In Creation's Heart Read online

  But she listened to Seph. After all, whatever he was doing appeared to be working. Jak glanced at the nearby trees, some of them smoldering slightly from the spray dragon fire, and saw several of the others peeking out from behind them, watching what Seph would do next.

  Seph took several steps closer, so his face and that of the dragon were mere feet from each other. His hand was still outstretched, and with a boldness that took even Jak by surprise, he placed it on the tip of the dragon’s snout.

  No one breathed, not even the dragon. Seph walked closer, taking his other hand to cradle the dragon’s muzzle. He laughed softly. “He...he doesn’t want to hurt you,” Seph said, looking like he might burst with a mixture of excitement and adrenaline. “I was right, he came here for me.”

  “How is that possible?” asked Jak, staring in awe at the beast. When calm, there really was something majestic about it.

  “I...can’t explain it,” said Seph. “But I can communicate with it.”

  “Seph,” Jak stared at her husband, a new realization dawning on her. They had talked about this before, but it had been more of a joke. “Do you think you might be some kind of Fae?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “We know that two races are meant to govern life. We already have the Nature Fae who clearly have stewardship over plant life, but...maybe you’re right.” He turned back to the dragon, whose eyes were half closed in an almost pleasant expression. Seph rubbed its snout and the eyes closed even further.

  “Can you tell it to...not attack us?” Jak asked, hesitantly.

  “It doesn’t want to, it only came here for me, and only attacked because you attacked him first. I’m trying to explain that you’re all my friends and that…” he trailed off and looked at the dragon. At the same moment, the dragon’s eyes opened wide once more.

  “What is it?” Jak asked, unconsciously adopting a combat stance.

  “I don’t know,” said Seph. “There’s something else. I’m trying to communicate but it feels like there’s a wall there, something I need to break past. Perhaps if I…” he moved past the dragon’s jaws, running his hands along its scales until he reached the base of the neck where it met the beast’s chest.

  Suddenly, something beat within the dragon, lighting up a portion of the chest. Jak narrowed her eyes, but made no sudden moves. Was that the dragon’s...heart?

  The light came again, accompanied by an even stronger pulse. Jak could make out veins silhouetted against the light of the creature’s heart, it had to be a heart. Seph kept his hands on that region, not appearing scared or startled in the slightest.

  A third time came the heartbeat, and this time Seph said something, “Oh, so that’s what…”

  But before he could say what it was, his hands disappeared. At first, Jak thought she was seeing things, but a moment later, she realized Seph’s hands were literally embedded inside the dragon’s flesh.

  “Seph!” she yelled, and moved forward again. The dragon roared, but not in pain. It was a roar of triumph, of majesty. What was going on?

  Before Jak could move any closer, Seph’s arms and chest moved through the dragon’s hide, swallowed up by some kind of magic Jak did not know. In mere seconds, he was completely gone, entirely consumed inside the dragon’s flesh.

  4

  “Seph!” she screamed this time, her voice high pitched and frantic. “Seph, come back!” She prepped a fireball, though she knew it was useless. Yet she hurled it at the dragon with all the strength she could muster. It dissolved into nothing over the dragon’s hide, who gave no heed to it, other than to direct its eyes at Jak. “Give him back!” she screamed.

  In answer, the dragon leapt into the air, twirling and spreading its wings in a move that would have awed Jak had she not been worried for Seph. The dragon was taking him away from her. If he was even alive. For a second, panic gripped her heart. No, he had to be alive, she could not bear it if he were dead. But it had looked like the dragon had...eaten him somehow, though not with its jaws. Did all dragons have that kind of power? It wasn’t like they were common enough to know everything there was to know about them.

  The beast roared, the sound filling the entire clearing and the mountains beyond. Once again, the roar was triumphant, almost regal. It was a roar of confidence and joy that Jak did not share.

  She jumped and called on her Telekinesis to send her upward.

  With a burst of energy she slammed into the belly of the beast. Her teeth rattled as the impact did next to nothing to the dragon, instead sending a shockwave through her Toughness-enhanced bones.

  Once again, she tried a trick she had seen Cain perform. She pressed both her palms down against the dragon’s scales and activated her Thunder brand. Instantly, white-hot power shot out of her hands and into the dragon.

  The dragon only flinched.

  She tried again, and this time the beast rolled in the air, and its tail flicked towards Jak as if to lazily brush her off. Jak flew out of reach just in time. Her Thunder wasn’t doing anything to the dragon. When Cain had done it, he had caused visible pain in the creature. Perhaps Jak needed more Thunder brands to make the effects powerful enough.

  She flew in closer again. She couldn’t concentrate enough to brand herself while in mid-air. And the dragon was flying away from the ground. If she were to land, she might not catch up with it later. And she would not let it escape. Not when Seph…

  There was only one option. She flew under one of its beating wings and circled around until she was practically on top of it. Soon she clung to its back, letting go of her Telekinesis, and feeling its great shape rise and fall beneath her with each flap of its massive leathery wings. Could she even focus enough to give herself an extra Thunder brand with the constant motion of the dragon? She would have to take that risk.

  Doing her best to tune out the rushing wind and the feeling in her stomach as she rose and fell on the creature’s back, she closed her eyes, clutched one arm with another, and pictured the Thunder brand in her mind. Slowly she felt the slight pain of the brand lines forming in an open space on her arm.

  It was working. The brand was settling in, and she was having a much easier time concentrating than she thought she would. She barely noticed the up and down motion of being on the dragon’s back, and the rushing of air seemed more like a pleasant breeze. Even the hard and cold dragon scales beneath her body felt softer, warmer. In that moment, everything was calm and serene, and it remained that way as the brand settled into her skin, and Jak felt a well of power expand within her. Now she might be able to hurt the dragon, and if not, she could just repeat what she had just done until she had enough Thunder brands to…

  “You’re not planning on using that against me, are you?” said a voice.

  Jak’s eyes snapped open, blinking in the sunlight. Her eyes shot in the direction of the voice, directly in front of her.

  The dragon was gone.

  Instead, her body was pressed against a human figure, the two of them flying through the air, locked together in an embrace Jak had not even noticed as she had given herself the Thunder brand. But as she caught the person’s face, she didn’t even bother to wonder what had happened to the dragon.

  “Seph!” she cried, and wrapped her arms tightly around the preacher’s warm body. Extremely warm, she realized. Almost hot to the touch. Only then did she notice the chill around her body and she looked down towards the ground. They had to be at least several thousand feet in the air. And it was freezing up here.

  But none of that mattered. Seph was alive! “I told you it would be okay,” he said before smiling at her, melting her fears away. But with that came questions.

  “What just happened? And where is the dragon?”

  “I’m not sure I understand it completely myself,” he said, as they continued gliding through the air at a leisurely pace.

  Hang on. Jak wasn’t using Telekinesis, so how were they flying right now? She looked into Seph’s eyes and saw something there, something new. A
fire. A confidence that hadn’t been there before.

  “You’re flying!” she said, realization dawning.

  He grinned again. That same, dazzling grin that she had come to love over the last few years since they’d met. Yes, it was him. But there was something different this time.

  “Yes, I guess I am,” he said after taking a moment to let the realization sink into her.

  “Seph, you better start explaining.” Jak said, her voice growing stern.

  He laughed. Actually laughed. Did he have any idea the trauma he had just put her through? She had thought he was lost.

  “Well I can say this much,” he began. “I think I might be the last species of Fae. Last for now at least.”

  Jak slowly nodded, and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. She could feel the temperature rising. Seph was guiding them back to the ground, it seemed. “That makes sense,” she said. And it did. New Fae seemed to pop up every other week these days. Though what Seph had said…

  “What makes you think you’re the last?” she asked.

  “A guess,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “We know that there will be twelve races on Illadar, including humans. If I’m a new type of Fae, that would make me the eleventh race. Yet from what I can tell, the last race will not appear until another great time of crisis.”

  “Well then that’s not important right now,” said Jak, suppressing a slight shiver as the air warmed around her, and she basked in the heat radiating off of Seph’s skin. “So are you the dragon then?” The question sounded absurd, even as she said it. But where else had the dragon gone? She had seen it swallow up Seph, and yet now it was nowhere to be seen, replaced by her husband, who could now fly.

  Seph took one hand off her waist so he could stare at it. To Jak’s eyes it still seemed completely human, though there was perhaps a slight radiance to it, a healthy warmth to the skin that hadn’t been there before. “I think so,” he said. “When I touched the dragon before, the connection we shared seemed to grow exponentially, until I found myself feeling what it felt, and thinking its thoughts.”

  “It sort of swallowed you,” said Jak. “Through its belly.”

  “Really?” asked Seph, as though he hadn’t been there. “I guess that explains why you were so distraught after we took flight. But I needed to stretch my wings and feel the power that was suddenly mine. You can’t know how empty I was before, how incomplete.”

  “You never said you were incomplete before?”

  “I never knew it until now. But this…” he stared at his hand, then down at his body. “This is what it feels like to be whole.”

  “Could you change back into the dragon if you wanted to?” she asked. “Or are you some kind of dragon-human now?”

  He laughed again, and this time Jak thought she caught a hint of the dragon’s roar coming from deep in his belly. “I suspect both,” he said. “Though we can work out the details of what I can do later. We’re almost back at the camp.”

  Jak followed his gaze downward to see that he was right. Beneath them she could make out all the hastily constructed huts and tents near the mountains. She could even see Skellig from where she stood, a glint of light shining off of the woman’s armor and sword.

  Neither she nor Seph spoke as they finished their descent. Jak chose instead to simply enjoy pressing herself against Seph’s body, and watched as they descended below the mountains, below the treeline, and finally alighting on the ground besides a large group of confused onlookers.

  Skellig approached them both with her sword still out. “What happened up there?” she asked immediately. She met Jak’s eyes. “We saw you race after the dragon but eventually you were too high up for us to see what was happening.”

  “So…” Jak glanced at Seph, trying to figure out a good way to explain. Seph only shrugged. “Long story short…” she began slowly. “It would appear that when the dragon swallowed Seph up before, that was actually the two of them becoming one and merging somehow.”

  “What do you mean?” Skellig eyed Seph warily, and Jak couldn’t help but narrow her eyes as she spotted the warrior tighten her grip on her sword.

  “He’s not a threat,” said Jak, putting out an arm to signal Skellig to stand down. Though with her next thought, she turned back to Seph and gave him a look that asked, ‘are you?’

  “The dragon was never here to hurt any of us,” said Seph, folding his arms confidently. “It only came here because it was drawn to me. And the moment it arrived I was drawn to it. We merged as I believe we were meant to do all along.”

  “So what, you and the dragon are somehow sharing a body now?” Skellig looked like she had a headache.

  “More like we are the same body that was once fragmented and is now whole.” Seph replied. “I believe I am a new species of Fae.”

  “A Dragon Fae?” Jak turned to see Yewin drawing closer. He was staring in awe at Seph. As were several others who had gathered. Naem, Perchel, and almost everyone else on the council. Jak followed their gaze to stare at Seph as well. Was it just her or did her husband look a little taller? Maybe it was just the way he held himself.

  “I’m...hesitant to call myself a Dragon Fae,” Seph said. “I do not think the others of my kind will all become one with dragons as I have. For one, we only know of this one dragon, and I imagine there will be far more of my race of Fae than there are dragons to merge with.”

  “You think others will merge with other animals?” Jak asked. It was an interesting idea. What would they learn about the animal kingdom just from the experiences of such Fae?

  “That would be my guess,” said Seph. “Now that I’ve transformed, I suspect it won’t be long until more show up.”

  “There aren’t any other animals on Illadar,” said Skellig. “Not yet anyway.”

  “Something we must correct,” Seph replied.

  “Well ‘Animal Fae’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue,” said the diminutive gnome, Girwirt from Jak’s feet. She hadn’t even noticed him arrive.

  Seph thought it through. “That is true, Girwirt. And since I’m the first and currently only member of my race, I guess that gives me free reign to take whatever name I want.” He raised both hands out and above his head. “Call us, Shifters.”

  With that, his arms elongated and grew far larger and filled with muscles. Seph’s spine exploded outward, tearing the shirt he had been wearing. Jak stared in awe, but couldn’t help wonder why Seph’s clothes hadn’t torn before. Maybe it was something to do with the way he had merged with the dragon the first time.

  Her thoughts were cut off by a triumphant roar coming from a dragon’s head newly formed in place of Seph’s. Giant wings exploded out of Seph’s back, providing the finishing touch. A fully-grown orange-scaled dragon stood on all fours in front of them. Skellig and many of the others backed away, their hands on their weapons. But as the dragon met Jak’s eyes, she knew there was nothing to fear. Her husband was in those eyes. Her husband was those eyes.

  Yewin and surprisingly Girwirt had also remained in place, staring up at the dragon with awed expressions. Seph roared at the sky, a sound that shook their little clearing, and rattled nearby trees.

  Preachers. Most of them did have a flair for the dramatic.

  The dragon, or rather Seph, put one giant paw forward, its eyes meeting Jak’s as it bowed low. He was inviting her to climb onto his back.

  Without hesitation, she moved closer, feeling the dragon’s warmth, Seph’s warmth as she touched his scales. Those scales had felt cold to her before. Now, they were something else.

  “Jak,” said Skellig. “Are you sure?”

  Jak turned to face the major. “I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life.”

  Skellig cracked a smile. “I suppose you would know best. Come talk to me when you get back. There are some matters I wish to discuss with you and the council.”

  Jak nodded before placing one foot on the base of Seph’s massive leg, and scrambling up his side until
she sat perched between the joints of his wings.

  Seph lurched into the sky, the wings beating with a force that nearly toppled those below. In fact, it did knock a few over, including a grumbling Girwirt.

  But soon, everyone below them disappeared as Seph flew into the sky at an astonishing speed. Jak had to use what Strength she received from her brands just to hang onto her shifter-husband’s back. Shifters. That was a good name. If all others Fae like Seph could transform from human to animal at will, it seemed a more descriptive designation than something like ‘Animal Fae.’

  Jak felt a slight chill as they rose higher into the sky, but she ignored it. Seph’s scales were warm beneath her touch, keeping her from feeling cold in the slightest.

  They soared above the mountains, above a thin scattering of clouds. The air was thin up here, but the view was incredible. Jak strained her neck trying to get a good look in every direction. The mountains ran east to west all around them, great white peaks for miles and miles. Off to the south she could just make out what had to be the southern coast, far enough away that the haze almost obscured it completely, but it couldn’t be more than a week’s march on foot. That’s where Amelia and the other Water Fae would be heading soon.

  To the north, she could see a winding river cutting through the mountains, like a snake navigating large trenches created by its path. That area was well defensible. Perhaps they could set up a fort or city there, though Jak could only hope the need for defense of that kind would be minimal here on Illadar.

  The chill air rushed past her, flinging her hair backward as Seph continued flying to the east. Jak raised herself a little higher on his back, so that more of the wind pushed against her body. She had flown before, but this was something else, this was exhilarating in a way she had never experienced. She was not only flying, but she was flying on the back of a dragon, who also happened to be her favorite person in two worlds, her husband.