Zeus licks my face with a long, scratchy tongue, it shocks me, sending an electric current through my body, but I smile anyway and hug his massive head.

He dive bombs again, straight back into the cave, opening his wings like a parachute, and lands softly, he grips the shirt on my head and lowers me down, dropping me a foot from the ground.

I look around, and my immediate thoughts are of Kari, She must be terrified, she must think I've been eaten.

I call out her name, and it echoes around the cavern. She couldn't have gone far, there was no way out of this cave.

I tell Zeus to stay put as I search for her, I retrace our steps, crawling back through the small tunnel I had come in through, In the back of my head, I was worried that the panic had made her fall down that hole.

I call out her name again and again, I feel the panic start to set in, what if she was laying on the stone somewhere, dead or dying.

I hear a noise, it's muffled, but it sounds like a voice.

I follow it. It gets louder as I realize, it's sobbing, Kari is crying over me, she thinks I'm dead.

I quietly reach the room we fell down in, she is sitting cross-legged, her face in her hands, she's shaking with every sob. I feel flattered, and horrible for causing her pain.

I still don't say anything as I come up behind her, I lay a hand on her shoulder and she quickly turns around, her eyes light up, and she leaps into a hug while still crying her eyes out.

By instinct, I hug back, I clasp my hand on the back of her head and I try to calm her down "Shhhh, I'm here, I'm not dead." I found myself saying slowly, she slowly stopped crying, but didn't release me. It was beginning to feel like too long to be a normal hug.

"Don't ever do that to me again..." She mumbles, and finally lets me go. She was flustered, and her eyes were red from crying.

"I'm sorry..." It was the only thing I could force out, although there were a lot of things I wanted to say then, I didn't.

"How are you alive? I saw the beast take you." She asked slowly, she wipes her own eyes, and I chuckle a little at the question.

"I know the Dragon. His name is Zeus."

She looks at me for a moment, and facepalms.

"Of course you do."

I lead her back through the tunnels by the hand, she walks better now, but she still has a slight limp.

Her hair trials behind her like a platinum blonde ribbon, it had grown in the month we had been here.

When we reach Zeus, he was resting on the stone floor, he lifted his great black head to look at us.

I felt Kari flinch, and tug in the other direction, but I stop her and smile, I take her hand to him, she looks terrified. I tell her to calm down, and that he is tame.

"Relax, just put your hand out."

She looks at me like I'm insane, but she swallows her fear and puts her hand out in front of Zeus's head.

He sniffs it, and blows electrified air onto her fingers, then licks it and makes her scratch his scaled head.

A smile breaks on her face, I see her shoulders relax and her demeanor change.

"Take us up Zeus." She looks back at me confused, Then Zeus takes her by the back of her shirt and lifts her onto her back, her terrified demeanor has returned.

"No,Ronan." Is all she says but I climb on Zeus's back with a smile.

"Yes, Kari." Zeus opens his wings, I see Kari try to scramble off but I hold her to stop her, she looks ticked at me, but I'd take it, after all, I am getting her out of here.

He zips up into the air and goes south, I don't completely release Kari as she looks like she'd willingly jump off to get away. But I laugh wholeheartedly at the situation, I feel free, I feel the wind blowing through my matted hair. The particles of sand stinging my bare chest, I had grown more muscular now, my baby fat burned off by the heat and struggle.

"We are on a Dragon." She says breathlessly, and I laugh, She's so dumbfounded she can hardly think.

"How can you be so calm? This thing breaths lightning!" She exclaims loudly, and I grab her hands and place them in mine.

"Calm down. I knew Zeus when he was just a hatchling, and I..." I thought back, when I was very young, I had a pet lizard, or so I thought, but I could barely remember.

"And I was a baby." I finished, and Kari looked at me confused.

"You've been here since you were young? How? This place won't support a child." I look at the black, glistening scales of Zeus before looking back at her.

"No, My parents escaped with me, they found a way to leave." Her eyes became huge, and a small gasp came out from her mouth.

"Leave? There is a barrier. How did they manage that?" I try to remember, but I can't, I was so young at the time.

"I don't know, thats why we need to find them. So all of us can leave."

——————————

"Aaron. We're ready!" I look over to see my wife and Obsidian standing next to the Oasis, we were heading out, we needed to find Ronan and leave this place for the second time.

"Good, we should head north, we came south." We were all set for the journey, waterskins and clothes for this weather.

We start climbing upwards, the heat barring down on us like we were eggs trying to be boiled, it wasn't even getting cooler as we went.

I use my spear as a walking stick as we scan the area, we had to find him, I wanted to see my son, I needed him to be okay.

We search for hours, and the sun is close to setting, when a large black shadow looms overhead.

A wyvern. A particular wyvern that I recognized.

It was Zeus.

He must have spotted us because he came fluttering down to us, his black wings sending sand everywhere as he landed.

And my heart flutters when I see who is on top of him, my son slid off Zeus's wing and hugged me, I returned the embrace. My son, he had returned, my pride swelled up into my chest, and I smiled.

Aphmau almost tackles him to the ground, he looked happy to see us at least, but I could tell life had been rough on him.

But someone else then slides off the back as well, I didn't recognize her, but Ronan smiles in her direction much like how I smile at Aphmau.

"Mom, Dad, this is Kari, we've been trying to find you guys." Kari waves nervously and holds onto Ronan, I could tell she was injured.

"Hello Kari, I am Ronan's father Aaron, and that beautiful woman over there is my wife." Aphmau waves motherly at her and ruffles her own raven hair.

"Hello." She hums nervously, backing even closer to Ronan. She seems a bit intimidated, and off balance, Zeus lumbers over and licks the back of my neck, sending my hair on end.

Yeah, They were definitely going to be a thing after we escaped.