Chapter 15

Okay. Well, she’s not screaming and running yet. I’ll take that as a good sign, Caleb thought as he looked down at Kira, trying to move as little as possible lest he break the spell and send Kira sprinting off into the distance, never to be seen again.

Why would our mate scream and run at the sight of us? his dragon demanded to know, preening a little, trying to make the sunlight play off his smooth, shiny scales. We are magnificent. Now that she has seen us, she knows we can protect her. That she will always be safe as long as we are by her side.

Yes – I know that, Caleb told it. But you have to admit, suddenly seeing a dragon appearing out of nowhere could be a little disconcerting to most people, mate or not.

His dragon did not seem inclined to admit anything of the sort, and simply flexed its wings, as if trying to show them off – no, Caleb thought, rolling his eyes. The dragon was definitely trying to show them off.

It was a normal thing for dragons to do for other dragons – display themselves, comparing their power and physique – but Caleb wasn’t sure it would be as impressive to a human.

In any case, Kira definitely wasn’t saying much – she was just standing there staring, her mouth and eyes opened wide.

Caleb wanted to reassure her, but of course, as a dragon, he couldn’t form human words – the best he could do was make a soft, deep crooning sound, which dragons used to comfort each other and show they were friendly. But again, who knew exactly what a human might make of it?

He had his answer soon enough, however.

At the sound of the deep, booming purrrr emanating from his chest, she blinked, seeming to snap out of her state of shock.

“Oh… so I guess you really weren’t joking,” she said, shaking her head. “I… uh. Well, I guess the joke’s on me, because I definitely only twenty-five percent believed you when you said you could turn into a dragon. And I didn’t think you’d be quite so… uh, big.”

Caleb would have smiled if he could have. Instead, he felt a ticklish warmth in his belly – the way a dragon felt happiness.

You see? Our mate is impressed with us! She sees how capable we are. How well we can look after her!

Caleb wasn’t sure he’d go quite that far, but it definitely was gratifying to hear Kira say something that implied she thought he was imposing. His dragon’s pride found it irresistible.

“So do you… uh, breathe fire or anything like that too? Like a real dragon?” Kira shook her head again. “Sorry – that sounded weird. You are a real dragon. I meant more like… a dragon out of a story book. Is that stuff all true? Do you have a hoard of gold as well?”

Before Caleb could stop it, his dragon had stoked up the fire in its belly, letting smoke waft up from his mouth and nostrils – but he quickly tamped it down again. The last thing he needed was the dragon getting over-excited and accidentally letting a spark out, and setting half the forest on fire.

The question about the hoard was something he could only answer in human form, however. He couldn’t wait to explain how it all worked to Kira – but would she be impressed with his family’s hoard of film, or just disappointed it wasn’t gold coins and jewels?

No. Our mate is not like that.

His dragon’s voice sounded firmly in his head, and just for once, Caleb found himself in complete agreement with it – Kira wasn’t the kind of person who cared that much about gold and riches. She’d proved that with her refusal to take Heit’s money to drop her opposition to his project. If all she cared about was being wealthy, she could have taken it and never had to worry about money for the rest of her life. But instead, she’d chosen to keep fighting for what was important to her.

“Well, if it helps, I definitely believe you now.” Kira’s voice sounded from below. “Uh. And it’s not that I’m scared or anything like that, but… maybe you could change back now? I know what I said about no one coming down here, but I wasn’t really expecting you to change into a dragon when I said that. Maybe you’re better safe than sorry.”

Caleb had to agree with that. He didn’t want to cause any more problems than they had already. Summoning up his energy, he shifted back to his human form, watching the world grow larger around him as he shrank back down. He could see Kira’s face as he did so, growing even more astonished than it was already – perhaps seeing the process in reverse was somehow even stranger. She shook her head when he stood in front of her, human once more.

“Okay. Well, I’m sorry I doubted you,” she said. “You couldn’t possibly have given me a better demonstration of why I was wrong.”

“I hope I didn’t startle you too much,” Caleb said cautiously. “Though I’d understand if you needed some time to adjust to the idea.”

Kira shook her head again. “No – no. It’s not that. It’s just – dragons? Real dragons? I mean… are you guys that common? Is every second person I see around actually a dragon, or something like that?”

Caleb laughed softly, shaking his head. “No, you don’t have to worry about anything like that – not that you would anyway, since most dragons just want to live peacefully these days, without causing any fuss. But we’re really not that common. You could probably go your whole life never seeing a dragon in its human form. You might see some other kinds of shifters, though…”

Kira’s head snapped up. “Others? There are other kinds of shifters?”

“Yeah – sorry, I kind of sprung that on you too, I guess.” Caleb grimaced. “But yeah – there’s plenty of different kinds of shifters. Cats, dogs, squirrels – you name it. But mythical shifters – dragons, unicorns, griffins, for example – we’re a lot less common.” He paused. He supposed if he was coming clean about things he’d better tell Kira everything, no matter how surprising it might be. “But, uh, sorry to say, Heit is one of them. He’s also a dragon shifter. That’s the reason he was talking as if he knew my family – there aren’t very many of us, so we tend to be aware of each other.”

“Oh. Right. Okay.” Kira looked a little stunned, and Caleb couldn’t say he blamed her. When her knees started to wobble, however, he rushed to her side, taking her arm and helping her down onto the park bench.

“Kira, are you okay?” he asked, panic lancing through him. Had he told her too much too soon after all?

“Yeah… well, I guess as fine as I can be,” Kira murmured, looking at her hands. “For someone who’s just found out that the person who’s trying to steal their park isn’t only endlessly rich and powerful, they’re also a fire-breathing mythical being.”

“Believe it or not, it doesn’t really change that much,” Caleb said. “Well… not if we can find that will placing the land in trust, anyway. He can’t just turn into a dragon in the middle of the county court. In those terms, his money and power is a lot worse than him being a dragon.”

“Oh. Well. I guess that’s a relief,” Kira muttered. “For a second, I thought we had a real problem.”

Caleb laughed, unable to help himself. “No – well, probably not anything worse than we already had, anyway.”

“All right, well, I’ll look on the bright side about that, then,” Kira said, shooting him a small smile, before a slightly troubled look crossed her face. “But wait – what was all that other stuff you were telling me? About the… the curse? And the golden treasure you had to find? It’s not just something for… for your hoard of gold, is it?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “My family doesn’t hoard gold – not all dragons do. The Tongle and Heit clans hoard property – but you could probably guess that. Some dragons hoard things like pencils, or stamps. Things that are collectible.”

Kira blinked, then understanding broke across her face. “And your family – it hoards films?”

“That’s right.” Caleb smiled warmly. “That’s why we have such a collection of them, and why they’re so precious to us. But we’re not the kind of dragons who guard their hoard, or hide it away from the world. We love to show off our collection, and we lend a lot of what we have to film festivals, or put on our own festivals at the cinema we own. It’s a hoard to be shared, not hidden.”

“I never thought about something like that,” Kira said wonderingly. “But… I guess it makes sense. Wow. Okay. That’s fascinating.”

Our mate thinks we are fascinating! The dragon puffed out its chest, stretching out its wings. We are fascinating!

Caleb did his best to push his dragon’s inflated ego to one side for the moment. “I’d love to be able to show you some of our collection at some stage,” he said softly, and felt his heart pick up the pace a little as Kira’s head shot up, her eyes widening as they stared into his. “But for now, I need to figure out this curse. I really do think the forest here is beautiful, and I want to do everything I can to protect it from Tongle Heit. But I can do that much more easily after the curse is lifted.”

“And… you think whatever treasure – or whatever – that has the power to lift the curse is here in the parklands?” Kira asked slowly.

Caleb nodded. “That’s what I was told by the clan who are responsible for the curse – well, their ancestors were, anyway. They don’t really care about it anymore. They don’t even remember why it happened. But they told me that I’d find it here – whatever it is. The problem is, I have no idea where to start looking, or even what to do with it once I find it.”

Kira frowned, chewing her lower lip. “Well, I do know the park really, really well,” she said after a moment. “But I’ve literally never heard about any kind of treasure being buried here. Do you have any more information?”

“I took a photo of the parchment they showed me,” Caleb said, reaching into his pocket. “Actually, I took a bunch of them, in case something happened to one of them. And I sent them to my family and friends. And printed them out. And stored some on a backup phone as well.” He shrugged. “With my luck, you can’t be too careful.”

He unfolded the print-out of the photo he’d taken of the parchment, laying it out in front of Kira. This, miraculously, was really only the third one he’d needed – the first one had gotten soaking wet and torn to shreds when a stiff breeze had blown it out of his hands and into a water fountain. The second one had, intriguingly, been snatched out of his hands by a large bird, and Caleb could only guess that it was being used to line its nest right now.

Kira frowned as she looked down at the photo. Caleb leaned over her shoulder, the words before him familiar by now:

Find ----- ome of the Aurum Lacu---------

Prep--------- caref----------

BEWARE! If not ---------------- DEATH --------------- HORROR BEYOND IMAGINING

After the flames consume -------

“Wait, this part here,” Kira said suddenly, pointing at the first line. “Is this the treasure

part? The part that made you think it was something gold?”

Caleb glanced at her. “Isn’t it? ‘Aurum’ is Latin for ‘gold’, right?”

“It is, I’m pretty sure,” Kira said, nodding. “But I don’t think it’s talking about actual gold. I think it’s talking about something else – a gold color. Look –” She pointed at the second word, only partially readable, after time had worn the ink from the page. “It says ‘aurum lacu-something’. There’s a kind of mushroom that grows in this park called an aurum lacunosa. It got its name because its caps are a really bright yellow color – like gold. And the second part, lacunosa, is because it has holes in it, so it looks a bit lacy.”

Caleb blinked, staring at the page. “So… all this time, it wasn’t a real gold treasure I should have been looking for? It was a mushroom?”

“Well, maybe,” Kira said. “I mean, I don’t know for sure. It’s just my guess based on the fact it was the first thing I thought of when I saw that. It’d be a coincidence if it’s not, though, especially since the next lines seem to be saying something about being careful, and warning about horror and death – the main reason I know about these mushrooms is because they’re deadly poisonous, unless you prepare them in a really specific way, apparently. So we need to be really careful to make sure we can identify them, in case anyone ever eats one.”

“Oh – does that happen often?” Caleb asked.

“No. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard of it happening since I’ve lived here. But that’s probably because of where they grow. They’re not exactly just springing up at the base of every tree.”

“Where do they grow, then?” Caleb asked, a slight sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Uh. Only in caves. And in this park, only really in one specific cave – well, that I know about, anyway. And it’s… kind of a hike to get out there. And then a climb.”

“Oh. I see.” Caleb realized he’d been right to trust the sinking feeling in his stomach. “So… it’s not exactly a Sunday stroll, is it?”

Kira shook her head. “No. But… I can definitely take you out there. It might not be easy, but we can do it. I know the way. And I’m more than happy to show you.”

Sucking in a breath, Caleb stared at her. “You really mean it?”

“Of course I do,” Kira said, a smile twitching at the corner of her mouth. “Look, I might be new to all this… this dragon stuff, and all this curses stuff, but if this is really the only way you can break it, then how could I not help you?” She looked back down at the print-out. “I just… don’t really know about the rest of this stuff here. I wouldn’t have the first idea about how to go about cooking one of these mushrooms so it’d be safe to eat. If that’s even what you’re supposed to do with it.”

“Well, I guess we can cross that bridge when we come to it,” Caleb said. “If living with a bad luck curse for my whole life has taught me anything, it’s that it’s best to take things one step at a time. Let’s just focus on finding the mushroom first, and then we can think about what we need to do with it.”

“Okay,” Kira said, nodding. “That sounds reasonable. So. When do you want to start?”

“How long does it take to get out there?” Caleb asked.

“It’s a trek. We’d need to camp out overnight.” Kira glanced up at the sky. “But if we left now, we could be back by tomorrow evening. No sweat. Well – probably a lot of sweat, actually.”

“Now?” Caleb asked. “But don’t you have to work tomorrow?”

“I can do an emergency closure,” Kira said. “I think this counts – I mean, breaking a centuries-old curse for a dragon counts as an emergency, I’m pretty sure. The handbook doesn’t cover it specifically, but I’d like to think I can use my discretion in this instance.”

Caleb laughed. “Well, if it really isn’t an issue, I can’t tell you how grateful I’d be.”

He could feel a buzz of excitement in the pit of his stomach. And yet, it seemed difficult to believe that this was really happening – was he really so close to breaking the curse that had plagued him his whole life? And not just him – all the generations of his family that had come before him? And would he be saving future generations from having to live with it the way he had?

Caleb couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it just yet. He knew they still had a way to go before he could declare success – and he was sure the curse had several monkey wrenches on standby, just waiting to throw them into the works. Not to mention the fact that Heit was lurking around, and Caleb was pretty sure he wasn’t going to take them trying to mess up his plans lying down. But all the same –

With our mate by our side, there’s nothing we cannot do,his dragon insisted, smoke puffing up from its nostrils. With our mate with us, we are invincible!

And just at that moment, Caleb found that he believed every word it said.