FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Twenty Three

The next morning, I decided I’d had enough of my stitches. After breakfast which consisted of a variety of roasted fish and eggs from some very large bird, Kylah went back to checking my wounds. I twisted my head around to examine them, pleased with the way they were healing, and they certainly looked as though they’d knit back together well enough to hold up on their own. Though still puffy and pink, all the arrow holes were mostly closed up, ragged scar tissue at least holding together, if not exactly pretty to look at. I told Kylah I wanted the stitches out now, in part because I was going to return to my home and gather up some of my belongings. If I flew swiftly it shouldn’t be more then a couple of days before I returned, at most, and I wanted to be back well before the town was ready to go into battle. I couldn’t fly with the stitches, though, and they were holding me up. Kylah of course argued with me, but I told her one way or another I was going to fly home, and if she wouldn’t take the stitches out then I was just going to have to pop them out myself, and then she’d have a lot more work to do when I returned!

One way or another, I got her to agree. She fetched Ravek and together the two of them removed every stitch they’d so carefully sewn into my flesh. I’d never had stitches before, and while I was thankful to them for holding my body together while it healed, I was much more thankful to see them go. It didn’t really hurt having them removed, not the way I thought it might anyway. The wounds were all very tender still, and so it was uncomfortable having the sinews tugged through my skin, but not outright painful. It was also time consuming, they didn’t want to risk reopening my wounds. The arrow holes themselves didn’t take too long to unstitch, but there were so many of them that the minutes quickly added up. And after each set of stitches was removed, they insisted on poking and prodding each wound to make sure it was holding together on it’s own now.

Now that hurt! I hissed and snapped my jaws at them each time they poked another wound. While Kylah knew I wasn’t going to bite them, Ravek still didn’t know me well enough to know for sure. I enjoyed seeing the look of fear wash across his face and flicker in his eyes every time I gnashed my teeth, and flared out the spines around my head. Somehow I suspected this was just Kylah’s way of punishing me for making her take out my stitches before she thought I was ready.

As expected the largest and worst of my wounds took the longest to remove the stitches from. There were enough stitches along the length of that crescent shaped axe wound that I imagined Kylah could have knit herself a quilt from all of them! Should anyone ever want a quilt knit with thick sinew threads coated in dragon blood. And as they removed the stitches from that wound, I admitted to myself, and only myself, that Kylah might have been right. The large flap of flesh hadn’t knit itself back to my body as surely as the arrow wounds had knit themselves. But it wasn’t open at all, either. A few more days and it should be just fine. Of course, I didn’t have a few more days to spare.

Kylah insisted on two things. One, that I keep that wound bandaged at least a little while longer to keep it clean. Two, that I wait until the next morning to head home to gather my belongings. She wanted to see how my wounds fared without the stitches, and wanted to give the arrow hole near my wing one more day and night to better finish knitting together before I tested my wings again. Though I had wanted to go that day, by the time they had all my stitches out it was already midday, and though I argued simply for the sake of argument, I agreed at heart and eventually relented.

We spent less time wandering the town then usual that day. Instead, Kylah and I headed out into the vast, verdant forest that sounded her home. It was such a beautiful, lush place I could have spent my entire life there. Not that the forests up in the mountains were not equally beautiful. But they spent much more of the year barren and brown below the valley, and above my valley any trees and forests that reached that high were all the same sort of pines and firs, and other evergreens. Down here there were dozens of tree species I couldn’t even begin to name, some with trunks as wide around as my midsection. Elder oaks and other immense trees, the dark brown bark of their towering trunks cracked and gnarled with age like the scales and plates of some ancient, powerful dragon. I liked that image. In many places thick coatings of a variety of mosses crept up their trunks with tiny insects roaming between the thin red and yellow tendrils that stretched above the miniature fern-like leaves of the moss. It was a whole other tiny little world down there, lines of red and black ants roaming up and down, savaging a brilliant shiny green beetle and carrying its carcass back to the nest.

Winter was coming, and even the insects knew it was well past time to start preparing. The leaves of the nearly endless canopy that from below seemed to wrap around the world itself were already swirled with far more red and yellow then when we’d first crept through this forest before our assault. In some places the underbrush that had been so lush only days before was beginning to wilt away, as if it knew the cold was coming and decided to beat winter at it’s own game. Ferns were drooping, vines were starting to wither, and the last blooms of autumn were fading away. Here and there dark red and recently browned leaves drifted through the air, spiraling lazily towards the ground like dancing faeries.

Dancing Faeries? Good God, what was I, a freshly hatched whelp living in his own imagination? I’d already spent far too much time with humans, hadn’t I.

Then again, there was nothing wrong with being imaginative even at my age. If by some blessed miracle everything worked out, and Kylah’s people created their own free country, and that country allowed dragons…Well, I could let my imagination soar with those scenarios all day. I’d certainly spend plenty of time walking these forests. It was a strange thing for me to find myself wanting to do, walk, rather then fly. I’d spent so many years flying above the forests, and so few hours walking within them. And when I had, it was mostly the higher, sparser pine forests in the safer lands around my valley. This was the sort of place I’d love to walk with my son and daughter, and show them all the things they never got to see back home. Hoist them up in my paws so they could peer at the birds nests in the upper branches, and…

Well, if I did that they’d just eat the bird’s eggs. Not that I’d blame them, I’d have done the same thing as a child! Of course, if they were still out there somewhere, they were far from children now. Both of them were well into dragon adolescence by now if not outright adulthood. Old enough to take mates, if there were still any of us left. They might even be bigger then me now! Perhaps they could lift me up and I could eat the bird’s eggs. Whatever the case, I’d be overjoyed just to see them alive. I was sure they’d both enjoy walking in this forest, especially knowing they were safe from humans here. Because here, of all places, humans would call them friend.

I was ready to hunt my own meat again, but Kylah refused to allow me. She made me promise that as this was the last day I was going to allow my wounds to heal, that I take it as easily as possible. She’d brought her bow and some arrows along, so I relented and allowed her to do the hunting. I should not have been surprised, but she shot not one but two deer. I ate much of the first one, and she cooked up some of the rest of it over a little fire we built in the woods. The other deer I dragged back to town, and we gave it to the old couple who ran the tavern we liked so they’d have some fresh meat without having to visit the butcher and without having to pay for it.

That night, though we turned in early, Kylah again spent the night in my temporary home, curled up next to me. Though I did not put my questions to voice, I wondered if she had grown as accustomed to sleeping next to the grumpy old dragon as I had to the brash young human. It was a possibility I was not at all uncomfortable with.

I slept well that night, and woke very early in the morning, just as the first purple strokes of dawn were brushed across the shadowy canvas of the night sky. Kylah was still asleep, as was half the town, and I slipped away from my blankets and out into the pasture, more then ready to test my wings again. It had been over a week since I’d flown now, and that was the longest period of time I’d gone without flying since foolishly breaking a few bones in my wing as a youth.

I stood in the pasture, and spread my wings as far as they’d go. I lifted them, tried to touch their tips over my back, and then brought them down to the ground in the closest approximation of the flight motion I could get without leaping from the earth. I could feel my wounds stretch and pull a little, but nothing came loose; I didn’t start bleeding. Good enough for me!

I took a breath, then surged forward, bounding across the pasture. In my excitement to fly again my claw tips unsheathed, and tossed up bits of dark rich earth and shredded grass in my wake. With the momentum of my gallop, I launched myself off my powerful hind legs and into the air, beating my wings in the very familiar motion I’d missed so much. Sensitive wing membranes caught the air and propelled me upwards, currents of wind swirled beneath my belly scales, caressing them like a lover welcoming me back into her caress.

The arrow wound near my wing joint immediately began to ache, and with each beat of my wings it throbbed a little more. I grit my teeth, pushing past the pain as I rose up above the trees that lined the river behind the pasture. Green pines pressed up against red oaks and yellow poplars, their colors already more autumnal then they had been a few days ago when I’d first moved into the old stable. I wasn’t quite as high as I should have been, and the pointed tip of one of the pine trees nearly brushed my belly. I dipped a wing tightly and spun sharply around, snatching the very tip of the pine tree in my paw and snapping it off. I lifted it up and ducked my head, flaring my black nostrils as I took in the pungent piney scent. Hah! Take that, tree!

I tossed the pine bough back to the earth, it fell away beneath me into the shadowy darkness that still covered the pasture. After twisting my head around to look along my back and side, make sure I hadn’t opened anything up, I began to beat my wings a little harder. I ascended higher and higher until I could see the entire town spread out beneath me in the barely present pre-dawn light.

It was the first time I’d seen the town from the air since the day of the liberation battle, and as the first orange rays of the sun struck it, I was surprised by how beautiful it was. I had never seen it that way before, and after spending time walking it’s streets and talking with it’s people, the town was starting to grow on me. I hated to admit it, but I was starting to like this place.

From the air, it’s beauty was even more striking. The river wound through it like a glittering blue ribbon, the early morning sunlight transformed into a sapphire glow across it’s rippling surface. The three bridges that crossed it had a strange elegance of their own, especially the gold and blue one, which from above looked almost like the nature-painted wings of a butterfly spanning the blue waters. The bell tower stood tall and proud, like a beacon that now proclaimed this place free, and a warning to those who would try to take it back. The churches and their elegant arches, sharp points, and the graceful swoops between them, humans certainly know their way around stone craft when they wanted too.

I knew Kylah would be up soon, once morning light and warmth began to creep into the stable, and she’d wonder where I had gone. As many times as she’d woke me with breakfast since I’d been here, I decided to return the favor. I landed near the tavern run by the old couple, who I knew would be in there at dawn preparing breakfast for family, friends, and of course customers. Several humans on their way to work paused and greeted me, one informing me that they had been able to gather up even more weapons and armor then expected from their enemies. Balls of the Earth Dragon, I’d really woven myself into the town’s tapestry, hadn’t I.

The old woman and her husband both came out to greet me, and I had to restrain myself from laughing. They matched each other so well! They both had the same shuffling gait, the same wrinkled and weather worn features, the same white hair that still clung to a few shades of pale gray, and the same warm life in their eyes that defied old age at every turn. They had the sort of life affirming look that made me feel as though I was still young! And they were both happy to chat with a dragon and stroke his muzzle scratch his chin and eye ridges. How could I not like them?

I left with a large basket positively brimming with food. They’d put some of just about everything they had ready in there for me, from fresh baked bread and rolls to sausages still sizzling, fried fish and ham, fruits and cheeses and some sort of sweet pastry. They carefully placed the handle of the basket in my jaws, and after murmuring a thank you around it, I trotted back to the stable.

I didn’t really like thinking of it as a stable, it made me feel like some beast of burden. But I hadn’t yet come to think of it as my home, either. It was just a place I sheltered and slept at the moment, but hopefully after I’d added a few of my more treasured possessions, it would feel more like home to me.

I arrived to find Kylah just pushing her way through the thick blankets hung over the entrance. She yawned, and stretched her arms with her hands balled into fists above her head. She wore one of the dark green tunics she’d taken from my home when we left, and black breeches. She hadn’t had them on the day before, and I didn’t know where she’d gotten them from now! Sneaky woman must have snuck some spare clothing into my temporary home without my knowledge.

A big smile immediately broke out across her face when she saw me walking the path, with a basket of breakfast hanging from my jaws. “Vraal!” She exclaimed, pulling the hair away from her face and tying it behind her head with a bit of blue ribbon. “Did you bring me breakfast?”

When I reached her, I set the basket down, and licked my jaws to get the taste of wooden handle out of my mouth. “You?” I shook my head, grinning. “No. I brought myself breakfast. Maybe they’ll be some left over, but you’ll wait your turn like a good girl.”

“Mhm,” Kylah simply murmured. It was far too early for her to put up with my teasing. She settled herself down on the ground, crossing her legs, then reached up to rub my nose when I settled down across from her, the basket between us. “Thank you, Vraal! Such a sweet dragon.”

I grimaced, folding my ears back, baring a few fangs. “I am not!”

No dragon wanted to be thought of as sweet! And she knew it. “Oh yes you are, Vraal.” She rubbed my nose a little more, smirking at me and cooing in a sickly sweet voice. “Such a sweet, sweet old dragon.”

“Hmmph!” I snorted against her hand, enjoying the attention but not the comments. “See how sweet you think I am when I bite that hand off.”

“The worst you could do is gum me a bit, you old beast,” she said with a laugh, and began to pull food from the basket.

I snorted again, and pulled a strawberry from the basket. This time of year it seemed awfully late for berries but I suppose there were always late bloomers, and they probably had somewhere warm to grow them until the weather just grew too cold. I smashed it up a little in my paw, red juice dribbling over my textured paw pad, and as soon as Kylah was distracted, I threw the berry at her. Like a rotten tomato hurled at some vile prisoner, it splattered across her face with a satisfyingly gooey splat! She gasped in shock and I immediately burst out laughing as mashed strawberry dribbled down her cheek.

“You brat!” she explained right before reaching into the basket, and withdrawing an apple. She held it over her head, poised as if to hurl it at me.

I held up my paws in surrender. “Alright, alright, That looks like it would hurt. I crushed up that strawberry so it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I suppose that was nice of you,” she said, hesitating but still glaring.

I couldn’t help myself. “Actually I just smashed it so it would splatter your face for calling me old! You should put that apple down and get cleaned up, you’re a mess.”

For a moment, I thought she was going to do just that. She started to lower her hand, and then with a devious smirk, she tossed the apple at me anyway. And she aimed much lower then I had! The apple struck me right in the testicles, and I coughed in pain, doubling over to grab myself with a paw and slump down against the ground. I gave a long, low whine as the hot pain settled in, and Kylah just laughed at me.

“Oh, don’t be a baby, Vraal, I barely even threw it.”

“I hate you,” I muttered under my breath. Which wasn’t true at all. And I knew she was right, she could have thrown it a hell of a lot harder.

“I didn’t know a dragon’s eyes could get so crossed,” she said casually, as she ate some eggs and sausages, then spread some of fruit jam across some thick bread.

After a few moments, and a few deep breaths, I managed to force myself to straighten up and sit back on my haunches again, though I was still cringing, my tail still twisting and coiling in pain. “It’s not nice to hit old dragons in the stones,” I muttered.

“And it’s not nice to hit young woman in the face with strawberries. Besides, didn’t you just tell me you weren’t old? And what does being old have to do with it?”

“We have bigger targets,” I grumbled, though a smile was starting to return to my muzzle.

Kylah just snickered, taking a bite of sugar dusted pastry. “Lower targets, maybe.”

“I’m going to bite you one day, Kylah.”

“Looking forward to it,” she said through a mouthful of sugary baked dough. After she swallowed, she asked, “So, what time are we leaving?”

“How did you know I was-”

Swallowing, she cut me off as she often did. “Because you wanted to leave last night and I wouldn’t let you. I know even I can’t keep you here against your will that long. And I know you’ve already been out flying. Let me check on your wounds before we go.”

“Before I go,” I reminded her.

Kylah dusted off her hands, and then put them on her knees. “I’m going with you, and it’s not up for debate. Now, are you going to eat breakfast or not?”

“I was, before someone whacked me in the stones and left me a little queasy.”

“You’ll get over it,” she replied with a smirk. “You’re a dragon, I could have hit you in the belly with a war hammer and you’d be hungry again as soon as you got your breath back.”

“You have a point,” I admitted, reaching into the basket and pulling out the largest steak I could find. Then I gathered up some of the other foods, a sausage and some fried eggs, and slapped them all on top of the slab of steak, and tried to put the whole thing into my muzzle. Most of it fit, the rest of it splattered the grass beneath me. When I’d swallowed it all, I belched and went back for more.

“Vraal, that’s disgusting.”

I snorted, piling more food atop more food anyway. “Kiss my sore stones, Kylah.” I was in no mood for her lip now!

Kylah of course, was as implacable as always. “You wish! Keep it up, dragon, they’re be a lot more than sore. And I should think a dragon would call them his jewels, or his hoard.”

I chewed up my glob of eggs, fish and jam, and gulped it down, then belched again, louder then ever. “And I should think a nice mannered young human woman shouldn’t be discussing a dragon’s balls anyway.”

That just made Kylah laugh. “Since when have you known me to be a nice mannered young woman? I’m anything but, you should know that by now. Besides, you brought them up, your dirty old beast. I think you’re obsessed with yourself. Always sitting and showing yourself off.”

“How else I am going to sit?”

Kylah waved her hand at me as if trying to dismiss me entirely. “You animals are all the same. We need to invent some dragon pants! Or maybe something like a skirt would fit you better.”

I nearly chocked on the loaf of bread I was eating. Then again, perhaps that was just because I was trying to eat an entire loaf of bread. “No way in your hell or ours am I going to wear pants, let alone a skirt!”

Kylah just laughed harder, and harder, till she flopped back into the grass on her back, her auburn hair fanned out against the green grass. “Oh, I can just picture it now! Vraal, the great tame dragon walking around town in a giant skirt! Doing little curtsies and asking all the girls, doesn’t he look pretty!”

I thumped my tail against the pasture, snarling. “I am NOT going to do curtsies even if I do wear a skirt!” Wait, what did I just say? “That’s not how I meant it!”

Too late! Kylah only laughed harder and harder till she had to curl up to clutch her aching ribs. Much as I hated myself for it, I found myself laughing along with her for quite a while. I had to admit, an old dragon in a skirt, trying to do a curtsy was a pretty funny idea. When I’d finally caught my breath, I grinned down at Kylah, tilting my head a little. “You know, if anyone else was listening into these little conversations we had, they’d think we meant everything we said to each other.”

“Yeah, they probably would. Good thing we have them in private, then.” Kylah put her arms out to her sides, running them back and forth through the soft, cool grass. “They’d think we hated each other or something.”

I dug through the basket, there was a little food left, so I might as well finish it off. Bit my bit I popped the remains of breakfast into my muzzle, and finally licked my snout clean. Then I licked the crushed strawberry juice off my finely textured paw pad, till the worst of the crimson stains were cleaned from the gray skin.

“To answer your question, I’m leaving in just a little while. You, however, are staying here. You have war preparations to oversee.”

“You sure seem convinced of - AH!” Kylah suddenly jumped up, rubbing one arm furiously with her hand. “Ow! Ow! Ants!”

“Where!” I yelped, jumping up to all four paws! Damn it, I’d forgotten to look for ant mounds again! And worse, Kylah had already sent me crumpling to the grass on my belly! They could be all over me by now! As soon as I started looking over myself for tiny crawling beasts with a vicious bite and sting, Kylah started laughing all over again. Realizing I’d been had, again, I growled, flared up my spines and snarled. “You nasty little wench!”

Kylah just kept laughing, and finally ran her hands back through her hair, trying to smooth it down. “Oh, Vraal, you’re just asking for another apple.”

I whimpered a little, and tucked my tail protectively. “They’re still sore from the first one.”

“Then you’d better be a good dragon, hadn’t you. Besides, you know you if that was me afraid I was covered in ants you’d be laughing those very stones right off.”

I snorted, glancing under myself just to make sure there really were no ants. “I certainly hope not! I’d miss them…but not as much as you would.”

Kylah came forward to wrap her arms around the base of my horned head when I lifted it again. “Dirty old lizard. I’m coming with you like it or not. I’m sure that someone else like Ravek can “over see preparations” for a few days while I’m away. Just give me an hour or so to get ready. I need to let people know you’ll be gone for a few days, since I’m sure you haven’t done so and don’t plan too. And I’ll get a quick bath, tame my hair, and find something to tie it back so it doesn’t end up so agonizingly tangled after the flight this time.”

I huffed an impatient sigh that sent her hair fluttering around her face. “Oh, very well. Do try to hurry, though. I’m already behind schedule since you waited until today!”

We bid a very temporary farewell and I watched Kylah head up the road for a little while, carrying the empty basket with her. For a moment, I considered leaving without her while she was away. In the end I decided that whatever benefit’s the town and I might gain from having her here a few extra days would be far outweighed by the anger she’d unleash on her fellow townspeople until my return, and then the likely far more painful anger she’d unleash upon me as soon as I made it back. I decided I’d suffered enough that morning as it was, and might as well let her come with me.

In truth, I was glad to have her make the trip with me. By now I had come to enjoy her company enough that time spent with her was far more enjoyable then time spent without her. It was truly something I never thought I’d admit about a human, but in a short time she had become my best friend, and one of the best friends I imagined I’d ever had. She reminded me of Niara in many ways. Obviously not physically, but her general attitude and demeanor, the way she playfully teased me, the way she had come to understand me. It was strange, Kylah was like a dragon trapped in a humans body and perfectly comfortable with it. I had given up telling myself I would never see her again when this was all over, and that I should be happy with it. Now, if we both managed to survive till the very end, I’d probably end up visiting her and her village several times a year, at the very least.

Bah! What a sentimental old beast I was becoming. I blamed it on my age. Old dragons surely must get more addle-brained and more pathetically sentimental and emotional in their advanced age. Yes, that was it. Had I been half my age, I’d have been ready to head home on my own right now and never return! And be happy to do so!

Sure you would, Vraalasothinox. Sure you would.

Rather then sit and argue with myself while I waited for Kylah, I went down to the river. I might as well bathe myself too, I hadn’t done so since I’d been wounded. And while dragons did not sweat the way humans did, and I’d hardly been rolling in the dirt, aside from early in the morning when I did so in pain, I was still starting to feel as though my scales were getting a little grimy. Regardless of the vicious rumors circulated by humans about the general filthy state of dragon kind, we did pride ourselves on being cleanly creatures. Or at least, the dragons in my valley always had.

I walked through the trees that lined the rivers, freshly fallen leaves crunching beneath my paws. Autumn had definitely come to the town, and I suspected the town would be covered with snow long before I was ever returning home for good. I imagined by the time I returned from my home with some of my belongings, the poplars at least would be covered in significantly less leaves. I grasped one of the smaller poplars in my paws, rearing on hind legs a moment, and shook the tree. A little cascade of teardrop shaped leaves of yellow and orange fluttered down through the air, some of them landing against my back and dotting my wings, others adding to the thin layer of bright colors that now coated the ground. I shook myself to add the last of the leaves to the pile, and then walked down to the river.

The river here was wide enough that its current was well hidden, it looked much more placid then it actually was. Freshly fallen leaves that dotted it’s calm surface were the only immediate indicator of the river’s current as they drifted along the river’s edges like tiny yellow and orange sailing vessels, constantly trying to outpace each other and now and then lazily spinning as they met with invisible eddies. Beneath the sparkling surface several long green fronds of water weed undulated back and forth like the tail of an impatient dragon.

I peered at my reflection for a little while, the black scales of my muzzle and the gray scales of my chin were both dotted with bits of egg and jam, as well as caked with a little juice from meat and fruit. Ancestors Spirits, Kylah was right. I was a messy dragon! I dropped my muzzle down and took a long drink from the water, it was soothing and cool and fresh. Then a cupped a paw in it to splash some water across my face, rubbing it over the scales of my muzzle.

To hell with it, I thought. I backed up, took a deep breath, and leapt into the water. I landed hard upon my belly and sank like a stone. The water was cold, especially against my wings, but not as shockingly so as the pond in the valley I’d bathed in with Kylah. And the river was surprisingly deep, but after a few moments my paws touched the muddy, and sporadically stone spotted bottom, and I kicked off, back up towards the surface. Beneath the water, even my heavy form was buoyant enough for the current to carry a little ways especially with a dragon’s lung sized portion of air inside it. So when I came back up, I was a bit further down stream then I expected.

I paddled my way back towards the shore, and before long my paws were in contact with the weedy bottom. I settled down against my haunches, and let the current wash my body. I dug beneath the weeds, searching for some sand to scrub myself with, but found only mud and silt. The water would have to do. I helped it by rubbing it into my scales where ever I could reach, and dipped my head beneath the water a few more times to finish cleaning my muzzle.

When I was satisfied I was as clean as could be, I climbed back out. I shook myself, and while Kylah would tell me I looked like an oversized dog, I preferred to think dogs looked like tiny, furry dragons when they shook themselves. Droplets of water sprayed in all directions and for a second or two, surrounded me with a full spectrum of color as they shone in the sun like scintillating crystals, hundreds of tiny miniature rainbows flashing to life and dying away in the same instant.

I sat in the sun on the river bank, waiting for it’s warmth to dry me and also waiting for Kylah’s return. I busied myself trying to perfect a skill my father had always been excellent at, and I’d always been terrible; trying to catch fish. While I saw dozens of fish flashing and darting through the water, I wasn’t able to catch a single one! Most of them were tiny and fast, and I didn’t really think I had any chance at catching them, either. Then came a large, fat dark bronze-brown fish, working it’s way along the riverbank, a single pointed fin sticking up out of the water. It looked so fat and slow, I was sure I could catch it! Yet the moment I lashed out with a paw it proved it was just as fast as the other fish, darting over into deeper water leaving behind just a plume of mud eddying in the water. And as if just to insult me, it’s reddish tail left the water just long enough to send a splash of river water splattering across my muzzle.

Damn sarcastic fish.

In all my efforts I managed to catch nothing more then a single, late season frog. It was slimy and wriggly yet somehow I got it in my paw and managed to keep it from squirming free. I peered at it, it’s throat bulged and pulsed again and again as though some sort of exotic parasite was trying to break free. The frog was a sort of bright green color with black spots all over it. And much to my dismay, the frog tasted like mud.

Idly wondering if I’d poisoned myself, I wandered back towards the stable and surrounding pasture. I probably shouldn’t have eaten the frog, but hey, I’m a dragon! Eating things is what we do. Besides, in addition to our extended life spans and our swift healing, we were also hard to make sick. We were generally good at resisting illnesses of both disease and poison. We did not get sick often, and when we did, we usually got over it very swiftly. The same went for poisonous things, there was not a lot out there that we could eat that would give us any dangerous sort of poisoning, we simply had very strong systems, including very strong livers that did wonders for filtering toxins from our bodies and our blood. The downside was that when we did get seriously sick, or poisoned, it was often very, very intense, and sometimes life-threatening. There were a few illnesses that would leave a dragon sick for weeks, and a few more that often killed us before we could get over them. And the same went for a few specific poisons. Poisons that for whatever reason, our bodies could not rid us of fast enough to prevent life threatening illness. Some of them had been discovered by humans and adapted to use on weapons. Though, somehow I doubted a common river frog in Kylah’s village had any such poison.

Which still left me feeling like a fool for eating a dirty little frog and leaving my tongue tasting of mud. I went back to the stable, and found the large drinking bowl I’d filled with water in case I got thirsty over night. By the time I’d drained it, I mostly washed my mouth out, and felt better.

Not long after that, Kylah returned. Since she was determined to come with me, I’d planned to remind her she’d need cold weather clothing and gear to return to the mountains now, but I was glad to see she’d already thought of as much on her own. She had a brown leather pack strapped against her back, and had changed into a dark blue tunic with long sleeves more suited for traveling, as well as stiffer black breeches, and more rugged looking leather boots with reinforced toes and heels, laced well up past her ankles. She also had the same thick gray woolen cloak with the bronze buttons she’d worn on our earlier flights so I knew she wouldn’t be too cold. She had the dragon bone sword at her side, a long bow slung over her back, and a quiver of arrows as well, their feathery fletches all sticking up from inside it.

“You look ready for battle,” I chuckled a little, walking up to nuzzle her.

“I never know with you! Besides, you might not be ready to hunt yet, so I wanted to be prepared to shoot us some dinner. I don’t want to get stuck eating all that rotten meat you’re so fond of again.”

“Oh, I am more then ready to hunt,” I assured her, flaring my wings as if to prove it.

“You say you are, but your wounds still aren’t ready to be stressed that much,” Kylah said, ducking beneath my wing and walking back to my haunch.

“They are too! They’re more then healed.”

Kylah just smirked, and sharply jabbed a finger into the ax wound along my side. I yelped loudly in pain, jumping off my paws. “OW! That hurt!”

“See? I told you it wasn’t healed enough yet.”

I whimpered a little as my wound throbbed, my wings twitching in pain as I folded them back up. “I’ll be sure to watch out for deer with a penchant for poking me in my wounds, then.”

“You never know,” Kylah chided me, as she grabbed the base of my wing joint, and swung herself up onto my back. She climbed up and settled herself at the base of my neck as though she’d been riding dragons all her life. “I just had to prove my point that you’re not ready yet, that’s all.”

“If I’m not ready, then how come you’re sitting on my back, preparing to fly with me?”

“Because,” she said, leaving forward to rub the side of my neck. “You’re a stubborn old beast, and you’re going to go whether I like it or not.” She knew me well! The little spines along the back of my neck stood up a bit, and she grasped one to playfully tug it back and forth. Which made me shiver and click my scales together, that felt awfully strange! “So someone’s got to watch over you.”

“Ah,” I muttered, trying to flatten my spines out to get her to stop teasing them. “So you’re not coming because you enjoy my company, you’re just coming along so you can act like my mother the entire time.”

“Of course,” she said, patting the same spine after I’d successfully flattened it back down. “As if anyone would ever enjoy a dragon’s company!”

Just for that, I launched myself into the air in a single motion so fluid, swift and sharp she nearly tumbled right off my back! I laughed as she barely managed to catch her balance and had to cling tightly to my neck just to keep from falling off. I dipped a wing a little, and turned into a tight, ascending spiral, rising swiftly over her village. Only once I’d straightened out again and evened out my flight did she finally respond to my little stunt.

“You scaly ass!”

I just smiled to myself as I watched her village pass away beneath me. I saw several groups of people waving to us as we flew, and even though I’d be back soon, it was nice to know they might actually miss me. I waved back to them, and soon their village was quickly vanishing behind me.

I waited for Kylah to get comfortable with the flight, and then I pulled my wings in, swooping like a diving hawk for a few seconds. Just long enough for her to rise up off my back and gave a shrill scream before I flared my wings again, and jerked right back up into the sky. She hit me hard enough to bruise her rump, and yelped in pain. There, that ought to make us even for her well thrown apple. She punched me in the neck, and repeated her previous insult with a little more venom dripping off her tongue.

“You scaly ass!”

I only smiled wider. It was good to fly with Kylah again.

Chapter Twenty Four

Much as I would have liked to try and make the journey home in a single day, Kylah forbid it. And while she couldn’t physically stop me from flying all day and all night if I really wanted too, I knew she was right. Only a few hours into our flight and already my wounds were all throbbing. Worst among them, the arrow wound near my wing joint, and the ax wound she’d so lovingly prodded to prove her point. Neither of them were bleeding, but both were aching badly enough to make me wonder if this was really such a wise idea. I tried to glide as much as I could, though it cost me in speed. But each time I beat my wings I felt like a little knife was being driven into my wing joint and twisted all over again. So when Kylah suggested I stop early in the evening, before the sun had even set I did not argue too much. I did argue a little mind you, but only for the sake of appearances and for pride.

Even though I’d only flown for a little more then half the day, we had gotten well into the rolling foothills that spread out like bubbling waves frozen in time below the towering swells of the snow capped mountains themselves. From here, I could see them in the distance, lofty and white, cutting sharp, imposing edges against the pale blue sky. The snows in the lands around my home were going to be very thick indeed. Even from here I could tell there was no longer any definition between the jagged grey peaks, and slowly rising, folded brown and red swells of the smaller, more bumpy looking mountains below them, nor even the lesser but thickly wooded hills beneath those. Past a certain point, everything was simply white. The only difference I could see now was whether the white looked like smooth rounded humps, or serrated, white teeth.

Kylah had made a good choice, we’d have trouble finding a good spot to camp without freezing our asses off up in all that snow. Before, we were able to shelter under an immense pine, now I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to find a tree like that in all the snow. I’d have to try and make it to my home in one go the next day if I wanted to avoid digging out a cave in the snow and getting frostbitten paw pads. Given that I’d already planned to do that before Kylah forbade me, it shouldn’t be so bad. Though I hadn’t counted on being in so much pain after only a half day of flight.

We landed in a large clearing near a little stream, and despite the pain I was in, I forced myself to go hunting. It did not take me long to find game, thankfully, I flew across a herd of antelope who had probably come down a bit in elevation from their usual haunts to find some lingering greens to feast upon. I caught one, and before long back at the clearing I was feasting on fresh meat, and Kylah was building a roaring fire to cook her own portion, and to keep us warm. She cooked enough meat to have breakfast, and she had also hunted herself some hares and some manner of fat bird I wasn’t familiar with. She skinned the hares and plucked the bird, and roasted them all over the fire so that she’d have something to eat the next day, since hunting in heavy snows was never assured. That was another reason dragons had developed the habit of stocking and aging meat, so that we’d always have food over the long, cold mountain winters.

When you grew up as a hatchling eating old…er…aged meat each winter, it didn’t seem bad at all. You developed quite a taste for it. In fact I was already looking forward to carving off a few choice bits when I got home and savoring the strong flavors. I was also looking forward to breaking into something good to drink! Perhaps some more of the Kraalgor we’d opened before we left. Come to think of it, I’d brought a little with to celebrate the victory if we survived, but after I nearly died, I’d forgotten all about it.

I was starting to think I was going to end up testing my own limits on the way back to Kylah’s village. I wanted to bring that stone head, and it was awfully heavy. But I also wanted to bring some Kraalgor, or maybe something else from my collection of drink, along with a few more personal possessions. Between the stone head and the vat of spirits, I wasn’t sure how I was going to carry it all! Or just how much weight I could actually carry over a few days flight. Perhaps I’d have to do what I used too when I was younger, and probably stronger, and went on long distance raids. I had assembled a sort of giant net that I wrapped up all my stolen goods in. That way I could hoist up the net in my paws and I could carry any number of things inside it, so long as I was able to handle and fly with the weight. I wasn’t sure what the limit of weight my wings would actually support was, but I was starting to think I was going to find out.

Long as it had been since I’d flown, and given that I was technically still healing, I slept very well that night. I curled up, warmed by the fire, with my head on my paws, and I slept soundly all the way through till morning. I was sure I dreamed, but even as I first woke the details and images of the dream were starting to flee. Something about Kylah, and stars, and an endless beautiful green field. They were nice images, even if I couldn’t really remember the context.

I think it was the crackling and popping of the fire that woke me. Kylah had woke first and was coaxing the coals back to life with the addition of a few more dried branches to chase the chill of the morning air away. I rose up, and turned around to present my other side to the fire. One half of my body was nice and warm, the other half felt like I had ice clinging to my scales and one of my wings. Soon the rejuvenated fire had warmed up the other side of my body as well.

After a quick breakfast of leftover antelope, and a drink from the stream, we were back in the air and on our way back towards my home. The air grew steadily colder throughout the day, and I tried to fly lower to the ground then I usually would to keep from freezing Kylah. She had her cloak wrapped tightly around herself and buttoned up, but it could only keep so much of the icy winds out. Within a few hours of morning we were already flying over lands cloaked and covered completely in the snow. The glare shining off it seemed even brighter then that of the rising sun, and I ended spending much of the flight squinting despite my flight membranes cutting down on the worst of it.

At least the painfully bright glow of the sunlight reflecting off the snow meant I didn’t have to struggle through a snowstorm the way I had the last time we’d made this trip. I was able to push myself, stroke my wings against the air in a steady, powerful rhythm that had me flying much faster then I’d been able too when we were first heading down to the village. Not that I had much to judge my speed by, it was hard to tell how fast things were whipping past below me when everything appeared as an endless snowy ocean, waves rising and falling in white swells.

The flight was rough on my body. My wings, and every flight muscle along my back and shoulders burned constantly, all my arrow wounds throbbed and the deeper wound the axe had made in my body felt as though it was constantly being reopened. Several times I had to look back at myself to make sure I wasn’t bleeding, or glance down at the snow to insure that I wasn’t leaving a trail of crimson spots against the stark white surface. I didn’t have to admit that Kylah was right about my stitches, I should have left them in a little longer. But I didn’t have the benefit of time to heal completely, and as long as my wounds clung together, I’d consider that a small victory.

By pushing myself harder then I normally would have even if I was healthy, I was able to finish the trip without having to land in the snow and struggle to find a place to shelter for sleep. We paused once during the day alongside a small mountain stream where the water had not yet frozen over, and the splashing and burbling brook had melted some of the snow alongside it’s rocky banks. I caught my breath, quenched my thirst, and we both ate some of the cooked meats Kylah had brought with her. Then it was back to the air, back to aching wings and burning lungs. With no wind or snow to hamper my efforts I was able to take the shorter, more treacherous route through the narrow mountain canyons. The effort paid off, and by just after sunset I was landing once more on my familiar ledge, my claws adding a few more scratches to those carved by generations of dragons landing.

By the time I’d landed it was a little too dark to get a good look at my valley, though I wasn’t too upset by that. At this point even my familiar home would look just the same as everything else I’d flown over. Once I had my footing on the ledge, Kylah hopped down off my back, and patted my neck, smiling up at me, her face ruddy and red from a day’s flight in the cold as she pulled back her woolen hood.

“It’s good to be home!”

Home. She’d called it her home. She might have been jesting with me, but it made me smile all the same. “Yes, it is! Now let’s get in out of this damn cold.”

Together we walked the tunnel that lead down into my sleeping chamber. With each step the air grew a little bit warmer, and the lightstones that shone along the length of the tunnel seemed just a little more inviting. Kylah was right, it was good to be home. Much as I maligned this place to myself and to Kylah, it was still my home and I had come to love it as such. Being away from it for so long helped me remember just how fond I really was of the place. So what if it was a damp cavern, would I rather spend my life in a stable? No, I’d rather spend it in a grand and soaring stone palace like the ones my ancestors dwelled in. But at least the cavern was warm and comfortable, and even inviting after all the years I’d spent in it.

“Mind the slime,” Kylah said, teasing me a little and patting my front leg.

“Thank you, Kylah,” I chuckled, carefully stepping over the patch of greenish slime that seemed to have grown since I’d last spotted it. “Gonna have to clean this place up again looks like.”

“You’ve never cleaned this place in your life.”

“I have too,” I said, flicking my tail tip against the wall of the tunnel, and grinning down at Kylah. In the pale blue light, her face shone with a strange, ghostly radiance. “I’ve chased the bats out and I’ve scraped out the slime patches at least once or twice.”

Kylah laughed as we rounded the corner into my not-so-grandiose sleeping chamber. “Is that what dragons consider cleaning?”

“It’s what I consider cleaning, anyway.”

Once in the deep mountain warmth of my central chamber, Kylah removed her bow and quiver of arrows, and set them down near the entry tunnel along with her small pack. Then as she moved deeper inside, she unbuttoned her cloak, undid the neck clasp and pulled it off. She folded it up, and for a moment she looked around for a place to set it. My home was just as we left it though, which meant there was hardly any such place. If anything, we’d left it in a messier state then it had been in when she first arrived. After all she’d spent a lot of time digging through clothes and old sets of armor and other potentially useful or useless junk, and everything we’d discarded ended up strewn all about the floor. Kylah finally sighed and just tossed her cloak down onto the ground along with everything else.

“Don’t make a mess, Kylah,” I said, with as straight a face as possible, flaring my neck spines slightly.

“Oh, balls to you, Vraal.”

I parted my jaws and let my pink, pointed tongue hang out of my muzzle for just a moment, flaring up my spiny, fin-like crests. She stuck her tongue right back out at me, and even put her hands up at the sides of her head in mockery of my crests. Which made me laugh before I turned around to survey my home. It was nice to be back, but she was right in her silent criticism, even by dragon standards the place was a mess. I carefully picked my way through all the scattered bits of my collection, one paw at a time, heading deeper into my home.

“You look like a dog walking through a briar patch, trying to keep from getting any more burrs in his paws.” Kylah walked behind me, simply pushing things out of the way with her boots. Then as she kicked aside a dented helmet, she unbuckled her sword scabbard, and tossed it towards the pile of sleeping furs. “You know if you put some of your precious collection away now and then, you wouldn’t have to walk as though you’re afraid of falling through thin ice all the time.”

“And what would the fun be in that?” I asked, peering at her over my back and snorting. “Do mind what you’re stepping on, won’t you?”

“Why?” Kylah bent down to pick up an old, dirty blue scarf I hadn’t the faintest idea where I’d gotten it from. She waved it back in the air a little, then sniffed it and scrunched her nose. “Afraid I’m going to damage your dirty, smelly old scarf?”

“Yes, I am!” I flicked my tail tip in her general direction. Then I put a hind paw upon a torn red blouse Kylah had discarded the last time we were here. I kicked my hind paw back and flung the blouse at her. “And I saw you kick that helmet, you’re going to dent it!”

Kylah caught the blouse in mid air, rolled it up with the scarf into a blue and red striped bundle, and tossed the whole thing over towards the crate that had once held many of the clothes that now littered the floor. “Vraal, that helmet already has more dents then your head, I’m hardly going to do any more damage to it.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but I was sure it was an insult of some kind. So as she started to pick up a few things and move them to the side of the room, I picked up a pair of leather breeches in a paw, and tossed them through the air so they landed just atop her head as she bent forward. They landed with the crotch of the pants across the back of her head and the legs hanging down, waving back and forth like a rambunctious child riding on her shoulders. Or perhaps something far more dirty. I burst out laughing, and she yanked them off her head, straightening up. The dark look that flashed across her face was gone an instant as this time it was the dragon’s laughter that proved infectious to the human, and not the other way around.

“You are such a brat,” she said between laughs, tossing the breeches into the crate along with all the other cloth’s she’d picked up. “You must have been the worst behaved little whelp growing up, it’s a wonder your mother didn’t spank the scales right off your ass!”

“She certainly tried,” I chuckled, wincing at the moment of a few such punishments. “Especially when I broke things.”

“Destructive little hatchling, where you?” Kylah rolled her eyes. “I’m shocked.”

“One time in particular. My parents had some kind of crystal vase they’d taken from humans long ago, in their own youth. I don’t remember why, but I decided I wanted to see what would happen if it fell from a very high distance. We didn’t live in this cave, but a similar one, and I went to the ledge, and tossed the vase right off it, just to see it shatter! Honestly their collection was a bit like mine, I doubt they’d have missed it for years.”

Kylah gathered up another bundle of old clothing and dropped it into the rapidly filling crate. “Except?”

“Except my mother was returning from hunting just in time to see me walk to the ledge and toss the vase off of it. She swatted my haunches so hard I don’t think I could sit properly for a week after that.”

“Sounds like you deserved it, you naughty beast.”

“Oh, I certainly did,” I admitted with a grin spreading across my black scaled snout. “Do you want any food?”

“Nothing from your rotten little cellar! I’ll eat what I have left, and then we’ll worry about more food tomorrow.”

“Suit yourself,” I muttered and made my way into my pantry.

I licked my muzzle at all the collected scents of properly aging meats. Perhaps there was just a bit of a taint of rot as well, that I hadn’t noticed before. Maybe I’d just spent too much time in my home and not enough time away from it. I’d have to clear the place out eventually, but for now I selected one of the most recently added deer carcasses, and began to slice the most rotten bits away. Eventually I got to nicely aged meat deep in the haunches and along the back strap, and with my claws sliced off more then enough to feed myself for the evening. I was going to just return and eat with Kylah, but something told me even the aged meat’s scent might put a human off. So I ate it in the pantry, watching a little grouping of beetles waddle and scuttle around upon one of the older and likely less edible carcasses. It wasn’t that dragons couldn’t eat carrion, our stomachs could certainly handle it with no problem. We were just too proud to do so unless we had too. Though, I myself saw a difference between aged meats and rotten carrion even if Kylah did not. However, when I saw a white, pulsing white grub with a little beady red head emerge from the old elk carcass and fall to the floor to flop and flail about, I had to admit, perhaps Kylah had a point.

While I finished eating my meat, I pondered the little grub. It’s tiny segmented legs were clearly only designed to pull it through soft dirt, or flesh, and not to carry it’s weight. It wiggled itself around on the floor, bulbous tail end flipping back and forth until it managed to right itself. Soon it was wriggling across the floor going no where in particular. I considered several options. I could squish the gooey looking little thing, I could put it back in the elk carcass and eventually add to what seemed to be a growing beetle collection, or I could eat it. I wondered briefly what it would taste like. In my hatchling days I’d eaten all manner of insects, and I imagine most young dragons had. Curiosity and deeply seated hunting instinct lead us to taste whatever we could get our paws on.

Before I had made up my mind, something else decided to dine on the plump little yellow-white worm. A fat yet agile spider suddenly darted forth from its shadowy hiding place between old, moldering crates. The spider was fairly large, nearly the size of Kylah’s fist, it’s plump body covered in soft looking brown and gray fur. Or was that hair? I was never sure with insects. It paused for only a moment, waving it’s two front legs in the air as if warding off invisible enemies. It darted back and forth, it’s many eyes shining blue in the light of the single light stone in the room, reflecting for just a moment the old black and gray dragon watching it. Then it surged forward, sunk it’s two long, curved fangs into the soft body of the little grub, and dragged the wriggling insect off to a likely painful death.

Nature was cruel, I thought, finishing off my meat. So were dragons and humans, though in the vastness of things I suppose our species were just part of nature, too. The strong destroyed the weak, and thrived upon their doom. For the most part, humans had killed dragons and built their homes upon our bones. Though in the most recent skirmish, it had been the dragon who triumphed over humans, the predator once more claiming the feast that was the little grub. Perhaps I should have eaten one of the humans I killed, just to make it official. That made me grin. I liked that wicked little spider. I wondered how long it had been there, and how many of it’s kin now infested my pantry, and other areas of my home. So long as they did not creep out in the night and bite Kylah or me, they were welcome to stay there.

After finishing off my meat, I licked my paws clean, and cleaned up my muzzle a little. I went into the room where I kept my collection of drink, the vat of Kraalgor we’d opened was still there, and still at least half full. Excellent! I made sure the stopper was still in tightly, and then I put it on it’s side and rolled it back out into my sleeping chamber. All the little bits of fruit and every ingredients that had settled would get sloshed around in there and add a little more to the flavor. That, or the rotten bits would mix in with the rest of it and poison us. Or at least Kylah.

I found Kylah had already taken advantage of being home by changing into yet another set of clothing I’d stolen long ago. Now she was wearing something soft, and silky. Probably silk. Both her shirt and pants were a pale, sky blue color, and flowed around her when she made even the slightest movements, as though there was a soft breeze constantly rippling the garments. Her hair was wet and pulled back behind her, and she was gently working a brush through it.

“Well don’t you just look clean and comfortable! I didn’t know you were going to take a bath,” I said, rolling the vat of Kraalgor back to my pile of furs, before turning it up on it’s end again.

“It was only a quick dip to rinse myself off, and try and get the tangles out of my hair. Besides, I didn’t want some dirty old dragon drooling over me while I was bathing.”

“I can’t blame you there,” I said, turning around to head back to grab a cup and a drinking bowl. “I hate when dirty old dragons drool over me, as well.”

“Was that a problem among your clan?” She called out as I retreated.

I laughed but didn’t rise to her bait this time. Instead, I just fetched us some drinking vessels and soon settled down atop my soft, familiar bed of furs and hides. I sighed happily, sore as my body was I felt as though I could just melt into a blissful, black and gray edged puddle atop all that soft fur. I even closed my eyes a little, half slumping forward. Soon my half slump turned into a full slump, and rather then sitting before her, I found myself sprawled on my belly, groaning happily.

“You sound like an old man easing into his favorite rocking chair.”

“And you sound like someone who’s not going to get any Kraalgor.”

“Didn’t want any of that nasty stuff, anyway.”

I opened one eye to a tiny blue slit to gaze at her. I knew she was lying now! The night before we’d left for her village, she’d drank almost as much of it as I had. But I’d play that game with her if she wanted, we’d see how long it took her to come right out and ask for some! “As you wish! More for me, then.”

“Just don’t get so drunk you piss all over yourself and your sleeping furs again.”

I quickly opened both eyes. “What? When did I…I did not!”

“I certainly hope not!” Kylah said, laughing, and grimacing at the same time as she worked a nasty knot out of her soft, brown hair. “But I wouldn’t put it past you, drunk as you seem to get.”

I snorted, flexing my wings a little. “It’s not my fault,” I said, sitting up just a bit, scratching at a loose scale along my chin. The little gray scale soon came loose, and I flicked it away. Another one would grow in to replace it. “God made dragons with the ability to drink heavily and not end up hung over like you humans. Might as well make use of that ability!”

“At least until you ruin that precious powerful dragon liver you were telling me about. Won’t be so impervious to common poisons once you’ve killed off that thing.”

“Keep it up,” I muttered, pulling the stopper on the Kraalgor vat and pouring some of the deep red, sweetly pungent liquid into my large wooden drinking bowl. “And you really won’t get any.”

“Oh come now, Vraal. I know you’re not going to deny me any of the good stuff.”

Kylah smiled as sweetly as she could and picked up the large wooden cup I’d brought her. She held it out to me in both hands, batting her eyelashes in a way I imagined was quite intoxicating to human males. Though to me, it just looked as though she had something stuck in her eyes. I made me laugh a little, and I filled her cup to the very brim. She was careful with it, not spilling a drop as she brought it back to her lips and took a long drink. Then Kylah sighed deeply in satisfaction, licked her lips and set the cup down.

“I’d never have guessed you dragons could make something so delicious.”

“It’s the blood that does it,” I explained, as it had always seemed that way to me.

Kylah made a face while I took a long drink from my own drinking bowl. She picked up her brush and fussed with her hair again. “It isn’t, and I’ll thank you to stop reminding me that’s in there.”

“Why, what’s wrong with blood? It’s been distilled along with everything else, there’s little more in there now I’d think that alcohol and maybe some old bits of fruit. It’s smoothed off nicely with it’s age.”

I took another long drink, I could feel the liquid warming my all the way down my long throat and into my belly, and soon that warmth had spread throughout my body, even to my wing tips and along my tail. It was potent stuff, and the long aging process had reduced the once potent burn to something far more manageable. It made me wonder if Kylah even realized just how potent it was. Already after a few drinks her soft skin was flushing darker crimson shade, though no where near as red as it would eventually be if she drank as much s she did last time!

When she’d gotten her hair to behave, she wrapped herself up in one of the spare furs she’d used for her bed while she lived here with me. Seeing her here in my home again made me wonder if she’d come to visit me when this was all over. We both knew part of me was growing increasingly affectionate towards her town, and assuming I survived with my wings intact, I’d probably come and visit it at least a few times a year, even if I was unable to find any more of my kind to share the place with. But would she also come and visit me, in my home? I knew I’d like that, but I didn’t think I’d be inviting anyone else up here, even Ravek.

“What are you planning to bring back, Vraal?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I said, my tail tip curling on itself as I tapped a single half unsheathed claw against the stone floor. “Just about as much as I can carry, though. Starting with that.”

I pointed to the stone dragon’s head, and Kylah looked over at it, a wry grin spreading across her lips. “Oh, you want to have someone to mumble incoherently too back in the stable, huh?”

I snorted, twisting one ear back. “He’s a better listener then you are.”

Kylah played right along. “He’s probably a better judge of character too! I actually like you, but he seems to know better.”

I took another long drink of warming, sweet Kraalgor, and pinned my ears back against my head, flaring my central frill. “Oh, he’s judging alright.”

Kylah turned her emerald gaze back onto the old black and gray beast sitting across from her, as I imagined her thinking of me. She dropped some of the teasing tones from her voice. “You still think he’s disappointed in you?”

Sometimes, I wondered just how she knew me so well. “He’s just a statue, Kylah.” I drained my drinking bowl, and as I set it down, I stared over at the statue. I curled my tail around my paws and haunches, and for the first time since I’d begun thinking of that old marble head as anything but “just a statue” it seemed to look at me with pride. With acceptance. I smiled just a little, my neck spines tingling and perking up. “But no, I do not.”

“I’m glad,” Kylah said softly. She reached across the space between us, and gently laid her hand down atop my paw. She ran her fingers back and forth across the tiny, fine scales that covered my paw and my fingers, and then patted me.

I tilted my horned head down to her, my smile growing and my spiny frills lifting further. “So am I. But the old bastard better appreciate the struggle it’s going be to carry his heavy ass all the way back to your village.”

“Don’t count on it,” Kylah laughed. “I should expect if he had a voice to raise he’d do nothing but complain about how slowly you were flying and how you were carrying him all the wrong way.”

I thumped my tail against the floor, and the furs behind me. “He’d get dropped on some particularly sturdy rocks if he did.”

“You’d probably end up afflicting yourself with all sorts of bad luck in that case. Don’t you dragons have any superstitions about that?”

I shook my head, letting my spines lower back into place. “Not about breaking overly judgmental statues. Though now that you’ve mentioned it, I feel I should be extra careful with him just in case.”

I poured myself some more Kraalgor, and poured Kylah more as well, though I warned her about it’s potency. As usual, she paid little attention to my warnings, and continued to drink it as though it were little more then strong ale, or wine. Luckily for her, she was almost as tired as I was, and we both ended up going to sleep before we could do to much damage to ourselves with excessive spirits, and we had gotten to know one another well enough now to avoid any potential repeats of the fight we had the first time we’d had too much to drink.

Thinking back on that now, it hurt more then ever to think I’d nearly killed her. To think of all the things I’d have missed out on, and to think of the friendship I’d have lost before it had truly begun. It would have numbered among the worst tragedies in all my life, and imagining it now was almost too painful to bare. I was simply thankful that it was well behind us now, and we knew each other far better then that.

Kylah ended up asleep before I did, and I carefully drained the last of the contents of her cup, then set it aside. I pulled one of the animal furs atop her to keep her warm throughout the night, and then I curled up alongside her as well. It was nice to be home, my bed of furs and hides was soft and familiar, and warm. After spending over a week away from home, the air of my cave smelt a little musty at first, a little humid, but now felt completely familiar and comforting in it’s own way. It was warm enough I didn’t need to try and wrap up under any furs myself the way I had back in the stable. At least now without the stitches, I’d be able to pull them over myself when it got too cold at night.

Exhausted as the trip had left me and happy as I was to be home in familiar surroundings, I fell asleep quite swiftly. And I slept deeply through the entire night, awakening sometime well after dawn. Though I had no way of knowing the time for sure, instincts usually told me about where the sun was when I woke in the morning. Peering up above me, I could just make out a few specks of light far above the slick, bronze-brown stalactites creeping inexorably closer to the floor. There were a few creases and recesses well above the already high ceiling of the cave, and buried within them were a few air vents. It was daylight, at least, and instincts told me it was probably several hours past dawn.

Kylah was still asleep, and so I pushed myself gingerly up onto all four paws. I didn’t want to wake her, and so I did my best to stretch and yawn in silence. It didn’t help that both my tail, and my left wing popped loudly when I stretched them, but the noise didn’t seem to bother her. Quietly as I could, I padded away from her and slipped into my bathing chamber. A night of drinking only Kraalgor and then sleeping it off had left me parched. Thankfully, as usual I wasn’t particularly hung over, just a little foggy headed and thirsty as all hell.

My long throat felt as though I’d been conversely swallowing sand and salt all night long. My pointed tongue felt dry and sandpapery, and I was afraid it was going to scrape the soft ridges right off the roof of my mouth if I kept pressing it against them. I also had a distinctly bitter, bile sort of taste at the very back of my throat that I definitely had to do something about.

Thankfully, the water was every bit as cold and fresh tasting as I recalled. It washed the sand and salt and bitter bile off my pointed tongue, and cleared away all the sticky, thirsty dry feeling from my length throat. It was also cold enough to send a chill coiling in my belly, causing a scale-clicking shiver to run through me. Though I drank a little too much, a little too fast, and soon had an icy throbbing ache centered in my brain, behind my pale blue eyes. I groaned, pressed a paw to my head just beneath a gray horn, and shook my head. Gah! I hated that.

When the cold borne ache had faded, and I’d managed to fully quench my thirst without getting another one, I returned to my sleeping chamber. I had decided against bathing until later, as I was going to go out flying to see if I could find any prey, and it was going to be cold enough without being wet. Kylah was still slumbering and snoring just faintly, so I walked past her as quietly as I could, my soft paw pads making barely a sound against the floor as I passed her. Even the rustling of my many scales was little more then a whisper as I walked through my sleeping chamber.

Before long I was outside and soaring through the morning sky. As expected, the air was very cold but nothing worse then I’d endured winter after winter in these mountains for my entire life. I saw little of interest in my valley, it looked like a long, deep white bowl now, broken up only by rippling blue and black ribbons of streams that were still flowing too swiftly to be completely frozen over. All the ponds had already been overtaken by a sheet of ice, now topped with enough snow for them to blend into everything else. Here and there I saw a few sets of tracks of animals struggling through the snow. A blur of white fur as an arctic fox darted and pounced upon tiny prey, though the fox itself was a bit too small for me to bother taking. Most of the deer had probably descended towards lower elevations in search of food, but I hoped sooner or later I’d find something both edible and big enough to fill my belly.

After passing by the Moon’s Glow cliffs, now as white and snow shrouded as everything else, I found myself in luck. A few hardly mountain goats were picking their way along the steep, rocky cliffs and trails where icy winds had blown most of the snow into deep drifts a bit further down, and left sections of sheer gray rock exposed. With no fear or trouble the mountain goats were easily traversing tiny, narrow rock ledges now wider then my paw! I had always wondered just how those creatures could do it so fearlessly, did they even realize that one unsure hoof and they’d plummet hundreds, if not thousands of feet to their demise?

They weren’t quite so fearless when they suddenly realized a dragon was swooping down towards them! It was a tricky dive, heading at an angle towards the side of a cliff. The goats all bleated in terror and broke into a run that was somehow no less sure footed then their ambling gait had been. Sprinting along that tiny trail, then leaping from boulder to boulder an in attempt to avoid my claws. An attempt that thankfully for my belly would turn out to be a complete failure. This wasn’t my first time hunting mountain goat, after all.

Just before I smashed myself head first into the side of the mountain, I snatched up the goat in the rear of the procession. I sunk my claws deep into it’s body at the same instant I reversed my wing beat, shifting the direction of my flight. Wind pressed forcefully against my wings and sails, stretching them to their full extent, and baring me momentarily backwards, away from the cliff face. Then I beat them harder, pulling back until I ended up upside down, clutching the bleating, struggling goat against my belly, blood matting it’s wool. I stroked my right wing against the air and spun myself around till I was right side up again, and with a few more wing beats I was flying over a much more level and much less treacherous boulder field. I had planned to hurtle the goat into one of the boulders to shatter it’s skull and break it’s neck, but deep as the snow was, even the boulders were little more then gray rises above the white ocean here and there where the wind had swept them clean.

So, instead I dispatched the goat the old fashioned way, the way dragons had done things long before we even had a civilization for humanity to take away from us. I lifted it in my claws, and snaked my head down on my long neck, then sunk my sharp teeth deeply into it’s throat, tearing it away. With no air to fill it’s lungs or blood to reach it’s brain, the goat would lose consciousness in moments.

It had been a long time since I’d killed prey that way, I’d forgotten just how messy it could be. The idea was often just to open the primary artery in the neck, and even to drink some of the gushing blood while it was nice and hot. But instead, as I’d gotten a little overzealous the creature was now gushing blood everywhere, and when I tried to drink some of it, it simply sprayed across my muzzle, coating my face red. I coughed a blinked away, jerking my head back up. Stupid goat, spraying me with blood! I couldn’t even wipe my face since I was holding my pray in both front paws! So I had to let the goat’s blood run down my scales, adding to the crimson trail I was leaving in the snow behind me.

Nicely done, Vraalasothinox, I thought. I’d dispatched that goat with all the grace, elegance, and immediately apparently inexperience of a young virgin dragon trying to mount his first female, and finishing before he’d really even gotten started. At least I’d never had that problem. Or so I’d swear to my dying day!

By the time I returned with breakfast, I must have looked atrocious. Though it strained my neck a little, I sunk my jaws into the goat to carry it down the tunnel so I wouldn’t have to hobble on three feet and drag the blood carcass alongside me. When I reached my sleeping chamber, Kylah was awake, and passing the time by looking through some of my things. She turned towards me, about to say “Good Morning, Vraal”, but all she got out was the first word.

“Good - Shit, Vraal, what happened!” She yelled, as she ran towards me.

Good shit. I’d have to remember that one. I spat out the goat, matted fur sticking to my tongue here and there. Sputtering and trying to clean my tongue, I shook my head. I lifted a paw and waved her off as she ran towards me. She’d changed into a dark blue blouse with lovely gold and silver stitching, and I didn’t want her getting blood all over it. “It’s not mine,” I coughed, a few goat hairs stuck in my throat. “It’s goat blood.”

Kylah came to a stop at a safe distance, and peered down at the dead goat, still oozing a little blood onto the floor of my home. “God, Vraal, maybe you should try killing it in a more gruesome way next time. You’re an awfully dainty hunter for a dragon…”

I lifted a paw and wiped at my eyes, grumbling. “Oh, lift my tail and kiss my stones.”

Kylah just grinned at me. “Such a dirty mind you have in the morning.”

I wiped my nose with my next, and licked some of the blood off. “Do you want any breakfast, or not?”

“Of course I do! I’m just not sure if there’s any left after you’ve gotten it all on your face.”

“One of these days, Kylah,” I muttered, walking past her and doing what I could to hide my grin. “I’m going to bite you. Hard.”

As I passed her, she trailed her fingers against my scales. She ran them all across my side, from just past my shoulder over my ribs, and over my hind leg and haunch, even down my tail. Her touch made me shiver and click my scales together, it was a more intimate and even erotic gesture to a dragon then she probably realized. I looked back at her along myself in time to catch her smirking to herself. Perhaps she did realize, after all.

“So you keep promising, Vraal.” She fetched a sharp knife from among my many collected implements, and crouched down near the goat’s carcass. “Why don’t you go get washed up, and I’ll cut my share from this goat. I think if we keep it small we can make a small cooking fire in here, and hopefully all the smoke will escape through your air vents. And I’ll get some of your older furs and hides to clean up the blood here, with.”

It sounded like a reasonable plan, and so I went back to my bathing chamber. I got another long drink before climbing into the cold water, and scrubbing myself from muzzle to tail. I kind of wished she hadn’t touched me the way she had, it made me want to spend a little extra time cleaning myself. Of course, if I did that, she’d probably come to fetch me for breakfast, and catch me in the act. And she had enough material already to embarrass ten dragons, let alone just one.

When I was clean, I climbed back out, and shook myself. In only the pale blue glow of the light stones, I missed seeing the sparking rainbow all around myself I saw in the sun, down in Kylah’s village. But I supposed there would be plenty of time for that later, so long as I didn’t get myself killed. Once I was more or less dry, I headed back out to my main sleeping chamber.

Upon my return I found that Kylah had been quite busy while I’d been washing my scales. She had cleaned up the area where I’d deposited the goat, using some old furs to mop up the blood. And she’d gathered some wood from an old broken crate and built herself a small fire near one of the walls of the chamber. The slick limestone wall sloped gently up towards the ceiling, and helped channel the rising smoke up and away from the ground. She was already roasted a few large sections of goat meat, and had the rest of the carcass nearby for me. I settled down upon my belly to start eating it, and almost immediately had my freshly washed snout caked in blood once more.

Kylah made a face, gesturing at me with the knife she’d procured from my collection, the blade glinting in the fire light. “Why’d you even bother taking a bath if you’re just to come back and stick your whole face in your meal, anyway?”

“I am not sticking my face in it,” I said, pulling my head back from doing exactly that. “Only part of it. Besides, I can clean my muzzle a lot easier then the rest of me.”

By the time Kylah’s meat was cooked, I was almost finished with my meal. My belly was full before hers, and I pushed the last of the goat carcass away to finish off later. I was sure I’d get back to it before it began to spoil too badly, and then I’d just toss the remains from my ledge. Kylah watched me while she ate, and slowly shook her head.

“What?” I asked, knowing perfectly well what she was thinking.

She stabbed the air with her knife, pointing towards the carcass I’d pushed up against the wall. “That’s how you get insects.”

“I know!” I said, beaming. There was a bit more excitement in my voice then I imagine she’d expected. “There are lovely spiders in my pantry, I watched one eat a grub that fell out of an elk carcass last night.”

Kylah made a face, looking down at the last of her goat steak as if it had suddenly sprouted grubs itself, along with several heads, one staring at the grub and one staring at her as if asking her why she didn’t just eat the grub, too. Spirits, but I had a vivid imagination once in a while. I walked back past her, and smirked at her as I went by.

“If you’re not going to eat that, I’ll finish it for you. It’s not as if there are grubs in that piece of meat. At least, I assume that goat didn’t have worms or anything. Oh well, my stomach will destroy them if it did, and your fire would have done the same.”

“You hope your stomach will destroy them, Vraal. You’re probably already got worms and you don’t even know it.”

“Hardly,” I snorted, glad to see she got over her disgust quickly enough to finish her meal.

Kylah got up and dusted herself off, then fetched herself a pail of water from my underground river. She returned and slowly poured it over her small fire, a cloud of hissing steam rising up to replace the cloud of gray smoke and crackling embers. Then once the fire was out, with her booted foot she scattered what was left of the small wooden fragments she’d used to start it, now little more then charred remains upon my stone floor.

“I hope you’re planning to clean that up.”

“As if you’d even notice in all this mess, Vraal. If I threw those dirty old furs atop it, you’d never even know I had a fire. Years from now you might uncover it, and wonder for the life of you just what you’d burned and why.”

“Are you saying I’m old and have a bad memory?”

Kylah put her hands on her hips, grinning defiantly at me. “Yes! And that you have a messy lair. A messy old dragon with a messy lair.”

“Damn right,” I said, holding my snout up high, and flaring all my spiky crests as if proud of my unkempt nature. “This is how that stable’s going to look back in your town when I get done with it.”

Kylah pursed her lips, and hooked her hair behind her right ear. “I should hope not. I’ll go in there to find you and end up lost for days. The only reason I don’t get lost in this glorious mess is because I just look for the shiny black scales gleaming in the blue light. It’s darker in the stable, I’ll never find my way back out of that place.”

“Shiny?” I lifted a wing and tucked my head under it, turning my side towards one of the light stones. “Are my scales really shiny?”

Oh, they were! What a vain beast I was in my old age. Wait, who was I kidding. I’d always been a vain beast. But it was nice to see my scales had retained a glossy sheen even as I grew older by the day. Or was that a recent development? I could have sworn they’d been dulled by age long ago. Perhaps I was just healthier lately then I had been for a while. I was certainly happier, though I was loathe to admit a mere human might be the cause for that.

“Looking at you,” Kylah said, putting a hand on my curved neck as I admired the side of my body, shining in the blue light. “You look like a bird preening for itself in the looking glass!”

“Ah, looking glass,” I grinned. “That’s what I need!”

Ignoring the way Kylah rolled her eyes, I dug through the clothes and silks and blankets that had gotten tossed about along the wall where I kept much of my collection. I had several looking glasses and mirrors throughout my home, but I was looking for one large one in particular. It took a little while, but eventually I found it, buried beneath a pile of what according to Kylah, were the sort of dresses and frilly clothing that royalty often wore. Gleaming and gold and green, with lots of lacy ruffles and wide, hoop like skirts with trains of silks behind them. I asked her if she wanted to wear them, and she told me she’d sooner go naked. I told her that was fine with me.

The looking glass was on it’s side, and I carefully turned it up. It had little wooden feet along the bottom, but one of them had long since broken off, so I had to lean it up against my shelves. Normally it was about as tall as Kylah, and a good bit wider, the gleaming reflective surface wrapped in serpentine coils of golden frame, with little leaves and scales carved into the undulating surface. Once I had it more or less standing up, I fetched a nearby light stone and set it in front of the mirror to provide ample illumination.

Then I simply gave into my natural dragon vanity. I’d already admitted to Kylah that at least a few of the unpleasant stories about us were true. We were naturally vain creatures, though in my case it had been a while since I’d really given into that vanity. Perhaps it was because the older I got, the less I believed I had to be vain about. Though Kylah was right, I did have very glossy scales. I purred to myself a little, turning too and fro, admiring how they shone like polished obsidian. I lifted and spread my wings, I flared my crests, the little spines all standing on end, connected by thin, fin-like membrane. Yes, I was a very handsome dragon, wasn’t I. I bared my fangs at myself, tipped my head back to look at my chin. Even my creamy gray scales had a bit of a blue shine to them in this light, the gray made me look distinguished rather then merely old. Or so I liked to think!

Behind me, Kylah finally burst out laughing. I twisted my head around to peer back at her alongside myself, and smirked. “Yes? Something funny?”

“You, you vain old lizard!” She punched my playfully in the haunch, making my hind leg twitch. “I haven’t seen you act like this since the entire time I’ve known you.”

“Well,” I said, rolling my shoulders and stretching one wing out towards her. “Perhaps that’s just because I finally have someone who makes me feel as though I’ve something worth being vain over again.”

Kylah smiled brightly, but at the same time her face flushed scarlet, and soon she looked away. I realized that I hadn’t quite put that the way I wanted too. Or had I? Kylah did make me feel good about myself, and was that really so bad? No, if that was all there was too it. But I think by now we were both realizing that wasn’t all there was too it, after all. It just frustrated me to feel so helplessly confused about my friendship with her. Was it just a friendship, or was it more? If it was more, was that wrong? I’d thought I had left all of this emotional turmoil and confusion behind me when I’d left my adolescence behind me as well.

Nonetheless, I wasn’t going to let that spoil the day or my time with Kylah. I turned myself, pretending to continue to admire my reflection while snaking my tail out behind her. I snapped it suddenly, swatting her across the rump with the tip of my tail. Not hard, just enough to startle her while she was having trouble meeting my gaze. She yelped and jumped and immediately picked up something to throw at me, though thankfully this time she didn’t aim it under my tail.

Instead this time I took a lump of charred wood right between my eyes. I yelped as well, a bit of soot exploding in a little black cloud around my head. Kylah burst out laughing as I squeezed my eyes shut, and stumbled backwards away from the blinding cloud. With a paw I wiped soot from my eyes, eventually plopped down on my haunches where I folded my wings back up against my body, and glared at her a moment.

“That’s what you get for being a brat, Vraal. And a dirty brat at that! Keep your tail to yourself.”

My eyes were watering from the soot, and I reached for one of the nearest furs. I used it to wipe my muzzle and face cleaning, staining the once tawny brown deer hide a much darker shade. “I can’t help it, you know. A dragon has little control over his tail, our tails have minds of their town.”

“Well tell your tail to watch it, or I’m gonna cut it off.”

“It? Or my tail?”

“Both!” Kylah explained, picking the knife up once more and slicing it through the air in a motion that had me cringing in more ways then one.

“You’re a cruel human, Kylah.”

“And you’re a dirty old dragon, Vraal.”

“Guilty. But I think you like it.”

“And I think you’re asking to be beaten with that battered old shield over there.”

“You’d think right,” I smirked, standing back up again. “I’m going to go wash this soot off my face.”

“Wash the blood off it while you’re at it, you look like a wild beast.”

“I am a wild beast,” I reminded her. And I was proud of it!

I returned to my bathing chamber, and quickly rinsed and washed my face and muzzle. I shook my head to fling the excess water away, and returned once more to the room I slept in. I picked up a soft fox fur, and used it to dry off my face. Then I decided it was probably time to decide just what I was going to bring back to town with me! The stone head was first and foremost, and likely heaviest.

I wasn’t sure why, but I wanted that old stone bastard back in the town with me, to see how things were progressing. In his time, humanity had been nothing but enemies to us. Not that things were much different in the grand scheme, but for at least one dragon and at least one town, things were changing. That judgmental stone had seen friendship develop between at least one dragon and one human, now he was going to get to see it blossom between an entire town, I was going to make sure of that.

Ugh, there I went again. It was starting to bother me just how much life and sentience I was attributing to an inanimate object. Nonetheless, I was bringing it back to town anyway. I tried to tell myself it was just so the humans would see that even dragons had once created great art, beautiful sculptures. That we’d crafted images of ourselves from stone to express our own inherent beauty and nobility. But while I believed all that as well, I knew I was going end up talking to the damn thing anyway, bragging to it about how I’d done something none of our people had ever managed to do.

I’d made friends with humans.

I walked over to the stone head, and ran a paw over its muzzle. The size of the statuary head was about the same size as my own. The statue it had once belonged too had been a life sized sculpture of a male dragon about the same size as me. After all, I was hardly the biggest dragon to ever walk the earth and fly the skies. Both my father and my elder-father had been larger dragons then me, though I liked to think I’d become a little faster and a better flyer then either of them. I supposed that made me simply an average dragon, which was alright. The statue had been carved to reflect dragons like me, prime examples of our once mighty race! Or so I enjoyed telling myself.

It was carved from a single piece of white marble, and it weighed even more then it looked as though it should. It wasn’t that heavy for a dragon to pick up, but I knew from experience that it’s weight seemed to increase by the wing beat when carrying it over a long flight. I picked it up by the horns, reclining back onto my haunches a moment to peer into its lifeless yet ever thoughtful eyes. The marble of its horns was cool and smooth against my paw pads, and its motionless eyes stared right back into mine, the gaze deeper then stone ever should be. I sniffed at my, gray-tinged black nostrils flaring as if I expected it to have the same living complex scent as a real dragon. It didn’t, it merely smelled like old stone and old male dragon and all the other scents that had accumulated atop it’s smooth surface after so many years in my home.

“Come along, old friend,” I muttered softly. “We’re going to visit the humans!”

“You’re an odd dragon, Vraal,” Kylah said with a playful smile as she leaned up against my shelves, tugging one dark blue sleeve down a little more to even it out with the other.”

“And you talk too much,” I grumbled at her as I waddled across the room on my hind legs, the statue in my paws.

Kylah idly rubbed a single finger against the gold and silver stitching along the seam of her indigo blouse’s sleeve. “At least I’m talking to someone who can actually hear me.”

“Which I’m starting to regret,” I said, teasing her right back as I set the statue head down near the center of my sleeping chamber. “I’m going to gather up everything I want to take back and put it all right here, so I don’t forget any of it. You should do the same with anything you’d like to take with you, as well.”

Kylah nodded, and rather than go looking for anything she might want, she walked over to me and began to poke and prod at all my wounds. He hissed and yelped in pain a few times, and twisted my head around to glare at her as she hauled herself halfway up my back to look at the wound near my wing joint. Then I grunted in discomfort as she poked around at it too, before finally hopping back down to the floor.

“Am I going to live, Doctor?”

“Not for long with that attitude, Lizard.”

I smiled to myself as I twisted the statue’s head around to face Kylah. “He thinks you should have a little more respect for your host! Especially since your host is a big powerful dragon.”

“He’s a dragon, alright. Not so sure about the other part. As for him…” She scuffed her boot along the floor in the general direction of the stone statue. “He looks like he’s got a lot more sense in that white head of his then this ‘host’ he’s talking about. Maybe I should take the statue back to town and leave you here!”

“I somehow don’t think the statue is as good a flyer as the host,” I returned, heading back to my many shelves and myriad treasures and trinkets.

“Maybe not, I’ll grant you that. But he’s probably a lot less grumpy, and a lot better company!”

For some reason, that made me laugh. My tail swished back and forth through the air like that of a happy dog, and though I wasn’t a dog, and my tail rarely wagged that way, for now it seemed to be doing so for just the same reason. As I began to poke through my shelves, looking for things I wanted to take with me, and things that wouldn’t be too easily broken, I paused to gaze back at Kylah over my wings.

“I’m glad you came, Kylah,” I said, teeth glowing pale blue through my smile.

Kylah caught my tail tip in her hand, and gently rubbed it. “So am I.”