Young Shirai wakes up in the world of Lu' Cel with no idea who he is. Shirai has been changed into a half-man, half-dragon hybrid, and suffers from amnesia. He wanders the dark paths of a world he does not know, attempting to uncover his past and the reason for his new hybrid form. Shirai is befriended by three others, all seeking something, and the four of them set off to wander Lu' Cel in search of Shirai's past. Who is the young hero? And where did he get the magical sword in his possession? There are much grander questions in this new world, though-questions about a war that has ravaged Lu' Cel for ages. Can the foursome find peace, and where does Shirai's lost identity fit into it all? Can this lost dragon being become a victorious dragon man-perhaps even a Chosen One in Lu'Cel? "Dragon Defender takes the reader to a world of good and evil, magic and mystery, where Shirai-part dragon, part man-finds himself the reluctant Chosen One. The friends he makes on his quest to save Lu' Cel do not regret joining him. You won't either." -Dianna Devlin, author of Moontide and Tender Triumph

DRAGON DEFENDER

By Terry Fortuné

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Terry Fortuné
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-8563-6

Contents

1 - Dawn of Realization...............................12 - Knowledge Renewed.................................103 - The Starting Path.................................194 - Reunion...........................................285 - The Concealed Sorcerer............................376 - The City..........................................437 - Invasion..........................................528 - The Hidden Ones...................................649 - The Elfin Girl....................................7310 - Evil Magic versus Good Magic.....................8111 - Joining Together.................................8812 - Mountain of Darkness.............................9613 - The Council of Ska...............................10614 - Boat Ride........................................11515 - Understanding of Power...........................12416 - City of Magic....................................13517 - Hate or Love.....................................14518 - Final Wall.......................................15619 - Tragedy of Life..................................16820 - Battle for Truth.................................17721 - Lost Control.....................................18722 - The Ancient Evil.................................19923 Defender of All...................................20824 - Epilogue.........................................220

Chapter One

Dawn of Realization

Pain.

That was the first thing I felt after I woke up. I had no clue why I was in such pain nor had any recollection of falling asleep in the first place. As I tried to get up from where I lay, my entire body cried out in agony over the sensation of being jabbed all over by hot blades. Unable to handle such pain, I stopped midway and just sat on what I felt to be the wooden floor of a home.

The reason I say "felt like" was that I had become aware that something was wrong with my sight. I could see, to a degree, walls and sunlight coming from a possible window, but they all appeared to be blurred. I couldn't even see my hands—which I held in front of my face—clearly.

When one of my hands brushed the sides of my head, I found the reason for my blurred vision: my eyes were covered by several layers of bandages. I was about to take them off when the sound of a door being opened interrupted me.

"Oh! So you're awake at last, I see," a dignified yet wise-sounding old man's voice spoke out.

A figure stood in the center of a doorway, but I couldn't see what he looked like. As he started to walk toward me, I heard a thumping kind of noise along with his footsteps.

The man stopped a foot away from me and said, "Please don't move so much. You are still recovering, so leave those bandages alone."

"Where am I? What happened to me?" Even speaking was too much for me, so I only spoke sporadically in a low tone.

"Where you are now is the small village of Kenga. It's just a few days' journey from the City of Gale. As for what happened, I was hoping you could tell me," said the man.

"What ... do you mean?" I replied.

"Someone found you just outside the village, unconscious and severely wounded." As the mystery behind the source of my pain was solved, the man continued, "They brought you to my home, where I managed to patch you up quickly before you lost any more blood. What happened?"

I tried to remember the last thing I did, but I couldn't remember anything.

I had no memory of what I did the last few hours, the day before that, or even the week before that. I couldn't even remember if I knew of any of the places the man spoke of.

My mind was completely blank.

"I ... I can't remember." I could hear my voice tremble while I spoke. "I can't remember anything."

"It's okay. Just tell me what you can remember," said the man.

Trying hard to think through the constant feeling of pain, I was finally able to remember something. "My name ... My name is Shirai."

"Shirai, huh? I'm Elder Giram."

Upon learning the man's name, I wanted to thank him for helping me. However, while in the process of moving slightly forward, I noticed something.

My whole body felt weird. I knew I had one, yet I knew it wasn't mine.

"My body ... something's wrong ... it doesn't feel right."

"Is that so?" I could detect a hint of confusion in Giram's voice.

"Why are my eyes covered?" I placed both hands on the bandages. "Did something happen to them?"

Giram didn't say anything at first. Assuming that he was thinking, I waited. It was so quiet that I could hear him breathing. Finally, he replied, "Before I answer that, I must know something. This may sound weird, but do you remember what you looked like?"

I thought that was a weird question, but he sounded serious when he asked me, so I told him, "I know that I'm just an ordinary young man. What does that have to do with anything?"

Again, there was silence. Only this time it didn't last as long as before.

"I knew it was a good idea to do what I did," said Giram, who sounded relieved for some reason. "Listen, Shirai. At first I thought I should cover your eyes up because they were probably damaged, but now I think it is best if you never take those bandages off."

A lump instantly formed in my throat.

"What are you talking about?"

I felt Giram's hand being placed gently on my shoulder. "If you could see what you look like now, I think it would do more harm than good."

A rush of fear and anxiety quickly overcame me.

"Do you have anything that can reflect my image? Anything?"

"There is a small lake not five feet away from my home, but—"

Not letting Giram finish, I sprang up and felt my way to the door, ignoring the man's calls and the pain that overwhelmed my body. I found walking to be difficult, but I finally found my way to the door and went outside.

Through the bandages, I could see the bright sunlight, but everything else was still blurred. I lowered myself to the ground and began to feel for water. The second I felt wetness on my hand, I ripped off the bandages and looked down at the lake's surface. What I saw made me scream in shock and horror.

While Giram was right about me being severely wounded, that was not what made me cry out like that.

Instead of the face of a man looking back at me, it was the face of a dragon! In fact, in all outward appearances, I was a dragon. Yet at the same time, I looked human.

My red face, now a long, smooth snout, extended in front of golden reptilian eyes. A scar I never had before ran over the top and bottom part of my left eye. Copper-colored plates lined the top of my forehead and snout while tiny fangs lined the inside of my mouth.

I ran my fingers, still human in appearance except for the new talons I had, over the seven-inch-long horns that jutted out the back of my head. Still attached to one of my newly longer and pointed ears was my golden hoop earring. I felt the strands of my now longer, dark blond hair as it ran down my slightly elongated neck.

The sight of that thing staring back at me was so shocking that the last thing I remembered before I blacked out was screaming to the heavens, "What happened to me?"

When I awoke again, I found myself leaning against a wall inside a small house. The walls were made of large logs placed on top of each other, and the...