Dragon Hunter

Chapter 4: River Bottom Enclave

Thankfully the remainder of the trip northward went without incident even with several sightings of dragons flying in formation. As the rest of the team breathed a sigh of relief each time they successfully passed a group of the flying reptiles without garnering their attention, they got close enough a couple times that Cooper got a peek inside their minds. And while what he saw was cause for immediate relief, he wasn't so sure for the long term.

The dragons were hunting elves and that normally meant they would ignore the humans. But they weren't hunting just any group of the pointed eared aliens. They were looking for ones carrying a book. A book, going by the image he pulled out of the mind of a green wyvern, matched the book that once again traveled in his backpack.

If the fire bats found out that humans now had the book, there wasn't much humans could do to stop them from taking it. Cooper smiled tightly at that thought.

Unless, of course, that human now possessed some mystical ability to kill dragons at will.

"Approaching Old Calgary city limits, boss," the spotter indicated over the comms. "We've got fire bats to the west, but nothing close to the enclave."

West? Instinctively the young biker looked in that direction just as a group of dragons in that area flew close enough that he got a glimpse of their intent.

"What??" he hissed loud enough in surprise that he earned a questioning look from both Morgan and Kelly.

Shaking off the looks, he stood to step to the side of the covered box in an attempt to get more information. Because what he had just glimpsed was enough to send a cold shiver down his spine.

The dragons were attacking elves to the west. But not a group of operators, like outside of Claresholm. They were attacking a city!

Cooper felt a sick twisting in his stomach as he tried to absorb that. There was an elven city within a ten minute drive from the western edge of the old city limits.

If he remembered his history correctly, cities were built by people intent on staying in one place. Using that logic, that made the elves colonizers, seeking to make Earth their new home. And why not? Already their magic was transforming the planet into a lush garden, so the terraforming part was done. With Humanity crushed by the two waves of invasion, their only opposition were the dragons.

Then he staggered a bit as their small convoy began the drop into the Bow River river bottom and he lost contact with the outgoing dragons.

"Holy shit, Coop. Are you okay??" Morgan said, stepping close to look into his face. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Cooper refocused on the master-at-arms' pretty, tanned features. He and Morgan both were club rats, growing up inside Cerberus' sometimes dangerous community. So they had been around each other their entire lives and had even hooked up several times as teenagers out of curiosity though it never developed into anything. Cooper was definitely closer to her than he was a lot of the others in the community.

But did he trust Morgan enough to tell her about his months' old abilities?

"Yeah." He looked down. "Just thinking about what I'm gonna tell Jeri and the kids about Tuck. And Kimmie about Cutter." Nope, not yet, apparently.

Impulsively Morgan reached out to tenderly touch his cheek.

"I know you're beating yourself up over their deaths, Cooper," she said, using the same hand to gently lift his chin so he could look her in the eyes.

"I get that. I've lost people under my command, too. But you gathered intel from the aliens that may prove valuable enough to justify their sacrifice. Even if it isn't valuable, that team would've hit us broadside anyway, going by their approach. We would've lost the whole convoy, not just four escort riders."