The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3) Read online

  Abigail Smith

  The Stray dragon

  Copyright © 2021 by Abigail Smith

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Abigail Smith asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Abigail Smith has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  First edition

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  For Grandma, ML and Taby, thank you all.

  Contents

  1. Chapter 1

  2. Chapter 2

  3. Chapter 3

  4. Chapter 4

  5. Chapter 5

  6. Chapter 6

  7. Chapter 7

  8. Chapter 8

  9. Chapter 9

  10. Chapter 10

  11. Chapter 11

  12. Chapter 12

  13. Chapter 13

  14. Chapter 14

  15. Chapter 15

  16. Chapter 16

  17. Chapter 17

  18. Chapter 18

  19. Chapter 19

  20. Chapter 20

  21. Chapter 21

  22. Chapter 22

  23. Chapter 23

  24. Chapter 24

  About the Author

  Also by Abigail Smith

  1

  Chapter 1

  A ferocious roar exited the portal to the earth elemental plane. The sound itself shook my body and an acrid scent started to fill the room. A blackhead with wicked-looking horns shot out of the portal. It was about the size of a human head with a massive maw that took up most of the space.

  I jumped back, shocked that a dragon of all things was exiting the portal. The werewolves around me were ready to act. Minerva, wearing her usual black leather jacket over the top of a red t-shirt and black jeans, tackled the black scaled dragon as soon as enough of its body was inside. It rolled over towards Dan who kicked its neck upwards.

  Dan was wearing his summer wear, a navy-blue shirt and some darker slacks. His gun was out of its holster faster than I could see. He pointed it towards the dragon’s neck, looking for a good shot on the armoured foe.

  Anderson’s broadsword glowed a magnificent orange light, making the purple coming off the portal seem like a nightlight. It gave his black duster a sinister hue. He pulled the sword to his left and held it with both hands. In a flash, the sword was losing its glow and was held to his right. The dragon stood still as Dan grabbed hold of its left side.

  I stood in silence, unsure if I should grab a weapon, or start kicking at the dragon’s body to help them along.

  The head slowly started to slide off, a torrent of black-red blood sputtering out on top of it. The whole thing lumbered over and fell limp, dropping the three colourful eggs it’d been carrying.

  “Odd, dragons of this size don’t tend to venture here…” Minerva said, peering at the beast.

  Just the size the demon mage had managed to make himself when he used that spell – only this time killing it left a dead dragon and not an annoying demon mage.

  “And dragons this young never have a clutch of eggs,” Dan said, holding up a green and a purple egg.

  “Huh, fancy that, some dragon eggs that need someone to look after them…”

  Anderson smiled towards me, flashing white teeth that seemed to be in the middle of transforming into lupine canines.

  “W-well…” I said.

  Of course, why I was considering taking in a dragon egg is a bit more complicated than just dragons are cool. I know most people who read the books I do would love a pet dragon, but when the option is there, you start to wonder if that’s a good idea.

  So why was it a good idea in this case? Well, that requires an explanation from a few hours beforehand.

  I was still sleeping in my bed, and just like the last six months I was crying, sobbing really. A white world of nothingness spanned around me, as I saw my old dog, just like every single night.

  It’d gotten to the point where I didn’t want to sleep. I loved Mika, but this wasn’t a happy dream where I could see her again – she was physically blocked off from me, and I remained still inside the dream, watching the girl wag her tail and look at me expectantly.

  The day of the incident, I woke up, to the feeling of tears streaming down my face. I got up and whipped them off with a box of tissues that I had to get used to putting near my bed.

  Amelia was the last person I wanted to let know I was crying myself awake every single morning. She’d found me like this a few times, but they were few and far between enough to blame it on my eyes watering when I yawned.

  It was on this day, having realized that this had been a solid six months, I remembered the words of my old school counsellor, who I’d run into in one of my friend’s bodies.

  ‘Has she gotten a new pet yet?’ It had been an innocent question, one from a woman who clearly cared for her students.

  “No, I haven’t. I live in a dorm where Amelia controls the dorm master. I could probably get away with it…”

  I bit my lip. That would mean giving up on Mika, though – could another dog replace the one I’d spent so much time with? I knew other people got over the death of their pets, but those were normal people, and it’s less likely that they ordered their dog to attack the person who demanded they be put down.

  A fresh wave of tears fell down my face. “No…” I said, trying to use anger to stop the bad feelings from disabling me for the rest of the day.

  I tried to build up enough anger at my brother that I could actually function today. It was a Saturday, so It wasn’t needed for class. It was also quickly approaching a break in the school schedule for summertime fun. I should show up at the center at some point, so no one thinks I was randomly abducted.

  I took a moment, to let some more tears out, thankful that no one else in the dorm room was there to see me be so weak.

  “Okay, come on… you can do this…” I said to myself, finally getting up and getting dressed for the day.

  My eyes were a bit puffy, but I thought it should be fine. I made my way through the quieter city. Saturday was a calmer day, not so calm that one could drive, but calmer.

  I walked in and immediately noticed that not only was Leonardo in the building, but he was right in the middle of the tables of the bar, looking directly at the entrance I was emerging through.

  “Ahh
, Miss Brown, glad you could make it…” he said, looking down at his little clipboard. “It just so happens that I could use an extra pair of hands-on portal watching duty today…” He smiled smugly through his helm.

  “Whatever,” I said, looking down, still feeling quite sad and making the mistake of showing it in front of Leo.

  I headed down towards the portal room, forgetting to pick up my razor gloves or even a knife to use against anything that might come through. Given that the portal typically didn’t have anything coming through it, give or take the few times where it did, this wasn’t the worst blunder one could make.

  Inside were Dan, Minerva and Anderson. There was still no word on who Cassy was so enamoured with and why she was acting so much out of character at every opportunity.

  “Hey, guys…”

  “I see Leo didn’t want to put any effort into finding us someone to help,” Minerva said.

  “Watch it, Minerva, that’s no team building talk,” Anderson scolded, with a smile plastered over his face.

  “No, it’s fine, I get it. I was literally the last person to walk in the door while he was fiddling with the clipboard.”

  “Exactly, she knows what I’m on about… though her forgetting to bring any sort of weapon in here isn’t helping the other interpretation.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine – the rock monsters don’t seem to be that active these last few months. Either they’ve poked enough holes to feel weather through them, or there’s a lull in the magic that’s available,” Anderson mused.

  “Either way I’d be happy to lend her a pistol if the need arises,” Dan said.

  “I could always grab some knives off Minerva, too…”

  Minerva gave me a look that said, “Don’t you touch my knives.”

  “What? They are really well made!” I said, nudging her in the shoulder.

  “So, E-lis, what’s on your mind?” Anderson said, sitting down against the rock wall of this little area, and setting his broadsword down beside him.

  It had two fullers, or parts that curved inwards; a very sharp-looking tip; a gold, or more likely brass, polished handguard, which had quite a few nicks that dug into the iron below; and a jewelled pommel, or heavy bit, at the end.

  “Oh, nothing…” I said, waving a dismissive hand.

  “Nothing doesn’t make the whites of your eyes red – what’s on your mind?” he said, waving me over so that I’d sit down with him.

  “Your morning milk have dragon salts in it?” I asked, sitting down next to him.

  “I don’t need dragon salts to see the most dangerous colour known to man. Now, ignore Minerva’s iron stare and Dan’s… indifference, and let me know what’s on your mind. Who knows? Maybe I can help!” Anderson said, with a winning smile.

  “Okay… About the time the demon mage randomly became a hulking monstrosity for no apparent reason,” Anderson nodded at my recap, “I started to have dreams about my old dog, Mika.”

  “I see. And being confronted with her over and over seems to have you emotionally distraught, despite how well you’ve tried to hide this,” Anderson said.

  “Y-yeah… When in the dream, everything’s so white, and she’s just sitting there, waiting for me. She keeps trying to come closer but gets deflected by this shimmering shield. It’s like my subconscious is trying to punish me…”

  “Punish you?” Anderson said, losing his composure a bit. “For what?”

  I paused for a moment and looked Anderson right in the eye. “Who was it that I killed?” I said, choking out the words like they were poison in my mouth.

  “I beg your pardon?” he asked.

  I sprang up and grabbed his duster’s collar. “You said I’d already killed someone during the first raid, who was it?!” I said, slamming him against the back wall.

  Minerva and Dan surrounded me and were reaching to grab at my arms when Anderson raised a hand to each to get them to stop.

  “The sniper on the roof, Silvia, told me that while you wanted to just knock them out, you kicked them in the temple as hard as you could… That typically kills people.”

  My grip loosened on his collar, and he put his hands over mine. “I’m afraid I do not have psychic powers. If you believe that you’d killed your dog, that was never what I was referring to… but I’d like to say this… while you might see that barrier as something separating you from Mika, perhaps you should look at it a different way.”

  “I… Sorry…” I said, standing up and shifting over.

  “Do you perhaps need some help coping with the realization that you killed someone?”

  “I mean… I should want to… but he nearly took my head off when we first encountered him, and we’ve killed the demon mage a few times, though death is meaningless to him… I think I should be fine.”

  Anderson got up and put a hand on my shoulder. “Speaking as someone who is part-wolf, know that fighting and dying for someone you love isn’t that person you love killing you. I don’t know the whole story, but I’m sure that if Mika was alive again, and knew death would happen if they performed that action, they’d do it again, and again and again… for you.”

  I teared up again, the feelings for Mika mixed with the truth about dogs that’d always made me turn into a sobbing mess.

  “Take all the time you need, Elizabeth. I’m sure by the end of this you’ll be a lot stronger.” Anderson once again had his warm welcoming smile, as he returned to his position.

  I took a little while before wiping away the tears and trying to compose myself. The lump that’d formed both at the base of my stomach and in the back of my throat was suddenly lifted as we heard voices from the other side of the portal.

  “Oi, she’s escaping!” came one voice, which was high-pitched, albeit masculine.

  “The eggs!” came another deeper voice, with androgynous qualities.

  Minerva took out a knife from her hip sheaths and held it out. It was one of the curved ones with a hole at the end which she put her pinky finger inside. Dan got out two pistols, and Anderson picked up his broadsword and held it behind his head.

  The dragon came out, was pushed aside, and slashed, and I was left to decide if I wanted to be the one to care for one of the eggs.

  “Perhaps you need to focus on something else, E-lis, perhaps you need a pet that will most likely not sacrifice itself for you.”

  I picked up the orange and yellow egg from between the dragon’s legs. “You sure that’s a good idea? What if Leonardo–”

  “Leo’s father has made friends with a dragon hatchling as have many other people who hold leadership positions. While he might be angry that it isn’t his, he has nothing to stand against you on this,” Anderson said.

  “O-okay then…” I held the egg close to my chest.

  Dan and Minerva started to heave the dragon back through the portal when we heard the voices again.

  “D-do you think it got away in there?”

  “I dunno. There was a lot of shouting, should we go in?”

  Dan and Minerva thrust the carcass through, along with the head of the dragon, and the voices responded in turn.

  “By the grace of Queen Gabriele, it’s pushed the dragon back out!”

  “And hey, look, it’s dead!” the lower of the two voices said with an excited giggle.

  Minerva and Dan placed the eggs through the portal, and the voices responded, “And the eggs! They’re unharmed! This is the best wavy do-dad ever!”

  “Wait till Boss hears about this!” There was only the sound of dragging as the two voices stopped talking.

  “Uh, should we let those two go? Sounds like they’re going to make a habit of running dragons through here…” I said.

  “Those who can herd dragons are the ones we should be worrying about. They were chasing it – had it not chosen this portal, or any portal for that matter, they would have lost it,” Anderson reassured me.

  2

  Chapter 2

  I found a nice place to put t
he egg and wrapped a spare sweater around it that I borrowed from Gavin. It felt nice after a long boring time of holding it to my chest.

  The egg was almost like the scaled bodies of those who laid it, and it was warm to the touch. I wasn’t sure if that was the elemental power of the dragon inside, something their species did, or perhaps it was just a quirk of the dragon being under stress when she brought them into our world.

  Placing it in its little nest of sweaters to keep it warm and happy was a pleasant cool-down exercise. I’m sure that if anyone found it, they’d talk about it, so I had to put it in a pretty obscure place, at least until I was ready to take it home.

  “Hey, E-lis! What’re you hiding behind the bar?” Fumnaya said, walking up towards me.

  Fumnaya always found it cold, so her seasonal clothes didn’t often change. She’d come into the bar with a long-sleeved t-shirt and sweatpants. Her hair was as curly as ever, albeit slightly shorter. Her purple eyes were peering over to the cubby I’d been using.

  It was right around three in the afternoon so there wasn’t really anyone in the bar. “Shhh, not so loud!” I said, as the last bit of padding was placed into the enclosed space.

  “Oh uh…” Fumnaya took a look at the surrounding area. Minus the sleeping Anderson, no one was around.

  I knew it was Anderson because I saw him curl up there, and not because I was beginning to recognize fur patterns in a mostly black-furred populace.

  “Anyway, how goes it with Lorenz?” I asked, trying to divert her attention before she got huffy that I got a dragon egg and didn’t give her one.

  “Well, we’ve been watching Masked Kishu together for a while. Genki keeps butting in, which I can’t really say no to since it’s figuring out how the Japanese live,” Fumnaya explained, holding out her hand as though she was Lorenz.

  “He’s still not really paying attention to you?” I asked, leaning down on the bar and trying to figure out what could be the problem here.

  “Not really, no, but at the very least it’s been fun.”