13: Courage

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Reagan reappeared once the hour the dragons had given us was up

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Reagan reappeared once the hour the dragons had given us was up. He was in his human form, wearing nothing but brown shorts that hung loosely around his hips. On his broad, tanned chest there were drops of water glistening in the sunlight. While his torso definitely caught my attention—it was his eyes that kept it. I couldn't look away. I could never look away once that golden stare held mine, making me go stiff and my body rigid. They captured a part of my soul I never even knew existed.

He strutted towards us—or me—with a determined stature. It seemed he'd cooled down and collected himself.

He addressed us all. "Everyone. The hour has passed. The four of us will be carrying the lot of you on our backs. Hold on to whatever you can. In the sky, we won't be able to communicate easily, which means if anything is wrong, you punch your fist into the left side of our back exactly three times and we will land. Understood?"

Each of us nodded wordlessly. I could feel nervousness cloud my senses, closing in on me in a matter of seconds.

"What if someone falls off?" Jaxxon asked timidly.

Reagan turned his head towards him, raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Instead, Dante answered. "You die. But since you don't seem to have much of anything in your brain, I reckon you'll die soon anyway."

I almost snickered at his comment but kept it in. I wasn't about to laugh at a joke Dante made. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. But I did have to admit he had a point.

Kendra snorted disapprovingly. Knowing her, she probably agreed but wasn't happy with her promised for insulting one of ours.

Dante craned his neck towards her, his gray scales shining a brighter shade as the light hit them. He nudged her softly as she placed her hand on his forehead—so tiny in comparison—and looked at him with a warm expression on her face.

The amount of affection they both created by simply looking at each other was magical. It made me wonder whether Reagan and I could create something so beautiful, too.

I could feel it replace all the nervousness floating around us instantly, warming up my body like the temperature was actually rising. It was a comfortable feeling, nestling itself inside my stomach.

"Will you get a room already?" All heads turned towards Tyrion, the brown scaled beast of a dragon. Tyrion's eyes grew twice their size as he noticed everyone's attention resting on him at his comment.

"What? We're on a tight schedule here, not that any of you care! We should get going", Tyrion whined.

"He's right. Prepare yourselves," Reagan added shortly before turning to leave. He turned his back towards us, facing the forest. It was a picture I ingrained into my memory. With those broad, tanned shoulders, he fit so naturally into the picture. If only I was a painter...

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