Island of Dragons (5 page)

Derek could feel the connection of his patrol partner as he neared, so he halted his pace. He could tell the human was close now; her scent was all over the clearing where the dragons had gathered just days before.

Max dropped through the jungle canopy, his beast’s size did not affect his descent. It was nearly as silent as a whisper as he landed beside his patrol partner. He shifted and pulled on his shorts. “Wow… I can smell the human all over here.” Max stiffened.

“Yeah, she’s in the clearing,” Derek said confidently.

The two men slowly stalked forward. The daylight was brighter now. Off to the center of the clearing, sitting on a rock was a back pack. “Look,” Derek whispered.

Then they saw her. She was a slight form curled up beneath leaves and shivering terribly. Derek cocked his head slightly. The girl obviously was human, her scent filled him and it was foreign, yet intriguing.

Max sighed as he leaned down. He was wary of the human. Unlike Derek and many of the guards, the alpha, and beta as well, Max had never traveled to the main land. He had never met a human besides the ones which the dragon shifters had mated too; all of which were tamed, he figured.

Slowly reaching out his hand, he ran it along the girl’s cheek. “She’s freezing.” He sighed looking up at Derek.

Knowing his friend was unsure and unknowing of anything human, Derek stepped forward. He knew human’s body temperature was lower, much lower than that of a dragon. He reached down, placing the back side of his hand against her cheek. “She’s freezing,” Derek affirmed with slight shock. “She’s a lot colder than she should be.” He quickly shoved away the leaves covering her body and instantly knew why she was cold. The girl was practically naked. Yes, she had clothing, but not enough for the cool night. Sighing he shoved his arm beneath the girl’s thighs and the other behind her back and head.

“What are you doing?!” Max hissed.

“She’s cold,” he told Max. “I need to warm her. Build a fire. We’re staying for a while,” Derek told Max.

Max’s eyes were wide, but he followed his friend’s demand. Quickly piling up the leaves the girl had been wrapped up in and a few sticks, in a makeshift pit, Max waved his hand over the materials. Sparks quickly ignited the branches and fire soon followed.

The girl was either a deep sleeper or too cold to be responsive. Derek quickly strode over to Max’s fire and curled himself onto the grassy ground, tucking the girl into his body and resting her head against his bare chest.

After nearly half an hour, the girl began to wiggle. She was trying to get more comfortable obviously. Pulling her back into his chest to keep the girl warm, Derek chuckled slightly.

Max watched as his friend cared for the human. He wasn’t sure how Derek knew so much about humans, but he seemed to know just what the girl had needed. The girl murmured, rubbing her face into Derek’s chest before she rubbed her hand across it.

“What the?!” she suddenly screeched, surprising Derek and Max. The girl quickly tried to scramble from Derek’s arms, but he gripped tighter. Frightened, the girl’s e
yes went wide and she screamed.

“Hey. Calm down, no screaming, please,” Derek complained.

“Who are you?” the girl cried pushing against Derek’s chest. “Let go of me!”

“Well, hello to you too. I am Derek, and this is my friend, Max. What’s your name?” Derek asked.

The girl pushed harder. Derek sighed, finally allowing the girl to slip from his grasp, but not allowing her to tumble into the fire pit. “Watch out for the fire,” he told her.

Max observed as the girl eyed them. Her eyes flit over to the fire pit then back to the men as she scrambled across the clearing to the rock which held her bag.

Derek and Max stood. Neither realized how intimidating they were to this woman until, with widened eyes, she scrambled around to the far side of the rock and screamed “Stay away.”

“Take it easy.” Max offered.

“We’re here to help you,” Derek said slowly holding out his hand as if he was calling her back to him. “Now… what’s your name?”

Slowly, the girl began to speak, “Miley.”

“Well, Miley, why don’t you come back to the fire, and once you’re warm enough, we will head back to our village.”

Miley’s brows furrowed in confusion, and she cocked her head slightly as she grasped her bag and slowly began to drag it toward the fire. “Village?” Miley repeated.

Max nodded. “We live here.”

Miley did not know exactly if she believed them. She had been told that the island was uninhabited.

She made her way to the fire and curled her knees into her chest. She shivered slightly. Max sat down cross-legged on the opposite side of the fire observing the woman while Derek shook his head. Max watched as his friend walked right up to the human, sat down, and pulled her into his lap. Even though Miley protested, Derek held firm. “I run warmer than you do. So… use my heat.”

When the sun finally came up and it was warmer outside, the trio made their way through the jungle canopy.

“Where have you been? We’ve been …” Jonah, the patrol leader and Derek’s father, shouted. His words died in his mouth as he watched the small figure of a woman shiver between Derek and Max.

“We found the woman.” Derek shrugged.

Jonah’s eyes were wide, and he looked fiercely back toward the woman. “And you brought her here?” Jonah howled.

“What else were we to do with her? She was cold and lost, freezing to death in the training field.” Max snorted. He had watched the interactions of Derek and Miley and was beginning to like her. She seemed so much different than what he had always thought about humans.

Jonah also snorted, turned on his heels and stomp away.

“We’ll take you to our chief…” Derek said and chuckled slightly.

“Chief?” Max asked, questioning the word. He obviously
did not catch on.

“Diesel,” Derek replied.

Miley swallowed a lump in her throat as they approached the edge of the village. “This is your village?” she whispered quietly.

Buildings began to come into view within a semi cleared out area. Miley smiled at the simplicity. This was where the village started.

Miley really did not know what she was expecting when the two guys told her they would take her to their village, but this was not quite it. The beautifully displayed homes had thatch roves. A medium sized windmill stood proudly in the center of the small village. They came to a stop before a large beautiful structure.

“Yeah,” Derek answered.

“Huh…”

“This is our village chief’s home.…” Max said.

“You will be respectful and silent unless spoken too,” Derek said firmly, which slightly scared Miley. He seemed so much more different now that, if it had been an hour earlier, she would have simply run away.

Miley nodded her head but
did not reply. Derek held up his hand and knocked on the front door of the home.

Miley nervously bounced from foot to foot. She wasn’t quite sure she was ready for this. Derek and Max had treated her well while they were with her and she probably would have froze if they
did not come to her aid, but was this really a safe place to be right now?

She had been told that the island was uninhabited and unexplored. Obviously, the island was neither. Why were these people so secretive that nobody knew they were here?

With Derek on one side focused thoroughly on the door before him, and Max concentrating on something that wasn’t her, Miley slowly stepped back. One step at a time and within moments she was in her own space and running. The two men had been so focused on what they were doing and on speaking to each other that they almost made it too easy for her to escape.

It worked! She had nearly shouted it but thought better. Hoisting her bag up tighter on her shoulder, and thankful that Max and Derek had let her have it back, she raced toward the edge of the village.

Once inside the tree line, she did not stop. Miley pushed harder, further into the trees. They had passed the river which she had once walked up, and she knew it would lead her to the shoreline where she could find her camp.

She hadn’t told the two men that she was camping on the beach and for that she was immensely thankful. Though, she felt bad for the men and hoped that they
did not get in trouble for anything.

Every little crack of sticks beneath her feet or wave of leaves from birds, made Miley nervous. Would they come after her? No, they wouldn’t. She was a grown woman, and she could take care of herself. She doubted that Max and Derek would necessarily be the kind of chivalrous men who came tramping through the woods to find her.

Once her bare feet, yes bare, hit the water of the small river, Miley paused for a sigh of relief, thinking that she was going to be safe.

That was until she heard something coming from behind her. “Where did she go?” asked the voice of a man she
did not recognize.

“I don’t know, Derek probably scared her off.” Max complained.

Miley sucked in a deep breath and took off running again. The men sounded as if they had been a ways away, but she did not want to stick around and have them stumble upon her.

Her lungs burned and her body ached but she continued. She
did not have a choice; for some reason she did not want to go back to that village. Well, at least not with those men. She would maybe spy on the village later on since she had noticed a large ‘y’ in the river which she could easily find to point out the turn where she could take the path back to the village.

She wanted to know these people more before she was trapped in a close confined area with them. The strange way Derek and Max interacted with her made her curious. Max had looked at her as if she was infected and would tear his head off at any second, while Derek was strange with his touchy-gotta-hold-onto-you type weirdness. What was with that “I run warmer than you” thing he had said.

Pushing harder, Miley was running faster than she ever had in her life. She ran down the water on the side of the small river bank. For some reason, she knew if they were to track her, a dog would lose the scent of her in the water, though she doubted they had dogs on the island.

When Miley finally burst onto the beach, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The sign she had made on the ground in the sand was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen but now she was going to destroy it.

Picking up the pieces of the arrow, she tossed them all into the trees then brushed it away with her foot as she back tracked over to the ocean’s edge. There she once again ran within the edge of the water.

When Miley finally reached her camp site, she could tell that someone had looked around. There were tracks from shoes, too large to be her tiny feet, and strange tracks which scared her some.

The massive footprints of some creature made her afraid to do anything other than crawl into her tent and cry. The print was well over five times the size of her foot and had marks that dug into the ground at the tips, maybe claws. It looked like a lizard’s print but much larger.

She raked her brain trying to figure out if she had ever heard of any giant lizards other than the Komodo Dragon, which was the biggest she could think of, but she knew that this one was much bigger. Maybe if she was lucky it would be the tracks of a giant vegetarian bird or something less threatening than a giant lizard.

With each passing thought, Miley grew more tired. The past few hours were an emotional roller coaster, and she was exhausted. After curling tighter into her sleeping bag, Miley slowly slipped asleep.

Miley may have been warm and snuggled up sleeping soundly within her tent, but she wasn’t quite as alone as she thought she was. Miley knew the men she had run from would find her eventually.

When she awoke, it was dimly lit inside the tent and she wondered if it was still the same day she had run from the men. The air was warm today, and she felt a slight breeze blow through her long hair as she looked out at the ocean. She wondered when someone would come and rescue her and take her back home to the life she had - not really the life she loved but the one she lived, at least.

Stepping from the confines of the tent onto the warmth of the sand, Miley stretched up and yawned. She loved the beauty of this island. It was so much more beautiful than the concrete that surrounded her every day at home.

She wandered over to the water and dipped her feet into the coolness of the ocean, wondering how long it would be before that idiot came back for her. She could not believe he had left her in the first place.

Those thoughts caused her anger to boil over, and Miley let out a frustrated “Gah!” scream. She kicked viciously at the water and scoffed as she stomped back and forth.

What about the boat… she began to wonder. Knowing now that there were people on this island explained a lot about what she was confused about at first. It was now obvious why there was a boat and a four wheeler chained up. It was obvious why there was a dock here…

How could she have been so stupid? The entire trip had to be a rouse for something. It had to be something.

Maybe the man had been trying to get the people on this island mad; that made her nervous.

Miley was hungry. It had been a long time since she had eaten and now that her frustrations were out and kicked into the water, she figured she might as well sit down and enjoy something to eat.

When she got back over to the supplies, Miley began to scrounge inside. What was there left to eat? She grabbed a water bottle, cracked it open and swigged it, then began looking again. She decided a breakfast bar and an apple would be satisfying enough for right now.

Standing up, Miley walked back over to the tent and curled her legs beneath her, sitting Indian style watching out toward the ocean. She munched greedily upon the bar first as she watched the waters lap at the sand.

Would they find her? If so, what would she do if they were as aggressive as she was worried about? “I’ll just have to prepare,” Miley said to herself firmly.

She felt so alone here, but she wasn’t going to dwell on it. Before she set out for her morning photo shoot, Miley packed up the things. She made sure to pack up as much of the things as she could. The tent was easy, being a simple pop-up tent, while the heavier things might have to be left behind.

Unsure of where she really was going to go, Miley set off along the shore line for a while. She knew the water would eventually wash away her footsteps and that’s exactly what she was counting on.

“Uhg
,” shegrunted as she hoisted the heavy bags upon her shoulders higher.

A loud crack startled her, and Miley cursed as her bag dropped into the water. “Damn it!” she hissed and turned sharply toward the noise. She glared into the edge of the tree line where a coconut had fallen and hit a rock. Since her bag was already wet, she simply kicked it slightly higher onto the beach and stomped angrily over to the obnoxious fruit.

Since the coconut had fallen down and disturbed her, she was going to eat it. An evil grin grew on Miley’s lips, and she grabbed harshly at the fuzzy thing. If it was ripe enough, she could have coconut milk. If not, she would be plenty happy eating the yummy fruit inside. Either way, she glared at it harshly then began to look around again. If there were more of coconuts, she might just take them too.

A few coconuts littered the ground, and Miley was tired from all the walking so she decided to stay for lunch. Maybe she would make this her new campsite, though she thought it would be better if she had a more secretive spot. She was probably a few miles from the original campsite and
could not see it at all after she had passed the first turn of the island.

Miley set the coconut, that she was angry at, her first victim, down on the sand and quickly returned to her water soaked bag. There were trees here which were angular, and she could dry some things on them. So, doing just that, Miley pulled out the tent and set it up, quickly placing her dry things inside.

Those items which were wet, Miley slung over the lowest branches and trunks of curved trees. She looked up at the sky and tried to gage the time. Ironically enough, her watch had given out the other day, when she was sleeping in the meadow.

By the rumble of her stomach and the sun’s height in the sky, she figured it was around noon. Miley busied herself finding a few pieces of firewood which she figured she would need if she was going to eat anything warm, then she curled into the warmth of the sand, preparing for something to eat.

First up, the infuriating coconut. It really was an ugly beast of a fruit and because it so rudely scared her, it deserved to be eaten.

Now, how to open it? She thought to herself as she searched around for something sharp. Thankful enough, Miley had come across a knife which had been within the packed materials and hoped it would work well enough.

The coconut was hard. She jabbed at it with all her might and still the knife did not even scrape its surface. Groaning, Miley looked around for a better option.

A short distance from her new campsite, a rock proved that this was the perfect spot for Miley to be staying. The site was surrounded by high sharp pointed rocks. A small cove of water off to the back side made her curious about if fish might trapped inside for an easy dinner.

The rock she chose was sharp edged and broke the coconut well. Luckily, the coconut was not yet fully liquefied, and she did not lose the nutritious contents.

Taking the knife from where she had angrily dropped it before, Miley began to cut off slices of the coconut and chew them greedily. It was like heaven in her mouth, especially with the hunger that was growing in her stomach.

When her stomach was full and her campsite set up to her liking, Miley pulled on her stuffed backpack and her camera, for a walk around the area. She was determined to find something worth her time here.