Chapter 3

The sun was half way down when they saw the village. In the woman's mind it had not changed one bit as they came to land in the field behind her home. It had also been decided that Dracon would not call her mother as that would start a whole new set of problems. There were screams and yells and then men with axes, pitchforks and bows, there were even a sword or two came running. They all stopped as the woman's son set his mother down gently. "You can put your weapons away." None moved. "Have I changed so much that you don't recognize me. I'm Beth remember, the girl you gave to a dragon near a year ago."

"We remember you girl. Why have you come back? Why have you brought the dragon?"

"I came to get some of my things. I have been rescued from the dragon you gave me to by this one. We only came here to get what is mine and then we will leave. After so long I have no doubt that my flock has been shared among you all but I would like things from my house. The first and most needed is clothing."

"There is nothing left of your things here. We thought the dragon would have..."

"Killed me. I truly wish sometimes that he had. It was not food the dragon wanted. He wanted a pet, a plaything to give him pleasure. He set the whole thing up and we all fell for it. The traveling story collector was the dragon. But don't feel bad he's had a lot of practice; he's been doing it for near two hundred years. So, please of your kindness to someone that has been through hell, I need pants, tunics, skirts, leggings, shoes, and an extra blanket or two. I would like also one of my pots and a skillet, some utensils and bowls. I would also like to have some of my mother's things that I hope some one has saved."

"There is nothing here for you girl! Now leave before you bring the wrath of the dragon down on us."

"And what of the dragon standing before you. I think you should think of doing as this one has asked. I am not a patient dragon. Now send for what this woman as ask for!" said Dracon, the last very loudly.

Most of the men looked to one another then several went off. "Dracon remain here I'm going to go look in the house and see if there is anything there that I need." Then in her mind. "Don't act too scary my son. I'll be right back I'm going to get some things from the house. Alright?"

"Yes, mother. I'll try not to be too scary but these people are beginning to make me angry."

"I know."

The woman walked away from the dragon and to the back door of the house when an old woman and another man blocked her way. "This is my house, you have no right to come in here."

"This was my house before the elders decided I would make the perfect meal for the dragon and before me it belonged to my mother and her's before that. I tell you right now you can keep the house but I want what is mine out of it. Now move before I ask the dragon to come and move you."

Both chose to move out of the way very quickly. There were many things still in the house that were her's put only a few went into the sack. Then the woman went to her old room and removed several boards under the bed and drew out several small sacks of coins and other valued items. Then she went to a cupboard in the kitchen and removed a sidepiece and retrieved another small sack of coins. Guessing that the people outside would not give her much she took two bowls, forks, spoons, knives, as well as a mixing bowl, whisk, large spoon and knife, and a spatula. Then she found a small skillet and pot. All of these things the woman placed in her sack. The sun was almost down now. The woman went back to the bedroom and took her mother's quilt from the bed and left the house and walked back to her son. When she reached him, he took the sack from his mother because he could see that it was heavy. When the woman turned around she saw several women that she knew coming with clothes that she had asked for. One of the women Beth knew well as she was her best friend. "Hi Kara. I hope things are well for you?"

"Beth, I have some of your clothing. I also took some of your mother's things so that they wouldn't get sold or anything." She stated.

"Thanks." The woman walked forward taking the things from her.

"It's one of your tunics and a skirt As well as a pair of sandals. Beth what will you do once you have what you want?" Kara asked clearly frightened.

"Don't worry Kara. We'll be leaving and most likely won't ever be back."

"What happened that this one had to rescue you? How did he know you were in trouble?" Kara waved slightly to Dracon.

"Kara, The dark green dragon I was given to, did things to me that if he wasn't a healer as well, would have killed me. Kara I was near death when this one finally was able to get me away from the other. He had a pit that he kept putting me into. The second time he put me in it, he broke my leg even. The village almost had a show when the dragon came and found me with no clothes on. He told me it took all he had not to take me right there in that field. He raped me over and over, most of the time he was in his natural form, Kara. That's what your father sentenced me to. That's what any one of our women would have faced."

Kara was crying by the time Beth was finished when Dracon interrupted. "Beth, I don't want to rush you but if we want to get any distance before the sun goes down we need to leave soon."

"Thank you Dracon. Kara if you would get the other things from the others, then we can leave."

Kara turned and relieved the other woman of their burdens and returned to Beth when there was a roaring in the distance. Most went running but several of the men started yelling. Dracon turned to face his father but then turned back as several men started to grab at his mother. Well you can't expect everything to go right or for a 4-month-old dragon to remember not to call for his mother or yell at someone who was grabbing her. "Let go of my mother!!!" He ran towards the men and they fled, several falling in there haste to get away. Those who had moved back, cautiously moved towards them now looked to Beth then to the large dragon then to the dragon that was about to land.

"It's your son!! How can it be your son?" one of them yelled in disgust.

"I was raped by that one from the beginning!" Beth pointed to the dark green one, "What do you think would happen. Somehow I became pregnant. The rest is none of your business. Dracon we need to leave now!"

"Mother I'm sorry. When I saw those men grabbing you, I..."

"I know. Can we still get away?" she said softly to him.

"No. I don't want to fight him mother." then with his mind. "Mother, I can't hold this shape much longer I'm too tired."

"Hold it for as long as you can, my son we'll just see what your father wants then we'll get you some food."

"I'll try." Dracon's voice was strained.

The two turned just as the green dragon landed. "Come back with me."

"No!" Beth all but yelled.

"Please, I need you." the dragon wailed.

"I don't need you. Why would I go back to that hell?"

"Father. You almost killed her! She almost bled to death in that pit you put her in when you were through with her. I won't let that happen again!" Yelled Dracon.

"Son, this is between me and your mother," he said to Dracon but still looked to Beth. "Please my sweet, come back with me, we can work things out."

"There's nothing to work out. I have told your scheme to the elders and they will warn the other villages. Then they will warn others. Only once did you show me kindness but it was only after you had hurt me so badly that I wanted to die. The only good thing you did, was give me Dracon; Even if his conception was by pain filled torture. You tore me apart every time you took me and you had to heal the damage when you were finished. Even while I carried my son, I wanted to die! I thought he would be a monster!" The woman turned to her son and burst into tears throwing herself about her son's neck. "I'm sorry my son, I'm sorry." The woman kept saying as she wept. Dracon's heart broke for the pain that his mother carried. He also found he could not hold his form any longer. And slowly shifted down to his normal size still holding his mother and telling her it was all right. The dragon took a step closer. "Please come back home with me. I need you. I can't live without you."

Finally, the woman stopped crying, stood and looked up at the dragon. "But I can live without you. I don't need you and I don't want you. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind or the way I feel. Let's go son. I have coin enough to buy you a good sized sheep or two."

The woman and her son turned and started to walk into the village when the dragon fell to his knees and shifted into human form and yelled. "I love you! I have loved you from the moment I saw you but I was still hurting and holding a wound open that was inflicted on me two hundred years ago. I never thought that I could love again and I didn't know how. Your son made me see that. I love you! Please don't throw yourself from my cave!!"

The woman had stopped after only a few steps after he had said he loved her. Now she was frozen and couldn't move. She remembered the pain in the dragon's eyes when he told her the story of a tragic end to a three-year marriage.

"Mother, I have seen father's heart; both then and now. He does love you. And I know that he is in your heart too. I know he has hurt you and has a lot to make up for, but I need my father as much as I need my mother. Please will you give him a chance to make things right?"

"I don't know how, my son. How do I get past the pain of what he inflicted on me?" The woman wailed. Turning and taking her son back into her arms.

"Look at him mother, see him for the being that he is. He is not perfect but he no longer carries the guilt and the pain of loss that he felt when the other killed herself instead of giving him a chance. Mother, I think you too need to say what is in your heart and let it wash some of the pain away."

The woman slowly released her son and turned to the dragon. He was kneeling in the grass bent at the middle crying into his hands. The woman slowly took a step towards him then another until finally she stood near him. "I can't tell you that I love you because I don't truly know if I do. There is too much fear and pain in the way. I do or I did, before this last thing that happened, cared for you. You will have to earn back both my trust and then my love. But I will give you that chance; because our son has asked me too try. I do not want to go back to that mountain cave. There are too many painful reminders. I want a place with a meadow near that I can walk to and I can grow a garden and maybe have a few animals that are not scared of you. I want you to swear to me that you will never again hurt me or put me in a pit or any other confining place. I want you to swear to me that you will treat me as an equal and not as a pet. This is how it has to be or there will be No chance."

The dragon looked up at her. "I swear to all of it. I am so sorry for what I did. I don't even know why I did it. I swear if you give me this chance, I will treat you like a queen. You will want for nothing I swear."

Slowly the woman extended her hand that shook slightly and the dragon slowly took it with a trembling hand of his own and got to his feet. That was when she noticed that he wasn't wearing anything but did nothing about it.

"There is one more thing before I fully do this." The woman said. "In all this time you have not given me your name. I would have it now."

"Then I give you my name, it is Malazure. And now that you know mine could I ask, what is yours?"

"Beth. Thank you Malazure."

"I do have a surprise for you. For the last month I have been working on a new home for us, all I need to do is make a path that leads to the meadow that is below the cave. I was making it because as our son grew he would need more room and the old cave is not that big and there was not enough wall thickness, in which to expand. It is in the mountains between the old one and here. I would be overjoyed if you would let me take you there."

"I need to buy a few things before we leave and our son needs to eat. If the villagers are willing I'll buy what is needed here."

"What do you have to buy things with?" Malazure asked.

"I had money hidden in the house I used to have. That's one of the reasons why we came here, to get some of my things. What I have will be best used to by food provisions to take to this new cave." The two, still holding the others hand turned to see their son smiling. Beth leaned forward and opened her arms and Dracon ran to be in them. That's when Malazure notice the men again; their weapons again in their hands working their way back.

"Darling Beth, I don't think it will be a good idea to remain and do business with these people. Even now they come to try to hurt us." Said Malazure in a loud voice. The men stopped.

Beth turned to see and had to agree that the situation was not very good. "I don't suppose I could convince you that I am wanting nothing more than to buy a few things from the village now and then we will leave."

"You have brought not one but two dragons into the village, demand we give you things and now you say you want to buy something from us. You must be out of your mind."

"I took only what was mine, elder." Beth said with contempt. "You had no right to take it anyway. Those given as sacrifice are supposed to be honored. You tried to shame me. True I did hit you and fought when you decided I was to be given, but that still didn't give you the right. The law says that nothing can be give or taken for a year and a day. Then it can be given first to the poorest in the village then to others. The year is not yet up. I was pregnant for five months and my son is now 4 months old. I have returned. If I follow the law, I am entitled to a tenth of all of the herds, lands and other holdings because you have given most of my home and things away. That is what the law has stated. I don't want your lands or your other holdings. I just want what was mine. I had a herd of no less than ten ewes and two rams. I do not have a way of taking them with us now and I know that after we leave we will not be coming back. So, for payment I will ask for a large bag of floor, cornmeal and oatmeal, I also would ask for seeds for corn, several different kinds of squashes, carrots and beans. I will also ask for two sheep. My son needs food so that he can shift back to allow us to leave."

"And you think your going to get us to just give you what you ask for?" Kara's father sneered.

"She is going to get what she asks for father. Had she not been vocal that day there would have been a lottery. I could have been the one taken. Beth survived because there is a strength to her that no one else has. Also I know it was your doing that made it where no one wanted to ask for her hand. You told all kinds of lies about her. Mother died six months ago but you didn't seem to mourn enough, if at all. I also know that you have been talking to a man in Brolenlake about his daughter. You had hopes of taking Beth for your wife but she proved to be more woman than you could handle." Kara said as she walked up to her father.

"Go back to the house girl! This is no business of yours!" The look on his face shown both anger as well as the fact that she was telling the truth.

"No father, the shame you inflicted on her is now on you!" Kara said with disgust in her voice. Her father pulled back before any could stop him and he slapped Kara, almost knocking her off of her feet. Malazure moved like lightning and grabbed the man and held him over his head intending to throw the man or break him in two.

"Malazure, don't hurt him! He isn't worth it. He has dishonored himself, his family and the village. The other elders will punish him for what he has done. I also charge them to fill my request!" Yelled Beth.

Malazure none too gently dropped the man then went to Kara. She was scared but she stood her ground, her right check was bright red and starting to bruise. Malazure raised his hand slowly to Kara's face; he rested his hand there for just a second and healing what little damage had been done. Then he turned to her father once more. Kara's father was slowly trying to get to his feet but stopped when Malazure came back to him. "If I can learn from my mistakes, you can learn from yours. Never strike a friend of a dragon's mate. Especially right in front of that dragon." then walked back to stand beside Beth.

One of the other elders came forward. "Beth, I will see to your requests. I knew that Kara's father made it impossible for you to find a husband. I even helped him. I'm sorry for all of it. If you would come to the meeting hall, I will have everything brought there but I would make one request. Put some pants on that man-dragon of yours." That got a laugh out of some as well as some shrieks out of other and a blush from Kara that went all the way to her toes when she realized that a naked man put his hand on her check. Beth, giggling, went to her bag and got a skirt and a tunic and discreetly stepped behind her son, who stood and spread his little wings to block others from looking, to dress then took the blanket and wrapped it around Malazure's waist.