Southern Fried Dragon Read Free

harbor to Fort Moultrie. Shaw’s attention locked on the lights of Charleston, fading into the distance. The boat’s gentle bobbing lulled him into the peaceful twilight between wakefulness and dreams.
    Dru’s face floated before him. She licked her berry-red lips, and winked. In shadow, her blue eyes shimmered with desire. Her brown hair floated behind her, curling at the ends. Her welcoming gaze stirred a fire in his loins that echoed in his heart. His fingers yearned to throw off his gloves and cup her small, perfect breasts.
    When a large fish jumped beside the boat, splashing him, Shaw snapped back to reality. The sudden dousing of cold seawater woke him from a most enjoyable dream. The corporal laughed as Shaw wiped the salty spray from his cheek and prayed his men could not see the aching bulge between his legs.

CHAPTER 2
     
     
    The next seven days passed as slow on a cold morning as the time it took to pour molasses. A s alt-laden breeze filled Dru’s nostrils as rivulets of smoke escaped her snout. She sailed among the clouds, oblivious to the cold snap hovering over her adopted city, until tears welled in her eyes. Feathered eyelids lowered, sheltering her gaze as she searched the water below. Muscles snapped and wrenched as she drew her bony knees inward, gathering them close to her belly’s radiant heat.
    Dru reveled in her life as a healthy, young Scottish dragon. Lips and nostrils of serpent skin opened wider, filling with the abundant taste and scent of aquatic life, mudflats, and winter. She loved days like today, along the South Carolina coast.
    Curling her talons, salt-covered scales crackled. She gathered her leathery wings to her back and dropped lower. Dru flew close to the battlements, intent on swallowing a pelican or other fat seabird. The trick was to elude detection by the birds as well as the men inside the stone fortress under construction.
    The walls of Fort Sumter had risen slowly over the past year. When she walked along the Charleston pier, she could now make out its five-sided silhouette. The tall stone walls and inner bailey reminded her of castles in the Scottish Highlands.
    She missed Scotland, but she had come to realize she had no future among the craggy islands and moors. Having left her homeland, the loneliness she found in Charleston threatened to unhinge her mind, and throw her into the dark depths of despair.
    Oh, she enjoyed working with Maggie and serving the myriad of men who came into the dining hall, but her life lacked male companionship.
    Today, at least, she found pleasure in spying on the men stationed at the uncompleted fort. A dragon’s eyes could peer through the thickest sea fog or blackest night. For safety’s sake, she knew she ought to fly at night in search of food, but she loved to fly with the sun on her back. During the day or early evening, she finished her chores and escaped into the sky.
    The harbor sailors and merchants appeared small as ants. As she flew high above the new fort, laborers worked tirelessly on the man-made rocky island in an ingenious, well-planned operation.
    From behind a cloud, she spat seashells at the workers. A foolish, childish game and she knew it, but it served to pass the time. Hadn’t she done the same thing to the Selkies along the coasts of Ireland and Scotland? The difference between playing with the mythical creatures on the other side of the ocean? Dru never had to hide.
    The situation here in Charleston proved different. Forced to hide from the humans, Dru knew keeping her existence secret took precedence.
    Blazes!
    The sun would rise in less than thirty minutes. She could not allow anyone to catch a glimpse of her true form. Her dragon existence gave her so much more, including the freedom to fly above the earth, and the ease in which she caught her food. Her physically superior makeup was unstoppable.
    Powerful.
    Lonely.
    Dru shook off the pity party, swooped to a sandbar covered with waterfowl, plucked a slow