I hummed a song from my childhood as I toiled with the other women, a mound of corn turning into a meal in front of me as I turned one round stone over another. As I became immersed in my work, I started to sing the words to the song, totally unaware until one of the women, Nahla, poked me in the arm.

“What’s up, Nahla?”

“What’s this song about smoking and fucking all day that you sing? What is smoking? What is fucking?” Her beautiful face was totally innocent of mockery, and I looked at her, totally unsure of how to explain the gist of the song.

“Um, well, smoking is the act of burning a herb and inhaling the smoke into your lungs.”

“Oh, like when we burn the eucalyptus leaves in our fireplaces to clear out sickness?”

“Uh, no. You roll the herbs in a paper and…” I stopped because I wasn’t sure I should introduce such an unhealthy practice to these women. “Yeah, kind of like that.”

“And this fucking? What is that?” She looked really interested in this part.

“Well, that’s when you mate. It’s a rather naughty word for it.”

“Ah! I understand. And you have people that do this smoking and fucking all day? And make songs about it? This sounds like a very easy life.”

“I suppose it is, yes. It’s just a song, it’s not really to honor anybody or anything.” I had no idea how to explain the glorification of drugs and unprotected sex to a person that had no concept of my world. It would open up other topics and I had to meet Yohl when I finished with this bucket of dried corn. “I’ll explain it more some other time. I have to get this done.”

“Okay. But could you explain one more thing to me?” Her dark brows drew together over her eyes and I couldn’t turn her down, not when she was just so curious about it all.

“Sure, honey, what do you want to know?”

“What’s a hoopty? It’s such an odd sounding word.”

“Oh, that’s like a wagon, only a very old one, you know, the wheels won’t stay on and something’s always breaking on it.”

“Ah. An odd choice of things to sing about.” Nahla went back to her own work and I quickly finished mine.

I’d lost myself in the work and hadn’t paid attention to the song I’d started to sing. I had been careful about what I did here, it wasn’t that I thought the women were beneath me, but I didn’t want to pollute their society with my world’s problems. It wasn’t always easy being here, especially when I forgot myself and said something I didn’t mean to.

I cleaned the meal from the recess of the other rock and poured it into a bag made from woven grass. I tightened the straps on my grass sandals and went off in the direction of the leader’s quarters. I’d been summoned, and I had a feeling I knew what it was about. I’d been with Henry again the night before, and she’d seen me coming out of the jungle. She hadn’t said anything at the morning meal, but I’d felt her eyes on me. It wasn’t a surprise then when one of her personal staff came to me with the summons.

I walked over the hard-packed path quickly and was soon at the entrance to her quarters. The grass panels were down on the place, and I knew this was a serious meeting. Privacy was not something needed in this community, not unless there were accusations to be made. That was the only time the panels came down on the leader’s home in this temperate place where the temperature rarely fluctuated.

She’d finally decided to ask me about the dragon scent on me then. I took a deep breath and called out to the woman much taller than the other women in the village.

“Yohl? I’m here.”

“Come in, Willow.” Yohl came to the entrance to her quarters and pulled a panel aside. She greeted me with a smile and kind eyes.

This wasn’t to be a nasty meeting then. I breathed a little easier and went in. She had dried grass mats on the floor around a bowl of the soup the villagers made from a form of carrots and onions, along with their own herbs. I sat down at the mat she indicated and took up the bowl in the customary fashion. Here, you didn’t wait until something was offered, if it was at your seat then it was yours and you took it. I’d learned that my first day here when I waited for quite a long time before Yohl had figured out why I hadn’t picked up my soup and explained.

“You are mated to a dragon then, Willow?” I nearly spit out my soup when she went straight to the point. Another trait of the people here. There was no beating around the bush, it was straight to the point without any kind of guile.

“I am.” I’d decided all those weeks ago that if the women were kind enough to offer me a place in their society that I’d treat them with the same respect and dignity they gave to me. There was no point in lying, they could all smell Henry on me anyway.

She watched me for a moment, her face unreadable. She was older than me, in her 40s perhaps, pretty but also very intelligent. It was her intelligence that had won her the role of leader in this village. The women voted every year to choose their leader and I’d learned Yohl had won every year for the last 20 years.

“When I was a small girl my mother took me to a village of male farmers. She’d gone to mate with one of the men there, as is our way. She also left the male infants who had been born since her last visit.”

“Ah, that’s where all the male babies go then.”

“Yes, we don’t raise them. We don’t want men in our society.” I understood that after seeing the harmony within the village without them around. “Anyway, one of the men caught my attention. He was tending to chickens, and I saw him kill one of the newly hatched chicks.”

“Why would he do that?” I found the tale horrible but knew there had to be a reason she was telling me this story.

“He told me that the chicken had hatched with a lame leg and it would never improve. The other chickens would shun this chick, they would peck at it, until all of its feathers were gone, and they would not let it have enough food. It would starve to death after a life of being pecked at and abused. It would not have a good life and to prevent this, the farmer would take its life. He did it gently, but he still ended the lame chicken’s life rather than have it live a life that only brought misery to the poor animal.”

“Ah.” I looked at her, unsure of what she meant. Did she think the fact I was mated to a dragon was a disability? I looked at her, but her face was blank, no answer available.

“That is all, Willow. Thank you for coming.” Yohl stood up and left me then, a dismissal as good as any, but I had questions.

I stared after her, the soup forgotten. Did she think my parents should have been the same as the farmer, cruel to be kind? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I stood up and walked from the leader’s quarters to my own on the edge of the village.

I’d learned a lot in my time in the village, but I still could not control my hunter. I wasn’t ready to leave yet, but was that what the story meant? If I didn’t leave I would be put down to save me from a life of misery? I needed far more information than the cryptic story that Yohl gave me, but she’d left me with only more questions.

I think she means that you have a choice to make yourself, darling.

A shiver passed through me as Henry intruded into my thoughts. I needed him more every time he came to me. I thought time would ease my need, that being with him would make the ache hurt just a little less, but I’d been wrong. That ache, that need, only grew worse. I fell to my knees on my own grass bed.

Henry, please, when will this end?

Yohl’s words didn’t matter, I didn’t care what it meant, I only wanted to be with Henry. I couldn’t care right now whether I had to avoid other dragons for the rest of my life, I just wanted to be with him. I’d learned to control objects, I’d learned how to pinpoint the location of others, and read their thoughts without any of them knowing it, but I had not learned how to make sure my hunter didn’t go wild and kill every dragon she came across yet.

He’d only just left me that morning, but it wasn’t enough. I was surviving, sure, but this life of being without him? That was cruel misery. Clarity hit me then.

Ah, you’re right, my darling. You’ve hobbled yourself being there, you’ve cut off your own life. You won’t learn what you need to know there. I’ll be there shortly.

I sighed with relief as Henry left my thoughts. He’d be here soon enough, and this torture would be over. I couldn’t learn how to control my hunter surrounded by women like me, especially women who honed their skills to kill creatures I wanted to protect. I had to leave the place that offered me sanctuary and go where I’d be confronted.

“Willow?” Yohl’s voice broke into my thoughts and I looked up to see her there with a smile on her face. “You’re leaving us then?”

“I am. You’re right, I can’t learn what I need to know here.”

“True. It’s a lesson you’ll have to learn for your child.”

“Huh?” I looked at her with confusion.

“The one you conceived a week ago. You’ll hear their voice soon enough.” She smiled at me gently and sat down. She held a necklace in her fingers, a fine gold chain with a rectangular stone the color of Henry’s eyes wrapped in much finer gold as a pendant. “Here, take this with you. It will help you to find peace.”

I took the necklace and looked at it. I didn’t recognize the stone, but it was quite pretty. “Its power is to help you focus. You will need it as you continue to learn. I’ve never heard of a hunter that wanted to live among the dragons, but that seems to be the goal you’ve set for yourself. You come from a strange land, sister. I won’t pretend to understand any of it, but I can try to help. I wish you many years of happiness, Willow. May you find that which you seek.”

She hugged me, and I felt tears prick my eyes. “May I come back to visit?”

“Of course, you can return any time you wish.” Her dark brown gaze held mine and I smiled.

“There’s really a baby on the way?” I put my hand over my stomach but felt nothing.

“Yes, there is. She’s going to be a strong child too. I’m not sure whether she’s a shifter or a hunter yet, but she will be strong either way. I’ve heard her voice already, so she must be.”

“A girl? Wow.”

“You realize a girl child can be both, don’t you? And that this might create an imbalance in the child? She may one day have to fight her very own nature, far more than even you are? Is this fair, Willow?”

Her words turned my blood to ice. I hadn’t really thought about it like that. I gulped as I tried to swallow a lump in my throat. What if our passion created a child that constantly had to fight itself? I looked at her, concerned now.

“Send her here, bring her to us, and we will help her. I don’t know how, but we will find a way if it’s necessary.”

I didn’t like to have this new worry added to my list, but at least she’d been honest with me. We were playing with nature here, only I hadn’t thought about it like that. I’d let the fact that Mal and Arista’s son had been perfect and wonderful lull me into playing with things that could be a terrible burden for my children. Especially a girl child. My hand went back to my stomach, and I tried to seek out the tiny spark of life but found nothing yet. Would it be fair to have this child if it was going to have a life that was so mixed up?