Akira Dracorider's Arc

Chapter 2 of 12

Akira didn't ask. He stood there holding the telescope, watching Cascade arrange crates that were already perfectly straight. The dragon's shoulders stayed hunched, his wings pressed flat. After a minute, Cascade stopped pretending to work and sat back on his haunches, still not looking at Akira. "He left so they wouldn't run," Cascade said finally. His voice came out rough, like he'd been holding the words too long. "The visitors. Takashi heard them coming early — a family walked the path before you expected them. They saw him at the gazebo and the children started crying. He didn't want to ruin what you're building, so he left." The dragon's claws scraped against the frozen ground. "He thought if he disappeared, they'd stay. They'd give the rest of us a chance." Akira walked past Cascade without answering. He needed to think, and he couldn't do that standing in the open where the dragon could watch him process this. The stone and ice den at the sanctuary's edge had been built for Cascade originally, but the dragon rarely used it — too grand, he'd said, too much like claiming space he didn't deserve. Akira pushed through the heavy wooden doors and sat on the frosted bench just inside, the one Takashi had dragged there last month and arranged with pillows he'd stolen from the main hall. The displacer beast had never explained why he'd furnished Cascade's den. Now Akira understood. When he came back out, Cascade had moved to the golden bench near the gazebo, the ornate one that caught the afternoon light. The dragon sat with his back straight, positioned where any approaching visitor would see him first — exactly where Takashi had been supposed to be. Akira stopped a few feet away and met Cascade's eyes. "Next time someone you care about makes that choice," Akira said quietly, "you tell me before they're already gone." Cascade's head dipped once, a promise and an apology. Akira turned toward the path. The visitors would still come at sunset, and this time they'd meet a dragon first. If they ran, they weren't the ones he needed anyway.