I made my way home, in no particular hurry. I didn't even bother shifting. I'd watched as Endia flew off through the night sky, then slowly dressed myself, and headed off in the direction of my trailer. My body still ached at the memory of her touch. My tongue still tingled as I remembered the pressing of her lips against mine. And my heart seemed to beat very slowly, almost stilled at the thought of our potential future together– or, perhaps, the lack thereof.

I felt uncertain. Not about what I wanted, but about what Endia did. She'd seemed intent on assuaging my worries. Acting like she really did want to be together, even when her body language and behavior told a completely different story.

I wasn't sure even she knew what she wanted. And I couldn't blame her for that. I knew she had a lot more to lose than I ever had– that a single wrong move in attempting to pull off this delicate balancing act could spell the loss of everything for her.

And of course, there was the very real fear that Baill might react with violence in the face of defiance.

Christ, how I despised that asshole... If it were up to me, I would have taken him on right then and there. Kicked his ass and sent him running, fleeing from the Earth dragons, never to return again. It was endlessly frustrating– allowing him to go on, forcing Endia to live in fear. Keeping me apart from the one I loved, when it was so vividly clear that the two of us were meant to be together.

But I had to be patient, I knew. As strong as may have been the temptation to act on my impulses, I knew that it wasn't what Endia would want. That, if anything, it would complicate things further between us– not to mention, souring my relationship with Kind Idra, which would make my relationship with Endia more impossible than it already seemed. Plus there was my brother to think about, and his family. Their future was dependent upon the continued goodwill of the Earth dragons, and it would be selfish of me to sabotage that for the sake of my own eager recklessness.

It all felt like a complete mess. Like a knot that couldn't be untangled, with no end to be found.

But I had to be patient. I had to trust Endia, to believe she knew what she was doing. The crux of the matter, I knew, was that I simply felt anxious about leaving these matters in anyone else's hands but my own. But I needed to accept the fact that, if anything, the only thing I might accomplish by intervening at this stage was exacerbating the situation. Tightening that already impossible knot still further, sabotaging everything for the sake of a visceral, instant gratification whose effects wouldn't last.

As torturous as it was for me, I could see no other solution than to simply bide my time, and to trust that Endia knew what she was doing.

And it was her, in the end, that I turned to for relief.

Her, instead, who I thought of, as I walked beneath the stars. No Baill. No Idra. No Earth dragons. Nothing that might stand in the way of what was so clearly there between us.

I thought of her smile. The taste of that mouth, and the sweetness of the place between her legs. I relived her deep shudders of pleasure, and the knowledge that I was the one responsible for evoking them so adeptly. I relived the heat of being inside her, the tension of her body around me– her screams of joy, her spasms of ecstasy, the magical, indescribable sensation of filling her, overwhelming her with the intensity of my love, my unparalleled need for her.

I thought of her brilliant dark eyes, staring into me. Seeming to peer straight into my soul. Leaving me, even now, with a smile on my face, and a gentle ringing in my ears.

I was still smiling as I emerged from the forest and out into the clearing, feeling far more relaxed than I had been upon setting out. I looked forward to the softness of my bed, and being able to lie down and dream of her, as I was so sure that I would– reliving the whole episode in such brilliance, such clarity, that it would be the next best thing to being beside her once more.

I stood beside the stairs for a moment, and took a deep breath in, smelling the soft night air. I looked over at Nol's trailer, some distance away, the lights all extinguished for the night, looking quite cozy beneath the starry sky. I imagined him with his family, as snug and as cozy as could be, and grinned, imagining myself in a state of such serenity. Living a life like that with Endia. The two of us having become one another's realities, and the world seeming a kinder, brighter place because of it.

Finally, my eyes becoming heavy, I turned back to the stairs, walked almost drunkenly up, and reached into my pocket, searching for my keys.

But then I froze.

All at once the world was drained of its softness, and the haze I'd been seeing through gave way to stark, immediate clarity.

My front door was already ajar...

I stared, breathing heavily, wispy white plumes of breath spilling from my lips as my mind raced through a thousand distinct possibilities.

I'd locked it before I'd left that day– I was sure that I had. I remembered dropping my keys upon my departure, scooping them up, and then double checking to make sure that I'd locked up before heading out.

I tried to think of what to do. Whether I should run over to Nol's, tell him what had happened, and get him over here with me before going in, to have him by my side as back off should the need arise.

But whether it was bravado, or otherwise simple thick-headedness, in the end I seemed to think better of the idea.

My nerves on edge, my senses piqued, and my heart in my throat, I placed my hand softly on the doorknob, held it there for a long moment, and then pushed.

The door creaked slowly open, and I stood there in the doorway, peering in. Brilliant moonlight was pouring in through the venetian blinds behind the couch, cool white lines spilling out across the room. I squinted through the darkness, trying to discern any signs of life. But there were no silhouetted figures, no stifled breathing above the roar of the deafening silence.

Not here, anyway...

All too keenly aware of my footsteps as they squeaked loudly against the trailer floor, I made my way across the living room. Not sure which way to go. Not sure at all what to expect, but certain I should be expecting something.

I crept down along the hallway. Moving so slowly it almost made me dizzy. Hoping that by sustaining the illusion of motionlessness, I might catch any potential intruders off guard– or at the very least, I might find myself prepared to face them the moment they tried to strike against me.

Foot after foot of empty space passed by me in agonizing slow motion. The next thing I knew, I was standing outside my bedroom door, my hand, again, on the knob, waiting for any sign of danger.

I stepped inside. The light still off. A wave of panic rolling over me as I settled once more into place inside the room.

And still, nothing.

An internal battle raged within me. A feeling of calm at having not yet encountered a soul, and a feeling of utter panic in response to this– telling me just how much of an idiot I was being to feel calm about any of this. That it surely couldn't be this simple, and I was only fooling myself if I believed that it could be.

My eyes fell on the space beneath the closet door. A particular darkness over a certain space, like a pair of feet was standing there, preparing to ambush me.

My eyes narrowed.

I worked up my resolve, stepping over to the spot as quietly as I could. My heart racing, beating steadily, painfully on in my ears– the feeling that I was facing my ultimate destiny head-on an overwhelming one, but one that I simply couldn't avoid.

I reached for the handle. I jerked open the closet door, my eyes wide, my palms sweaty–

And there was nothing.

Just a pair of muddy work boots I'd sat there, and evidently forgotten about.

All at once I found myself letting out a deep, exhausted breath, hating myself for this entirely ridiculous display, and grateful as anything that there was no one around to witness my paranoia.

And it was then, in that millisecond of calm, that I felt the rush of air behind me.

My ears perked up at the sound of rustling, the familiar rearrangement of flesh and bones, wings beating through the air.

I spun on my heels, hands clenched into fists, and had just enough time to see the glowing blue eyes surging toward me like a rocket through the darkness.

I ducked out of the way in a panic, felt the breeze of the Earth dragon rolling past me, and tore through my clothes as I arced beneath him. When I leapt back up again I was in my dragon form, eyes glowing, wings beating, fangs bared. The Earth dragon veered back around in midair, turning to face me, and our eyes locked for a moment in the darkness, the tension crackling through the air.

Then he lunged at me.

I dove back headlong, and let out a vicious roar as he snapped at me, managing to avoid his bite and sinking my teeth straight into his neck. He thrashed wildly, raking his claws against the side of my face, forcing me back from him in agony.

I drifted back several yards, trying to see past the blood as it dripped down along my eyes. No sooner had I managed to see clearly again than the Earth dragon was launching himself at me, snarling angrily, determined this time to bring me down.

I swerved. The Earth dragon breezed past. With a crash that shook the entire trailer he slammed into my bed, the legs collapsing beneath his weight, the sheets tearing from the mattress as he yanked his claws back from off of it.

I surged forward, wanting to tackle him back down before he got a chance to rebound yet again. As I drew near, however, the Earth dragon’s jaws shot open. Brilliant light was bubbling up from the depths of his throat.

I rushed out of his way in the nick of time.

Plumes of fire raced at me, singeing my wings as I avoided the blast, but the room so small, however, that the flames hit the opposite wall, instantly setting the room ablaze. Smoke filled the cramped space, and as I shoved my body back up off the floor, I knew I had no choice but to fight fire with fire.

Taking in a deep breath, I sent a golden inferno tumbling down onto my attacker, sustaining the blast for as long as I could, as meanwhile the Earth dragon blew right back at me. Our flames colliding in midair. The whipping flames twisting around a central core– both of us impervious to our own flames by design, but each capable of engulfing the other the moment fire made contact with flesh.

Determined not to be overpowered, I beat my wings harder and harder against the Earth dragon, letting the force propel me forward, my own flames making their way nearer and nearer his stunned, wide eyes, on the verge of overpowering him at any moment.

Finally, I grew so close to him that the rippling flames leapt around him, splashing onto the bedspread, and setting the whole bed on fire. I knew that I had him. I knew that the flames would engulf him, and he would be forced either surrender to me or die if he refused.

And then, out of nowhere– an unexpected surge of movement.

A second figure, one I hadn't even been aware of until now, suddenly threw himself at me. I felt the contact of scale against scale. A neck being wrapped around and around my own, ensnaring me as a serpent, tightening so hard that I could feel the fire being shut off inside me, like a valve being turned, the deprivation of oxygen stealing the only advantage I'd had over the first Earth dragon.

I began to panic.

I thrashed and tore, striving to free myself. Thinking that this couldn't be the end– it simply couldn't be.

I struggled to disentangle myself. Snapping at my second attacker. Clawing at him, trying to attack him in any way that I could. But such was the angle at which he'd ensnared me that I couldn't even get a clear view of him– he twisted around me like a corkscrew whenever I came close to making him out.

The first Earth dragon, meanwhile, thanks to his partner's distraction, had risen up from the flames now engulfing the room. He watched me struggle with malevolence in his eyes, and though I couldn't be sure, I thought I could almost see a smile, twisting impossibly across those jagged white rows of teeth.

Then, in a flash, he threw himself at me, one final time. He sank his teeth into a clear space along my neck, with as much weight, as brutal a force as he could manage.

I let out a desperate howl of pain, inhaling a lungful of smoke through what space my airways still allowed its passage.

I knew that I could fight no more.

Between the strangulation of the second Earth dragon, the deepening bite of the first, and the clouds of smoke now suffocating me, I couldn't hold on any longer. I felt my entire body becoming slack in their embrace. My eyelids sank, and I watched the entire room, the whole of the world going dark around me.

My last thoughts were of Endia– of the time we'd shared together, of the love she'd shown me. Filling me with a happiness I had never known, my entire life over.

I should have known then that it could never last...