FSE

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Serafine landed softly on the forest floor. I quickly dismounted after she landed, feeling the soft cold dirt between my toes. It was then I realized that I forgot to pick out a pair of shoes.

“Thanks Serafine, I'll be home before you know it."

Serafine smiled and nodded. She turned to disembark, then stopped. Before I knew what was happening, I was pushed to the floor by her snout as she nuzzled me. “I'm going to miss you." She said.

I hugged her back.

She turned and spread her wings, jumping into the air with enough force to push me backwards slightly, disappearing through the canopies above.

I turned around and started walking towards town, Serafine still on my mind.

I reached the outskirts of Whitefork before realizing that it might not be the best idea to waltz into town after being gone for roughly a month. I decided to walk around the village outskirts until I reached Josthaans house. It took me much longer to walk the perimeter but I eventually made it to the secluded hut, covered by trees. I knocked on the door. Almost immediately after, the door swung open, revealing the disheveled old man standing in the doorway.

“Nathan, you're back!"

“Yes, I am. I was wondering if you still had that extra dragon potion handy?"

Josthaan looked at me inquisitively. “Why, yes I do still have it, but if I may ask, why do you need such a potion?"

I smiled, embarrassed. “It's a bit of a long story."

“So, you've found a nice girl to settle down with but that girl also happens to be the dragon that has been terrorizing our village for years?"

I paused before answering. “Yes."

“And you want to turn into a dragon and live with her?"

“Yes."

“So you realize that doing that immediately puts the town in jeopardy?"

“What do you mean?" I asked.

“With two dragons living near town, there will be twice as many disappearances, twice as many broken families, twice the chance that when I go into the woods, I'll be a snack for one of you two."

“Well… Humans aren't really part of her diet. She has more than enough to hunt around this area. She just… enjoys the taste of them."

Josthaan sighed. “I don't know if I should give you this potion."

“If you do, I will try to get her to stop eating humans, or at least get her to prey on a different village."

Josthaan sat in his large chair and thought it over. “Do you promise to make her move to a different village?"

“Yes. I promise I will get her to."

“Alright, then I'll give you the potion." He stood up and walked to his cabinet. Opening the doors, he rummaged through the bottles until he found the wooden box that contained the dragon transformation potion. “Before I give this to you, can I ask for some help?"

“Yeah, what do you need?"

“Well, I was wondering if you could do a few chores for me. I would need you for about a week. I have a lot of ingredients that I need found."

“I guess I could help with that, as long as you can describe what I'll be looking for well enough."

“Oh that won't be necessary, I have drawings of everything that I need," He said, walking over to a bookshelf and pulling out a stack of card-sized pieces of parchment. He thumbed through them, picking out cards periodically and putting them into a pile. After about a hundred cards, he put the cards down and handed the pile of a hundred to me. “These are what I need. You'll be able to find everything in the forest."

"you want me to go into the forest?“

"What are you afraid of?" Josthaan asked, handing me a sack that rattled with the sound of glass jars. "the most dangerous thing in there is your new girlfriend," He said chuckling. “Now off with ya, sunlight's a-waisting."

I closed the large wooden door as I left his home, walking along the cobbled path into the forest. The path died out quite quickly and was replaced with a large overgrowth of trees and plants. I continued on what was left of the path, checking the cards for hours. Every so often, I would find a seemingly magical item that matched a card. It was fairly easy to find some of them. The plants were easy, the small animals were much harder. After a few large insects and toads, I had tired out from chasing them.

After a few hour, I made my way back to Josthaan's house with ingredients in tow. Josthaan opened the door and pulled me inside.

“Did anybody follow you?"

“No." I said, taken aback at the odd question. “Why would anybody be following me?"

“Since you left town, the villagers have started acting weird. They haven't ever gone this long without being preyed on by your scaly friend. I've been thinking that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if your dragon started preying on the townspeople again; I think some of them are going mad with power." He said pointing to a telescope that stood next to a dusty window. A small portion of the window was wiped clean of the general grime that accumulated around Josthaan's house, likely so that he could see through the spot easier.

I walked up towards the telescope and peered through the eyepiece. It was strategically pointed to the town square. A wooden stage had been constructed recently with three poles sticking out the top. On the far left pole, a man hung limply, his hair disheveled and covering his face, which seemed to be looking blankly ahead. His hands were tied together above him and his legs were shackled to the base of the post.

“Oh gods, what happened to him?"

“Crimes against the town. They started off by stringing up the criminals from the prisons. Then the prisoners passed away from malnutrition and their wounds. They ran out of criminals, then they started punishing petty crimes and small violations in this manner. People are either too afraid to leave their houses, or are part of the mob that catches the next so-called criminal.

“That's barbaric!" I exclaimed.

“The thirst for blood must be quenched somehow in this town it seems, whether it be by a dragon, or by one another."

I looked once more into the telescope. The man's head had dropped down and he hung still. Two guards had appeared and were untying him. I could only expect the worst.

“So what did you find?" Josthaan asked, breaking me from my morbid attention towards the horrid sight.

I walked over to his table and held my pack upside-down, letting jars and cloth wrapped goods gently tumble onto the table. Josthaan smile warmly, impressed with my work.

“Perfect, just a few more days like this and I'll have everything I need."

Josthaan was kind enough to let me sleep in his hut while I worked for him. I pulled the blanket that was given to me up to my face, tucking myself in. It felt weird not sleeping next to Serafine, everything just felt colder. I hugged my blanket, feeling the space that Serafine should have filled. It was going to be difficult to be away from her for a month. Closing my eyes, I let sleep wash over me.

The sun beamed into my sleeping quarters, landing on my eyes. I squinted and groaned. It couldn't be morning already. Groggily, I sat up and wiped the sleep from my eyes. It was time to go to work.

I set out on the path into the forest just outside of Josthaan's house. As I walked, the path grew ever more distorted, a cobbled brick would show its face much less frequently. At some points I had wondered if I was even on a path anymore. The path hadn't been touched for years, allowing for the foliage to devour any remnants of a clear way. Something felt different about this area of the forest; I had never walked near this part. Everything seemed darker than usual. It was an odd feeling. I would look up and see very little tree coverage but yet, I was standing in shadow. The air was thick and damp. Everything around me seemed to be taking up more than what it was originally supposed to; The light, the air, the sound, all were muted, absorbed by the surrounding wildlife.

I looked down at the cards in my hands, trying to see if I could match any items on the ground to the cards. A snow white mushroom popped into my vision. Rifling through the cards, I found a picture of the same mushroom.

“A cold cap…" I read aloud from the card. “…Must be cut at the base to avoid freezing effects."

I didn't have a knife with me, something else would have to do. Picking up a decently long stick, I broke it over my leg to create a shard-like end. It seemed too blunt to really do any damage but It was all I had. I crouched down and bent the mushroom on its side, exposing the stem. Lining up the stick, I struck the stem of the mushroom. To My dismay, the stem simply deflected the blow. I tried again and again to no avail. Angrily, I pulled the mushroom up to try a different spot. The mushroom pulled loose from the ground. Almost instantly, a ring of frost surrounded the forest floor where the mushroom had once grown. I jumped back, my butt landing on the ground. The frost ring started to grow, seeping into everything attached to the forest floor. I picked up the mushroom which had fallen and stuffed it in a jar; I then turned and ran down the path back towards Josthaan's house.

After what seemed like an eternity of running, I had to stop and catch my breath. The cobblestone path seemed to appear much more frequently, which was a good sign because it meant that I was close to Josthaan's hut. I didn't recall walking too far away from his house, I spent most of the day wandering off the path, looking for magical items. After I caught my breath, I turned around. The frost ring was still growing. I watched it creeping down the path, whitening trees and plants with a layer of frost, leaving leaves shriveled and dead. I had to get back to Josthaan's house quickly before I killed the whole forest. I started running again.

Finally I saw Josthaan's house up ahead. Picking up my pace, I sprinted to his door and knocked on it, panicked.

Josthaan opened the door. “What is it Nathan? He asked, seeing the worry in my eyes. I reached into the bag and pulled out the cold cap. His eyes widened. “You didn't cut the stem?"

“I tried cutting it but it wasn't working; It got pulled out as I was trying to cut it."

Josthaan grabbed the cold cap and ran to the counter. I looked outside in horror as the frost crept up on his property. I closed the door, hoping that the encroaching frost would stay out. I turned to watch what Josthaan was doing. He grabbed a knife and slammed it down on the stem, severing it. Then with a sigh of relief, he walked back to me and placed the mushroom back in the jar.

“So how much of the forest did you manage to freeze?" He asked sternly.

“I'm not sure. I was probably a 30 minutes run away from here." I responded.

He sighed in disappointment. “Well, I don't know how many magic items you'll find in the forest from here on out, I think you killed off most of the enchanted area with that little mushroom."

“I'm sorry, at least I got most of the cards that you gave me."

“You collected almost everything that I gave you?"

“Yeah." I answered, unsure.

Josthaan ran over to me, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me lightly as he spoke. “My dear boy, that was supposed to take you a week to do." He exclaimed, grabbing my bag and dumping the contents on his table. “My my, you really did get everything I need, save for a few small items. I'm impressed." He ran over to his cupboard and fished out the box that held my transformation potion. “Here, take it now." He said, handing the box to me.

I pulled out the bottle and drank the contents.

“And for your troubles, have this," he said and handed me a leaf that I had picked earlier.

“What is this?" I asked.

“It should speed up the transformation process at least a little bit. Maybe instead of a month, you might only have to wait two weeks. Hopefully the townspeople don't lose themselves in their new found invincibility."

“Thank you Josthaan." I said, immediately feeling relief. Two weeks was certainly magnitudes better than a month.

I left, closing the door to his hut, my mind wandering between images of flying and Serafine. It turned out that the relief was short-lived; it was disheartening to remember that I still had at least two weeks before I could return to her without risking my own life. I couldn't believe just how much I missed her. It had only been two day without her and I already yearned for her presence. I missed sleeping next to her, feeling the warmth of her body as it pressed closer to my own. I missed the feeling of our tails intertwining and the sense of comfort that came with having that now missing appendage wrapped around another tail. I missed when she nipped at my neck or jaw lovingly or let me do the same. It was odd to me how easily the small nuances that came with a relationship were missed when they were absent. I never thought that I would miss wrapping my wings around her, but I did.

My daydreaming continued until I felt that I had walked far enough into the forest to set up camp away from town. I realized that I was essentially in a state of purgatory. My village would bombard me with questions if I ever returned and I couldn't go live with my new mate for fear that she might devour me. It was going to be a lonely couple of weeks.

I decided to set up camp in the canopy of a thick tree. The branches would easily support my weight. Finding sets of smaller branches about my length were fairly easy. Small trees and lower branches on other trees did the trick. Long bits of grass in clearings worked well as twine to hold the branches together. It was difficult to break the branches off but I managed to get enough to make a crude bedframe that could sit on two of the more horizontal limbs of the tree. I tested it with my weight, and it seemed to hold well enough. I just hoped that the transformation time was closer to two weeks.

I looked out from my makeshift tree house towards the soft glow of the torches from my village. Even in the night, the village was alive, it seemed as though a celebration was taking place. Everyone was gathered in the center of town, cooking, sharing food. It seemed as though they had a decent harvest this year and were celebrating the good fortune.

A sudden rustling in the bushes below me diverted my attention away from the festivities in Whitefork. I did my best to make sure I stayed hidden.

“Hey mister, what are you doing up there?" A young voice called. My cover was blown. I peered over my bedframe down at the child that found me.

“What's it to you?" I called down.

The kid twisted one of his feet back and forth as he thought of his response. “Well, I don't know. Why aren't you celebrating with us?"

“Well, I don't live here. What are you guys celebrating anyways?"

“We're celebrating a month without a loss to the dragon… and it doesn't matter if you don't live in town, I'm sure people would be happy to let you join in."

I started to climb down the tree. As I reached the bottom, I crouched down in front of the child. “So, what's your name?"

“I'm Steven Framer. What's your name?"

“I think it's best I don't say. Listen Steven, can you keep a secret?"

Steven nodded, paying more close attention to my words.

“I used to live here, but I left. Now I'm back for a short while before I leave again. I think it would be best for me and the town if they didn't know I existed."

“Why's that?" Steven asked.

“Because they probably think I'm dead."

“So… wouldn't they be excited to find out that you were alive?" Steven asked.

“I think they would have a lot of questions for me that I don't want to answer."

Steven looked at me with an unsure expression. “Um, I guess I won't say anything."

“Good, nobody is to know that I'm here. Got it?" I asked.

“Yeah, got it."

“Hey Mister, do you want me to grab some food from the table for you?"

I smiled. “Sure, thank you Steven, just don't let anyone see you take it to me."

To Be Continued.