My heart didn't settle down the entire time we were sitting there. I couldn't take my eyes off of Fri, and I told myself that it was simply awe at his existence– I really hadn't the faintest idea that any of his kind might still be out there, and I certainly hadn't expected them to turn up this far out west if at all. And over the course of the conversation here at the dining room table, he'd revealed that he wasn't the only one of his kind who'd graced us with his presence. He had a brother as well, and a nephew, who were living with a human named Alicia, in a trailer next to his.

Deep down, I think I suspected that there was something more to my interest in him than a simple sense of wonder– and I think Baill sensed it too. Sitting there at the table with my father, Fri, and I, scowling at his every word, as we flooded our guest with questions, wanting to learn everything we could about him in as short a time as possible. There was just something about him– all the qualities that were physically attractive about Baill, but with an attitude that couldn't have been more opposed to his brooding misanthropy. His need to feel constantly threatened, to react violently to any turn of events that didn't go precisely how he wanted them to.

Fri, in the short time that I had yet gotten to know him, seemed to be a compassionate man. Enthusiastic about life, zealous for new experiences. As well as, to some degree, rather wide-eyed and impressed by the world, despite the harrowing events that had led him to this juncture. Not that he was any sort of push-over, either– he struck me as being tough as nails when he needed to be, very serious at times, the gravity of the situation he was in not escaping him for a second.

Also, he looked freaking amazing naked, as I'd finally witnessed while the two of us had stood outside getting dressed, before entering the castle. His chiseled, rock hard body. His powerful arms, and that tight butt... And I tried not to look too obviously at his equipment, wanting to show at least a little bit of decency. But from the glance or two I accidentally stole in that general vicinity, I seriously failed to see what he'd had to be so embarrassed about while undressing for his first transformation...

I had to try and temper these thoughts as best I could as I sat there. Certain that Baill could detect every subtle shift in my bearing and demeanor, and just as certain that he would know exactly what was going through my head if I didn't watch it.

It was strange– I had tried to suppress it upon first seeing him. But this man had had an incredible effect on me, from the very first moment our eyes had met back at the bar (where, incidentally, I realized halfway to the castle we had forgotten to pay for our drinks.) I had never met any man who made me feel this way before– and sure as hell not Baill, who I was still loathing more than ever for attacking that thief earlier in the evening. The only reason I'd been at that bar in the first place, and thus the only reason I'd been able to run into Fri at all, was because I'd seriously needed a drink after such a disastrous evening. Hoping as I had that it might help me to sort out the mess I was in to some small degree, or, at the very least, to help null the pain just a little bit, if only for one night.

As angry as Baill would be if he knew what was going on inside my head right now, I could only imagine it being a hundred times worse were he to discover that he was the architect of my initial meeting with Fri to begin with...

Thankfully, Fri's recollection of events that had brought him here, and his exchanges with my father about it all, were fascinating enough to distract me to some degree from my more lascivious fantasies.

Presently, my father was staring at Fri, through watery, hazy-grey eyes. He was shaking his head, a cracked smile spread across his ancient limps. A meek and frail man though he was, having seen more than I could possibly imagine throughout his lifetime, my father still struck me as being full of energy for his age, enthusiastic about life, and especially so in the presence of one of the last living Protectors.

“Extraordinary,” he said, for about the fifth time over the course of the conversation. “I simply cannot get over how very much you resemble your old man. A great man, King Alza. A noble leader, and an inspiration to a man such as myself. To all of dragon-kind, really...”

“I thought he mentioned that he might have met you,” said Fri, though he looked uncertain about the fact.

“Ah, yes,” my father said, nodding. “Our paths seldom crossed, given the geographical expanse between us. But I got to know him well enough, on a few separate occasions, and came to admire him a great deal. We had hoped that with time, we might attempt to do more together. Solidify alliances between our people, in order to build up our defenses against the modern world. Maybe even think about reintroducing ourselves to the human population at large, once the time was right...”

Baill scoffed at this from the side, his arms stubbornly crossed, but no one paid him any attention.

“Sadly that was never to be,” said Fri, staring sadly off.

“It was horrible, what the Dark Ones did to your family,” said my father, his brow furrowing in sympathy. “Absolutely horrible... And not just to your family, either. But to the rest of your people, as well. Poisoning their minds. Swaying them to their corrupt persuasion through fear and intimidation...”

“If only the rest of my father's followers saw it that way,” said Fri, shaking his head. “No matter what he said, no matter how he tried to tell him they were being brainwashed, it was just impossible to get through to any of them. Ryl and his Dark Ones managed to convince our people that the Protectors were oppressing them, while under his leadership, he might offer them true freedom.”

“Only to strip away that very freedom,” my father said, shaking his head, knowing the story only too well.

“Yeah,” Fri said wistfully.

My dad lifted a bony arm, and clapped a gnarled, paternal hand on Fri's shoulder.

“Believe me, son... To the rest of our world, what the Dark Ones did was exactly what it looked like to you. Deception of the highest order. A grab for power, and nothing short of that...” From the corner of my eye I could see Baill stiffening up in his seat at the word son, and I held my breath, feeling like there was a powder keg in the room set to go off at any moment.

“I wish the others could have awoken to that fact, before it was too late,” said Fri.

“Well believe me when I say,” said my father, “had I known that any of you had survived, I would have invited you to join us here well before now. I suppose I'd assumed that your father's overthrow had included his three sons as well, and the Dark Ones' forces would have so overpowered we Earth dragons at the time that I feared what might happen if we dared attempt any sort of retaliation against him...”

“Trust me,” said Fri, “Ryl hardly neglected my brothers and I when he took down my father. It's basically been like living under feudalism for the three of us ever since the Dark Ones took over. Making life as miserable as possible for us, virtually turning us into slaves on our own land...”

My father shook his head. “If only I had known... I could have done– something...”

Fri shook his head right back. “Don't trouble yourself with such thinking. I'm not sure what you could have done– even my brothers and I felt helpless to act, for the longest time. Nol and I remained so until recent events transpired, and Ynder remains there still. God knows if he will ever see the light, or whether he will remain in blind subservience to Ryl forever, endlessly believing in a salvation that will never be his...”

“It's not too late, though,” I interjected finally, and everyone turned to look at me– Baill, with sheer, icy coldness in his eyes. “I mean,” I continued, feeling put on the spot suddenly, “we can atone for our lack of assistance in the past. Couldn't we father? Now that Fri and his brother our here...”

“Oh, yes, of course!” my father said, lighting up. “I would hope that this goes without saying, but the kingdom of the Earth dragons would be overjoyed to welcome you here, with the most open of arms! There is no doubt in my mind that you and your brother, and his lovely family, would be lovely assets to our community! And I'm sure that you all, after so much time spent isolated from your own kind, could do with being reacquainted– “

Fri's eyes were beginning to light up, as though he'd never in a million years expected to be presented with such an offer. However, before my father could even finish his last sentence, Baill was throwing himself up from the table, standing so rapidly that his wooden chair tilted off its balance, and clattered to the ground beneath him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” he shrieked at my father, his nostrils flaring, his teeth bared, looking almost as vicious now as he did in his dragon form.

“What is the meaning of this?!” objected my father, rising shakily as well, glaring daggers at Baill. Fri sat watching apprehensively, his cheeks flaring, his eyes darting back and forth between the two men.

“That's exactly what I'd like to know!” hissed Baill, and threw an angry finger in Fri's direction as though pointing a very dangerous weapon at him. “This total outsider– this, this... Complete stranger, waltzes in here out of nowhere! Feeding you some outlandish story about a group of shifters who have been extinct for decades, who managed to let their own sovereignty slip right between their fingers! And your first instinct, your automatic response as the ruler of our people, is to take him under our wing?!”

“Baill!” I snapped at him, almost angrier at him now than I had been over his attack on the thief.

“I knew this man's father!” my own father snapped, as though Baill simply hadn't heard this mentioned before. “He was a truly great man! A king, Baill! And had the situations been reversed, I have no doubt that he would– “

“A failed king, Idra!” raged Baill, his little eyes bugging with madness. “Our people are teetering on the brink right now, each day a fresh struggle for their own survival! We need to be consolidating our power, not inviting further weakness upon ourselves! That's all this man has to offer us!”

“What did you say about my father?!” Fri spoke finally, his amber eyes growing colder than I had yet seen them.

“You heard me!” said Baill, and this, I was almost sure, had been the first time he'd directed so much as a word to the man now standing beside him.

“Hold your tongue!” my father snapped. “And if you want to talk threats to our way of life, why don't we get into you transforming in the middle of a city street, tossing around an adult man and setting him on fire!”

Baill's eyes looked pitch black with anger at that moment– I'd told my father about the incident in question, just before I'd gone out for a drink. He hadn't said much at the time, longsuffering with his future son-in-law over the course of so many transgressions as he had always been. It drove me mad sometimes, but I was grateful to see that he had indeed processed what I had told him, and that it bothered my father every bit as much as it had me.

Baill grimaced at this, his eyes locked on my father's. “How many times do I need to keep telling you people? Human beings are not our friends! They are not worth keeping alive to oppress us any longer! A stronger king would realize that! But then again, look who I'm talking to...”

“What did you say to me?” said my father, his tone with Baill graver than I had ever heard it– like at last, after all his misdeeds, he had finally gone too far.

“And this man,” Baill pressed, jabbing a finger in Fri's direction. “This man is a prince! One of the most respected positions among our people! Yet his own brother, his own flesh and blood, is married to one of them– to a human! The two of them have a child together! Do you have any ideas what inviting them into our fold would mean to us? The implications, of allowing a human being to know of our society, for the first time in– “

“Enough!” spat my father, rising up swiftly– his bones trembling, but his small stature somehow looming, and highly intimidating. “You have made your position abundantly clear, child! I have heard all that I need to hear from you, and now you will be silent! You will not continue to stand there and insult our guest in his presence! I am ordering you, hold your tongue! Or else get the hell out of here!”

A tense silence filled the room.

Baill looked as though his head might be on the verge of exploding. His eyes glowed with hate. His teeth were so tightly clenched that I half expected them to shatter in his mouth.

A long, mean breath seethed slowly from his mouth, and his bulging eyed narrowed to slits. “You will be the death of us, old man...” he hissed, jabbing a finger in my father's direction. “And I have no intention of simply rolling over and submitting to your reckless senility...”

And with this, Baill spun on his heel, not taking a second look at any of us. He stormed through the door of the castle, and disappeared from view, leaving a stunned silence hanging throughout the hall.

I watched my father shake, as slowly he lowered himself back into his chair, and eased it gently back up to the table. He closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head.

“I... I am sorry,” said Fri awkwardly. “It was not my intention to disrupt– “

My father, however, threw up a hand, before he'd even finished his sentence. “Do not apologize. It is I who owe you an apology. I assure you that my future son-in-law does not speak for me. Indeed, he speaks for no one but himself, the majority of the time. A great warrior though he is, that seems to be the only thing he knows– war. And unfortunately, that not infrequently hampers his ability to distinguish friend from foe...”

“I just don't want to make things more difficult for you all than they already are,” said Fri.

“Don't be silly!” I interjected, the prospect of this man leaving us more painful to me than I cared to admit.

“As I say, we are thrilled to have you with us,” my father said with a nod, backing me up. “It is Baill who is the difficult one. And he will come around in time, whether he likes it or not... But let us move on from such matters for now. The sun is beginning to rise. And I must imagine that you grow fatigued.”

Fri yawned, as if on cue. “Now that you mention it...”

“Go, then,” my father said, with a friendly wave of his hand. “Return home for a few hours. Rest. Then, when you feel up to it, come back to us. Bring your brother along, as well as his wife and the child, if they wish to come. Endia can show you around. Introduce you to our fellow Earth dragons. We can get to know each other better, and with any luck, we can figure out which position in our society would be most well suited for you.”

“That would be wonderful,” said Fri, his features relaxing at last, and his eyes darting over to me. “Thank you,” he said, and my face reddened, for some reason I couldn't immediately discern.

Fri and my father exchanged goodbyes, and then I escorted him out of the castle. The morning sun was indeed blazing through the trees now, shafts of golden light cutting through the trees around the palace, adding a layer of magic to an already enchanted scene.

“It's lovely to meet you, Endia,” he said softly to me as I stood beside him in the clearing. I smiled dreamily, and nodded.

“It's nice meeting you, too. I've never seen my father so excited... I think he'll be really happy to have you with us. And so will I...”

The corners of Fri's lips kind of twitched upward, and he gave me a nod, flooding my heart with an inexplicable warmth. “Well, then,” he said, turning from me, and facing the horizon. “I guess I'll see you soon...”

“Bye,” I said, waving my fingers at him. He moved forward, and disappeared through the trees after a few seconds– electing, in broad daylight, to walk back to town instead of flying, not wishing to attract any undue attention.

I watched him disappear, wishing I had the nerve to chase after him, and tell him how I'd been feeling throughout the past several hours spent in his presence. I simply stood there, however, holding my breath, as I listened to his crunching footsteps gradually receding into the distance. Then I exhaled slowly, doing my best to console myself with the knowledge that he would be back again soon– as well as that, for the first time in a very long while, I was beginning to experience a profound feeling.

A feeling that, if I didn't know any better, I would say very nearly resembled hope...