Scaleshifter by Shelby Hailstone Law

Author:Shelby Hailstone Law [Law, Shelby Hailstone]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-14T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12: Learn About Each Other

The first full day that Caleb spent with Rikaa was filled mostly with conversation. Neither of them knew much about the other, and they kept finding misconceptions that needed clearing up—on both sides.

Rikaa, for example, seemed perplexed by the idea that not all of the humans in the kingdom supported the war, and he had Caleb explain to him no less than three times what it meant to be a refugee and what life was like for the humans who either chose not to fight or were too old, young, or feeble to fight.

On the other hand, Caleb could hardly believe half of what Rikaa told him about dragons and their isolationist society. Sure, they no longer fought wars over territory, but they seemed to solve that problem by living largely solitary lives—albeit with deep family ties. Dragon children only left when they found a mate for themselves—and even then, they didn’t go so far that their parents couldn’t find them in about a day’s journey. Rikaa himself had raised four children from eggs to adulthood, though his mate had been killed by a human wizard before their last egg hatched.

“I’m sorry,” Caleb said when he heard it.

Rikaa shook his head. “It happened three hundred years ago. The wizard is long dead, and all of my children know better than to get too close to humans. Losing their mother taught them that lesson only too well.”

“But you don’t keep away,” Caleb pointed out. “Even after you lost her.”

Rikaa chuckled. “I have lived here for hundreds of years. The humans came to my mountain, not the other way around. But I refuse to leave. Instead, I keep my distance and keep my eyes peeled for young, foolish dragons who wander too close to danger.” He gave Caleb a significant look, and Caleb looked away, feeling embarrassed, as if he was one of Rikaa’s children that had gotten recklessly close to the army.

Hearing Rikaa talk about the hundreds of years he had lived, Caleb felt sheepish to admit he was fourteen. When spring came, he would be fifteen, but even that seemed insufficient, far too young compared with Rikaa’s long experience. That feeling of being too small, too inexperienced, was a far cry from the way he’d felt dealing with the army, when he had tried to pass himself off as younger than he really was for as long as he could.

Yet Rikaa still seemed interested in the stories Caleb had to tell, even if Caleb had less than two decades of stories to draw from. He was sympathetic to hear that Caleb’s brother—or “nestmate,” as Rikaa called him—had died in the war. They even shared a quiet silence as they both considered their losses.

But Rikaa was more interested in hearing stories about Tris and the way he lived, not about the way he died. He was particularly fascinated by how close Caleb had been with his brother. “Like dragons,” he had said, which had Caleb smiling. Anytime Rikaa compared humans to dragons favorably, Caleb had learned, he meant it as a compliment.

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