Kai Drakon's Arc

Chapter 1 of 30

Kai Drakon had walked three regions in four months, and his boots showed it. He pushed open the tavern door in Mosswood with his shoulder because his hands were too cold to grip. His tail dragged behind him. His horns caught the low beam and he ducked without looking. He wanted a bed. He wanted a wife he did not yet have. He had been searching for her the way other men searched for gold, without knowing her face. The room was loud and warm. A fire snapped in the hearth. Men in wet cloaks argued over a spilled tankard. Kai found a stool at the far end of the counter and set his pack down between his feet. "You look half-dead," said a voice beside him. He turned. A red-haired half-cat woman leaned on the counter with her chin in her palm, her amber tail flicking behind her. Her green eyes measured him without hurry. This was the woman who ran the place; the room kept checking on her without meaning to. "Bread," Kai said. "Whatever's hot." "Stew," she said. "Sit longer than one bowl and I'll charge you rent." She smiled, then looked past him at the door. "Kael, baby, you’re late." Kael gave the red-haired half-cat a flirtatious wink and slid onto the stool on Kai's other side. Blue hair, lynx ears, orange eyes the same shade as Kai's own. He noticed the match and gave Kai a short nod, the kind one traveler gives another who has also bled for a job. "You're new." "Passing through," Kai said. "Passing through where?" Kael asked. Kai opened his mouth and had no answer. That was when the crate behind the counter went over. A tail knocked it. Jars rolled. A woman crouched fast to catch them, black hair falling forward, blue horns catching the firelight. She grabbed three jars against her chest and stood. She was half-dragon. Like him. Kai had never seen another. She looked up. Her eyes were a warm brown, and they stopped on his horns, then his tail, then his face. She did not gasp. She did not smile. She just looked at him the way a farmer looks at weather she had not expected. "You're staring," she said. "So are you." Kai blinked. "I live here." She set the jars on the counter. Dried pepper, ground fine. "Two coppers if you want heat in the stew." Kael huffed a laugh into his drink. The red-haired woman said nothing, watching. Kai pushed two coppers across the wood. "Your name." "Azure." She said. "Kai." He smiled small. She held his look one beat longer than a stranger should. Then she picked up her empty crate and walked toward the back, tail brushing his knee once as she passed. Kai sat with the pepper jar in his hand and understood, with a quiet drop in his chest, that he was not passing through Mosswood after all.