Jim Gem's Arc

Chapter 12 of 23

Months passed. Jim stopped hiding the scale. He walked shirtless to the waterfall on warm mornings, and the black patch on his chest caught the light. Lena had done that. One night she'd pressed her lips to it and called it his medal. After that he wore it like one. The dragon form came easier now. He held it for whole minutes, then longer, wings beating over the falls while Lena watched from the rocks below. "Higher," she yelled up at him. "Do the loop again. There's people on the road." Jim looked down. Strangers had come to Mosswood all summer, drawn by rumors of a black-and-purple dragon in the hills. Merchants, wanderers, a man with a spyglass. They pointed at the sky and never at the ranger who came home after. That was the rule. He shifted at the waterfall, flew where no one could name him, and shifted back before anyone reached the water. He dove. The wind screamed past his scales. He pulled up hard, banked once over the trees, then landed on the ledge and let the dragon fold away. Skin returned. Only the one scale stayed, glowing on his chest. Lena scrambled up to him, grinning. "They think it lives in a cave. A whole crowd by the tavern arguing about it." She poked his chest. "None of them guessing it's you." "Keep it that way," Jim said. "If they knew, they'd never leave me alone." "Ire knows." She caught herself, quieter now. "And Kael. That's all. I told them because they had to help me cover for you. Nobody else." Jim nodded slowly. He trusted the half-cat who ran the tavern, and Kai's friend, well enough. "You're sure they'll keep it?" "Ire hasn't told a secret in thirty years." Lena sat beside him, pulled her knees up. "Kael would sooner lose a hand." She wasn't joking now. "They looked at you and didn't flinch. Same as me." Jim watched the falls. For ten years he'd hidden every shape from every person alive. Now three people knew his largest one and kept it safe. The scale on his chest no longer felt like a wound. It felt like proof. "I did it," he said. "The legendary one. The dragon from my family's line. I'm the only one who can hold it." "You are." Lena leaned her head on his shoulder. "So what now, my big scary dragon?" Jim smirked down at Lena as he held her chin with his fingers and says hushed, “I think you know, baby.”