The Dragon's Claws

Chapter Eleven- Fafnir and I get into a fight. . . with each other

~~~Unknown POV~~~

"So what are we going to do about Shadowwalker?" a gruff voice asked his partner.

"Patience, Drak." a silvery voice responded, "We'll have him soon."

"Yes, Viper, but how soon? You know he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Crow," the man named Viper said the name with a twist of his mouth and a sneer, "won't be leader for long. He'll be dead long before we catch the Destroyer" he said this name with equal disgust, "and his demon of a dragon."

Upon hearing this, the man called Drak smiled, revealing a number of missing teeth. "You know best, Viper. You know we're behind you."

"Yes, I know," he replied with a honeyed tone, gripping his viper head cane. "I know."

~~~POV change(Alex)~~~

I walked through the woods, or Loquens Arbores Silvæ, as Collin repeatedly warned me to call them, with Fafnir and the others, completely forgetting our original reason for coming back here; to find Kajeel and his tribe and try to find answers about Nate. I noticed how, when Collin spoke, Rigby would listen with rapt attention, and he always laughed when Collin made a joke or funny comment about something. I pointed it out to Fafnir, and he shared my thought that Rigby had a crush on Collin, perhaps without him even knowing. I pretty much just shrugged it off, ignoring the twinge of jealousy I had in the pit of my stomach. I did NOT need to get involved in a relationship.

"A relationship could do you good, Alex," Fafnir suggested softly, nudging my arm with his snout.

I pushed him away and huffed. "What's your point?" I said, not looking at him, "I have to like someone first." He just sighed and leaned back, giving me some space. He knew, of course, that I was lying. That's how our link worked. We could talk to each other in our minds, but we could also feel each other's emotions if we tried. Although, we could also hide our emotions. I knew he knew I had feelings for Collin, but I didn't want to admit it. It had always been just me and Fafnir, and what he didn't know is I liked him too. I know, a cross-species relationship, gross. That's what most people think. There have been a few cases of elves mating with humans, but they were looked down upon. With me, it would be even worse for two reasons: it would be homosexual, which isn't that big of a deal, but it still gets whiplash, and it wouldn't even be two human-like species. It would cross just about every border you could think of for taboo-ness, so I just shook it off and ignored it the best I could.

"You got a plan yet, oh mighty whisperer?" Rigby chuckled.

I raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Since when do I not have a plan?"

"Since we started this whole fiasco," Fafnir huffed, grinning his toothy grin.

"Okay, mister high and mighty. What do you suggest?" I joked sarcastically, pushing him in the shoulder.

"Well," he began smugly, "maybe we should start by trying to find Kajeel."

I hit my forehead with my palm and cursed. "I totally forgot about him!" I turned to Collin and Rigby, who had been laughing quietly as they watched me and Fafnir. "Have either one of you heard of a strange group of men, about fifty strong, led by a guy named Kajeel?" I crossed my fingers and sighed in relief when they both nodded.

"Well, yeah," Collin said with a shrug, "they've been trying to hunt us the past few weeks." He said it so matter-of-factly I almost didn't understand him.

"I'm sorry, did you say hunting?" I said with incredulity.

Beside him, Rigby raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but they're a joke. As soon as they see that they've been chasing a couple massive wolves, they run off."

Fafnir just stared at the pair. "You have got to be kidding me." He huffed in annoyance and started pacing in circles. "So this whole trip was just a waste of time?"

I furrowed my eyebrows and tilted my head slightly, which I've been told makes me look very bird-like, usually by Fafnir. "What do you mean waste? We found Collin and Rigby. Hell, we found a whole new species!" I threw my hands in the air. "So how is it wasted?"

He spun around and narrowed his eyes, looking more agitated than I'd seen him for a long time. "This whole time we could have been looking for Nate," he hissed, and I almost facepalmed at the fact that I had forgotten about him, immediately feeling horrible, "but instead, we've been on this wild beast chase, for a beast that doesn't even exist, mind you!"

I avoided his eyes and mumbled something about beasts that I later deeply regretted, earning me a scoff in my mind and a sudden gust of wind across my body. I looked up to see the shocked expressions of the two shifters, and, looking up even more, I saw the silhouette of Fafnir growing smaller.

"Since you obviously don't care, I'll look for him on my own." He growled over our link. His words cut deep, and I let him feel it, but the only emotion I got back was contempt, which only made it hurt worse.

"So, uh," Collin rubbed his arm and looked everywhere except me, "what's he doing?"

I whirled around to face away from them, not wanting them to see the tears forming in my eyes. "He's scouting," I replied flatly, "so set up camp. I'm going to find some wood for a fire." They had to have seen right through that, seeing as there was plenty of sticks around the clearing we were in, but neither made a comment as they took off packs they had been carrying. I didn't wait to see what they had in their packs before I took off into the forest, only to bump into a massive wall of a body minutes later.

"Well well, Shadowwalker," a gruff voice laughed, "fancy meeting you here." And that was all I heard before a hand the size of a frying pan hit me upside the head and knocked me out cold.