Dragon's Prize (Book 2) EXCERPT! about 1/2 of the book

Chapter 2 - Moving Forward

The sun beating down on Kaden's broken body made him wake up and come to his senses. He had made it through the night. He groaned and rolled onto his back carefully. Because he had been sleeping in the same position all throughout the night, his whole body was cramped. Opening his eyes slowly, Kaden was almost blinded by the sunlight, so he brought his healthy hand up to provide some shade. The day appeared to be beautiful; white fluffy clouds were dancing happily in the bright blue sky, and by the high position of the sun, Kaden knew he had been asleep for over twelve hours. Slowly raising himself up to a sitting position he noticed that his aches had lessened and it seemed he was healing faster than humanly possible.

It seemed there was still some dragon left in him.

The thought made him smile because he was still human and the nightmare of the night before had been real, but the results were favorable.

“Good,” Kaden murmured to himself as he looked around, Pup nowhere in sight.

Kaden’s left hand was still throbbing but the pain was more manageable. He checked his wound, where the finger used to be and thankful because it didn’t appear to be infected. It looked ugly though and he would need to take the rope off soon. It might bleed again. I need to cauterize it. Kaden dreaded it but he knew it had to be done.

Movement to his right caught his attention. It was Pup coming back with a dead rabbit in his mouth. The little wolf trotted proudly to Kaden, dropped the dead rabbit in front of him and yipped happily.

Kaden smiled warmly at Pup. “You’re a good boy.” He praised the little wolf as Olivia would. She had told him that Pup needed to be praised for the good things he did and if he obeyed. “Olivia would be so proud of you.” He patted the cub’s head.

“Guess we’ll be needing some fire then.” Running his right hand through his black curls and getting them tangled in the mess of his hair, Kaden looked around. It took him a while to crawl around gathering some twigs, branches and stones so he could try and start a small fire. Pup followed him every step of the way, occasionally running in playful circles around Kaden until he threw, or at least tried, a branch for the cub to chase after. He had decided to start the fire there so he could take care of his wound, eat and recoup before heading back towards the cave. Dealing with his wound might be messy and he wanted to gather some strength just in case.

After about an hour, he finally had a small fire going, on the same burned patch where he had forced Magnus away, keeping him from getting to Olivia the first time. He hoped he hadn’t failed the second time round either and that Olivia was safe at her home. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he showed up, in a human body. Will she believe it’s me? Surely she will after an explanation of the curse…but… will she like me? Will she still feel the same now that I’m human and completely available… The thoughts and questions running through his mind were making him dizzy, making him almost burn the rabbit to a crisp.

After finishing the rabbit off, Kaden already felt a bit better. Pup did not want to share the meal; he had obviously eaten one already, raw, just the way the little wolf preferred his meat.

Laying on his back again, Kaden let the sun do its part in the healing process. His naked body was sprawled on the soft green grass close to the river’s bank. His eyes were closed and a small smile dancing on his lips. He was so happy to be human again. Opening his eyes, he studied the clouds high above. I will miss flying though…

Gathering his courage, he finally decided to deal with his injury before the fire burned out. It was a gruesome, painful process of taking the rope off, scrubbing the wound clean so he could get the blood flowing cleanly again before pressing it against a scorching hot stone. He tried to muffle his cries of pain and Pup comforted him by whimpering in sympathy and offering loving licks to his tear strained face.