8. Kadia

"Come with me. I have such sights to show you!" Beckett said excitedly and grabbed Kaida’s hand to pull her along.

"Where are we going?" Kaida asked, trying to keep from following until he answered her, but Beckett’s grip tightened.

"We are going to show you off, of course. I think it’ll be good for you to practice shifting and flying in your dragon form."

"Oh." Kaida stopped being reluctant then. "That sounds like fun." He let go of her hand, and she followed him willingly now. This did sound like fun after what happened at the house. Kaida felt her dragon stir inside her at the thought of flying around, so she knew this was a good choice.

Beckett led her past the gazebo, climbed on the stone wall, and looked down at her. His smile was radiant as he held his hand to help her. Kaida gladly took it and made sure to add in a hop as Beckett pulled her up.

"Since there is an edge here, this is a perfect place to be able just to let go and shift. With your dragon already as strong as she is, she will push for the shift once you jump."

Kaida’s stomach dropped at that idea. The last time she trusted in her dragon to save her, the overgrown lizard waited until just a second away from disaster. Glancing down and seeing the trees below did not inspire much confidence that this time would be different. Her stomach twisted at the memory.

"Uh..."

"Trust me."

Kaida looked at him, and his face softened. His blue eyes were lightening to a brighter blue, and she could feel how hopeful he was that she trusted him through their bond. Kaida’s heart swelled at the sight of it. He was genuinely trying to show her that, despite his first reaction to her, he did care for her and wanted this mateship to work.

"Fine. I trust you."

"Good. Even if your dragon chooses to be a bit of a brat and waits to shift, I’ll be right there to catch you." He gave her hand a soft squeeze.

Kaida squeezed his hand back. "I know."

Beckett looked out toward the island before them. The town below seemed to sparkle under the bright sun, and the water just past the town glistened. It was a cloudless day; the vast blue sky felt like it was beckoning Kaida and her dragon.

Are you ready?

Hell yeah.

Kaida noticed Beckett’s knees bend, so she quickly followed suit. They jumped off the wall together. The sudden leap into the air, with absolutely nothing but trees and the ground below made Kaida’s heart skip a beat. The rush was exhilarating, the breeze zipping past them as they fell through the air. Kaida waited for her dragon to take over, giving her a nudge, and pulled onto the bond between them. Kaida felt her wings push out of her back first. She focused on sprawling them out to catch the wind so she could hover. Thankfully, her dragon didn’t take much time to respond, allowing the wings to fan out.

"Impressive, babe! Your wings are out! Now, you need to push for the full shift!"

The feeling of the air on her face almost made Kaida want to fly around just like this today. It was more thrilling than the first time she shifted since, this time, it was on purpose, and her dragon responded quicker. Knowing she wouldn’t have to struggle with her dragon and being dragonless anymore made this her favorite moment.

"Do I have to?" she screamed over the wind.

She could hear him chuckle. "I think you will enjoy it!"

"Give me a little time like this! I love how I feel right now!"

"Okay!"

Kaida looked down below, and the town was directly under her. She noticed a few people were looking up at her since they were only maybe twenty feet above the rooftops. Kaida waved her arm as wide as she could so they could see her. A little girl bounced happily up and down and waved her arms back, then got the adults to wave at her. She could feel a warmth spread across her chest at the sight of them.

"Well, look at that! The people love you already!" Beckett called out to her.

Kaida smiled and then turned her body to fly in a new direction. This island was so big, and she had barely seen any of it. She could fly around the entire island with the angle she moved to see it all. There were sections of the land for each species. It looked as though each section was directly across from where their kingdom would be on the mainland. The pavilion seemed to be almost at the edge of the dragon area, and the town below was a neutral zone.

It was a gorgeous place to be. The island seemed to have a plethora of vegetation all around it. Each side had a beach, and people seemed to go for picnics. The center of it, with the town, appeared to be the busiest area, but that was to be expected since the outside of it had all the houses for the residents.

After seeing the whole island, Kaida pushed on her dragon to go into an entire shift. When her dragon didn’t respond, Kaida looked at Beckett, flying next to her. He gave her a concerned look, tucked his wings in, did a barrel roll, and then was underneath her before he pushed out his wings again. Kaida let out a laugh seeing him flying upside down as he gave her a cocky grin.

"What’s wrong? I can feel you are nervous about something."

"I pushed on my dragon to shift, but she isn’t responding."

Beckett shrugged, "Maybe she doesn’t want to come out."

He has a point, "Okay. I guess we can continue flying this way, then. I really am enjoying it anyway."

"Let’s fly higher!" Beckett yelled before doing a partial backflip, thrusting his wings as hard as possible and zooming high into the sky.

Kaida stared up at him and chuckled to herself. The way he was able to quickly adjust to new things was something she admired about him. He didn’t seem to overthink at all. He does what he wants and allows whatever happens to happen.

Is that what happens when the Tidal magic influences you, or is it just because that is who he is? I guess that’s something I may need to ask someday.

Kaida tried to focus on throwing energy into her wings to be able to fly upward, but again, there was no response. She imagined flapping them the same way Beckett did, but they continued to remain stretched out, and she slowly glided along instead. Kaida looked down to see where she was and noticed she was over the water. There was a small peninsula off the coast of the witch territory.

Weird. I didn’t see this earlier when we flew over here. How is that possible? I paid attention so I would know where everything was, yet I don’t remember this at all. Beckett didn’t even point it out.

With a small push from the breeze, Kaida continued to fly directly over the peninsula. She wasn’t sure if Beckett had noticed that she wasn’t following, but something inside of her wanted a closer look at this small piece of land that everyone seemed to have, somehow overlooked. There were a few buildings, maybe four or five, and a large structure that looked like it had burned down. She could still smell the scent of burnt wood from afar, almost like this was recent.

Huh, that is strange. How haven’t I heard about this? The girls would have said something if they knew about it...and they seem to know everything happening around here.

Kaida felt her dragon stir inside of her. There was a sizzling sound, and Kaida noticed her purple magic archaically dancing across her skin. The dragon inside of her roared as Kaida felt her push a shift before she could understand what was happening. In a blink, Kaida’s human form was no more, and her Plasma Dragon form emerged, spewing arcs of purple light as she roared toward the sky.

What are you doing? She asked her dragon as she changed the trajectory of her movement and plummeted toward the ground.

A loud roar came from above, but her dragon ignored it. Kaida knew that it was Beckett’s dragon coming to reign hers in. There was only one problem with that.

Her dragon was stronger than his.

With a quick movement, her dragon shot a plasmatic ball of energy at Beckett’s dragon over her shoulder and continued to make her way down to the ground. The dragon wasn’t far from its target destination now and stretched out her wings to slow down just before they landed.

Whatever you are doing, stop! I don’t know why you aren’t listening! I don’t even know if we are allowed to be here!

The dragon functioned as though Kaida had said nothing to her. She stomped along and blew arcs of light at the buildings. Pieces of rubble blew in every direction as the arcs cut through them. After enough of the building was blown to pieces, the structure crumbled and fell to the ground. More rocks and dust covered the area as the roar from Beckett’s dragon continued to call to Kaida’s. Kaida pushed onto the bond to force a shift back, but it was useless. Her dragon was in control, and she could do nothing about it.

Stop! You need to stop this at once! I don’t know why you are doing this! STOP!

Kaida felt a blast of pressurized water strikes her dragon’s back. She felt her dragon be pushed to the ground slightly, but then she stood up and looked toward the direction the water had come from. Beckett’s blue Tidal dragon was hovering above, and Kaida could see him pulling water from the sea to swirl around him. He gave a warning growl and a few short roars at her dragon as he continued to pool together an ample amount of water for an attack.

Her dragon spewed arcs of her own magic at him and struck him in the chest.

Beckett’s dragon flew until it hit a large tree, knocking it over as the momentum pushed it. Her dragon seemed to be pleased with herself and looked at the next building.

Kaida tried to focus on a new angle to understand what was happening to her dragon. There had to be a reason why she was so destructive. Even though the dragon took her time emerging, she still knew that dragons didn’t act this way. Even late bloomers had more control over their dragon counterpart than this. The human and dragon had a mutual understanding and could work together without issue.

This can’t be because she is a Plasma Dragon. That doesn’t make much sense.

Kaida focused on how her dragon was responding to the environment. As she did, she realized there was a black haze on the ground, and wisps of it would flutter upwards as her dragon breathed it in. Each time she did, anger built inside her, and her dragon spewed her plasma at everything in front of her. Kaida tried to find the source of this weird black haze, but her dragon was more focused on destroying everything around her.

Listen to me! This isn’t you! There is something here that is making you do this!

The dragon roared just as a blast of ice knocked her sideways. When she got back onto her feet, she looked up and found Beckett’s dragon hovering above again. Kaida noticed that he was not getting close to the ground. Beckett’s dragon was looking around at the ground! He must have noticed the haze and knew it was something he needed to avoid.

Her own dragon decided that he was not worth her effort and swung her head back toward the largest building in the area. The other three buildings were already demolished, entirely shattered to pieces, and beyond repair. This one was the only one left.

That’s when Kaida noticed why her dragon was staring at it. The black haze was funneling out of this building.

What the hell? What is causing this?

Kaida didn’t get an answer. Instead, her dragon opened her mouth and allowed her Plasma magic to build inside of it. Without knowing what it was, Kaida was unsure if this was a good idea.

What if this haze is another form of magic, and my dragon’s magic could cause things to get worse? What if that is exactly what this needs to explode onto the rest of the island?

The magic let loose from her mouth before she could reason with her dragon. Kaida watched as the purple arcs of light swirled around the beam of her magic hurtled toward the large building. It bubbled over the entire thing when it collided and then exploded.

Rubble and dust blew every way it could as her dragon stood in place and watched for the destruction to settle. As it did, Kaida could feel Beckett’s dragon land beside her. Her dragon didn’t move. The dust went along with the air as the air blew through the area. There was nothing left of the structure outside of small spots of large rocks. Kaida looked for the black haze and noticed that there wasn’t a single spot of it left.

Well, hats off to my dragon for knowing what to do... but what the fuck was that?