The next day, Cain and Abel had gone off to forage for food. Cain was still bulking up, Eve noticed, but Abel had gone long and lean and predatory. He even walked differently-more smoothly, perfectly silently. She reflected on how they were when she first met them: scrawny, hungry, near certain death. Not for the first time Eve wondered if Cain knew of Abel's secret, if he perhaps he drank blood as well, or would when-

Abel's birthday. His sixteenth birthday. Of course. And Cain-when was his? In eight months, maybe. Eight months of ordinary humanity left.

Secrets upon secrets. What more were they keeping from her? What further revelations were set to come? Eve was teetering on the edge between desperation to know and a sickening feeling telling her to back off.

They had been camping in the same spot for three days and two nights now. Eve was facing a mental block and could not envision where to go next. She was afraid to admit to the boys that they had gotten so turned around that she was not sure if they were going north or south. She feared that the real reason they hadn't reached Eden after five years of walking was that they were heading in exactly the wrong direction.

Or that Eden no longer existed.

No! Hope was not lost. There was something the medicine woman in Eden had taught her to do in times like this, and though she feared it, she knew it was about her only option. It would take some time to prepare.

A week later, Eve sat huddled in a cave deep within the woods. She opened her hand and looked at the herbs and leaves she had secretly gathered as they had made their trek down the mountains and through the forest. She never liked to come under the influence of anything, yet this was a technique that humans and dragons alike had been using for thousands of years.

She dug a small hole in front of her and lined it with pebbles she had taken from the creek. How many eras have they seen? she wondered, and entertained the thought that she was possibly older than they. She sighed and set down the herbs. She blew lightly on her hands and then fanned the flames from her mouth onto her hands and down into the herbs. Breathing deeply-in through the nose, out through the mouth-she inhaled the smoky, earthy smell and concentrated on accessing her mind.

After a few minutes, Eve started to feel like the air was heavy around her. Her skin pulsated, and she felt the fire within her dragon blood start to churn as it made its way up to her brain. Slowly, images started to come back to her . . .

She opened her eyes for the first time and saw a clear blue sky between pointy, spiky green tree branches. A bird swooped overhead and she lifted her arm up to wave to it. She stared at her hand and noted the shiny claws extending from a scaly skin. She made a small sound of surprise and felt a heat rush up her throat, making her cough. A creature bent over her and looked down at her. It had the same scaly skin and long talons. It smiled at her, and she returned it with a similar expression, noting the pleasure connected with contorting her mouth this way. So this is what I look like, she thought. So this is who I am.

***

A few years later, she was playing in the jungle alone. She was trying to fly. She had not done so yet, and her parents were beginning to become worried. Frustrated, she plopped down on the ground and observed ants marching towards an ant hole.

Out of nowhere, a small coconut rolled towards her from the jungle. Her eyes widened, and she was not sure if it had been pushed by the considerable wind or something deep within the jungle. She looked closely and said, "Who's there?" After some time she saw vivid, blue eyes peering back at her. "Who are you?" she demanded in what she hoped was a commanding voice.

"I am Amos," the dragon said as it emerged into the clearing. The dragon was a slate gray-blue, the color of storm clouds, and its scales seemed to have a dull reflection to them, as if they were covered in a thin layer of cloud. Without thinking she walked forward and touched them. They were something she rarely felt: cold. "Who are you?" he said.

She looked back at him and realized she recognized him, or thought she did. Amos was from the other side of Eden. "Are you . . . are you the ice dragon?" she said, then clapped a hand over her mouth, stunned by her rudeness.

Amos breathed aggressively, and little puffs of his breath were visible even though they were in the tropics. "Are you the fire dragon?" he replied without answering her question. Eve nodded, and so did he.

***

"Three black birds is a celebration like a birth or a wedding. Two is good luck for you, a good change of fortune. One is bad luck. If you see just one crow, know that you are in danger. It means destruction, tragedy, pain-"

Elder Deborah was cut off by her younger daughter, Rachel. An old woman known for her prophetic capabilities and powers of seeing, Elder Deborah was known to get carried away in her lessons with young Eve. "Don't say those things, Momma. You know we haven't seen any black birds in tens of thousands of years, not in these parts," Rachel chided her mother.

"Ah yes, but how do we know this child won't travel? Far in the north there are black birds, big ones that I have heard tell about. Birds of the gods, and the demons. Birds that tell the truth," Elder Deborah said, winking at Eve.

Eve looked away, embarrassed. She couldn't tell if Elder Deborah was right or wrong. Sometimes, she got the uncomfortable feeling that she knew more about her than she let on. She would have to watch her closely.

Eve returned her attention to crushing the herbs with the pestle and grinding them to a fine powder that coated her fingers with a chalky feeling. Elder Deborah reminded her of her mother, though she had only known her mother a few short years before she'd died and left her an orphan. Her father had been killed in battle just months before her birth. What if this was true? Nobody ever went north.

"Caw!"

Eve shot upright from her slouched position on the cave floor. Alarmed, she was seeing the world through a filter that made everything slightly wavy.

"Caw! Caw!"

Eve whipped her head around as best she could and looked at the opening to the cave. A big black bird stood looking at her. It was magnificent. She had never seen anything like it. It walked inside. She backed up against the wall, but still it came closer.

"Caw!"

Again it made its terrifying noise. It dropped a pebble in front of her, cocked its head to the side, turned around and flew away.

One black bird.