That was when Modessa woke. She thrashed against my arm, tearing open my wound even further. I groaned. “Stay still, you’re heavier than you look.”

  The last part was a lie, but I had discovered that apparently human females were self-conscious about their weight. It didn’t make any sense to me, since the larger a dragon female was, the more powerful she would be—and thus better able to protect her offspring.

  But what did I know? Humans constantly defied logic. If my referring to her weight annoyed her, then I planned to enjoy my moment of satisfaction. The way Modessa groaned did, in fact, make up for much of the annoyance I felt at having to save her.

  “Crap, by the moon’s pits… it had to be you. Please tell me you didn’t just save me.”

  I simply grinned.

  Chapter 41 - Growing Closer with Questions

  Everything became awkward on the ship after the battle. The ship had taken significant damage and repairs were taking longer than expected, even with magical help. Serius grumbled about being required to do manual labor, even though he was only using a telekinesis spell most of the time, but it was still amusing.

  Lisella left me alone for the most part. I think she was still afraid of how I was going to react to the way she and her party had treated me and my sister. Cami and I practiced our reading together, which suited me fine. She'd only received a limited education in Cloverdale and was lucky her mother had been able to teach her anything, since her sire was so clearly dismissive of females. I chuckled at the thought of how that ignorant farmer would have reacted if he'd met my mother.

  Our time together was perhaps the most pleasant time I’d spent with another up to this point in my life. There was no strain, and we sat side by side on the deck to watch the sun set or practicing training drills. Modessa had expressed bitter frustration that she needed time to recover, but Lisella wouldn't hear of her resuming her instruction of Cami. She even went so far as to post Galbrecht at the door to Modessa's cabin, to keep the woman inside.

  Cami seemed to think that was remarkably romantic—which I did not understand. Yet, every time she tried to explain what she meant by that word, I had the hardest time wrapping my head around the concept. Sometimes, when she described it, I got the impression that Modessa and Galbrecht were preparing to mate, but that didn't seem to be the case.

  Explaining romance to a dragon must have been rather frustrating, judging from Cami's reactions. Not that I let it ruin our time together. I even made a gesture of offering to let Cami help me decide what spells to select. In turn, she shared her stat sheet with me.

  We learned that we both had gained some DKP from the battle with the kraken and what had ensued when I rescued Modessa. Cami only got one, while I got three—which prompted her to ask a question.

  "Can you tell me how I get DKP, or even why I would want something called Dragon Kill Points?"

  I looked at the floor with an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn't like this at all. It was almost like I was embarrassed about my race. But... well, that couldn't be.

  "Dragons are often their own worst enemies. Blues fight reds, or the others. Even within a color, we fight for the best lairs and territories. It takes a great deal of land to sustain a truly ancient dragon," I explained.

  Cami stared at me for a moment, lost in thought. "Hmm... so it's like when two cattle ranchers try to both graze their herds on the same land?"

  I frowned. "Not sure I like being compared to cows."

  She tilted her head and got the funniest look on her face. It was still all scrunched up, but was growing on me. I could actually see a trace of beauty in her—if you don't mind pink and squishy, human faces.

  Suddenly, I felt a surge of emotion across our connection and she began laughing. The thing is, I knew she wasn't laughing at me, but was genuinely feeling joy.

  "I finally get it. It isn't that you don't like me. It's that you're always so nervous about proving that dragons are superior. I wasn't comparing you to the cows, silly, but to the ranchers. Actually, I was just trying to put it into terms I understood.”

  “You see the world in terms of cattle?”

  This only made her laugh harder.

  “Next thing I know,” I muttered, “you’re going to start referring to everything in terms of black feathered birds like everyone else.”

  When she stopped giggling, Cami explained. "My dad was always talking about how whoever had the best grazing land for their cows had the best herd. The same thing for dragons, I guess. Whoever has the best territory will get the best treasure."

  I wanted to argue that it wasn’t so simple, but as I thought it through, I realized she had actually summarized it fairly well. The feeling of having my bonded companion understand me was far more gratifying than it should have been. This emotional connection worried me, as I feared it could become a liability—still, I couldn't even imagine living without it.

  And this was only after a couple of weeks with it.

  Then something hit me. "Wait… why would you think that I don't like you?"

  Now it was Cami's turn to get flustered. Her face did that sudden reddening thing, and before I realized it, I had put my hand on top of hers. A slight tingle ran up my arm. I knew it couldn't be electricity because I'm immune to electrical discharge. Not that this tingle hurt at all. Actually, it felt rather pleasant. I just didn't know what it was.

  With the comfort of my hand on hers, she looked up and made eye contact with me. "I'm just a stupid farm girl, Nico. You have to protect me and... well... you got so upset when I told you that the wing image in my testing meant that I might have the pursuit of a dragon rider."

  I was about to argue that wasn't true, but then I settled back into my seat against the mast. I had actually had each and every single one of those thoughts. Humans did this thing where they said things solely for the purpose of comforting the other one, but Dragons weren't like that. We said exactly what we thought, but maybe my curiosity about humans would show me a better way.

  "I'm sorry," I said softy, squeezing her hand ever so slightly. It brought back that sense of security I'd felt when my clutch mates and I had clung to one another shortly after hatching. "I had all those thoughts, but they didn't mean that I don't like you. The opposite is true.”

  Her eyes were wide, staring up at me.

  “I was scared of losing you, and didn't know how to… how to express it.” I shrugged. “Caring about something makes you vulnerable. It is why a dragon's hoard is their greatest weakness—except I feel like you are more valuable than a hoard. I only have a few memories that even touch on companionship, so this is all new for me."

  Her smile seemed to light up the room. She squeezed my hand back. "I've never known a dragon before, but I've never had someone who really cared about me, either. I think I was just a burden to my parents. They did what they had to for me, but they wanted to get rid of me as soon as they could."

  Then she did this thing where she wrinkled up her nose and asked me, "What do you mean ‘memories’?"

  Wow. I'd said that hadn't I? Something about Cami’s innocent curiosity made me so relaxed that I shared more than I should. "It's a dragon thing. It isn't something that we share with those who aren't dragons."

  She frowned and looked down while pulling her hand back.

  My empty hand felt cold. That made my chest tighten up and caused me to feel like I couldn't draw my next breath. My mind raced. I thought back to what I had learned from the dragon dream. It wasn't much, but Tra'vis, the orc who had ridden my ancestor, Wasnera had dragon wings.

  Was it possible that being bonded to me would cause Cami to become a dragon over time? I shook my head, answering the question I asked myself. That couldn't be. That was too big. I'd know more about it, if that was the case. The question that troubled me, was how this bond could be so significant and yet not be more common knowledge?

  I blurted out, "It has to be the gods."

  Cami’s eyes snapped up from the well-worn planks of the deck, "What has to be the gods?"

  I really hadn't intended to say that aloud, but the egg had been cracked. It wasn't like I could put it back together. "There is a lot I need to tell you, but if I do this, you may be the only human who knows about this stuff. Are you sure you want to take that risk? Others may hunt you or even kill you for this information."

  Cami was young for a human, so it might have been easy for me to discard her immediate answer, but our connection let me know how sincere she was. She didn't hesitate in the slightest as she said, "Your enemies are my enemies. You may have to protect me, but I want to protect you, too."

  "Okay, here goes. This is going to take some explaining."

  Then I started to fill her in on everything. I told her my life's story. The hours passed. Sure, I was young for a dragon and even if I had hibernated for weeks at a time, I had still lived four times longer than Cami.

  The odd thing was, that the more we connected, the less it felt like I was so much older than her. We were both about the same age, relative to our species. I realized at some point in the conversation that humans matured more quickly than dragons. It was something I'd have to think on later, but pushed aside for the moment.

  When I got up to the point where we had met, I started telling her about what I had learned in the dragon dream.

  "Wait, you have memories from other dragons in your head?"

  I waggled my hand side to side. "I don't think they're in my head. It feels like the dragon dream is almost another plane of existence that my mind can travel to when I'm asleep. I know that doesn't make any sense, but I don't know any other way to put it. And it isn't just any random dreams, but only those of my ancestors—the ones in my direct line."

  "How many of those are there? Don't dragons live a long time?"

  "Yes. I think my mother was several hundred years old, if not more. Dragons naturally grow stronger over time, but it can take more than a thousand years for us to reach the status of wyrm—which is considered the final stage of a dragon. Even then, wyrms continue growing until the day they die.

  "The larger we get, the more powerful we become, but there are other parts to it. You asked me about DKP? Well, they are a measure of the struggles that we go through. We gain more DKP as we age, but also for overcoming challenges in our lives. The more dangerous a challenge, the more DKP we gain—although I think our age also has something to do with it. I don't know everything yet, though."

  She nodded. "Okay, so that is why I only got one DKP when we were fighting the rogues. The notification said they weren't much of a threat… because you could easily handle them, I guess."

  I nodded. "That is part of it. A dragon’s greatest growth comes from killing other sapient beings in battles, which push us to our limits. We absorb a portion of their life force, or mana, or something. The dragon dream hasn't been perfectly clear on that, and for all their incredibly long life spans, dragons don't tend to be introspective or philosophical."

  She chuckled at that. "You don't say."

  “I just did say.” I arched an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

  "Just, that if you are an extra-curious dragon, then I have to think that most of your kind are rather self-absorbed." She blushed and added, "not that dragons don't have a reason to be confident."

  Just a few days ago, I would have wanted to bite her head off for her impudence, but now... now, I could see that there was something to what she was saying.

  "There's more, though. The dragon dream is important, but you can never share its existence with anyone…"

  She cut me off then as she said, "I never would. Your secrets are safe with me."

  I nodded. "If we are bonded, I'm beginning to believe they may be not just my secrets—but yours, as well. This is too much to figure out at once, but there is something else I need to tell you. It is what I meant when I said that about the gods earlier."

  Then I filled her in on what really happened when Galbrecht and I had fought with the horror, and what Miseria had done to me. Her eyes got wide, and she appropriately gasped at all the right times. It was a joy telling a story to Cami, especially, when that story was about me.

  That brought up a brief discussion of Miseria's promise to keep my identity secret. Cami nodded to herself, "It seems the goddess won't tell anyone about it—even Lisella didn't know until you told her."

  I said, "Exactly... hey, wait. How do you know that I told Lisella?"

  Cami giggled. "It's easy. She had been treating you so differently since she became your mentor. And now, since the battle with the kraken, she’s been avoiding you. That doesn't seem like what a mentor would do. She has even been keeping Modessa away, so that you and I could spend more time together... not that I'm complaining."

  "Good, I like spending time with you, too." As soon as the admission was out of my mouth, I wondered what had prompted me to say that. It was true, but it made me feel oddly… vulnerable. It wasn’t a feeling I particularly cared for.

  I hadn't ever thought about someone like this before—not my mother, not even Sheraleigh, my smallest sister. She'd been the runt of the clutch and I had taken it on myself to protect her. That simply wasn't a dragon thing to do, though, and probably should have cued me into the fact that there was something different about me.

  "What if Miseria's promise means that she is doing more than just not telling anyone about me? What if she is actively suppressing knowledge about my nature? I mean, I'm pretty bad at relating to humans, even with you trying to cover for me."

  Cami snorted and even laughed, but didn't say a thing. I was able to accept it. Her laughter was deserved.

  "You don't have to be so quick to agree,” I grumbled, “but never mind that. My point is that Serius seems pretty smart, Modessa is trained to root out hidden information and doesn't trust me. And who knows what Liam is thinking, because he never talks, but he seems like he is constantly watching everything. Even Galbrecht has reason to suspect me, yet not one of those four has put it together."

  Cami nodded as she said, "Okay, so Miseria is helping keep your secret by actively hiding it. Isn't that a good thing?"

  "Yes… but what if that is why no one seems to know much about dragons, or specifically dragon riders? What if the gods are hiding a much bigger secret from the entire world?"

  Chapter 42 - All In

  Cami and I stared at one another as the weight of what I had just said sank in. Dragons were not followers of the gods—not in the same way that the lesser races are. Nor are we ignorant. The gods are powerful, and going against them might be something that a wyrm could be capable of, but not a dragon barely into adulthood such as myself.

  As dragons are prone to say, I might have been hatched at night, but it wasn’t last night.

  “Why would they do that?” Cami gasped.

  “It’s something that Temulara said to me.”

  Cami sat there, waiting for me to clarify.

  “She said she was prohibited from killing the creature which possessed the kraken, by something she called ‘the pact’.”

  Cami said, “So she had a pact with someone which keeps her from helping you?”

  “No, she helped me plenty. She gave me four new spells—although I still need to select them. But, I don’t think it was just some random agreement she was talking about. The way she said ‘the’ pact rather than ‘a’ pact makes me think that maybe all the gods were party to some agreement which limits what they can do on Iliea.”

  “But why would the gods make an agreement like that?” Cami’s eyebrows squeezed down until they nearly met. “The priests always make it sound like the gods can do anything.”

  “A better question might be, who did they make the pact with? But before we go too far down that road, I was wondering if… no… sorry, never mind.”

  Cami stared at me intently, then she rolled her eyes. “You can’t start out like that and then not tell a person. Trust me, I’m your friend—at least—and maybe more. Err… I mean maybe the bond is more than a friendship.”

  “Well, I was wondering if you wanted to help me select the best spells. I find myself questioning things I’ve taken for granted up to this point. This will sound blasphemous—considering that dragons don’t really deify anything other than ourselves—but what if the dragon way isn’t the only way?”

  She leaned in and hugged me. “That’s a big concession to make, Nico. It’s like the priests say, ‘You can’t judge another until you’ve walked their path’. And of course I’d be happy to help you select your spells—plus, we can share spells with each other. Oh! And maybe you can help me decide how to spend the DKP I have. I already spent my XP, but that’s a whole other issue.”