Anything could find us here.
We couldn’t make it back to the inn?
I glance around wildly and find Meela asleep nearby too. Raef sits beside her, his head against the wall. His eyes are open, watching me.
“Morning,” he whispers.
“Where’s Daegan? We need to get indoors… nighttime…”
“Too late. And Daegan is fine.”
I glance around, not feeling very reassured. I don’t see him.
“Come.” He stands and nods for me to follow him around the corner.
As I sit up, I realize why I smelled him.
My head was resting on his shirt.
But where is he?
I gaze ahead at Raef and follow him. He leads me around the corner and up a path. Ahead of us, where I thought the exit to the cave should be, is a dark wall.
Raef holds a light, and I realize the wall has a strange texture. It’s also not just black, but a pattern of deep blue and black…
And then… it moves?
I must be a little foggy still, because the sight deeply confuses me.
Then I realize what I’m looking at, and my mouth falls open.
“Daegan,” I whisper in awe.
The large form backs away, leaving the entrance to the cave open. I can barely see because our lights don’t travel far past the cave opening, but I think I see a claw that’s bigger than me.
A loud breathing sound gets closer, and an incomprehensibly large eye appears in the opening.
It glows a brilliant blue in the faint light, and I recognize it immediately as it blinks, looking directly at me. It feels like there’s a sadness there as I look back, feeling nothing but comfort in the eye of this massive beast. His chin rests on the ground as he watches me with a heavy-lidded eye that’s bigger than my entire torso.
It amuses me to know he carries his bored, morose demeanor even in this form.
My lips pull back in a small smile, and I glance at Raef.
“He’s guarding us,” I state in awe.
He nods. “We’re taking shifts.”
“Will he be safe?”
“Most creatures in this world wouldn’t want to take on a giant fire-breathing fucking dragon. Even one that can’t fly. I already roasted a pack of weird fucking creatures that I’ve never seen in all my twenty-three years while I was on guard. They were almost like you or me in shape except they slouched more and they were way more feral. And they had creepy, glowing white eyes. I doubt more will come after that.”
I keep an eye on Daegan the whole time Raef speaks, his eye looking from beyond the cave and back to me several times.
When I don’t say anything, he straightens. He starts to walk off and leave me alone with Daegan, then adds, “He didn’t want to leave your side, you know…”
I stare at him.
“But I needed a rest, so I forced him to take a shift. Told him I’d leave the cave unguarded and then you’d really be vulnerable. All of us would be. That convinced him.”
