Dragon’s Instinct by Birch Elva

Author:Birch, Elva
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

Ian turned onto the rough gravel road and shut the radio off. It was pointless to have it on while they were traveling the rough road to Belle Lake Lodge.

“This is a road?” Olivia exclaimed. “It’s not even paved.”

“Once you get off the main highways, most of them aren’t. There are a lot of them that shouldn’t be driven after heavy rains. There’s nothing left but mud.”

“How can there be so much nothing in Montana?” Olivia asked as they followed the winding road through forest and canyon. “We haven’t seen a car in a half an hour!”

It was dry, and a plume of dust followed them on the road.

The hour-long drive out to Belle Lake Lodge ended up taking closer to two and a half hours. Every time there was a wide spot in the road, Ian pulled over before she could ask and Olivia hopped out to photograph something—the sun through trees, the sky red with the smoke from the nearby wildfires, or a tiny flower in a stand of dead grass. She seemed particularly fascinated with unusual rock faces.

Some of her choices baffled Ian, who only saw more dry underbrush and the same dull trees and rocks as ever. But Olivia’s enthusiasm was contagious, and when he caught her snapping sly photographs of him, he challenged her to pose for him in return.

“It’s only fair!” he told her, laughing and holding out his hand.

“Here,” she said, handing him the camera and standing tantalizingly close to slip the strap over his head. “It’s in full automatic mode, you shouldn’t have to adjust anything. Just point the lens, then there’s the shutter button. Press it down a little and it will autofocus, then click it to take a photo. It’s digital, so take as many as you like, no film to waste.”

“Oh my gosh, I remember photos when I was a little kid,” Ian said. “Expensive to develop, always running out of film, had to wait a week to find out half the roll was shots of the ground.”

Ian took some photos that even he could tell were pedestrian, Olivia looking awkward and uncomfortable as she posed in front of a green sign proclaiming 30 miles to Belle Lake Lodge. Not a single car passed them by as he took shot after shot. “You have to smile!” he scolded her. “You look like I’m torturing you!”

“I am smiling!” she protested, looking more wooden than ever. “I hate this side of a camera!”

Ian lowered the camera. “Why would you?” he asked in astonishment. “You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met in my life.”

The effect on Olivia was astonishing. Her big, forced smile softened into wonder and surprise. “I…you…that’s…”

Ian remembered to snap a photograph of her, not sure if it was in focus or even if she was actually in the frame.

Yes, his dragon purred. She is a work of art. She is perfect.

Human aesthetics weren’t a thing that Ian had ever thought his dragon cared for in the slightest.

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