Shit, he really could use more space here. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver.
Even as all of this went through his head, some part of his brain issued a warning. He was going to be seen. Oh shit, Alric was going to be pissed.
But it was okay. He was saving a life. Alric would understand. Ravi would get the plane safely on the ground, make sure the human was okay, and then he’d get the hell out of there before someone got a camera pointed in his direction.
It wasn’t a great plan, but at least he had a plan in place. For Ravi, that was actually rather amazing.
As he and the plane got closer to the ground, he was relieved that the human at least had enough sense to put down the landing gear. Ravi didn’t want to damage the plane more than he already had with his massive talons.
Muscles strained and his wings trembled with exertion. He was going to be so damn sore later. The ground rose up faster and faster. Ravi slowed them further with another exhalation of breath, forcing them to drop more speed, his wings back-flapping hard. He clenched his teeth and was about to close his eyes when something else caught his attention.
More people.
Lots more people.
People with cameras and lights and microphones…and was that a catering table?
Big cameras like the ones they use to make movies.
Oh shit…
He thought the pilot had been in trouble and aiming for an empty field in which to crash.
But the pilot hadn’t actually been in trouble at all. He’d been shooting a scene for a movie. And Ravi had flown right into their shot.
Oh yeah, there was no doubt about it now. Alric was going to skin him and mount his head on his office wall.
Maybe it had been a controlled flight before, maybe not, but Ravi had complete control of it now. And he had to focus on getting them to the ground before he really screwed this up. He back-flapped again, and this time he was able to drop the plane the last three feet to the ground.
Before Ravi could come up with any kind of plan to escape this new mess, his heels hit the dirt hard, causing him to skid forward. Dirt and dust were flung into the air in every direction, creating a small cloud around him and the plane. But not nearly enough for him to hide in. He might not be a large dragon, but he was big enough that his shining blue scales showed bright against the silver metal and vibrant green grass.
When he and the plane had come to a complete halt, Ravi carefully balanced himself, leaving his wings half-unfurled as he regarded the gathered people. No one moved. If he hadn’t known better, he would have said they were all props, mannequins. Except for the fact that several of them were holding up their cellphones, recording everything.
Ravi lifted his head and looked into the cockpit to find the human who was sitting there, looking stunned and utterly confused. But his chest was rising and falling rapidly, and he blinked a couple of times. Good. Still alive. At least he hadn’t given the poor guy a heart attack.
He waggled his claws at the human and tried to smile, but the man just got paler. But then, he seemed more focused on Ravi’s enormous teeth than his friendly expression.
Not that humans were good at reading friendly on a dragon’s face. Cameron had teasingly said that dragons either looked like they wanted to eat you or were bored. Right now, the pilot looked like he was reading eat you on Ravi’s face.
Sighing, Ravi slowly moved to where most of the humans were gathered on the grassy field. He stood there for a second, wracking his brain. Nothing really useful was coming to him, so he waved one talon-tipped hand at the people.
“This is not the dragon you were looking for,” he said in his most hopeful tone.
One woman’s mouth fell open, and she lowered her phone a little. “Did—did you just try to do a Jedi mind trick on us?”
“Did it work?”
“No.”
Ravi’s shoulders slumped, and he gathered his wings tighter against his body, trying to pull together as much dignity as he could muster, considering the mess he’d gotten himself into.
“Damn you, Obi Wan. You made it look so easy.”
No one seemed to know what to say to that.
Ravi gave them his best puppy eyes. “Could we keep this whole little thing just between us?”
Someone else on the ground barked out a high-pitched laugh. “No way. I’m livestreaming this on Instagram.”
“Facebook,” another woman chimed in.
“TikTok,” a third person added.
“Scheiße,” Ravi cursed under his breath. Alric was definitely going to kill him. With a little wave of his hand, he mumbled an embarrassed, “Sorry for disturbing your movie. I thought the pilot was in trouble.”
And then he launched himself back into the air.
He didn’t care about fog, clouds, or trying to hide himself in any way. It was too late for that. Now he was just a blue blur in the sky as he raced toward a secluded spot. He needed to warn the other dragons back at Burkhard.
The kilometers raced by below him, and he didn’t stop again until he was in an uninhabited area well past Dover. That had been his original plan, to stay away from civilization until he reached a library.
Now he didn’t know what he should do.
In what looked to be a lonely stretch of woods, Ravi set down and shifted into his human form. His heart was pounding, and his throat was painfully dry as he dug his cellphone out of the little bag he was carrying. He hesitated for only a moment, trying to decide who to call. He knew he should call Alric or even Baldewin. As the head of security for the clan, Baldewin would need to know about this mess he’d made.
This was so, so much bigger than his usual antics. It wasn’t a matter an apology and doing dishes for a month could make up for. He’d just outed his whole clan. Possibly implicated the ice dragons as well. Like, how many years of dishes would this take?
And were people even ready to come out of the closet? Alric and Rodrigo had been talking about it, debating pros and cons, but no one had arrived at a conclusion yet.
Yet. Ha, that was funny.
Funny because Ravi had taken the option out of their hands.
Alric might lock him in the dungeon with Gunter for the rest of his life. Ravi couldn’t think of a worse punishment than being confined to the dungeon, researching until his eyes crossed. He shuddered at the image.
No, there was only one person who could help keep his king from going through the roof.
“Ravi,” Cameron’s sleep-rough voice groaned in his ear the moment the call connected. “I thought I told you not to call me before the sun was up.”
“The sun is definitely up,” Ravi muttered.
“Really?” There was a pause and a rustling of sheets. “Huh. I guess it is, but it’s still too early.”
“Is Alric there with you?”
“Nope.” There was more rustling of the sheets and a happy sigh like the mage was getting settled in bed again rather than getting up. “He said he was joining some kind of dragon calisthenics on the mountain with Baldewin and Warin this morning. I think they were even going to drag Gunter out with them.” Cameron snorted. “Silly dragons. Not gonna catch a mage out on a mountain at this ridiculous hour,” he muttered.
“Cam, I-I’m going on a journey,” Ravi announced.
There was another long silence, but this one was different. The line was completely still. He couldn’t even hear Cameron breathing.