He was a monster.

Nara could scarcely breathe. Her heart barely beat for fear of offending him. She wanted nothing more than to turn and flee, to leap into the ocean and swim away as fast as she could manage.

But she could not look away.

His oddly reptilian eyes, shimmering with a sheen of white ethera, locked onto hers. She didn’t even hear his greeting, so lost was she in his gaze. He stepped forward, and she felt her soul shake with that single footfall. The children nearby felt it too. Like prey animals that knew they were in the presence of an apex predator, they froze, their thin limbs trembling in fear, weakness, and the knowledge that he could snuff them out with barely a thought.

Since arriving in Ironshore only a few days before, Nara had heard plenty of stories about Elijah Hart. The residents were convinced that he was as much a monster as he was a man, and they were eager to recount tales of how he often took on the form of a colorful dragon, a giant sea turtle, or various other beasts. It was enough for her to narrow her conclusions down to two options.

Either he had somehow earned one of the rare shapeshifting classes, or he’d bonded with beasts powerful enough to fool the city’s residents. Whichever case turned out to be true, it hinted at uncommon power.

Both options would explain how he’d achieved his levels. Most Druid classes were decidedly skewed toward non-combat, but there were plenty of others that went in the opposite direction. Few were more powerful – at least in terms of battle – than bond-based or shapeshifting classes.

Whatever the case, she had not been prepared for the sheer weight of the man’s presence.

Nara had seen some truly powerful people on Kashii. There was no shortage of demi-gods, and there were quite a few deities as well. Though the latter usually kept to themselves, the former were just a part of everyday life.

But what she felt from Elijah Hart far exceeded even those lofty presences. The world practically crackled in his presence. Her sluggish mind put the pieces of the puzzle together. He clearly had a high-grade class evolution. Exotic, at the very least. Maybe even Legendary. And his cultivation was very advanced for his level. Those two were obvious, but they didn’t explain the true weight of his presence.

Only when she focused on his eyes, on the emerald scales peeking out from beneath his shirt, did she make the connection. But she just didn’t believe it.

“Dragon,” she breathed.

He gave her a lopsided grin that did not fit the power he wielded. “Guilty as charged,” he said, pushing his now-wet hair back. The power of his spell – some evolution of Healing Rain – was staggering. Even using every heal at her disposal, she couldn’t come close to matching its output.

“You are guilty?” she wondered, her eyes widening as her mind leaped to some of the horrific stories she’d heard. Tales of dragging thousands of bodies through the sea and slaying entire armies leaped to mind. Of course, one would feel guilty about performing such atrocities.

“Oh. No. Sorry,” he said. “Just an expression. I meant that you’re right. I’m a dragon. Or partly, I guess. Kirlissa said I wouldn’t fully get there until I reached…well, we’ll come back to that.”

“I…I see.”

“Hungry?” he asked, as a small fruit appeared in his hand. His eyes flicked to some of the children who still hadn’t fully recovered from their journey. They hadn’t gone hungry, but the constant hardships of travel had not left them unscathed. Most were on the verge of malnourishment – a condition they’d endeavored to remedy by hunting in the nearby sea. The adults were forced to stay close to shore for fear of attracting the powerful predators who lived in deeper waters, limiting their output.

Nara shook her head, swallowing her pride as she answered, “The children are, though. Anything you can spare…”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty for everyone. Watch out though – my grove fruits have a little kick to them. Probably don’t let the kids eat a whole fruit. Just a nibble at first.”

Then, he tossed the red fruit in her direction. Nara’s class didn’t trend toward dexterity, but she was coordinated enough to catch it. Before her fingers closed around the round shape, she could feel the vitality – and the ethera – coursing through the small orb. Hart didn’t even seem to notice her wide eyes as he approached one of the children. Little Fara. Kneeling before her, he offered the girl another nearly identical fruit, which she took with dirty, trembling fingers.

“Do you want to help me?” he asked the girl. Then, in a whisper that everyone nearby could hear, he added, “I know you’re the smartest one around. That’s why I picked you as my helper. How about you help me hand these out, huh? One each.”

She nodded self-seriously as he showed her how to use the front of her long shirt as a basket. Before long, the girl was hurrying to hand out the so-called grove fruits. Without looking up, Hart said, “It’s not harmful. I’m sure you can feel that. Eat. You’ll feel better. When you’re done, we can talk about why you’re here and what you want from me.”

Nara sighed. There was no point in resisting. She knew he spoke the truth, and what’s more, she was quite hungry. So, without further delay, she bit into the fruit. Juice – sweet and tart – gushed into her mouth, and she let out a gasp as vitality and ethera came with it. In an instant, it suffused her body, sending tremors through her flagging muscles. Only then did she realize just how worn down she had become.

Attributes were helpful. They’d kept her going for months as she’d slowly starved. But they could only go so far, as proven by the way her body reacted to the grove fruit. It wasn’t just food. It was life-giving nourishment that, back on Kashii, would have been considered a low-grade natural treasure.

After a few moments, Hart started passing out other sorts of food. Nara knew the ocean well enough to recognize whale meat, and the others smelled just as amazing. There were vegetables too. Each meal was sorted into its own box meant to keep it contained while traveling, and Hart passed them around like they were worth nothing to him.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

And all the while, he kept his evolved version of Healing Rain going, mending injuries and infusing the whole area with a not-so-subtle undercurrent of vitality. The effect was miraculous, and even Nara found her spirits lifting.

Until she caught the other Druid looking at her. His eyes cut through her, like he could see right through her soul and into the core of who she was. It was power, but it was more than that, too. Cultivation, maybe. Or it could have just been his nature as a dragon. Nara had never even seen one, but their power was the stuff of legends.

Yet, he acted no differently than any other human she’d encountered. The odd phrases combined with a curious and persistent familiarity to throw her entirely off-balance.

The children were all too young to feel the weight of his presence. Instead, they only saw a kind stranger who’d given them food that made them feel much better. That was enough to earn their trust.

The adults were much more anxious. They couldn’t feel his power to the same degree that Nara could. None of them, save for Vesk, had achieved any success in cultivation. Not surprising, given that they didn’t have access to a grove. Meanwhile, Nara had reached the first stage in every aspect but her core. If it wasn’t for her talent in cultivation, her grandmother never would have lent her the polyps that were the backbone of her destroyed grove.

The result was that, while the adults knew Elijah was dangerous, they were not aware of the extent. They had no idea that, with a single spell, he could slaughter them all.

Meanwhile, Nara was all too cognizant of that discrepancy in power.

After half an hour, everyone had eaten more than their fill. The goblin mayor of Ironshore even helped pass out food, showing an odd comfort around the monster in their midst. In fact, the entire situation was strange to her. On Kashii, the powerful never stooped to the level of their lessers. Certainly, they engaged in altruism – society needed their support if anyone expected it to function properly – but they rarely mingled with those beneath them. And when they did, it was perfunctory.

Nara found it all so confusing, so when Hart finally approached her, she was no more ready to speak to him than when he’d arrived.

“Do you want to talk here? Or somewhere more private?” he asked.

“Privacy would be best,” she answered, her voice blessedly free of the stammer she’d feared.

He gestured for her to lead the way, and she did just that, picking her way toward the shoreline and away from her people. They barely noticed her departure, they were all still so engrossed in their meals. After a hundred yards, she slowed to a stop, but she couldn’t find the proper words to convey what she wanted to say. So, she just turned to gaze out at the calm sea between the mainland and the island where she knew the grove was located.

It was wreathed in mist, but that was just the effect of the dense ethera. The same thing happened in the area surrounding the prime grove on Kashii, though she’d never actually seen it.

“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?” Hart asked, stepping up beside her. When she didn’t respond, he went on, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She sighed, her shoulders slumping as she hung her head. “I could not stop you if you were,” she stated with some degree of resignation. Then, as if that single sentence had opened the floodgates, the story of her time since arriving on Earth tumbled free of her mouth.

Nara told him everything, from how they’d arrived on Earth to the struggles to found the grove. She detailed how hard they had worked to get on their feet, and then, how the pirates had destroyed everything.

For the first time, Hart’s face showed the slightest hint of anger. However, Nara was far more concerned with what she felt via One with Nature. It was as if she stood next to an ongoing natural disaster – like the grand typhoons that plagued Kashii and forced her people to the depths for weeks at a time.

He took a deep breath, and everything stilled. The entire world felt like it had frozen. Then, it went back to normal. He said, “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to be attacked. But they will never bother anyone ever again.”

“I…I heard the tales.”

“They don’t tell the half of it,” the other Druid stated. Nara felt a tremor go up her spine, but she suppressed it. Hart prompted, “Go on.”

“We survived, but with the grove gone…”

“You lost everything?”

She shook her head. “A few polyps survived, but I didn’t dare try to use them. The area is too volatile, and I feared they would wilt.”

“I see.”

Nara had considered lying. That had been her plan, and she would only reveal the existence of the polyps after they’d come to an agreement. However, being in Hart’s presence had twisted her emotions so severely that she couldn’t bring herself to conceal anything from him.

“We set out when Vesk heard that a Druid destroyed the pirates. The journey was fraught with danger, but we made it.”

“And what do you want?” Hart asked, clutching his hands behind his back. Nara noticed that one of them was heavily scarred. The injury was clearly old, and the scars were faded. But they were still visible. Through One with Nature, she could tell that those weren’t the only evidence of a violent life.

What’s more, she felt his scales – emerald and pulsing with ethera. They wrapped around his arms, ending on his shoulders. His torso was similarly scaled, like the stripes of a caliofish.

“Sanctuary,” she breathed. “At least until we can grow strong enough to found our own grove.”

“Hmm. And what do you offer in return?”

“I can work. I will manage your grove, help it to grow. I am especially talented with the creatures of the sea,” she explained. “My people have potential, too. They are all hard workers who –”

“And what if that’s not enough for me?” he asked, turning his head slightly.

“What else is there?”

He looked back toward his island. “You should know that my grove is not deserted,” he explained. “Some could say it’s at least as much Nerthus’ grove as it is mine. Don’t tell him I said that, though.”

“Nerthus?”

“My friend. Kind of like a brother. Sort of. You’ll meet him,” Hart said. “Then there are the kids. Local children who grew up in Ironshore. And Hope. Then there’s Kurik – he’s kind of surly, but he’s got a good heart. And Oscar and the pack, but they’re kind of a new addition. Oh – there’s Miggy, too. Can’t forget our Green Warden.”

“Are they all members of your grove?” she asked. It made sense that he was not alone. He was clearly a man of action, which meant that he was likely away from the grove for long periods of time. Someone had to remain behind to manage it.

“Something like that.”

“I…I don’t understand. Are they probationary members?” she asked, confused.

“Not really.”

“Either they are members of the grove, or they are not. There is no in-between.”

“You’ll see,” Hart said. “But here’s the thing – they’ve all been on me trying to get me to recruit. I hate that kind of thing, so this is the deal – you can join the grove if you want. So can all your people, assuming they have the proper attunements. Then you can move over to the island and coordinate with Nerthus about what you can do.”

“You would allow us to join? Without…testing us?”

“Sure. Why not? You seem like nice people. If you weren’t, I think I’d sense it.”

Left unsaid was that, with the disparity in power, if they turned out to be a detriment to the grove, he could excise them without issue.

“I…I don’t know what to say.”

“I was hoping for a yes, but that’s fine too. Maybe you’ll have an answer after you see the grove. Your people can swim, right? If not, I should have enough room to carry everyone.”

“I…of course we can swim.”

“Good. Well, go fetch everyone. I’ll wait in the water.”

With that, he stepped forward and waded into the sea. A second later, he transformed into an enormous leviathan of a turtle. She almost fainted at the sight because she knew precisely what it was.

“Drakelon.”

Indeed, it was a small version of the mythological dragon turtles that were said to originally hail from one of the worlds within the Empire of Scale, but the details were unmistakable. She’d grown up hearing stories of such creatures – to a point that she would never forget them.

If she’d had any doubts about his draconic nature, then they were swept away by the form he’d just taken. Moreover, she knew that she and her people couldn’t refuse the man’s offer. Not without regretting it for the rest of their lives.

So, without any further hesitation, she headed back to their camp to fetch her people and give them the good news.