“Mmm,” I finally sigh. “You’re incredible.”
“Only now do you realize that?” he rumbles.
I get comfortable against his chest. “I’ve suspected it for a while. And then you just keep getting more and more incredible.”
“I am a dragon,” he says as if that explains it. “For some, only a myth. For those who meet us, unspeakable horror. And, I suppose, some of us are incredible.”
“Keep being incredible,” I tell him, getting drowsy. “No need for unspeakable horror. At least not unless someone wants to harm us.”
“Then there will be a lot of horror,” he says. “Because this jungle is full of harmful creatures.”
“But not this hut,” I purr. “Everything is safe in here.”
“A hut with a dragon in it?” he ponders. “It’s difficult to think of a less fitting word for that than ‘safe’.”
“I mean,I’msafe,” I clarify. “I am, right?”
“Hmm…”
I slap his chest. “Don’tthinkabout it! Just say yes!”
His eyes glitter. “Yes. Of course.”
I relax again. “That’s better.”
The next morning when I wake up, I hear Vyrathion muttering outside. I guess he must be trying to do something practical.
I stretch and find myself smiling. It’s not that things are so much better than before. I’m still stuck on Xren, I still don’t really have a tribe where I’m safe, I’m more or less stranded on an island and I’m alone with a dragon. And still I feel better than I have since... well, since I was abducted.
“I really need a professional to check out my mind,” I mutter. But I’m not going to let rational thought ruin this brief moment of contentedness. Because if I know one thing, it’s that it’s going to be brief.
Or does it have to be? Being with Vyrathion is actually the best thing that’s happened to me here. Or anywhere, come to that. And yesterday was a really nice day. Why shouldn’t it last?
Because he’s a dragon, and he needs gold, and if he gets it he may just leave. And without gold, he may keep getting weaker.
I roll over and peer out at him. Will he? He doesn’t seem to be any weaker now than he was a few days ago. If anything, I’d say he looks stronger. But that’s probably because I’m getting used to having him around.
His back is to me, and he’s struggling with something that I can’t see.
What would it be like, though? To return to the Borok village and tell all the contestants atThe Caveman Bachelorettethat the position is taken? Hey, it worked for Astrid.
I crawl out into the day. “What’s going on?”
He looks over his shoulder. “It was my intention to prepare these ridiculous things, but they won’t cooperate,” he growls.
There’s a heap of fruits, and he’s trying to peel them and get the pit out.
His brow is furrowed in concentration. One enormous claw carefully lifts away a strip of yellow skin. The fruit immediately slips from his grip like a wet bar of soap and splatters against a nearby tree.
Vyrathion snarls. “See how ludicrous this is?” He picks up another fruit and tries again. This one survives the peeling, but when he digs out the pit it suddenly shoots between his fingers and vanishes into the grass.
A low growl escapes him. “How can these things move so much?”
I bite my lip to stop myself from laughing.
By now there are two distinct piles beside him. One contains two neatly peeled fruit with the pits removed. The other is considerably larger and appears to consist entirely of failed attempts. Vyrathion selects another victim and begins operating on it with immense concentration.
A few seconds later he mutters, "Why hide the edible part inside the inedible part? And then add an even less edible part in the middle? I have killed bigger things with less trouble!"
