36. Alfie

My mate was hurt.

He was in pain.

The roaring in my head became louder and louder, drowning out my own thoughts.

I couldn't think. I couldn't speak.

All I could do was feel the red-hot fury that burned at my core.

My dragon came out, furious and huge and protective.

We had one goal: protect Blaze from this man.

"Alphonse."

We vaguely recognised that name, a sound we'd heard before, but that was all it was, a sound. It wasn't us.

We stalked closer, moving our bulk between the threat and our mate.

A dagger of ice struck us in the shoulder and we felt it pierce our scales, burying itself inside our flesh. It hurt, but we ignored it. It wasn't deep enough to seriously harm us and this insignificant pain barely registered.

"Alphonse, stop. Shift back."

The man was talking. We growled out a warning, trying to tell him to back away, to stop using magic. If he would only stay away from our mate, he would live.

His eyes darted round and locked on something behind us. "Attack the dragon, you fools! It's trying to kill us."

We roared and twisted round, afraid that someone behind us would attack our mate, but nobody there moved. They were huddled together, frightened. We recognised them. We were sure we recognised them.

Whoever they were, they were weak.

We didn't like that. Our bonds fanned out across to them, bright and clear. That made them ours. Ours to protect.

Whirling back towards the man who was the threat, we locked eyes on him as he sent another spell crashing into us. This one was thicker and sharper. It cut into our neck, lodging deep inside.

Blaze screamed, "No!"

That scream made us angry. We didn't want Blaze to be afraid or frightened. We wanted him to feel happiness and love and safety only. His scream made us roar.

We leapt forward, our claws out, our jaws open to reveal our teeth, and it was all instinctive. We weren't thinking at all.

The barrier we crashed into knocked our head and it was cold, so cold. That was unnatural.

"Alfie, my darling, are you hurt?"

Our mate's voice was so sweet and pure. It made us want to keep him, protect him. All we wanted was for him to be safe. Why did this man keep trying to hurt him?

Thoughts slowly filtered into our brain.

Distantly, we heard a familiar voice. "Keep talking to him, Blaze Fire. He's new to shifting and seeing you hurt has brought him close to ruith. Talk to him, reassure him you are alive and well."

Our little mate's voice became a constant caress against us.

"Alfie, don't get hurt, please. I'm fine, you know. I'm safe. You can come back to me, I want you to. You can shift back and I'll protect you."

We glanced over to him. Our bond shone bright between us and I could see the love that made it sparkle, and the very faint thread of fear.

We would protect him. And our clan standing beside him. Their bonds were wrapped around our mate as our clan tried to keep him safe. One woman was standing to his left, the rest of the clan to his right, and he was encircled by their bonds, safe in the silvery web.

We looked harder. Just for a second.

The bonds we had with each of them were bright and strong and protective. But there were other bonds, and they pulsed with icy fear. Those bonds fanned out from the man before the border, and we could see now that he was drawing their power through those bonds.

Another spell struck us in the chest, and we whined with the pain. The man was getting stronger, drawing power from those around him. Drawing power from our clan.

We roared. Those people were ours to protect and we would.

Flame burst out of our mouth and shot in a thin stream across to the man. He flung a shield spell in front of him, holding our fire at bay. It hissed and crackled as it struck the ice, but our flame didn't get as far as the man.

Another dagger of ice embedded into our shoulder. Each one stung and we wanted to dodge them but we were afraid that, if they shot past us, they might hit one of our clan. We'd rather they hit us. We could take them. We would stop the man from throwing them.

"I love you, my darling. Come back to me and stop getting hurt, please. I don't like you getting hurt."

One of our clan spoke, a middle-aged man.

"He must fight, Blaze Fire. If he is to take his place, he must fight."

The words meant more to us than they had. I could tell who was speaking. There was my mate, Blaze, and the middle-aged man was Uncle George.

I processed that, and took stock of my body. I was big. I was a dragon. The spells embedded in my flesh were cold and sharp but they were not fatal. I could keep fighting. I'd keep fighting until Lord Somerville stopped harming me, stopped threatening what was mine.

With my thoughts suddenly clearer, I looked around me again. My anger burned inside me but it was deeper inside, somewhere quieter. Lord Somerville was drawing power from my clan, using it against me.

I reached out along my bonds, touching every member of my clan. My bonds were strong and unbreakable. They were stronger than his.

That realisation was all I needed.

It was easy to wrap, my bonds around those cold, greedy bonds and strangle them. I stopped the power being drained from my clan, one at a time. And, with every source of power I cut off, the man grew weaker.

He flung another spell. This one barely penetrated my scales.

I saw the realisation on his face. He knew he had no reservoir of power to draw on, and he knew I was responsible.

There was nothing else he could do. He shifted.

His dragon burst out, filling my vision with its large, silver body. It roared as it emerged, and it promised me a fight.

I kept my bonds secure around his, and all he had to fight with was his teeth and his claws. The dragon launched itself at me, and I was too slow to move. It landed with its teeth sunk deep into my throat and its front claws scratching at my sides.

The instinct I'd tamped down upon in order to think clearly came rushing back to the surface. Thought faded once again and we fought. My dragon and I worked as one, with only our combined instinct.

We slashed with our claws and bit and snapped, we were scratched in return and we slid on the damp grass as it became slick with blood. Below our feet, the grass tore and the earth churned.

Time lost all meaning and all we knew was the pounding of our heart, the dragon attacking us and the fragile little people behind us. We wanted to keep them safe.

When the silver dragon pushed at us and slashed with its claws, making us shriek with the sudden sharp pain in our leg, it managed to get past us. We rushed forward, desperate to get between it and our clan. We just needed to get between the threat and our clan.

As we rushed, our clan moved, backed away, and the dragon and I had more room to fight. Instinct made us drive it towards the border of our territory. If we could get it out, our clan would be safe.

It didn't want to go, though. It fought for its life, and it was vicious.

We hadn't been aware before that we could fight. We had never tried to harm anyone before. We found, though, that our instinct drew from a deep well, a hundred generations of pure uasal dragons. Of course we won.

At last, the dragon slumped to the ground and stopped moving.

We stood back, panting, and waited.

The dragon was barely alive, hanging by a thread. And then the bonds we'd been holding tightly with our own suddenly vanished.

Our own bonds straightened out, running directly from us to our clan, clear and pure and golden.

The threat was gone.

We looked to our mate, who was standing between our mother and our aunt, two of our clan, and the shining silver bond between them was wrapped around Blaze protectively. They were keeping him safe for us. We liked that. Liked that our mate was safe. Liked that our clan wanted to protect him.

Then we saw that his face was covered in tears and we whined. We didn't want Blaze to cry.

He rushed across to us just as we moved towards him, and he flung himself at us as we reached him. His little arms wrapped around our neck and we began to purr, happy to have our mate so close to us.

We pulled back and nuzzled him, checking him for pain.

"It's gone," he said. "I burned the spell away. Yours are still inside you."

He pointed at the sharp icy spells that were embedded inside us. We studied them, not sure what to do.

Now he pointed them out to us, we could feel them, radiating cold and making us bleed.

"Lay down," said Blaze, and we obeyed. We stretched out on the cool ground which had become muddy and red from the fight. We placed our tail carefully so that we wouldn't hit any of our clan.

We locked our eyes on our clan, but none of them met our gaze. We wanted them to come over to us, to join us and our mate, but they kept their eyes lowered and stayed where they were. We opened our mouth but, in this form, we couldn't speak. We couldn't ask them over.

Blaze flickered into his flame form and we breathed deeply. He pressed his flaming hand to our nose, petting us. It felt like a warm feather brushing against our scales.

"I'm going to burn them away. I won't hurt you. Make sure everyone stands back."

With that, he grew. His flames became brighter, burning hotter as he grew, and he pressed himself to our body. Our golden scales shone as bright as the sun in his light, and we'd never seen anything so beautiful.

The pain receded as the spells melted away.

Blaze worked until he had covered our entire body and then he stood beside our head. He looked into our eyes and spoke softly.

"I love you, my darling."

We wanted to answer him, but we couldn't in this form. It was that which made us shift back.