Dragon Breeder 3 by Dante King (motivational books for students txt) 📗

legions too,” Elenari said, “but still… After so long having to hang back while the rest of you got to go into danger, this is exactly what I needed.”

I put a hand out and pulled the red-headed elf into a rough hug. Elenari laughed as I patted her head clumsily.

“I’m happy for you. You’ll be amazing. I’d follow your perfectly toned and highly capable ass into battle no questions asked. I’m sure the troops you lead will feel just the same.”

Elenari smiled up at me. “Thanks, Mike.”

“For what?”

“For having my back.”

I grinned roguishly. “It’s a hell of a back. And the front isn’t too bad either.”

Elenari slapped me on the chest.

“When do you leave?” I asked.

“Tonight,” Elenari said. “Hence the sobriety. Actually, I’m due to march out within the hour. I just wanted to say goodbye to you and Saya, and anyone else that I could find.”

I hugged her again.

“Well, good luck,” I said. “Not that you need it. You’re as capable as they come. Just ask that prick who robbed me when we first met.”

Elenari cupped my face with her hands and nodded.

“See you soon,” she said.

“Don’t forget to bring me back a present,” I quipped.

We kissed, long and hard, then Elenari grinned and disappeared into the crowd with a sexy little salute.

I wandered through the throng of men and women dancing and gyrating in the street, moving to the rhythm being laid down by a trio of drummers and one guy working hard on a horn.

There were some nutty individuals playing a game of Dragon Balls to the wild delight of a crowd of onlookers. This game involved a line of people rubbing a high potency alcohol through their hair. The first team member lit their head on fire and then passed the flame on to the next person’s head before dousing their own flaming dome with a mug of water. And on it went down the line in a highly incautious relay game.

A few of the more agile and sober soldiers had started a limbo line, and trooper after trooper was attempting to worm their way under a flaming rope.

I watched the line of drunken fighters try their luck at the rope, whistling and cheering along with the rest when some flexible soul who still had command of their center of gravity managed to make their way under it.

I was just applauding one prize jackass who had managed to hit himself in the forehead with the burning rope so that he was left with a neat red line across his head, when someone came up behind me and started pulling on my shirt sleeve.

“M-M-Mike!” Rupert gulped breathless. “Mike, you have t-t-to come quick!”

“Why?” I asked. “What happened?”

“It’s Tamsin,” Rupert stuttered, as he tried to catch his breath, “she’s—”

“The dragonling?” I shot at him.

Rupert nodded, obviously not trusting his words.

“Lead the way,” I said.

Rupert and I ran back to the campsite that had been set aside especially for the Drako Academy dragonmancers. I left Rupert outside the tent that he indicated.

I walked into the tent to find Tamsin side on, lying on the ground on a pile of sheepskins and wolf hides. Having missed the births of Wayne and Garth, I had been braced to find a woman in the throes of extreme stress—birthing anything has been known to raise the pulse a little. I recalled the Seer telling me how dragon births were nothing like regular births, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was about to see something that might forever change the way I viewed womanly parts.

Instead, I found Tamsin dressed in a shift, breathing quite normally, though rivulets of sweat ran down her body.

“You’re… just in… time, Earthling,” she hissed. Her yellow eyes narrowed as she bared sharp white teeth.

“Just in—?” I started to say.

Tamsin opened her legs and a shaft of pure, blazing light lit the tent. So bright was it, it looked like a car with its high beams on was driving right out of the hobgoblin’s—

I covered my eyes as the light flared even brighter.

“Holy shit!” I said, my drunken brain reeling under the onslaught of the brilliant light.

And then, it faded.

Purple blotches obscured my vision, and I blinked impatiently to clear them. When I could finally see again, I looked down and my breath caught.

Tamsin was sitting, black hair plastered to her sweating brow, cradling a tiny dragon in her arms.

The creature was the deep dark red of burned brick.

“Do you… have the crystal, Mike?” Tamsin asked.

“Do I have the…?”

“The crystal,” Tamsin said.

“Oh… Yeah.” Out from the pocket in which I had kept the blue Etherstone ever since I had taken it off Hana, I pulled out the crystal. The stone was the same blue as it had been when I had first laid eyes on it and still looked to be filled with tiny forks of flickering lightning.

“Do you think that he’ll be able to use it?” Tamsin asked. “Even so soon after being born?”

“Only one way to find out,” I said.

I rested the crystal on the bare earth floor, away from the blankets Tamsin was lying on. Reaching out, I took the little red dragon from her arms. I gasped as I took him. He was hot to the touch. So hot that I almost couldn’t hold him.

He felt surprisingly insubstantial in my big hands. Almost like I was holding a leathery umbrella, all sharp bones and loose skin. I rubbed a finger down the beast’s spine, and he made a gurgling purring sound.

“What’s his name?” I asked Tamsin as I placed the little crooning dragon on the floor next to the Etherstone.

“Pan,” the hobgoblin said at once. Her eyes were shining with pride, and her red skin