done, there would be no turning back. I would have dood us all.
For that, I deserved to be burned at the stake.
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