We weren’t the type to back down from a challenge. Even a harebrained one.
Again, my dragon thought, not following the others back toward the village. We almost had it.
We didn’t come close to having it! We just didn’t crash as hard. You’re welcome.
You know what they say…
She didn’t finish her thought as she approached the updraft again.
No, seriously! I thought desperately. Maybe let them show us one more time!
Nah, I got this. This is going to work, my dragon thought. You’ll see.
Yeah, I’d see as we crashed into the side of the fucking mountain.
A couple of hours and a few crashes later, we finally allowed Ami and friends to fly us to the wood where we could touch down and shift back into human form. Dragons weren’t supposed to be in the village proper, given there were plenty of things—and people—to trample. So when the townsfolk wanted to fly, they walked out to the wood and shifted there.
I sat down onto the ground heavily, my body dripping with fatigue. Flying was hard work.
“You’re fearless.” Gunduin grinned at me, showing straight white teeth in a ruggedly handsome face. He was about Ami’s age, maybe a little older, with crystal-clear green eyes and sandy-blond hair.
“That or crazy.” Claudile bent to grab my clothes from the base of the tree, throwing them at me. She hesitated at the sword, reaching out to grab it but stopping short of touching it. “Tell me again why you cart this thing everywhere? There’s no need for it here.”
Panting, I pushed to standing and quickly pulled on my clothes. I retrieved the sword out from under her hand. “It reminds me of someone I miss.”
“It’s a keepsake from her loved one.” Ami pulled on her shirt. “Or maybe she stole it and intends to sell it.”
I strapped the sword around my hips. “I’m also training with it.”
“Who’s training you?” Claudile gave me some side-eye as we headed back to the everlass field. Hannon, who’d waited there patiently for our return, gave us a slight nod, but didn’t move to join us as we entered the rows of plants. Ami had tried to help him shift, but no luck. In the end, the three dragons had ruled that Hannon wasn’t one of us. The nature of his animal remained to be seen.
“Someone from the queen’s guard from my kingdom. She knows what she’s doing.”
“Does she?” Claudile asked. “I know what I’m doing. Maybe you’d like to spar with me?”
“Not hardly. You’d probably stab me in the leg and tell me it was a learning experience.” I lifted my brows. “I know, why don’t you spar with her? That would help me out. I’m tired of sucking at it. Just give me a dagger and send me on my way. A sword is a genteel sort of weapon, and I’m not genteel.”
“Then why were you given a sword?” Gunduin asked.
I ran my hands over the leaves of the everlass plants, closing my eyes and soaking up the glow of the day.
“She has told her story already, Gunduin,” Ami said as she and the others fanned out through the field. “It’s not one she probably wants to repeat. I’ll fill you in another time.”
He shrugged as he bent to prune one of the plants. And that was how we passed another hour, working in quiet, or mostly quiet, harmony. Ami or Claudile sang to the plants occasionally in another language I didn’t know and not many seemed to use, and I muttered to them. Even though the women still seemed distant and sometimes a bit cold （Claudile especially）， it lifted my spirits and relieved my mind to feel camaraderie with people who gave everlass the respect and care it cherished. We had found one commonality, and we didn’t need to be friends to appreciate it.
Hannon waited patiently, whittling something out of a sliver of log or gazing into the healthy wood surrounding us. It was a pleasant sort of place, without the pressures and demands of a curse, demons, and people dying.
A while later, as Hannon and I were preparing to leave to meet the others from Wyvern, Claudile beckoned to me. “Finley, I wanted to get your exceptional opinion on this elixir.”
I ignored the sarcastic dig.
She led me to the backyard and stopped beside a simmering pot, the steam curling up into the sky, carrying with it a spicy-sweet fragrance. A spoon and a smattering of ingredients lay on a table beside the hanging pot, and she picked up the spoon and dipped it into the contents.
“What do you think about this?” She handed me the spoon with the liquid pooling inside it.
I watched her for a moment, wondering if she’d give me any clues as to what it was for. No. Apparently this was some sort of test.