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Time.

That was all they could think of. It took too long to fall asleep, said sleep was too short, their journey ate away too many of their oh so precious hours... It was disgusting to listen to the bipedals.

He blinked idly while half his consciousness was caught in a particularly fascinating dream about a gust of wind, the other half caring for his fosterlings and keeping them in the air. Another flap of his wings softly shook his body, stirring the little ones in their pitiful sleep, disrupted enough by the foreign air already. For his part however, he deeply enjoyed the salty breeze of the vast waters.

Soon, the first ray of amber crest rose from the horizon, tickled across his scales, made the entire, dark blue surface glisten in delight, ripples rolling over the borderless ground. The moment was fragile, gone in a blink, just as his mortal companions, but this is where their beauty lay; their limits of existence. While the burning disk slowly rose from its cover and started warming his body, an eruption of red and yellow flooding the sky, he turned his attention to the bipedals again, now noticing the change in the tiny morsel’s mind when she woke up from her slumber.

He had not forgotten about the disgusting taste of magic deep within her, but as long as it stayed there, he would let her live, especially now that she was under his care. Nonetheless, fear tinted her soul as she stood up, both from her terrifying imagination during unconsciousness and from the slowly setting-in realisation that something was different. Her useless eyes scanned the tiny space, tried to pierce the darkness in vain, until his consciousness pressed against hers, surpassed her petty resistance with ease, then he started speaking their inefficient language,

“The day is about to begin. I will keep my promise and let you part, should you wish to.” “Eldyr? Where are we?” she asked loudly, immediately waking her loved one next to her - much to the giant lizard’s disapproval - but what else could he have expected from such incapable beings.

“We have ventured far enough into the unknown for you to leave safely once we reach shores again,” he sighed, then opened up his grip slightly to give the two a look outside, not that this would be of use to them anyway. The heifer took it with a pleasant interest actually, despite feeling the venturous winds drag her towards the opening. She just stared out at the endless plains of blue and green, incapable of grasping it’s sheer size, but pleasantly calm contrary to her partner, who just shrieked out, nostrils hit with the different air and not in the slightest enjoying the drag of the wind.

“Don’t! Oh beast! I beg you!” The equine crawled backwards in panic, for the furthest point from the gaping abyss to prevent being dropped out. Flashes of the sound the dying Ketan had produced oozed from the stallion’s imagination, until the dragon could reach him as well and keep this pesky mind at ease. “The two of you. Stop moving, it tickles,” he growled through their heads at last before closing his grip again, “Even though you can’t see it already, the shores are soon to be reached. Rest until then, talk if you wish to, just tend to those desires to eat, secret, whatever... Blah. Inferiorities.”

He retreated from their heads, their mortal urges becoming more maddening by the moment, though still felt them emanating into their environment like a foul smell. Little Tondan in his other paw offered a pleasant distraction at least, as his mind was flowing idly in a fever-like dream, spiralling and sloshing around in his head. The stag had almost recovered by now and just had to sleep out the remaining weakness and would be done doing so shortly after they arrived.

Indeed, the distant mass soon came into view even for his load, if they had faced the right direction. Another switch of his active and dormant consciousness later, the coast line rushed by under his wings when he closely followed the landscape’s flow in a wide turn, sandy waves atop solid rock and a soft slope towards the water. However his turn was hardly wide enough judging by his companion’s sudden urge to lose their stomach’s content. Regardless, he finished the circle and gently curved down, slowed to a halt, then dropped into the sand, careful not to crush his guests. “Calm down, tiny morsel, the ground is solid again,” he hummed while reaching out to her and draining some of her distress. Still, she stumbled from under his stomach, heading straight for the water, “you might not want to drink that, though.”

“I... need... some right now,” she just muttered, then dropped to the ground, crawling the last steps until she could dip her head down into her liquid desire. A first sip went by from the haste, but once she went for another, the knot in her stomach tightened before a flood of her last meal washed out the poison again. The dragon watched her spasm time and time, her future partner stumbling closer through the strange ground, flinching every time it simply sucked up his hooves.

“You unhallowed creature! Where have you abducted us to? What kind of a place is this?” the stallion growled while hugging the shaking cow. “Neither have I abducted you nor is this the evil place you deem it. It’s merely something you have not seen in your limited lifetime.” “But it is winter! Underworld’s fires must heat up this place and even the ground feeds on me already!” he shrieked out again, not really aiding his future wife’s recovery. The sudden amusement soon draining through the connection severely disturbed the two anyway, especially when the giant pile of scales placed down the last of his tiny company into safety to flop onto his side, then happily rolled through the sand.

“If the ground was to devour me,” he moaned while relishing in the early sunlight and sending a fountain of the soft material high up in the air, “then it has a very pleasant way of doing so.” He only stopped when he had sunken a good step into the soft surface and as he passed them a playful gaze did he spot the little creature’s disbelief. The one they called Keliara started smiling softly again, “I do less and less wonder what happened to this grumpy thing.”

The sudden crack in the dragon’s jolly attire caught them by surprise, their own joy crumbing to dust as a storm of memories rushed through the flimsy connection, one more brutal than the next. Rage ignited his very core and burst out as a pillar of blue fire, that dug into the sand and illuminated the area brighter than the sun.

Just a blink later, he cut the stream again, ignored the glowing residuals and roared over at the unlucky cow, “Never! Again! Will you put your filthy judgement on my past, you pesky creature!” Her eyes were forced shut from the sheer impact of air and particles, whimpers bubbling forth from his consciousness almost whipping hers to pieces, until with the whisper of another breeze, the emotions boiled down, a calm demeanour blossoming throughout his mind anew when he took control again.

Within moments, he was calm like the sea, waddling carefully over to the two. Naturally, it didn’t help to calm the tiny ones. They still found it hard to understand that emotions were something to control with the right practice... just not about every topic. “Pardon me,” he finally sighed as he snuck closer and dutifully ignored the horse rise up in front of her.

He placed his head next to them, felt the waves tickle across his jaw, then raised his voice again, careful not to disturb them any further, “you are nonetheless right in that you deserve an explanation. Not about my reasons, not yet at least, but about this place; the wonders it has to offer.” “We do not need your empathy, Eldyr, you have brought-” the equine started before an uncomfortable swell took hold of his neck and cut off everything that might have let, the deep thunder of a voice far too present to speak against either way, “you thankless little creature are on the verge of wonder and still stick with your disgusting ignorance. Think however you like, but there is no need to bore the rest of you. So are you going to listen for once?”

Despite the heifer’s best efforts to calm the now mute bipedal, he did not agree to his new position, but after a while of staring at him, he finally sat down and pretended interest for the sake of Keliara.

It took a while to say the least; still, for creatures who never left their home even once, they were surprisingly quick to grasp; the infinite fields of sand further south, the vast sea now separating them from their origin, and while Tondan woke up in-between and caught enough of his words as well, he was not at all accepting them either.

“It is sufficiently warm here for the entire year and your crops grow more consistently, so you should be a little more satisfied at the moment,” the dragon eventually said and yawned tiredly as even alternating between halves of his consciousness could hardly compensate for the exhaust of the journey [i]and[/i] the ongoing discussion with those short-minded creatures.

“But it is not home! Water is either sparse or undrinkable, it is all... empty-”

“And no congener of your kind is on your tracks to kill you, not to mention the conflicts that will send your kind at home back into slaughter soon,” the dragon argued as he lit Tondan’s short tail on fire for the fraction of a moment, “besides cold nights, it is an ideal environment for you bipedals. I for my part might not endure it here for long, but you are in what your kind calls a ‘paradise’.” The tiny ones stayed quiet for a while before Semon spoke up again, now a little more civilised than before, “how can someone like you, Eldyr, not stay in a place? Tondan told us, that you rarely drink, never eat, you enjoy these plains of sand and death... it is more of a paradise for you than for us, but we want to live. Keliara and I,” he softly pressed against the heifer, “want to use the years we have, not merely survive. And this is no place of happiness.”

The dragon groaned deeply as he rolled onto his back once again, placing his head his head under water to not hear their voices. The mental information was quite enough already, “If you prefer this place not just vast, but drained of life, I could most certainly stay, but I have grown used to merely taking what is to gather. This is a voluntary decision though, only possible if there is enough life in the proximity to breathe. Just taste the air... it is shallow, delicious yet insipid. Until it is warm enough back north, you can not reasonably return either way unless you want to hope on your fellow’s hospitality for an entire season.” The dragon lifted his head again with a splash of salty water drenching them to the bone.

“The day is still as young as you. It will dry,” he noted in a playful tone upon their complaints before turning serious again, “So you are capable of sustaining yourselves in a pleasant environment, yet prefer to return to lands where you are pursued and have to fight for survival?” “We still have not met a soul living here. They may be unfriendly as well,” Tondan countered, but scowled in realisation of how right he was in other regards, “at least we will have a season of an easy life here.”

The lizard idly curled his tail through the sand while watching the stallion restlessly pace up and down the small strip of beach as he had started to do for a while now, “You will find fresh water just a few houses of height up the mountain. One could smell it from here if they weren’t as primitive.” “Says the culture-less, insolent animal,” the equine muttered under his breath, still clearly audible for named one. “Ignorant guttermouth.” “Lumpen monstrosity.” “Feeble delicacy.” “Unsightly glutton.” The dragon was about to emphasize the risk the stallion put himself in there, then decided against it as the equine broke into a strange laughter, something between a nervous shriek and genuine amusement, that was quick to infect the rest of the group. It lasted only until the giant lizard had enough, twisted himself onto his four legs again, and waddled deeper into the sea. Now they broke into even more laughter about how he shook his head in disbelieve.

At last, he sunk down into the deep, fluxional blue and almost merged with it as the waves rippled back over his back. “The day is for you to enjoy but I will rest now. Scream in agony if you need me,” he growled, but couldn’t quite suppress the pleasure flooding his veins when he felt the heavy water embrace him whole, take his weight and drag him into the ever lasting darkness, the closest to a home he had ever felt since... then.

Time marched on relentlessly for the rest of the season as they travelled along the coast, sometimes in more fertile regions than others, still it never felt right for any of them. Having almost no contact with the locals apart from an occasional trade anyway, they were usually quick to move on, and even if they stayed in one place for a while, it became increasingly difficult for the dragon to avoid contact, one time frightening an entire settlement into fleeing with what little of their belongings they could carry. Even the wonders of this different world barely helped their mood. Beautiful landscapes of cliffs or plains, dotted with shrubbery where ever the soil allowed for it were merely disregarded as empty, the more populated areas with life and plants all around only welcomed for the refreshment they meant, and each and every rarity they encountered was just compared with how many similar things they had back at their home.

As expected, the bipedals were complaining every minute of the day, their insufficient memory not even able to recall that they said the same the day before, but at the same time, neither of them noticed the shifting weather that clearly reminded at least the dragon of their limited time. Whatever the bipedals did during their stay, he rarely participated any further than he needed to and spent most of the time sleeping, sensing the pleasantly empty environment, or diving through the almost endless waters. They offered effortless freedom of movement with a delicious fish-like creature every now and then, and were just pleasantly vast without anything intelligent present. So the days and weeks went past, and by the time he decided they were to return to home, the little ones almost had built something they could call a life and a certain familiarity with their surroundings despite rarely settling down. Nonetheless, they longed for their home in the colder north, possibly for a life they weren’t prepared for.

A last meal was held at the light of the setting sun while the dragon rolled through the sand until his well-tended scales were properly dusted up again. “Bloody beast,” Semon grumbled at the thought of staying in an uncomfortable, shaking, [i]and[/i] dusty “room” for half a day, before being hit with a suspiciously blue shimmering gust of sand that treated him the same. “Pardon this undue creature for not having the luxury you prefer, sire,” the dragon scoffed, showing the tiny stallion a precise memory of what he had done with the last self-constituted leader attempting to guide his actions, pleading for mercy as his men were picked out one by one. The others were spared the thoughts as a reward for their humility towards a noble creature like him.

“Always pleased to serve,” he added before lazily waddling over to the small group up on a stone hill, one of them in a... slightly worse condition than the rest, “So you are still willing to leave this life of adventures behind? I still leave you the choice, but it has to be made now.” In the end, there was nothing to discuss. They said something without significance, looked through their tightly cinched backpacks again, then finally stepped closer and he welcomed them in his paws, probably for the last of their journeys.

The dragon closed his grip against his body to keep them save before he cowered down tensely to jump back up. Regardless whether his load would disagree, the little time they had spent here had been comforting and precious, so he roared out his pain of parting while spreading his wings to catch their fall. He deeply wished that his mate had been here with him, for the tiny creatures were decent company, but neither of them could truly understand, his mind too vast for them to grasp even if they tried. A first flap carried them down the hill, another stopped their descent closely above the ground. Nonetheless, they were adorable in their ignorance. Their word for loss, even their emotions could never comprehend what he once had.

A final bellow vibrated through his throat as he rose higher above the surface, then reached out for the little things, tickled their minds to sleep, swallowed their worries... No matter how ignorant these bipedals were, they were his responsibility now and he would not fail them. Possibly they meant amusement, trouble, but in every case, purpose. From dusk till dawn, he would keep them quiet, gave them the slumber they did not want per their choice, but needed to endure the coming days. Little fragments of their thoughts tickled his shifting consciousness, fear, pleasure, astonishment, whatever kept them busy through their sleep and some part of him almost envied them for such imagination, not that it was particularly creative to think about their past life when they were to return to it, but the details they added to their memories in the process... Imprecisions, lies, dreams, it was their way of thinking, special even to him for some reason he could not quite fathom.

At the very least it proved that not all of them were as spoiled as the rest of their people. Oh, he could smell the blood and smoke of their erupted conflict long before it came into view, the plenty of skirmishes merely resting for the night before they boiled up again with the fist sun. If he were younger, he would have engaged therein himself, would have witnesses the foolishness close up, but now they were just their conflicts, their war over greed to fight. It meant nothing to him anymore. With a deep sigh, he focussed back on his precious load and while he still felt the lingering allure, he had more important matters at the moment.

With the sun parting from the horizon, the dragon eventually approached the black stench in the landscape, painfully noticing that it had spread even further than in his memory, this place of shame and terror. The smell of his influence had already spread throughout the entire area, potent enough to disturb the tiny ones when he landed right in the centre of the badlands, a black pit with furrowed ground, trails his breath had left in another life. Everything was either covered in molten stone or an ashen grime, that almost felt like soil under his steps if it weren’t this... lifeless.

Not even the countless offsprings of plants he was used to sense had survived his fury and what apparently remained of it, the former river now a dry line, and every tree, everything precious was burnt away... an ever lasting silence for [i]her[/i]. Not even the wind dared to desecrate his partner’s last memorial. The drake stepped onto a rocky plane, then lay down and placed the three bodies against his warm flank, under his protective wing, away from the dread he had crafted. With his calming presence removed, they actually stirred awake soon after, the little one the first to yawn and sniff the environment, not that he could sense much beyond the absence of anything.

“Eldyr... where...?” the stag asked, his soul absorbing the surroundings and turning black the moment he briefly caught the dim smell of brimstone. Panic sept in, worked surprisingly hard towards pushing the dragon out of his head, but he would have to do a lot harder against someone like him. The other two went through about the same, the stallion being hit the worst off of all of them, but he expected to be devoured at any moment already, so he had given up on his fear the moment he had climbed onto the dragons paw. For him it was just another threat to his life among many, so he stayed pleasantly calm when the lizard lifted his wing and gave them a good look on his landing site.

“Stay should you like to, leave if you prefer, just don’t move north again. My promise stands fulfilled either way, but it would be a pity to waste all my effort,” the dragon growled, then was about to avert his attention from the bipedals when the cow raised another question, “But why here? Any other... place than here. It’s not safe. It’s-” “This place is both my home and my liability. Judging its safety is beyond your grasp,” the lizard replied, then rolled onto his back, “I’ll be... distracted for the remaining cycle. Address me only when it’s urgent.”

The scaly mountain felt their emotions boil back up while he closed his eyes and reached down into the soil, sensed for something beyond the matter, if he had left even a trace. “Tondan, you may explain everything,” he noted a last time, and as the other two’s confusion spread, he severed the connection.

His other consciousness’ half woke from its short slumber the moment he called for action, merging with the rest and flooding out of his body. Soon, half the valley was filled with pulsing veins of his mind, draining away into the black ground in the futile search for a reason... something that spread the void. This dirt wasn’t just dead, it had stayed like this for almost a century and he had to find out why or else it would continue for the rest of eternity. Had he formerly only surged the valley, did it now exceed those past borders and stretched down the mountain’s slopes to both sides, nourished on everything it came across. His companions were safe if they spent less than a year here, not much time, but no immediate risk for their life either, but he could already sense something seek for them.

When his consciousness went thin on the mountain’s peaks, he put more into it, dipped into the powerful core of his life. Now his existence went draining, but it meant he could expand in his breaths out towards the edge of this infection and now he felt it: a pulse, the entire valley heaving in sync. Four beats - silence - four beats - silence. No, this wasn’t just ground under his back, it was alive in an entirely different way than he had ever felt.

Seeping deeper down, he felt a structure emerge in the stone. Through water and rock, it spread like a lung, flimsy in nature yet determined to provide for its organism. Suddenly another beat set in, uncontrolled, harsh. He searched the ground, but suddenly realised it was his own heart. No, he couldn’t stop now, he almost had located the source, by the ancients. His life force flickered, screeched in agony of being consumed by his stretch, but he plunged deeper, down the twitching arms of the invader, followed its stream and with a last spurt, he found the source.

All that was left of him had pulled together, elongated out in a single strand washing back to the core, sucked along by the greedy life form and bottoming out in... the cave. His former home he had lost so much to. Memories washed up from-

The dragon’s body gave up and his presence snapped back into him. He didn’t know how long he was out, but as soon as he woke up again, he sensed an anxious voice tickling his ear alongside fists slamming against his body. Blinking his eyes slowly open, the barely alive lump of scales spotted a vague figure in the day’s last hint, but he was too weak to touch their mind. A mere disgruntled snarl trickled from his maw until he drifted off again, hardly more than a pitiful sizzle of him remaining.

Eventually, he woke again. His mind seemed to have recovered, at least enough for him to sense three presences at his flank, huddling against whatever warmth his frail body had left. The day was long gone and the young spring’s cold bit mercilessly into anything unprotected. “Little Tondan,” he reached out to the youngest one, waking it from its sleep until the stag rose and groggily slumped over to his head, terribly worried for no reason. “Oh you stupid dragon, you scared us,” Tondan snorted and pressed against his figure, “What by Uska’s grace did you do there? I... thought... when you started bleeding this blue-”

“It was nothing. A little overestimation of my abilities,” the lizard growled, then pulled the stag’s mind into himself, sparing him the convoluted explanation words could give. It didn’t take long however for tiny Tondan to return to speech again, “Eldyr, no, you are [i]not[/i] healthy. Three days... we spent three days at your side not knowing whether you would fight on. Never do that again for I would be lost without you.”

“It would take your lifetime to understand the burden I carry by my wrongdoing.”

“Of course it would, but how will you cleanse this valley if you don’t live another day?” The dragon sent the little one an approving hum for the sudden wisdom, then pushed him back into his own body and flooded him with peace and fatigue, “but I will, tiny Tondan, for now I will. Sleep, sleep and tomorrow we will continue this discussion.” The stag tried to protest, but there was nothing to do against the dragon’s will.

Throughout the night, the lizard warmed his fragile companions up a little more and not until the rise of the morning sun did they stir again.

One by one, their minuscule flames came to life, the dim shimmer he let pass under his wing providing just enough light to keep them calm. It took a while for them to realise what it meant nonetheless. “Eldyr?” the morsel at last asked tiredly, then he could feel her heartbeat rise when he replied with a calm echo through her mind. “Oh, how fortunate we are,” was all her future husband had as disgruntled comment. The dragon chuckled at his audacity, but decided to leave him his opinion, finally rolling back on his legs and nuzzling the little one awake.

“I am grateful,” he started after shaking off the ashen coat on his back, “for your concerns - as needless as they are - so I am going to clarify this once. [i]Just this once[/i]. I am not worth neither your pity nor your worries. Do not trouble yourselves with them, it’s disgusting.” He could already sense their protest coming up, snuffed them with an admittedly harsh growl, before pushing in again to show them his findings. As much as it repelled him to kill again, this greedy entity had to die. The world had to be cleared of this evil. To sate their nasty pity and curiosity, he would take them there as well, both on their explicit wish and their own risk.

These mortals had no idea what they were going to face after all, plenty wily to corrupt these lands and evil enough to pose a risk for anything with their limited capabilities.

The bipedals had their breakfast, then finally deigned to leave with him and climbed into his waiting paws, if only for the short distance up the mountain ridge on the other side of the valley. Sure, their uncertainty filled the air, their breaths slightly faster than usual, but they were determined to accompany him, even more so when the drake rose upwards and they felt his trouble while expressing strangely little concern about their own safety. His shoulders screamed in pain under the wind’s drag and forced a pained tremble through his body before he could stabilise his flight.

If they had lived through the centuries, too, they would be a little less up themselves with their judgement. They had no idea-

His left wing cramped up when he prepared for the landing, muscles almost tearing under the strain both from the tension and the air. The massive body went into a spiral downwards as his right wing tried to compensate for the lack of control. He roared one final time, then crushed down into the ground, and if he hadn’t twisted in the last moment, he would have compressed his fragile load under a pile of flesh and scales. In the end, his shoulder took most of the impact, the flexible neck bent close to the verge of snapping, his vision flickered, and he barely managed to drop the little ones safely before he rolled further and left a deep trail in his wake as grime and fragments of the crumbling rock rained down around him.

“Eldyr!” called Tondan when he rushed to the dragon’s side, “Oh Eldyr, what happened?” “I landed,” named one grunted, then sunk his teeth into his wing to snap it into a more... normal angle, kicking out into the deep layer of ashes from the sudden sting. “We have reached our destination.” With plenty buckets of blood spilling forth, he stood up again and examined the rest of his body. “Stubborn thing! You selfish, petty beast!” Semon yelled while he helped Keliara back onto her hooves, “You could have killed us all! In good health... my dead mother is in a better condition than you!”

All felt the dragon’s anger rise at that statement, but at the same time his pudency, regardless of how much he tried to conceal it. He had overestimated himself yet again in false pride. “You insisted on joining me,” he growled at last and slowly stomped over to his target while the others felt his mind shakily flowing along their forms in search for injuries of any kind. He gave little Tondan an apologetic pat on his head with his tail, then looked around, yet barely could believe his eyes.

The overall shape of the landscape was right, everything was still there, but... black. Grass splintered under their steps, trees leafless and tilted, formerly a sanctuary of green for her, all dead as well, drained by the vicious intruder. Now it was barely discernible from the ashen wasteland around, dripping from the filthy magic intense enough for him to feel all around even through his condition. Part of the dragon knew that most of these emotions were just petty echoes of the foreign memories, the mindless rejection of change as it wouldn’t have kept its aesthetic either way, yet... even without it was the sight well enough to dig into his mind again.

The dragon noticed Tondan’s uncertain fingers softly running along the dark surface of his scales as the stag moved forwards in the futile hope of achieving anything. “You don’t understand,” the giant lizard almost whispered through their heads, tried to convey what he felt as his presence reached into every little crevice and sensed nothing but what was lost. After a few breaths, even the stag could feel the rotting presence radiating from everything around here.

“I left this a paradise here, an island for life to persist, but this thing just... consumed. It is hungry and so it will die.” The drake took a meaningful step towards the cave, then lowered his stance, hot tears mixing with the blood around his muzzle while his body prepared to incinerate his enemy. Heat spread in his chest as the substances mixed and almost burnt the little one, then he let it out, pumping what little strength he had left into the already raging inferno.

Regardless of how little he could add to it with his magic, the cavern exploded in a beam of light and was flooded immediately by a wave of blue. It fed mercilessly on the black substance, that looked strangely wet inside the vast room, and devoured it in the blink of an eye. When he closed his maw again, the rock surface kept glowing in a bright orange and the three little others could do little more than fearfully staring at what he already knew expected him:

The huge body of his former love lay in the centre of the opening, rested on stones with her bones clearly showing through the smoking skin and scales, her remains almost a white tent as little flesh was left under the surface, just the leathery hide somewhat withstanding the intruder and his fire. While he had grown, she had not and despite her being clearly a past joy in his memories, this strangely felt even more like a reminder how differently they had been gifted by time.

His fire had mostly cleansed the corpse of the ebony smear, presenting her in all her pale righteousness in the heat’s soft light, the crushed skull as a wailful reminder of his sin. The dragon’s heart beat loud enough for them to hear while the memories boiled back up and he had to mentally retreat not to overwhelm them with the avalanche of pain. Step by step, he moved in with paws sizzling from the fire’s aftermath, nuzzled her flank like he used to, but after a century, the smell was almost entirely covered under the stinging rot revived by the warmth.

Another growl shook the cave when he approached her lower body where he sensed the intruder’s presence.

“Eldyr... I can’t tell you-” Tondan started, but choked on his words when the dragon bit down. The dry skin broke, scales clattering from the huge hole he had torn into her stomach and there it was, a pile of black goo in the cavern of her remains, tentacles reaching out to the ground, pulsing uselessly now that their appendages were burnt to void. And while another memory flushed up - her on a sunny day, her scales glistening as they chased each other through the sky - he opened his jaw again.

Once more, the lizard’s might gushed forth, filling the hollow carcass in front of him with small flames erupting from her maw and the small holes bones had poked through her skin, the creature screeching in agony while it was boiled alive. Withstanding the fire surprisingly long, its mind latched out to anything in the vicinity and while the dragon could easily resist, the other ones writhed under the foreign influence. “Beast! Stop!” Keliara eventually cried out as the desperate spikes sunk into her head as well and immediately overwhelmed her mind, “They’re aahhh!”

He paused his rage for their sake, realised that it had blinded him as four voices flickered against him now, united individuals, begging for their life - an even better opportunity to make them share his pain. Oh, they were very far from any useful communication, exchanging neither memories nor primitive words as the bipedals used to do, rather emotions of their torment. They had all right to be afraid after all and soon, he plunged deeper, tore their bonds and relished the anguish of isolation it meant. One was first up for investigation, trying in vain to escape his grip. He latched onto the intricate pattern of its mind, flowed along its curves and...

“Father” It had picked a single word, or rather emotion while it swirled around his mind, inevitably catching parts from him while he dissected it, but failed to find any memories. Birds, animals, bipedals, they all had at least some hint of their past, but this creature just had distress, unbearable hunger and it felt familiar, like... like her. The surface, the shape of this consciousness, it was his love’s almost down to the finer details.

Opening his eyes and other senses again, he inspected the former pile, now charred and smoking, four almost spheres, little bodies moving on the inside, suspended in a foul smelling liquid... They... couldn’t be.

Fright hit the dragon like a storm, pushed him back, and only when he had left the cave did he regain at least some control over himself again.

“What is it, Eldyr?” little Tondan asked as the trunk of a leg barely missed his figure while the scaly mountain stormed further out on the clearing. “They died that day, little one, I have killed them. I failed them the moment I failed her!” he snarled, first spread his wings to rise into the air, then turned around and bit down on a rock nearby, desperately trying to remember, “My hatchlings died the moment I murdered her mother! They... This creature is but an imitation!” The bipedals just stood there is confusion and those unsightly worries until he stomped back to the cavern, “And so it has sealed its fate!”

“Stop! Consider that they are... alive. You can’t kill them just... because you don’t believe in their existence,” the heifer objected, but with little effect, even being stopped by her own future husband when she tried to run after him. “Open your eyes, you stubborn thing. Is there just the faintest possibility that they could have survived?” Tondan called after the dragon and just before he unleashed his inner flame again, the latter paused.

Several moments passed in which he just stared at his partner’s remains, surrendering in the pained images of that day, before opening his maw again. “No!” his little friend called out, but he wouldn’t harm them; not again. A light glow flowed from his body when he embraced the four eggs and carefully lifted them out of their mother’s body. The black mould had been burned away to leave just the white shells, covered in blue and green swirls. Slowly, they hovered in front of his muzzle for a second, then he waddled back out on the clearing, placed then to his flank and curled up around them.

Feelings of both relief and heart breaking woe burst his inside as they sloshed through the group. Just after a while did the three dare to move closer. “What is this then?” the stallion asked heedfully, still keeping a certain distance in case the scaly mountain intended to move, “Why have they poisoned these lands?”

The dragon faltered for a moment, nuzzled along the stone shells, then raised his voice drenched in despair, “Hatchlings live from what does around them, be it the parents or the wildlife... Look around now, little Semon... I have done far worse then just to wipe this valley of anything alive. One hundred years of hunger... They didn’t know what they were doing when they drained the little that was left using magic even I would never attempt for it marks you, stains the soul and robs you of the little good you had left.” The dragon reached out to his four hatchlings again, joined them with his own life to sate them at least for the moment, “it will take time to cure them, to cure this place, but my guilt will never. For my entire life I sought to cleanse the world of destruction and pain, and now I have to realise that I am nothing more than what I plan to eliminate. It would be wise of you to leave, for you might be the next.”

“As scared as I might be of the day you turn against us, this was not your fault,” Semon stated while watching the beast intently, being a lot more careful than his two friends, “And even if it may be the worst of decisions, I... think that we will stay by your side, even in this forsaken place.” The drake couldn’t stop himself from chuckling softly at this determination as he said, “It’s kind of you to say that, but you will not have to wait for your life’s end to see this valley abloom again. Another season possibly.”

The dragon grumbled softly, flicked his tail about in consideration, then opened the coil a little for the curious companions to step closer as seemed to be their customs. Peculiar to show such interest in other’s offspring if they weren’t going to feast on them. “Nature has a marvellous virtue of recovering, it might just require a tiny spark of help to sprout once again. Do not worry, you can hardly harm the hatchlings if even I failed to do so at first.” The tiny stag was half on the way already, slowly stepping closer and finally laying a hand on the shell.

He twitched on the unexpected warmth, even was slightly frightened when the creature inside probed his head. “How long until they hatch?” Keliara asked when she approached as well. Her partner still hesitated, though didn’t enjoy the biting wind, and at last walked into the coil to at least warm up. “They are hurt, enough that I don’t know whether they will live for another season, but if I can revert the damage, they will do so shortly after work here is finished. I could never forgive myself to let them out into such wasteland.”

The dragon watched her touch another shell, but then jump as the young stretched out his mind as well and stung into hers, obviously feeling her presence and attempting to explore her rather roughly, evaluate whether she posed a threat. “What a nasty kind you dragons are,” the heifer groaned, but soon smiled happily when the rude hatchling eventually sloshed around in her head while still acting like the dangerous dragon he may once be. Sure, she caught only a fraction of the act, but it was heart warming nonetheless.

By now, the young almost dosed off from the older drake’s soft attention, probably for the first in a long time, still obvious how deep the trauma was rooted. All four would need time to recover. “Do you... have names for them already?” Semon eventually caught cautious interest. Another bipedal custom. Give names for what you can’t understand. “Our kind does not have names in your sense. You identify your peers by their face, we... taste each other’s soul. You for example, are similar to a magnolia, how it reaches for the sky, but blossoms before it achieves anything, caging itself in with its own fragility. In that sense, this curious one bothering your friend would be called Forlen. Yes, Tondan, words obviously have a taste,” As if responding to his name did the hatchling suddenly finish his inspection of the heifer’s head, apparently pleased with the results, and drifted off into the slumber induced by his father, sated for now and calm like the rest.

Former hummed softly, then deepened the connection to the other three, “Today is still young and you don’t seem to require rest at the moment and neither do I.” “Can we just leave then here?” “I will simply take them with me.” The lizard opened his maw, then picked the four spheres up as carefully as he could. “Now let us use the time we have. I will recover as we move on.”

As he had promised, it merely took until the end of spring for them to heal the landscape, a sparsely grown valley of grass at that, but it meant that it would evolve, expand into something new. The soil had been kept dead for too long, but this didn’t meant it wasn’t as rich as he had remembered, the thick layer of compressed ashes even aiding the young plants in their fight for survival. Shortly after the river had returned, the little ones had asked him to haul in wood from the surrounding valleys for them to build their home as sleeping under the dragon’s wing for the rest of their lives didn’t seem to be an option for them.

After a lot of persuasion, he indeed had agreed to humiliate himself to a minor hauling animal, even when the little ones had bought seeds to cultivate the land later on, they of course didn’t bring it themselves with the main paths still too rocky to use.

Throughout this time however, a question arose in the tiny morsel. She hadn’t dared to ask him while they still had tasks at hand - despite her thoughts being clearly visible contrary to her belief - so when it finally broke out of her one evening around a campfire, did the dragon almost smell the other’s surprise, had they already forgotten about the matter. “Eldyr, I... have wondered ever since you called me a sorceress... What is it that you saw back then? Even after all this time, nothing has happened... you have to be wrong after all.” “Just because you are too limited to see, it does not mean that there is nothing hidden inside of you,” he growled at the topic, but moved his head a little closer to the fire. There was still this disgusting smell on her if he paid attention.

He had almost grown used to for the sake of little Tondan, it had grown though, possibly through the exposure to his presence and the influence on the world around him. Even the tiny fire sparkled ever so slightly higher when his head dropped down next to it, his offspring warm and secure in his maw as they had been for the better part of the season. “You will face them soon enough, and I’ll be sure to kill you before you find out enough to destroy everything we have built so far, not to mention your own husband and friend.”

“Eldyr, she will not hurt any of us. You think far too little of her,” Semon immediately intervened, but bit his tongue when a deep grumble shook the ground underneath his hooves and stirred the jolly bunch in the lizard’s maw, “I can only hope that you’re right, but if you wish, we can surely test her. Oh, little one, do not be afraid, all harm she could suffer would be her own fault.”

He snapped his eyes open, admittedly taking a little pride in her little startle, “so you think that you can control your abilities should they ever emerge? Well, prove it.” “I never said... How could I even... prove myself if they haven’t shown so far?” she muttered, then squeaked when he pushed his mind closer, dipping just the edge of her consciousness in the pulsing stream within himself until her fur stood on end and her horns glowed pale in the dark. “How does it feel, tiny morsel? Delving in blood thirst already?”

She stared at the ground for a moment, lost in the sensation, before raising her gaze to her partner in search for help and shrieking when she saw right through his clothes, fur and skin, the equine a mere collection of... moving, soft... she choked and almost lost her meal before the dragon moved in and shifted her view out of him again. “And now,” he nonchalantly continued and guided her focus on a piece of wood on the fire’s brim, “set this log on fire, or the twig above if you feel brave. Ask all the questions you want, take the time you need, but in the end, it is only the one you chose that should be burning by your will. I lend you my strength, so I can keep it under control if necessary and the others alive and well. Now... go ahead.”

The small bipedal stared at him for a moment, none of the others daring to distract her, but finally the dragon felt her attention shift to the piece of wood, her view gliding through the intricate patterns it formed within, admiring its beauty about to be destroyed. She inhaled, imagined what it would look like burning and then just... let go. It was almost as if she had done it already, a strange instinct suddenly waking up and taking over. Within a blink of the eye, a wave of heat erupted from her, expanded and if the watching lizard hadn’t stopped it in a ball around her, it would have incinerated more than just the hem of her garments.

He held the swirling, purpure sphere for a moment for the three to see, then retracted his might and extinguished it. “Splendid. You know how to destroy. All you have to do now is to focus it on where you want to guide it and limit it to what you need. Try again or give up. It is your choice to make.” The mocking undertone did not fail its purpose and he felt her determination even rise from the mediocre attempt. She focussed once again, pulled that hidden muscle again, this time a little more carefully.

The power streamed through her, danced across her skin and finally, the log exploded in a swirl of red, fragments shooting in all directions as it hit the surface and Semon could barely dodge a splinter of bark that had almost hit his left eye if it hadn’t changed course with a trail of blue. The heifer panted in shock as she immediately shut it off again, hastily shifting over to her partner, “by the gods, I am sorry, my love. Are you hurt? I-I didn’t mean to...”

“He is unharmed. As I promised, I will take care of such,” the dragon immediately intervened and softly coaxed the equine into silence not to distract his student from her learning, “but you did impressive work. It is indeed on fire and while your technique was rather crude, you have succeeded.” The others were close to patting their friend’s shoulders in approval when the lizard raised his disgruntled voice again and forced them away from her, “And now, extinguish it. You do not have to go as far as to heal the damage you have done, if you wish to do so, you can learn it soon enough, but for now... just stop the fire, say the little one was ablaze here. Would you be able to aid him?”

Oh, this time his voice was drenched in bitterness, be it against his best intentions. He knew what was coming well before her. If she truly wanted to be the monster she were, she would now get a first glimpse of it, however had non idea that it would come as soon. And indeed. This stubborn thing tried. She poured in his might again and again, beat onto the fire with all he gave her - well more than her body ever contained, but it only chewed through the log faster.

Moments passed, the dragon felt her friends wanting to stop the lesson as they noticed her rising frustration, but he kept them back. This was something she had to learn after all, and by the time the sturdy piece of wood was nothing but ashes in the wind, she collapsed onto her back, panting from exhaustion and boiling in anger from the sheer injustice. He knew that she had felt every fibre of the once living material crumble and burn up under her watch; he knew what it meant to fail as utterly in front of her friends, but finally he allowed them to state their meaningless opinion.

“What was that, Eldyr! What in Treshken’s name was this supposed to achieve?” Tondan shouted now that his voice was free again, “Nothing! It lead to nothing!” “It was necessary nonetheless, little one. Far worse could have happened if not for today. It is only her fault; her pride, her failure.” “But you can’t expect anyone to succeed on their first try!”

While the dragon retreated his head and slowly marched back to his improvised nest nearby, he could hear the two friends sit down next to her, attempt to calm her, and cut off the curses quite unusual for her. For them it was merely a log, but she had seen what it once was; a home for countless creatures, a living being she hadn’t killed but erased from history with her weakness. There just were situations in life where a first try was all one would get. “Sleep. We will talk tomorrow,” he grunted with a certain satisfaction once he had reached his nest and dropped onto his belly to place the eggs back against his flank. He could only hope that she understood now.

And indeed, the next morning she approached him again while he enjoyed the early morning’s sun warm his body and tickle his spread wings. There was still the determination from yesterday, but this time it was accompanied with a ferocious anger radiating from her soul. Apparently his lesson hadn’t been as effective as he hoped it would be. “Now, beast, you wanted to explain yourself. Go ahead,” the heifer said while barely controlling her feelings before she took a seat in front of him, sullen yet attentive.

The dragon chuckled deeply, then gingerly latched out to her mind though to respond, “So you want to know why you failed? That’s finally something I honour about you, tiny morsel.” He felt her disapproval for the nickname, yet sensed that she understood his joking dishonestly about latter part. “First of all, you didn’t even consider simply taking that log and igniting it on the already present fire,” he stated and deferred her sudden protest until he had finished, “neither did you imagine putting it out the usual way. You wouldn’t ask me to move a pebble for you either if you could just pick it up yourself. Never use the most dangerous option you have, because the moment you start relying on such powers is the moment you lost control over them and are the one controlled yourself.”

“But this was about me proving that I could handle the magic if it ever came up! For someone claiming to be as wise, it is unjust to expect me to act differently!”

He hummed his approval at that statement, but as she still had a lot to learn so he went on, “You are right on that, but even if I didn’t do so, you failed in your task rather obviously. And not by a lack of practice, no, you failed because of a deep flaw all mortals and even I suffer from occasionally: pride. You never asked questions. You found an instinct and you used it without knowing the consequences. You don’t fathom what you created there even though you felt it yourself, flowing through you and scorching that wood. You thought that you knew everything. Eager to prove yourself, you just went on and did what you considered right, but you never knew the first and most important thing: what is fire? Is it the warmth? Is it the air? Is it a foil force to water, a mere effect of nature? Without insight about just part of the question, how could you ever expect to spark it reasonably, let alone control it? I told you that you could ask questions.”

She disagreed again, this time a little quieter, but at least partial wisdom seemed to have sept into her mind by now, “but this is something to learn. I could [i]learn[/i] these things, from you or on my own, but it is a natural process to develop and improve.”

“Of course, and it is not my doubt about your ability to learn that I fear, more the doubt that you will hold yourself back until you know the answers. For your kind, it is important to keep moving for your lifetime is limited, and you have to make unfounded decisions, but as a sorceress, as a creature deeply woven into nature, you can’t allow yourself such luxury. Look around, Keliara, this is what happens when we lose control, make decisions beyond our right of existence.

Little Tondan has only told you a fraction of my wrongdoings; I have slaughtered and annihilated more than even he could imagine, but look where it lead. This world is still the gruesome same, I just have done my part to keep it that way.” Keliara thought for a moment and felt the dragon’s feelings for her shift a bit when he nuzzled her fur into chaos. After a while, she looked back up at him and finally asked the one question that had truly bothered her since yesterday, “what could I have done to save the wood then, besides using my own hands? How could I extinguish it when I can merely give it strength?”

After a moment of silence between them while he let her idly watch the movements of his mind, he eventually replied, “it is true, that you can’t extinguish fire with your will for it doesn’t exist. Naturally, you can burn yourself on it, it brings the sun to your home, but what you see as fire is simply heat. Imagine you tried to catch wind in a bottle: the moment you closed the cork, it would stop being wind, mere air in a container. And for the same reason, there is no fire, so if you want to extinguish it, you don’t try to kill the flames, but rather aid what it feeds on. If the wood burns, then keep it from giving in, hold it in place until the heat has died, cool it down with water or wind, but never attack the fire itself. The only reason you could ignite it is because you poured more strength into the wood than it could sustain until its essence shattered.

Learn to see before you act. Maybe I can let you live then, but I will not trust your kind this easily again like I did on that one fateful day. Emotions are the tiny spark that kills the mind. Never act on their treacherous spur.” The dragon hummed once again, then placed a warm grasp around her form and lifted her back on her hooves, “I am truly sorry for how much you have to suffer through in my presence. Just know that I have reasons you might or might not understand, so be patient. You will do so one day. Oh, and before you leave: the other two are looking for you. Bring them here if you like. My young are hatching.”

The heifer’s excitement burst out of her in an instant, and she immediately ran for the others, gusts of black dust lining her way as she almost tripped over a ditch, caught herself, then called out their names, delivering them the wonderful message. Soon she returned with the two, just in time for Eldyr to lift his wing and open up his flank for their curious eyes when a bump shook one of the middle shells, knocking it into its neighbour and sending the entire clutch rolling down the slight slope of their bedding.

Tondan was about to stop them before the dragon growled at him to stay away. One of the young had apparently noticed their misery as well and knocked against their shell as well. It managed to bump itself out of the rolling line and landed in a nearby ditch while the other three still headed straight for the close river. Now they seemed to feel the approaching danger, too, and kicked and bumped as much as they could, but it was too late as the slope made them pick up increasing speed until they splashed into the river bed, gushed forth by the water.

The one who had managed to save themselves meanwhile knocked against the surface again and this time, both a head and leg penetrated the shell which had thinned increasingly throughout the last days to prepare an easier escape. Their peers still scooted further along the stream until finally one pushed free his tail, the other one a head, and on the next larger boulder both their weakened eggs scattered and mixed the river with the little remaining fluid around their bodies as they got their first, involuntary bath.

The remaining shells luckily blocked the third one from proceeding further down and while the two successful, turquoise escapees looked around awkwardly, chirping and blinking from the unknown sensations, the only egg on land broke in half too and dropped the black lump in front of the friends. This time they didn’t dare approaching not to upset the guarding dragon father any further, but when the scaly mass eventually stumbled over to Tondan, he knelt down to take a good look and was immediately rewarded with a toothy grin as the stag’s body was inspected closely with curious, deep red eyes.

Suddenly though, it lunged upwards with surprising strength and bit for his muzzle, only barely missing and instead burying its sharp teeth into the regrowing stumps of one of his antlers. “Eldyr! Call it back!” Tondan screamed in shock, the other two just staring at the scene while the little creature attempted to chew off the bone, however the older dragon just groaned in a strangely parental tone, “If she bothers you, make yourself clear. Do what you must to get her off yourself even if it means to hurt her. If they attack prey not fit their size, it is their decision they have to answer for, with their lives if necessary.” The offer to kill his daughter on her first day in this world somehow disturbed Tondan even more than that she had managed to get through half of his antler by now while still dangling in the air freely, but finally he reached up for her head and gripped her jaws.

A short struggle broke out between the stubborn hatchling and her victim, in which she used almost every part of the slippery body to scratch after him, before he had torn her free. The sudden release launched her three steps towards the larger dragon where she landed with a short whimper, then got back onto her legs and shook wearily. The stag was about to apologise, when she snarled and leaped back at him, this time aiming for his throat still within her reach.

Her father would have intervened if Tondan hadn’t reacted in time, blocked her off, and had pinned her to the ground while she struggled against his weight and still bit and clawed for every part that came into reach. Eventually however, he had managed to get her long neck under control and held her twitching figure in a tight grip, barely larger than a feral marten if he were to ignore the wings. It only took a few moments for her to give up the resistance though and let out a defeated sigh. The moment Tondan let go and hastily took a few steps back, she immediately flitted off and towards her father welcoming her with a friendly lap over the still wet body.

The two turquoise ones meanwhile had watched the scene carefully and came lumbering for the other two, leaving their last sibling floating in the river. Semon immediately took a protective stand in front of his taller future wife, but the two merely flopped down in front of him and blinked cautiously.

After a first moment of mutual inspection, they rolled closer, pushing themselves forth through the young grass with whatever limb touched the ground first and came to a halt when nudging against the keratin base of the stallion’s hooves.

A soft snarl came from the scaly pile every now and then, but neither seemed to share their sister’s temper, huge eyes merely looking up at the two.

“At least not all of them come after their father,” Semon finally commented, then actually reached down to pick one up, Keliara already grabbing for the other one. While not entirely convinced by the gesture themselves, the two hatchlings still stayed calm, almost fearful as they were lifted upwards by the larger creatures. A moment of mutual inspection followed, before the scaly lumps decided that it was a comfortable place to recover from the experience, audaciously sprawling in the stranger’s arms and relishing - eventually demanding - each and every bit of attention they were given.

While the two others were busy fondling the young, Tondan looked over to the river where the last egg still struggled and bounced on the turbulences, and its inhabitant clearly tried to escape as well, but still hadn’t cracked the slightest hole in her shell. “What about it, my friend? Should I help it?” “No, leave her as is. If she doesn’t make it out soon, she will suffocate and in turn prove unworthy to live in.”

“What kind of parent are you?” the stag yelled, still bleeding from some nasty scratches while the large drake did not move, just watching the egg bounce up and down the waves and ripples, “this th-... She is your daughter! Your wife’s daughter!” “And you will not help her. This is a fight she has to do on her own, for even if I let you do so, you might save a creature better left on her own.”

Moments passed, the dragon not letting go of the soft shackles that kept his friend out of the water all while he shielded the other two from the entire matter. Again and again, the egg shook with slipping power. Just when he was about to raise his voice again did it tremble once more and a sky blue head pierced the surface. The appendage desperately sucked in the air, stuck out its tongue to savour the young spring’s breath, then the remaining shell split in half. Clumsily dropping into the stream and surging under the surface, the tiny dragon struggled for a while, then made her way towards the safe shore, panting heavily when she finally arrived and tumbled onto the grass.

“It was a challenge and she succeeded. Just like her siblings,” Eldyr hummed softly before releasing the grip on his friend, “Go on, welcome her in this world if you like.” With a tired chuckle, Tondan sunk to the ground as the tension dropped off him, not long before he knelt down in front of her and let her curious maw sniff on his ear and taste across his face while the young’s mind snuggled against his, apparently rapt with what she found. “At least this one doesn’t try to kill me,” he said, then happily reached out to run his grasp across the heaving back, along the still weak wings, barely able to imagine how big they would grow one day. The water had not been able to wash down all the egg residue, he couldn’t care less though. It was all but pure joy slowly oozing from the young dragoness’ mind.

After a while far to short for the other's taste, the father growled deeply to call his young over, then coaxed them to hop into his maw to give them a good cleaning after which all except one of the turquoise went to sleep on the soft, warm bedding, Forlen tiredly blinking over to Keliara and poking her mind a little.

When it annoyed her though, his father just growled and the little one flopped back behind the dragon’s teeth to rest as well. “Come here, little one, let me take care of your injuries. You could have been a little rougher with her, however I’m proud you stood up to her nonetheless,” he noted in an almost disappointed tone, then closed his eyes to aid all the little cuts and especially the half gnawed off antler. “You will not hear me complain if I don’t have to sleep there, too.”

“Of course there is enough room for all of you, but I don’t insist. And Keliara, if you continue to have questions, ask them whenever they come up. A wondering mind tastes terribly,” the dragon chuckled before closing his eyes again and dosing off as well. The other three still had farm work to do which the dragon had insisted they completed themselves, Not only did he deem himself too superior for the effort, but even when he tried it once, cursed the seeds far too small to place to their liking. Admittedly, he had made either a huge pile of them or skipped parts entirely, and although neither Tondan as a daytaller nor the others with their wealthy upbringing had actual experience, this endevour would most certainly be less effective than anything they could accomplish.

Summer followed with all its advantages and problems, and the three had mostly prepared their home for their purposes. Eldyr however had moved to the other side of the mountain range with his offspring, not his old home which sadly would take significantly longer to grow to full grace again as he had refused to influence its recovery. Instead, the young family had chosen a comfortable cavern on the southern side of the valley to make the most out of noon. Well... comfortable for a winged lizard as grumpy as he was old, and despite, or probably due to it, the dragon’s young were soon to ravage the near forests.

Leaving claw and bite marks on most of the trees, they started exploring wide portions of the are, and usually they even returned to the valley with some sort of trophy, leaves and branches at first, soon little birds or other wildlife that had made the mistake of crossing their path.

Eldyr was lucky that they couldn’t fly for now and he could scan the entire vicinity with his presence. The four being the size of wolves made their trips safer eventually, but sadly also gave them an increased area to cover, all while their increasing strength presented an entirely different problem with the accidents of one underestimating themselves turning more bloody by the day.

It was nothing their father couldn’t heal in a blink, but if they had ever gone too far, he would not have had any chance. Everything went well nonetheless until one day, Deifel brought something else home. The black dragoness had a linen cape between her teeth and all but bounced over to Keliara’s and Semon’s house, meanwhile giving the staring Tondan a wide berth.

They played occasionally, but he still had some... reservations towards her. She on the other paw returned the gesture with those hungry looks towards his now properly grown antlers and while Eldyr had once claimed, that she accused him of acting haughtily and that she would genuinely enjoy more playtime with him, he could not quite trust her yet.

But this time, she just passed by and roared in front of the other house to catch the heifer’s attention with Semon luckily already gone in the morning to run errands for the items they couldn’t craft on their own. He would have made the encounter a lot more unpleasant, not being too fond of the fledgling himself. Given this however, his fiance appeared instead and rushed towards the young, scooping her up and throwing her up, where she would spread her wings and glide back down. It was their usual greeting, but even in the young’s brief contact did Tondan spot the dragoness’ disappointment about Keliara’s worries when she spotted the beige, unknown garment.

The heifer merely took it out of her maw and gave it a thorough inspection in the flimsy hope of assessing where it came from. After a moment of apparently waiting for the appropriate praise for her finding, the jolly fledgling even started jumping and nudged Keliara, then moved on to pouncing around the stag for a moment to gain their attention. “So you found this, you pesky brat,” he asked when he approached his friend and she reached him the cape.

The black dragon nodded while probably only understanding half of his words, then rubbed her head on his thigh, pushing against his leg to destabilise him. Only when he roughly scratched her muzzle did she purr contently and successfully motioned Keliara to join the stag on her scaled back. “Where?” he asked and at least now it seemed that the dragon understood as she snuggled closer and tried to share half of her adventure at once before she went easier on the two of them, but it was still terribly unstructured, infantile beyond recognition.

All they caught were an insatiable desire to play, disappointment, somewhere in the forest... The stream of memories ended and was followed just by a note on her boredom. “Alright, young lady. We will find whoever owns this boring piece, and after that we can play for as long as you like. Now however, could you call your father?” Keliara smiled down at the dragon with increasing unrest and for whatever reason, she understood through the haze of different emotions, the dragoness soon roaring in an ear bursting pitch that echoed through the valley and resonated in its very structure. It was a nasty necessity if they didn’t want at least a hint of privacy from Eldyr’s omnipresent gaze.

The call ended, and the stag once again felt a painful sting like every time he was reminded how quickly those little ones evolved.

Soon, Eldyr’s shadow appeared over the valley’s edge as his mind already reached out in advance to evaluate the situation. It didn’t take long however for him to erupt in rage and Deifel hid behind Tondan and Keliara in the vain hope of escaping his anger this way.

Naturally though, he didn’t go after her body, so even the toughest of physical barriers was not enough to shield her from her father’s anger, the black dragoness wincing against Keliara’s legs under her father’s wigging while the rest of Eldyr focussed back on the two, “Do not judge me unfairly. I told her to stay within my reach, then, when she failed to do so, promised just to visit you instead. I never allowed such a detour out of this valley and you are currently experiencing where this kind of disobedience leads.”

“But whoever came here, now we- ouch!”

Tondan started, then felt a sudden sting in his entire body, “I do not discuss my means of education, little Tondan. You know all too well that she is the underbred of the four. To this day, my reprimands were enough, and today, they will be enough as well. However all this is not important now. We have a more urgent matter to deal with and you know it.”

“So what happened?”

“It is urgent. What else is there to discuss? They saw her.” Eldyr grumbled, then stepped forth to let all three into his paw. Keliara hesitated just a little while the young dragoness simply hopped in - excited despite everything - and curled up further to the wrist, just blinking back with her crimson eyes and grinning awfully similarly to her father. All the sudden, a quiet snarl sounded from the front of the dragon as well, was immediately followed by another, then the noise of a draconic tussle only interrupted by their grumbling father.

“You... plan to bring... them along?” Tondan just noted as he didn’t join the heifer. “They are here now,” Eldyr replied, sent out his mind to push the stag in as well, and before she could complain, closed his grip around them. Wings were spread and with a giant flap, he launched into the air, “and so they get to see the world they were not lucky enough to explore so far, now that the harm is done. It was to happen eventually, but once your kind extends their war here as well, they are going to witness too much anyway. I don’t have to remind you what it means for your life here.”

During the flight, all they could do was to wait in tense silence. And cuddle with the attention hungry fledgling. A lot of cuddling with the fledgling in fact. Nonetheless, it was a duration hardly more interesting than one would expect, until they felt the giant lizard spiral down, his wings undulating in the wind till he softly touched down. The paw they sat in lay back on the ground, palm upwards to let them out again, and Eldyr’s voice hummed through their heads, “we have arrived. And, tiny m- Keliara, my deepest felicitation.”

The heifer blinked in the sudden beam of sunlight, stared out over the clearing in front of them, yet there was no panicked stranger, no... just a field of wild flowers blooming in all their glory in front of her. She slid off the blue scale surface, a stark contrast to the colourful field under her eyes, Tondan right behind her and Deifel wearily staying behind, then she spotted Semon in the centre.

The stallion’s chestnut fur glistened in the young day’s sun, he wore the expensive, gold seamed shirt from easier times, and for just a moment did she forget where they were past memories like the summers they had made them in. A short thought regarded her father not being here for the one day in her life he had probably looked forward to, if with a different partner at that, but it was easily swept away by excitement and barely left more than a single tear on her cheek. “Semon, my friend, have you found the stranger?” the stag asked carefully, then his look turned to confusion when the horse just smiled and shook his head. There was something in his demeanour he could not quite...

Keliara returned the smile and took her time to walk closer. She nervously played with the hem of her shawl, which looked flagrantly shabby for this occasion, but he had known and didn’t care. The dragon first released his offspring from his maw, watched them slump and stumble over each other on the way to his flank, before at last returning his attention to the couple ahead.

“I’m sorry I had to do this to you,” Semon whispered into his love’s ear, “but I just didn’t know... I wanted this to be special and-” “You will have to apologise to Tondan later, but he will get over it,” the heifer giggled in response before feeling a particularly untactful lizard push them further apart. He could not keep himself from showing a bit of his impatience, but at least gave them some time to gather themselves before he dutifully began the ceremony.

“Do you, Keliara, daughter of Ketan, wish to take this bipedal,” Eldyr started with a terribly sweet voice, then nuzzled over the two to let the stallion’s mane flow in the wind, “this man as your husband, like you promised two winters ago? Will you love no one else for the rest of your miser-... long life, honour the matrimony you shall enter today for as long as you share your existence?” Named one nodded happily, then strode even closer before a pull was placed on her form. “If I were to decide, then you could go ahead, Keliara, but he asked for something else,” Eldyr commented, then moved on with the groom,

“Do you, Semon, son of Antorn, wish to have this rather delicious lady before you as your wife? Oh, if you could taste-” “Eldyr!” At first, the dragon chuckled at the stallion and continued upon the reproachful stare of both of them, “Will you love no one else from the depth of your heart for the rest of your life, like you offered that one peculiar night... candles burning low and-”

“Yes, I do,” Semon quickly interrupted and pulled two golden rings from his pocket, deeply wishing that the dragon could not read his memories at the moment. Tondan sat back at his scaly friend’s flank and felt Deifel cuddle up against him in turn, soon followed by the rest of the flock. Semon meanwhile smirked as he slid the first ring onto the heifer’s finger and offered her the other in return for her to take and slide it on his finger as well.

“Then may this bond last as long as your time in these lands,” the dragon moved on and extended his neck to loom over the two, “and so shall you stay out of harm’s way. If necessary, I will make sure that you do.” Eldyr hummed softly as the rings started to glow as green as his eyes.

A blink of their eyes later, the light gathered in intricate, swirly lines curling around the metal and almost intertwining with their fingers before they faded into a warm mist, and all that remained was an emerald coloured line, that spanned the gold like roots around a rock.

“What... what have you done?” Semon muttered while blankly staring at the jewellery still unnaturally warm. “A gift,” the dragon noted softly, then encouraged them to lace their fingers such that the two metal pieces touched by taking just the lightest control of their movement. As alien as it felt to move without intention, it was nothing compared to when the delicate gold made contact.

The lines lit up once more, vibrating and emitting the green light again, while both had the strange sensation of... sinking into each other, their hand’s fur melting into a single substance, warm and tingling. The heifer’s voice echoed through Semon’s head and while he tried to pull out of the touch a little, he... felt her experiencing the same like when the dragon made contact. “What is happening here?” she whispered and unleashed a storm of byproducts in her husband’s mind, memories of the night of her trial at the campfire, the countless times they had spent cuddled together in the silence of their isolation, images of her as a calf playing at a lake... Never had she seemed this open to him despite keeping no secrets.

And with that, the dragon gingerly moved in between them and while his general amusement flooded their minds, their consciousnesses drifted apart again, closely followed by their hands. “For normal creatures, their mind is limited to their physical presence, making you sense the pain and touch on your shell, but whenever you wish to, these rings allow you to truly experience each other. Mind you, only if it’s your explicit desire. While it is a pitiful substitute for what I once had, now you may truly get to know the other one so that you may understand far beyond words,” Eldyr added, then finally retreated from their heads to give them whatever time they needed to think about his gift.

Meanwhile, Tondan just had just watched the whole exchange unfold from his place inside the scaly pile, but was excluded from their exchange. It did not mean however, that the dragon did not share his thoughts with the stag as well, adding on every of their actions, somewhere between an amused tirade about the simplicity of their feelings and comments of how obvious it had been over the last season, that he planned to do such. “We might be inferior beings,” Tondan finally responded quietly with a short smile as a playful maw started chewing on his hooves for no apparent reason, “but we do honour our bonds. And we don’t murder an entire innocent village over a minor argument.”

The dragon did not respond for obvious reasons, however stopped making any further comments. Just the slovenly hidden respect for the ritual reluctantly dripped through the connection as he softly chuckled and pulled his head away from the newly-weds and placed it next to Tondan and his offspring instead.

Latter had watched the ceremony with a surprising calm, yet started snarling and chirping once their father blew his soft air over the colourful pile. “Now spare the two your looks for a moment,” Eldyr hummed, then curled up a little further around them, “play with the little one instead.”

Tondan’s eyes snapped open and spotted four pairs of them staring right at him from different angles, the light blue Ansura grinning widely with her sharp teeth on full display. The rest joined in with eyes glistening hungrily and he suddenly felt a lot less safe around them.

The remaining day passed with a celebration as exuberant as one in their situation could accomplish. With Tondan mostly occupied with the chaotic bunch, the other two had enough time for themselves. Eldyr occasionally commented on the meal they had, their situation from now on, but stayed out of the aftermath as long as possible. At some point though, his large, green eyes fixed them for a moment while they happily leaned against each other, then he raised his voice in a strangely content tone,

“I don’t say this easily, so believe me that you are one of the few mortals I ever made part of my life and so far I have not regretted this decision. Never make me do and you will live the life you want. What we have, what you have built here, is precious and I don’t want this harmony to falter. For the sake of us all, I will protect it, even against yourselves if necessary”

“We like you, too, you dreaded yet timid creature,” Semon smiled as he cuddled closer to his wife, “and if you should ever wish to be more than this stubborn loner, we are here.” “I am not. I have my young to care for as I have the three of you.” “And still you can’t even express your feelings. It is not the word’s fault, not the inefficiency you fear,” Keliara countered and finally stepped forth to rest her head against the giant muzzle, “you will neither hurt us, Eldyr, nor disappoint. After all we’ve been through, we are the closest to a family this... arrangement can reach and while not all of us will witness its end, this is the time and life we have. And we are grateful for it.” she retreated back to he husband’s side, let her gaze rest upon him, then swept it across the florid clearing.

Tondan was still laying in the grass, further to the back, Deifel held her sister’s neck in a tight grip while Forlen and Exan were determinedly pulling on her tail, then going at each other instead when they couldn’t agree on who got to latch on where. She barely could avert her eyes from the jolly, turquoise pile and make them return to the biggest of them all, protector, troublemaker, friend.

It was a family indeed, one she would not trade for anything.