Legend of the Holiday Dragons #3
Aristeaus
A year ago I watched as the foretold dragon returned and friends began to find their mates. The world around us is changing, but all I can think about is the dreams that plague my nights and the fact my magic is misbehaving. The one person I want to tell is my best friend Eoghan, but I can’t. He just won’t understand. The only option I have is to flee from Goralski, but can I really leave all my friends and the only life I’ve ever known behind?
Eoghan
Aristeaus is my best friend, but what he doesn’t know is that he’s more than that to me. Yet for years I have not been able to tell him my true feelings, and suddenly he’s saying that he’s going to leave our home. Something more is going on with him. There’s something he’s not telling me. But I have another secret, too—dreams that are filled with dragons—and I need my friend to help me figure them out. All I need to do is find a way to make him stay.
Prologue - Aodh
Flying above the scarred green landscape below, I’m not quite able to believe what has happened. The dragons lost, or, should I say, took a route I didn’t expect. This war started because of a forbidden love; a love I didn’t see as wrong. It was supposed to lead to unifying us and proving that any type of love is joyous, not sending our two races in different directions. A direction that I don’t want to go in. I want to be able to stay and be with the elves, who are my friends, and not be something else. What am I supposed to do in this new world we are being condemned to? A world that I want nothing to do with. I was fighting on the side of the elves and yet my destiny has been decided without my consent.
Swooping low over the undulating hills, I spot Ostara talking to Alwyn, the leader of the dragons who decided our side’s fate. My wish is that Ostara is trying to get him to change his mind, but when I see a bright white glow envelop him—which is so bright that Ostara must avert her eyes—and hear a slight popping sound that travels on the wind to my ears, I know our time is truly over. The transformation is now complete, and the legend of the dragons is no more.
Coming in to land, the moment my talons touch the ground, I feel the change, and a part of me wishes I’d kept flying, but I can’t fight what is about to happen. A heat courses through my veins as I feel my magic change. A bright white glow appears on my scales just as I saw on Alwyn only moments ago. I don’t hear the popping sound, but instead, I can feel it. The pop as my scales shrink and become smooth, the colour changing to that of a dusky peach. Talons and claws become fingers and toes. With each alteration, I feel my magic diminishing till it is gone. I am now human.
Holding my hand up to the sunlight, I just stare at it, wiggling my fingers to try and get a feel for this new skin I am in. Suddenly, another dragon comes and lands beside me, and I watch as the white glow surrounds them, sadness etched on their face. I must try and do something. From the corner of my eye, I see Ostara moving to the edge of the field. I must speak to her. There must be something she can do, something to help me in this new existence.
“Ostara,” I call out, hoping she can hear me from this distance, but she looks like she’s talking to someone I can’t see hidden within the tree line of the field. Why can’t I see them? But before I can think too much about it, I’m rushing over to Ostara.
“Aodh, my friend,” Ostara greets me, a smile on her face.
“Please, can you help us?” I plead with her.
“This decision was not one that I wanted, either,” Ostara states gently.
“But...” I start, trying to figure out the right words to say. “ I was fighting with the elves. This cannot be my destiny.” Any hope I had that Ostara was going to be able to save me from my fate decreases by the second.
Ostara gazes around the field, staring at the tendrils of smoke as they whisp and curl into the sky. She watches as more and more dragons land and transform into humans. The sadness in her eyes is clearly evident, and a sigh escapes her.
“You are certain you do not wish to stay with your kind,” Ostara suddenly asks.
“Dragons are my kind; you are my kind,” I reply.
“But at this time, the dragons are no more,” Ostara says kindly.
“But the elves are still here!” I counter back. “Is there any way we can stay with you and not go to the human world?”
Ostara listens to my words before taking another look at the landscape surrounding us.
“There is something I can do, but there will be consequences,” Ostara explains, and hope soars within me.
“I will do whatever,” I state because I will do whatever Ostara asks if I am able to stay with the elves.
“My magic can turn you into an elf. You will become one of us, but...” She pauses for a moment. “You will forget that you were ever a dragon. The only thing that would remain is your name. You would lose your history until the time that the dragons return.”
“Dragon's return?” I question, confused.
“The dragons will return and the magic restored once enough time has passed to heal the deep wounds created by this war,” Ostara answers.
“If the dragons have not returned in my lifetime, will my legacy be passed to my children?” I ask, thinking of the future.
“This is a question that I do not know the answer to. This is magic that has never been seen before,” Ostara explains.
I look over at the now-humans who were once my friends but then became my enemies at the start of the war, watching as they vanish one by one, leaving our world and beginning their new lives in the human one. Something is drawing me to that side of the field, and from the corner of my eye, I see a portal and know what I must do.
“I understand,” I say. “I wish to stay with you.”
With a nod of her head, Ostara takes hold of my hand, kisses the back of it, and whispers the word, “Trawsnewid.”
“Ostara,” I ask, confused as I look around the landscape in front of me, finding It’s scorched and angry. “What happened here?”
“Aodh, my friend. A great change happened here today,” Ostara says and turns away from me, walking into the tree line where more elves are standing. “Come, Aodh. It is time to get back to Goralski.”
Kelsey Hodge loves romance books, and has been reading them since she was little and discovering M/M books a few years ago was a turning point. She finally found stories that she wanted to write, making sure that her characters always get their happy ever after. She lives in the UK with her partner and cats.
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Legend of the Holiday Dragons Series
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