The Tail Catcher
Author:© WebNovel
Chapter 1: Chores
Juniper went outside the comfort of her warm home to feed the animals. It was stark black outside, and her hound, Daisy, whined between her legs. As usual, when the door to the front porch opened, her dog took off howling through the night — nowhere to be seen but everywhere to be heard.
She sighed as she hurried outside. Her mom and dad went to a rodeo out in New Mexico, star-casing Kelsey, her older sister, as the main rodeo queen. Since she was home alone, there would be no one to check on her if something happened. Even though it was a greater chance that Juniper’s animals would be the ones that would injure her or her doing something dumb, it wasn’t what she feared. No, she feared the javelinas, the snakes, and the creepy unknown hiding in the desert.
Juniper hurried to the barn as fast as she could, wearing only a hoodie and leggings despite how cold it was. She didn’t even wear shoes. She let her bare feet feel the ground as she half-tiptoed and half-ran back and forth from the barn to the pens. All her animals spoke to her calling out, saying, this could have been done a few hours ago. But Juniper was being lazy, and she couldn’t drag herself out of bed until now.
Flakes of hay flew in her hair and all over her clothes as she ungraciously threw the bale over the fence and into the bucket. She called out to Daisy, letting the crazy hound know it was time to get back inside. She shivered as she listened to her four-legged friend move closer and closer.
Every night when it was Juniper’s turn to feed, she had a ritual of looking out to the stars in outer space and being in utter awe. Tonight was no different. But as she bounced from one cold foot to the other and just as Daisy was about to reach her, she squinted her eyes like she thought she was going to find something in the night sky.
Suddenly, she felt the impact.
She heard Daisy screech in pain, bringing her memories of another dog she once had, Penny, who let out that same screech just before the car had run her over. All of Jupiter’s concern went toward Daisy, but within a few seconds, everything went black.
Unsure of how much time had passed, she opened her eyes, feeling hazy and half-frozen. She heard voices, but she couldn’t determine what they were saying.
“Hey, alright, stay right there.” One voice ended the conversation and turned to acknowledge her. She stopped fussing around and looked at a young man about the same age looking down at her.
His eyes caught her attention. She stared at his hazel eyes and watched as flames danced within the color. They absolutely mesmerized her. They were like swirling flames of a bomb fire, and she could not look away.
She was aware of how close he was, how his breath moved slowly in and out, how his hand burned into her frozen skin even through the hoodie, and… the uncomfortable stabbing feeling coming from her butt and legs.
“Am I?” she asked.
“Dreaming?” He suggested, feeling like he knew what she was thinking and felt no need to hide that from her.
“No, am I sitting on hay?” She asked without missing a beat. She looked down and saw it prick her hands, leaving small imprints. Usually, sitting on a hay bale wouldn’t be so bad, but her leggings were practically no fabric at all, and it was beyond uncomfortable.
“I told you not to put her on there,” a female voice piped up from behind him, alerting Juniper she was not alone with the young man.
“Then why do they make it seem so comfortable in the movies?”
“You mean straw?” Juniper countered.
“This isn’t straw?” he asked sheepishly.
“No, this is hay,” Juniper spoke as she inched herself off the bale.
His only remark was oh… the moment Juniper got to her feet, she immediately collapsed to the floor with searing pain gushing in her stomach.
Her peripheral vision went red. Amid her painful screams, she remembered something hurt Daisy. But what happened?
The young man’s hands firmly held her upright, so she could sit up and die in a ball instead of lying down, dying in a ball.
“What happened?” Juniper groaned as she clutched the surrounding shirt at her abdomen and peered down. Her stomach was twice the normal size and was every color, but the paleness it should have been. Blacks and blues swarmed around a visibly vivid red.
The young man looked back at the girl in horror before he looked at Juniper with a facial expression she couldn’t quite read.
“You had an accident,” the girl piped up, causing Juniper to look at her for the first time. She had dirty blonde hair and the same mesmerizing eyes with glowing flames flickering inside. She had a nose, cute, like a dog’s, and a few freckles. She wore her hair braided back and a slim-fitted outfit. It was primarily black and gray, but it also had patches of maroon. The edges of the uniform’s shoulder pads were slicked into tight, pointed spears. The entire uniform looked cased with leather-like scales. She looked trained to kill.
Intimidated, Juniper timidly spat out her question, “What kind of accident?” Her eyes searched for any signs of Daisy and what may have happened.
That’s when she saw it.
Giant... red... and looked to be barely alive.
Could it be what her mind conjured it to be? It looked no different from the donkey’s wife from a movie she watched as a kid. A dragon.
The third voice she had heard earlier stepped into her line of sight and glared at her as if she was some demon. The flames in his eyes seemed to be even more fire red than the others. “If the ren can see her, then that means she isn’t safe here, and neither are we. We need to deal with this ren child and be on our way.”
He unsheathed a small moon-like blade from his pant leg high on his thigh and got as close as an arm’s length away before the other man grabbed his arm, and in a tone that demanded obedience, it made Jupiter tingle with warmth and shake with fear.
“The girl lives.”
The man with the knife stared into her eyes. She knew he was battling internally — deciding whether to let her live.
Still dazed and bitting back the unbearable pain, Juniper felt scared of dying — afraid of his blades. However, she was curious more, and her eyes looked into his. She couldn’t help but stare at the flames dancing through his eyes. He had much darker brown eyes, but they had the same hypnotic feeling she had with the other male.
“Dayton,” her defender warned, and from the sound of the bark, the other male snapped out of it and took a step back.
“She is ren, Kai. The king will not be pleased.”
“That will be for me to deal with.”
“Kai…”
“End of discussion,” his voice demanded obedience.
Juniper sat quietly as they spoke about her. She considered herself a fake extrovert. Although she did great in social settings, she just hid her introverted characteristics very well. Right now, she used that to her advantage. Why fight about her life when she could sit there and learn and read everything she needed to save herself later on? Though she felt like she was dying already from the pain.
“Stasia, go check on Barcelona and the other dragons.” Juniper watched as the girl, clearly uncomfortable, walked away to do as she was told.
Then Juniper met the heavy stare of Kai looking at her, still holding her arm as she swallowed the cries of pain that wanted to slip from her lips.
He gave her a reassuring smile and reached around his neck for what looked like a claw. “Here, drink this,” He said, pulling a cork from the claw.
“Kai—” Dayton only got a sound out of his lips when Kai barked at him, and it sounded something like “bie” Whatever Kai said, he meant it only for Dayton to understand. Kai pressed the claw to Juniper’s mouth and slowly tipped the liquor.
The scent hit her nose, and she felt herself go savage for some more sweet drops of the irresistible liquid. She then slowly felt like she was on a cloud. A soft hum came from her mouth as her eyes got heavy.
Kai propped her up nicely, then turned to grab the collar of Dayton’s ninja-looking warrior suit and dragged him out of the barn.
Time passed as if everything stilled until Juniper felt her cheeks being lightly slapped. “Do you live alone? Hello? Focus, this is important, girl. What is your name?” The voice spoke as he lightly tapped and shook her sober.
She let out a groan. “Sleep.”
“After you answer my questions, I’ll let you sleep.”
“Juniper, now shoo!”
The shakes became a warning than a gentle caress to a sober life. “Longxie or not, you will not talk to me that way.”
Shocked a bit, she sobered enough to answer him. “I live with my family, but they’re away for the weekend.” She heard grunts as he moved her around. She moaned, but that was all she remembered. She was out like a light.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone