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He found the gryphon chick laying in the snow amid the greatest blizzard the Black Chain valley had ever seen. She was still awake when he found her despite the cold and the broken wing and when he leaned over her their eyes met for only a moment before she closed them. He took her in his arms and brought her to the lair and when they arrived he lit a fire with his flame and the dry wood he'd gathered before the blizzard and put her body so close against it her feathers almost ignited and still he was sure the frostbite would kill her. She was so cold and so stiff he had no idea how she had survived this long in the first place. He lay with her back pushed against his belly and hoped the flame in the cave and the one in his chest managed to warm her enough to survive. For a long time hoping was all he allowed himself to do. He made sure to never leave the flame unfed and soon he saw her feathers dry and soften and her limbs relax. He hummed his relief and when she twitched at the sound of his voice he knew she would live.

Elika arrived a few hours later with a deer on her shoulders and a giant hog in her claws. The season was hard that year and they had to hunt more often than usual. She saw him and the chick and the state of the chick and her eyes widened. “Who is she?" she asked.

“Don't know. Found her almost dead in the snow."

“Her hen?"

“Didn't see her," he said. “Didn't see anybody aside from her."

Elika got the deer off her back. She pushed it against the wall and then slit the hog's belly open. She pulled the guts out of the beast and threw them out of the lair, then ripped the hog in two halves and threw one at him. She started eating her half immediately while he kept his own to the side and watched her eat in silence for a few moments before he turned his gaze back to the hen. “I think she may be of the Greenrock flock," he said.

“She doesn't have the colors. Look at all the blue on the wing," Elika said. “Her feathers are poorly kept. No chick with a flock has feathers like that."

“Maybe her parents aren't skilled hunters."

“Maybe she doesn't have parents."

He looked at the gryphon chick and watched her breathe under the white light of the fire. There were things dancing in the flames and his dam had told him once that a skilled dragon could read into them to see the future, but he didn't remember how and all he saw were shapes and faces and eyes staring at him through the burning embers. There were other things too, not in the flames but in his head, in the dark, anywhere. Anywhere that was not the flame. He could not see them but he could feel them and that scared him, because he had not felt something like that ever in his life. “Let's keep her here for now," he said. “Let's keep her warm. When she wakes up she'll tell us herself."

Elika stood up. She pushed her snout against his chest and he stood up and moved out of the way. She wrapped herself around the chick and covered her with her wings, then started preening her as a hen would, her teeth picking up her feathers and straightening them one by one. She looked at him as if asking him if he wanted to join them, but he simply stared at her and from the look on his face she knew he wouldn't. He moved to the other side of the bonfire and waited for them to fall asleep, and once they were asleep he killed the fire and ate his half of the hog in silence. He stood up then, sat at the entrance of the cave and looked at the bottom of the valley. He didn't know why he did that. The night was moonless and black like the depths of the ocean. The darkness enveloped everything like a blanket, and even the eyes of a predator could only see so much of what was in front of him before they fell short of their duty.

When he woke up Elika was still asleep and the chick was weeping with her paws over her head in the darkest corner of the cave. Her sobs were so strong her whole body shook with each one. He knew that kind of crying well. He stood up and shook himself awake and made to walk up to her, but after the first step the chick noticed him and started screeching. “It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you," he said, but she did not stop. He backed off and lay down in hope of calming her but she went on undeterred until her cries woke Elika up. The dragoness blinked the sleep away and once again looked first at the chick and then at him and then back at the chick.

“What happened?" she said. “What did you do to her?"

“Nothing. I woke up and found her like that."

“Did she say something?"

“No. She keeps crying. I think she's scared of something."

“Scared of you," Elika said. She walked up to her and ignored the screams as she brought down her snout and nuzzled the chick's beak. The chick retracted her head and Elika retracted her own, and for a moment they both waited still before Elika lowered her head again to nuzzle the gryphon's neck instead. This time the chick did not fight and let the dragoness wrap a wing around her as she gently cried in the crook of her neck. The chick's cry soon waned, though it didn't end, and Elika looked up to him with a scolding gaze in her eyes. “You were never good with hatchlings," she said.

“It's not me she's afraid of."

“Who, then?"

“I don't know." He walked to the edge of the cave. The blizzard had quieted down through the night and though the wind still blew and the snow still fell incessant in the valley he could now see some traces of green and brown under the endless white. “I'm leaving. Do you think the deer will last you until I come back?"

“Most of it will go to her. She needs to eat something and I'm not hungry anyway. Are you going to the Greenrock Flock?"

He nodded.

“A waste of time," she said. “They know nothing of this."

“You can't be sure."

“I can, but I won't stop you if you want to go. Just be back before dusk."

“I'll be back before midday," he said. He spread his wings and made to take flight but stopped before his posterior legs left the ground. He turned back, saw Elika consoling the chick, patting her back and whispering sweet words she couldn't understand into her hears to calm her down. He went to her and nuzzled his muzzle against her own. She bit his neck in response. It was meant to be a playful bite and yet it still chipped two of his scales. When he tried to bit her back she jerked away and bit him from another side.

“Just go, you bloody lizard," she said. “You're going to scare her again."

He looked down. The chick leaned against Elika's belly and stared at him with a resigned look in her big green eyes and again he saw no fear or anxiety in them but only sadness and a hint of dread deeper than any emotion he might have caused her. He raised a hand and scratched her head right between her ears and despite the pain and the sadness she soon gave in and let out a soft purring noise. “She's not afraid of me," he said. He landed a nip on Elika's shoulder and she squeaked and laughed and insulted him again but she couldn't finish it before he walked out of the lair and jumped into the snow-infested air. She said something else, but he was too far away to hear it and he probably knew what it was anyway.

---

Greenrock was neither green nor similar in aspect to a simple rock. It was not only a mountain but the apotheosis of all mountains, both in looks and in essence, and it brimmed with the strength of the earth as much as the magma under it burned with the force of the flame. He did not blame the Greenrock Flock for being proud of owning it and he did not blame them for being protective of it. When he saw Curumia approach him from one side and another gryphon from the other he slowed down and let them lead him to a big tree who stood at the edge of a river. The tree was old and twisted with gnarled roots sprouting from the ground like half-buried dead corpses and yet had a beautiful foliage made of strong healthy leaves and beautiful red flowers he had never seen anywhere else. It was a good spot to stand under if you wanted to keep the snow off of yourself. He landed first right at its feet and Curumia did the same while the other gryphon landed a couple wings away, his little yellow eyes fixed on him.

“May the gods help us all," Curumia said with a smirk. “The great black one has returned. Will begging be enough for him to grant me his mercy, or will I have to offer my body for it?"

“Curumia." He bowed his head slightly. “It's been a while."

“Indeed it has. If I didn't know how solitary dragons tend to be, I'd be offended." Her smirk dropped into a soft smile. “It is nice to see you again though. I was thinking of visiting you at the Black Chain myself. How is Elika?"

“She's fine. Tired. Still angry with her mother."

“Does her clan still hate you?"

“Always."

“You should tell them your name," she said. “Or at least her mother. Old lizard would stop pestering you out of sheer disbelief."

“Why are you here?" said the other gryphon. He was sure he'd seen him before: green and red feathers of his wings and the yellow eyes were familiar but he couldn't pair them with a name. “Why did you not announce yourself?"

“I have important things to talk about and I'm not going to waste my time on ceremonies."

The gryphon spread his wings and hissed but Curumia waved her paw and he fell silent. “You don't need to waste anything," she said, “What is the problem?"

“I found a chick in the snow last night, right before the blizzard got bad. She was in bad conditions, almost dead from the cold. Do you happen to have lost a chick recently? A female, with blue feathers on the wings?"

“There is no chick in our flock with blue wings," Curumia said. “Maybe some of the coastal ones, but we speak with them so often we'd know if they had lost one of their own. How is she? Do you need help?"

“Maybe. She'll be fine as long she stays warm and eats well for a few days. But…" he paused. “This morning I woke up and I found her crying. We tried to calm her down, and Elika helped somewhat, but nothing seems to last."

“Something must be scaring her."

“I don't think so. She's not afraid, she's desperate. Few times have I seen an hatchling cry like that."

“Gryphon chicks aren't dragon hatchlings. You scaly bastards come out of the egg ready to brawl with the gods themselves. Gryphons need some time before you can throw them in the wild and expect them to come back alive."

“You know that's not what I mean. Remember the night of the Blood Sky?"

“Don't think I will ever forget about it."

“Me neither," he said. “I spent a long time watching over your brothers that night. She cries like they did, but I don't know why."

Curumia shook her head. She turned to the other gryphon and spoke to him in their language too fast for him to even try to understand. The gryphon threw one last venomous look at him and flew away without another word. She turned back toward him. “Bring me to her."

“Do you know what's wrong with her?"

“Probably not, but I want to see if I can help."

“Are you sure you can leave the flock right now?"

“There's nothing left for me to do today aside patrolling, and Liuvo can do that by himself," she said. “Let's see this chick at once."

---

They found Elika and the chick sitting at the edge of the cave, eating deer and watching the snow being carried away by the blowing winds. The chick's beak was still too soft to tear in the deer's carcass so Elika had cut some of the meat into pieces, both for her and herself. The moment they arrived Elika looked at Curumia and her eyebrows furrowed. “What are you doing here?" she said. “Does he think so little of my abilities as a mother that he brought you here to make sure I treat her properly?"

“He didn't bring me anywhere," Curumia said. “I came here of my own will."

“How nice of you. Let's hope you will leave by the same means."

Curumia laughed. “It's nice to see you too, Elika."

“Yes, yes. How long since we have last seen each other, cheers and celebrations, all of that." She licked the residue of blood and skin hanging from the chick's beak and the chick stayed still and let her. Once she was done she moved away to let Curumia inspect the chick. “Here, give her a look. See if you get some words out of her. She has not opened her beak once since she's stopped crying."

So she did. The young hen did not weep anymore but her eyes were still red and wide open and her body was tense. Curumia studied her in silence, careful not to get too close as the chick stared at her with the attentiveness of a falcon. She tried to say something in a language, then another, then yet another one. He had never heard her speak similar tongues before and neither had the chick because not once did she open her beak to answer. In the end Curumia shook her head and gave up. “She doesn't seem able to speak any of the common languages or dialects in this area," she said. “Are you sure she's not a mute?"

“We're not sure of anything."

Curumia scratched the chick's chin. She did not purr but she did not pull away either. “As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with her," she said. “I could ask my grandmother to give her a look, but I don't see what she could notice that I have missed. Are you going to keep her?"

“We'll keep an eye out for her parents," Elika said. “If nobody comes forward I see no reason to send her away."

“You should move to Greenrock." Elika shot her a poisonous look and Curumia gave her an awkward smile. “I don't doubt you would raise her right, but gryphons are social creatures. Dragons may be happy to be raised alone but we need a flock to prosper. I'm sure playing with other chicks her age will do her good."

“Your elders won't let it happen. They never liked us."

“You let me worry about the elders. They're old birds, and like all old birds are stubborn, but there are more reasons to keep a pair of dragons close to you than there are to keep them away. It won't be the first time we speak about it, and now we have a good reason in favor of it."

Elika looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes. “We'll have to talk about it," he said.

“Do as you will," she said. She turned toward the entrance. “I'm going out hunting. Is it a problem if I remain in the area for a while? I haven't seen this part of the Black Chain in moons. I want to see what has changed."

“It's no trouble for us," Elika said. “You might as well eat here if you want. At least you'll go back to Greenrock with a full stomach."

“Suppose I'll have to hunt for three then."

“Nonsense," she said. “He'll help you. The only thing he's been able to hunt lately is little birds." She scratched the chick's head. “Some practice with an actually skilled hunter will do him good."

“I'm a skilled hunter," he said.

“Sure you are," Elika said. She did not sound very convinced.

---

By the time they left the blizzard had died out but animals were still hard to find. Forest critters tended to be smart animals and they knew better than venture outside their dens in a blizzard, so all he and Curumia managed to hunt were two skinny manticores and an old bear who was already almost dead when they found him. They ate one of the manticores where they were, then Curumia loaded the other manticore on her back while he loaded the bear on his. He was about to take flight when Curumia touched his arm. “Let's walk," she said.

“We'll be late," he said.

“We're not that far away from your lair. I'll tell Elika we had some trouble finding prey."

“We did have trouble with that."

“I'll tell her we had more," she said. “Come on."

They walked through the woods. As they moved a gentle breeze swept through the trunks of the pines and the oaks of the forest, carrying the scent of snow and rotten wood and the corpses on their backs. He liked walking well enough but running was better. Walking was slow and took more patience than he had. Running was fast and immediate and it was good for his muscles. Curumia did not like running though, and she walked slowly, so more than once he had to stop and slow down and wait for her. She did not seem offended, but he still felt bad about it.

“You never change," she said. “Always impatient, like a cock at his first rutting. You should try taking things slower sometimes. You'll feel better."

“I'm taking things slow," he said. “I think I'm doing a good enough job of it."

“If you say so," she said. She sounded as convinced as Elika was. “You know, I'm surprised Elika made you go hunting with me. I was sure she was going to claw my eyes out the moment I took a step in your lair."

“She'd never do that."

“She almost did the first time I met her," she said. “Though I was trying to do the same thing to her, so I suppose I have no right to judge."

“She never told me about anything like that."

“She wasn't supposed to," Curumia said. “It's a thing between females. It doesn't concern you."

It wasn't a good enough answer. “I already told her everything I had to tell," he said. “We mated once and that was it. There was never anything between us beyond physical attraction. She had no reason to be jealous."

Curumia laughed. “See, males always go back to that. It's always about mating for you, as if there were nothing else to fight for in a relationship."

“I didn't mean it like that."

“You did, but it doesn't matter."

He was about to ask her why when he realized no soft breeze blew anymore. He looked up and saw black gray clouds full of water right above them but the air was clear and empty and still as the air in an ancient tomb. It was still cold but it wasn't the same cold as before. This one he felt in his bones despite the scales and the flame in his chest and though he enjoyed the feeling of true chills running down his back – it had been so long since the last time – he did not understand how he could feel them in the first place. Dragons didn't feel that kind of cold unless they were sick, and he did not feel sick. He did not feel sick at all.

He stopped walking. Curumia stopped too. “What's wrong?" she said.

“You don't feel it?"

“What should I feel?"

“The cold."

“Of course I feel cold, it's winter. Everybody feels cold."

“Not like this," he said. “Not this kind of cold."

“Gods above," she said, “what in the nine hells are you talking about?"

He looked around. The world around him was as still as a painting and yet he felt watched, as if someone were standing right behind him despite the fact that he could not see or smell anybody but Curumia in his surroundings. The only thing in motion was a stream running a few steps to his left. He walked to it, let the bear fall from his back and then sunk his head and his neck in the river. He felt cold again now, normal cold against his scales and skin and flesh and muscle. The water ran over him and through him and he felt better now, better than how he'd ever felt since he'd found the chick laying in the snow. He felt guilty about admitting that, even to himself, and he wasn't even sure why. He was thirsty, so opened his mouth and drunk the water in great gulps and as he drunk the water went down his throat in the wrong way. He pulled his head out of the stream and coughed and coughed again until he was able to breath, but the breaths were ugly and hoarse and sent him into another fit of coughing. When he was able to breathe normally again he spat a globe of something wet and metallic in the river and it was only when he saw the red that he realized it was blood. There was a sound of steps behind him and he turned to see Curumia stand a hair's breath away from him with a confused expression on her face and worried eyes glaring at him.

“Are you alright?" she said.

“I'm fine," he said. Everything was back to normal now. Everything had gone back to normal the moment he had seen her and it had happened so fast he had forgotten why or how things had been not normal in the first place. “I'm fine now. Don't worry about it."

“What happened?"

“Nothing happened."

“It didn't look like nothing. You were scared."

“I thought we were being watched. I lost control."

“Since when you lose control?"

“Since now," he said, and that was it. The snow was falling again and the wind blew hard against his scales. He pulled the bear back on his shoulder and looked at Curumia. “Let's go."

He spread his wings and jumped in the air. Curumia followed behind him. Neither of them said a world for the entire flight.

---

The deer had turned out to be too much for Elika and the chick and when they came back she briefly gnawed on a manticore's legs before declaring she was full. Curumia devoured the rest of it by herself while he ate part of the bear. It was quite a big bear with a lot of fat and meat despite the age and the sickly color of his fur and the parts he did not eat they stored for the evening. Thorough the meal the chick sat against Elika's belly with her head leaned over her paws and refused to eat anything at all. Her gaze was almost always on him no matter who moved or spoke. She barely even blinked.

“She does seem to have an interest in you," Elika said. “She looks like she has never seen a male before."

“She might not have," Curumia said. “Some of the flocks in the east are made entirely of females. They met with males only for mating or hunting, but they do not live together."

“Why not?"

“I have no idea. You should ask them." She touched the chick's beak and she recoiled. “She's very pretty though. Once she puts some meat on those bones she'll know more about males than she needs to."

“I sure as all hells hope not," Elika said. “She doesn't look like she has seen more than a score of winters. I don't want to see her around a male for another half."

“Maybe she won't like males," he said.

“All the same."

“We should give her a name," Curumia said. “For now, at least. We can't keep calling her 'the chick'. It's offensive."

“What about 'Qaatla'?" Elika said. “It means 'little egg' in ancient wyrm. My mother used to call me that when I was a hatchling."

“She's a gryphon, why should she have a dragon's name?" Curumia said. “I like the idea of the egg, though. It's cute."

“What's the gryvian for egg?" He asked.

“There are four words for egg in ancient gryvian. 'Aqqa' is the only feminine one."

“I like Aqqa;" Elika said. “That works for me."

“Me too." Curumia turned to him. “What do you think?"

He shrugged. “It's a name like any other."

Curumia laughed. “That's the last answer I expected from you. I thought names were important for your clan."

“They are not."

“Then why are you so protective of yours?"

“That's enough," Elika said. “Aqqa is a good name for her. I hope we'll find out if she has parents or a flock of her own soon, but until then, that is how we will call her."

They talked for some time still. It had been a long time since Elika and Curumia had last seen each other and they had much to talk about. Most of the time he remained silent and only spoke to answer a question or make a correction. The chick slept. Her sleep was very light and twice she woke up after a loud noise and inspected her surroundings as if waiting to be attacked. The third time her eyes found him looking at her and she almost recoiled. She looked ashamed. After that she put her head back on her paws and went back to sleep and this time she did not wake up again. Eventually Elika and Curumia stopped talking and they too fell asleep. At the end he was the only one left awake once again and he stared out of the cave with half-lidded eyes and watched the gray light of a cloudy day get darker and darker until it disappeared completely.

---

The moon was already up in the sky when he woke up with a hole in his chest and the cold in his bones, the same horrible cold of that morning. He felt dizzy and dumb and he knew something was wrong but he did not understand what it was until he looked at Elika and saw that Aqqa was not with her. He looked around the cave but all he saw were Elika and Curumia sleeping with their wings folded over their bodies and a quiet expression on their faces. His stomach crumpled on itself like a dried plum.

He went to Elika and shook her awake. She tried to hit him with her tail but he ignored the blow and kept shaking. She yawned and opened her eyes and looked at him like one looks at an annoying hatchling. “What do you want?" she said.

“Aqqa is gone," he said.

“What?"

“You heard me. She's not here. She left."

“I thought you were watching over her?"

“I fell asleep."

“Of course you did," she said. “Gods be damned, I should force-fed you with Salithopia – “

“Why are you talking so bloody loud?" Curumia said. “I'm trying to sleep here." She looked around herself and her half-lidded eyes widened. “Where is Aqqa?"

“Good question," Elika said and pointed a finger at him. “Ask him. He fell asleep watching over her."

“I don't remember anybody proclaiming me as her sole guardian."

“Don't try that with me. You never – “

“Shut up," Curumia said. “By the gods, you squabble like seagulls in season. Your chick is young and her wing is broken. She can't have gone far. First we bring her here, and then we decide whose fault it is."

Elika sighed. “Fucking hells," she said. “Alright then, I'll go east. Curumia, you go west." She turned to him. “You go north. Try not to fall asleep in the woods this time."

He said nothing. She'd barely finished the sentence before he was out of the cave and flying over the forest with his wings straining against the wind. Snow fell again and it fell hard, almost as hard as it had done the night before. He had no hope to find any tracks in a blizzard, but he didn't need to. The weird things were back now, not the things he saw in the fire but the things he saw anywhere that was not the fire. They were in the darkness and the darkness was all around him. He could feel them, could hear them say things without actually hearing them, and though some of the things they said were wrong and horrible he also knew some were right. They were helping him. They did not want to help, but they were doing it all the same.

He found the chick just as he had found her the night before. He saw her lay in the snow and landed in front of her. She was awake, but this time instead of closing her eyes and falling asleep she screamed and ran away. He ran after her and for the first time she yelled something that resembled words but the wind blew hard and furious over their heads and he couldn't hear anything, and even if he had he probably wouldn't have understood it. She was fast for a chick her age, fast enough to give him trouble catching her and when he managed to do so he had to anchor her to the ground with a hand to keep her still. She fought him with all the strength and when her strength gave out she looked at him with eyes full not of fear or anger but desperation. It was the same desperation he had seen in her eyes that morning, the same he had seen in Curumia's brother the night of the Blood Sky as all manners of beasts and nightmares he had only ever seen in the worst of his fantasies sieged them in the temple of the Moon.

“What is it?" he said. “What are you afraid of?"

A gust of wind blew over them. The things in the dark trembled and shook, more powerful than ever and yet cowed, scared, parting to make way for something bigger and scarier than any of them could ever be. He felt it coming not with his body or his senses but with his mind, as if it were made with the same essence of his thoughts. A light appeared in the dark in front of him and though it was as strong and intense as the dawn itself it gave off no heat. There was no warm in it, no safety. There was only emptiness and absence and the dread of that absence and nothing more.

He growled. “Who are you?"

The light changed. From a confused and incoherent mass of white it contorted and twisted into a quadrupedal figure. First it was a dragon, then a gryphon, then something in between, a mismatch of talons and claws and beaks and snouts that he could not discern nor recognize. It pulsed and swelled like a pumping heart and when it went still he saw what it was, or at least the chimera it had chosen to look like, with the snout and the body of a dragon and the wings and the paws of a gryphon, a grotesque imitation of both and yet beautiful in its horror.

“You," she said. He didn't know if she had a sex as mortal creatures does but her voice was sweet and feminine and he could not help but think of her as a female. Once again he felt watched, and thought she had no eyes to look with he knew she was looking at him. “Son of Suleya, blood of the snake. What is your name?"

Aqqa let out a choked sob. He let go of her and put himself between her and the creature. His muscle were tensed and his chest hot and the flame that burned inside him was ready to explode.

“Who are you?"

“Who are you," she said. “What is your name? What is your name?"

“My name doesn't concern you."

“Elika," she said, and his blood froze in his veins. “Elika – mate. Curumia – friend. Who is he? Who is he?"

“How do you know those names?"

“What is he? What is he?"

“I'm a dragon. Anything else does not matter."

“Mistaken. Mistaken." She looked at Aqqa. “The child is lost. Give her back."

“No."

“The child is lost!" she screamed. “Mine to take. Give her back. Give her back!"

“Go to hell."

The creature threw her head back and screamed. He could feel its fury hitting him like a wave and he stiffened in preparation of a blow that did not come. She kept screaming and screeching and though the air split around them and the earth itself trembled in fear she did not move to attack. Instead she lowered her head and looked at him. This time there was no hatred in her gaze, only anger. Anger and resignation.

“Strong," she said. “Strong. Cannot fight. Cannot win. Too much pain, no fear, starless sky." She let out a wail. “Compromise. Pact of blood, equivalent exchange. Give her back."

“What?

“Compromise! Compromise!" she said. “Pact of blood, give her back!"

A scream raised from behind him like thunder in the quiet night. A stream of fire blew on the creature and the flames obscured his visual. The creature screeched and yelled and her voice split his hears and made them bleed. Elika kept blowing her flame still and when she stopped all that was left of the creature was a lingering memory and a terrible feeling of absence where she had once been. Elika and Curumia landed next to him. They surveilled the surroundings of the forest and prepare for something to strike back, but nothing came.

“Is it gone?" Curumia said. “Did we kill it?"

“It didn't look like something you can simply kill," Elika said. She turned toward him. “Are you alright?"

He nodded.

“And Aqqa?"

He looked back. The chick was still behind him, crouched and hiding in his shadow. She had her paws folded over her head and her only functioning wing wrapped around her body. Her took her in his arms and she flattened against his belly. “She's fine. Scared."

“What was that thing? What did it want?" Elika said. “It's her, isn't it? It wants her." He nodded again. “I knew it. I blood-well knew it. Gods-damned abominations, praying on chicks and youths. I should have put the pieces together the moment I saw her." She looked at Curumia. “Gryphons are more accustomed with magic and shadows than dragons are. Do you know what kind of creature it was? How to deal with it?"

Curumia shook her head. “Nothing comes to mind right now, but my grandmother will know for sure. I could go talk to her right now if you wish."

“I do," she said. “We're going back to the lair tonight. Come dawn we'll fly to Greenrock, and then we'll find out a way to get rid of this monster." She took Aqqa from his grasp and pushed her against her chest. “I'll keep an eye on her this time."

“It's not my fault.“

“I know," Elika said. She leaned over him and gave his neck a gentle nip. “You're right. We all should have kept our guards up. We all made a mistake." She pulled her head back and spread her wings. “We'll think about this tomorrow. Let's go back now."

They returned to the cave. Elika and he lay down next to each other while Aqqa sat between them. They did their best to fall asleep and though nobody succeeded, they did not say a world all night, nor did they want to.

---

The next day they left at dawn like Elika had said, and they flew fast with her at the head and him in the back with Aqqa in his grasp. Usually they flew side to side. It had been her idea to fly like that and though nobody had said anything he knew she had put him there for his protection. Something had gone unsaid between the two of them, something so obvious that it didn't need to be said anyway. He was the one who had found the chick and the one the creature had manifested to. Whatever it was it was interested in him and that could not be good news. It could not be good news at all. It was a beautiful day, the first day without clouds or snow in a long time, but though the sun shone great and high it gave neither of them any warmth. Their faces were grim, their body tense. A horrible dread gnawed his guts, a presage of things yet to come.

When they arrived in the surroundings of the Greenrock Mountain the few members of the flock who had not chosen to leave before their coming received them with all the coldness of an enemy. They had never liked him and Elika in the first place, but in the past they had occasionally tried to be friendly and had even fought together during the Blood Sky and the Season of the Moon. All of that seemed to have been forgotten now. He hoped they would be more welcoming of Aqqa, and maybe they would, but when she saw them she showed no interest in them aside from a quick glance in the direction of the other chicks. After that she nestled in the space between his wings and did not move again.

They approached Greenrock and found Liuvo waiting for them at the entrance. He had a murderous look in his eyes. “Are you here for Curumia?" he said.

“You know why we are here," Elika said. “Let us in. We have no time to waste."

“Indeed I know," he said. “I know it as well as I know what evil you're trying to fight. If you bring it on us, you'll find yourselves with two enemies instead of one."

“We are not in the mood for threats," he said. “Get out of the way or I'll get you out of it myself."

The gryphon scowled at him, but when he scowled back he folded his wings and moved aside.

It had been a long time since either of them had walked the halls of Greenrock mountain and he did not remember the place any better than he remembered the names of those who inhabited it, but Elika seemed to know where she was going. They had not decided where they would meet with Curumia but she had always had the better nose between the two of them and he knew it wouldn't be a problem for her to find the gryphon hen just by following her scent. They walked through the stone corridors and the halls and the columns that kept those halls standing, tall and strong and full of glyphs and symbols neither of them could read.

“Did Curumia ever tell you about this place?" Elika said. “About who built it, or who inhabited it before them?"

“No," he said. “They don't know either. Curumia said they found a necropolis deeper in the mountain. Said the skeletons in it were bipedal but didn't look like the skeletons of humans, kobolds or any other bipedal species known on the archipelago. They wanted to explore it further but the moment they tried to go any deeper an army of revenants assaulted them. After that they sealed the doors and never went back."

“Cowardly move," she said. “Probably for the best. Nothing good ever comes out of a place that has been filled with corpses."

They kept walking. They did not meet a single gryphon as they moved through the corridors. They had either left or decided to stay outside as long as they were in the mountain. They found Curumia in a small chamber as she spoke with the only other gryphon in the place. She was an old hen, her feathers colorful and her body still lithe despite being long past her prime. When they entered the two hens turned over to them and from the expressions on their faces he knew they had no good news for them.

“You arrived sooner than I thought," Curumia said.

“Is that a problem?" Elika asked.

“Not at all." She put her paw on the old hen's shoulder. “This is Liruka, my grandmother. She spent her youth traveling with a group of sorcerers. She has learnt a great many things, and she knows the mysteries of the underworld better than anybody I know." She said. “She also said she knows the nature of the enemy we are fighting."

“Does she know how to defeat it?"

Curumia nodded and turned over Liruka. “I leave them to you," she said. The old hen nodded. Curumia walked up to him and looked at Aqqa. “She needs to come with me."

“Does she have to?"

She shook her head. “Believe me if I say you don't want her to see what happens next."

Elika grimaced. Appa had fallen asleep as they walked and with great care he used his tail to move her from his back to Curumia's without waking her up. The hen then bowed her head to them. “Good luck," she said, and then walked out of the library and closed the door behind herself.

Elika turned to Liruka. “Is it as bad as she made it seem?"

Liruka chuckled. “Maybe it is, maybe it is not," she said. “The young usually put too much importance in these things. You're young, too, but I've always thought dragons to have greater pragmatism than most gryphons."

“It depends from the clan, I'm afraid. Tell us what you know."

“Easier said than done," she said. “Tell me, are you familiar with the concept of tulpa?"

“I know they're physical manifestations of thoughts and emotions," Elika said. “Mental constructs given a body by a preexisting creatures. Is that what you think we are dealing with?"

“If only it were so easy. Curumia told me you were able to harm it physically. Is that true?"

“I spat fire on it. I don't know if it harmed it, but it sure seemed not to like it."

Liruka hummed and looked at him. “And you. Curumia tells me you spoke with it?"

“Yes."

“And what voice did it have? Feminine?"

“Yes," he said. Elika gave him a confused glare. “She looked and sounded like a female. To me, at least."

“What about the smell? Did it smell like a female, too?"

“I didn't notice."

“Tulpas don't have sex," Elika said. “They are thoughts manifested. A thought cannot be male or female."

“They can when given the right incentive," Liruka said. “If a creature had a strong will and a desire for obtain something that cannot be satisfied, that desire can become a tulpa. When more than one creature have the same strength of will and the same desire, those tulpas can come together to form an amalgamation. It is not unusual for amalgamations to reach a level of intelligence and corporeality that approaches that of a sapient being. They're never fully sapient – even the most intense of thoughts is still a thought – but they can manifest with a physical form, an intent, and if the thought of the desire that originated them was strong enough, a body to carry it to term. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

“I understand this thing needs a body for some purpose," she said. “What does that have to do with Aqqa?"

“Your chick is young and parentless," she said. “There is only one kind of amalgamation that could be so obsessed with one to the point of haunting them, and it is one born out of desire for parenthood. The amalgamation's sole reason to exist is to be a parent, and so it seeks youths without fathers nor mothers to fill the void in its existence." The old hen shook her head. “You saw by yourself how well that works. The only way to accomplish its goal would be to get the chick to love it like a mother, but that will never happen. Your chick sees the creature as an aberration, and she is right. Amalgamation are a distortion of reality, and they are known to drive insane the mortals they haunt. It is a slow and terrible process, one that I would not wish on my worst enemy."

“How do we stop it then?" he asked, but he feared he already knew the answer. Liruka looked at him and his heart started beating faster.

“The amalgamation took the shape of a female," she said. “It took the form of one, the voice of one. If you were to check, I have no doubts her organs would also reflect those of a female. If adopting a child is not the answer, then one must be given to it, as a male would to his female."

“You're making fun of us," Elika said.

Liruka shook her head. “That is how things are," she said. “You might believe me or not, but I assure you that's what it must be done."

“Then get one of your cocks to do it," she said. “I'm sure if we talk to the other elders – “

“No male of my clan will help you with this. Just by speaking to you and welcoming you in our mountain I'm setting myself and my flock as potential victims of the amalgamation's ire. This is as far as I'll go."

Elika fell silent. He looked at her and then looked at Liruka. “Can we speak in private for a moment?" he asked her. The old hen nodded and flew away. He turned back to the dragoness. “Elika-"

“Shut up," she said. “I'm thinking."

He let her think. Silence stretched over them like a blanket and moments became days as he waited for her to say something, and she did not. Her gaze was lost in nothingness as she stared at the pavement without seeing it. He was about to call her name again when she shook her head as if to wake herself up.

“Alright," she said. “Alright. Call the old hag back, I need to ask her some questions."

“There is nothing to ask," he said. “We're not going to do it."

“Of course we will," she said. “There is no other way."

“I don't believe it. There must be something else we can do."

“There isn't. I don't know monsters and abstract entities like the old hag does, but I heard stories. If that's an amalgamation the only way to get rid of it for good is to appease it."

“I will not betray you like this," he said. “There is time. We will think of something else."

Elika leaned toward him and bit his throat. The bite was soft and barely enough for him to feel it and he still recoiled. He looked at her and saw the resignation on her face and the determination in her eyes. “We're doing this," she said. “There will be time for anguish later. Now we need to think about Aqqa."

He stayed silent and his silence was all the answer she needed. She called Liruka and the old hen flew back to them. “Have you decided?" she asked.

“We have," Elika said." How will we do it? Do we call for the amalgamation or do we wait for it to manifest again?"

“There is no need to wait for it," she said. “The amalgamation clung to him from the moment he found your chick. All you need to do is call for it with the honest intention of meeting it."

“And when it does come? What happens after that?"

Liruka sighed. “Wish that I knew. This is an extraordinary situation, one that I've never found myself in before. Voluntary interaction with any amalgamation is widely discouraged, and for good reason. They're simply too unstable to deal with safely, even for the most practiced scholar of the dark arts. Dragons have a natural resistance to the disruption of the mind and all the tricks that cause it, and as your mate is strong and healthy I doubt any physical interaction with it could cause him any lasting harm, but I cannot be sure." She paused. “That, I think, is probably the only thing you truly need to worry about."

“I thought as such." She looked at him. “When do you want to do it? I understand if you want to wait, but – “

“No," he said. “I want to get this over with as soon as possible. If I can do it now then I'm ready."

Liruka nodded. “A wise choice. Remember what I said: call for it, but do it with conviction. If the amalgamation feels fear or a refusal to follow through with the deal, it may not come. Do not falter." She looked at Elika. “That is all. All that is left for us to do is leave the chamber."

The dragoness scowled. “I'm not going anywhere," she said. “I'm staying with him until the end."

“The amalgamation might not come if he's not alone."

“You said it clung to us since the moment he found Aqqa in the snow," she said. “If that is true, we're in this together. If it will come to him then it will come to both of us."

Liruka let out another sigh. “As you wish," she said, and then she left, closing the heavy stone doors behind her as she went.

“To think we left my clan and came back here to avoid this," Elika said. “We might as well have remained in Servillion."

“Liruka said the amalgamation is like a thought taken form," He said. “Maybe there will be no need for us to touch, not really. Maybe I just have to join my mind with her – with its own, and that will be it."

Elika glared at him. “The old hag just said it will be dangerous, and you're still worried about my jealousy?"

“A jealous dragoness is scarier than any amalgamation could ever hope to be."

Elika laughed. It was a weak laugh and it had no joy in it. She shook her head. “Just call the bloody thing before I change my mind."

He tried. Just a few moments ago he'd been ready to get it over with but the reality of what he was about to do was starting to creep in his mind and now he didn't know if he had the force of will to call for the amalgamation with any true intent. He wasn't afraid of it nor what it could do to him but he was afraid of what it could do to Elika, and he knew the pain of hurting her would be far worse than any pain it could inflict on him.

“I know what you're doing," she said. “Stop thinking about me."

“I can't."

“You can," she said. “Focus. It will be over soon."

He did not believe it, but every time a big decision had to be taken and he did not know what path to follow Elika offered him her advice and every time she turned out to be right. He might have not trusted himself nor Liruka, but he did trust her. Always he trusted her.

He called the amalgamation. He did not do it with words, neither spoken nor thought. Words were feeble things and not to be trusted. Instead he envisioned the creature's body in his mind just as he'd seen it back in the forest, impressed in his brain like a picture. Soon the sense of absence and the now familiar feeling of unnatural crawled up his back and he knew something had felt his call and was now coming to him.

“Gods," Elika said. “I can feel it coming."

He could not. All he could feel was the lack of it. A strong wind blew over them and turned off the torches hanging from the walls. A bright white light appeared in front of them as sudden as a whisper in the dark and Elika took a step back, a snarl on her snout. He did nothing. He felt the amalgamation's mind or the concept of it lean over his without touching it as if its conscience were observing his own and he hated it. The conscience lingered for a moment and then it retreated and it was at its retreat that the light morphed and took form and shaped in the same figure he had seen the night before, a figure he once again felt obliged to define as a female. Her edges and borders were the same, as were the shadows of body parts of dragons and gryphons that made up her body. Her presence felt more tangible and real. He felt her thoughts and emotions and the thought of those emotions ran through his body, saw them writhe in a mind that was neither born nor hatched but willed into existence without conscious intent nor knowledge. She looked at him and he felt a shiver run down his spine. She was angry.

“Son of Suleya," she said. “Blood of the snake. What call? What call?"

Elika said something he didn't understand. There was a wall between the two of them and he knew it was the amalgamation who had erected it. “I know what you are," he said. “I know what you want. Promise me you'll leave us alone and I swear I'll give it to you."

“Lies!" Her attention was on Elika now. He could feel her hatred and her resentment toward her as if it were his own. “Mate – enemy. Hatred of the body. Burned me. Burned me!"

Her light brightened. Another gust of wind blew in his face with the strength of a hurricane. Elika looked at him with worried eyes, her body tense and ready to strike, but he shook his head and put himself between the two. “She's not your enemy. She thought you wanted to harm me. You said you wanted to compromise, make a pact. Show me how."

The amalgamation's shape trembled. Its light dimmed a bit. “Compromise," she said, her head tilted. “Compromise. Pact of blood, sealed in flesh." She raised her weird paws and reached them toward him. “Together. Not here, not now. Together."

He turned toward Elika. The dragoness' eyes were darting between him and the amalgamation and though she had no idea what they were saying she knew something was about to happen. There was nothing he could have said to quiet her down even if he had been able to and so all he did was gently brush her snout with his own and feel her breath on his scales before he walked up to the entity and put his hands over hers. He heard Elika say something, but he did not understand what it was, and then everything went black.

---

There were many races in Daarya and every race had a given subset of religion and almost every religion had an afterlife, and some afterlives only had a heaven and some only a hell but most of them had both and that interested him. He was a dragon and like all dragons he did not believe in an afterlife, yet at times he couldn't help but think about the concept of heaven and the concept of hell and everything that came with it. Most hells were simple and boring, full of pain and misery and endless suffering, and he was not afraid of them because he could understand them and you can't be afraid of something if you understand it. There were hells he was afraid of though, and out of all the hells he was afraid of the ones that scared him the most were not those with fire and burning and boundless pain but those who were empty. Dark and empty and as silent as a grave. He had never wanted to imagine what it would be like to find himself in one of those hells but now he was in one of them and he didn't know what to do. Everywhere he looked he only saw black and though there was ground under his feet he could not have said what it was made of or what it felt like. He could see himself in the dark but couldn't see anything else. There was no sound but the sound of his heart beating in his chest. He was still alive and he knew that was not hell but it felt like it, it felt like hell, and he was afraid of it.

He walked. He did not know where he should have gone but it was all he could do so he did. He walked first in a direction and then in another. At times he stopped and spoke in the dark. “Is someone there?" he would say. “Can someone hear me?" he would say. But those were not the right questions, and did not deserve an answer.

“Why are you doing this?"

A light formed in the dark. It took shape and rose above him and in the fraction of a moment the dark hell was not dark anymore. A landscape started to form in front of him, and then above him, and then under him. Mountains took shape in the distance, the black floor turned into sterile gray stone from which dead trees sprouted like graves. They reached toward the red sky above with their black branches and white leaves and he looked upon them and wondered how dead trees could have leaves. He heard voices then, female voices he did not recognize coming from behind him, so he turned.

A thousand bodies lay on the cold stone. All of them were long death and decomposed and thin white bones were the only thing that remained of them, and yet they were screaming. Their voices were screeching and animalistic, tormented, and their torment hurt him until he saw a light appear next to him and the screams fell into whispers.

He turned toward her. He stared at her in silence to take in her form, saw the differences from the shape she'd had then and the shape she had now, the more well-defined contours of her form and the small black eyes that sprouted from the cold light that made her being. She was as beautiful and horrible as she had ever been and he wondered if she even knew it.

“Hello," she said. “Do you understand what I'm saying?"

“Yes," he said. “You speak much better than you did before."

“I'm not speaking."

“What do you mean?"

“I'm not speaking. Neither are you. One conscience communicates, the other translates. This is how your mind makes sense of it."

“You're telling me this is not real?"

“I'm telling you this is happening in your mind," she said. “I suppose that makes it as real as any thoughts you have ever had."

“You seem much more real than that to me."

She smiled. She had no mouth to smile with but he felt the corner of her lips curve and her muscles shift and that was enough for him to tell she was smiling. “That makes two of us."

“Who are you?" he said.

“You know who I am," she said. “I'm a mass of memories put together. I'm an amalgamation of thoughts and the desires that those thoughts brought. Who are you?"

“I can't say."

“Why not?" she asked. “I searched your mind for information the moment I met you, and in your memories I found many names, names of friends and lovers and enemies, so many that I could not believe it myself, and yet I could not find your own. It is hidden. I dug in your consciousness to find what could drive a dragon to guard his name with such jealously, but that is hidden too. Why?"

“Names are important," he said. “Not for who owns the name, but for those around us. Only those important to you can know them. Nobody else."

“Who knows it then?"

“My sire and dam. My siblings. My clan."

“Your clan? I saw your memories of them. They're all dead."

“Yes," he said. “My name died with them."

“What about your mate? Will you ever tell her your name?"

He didn't answer. She turned her head toward the corpses. She waved one hand at them and the whispering stopped. The pale bones stiffened and creaked and turned to dust and though he did not know why part of him felt like he'd turned to dust along with them. “You're here for a reason," she said.

“The old hen said you were created by a desire for motherhood," he said. “I am supposed to be here to give you the illusion of it, so you can move on to wherever it is that amalgamations go when they die."

“That you are, and yet you do not look in favor of it." She shook her head. “I know nothing about matters of heart, but I feel this might be about your mate. Am I right?"

“Yes."

“I do not understand this," she said. “I'm not real. I am but a desire taken shape. To mate with me would be no different from mating with a hallucination. Your female has no reason to be jealous."

“You look much more real than a hallucination to me. Real enough to make laying with you a betrayal."

“What are you here for then? To tease me? To mock me with what I cannot have?"

“There must be another way to put you at rest."

“If there was, don't you think I would have known it?"

“Sometimes mortal creatures can think of things that immortals cannot," he said. “Let's say that your being were to be instilled in a mortal body. That way you could choose any mate you want to accomplish your goal and instead of being satiated by the illusion of it, you could actually see the union take fruit. Wouldn't that be better than this?"

She shook her head. “What you say is madness. An entity's essence cannot be put in a body that already has one."

He paused. “What if you were to be put in a body who has yet to have one?"

“Then I would be nothing more than a shade of the mind that will one day develop. An aspect of behavior. A quirk of personality."

“That still sounds better than inexistence."

She let out a silent sigh. “You are not mistaken," she said. “How would you accomplish something like that?"

“An egg," he said. “Yet to be laid, with the creature inside it still devoid of any consciousness. Would that work?"

“Maybe," she said after a moment. “You'd do this for me?"

“Leave Aqqa alone, and I will. But you have to promise me."

“I do. I give you my word." She bowed her head to him. “When will you do it?"

“Send me back now, and I'll see it is done immediately."

She smiled. “Thank you," she said. She touched him, a gentle caress on the side of his muzzle. Then she disappeared and his vision went black and he was gone.

---

When he came to be he found himself in an unknown room. He was still in the depths of the greenrock mountains, but now he lay on a bed made of several layers of bison hide, with an empty jug of water on his right side and Elika on his left. She was sleeping, her arms wrapped around his torso. When he started to move out of her grasp she groaned in displeasure and her eyes started to open. When she saw he was awake, they went as wide as saucers.

“Fucking hells," she said, jumping on her feet. “Are you alright?"

“I think so," he said. He tried to stand up too but his vision was blurry and his body heavy and his legs immediately started wobbling under his own weight. “Get me straight on my feet before I throw up."

She helped him stand up, and once Elika was sure he was able to hold himself together she went to call Curumia. They came back with a jug of water and a half-eaten bear carcass on Elika's back. “By the gods," Curumia said, as he grabbed the jug. “No offense, but you look like shit."

“Thank you for pointing it out." He took a few tentative bites off the bear. He still felt nauseous and he struggled to force the meat down his throat. “Where am I?"

“My chamber," Curumia said. “The elders wanted to throw you out of the mountain, but I changed their minds."

“What happened to you?" Elika said. “You were talking with the tulpa, saying things I could not understand, then the aberration disappeared and you fell unconscious. You slept for a whole day. Did you…" She flinched. “Did you manage to get rid of it?"

“Yes, but not in the way you think. We made a deal."

Both Curumia and Elika tilted their heads in confusion. “What kind of deal?" Curumia asked. He told them about the place he'd woken in and the bodies and the conversation he'd had with the amalgamation, and when he told them about the deal Elika's whole body relaxed as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders, but her expression did not soften.

“I suppose it might work," she said. “It isn't as if we have never spoken about having hatchling before, and it'd be nice to give Aqqa a sibling. But what will happen to the hatchling? Are you sure the amalgamation would not take over their mind?"

“One need to have a mind of their own to take over another," Curumia said. “The amalgamation is merely a desire who has been given body coupled with the illusion of consciousness. It would certainly affect the mind of the host in some minor way, but the worst thing that can happen is your hatchling having a great desire to have hatchlings of their own as they grow up."

Elika let out a sigh and nodded. “Then I cannot argue with it," she said. She pushed her snout against his shoulder and bit into his neck. “When do you think we can do it?"

“Even now, if you want," he said.

Elika smirked. “Are you sure you have enough strength to do it?"

“Raise that tail and I'll show you how much strength I have."

“Hells no you won't," Curumia said, her voice booming over Elika's laugh. “This is a nest, not a brothel. You want to do anything related to rutting, you better bring your scaly asses out in the woods. There are chicks around here."

“Aqqa?"

“Among the others. You can see her if you want."

They went outside. Aqqa was playing with a group of young males around her age. They ran around the line of trees that edged the forest and wrestled each other on the ground under the watchful eyes of the adults. When he and Elika came closer Aqqa stopped playing and walked toward them. Gone was the fear and the desperation in her eyes, now replaced with a spark of what he would have called glee only dimmed by a veil of sadness. When she reached them she rubbed her head against Elika's chest, and when the dragoness wrapped her arm around her head she cooed and purred. Aqqa then turned toward him, and though she did not try to touch him, she spread her wings and bowed her head, her eyes closed. She then sauntered back to her games. He did not know what any of that meant and looked at Curumia for an answer.

“She greeted you," Curumia said. “Many chicks raised in female-only clans are taught to greet males they are in good terms with like this. It may not look like much to you, but it's a great privilege."

“She looks much better today," Elika said. “Her mood has improved. The amalgamation is holding her word."

“Then we better do the same." He turned toward Curumia. “Will you look over Aqqa until we come back?"

“I have nothing better to do."

He lowered his head. “Thank you," he said, then turned back to Elika. “Come with me."

---

They could have gone back to their lair, but it was too far away. Instead he brought her to another place, closer but just as special. More than once she asked him where they were going but he never answered. He let the mystery linger until the forest turned into a valley and the valley into a prairie, and the longer they flew the more her curiosity waned. By the time she realized where he was bringing her she was giggling like a drakelle in her first heat.

They landed at its shore and watched the sun reflect on the surface of the water before Elika turned toward him. “It has been a while, hasn't it?" she said. “You think I'd have recognized it since the beginning, but I'd almost forgotten this place."

“It must have been a score and a half now," he said. “It was not that important to us back then. Just a lake with a good view. But it feels a good place to do it."

“Do you remember how we were when we first meet?" she said. “I don't even think I could recognize who I was back then."

“I could."

“Could you, now?"

“You haven't changed that much," he said. He turned toward her. “I remember stopping by the shore to drink, and I remember you jumping on me yelling that this was your territory and I had to submit or leave. I don't think you'd react much differently today."

“I remember doing my best to earn your forgiveness in the following days," she said. Her tail gently swatted on his flank. “And I remember giving you no reason to complain."

“You made some compelling arguments."

Silence fell on them, along with a feeling of unease that he'd not felt between them for a long time but had been present since the beginning. He wanted to move closer, held her in his arms and wrap his wings around her and he knew she wanted to do the same, and yet neither of them moved. Something was wrong. He knew what it was but it did not fall on him to name it, to give it a body and a shape. She had to do that, it wouldn't have been the same otherwise. And yet she stood there silent and unmoving, and he did the same because he didn't know what else he could do.

An eternity passed without the two of them saying a world. The sun made a line in the sky as it raised high above the heavens before reaching its apex, and then there it stood, cold and opaque through the clouds, already threatening to disappear to make way for another blizzard that however did not come. They lingered in the tenue light of the afternoon until Elika turned toward him. “Do you truly want to do this?" she asked.

“Yes," he said. “Do you?"

“Yes. But before we do it, I want you to tell me your name."

He flinched. His chest was tight and his guts felt as if they were about to implode on themselves but he did his better not to show it, and he thought he was doing a good job of it until he realized he was trembling. “Why?"

“Why?" she said. “Why, you ask me? Are you making fun of me, or are you such a fool you truly don't know the answer to that question?"

“Might be both."

She growled. The growl was short and died out immediately but it left a mark. Elika had always been a better hunter than a warrior, and he could have defeated her in a fight with ease had he wanted to, but that growl was not born as a declaration of hostility. It was born out of pain.

“I'm sorry," he said.

“I don't want your apologies. How long have we known each other? You said a score and a half, but you've never been good with time and age. I reckon it was more than that, and for all this time we spent together you never told me your name, or the reason why you keep it secret. And I respected it, because I could see the pain it caused you every time we spoke about it, just as I can see the pain it causes you now." Her expression softened and her eyes fell on the ground. “So I waited. I waited for you to be ready to tell me, year after year after year. But now I'm starting to think that if you don't tell me now, if I don't force it out of you, you never will. Can you see why that troubles me? Do my words make sense to you?"

“I think they do."

“I'm not so sure of it." She glared at him and their eyes met once again. “I have no problem with rutting a nameless dragon for the rest of my life, but if I have to carry his seed and have his hatchlings then I need to know. I need to know the name, and the clan's name, and the reason why he kept it hidden for so long from his own mate. I can't do any of this otherwise."

“You're telling me you'd put Aqqa back into the amalgamation's grasp just to spite me for not answering your question?"

“Would I be the one spiting you? Would I be the one putting Aqqa back into her grasp?" she paused. “Or would it be you?"

He didn't answer. He couldn't. He moved his head on the lake once again. It did not shine anymore, nor did it seem as beautiful as it had a few hours earlier. Now it was just a blue spot amidst the endless green.

“If I tell you my name," he started, and every word weighted on him like a mountain. “If I tell you the word and the reason why I kept it hidden, I want you to understand that it's not truly my name anymore. It has been, once, a long time ago, but that time is long gone and the dragon who carried it is long dead. You may call me by it if you wish, but only when we're alone, and you must promise to never reveal it to anybody else."

“I promise," she said. “On my life and my flame. I swear it will remain only between you and me, as long as you wish it."

And so he told her. He leaned toward her and told her the name and the story of the name, the reason why he'd kept it hidden and why it mattered that it remained hidden. He told her everything, held back nothing, and by the time he was done the tears were streaming down her cheeks and her throat was choked. She leaned toward him and buried her snout in the crook of his neck. She bit him, deep and hard, and her teeth remained wedged in his flesh until the blood leaked out of the wound onto his chest. He nuzzled her in silence as she wept and when she had no more tears she raised her head and looked into his eyes.

“I'm sorry," she said. “I'm truly sorry. I didn't know –"

“I know," he said. “It's not your fault. It was a long time ago."

“I cannot call you by that name," she said, her head leaned on his chest. “Not even in private. It would be an insult. We'll find you a new one – a beautiful one, so we will forget the first, and that will be your true name."

“I'm a bit too old to be given a name."

“One is never too old to be given a name," she said. “What about Firell? It's the name of a character in a story my mother used to tell me when I was an hatchling."

“Is it a happy story?"

She waited a moment to answer. “No."

“Then I'd rather take another one."

“What about Vell?"

“Is that from another story?"

“No," she said. “It's ancient wyrm for 'new'. As in 'new one'."

“Vell," he repeated. “I like that." He didn't. Not really. It was too late for him to be given a new name, too late to erase the past, but Elika wanted him to have it and if that made her happy, he would accept it gladly. “You may call me Vell if you want."

She bit him again then, on the other side of the neck, but this time it was not the bite of the worried mate. There was no comfort in it, no pity. It was the bite of the lover, and it required a lover's response. He bit her as she bit him and his bite wasn't any less deep or intense. Blood fell from both their necks and leaked down their chests and by the time they separated his teeth were red and his cock was poking out of his sheath, its pink head barely out of its refuge. Ropes of pre-cum already spurted out of it, barely more than lubrication and yet already enough to rival the full climax of the most endowed and virile male of any race. Elika kept licking the bite wound a moment longer before she lowered her snout on his sheath and took the top of it in her mouth. He felt her lips wrap around his flesh and her tongue lap at his cock-slit as the waves of pre painted her maws white and gushed down her throat. She started sucking on hit, and he had to stifle a grunt as his cock grew and swelled in her mouth with each movement of her tongue.

“You know, the point of this was for you to conceive," he said. “It won't work if you empty my balls down your throat."

Elika did not give any sign of having heard him. He was fully erect by now, his shaft as long as his forearm and even thicker, the ridges and knobs that lined it throbbing and pulsing wildly. Gone was the pink hue of his flesh, now replaced with an angry shade of red that was growing more and more intense as time passed. Elika wrapped both her hands around its base to keep it still as her head bobbed up and down his flesh. He could feel every turn and gag of her neck, every inch of her pulsing throat pressing on the gargantuan organ, and then one palm running down the part of his shaft she could not fit in while the other played with his balls. It had been five days since the their last mating and though Aqqa had kept their minds occupied Elika's attention was making him realize how much he needed it, how full and churning with seed his balls were. With a low growl he took hold of Elika's head and pushed her head down his cock, and Elika gagged and moaned around his flesh before he pulled her back up and repeated the motion again and again. Soon she started trembling and shaking and her hold on his cock grew unsteady, and the longer it went on the more she let him decide the pacing. By the time he started to feel the pressure that preceded an orgasm she had given him free rein, every movement of her head on his cock dictated by his hands.

The pressure grew, slowly but steadily. He moved his feet away from her head and anchored them firmly to the ground, while his one free hand grasped her shoulder for balance as he started pushing his hips against her muzzle, trying to feed her as much of his cock as it was possible. She had never been able to take the whole thing and he wasn't going to make her do it now, but with every thrust she managed to slip inside a little more, up until the point she managed to take more than half of his length. Every shove now sent her eyes rolling and her body into a fit, and if he curved his head a bit he could see flashes of her pink slit clenching and squirting thick ropes of transparent juices on the ground below, her red clitoris swelling and pulsing against her labia. It took him only a few more thrusts before the pressure brought him to the point of no return. He gritted his teeth and made to pull out of her, his hold on her head weakening, but he'd barely started doing so before Elika let out a groan of disapproval in response. Her hands ran to his balls in frantic movements, and before he knew it she obstinately pushed herself as far down his cock as she could go, her palms desperately clinging to his sack.

That was more than any male could have taken, and with a terrible roar he grabbed ahold of her head with both hands and wildly thrust his hips against her snout until he finally came. A burst of seed erupted out of him with strength of a geyser, not in waves or ropes but in an endless and uninterrupted stream of white that immediately bulged Elika's throat just as much as it had bulged his cock. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head, her pupils reduced to slits while her cunt clenched harder than it had ever done up until that point and squirted a stream of her own secretions onto the ground, her clitoris spasming and throbbing like a heart. For minutes they kept unloading like that without sign of stopping, his hips pumping against and sending both their bodies rocking. Tears started streaming down Elika's cheeks as his seed filled her flat, toned belly, not a single drop escaping her scaly lips, and he would have gladly kept at it for longer had he not realized she was a breath's length away from passing out.

Immediately he relented his hold on her head and grabbed the sides of her muzzle so he could pull his cock out of her throat. The organ was so firmly lodged inside her it took him a while to do so without risking to hurt her, but in the end he managed to pull it out, his orgasm still ongoing, the stream of seed jetting in the air as strong as it had ever been. The moment Elika's throat was free she took a deep, raspy breath and then collapsed sideway on the ground, painting and groaning in pleasure, her body still rocked by shivers. Even now her legs were kicking the ground and her jaws were spread wide in a silent cry as her folds pushed wave after wave of fluid out of her, as if trying to compete with his cock. Both of them went on for a while yet, and he had more than enough time to cover Elika's upper body in several layers of white before his orgasm finally dimmed and the endless stream of cum weakened to a manageable level. Elika kept going for a few moments longer, though the violent squirting of her pussy subsided, and when her muscles finally relaxed she took a shaky breath that filled her lung to the brim and exhaled it under the form of a violent fit of cough. Seed and saliva flew out of her mouth in equal measure and when she was finally done she leaned her head down and lay there and just breathed.

Time passed. “Elika," he said. “Are you alright?"

Elika groaned. “Fine," she muttered. “Give me a moment."

“I'm sorry, Elika. I didn't think it would be this intense. If I had known –“

“Oh, shut up," she said. “Don't overestimate yourself. It wasn't you who put me in this state." She brought her hand to her cunt and pressed her fingers against her clit. The moment her hand came in contact with her flesh her pussy clenched and a last gush of nectar jetted out of her, and she couldn't help but release another moan. “By the nine hells," she said. “It has been ages since I last had an orgasm like this."

“If it was my hands and my cock who gave it to you, doesn't it mean that my actions put you in this state?"

She groaned again. “I said shut up."

He leaned down next to her. Much of the snow had already melted thanks to Elika's body heat and the warmth of their juices, so they had to lay on the wet green of the lake's shore. They stayed like that for a while and stared at the sun in silence until Elika's breath stabilized and her body stopped shaking so hard, then he turned toward her. “Can you keep going?"

“Yes," she said. “But I think I'll leave most of the work to you."

He rolled on his feet, crawled on top of her and planted his hands at the sides of her head and his feet near her ankles. He was bigger than she was and he had to take a step back to look at her in the eyes, face to face, her body shivering below his. His cock was as hard as it had ever been, the top of his gargantuan, cum-leaking shaft almost reaching her chest. She reeked of her own arousal and his cum and the scents assaulted his nose with such strength they almost numbed him, and he had to put in some actual effort to stay focused on his task. Normally he would have used his tongue and mouth on her too, but he didn't think she could handle another orgasm before stepping to the main event. He leaned his head down, bit her neck again, and let the groan his teeth pulled out of her stroke his ego before he pushed his cock against her slit. Her folds were warm and wet and clenching madly without pause, but despite how welcoming they might have been he did not push it in. Instead he rubbed it over her lips, his movements slow and kind, and did his best to ignore the rising need to drive it in and pound into her already.

“What are you doing?" Elika muttered. “Just put it in already."

“I will. Hold on a moment."

“But –“

“Trust me."

She whined her disapproval out loud, but neither said nor did anything to stop him. For minutes he kept stroking his knobbed length against her rosy lips and red folds, every movement making her clench and driving more and more spurts and dribble of fluids out of her. By the time he was ready to drive it in she was like a broken faucet, and her legs had started twitching once again. “Vell," she growled. “Vell, gods be damned – just put it in."

And so he did. He pulled himself back and pressed his cockhead against her pussy, then pushed it slightly in. His body was screaming at him to impale her already, but he knew that even as wet as she was he could give her all his length at once without harming her. He went at it slowly, giving her only a few inches for every push, his shaft parting her inner walls a little more with every stroke. It was the right call: she was so tight her folds pressed around his cock like a vice, so much tighter and warmer than her throat could have ever been, and every time he pushed his shaft a little bit further the vice twitched and contracted around his length harder than before. In all their years together he'd felt her so tight around him countless times, but this time it felt different. He raised his head, though he did not stop pushing into her, and looked at her grinning muzzle and her closed eyes and realized this time it was better, and he wasn't even sure why.

When he finally reached her limit he'd managed to fit in her almost two third of his cock's length. He filled the last few inches that separated the tip of his cock from her deepest wall with a little thrust and was rewarded with a spasm of her muscles that would have crippled a lesser male. Elika groaned, and he grunted out in response.

“Bloody hells," she said. “Finally. Bloody hells…"

“I'm going to thrust now. Ready?"

“Yes!" she yelled. “Bloody hells, just get on with it!"

He pulled his cock out of her as far as his hips permitted him and then drove it back inside her with a growl and a wet squelch. Elika let out a yelp, her body taken by shivers once again, but she did not say to stop and that was good enough for him. He did it once again, and then twice, and then thrice, until he started building up to a rhythm. With every thrust his hips gyrated and twisted to make sure that his cock went as far as it could go and that his shaft filled every inch of her walls, and with every retreat he promised her a new push would follow by having the round ridges and knobs on his cock tease her flesh in the most unsustainable way possible. Shove after shove he let the pleasure build in her, and though after the first ones she'd tried to meet his thrusts with her own all her attempts to do so went vane as the second of orgasm of the day rocked through her.

Elika pulled her head back and roared, her eyes rolling once again. She screamed his name, but he hardly listened. He was too focused on her body wrapped around his cock, her cunt flexing and constricting terribly around his flesh as if trying to choke his shaft. He powered through it, through his pleasure and her pleasure and the orgasm that wracked her body, hating that his second climax felt so far away from him while hers had already hit but basking in the knowledge that eventually it would come. He wondered how many more he could drive out of her before then.

Elika's orgasm had barely ended when he decided he needed to change position. He grabbed her by her thighs and brought her up with him as he stood on his feet and secured her posterior legs around his waist, then clenched his teeth in preparation and started rocking her hips into her. At first this new rhythm wasn't any different from the first one, but with every thrust the speed and power of his movements grew until his hips were nothing but a blur and the grasp of his fingers on her waist was so tight his claws cut through her scales and into her flesh. An infernal pacing was set, his cock hammering into her with almost mechanical precision, his heavy balls slamming against her ass with every shove. Elika's ravaged cunt soon started squirting and clenching its way into one climax after the other, and the dragoness could do nothing but lay on the ground and sink her claws in the dirt below her and hold on for her life as he fucked her soul out. Soon her whole body was limp, her legs doing small kicking motions as if she were running and her head laying on the side with the tongue out of her mouth, a pool of saliva forming next to her muzzle to accompany the pool of cum and feminine juices forming below their conjoined waists. Her eyes had rolled in the back of her head once again and there they had stayed, the white of her corneas huge, her pupils reduced to tiny dots. She couldn't even moan or scream in the state she was; all that came out of her throat was a weak rasped breathing. It was the most wonderful sounds he had ever heard come out of her.

Time passed. The sun traced a line in the sky as it fell down and disappeared below the edge of the horizon, and still he kept pounding into his mate as he searched for his own release. He had lost count of how many times Elika had come, but no matter how hard or fast he thrust into her he did not seem able to do so himself. Changing position had been useless, too: for hours he'd pumped buckets of pre into her as he rutted her on the side, with her ass hauled up or with her back against the ground, and the only thing he'd seemed to obtain was labored breathing and a growing frustration. The ground below them was cracked and broken by the force of their mating, the air itself was saturated with the scent of sex. All he felt was her cunt spasming and clenching around his shaft, but no matter how great the pleasure it did not bring him any closer to a release.

Something was missing. Something important, something he didn't understand. He lowered his head on her, looked at her face, admired the effect the pleasure had on her wrecked mind, her face and muzzle twisted into a blissful expression that was worth more than a thousand orgasm, and then he understood.

From the moment he'd impaled her on his cock, their mating had unraveled with the sole objective of fulfilling their deal with the amalgamation, to impregnate her with his seed and to see her swell with his eggs. Maybe that was enough for Elika – maybe learning his true name was all the intimacy she needed out of him – but how could he have taken any real pleasure from their rutting, as intense as it was, if it was done for someone who was not the two of them?

He had no answer for that question and it didn't matter, because there was no reason to give it one. After all he'd already impregnated her. He'd probably done it the very moment his cock had filled her completely and the first drops of pre-ejaculate had invaded her womb. And even if he was wrong, he'd spurted enough of it inside her to fill a lake. There were no doubts she was pregnant now: his promise had been kept, his debt paid. Nothing could keep him from focusing only on the two of them now. Nothing but himself.

His orgasm came then, the pressure in his loins rising all at once in a matter of moments. His already engorged cock swelled inside her, to the point that the friction almost hurt despite the copious amount of lubricant their sexes were drenched in and the even more copious amount they expelled by the second. With a thunderous roar he sunk his teeth into Elika's neck, pushing her beyond her limits into one last thundering orgasm. He felt a new stream of cum make its way up his cock and then spread his cock-slit wide open as it violently propelled out of him and into her, painting her womb white and instantly filling her to the brim. Elika's body was wrecked by pleasure once again, shivering and trembling against the ground, but this time she wasn't alone. His orgasm was so strong it sent him into a fit too, feet kicking the ground so hard it broke the stone through the grass and the dirt and his arms wrapping helplessly around her torso in a fruitless attempt to hold on for his life. He could not remember the last time he had come this hard, but in his current predicament, he would have found hard to remember anything at all.

For untold time they went on like this, coming wildly into and onto each other, their limbs wrapped and intersected with the other's. Even as he came inside Elika, he never once stopped rutting her overworked folds. He couldn't. Soon Elika's belly swelled to the point she looked half-full with eggs already, and when his seed had absolutely no more empty space to fill it erupted out from the sides in thick, endless waves of white.

He didn't know for how long it lasted, but by the time it was over they were both covered in seed and secretions and Elika was unconscious, though her body still shook and shivered in the throes of pleasure. He let go of her then, and rolled on his back to stare at the nothingness over him. The sky had almost gone dark by then, only a smidge of red still over the horizon to lighten it. Already the moon stood over them, whiter than he'd ever seen it, surrounded by an endless bank of clouds. Soon it would start snowing once again, and a new blizzard would come. He'd probably have to carry her back to Greenrock by weight, but he wasn't worried about it. Neither was he worried about Aqqa and Curumia and the rest of the Greenrock gryphons, nor how their relationship with them would evolve. At the moment, nothing could worry him at all.

He turned toward Elika. The dragoness lay on her right side as the last ray of the sun shone over her unconscious body. Her figure was as cum-soaked and juice-slated as his was, if not more, and it did not diminish her beauty by any means. If anything, he found that she had never been more beautiful than in that moment.

---

Normally it takes a dragoness four moons before she's ready to lay eggs, but Elika's body had to be working hard enough for three females because by spring she'd already laid three eggs. The whelps inside them had to be impatient to get out, too, because after a few months had passed they were already moving and kicking inside their shells. Through the knowledge granted to her by thousands upon thousands of years of primordial feminine instincts, Elika had decided that the hatchlings would come out the first day of summer. Though customarily nobody was allowed to attend the hatching aside from the soon-to-be parents and the members of their families, he and Elika both had decided Aqqa could remain assist if she wanted, and so could Curumia.

When the day arrived the two of them were the only ones present in the lair. They'd found a new one closer to Greenrock, bigger and with the advantage of having a small natural spring inside it. They were not yet ready to move with the Greenrock flock permanently, but they'd already discussed that with the elders and he had the feeling the day would come soon. Elika lay on the ground, the eggs pushed against her belly. She was impatient. The eggs were twitching and the first cracks had already began to show, but for her they were still not quick enough. He agreed with her, though he did not say it.

“It's a shame it was not the season when we conceived them," she said. “I could have laid half a dozen eggs then. Maybe even more."

“I don't think that's possible."

“And who says that? You?" she snorted. “My mother's first clutch was a total of eight eggs. She was the most fertile female of her clan."

“It's not a competition, Elika."

“I know it isn't. All I'm saying is that I could have done it."

“I think three are enough for now," he said. “Nothing stops us from having more if we want."

Elika grunted. “Where in the nine hells are Aqqa and Curumia?" she said. “They were supposed to be here in the early morning."

Before she could end the sentence the squawking sound of a gryphon screech came from outside, as if she had summoned them. Curumia's shape flew in the sky over them and obscured the sun for a moment before she landed at the edge of the cave. She walked in, her breath hard, her chest raising and falling at furious pace. Her feathers and fur were wet with what smelled like swamp water and her eyes were bloodshot.

“Curumia," Elika said. “What in the nine hells happened to you?"

“Are you alright?" he asked.

“I am," she said between the wheezes. “Apologies for being late. Aqqa's flying lesson went on longer than usual yesterday. We had to keep training through the night, and as a result I did not sleep a cinch." She let out a yawn. “Also a gust of wind blew us out of the air and made us land in a marsh as we flew here. We had to clean before we could fly again. Not an enjoyable experience."

“We'll take your world for it," Elika said. “Where is Aqqa?"

“She's coming," she said. A second yawn escaped her lips. “She's flying slowly on purpose to annoy me, because I promised her flying in a windy day wouldn't be a problem. I apologized, but she doesn't want to have it." She lowered her head on the eggs. “I see they little bastards are about ready to pop out. How long before they hatch?"

“Any minute now. I suppose they want to keep us waiting. I don't know if – “ before she could end the sentence a second squawk echoed in the air, trilling and high-pitched. They saw Aqqa plane toward them, similar to how Curumia had done it, only instead of slowing down the little hen kept gaining speed.

“I see she still has some problems with the landings," Elika said.

“Yes and no. She knows how to handle them most of the time, but occasionally she forgets how to decelerate."

“Should we do something about it?"

“Hold on. She still has time to correct herself."

She didn't. Aqqa only kept gaining speed as she got closer and her screams only became more and more deafening, as if she were asking for help. In the end, he walked up to the entrance of the cave and spread his arms. A moment later Aqqa slammed headfirst into his chest with the force of a charging elephant. He didn't want to risk harming her so he let her momentum carry him on the ground. He fell on his back, his arms wrapped around the hen, and Curumia's annoyed hiss told him that it was only by a miracle that he had not fallen on her.

He opened his arms and let Aqqa stumble out of his hold, her legs wobbly. She turned toward him, with a look of shame in her eyes and her head lowered, and spread her wings in apology.

“Are you alright?" he asked.

She nodded.

“Good. It's all well then. Be more careful next time."

"You're too kind to her," Elika said, her eyes on Aqqa as she turned toward the egg and started inching closer to them. “The young must be treated strictly, or they'll never learn anything."

“I agree," Curumia added. “Keep treating her like that and soon she'll start disrespecting you."

“I doubt it. Besides, I wouldn't be worth much as a strict parent," he said. “I think I'll leave that to Elika."

He'd barely finished the sentence before one of the eggs cracked. A fragment of the shell flew across the room, and from the hole in the shell emerged a tiny green snout with two big yellow eyes at the top. It let out a loud squeak and then went back to breaking through the egg.

“We have a winner," Curumia said.

“A female, too," Elika said. She was doing her best to mask it, but her throat was chocked with emotion. “I knew it."

“Why is she green? Vell is black, you are red. Shouldn't she be a deeper red, or a brown?"

“My mother was green. Green is a dominant color in dragons."

“Why in all the gods-damned hells are you not green then?"

“It jumps a generation."

As they spoke the hatchling kept making its way out of her shell. She had almost done it, half her body already out of her prison, her wings and tail the only thing still holding her inside. He went to pull her out but Elika swatted him away. “Let her do it herself," she said. “You can spoil her when she grows up."

The hatchling finally escaped the egg and tumbled on the floor with a squeak. She looked at Elika, squeaked again, then tried to crawl toward him and instead fell flat on her belly with all her limbs splayed out. Elika scooped her up with her tail and brought the hatchling against her chest. The squeals of complain of the hatchling went ignored as Elika licked the last layers of egg membrane off her body and then leaned her head back as if to study her. “She's a bit small, isn't she? A bit skinny, too."

“She's half as long as your forearm," Curumia said. “That seems big enough for me."

“Thank you, Curumia. If I ever need a gryphon's opinion on how big dragon hatchlings should or should not to be straight out of the egg, I'll remember to ask you." She turned toward him. “What do you think?"

“She's a bit skinny," he said. “I'm sure she'll be fine."

The other two hatchlings took a bit longer to come out. One, a male, tumbled out of the shell much like his sister and let out a high-pitched squeal as he rolled on his head. The other, a female, simply crawled out of the egg and then refused to move. She did not make any sound at all, just looked around herself with her big blue eyes and tried to make sense of the world around her. They both were red from head to tail, an almost exact copy of their mother. The only differences were the patches of green on their bellies and their ice-blue eyes, as cool and vibrant as those of their father. This time Elika let him clean the male while she cleaned the female, then scooped them up and plopped them next to their sister. “These two are a bit slow," she said," but better late than never, I suppose."

They fed them pieces of a stag he'd hunted the day before. They showed the hatchlings how to tear and chew the meat and once they'd learnt they ate it with ravenous hunger, ripping them apart and caking themselves with blood from head to toe, and then washed them down with the water of the spring. All they could do at that point was lay on their side and fall asleep. Elika claimed them for herself and pushed them against her belly, then covered them with a wing.

“They're adorable," Curumia said. “Do you have some names in mind yet?"

“The tradition of my clan says that the mother shall name the females, while the father shall name the males." Elika said. She moved her wing to the side and poked the green one with her snout. “I think I shall name this one Vizka, like my grandmother." She poked the other one. “This, instead, will be Umria. She's the protagonist of my favorite song. " She looked at him. “Vell?"

“I'm not good with names. You can give him one too if you want."

“Hells no. He's a male, you are the father. It is your right and duty to name him."

He thought about it. Many names from old stories and legends came to mind, but none of them were right. They all sounded foolish, or pretentious, or simply did not fit him. He looked at the hatching, let his eyes run over its skinny body and the short little snout. He was small for a male hatchling, but his body was stout and robust and his muzzle wide, which made him look older than he was.

“Rievel," he said. “His name is Rievel."

“Rievel?" Elika replied, a confused tone in her voice. “That means 'old' in ancient wyrm. Why would you call him like that?"

“Different clans sometimes have different translation for the same word. For you it means 'old', for me it means 'wise'. He looks like a wise hatchling to me."

She shrugged. “It is a questionable name, but it's your right to give it to him if you so wish." She nuzzled her snout against his side. “So here they are then. Vizka, Umria and Rievel. Which one of them do you think will the amalgamation chose as its host?"

“One of the females, probably," Curumia said. “Not that it will matter. I doubt you'll even realize its influence before adolescence, and it'll be nothing more than a harmless quirk. At the very worst, you'll become grandparents a bit earlier than you'd expect." She turned toward Aqqa. “You better be grateful regardless, you little devil. They did it for you."

The young gryphon hen had remained as silent and still as a grave until now, her eyes never leaving the hatchlings, but when Curumia spoke to her she smiled and lowered her head.

Curumia huffed. “There is simply no fun in admonishing her. She's too well behaved when you're around."

He said nothing. He nuzzled the top of Elika's head with his snout and then leaned down to do the same to Aqqa. Curumia and Elika went on to talk about the hatchling, and Aqqa snuggled between them as he turned his head and looked out of the cave. There was a storm coming. Big gray clouds had already covered the sun and a good part of the sky visible. Soon it would start to rain, and he knew that either him or Curamia would have to go hunting. Not now, though. Right now he had nothing to do but stay where he was and think, listen to the voice of his mate and the wind that blew outside the lair. It was weird to say, but he felt fine. More than fine, even. For the first time in half a century, Vell felt as if he had a name.