I winced. So they didn’t all talk with grace.
Another husband slunk around the side of the house, snatched his wife up in a one-armed embrace, and planted a deep open-mouthed kiss on her. She responded enthusiastically and twined her fingers into his hair. I turned away, blushing.
So they could express emotion—more vulgar than what I was used to. In Gorlassar, husbands and wives kept most physical affections behind closed doors. The usual outward expression was the traditional greeting of close relations by holding foreheads together while candid feelings for the other infused into the heart and mind of the receiver. Acquaintances bowed or nodded in passing. Any other show of affection wasn’t necessary beyond the binding of two souls for eternity as mates and the intimacy that allowed. Everyone in Gorlassar felt everyone’s emotions, unless an individual made the effort to block them. Most didn’t bother.
That’s just how we were.
But Aneirin had bothered, and I wished I had kept my feelings from him too.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, I arrived at a forge. I watched a large, dark-haired man, with a leather apron stretched around his girth, hold a horseshoe in the flames. I listened to the clank clank of his tools before retreating into the woods.
Not a bad place, I said. I could blend in nicely.
As long as you don’t go revealing your powers, the mortals will think you’re one of them.
That leaves you, Seren.
The only sign of creatures, other than that rabbit and the squirrels I hear scampering in the treetops, was a couple of dogs chasing that cat. I don’t think seeing a dragon will go over well. Oh, and the sheep. I’d like one of those for dinner—tomorrow night. Think they’d mind if I snatched one of those?
I laughed. They’re corralled. Someone owns them. I could make a trade. If you stole a sheep, I don’t think you’d win them over.
Seren curled up, folding her long, spiked tail next to herself, creating a gap for me to lay my bedroll in. Her body heat warmed me, as did my internal light, so we decided against a campfire with its revealing illumination. We didn’t want any locals to snoop around because of a fire in the woods.
I stroked Seren’s scaled underbelly as I drifted off into a peculiar sleep—shallow enough that the tittering insects slipped into my dreams, as did memories of Aneirin. The day’s distractions didn’t help me forget what I left behind. They only reminded me I was missing everything.
Affection, family, and home.
FOUR
The crickets thrummed ever louder. I was going to roll over when a twig snapped thirty feet away on my right.
I stiffened. Seren, did you hear that? Don’t move.
Yes.
I sensed a presence in our grove. Well, I wasn’t lying around and letting him or her sneak up on us. I didn’t move but called out. “Don’t take another step, or you’ll regret it.”
Silence.
I rolled up and peeked over Seren’s tail. The moon cast its silver light, illuminating a dark shape. I opened my mind to Seren’s night vision. One of her crimson eyes was aligned with the intruder—a man dressed in unadorned pants and shirt, along with a cloak. Traveling apparel, perhaps.
He held his hands up. He didn’t quiver or cower, though his gaze fell right on Seren. The feelings I received from him… curiosity and…
Concern.
That piqued my interest. He didn’t balk at my dragon. So bold. His sentiments led me to wonder at the intelligence of these humans. Seren stood twice my height on all fours with her neck stretched high to the sky. Her wings spanned four times my height. And her spiked tail—as long as I was and lethal.
He either was an idiot or had a death wish.
The man edged closer.
I stood. “What part of don’t take another step do you not understand? I’ve never met someone so…”
I trailed off because what I was going to say was stubborn, bold… obnoxious?
I see why you didn’t finish the thought, Seren said.
I resisted a smile.
The man spoke. “You were about to thank me.”
I blinked. “Excuse me? Thank you for what? For sneaking up on us in our sleep? You have no idea what you’ve stumbled upon.” Seren, follow my lead. “Now that you’ve found us, we can’t let you just walk away. Seren, show this stranger what we do to—”
“To someone who’s here to warn you,” he said.
As I squinted at him, I wished I could see him in color instead of in my nighttime dragon vision of black and gray, but I wasn’t floating an orb of light above us and giving away my powers. I scoffed. “What could you possibly warn us about?”
“You were spotted. You and your flying lizard.”
Seren rose to all fours, and smoke puffed out of her nostrils, followed by a stream of flame. “I am no mere lizard, you contemptuous, assuming mortal.”
He stepped back, lifting his hands defensively. “She speaks and breathes fire. This is magic.”
I rolled my eyes. With Seren huffing flames, I could make out the man’s brown, scruffy hair twisted into haphazard spikes, as if someone had grabbed chunks of his hair and lobbed them off a few inches from his scalp. Seren huffed again, and his blue eyes gleamed orange. The man was young. Barely an adult. A youth by Gorlassar’s immortal standards, but he was a couple of inches taller than average height and not as muscular as my sparring mates. I was intrigued. My first human interaction.
He’d be no danger to us. I was sure of that because of what I sensed inside him. His naïveté bolstered
