Chapter 5

This time Iris woke up in luxurious surroundings. Her head still pounded and she still felt dizzy, but her surroundings made her overcome every feeling she might have with confusion and awe. It was some sort of master bedroom. From the king-sized bed on which she lay to the marbled floor and painted ceiling with images of Greek Gods, Goddesses, and fire-breathing dragons. The room was a marvel. The royal-ish furniture seemed to be imbibed with gold and gems in various places.

Iris tried moving and getting to a sitting position. She didn't know how she got there but the memories from before tranquillization came back gradually. This clearly wasn't werewolves, they would never treat her this well. So could it be her abductor, Dominic? She didn't even know his last name and he seemed to know her strengths and weaknesses like the back of his hand.

She could see three doors, one of them must be the bathroom and the other the walk-in wardrobe, so that meant the third one was the exit. That was what she needed. As she decided to leave the heavenly bed and sheets, she realized she wasn't in her old clothes. Someone had changed her.

With that realization, all her fears returned. What pervert had undressed her? and what had he touched and done to her while she lay there unconscious and vulnerable? And who redressed her? Most importantly, whose bed she was lying in?

She was still pondering and starting to panic as her eyes swept around the room to the wall-sized curtained window shedding soft filtered sunlight into the room. Iris tried to do a simple spell and check if her magic worked as it did during the car ride. But this time she couldn't even fix the wrinkles on her satin peach nightdress. She needed to get out of there and most importantly find proper clothes to run in.

That is when a door to her right opened and in walked a sweet-looking old lady with a greying head and a soft wrinkly smile, looking tenderly as she exclaimed as soon as she saw Iris, "O My, You are awake! How is your head, sweetie? I just came to check on you. You've been sleeping since you came in yesterday."

"Uh, hi? Where exactly am I and who brought me here? Who are you and why am I here? OH! And who changed my clothes?" Iris had a whole bunch of questions ready since the day before and she shot them at the poor old lady.

"O, dear! Someone is very confused. Aren't you, pretty?" The old lady laughed tenderly as a mother does to her favorite child, "I am Marie, Dom's nana. Ever since my daughter died I have been taking care of Dom, Lily, and their father."

"Uh, mam? I don't want to be here, can you please help me out of-" Desperate for her freedom, Iris was interrupted by the door opening, and in walked an extremely pretty young girl looking slightly younger than Iris wearing a formal professional suit and walked like a supermodel with the same tender smile that Lady Marie was supporting,

"I came as soon as I could, I hope I haven't missed the introductions." said the newcomer in a soft delighted tone of a child who was about to have her favorite candy, "My name is Susanne. Marie is like a mother to me. I am Dom's cousin. It is such a pleasure to meet you."

"No, no, sweetheart, you haven't missed much. I was about to start, that is why I asked you to be here as soon as possible when I saw her awake." Lady Marie responded to Sussane.

All Iris could do was look at the two women making themselves at home around her on the bed they were seated in. They seemed delighted by her presence. Maybe they don't know she was abducted or maybe it was a norm for that adonis of a man, Dominic, to kidnap girls and bring them here. Still, the ladies' delight was confusing. What was there to be excited about? What was going to happen? And how did Lady Marie contact Sussane while talking to Iris the whole time?

The women sensed what was troubling her mind and decided to put her at ease with the truth. It was Lady Marie's duty to provide truthful, satisfactory answers to Iris as per Dom's orders, so that's what she started to do in her own way.

"Iris sweetie, Listen to me carefully." Lady Marie held Iris' hand in both of hers and started to give it tender soothing thumb strokes as she told Iris, "I know it should be Dom here telling you the truth and not us, but he is unavailable and I will tell you the truth about it when we get to it. How about we start from the beginning, hm?" She asked her softly with a smile.

"Why should I believe a word you say? He kidnapped me out of my free life-" Iris said, feeling helpless.

"Believe it or not dear, that decision was in your best interest and once you know the truth, everything will make sense and you will believe it yourself. No one is going to force anything on you." Lady Marie told her calmly, "So shall I start? Are you ready to listen?"

Iris sighed and looked around and then at her hand in Marie's which she was stroking as her own mother used to an eternity ago. Iris sighed again and, knowing she had no other way, her magic didn't work and she still felt weak due to the strong tranquilizer. She simply slouched her shoulders, gave up, and nodded silently. What else was there to do? Listening to this old woman wasn't going to get her killed, right?

"Alright then!" Lady Marie tapped her hand behind Iris' back and got comfortable. So did Sussane from beside Iris as Lady Marie started, "Once upon a time before you were born. This is of an era from when even fossils don't remain. This planet was inhabited by many more free creatures than you see today. Humans were a mere fraction of the community then. It was a time when shape-shifters constituted the major roles on Earth. Wolf-shifters whom you know as werewolves, but there also used to be more. Fox-shifters, Bear-shifters, even Gorilla and shark-shifters. But the most dominant of all were the noble Dragon-shifters." Iris' eyes went wide with surprise, wonder, and a little uncertainty.

"So you are telling me there were people who could turn themselves into bears and sharks and even D-Dragons? That, dragons were real?" Iris asked in disbelief.

"O sweetie, I am telling you there still remain a few of those species. Werewolves you are aware of, because of their greatest numbers and survival through time. The rest have merely a few tiny communities left around the world. Most of them went extinct due to procreation with real animals, so much so that human DNA became so negligible the offspring lost the ability to turn back to humans at all. Now only a few remain, all in hiding."

"Why are they in hiding? I still never understood. If we are so powerful, why do we need to hide? It's not like humans can harm us," Iris asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Well, it wasn't always like this. Humans knew of us once. They feared us. And it was a peaceful community ruled by the noble Dragons."

"Why Dragons?"

"Because Dragons are the only naturally born beings on Earth that are Immune to magic and have special abilities way more than any shifters are capable of."

"For example?"

"We'll get to that part later, but first, you need to know of The Great War."

"The Great War?"

"Umhm. It was a time when the ruled classes decided on a power grab. They were done being ruled by Dragons, so they conspired. Every shifter conspired on how to kill the Alpha king and remove Dragons from the Throne of the World and bring their class as the rulers. But humans were the worst. They have always been terrified of us and that terror has been their driving force to create toxins to nullify our shifting abilities along with any and every special ability it brought us. The war started as violent. The shifter fractions against the Dragons, but then the feeblest of all, the humans, started biological warfare. All classes lost many families to humans. They were not killed, only rendered pure human, unable to transform or use any special ability for all generations to come. The shifter population decreased. By the time the century-long war was over, humans had won. They made a pact with the remaining sections."

"A Pact?"

"Yes, a pact to never hunt or try to over-rule humans again. The pact included hiding, making sure that the hating humans never saw any shifters again, or would be shot at sight. There was nothing to be done but accept it. After all, shifters couldn't just remove a whole species from Earth's ecosystem. Plus, they were all grieving the loss of their loved ones and mourning the dead their wars had killed." Lady Marie took a deep breath and waited for Iris to let it all sink in. After a moment, Iris asked,

"So what happened next?"

"Well, the shifters were heartbroken. As I said, some went extinct due to their grief and others remain hidden in tiny communities all around the world, making sure humans never find them or their children."

"What about the Dragons?"

"What about them?" Smiled Lady Marie at Iris' curiosity.

"Well, if most shifters went extinct, is that what happened to the Dragons, or are there real dragons still alive somewhere? I have traveled the world for centuries and never came across one." Iris asked with her eyes full of wonder and excitement at the mere thought of it all. The panic, the sense of dread and terror, and the memory of an abduction all left her mind at the fairytale being told to her. It all seemed like a bedtime story, yet it all felt so real. Deep down something told Iris that the old lady wasn't lying, that there was a truth to this side of history that no one had ever told her.

Lady Marie smiled, "Dragons decided to slumber. Deep in the cores of mountains and ranges. Transformed and slept, some have been sleeping for thousands of years. Only a few remained awake to keep their legacy going. After all, we are the noblest of all of God's creations on Earth. And you never find a Dragon-shifter dear, if a Dragon-shifter wants you, they'll find you, even abduct you if that's what it takes." She tapped Iris' hand again and winked knowingly at her.

That's when it dawned on Iris. Her magic wouldn't work on him because he was a Dragon-shifter. The man wasn't sent or enhanced by her brother, he was naturally enhanced. Dominic could turn himself into a DRAGON! That revelation alone made Iris' eyes wide like saucers and made her go in shock as Lady Marie and Sussane laughed lightly at her reaction.

But Iris now had so many more new questions after the reality had set in.