Alexis heard the crash of a body inside armor, a huge body. The knees disappeared, and suddenly she glimpsed a slain warrior in her peripheral vision. He wore head-to-toe, ugly, coal-black plates of armor.
Refusing to shrink away, Alexis tried to keep the sword gripped. She tried to raise it higher to fight for her mother, for herself, and for a destiny she didn't understand. Yet, a destiny that seemed to beat her very heart.
She struggled to stand, and had barely gained her feet when her entire middle sizzled, as if arcing electricity leaped through her. A surge of pain followed. She couldn't scream. A sensation like a fiery serpent spiraled upward halting any sound she might make. Alexis swore her body was splitting in half.
"It is happening, daughter," her mother shouted. "Become what you are."
The din of the battled faded. Alexis became aware the sword slipped from her hand, that she expanded in size. A flash of white light blinded her, and she squeezed her eyelids tight as strange explosive energies spun inside her.
Darkness arrived before her mind's eyes, enveloping her as if she'd gone unconscious. Yet... were those wings flapping on her back. Was that a tail she felt twitching back and forth?
How could that be?
Time grabbed her by the nape of the neck, so it seemed. But, wait. Hadn't her mother told her tale after fanciful and frightful tale about shapeshifting dragons? About...
"Fly!" her mother screamed. "Fly and fight!"
Not thinking, Alexis crouched and launched on legs unfamiliar to her, in a body that felt nothing like her human body. Her human body -- why did it suddenly feel so natural to be in a different form? As if it was always meant to be.
Snapping her eyes open, Alexis gazed downward. She stared at her scaled dragon forearms. With her eyesight enhanced significantly she focused on the scene below.
Yes, she hovered some fifty feet off the ground on wings that beat swiftly against the air, against the drag of gravity. Before Alexie could marvel about her shapeshift, she witnessed the lifeless bodies of their enemies strewn over the rocky isolated terrain.
Frantic, Alexis searched for a sight of her mother, now nowhere to be seen. On instinct, she soared higher. The winds buffeted her, but being a mighty dragon she sliced through them as easily as if she merely strolled, enjoying the soft breezes on a Spring day.
She flew in a great circle looking for any sign of her mother, where she might have gone -- been taken or escaped.
Nothing.
Mother! she screamed inside her mind.
Alexis winged a larger circle, her gaze roving to and fro over the uninhabited stretch of highlands. An eerie quiet settled over her, and she threw her head up. From the corner of her dragon eye Alexis observed them marching -- lined up along the far ridge for what appeared to be at least a mile -- a great army of those black-armored warriors who lay slain beneath her.
~~~~~~
Happy Reading!
Savanna
Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~
~~~
