I let the wind carry me upwards into the sky as my Cassia held on with one hand. She settled her legs into a hollow just behind my wings and in front of my ribs. A laugh left her lips as she pulled loose a cord binding her hair. It fluttered out behind her as a brunette banner.

  Though I couldn’t make out her words over the whistling air around us, some of her intent came across our connection. My Cassia had put a brave face on, but she had been worried sick waiting for me to wake back up. Now that I was here with her, that worry blew away in the breeze. Excitement coursed through her rather than fear from the long fall beneath us.

  My Cassia trusted me to catch her if she fell.

  I didn’t want to admit my own lack of confidence. There had been precious little opportunity to practice flying by myself, let alone with a partner. Some of this anxiety must have transmitted itself back to her. As I watched her out of the corner of my eye, her smile shifted into a determined expression.

  Cassia’s free hand held her bow. She waved it to catch my attention. Once my head was turned more fully back toward her, she let go of the spine along my neck. I tensed up in worry, expecting her to be carried away from me by the wind. Instead, she pressed her calves harder into my sides. The steady pressure kept her in place.

  Reaching to the quiver at her hip, Cassia pulled out an arrow. A sudden gust of wind snatched it from her fingers and sent it sailing off into the sky behind us. She gave a blink of shock. It wasn’t like her to fumble while nocking. A deep rumble rolled through my chest beneath her. Feeling my amusement, she lightly swatted at my scales before trying again.

  The second attempt went more smoothly. Cassia successfully got the arrow over the bow and onto the string. As it sat braced across her knuckle, she looked greatly pleased with herself. Another low chuff rolled out of my throat. I was curious as to what she had planned.

  Cassia looked around and settled her eyes on a point in the distance. The index finger on her bow hand folded over the arrow to keep it in place as she pointed with her draw hand. My head turned to follow her finger. After some observation, I realized that she was pointing at a bird’s nest on top of a tree.

  The tree sat taller than those surrounding it. Age had not been kind to it and most of its bark was missing. The nest sat in one of the largest crooks between the branches near the tree’s peak. As I dipped my wings and sailed closer, I could see that there weren’t any birds in the nest at present. It looked old and abandoned.

  A subtle adjustment of my wing’s angle brought us into a lazy circle over the tree. My head tilted back to look at Cassia again. She was focused on the bird nest, her eyes narrowed. Slowly, she wrapped her draw fingers around the bowstring and pulled it back.

  ‘Does she really intend to shoot an arrow from my back, mid-air?’

  It seemed she did. Just after I’d flapped my wings to give us a small boost in altitude, she released the string. The arrow sailed off towards the tree. It clipped the side of the nest and went tumbling down into the branches below. Cassia gained a sour look and twirled her hand at me to indicate that I should keep circling.

  Several arrows lost in the trees later, she finally landed a shot. The arrow vibrated from the force of the impact, standing at an angle off to one side of the nest. Cassia raised her arms in victory. At the same moment, a particularly powerful gust of wind caught her on the side. I heard her give a yelp before her legs slipped off of my scales.

  My entire body coiled around on itself as Cassia fell from my back. One of my forelimbs snatched at her in the air but only snagged her tunic for a moment before ripping through the fabric. The curling bulk of my tail swept up under her a second later. Her downward course was halted as it shoved her back upward and she sailed up past my face.

  Instinctively, I opened up my mouth and caught her between my teeth.

  A coppery tang ran across my tongue as I kept dropping toward the ground. Slow flaps of my wings cupped the air to slow our descent. Out of the possible landing points, I chose the one with the fewest rocks and fallen branches. A loud ‘thump’ echoed through the woods as I dropped to the ground.

  I set Cassia to the ground as carefully as I could. Her blood was in my mouth. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to get a taste for her vitality. The flavor was intoxicating. Many complicated feelings arose from that.

  The last time I tasted Cassia's blood was when I was a little hatchling. Back then, any vitality was enough to set my craving on fire. It had only grown worse since then. This wasn’t helped by just how much my Cassia possessed. She had far more running through her veins now than ever before.

  When I had smelled T’laanga’s blood, the scent had nearly sent me into a fit. My Cassia’s was somehow even more delicious. A mixture of delight and revulsion flooded my mind. I had sworn not to hurt her again. One careless mistake later and that promise was already broken.

  I’d learned that my magic came from my intent. A promise I made was my intent given a lasting form with words. Breaking a promise came with a cost. Pain wracked my body as the blood in my veins rebelled. Some part of me was compelled by the words I’d said, the other by what my nature demanded of me.

  While I wrestled with this internally, Cassia had pulled herself up off of the ground. A quick check under her tunic revealed a shallow wound from where my fang had pierced her. It was on her lower right side. Blood seeped in a small trickle from the wound. Her arrow quiver had taken the brunt of the damage and had several holes that would need patching. If not for that, she’d have a badly bitten leg.

  Cassia looked up at her dragon as she caught her breath. Sanguine was a short distance away and ran his tongue across his teeth repeatedly. One of his front feet held onto his snout. From the slump of his shoulders and the way he tightly tucked his tail across his feet, she could tell he was troubled.

  Really, he looked like he was pouting. Cassia could guess the reason well enough. They were both going to get yelled at by Edith when they returned to her. Some missing arrows could be explained away, but coming back with holes in her tunic and a wound in her side had doomed them both.

  Cassia couldn’t even say it wasn’t her fault. Practising with her bow when they were unfamiliar with flying together had been a bloody stupid idea. She was extremely lucky that Sanguine had the reaction time of a striking viper. Her injuries would have been far worse falling from such a height, either by hitting a tree or a rock on the way to the ground.

  Her dragon seemed to view things differently. The feeling of regret she was getting across the connection was worse than any scolding from Edith. She raised her hand to her chest and rubbed softly at the gem embedded in her skin. It was hot to the touch, like a stone left out in the summer sun, but she didn’t feel any pain from coming into contact with it.

  This wasn’t the first time she’d been injured by acting foolishly with Sanguine. She still remembered the night they’d met. The scar on her eyebrow had marked her face for all to see. Her life had changed in multiple ways that night. In her opinion it was for the better, scars and all.

  “Sanguine!” she called out to get his attention. “I’m fine! It’s just a little nick. I’ve had worse from falling on my bum.” Her dragon turned his broad head towards her, one amber orb focused on the small red stain on her tunic. He started to open his wings, a clear sign that he intended to fly off.

  “Oi! None of that! Stop sulking and come over here, NOW.” Cassia pointed at the ground in front of her, planting her other hand over the small hole in her side. She’d lost her bow in the fall, but she wasn’t worried about that right now.

  Sanguine paused, clearly undecided for several moments. At last, he folded his wings back onto his back and crept over towards her. He kept his body low to the ground. It gave Cassia a moment to reflect on how big he’d gotten. Even laying flat on the ground, he came up past her waist.

  The dragon kept his eyes locked on where he’d sunk a fang into her skin. Cassia could feel a strange sensation of hunger from her dragon as he drew close. She wasn’t fully sure what that meant, but she wasn’t worried about Sanguine hurting her. Even if he did, it wouldn’t be on purpose.

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  Edith would have scolded her for treating him like a domesticated dog. To Cassia, it was something different. She knew now just how dangerous her dragon could be, but she could feel just how conflicted it made him. At least with herself and Edith, Sanguine spent a lot of time worrying about their wellbeing. The feeling she got from him was like he’d been the one bitten instead of her.

  “I hurt you,” he rumbled sorrowfully as he came within a couple feet of her. Cassia closed the rest of the distance with a step. When her dragon went to pull his head back, she reached out and hooked her fingers around the horn nub just below his ‘chin’. It was an armored scale that would work for deflecting blows away from his teeth.

  “You saved me, silly dragon,” Cassia said sweetly to him. She moved her hand along his jaw and rubbed her fingertips into a particular spot she knew he liked, but was embarrassed about. Sanguine’s tail uncurled to flick at the forest floor, sending up a shower of pine needles.

  “But you’re bleeding,” he replied dolefully. “I could have… bit you far worse.” His eyes were still sharply focused on the red stain on her tunic. With a sigh, Cassia let go of the wound. She glanced down at her red palm.

  ‘I’ve really got to stop getting blood on my hands,’ she thought silently. Enough of the thought got across to Sanguine that he gave another low sorrowful grumble. “Oh hush. Really Sanguine. Falling out of the sky would have been a lot worse.”

  Cassia carefully pulled up the hem of her tunic so that they could both look at the wound. When his eyes locked on the small drops of blood seeping from beneath her skin, Cassia felt that same sense of hunger rise inside of him.

  “Do you want to eat me, Sanguine?” Cassia asked her dragon softly. “Don’t lie to me about it. I can see that there’s something else going on. You’ve… acted strange before, like with T’laanga, but you weren’t able to talk as well back then.”

  Sanguine gave a hiss of displeasure. Hot air tickled across the bare skin of her side. She kept her other hand on him so that he wouldn’t back off again. If he had put any real strength into leaving, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him.

  Sometimes she was shocked by how much more agile and strong she had become after leaving the Cursed Forest. At first she’d put it down to not starving anymore. Lately, that theory was proving less sound. Especially since the moment Sanguine’s gem had lodged itself in her chest, she was capable of things that she’d never have imagined before. Firing arrows off of dragonback was just one of her escapades that she’d been hiding from Edith.

  She’d been letting herself get overconfident. She was still mortal, like anyone. Nearly falling to her death had been a shock. Part of reconciling with that was recognizing that Sanguine really was just that much stronger than her. The only reason he didn’t seriously injure her was due to his self control.

  “There is… magic in your blood,” Sanguine said after an unhappy silence. “Not just you. All living creatures. T’laanga had… a lot of magic in his veins. The magic is… delicious. Addictive. My body howls for it like there are starving wolves in my gut.”

  “So it’s not… people, humans, that you want to eat, but the magic inside of them?” Cassia asked carefully. Sanguine’s words left her feeling just as conflicted as her dragon seemed to be. Finally understanding more of the burden her dragon was bearing was a relief. At the same time, hearing that he had a powerful desire to consume magic from people was troubling.

  “Yes. Animals have some,” Sanguine clarified uncomfortably. “Humans have the most I’ve seen. Not sure about elves yet.” He kneaded his claws into the ground, which he only did when greatly anxious. “I do not want to risk what might happen, if Visk has a lot like T’laanga.”

  Cassia could agree with that concern. Sanguine going feral like he had with the Sorcerer wouldn’t be good for anyone. They were all lucky that Sanguine’s first instinct when overpowered by his urges was to run for the hills. At the same time, this wasn’t an issue that could be ignored. Hoping for the best wouldn’t fix anything.

  “Do you think you’d need just a little?” Cassia asked softly, running her hand across his snout. “If it’s just a little… then I really don’t mind. Not if it makes it safe.” She tried to smile to put him at ease. That smile faltered when he shook his head.

  “It only increases. The older I’ve gotten, the stronger the urge becomes,” Sanguine said sadly. “I think… eating magic is what is making me grow. It is like… a river. As water flows through, it digs away the soil. The more soil that is removed, the more water that can flow through. Perhaps at some point it evens out but…”

  “But what?” Cassia asked, prodding him to continue.

  “I had… a dream, while I was asleep,” Sanguine said at nearly a whisper. “I was… back where I was born. We’ve… never spoken about where I came from. There was a nest, far up the mountain. I hatched before my siblings, but I was small and weak, like how you found me.”

  As he spoke, Cassia nudged him to lay down. She sat down on the soft pine needles with his head on her lap. Her side ached, but it could wait a small while before she needed to do something about it. She’d never asked about Sanguine’s past. When they’d met, he was unable to speak and knew little about the world. Being able to talk to him normally was still novel to begin with.

  “My siblings… the other dragons. They are not like me. I do not know how I know this. However, I fled the nest before they could hatch. If I had stayed, I am certain I would have died. In the dream, I… learned that this was the truth, probably.”

  “In your dream? Like a vision?” Cassia asked quietly. “That’s said to be something only those favored by the Gods can do.”

  “Is that so?” Sanguine said, his confusion evident. “I do not know if that is what happened, then. But in the dream, I met one of my siblings. One that hatched after me. She… she was not able to flee like I was. They…” Sanguine closed his eyes, giving a low mournful sound.

  Cassia gasped softly. She wasn’t sure whether what her dragon had seen was real, but the pain he felt was. She pulled his head closer to her body, wrapping him up in her arms.

  “Oh my Sanguine,” she whispered to him. “That’s awful. I’m sorry you had to see something like that… But why would…” Cassia trailed off before she could finish her question. “They’d try to eat you, because you have a lot of magic?” Sanguine nodded his head against her arms.

  “They ate my sibling Sixth, because she was… too weak, she told me,” Sanguine replied sadly. “She was… just a remnant of herself. She never had a chance to grow, or to meet someone kind like you.”

  She did not ask any more questions for a little while after that. Sanguine went quiet, not wanting to talk any more.

  Cassia could feel that there was more to his sorrow, but he didn’t have the energy. The pain radiating from inside of him washed away any consolation that Cassia could offer. All she could do was be there for him.

  It didn’t last as long as she’d have wanted. The pain in her side and the small trickle of blood prevented her from giving her dragon the comfort he deserved. Cassia knew how to dress simple wounds, but they’d need to fly back to Edith for proper treatment. She wasn’t looking forward to the scolding she’d get when they returned.

  A flash of memory came to mind. Hadn’t Sanguine healed her once before? She’d always suspected that the herbs and bandage she’d used for her eye didn’t do nearly as much as a single lick from him as a hatchling. That entire situation had been a disaster, but she’d need to put aside her embarrassment for now. If he was able to heal her, it might go a long way to helping him feel better. That was motivation enough to try.

  “Sanguine,” she said softly, shaking his head in her lap to get his attention. “Do you remember what you did, back in the Cabin in the Forest. When my eye got hurt?” Reminding him of his other time hurting her probably wouldn’t feel the best, but it was better to get it over with quickly. “You… used magic back then, I think, to help heal it. Do you think you can do it again?”

  Sanguine opened his eyes and looked up at her face. She could see the thoughts swimming behind his gaze. His mood settled from distressed to contemplative. After a couple of seconds his head pulled back from her lap so that he could examine the wound again. Cassia watched as the dark slits of his pupils twitched and became razor thin. A strange lid that shimmered with opalescent colors closed over his eyes.

  Delicately, her dragon brought the tip of his snout close to her body. She could see a glimmer of light tracing back and forth across his nose. Sanguine did not seem to notice it. He was consumed in his thoughts as hesitation and a desire to help battle for supremacy.

  When the soft red scales finally pressed against the oozing hole in her side, she jumped slightly. That flickering light had jumped into her skin and borrowed into her flesh. It felt like a small bolt of lightning bouncing around inside of her body. There was a small sting of pain, but it didn’t compare to getting bitten.

  The spark settled at the deepest extent of her wound and started working its way back outwards. Cassia grabbed onto Sanguine’s head with both hands. This wasn’t for his comfort, but her own.

  Cassia had been riding an emotional and adrenaline high for a couple of minutes. As she’d sat on the ground holding Sanguine’s head, that potent cocktail had run its course. By the time Sanguine started to use his magic the pain she’d been ignoring was rearing its ugly head.

  Sanguine’s fang had been like a small dagger shoved into her side. The magic he used to heal her did not speed up her body’s natural regeneration. It reversed the wound entirely. Tears flooded Cassia’s eyes as she felt the hole close from the inside out, like the tooth was being ‘un-stabbed’ out of her.

  It hurt just as bad as the original injury, without the distraction of nearly falling to her death to distract her.

  By the time Sanguine was done, Cassia was gasping for breath. She’d never regretted asking anyone to do something so much in her life. The process had taken several minutes, each second of which had been agonizing. She collapsed on top of her dragon’s head, clinging to him weakly for support.

  “Are you alright, my Hunter-Princess?” Sanguine rumbled with concern. The wound was fully closed without a scar, but Cassia was clearly weak.

  “I’m jus’ Cassia ri’ now Sangy,” Cassia responded, thoroughly frazzled. “I’m’a just lay here… n’ regret me bein’ dumb for a bit, ‘kay?”

  Sanguine obliged, glad to hear that his Cassia was alright. He curled his body around her and waited patiently for her to recover. Hopefully they could get back to hunting together soon. They had gotten distracted before starting. He was still hungry.