Prologue #9
Armed. “I’m not a mugger.” Elouan wracked his memory. What weapons did Terrans have? A bright flash showed him more choices than he had ever known existed. He suddenly missed his sword. Where had Sakaris left him?
“That’s what a mugger would say,” the voice answered, a male’s by the sound.
Elouan followed the voice, spying the flicker of a small fire. He stepped from the trees to find a young man clutching a branch like a club. Armed? Really?
“Who…who are you?” No missing the guy’s trembling. He must be terrified.
Elouan kept his voice low, calming. “My name is Elouan Thor—” What had Sakaris called him? Oh, right. “Elouan Aaron. And you are?”
“Cu… Curtis.”
No last name. Elouan would have to work to earn trust. “I’ve no intention of hurting you. What are you doing here, and where, exactly, is here?”
“Where? You don’t know?”
“I was…dropped off, so no, I don’t.”
“Oh,” The man, no, Curtis, dropped his branch onto the ground. “We’re at a state park, a few miles from Asheville, North Carolina.”
Which told Elouan precisely nothing until those invasive thoughts entered his mind, giving him a better idea of his location.
He moved slowly closer, noticing the burnished highlights in Curtis’s copper hair and his bright blue eyes.
Curtis couldn’t be much older than nineteen summers.
Nineteen years. The breeze brought a hint of something familiar. A dragon? No. Or not entirely.
“What are you?” Elouan blurted out before he could stop himself.
“What do you mean?”
Elouan sniffed the air again. “You smell like….”
Curtis took a step back. “Smell. You can smell me from over there? All I smell is the fire.”
“Yes.” Couldn’t everyone?
The guy narrowed his eyes, squinting in Elouan’s direction. “What are you? Where did you come from?”
Elouan folded his arms over his chest, which might have been more intimidating if he’d been dressed in more than an undersized, far-to-short robe. “I asked you first.”
Curtis ignored Elouan’s words. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“I am a…traveler who’s just arrived from…someplace else.”
Curtis stared, then did a little air sniffing of his own, inching closer. “Holy shit! You’re a dragon!”
Elouan sat by the fire in a pair of strangely stretchy pants, sipping what Curtis called a root beer.
Not bad at all, though the fizziness tickled his nose.
“Sweats,” his subconscious supplied about the pants.
Like the robe, they were too short, but were far more comfortable, especially paired with a T-shirt.
“So, there’s a portal in the cave?” Curtis asked, sounding hopeful. “Can we go through to your world?”
“No. A mage opened the portal, kinda shoved me through, and left. He said all portals are being shut down, and he’d come for me when the time was right.” Nothing ominous about that at all. Elouan might remain deserted on Terra forever.
No Adrakus. No Teron. No Daire. No Anrai.
No Father. Elouan squeezed his eyes shut, the image of his father dying etched forever into his mind. Everything he’d known and loved, gone in an instant. His heart might ache if he weren’t so numb.
“You’re an alpha?” The words pulled Elouan from the dark place he’d wandered into. Curtis sat nearby, similarly attired, with his knees drawn up to his chin.
Elouan sniffed, blinking away tears. “Yes, I’m alpha.” Maybe Curtis would attribute the tears to the wood smoke if he’d noticed them.
“I haven’t met many alphas,” Curtis said with the sycophantic reverence Elouan had tired of seasons ago.
Seasons. Years? The thoughts rearranging inside his brain to convert Adrakus culture and language to Terran left him dizzy. “You smell like an omega, sort of.”
“Sort of.” Curtis snorted. “Yeah, that’s me.” He loaded a whole lot of disgust into a few words.
“I mean no disrespect.” What had he said wrong?
“Why not? All the other dragons here disrespect me.”
Elouan cocked his head to the side, studying Curtis closely. “Why?”
“I’m half dragon. Dad is an omega, but Mom is as alpha as a human can get.”
Oh. That explained the strange scent. “I’ve never met a half-dragon before.” Or not that Elouan was aware of. Humans in Adrakus kept to themselves.
“I’m the only one I know of.”
“What are you doing out here alone?” Elouan didn’t mean to stereotype the guy, but omegas back home were seldom alone, except for Anrai, who valued his privacy.
“My dad thinks one day I might shift if I practice enough.”
A dragon who couldn’t shift? Elouan failed to keep the horror from his face.
“I know!” Curtis shouted, rising and kicking a rock into the fire. “I’m a freak.”
Think, Elouan, think! You’ve hurt him. Make this right! “I’m sorry. The portal left me disoriented, so I’m not myself right now. Are you having any luck?”
“No.” Never had anyone sounded so dejected in Elouan’s experience.
“I could help you try if you like.”
Curtis gave some pretty serious side-eye. “Why would you do that? No one does anything for nothing, and I’ve nothing to give.”
Poor guy really needed help with his self-esteem. “I’ve been in this world for less than an hour. I’m not without resources, but I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I’ll need a home, work, help to navigate a strange world.” He’d been here before, but as a tourist, not a resident.
Curtis regarded Elouan for a few moments.
“My apartment ain’t much, but it’s got two bedrooms. I’m in college but work at a pizza restaurant.
” He wrinkled his heavily freckled nose.
“Pizza Kingdom don’t pay much, but my dad works in construction.
They’re always hiring. Think you’d like to build things?
” Curtis’s hopeful expression tugged at Elouan’s heartstrings. Was the guy so desperate for friends?
Friendship Elouan could give, and he needed friends too. He let out a huge, relieved breath. He felt lost a few moments ago, but now, someone who considered themselves an outcast was offering to help. “I think I’d like that if your dad can teach me.”
Suddenly memories filled Elouan’s head of a life he’d never lived, where he’d built houses for a living—likely the result of Sakaris’s spell.
Curtis grinned. “I think we’re going to be good friends.”
Elouan hoped so.