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Sounds good. I plucked a peach from a satchel. Those spoiled the fastest. I took off my boots and roamed the mossy woodland floor barefoot while Seren squeezed between two trees and crouched, waiting for her dinner to draw closer. A rabbit. A snack, but Seren wasn’t one to complain.
After supper, we explored the area. I ventured to the edge of town, ducking behind bushes and rocks. Seren stayed in the grove, but I allowed her to see through our shared sight. The mortals weren’t completely inept. I wasn’t sure what I expected. Slobbering, drooling, wild men and women grunting and exaggerating their gestures? What surprised me was they spoke the same common tongue as the people in Gorlassar. I supposed Deian gave all beings on two legs the basic components of speech. A few particulars were different, but the meaning was understandable.
I watched a mother hang laundry on a rope line while her toddler dug in the dirt. The girl caked mud over her cream-colored dress while her mother was oblivious. I gasped when the child traipsed over to a cradle and dangled a worm above it. The mother finally turned and screeched, “Katelyn, don’t feed your brother worms!” She smacked the offending creature from Katelyn’s grasp, and the child wailed, setting off the sleeping baby, whom the mother picked up and promptly latched to her breast.
That might have been handled with more tact, Seren said.
I smirked. They were only human.
Many more yards, enclosed by slapped-together stick fences, contained mothers with children. Most tackled some chore, such as hoeing the garden weeds or scrubbing laundry in a tub. A whiff of stew wafted out a window. A husband sauntered home for the evening, scraped his dirty boots on a stump, and dropped his sickle against the doorframe before bellowing out, “Woman, I’m home. Where’s the grub?”
I winced. So they didn’t all talk with grace.
Another husband slunk around the side of the house, snatched his wife up in a one-armed embrace, and planted a deep open-mouthed kiss on her. She responded enthusiastically and twined her fingers into his hair. I turned away, blushing.
So they could express emotion—more vulgar than what I was used to. In Gorlassar, husbands and wives kept most physical affections behind closed doors. The usual outward expression was the traditional greeting of close relations by holding foreheads together while candid feelings for the other infused into the heart and mind of the receiver. Acquaintances bowed or nodded in passing. Any other show of affection wasn’t necessary beyond the binding of two souls for eternity as mates and the intimacy that allowed. Everyone in Gorlassar felt everyone’s emotions, unless an individual made the effort to block them. Most didn’t bother.
That’s just how we were.
But Aneirin had bothered, and I wished I had kept my feelings from him too.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, I arrived at a forge. I watched a large, dark-haired man, with a leather apron stretched around his girth, hold a horseshoe in the flames. I listened to the clank clank of his tools before retreating into the woods.
Not a bad place, I said. I could blend in nicely.
As long as you don’t go revealing your powers, the mortals will think you’re one of them.
That leaves you, Seren.
The only sign of creatures, other than that rabbit and the squirrels I hear scampering in the treetops, was a couple of dogs chasing that cat. I don’t think seeing a dragon will go over well. Oh, and the sheep. I’d like one of those for dinner—tomorrow night. Think they’d mind if I snatched one of those?
I laughed. They’re corralled. Someone owns them. I could make a trade. If you stole a sheep, I don’t think you’d win them over.
Seren curled up, folding her long, spiked tail next to herself, creating a gap for me to lay my bedroll in. Her body heat warmed me, as did my internal light, so we decided against a campfire with its revealing illumination. We didn’t want any locals to snoop around because of a fire in the woods.
I stroked Seren’s scaled underbelly as I drifted off into a peculiar sleep—shallow enough that the tittering insects slipped into my dreams, as did memories of Aneirin. The day’s distractions didn’t help me forget what I left behind. They only reminded me I was missing everything.
Affection, family, and home.
FOUR
The crickets thrummed ever louder. I was going to roll over when a twig snapped thirty feet away on my right.
I stiffened. Seren, did you hear that? Don’t move.
Yes.
I sensed a presence in our grove. Well, I wasn’t lying around and letting him or her sneak up on us. I didn’t move but called out. “Don’t take another step, or you’ll regret it.”
Silence.
I rolled up and peeked over Seren’s tail. The moon cast its silver light, illuminating a dark shape. I opened my mind to Seren’s night vision. One of her crimson eyes was aligned with the intruder—a man dressed in unadorned pants and shirt, along with a cloak. Traveling apparel, perhaps.
He held his hands up. He didn’t quiver or cower, though his gaze fell right on Seren. The feelings I received from him… curiosity and…
Concern.
That piqued my interest. He didn’t balk at my dragon. So bold. His sentiments led me to wonder at the intelligence of these humans. Seren stood twice my height on all fours with her neck stretched high to the sky. Her wings spanned four times my height. And her spiked tail—as long as I was and lethal.
