Things were still ‘complicated’ between me and Cassia, even after her chat with Edith. When I let myself back into the healer’s house, my Cassia was sitting at the dining table. Her eyes were still red from tears. We looked at each other for a moment.

  “... I-,” she started off before faltering. She clenched and unclenched her hands, looking down at the table. It seemed to be all that she could muster for the moment. At least she wasn’t still yelling at me. Slowly I padded across the room towards her.

  Cassia looked up from the table as I drew close. Her eyes seemed to search for something in mine. I was unsatisfied with the current state of affairs. The woman who had given me my name should not have this much cause for tears. Even if I didn’t understand what she was going through, I could do my best with what I had available.

  “Cassia,” I said with a rumble. “Saw things, when flying. Want help. Cassia help.” That seemed to catch her interest. Maybe if she could teach me about our surroundings, it would help clear the air between us. Cassia gave a sniff before turning aside to blow her nose into a handkerchief. Watching a young lady snort into a hankie was bad dragon behavior, so I found the ceiling temporarily fascinating. Lots of straw.

  “Well, uhm… I know the forest mostly, but I’m sure I can tell you the name of things,” Cassia said after mustering her courage. “Can you try and show me?”

  Edith had an item which looked like a book, but was actually two wooden boards joined together on a small hinge. Each board had a plate of bee’s wax embedded into it. By means of a stylus, or in my case a claw, one could make markings into the wax. Heating up the wax by setting it near the fire (but not in it) would let the marks be erased.

  Parchment was considered too precious to use for things like this. I remembered all the drawings on parchment in the child’s room and wondered at what was different about that. Perhaps it was allowed because the child had been dying at the time.

  Cassia retrieved the wax tablet. With as many words as I could piece together I described what I had seen. My claw traced careful lines into the wax to accompany them. I had to learn some new human words, otherwise people would get confused with what I meant.

  Where the sun rose in the morning was called ‘Springrise’. Where the sun set in the evening was ‘Autumnend’. The direction of the Bright Star was ‘Wintertide’. Where the air grew warmer was ‘Summershore’.

  Collectively these were called the ‘Four Ways’. Cassia had been taught some skills in navigation by her parents, in case she ever got lost in the forest and needed to find her way home. She had never been out of the Cursed Forest before, but her books had given her some insights into the wider worlds. Even if those seemed to be mostly fairy tales.

  The village we were in was called Greenreimse. Windertide of us was a swamp named Gloomire. Beyond the swamp was the Winter Sea. Towards Springrise was the Goldfield Plains, sometimes called the ‘Spring Sea’ due to the rolling waves of grass. At Autumnend was the Cursed Forest and Godseye Mountain. When the sun set at the right time of year, it crossed the mountain’s peak and looked like a burning eye in the sky.

  Lastly was Summershore. In that direction was the Redstone Hills. If one travelled past them and the following Cloudshear Mountains, there was said to be a city of uncountable humans named Osteriath. There was a great lake like an inland sea surrounding the city. From it flowed a river named the Coil, which flowed from Osteriath all the way back towards the Winter Sea.

  Allegedly there was a land in which it never rained, if one turned towards Springrise while in the Redstone Hills. It was only mentioned in a couple of the books Cassia had read. The authors seemed to believe no one in their right mind would go there.

  Edith joined the conversation when Cassia spoke about the ‘dry land’.

  “It’s called the Sun Sea, or sometimes the Realm of Widows,” she said sadly. Cassia and I looked up from where we’d been scrawling on the wax tablets. We were both confused about Edith’s demeanor. I’d admit that we’d gotten a little excited, talking about the world beyond our knowledge. Hopefully we hadn’t disturbed Edith.

  “It’s… the land where I was born,” she continued with a frown.

  “My books told me that no man or those of sound mind would wish to live there,” Cassia replied as her brow furrowed. “That it was a place of despair. Why would one want to raise a child there?”

  Edith crossed her arms under her chest, frowning down at the map we’d drawn.

  “Not everyone has a choice, Cassia,” she said with a terse tone.

  “I’m… I’m sorry Edith,” Cassia said before closing the tablets. “I should know better. If you came from there, it can’t be a horrible place.” For some reason that only seemed to upset Edith further, but she bit her lip and took a deep breath before responding.

  “You don’t need to apologize, Cassia dear,” she said quietly. “But you should not ever venture there. Your books weren’t wrong about that.” She cleared her throat and sat down with us. She had unwrapped herself out of her winter garb and now wore the tunic she usually preferred while working with herbs. Her immense volume of hair had been trained into a tighter braid with Cassia’s help last night.

  “Have the two of you decided where you will travel?” Edith asked us both. Cassia and I looked at each other.

  “Hills?” I suggested. My tail flicked back and forth behind me, occasionally nudging the bench that Edith was sitting on. Cassia considered my suggestion for a minute before responding.

  “It’s a long way, but the Redstone hills do seem to be our best option. Perhaps if we found a place near where the river Coil passed through, we could visit the city. If… we needed anything.” That sounded like a ‘young lady’ concern and I wisely ignored it. Cassia continued. “Not many folk live in the Hills or the Cloudshear mountains, so Sanguine can stretch his wings without causing a panic.”

  Now that was definitely an idea I approved of. Since I had learned how to fly, I’d spent almost all of my time cooped up in Edith’s house. I was practically champing at the bit to fly and hunt freely. My tail began to beat the side of the bench more loudly. Edith reached over and pressed a finger to the ridge on my head. Cassia squinted at that, but when Edith raised an eyebrow back at her, she relented.

  “So,” Cassia continued eloquently. “I’d like to be ready to go by the time the Thaw is underway. It’s perhaps… Two weeks to walk there?” She directed the question to Edith, who nodded.

  “Bit faster on a horse and cart,” Edith remarked calmly.

  “But we haven’t got a horse and cart, Edith. Not to mention a horse would be terrified of him.” Cassia waved in my general direction.

  “Hmm. Is that so? I’ve got a cart and I can acquire a horse,” Edith mused, as if speaking to no one in particular. Cassia tapped her fingers on the table, pursing her lips.

  “I can’t ask you to just give us a horse and your cart Edith.”

  “Oh I wouldn’t bloody well be giving it to you. I’d be driving it, with ye as a passenger,” Edith replied with a coy smile. Cassia’s eyes opened wide in surprise.

  “Edith, you can’t just drop everything to come with us!” she gasped.

  “Oh can’t I?” Edith said with her grin growing wider. “Sure, there’s a matter or two that needs tending, but I don’t see why not.”

  “What about your house?” Cassia asked.

  “Rented the drafty old thing. Lease is up on the season’s turn anyhow.”

  “What about your life here? Surely you will miss people,” Cassia tried again.

  “Dear, the people here think I’m mad, what with mucking about in the Cursed Forest, tinkering with potions, and speaking foreign tongues they don’t know. They’ll be glad to see the back of me.”

  “What about… the child! The-... I don’t know their name, that’s embarrassing. But still, you can’t leave them behind. You said yourself that their family has left them to die,” Cassia said with one final attempt at reason.

  “Aye, that’s a bit of a sticking point. One of those matters I mean to solve,” Edith said with quiet certainty. “I’ve a friend I was thinking of asking to adopt the wee lad. His name is Magnus, by the by. M’friend lives Summershore-wise of here. It’s a bit of a detour, but it would be the right thing to do.”

  “... But… but why Edith? Why do you want to join me and a dragon on such a long journey?” Cassia asked in confusion.

  “If’n you don’t want me around lass, ye can just say so.”

  Cassia immediately waved her hands in a crossing motion, sputtering in embarrassment.

  “No-no-no-no-No! It’s not like that Edith! It’s…” Cassia cleared her throat and looked over at me. She found no respite. I wanted to know as well. “I didn’t think… you were serious when we spoke… about going with the flow. I know that I’m not the best company and… making a life in the woods won’t be easy. It’s hardly a place for a lady of learning like you.”

  “I know a bit more about roughing it than you think lass,” Edith said with a smirk. “Ye aren’t the only one who grew up in tough times. But, I’ll say it plain so ye can rest easy on it.” Edith took a long breath in and out before continuing. “It’s simple, really. I feel at peace around ye two. Like I’m doing something worthwhile. I came to this village because I heard there were rare herbs in the woods around here. With those gone, well, I’d like to spend my time around people who treat me like a fine lady and not…”

  “... Like what, Edith?” Cassia said. She reached across the table and gently laid a hand over Edith’s. The older woman smiled.

  “Like a Witch, dear. Like I’m an evil hag out of those story books of yours.”

  “A witch? That’s absurd!” Cassia cried out suddenly. “You’re kind and you spend all your time helping the sick! Yes you make potions, but you don’t… hand out poisoned apples to princesses or steal babies from cradles!”

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  “Hmm… Do I not, lass? The difference between medicine and poison is the amount. Weren’t we just speaking of my carting off a young lad to parts unknown, away from his gods given family, after he was supposed to have been dead?” Edith’s smile was filled with sorrow.

  “People get a lot of funny notions about folk who are different from them. I’m a healer, but I’ve hardly had a knock on my door all Winter. People didn’t stop getting sick or hurt, Cassia dear. They’re just afraid to knock on my door.”

  Silence reigned for a good long while.

  “So that’s why I wanted to go with ye lass. If ye don’t-” Edith was cut off by Cassia rounding the table and pulling her into a hug. It was an awkward embrace, especially considering I was sitting next to Edith and was being squeezed between the two women. Cassia seemed to replace skill with hugging with tightness, making Edith fumble to pat the younger woman’s back as she struggled to breathe.

  “Of course you can come with us Edith!” Cassia whispered while trying not to get emotional again. “I’m sorry for prodding you so much. Please forgive me.” That seemed to set things right between the two women. Edith nodded.

  “Aye lass, I forgive ye. Now quit strangling me before me and ye dragon get smooshed into a pancake,” Edith croaked out.

  “Oh!” Cassia gasped before stepping back. I was seeing stars and shook my head to clear it. In some ways that had been a nice feeling, but I had grown increasingly sure that my Cassia needed to learn her own strength. I might have liked to rough house as a hatchling, but my Cassia was getting downright dangerous if she locked her arms around something. Maybe it was a lingering effect of the potion.

  “So. The Redstone Hills it is,” Cassia said firmly. “We have a lot to do and only a week or two before the Thaw sets in. What should we do first?”

  From what I could see, packing for a long journey involved a lot of examining mundane items. Edith and Cassia picked through nearly everything in Edith’s house over the course of several days. Some items, they would give a small sigh and place back down. The rest were packed into a series of bags and boxes.

  I could understand the purpose of some objects, such as a cooking pot or Edith’s potion making tools. Other items were things a ‘young dragon’ was not supposed to ask about, that largely came out of Edith’s bedroom. The ones that confused me the most seemed to have no purpose at all. This might include an unremarkable stone or a worn out feather quill. I knew better than to suggest such things weren’t worth keeping.

  Nearly none of Edith’s furniture would be coming with us. It was too heavy to transport for the most part. Only a few small items that could fit in the back of the cart would come with us. Edith refused to sit on the bare ground, for example. She said it had something to do with her hair.

  ‘Humans are quite attached to their ‘knick-nacks’,’ I mused to myself while laying down in the back of the cart. It had been pulled up behind Edith’s house. Most of what we were taking with us had been packed into it. Only a few things, such as perishable food, still needed to be placed inside of it.

  While Edith and my Cassia were out in the village acquiring such things, I was told to remain in the cart on the off chance that someone came to visit Edith’s house while she was gone. This wasn’t very likely, but Edith had told me some humans could get ‘nosey’ when they thought they could get away with it. Rummaging through a person’s house when they were leaving town, to see what they’d left behind, wasn’t unheard of.

  Most folk would have the decency to wait until the occupants were gone. Not everyone was so courteous.

  I had been dozing for an hour or so. The crunch of snow beneath human feet roused me from my nap. Hidden away as I was beneath a tarp, I could not see much of my surroundings. A quick sniff at the air collected unfamiliar scents. They were human. I had enough experience to tell the difference between them and other creatures.

  There seemed to be two of them. One smelled like dust, parchment, and ink. It reminded me of the old books that Cassia had kept in her den, or the ‘manuscripts’ that Edith said contained her knowledge of herbs and potions. The other smelled like metal, leather, and sweat. A faint tang of blood clung to them. That scent put me on edge. It was dangerous.

  Edith was not expecting any visitors. Were these the ‘robbers’ she had spoken of? Thieving humans who preyed on others’ hard work. My lips drew back from my teeth. I wanted to growl, but suppressed it so as to not give away my location.

  I could hear the humans speaking, but it was muffled by the snow. By the sound of their footsteps and scent, they had stopped a few meters from the front of Edith’s house.

  Staying in the cart was the wiser course of action. If I made myself known, it would make things hard for Edith and my Cassia. Even so. I didn’t like the idea of robbers stealing Edith’s things. As well, the child ‘Magnus’ was still inside of the house, tucked into bed. They still slept a great deal. The robbers might hurt or steal a vulnerable hatchling such as that.

  Carefully, I peeked my eye out from beneath the tarp. I could see no humans in my vicinity. My head poked out further. Still no one. With all the skill I had gained in moving quietly, I crawled from beneath the tarp. My scaled body slithered down onto the snowy ground.

  If I placed my feet just right, I could ‘swim’ across the top of the snow without making a tell-tale crunch of ice beneath my clawed feet. It didn’t take long to reach the back of Edith’s house. My claws dug into gaps between the stones in the wall, dragging me upwards. Soon I was on the roof, burying myself deep into the snow so that I couldn’t be seen from a distance.

  A pair of lids slipped into place over my eyes to protect me from the snow glare. Adjusting took a couple of moments, so I waited on top of the roof until I could see properly. When I was ready I crawled to the apex of the roof and gingerly slid my head over the top. Buried in the snow as I was, it would take an exceptionally sharp eyed hunter to spot the ridges above my eyes peeking out.

  As I’d suspected, there were two humans standing a small ways away from Edith’s front door. They both wore heavy cloaks that obscured their shapes. I took another couple of sniffs to renew their scent in my nostrils.

  Of the pair, one was smaller in stature than the other. They continuously fidgeted with their cloak, always trying to pull it tighter around them as they shivered. This was the one who smelled of ink and parchment. The larger of the two did not seem bothered by the cold. Instead, their hand remained planted on a handle that hung from their hip. This was the one who smelled of metal and blood.

  What the large one held was the end of a long implement, like my Cassia’s skinning knife.

  If these two were hunting partners, it was a bad match. The smaller human could not have stalked in silence to save their life. Their larger companion, meanwhile, radiated a subtle aura of danger. From their scent to their posture, they were signalling that they were ready for a fight at a moment’s notice.

  “-sure this is the right place, Raban?” the smaller human asked with a thin and anxious voice. Once again they fumbled with the hood of their cloak, trying and failing to grasp it with an over-sized mitten. “There isn’t anyone here.”

  “No fire in the chimney don’t mean there’s no folk about ‘sir’,” the larger human named ‘Raban’ said disdainfully. “Witches are tricksy. You’d just as soon turn your back as you’d have a hex placed upon you, if you aren’t careful-like.”

  “Come now Raban, cease with that talk,” the nervous human called ‘sir’ replied. “The yokels might be telling tall tales about evil in the woods and wicked hags stealing children, but we should know better as ‘men of learning’. Like as not this witch is just an old woman with an amateur knowledge of herbs.”

  While I wasn’t picking up everything these two said, I didn’t care for what I could understand. They were looking for Edith, but why? As I pondered this, Raban rounded on the one called ‘sir’ and pointed a finger at him.

  “Don’t you get all high and mighty with me ‘Sir’,” Raban said testily. “Our lord entrusted me with a duty to guard you, but don’t think I won’t box your ears if you start putting on airs.” The smaller man quailed, holding up both mitten clad hands in front of him as if to ward off Raban’s anger.

  “P-please, be at p-peace my g-good man, I m-meant nothing by it,” he stuttered. “It's just… ah… eh-hem. This isn’t the first t-time our lord has sent me off to… investigate rumors of magic. Little ever comes of it. It's almost always just scared peas-”

  Raban leaned in towards the small man.

  “-PEOPLE. Scared p-people. They see a light in the woods and call it spirits or a witch or a-a-a-a d-dragon!” If the small man could have shrunk into his own body and crawled into a hole on the spot, he’d have done so. Raban was looming over him, casting him in shadow from the pale winter sun. After a long tense silence, Raban pulled back.

  “Mind your tongue, ‘Sir’ Kenneth,” Raban growled. For a moment I was sure he’d been about to pull his blade from its sheath. “The common folk may not have learned from fancy tomes or paid tutors, but they know the land. Mayhap they don’t know exactly what something is, but they know when something's ‘off’.”

  Silence reigned for a little while between the two men.

  “I-In any c-case,” Sir Kenneth eventually said, collecting his nerves. “This ‘witch’ could be here, but we have not seen any sign of her since we arrived.” He looked back towards the house. I resisted the urge to duck down. Movement could give away my position. “We have not been subtle with our presence.”

  Raban reached up and rubbed his chin with one mitten. I could see under his hood just enough to detect the presence of thick black fur clinging to his lower face. Unlike Edith with her long locks, he did not seem to take pride in it. If anything, he rubbed at it like it irritated him.

  “Suppose you're right,” Raban said after some thought. “But let's check around the back just in case. She could have ducked out when she saw us coming.”

  That was bad. If these humans went around back, they would see Edith’s cart. More than likely they would go rummaging through it. They might also see my trail where I had upset the snow to climb onto the roof. I needed to distract them somehow. As both men started to walk around the house towards the garden, I tried desperately to think of a plan.

  The one known as Raban was dangerous. He had hunted before, from the scent of blood clinging to him. The other one, Sir Kenneth, was a weakling. He seemed easily spooked. Raban was here to protect the weaker male. Maybe I could work with that.

  Along the edge of the roof hung a series of icicles. The grip of these long fangs of ice to the roof had begun to weaken as the Thaw grew closer. They could fall at any time. I shuffled across the roof as the men crossed beneath me. Just as their backs were turned, I stuck my head out and plucked an icicle from the roof with my teeth.

  The men were nearly around the corner. They would see Edith’s cart in moments. With extreme care I stuck my neck out again. If they had bothered to look up they would have seen me immediately. Fortunately for me, humans rarely looked up.

  I dropped the icicle, sharp point down, right above Sir Kenneth and yanked my head back. There was a muffled yelp mixed with pain immediately afterwards.

  “What the hells is wrong now?” I heard Raban growl. With my body pressed flat into the roof, I couldn’t see what either man was doing.

  “MY SHOULDER!” Sir Kenneth cried in apparent agony. “I’ve been speared! Impaled!” Internally I scoffed. It was just a little icicle. But then again, humans didn’t have scales like mine to protect them. The human known as Raban wore metal underneath his cloak, like an iron hide. Apparently ‘Sir’ Kenneth did not.

  “Son of a- Come Here!” Raban commanded. There was a sound of feet tromping over each other in the snow and the rustle of cloth. “It’s just a bleeding icicle you daft ninny! That’s what you get for stumbling about like a newborn foal. Now suck it up and-”

  “NO!” Sir Kenneth yelled, his thin voice cracking in the chill air. “I’m tired of this! Tired of the cold and the mud a-a-and… you! I am done with you ordering me around! I am the knight and you are just a BLOODY man-at-arms! I’m going back to the inn and we are leaving this wretched hamlet!”

  There were further sounds of a scuffle and men grunting. A dull ‘oof’ that sounded like Raban carried up to the roof. It was quickly followed by human feet rapidly crunching through the snow, as Sir Kenneth’s scent began to recede. From beneath the roof I could hear Raban hissing and groaning in pain.

  With extreme care, I peeked over the edge of the roof. Raban leaned against the side of the house, one hand pressed over the front of his upper legs. He was saying some words that I was very sure my Cassia would lecture me for days over, if I ever repeated them.

  “Whore-s-sss-ugh,” Raban hissed to himself, his legs wobbling. “Should’a never taught him that trick. Now he’ll be crowing about how he bested me to all that hear it.” The man sucked in air through his nose and blew it out of his mouth, making a great cloud of steam from his lips. I could do far better with my dragonfire, but resisted the urge.

  “If he weren’t my lord’s… Ah bugger it.” For a moment it had looked like the man would finally draw his blade, but he dropped the handle and slumped his shoulders. “Quit talking to yourself Raban. Don’t want someone to start answering.”

  I ducked back again as the man pushed himself off of the wall. Slowly he walked away from Edith’s house, his footsteps unsteady like had newly hatched. Once he was far enough away I crawled off of the roof and dropped down behind the house. I shook my entire body to free it of half melted snow.

  As I let myself back into the house by the rear door, I wondered how I was going to explain to Edith and Cassia that we needed to leave sooner than planned.