Arianna let Jaydon wrap her up in his arms, breathed in his distinctly spicy dragon smell, let his gentle warmth envelop her. As she sobbed she could hear him whisper something in her ear. It wasn’t the Vulnarian language, or any language Arianna knew for that matter. It was an ancient language, one full of soft rumblings that came from deep inside his chest and thrummed through her whole body with an alien energy. The voice, tinged with bitter sadness and yet tingling with hope, seemed to penetrate to her very soul. She felt as if he were saying, Our lives have been hard, but we will live to see a better day. And in her heart, she believed him.

              She stayed there, safe and warm, like a reluctant caterpillar in a cocoon, just listening to his rumbling song and the steady, rhythmic beating of his double dragon hearts against her as her sobbing slowly died down.

            Drake shuffled in her hair and she knew it was time to go. She slowly pulled herself off him, cringing as a string of green followed. “I just snotted all over you,” she sniffed pitifully.  

            He laughed lightly, such a beautiful sound. “It’s okay, Arianna. Are you okay?”

            “Not really,” Arianna admitted shakily as he ran a thumb down her grimy face. “Don’t tell Ralem about this, okay?”

            Jaydon’s expression was puzzled but he nodded anyway. “He wouldn’t think of you any less, Princess. Everyone needs to cry sometimes.”

            “Even the snotty, ugly kind?” Arianna wiped her nose with her sleeve with a sad chuckle.

            “I did the snotty, ugly kind the day you left,” Jaydon admitted, “And I set fire to Ralem’s favorite pair of boots. Then I cried some more.”

            Arianna gave a hint of a smile, “What did he do then?”

            “Well first he put out the fire,” Jaydon said seriously, “Then he told me off. He was mad. He never liked me crying, because inside he was crying too and he hated himself for it.”

            Arianna bit her lip before asking the inevitable, “Will he be okay?”

            One side of Jaydon’s lips pulled up in a quirky smile that made him look like a little boy, but his eyes were distant. “He will be okay.”

            She knew he was not saying something. “His hand will come back, right?”

            Jaydon’s wings wilted. “I.. I don’t know Princess.”

            Arianna nodded tightly, preferring not to say anything. Jaydon’s liquid green eyes glanced at her sympathetically as he slowly stood up as if his legs were rusty. His callused hands wrapped around hers, easing her up alongside him. “We should go,” he breathed.

            She leaned heavily on him as her hurt leg sparked with the sudden weight. “Wh-where?”

            “We should take Aidan home to be with his mother. That’s what Ralem would have wanted. Then, I will go and fight for the Barokians in the morning and you shall rest.”

            “Fight? But…”

            “By tomorrow I will surely be able to become who I really am, and Baroke will fall without my help. As much as it hurts to fight without my Rider, I must. It’s what he wanted.”

            Arianna didn’t say anything in reply but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would not let Jaydon go off alone, and neither would Ralem if he were conscious. But for now she was so tired… she felt like everything was swimming. She knew if she kept going for much longer she was going to pass out on the street and not get up for a long while.

            Jaydon’s eyes drifted to her hair. “Drake, could you do me a favor and get Aidan? I owe you big time.”

            “You bet you do,” Drake said snappily as he untangled himself from Arianna’s hair, but his voice was shaky. “This time if you  leave me I’m going to bite you no matter how spicy your blood is, understand?”

            “We won’t leave you,” Jaydon said firmly, “You’ve done too much for us, big ears.”

            Drake realized that this was Jaydon’s way of saying ‘Thank you’. He smiled. “No problem, big guy.” With a slight fluttering noise he hopped off Arianna’s hair and flew out into the desolate city.

            “Think you’re up to riding?” Jaydon asked Arianna.

            “I’m always up to riding,” Arianna said, trying to sound cheerful but failing.

            “I saw a horse tied up back there. If we leave now, we’ll make it there before midnight.”

            Fifteen minutes later, Aidan was seated in front of Arianna, staring at the horse’s dark brown mane in front of him. “What’s wrong with my Uncle?”

            “He got burned,” Drake said softly. He was now snuggling into Arianna’s hair again, readying himself for the long ride. They were waiting on just one thing; Jaydon.

            Jaydon steeled himself to pick up the charred body. It wasn’t his revolting appearance that made him hesitant, but his very skin. When he reached his hands under Ralem’s back and under his knees to carry him bridal-style, he could feel the skin crackling like he was scraping the bark off wood. Under that, hardened, burned flesh rubbed against his hands and sent tremors through the Rider’s body from the sudden touch. Jaydon focused his healing power on the muscle and skin he was touching so that he could handle him without rubbing him raw. “Oh, Rider,” Jaydon whispered as he hugged his human to his chest, gentle as if he were made of glass, “I’m sorry.”

            His motionless body was covered in a white sheet that Jaydon had nabbed from a clothes hanger while getting the horse. Not only would it protect him from exposure, but the last thing Aidan needed was to see his Uncle- deep fried dragon-style.

            Everyone had held their breath as Jaydon staggered to his feet and now they exhaled as he gave a emotionless nod before trotting off into the direction of Redfield.

            Two hours into the ride, Arianna passed out cold. Drake squeaked as she slowly fell backwards. Cracking into his human form, he caught her just before she could drop to the ground. The horse snuffled in surprise but amazingly didn’t spook. It waited patiently as Drake pushed her back onto its back with some difficulty so that her legs were dangling from one side of the horse and her arms on the other. Aidan scooted aside to make room for her, his eyes wide.

            Drake recognized his glazed expression of mute fear and patted his knee as he took the horse’s reigns. “It’s going to be ok, Aidan. Hang in there. We’re almost home, and then you’ll get to see your mum.” He smiled weakly at him. “Hold on there, buddy.” His gaze turned towards the dragon, who was running just ahead of them, his eyes like little beacons in the night. The horse snuffled in Drake’s ear. “I don’t know how much more big guy can take,” Drake said to the horse. “We better run to keep up, eh?”

            The horse didn’t reply.

            The moon traveled higher in the sky, looking down at the lone travelers, its silvery caress brushing the countryside with its vanilla light and illuminating the slight drizzle that had never left them for a moment. Drake’s thick overcoat had helped for the most part but now he was starting to get cold. He peered up in the sky, wondering how a single dark cloud could follow them, blotting out the stars directly overhead. The rain just speckled his eyelashes in response and he blinked them away. He had always hated rain.

            The dirt path was desolate, once or twice Drake caught sight of a lone fox or a few rabbits blinking at them. Soon grain was swishing around them in a gently breeze, the startling sounds of a lone wolf rolling across the plains. This place is so peaceful, Drake thought to himself, I can’t believe a war is almost upon us. The burning in his chest was growing. He wanted to take off his overcoat and check himself but he was afraid Jaydon would leave him in the dust. With every step it seemed to grow stronger, clawing at his rib cage and making his eyes burn. He shrugged it off and kept trotting along, his dark eyes fixed on the horizon. 

            Then he realized Jaydon had stopped. He stood, frozen, in the center of the road, his head lowered and raven hair shielding his face from view. He staggered a little to the left before righting himself. “Drake,” he whispered, his voice haggard.

            “Yes,” Drake said nervously, stepping closer.

            “I… I think I’m going to rest here for.. for a minute.” He bent forward to ease his precious burden to the ground and nearly fell on top of him. With a light cry, his legs crumpled underneath him and he fell to his knees, the white blanket brushing the ground. It was then when Drake realized just how much Jaydon was trembling. His arms shook, his ashen face gleaming with sweat in the moonlight. Slowly, he eased himself backwards until he was in a sitting position, bent over his Rider like that of a mother and her child. Drake crouched beside them, his forehead crinkling in concern. He reached out a hand of reassurance, opening his mouth to say something.

            “Don’t- touch-us,” Jaydon growled, his words sharp like a knife grazing a stone.

            Drake’s hand retreated. “Jaydon, come on. We’ve got to keep going. I can see the lights of Redfield from here. Just half an hour more and we’ll be there. Come on, you can do it.”

            Jaydon looked up for a minute and Drake flinched under his kaleidoscope glow. “Drake, if we don’t make it through the night…. I just wanted to say thank you.” The effort to say  these words seem to sap his energy and his shoulders sank even more. His next words came out in a jumble. “You deserve it.”

            “You can say thank you to me by surviving!” Drake said fervently. Jaydon broke eye contact and stared out in the distance, the circles under his eyes deepening. The rain picked up and now it came in sheets, splashing across Jaydon’s head and creating sad puddles on the ground. Thunder rumbled as the dark cloud spread, drowning out the stars and moon.

            “You’re- you’re my only friends. I don’t want you to die,” Drake said, just loud enough to be heard over the wind, his small shoulders bunching.

            Jaydon’s eyes narrowed and his gaze settled on Drake’s once more. Drake bravely met those eyes, those glowing orbs that looked as fierce as a hunting hawks and yet so grave, like the hope had been sapped out of them. The pupils dilated so much that he looked like an owl for a second and his mouth twitched in a ghost of a smile. “Thank you, Drake.”

            Drake took a step forwards, his dark eyes lighting up. “Then come on, big guy. Let’s go.”

            “Let’s go,” Jaydon repeated, as if trying the words out. He looked down at the white bundle in his arms that was splotching in blood and water. “Let’s… go.” He exhaled deeply before forcing all his screaming muscles to move. He lurched forward precariously before a steadying leg could shoot out to support him, shaking, to his feet. He stood there for a second, like a wary scarecrow, blowing in the wind, looking at Drake for some sort of direction. He looked lost. And scared.

            Drake pulled the horse closer to him, feeling very important. “Come on, Jaydon. Let’s go to Ralem’s house. There you can rest.”

            “I… can rest,” Jaydon repeated, stumbling forward jerkily.

            “That’s right. Keep on coming. We got this,” Drake started trotting ahead down the small hill. Their boots crunched against the soil as they started to jog.

            In less than half an hour they arrived at the town. Jaydon looked ready to pass out, but his eyes brightened as he beheld the small town. His wings, which had been dragging against the ground, even perked up the slightest bit as he led the way to Ralem’s small house on the outskirts of town.

            It was just the same as they remembered it. Small, one story stone building with frayed green tile on the roof. The pansies, purple and yellow, were now a dark grey in the gloom, and the dark windows glared out at them forebodingly. But the memories that the small house brought up were enough to make Jaydon smile.

            But there was something different about it, something that made Jaydon leery. A silvery glow, like that of liquid moonlight seemed to be flickering across the slick tiles, lacing the window frames and bubbling like the reflection of water across the stone exterior. In his muddled mind he couldn’t tell what it was, only that it meant something bad.

            Drake took a step forward cautiously, reaching his hand out for the beautiful rays. The light twisted under his grasp, and as he shot back, the silver swirled into one huge mass before speaking. “Do not come any farther.”

            There was something familiar in the way the voice rumbled across the countryside, booming in their ears. Drake nodded towards Jaydon, his angular jaw set. “Fight?” he asked, his little white fists clenching.

            Jaydon could not help but smile inwardly at the little vampire. “No,” he started to say, but Drake had already took a step forward.

            As if sensing a threat, the silver shot forward like a vengeful wave, its features smoothing and rippling into the giant head of a dragon with two sets of huge, curling horns, and an angular skull. Shining dagger teeth curved inwards to slice the vampire in half. It’s mouth was longer than twice Drake’s body, and as it shot towards him he let loose a bloodcurdling scream.