When I emerged from my cave, I could see that further progress had been made on the goblin’s new village. The ramshackle barricade that had been erected around the former bandit camp was gone. In its place, a solidly built wall of tree trunks was under construction.

  There were not any new huts, but those which I’d seen before had been completed. A simple rustic cabin now stood near the entrance to my cave. I could see several bundles of herbs left out to dry in the sun hanging from the porch.

  The only thing on my mind right now was finding Cassia and Edith, albeit with muted enthusiasm. I did not expect either of them to be happy to see me. Edith in particular was likely furious with me for promising to find Magnus and promptly falling asleep for a week straight.

  A pair of goblins drawing water from the stream immediately noticed my arrival. They both bowed their heads to me before one of them trotted off in a hurry. That was an improvement from groveling, at least. It probably also meant that they’d been instructed to let people know if I woke up.

  This time, I chose to settle down on the ground outside of my cave. The mid day sun filtered down through the gorge, casting both rays of sunshine and shadows across my ruby scales. After the last time I’d rushed around, I wasn’t in a hurry to get into more trouble.

  Much as I expected, Cassia and Edith both came to find me a few minutes later. They’d been working outside of the village and walked in together through the gap where a gate would eventually stand. The dirt covering their arms and a slight sheen of sweat indicated that they’d been working with soil.

  As they approached, I tasted the air with my tongue and sniffed softly in their direction. The connection between me and Cassia was still muted, but I wanted to get a sense for their emotions. It was immediately evident that neither were happy with me, but at least the stinging smell of anger didn’t cling to their bodies.

  “Sanguine,” Edith said when she came close enough. “Let me start with this: Are ye avoiding us by sleeping?”

  Out of everything she could have asked, that wasn’t what I’d expected her to say. I blinked and tilted my head in puzzlement.

  “... No, Edith,” I rumbled quietly. “I was exhausted, but I had no intention to sleep for so long. There is something you should know.” Edith went to interject, but I held up one foot with my claw extended to head her off. “Magnus is alive.”

  “...!” Edith tried to say something, but only succeeded in opening and closing her mouth slowly. Eventually she gave a huff and crossed her arms. “How do ye know?”

  “Magic,” I said simply. When her eyes narrowed I swiftly chose to elaborate. “There is a connection. In my dreams, I am able to see his… essence, as a star that resembles my own hue. Something is hiding him from me, but there is enough for me to tell that he lives.”

  Edith seemed to deflate a bit, as I’d somewhat taken the wind out of her sails. I could tell that she still wanted to be angry with me, but I needed to tell her certain information before I could let her be.

  “I believe that as I grow stronger, I may be able to work past what is obscuring him from me. It is something I will pursue while we work together on other methods.” I rumbled in a low tone. “I will keep my promise to you, Edith. You have every right to be angry with me, but I hope it will not impede our ability to work together to save Magnus.”

  Cassia had not said anything yet. Edith raised her hands to her eyes and stepped away to have a moment to collect herself. I looked over to my oldest companion in the meantime, my amber eyes meeting hers. The stare she gave me wasn’t one I was used to. I’d seen many expressions on her face, but the lingering suspicion behind her eyes set me ill at ease.

  “... Did you have to do it?” Cassia eventually asked me. She did not elaborate. We both knew what she was talking about.

  “Yes,” I answered. “I thought it over, both directly afterwards, and within my dreams. With what I knew at the time and the choices available to me, I would not change that choice. That would… be disrespectful to T’laanga and the choice he also made.”

  Cassia did not seem to like my answer, but I continued.

  “That does not mean I do not feel regret. We did not know each other long, but I believe T’laanga was a good man. He fought against my brother when he did not have to. It cost him dearly. I regret that I was not able to save him.” I looked down at my claws kneading the soil beneath me.

  “What I regret more, is that twice you have asked me to save someone. Twice, I’ve failed.” My eyes settled back on hers. “I have not been able to live up to the heroes in your stories, Cassia-Róisín O’Coille. I want to be the kind dragon that you dreamed of, but all I seem to manage is dragging myself from one disaster to the next.”

  Cassia grimaced as she looked at me, unable to speak from the emotions choking her. They welled up inside of her as I spoke to her. There were too many for me to interpret. When she finally managed to speak, it was in a whisper.

  “When I look at you, I see you biting down on him,” she told me. “I can see your fangs and the fire burning behind your eyes.” She came close to me, reaching out with her hand. I dipped my head, letting her place her hesitant fingertips on my snout. “I can feel my bones shake when you roar. When the sky itself broke in front of you.”

  She closed her eyes, shuddering softly. “I can see that monster, right behind my eyes. How it came out of nowhere to… to kill us all.” Cassia’s heart beat like a drum, thundering inside of her chest. “I was so scared, Sanguine. Scared that we were both going to die. And then T’laanga was there in front of me…”

  “And I can’t get it out of my head. It keeps coming back to my mind. When I look at you, it’s like I’m reliving it here and now.” Cassia’s hand on my snout curled into a ball. “I raised you. You were mine, my dragon. But now…” She took a shaky breath and let it out. “All I can ask myself is if… that’s the real you.” She looked me straight in the eye, mustering her courage.

  “So if I’ve… ever mattered to you Sanguine, even a little bit, can you tell me the truth? Which are you? The hatchling which scarred my eye, but spent an entire winter trying to make up for it? Or are you just biding your time, until you show your true colors?”

  The question was a cruel one, but I didn’t feel angry that she’d asked. A deep sense of sorrow passed through me. Whether it had been my intention or not, I had pushed Cassia to doubt me and our bond.

  “I do not think words will change anything,” I told her softly. “So I will say this instead: If you truly believe that I am a monster like my brother, take your knife and plunge it into my neck. I will not stop you.”

  Cassia was shocked by this demand. Edith seemed to be as well, but held back, a thin line pressed between her lips. I unfolded my wings from my back and settled them around me and Cassia, preventing her from backing away.

  “You know me better than anyone else alive, Cassia. You have been there for every step of my growth. You have seen me make countless mistakes as I learned to use this body. You alone know exactly where I am weak. So if you think I’m a monster biding my time, then strike.”

  “Th- that’s crazy!” Cassia yelled at me, her disbelief changing to anger. “How could you ask me to do something like that! You know I’d never-”

  I pushed my head forward into her, ramming my snout against her chest. My scales bumped off of the gemstone embedded in her skin. It burned hot with both Cassia’s and my anger mixing inside of it.

  “Why not?!” I growled. “You had no trouble fighting an unliving bear! You defended yourself from the goblins! You shot an arrow into the eye of a dragon as it dived upon you!”

  “But I had to do those things!” Cassia screamed in my face. “I was trying to stay alive!”

  “Then what makes this so different?” A hiss curled past my teeth, heat boiling out of my throat. “Am I not another monster, waiting patiently to strike? You can defend yourself from my brother, but not me? Why?”

  “Because I Love You, you stupid bloody dragon!”

  The shout echoed off the stone walls of the gorge. I was startled backwards, my wings flapping in agitation. My tail lashed at the ground behind me. For just a moment, I’d felt the Truth of Cassia’s words slam into me. They shook me to my core.

  Cassia stood in front of me, panting with her fists balled by her sides. She glared at me for a long moment before she started to settle down. The full effect of what she’d said began to seep in. I watched her blink, then slowly grow red in the face. An intense competition between anger and something else was waged on her features.

  Without saying another word, Cassia turned and sprinted out of the village. She moved so fast that there was nearly an after-image left behind her. Goblins who had gathered to watch the argument stumbled out of the way as she ran past them. I lost sight of her once she’d passed between the trees.

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  I looked over at Edith, who seemed just as surprised as I was. Her face settled into a stern frown when she saw me watching.

  “Ye are going to give her a few minutes, then ye are going to follow after her and apologize,” Edith ordered me. “Or I swear I’ll scale ye like a fish, beasty.” She didn’t stop glaring at me when I ducked my head in contrition.

  “That was bloody stupid of ye… But not everything ye said was wrong.” Edith tapped her foot on the ground. “Our lass is turning out to be a proper warrior, much as it pains me. She needs to understand that when there’s a monster, it needs to be killed.” Edith sighed. “But monsters don’t offer to let their loved ones kill them, Sanguine.”

  “How do I make her see that, Edith?” I asked quietly. “I want nothing more than to be the kind of dragon that she wants. I wanted to save both of them.”

  Edith’s frown lessened in intensity.

  “... I believe ye, beasty,” she told me. “As much as I’m angry with ye, it's not because I think ye are a villain. It's because I think ye can be so much more. This world is hard. Do not make it worse than it is, by breaking yon lass’s heart.” She glanced at the sun. “That should be enough time. Go on and find her. Walking pace, no flying allowed.”

  I nodded and started trotting on my feet toward the entrance of the village.

  Visk came out of the cave behind me, but was stopped by Edith before they could follow. I heard them talking but didn’t catch the details of their conversation. The result was that I walked into the woods by myself.

  I found Cassia sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest on top of a wide and flat boulder. The sun was against her back as she stared out across the small clearing. As I approached, I saw her stiffen up. I slowed my pace until I was moving at a crawl.

  She did not stand up and run away, but she didn’t turn to greet me.

  As carefully as I could, I settled down beside her on the boulder. My eyes turned to look across the clearing. It was nothing special. Pine needles, scrub grass, and an occasional resilient wild flower spread out before us.

  “Did Edith send you to bring me back for a lecture?” Cassia asked me irritably.

  “No,” I responded with a shake of my head. “She said she’d scale me like a fish if I didn’t follow you. I think the threat extends to breaking your heart.” A deep sigh passed through my body. “…I don’t understand what that means, though.”

  “Don’t your magic dreams tell you about that?” Cassia prodded. Her voice was relaxed, but tinged with bitterness. “At times you seem to know so much. More than I ever taught you. But there’s other things you’re… bafflingly stupid about.”

  “I’m… sorry, about asking you to stab me.” My tail curled around my body. “I don’t know how to convince you that I’m not a monster.” An uncommon tremble undercut my words.

  “... I’m also sorry,” Cassia whispered. “I know it’s stupid of me, but I was scared. I am still scared. I really do shut my eyes and see what I said.”

  “I don’t know what makes me different from that, from my siblings,” I said with a huff. Slowly, I laid my head down next to Cassia. “I’m not sure if it comes from being a dragon, or it’s something they chose to be. When I met my sister in my dreams… She was scared and angry. She didn’t seem to consider it strange that she’d been eaten. Instead, she was furious because she was forced to linger afterwards.”

  Cassia furrowed her brow and looked at me. “You mean like the bear in the Forest?”

  “Something like that,” I agreed. “She told me that dragons need magic to grow, more or less. We get more when we eat living creatures…” I glowered. “Third must have… eaten so… so many animals and people to become that powerful that quickly.”

  “So you’re saying that you could become like that?” Cassia asked me insistently. “Rampaging around and killing people for power?”

  “... If I didn’t have things that made me choose otherwise?” I contemplated out loud. “It’s possible. I certainly didn’t feel bad when I ate my first rabbit.” One of my claws scratched at the stone beneath me. “I can remember… appreciating its sacrifice, willing or not. It died so that I could live.” I turned my head to look Cassia in the eye.

  “But you are the reason that I care for more than mere survival, Cassia. You showed me that there was more to life than hunting for my next meal. Even when I did not understand the words, I cherished all the time you spent with me while reading stories from your books.”

  Cassia cleared her throat and looked away. Her eyes kept glancing at me furtively.

  “Those books are for children, Sanguine. You might be less than a summer old, but I don’t think anyone can call you a child any more,” she said nervously.

  “Then good. You read them to me when I was a child,” I returned. “And you seemed to enjoy them far more than I did.” Cassia’s ears reddened and I gave a deep rumble of amusement.

  “... I’d like for us to stop running away from each other, when we are upset with one another,” I said when the conversation began to stall. “ You run into the woods… I fall asleep for days. I don’t think either of us wants that to be how things end.” I moved my head over and nudged Cassia with my snout. “I want to be the dragon that you run towards, not away from, my Cassia.”

  The young woman went fully red in the face and sputtered at my actions. Her hands clenched and unclenched on top of her knees. When that did not help her relieve the stress, she buried her fingers in her brunette hair.

  “You don’t understand how I feel,” Cassia said miserably. “Edith’s right about that. You just do things without knowing how it flips me upside down inside. What’s worse, is that I have no idea if it’s because you’re a dragon, or because of how little time it’s been. Human children can’t even talk after four seasons!”

  “I try not to, if I can help it,” I told her softly. “Every day, I spend much of my time trying to understand you better. I’m glad that I learned how to talk to you so quickly. I can already tell you about things I never imagined a few moons ago. It makes me excited for what I’ll understand when we reach this day next spring.”

  “... You’re making me look like a silly little girl, worrying about what the boy at the village market thinks of me,” Cassia complained. “How can you be so unbothered about this?”

  “I am bothered,” I responded honestly. “I am doing quite a lot of ‘bothering’, all about you, at the moment.” That drew a surprised snort of amusement from Cassia, which she tried to cover up. “Besides… you didn’t grow up at a village market, Cassia. You grew up in the ‘Cursed’ Forest, where you were waiting to find me.”

  “... Do you understand what it means? The thing I shouted at you earlier.” Cassia watched me, just a bit of her eyes showing above her knees.

  “I don’t right now, but I don’t think I need to.” Cassia didn’t seem to understand what I meant, so I continued. “I want you to stay by my side the rest of my life, Cassia. If I need to fight Death itself to keep you with me a little while longer, that is when I’ll show what kind of ‘monster’ I can be.”

  “... You said something really scary just now, Sanguine,” Cassia whispered to me. “But it was also…” She hesitated, then scooted over to press against me with her shoulder. “... Can you say that again and make it a promise? The bit about the rest of your life.”

  “Only if you promise too as well.”

  Neither of us said the promise aloud, but we both felt each other commit to it deep inside. The gate holding back Cassia’s emotions from mine began to open. I hesitated to approach it, but I felt her latch onto me through the connection. Her arms wrapped around me as well.

  For a little while, we sank into each other’s thoughts. It was not as intense as when the connection was established, but I treasured the sensation all the same. All of our anger with each other did not magically fade away. Feeling the fear that she felt when looking at me did help me understand what she was going through better. Likewise, she was able to take solace in the deep well of affection I felt for her.

  One thing I was surprised to feel was that Cassia was jealous of Visk. She’d watched how the Elf had taken up residence in my Den and hovered around me like an attendant. Cassia was conflicted about how she’d insisted that we give the former thief another chance, but now it seemed they were closer to me than Cassia herself was.

  I addressed that concern when we mentally separated enough to speak individually. Day had aged into night while we sat together.

  “If you want to live in my Den, you don’t need to ask,” I told my Cassia. She’d moved at some point to sit between my front legs, her back pressed into my torso. “I think Visk is trying so hard to impress me, because they’re still worried about me throwing them out if they cause trouble.”

  Cassia pursed her lips. “There’s more to it than that, my dragon,” she corrected me gently. “But that’s not your fault, or something that you need to deal with for now. Edith and I had… a long chat with Visk after the first time we found them under your wing.” I caught an impression of the conversation in question across our connection. It had been a highly embarrassing one for Visk.

  My Cassia gently nudged me out of the memory.

  “I enjoy the cabin that the goblins made for me and Edith, but I’ll set up a place for myself in your Den, since you offered,” my Cassia continued. “I won’t stay there… all the time, unless you need me to.” She squinted up at me, waiting for me to clarify my position.

  “... It would be nice for you to be there when I fall asleep, if I know it will be for an extended period,” I offered. “Or when it’s just a nap. But it is a cave, my Princess. You’re better suited to the woods.” She blushed a bit with the light teasing, but she nodded in understanding.

  “I think Visk is in it for the long haul, Sanguine,” Cassia told me softly. “There’s… a lot of things they need to sort out for themselves. That might take them a long time.”

  “Does that bother you, having them around close to me?” I prodded her.

  “Not in a way that matters,” Cassia said after some thought. “I think life with a dragon was always going to be a bit abnormal, no matter where we went. Having other people to experience it with isn’t a bad thing. You, me, Visk… and Edith too.”

  “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

  “I think she already has, honestly,” Cassia told me with a small shrug. “She’s still angry, of course. I’ve just started to learn that… Edith has had a really difficult life, Sanguine. She told me a couple of stories while you were asleep this past week. T’laanga wasn’t the first person she cared about that died.”

  “When she broke down… it wasn’t because T’laanga died. She was ready to accept that, as much as it hurt. It was because he died without ever telling her what she meant to him. I think you were right. She was like a daughter to him, but he was too… Too ‘T’laanga’ to ever say it.”

  “So yeah, I think Edith forgave you already Sanguine. You gave her back something she never knew she’d lost to begin with.” Cassia reached up and rubbed her hand across the scales of my chest. “You’re still on the hook for rescuing Magnus, but I know you’d do that even if Edith didn’t ask you to.”

  “Let’s both make sure we succeed this time. Together,” my Cassia told me with a bittersweet smile.