The Priestess and the Dragon (Dragon Saga Book 1, Wattpad Version)

Chapter Thirty-One

“Who is Hisato?”  That was the question but no one seemed to have an answer. Kaito had never heard of him, neither had Akira, Tsuki or Rin. The mystery had baffled them all. The group sat in a circle discussing the possibilities. Tsuki was in control and his and Akira’s body. The priests had started to trickle back into the temple after Kaito had torn the roof off the shrine. The second in command had taken over control of the temple. No one knew where the head priest had gone, and Suzume wasn’t going to tell them that some immortal had been masquerading as their head priest, for who knew how long.  The priest were organizing the cleanup and rebuilding, it was going to be a massive undertaking. The shrine was torn to bits from three dragon attacks –Suzume counted the one where Kaito tore off the roof of the temple as an attack. Many of the dormitories were in ruins and the walkways were near impassable in some places.

The priests seemed trained to hospitality because despite the state of the temple, they still served Rin, Kaito, and Suzume a meal. For whatever reason, the priest still could not see Tsuki.  Tsuki ate Suzume’s noodles noisily while Rin sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, scowling. We can’t stay here much longer. Suzume thought, we’ve destroyed enough of the shrine as it is. Where do we go from here?

Kaito paced back and forth, anger written in the lines of his body. Suzume watched him. She hadn’t said anything, but she thought she knew who Hisato was. The swamp creature had told her and Kaito about a shape shifter who was killing the other smaller immortals. That has to be him. She kept this knowledge to herself. Even though Hisato was not someone she could trust, she wasn’t sure she could trust the others either. They threw me into the line of fire without a second glance.   

Tsuki slurped up the last of his noodles then said, “Could Hisato be a fake name?”

“Why give me a fake name? I think he wanted me to know him,” Suzume said. Along with her knowledge of his potential identity, she had withheld a majority of her conversation with Hisato. She didn’t dare incur Kaito’s wrath. If he thought she was going to try and kill him, he might not be as forgiving as he had been.

 “So the question is: how do we find out who this Hisato is?” Tsuki said. He leaned back on his forearms and watched the group with a half-lidded gaze.

“There are plenty of people we could ask,” Kaito said. He stopped pacing and considered Tsuki. “What about Yasuharu?”

“Dead.” Tsuki replied with a shake of his head.

Kaito’s brows shot up to his hairline. “Really?” he shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. What about Bunmei?”

“Also dead.”

“You’re kidding? That guy was the size of a mountain, literally! He was some sort of massive stone creature. ” Kaito’s shoulders had relaxed but it was more of slump of defeat. “What about, Naoaki, Gengo, and Chiyuu?”

“Dead, dead, and headless.” Tsuki ticked off on his fingers.

“Shouldn’t he be dead if he’s headless?” Suzume asked. She scrunched up her nose just thinking about it.

Tsuki grinned. “Not for an immortal. Sometimes they just wander round without heads crashing into things. Seeing as he’s missing a head though, he cannot give us much in the way of information.”

I cannot get my mind around this world, headless creatures living without a head? She considered telling them what she had deduced about Hisato, but seeing the pain in Kaito’s eyes held her tongue. Everyone he knew is dead. Did Hisato kill them?  Why does he want me to kill Kaito? If he could kill someone as large as a mountain, then why not Kaito?