She breathed out the water, then I moved to the other side. After seen that she quickly clapped her wings. I went skidding on my butt and stopped just a foot from the boy.
I even forgot about him. His eyes were filled with tears. Presumably he had never seen his parents in action. Or he was just scared for his parents' dear lives. But no one can blame him for that. seeing your parents in that state sucked by far. I saw my parents in a venerable state and I couldn't do anything much less like the boy.
"Boy, go and stand in that cave. You are not supposed to see this, ok?"
The boy obeyed and moved inside a cave.
I turned and found her standing a few feet from me.
Crap.
She swung her tail, and it hit me. I went cartwheeling in the air and hit the rocks. Just what I was afraid of. Something pricking my sides make me groan as I slam the rocky ground, and part of my knee cup skin ripped open. That is what I got from allowing my emotions take over me.
As I was straggling back to my feet, she breathed out water again, but I shadow walked myself behind her, then held up my hand and sent her slamming the rocks. If only my fire powers worked on her, I would have finished this nonsense a long time ago. Melted the leaving hell out of her. And later burned her husband to ashes.
Speaking of her husband…
I smirked at her, then flicked my hand and a cracking rope left thin air and tied her up. Pushed her to the rocks and waved my hand again as quickly to actually believe it happened, and created a shield around her.
Turning around I saw the boy peeking on the rocks. Then I shadow walked to him. I little pep talk time.
I knelt before him, and held his hand, which was shaking. Then I wiped his eyes. As I looked closer, I think he might have peed in his pants.
"Listen, boy. I told you to hide, didn't I?" I said, trying to sound calmer. But realized I just sounded like my dad. "Holy crap, I'm becoming a dad," I said.
"But, sir, why are you beating my parents?" He cried.
"Because your parents did some bad things. Don't they beat you when you do any mischief?"
"They do. But they are parents. Please don't kill them, sir," the boy cried even harder.
"Stop crying. And if they listen and stop doing bad things, we will not kill them," I said, wiping the boy's tears again.
The mother screamed, likely she thought I was about to kill her son. But I wasn't a heartless bastard, the young boy had nothing to do with his parents doing.
"Now listen, go inside and let us handle this, ok?"
"Ok. But just talk to them, please?"
"Alright boy, I will," I got up.
Whatever that boy did to me made me change my mind about killing these two bastards.
I swung and found the nature dragon holding John with vines that protruded from his hands.
Then I saw Caleb moving at hyper-speed and uppercut the damn dragon. But dual to its size, it only moved a few feet from him then wrapped his vines on Caleb as well. Before he turned them into trees or something nature-related I had to do something.
I held up my hand and threw the bastard inside the shield where his wife was. I opened the shield, but closed it just as quickly. He slimmed into his wife and then they both hit the rock and fell on the ground with groans of pain.
Time to talk to these bastards, but if they didn't listen, I had no choice but to kill them before they finished us. I liked the boy and I wouldn't like to do something to hate him, but I didn't have much of a choice.
Caleb and John taped their human forms and we matched towards the shield.
"What are you doing? We have to kill them before they kill more people, man," John scolded. "Don't tell me you are been soft on them. These people don't deserve our remorse. They killed my parents, man," he looked at Caleb for backup.
"Listen, John, I know what you are going through. My parents died in front of my eyes and I did nothing about it. Now because of that stupid anger I felt, I ended up doing something without thinking. We can't just kill them. We need to found out about a few things from them. Where the other dragons are." I said and looked at the husband and wife. In their human forms. Naked.
This is why I hate shifters. Aside from Caleb of course.
"So, what is the plan?" Caleb asked.
"Just follow my lead," I said, and moved to the dragons. "Ok listen. Because of your son, I decided not to kill you guys. Because I know how it feels to leave without parents. So let us talk like civilized people, shall we?" I spoke. "But if you don't comply, I will forget about your son," I said assuredly.
"What do you want from us? We haven't offended you in any way," the man spoke.
"Are you being serious, man? Jackson, let me finish this bastard up," Caleb spoke, and his hands began turning.
"My husband is telling the truth. Why are you here?"
"I'm going to ask you to stop hunting us and leave this city. Mind you, I'm only being polite because of your son. Tell your friends that I don't want to hear from you ever again."
"We are not the ones who are hunting you guys," the woman said.
"Don't play any games with us, woman. We are not idiots to just come and start beating you. We know what we are talking about," I said.
"Seriously son. My wife is telling the truth. So instead of you wasting your time here go and find the ones who are killing people."
"We are not helping them in any way. After the birth of our son…" she smiled as she looked in the direction of her son. "We stopped hunting humans. We don't want our son to leave this life."
"After we declined that request, they burnished us. So, we just came to pick up our stuff," the husband added.
"Do you think we would believe you? We are not that stupid, man," Caleb spoke.
But I saw threw them. I didn't know, what it was, but I believed what they were saying. Maybe it was the boy or maybe I just refused to accept that I might have to take the boy's parents from him.
"They are telling the truth, man," I said.
So, we have to hunt whoever those bastards are. And the thought that they might cause Armageddon, made my blood freeze. I even kinder felt my brain freeze.
We just lied to the reporters that dragons are not real and those bastards just went to the open. But we had an advantage. If the two dragons could be on our side, then fighting their friend would be an easy task for us. We have someone from the enemy's side.
I realized my smile stretched from ear-to-ear.
"So, if they are telling the truth. We should go before these dragons before they ruin everything we just worked so hard to build this morning," Caleb said.
"Yeah. But first I need you to tell me what the vampires are using to threaten you guys. I mean you are known to work alone. So, you been allies with the vampires is kind of weird, don't you think?" I asked, looking attentively at both the wife and the husband.
"The zombie fungus," the husband replied. "It's like a mushroom but they found a way to use it and control our minds somehow. Well, the others. And if we stay near it for too long that's our end," he added after seeing my expression. "Will you free us now that you know we are not involved in this?" the man went on.
I gave my hand a casual flick, and the shield vanished.
The boy came out of hiding, still crying, and hugged his parents.
"We are sorry for all of this," I said meaningfully.
"It's ok. We needed that—we have gone weak these past days. So that was fun all together," the man said, grinning at us.
"Thank you, sir," the boy said and hugged me too. And my heart melted.
"You are welcome," I dipped my head.
"When they retain, they will probably know we were here. And they might sniff your powers as well. So, since you are a wizard, you can protect our son. In return, we will help you fight the dragons," the man suggested.
But I had already come to that conclusion before he did. Though I didn't show that on my face. He might think I needed them more then they needed me.
"Deal," I said.
I touched the boy's hand, and they all lined up holding each other's hands. Then I closed my eyes, imagining how we were gonna travel. Then after a minute, we appeared in my backyard. That is the longest I have ever taken to shadow walk.
Just as we appeared, I plummeted to the ground.
"Sir, are you ok?" The boy asked, his voice shaking.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I got up but again stumbled then Caleb caught me before I fell to the ground again.
"Jackson, you are not fine. Why the hell did you have to shadow walk for such a distance, eh?" He scolded in a friendly tone.
"I'm fine. We need to go and find those dragons," I said stubbornly.
"Nonsense. John, help me take him inside."
Without allowing me to retort, they scooped me up and took me inside. The dragons followed. Prince turned to look at us as the door blew inwards. He opened his mouth but closed it without a word escaping it.
Caleb and John lay me on the couch and he started unbuttoning my shirt. The boy moved and sat close to me. I think me sparing his parents had a great impact on him.
"Caleb, what happened?" Prince finally asked.
"He used too much energy to shadow walk. You will know about it later," he added after seeing Prince's expression.
"What's your name, boy?" I asked.
"Joseph, my name is Joseph. And I presume you have met my parents Anna and Nicholas," he smiled at me.
"Yes, I have met them," I smiled back. "Caleb, I think we should find those dragons. Who knows how many people they have killed so far?" I added.
"Not until you recover. Killing will have to wait a bit longer," he replied.
I didn't retort, because I knew he was right. Even if we found the dragons, I wasn't in a state to fight them. They would just kick my butt and probably eat me.
My only hope was that they weren't doing anything that would mess everything up.