Lou

  A new age dawned for Lou, with previously unknown feelings and desires appearing like shooting stars. They overwhelmed him like sandstorms. Lou prayed to the Sand Gods, hoping for a break from the tumult inside him. But that never came. The Sand Gods did not answer his prayers.

  Lou wanted kisses.

  Not just any kisses, no. He wanted Harper's kisses.

  He didn't understand why. So far, his life had been monotonous and gloomy. Darkness still y over him like a shadow and yet he wanted the spark that the dragon ignited. Then Lou's skin tingled and he wanted more. Much more. The darkness grew a little brighter whenever he looked at the dragon. He wanted to ...

  Was he allowed to want that?

  Lou had had a bad dream that night. He stood again in front of the gallows with a noose around his neck. Lou stood on a stool that wobbled devastatingly. The air smelled of fire. If he jumped, it would all be over. He vaguely recognized the wood of his end. But apart from him and four figures, there was no one there. No one helped him. Quite the opposite.

  Lou's family stood in front of him and accused him. They accused him of still being alive. They accused him of having plunged his family into misfortune. Nina yelled at him to jump and end his life with the rope. His parents told him they hated him, and Louise? Louise wept bitterly and offered to push him when he was too weak to take the step alone. She would relieve him of the burden of choosing the end alone.

  No one came to save Lou.

  He looked at his family. He couldn't make out their faces. Then he jumped. While the rope took his breath away, his mother thanked him for freeing them all.

  He woke up crying. Crying and breathless.

  Lou felt like he was suffocating. He was hot and cold at the same time. He breathed quickly, while his throat seemed to tighten. He could still feel the rope, even if there was none. The world spun around. Lou wanted to run. Hide. In a panic, he grabbed his neck and coughed. He tried to catch his breath. Air. There were none.

  "Lou!" Hallie rushed to him and touched Lou's hands. He was frightened and screamed. But Hallie remained calm. "Hush, Lou. It’s all good. I'm here!" She was unnaturally warm like all dragons. Also in human form. The warmth hurt.

  Lou wanted to push her away, but he could hardly move. Harper clung to him in his sleep. He slept next to Lou in human form, not as a mighty dragon. One hand clung to Lou's tunic. Right above his heart.

  Lou sobbed. He had not freed his family. The curse was a lie. He lived. None of this seemed right to him.

  "Oh, child!" Hallie stroked his hair, then shook her son while Lou tried to flee from both of them. Harper finally woke up from it. He and Hallie tried to comfort Lou. They hugged him, and gently stopped his attempts to run.

  Lou had not been able to sleep during the night. Neither did Harper and Hallie.

  Hallie now slept curled up next to Ross, who was gnawing at something. Lou didn't want to know what it was. He heard cracking and smacking. Harper sat next to him, yawning, with a wing wrapped around Lou's shoulders, and his eyes closed. He was tired. And it was Lou's fault.

  The rest of Harper's family wasn’t around. So they did not see Lou leaning against the drowsy Harper with a pale face and sighing. And that's exactly what Lou wanted. He didn't want to bother them any further. Because of Lou, his own family was already suffering. He had not freed them. In the city, people still believed in the curse. They would continue to suffer. The fact that dragons wanted to give Lou a home and a new family didn't help much. No. He just felt all the more guilty.

  "What's wrong?" Harper asked softly and stroked Lou's cheek.

  "Nothing." Lou leaned his head away from Harper's warm hand.

  "Nothing? You don't try to break the record in sighing because of nothing!"

  "Oh." Lou hadn't noticed that he was sighing. "Sorry."

  "Okay." Harper nudged Lou with his wing. "What's going on? Come, talk to me."

  But Lou didn't answer. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Harper and buried a face on the other boy's chest. Harper was warm, his clothes soft and he smelled good. Lou pressed herself into his clothes. He missed his family. He wanted to see them. And he didn't want to talk about it. He longed for closeness. For kisses that made him forget everything.

  "Lou?" Harper returned the embrace and stroked his slender, bony back. "Lou? What's going on?"

  "I want kisses!", Lou changed the subject. His face caught fire and his heart beat mercilessly.

  "Kisses?"

  "Kisses!"

  In the background, Ross moaned but did not comment. Harper, on the other hand, pressed a fleeting kiss on Lou's forehead. "How many kisses?"

  "Many."

  "Where?"

  "Hm." Lou didn't know the answer to this question. Where? Where did you kiss? If not on the mouth? Cheek? Forehead? Where else? "Hm."

  Harper chuckled softly. "A hmm, I can't kiss!" he whispered, took one of Lou's hands, and kissed every single finger, then he kissed the tip of Lou's nose. Lou clung all the tighter to the dragon. "Hm!"

  "Are you impatient?" Harper continued to kiss until Lou's breath hitched. He kissed him between the eyes, his chin, his neck, and then Lou's mouth. Lou's body tingled and burned. But when Harper's lips wandered to Lou's ear and from there down his neck almost to Lou's colrbone, Lou began to fidget, startled. "Hm!!"

  Harper kissed Lou's forehead again. "Too much? Okay. Forgive me. Are you feeling better now?"

  Lou nodded breathlessly. Harper's kisses had taken his breath and his words away. "Hm."

  "Is it because of your family? You miss them", Harper guessed the problem. Something that was not a difficulty, as Lou had already communicated this often enough before. He nodded and id his head on Harper's shoulder.

  "I didn't free them. I'm not allowed to see them! They're far away...", he whispered. "Not with me. They never were. Then why do I miss them?"

  "Well, we're your family too!" Harper stroked Lou's silky hair. "You got us. You are an honorary dragon, so to speak! Olive called you that."

  "It's not the same!" growled Ross in a thunderous dragon voice. Lou quietly agreed with the older dragon. It wasn't the same.

  sasi