"How the hell did you talk to them?" I asked Wolf, unable to keep the question in any longer.

Duha sighed looking to Kyanite. "I'm sorry, Dragon, I have brought trouble to your door."

Kyanite patted her on the shoulder. "It is not as bad as the trouble coming for me. Do you know the answer to Bear's question?"

She smiled sadly. "I was told as a Pup that if you stayed as a wolf a long time you would become the wolf. The wild brothers and sisters are yaspilrmeth that spent too long being a beast and couldn't change back. Then they ran wild. This is why we call them the wild brothers."

I knew that if we stayed in beast form too long, we couldn't change back, but... to become wild is another thing. I wonder if all that time in beast form is why I've become grumpy and feel the seasons more strongly. I thought it was just age.

"That is about right. There were groups of yaspilrmeth that wanted to stay as beasts and groups of yaspilrmeth that wanted to stay as humans. If you stay as one or the other that is what you become. We are the exceptions to the rule. Dragons are neither human nor beast. We are just Dragons." Duha nodded seeming to know this already.

"So... the humans were yaspilrmeth?"

Kyanite nodded. "We saw the tensions rise between humans and yaspilrmeth when they chose to be one way or the other. As we always try to do we brokered peace. My mother used the sight and saw the inevitable conflict between both groups. My grandmother told us we must sleep and send a historian to watch the ages. This is how we got to where we are now. We must find a way to make peace with the humans, or we will need to start again."

Start again! He means killing everyone and... "I don't think that will be necessary, I can call my wild brothers and sisters to help us. Wolves remember we were yaspilrmeth." Duha said turning to the direction humans and wolves had gone.

"I have never tried to talk to a wild bear.... maybe I should." I muttered.

Kyanite smiled. "I don't know about that. We will have to see."

"Why are we larger than humans or our beast counterparts?" I asked.

Duha turned back to us with her arms crossed. "If they come from us it makes sense. We live longer than our wild counterparts and even humans. It's because they gave up part of what makes them whole."

That rings true, and Kyanite seems to agree with her... he would know, I suppose. "Regardless of that, if we can get our... wild counterparts to help us, we can overwhelm the humans." I said confidently.

Kyanite smiled. "That sounds like something we could work with. We will have to find you a bear to talk to Kyros."

I growled at him and he turned to walk away. "Dragon.. b..b..before you go..." Duha stammered.

Oh! That's right I need to tell him about Duha. Kyanite turned to Duha and watched her for a moment with his amber eyes looking like they did when he morphed. "It's a curious thing a Dragons nose. It can't smell things that are far away, like a wolf's nose, but it is very sensitive to the people around us. You are cooking for this tip. I hope you are at least somewhat good at cooking." He kept looking at her with that predator feel to him.

"Thank you Dragon.... maybe I will take you up on your offer."

Kyanite turned the rest of his body to face her. "As you wish."

He took two steps and kissed her on the cheek before leaving us alone on the edge of camp. What on earth was that about!? "I should..." Duha started.

"Duha what was..." I looked at her and I could see her eyes full of tears.

My words failed me as the first tear tracked its way down her cheek. "I wish you were here Eboni. You always knew what to say." She muttered to herself.

"Duha?" She walked away without acknowledging me.

Duha is acting odd, but Kyanite is acting very odd. I sat back down looking over at Duha as she made something for us all to eat. She spoke with people who came to her but didn't go out of her way to talk to them. She came to talk to me out of nisseaty... maybe I should go and talk to her.

I stood and walked over to the fire sitting down next to her. She looked over at me as I settled next to her. Her yellow eyes looked full of the emotions she held inside her. "I grew up with a Wolf you know."

Her eyes widened slightly then she smiled. "I see. Do you know what pack they were from?"

"He was from the forest wolves."

She smiled and nodded. "Good solid pack. Many packs are gone now..."

We talked about wolves and bears as she cooked. She seems a lot more open if I keep this topic going. I chopped vegetables as she talked about the pack she had when she was a child. It was nice to hear of nicer times now the world was so full of violence. She even smiled as she talked about her sister.

I sat on the wall watching the sunset and wondering where Mum was. I watched a flock of birds pecking at the grass when a large hand fell on my shoulder making me jump. I looked up at the Blue Dragon that stood behind me. "Ahh Dragon. You made me jump." I said slowly knowing that he didn't understand me.

He smiled at me and then looked at the sunset. He half-closed his eyes and sighed. "I agree. It is beautiful."

He looked back at me. "Beautiful?" He stumbled over the word.

I pointed at the sunset. "This... sun...set.. is.. beautiful." I said even slower breaking up my words so that he could try to understand them.

He frowned and picked a flower, holding it gently between two claws pointing at it. "Beautiful?" I nodded smiling.

He made a low rumble sound that was almost like a growl as he put the flower behind my ear. He is so big but so gentle. He gestured to me to follow him and I slipped off the wall. I followed him to the tent where a large group of people stood looking afraid of the Dragons around them. Blue Dragon gestured to the people and sighed. "So they don't understand you... you are asking for my help?"

He knelt in front of me. "E westhu fithst tarku sisqu nikc. Urgpeg rqukthn thgpie ragml."

He took my hand and gave me a pleading look. "I don't know for sure but I think you want me to talk to the humans. I will try and help them." With a look that screamed his need for me to help him, he stared into my eyes. "I... help... you." I pointed at me and then at him. He breathed out some smoke in what looked like frustration. I tugged on his large hand. "I... help... you." I repeated as he stood. Pulling him to the humans made them back off.

"Hello." I said, waving at them to help this Dragon understand me. One woman looked at me then at the Dragon whose hand I held. "This is Blue Dragon. He wants to help you." Her eyes moved up his body to his face. He smiled making her back up a bit more. "He is smiling at you. You get used to ignoring the teeth."

She looked at me. "And what are you?" She almost whispered.

I sighed. "Human like you. I was taken in by a woman called Wolf. She is taking care of me."

She frowned looking at the other Dragons. "What do they want to do to us?" Her voice shook with her fear.

I turned to look at Blue Dragon. "How am I going to get you to understand?" He puffed another trail of smoke. If I can get him to do it to me first... but how do I get him to understand me? "Down?" I pointed at the ground. He knelt in front of me again waiting for more. "I will show you he means no harm." I showed him my hands, which had small cuts on them from the wall, and the training I'd forced myself to do. He looked at them and nodded. Pulling some cream out of his bag. He gently rubbed the cream into my hands. "See he just wants to give you medicine."

He pulled a bandage from his bag and rapped my hands up gently. The woman looked at my hands and then at the Dragon. "This is what he wants to do?" She asked sounding a lot less scared.

"It is. He is frustrated that he can't tell you himself."

He picked a flower and offered it to the woman between his two sharp claws just as he had to me. "Beautiful." He said.

She stared at the Dragon and then at the flower behind my ear. Blue Dragon put it behind the woman's ear like he had done to me. Then he offered her a hand.

She took it making him smile. He pushed her sleeve up, and I saw the deep, festering cut on her arm. Gesturing to one of the other Blue Dragons he pointed at the wound. The other Blue Dragon took her other hand giving her a gentle tug. "She wants you to go with her." I said to help.

The woman nodded letting herself be led away. That was all it took for the humans to allow the Blue Dragons to mill about with them and help them with their wounds. Blue Dragon sat on the ground next to me making me look at him. "Good?" I asked.

He smiled and pointed at me. "Good! Human!"

I smiled at his broken words. "I... help?" I pointed to myself again.

"Help... Ragml."

I frowned. "Ragml... help?"

He nodded. I pointed to myself. "I?"

"Human?"

I shook my head and took his hand pointing one of his large fingers to his chest. "I." Then I pointed at myself. "I."

He smiled. "E."

I smiled back at him. "E Katja."

He nodded and pointed to himself. "E Uslkd."

His name is Uslkd. "His name is Topaz." Rat said from behind me.

"Topaz?"

She nodded. "They are all named after metals, stones or gems."

She held something shiny in her hand. One side of it was dark, the other almost see though. "I see... he seems to want to know how to talk to us."

He watched the exchange with interest, his tail swishing back and forth slowly. "I can teach you the language and then you can teach him yours."

She offered the shiny thing in her hand to me. "That is pretty.. that is the thing that will let me speak to him?"

She nodded and I reached for it. I looked to Topaz who was smiling at me. He waved his hand at me to touch it. I let my fingers touch the smooth warmth of the thing in her hand. "Ahh, I can be understood!" I jumped at the low grumble that was him talking but I understood him. "I hoped to be able to talk to you."

Reina smiled. "I will leave you two to talk now. The humans need someone to translate for them." Topaz gave her a half bow as she walked away.

"Topaz why did you want to talk to me?"

He smiled and took my hand. "You looked so lonely sitting there on the wall. No one should look that lonely."

"You want to be my friend?"

He laughed. "You know my name and I know yours. That makes us friends in Dragon culture."

I ran a finger over his scales. "What makes them so blue?"

"I was born blue." He said that sounding like I should know what that meant.

I watched his tail wag back and forth a moment before I sighed. "I wish I was special, like you or Rat or Wolf."

He cupped my chin and turned my face to his. "You are human. You are special for being you. You helped me understand your meaning and allowed me to help those others. Never sell yourself short."

He sat back and pulled a paper out of his bag. "Then I will teach you how to speak the language around you."

He smiled pulling a quill with a gold nib and an ink pot out of his bag. "Words written are sometimes not how they are said. We will work on this to teach the Dragons together."