~Raius

  They had breached the cavern the day before and hauled in their wretched ee-kwip-mint and muh-sheen-uh-ree. The noise was incomparable to anything found in the memories of the ?ther-mind—it was not natural.

  Raius’ bones vibrated inside his shell, where he clutched his skull, his claws digging into the tough flesh. Hot, coppery blood dripped down his brow.

  Out—out—OUT!! he roared. OUT!! OUT!!

  But the thick, stony cage that had housed him far past adolescence refused to release him. Rather, without the aid of other adult dragons, and with Aurora's will to keep him safe as long as possible, he'd been trapped, unable to hatch on time and forced into a sort of stasis as he grew...until he'd woken in the cramped dark alone, yet filled with a strange longing.

  He shifted as large as he dared, and with all of his strength, he pressed outward, trying to shatter the shell from within. When that failed, he shifted back to his smaller, more humanoid form and hardened his fists, growing thick, iron-like scales over his knuckle bones.

  Thwack! Thack! Thwack! Thwack!

  He punched the same spot over and over, not stopping even when he began to leave dark smears of blood on the shell. He roared again, this time using his Voice, tinged with hot, blue fire—

  “OUT!!”

  He inhaled deeply and expelled what little fire he could conjure on the weak spot he had punched. Again! Again! Again!

  Thwack! Thwack! He punched the glowing shell, ignoring his sizzling flesh and glowing bone, until suddenly—

  CRACK!

  He roared again, this time in triumph! His shell, his prison, was finally yielding.

  After that, it wasn’t long until the rest of the shell cracked and fell open—rocky chunks several inches thick, lined with a mysterious, luminous membrane that was now splattered on the cavern floor. He knew it wasn’t yet time, but it was better for him to free himself than to be at the mercy of the humans who would dare to desecrate his mother’s bones. Aurora's remains.

  Raius breathed in the stale, acrid air of the cavern and took in his surroundings. He was inside Aurora’s huge ribcage. Two humans, who had been using one of their muh-sheen-uh-rees or ee-kwip-mints to cut through her bones, had stopped to stare at him the moment his shell had exploded.

  He started with them.

  Though his flame was weak, it was enough to kill them. Easily. Their screams were loud as the fire melted their flesh and bone, grating on his sensitive ears. The shell had muffled any sounds he might have heard while inside—all he'd known until now was silence.

  “Keith!” someone new yelled, running into the cavern through a perfect slit in the wall.

  Ah, Raius thought. This is how they got in, the vermin.

  Raius crawled through Aurora’s lower ribs, his legs aching from the new movements as his long limbs cracked and popped to stretch their full length, and sat back on her spine to watch as several more humans filed into the cavern. His knuckles throbbed from punching his shell...but his claws...yes—those he could still use.

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  A low growl rumbled deep in his chest as he stretched his fingers until his claws were at their longest and sharpest.

  “He woke up!”

  “He got out!”

  “Shit!”

  “What’re we gonna do now?”

  Though he had the gift of tongues, as all dragons did, their words made little sense to him. It was all a loud, jumbled mess of noise assaulting his brain—it did not matter what they said. None of them would leave here alive. Raius would make certain of that.

  Slowly, he transformed into his dragon. He was small. Larger than the humans, yes, but barely big enough to carry his mate upon his back. His mate.

  His chest ached when he thought of her. He had to find her and bond to her, but first, he had to take care of these trespassers. The ones who dared to desecrate his mother's resting place.

  “CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” one of the humans yelled, moving to stand in front of the group. Raius could see his flow of mana, a swirling glow around him, if he focused with his dragon eyes. A different kind of human…one that had a special name…

  “Mage,” Raius rumbled, tendrils of smoke accompanying the words.

  “Yes!” the mage replied, bursting into a grin, yellow teeth gleaming in the lamp he held. “If you can understand us, then you can simply come with us! There is n-no n-need for any m-more…m-more bloodshed.”

  Water began to leak from the man’s eyes. Strange.

  ‘Do you have my mate?’ he tried to ask them in his mind, hating how awkward the human words felt in his mouth. The humans did not react.

  He growled low, dissatisfied. They could not understand mindspeak! “Haaave mate? Haaaave Floh-rrrrence?” he asked, concentrating on each syllable, disliking the feel of his lip on his teeth, but relishing the way his tongue rolled on his mate's name...Florrrrence. Heat blossomed in his stomach at the thought of her.

  The humans looked at one another.

  “We have a m-mate for you,” the mage replied. “A female dragon. She is a beautiful crimson color, sure to please you—”

  Dragon? They have a dragon? And they don’t have Florence?

  “No,” Raius growled, climbing down Aurora’s hip bone, stalking toward the group of men—a predator toward his prey. Pathetic prey who were raising their weapons. “No.”

  During his decades-long growth period inside the egg, Raius had learned much from Aurora and the ?ther-mind she was connected to. He had learned of humans and their weapons—their swords and spears and bows and arrows—and he had learned about his own vulnerabilities.

  Raius was small and weak, but he was still three to four times the size of a human in his dragon form. Though his fire was small, it was hot—hot enough to melt flesh and bone and me-tal. The shiny, sharp material the men waved around at him in panic.

  It did not take long to end the lives of those who would desecrate Aurora. Those who have another dragon captive. He would consult with Aurora about that later, and Florence, too. She was from this world. Perhaps his mate would know where this dragon was being held.

  His mate. His mate.

  The ache in his heart returned. Raius looked up. Far, far above him, there was an opening—the way out. The way the humans had come in had been destroyed in their skirmish, so he'd have to climb out of here before he could begin looking for her.

  Raius had a few wounds from the short battle, but nothing that wouldn’t heal quickly, thanks to his dragon blood. He licked them clean.

  More importantly, however, there was plenty of fresh meat before him…and he was hungry.

  He needed to eat if he wanted to gather his strength.

  Though he felt disgusted, Raius used his dragon body to tear into the dead prey and eat his fill. For his mate, he would do anything it took to be by her side.

  Anything.

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  Weeeee're baaaaack! Hi! Hi hi hi!!! I'm so excited to be back! It's been way too long. I tried to plan for the wrenches, but life threw way more than expected. I felt like I was being attacked by hammer bros from super mario (except they were throwing wrenches...hehe)!! Our roof leaked, our window leaked, our basement leaked and flooded, we had mold in our basement that had to be fixed asap....and apart from the leaky basement leading to mold, the other issues were unrelated! We had to have a LOT of unplanned work done on our house, including regrading our yard to prevent more flooding. To top it off, I also had surgery that took me longer to recover from than expected. Needless to say, even though I thought I booked in enough time for the typical life disasters to occur, MORE OCCURRED. You can never prepare! That's the lesson! You will come back when you can, and don't promise anything you aren't 100% sure about! I still don't have as large a buffer as I would like, but I am confident I can update weekly to finish up LFINE in Season Two!! ?? I have changed the update time based on analytics from all the sites I post on, as well as scheduling in my personal life. Hopefully it works better for everyone! Anyway, I am super excited to be back!! See you next week!