The silver eye remains fixed on mine.I know he was right. Because it is the same with me.
For several heartbeats I simply stare at him. Then a possibility begins to form. A dangerous possibility. One that makes my pulse quicken. "Vyrathion..."
The dragon studies me for a moment. Then warmth flows through the connection between us.Morgan, I finally understand what my hoard is. It’syou.
A hundred questions crowd together in my mind. Most of them disappear almost immediately. One remains.
"If I'm your hoard," I ask, "then why did you leave?"
Part of me wants to believe him immediately. The other part remembers standing alone in the jungle while he walked away. That part is harder to silence.
The great dragon becomes very still. For a moment I wonder if I've somehow offended him. Then I realize he's actually considering the question.
"I mean it," I continue. "You walked away. You chose the gold over me."
His tail lashes once behind him.No.
The certainty in the word catches me off guard. "You absolutely did."
I believed I did.
The correction hangs between us.
I stare up at him. "That doesn’t make much sense."
At the time I thought I was choosing gold. I thought I was finally being sensible. Every instinct I possessed told me that obtaining gold was the most important thing in existence.His silver eyes narrow.Then I spent the entire journey thinking about you.
A laugh escapes me before I can stop it. "That sounds miserable."
It was profoundly irritating. But it helped me figure things out.
Despite everything, I smile.
The dragon continues.I kept expecting you to appear behind me. I slowed down several times to allow you to catch up. I constructed a bridge across a river because I thought you might need it. I stopped before nightfall because humans can't travel safely in darkness.
"You built a bridge for me?"
Obviously not.The answer comes far too quickly. Then he pauses.At least, that is what I told myself at the time.
My smile grows.
Vyrathion notices and looks annoyed.You find my suffering amusing.
I pat his snout. "Just a little."
When I reached the village, I discovered that it contained very little gold. There were traces of it. Decorations. Trinkets. Evidence that a larger treasure existed elsewhere.
I frown. "So there actually was gold."
There was.His eyes brighten.An old tribesman told me where it was hidden. A true treasure. Enough gold to restore me completely. Enough to make me whole again.
I study him for a moment. The evening light glitters across the scales of his face, and behind him the last tribesmen are still disappearing into the jungle. Everything feels strangely peaceful after the chaos of the battle. "And it was nearby?"
Very nearby. There was no deception in him. He spoke the truth.The answer comes without hesitation.Mere thousands of paces. I could have reached it before nightfall.
A lump forms in my throat. The dragon who spent years chasing gold had finally stood within reach of it. I think about the arguments we'd had, the endless discussions about hoards and treasure and what it meant to be a dragon. Back then I never truly believed he'd walk away from the chance. "Then why are you here?"
For several moments he doesn't answer. His gaze drifts past me toward the darkening jungle, and I get the distinct impression that he's replaying the memory.The tribesman told me something else.His tail moves slowly through the grass.He said several tribes were marching toward a place they called the Impossible Mountain. They were going there to capture five women.
