Recovering from helping the child took time. I needed to eat and lay down. The intense concentration required had taxed my mind as well as my body. By the time I was ready for the final stretch, the sun was below the horizon.

  I could admit that I was nervous as Edith carefully helped Cassia drink the last dose of potion. By now I felt a certain amount of trust had grown between me and the healer. My nervousness came from what would happen to my Cassia. The potion had affected Edith and the child differently. If I wasn’t prepared for what it did to Cassia, it could all go wrong.

  Life seemed to favor irony. As worked up as I was, this time everything went smoothly. Frustratingly smooth. I saw my magic filter down through Cassia's body like a steady stream of water down a mountain brook. It seemed to know exactly where to go. The emptiness inside of her filled up like a dry lake with a gentle summer rain.

  I could feel Edith’s eyes on my back, questioning me silently. Surely it wasn’t that simple, right? There had to be some kind of last minute complication. Maybe Cassia’s body would reject my magic and it would pour out into some kind of blood based monster. Or another dragon could come crashing through the window.

  “So I get the shite bit outta me and the kid gets a full day’s work, but the lass rides on the easy road, huh?” Edith said in exasperation, her arms crossed. My Cassia acted like that right before a lecture about ‘young ladies’ started. The tapping of the foot came next, right on que.

  I ducked my head down. It wasn’t my fault! If anything, I was the one put out here. I had been prepared for a battle of the ages. This was thwarting all my efforts to be heroic. Edith gave a great sigh.

  “Oh quit acting like a whipped dog beasty. Looks like yer lass is waking up.”

  When I looked at my Cassia, that proved to be true. It was a gradual waking that I did not want to rush. It started with a tightening of her eyebrows. Then her mouth bunched up in a pout. At last, she took a deep breath and cracked open her eyes.

  The first thing she probably saw was me hovering over her, tail flicking back and forth in anticipation. Over my shoulder was Edith, looking down at Cassia curiously. My Cassia looked at this and seemed to decide to roll over and go back to sleep.

  “Oh no ye don’t lass! It’s waking time. If yer bloody dragon waits any longer he’s gonna scrape a hole in my floor!” Edith said and reached past me to pinch Cassia’s ear. That drew a protestation and weak batting of hands from my mighty huntress. Sadly for her, she was defeated and groggily sat up on her cot. Her brunette hair was still a mess from earlier.

  “He’s a big dragon now,” Cassia grumbled as she rubbed her eyes. “He knows better than to jump on the bed.” The splints on her fingers made this difficult. I could tell that much of the harm she’d suffered had been addressed by the potion. That didn’t mean she was fully recovered. What she had been through would take time to recover from.

  My dragonfire had burned the infection out at its source. The potion had closed and healed her wounds. But even with my vitality refilling what had been stolen from her, it was like her body had undergone a long illness. She was right there alongside the child, in that she needed plenty of rest and food.

  Notably, the scar over her eye remained, stubbornly resisting any attempt to heal it away. Was I cursed to leave scars on any human female in my proximity?

  Occupied with my thoughts, I was unprepared for Cassia to grab onto my head and pull it against her chest. My wings gave little flaps as I tried to balance myself in the awkward position. My traitorous tail wagged against the floor with no respect for propriety.

  “My dragon,” Cassia whispered to me. “Have you been acting badly in my absence?” A feeling of mixed trepidation and joy filled me. After everything, I had missed her voice badly. Even if she was going to scold me, it was well worth the effort.

  “I had some nice dreams after you left. Thank you for that,” she continued. My tail wagged harder. Wretched thing. “There was just one thing.” Wait what? “I was having a particularly nice dream, when suddenly my amulet was missing.” Oh. Oh no. “You can’t imagine how anxious I was to find it, given how important it is to us both.” My Cassia squeezed my head more tightly. I was put into a very comfortable head lock.

  “You wouldn’t happen to know where my amulet is at, would you, my bad dragon?”

  “You can blame me for that lass,” Edith cut in. “It’s right here. It’ll need a new cord, but I’ll fetch one here soon.” Edith reached over and gently handed Cassia my Gemstone. The wooden amulet had been blackened from the heat. Thankfully it had cooled off by now.

  “My dragon let you… borrow this?” Cassia said with a tone I hadn’t heard her make before. It was like she had just locked her eyes on something else hunting her prey.

  “Easy lass. It’s a long story to tell, but the short bit is that it helped save my life while you were out. I’ll put us on a pot of tea and I can tell you what I know… after you stop trying to strangle the beasty.”

  Passing out in my Cassia’s embrace was a lovely way to go to sleep. Getting knocked out by her putting me in a headlock was less so. My Cassia had well trained upper body muscles from a lifetime using her bow. I urgently patted her shoulder to try and get her to loosen up. Thankfully, she did. Enough for me to breathe.

  “Alright. A new cord for my amulet, tea, and a story in that order,” Cassia agreed firmly.

  My gemstone once more hung around my Cassia’s neck. Tea had been served. Tea had nearly been thrown around the room when the story told by Edith reached the point of her asking for my blood. It was made evident in no uncertain terms that my Cassia thought that choice had been incredibly reckless on Edith’s part. She’d have never agreed to it if she’d been awake.

  Cassia calmed down somewhat when it came to the child sleeping in the other room. She seemed to want to continue arguing, but it was hard to deny that without what had happened, the child would have died. Cassia had finally let me out of the headlock around that time, but it seemed she had developed a new habit of holding onto me when I was within arm’s reach.

  I didn’t mind too much. The extra scritches and contact was nice. There was the unfortunate side effect that she tightened her grip when angry or irritated. A lot of things about the present situation irritated her.

  I learned that the two women knew each other, if only a little bit. They had met once or twice deep in the forest, one hunting and the other looking for herbs. I gathered that their past interactions had not gone too well. There were a lot of big voids where they both weren’t saying things they seemed to both know about, but didn’t want to speak of.

  “I suppose I ought to thank you,” Cassia said eventually. It was the politest she’d been since waking up. “If you hadn’t helped my dragon… well I doubt it would have been easy for him.” I noted that Cassia had picked up a possessive way to refer to me, just like I did her.

  “Somehow I think he might have managed,” Edith said graciously. “He’s resourceful.” Being talked about like I wasn’t there was a novel experience and not one I’m sure I liked. “If anything, I owe him twice over for saving me and the child.”

  “Do you intend to pay that debt off?” My Cassia asked tensely. I couldn’t take it any more. My Cassia was right to be annoyed at me for various reasons, but Edith had been incredibly patient with her. I didn’t fully understand why my Cassia was acting hostile, but it needed to stop. The pad of one forelimb pressed against her face.

  “What-mmph! Bad dra-mmm! Stop that- I said- mmrrrm!” Each time she protested I smooshed my palm back into her lips. She batted me with her hands several times, but eventually she settled down to glare at me. When I finally removed it, she waited a moment before speaking.

  “Are you going to explain that just now?”

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  “Cassia angry. Edith help. Help lots. Bad Cassia.” I swore on my bones I was going to find a book about emotional intelligence and read it cover to cover, memorize it even. Anything to not sound like an idiot when speaking like this. The dream had been so much better for things like this.

  Cassia looked at me searchingly, but I did not back down. Edith remained silent and also waited.

  “... So things really changed while I was asleep, huh?” she said quietly. I shook my head, pressing it against her. She huffed and stroked the ridge between my horns, above my eyes. “You went off and got another girl when I wasn’t looking.”

  I batted her repeatedly with my wings. She was being moody and silly for no reason. I didn’t take notice that Edith chose to keep quiet about that.

  “Okay… fine. I understand. Quit cuddling-attacking, my silly dragon. You know that’s not fair to me, weakened as I am.” My Cassia attacked my secret weak spot, scritching the scales just under by jaw on my neck. Damn it all, I gave a trill and didn’t care who heard it.

  “I’m sorry Edith. I’ve been… bad, to you. Miserable. I’m not good at…” Cassia flapped her hand at the room broadly. That magically seemed to convey what she meant. “-but you haven’t had it easy either. I’m glad we’re here with you.”

  For her part, Edith coughed politely into her hand.

  “It’s been a long day for everyone, I understand. I’m sure that in the morning everything will be less…” Edith also flapped her hand at the room. I’d never understand what that was. Human speech was hard enough. “I’m glad you’re here too, Cassia. It's… nice to see you have someone that makes you smile.”

  Cassia didn’t respond, instead burying her face into my neck. Her face was hot, but I was sure she wasn’t suddenly sick again. Strange humans. Edith smiled and went to turn down the fire so that we could sleep.

  I would have gone to find a spot to sleep as well, but my Cassia decided that on her small cot was the place I needed to be. It was cramped to be sure, but once I’d settled down we were both quickly off to sleep.

  I understood a little better in the morning why sleeping on a small cot with my Cassia was not a great idea. It started out nice. Who didn’t like being cuddled? At some point, I realised I couldn’t stretch out. Whenever I tried to rustle my wings or move my tail, Cassia complained even while asleep. By morning my forelimbs had gone numb.

  It was a sacrifice I was willing to make, but perhaps only on occasion.

  Pulling myself out of my Cassia’s embrace also proved to be difficult. For a woman who had half died not long ago she had a powerful grip. My Cassia was also a deep sleeper. Gentle nudges and quiet sounds did not rouse her. If something did start to wake her, she tended to respond with either violence or more aggressive cuddling.

  The sun was well up by the time I managed to pry myself out of her embrace. I looked over and saw Edith watching my struggles in muffled silence. She was holding her hand over her mouth, leaning against the wall next to the fireplace. Her other hand was balled up and hitting the wall gently as she fought to contain her laughter.

  ‘You will pay for this one day, I swear it’, I thought as I shook all of my limbs out to return the feeling to them. When I checked myself over, I wasn’t missing anything in spite of my Cassia’s best attempts. I did notice that my scales had grown more distinct in some places. Ridges along my limbs, back, and tail were starting to rise from a previously smooth plane. It was a bit like armor to vulnerable places on my body.

  “Is she always so affectionate?” Edith finally managed to ask once she’d stopped silently laughing. “It must be hard to get anything done like that.”

  I shook my head. This was a distinct change of pace for me. My Cassia had seldom declined to give me a scritch if I wanted one. This… clinginess, was a new trait. I did not necessarily mind it, but Edith was right. Hunting would be difficult if my Cassia was more focused on petting me than nocking an arrow.

  “No. Is… new,” I said back. Human words still didn’t want to fit easily inside my maw. There was something missing there. Based on the dream, I thought it would come easier once my body was fully matured. I was currently somewhat larger than most canines, around the size of a deer. My tail matched the length of my body from my snout to my haunches. Moving around inside of human homes was slowly becoming difficult without knocking things over.

  “It might be the shock of what happened to her,” Edith mused out loud. “Even though her body has healed somewhat, great suffering can leave scars on the mind.”

  That didn’t sound like something I could fix with my claws or even my magic. I hoped the memory I’d shown my Cassia had helped her, but matters of the mind weren’t something I knew much of.

  “Don’t look so sour, dragon,” Edith tutted at me. “She has ye and ye have her. That’s more than many folks can say. Pain kept to oneself festers, but sharing the burden with those we care for lightens all loads.” She seemed to want to say something more about that, but she hesitated and changed topics.

  “Have ye thought about where you’ll go once she’s healed up? Ye have my hospitality of course, but ye aren’t going to get any smaller. A big beasty like ye will take a lot of feeding. Not to mention… Most of the village folk here may not take kindly to ye, I’m sad to say. There’s a lot of legends about dragons stealing cattle and ravaging m- Ahem. Ravaging meadows. Aye?”

  There was definitely something off about what she’d just said. The main gist of it sounded correct though. Humans were indeed strange creatures that got a lot of odd ideas about the natural order of things. There likely weren’t many wild animals for me to hunt near this village. If the only thing left to eat was livestock it wouldn’t be long before we came into conflict. That still didn’t explain why I would tear up grass. Maybe it was part of chasing the cattle.

  I needed to make my own den, somewhere. I hadn’t looked around much when I flew from the forest to this village. Once my wing was finished healing I would need to fly and take a look around.

  “Need… look,” I explained after some consideration. That seemed to get my point across.

  “Well wherever you go, you’ll always be welcome here. In my house, at least,” Edith said warmly. She was still wearing a complicated expression. I wanted to press her about it, but my Cassia was finally waking up.

  “Dragon? Where are you at?” she called from across the room. Maybe I needed to address this clingyness sooner rather than later.

  Out behind Edith’s house there was a fenced off garden. During warmer months she grew herbs there. The fence was high and thickly woven from sticks so that miscreant children didn’t wander in. Some of the herbs that Edith kept could be dangerous to those who were unwary. She’d explained this earlier, warning me to not go digging in the ground. It was possible I’d dig up a dangerous root.

  I wondered what kind of impression of me she had, if she thought that was how I liked to spend my time. The truth was that I needed to get outside and stretch my wings. Keeping them tucked against my side didn’t let me air the cuts out and slowed down how long it would take me to heal. Being out in the sun and open air, even if it was cold, felt great.

  Being outside in the garden also gave me a break from my Cassia. I adored her, more than anything. Right now she was acting like she was the hatchling and I the world weary hunter. This shed some clarity on why she’d sometimes gone alone into the woods when we lived in the Cursed Forest.

  The way she held on to me wasn’t a problem per say. At first I’d been enthused about her being more cuddly than usual. Now I was slowly beginning to realize that she was hiding how she actually felt with affection. There was a distinct ‘raw’ quality to her mind right now. Small irritations that she had born easily before were now quick to set her to anger.

  I could admit that I was partly to blame here. I was used to relying on my Cassia. There were a lot of things that my draconic physique was poorly suited to handle. Right now we were both relying on Edith’s hospitality. She gave it gladly, but we were ultimately guests in another’s home.

  We were both also mourning the loss of the life we’d had, where things were just the two of us. Life in the forest had been simple and quiet. Now it was messy and a bit cramped. My Cassia also seemed more at home alone than with other people. She was trying to be nice after I had chided her, but the way Edith talked constantly set my Cassia on edge.

  Then there was the matter with Edith herself. She clearly had something on her mind after our recent conversation, but she refused to come out and say it. I wasn’t near skilled enough with human words to tease it out of her. If it had been my Cassia, I would have just kept pushing my snout against her face until she relented. Edith was not mine, so I didn’t try that.

  I also got a distinct feeling of danger from Cassia whenever me and Edith got too close to each other. My Cassia had glared for hours after the last time Edith gave my head a pat. Humans were frustratingly complicated.

  As I paced around the enclosed garden, I looked up at the sky. Clouds had rolled in, covering up the pale blue horizon. Each day it got a little warmer. The true Thaw might arrive before my Cassia was fully healed. That would make things difficult for us. The other humans in this village had kept to their own huts during the winter. When it came spring time, they might get curious who else was staying in Edith’s house.

  Either this night or the next I would take to the sky and start scouting for a place to make my den. A forest would be nice. Somewhere me and Cassia could have our solitude and plenty of prey. Having at least some other humans within a couple days of travel might be nice, however. There were lots of things humans made for each other that my Cassia would need.

  Wherever I set my Den, it would let me go back to the Cursed Forest and retrieve my Cassia’s belongings. She’d not said anything about it yet, but I was sure that she would want to have some items from her cabin with her. At the very least she’d need her ‘young lady’ box. Meeting Edith had confirmed that such things were important to human females. I’d not needed another harsh lesson in sticking my snout where it didn’t belong, thankfully.

  Thinking of Edith, I wondered something to myself.

  ‘Would she say yes if I asked her to come with us?’