Chapter Eighteen

When my lungs had no more air to sacrifice to my new cause, and the great roar of humanity renewed had died down around me, I turned back towards Kylah. She was beaming at me with as much happiness and radiance glowing in her brilliant green eyes as I’d ever seen. She knew what this meant to me, and it made her almost as happy. She’d heard my nightly rants about the end of my people, about how I despised so much of humanity for wiping us out, and somehow, she was the one who planted the idea in my mind to do something great. Not for myself, but for my people. And now I’d planted a seed as well, the seed of that greatness, that one great deed that if it worked out and changed the way even the smallest portion of the world saw us would be something wonderful.

Yet when she came up to throw her arms around the back of my horned head, and hug my muzzle against her chest, I could not help but smirk as I pulled away. “Now I will feed.”

Kylah blinked at me, her cheeks blushing just slightly pink, and then she burst out laughing. She slapped me on the nose enough to make me yelp, and then turned from me, still laughing. “You great big bossy scaly ass.”

I rubbed my snout with a paw, and began to follow her as she made her way across the plaza. “I have a great big scaly ass, but it’s not very bossy. You should be nice to me, you know. I have an entire town backing me up now.”

Kylah tossed her messy hair over her shoulder as she shot me a backwards glare. “Until I remind them about the sheep thing.”

I snorted, padding along across the sun-warmed cobblestone. I couldn’t help but notice a few rusty brown stains still coating the ground here and there, but I decided to just ignore them. I had no one here to mourn, and there would be enough sadness to go around the entire town from all those mourning men who had died to help free it. The people surrounding me seemed jubilant, and so I decided I should be able to enjoy myself, too.

“Don’t I get at least a few moments to gloat, and tease you, and be glad this crazy idea of yours actually worked?”

Kylah gave a delightedly musical laugh as she strolled ahead of me, waving at the crowd in front of us. “I suppose you do,” she said as the people parted to give me room to pass. “Come along, Vraal, I’ll take you to the market and get you filled with treats.”

As I passed through the throng of people who were already starting to stand closer and closer to me, I flicked my ears back in sudden concern. “Would this be the same market I nearly blew up?”

“It would,” Kylah said. “But don’t worry, it’s been cleaned up since then.”

“That’s not what I was worried about.”

“I know,” Kylah said, teasing me yet again. “All the blame has fallen squarely on the shoulders of our enemies. Those who saw what happened know it wasn’t your fault, and they also eventually came to realize you were protecting people out there. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Good!” I said, perking my ears and flaring my crests a little. “Now about those treats…”

Kylah just laughed and led me on. After we passed the outer edge of the crowd, some of them fell in behind me and began to follow. Despite what I’d said to them all I still wasn’t that comfortable around humans who weren’t Kylah, and I didn’t really like the idea of them following me all over town. But it was their town not mine, and for once I was the guest so I decided to put up with them best I could.

As we walked along the old cobblestone street that lead away from the house I’d demolished, I saw a few signs with arrows pointing in various directions. If I read the signs correctly, the house I’d brought down had once belonged to the mayor of the village. Well, that was a shame, wasn’t it. I just hoped he wasn’t angry at me. Then again, I hadn’t heard anyone mention a mayor or even that the house I’d broken was his. Which may well have meant that the mayor was a casualty of the people I’d come here to kill. Or at least that he was highly unpopular! If that was the case I’m sure the people he supposedly led would never let him live it down. Raise our taxes, will you? We’ll have our dragon collapse your house again!

Hmmph! That made me snort and lash my tail, my spines raising. As if I was their dragon! I stamped a paw against the cobblestone, and Kylah looked back at me, wondering what had gotten my spines up. I just shook my head and chuckled to myself, no need to explain the foolish musings of an old dragon. I’d just make myself sound even more grumpy and foolish then I really was.

The street Kylah lead me down was open and tree-lined, with well trimmed bushes beneath the wide green canopies of the old oak trees. The home that once belonged to the mayor may once have been the seat of power within their little village as well. Which would explain why it was at the end of a street, all alone, with only old oaks and a few sagging willows here and there to keep it company. All the other streets I’d seen were lined with buildings, homes and shops and things, yet this one was set well back away from everything else.

Soon enough Kylah had lead me back into the heart of the town, from intersection to intersection and side street to side street. By then we were much more into the sort of thing I expected in a human town. Lots of buildings lining both sides of the road, with other winding pathways, alleys and smaller side streets twisting between them and out of sight. The buildings along the side streets were mostly simple, but more colorful then I’d have expected. Some of the walls were white, and beige, with large wooden beams supporting them that had been painted the blue tone of the sky, or the dark green of the forest. Some of the buildings have roofs carefully thatched from reed and grasses, or tiled with baked clay, or wood worked till it was impervious to water. All slanted at sharp angles to keep the rain running off whenever possible. Though most of the roofs were dark earthen colors, in many places bright green mosses had taken hold and woven emerald patterns across the rooftops, or hung like jungle foliage from corners and overhangs. Here and there windows were crowned with a pointed arch, and in some places little poles jutted up from the arches. Colorful flags waved from the poles, and in some areas a whole series of bright, cheerful banners were strung across the street, and we passed the gently waving sections of dyed cloth. A few of the cloth banners hung low enough to brush and tickle my wings as I passed beneath them.

As I passed by the buildings, which seemed to be mostly homes in this area, people watched through windows. Some stared, some smiled, some even waved. Kylah nudged me, and I found myself lifting a paw from the ground to wave back at them. In at least one case, that seemed to delight the occupants of the little home! They smiled and jumped in place, and waved all the more vigorously in return. Such a strange people to be so happy to see a dragon. A dragon that had helped free their town, sure, but a dragon nonetheless. Shouldn’t they be busy calling for my head on a pike?

As we neared the main road that Kylah was taking me to, many of the residential buildings gave way to more shops and taverns and the like. One building in particular stood out to me, and I found myself fascinated by it. It was fairly narrow but stood taller then the other buildings around it, two stories as opposed to one. It looked rather old, the wood that made up it’s construction was weather worn and smooth, and slightly warped as though the building itself was a living thing that was slowly bulging out in the middle as it aged, reflecting it’s owners own growing midsection. But what intrigued me most was the fact that I couldn’t really see most of the building itself.

On either side of it, two old elm trees stood tall and proud, dwarfing the otherwise tall building between them. Though the building seemed nearly as old as the trees were, their branches wrapped around it and entwined with each other like two lovers desperately struggling to embrace each other through the wall that would always separate them. Limbs stretched out in front of the building, behind it, and from what I could tell, one of them even went through the building as though it had been renovated to account for the tree’s growth. Which left the majority of the old house obscured by the façade of the gently serrated teardrop shaped leaves, rustling a little in the breeze. And the dark, gray-brown trunks of the trees were wrapped almost completely in vines and ivy that had been creeping higher and higher, year after year, and had long since spread from the trees to the building itself. Faintly star shaped leaves of pale green streaked with white hung from the branches that crisscrossed the building, and twined themselves around every available area. They covered windowsills, they crept straight up the walls, and they hung like vibrant curtains over the front door. Whoever lived there must have had to duck when coming and going just to avoid the ivy.

“You like that house?”

I licked my muzzle, stepping a little closer to the building. “Yes! It’s beautiful,” was about all I could say.

I had never in my life imagined a human might live in such a place, so beautiful, so connected to nature even in the midst of their city. Perhaps Kylah was not the only one I’d misjudged. I wanted to get closer! A little pathway in smooth, unevenly round stones ran from the street to the front of the house, surrounded by pretty blue flowers that looked a little like toothless dragon’s muzzles frozen in mid yawn, with yellow tongues. I didn’t want to step on the flowers, so I walked the path best I could. To do so I had to try and put one front paw and one hind paw directly in front of the other for each step I took. It was not near wide enough for an adult dragon to comfortable walk, especially an adult male dragon.

But I made it to the front of the house without crushing any of the pretty dragon snout flowers, and I made a point to completely ignore Kylah’s laugh at the awkward way I was walking. I ducked my head to avoid the vines and peered in through one of the windows, the glass panes all sectioned off by dark brown wood. It looked…well, cozy was the only word I could think of. Very comfortable inside. Lots of chairs that looked like they had about twice as much padding as they needed, a fireplace with the black and grey remains of a burned log, bookshelves overflowing with books, and paintings on the walls. Decorations were strewn about on nearly every available space, on tables and shelves and in corners and in a few cases, hanging from the ceiling. A fat, grey and orange cat lay curled in one of the chairs, peering at me with shining eyes with about the same level of interest I might regard a passing cloud. Save for the cat, it looked like the sort of place a dragon might live, were he small enough to fit inside without breaking everything.

Just as I was about to turn around, another cat leapt onto the windowsill just on the other side of the window from my snout, hissing at me and lashing at the window with a paw, it’s little claws unveiled. I wasn’t afraid of the cat mind you, but it started the shit out of me, almost literally. I yelped in alarm and stumbled backwards, a hind paw coming down right atop one of those blue flowers I’d tried so hard not to injure, crushing it completely. And one of my horns hooked into a loop of vine as I staggered back, and before I realized it I had torn down a large section of the vines I’d so enjoyed seeing coat the house. Now vines stretched a good distance from the empty spot above the window all the way out to my head. I reached up with a paw to try and grab them, but when I shifted my balance I put my other front paw down and inadvertently crushed another beautiful flower.

Behind me, people were laughing which did not help matters at all. My tip muzzle flushed nearly purple in embarrassment, some grand and wise dragon I was. I might be able to kill humans and liberate towns, but not without bringing a house down on myself and clumsily ruining some person’s garden and yard work! I whined, and tried to pull the vines loose, but only succeeded in tugging more vine down from the roof of the house! I finally sighed and defeat, turning my head a bit towards Kylah.

“Kylah, help?”

To my dismay but not my surprise, Kylah was laughing as hard as anyone else. I couldn’t blame her, I’d have been laughing at her in the same position after all. But at the moment it didn’t make me feel about better about ruining this human’s vine covered roof, no doubt cultivated over long years. And it also didn’t make me feel any better about myself! Despite wanting to present myself as a wise old dragon still capable of wreaking havoc on human forces, so far today I’d only shown the humans that yes, dragons had to urinate too, and even old dragons could stumble around like clumsy, awkward adolescents. A wonderful first day as their ally I was having.

“Stop laughing,” I muttered, hanging my vine shrouded head a little. “It’s not funny.”

Kylah patted the side of my neck as she came up alongside me, still giggling to herself, her cheeks reddened by all her laughter. “Yes, Vraal,” she said with a smile as she began carefully untangling the vines from round my horn. “It is. It’s actually very funny! And if our places were reversed, you’d be laughing too.”

“I know, but still. It’s humiliating!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” She pulled the last of the vines away from my head and snout, and draped them across the path ahead of me. “If anything, seeing stuff like that happen to you just makes you and other dragons seem more…”

“Don’t you dare say human,” I said, cutting her off with my grumbling.

“I was going to say oafish and clumsy.”

“Hey!” I growled a little, my ears drooping.

That only made her laugh harder. “I was going to say human, and you know it. Now come on, lovely dragon, let’s get you back on the street.”

Lovely dragon. That made me smile a little despite my lingering embarrassment. I may not have been especially embarrassed to accidentally put my testicles in front of some woman, but damn if I wasn’t humiliated to look like a fool in front of humanity! Still, Kylah’s kind name for me made me feel a bit better about myself, and before long I was smiling quite a bit more. At least until I realized I didn’t have any way to get turned around without crushing even more of the blue flowers.

“Um, Kylah? How am I going to turn around?”

Kylah had moved behind me, and I could almost hear her rolling her eyes and folding her arms. She always did that when I got her just a little exasperated. “How should I know, Vraal? You should have thought of that before you decided to tip toe down that path and show everyone how dainty a dragon can be.”

I snapped my jaws. “I’m not dainty! And that doesn’t help.”

“Just walk backwards. Here, I’ll guide you.” I felt Kylah’s hand on the back of one of my hind legs. She patted my scaly thigh. “Move this leg back, to the right…there, step down. Good. Now the other one. Ok, now your right front foot. Now this leg…no, don’t step there!” She crouched and put a hand on my hind paw to guide it to the right place, and with a little work, she helped me walk backwards, very daintily, back to the street. Once there I turned around and she patted my nose, still grinning like a little schoolgirl hearing her first dirty joke.

“It’s not funny,” I muttered and started off down the street without her.

“Vraal!”

“What?” I asked, still walking, intent on acting as casual as I could, and at least pretending to sulk about her laughing at me.

“You’re going the wrong way!” I could hear her struggling to contain the laughter, and then I could hear her failing.

I huffed a long sigh. “Of course I am.”

I turned round again, nearly knocking over some human who’d gotten too close with my tail, and walked back to Kylah. “You’re mean,” I said, just loud enough so that only she would hear.

She smiled and replied in kind, rubbing one of my spiny crests, and then an ear. “I’m not the one who trampled some poor person’s flowers.”

“I hardly trampled them,” I said, walking back down the street, trying not to laugh as well. “I only squashed a few. And I believe I was promised treats.”

“And if you’d stop being a naughty dragon trampling everyone’s flowers, you’d get some!”

Kylah led me back to one of the main roads. I paused there to look up and down the street and try and get my bearings. I’d gotten a good look at the town from the air, but things looked very different at the street level and I’d been too busy fighting earlier too take much note of landmarks. Still, a lifetime of flight had made it easier for me to put images I remembered from the air together with what I saw on the ground. This was not the main road I’d fought on, but rather the other main road that intersected it. Kylah had lead me through the side streets towards the main intersection in town so that now we were not too far away from the market area. Behind me I could see the span of several bridges, and in front of me, another, though I couldn’t easily see the river from the road itself because of the buildings on either side of me. Walking ahead a little I could see sunlight glinting of rippling water between two taverns, and laughter and loud voices drifting from behind those buildings told me they were built with patio areas out back overlooking the river. For now, I paid little attention to the bridges behind me, and kept walking forward. By now I was getting seriously hungry, and the less time I spent inspecting human architecture, the sooner I’d get to eat.

As I neared the bridge ahead of me I had a better look at the river. On both sides of the bridge there was a small area Kylah described as a park. Instead of buildings it was grassy and green, with several tall elm and oak trees on one side, and a few white barked poplars on the other, vast green canopies shading and sheltering the park on each side of the bridge. Wooden benches with elegantly curved iron work supporting them rested beneath the trees, facing the river. At the moment the benches were unoccupied but I imagined it would be a nice area to rest and relax within the bustle of the city.

Bustle. Hmmph! I knew well enough this little town was little more then a speck on the map, barely a whisper of activity compared to the endless rattling scream of some of the larger human cities and kingdom capitals. There was an immense town, started with an L, I think. And another, with an M. Not that I could ever remember the names of human towns. But I’d glimpsed them. To me, they seemed like little more then a wide gray and brown sprawl that dirtied the once beautiful lands they covered like an ever widening sore that festered more and more day by day. Kylah’s town would have fit within them ten times over and likely more then that. And yet to a dragon who’d never seen more then a few dozen of his own kind in once place, a town filled with hundreds of humans seemed immense and as buzzing with activity as a hive full of furiously working bees.

Here, the road was paved in wide, smooth, square flagstones. I wasn’t sure what kind they were, marble or granite, I couldn’t tell. They’d once been white, or pale grey, but were now so covered with years of dirt and mud and dust that I had no way of telling just what sort of rock they were. They must have been expensive, and it was only the two main roads that were paved that way. But to a small town like this, they’d probably been immensely proud of the day they were able to uniformly pave their two major roads in carved flagstones. Then again, hadn’t Kylah mentioned one of the reasons the thugs wanted to take over her people’s lands were their resources? Precious metals and stones and the like. A granite or marble quarry could certainly bring in a lot of money, I should think. If the town had cut the stone itself, then it wouldn’t have cost near as much.

I didn’t mind walking on the main roads. I was used to the feel of stone beneath my sensitive paw pads after all. And at least here though the roads were dirty and smudged with soil, at least they were not covered with slime and algae. Granted, some of those alleyways I’d run through had been, but here the road was warm and smooth.

I stepped off it at the edge of the little park to walk down to the water and get a drink. Passing beneath the towering oak tree I realized just how warm the sun was. The shade felt almost cold against my wings and scales, but in the middle of summer I’d have relished it. I glanced at the tree, it was nice to see such a large tree in the middle of the town, though this tree’s trunk was little larger around then the thickest part of my haunch. It reminded me of the truly massive oak I’d seen out in the forest around the town. I’d have to wander back out there when my wounds had healed a little more. I liked that forest.

The grass felt nice and soft beneath my paws, it made me want to lay down in it and take a nap. Though as much as I’d slept over the last few days, a nap was probably the last thing I needed. I walked down to the edge of the river, and peered into it. It was fairly clear, and it looked fairly deep. I could see down to the bottom for several feet and then it vanished into the depths. A silvery fish darted up out of the deeper water, snatched a smaller fish, and vanished again. Long green weeds stretched from the bottom up to the surface, where they spread along the top of the river and lazily waved back and forth in the ceaseless current. It was a fairly wide river, even with a running start I’d end up soaked if I tried to hurdle it without the aid of my wings.

Looking upstream, I could see the yellowy glint of sunlight on the water, and the reflections of all the taverns and shops, each with a patio overlooking the expanse of water. More colorful banners and flags were hung from each buildings, brightly painted murals adorned others. In a few places, long ropes were stretched out across the river with more bright banners hanging from them, as well as a few cloth-printed advertisements for the various businesses in the area. Some of the buildings went right up to the water, and these had stone or brick foundations. Red brick and gray stone alike were tinted dark green down at the waters edge, and dark marks higher up the stonework marked the usual high water mark for the river. It did not seem particularly flood prone, luckily for the citizens of the town. Other then the buildings flush with the waters edge, the riverbanks were mostly lined with tall, green reeds and cattails, some of them topped cylinders of tightly packed dark brown seeds, I assumed, which drifted away in clumps and clouds of pale brown fluff, soft as silk.

I lowered my head to quench my thirst, which had returned full strength now that I was awake and still not fully hydrated. The water from the river was surprisingly cold and fresh, I could drink it all day. I lapped and lapped at it, cold water sliding down my long throat in gulp after gulp until even my hunger was temporarily eased. I lifted my head, and as was custom for a dragon, belched. Then I turned and made my way back to the road, and began to cross the bridge.

Kylah had already crossed and was waiting for me, but once again I found myself to be the one holding us up. It occurred to me that I had never actually crossed a bridge before, and when it creaked, I froze. I had a sudden vision of myself toppling into the water only to be washed away by the river. I realized how unlikely that was, and I realized that even if the bridge did collapse, I could swim. Unless of course my wings were entangled in the wreckage or it pulled me beneath the waters. And I realized the bridge was obviously designed for heavy carts and carriages to cross every day. Yet I wondered if it had ever held anything that weighed quite as much as I did.

I wasn’t true afraid, I just felt an odd sense of nervousness at crossing something designed by humans to span the water they themselves could not cross. After a moment, the feeling passed, and so I took a little time to examine the bridge itself, and the view it provided. I had to admit, it was surprisingly elegantly looking. Though the bottom of the bridge itself was flat, and made up of very thick wooden slats reinforced with iron beams and bars, it was covered by a series of very beautiful arches. Four arches in total, each spanning a quarter of the bridge. Inside each arch was a circle, connected and held in place by a series of spokes that spanned the area between the circle and the arch. The arches circle and spoke were all painted in beautiful blues and golds, and it created the effect of brilliant golden sunlight streaking out into the bright blue sky. The arches had a more practical use as well, providing a tall railing to help keep people from falling off the bridge. Mostly a problem for drunkards, I imagined.

Downstream from the bridge, I could see one of the watermills that Kylah had mentioned, the one near the center of town. It was a fairly tall building with a pointed roof, and cracked white walls that looked as though they were in need of repair. The roof was some kind of thatch, reeds perhaps. But more interested was the waterwheel itself, which somewhat to my surprise, appeared to be literally that. A giant wheel, half immersed in the water. It was an immense wooden circle, taller then I was, with large paddles around it at even intervals. The water pushed the paddles, and turned the wheel. Large spokes as big around as my forelegs connected the wheel to a gigantic center pin that also turned, and the pin was set into the wall of the building. I watched it for a little while, it was almost mesmerizing the way it constantly turned and created a tiny, temporary waterfall every few seconds as the next paddle emerged from the river and water sluiced over it in little streams that shone and sparkled in the sun as they poured back down to their source.

“What does it do?” I finally asked Kylah when finally made my way off the creaking bridge and back onto solid ground.

“Crushes things,” Kylah said, patting my nose and then walking down the road again.

“Like your enemies? Is it a torture device?”

Kylah probably thought I was teasing, but I wasn’t. I honestly had no idea what a waterwheel did! My question made her laugh, and she shook her head, dark brown tresses swishing back and forth over her shoulders and the nape of her neck. At some point she’d gotten her hair back under control, probably while I was busy getting my horns caught in vines, or sampling the local water supply.

“No, Vraal,” she said, still laughing. “Grain, mostly. We use them to mill grain to make various kinds of flour and things. The water that turns it also turns giant stone wheels, and the wheels grind up things into powder. So, I suppose anything you want ground into powder that will fit in there, you could crush with it.”

“So…you could grind your enemies skulls to dust, then.” I smirked, and rustled my wings. I rather liked that idea! Perhaps I should bring the skulls of those humans down here, I’d enjoy watching them crushed by a giant stone wheel. That sounded fun.

“I guess you could, yes, but I don’t think we’ve ever done that.”

I thought about asking Kylah what had happened to her enemies. Had their been any survivors? Had they escaped, had they been allowed to leave? Or had they been imprisoned, where they facing execution? Had they already been put to death? Dozens of questions swirled around in my brain, but Kylah seemed to be in a good mood, and as I was still recovering myself, I didn’t really wish to trouble her, or myself with less pleasant conversation. So for the moment, I simply pushed the questions aside. Being a dragon, it was easy to let hunger take the foremost position in my mind.

“I thought I told you it was time for me to feed.”

“Vraal, you’re just asking for sour-fruit.”

I crinkled my muzzle. Whatever that was, I didn’t think I’d like it. “Feed me that, and I’ll spit it all over you.”

“I’m not sure your muzzle is designed to let you spit.”

“Feel free to test me, then.”

Kylah smirked over her shoulder at me as we neared the central plaza where the two main roads intersected in about the center of town. “I know you’re hungry, but I’m not the one who keeps stopping to step on flowers and pull down vines, and stare at old watermills.”

I rolled my pale blue eyes, stomping a paw. “Oh, please. It’s not like I’ve ever had a chance to set foot in a human town without being attacked, before.”

Kylah turned to face me, curiosity igniting in her beautiful green eyes. “And what do you think of our town so far?”

I knew she meant it as a serious question, but I wasn’t about to take it seriously when I hadn’t even had breakfast! I stared down at her, cocked my head to the side, and said, “It smells funny and the people are ugly.”

I hoped no one else heard me, because as soon as I said it I realized Kylah was probably the only one who’d know I was joking. Even so, she swatted me on the nose hard enough to make me yelp. I rubbed my snout with a paw, and she turned away to lead me once more.

“You’re a bad dragon, Vraal.”

“Better then a funny smelling human.”

We entered the central plaza, and once more I paused to look around. I’d been here once before, this was where the watchtower stood that I’d brought down. There was little evidence of it now, though. All the shattered wooden debris had been removed, and only the vestiges of the support pillars still jutted from the ground, like tree stumps waiting to be removed. In a strange way, it reminded me of the ruins I’d taken Kylah too, all that was left of my people’s strong hold were a few rooms, a few walls, and a few broken support structures. And now, that was about all that was left of Kylah’s enemies. I just hoped that one day we’d be remembered more fondly then they would.

Kylah explained to me as we walked through the plaza that years ago, it was that central plaza that had always been where the village held it’s daily market, as well as the larger monthly market, and any seasonal or yearly special events and special markets. I remarked that they had too many markets and should just sell everything they had whenever they had it. She ignored me. The invaders decided to use that space for themselves and their watchtower, and they forced the town to move the market to the more cramped space up the road, where it had been when I attacked. Kylah also told me they would be moving it back to the central plaza once they had new stalls and infrastructure built. For now they would continue the market up the street using the remaining stalls and equipment that were not totally destroyed in the battle.

The last time I was here, the plaza was filled with people, with smoke, battle, and blood. I had missed the fact that among the many wide flagstones that paved the plaza where those of blue and gold. Or perhaps they had been freshly painted since then. Whatever the case, the plaza itself looked to have been dutifully swept and cleaned since I’d toppled the tower, and though it was still wide and open, it somehow seemed more vibrant and full of life then it had even when it had been filled with a throng of angry people. All around me I saw people working on shops and storefronts that lined the plaza. They were painting walls and hanging new signs. They were planting flowers and brush and sapling trees. They were building stands and stalls to breathe new life into the old market. They were working, talking, and laughing, and what had in retrospect seemed dim and lifeless now seemed bright and vibrant. For some reason, that made me smile. If only my people could have the same sort of renaissance I seemed to have help bring these humans.

“I’m going to have to put you on a leash, Vraal!” Kylah laughed, and playfully reached up to grab one of my horns and give it a tug.

“Ooh, kinky,” I smirked. I pulled my head back and nipped at her fingers, careful not to break the skin. “Which way to the food?”

Kylah lead me across the plaza, to the familiar road where I’d had my battle with the archers who’d pinned Kylah down, and the soldiers who came to back them up. On the way there I saw several men busily chiseling at an immense slab of black marble. It was several times as big as the man carving it, long and rough rectangular, though they were busy carving out chunks as large as my head, horns included, in their quest to shape it into something else entirely. Seeing such a large piece of rock moved to the side of one of the main streets emptying into the plaza confirmed my suspicions that they must have their own stone quarry nearby, and equipment suitable for moving such huge pieces of stone.

The men carving whatever it was saw me watching them, and they all smiled and waved at me. I still wasn’t even close to used to that, but I did my best to wave back to them, and to smile in a way that I hoped didn’t look as though I was planning to eat them. After a moment, they went back to their work, and I went back to following Kylah. She was far enough ahead that now and then I let my eyes flick downwards a bit, watching the back and forth sway of her lovely haunches…

Ugh. Really, Vraal? I had to find myself a female dragon.

I shook my head as though it was a brush attempting to scrub my mind clean.

All through our travels through the streets, people had been staring at me. I wouldn’t say that I had gotten used to it already, but if nothing else, waking surrounded by a curious crowd helped me learn to ignore the stares a little faster. Dragons were not often self conscious, but being stared at by humans everywhere I went definitely made me uncomfortable. Many of them smiled, some of them waved, some of them ventured nearer me. The initial crowd had mostly dispersed at least for now, but it had been replaced by the townsfolk simply standing their ground as I passed them, and staring at me in a way that made me think they hadn’t yet decided if they should embrace me, run from me, or stab me when I wasn’t looking. One person in particular glared at me as I passed, then turned away, muttering to himself. For a moment, I wondered if he might be a spy employed by the same people we’d just kicked out of Kylah’s town. I wrote it off as paranoia, a quality I’d always suffered from, and had only increased as I’d aged into a grumpy old dragon.

Soon the air that had been tinted with the scent of water not long ago was now tainted with the scent of acrid smoke. Though the fires were long out, to a dragon the harsh burnt scent lingered long after a human could no longer smell it. The smells of charred wood mingled in a very unpleasant way with the scent of burnt hair, and clothing, as well as the bitterness of seared tar and pine sap. I crinkled my snout, and shook my head. At least it was only a background scent, and soon enough, the much more pleasant scents of cooked meat and vegetables were beginning to over power it.

Up ahead I saw the remains of the tavern I’d nearly blown apart. Quite by accident, of course. Though the fires had eventually been put out, it had not been in time to save that tavern, nor a couple other buildings around it. Several of them were reduced to charred, burnt out shells, black skeletal remains of the buildings most basic frames were all that remained. The tavern that took the worst of the explosion fared even worse, there was nothing left of it but ash and rubble, still faintly smoldering days later.

But the streets had been cleaned up, and the surviving buildings that had sustained damage were already being patched up and repaired. The layer of ash and soot that coated everything was being cleaned up, windows washed and streets swept. In a way it was impressive how industrious these humans were. How quickly they worked, how hard they toiled on even basic things like cleaning the soot from windows I doubted anyone ever looked through, anyway. With a pool of inner strength and resolve that size to draw from, no wonder they’d been able to wipe us out when they turned their attention to my people. If only one of us had come to their aide earlier, perhaps I might not be left wondering if my family was still alive, or if I was the last one of my kin still lingering in a world that had long since turned it’s back on us.

Here, more people seemed to recognize me. I heard shouts of “It’s the dragon!” and “Look, the dragon is here!” I even heard “Three cheers for the dragon”, followed by of course, three cheers. And my person favorite, “Long live the dragon!” I sincerely doubted any human had ever before uttered those words in that order in the entire history of humanity. I looked around myself, and saw people everywhere pausing in their work to watch me. Most of them were smiling, some of them were whistling and others even cheering me. A few even approached, paused to see if I was going to eat them, and when I didn’t, came up to pat my scales. I was still unsure about the feel of so many human hands upon me, but as they seemed to mean it affectionately, I let them pat my sides, my neck, and in one case, rub my chin.

I wasn’t sure at first why the people here seemed even more open with their appreciation for me then in other areas, save the crowd around me when I woke. But as I gazed around at those who increasingly seemed to be my admirers, I realized I recognized some of them. Many of these seem people had been in the crowd the day of the battle, the crowd Kylah addressed, and the crowd that saw me risk my own life to protect her. The same crowd who then saw me through myself into battle on their behalf.

It made sense when I thought about it. Most of the people who initially came out to attack me did so because they thought I was not only burning down their town, but burning down their homes in particular. They lived and worked in this area, and though they’d remained hidden away when I first attacked, they came out to defend their families and their homes when they felt they had no choice. And so it had been the people who lived and worked in this market area who not only saw me fight for them, but heard my little speech following Kylah’s, and probably knew more about why I was here then anyone else.

I took a few steps, and then a few more, but I had to take them very slowly as once again, a crowd was beginning to build around me. I could see stalls up ahead selling all kinds of food, and my belly rumbled ominously. I was so close to food now, and yet so far away with all the people standing between me and my well deserved breakfast. They were still yelling and cheering and touching, and not letting me eat! It was a strange combination for me, in some ways I was warmed and touched to see humans so appreciative of a dragon, and at the same time all the touching was putting me a little on edge. It would take a while for me to get used to being touched so openly by humans other then Kylah.

And they kept calling me dragon! I had a name, damn it, I was not some beast. I stepped forward again, and the crowd swelled and surged around me, shifting and flowing like the tide. Everyone wanted a chance to touch the dragon! Someone even got bold and managed to yank a scale from my front leg like some kind of keepsake. I yelped in pain, my claws unsheathed, and I had to fight my instincts. All it would take would be one quick swipe of a paw, one injured or slain human, and I’d undo all the goodwill I’d created.

“Kylah!” I called out, she was somewhere ahead of the crowd. “There’s too many of them!”

One of them inadvertently bumped my heavily bandaged side, and I cried out louder in pain, stumbling away, and bumping into a few more humans, knocking them on their rumps. One of them got up yelling, another got up laughing, thinking I was playing some kind of game. Damn it, all I wanted was to eat some food!

“People, people! Please!” Kylah yelled out, though she struggled to be heard over the swelling ocean of voices. She caught my attention, and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Roar!”

She covered her ears, and I took that to mean she wanted me to stun them into submission. I could do that! I took a deep breath, spread my aching ribs, and then let out a thundering roar. Not quite as loud as the one I’d given earlier, but in a more enclosed street the sound swelled and echoed up and down the road, shaking roofing tiles and rattling windows.

That shut the crowd right up! Most of them fell into a stunned silence, and some of them even took off running. Good, let them run. Less people for me to deal with. When the roar settled, a few people started to cheer, but Kylah was quick to come to my rescue and yell to them while there were still few enough voices for her to out match.

“People! Give the dragon some room to breathe, already!”

People turned to Kylah in confusion, and she held up her hands, her palms facing the small crowd. When she had their attention, she tugged up the sky blue sleeves of her tunic as though getting ready to pull vegetables out of some murky mire, then began to wave her hands to the sides. A little confused, the crowd slowly began to part, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Listen, everyone! The dragon is very happy you all appreciate him so much! But try to understand. Just as none of you ever thought a dragon could be anything but evil, the dragon never thought humans would do anything but try and kill him. And just as some of you are still a little nervous around him…”

Some in the crowd turned towards those who’d taken off running, who now looked like fools and grinned sheepishly from the sides of the road. A wave of laughter washed over the crowd, just as it seemed Kylah had expected. I had to hand it to her, she really know her people, and she really knew how to talk to them. Though I didn’t like being addressedn as “the dragon”, I knew for the moment, that was how I was thought of. Kylah knew it too, and she knew just how to speak to her people to make sure she got through to them.

“Just as some of you felt like you had to run from the dragon, believe it or not he’s very nervous around you as well! Until he met me, the only humans he’d ever met in his entire life tried to kill him! So please forgive him if suddenly being surrounded by the very people who are usually trying to stick swords and lances in his belly makes him a little nervous. Just as some of you still fear him, he still fears you. You can understand that, right?”

There was a murmur of agreement and approval running through the crowd, and Kylah seized on it. “And doing things like pulling his scales off are not going to help him get over that nervousness and fear.” Ah, so she’d seen that. So had some in the crowd, who turned to stare at the man who’d decided to take that scale. Glared at by his own people, he awkwardly lifted the scale as if to offer it back to me. I slowly shook my head, it wasn’t like I could reattach it.

“And believe it or not,” Kylah went on. “Dragons feel pain just like we do.” That should have been obvious, and in fact I imagine it was. The humans just didn’t really think about it until she pointed it out. “And it hurts him when you pluck his scales off. And it hurts him a lot more when you bump wounds that are still healing.” She paused for emphasis. “Wounds that very nearly took his life, and wounds he sustained saving our town.” She let that sink in, then winked at me. “So please, give him some room, and be patient with him. He’ll be very happy too let you all see and talk to him, just please don’t crowd him, alright?”

 I narrowed my eyes at Kylah. She slipped that last little bit in there without me getting to have a say in things! Oh well. I supposed as long as I got to eat that would be alright. Thankfully, the crowd moved back, and let me walk forward again. I decided that if I was going to have to sit and talk to them or let them stare at me like some caged beast on display, they may as well at least learn to address me by my name. Normally I’d never give me name to a human I hadn’t developed a friendship with, and Kylah was still the only human I considered my friend. But in the interest of advancing dragon-human relations, and moreso, in the interest of avoiding being called “the dragon” all day I decided to give them my name.

“My name is Vraal,” I said, softly at first. Then I raised my voice the way I had when I’d addressed the earlier crowd. At least they’d had the common sense not to get too close to the dragon. Oh, great. Now I was calling myself the dragon. Wonderful. “My name is Vraal! And I’m very, very hungry…”

I added in the last part almost before I’d realized it. It got a laugh from some in the crowd, though, and before I knew it all the people who worked the food stalls were returning to them, each of them calling out to me and trying to entice me over to try whatever it was they had to offer. It seemed they were all eager to reward the dragon with food for saving their village, and really, was there any better reward? There were stalls with little grills set up over cooking fires, searing steaks of cattle, sheep, and venison. There were other stalls with birds of all sizes, some of them hanging from poles, already plucked and roasted, others plucked by raw, and many more birds squawking and flapping about inside cages. Feathers of white, brown and grey fluttered in the air. There were chickens, geese, ducks, and a multitude of others I couldn’t even begin to name. Another stall had a selection of freshly caught fish displayed atop it, with more fish sizzling in a large skillet over a fire, and even a few large glass tanks, filled with water and fish still alive. One had a very long, snake-like fish slithering about inside it. Kylah told me it was an eel, I told her I didn’t care what it was as long as I got to eat it. And though it was the meat that first drew my attention, there were many other stalls as well offering up all manner of fruit and vegetable, fresh eggs, breads of all shapes and sizes, wheels of cheese wrapped in yellow and red wax, and things I couldn’t even name.

I must admit, for a group of people who knew how to drive a dragon crazy, they sure knew how to make a hungry dragon happy! I wanted to eat some of everything, and that was exactly what I did, starting with the stall offering all the grilled meats. Many of them had been cut into small bits and skewered on sharp sticks, but I wanted the biggest piece they had! So they loaded a wooden plate with the biggest steaks they’d yet cooked of every type of meat they offered. I’d have been perfectly happy with raw meat, but Kylah assured me I would enjoy the cooked variety, and I got the feeling it would make the townsfolk happy to see a dragon enjoying their cooking.

Luckily for both of us, I enjoyed the hell out of it!

I carefully plucked each slab of meat off the plate with my claws and popped it into my mouth. They’d all been lightly grilled over the fire and seasoned with some strange yet delightful mixture of spices I wasn’t at all familiar with. Spice in all it’s forms was not something I’d ever bothered to try and raid the humans for, but I was at least vaguely familiar with the garlic that had been finely minced and now dotted the meat in tiny yellow specks. It was one of the things Kylah had introduced me too in a wild form, and it was glad to see it make another appearance. Despite the fact I was worried cooking would rob the meat of it’s natural juices, the stall tender offered me only faintly cooked food so that the outside was seared and the flavors of the garlic and spices were locked into the meat, but the inside was still tender, bloody, and good.

When I was finished with the offering from the first stall, I thanked the man and told him it was very good. He was either surprised and happy I liked his cooking, or just overjoyed that I wasn’t going to eat him as well. I could never really tell with humans. Though I would have happily eaten everything else on his stand, Kylah bid me to move on to the next one so that I’d have plenty of room in my belly to taste everything, She gave me some nonsense about not wanting me to make myself sick since I hadn’t eaten in a few days, but she clearly didn’t know dragons as well as she thought she did. We could always eat more!

I visited each of the stalls with birds and sampled a multitude of fowl. Common as some of them may have been to humans, they were new to me. I’d eaten wild turkey and duck before, but I’d never tasted simple common chicken. It was quite good, though I had to admit a preference for the birds with the darker meat. While I chomped up a duck roasted just that morning and basted in some delicious sweet berry sauce, the stall tender plucked a few dove and skewered them on a spit to roast them over the fire he had going behind his stall. Kylah chatted with him to pass the time, I simply did my best to eat the duck as slowly as possible to avoid having to talk too much. Given I could have eaten it in a bite or three, it was a difficult task. I ended up talking with the man a little, and I had the distinct impression that was exactly what Kylah wanted. But I didn’t tell him, he asked rather asinine questions.

Did dragons have names? Of course we did, I’d just told the entire crowd my name. Yes, yes, apology accepted, little man.

Was I really their ally now? Well I’d sort of painted myself into a corner by attacking their enemies and helping them out, so yes, I suppose I was.

Why were the other dragons so evil? I had a better question for him, why didn’t I just bite off his-and at that point Kylah jammed her elbow into my ribs, and while I glared at her she explained that just like humans, no dragon was truly born evil, they were free to choose their own path. I rather liked that reply, but I liked mine better.

Soon the dove were done, and that put me in a better mood because they were fantastic. There were only four of them, and I probably could have fit all four in my mouth at once. But I ate them one at a time, whole save for the feet and beak which the man had removed, and lightly seasoned and seared they were crunchy, juicy, rich and delicious. I decided I could put up with the man’s ridiculous questions all day long if I got to eat those.

Instead I moved on, and spent much of the afternoon sampling everything the humans had to give me. I ate more fish and fowl then I think I’d ever eaten in all my life. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them, on the contrary they were all delicious. But for a dragon, smaller prey was often harder to hunt, and it wasn’t really worth expending the extra energy to try and track down a couple of dove or blackbirds, or to try and snatch fish from the water when we’d end up only half full anyway. Much easier to dive upon a herd of deer and snatch up a full day’s set of meals in one go.

In my youth I’d loved to eat fish, my father always had a way with catching them in the ponds and streams in our valley. I never knew how he did it, and I was never able to replicate his success. It seemed he’d sit crouched over the edge of the water for hours, staring endlessly into it as though he expected the scintillating reflections of the sun and the sky to somehow provide the answers to all of life’s mysteries, to reveal to him just where our people went wrong. And then in the blink of an eye he’d lash out with a fore paw and snatch a fish straight out of the water! He’d hold it up to show off to me, still wriggling and speared upon his claws. At the time it seemed just about the most amazing thing I could think of. And they always tasted so good straight from the water.

I’d never quite got the knack of catching fish with my claws, and so it had been many years since I’d had the pleasure of eating them. These humans, though, they seemed to have quite the talent for it. They didn’t use claws, of course, and as I watched the woman behind the largest of the fish stalls prepare my offering, I was glad to see she had much more interesting things to ask me, and talk to me about. Did dragons like fish? We certainly did, when we could catch them. Oh, how did we catch them? With our claws, of course, how else? What was my favorite kind of fish? Whichever I had in my mouth!

She had all sorts of fish to offer me, and I wanted to try them all! As I sat on my haunches in front of her, watching her scrape the shiny silver scales off the first fish with a few quick precise strokes of her gleaming knife, my tail swished constantly back and forth in anticipation, Kylah told me it looked as though I was a dog trying to sweep the street clean. I playfully told her to shut up because it was fish time.

Back home in my valley, we’d only had a few species of fish to choose from even when we were able to catch some of everything. After all only certain species lived in waters that high up and cold. Kylah’s town was fortunate in that they straddled the middle elevations of the world, high enough to for the cold water species to survive, and low enough for many of the warmer species to flourish as well. The woman had quite the selection on offer, from the ugliest fish I’d ever seen to the prettiest.

She served me one of the prettiest first, a shiny silver fish with just a streak of dazzling color flashing along it’s side. She scaled it, cut a long strip of pink meat, and then offered it to me completely raw. Ooh, I liked this woman. She showed no fear of me as well, not even a hint of trepidation about letting me take the fish straight from her hand with my paw. I took it careful as I could, and lowered the entire fillet into my mouth. It had a surprisingly creamy texture, and a surprisingly sweet flavor that I savored as long as I could. By the time I’d swallowed it, she was offering me the other fillet as well. While I ate that one, she set the carcass aside and explained that later she was going to make a fish stew.

She took me through her entire selection, sometimes offering me half of the fish raw, and quickly frying the other half in an iron pan over a small fire with a little butter and a little lemon juice as well as a little salt and pepper, to show me how the flavors changed when they were cooked. I had to admit, the cooked fish were just as delicious as the raw ones. And I also had to admit, for a human I rather liked this woman, she seemed quite level headed.

If only all humans were like Kylah and this fish-woman, whatever her name was, perhaps my kind would not have always been at odds with them. Come to think of it, maybe it was their gender. Perhaps female humans were naturally smarter then the males? I know female dragons constantly professed to be smarter then male dragons, and the males constantly refused to believe. Perhaps I was onto something.

Whatever the case, I was getting awfully curious about that ugly fish. It had a large, wide mouth, and long undulating tendrils sticking out from either side of it. It also had a very long, somewhat broad body and was extraordinarily pale, without any scales at all. It also looked to have long spines in place of it’s fins, and I’d never seen a fish like it. When it was finally time to eat it, I wasn’t sure if I was excited or terrified. She clipped the spiny fines and then lopped the fish’s head off entirely with a very large, very sharp cleaver that looked as though it would probably cut through my scales just as easily. Then she gave me the rest of the fish and allowed me to eat it whole, which I did. Though the skin was a bit slimy, the meat itself was surprisingly firm, and surprisingly mild in flavor, not as strong or exciting as I’d expected, but quite good.

Though she had a few fish left, Kylah reminded me I had many more stalls to visit, so that I should wait. I did get a little bit of entertainment first, though. One of her larger tanks with a live fish in it featured something long, narrow, and covered with black stripes over it’s olive scales. She pointed out the many sharp teeth in the fish’s maw, and I couldn’t help but give a little croon of approval.

“That fish has a mouth like a dragon!” I exclaimed.

The woman laughed, and as if to prove me right, she caught a smaller silver fish out of another tank with a little dip-net, and dropped it into the bigger tank. The silver fish swam hurried circles all around the tank, and for a few moments the “dragon fish” remained where it was. Then in one swift, violent motion it bolted forward and engulfed the little fish in it’s jaws. Then it just sat there, with the smaller fish writhing and squirming between its many teeth before it slowly gulped it down.

Oh yes. I liked that fish a lot.

 Kylah led me on down the street, and I sampled everything I could. I was already getting quite full before we had hit every stall, but I just couldn’t stop eating, everything was so good! Some of the people provided better company then others. One who’d noticed me interest in fish explained to me how the people caught them as I sampled the fruits he had for sale. It seemed they wove special nets and strung them out across sections of their river, and when they hauled them in they were filled with trapped fish. They also used other nets to wade out into some of the ponds and lakes in the area, as well as baited lines and the occasional spear, as well as bow and arrow tied to rope for larger fish. It was all quite fascinating to a dragon who’d never heard of such things. Oh, and his fruit was good too, but I’d had most of it before. Though I didn’t tell him as much.

The assortment of breads was something new to me. I knew of bread, of course, but I’d only ever eaten it a few times, not counting something similar that a few of the elder dragons occasionally made when I was young. I had never realized their were so many types, tastes and textures to it. I enjoyed it, but I liked it best when they spread something on it, butter and some sort of crushed fruit paste Kylah called jam. By itself it was good but it just left me thirsty.

I tried some cheese, and it was almost an entirely new experience for me. I’d eaten a little here and there when I found some stashed away in some carriage I’d raided, but I’d never eaten much of it. Rather like the bread I found it covered a very broad spectrum of tastes and textures. My first impression was not that good. Kylah asked me how I liked it, and I simply told her it tasted “mushy.” But as I sampled more of it, it quickly became a taste I was acquiring. Perhaps it was just that it was so unlike anything dragons usually ate, so foreign and strange to us. Kylah thought I might like the milder cheeses, but I found myself more drawn to those with a sharp, tangy flavor, precisely because it was so unusual for me. Though it did leave me feeling as though I had to drink an awful lot of water to clear out my throat.

Near the end of my little market tour, I ended up at a simple stand manned by an older couple, selling all sorts of dessert items. The old man gave me a very strange look, and I couldn’t help swallowing anxiously. I was pretty sure he recognized me, he was old enough to have been around back during my sheep stealing days, and he may well have been a farmer back then. But the look passed, and they offered me all their desserts. Which I had to try of course despite my increasingly full belly. They had cookies and all sorts of little pastries and cakes, and my favorite were the cream cakes. Soft, sweet pastry just filled to bursting with sweet white cream whipped until it was smooth and thick.

“How’s it taste?” Kylah asked.

“Like mating!” I burst out, before I could stop myself. Luckily the older couple took that as the compliment I intended it, and even laughed along with Kylah.

I had to have one more of those cream cakes, despite the fact I was afraid my stomach was going to pop open any moment now, and after I finished it, Kylah wiped cream off my snout while I stood still for her. That seemed to endear me to the older couple, as I doubt they’d never imagined a big black dragon sitting still like a little child while a woman wiped his muzzle clean. I even gave her fingers a lick, though in truth I just wanted the last of that sweet cream back!

There were many other things for sale in what was left of the market of course, from bolts of cloth to all sorts of clothing, to boots and shoes, to tailoring services, jewelry, and now that their occupiers were gone, several times more armor and weapons then I had noticed when I’d first come to the market, and nearly burned it down. Of course, all I was really interested in at the time was the food, and now that I was full, I was ready for a nap. Or at least to settle down somewhere and rest.

I’d been walking a lot longer then I realized, and I was starting to feel not just my wounds, but my age. My body ached all over, my wing joints, my shoulders and my hips especially. Though I’d been resting, in a way, for several days, I was still sore as hell from flying in the snow and wind, and then running and flying and fighting all over the town. I’d have ached even without being filled with arrow holes and axe wounds.

It was time for a rest, and when I told Kylah as much, she led me out of the market. I wanted to lay by the river, on the soft grass and in the warm sun. So I turned around and walked back up the street, passing all the colorful market stalls I’d just eaten from. I hadn’t really paid much attention to the stalls themselves when I was on my quest for satiety, but now I took a chance to look at them. They all had different colors and banners depicting the sort of things they sold. Some of the stalls were very old, and looked ready to fall apart without immediate repairs. Boards bending or broken, countertops sagging and splintered. Then again, that might have had something to do with me tossing them about like catapult ammunition. Other stands looked brand new, probably only put together in the last few days in a hurried attempt to profit from the renewed sense of joy and freedom that had washed over the town like a drunken euphoria when they’d first realized they were free again.

I did notice that in most cases the stalls were far more colorfully appointed then the buildings behind them, though the fact that about half of those buildings were recently damaged by fire probably had a lot to do with that as well. I did not remember seeing as many bright colors and decorations when I’d first come to the town, though I wasn’t sure if that was because I was concentrating so hard on not getting killed, or because the occupiers hadn’t allowed as much color. I suppose in a way, keeping people confined to a more dreary existence would make them more malleable and controllable.

We walked back down the market street, and I tried to ignore the fact that once more I had a bit of a crowd following closely on my tail. Right then I was too full and satisfied to be bothered feeling uncomfortable around a horde of humanity. I knew I wasn’t going to get any sleep until I actually went to bed that night, but at least I would get to rest my aching bones.

…God, had I really just thought that? Aching bones? I wasn’t that old! …Was I? I paused and lifted a paw to stare at my recently grayed fingertips. Perhaps I was. I certainly felt it at the moment, though I imagined getting your ass kicked, falling through a roof, and your flanks filled with arrows and axes would make any dragon feel old. For the moment, I decided to embrace my old age and do what any elder dragon would have done after a large meal. Sprawl out in the warm sun.

I didn’t want to cross the bridge again, that silly nagging paranoia just told me it wasn’t safe for a dragon to do. So we went to the park on the near side of the bridge, rather then the far side, and I walked out onto the grass. It was soft beneath my paw pads and already warmed by the sun. I went just to the edge of the shade cast by the tall poplar trees, and slowly lowered myself to the ground. I couldn’t help a loud, drawn out groaning sigh as I sprawled out with the sun warmed grasses against my belly scales, and the even warmer sunshine coating the scales along my back. I spread my wings out a little bit to better enjoy the warmth, careful not to tug too hard at the stitches in the arrow hole in my back.

It occurred to me that the last time I’d looked at my own back it was soaked with my blood. I turned my head now, and other then the bandage near my wing joint, my scales were glossy and clean, gleaming obsidian black. And the membranes of my wing were shiny and smooth as well, I’d been scrubbed!

“You bathed me!” I blurted out as Kylah adjusted her breeches, and moved to settle next to me, folding her legs beneath her.

Once she was comfortable, she pulled the hair back out of her eyes, and smirked at me. “You just noticed?” She rubbed the side of my neck. “You’ve been awake for hours, Vraal.”

“I…well…humph!” I snorted. “So I’m not always the most observant. I just realized I wasn’t covered in blood any more, I guess I hadn’t thought about it yet.” I lifted a paw to scratch my head, around the base of a horn, and realized there was a lot more I hadn’t thought of! “My helmet! Oh, and my family.” By that I meant the picture, of course, or at least I told myself that. “My bracelets, my necklace…”

Worry suddenly washed over me. My full belly twisted in knot upon knot till I was afraid the only way to untangle them would be to retch and lose all that lovely food. For a moment I was terrified I’d lost some of my most personal and precious possessions when the house came down. The bracelets and even the helmet I could live without, and I had more pictures of my family back in my home, but the necklace from Niara’s family….that was irreplaceable. I suddenly knew exactly how Kylah felt back when we’d first met, and she saw me taking the necklace from her mother as a trophy, before I’d given it back.

Thankfully, my worry was soothed and my stomach delicately unknotted by Kylah’s soothing words and gentle touch. She rubbed me right between my nostrils, always the most sensitive place on a dragon’s face, and soon had me purring like a warm kitten. “Relax, Vraal,” she said, able to see the worry etched across the scales of my face even when I thought I’d hidden it so well. “All your things are safe. Everything you had on was covered in blood, so while you were unconscious I took everything off and washed them all for you. Plus, I didn’t want anyone to get it in their head to take your things while you were out of it. Even if they thought you weren’t going to make it, it would be a rotten thing to do, but you never know with some people. They’re all in a safe place, and so is the painting of your family.”

I smiled a moment, and closed my eyes, just enjoying her touch against my muzzle. I nuzzled her hand a little, licked her palm, and then pulled my head back to smile at her. “Thank you, Kylah.”

“Of course, Vraal,” she said, hugging my neck for a moment before pulling back. “You should have seen the people’s faces when I showed them that picture of your family, and told them you painted it. It was exactly the sort of thing you would have loved. Humans shocked to see a dragon had a family that he loved, and even more shocked to see he could paint!”

I laughed a little bit, she knew me so well. And in a way that helped explain some of the people’s reactions. Not only had a dragon come here to save their town and nearly lost his own life in the process, but Kylah had gone out of her way to try and endear me to her people. I could just see her, walking around the courtyard where I’d fallen as her surgeons worked to save my life. Showing everyone who came to see me the painting that I myself had painted of my family. See, I imagined her saying, he’s not evil! He has a family he loves! He misses his children! He’s not a monster at all, can’t you see?

Apparently they had seen. Though in truth I hadn’t expected the level of curiosity that revelation would engender in them. Already the crowd from the market had gathered at the edges of the park, murmuring amongst themselves, watching the way Kylah and I interacted. I wondered how many of them had seen my painting, how many of them had seen Kylah spending sleepless night after sleepless night to watch over me, begging and praying for my survival. I wondered how many of them saw her as a hero? How many of them saw me that way?

I lifted my head a little more, slowly turning it back and forth, flicking my ears as I watched them. I flared my crests a little as I had to admit a bit of curiosity of my own. Their town was not really what I’d expected, and for the most part, neither where they. Sure, they smelled a little funny and they asked me all sorts of inane and irritating questions, but so far they also seemed far more open to a dragon then I’d ever expected.

I lifted a paw, and waved it a few times, beckoning them forward. “I know you all want to talk to me, or look at me, or touch me. You may as well get closer. But not too close, yet, let’s start with talking and looking and move on from there.”

A sizable crowd soon surrounded me on the grass, but thankfully they respected my wishes and did not get so close as to crowd me or make me feel too uncomfortable this time. Those who had already gotten more comfortable around me settled down on the grass as Kylah had, though she leaned up against my shoulder and they sat cross legged a short distance away. Others stood behind them, talking softly amongst themselves, quieting only when Kylah nudged me, and suggested I tell them about myself.

I didn’t like that idea, but I did not have a better one. “My name is Vraalasothinox. I am a dragon.” Why not start with the obvious, Vraal. Good one. “Once, in my youth, I was one of four dozen or so dragons, the last on earth that I know of. Now those who were not killed by humanity have fled for safer lands. Though in truth, safety may well be but a fable among my kind, a myth we told our children to help them sleep at night. There is little safety for us, your people hunt us relentless wherever we go, wherever we try to hide, to find a little peace for ourselves and our families.

“In my youth, I lost several of my best friends to human murderers when they dared to give in to youthful urges to fly beyond the confines of our valley, and see the world. They hoped to see wonderful things, to find the truth in the rumors of somewhere safe for dragons. Instead, they found painful deaths at the hands of warriors, dragon slayers, and other humans, put to death merely for the sin of being a dragon. There was little hope for us, to leave the shelter of our hidden valley was to put ourselves at risk, and to put the last of our population at risk. Should humanity ever find our valley, they would send an army for us, and our people’s time on this world would be over.

“My own son was nearly taken from me the same way. He had only just learned to fly, and the urge to do so is always overwhelming for a young dragon at that age. And to make matters worse, he had few friends. At least when I was his age, there were a dozen or so young dragons for me to play with, to fight with, to fly with, and when I grew, to mate with.” I allowed myself a small smile at that, the crowd though, was silent. I thought for a moment I had offended them by speaking of humans the way I’d seen them for so long. Yet no one spoke up, not even to each other, and I wondered if somehow I’d transfixed them. I licked my muzzle, Kylah rubbed my neck, bidding me to continue.

“My son had none of those things. By the time I’d reached the age of flight, most of the dragons I’d grown up with where gone from our valley. My own parents had died when he was young, my elders not long after he’d hatched. Those dragons who had not yet been killed had for the most part left our little valley, in search of a myth. They too had children, and they longed as we all did to find them somewhere safe to grow, and spend their lives in peace.

“I had never believed in this myth. I hoped for it to be true, as we all did, but even a dragon knows life rarely has a happy ending. Just because we hoped there was a place humans would never find us, a place for us to be safe, that did not make it true. After all, I hoped as I myself grew up that humans would stop hunting us, that our population would grow instead of dwindle. Yet hoping did not make that happen.

“As a result, my son had no one to fly with. He was friends with the other two young dragons his age, but he was the first to fly. And his own sister was younger then him, and years away from proper wing development. And so he flew on his own, soaring the lonely, empty sky above our valley with nothing to guide him but my instructions that he never leave the valley. And like all young, he was eager to rebel and disobey me at any time he could. He wanted to prove to himself, and I imagine to his father, that he was strong enough to take on the world all by himself.

“He…” I faltered a moment, even Kylah only knew bits and pieces of this story. I wondered, for a moment, why on earth I was opening up now, to a crowd of humans I barely knew, and only weeks ago would have happily left to their downtrodden fate. I found myself going on, anyway. “He was not. I tried to tell him that when a dragon first comes of age, and we usually begin to fly shortly before we begin our adolescence, those muscles develop just before the rest of our bodies, but like any unused muscle they are not yet ready for the extended rigor of long flight. I can easily fly for days if I must, pausing to sleep and eat, but when I first learned to fly I could only fly an hour or two and my wings and back ached unbearably.

“Our valley, where we live,” I paused again, glancing down at my paws, and kneading the grass a little. “That is, where we once lived…I am the only one there now. It is small. In two hours of flight you are well beyond it’s protected confines. One day, just after he’d learned to fly, my son flew beyond the valley just as I had forbidden him to do. He flew as far as he could, just to see where his wings would take him. It is a natural instinct for a young dragon, and a hard one to overcome. Flying circles around the only place you’ve ever known hardly satisfies it. He flew well beyond the valley, and over the lower mountains at the far end of it, over the closest thing to a pass entering our valley there is. Far enough that he wore himself out, and far enough that humans saw him.

“Dragon slayers have often sought our valley, as I said I lost friends when I was young, but they were never able to enter it, the mountains were too rough, nearly impassable. Though, beyond the fringes of our valley, there are a few trails, and my son unknowingly passed above them, above the camp of dragon slayers looking for an easy mark. He never saw them below him, he was simply too enraptured in the sheer joy of flight and the youthful exhilaration of doing something he knew he should not.

“He eventually tried to return home, but he’d simply flown too far, he was yet too inexperienced and too weak to fly all the way home. He landed for the night to rest. After all, he knew he was going to get in a hell of a lot of trouble when he got home, another night away wasn’t going to make it much worse.”

Some of the humans chuckled, others nodded knowingly. They’d done the same sort of things as children, and many of them as parents knew to expect the same kind of behavior from their own children. As I’d thought to myself several times before, something was happening here. I was making some kind of connection with these people, and it already seemed as many of them were seeing me less as a dragon, and more as a father. An achingly bitter old father who cursed his stubborn pride and missed his family dearly. I sniffed, shook my head and flared my crests a little. Kylah scratched at one of them, and it soothed me. I found myself leaning into her hand as I continued.

“I wish to whatever God or Gods might listen that I had gone to find him just a few minutes earlier. I circled the valley, looking for him, I knew all his hiding places because at his age I’d used them all myself. He wasn’t in the valley, and I knew that he wasn’t yet daring enough to try and top the highest mountains, which left only one way for him to go. If I’d gotten there a little sooner, if I’d left my home a little earlier. I knew when he didn’t come home on time he had done something he shouldn’t, but, well, he had no one to fly with! I felt so sorry that he had to grow up when there were so few of us left, that I couldn’t bring myself to be hard on him. Maybe I should have been, though, I think that would have only made him rebel even earlier.”

I paused for a moment. I remembered that day as vividly as anything in my entire life, when I flew across the hill, when I found him, and the dragon slayers. Kylah told me she’d never seen so much blood from one creature before, but I had. I’d seen it from my son, that day.

I realized I was trembling, and Kylah gently took my head in her arms, and held it for a moment. She whispered to me that it was alright, that I didn’t have to tell anyone anything else if I didn’t want too. I didn’t mind her holding me like that in front of the humans for once, but some part of me thought it was important I go on. So after a moment, I gathered my strength and pulled my head back.

“I found them atop a hill, just as night was about to settle in. It was the blood that first drew my attention. It glowed in the last rays of the sun, it glowed like a terrible, fiery ocean. I had seen that much blood from a dragon before, but never from a dragon who lived to remember it. I thought for sure he was dead, and for a moment I hung frozen in the sky, my heart ready to stop beating in sympathy. For that horrible, horrible moment, I felt no rage, no anger. I simply wanted to crash to the earth and join him, wherever he’d gone.

“And then I heard him scream. He saw my shadow, he screamed out to me, he tried to scream “Father” but he was in so much pain it was merely a twisted, wretched noise.” I felt tears running down the scales of my cheeks, I had to pause again to collect myself and clear my tightening throat with a little growl. I forced myself to go on.

“And then I felt rage like I had never imagined. I hit the ground with the force of a bolt of lightning, hurled from the sky in an act of vengeance, an act of protection. I had never felt so strong in all my life. I had fought humans before, and I had killed them before, but it had never been like this. They had weapons forged from the bones of dragons, with steel designed to cut our scales. And cut they did.” I twisted a little bit to show them the pale grey scars that marked my body in several places from that battle. “Yet I felt no pain. I felt their weapons penetrate my scales and my flesh only as cold hatred that gave me strength, that powered my vengeance against them. One by one I tore the dragon slayers apart, I shredded their armor like dry leaves, and I pulled their bodies apart just as easily.

“When they were dead, I gathered my crying son up, and I took to the skies. I could do little for him there. He was soaked in his own blood, and soon I was soaked in it too. His scales a mix of black from my side of the family, and blue from his mothers, but he may as well have been born crimson that day. They had cut his wing joint to the bone in several places, his wing was hanging limp, and nearly lifeless by the time I reached them. They…they were toying with him, I think.”

“I got him home, and somehow, his mother and I were able to hold his wing together enough to stop the bleeding. Somehow, we saved his life though to this day I wonder how he yet had blood left for his little heart to pump. He is…” For a moment, I succumbed to a particularly wracking sob, and then I shook my head after I got control of myself again. “He is very strong, and I am very proud of him.”

Kylah gently rubbed my jaw, her supple fingers sliding across the pale gray scales that had long ago overtaken the black along my chin, and were slowly creeping down my throat. As always, her touch helped soothe me, and in my quiet moments, I was astonished to see some in the crowd wiping their eyes. There was simply no way a story told by a dragon could actually move humans that much…could it?

“That was the beginning of the very end for our little valley. It was no longer safe, the humans had nearly found it, and if I had not killed those dragon slayers, they might have gone back for more, and snuck through that little pass, eventually to ambush the last of us and our children. Those few who still remained, with family and without, decided to leave, to pursue the myth of safety. They knew as well as I did that such a place probably didn’t exist, that they would probably die out there, searching out something that was never more then fable among dragon kind. Or, at best, they would find a place humans could not reach. But it would be a place so cold, so barren and lifeless that even in their safety they would slowly starve to death, and so it would go that the last of us would finally fade from this world, driven from it by the race which has slowly but surely overtaken us.

“And yet, despite that near certainty, they chose to believe. They chose to hope. Belief and hope may well have lead them to their deaths, but they found it better then remaining in our valley and simply waiting for the humans to come for their children, next. I sometimes wish I agreed with them.

“My mate, my love…Niara’oraalous…she did agree. She wanted to do anything she could to protect our children, as did I. We simply disagreed on what was best for them. I wanted them to stay where we had plenty of food, and shelter, where we could protect them with our own teeth and claws. In her anger, and in her fear…she told me that if I could truly protect them that way, our son would still be able to fly.”

I felt Kylah’s fingers freeze on my jaw, and tense up. Only for a moment, she returned to stroking my jaw line almost immediately, but I noticed it. I hadn’t told her that part before, partly because I hated to remember it. I hated it so much because every time I thought about it, it was like a sword in my heart, a cold, twisting sword. Niara hadn’t meant it, I saw the pain and regret in her eyes the moment she spoke those words. But I knew she was right. I had failed our son, and that was why I’d never truly tried to stop her. And never gone after her. I had failed him, and he deserved so much better then that.

I kept that out of my story. I even kept that from Kylah, though she knew me well enough now that she could probably figure out the way the gears in my mind were turning. I was sure she’d question me about it later, she’d put two and two together and realize part of the reason I kept sailing my ship straight for those rocks was because some part of me felt I deserved it. I hadn’t protected my son well enough, and I’d nearly cost him his life. I’d probably cost him his flight, and for the rest of his life, he would regret that more then I ever could. He had flown alone as a child, and now he’d never fly at all.

And it was my fault.

“Niara left the valley as soon as my son was strong enough to make the trip. I do not know where she went, or where she took our children. She had only a vague sense, a vague idea of some mythical place where our kind were still safe, and only the faintest direction it would be. That was spring, so she had all summer to try and find the place before winter set in. I refused to go, in part because I was the last dragon in a valley that had always, always belonged to our kind. Humans had driven us from our valley, and I’d be damned if I was going to be the one to willingly give up the last dragon lands in the entire world to the species who had pushed us to the brink of extinction. I would wait in my home, and they would have to kill me to take it from me.”

“And so I did. Alone for many, many years, I waited, and fumed, and grew angrier and angrier. I hated humans for what they’d done to us, for what they’d done to my son! To my family. I hated myself for letting it happen to him, for failing to protect him, and I hated my people for letting your people wipe us out. Hate and anger and solitude and loneliness and bitterness for years and years and years. I found joy in a few things. I found it in flying, I could lose myself in flight for hours, days. And I found joy in painting, I lost myself in my memories, I gave them life with paint and canvas, and I did what I could to pass the time. I was sure some day some human would come, and scale my cliff, or find me in the valley, and take my life.

“But it never happened. Years passed and I did not count them. It may have been ten years since Niara took our children, it may have been fifty. No humans came. Instead, as fate decided, it was I who found the humans. But it was not as I’d imagined it. Instead, I found Kylah.” I pulled my head away from her soothing fingers to look down at her, her own green eyes were shining and wet, her cheeks red, little streaks adorned them. I’d made her cry, too. For some reason, that made me smile.

“I found Kylah. When I saw her, she was a human. I hated her. I saw they were going to kill her, and I was going to leave her to that fate. But then, I saw they were going to rape her. I was filled with revulsion. I almost left, but I couldn’t bring myself to abandon her to that. Human or not, she didn’t deserve that. I resolved to do one single good deed for a human, just to prove to myself I wasn’t the monster they thought I was. So, I saved her.”

The rest I supposed they knew. If not, they’d probably hear it in time. I didn’t really know where else to go with my story. I felt odd, I wasn’t sure if I felt like I’d eased a burden off my chest, or gained one. I took a slow breath, and for a moment, I closed my eyes. I lost myself in the warmth of the sun on my back, my wings, and the softness of the grass beneath my belly. I coiled my tail, and then tucked it around my side, flicking the tip back and forth.

“To this day I have no idea if my mate, and my children ever found that place, or if they’re even alive. I hope for little these days, and I believe in even less. And yet, every day I hope, and I pray to anyone who will listen that my family is alive, safe, and healthy. That they are still out there somewhere, and that they’re happy. But I am a practical dragon, and I know well enough that I may well be the last one. We will be remembered by most of your kind as monsters, and beasts, as evil for reasons I never truly understood. I’m sure our actions have helped garner us that reputation.

“But I hope that at least a few of you, here in this town, come to understand that is not at all what we were. We were bitter, we were angry, we were hateful, and we were filled with vengeance. We have done terrible things, and so have you. We raged at you for taking us away from this world, but we were never monsters. Please, when we‘re gone, don‘t remember us as monsters.”