Saff follows my lead, flopping onto the ground in front of me. Something about the action feels easy like two friends taking a break after a long walk, and my body starts to loosen.
The name Saff sounds almost feminine in nature and I cannot help but think of this dragon as a her.
Saff’s nostrils flare every so often, pushing the grains towards my body, her eyes never leaving my own.
Stretching out towards me, she continues to inch her face closer. Pointed incisors hang from her jaw, but something tells me this dragon isn’t going to hurt me.Surely, if she was hungry, she would’ve eaten me already.
Saff’s head nudges my knees, which are tucked against my frame. Her whole head is the size of my body. She continues to nudge me as if I know what to do.
Not in any hurry, she rests her head next to my body expectantly.
What do you want?I turn the question around in my head.Nothing is making sense.
For the first time since leaving Haven, I am alone. Besides the colossal dragon nesting next to my legs, of course.It’s as if she is soothing me.
I cock my chin to the side to lean my head on my tucked-up knees, and find one ruddy eye staring intently at me as if begging for something I am not quite sure I can give.
My heart is a mess of broken pieces on the floor of the cavity where that organ is meant to be. Wren is in hiding, too scared to face our newreality. An immortal dyre wolf is after me. And everything I once knew is a lie. I don’t even have a place to call home anymore.
Oh, and I just fell face-first off a giant mountain in the sky and was saved by adragon.
The bond starts to pull at my centre as the anguish I’ve held for so long holds my body hostage.
Saff puffs beside me, nudging into the side of my body. With my arms cocooning my body, I let one fall to the side to steady myself, landing on the rugged texture of the hardened creature.
And with that simple touch, memories begin to flood my mind—not my memories, but those of a deep red dragon.
Memories of an egg, a sapphire dragon and black wings…
“Finally,”The sarcasm rings through thick from Saff.
Letting my hand slide down the side of her curved, triangle-shaped scales, I ask, “What’s happening?” as images continue to bombard me.
“Intimate,” the word is purred like she has made her mind up without reservation.
I feel it. The thing we are both missing—friendship—but not only that. Freedom, too.
Not another being who wants something from me, but one who shares in my dream. Not a forcefield pushing us together, but a mutual understanding that whatever our aim, we will always have each other’s backs.
Friendship. Unconditional.
Silence fills the air around us, and I rest my body next to Saff and face the thick, smiling moon.
After a while of our quiet companionship, I make a promise to my new friend—currently my only friend. “I will help you find your egg.”
“And I will help you save your people.”
And with that, I have a dragon intimate, a way to kill the king and a terrible ache in my chest.
thirty-seven
Rivern
“Find her, Solen.” Myvoice is terse as I shout the words at my intimate.
Every part of my body hungers for the human I let down.
Solen is gone in a blink.He understands my heart. He will find her. There’s no one else I trust. Not in this place.
