The Twilight Dragon

"Something troubles you." Duke stated evenly.

"Hm?" I looked up from the grass I was playing with. It was a beautiful afternoon and we were relaxing on a blanket outside our new house.

"You have that little frown on your face when you're trying to figure something out." He noted, a little pleased with his own discovery.

I sighed, tossing the pieces of ripped grass back onto the ground. "It's Donya. I feel like she's been avoiding me lately."

Duke was lying on the ground and resting his head on his hands. "Well she was out with you for several days. She probably had to return to work." He said to me in a soothing tone.

"No, it's not that." I said with certainty. "She's more distant now."

Duke stood up with a small rumble and pulled me to him. I curled up against his leathery chest, pressing my cheek against his warm skin. "Well, she'll come on Tuesday and you two can talk it out."

"Maybe."

****

Tuesday seemed like it would never arrive. Fortunately, there were still many things around the house to take care of. Duke took care of his own food, his fast reflexes allowing him to catch the quickest of deer. That alone was several hours of skinning the meat and drying it for storage. I did not care for that as much, it was the berry picking with him that I really enjoyed.

"If you eat all the berries then there's no point in bringing this basket." I complained as he walked ahead of me, happily plucking the berries off the bushes.

"That sounds like a you problem, not mine." Duke said, tossing a berry into the air and catching it with his tongue. I threw a berry at him and it beaned him in the cheek. He flinched, surprised. I snickered and he growled playfully at me.

"Let me carry the basket then. It'll keep my hands busy."

"Yes...your hands busy." I bumped him with my hip and as I strode past him to take the lead. It was a picture-perfect day, the sky was a light blue color and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. There had been quite a few days like this, the summer was shaping up to be quite a beautiful one. I couldn't remember the last time it was hot out, even though the time when Donya and I went to save Duke it had been scorching hot. Speaking off...

"I'm going to go back to the house, Donya should be arriving soon." I told him.

"Fine, leave me to do this grunt work." He complained, but walked over to give me a kiss. "Enjoy your time with your lady friend."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't call her that. Good bye honey." I gave him a casual wave and jogged back to the house.

****

I saw her walking up the hill, looking more disheveled than usual. She had a grimace on her face but smiled at me when I reached her.

"Hi." I said cheerfully, relieved that she showed up today.

"Hey." Her greeting was less enthusiastic, but I quickly drove the thought away.

"Well, I have my finished snares here." I said, holding some I had quickly done up for examples earlier today. "Let me teach you how to make some more."

"Sure!" She said, giving me the first genuine smile of the day.

We decided to walk over to the river to where we could practice the snares.

I handed her the rope I made and her eyes lit up. "Wow, did you do this by hand?"

"Yeah, I used the bark from a tree." I said nonchalantly. "You can also buy rope at the market, but I save money this way." I started to show her the snare but she was still examining the rope with fascination. I held back a smile. "I can teach you how to make that some other time."

"Oh! I would love that." She said.

I demonstrated the snare, a simple noose for trapping small creatures.

"Ok, now your turn."

I could tell she was unfamiliar with the coarser material of the rope, and yet she was one of my best students, watching closely and learning quickly. Her snare was a bit loose so I made her do it a couple more times until it was perfect.

"Your first snare." I said finally after examining her latest work. "Good job."

She beamed and pocketed the snare carefully.

"Whelp, now that we've done that..." I spread out some more rope. "How about help me with a project I have?"

Donya had more trouble with the rope net and it took her several tries before I

trusted her enough to leave her alone and tend to my own knots.

I was so used to working by myself, I was surprised that I felt so comfortable around Donya, it was like we had been doing this for years. We worked in comfortable silence until the entire net was finished.

"Whew, that one took a while." Donya said as I finished up the final knots.

"This one is great for catching bigger creatures. Or storage." I slung the net over my shoulder. We walked down the river chatting, just joking around. I was teasing Donya about something and she was giggling when I saw her look up.

"I think he's looking for you." I turned to look into the distance and saw Duke at the top of the hill.

"Shall we go?" I asked.

"Actually, I should really be going." Donya said curtly. She was already walking down the hill when I turned around.

"Oh." I was a little disappointed that she was leaving so early. "Well we can do more snares next time." I said, stepping over weeds to keep up with her.

Donya let out a frustrated sigh that I've never heard from her. "What do you want from me, Lianne?"

I froze, shocked by her outburst. "I just thought you- would want to know more about traps." I stammered.

She looked up at the sky. "You know I have feelings for you, Lianne."

"Yeah, I know..." I could hear Duke call me in the distance. "But, we're just friends though, aren't we?"

"Yes, I know." She said, closing her eyes for a moment. "Look, it's not a good idea for us to spend time together. I'm leaving." She turned away and started heading down the hill. There was a burst of coldness in my body, a strange feeling of fear mixed with anxiety. I hated it. I watched her a moment before running after her.

"What, so that's it?! You just wanted to fuck me, and when you couldn't get that, you just leave?!" An anger filled me, a hotness that to my relief, pushed out the coldness.

"Oh please." Donya gritted her teeth. "You know it wasn't like that..." She took a deep breath sharply. "Lianne, I don't want to be friends with you."

She walked away and this time I didn't follow.

"What happened?" I heard Duke ask me as I walked back to him. "Did she hurt you?" He demanded, seeing me wipe away the tears on my face. The icy coldness gripped at my heart, spreading like tendrils across my chest. I was amazed at how much pain I felt. "Yes."

****

The weeks passed, I went to work, I hunted with Duke on the weekends. With Duke's hunting skill, I no longer had to worry about food. One day I looked in the river while we were bathing and actually saw curves. Donya and I did not speak and at work there was little reason to either. I couldn't see the woman that so passionately demanded to come with me to rescue Duke in this new, cold Donya. It was like my friend had died.

I couldn't get her out of my mind, thoughts of our time together would slip into the quiet moments when I was walking, or setting up snares by myself. When I laughed and joked with Duke, in those instances I thought, how could it be, that I could make Duke so happy, but somehow, it was not enough for Donya to stay friends with me?

That icy cold anxiety had faded, leaving a heavy ache in my heart. I couldn't believe how foolish I was! I had learned since I was young to defend myself against dangers, and yet I had unwittingly opened my heart to Donya, only to have her crush it.

I was certain that if Duke hadn't been around for me to talk to, I would've been lost for much longer. I was surprised I hadn't driven him mad by talking about her constantly, what went wrong, things I should've said.

"Well this doesn't seem right." He commented one day while we were lying on the grass, my head in his lap. I was in the middle of talking about an event with Donya until I saw that he wasn't looking at me, he was looking up at the sky. The previously light blue sky had turned yellow in the few moments I had looked away, and vertical streaks of red made vertical trails towards the horizon. The sky looked like it was bleeding.

Over the next few days rumors started to come around, of strange monsters appearing and terrorizing townsfolk. Of course, these stories seemed unreal, and they were so far from our town that they were probably the tales from some bored housewife. Still, they were so fascinating and strange that whoever had a story at the brothel would become the center of attention for the next few minutes while we listened to the strange tale.

"Donya, come here." I was in one of the circles of women listening to the story when Alexis grabbed Donya's arm. She had been walking by but Alexis smoothly put an arm around Donya's waist, steering her into the group.

"You should hear this story, these strange cultists sound insane, blue fire magic? What will people think of next?" she chortled. Donya put her arm around Alexis' shoulders nonchalantly, her eyes on the storyteller. My stomach clenched at how comfortable the two of them seemed with each other. Were they friends? I had never even seen the two of them together. Alexis whispered something into Donya's ear as the storyteller continued, though I couldn't focus on what she was saying. Donya smiled at what Alexis said.

Donya seems fine, I thought bitterly. It was obvious that she had moved on already and made new friends, completely forgetting about me. It made sense, she was popular and everyone liked her. They tolerated me. She pulled me in with her natural charisma, breaking down my walls. And as soon as she came she had left. And I was left alone, with all of my heartache.

Donya caught my gaze accidentally and we both quickly looked away. "That does sound quite strange." Her silky-smooth voice forced its way into my head. My heart throbbed sadly. "Whoever is making up these stories has quite the imagination. Excuse me, I must go now."

"Me too." Alexis said. "See you later, everyone." She gave me a small smile as she followed Donya.

****

There was a tension in the house when I returned home that day.

"You heard." Duke said to me after I put my bag away and sat down.

"The cultists." I said with a nod. "I guess...their ritual succeeded."

Silence filled the air, an unwelcome guest.

"At first, I couldn't believe it, but this...this means it was my fault."

I scoffed as I put my legs on the next chair. "You were kidnapped, that's hardly your fault."

"I'm going to stop them." Duke said as I started eating a piece of venison jerky.

"What?!!" I straightened up in my chair. "What are you talking about? Remember the last time you tried to face them?!" I exclaimed incredulously.

"That was different, I know now not approach them directly. Their magic is too strong."

"Do you even know where they are?"

"They continued North past Scarsdale, I can find out where they went once I get there."

I jumped out of my seat and grabbed him, hugging him tightly.

"Lianne." He said, shocked.

"I don't want you to leave." I confessed into his chest. "Especially not what happened last time."

He rested his chin on my head and sighed. "I don't want to leave either, but I cannot just sit by and do nothing. If I had stayed in my cave this never would have happened. There aren't that many dragons around anymore."

"Fine, but I'm coming with you."

"What? No, Lianne." Duke broke away from the hug, huffing in anger. "it's too dangerous."

"I'm not sitting by either." I hugging him again. "I couldn't bear to lose you too."

There was a long silence and finally Duke sighed, deflating. "Alright, but you listen to me. If I tell you to hide, you hide. If I tell you to stay somewhere and wait for me, you do it."

"Deal." I said.

"Alright, we set off tomorrow."