Nicole woke looking at the face of her adopted mother, who snapped, “You idiot!”

  Nicole felt like she’d been through the wringer and back again, which was surprising in and of itself. Between her troll regenerative magic and the combat training she’d been through, very little was capable of phasing her. After all, she once been stabbed by a mugger, only to grab his wrist and break several of his fingers, before she even took notice of the knife in her gut. The wound had been nothing to her, because it healed almost as fast as she pulled the blade free; her combat training had been much more painful and grueling than a mere knife wound, having been a daily sunset to dusk workout, normally without breaks, over the course of a year.

  Resting beside her on the inclined hospital bed was the sleeping form of the little dragon, which appeared to have grown slightly. It had curled its forelegs around her left arm, while it cuddled next to her, to benefit from her body heat. The room was sparsely furnished, with concrete walls, giving her a clue she was in one of the underground hospitals the dwarves of Heart Forge had built.

  She grinned back, mischievously, “I love you too, Mom.”

  Cha’da, her adopted mother, appeared to be in her late forties or possibly early fifties. Her skin was pale. Her bright, red hair had been braided and left to dangle down her back. She wore a black, pointed, leather hat to mark her status as a witch and a black, leather dress, to match it. Her face was creased with concern.

  Standing beside Cha’da was Nicole’s adopted father, Max, who had short, blond hair and a face full of wrinkles he’d earned mostly from worrying about his wife, who’d been quite the wild child in her younger days, if the stories were even true; she’d been half-raised by goblin pirates.

  Opposite her adopted mother was her birth mother, Lyra, whose white hair reached just below her belt-line. To Nicole, looking at Lyra was almost like looking in the mirror, because they bore a strong resemblance to each other. Lyra was a full-blooded troll, but the only outward sign was the snow-white color of her hair. Thanks to the durability and regeneration granted by her troll heritage, she still looked about twenty years old, even though she was much older. Her blue eyes were filled with concern.

  “Do you have any idea how dangerous that technique you used was?” Cha’da growled, “You’re lucky to be alive! I can’t believe you would be so stupid as to use your own life energy to power a spell! You were unconscious for the better part of a day. The doctors and I have done what we can to magically restore you, but I’m afraid it will take at least several days of rest for you to recover, even with your regenerative magic.”

  Looking over at the little dragon, Nicole felt something like a motherly bond with it, as she shrugged, “There was no other way.” She stroked the scales of the dragon’s side and explained, “If I hadn’t used that dangerous technique, this little one would have perished, without even hatching. It was the only thing I could do to save her.”

  That was strange. She instinctively knew the dragon was female, just from having touched her. How could that be, when there were no external signs of dragon gender? Then she looked closer at the dragon and knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, based on the magical emanations coming from her, she was female.

  As Nicole’s bare fingers brushed the scales, she idly examined the magic of the creature and learned the half-chemical and half-magical secret of dragon fire, since the little dragon’s internal organs were hard at work magically producing stores of liquid hydrogen, along with separate stores of liquid oxygen. It was all a matter of taking in oxygen from the air, followed by breaking down the atoms of a certain percentage, through a magically-fueled transmutation reaction, turning it into hydrogen. In that moment, Nicole realized the little dragon had two organs that were similar to venom sacs, situated in her long neck, to hold the two reactive substances. In essence, the little dragon was a living, breathing factory that produced oxidizer and fuel suitable for a rocket, making dragon fire as destructive as rocket exhaust.

  Curious to learn more, she enacted a telepathic spell, to probe the mind of the hatchling, sensing both an ancient, fading mind filled with cruel intellect and the light, dozing mind of the hatchling. She came to know what it meant to be an ancient dragon of terrible power, only to be killed and reincarnated a few dozen times, over the millennia, each time losing herself to be reborn fresh, only remembering her full existence during the moments within the egg shell and shortly after.

  As legendary creatures born from the belief of mankind, dragons neither lived nor died in the traditional fashion. Instead, they lived both in and on the imagination of men, growing in proportion to their fame. The sleeping beast had been one of the greatest of dragons in the world, before a skilled team of dwarves slew her, just six months earlier, but while she’d been reborn as an egg, shortly after, she’d spent an extra-long time in the shell, during which her memories had mostly faded away, like remnants of old dreams. In a few days time, Nicole suspected all that would be left was a lingering dislike of dwarves, since the fresh thoughts of an infant dragon were rapidly taking control, moment by moment.

  Seeing the obvious affection of Nicole for the hatchling, Cha’da’s expression softened, “I can understand that, at least. So, you consider this dragon your child, then?”

  The small dragon chose that moment to open her big eyes and look up.

  Nicole looked down at the adorable, blue-eyed creature and knew, no matter what happened, she would love her forever, answering, “Why not? After all, I was adopted.”

  Lyra was next to speak, asking in a curious tone, “Have you named her?”

  Nicole shook her head and closed her eyes to consider for a moment.

  I am Bevna, the Quiet! Nicole was surprised by the sudden intrusion of the ancient dragon’s thoughts, I bring silent doom in the night! I am she who feasts on the bones of men and dwarves, to sate my lust for fame! I am the greatest of the she-dragon, Queen of Dragon-kind, ruler of all I see, now come to ruin by the hand of vile dwarves! The ancient dragon insisted, before the last remnants of her mind vanished away.

  Speaking in an almost scolding tone, Nicole objected, “I’m not calling you that.” Her mothers and father all appeared confused by her comment, so she quickly decided, “I think I’ll call her Ustrina Roseus.”

  Lyra and Max both looked confused, because neither of them knew the meaning of her words, but Cha’da grinned, “Latin for ‘burning pink’, I do believe.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Nicole nodded.

  They chatted for near an hour, until Nicole started to tire and then her visitors filed out, each telling her they loved her, in turn.

  Before her adopted mother left, she informed Nicole, “By the way, my long-term plans haven’t changed. Now that I know you’re out of danger, The Sanguine Maiden and I will be flying out immediately, headed for the ocean side of the planet, to visit a few of my old favorite ports and see how things have changed in the past twenty years.”

  The Sanguine Maiden was the ship Cha’da captained, a sailing ship that had been retrofit for space flight, at great expense. It had also been Nicole’s childhood home.

  “Travel safely, Mom.”

  “I’ll try, but no promises.” Her mother winked, “After all, I used to be a pirate and I’ve a certain reputation to uphold.”

  After they were gone, a dwarf nurse stepped in. Despite the fact they all had beards, Nicole had recently figured out how to spot the women of the race, based on the way their beards were usually better cared-for and braided. The nurse was female, with a few red bows tied to the ends of her beard braids, to keep them from unraveling. She wore the usual red uniform of medical workers, designed to make them easy to spot during an emergency.

  “How are ye doing? We’ve been pretty concerned by the way ye slept so long.”

  Taking a moment to consider, Nicole answered with a smile, “Hungry.”

  The nurse chuckled and within ten minutes she returned with a steaming plate loaded with meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

  As Nicole tore into the food without a word, the nurse asked, “What should we feed yer dragon?”

  Nicole paused and gave it some thought. Literature suggested, aside from their habit of eating people, they ate cows in massive numbers, but after having spoken with a few other local legendary creatures, including a few ancient gods, to sift the hard facts about dragons from the fiction, it had become obvious they actually lived on belief and eating wasn’t necessary, even though they liked to anyway, from time to time. However, based on the arrangement and shape of their teeth, dragons were definitely carnivores.

  “Beef wouldn’t do her any harm.” Nicole shrugged.

  “Okay. Should me bring it raw or cooked?”

  “Let’s try a little of both, this time, but cut it in small pieces.”

  Around the time Nicole finished her own meal, two plates of meat were brought in.

  Little Ustrina picked up on the scent of cow’s blood almost instantly and followed the plate of raw meat with her head as it was brought in.

  When it was set on the bed, by Nicole’s ankles, the little dragon leaped at it, pouncing almost like a cat, messily slurping down every bit of flesh and blood. When she’d licked the plate clean, she glared at the dwarf with hatred. The nurse tried setting the cooked beef in front of her, but she ignored it and curled up next to Nicole, instead.

  The dwarf was about to take the beef away, but Nicole reached out and took the plate, saying, “I’m still hungry, so I’ll eat it.”

  The nurse nodded and left with the used plates in hand.

  When Nicole was finished, she set the plate aside and fell asleep stroking little Ustrina’s head, who leaned into it, just like a cat.

  Nicole stood in the black void, yet again. However, Ustrina was sitting on her shoulder and looking around, as though deeply curious.

  The familiar, quiet voice whispered, “I am-”

  “Oh, shut up!” Nicole groaned, having grown sick of those very unhelpful words.

  The void silently screamed for her attention. Longing as deep and complex as the ocean washed through her mind. It was a helpless, impatient feeling, as though a burning desire had been disregarded, leaving only emptiness and lonely pain.

  She didn’t understand, because there was no explanation for it.

  “Okay, fine! I get it, you want something,” Nicole shouted at the void, “but I have no idea what you want!”

  Suddenly and without any kind of transition, she found herself holding two of the hexagonal coins, one in each hand. She also felt an undeniable urge to put them next to each other.

  Acting on the impulse, she brought them together and was shocked they appeared to be magnetically attracted to each other! Both coins leaped from her hands and snapped together along their edges, causing her to fumble them, in surprise, but she managed to catch the combination in mid-air, before they struck the floor.

  However, the sense of longing remained.

  Acting on a hunch, she tried setting them on the invisible floor and then tried to make the pieces of the coins slide, like she’d done with just the one coin, in a previous dream. Both coins had soon melted and she ran to a safe distance.

  When she looked back, she wasn’t at all surprised to see two of the hive-buildings standing side by side, with the new portion nearly identical to the other, at least from the outside, aside from the fact that the two buildings had been joined on their adjacent edge.

  Walking through the familiar portion, she pushed the entrance doors of the new portion aside and walked around, noting the layout of the center was the familiar hearth, but the outer portions had been segmented by walls that joined with the columns supporting the roof of the central area. One of the six alcoves had formed into a hallway, leading to the other building, while another was a stairwell, leading up.

  Standing inside, she felt as if the longing emptiness had reduced.

  “So, Kurg, you want to be whole? You want all of your scattered bits put together?”

  “I am Kurg.” Though the tone was almost emotionless, she nonetheless felt pleased, as though she’d given the correct answer, once more.

  Feeling exhausted, Nicole sat down on the brass-like floor and asked, “Why me?”

  Against her will, Nicole’s lips parted and she spoke in a cold, emotionless way that caught her completely off guard, “I am Kurg.”

  Nicole woke from the strange nightmare, covered in sweat, with her heart beating rather fast! She grumbled out a few choice curse words. Ustrina was awake and staring up at her with deep concern in her eyes, which were wider than ever.

  Within moments, the dwarf nurse was in the room, asking, “Are ye okay?”

  Ustrina softly growled at the dwarf, but she seemed unimpressed by the threats of a kitten-sized dragon.

  “No, but I will be, soon. It was just a bad dream.” She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince, but knew she didn’t believe it, herself.

  Even now, she could feel the power of the coin’s spell inside her head, fighting to assert itself. She didn’t care for the influence it was having on her dreams, but it was starting to fight to affect her conscious mind.

  After taking a moment to check her vitals, the nurse stepped back out.

  “All right, Kurg, it’s time for you to get out of my head!”

  Nicole began meditating to use a bit of unusual telepathic magic, doing the mental equivalent of looking in a mirror, using magic to carefully examine her own mind, as though it belonged to someone else.

  She was horrified by what she learned: the spell had somehow taken root inside her psyche and was very slowly taking over, as though it had a mind of its own! For the moment, it was mostly connected to her subconscious, but was in the process of connecting itself to every part of her mind, with the most active portions being the most resistant to intrusion, which explained why it had first attached to her sleeping mind and was having a difficult time intruding on her conscious mind. The spell was beginning to remind her of the telepathic equivalent to a computer virus, which wasn’t a comforting thought!

  Deepening her meditative state, Nicole reached into her mind and began attempting to tear the spell free, so she could safely dispose of it, but each magical tendril of thought recovered faster than she could damage it! She worked at it for nearly an hour, until her mental energies were spent.

  Laying back in frustration, she hit the call button for the nurse.

  Within a minute, the nurse was back, “What do ye need?”

  “Get my birth mother, Lyra. I need her expertise, immediately!”

  “It’s the middle of the night!” The nurse protested, “Can’t ye wait until morning?”

  Nicole shook her head, “No. I’ve got an out-of-control spell slowly taking over my mind and I don’t know how long I’ve got, so please, get Lyra!”

  “Aye, me’ll do what me can.” The dwarf reluctantly agreed, muttering to herself as she left, “Me hates magic.”

  Nicole laid back and tried not to fall asleep.