I didn't return to my nest after breaking free.
I did return to the mansion though, just waiting and watching out the front.
I wasn't taking any chances. If anyone tried to approach me, I took off like a frightened animal.
Not even Clay or Russet were allowed too close. It broke thier hearts and mine, but I wasn't going to take any chances to end back in chains.
Seeing Apple leave the home was a bittersweet moment. I watched from the balcony as she descended the front stairs to the pebble road where the car was waiting.
She wore her best dress for the occasion; a beautiful black frock with a curved edge lined in white. Her hair was oiled and plaited precariously to look like looping hearts down her back that ended with a white ribbon.
Her sunhat looked like it had been saved for this occasion. It was unmarked by damage and had a white ribbon around the middle of it that was decorated with fake red berries and a chunk of pink crystal in the shape of a heart.
She was trying her best not to cry while she hugged Clay who sobbed freely and wiped his eyes.
All the carers were here to wish her well in thier sea of black dresses and suits with white aprons.
There was no grudges held today. It was a time for new beginnings and fresh starts.
Russet was back to her usual self like nothing had happened. She held a knitted red wolf toy close, playing with its black button eyes before she found the chance to hug Apple and sniffle through her warmest thoughts.
Apple was a well-loved girl. I felt guilty for missing everyone else's departure.
Had they been looking for me like she was now?
I couldn't give her the comfort she wanted. Instead, I watched over her from the balcony that was clear of any other life.
Her smile when her eyes found me here was all I needed to know that my appearance was comfort enough for her. Tears ran down her face when she waved up to me then climbed into the back of the tinted car.
This was it. She was back to her life and routine wherever that was in this world. It was funny how much a girl had touched my heart without me even knowing her actual name.
I felt like I was losing a part of myself that had already been lost at the realisation of how empty the mansion had become. I let the tears flow freely and took to the skies to follow the car as far as the pebbles went before landing and watching Apple lean out the window to cup her hands around her mouth.
"It's Evelyn!" she called out with a wave.
Evelyn?
"That's my name Scala!" she giggled as she got further away "my soul is yours! Whoo hoo!"
I laughed at the girl be dragged back inside and shook my head at the silly superstition. I just knew she was going to be chastised for that by her parents.
What a wonderful name for a beautiful soul.
Hopefully I would speak it again one day.
The skies were still clear when I sailed in them, enjoying the feeling of the wind in my wings and the warmth of the sun on my scales. I soared within eyesight of the mansion, longing to return to my dark nest and complete the stolen horde.
I could complete it now. I was out here and able to go wherever I wanted. Barebone had said that the square wasn't far from here.
I felt thrilled by the thought of a gleeming horde around my nest. It would be untouched and beautiful, placed like veins stemming from the nest like Barebone's. It would be glorious.
Now, where had Barebone gone?
I followed the roads winding around the properties and eventually came to where the areas between them shrunk. When they were clustered together, I saw where each one pooled to the heart of the town where the large square was.
Market stalls lined the cobblestone circular area. For a place called the 'square', it wasn't square at all.
The place itself was dated by modern standards. The aged look was trapped in a time no longer, and lured visitors with its forgotten looks.
The air spiraling here was incredible. It was dancing with scents of fresh herbs and cooking meat. Sweet and sandlewood perfumes sprinkled in to call to all the senses.
The place itself was drenched with colour from the flags crossing over the cobblestones and twisted around a single wooden pole at the back of a stone platform at the top.
The platform itself was bare of any life. Nobody went near the area that the stalls circled before.
Was that the offering area Barebone talked of?
There was nothing there.
I caught sight of the glimmering crystals from a nervous stall owner peering up at me. There were four more in the circle with thier wares on show.
The tables were overflowing. There were even crystal bowls filled with raw shards.
It was perfect.
But I couldn't just take them. I had to make a trade. Then it would be fair.
What was there to trade though?
I already knew from experience that horseys and cows were a no-go. Maybe something that wasn't a farm animal?
An apple tree came crashing to the cobblestones before I did. The fruit flew everywhere from the impact and the branches broke under the force.
I didn't care though. I had made my trade and was ready to take the reward.
The first stall owner abandoned thier crystals I snapped up and took flight with.
I only carried them about a kilometer away to dump under a tree so I could quickly return for the rest before they were whisked away.
Screaming and frantic panicking around me was all I saw when I snapped up the second stall and added it to the pile.
People were rushing about and crying out for help when the third and forth followed; ending with the fifth and the bowl of shards the owner tried to swat me from.
I was happy while chaos spread below me. I had my horde back and could prepare it how I wanted.
Rearranging it all couldn't have been more satisfying. Once I got past the shrill screaming and chased off any eager hopefuls, I took the time to perfect my vision with the assortment of tumbled, shined, and raw crystals around me.
It was much larger than Barebone's offering too. It only made the satisfaction of it all soar.
"Scala" Clay breathed from the doorway and rushed to me with a smile "I thought I heard the sensor go off."
"I'm back" I mouthed around the sphere I gripped in my teeth "only for this though."
Once everything was how I wanted it, I could leave again. The longer I stayed here, the higher the risk of being recaptured.
"I'll grab the items for the Ward" he babbled and took off as quickly as he could.
I was already halfway through my first vein of crystals when Clay returned with his arms gripping jars of water, herbs, and an assortment of his own crystal pillars threatening to fall from the fabric he had them wrapped in.
He got to work immediently, setting up the crystals precisely in a circle in the doorway before laying the herbs around the sides and in the middle.
He screwed open the jars to swipe a symbol on the ground.
"I need another scale" he came to me with his hand held out.
I offered my tail again for him to rip one out and press it to the watery circle.
I kept working while he chanted his incantations and started the process of protecting my hard work. The crystals I picked up responded to Clay's energy and rattled before throbbing with light when I placed them down.
The veins really came to life from Clay's Ward. The blue light radiating from each one fuelled him and gave him the boost he needed to continue the lengthy spell.
"This is incredible" he gasped when the water started to weave its hovering symbol in the doorframe "the energy from this room alone is like nothing else I've felt. Imagine what it would be like once they are recharged by the moon."
Crystals could be recharged? Were they like batteries or something?
Maybe they were for a witch like Clay. It was amazing what he could source power from.
I kept at my artwork, breaking down the bowl in my jaws to relocate the pieces.
I could see the destruction of something so beautiful hurt Clay. He even looked close to tears when he saw what I had done to it.
I pushed a part towards him that he accepted with a small smile. He kept it from the crystal circle that charged the rushing water suspended there.
"Almost done" he smiled briefly at me "I just need more time."
It was all so mesmerising that I forgot for a moment what I was doing.
"Work quickly, Scala" he warned, snapping me from my daze.
Right. I didn't have time to gawk. I was on enough borrowed time as it was.
Each glowing crystal had its own place when Clay finished the Ward and hurried away so he wasn't caught. I worked in peace, knowing that this time would be successful and I would have something breathtaking to show for this tedious task.
It was nearing nighttime when the last crystal found its home and I stepped back to marvel the work laid around me, feeling a smile wipe across my face with bittersweet tears pricking my eyes.
I was almost ready for my mate. All I had to do now was learn the dance to bind us together.
I could feel the adrenaline of it all coursing and jittering through me when I went to head towards the river.
But on my way from the mansion, a light caught my eye to stop me in my tracks. I flew back to it to see one of the rooms lit up and everything open.
Crystals and jars were crowded on the balcony I instantly recognized as Clay's. I hovered there, peering in to see his room opened directly to a bathroom where he was relaxing in a bath.
I turned away when I noticed but he threw up a hand to wave to me, revealling a thick book in it.
"Perfect timing!" he called out and sat up "I have something that might help you!"
His body was glistening and plastered with petals and leaves of herbs. It looked like he was simmering in a stew rather than a hot bath.
"I was taking some time to go over the bestiary and was comparing you and Russet. You two have something very important in common."
We did?
I clung to the side of the mansion now, curious.
"Shapeshifters" he tapped the book with a wet finger "dragons and werewolves can change shape. Russet turns into her little wolf and you, Scala, can become human."
Become... human?
Did I want to to that?
"I don't think you have become human before. There are some behaviours that shifted dragons have that you don't. They survive this way and avoid dangerous predators by adapting to become them. I think this would be very good for you to learn."
His smile was wide while I was too dumbfounded to find an expression that best suited the situation I was facing.
Becoming a dangerous predator. There was no doubt humans were the top of the chain; or thought they were. By confusing and tricking thier dull senses, we had survived through adaptation.
It felt like I was being told to fool myself. What good was shifting into a human going to bring me?
"If it's done well, you won't even notice the difference" Clay marvelled and flashed the picture in the book to me "Russet makes for a very convincing human too when she isn't trying to eat raw meat from live animals."
I could see an advantage now at the mention on Russet. I would be able to wander the mansion freely and be able to hold her in my arms when she wanted comforting. I would even be able to sit down at the same table as them both and be treated as an equal rather than an afterthought.
I would adapt and show I wasn't dangerous; that I deserved to keep my wings and flame.
I was going to shift into a human and make sure everyone knew I wasn't going to let myself be the weaker species.
I was going to adapt and survive.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
