Page 19 of To Match A Dragon's Fire

Red tinged my already-shrinking tunnel vision.

I slammed on the brakes, gripping the wheel tight in my fists again as I looked down on what hadhappened to my childhood home. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Riley gulped. “That definitely wasn’t there before.”

6

Kieran

Windows to the Soul

My dragon was amped up and pacing inside me. It’d been a while since my animalistic side had been this active, but I didn’t know why he was so on edge.

The other clan representatives were back in their territories. I was here alone with my hoard, as I liked it. And we’d made our peace with the coming end of the world.

There was nothing for him to stress about.

I’ll tell you when I figure it out.He huffed in frustration.

You do that.I got back to work on reinforcing the window pane on the eastern side of the building.

It was my mistake for hiring out this part of the construction. The latest studies on earthquake resistance had shown promise with this plastic and rubber combination.

It’s what the human contractor used about nine years ago when I was building the compound. Back when there was the slightest hope this was where Earth wanted me.

It was garbage. Much like most of thehumaninventions of the last century.

They didn’t make things like they used to.

I’d replace it with something more durable.

After I made sure this window would hold, I needed to finish stacking wood. It’d be a hard winter while Earth decided on Her next design. I wasn’t sure many in the Northern Hemisphere would live to see the following spring or a winter beyond.

But I’d do my best to ride out the storm.

I held the nails in my teeth as I hammered the new veneered wood plane in, thinking of the human contractor. Billy or Bob or some other simple human name. He was a nice enough guy, coming over from Bend where he owned his family-run business. I hoped he’d be all right.

Not likely, though.

A feeling of unease pricked the back of my neck. There was a vehicle entering my territory. My dragon stopped pacing, going dead silent as he pushed out his senses.

It wasn’t the first time one of the humans from the neighboring town of Christmas came this way. They were mostly hunters on federal land who gave my stretch of sanctioned property a wide berth.

As the humans’ fragile ecosystem and government collapsed, I figured they’d get more desperate in their hunts for food, coming closer for the resources that made this property so alluring.

It’d only taken a rumor of a monster flying over this area to keep them on their best behavior for now. I had other tricks up my sleeve when that ceased to work. Dealing with humans for centuries had given me a toolbox of ideas to keep them away.

The vehicle continued past my gate and I hesitated. It seemed too early for them to be this bold.

I finished with the nails and tested the window, opening and closing the tempered glass from the outside.

Fredrick wheeled himself into the room, sniffing the breeze I allowed to drift in. “Smells like humans.”

“Seems like it.” I caught the scent of an older vehicle burning gasoline fumes.

Fredrick came closer, resting his meaty arms on the window pane and sticking his full head of gray hair outside. “Agatha is baking bread, but it doesn’t smell as good as that.”

I turned to see what he was looking at, feeling my heart slam into my chest as I did. The hammer fell from my fist and hit the ground.

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