Raxtus practiced in his cave. "Mr. and Mrs. Sorenson, as you know, Kendra and I - no, they probably won't know - Mr. and Mrs. Sorenson, while Kendra has stayed at her grandparents' house, we met. We've been together for a while, and we're hoping for your permission to get married. Yes, that's good, but maybe I could flaunt a little more, make them say yes!"

"Um, Raxtus?"

Raxtus jumped, startled. It was a dragon. He kept his back turned to him. (It was a male voice.) "Please do not invade on my privacy. This is a private matter that you would not understand."

"I'll admit, I saw your interaction with the Fairykind girl as well. But… I think I do understand. I wanted to talk to you. I think I'm kind of similar to you."

"I will warn you, a surprise attack on the King is highly disgraceful, and, if found out, you would be killed."

"No, I wouldn't think of challenging you."

Raxtus finally recognized the voice. "Artus, is that you?" Artus was the largest dragon in the preserve. The only reason he wasn't King was because his size made him clumsy and made it hard to fly.

"Yeah. I secretly kind of… admire mortals. I thought you'd understand."

Raxtus had never expected Artus to like mortals. Nevertheless, he turned mortal, and Artus did, too. Artus never would have fit in the cave otherwise.

"How did you get a human form?"

"Well, being overseen by the Fairy Queen during your childhood can have some perks."

"Anyway, I never get to leave the sanctuary like you, but I've always wondered why we treat mortals how we do. I've always followed along with whatever everyone else did - I've killed a few mortals - but I always regretted it. I felt awful every time I fought a mortal, like, what was wrong with me, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah. I fought for a bit on the dragon's side. That was bad, but when I switched, I set up Celebrant to be killed - I set my own father up to be killed. It felt awful, even if he was a lousy father and probably deserved it. I would have become a Dromadus if Kendra hadn't talked to me."

"You didn't kill Celebrant?"

"No, I couldn't have. I got him down and Kendra finished the job. I never could have killed him."

"So you want to marry the girl who killed your father?"

"I told you he deserved it. And if she hadn't, the world would have ended as we know it. I think you and I both want the mortals to live."

"Yeah. I just wish I could talk to one."

"I have an idea."

Artus became excited. "Really?"

"Yeah. I'll introduce you to Kendra's brother, Seth."

"That would be just great."

There was a pause.

"You know," Raxtus said, I think I just made my first dragon friend. It's good to know you're not the only one. And I think I want to announce something. Kendra's former boyfriend has been trying to kill me. So, just in case: If I should fall to a means other than a dragon, you will take my place as King. I will announce that after you leave."

"Thank you. That means a lot. I believe we just formed the first friendship since our origins, and it is a friendship that will never be broken."

Raxtus nodded, then thought to Kendra. Can you send Seth back when convenient? Of course, you could come, too. I have a new dragon friend and he wants to talk to a mortal.

Okay. My grandma might complain, but I'd love to meet him, and I'm sure Seth would, too.

Well, Seth won't be disappointed by this dragon's size.

Okay, we'll come back.

"Grandma, we have to go back."

"Really? We just left!"

"Sorry. Raxtus just contacted me and told me that he wanted to see Seth."

Grandpa laughed. "There are much more annoying situations in diplomacy, trust me."

"Well, then how about you take them."

Grandpa stopped laughing. "Fine. When Seth gets out of the pool, we'll go."

"Can you guys please stop viewing this as a diplomatic strategy and realize that Raxtus could be my future husband?"

Her grandparents seemed to be in shock. "Oh," Grandpa finally said, "you're thinking about that already." He paused. "We hoped we wouldn't have to bring this up, but you and Raxtus can't get married."

"Why not? He can take normal form now. He could-"

"Well, it's not impossible, it would just be very… difficult. The big problem is that he has no birth certificate, no traceable family, no last name, even." Grandpa sighed. "I… suppose you could do it unofficially, but-"

"No! It's Raxtus's dream to do the whole procession, the normal, human way. Of course, I told him he'd have to wait a few years, but he's so excited. It would crush him if I told him we couldn't. There has to be a way we can work it out. I mean, we could make up a last name, get him a birth certificate somehow. Could we say he was from another country? Then he could register for citizenship. Could we use that?"

"I think it's possible," Grandma said, "but we just need to know how."

"Okay," Kendra said. She brought her new laptop into her room and made search after search after search until Seth was ready.

Kendra, Seth, and Grandpa arrived at the Perch yet again. "Raxtus," Kendra called, "we have Seth."

"Why am I here, again?"

"For a sacrifice," Kendra responded casually.

"Your not serious!"

"Dead serious. See, a mortal has to be sacrifices to every new Dragon King within the first year of induction."

Raxtus, laughing hysterically, became visible. "I'm sorry, Kendra. I couldn't hold it in any longer. The look on his face!" He burst into hysterics again.

"Did you two plan this?"

"Nope. I promise, I had no idea he was there."

"There wasn't any planning," Raxtus confirmed. "Anyway, we really took you here for you to meet Artus." Artus flew up into view. He was enormous, almost three times the size of Raxtus.

"He's the actual dragon your'e being sacrificed to," Kendra joked.

Seth just gave her an annoyed look.

Raxtus continued, "This is my friend Artus. He-"

"Wait, I thought you had no friends. Except Kendra, of course."

"Not until today. He heard my conversation with Kendra and decided to talk to me about how he admired mortals."

"Well, not really admire, but… I hate to eat them. But I've never had a conversation with a mortal before, so after this, I think I'll know where I stand."

"Well," said Seth, "Raxtus, if you're sure he won't eat me, I will."

"No, he's genuine."

"Okay, then. Here goes nothing." He mounted Artus and they flew off.

Kendra then mounted Raxtus and he took off. He flew at a slow, calm pace.

"So, Kendra, any topic for today?"

"I have… kind of bad news."

"What?"

"Well, my grandparents think that we can't get married because of some mortal stuff, but I think I can find a way around it."

Raxtus was panicked. He landed and turned human. "You think?"

"I won't lie to you, Raxtus. There is a possibility that we can't get married. But I have a solution. With some more research I think I can work out a strategy. See, the government has records of each person when you get married, they add that to their profile. If you don't have a profile… that would have some problems. However, each country has its own government. If you want to live in a new country, they create a new record for you. We would have to lie about some information. For example, you've probably noticed that humans have two names or more. We would have to make up a last name. When we got married, my last name would change to yours. We also have to pretend you're from a different country. However, the government does a background check when you immigrate, so they would look at your profile from the other government. But there might be some poorer countries that don't have profiles for their people if we said you were from one of those countries. However, they might not let you in if you have no background information. As a last resort, we could also take someone's identity and pretend you are them. The other person would just have to lie low. If it was a caretaker of a preserve, it wouldn't be hard."

"Well, it seems like you know what you're talking about. It sounds like it would work, but there are the flaws you found."

"Oh, by the way, there's something most humans do a while before they get married. It's called dating. You go do something together, like go out to dinner, or watch a movie, or-"

"A movie? That would be amazing!"

"Well, except that you're stuck here… wait, Raxtus, you can leave the sanctuary! Why don't you? You could come visit me whenever you want!"

"Well, I'm afraid of Marat. I'm afraid that if I leave he'll send a search party for me or something. It's not a good time to leave the sanctuary."

"Then we'll tell Marat the truth. He's been dying to know."

"That would be good. Great, actually."

"And one last thing: usually you invite your family to the wedding. There isn't anyone you would want to invite, is there?"

"No, even if anyone from my family were alive, I wouldn't because they'd just kill everyone there. Not to mention they couldn't leave the sanctuary"

"And there's also your best man. He should be a good friend of yours."

Raxtus knew who that would be. He'd ask Marat for special permission for him to come.

That got Kendra thinking. Who would be her maid of honor? Tess? Could her cousin even be her maid of honor? She couldn't think of a single other girl she could invite. Oh well, four years is a long time, she thought. At least it was for her.

"The boy usually initiates the date and takes the girl somewhere she'd want to go. You should want to go there, too - don't take me to, like, a hair salon or something. By the way, I like movies. And one more thing: do it more often than you think you need to. What feels like a year to you is five to me. I'll see you soon, then."

"Yeah. I'll check on Artus real quick. You can come." He morphed back into a dragon.

They found Artus in dragon form, the conversation clearly over. "Hey Raxtus," he said, "well, this one's quite a… bold one. And very sarcastic." There was no reaction from Seth, who looked confused. Artus was probably speaking some dragon language close enough to Silvian for Kendra to understand. "I heard you talking with Kendra, though. I like her. Obedient, but if she has to, she'd break a few rules for the greater good. She's the opposite of other dragons: caring, compassionate… the list goes on."

"Thank you," Kendra responded.

"You could understand me?"

"She's fairykind," Raxtus explained, "and Draconic is amazingly similar to Silvian. Nearly the same words but with a different alphabet."

"In that case, I am glad I didn't insult you-" he chuckled "-not that I could have. Oh, your brother, is he…"

"He heard nothing. He's a shadow charmer, though."

"Interesting family you got there."

"You don't know what we and our ancestors have gone through in the magical community."

"I've heard a few things."

Seth finally spoke. "Well, I guess it's about time I became fairykind. This is annoying."

"Seth, you couldn't possibly."

"'Cause I'm a shadow charmer?"

"No, because you're a boy."

Seth laughed in spite of himself.

"Yes, yes, the fairies and their… feminine nature," Raxtus commented, "An astrid, maybe."

Kendra and Seth both laughed at the thought of Seth being half owl.

"What?"

"Sorry, Raxtus. It's just… I'm picturing Seth as a half-owl.

"Sometimes I don't realize why things being different is comical to mortals."

Kendra thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, that doesn't make much sense."

"All right, enough chitchat, I'm ready to go back," Seth said.

"Okay. Raxtus, Artus, could you take us up?" Kendra asked.

"Climb on." Artus crouched down for Seth to mount him. Raxtus didn't bother; he was small enough for Kendra to hop on. She and Seth both got on and were flown to the Perch.

As they left, Kendra said one more thing. "Don't forget that date, Raxtus."

He seemed to smile. "How could I?"

Seth made a disgusted face. Kendra nudged him with her elbow. "Hey, that'll be you in a year or so. Or maybe now."

Seth blushed.

"I knew it!"

"Just someone from school, not some fairy or weird magical creature like you."

"Aw, whatever. Let's go home."