At first, Auric thought Kalen was teasing and that Midas was simply asleep, but then he looked closer. His chest rose and fell in shallow, shaky breaths, and when Auric moved closer, he too felt that unnatural coldness radiating from Midas’ body where he had only felt warmth before.
Auric nuzzled Midas’ face with his own.Papa?
When Midas didn’t respond, Auric ran straight to his mother, heart stuttering and his mind racing with fear ofthe unknown. As he came up to his mother, washing a bowl in a basin of water, he shifted and frantically tugged on Elowen’s skirt.
“Mama, Papa is cold.”
Elowen hummed, not understanding. “What do you mean?”
Auric tugged her again, more aggressively this time, enough to make her stumble. “Come look!”
She followed her son to the mouth of the cave, where panic immediately overtook her at the sight of Midas. She dropped to her knees beside him, hands cupping his face.
“Love,” she whispered. “Midas. Look at me.”
He tried. He did. But he was fading.
“What happened? Are you hurt?”
He shook his head, barely.
I wanted…His voice cracked.To stay close. To hold you.
She looked to her boys for translation, and then tears began to well in her eyes.“You have held me,” she said, tears spilling over. “But you’re burning out. You need rest.”
The boys clung to each other behind her, terrified, silent.
Elowen pressed her forehead to his. “Please.”
He tried to stand, but instead slumped, exhausted, his great head resting on the ground beside her. The boys rushed forward, pressing themselves to his massive chest, feeling the unnaturally slow thump of his heart.
Elowen stood, stroking the side of his face.
He closed his eyes, drifting into rest forced upon him by exhaustion.
Midas sleptfor nearly two days—scales pulsing faintly with heat, wings curled tight around his body, heart beating slow and heavy beneath his ribs.
Elowen never left his side.
She cleaned the cold sweat from his brow. She stroked his neck after. She wrapped his tail in blankets to protect it from the chill, and whispered to him in the dark when his breathing stuttered.
And the boys became guardians in their own right.
They took turns bringing him water and meat like they’d watched Elowen do. They lied against his side when he trembled in his sleep. They collected smooth stones and carved little sigils into them that Midas had taught them—symbols of protection, healing, flame, and family.
“He always watches us,” Kalen whispered. “Now we watch him.”
Elowen wept quietly at those words, brushing their hair back with shaking hands. And yet, something cold was stirring in her gut. If any of the humans had seen him in this state, or even suspected that he could be weak, they would come for their nest. And the boys, still too young, would not be able to fight off the humans themselves if they came.
This worry weighed heavily on Elowen, who knew firsthand of the cruelty of the humans, and every time the cave shifted, she flinched.
After two more days,the wind changed.
Elowen noticed how still the air had become. How the birds had stopped calling. How even the bees avoided the growing flowers at the cave mouth. Midas stirred that night, groggy and weak.
He rasped what she had assumed was her name in the language of the dragons. She leaned in. “I’m here.”
Against his better judgement, and against Elowen’s frantic protests, Midas shifted into his human form once more. She held his head against her chest, and when he looked up at her, his even his eyes seemed duller.
