Jasper squinted and tried to focus on cataloging any defining features of the dragon above him, such as its wing and body color or shape of its head. But the sunlight was blinding.

As quickly as it appeared, the dragon dove down from the sky. The ground shook beneath Jasper’s feet and he stumbled backward, but managed to keep his grip tight on his sword and shield. When Jasper’s eyes adjusted, he nearly cowered at the sheer size of the creature before him. From his research and years long fascination with dragons, Jasper knew they were not small creatures. But as he stood at sharply clawed feet, Jasper had never felt more like an insignificant ant. 

Jasper blinked a few times and staggered back before letting out a gasp. He was shocked to see the deep crimson color of the dragon’s hide illuminated by the morning sun. “But Red Dragons don’t exist,” Jasper mumbled to himself. 

The beast cried out into the sky before taking two steps toward Jasper. It hesitated for the first time in its life as it took in the sight of a blue-eyed, raven-haired man staring agape. Jasper fell backward with wide eyes and began to panic as the beast made its way slowly to where he had fallen. 

The sight of large, black, pointed horns, and deep red scales that faded into a deep onyx color along the great wings shimmered in the sunlight. Before Jasper could even note how the obsidian horns and painted wings closed the distance between man and beast, there was a bright flash of light blinding his senses. 

Jasper dropped his sword and held his hand up in front of his face. The nervous knight-to-be slammed his eyes closed. Even with closed eyes, the light was almost too much to bear. 

“We don’t exist, huh?” 

A man’s voice spoke into the quiet. Maybe Jasper was hallucinating. This could be a side effect from the dragon’s magic light that was still radiating around him. Once the light seemed to subside, Jasper blinked his eyes open and stared at the place the mythical Red Dragon had once stood.

There was a man with his arms crossed leaning against a tree. He wore nothing but poorly-patched black pants that were too short for his legs and sat just below his hip-bone. Fiery red curls were tousled by the wind, and Jasper watched as the stranger stepped towards the discarded clothing. 

A smug grin pulled across the man’s face as he folded his arms over his chest once more, revealing dazzling canines that looked sharp enough to kill. Jasper scrambled for his sword and stood up as he kept his eyes on him. 

The redhead looked the nervous human up and down a couple of times and arched an eyebrow. The lack of armor was alarming, seeing as this man was clearly a knight, or a knight in training. It was odd for him to see someone out here at all, let alone someone who was clearly ill-prepared for the task in which he set out to accomplish. He shrugged off the notion and shuffled over to the edge of the river.

Jasper felt a sudden pang in his chest as the man leaned over to pick up the shirt from the pile of clothes. He knew he was staring, but there was something about this man that didn’t quite make sense. 

“Oh, mighty knight, you’re drooling,” the redhead’s snarky tone snapped the knight out of his thoughts. Jasper swallowed hard and shook his head. 

“Where did the…” he looked up at the sky and just past the treeline, but saw nothing except for the mysterious man unfolding the tunic. The man slowly stalked his way toward a shocked knight sitting uselessly on the ground.

The human’s eyes were wide, and his jaw laid slightly agape. The redhead smirked and slowly pulled the ill-fitting tunic over his head while the human watched.  

“Hey! Don’t steal those clothes!” Jasper swallowed hard as the man, now donning a deep red tunic that hung loosely over toned tan shoulder muscles and chiseled pectorals, knelt down to make intense eye contact. Eyes of amber, speckled with crimson red, stared into bright ocean blue.

“These are my clothes, you stupid knight.” Amber eyes remained locked on blue, as the two men continued to stare, unable to tear their gaze away from the other. Jasper felt his breath get stuck in his throat as the redhead leaned in a little closer. 

Never had the stranger been this close to a human before; not willingly, anyway. But something irked him about this one, with eyes of cerulean full of something other than fear.

Jasper’s gaze darted quickly up to unruly red hair cascading into the man’s slightly freckled face that showed off a painfully attractive smirk. 

The man narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. He cocked his head to the side and looked the knight up and down, slowly. 

“What are you?” His voice was low and quiet, as if the question was meant to reveal a secret that was only meant for the two of them. Jasper blinked a few times, confused by the question. He finally let out the breath he had been holding and scooted back toward where his sword had fallen. 

“I-I’m a knight, like you just said.” Jasper could not calm himself down enough to keep from stuttering. This was the most worked up he had ever felt. He was known in his family for having dependable and calm reactions to most situations. However, the last several hours had proved to be somewhat of an anomaly. 

The redhead exhaled quickly through his nose and rolled his eyes. 

“Huh.”

The knight leaned back ever so slightly, and the other man watched as his eyes darted to the side. In one swift motion, the knight grabbed his shield from behind him and brought it between them. 

Jasper was unsure what the redhead was thinking, but the closeness was becoming far too distracting, and he had a job to do. But the moment the shield was in front of him, the redhead grabbed it with one hand. Like a twig in the hands of an adventurous child, the shield was snapped in half in a blink.

Blue eyes went wide, and the stunned knight gasped as the other man tossed the shield behind him. Jasper swallowed hard and tracked the trajectory of the shield being thrown like a pebble into the distance. 

There was a hint of fear in the bright blue eyes that the redhead hadn’t noticed sooner. Perhaps a show of strength was a bit much, but something told him that there was more to this bumbling knight than met the eye.

“Please don’t kill me,” Jasper whispered as he dropped to the ground.