Chapter 1 - Egon
Egon.
Signing the paperwork with my two brothers, Engel and Reinheart to take over my father’s logging business wasn’t at the top of my list of things to do this year.
It meant, returning home to Oregon from California where I built my own life working with the wildfire crews. Where I felt I was needed. Being a dragon shifter meant I would always live, fire doesn’t affect me like it does to humans or lesser shifters. It’s where I thrived and enjoyed my simple life. Wake up, put out the fire, save the people, eat, shower, and go to bed. No matter how things worked out there, it never mixed with my family’s lives.
My father, Hanz wanted to spend more time with my mother, Brigitte, as my mother was half human and didn’t have as long of a lifespan as we have. Though she looks more weathered than my father through the storm of time, I look over to her daydreaming out the window of our estate. Her once brown bouncy hair has streaks of silver running through it, her tattoo from the time where the humans captured and tagged us with numbers still shows boldly along her eyebrow, 645-DS. Dragon Shifter number 645. And every time I look at it I remember the stories she would tell me about the camp that she was raised in as a child. But her large blue eyes with the red rimming the color still gleamed happily throughout my childhood, though it shouldn’t have. She has a slender and strong body of a 50 year old woman, but I know that she’s at least a hundred years of age.
My father went to her with a glass of scotch in his hand, placing a hand on her shoulder. He was tall, just like all of us Windberg men, probably six foot six, towering over mother’s five feet six inch frame. His hair was blonde which shone on his dragon being gold. One of very few left in this earth. He was one of the Made. Chosen by the stones of Anahim outside now present day Germany to serve for the remainder of his life as one of the Dragoon. People who are chosen were favored in history by disgusting rulers like Adolf Hitler for their powers in war, based his entire campaign on men with blonde hair and blue eyes with a red rim. The Red Rim of our irises is a dead giveaway for a dragon shifter. Normally people see us and cower in fear because they know of the outbursts that our people have had over the centuries causing spontanious combustion of humans from the heat we give off or something like that. I pay no mind to them.
But, father stood next to her, with his well fit body because he still trains every day for war, though we have all been at peace for a long time. My brothers and I all share our mother’s features though, light brown hair and blue eyes. I’m the tallest at 6’6” and oldest at 40, Engel and Reinheart are irish twins at the age of 35 and look almost exactly the same in every way. Wavy hair atop their heads, skin tanned from their time outdoors working in the lumberyard or their iron working business they have together. One soul, different body is what my mother always called them. Because Engel was a very mute child until Reinheart was born and began to cry. Like waiting for the other half of their soul to return to them.
My Father’s deep voice spoke, “Thank you, for coming home Egon. To help your brothers with the forest. Have you begun your work with the local fire department?”
“Yes.” I answered quickly. “It seems as though this is their down time, so not much work to do. But it’s still good helping manage the firehouse while I am helping here as well. I feel lit will be a good balance.”
“Maybe you will finally find your Flame, now that your home.” Mother’s voice chimed in and everyone looked at her with a smirk.
“Oh Mother,” Reinheart started.
“Don’t you think he would have found his Flame by now.” Engel ended both of their voices sounding seemless as they spoke together.
“Well you know,” Mother began but Father shot her a look.
This alarmed all three of us and I looked at my brothers with concern before we moved our eyes back to our father.
“I wasn’t going to bring it up.” Father said to her gently, “But I guess it will be spoke of now.”
“What happened?” I asked them and my brothers nodded to me.
“Anaheim has made five new dragoons. As of six months ago.” Father stated and we looked at each other on baited breath.
“Who?” my brothers said together.
“Three were men and two were women. One woman was of a over bred clan that lost their ability to shift over the centuries, and the other was of unknown origin. Her name and lineage are a mystery to us all. She was running from local law and when she was running away she touched the stones, causing the glow to appear. When the officers went to obtain her and detain her, she was gone.” Father said to us and we looked down at the floor in shame.
“Was she marked? Are they still holding potential people captive?” I asked as nicely as I could.
“They have begun that again in smaller factions of the countries. Which I have been working with your mother and the council to put an end to it as you know.” Father said, my mother standing from her chair by the window. “But she is in the wind. We know nothing of her.”
“So there is a dragon shifter out there that has no idea she is one?” I asked him, looking at my brothers.
“Yes, unfortunately.” Father said to me. “We know she is somewhere in this continent due to her taking a deportation ticket from Europe days later, but other than that. We know nothing of her.”
“She could be,” Reinheart began looking at Engel.
“In danger of herself.” Engel finished.
“Which is why we have been hoping she will be drawn to her kind somehow, we have a large community of dragon shifters here. Just stay alert of new people in the town alright?” Father said to all of us.
“Yes Father.” We all answered worried of the consequences of a lone shifter out there in the world where we are not completely accepted yet.
