"So, you wanted to get to know me better?"
I nodded, following after Ari who walked ahead.
After yesterday, I was determined not to let my emptiness get the better of me. I wanted to make sure I had that bond between us.
There was no use having a mate I knew nothing about. And guessing favourites on a car trip was not going to cut it.
I ditched my human shape to return to my own skin that I was much more comfortable in. It felt good to have my wings and tail back as well as the height I never knew I'd miss.
It made me feel safer being further from the ground. Being a tiny human had its limitations that just didn't feel right for a beast of the sky.
Ari was more than happy to explore the area around his new home. He was already experiencing more than he ever had in his life.
His new clothes; a plain brown shirt with torn denim shorts and black thongs, had thrilled him when they were left by my room. He even had his own room now that was placed near the balcony I had dragged the dead horse through.
I couldn't even access it anymore since the massive windows had been replaced with new ones.
For me, the distance and inaccessibility was a nuisance. But for him, it was the only private place he had known. He couldn't quite grasp it yet that he didn't need to share it with anyone else and could dress himself in something other than a single white outfit.
The breath of colour was the most exciting thing to him as he zigzagged ahead over the ground, jumping on twigs to break them and run his hands over the coarse bark around him.
I saw him inhale deeply as he walked and turn to smile when i joined his side.
"It's just so... amazing out here" he grinned and ran past me so he could walk backwards "just trees and birds and no noise."
"The perks of living away from towns."
"It's beautiful" he sighed happily as he spun around before continuing to walk ahead "I bet it's even better up in the sky."
I grinned now at the memory of air in my wings and feeling a sense of freedom my human shape couldn't replicate.
"It's probably going to be hard to imagine for you" I started "but it's like... nothing can drag you down up there. Everything is so small and you feel like you can do anything or go anywhere."
"Oh" Ari smiled "that does sound amazing. Don't you ever get scared of falling?"
He stopped so I could join him again. I felt his hand on my scales now, gliding and exploring them.
"Dragons just aren't scared of falling" I shrugged "I don't know why but we're just born knowing that we can trust our wings and not fear what we don't need to. I haven't met one yet that is scared of flying."
"Except me" Ari joked, making me roll my eyes at him.
He still had the smug smile on his face when he came to a drop in the ground before him. It wasn't deep at all but had a fallen tree to safely cross to the other side. There was a trickle of water below that squeezed between the rocks leading further away.
There was another way around it further down, but Ari was determined on crossing the gap on the tree.
"I'll be fearless too" he spoke with his arms held out to balance him "look, I'm not even slipping!"
"The tree is quite wide" I reminded him when I leapt over to the other side effortlessly.
"A least you know I'm not clumsy" he winked, still crossing his legs as he walked like he was balancing on a tightrope across a chasm.
I waited for him to jump down beside me happily and sighed at him.
"You survived" I nudged him forward with my nose "i was so close to losing you forever to a six foot drop."
"And the water" he added cheekily with a touch of my nose "I could have been swept away."
I looked down at the tiny trickle and giggled at him marching ahead, kicking up the leaves as he walked.
I could feel myself falling more for him through his goofy antics. I had already been smitten, but this was an entirely different feeling.
"You know, this would be a nice spot for your nest" Ari pointed out "trees, leaves; it'd be super comfy at least."
"Too exposed" I immediently shut down his suggestion "plus it would be too cold."
"It's already freezing in that room of yours" he chuckled back "I think you should consider it at least. You did mention something about people stealing from you before."
The temptation was there for sure. It was a beautiful area that was secluded enough away from prying humans. But I didn't know it well enough to put my faith into it just yet.
"What does stop you from just leaving? Are you bound to that place or something?" Ari questioned, falling back to me again "it isn't the humans is it?"
"The children" I nodded "I'm there to guard them. They are mine until they leave when it's safe. Each one is marked too so I can't miss them. There are meant to be more arriving soon too."
I saw Ari look at me sympathetically. It caught me off-guard.
"I can see why that would drive you to have some of your own. It would be hard having all of these children coming and going while you can't have your own."
I felt his words cut deep and just nodded.
"But you'll change that, right?"
He saw my hope and laid a hand on my side again.
"I'll try my best" Ari flashed a sad smile "but I can't promise anything. Crossbreeding is always a tricky thing to figure out. If it doesn't work this season, we always have the time around it to work on that."
Rearing out of season? The idea was madness. This time was the most suitable since it was warmer and bought with it an abundance of blossoming food and the prey that came with it. It was the time when new life could thrive and not go hungry.
Around this time was either too hot or cold. The heat didn't bother me since the eggs would need to be kept warm anyway. It was how the drastic change drove away prey and killed off crops. Preventable starvation could take lives if that happened.
Plus there was winter. Dragons hibernated during that time to best survive the cold snap and lack of food. Only those suited, like fabled ice dragons, didn't go dormant during that time.
If we stayed within the correct rearing periods, I would have eight months to raise my babies until winter hit.
It was already the beginning of spring. I was sure Ari already knew what effect the change was having on the wildlife already through our own actions.
"If worse comes to worse, you have summer next, then autumn" he added hopefully "usually its bushfire season in autumn, but that shouldn't bother you. You literally have fire inside you."
I just agreed, feeling my hopes being crushed again.
If he was already planning around the window we had, he had no faith in producing anything for me. It made me think that maybe he was right.
But I wasn't going to just give up so easily. I was at least going to fight for it.
"Isnt it funny how it's expected of us to just know what we are doing?" Ari scoffed "none of us have been parents before, let alone loved anything. I feel like we are the two animals at the zoo expected to save the species or something. Dragons aren't even endangered, so I don't see why they are so persistent on it."
"To keep us happy" I answered confidently.
Ari only grimaced at me then stopped so he could sit down. I laid down with him and dragged him over to my arm so he could use it as support instead.
"Think about it" he looked up to me "why do they want you to breed so badly? You've been there for how long?"
"Twenty years."
"Twenty years" he threw a hand up that grabbed his chin in thought "and you must have come into a good breeding age around sixteen? When you started laying?"
"That was fourteen" I mumbled back slowly.
"Why didn't they do all this then?" he pondered "they waited all this time when you had six other seasons just pass by. What changed?"
He was making sense. How come they hadn't acted back then? Did they think I was too young or did they want to keep me unmated so I would keep giving them the eggs they had continuously collected without fail?
"Even if you did get desperate, you could have mated the other dragon" Ari pointed out "it wouldn't work but at least it'd be your own species instead of what they've done with us" he gesture between us both "don't get me wrong, I'm very lucky to love a dragon like you, but it doesn't add up."
"It... doesn't" I agreed now.
"Like, our union" Ari snapped his fingers and pointed to me "how come I was walked up to you like some sort of sacrifice; blindfold and all? I get superstitions, but this was on a huge stand with all the stairs and next to a cliff. To me, it didn't feel like I was meeting my mate; it felt like I was blindly walking to what could have been my slaughter. For all they knew, you could have been a man-eating dragon."
"And the fact that we were expected to dance right there" I thought back to the moment "i had to practice with a bag before you showed up so I didn't drop you. It was expected we would be bound then and there. They weren't going to accept anything else."
"Everyone was so persistent to feed you with thier own finest cuts and catches."
"And they didn't step in when I dropped you."
We both sat in silence for a moment, looking at each other.
"Do...you think there is another meaning behind it all?" I whispered.
Ari nodded, swallowing loudly.
Instantly, I was nervous. Suddenly, it felt like we were uncovering some dark secret and that the forest was listening to us try and fit the pieces together.
Ari was uncomfortable too. He got up to look around, sitting on the ground before me instead of returning to my arm.
I spread my wings to give us some coverage. It left my back completely exposed, but made me feel better knowing Ari was protected.
"Let's run over everything we know" he said as he brushed away the leaves between us so he could have a patch of dirt to dig his finger into and draw up a time line "we'll get through this together, OK? Nothing is changing between us; I still love you, Scala."
"And I love you too" I smiled back to him when he quickly kissed my nose.
"OK, so we are having doubts around this area" he circled the end of the line and stabbed it "when we were united."
"Even before that" I added "when they started taking my eggs. They were so upset when I started smashing them instead."
He scrawled something down, nodding seriously.
"And they weren't upset about the other dragon?"
"They put up something to keep him away before I picked you. Bee was surprised but made it clear that you were a better fit. He knew Barebone was only staying around as a guide when he taught me the dance without mating. He helped complete my horde before the carers stole it because it was free."
Ari gasped, pointing to me.
"Do you think that they are just using you for the horde? It's common knowledge that anything that falls into ownership of an animal makes it so that it technically falls out of the previous owners hands. It's there for the taking if you can get to it. And now with us bound, and me being a human, technically I now own your entire horde."
I felt a grunt of surprise leave my lips when I watched Ari branch off from the line excitedly at the breakthrough.
"And with me now living with you, and you technically owned by that man who drove us here; since you are classified as an animal, that man overrules me and owns everything that I take from you. It slips from my ownership immediently into his."
"And Bee reports to the woman he was talking about" I frowned "so she takes it from him."
"And since you are in thier ownership, she gives it to the town we were united in" Ari drew the links "they get filthy rich for uniting us. That would explain why they were so persistent on getting your approval. They want to make sure you are happy with them by giving you food."
Food. That was it!
"At the table, I was trading for food; you remember?" I blurted out and stabbed the line with my nail.
"I do" Ari frowned now at my plot.
"Dragons trade" I told him "we can't take without trading. You can trade a horse for a tree, a steak for a fish, or..."
"....or a horde for a mate?"
"Exactly!" I gasped out "now I have no horde but I have a mate. Now they want to play on me wanting to be a mother to trade for something else."
"But what?" Ari peered up at me.
"It's not the other children" I thought aloud "they mark them so they are mine regardless. I... don't think we know that part yet."
We say there in stunned silence, just letting all of the information sink in.
"So you are just keeping your own horde safe for them now?"
"Seems like it" I sighed back.
"I mean, it's in a place where no-one else can get it" Ari admitted with a defeated smile "they've thought this through."
"And with me focusing on you now, they can rake it out for themselves; if they can get past Clay's Ward. They gave me you to distract me. They had to chain me up to keep me from stopping them last time."
Ari let out a disgusted noise when he heard what they had done.
"Even if we move, it doesn't change ownership. As long as you care for those children, they will keep you where they can see you. They brand them to remind you, not so that you can find them easier."
I growled at the dead-end we had just hit. It made the fire within me leap and lick at me, wanting to be be free with my anger.
I wasn't going to just abandon those children either to save the ones I didn't have yet. They had me backed into a corner that I couldn't break my way out of.
It felt like I had been chained up all over again. There was no way out.
"We will figure this out together" Ari ran a hand over my translucent scales to feel the fire starting to settle there "and we will give them what they want."
I tilted my head at him.
"They want your babies" he rubbed along the scales "you will mate with the other dragon to give them that, and then we can figure out the last piece of the puzzle."
Mate? With Barebone?
"I can't do that to you" I breathed back "I love you, not Barebone."
"But Barebone can literally save us" Ari pressed his forehead to mine I lowered "different types aren't compatible anyway. We only need to use it as a decoy. I really don't want to play with your dreams like that, but it's all we have."
Tears ran down my face when I felt Ari's. He kept his forehead pressed to mine and his hands on my cheeks for comfort.
I could see how much he cared for me. Here he was, shedding tears over having to take advantage of the one thing I wanted most. There was no greed or malace behind them; just genuine sadness for what we had been reduced to resorting to just to keep our family together.
I nodded, peeling from Ari who was wiping his eyes and trying to put on a brave smile.
"I'm doing this for you" I told him sternly as I tried to compose myself again "so I don't lose you."
"I know" he smiled back as his tears ran over his trembling lips "and I'm going to be here for you every step of the way, OK? That's what a mate is supposed to do. Besides, he needs someone to remind him that you are still mine."
I nodded, choking out a weak laugh with him.
"Ill always be yours, Ari."
"And I couldn't ask for anything more" he smiled back as we comforted each other in the quiet forest listening to our subsiding sobs before we backtracked to follow the trickling water down to the river.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
