He shook his head, gritting his teeth and shoving his hands into his cloak. I hate myself, he thought vehemently, I hate my stupid life! He knew he was acting extremely immature but he didn’t care. He was so angry… he felt like punching somebody. Instead he just kicked a rock. It skipped a whole foot before coming to a stop on the back of someone’s heel. “Sorry,” he mumbled as the guy grumbled and jerked his poor foot up.

            He decided to go the local Tavern and for the first time in his life, to get a drink. A real drink. The tavern was small and dark, almost like Drake’s old one. At this time of the day it was nearly empty, with just a few dirty men sipping from hefty beer mugs and talking about trivial things like the weather and harvesting. No one looked up when Ralem crept in and approached the bald bartender. “Whadd’ya want?” he asked gruffly, spitting heavily into the sink.

“Beer,” Ralem said, the word sounding foreign in his mouth. He cleared his throat.

“Uh huh,” The bartender quickly grabbed a dirty mug and filled it with some dirty brown liquid from one of the barrels lining the counter. Ralem slid a coin across the table and grabbed the greasy handle, pulling it toward him. The beer sloshed angrily on the thick glass sides. It had black flecks floating in it and- was that a gnat? He hesitated. It looked nasty.

            “Trying to forget an old lover?” a man smirked next to him.

            Ralem didn’t reply. He lifted the beer up to his lips, breathing in the obnoxious odor. How could anyone drink this stuff? He took a swig quickly. The mix of strong, tongue-tingling flavors assaulted his tongue and made him gag. Grishnatha! This is nasty!!! He thought, spewing the dark stuff everywhere, including the man’s crisp white shirt in front of him.

            Oops.

            The guy was bulky. He was probably a farm boy. And that shirt was the best one he had. He looked down at it with piggy brown eyes before looking up to glare at Ralem in a very violent way. Everyone in the Tavern had stopped talking and was staring at the two, waiting to see what would happen next. The man stood up and his two goonies stood up with him, also muscular and ugly. The one to his right smiled, showing a total of two teeth.

            “That’s it buddy. We’re taking this outside,” the guy he had spit on said, grabbing the front of Ralem’s cloak and jerking him forward before stomping outside with the Rider in tow. Half of the people in the tavern followed, eager to see a fight.

            Ralem was shoved to the side as the man walked five feet away from him before turning around, his fists clenched.

            Woah this guy means business, Ralem thought. He held up his hands, “Hey, I don’t want trouble,” he began. He may have been angry, but he didn’t really want to hurt someone. Especially this poor simpleton.

            But the guy wasn’t going to give up on this fight. His was hopping from one foot to another like the ground was hot, a toothy smile on his face and his meaty fists coiled for the knockout.

            Ralem turned around. I’m getting out of here before things get worse, he thought. He started trying to push through the crowd, but they had formed a tight circle around them and were not going to let him weasel his way out of this one.

He didn’t see but he felt a fist whistling toward him. He cocked an eyebrow. So you want to play that way, he thought, spinning around like a hurricane, catching the fist as easily as if it had been a snail. The man’s bushy eyebrows jumped in surprise but he jerked back to land another blow.

Ralem whisked the cloak around him, dipping his head so that his face couldn’t be seen. The man stumbled backwards when he saw two green orbs light up from the darkness of the hood. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Ralem challenged darkly.

            The crowd, who hadn’t seen Ralem’s spooky eyes started chanting, “Fight, fight, fight!” The two goonies shifted uneasily behind Ralem’s opponent, who seemed to be weighing his options. Finally he rolled his shoulders, trying to show he wasn’t afraid, “I’m not scared of you,” he said, trying his best tough voice. The crowd cheered.

            He hopped like a wren up to Ralem, trying to see a weakness in him, his shaking fists tight to his chest. Ralem’s glowing eyes followed him. For a second the man didn’t do anything but jump around nervously. Then he made his first move, a punch to Ralem’s chest. Ralem caught his fist again, twisting his hand so that it was a breath from breaking. The man cried out, tears springing into his eyes. Then Ralem let go and hopped to the side, unfazed. The man retaliated, his fist swinging mightily for a knock-out blow. Ralem dodged and leaning almost parallel to the ground, shot out a leg to smack the other man in the knee. When the man thudded to the ground like an old tree Ralem shot straight up again, ready for his next attempt.

The crowd came in closer, roaring for the man to get back to his feet. He did so, swearing and growling like a deranged dog. His piggy eyes hardened on Ralem and this time he huffed before charging like a bull, his broad shoulders aimed straight for Ralem’s midsection.

 Ralem analyzed the situation. He couldn’t dodge; there was a person flanking him on either side. Actually, if he was thinking any better he wouldn’t have done this, but months of training with Lauri had caused him to be particularly in touch with his powers. He did what came naturally to him. He jumped.

He jumped an easy twelve feet in the air, hanging there for a second like a huge blackbird, his cloak spreading out around him like wings.

Then he touched down, light as a feather, his hood up just enough for everyone to see his slight smile.

For a second everyone stopped, wondering what to do. The farmer had plowed into one of his goonies and now looked back, surprised that Ralem had gotten there so fast. Then his face twisted in rage. “GET HIM!” he roared, charging. The goonies looked scared for a second before joining in on the rampage along with a couple other people in the crowd.

Time slowed down. Ralem’s super-fast eyes took in the action. This was easy as pie. He dodged the first blow, knocking the man rushing to his right on the chest, knocking the air out of him. He flailed back like a windmill as Ralem lashed out with a flat hand, chopping one of the attackers on his neck and blocking his air flow. Then he proceeded to twist his body in a series of ridiculous moves, snaking through the mob of angry and alarmed people and knocking them down one by one. His dragon soul inflamed inside of him, and a very dragonish smile curled on the only visible part of his face as he spun through the sky and dove through the crowd.

Then it was over.

People walked or limped back to the tavern or home, casting venomous and scared glances his way. It was then when he realized what he had done. He bit his lip, chastising himself for being so stupid. Now this disguise wasn’t going to work.

A little black haired head peeked out from behind a water trough, green eyes alight. “Wow. That was so cool! Are you a ninja?”

“Aidan?” Ralem choked out, shocked. He felt pink rise in his cheeks. Wow, way to go Ralem. You really did it this time, he thought.

“You were all like ‘yah’! and ‘take that!’ and ‘hi-yah!’,” Aidan pretended to chop at something, then lashed out with his leg and assuming the supposed ‘ninja’ pose.

Ralem hung his head, “You should be home, Aidan. Your mother will be worried.”

“No, she’s fine,” Aidan hurried up to keep up with his Uncle, “Hey, can you teach me those moves? I want to be a ninja too!”

“Aidan,” Ralem sighed, “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Aidan asked.

“I’ll talk to you later about it, okay? Don’t breathe a word about what I did back there. It was stupid of me and I really regret doing it,” he said raggedly.

“But… it felt good didn’t it? Smacking people silly?” Aidan asked, excited.

Ralem looked down at him, a slight frown on his face, “Of course not.” But when he reflected on it, it did feel a little good. But it had been too easy. Fifteen country boys just didn’t carry the punch he desired. He looked around to see if anyone was following him before sneaking behind the houses, his hand guiding Aidan to keep quiet. “Shh, we don’t want anyone following us,” he explained, walking fast.

Aidan smiled mischievously and walked exaggeratedly like he was a ninja, looking this way and that for suspects. Unluckily for him, though, their house was not far away and after ducking behind only a few various objects with Ralem casting a watchful eye backwards, they arrived.

They walked in the back door of the house and Ralem quickly shed his cloak and threw it over the couch, where it fell on Jaydon’s stomach.

Jaydon ignored him, tearing into chicken with one hand, the other hand holding a corn doll which he was playing with Tess. Tess was shaking hers and saying, “Are you ready for the ball, Esmeralda?”

Jaydon gulped his chicken before replying in his best girly voice, “Erm, yes Queen Fluffy. I have your ten tons of makeup ready along with your snakeskin dress.”

Tess giggled.

William was staring off into space on the table, a spoon-full of rice poised to his mouth and Sarah was talking earnestly to Taylor, who had his eyes glued to Jaydon.

Jaydon locked eyes with him. Are you okay?

I’m fine, Ralem said, his tone making it clear that he didn’t want to talk any more on the subject. He snatched his cloak back up and hung it on the jacket hanger. That was when he noticed the angry purple bruise on his arm. “How did that get there?” he murmured aloud.

Jaydon bent an eyebrow. It’s hard enough already healing myself. Don’t be banging yourself up and making it more exhausting for me.

Yes sir,  Ralem replied sarcastically, settling down on a wooden chair, Aidan copying his movements. He grabbed himself some food and started tearing at it ravenously.

Sarah and Taylor had stopped talking and were now watching him eat with fascination. “I think all you’ve done since you been here is eat,” Sarah said wondrously.

“Sorry,” Ralem said between mouthfuls, “Hungry.”

Aidan slapped a huge amount on his plate and started tearing into it too, copying Ralem. “You know what, mom and dad? Uncle Ralem is a-”

“Singer,” Ralem interrupted him, eyeing him meaningfully, “I can sing really well. Jaydon and I are experts.”

Jaydon started laughing. Ralem gave him the stink-eye.

Sarah looked amused, “How about you sing for us right now? I would love to hear your singing voice. You never sing.”

Ralem wished he had thought of a better cover up. “Nah, not right now. How about you, Jaydon? You can sing pretty good.”

Jaydon cleared his throat, winking. “Of course, Rider.” You owe me for this, he thought cheekily. “What should I sing?”

“Oh, oh! Sing that song about that guy lost at sea!” William spoke up.

“Oh, that one. Okay,” Jaydon said before his beautiful bass voice started off in a crazy shanty about a sailor lost at sea who was taken away by the seagulls. As Ralem had told the kids, his voice just about boomed through the house and warmed their hearts. Even Taylor gave a slight smile. Ralem took in everything with a happy heart. Here was his whole family, gathered around him, joining in on the sailor’s shanty and his dragon was leading them in song. They (okay, maybe except Taylor) accepted him for who he was, and the dragon that was a part of him now. He joined in on the song, smiling even though he knew it was not to last.

“How do you feel?” Ralem asked that night as he lay on the floor by his dragon’s bed.

“I think I’ll heal through the night if you keep your connection open with me. Why?” Jaydon asked.

“Because… I messed up,” Ralem mumbled.

“What do you mean?” Jaydon said quietly.

“Well I kind of blew our cover. I can’t use that cloak anymore to sneak around. Taylor doesn’t want y- us around and we’re putting the kids in danger. I’m putting the kids in danger. I don’t how much longer I can keep my dragon side under control. And I’m scared I might hurt someone. As much as I hate to say this… we got to go.” He tried to say this as calm as he could but his heart was sinking with the thought. He sighed and rolled over, staring at the pulsing heart of the fire. “I… I’m a danger to everyone around me, Jaydon. It’s scary not being able to trust even yourself, and I don’t want to put the kids in harm’s way.  If that means I’ll have to leave them, then I will do whatever it takes, but…” he blinked hard, scrunching the pillow under his head, “I just hate it, Jaydon, I do.”

“I’m sorry,” Jaydon said sadly. He was silent for a moment and Ralem could see the shadow of his fingers dancing across his stomach on the wall. “I hate to leave too. I… love your family, Ralem.” His head turned and Ralem could have sworn he caught a tiny glow in his eyes, or maybe that was the reflection of the fire. White teeth glinted in a curling smile, “I think I love them almost as much as you do.” He paused for a minute and Ralem could see that smile melting. He turned to the ceiling, “But I know it’s time to go. Lauri’s probably getting really mad at home. We weren’t allowed to go back, remember?”

Ralem cringed, “I forgot about Lauri! She’s going to kill us!”

Jaydon curled his arm around the pillow, “Yeah probably. When are we leaving tomorrow?”

“Early in the morning. Wake me up,” Ralem said. Jaydon nodded before he and they both faded into silence. Ralem stayed up late that night, though, thinking. Thinking of his dragon side, of his family, and most of all, Arianna.

Jaydon sank into a wonderful dream of having a pie party with his Rider and Arianna.