Dragon's Blood: Dragonian Series Short Stories

By Adrienne Woods

A selection of short stories taking place in the world of The Dragonian Series.

Dragon's Blood
Lucian's Ascending
The Claiming of Brian Cooper

The stories all takes place in the spin off series 'Beam' timeline

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fire Quill Publishing
• Release date: Dec 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781947649606

Adrienne Woods

Adrienne Woods resides with her family on the East side of Joburg, Gauteng. If she isn't writing, she is reading and love to spend time with her two beautiful little girls. You can find out more about Adrienne Woods at www.authoradriennewoods.com   

Book preview

Part One

DRAGON BLOOD

Note

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE STORIES ARE PART OF THE MOONBEAM TIME PERIOD

One

I was just a small boy when the wall had been erected to protect the rest of the world from Paegeia.

It felt like yesterday.

There had been big talks in the villages about this, how the folks that had magic came together to create the wall. It took them more than two moons for it to be effective and two of them stayed for twelve full moon cycles to make it stronger.

The wall could not keep those from the other side out, but they couldn’t leave once they were inside Paegeia.

The main reason for this was because we lived with abominations—scaly beasts that set the world on fire with their breath.

It wasn’t easy living with these enormous beasts, but we managed through the years, learning how to douse their flames, and how to trap and kill them.

I grew up with the beasts, wishing that I could just escape this ghastly world, but we couldn’t breach the wall.

Those of us who tried . . . well, they ended up dead.

Only a few humans found a way to succeed and I always wondered what was so special about them. What did they have that the rest of us didn’t?

But for some reason, they always returned to this hell hole. I didn’t understand it. If I could escape this world, I would never come back.

I was different from most of my peers. I had been born with the mark. The mark was also seen as an abomination. Because of that, my father refused to send me to dragon-slayer training.

His reasoning was that I had to take care of my mother and my siblings when he wasn’t there.

But I knew it was to prevent others from seeing the mark, and to protect me.

Many of the people who bore the mark died, since nobody knew what it truly meant, just that it was something wicked, like the old shaman lady who lived in the woods had predicted. Many kids taunted her, as they saw her as a way to conquer their worst fear.

I wanted to join the kids who taunted her, but Elizabeth wouldn’t have that. She was kind, too kind, and she was my best friend. Or she used to be before her beauty set in and drove me wild.

C’mon, Lizzy, I called out for my favorite person in the whole wide world.

She was caring and rich—her father was a noble man—and the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.

I was always the shy one when we grew up, but Lizzy was a force of nature.

You could smell the earth on her, the wind in her hair. She knew when storms were near and she never got a weather prediction wrong. She was so attuned to nature that I had a feeling she was just like the warlocks of our world—the folk who had magic—and every time I mentioned it, she covered my mouth with her hand and prayed that no one had heard me. She hated me speaking of it.

She made me laugh.

Sure, our friendship was innocent when we grew up, but when we hit adulthood, when I became a man and she a woman, our friendship blossomed into affection and love.

Her father didn’t like me much since I wasn’t from nobility like they were, but Lizzy didn’t care.

No, my Lizzy was free, and she didn’t have a care in the world of what anyone would think about our love.

One night she told me she would die for our love.

I thought about her words long and hard. It upset me when she said it, but the truth was that I would die for her, too. I would even kill for her.

Oh, c’mon, on you big boar. It’s the entire purpose of the game. You need to seek! I heard her voice drifting from one of the opposite trees.

She was so stealthy, but nature always gave her away. The glint from the sun that fell on her hair was like gold.

I always watched out for the tells that gave her away.

I stalked the tree where she was hiding. She wasn’t so stealthy that I wouldn’t hear her when she moved to another hiding place.

I despised this game, but she loved it, and because I loved her, I endured it.

I jumped to the other side, roaring. She hated it when I sneaked up on her, but I loved it so much. Especially the way she tried to get away from me.

I froze. There was no one there.

Lizzy! I roared, then felt something jumping on my back. I twisted and turned in fright and Lizzy laughed her backside off.

Her laughter filled my ears like the chimes that hung in front of our house. Mother made them from small sparkling gadgets.

I joined in her laughter as my arms wrapped around her slim body.

You seriously should pay more attention, Will.

Well, you’re getting better and better at being stealthy, young lady, I teased, pulling her in closer for a kiss.

Kissing her made me feel as if the wind was beneath my wings. She made me feel as if I could fly.

It was the best damn feeling in the world.

It wasn’t easy sneaking around with Lizzy behind her father Joab’s back.

He was a brute of a man, as hard as they came, and Lizzy feared that she would inherit his darkness. I hadn’t thought much about her silly fear, but as we grew older, she started to show signs of a fierce temper. A temper that didn’t belong to my Lizzy.

Was it the magic in her blood that sparked the temper? She’d refused that it was the magic that was stirring up her dark emotions, but I wasn’t so sure about that.

We were both adamant. She didn’t want anyone to know about it, and didn’t want me to acknowledge the magic that

Reviews for Dragon's Blood

[Darylene Narrier · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book last and it was totally worth it, cant wait to see if there is more. All about dents !