Blood of Dragons by Bonnie Lamer

haunches and laughs until it turns into a hacking cough that flings small flames in my direction.  I hold my ground though.  Dragons do not like those who fear them when they are not trying to be fearsome.
     
    “You have wit.  Strange quality for a humanoid.  What do you want from here?” Zu asks.  Garren starts to speak but Zu rounds on him with his mouth slightly open.  A look that implies he is about to use his firepower. 
     
    “I am looking for a friend.  She was taken by the Goblins and is being ransomed for magic.  We want only to retrieve her and then we will return to our realm.  It is not our place to do anything more.”
     
    Zu begins to walk slowly around me using his flaring nostrils to continue to smell me.  He wants to know who and what I am but he will not ask again.  His pride will not let him admit that he cannot determine the answer through his own sense of smell.  “And the Goblins who hold this friend, what of them?  Do you plan retaliation?”
     
    “No,” I say as Zu’s nose moves Xandra’s hair around her neck.  “We will leave that to the Dragons if you so deem retaliation is in order.”
     
    Zu is in front of me again.  “Why do you not fear me?  I smell fear from your compatriots but you have no such scent.”
     
    “It is not in my nature to fear beings I know to be just.”
     
    On his back haunches with his arms over his chest again, he says, “Insightful for one so young.”  His head cocks to the side.  “Yet you are not as you appear.  You smell of eternity; a soul that has seen the beginning of time and will see the end as well.  I believe you have knowledge to impart from that eternal soul.  Tell me, when will my soul finally rest?”
     
    A question I do not typically answer but the loneliness and resignation in his eyes tells me that he knows he is not long for this world.  “You will not see another harvest.”
     
    Zu sighs and his snout relaxes, his mouth is pulled back into what could be described as a sad smile.  “A relief that is.  I will not press for more details.”  Turning to Garren once again, he says, “You may pass through the Lairs of the Lost unharmed.  But a trespass such as this will only be tolerated once, Garren.  Do not attempt to bring strangers to our realm again or you will be our next stew.”
     
    If only he was joking.  He is not.  Dragons will make stew out of every being other than fellow Dragons.  One or two have considered that during times of slow Goblin population growth, though.
     
    “Come,” Zu says.  He turns around and is back on all four paws as he leads us deeper into the Lairs of the Lost.  Our passage will be safe but the others seem leery of Zu’s generosity.  The death of a Dragon is long and drawn out.  Zu considers it a gift to now possess the knowledge that his demise is near.  He will now give us the gift of safe passage.  He has become our ally.  A tenuous ally.  But an ally none the less.
     
    Kallen holds his hand out to me by sheer force of habit.  He snatches it back quickly when he realizes what he has done.  I keep my small chuckle to myself.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 17 – Xandra
     
    The waterfall is beautiful.  I’m assuming it’s Niagara Falls or something because it’s massive.  Unless Angel time exists everywhere at once, then it could be on a different planet I suppose.  Ugh.  Why did that thought just seep into my mind?  The whole concept is making my head hurt so I’m going to stop thinking about it.  I don’t want another explosion of knowledge to carve cavernous size holes in my mind again. 
     
    “I thought I would find you here.”
     
    Startled, I turn around to find a beautiful Angel (like there’s any other kind).  She has long auburn hair and her skin is a light bronze color that somehow looks right on her. She’s wearing a simple green dress of what I think must be silk because it flows around her