Prologue[]
Elizabeth ran. She ran as fast as someone who had given birth merely five hours ago could run.
She cradled Ethan gingerly- her precious little child, the light of her entire life. She hadn't known her bond with the him would be so strong when he was brought into the world only five-or was it six now?- hours before.
Then again, his birth had brought multiple surprises.
Ethan was a boy, for one, despite all the priests saying he was going to be female. But that was the least of the surprises.
He was a Shifter. A Dragon Shifter, to be exact.
Shifters were people who could change from human to a certain creature. They were fairly common- though Elizabeth was a normal human, her husband, Matthew, was a Wolf Shifter. They always kept one trait of their creature in human form, though. For Matthew, he had grey hair following his spine down his back. Ethan had sharp little claws on his fingers.
Recently, their kingdom, Mithar, was in a devastating war with the neighboring kingdom, which was larger and had more forces. In a desperate attempt to not be crushed, they started capturing and selling all of their Shifters as slaves to the other kingdom. So far, the other kingdom had not attacked after this deal.
But when the doctors had tried to take her child to sell, she had refused, saying she wanted a day with him before he had to go. The doctors had reluctantly agreed, and she had escaped while they were all away.
She hugged Ethan closer to her chest. "It'll be okay, little dragon." She had just come up with the nickname, but it felt like she had called him that for years. It felt right.
She realized she had run into a forest- the Anarchia Forest, probably, because the canopy was thick with Elderdew leaves, and how the trees were gathered close together. "Perfect." They wouldn't be able to find her in her- at least, for a very long time. And Elderdew trees were easy to cut down, for they had hollow spaces in the middle where they stored water, so she could make a house for them. She smiled and kissed Ethan on the forehead.
"You're home now, little dragon."
Chapter 1- Thea[]
Thea wriggled, trying to flip to a more comfortable position on the horses back. The ropes itched her arms, and the sun beat down on her like a mace. She really wasn't liking being in the position of a sack on the horse.
Thea was a Gryphon Shifter, and she had recently been caught by the higher-ups. She was being transported to Feldil, the strong kingdom threatening to take over small Mithar. She wouldn't be able to Shift- doing so was extremely painful when in a small area. And in some rare cases, whatever was binding you could sink into your skin and become a part of you.
So it wasnt recommended.
Thea coughed- dust had gotten up her nose. She heard a guard mutter, "Shut up," and tried to stifle her hacking. She saw trees up ahead. Anarchia Forest- they were taking a shortcut instead of going the long way around the Lad's Lake. She couldn't blame them- it was muddy and slippery. But, going through the forest was considered taboo. There were a few stories about people who had gone in and disappeared. She remembered one about... A lady and her baby, running away a year before Thea was born.
Thea sighed in relief once they got under the canopy. It was much cooler. One of the guards hesitated, and the other one looked back at him. "What is it, Ben?"
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" The guard- Ben, apparently- asked. "People have disappeared here."
"It will be fine, timid little fox." The first guard answered.
They trudged on forward, and Thea got a nice view of the canopy. She longed to transform into a gryphon and spread her majestic wings, and soar up through the canopy and flutter among the clouds. At the thought , a few feathers started emerging on her arms. She hurriedly thought, Not now, not now. The feathers retreated back into her skin.
Suddenly, a loud hiss filled the air, causing the chestnut horse she was on to stop and take a few steps back, ears flattened. The guards were on alert.
"Its a snake," Ben muttered. But Thea doubted that.
Suddenly, Ben was gone, taken by a blur of grey.
"BEN!" The other guard cried. He raised his sword and yelled, "FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN, LIZARD!"
But the other guard was gone, too.
Without anyone to steer the horse, the stallion backed up again, then turned around and was starting to speed off, when a long, grey rope lashed under the stallions hooves, and tripped it. Thea felt something remove her from the horse, flinging off her bindings, and disappear with it. Thea quickly got up, removing the gag from her mouth, and looked around wildly. The little bit of fur on her shoulders stood up. Shift! She yelled at herself.
Feathers and fur sprouted from her skin. She felt her skeletal shape change, and felt wings literally rise out of her back as she dropped to all fours. A long tail grew, and her lips hardened and stretched out to form a beak.
Soon, she was a female gryphon, brown feathers and fur with lighter wings speckled with white on the inner section. Her beak was dark gold, and a ring of white feathers were around her neck. Her eyes were forest green, green like the canopy. Thea stretched her neck. Oh, how good it felt to be in a gryphons body once more! She assumed a fighting stance, flexing her claws menacingly. She hissed in the language of beasts.
"Come and get me. I'm ready."
A dragon stepped out from behind trees and undergrowth.
It was grey, with a few dark grey stripes on his neck, back, and tail. Its wing webbing was the same shade of dark grey, this time with light grey coming from the ends of the wing, like long vines. His belly was light grey, and seemed to be more thick skin and less scale. His claws and his horn were a pure black, as well as the rhombus on his tail tip. Its eyes were brown.
It rumbled. "Ah, but dearest little gryphon, do you really have a chance against a dragon?" It sounded male, although you couldn't be sure with dragons.
"Of course I do! These claws could rip right through your underbelly and tear up some vital organs." Thea growled back.
It cracked a slightly crooked smile, revealing the tip of one of his teeth. "Ah, I was joking, Shifter."
"You better not come any closer. I can and i will harm you."
It raised an eyeridge, its expression turning neutral again. "Tough little one, arent you?"
"Stop calling me little one! I'm 14."
It looked a little... embarrassed? "Oh- pardon me- you looked younger when you were atop the horse."
"Why arent you attacking me? You're a dragon." Thea was confused.
"Well, im not a dragon, actually." He cracked another smile. "I'm a Shifter, alike you."
"Prove it." Thea didnt trust the dragon at all.
"Sure." He started changing. Scales sunk into sun-tanned skin. The tail and wings retracted. Claws softened into fingers, and spider-silk garment soon cloaked him. (Mithar was known for one thing- the Mithar spider-silk. Extremely stretchable. Opaque when normal, transparent when stretched. It was what most shifters wore.) Horns sank into his head, turning to messy black hair. Soon, a human boy about 15 stood in front of her.
"Well?" He gestured to himself. "Convinced?"
"Sure." Thea growled. She took a step towards the dragon boy and his gaze hardened. "If you attack me, you will heavily regret it. I am a dragon. And dragons are powerful. Possibly the most powerful." He looked at her, a hint of arrogance in his stance.
"You're forgetting about Hydra Shifters." Thea rolled her eyes. "But no, i wasn't going to harm you." She started shifting back into her human form. A young girl with brown hair the same color as her fur and plumage, with soft fur on her shoulders and skin like light amber. "Now, excuse me, but i need to get back to Mithar. My home-"
"You can't trick me that easily," the boy hissed. "Mithar is selling Shifters as slaves to Feldil. Even though i was raised here my whole life, my mother wasn't. She told me everything."
Something in Thea put two and two together. "You were the child of the lady who ran away!"
"...Excuse me?"
"There's a superstition on how its taboo to enter Anarchia Forest, because one lady went in and never came back! As well as some guards!"
He looked behind himself. "Speaking of guards, I roasted they and their horses quite nicely, would you like to dine on them?"
"Um- just the horse." Cannibalism made her greatly uncomfortable.
"Oh, no,, no, i eat them in dragon form," he said hurriedly. "Its- im a whole other creature. Its fine. ...Right?"
Thea shrugged, and turned back into a gryphon, fluttering her wings. She looked down at the boy. "Well? Where are they?"
He shifted back into a dragon, and turned, walking off of the barely-visible trail. "Come with me."
Thea cautiously followed him. "Hey," she called, "what's your name?" She paused. "I'm Thea. Thea Semillius."
The dragon boy looked back at her. "Ethan James."
Chapter 2- Ethan[]
Ethan trudged through the forest. It was pure satisfaction to spread his wings, to leap through the undergrowth, to sink his claws and teeth into his prey-
Okay, that was his dragon side talking. But being a dragon was magnificent.
Ethan glanced back at the gryphon girl- Thea, she said her name was. How lucky for him to come across some guards in the forest. He was starting to get bored of bears. And a Shifter, too- he would wait to see if she was to be eaten or not. He didnt know if that would be considered cannabalism if he ate another Shifter- the thought unnerved him. She could be a potential mate- that was his dragon side talking again. Ethan swore normal dragons only thought of three things: Eat, Kill, and Have Children. He sighed as he cut away an annoying vine with his sharp, ramlike horn.
"What is it?" The gryphon girl asked behind him. Thea. Her name was Thea. He had to remember that. Or was it Hera? Argh. Whatever.
"Its nothing. We're almost there." Ethan boredly replied.
"Whatever you say, Evan."
"Its Ethan. Get it right, Hera."
"Its Thea. Get it right, Lizard." The girl snarkily replied.
"Do you want me to eat you?!" Ethan growled, flexing his claws. Thea simply clicked her beak in amusement.
"You're really getting on my nerves, oversized chicken."
"Then fight me, you insufferable sack of scales." Thea crouched and flicked her tail.
"Your choice." Ethan let his anger control him as he spun around and leapt at Thea. Thea dodged him, nipping his leg. Ethan blasted a plume of fire at her and singed her tail. Thea shot into the sky and Ethan followed, his spirits high in the thrill of the fight.
The clouds were painted pastel with the sun just starting to touch down on the horizon. They were wet and refreshing on Ethan's scales. He spotted Thea lingering above him with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
Ethan bit her tail and Thea scratched his wings. Ethan breathed fire and Thea dodged gracefully. Thea dived down and Ethan followed her, the gryphon's tail just out of his reach. Thea swerved up and gracefully skimmed to the ground. She hadn't realized how close Ethan was behind her and the dragon crashed into her, knocking them both took the ground. Ethan held the gryphon down with one paw as she struggled. "Aha! You are weak!" He taunted.
Thea smirked at him and suddenly kicked up her back talons, scratching his stomach like how cats do when you rub their belly fur too long. Ethan roared and flapped out if reach, landing beside her with a paw on his stomach. He shifted into a human again, and clutched his stomach. it had some nasty scars. Thea shifted and bites on her tail transferred to her right leg.