Page 45 of The War is Coming

“Thank you.”

Brook opened his eyes and looked around. He was surprised to find himself in a field with dragons and his dragon family. The area was peaceful, and the grass he lay on was as soft as a cloud. The sky was blue and a gentle breeze washed over him.

Looking around, all the dragons were fast asleep, but their humans were awake, sitting in a circle, chatting.

Brook sat up.

“Look who’s finally woken up,” Peyton said, smiling his way.

“Hey,” Brook said, standing and walking slowly over to them. “Does anyone else ache?”

“No, we’re just tired,” Atticus said. “You’ll be in pain because of the forced shifting.”

Brook sat down. “Thank you for saving Silver,” he said, looking at each of them.

“We will always protect Silver and you,” Puff said.

“Will our dragons be alright?”

“They will,” Mateo replied. “They all used a lot of magic to counteract the dark magic and stop Silver being stripped from you. They’ll wake up, probably be grouchy and hungry, but they’ll be fine.”

“How do we feed our dragons?” Brook asked.

“Just eat normally,” Puff said. “Bob likes bacon, so I’ll eat extra for him.” He leant into Mateo’s side.

“Where are we and how can we be outside of our dragons?” Brook asked, confused.

“We’re in some kind of dream plane,” Atticus told him. “I’ve never heard of this happening before, though.”

“Maybe because of all the magic we used, it brought us here so we could all rest together,” General Delinga suggested.

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” Grayson said.

Brook yawned. “If no one minds, I’m going back to sleep.”

“Nope, we don’t mind. We were about to sleep again when you woke up,” the General said.

Everyone stood, with the general helping Brook up and over to Silver, then went to his own dragon and lay down next to him.

Mateo, Puff and Atticus walked over to their dragons, who were sleeping close together, touching, with enough space in the middle for the three men to join them. They lay down, with Puff between Atticus and Mateo and fell asleep.

The others settled down, and they all fell asleep quickly. All except for Brook, who was thinking over everything that had happened. The pain, the fear, everything. He stroked Silver’s nose. “You really are stunning. I’m glad you’re safe,” he said quietly. He felt Silver wrap his tail around him, and finally he fell back to sleep.

CHAPTER 20

“How long do you think they’ll be asleep for?” Willow asked sometime later, putting her plate on the ground.

Oz had come in earlier and brought them all dinner.

“I don’t know,” Demi replied, sipping his coffee. “They were all exhausted, so they might not wake up until tomorrow.”

“Can you not wake them?” Tobin asked.

Demi shook his head. “No, that would just wake up their human selves; their dragons would still be asleep.”

“We need to check on Eggleston,” Willow said. “We’ve not checked on him for hours.”

“Devon or Dask will still be looking after him. But do the three of you want to go and spend time with him? I promise I won’t leave my mate’s side.”