Ray observed his surroundings. The sun had risen, but it remained chilly. Still, Ray only wore a T-Shirt. Ray went into his backpack and glanced at his GPS. He couldn't get a signal, but he left it in the sun to charge. Ray slung his rifle, remembering the dragon he saw earlier watching him.

As he walked down to the lake, Ray observed some flowers that seemed to glow. He saw some lights near the lake the night before, but it must have been these flowers. There were mountains as far as he could see surrounding him, but back towards the nine closest mountain peaks, there were some caves he saw the dragons enter. Since he had nothing else to do, he decided to explore.

Ray entered the cave, expecting to see darkness. Instead, it was as bright as it was outside in some areas. There was a clear, glowing stone that lined the walls and ceiling. Ray pressed his hand up against a wall of glowing, blue light. It felt like glass, and it wasn't emitting any heat.

"That's moonstone," a shriveled voice spoke. Ray spun around, and then looked down in front of him. It was a small man, barely came up to Ray's knee.

"Wait," Ray stuttered. "You're gravelbeard. Firedrake told me about you."

"Oh, so I guess you know all about me and my traitorous ways," Gravelbeard laughed.

Ray took a knee and shook his hand. "I'm Ray."

"Good to meet you," Gravelbeard said. "I heard all the excitement of Firedrake returning, but I was busy carving some of this beautiful stone," Gravelbeard gestured to the walls and ceiling of the cave.

"This is moonstone. When moonlight or dragon fire touches it, it retains the light for years."

Ray left Gravelbeard, who went back to carving in that area of the cave. He went deeper into the cave, and started coming across sleeping dragons and brownies. The further he went, the less dragons he saw. Eventually, he came to a wide, open space. Since there wasn't much moonstone, it was quite dim. There, in the middle of the clearing, next to some stalactites, was the skull of a giant lizard-like creature.

"Nettlebrand," Ray thought. He recalled the story he'd heard from Firedrake, and then Ben.

Ray yawned, and turned around. It was about time to get some sleep. As he was walking back, a large dragon blocked his path.

Ray's heart began to pound. The dragon stared him down, it was the same dragon Ray saw earlier. It had the same, savage look in it's eyes.

He looked up at him, at a safe distance. The dragon strode towards him, and circled him in a predatory way.

"What are you doing here, human?" It rasped.

"Just looking around," Ray slowly shuffled away, but the dragon continued to encircle him.

"You think I don't know," the dragon laughed, and licked it's lips.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ray grunted, unslinging his AK-103 and taking off the safety.

"I don't want to have to hurt you," Ray warned.

With that, the dragon threw it's head back and laughed. "That's a good one," The dragon came a bit too close for comfort and backed Ray into a wall. Ray raised his rifle, ready to fire.

"Do you know what your kind did to mine?" It said. "Do you?"

"Yes, Firedrake told me. But I'm not like that, and neither is Ben," Ray replied.

"Listen, I think we've just had a misunderstanding. I-" The dragon slashed Ray across the chest with his claws, and the sheer force threw Ray across the cave, into the back of a wall.

Ray hit the wall hard, and he landed with a yelp while rolling over backwards. Ray picked himself up quickly. Luckily, he had a firm grip on the rifle and it wasn't damaged.

He aimed the iron sights at the dragon, hesitating from shooting. It didn't catch his warning, and charged him. Ray moved to the left as it's claws clicked across the rocky ground, and inhaled solemnly.

He purposely aimed away from it's head and at a charging leg, and fired his rifle on full automatic. He shot two bursts of six bullets at the dragon, the extreme noise of the gunshots echoing around the cave. Several stalactites crumbled at the noise. It downed the dragon, and he slid into a wall of rocks.

Ray panted, keeping his aim on the dragon as he picked himself up and observed his damaged leg.

"I didn't want to do that, I'm sorry!" Ray cried. The dragon began to pick itself up, with the intention of charging Ray again. Ray was about to fire again, when when he heard a voice from the direction he had just come from.

"Stop!" Slatebeard barked.

Ray glanced at Slatebeard, Firedrake, Maya, and several other dragons and brownies watching them.

Ray looked at Firedrake, then at his rifle and the dragon that had attacked him, not sure if he was about to be killed or banished from this land. Ray lowered his rifle.

"Slatebeard!" The wounded dragon stood up. "Thank goodness you're here. This human attacked me!"

"That's a lie!" Ray shouted.

"Ray, you're bleeding," Maya cooed. Ray glanced at his chest, three thick slashes had been cut into him and his T-Shirt. He was so worked up, he didn't even notice.

"Steel, why is this human wounded?" Slatebeard asked firmly.

"He fell," Steel growled. "Can one of you go ahead and breathe fire on me already?"

Maya walked forward, and strutted right past Steel, blowing healing fire onto Ray instead. His wounds closed, but he had a new addition to his collection of bloodstained clothes.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced yet," Maya put her head down to Ray's eye level. "I'm Maya."

"It's good to meet you," Ray stroked her scales. "And thanks for healing me."

Ray stood with Firedrake and Maya as more dragons and brownies began to show up to investigate.

"Steel, you will be punished," Slatebeard said sternly.

"How badly is he wounded?" Slatebeard turned to Ray.

"Um," He stammered. "Nothing life threatening, I guess."

"No one is to heal Steel unless I say so. Is that understood?" Slatebeard said to his brethren.

There were various shouts of approval, and they left Steel all alone with his injuries.

"What happened?" Firedrake asked as he walked away with Ray.

"I don't even know," Ray sighed.

"Don't feel bad about it, Ray. No one here thinks any less of you."

Ray was quiet the entire walk out of the cave. "Ray, are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah," Ray sighed.

"Steel has had some," Maya paused, "Experiences, with humans before," Don't take it personally."

"I'll be sure not to take him trying to kill me personally," Ray rebutted.

When nightfall came, the dragons and brownies started their day as humans do in the morning. They made sure Ray and Ben were never alone, although Ray had tried on numerous occasions to get a few minutes to himself. A passing dragon or brownie would see him and want to hang out. Since he wasn't trying to be rude, and could see they were just trying to be hospitable, he never declined.

At dawn of the next day, when all the dragons and brownies and gone back to sleep, Firedrake and Maya protectively slept with Ray, Ben, and Sorrel. Ray closed his eyes, but remained awake. He anxiously waited for the group to fall asleep. Until he heard a snore rise from Firedrake's muzzle, he quietly jumped to his feet. Ray rifled through his backpack, making sure the first aid kit was inside. Ray held still, as he heard Sorrel shift in her sleep. He quickly clipped his hunting knife to his belt and sighed.

Ray slung his backpack, but not his rifle. He tiptoed to the farther end of the cave, ducking behind rocks as a dragon passed him by. He continued on, until he found himself in a familiar, large chamber with the skull of a dead predator, and an injured dragon.

Ray kept the AK-103 at the ready, but did not aim down the sights. He approached a sleeping Steel, and kicked a rock at him to wake him up.

He shook his head and looked up at Ray, his facial expression unchanged from the last visit.

"So you've come to finish me off, is that it?" Steel growled, looking at the rifle in Ray's hands.

"No," Ray replied. "If they're not going to heal you, then I guess I'm going to have to help."

Ray dropped his rifle on the floor, along with his pistol and kicked them a few feet away. "I'm unarmed, now," Ray stated. "If I do this, are you going to try anything?"

Steel was quiet for a few moments, and then shook his head.

"Good," Ray unsheathed his hunting knife and walked around to his leg. The knife made Steel uncomfortable, but he refrained from doing anything to Ray.

Ray examined the wounds on his leg. nine bullets had embedded themselves into Steel's leg, and three had passed right through.

"This is going to be painful, but I promise you'll feel a lot better afterwords. I need your word, are you going to try anything?"

Again, Steel shook his head, but watched Ray carefully. One by one, Ray stuck his knife into the wound and pried out the bullets with the blade. Each time, Steel howled in pain and convulsed, but held as still as he could. Ray was surprised no one had come to check on Steel after all the noise, but they had orders not to.

Steel twitched as Ray sprayed the antiseptic on and taped several gauze strips and bandages to the wound, since he couldn't wrap them around the large leg. It was already showing signs of infection, but even the simple antiseptic should take care of it.

"There," Ray sheathed his knife, and held out a handful of nine bloody 5.56mm rounds. "Now I hope we can put this behind us."

"Maybe," Steel watched as Ray dropped the bullets and wiped Steel's blood off onto his jeans. He picked up his rifle, and stuck the pistol in his back pocket, returning to Firedrake.

"Wait," Steel grunted. Ray spun around. "Yeah?"

"Why are you helping me?"

"I don't know," Ray shrugged. "It just felt like the right thing to do."

Ray turned around and trekked away, crunching gravel and small stones under his feet.

"I'm sorry," He heard Steel utter.

Ray turned around for one last time, and looked Steel in the eye. He nodded approvingly, and returned to his spot next to Firedrake and went to sleep.

The next night, it was time for Ben to leave. Already it was September, and it was time for Ben to go back to school.

"Take care of yourself, Ray," Ben said as Ray tied Ben's backpack to Firedrake's spines.

"You too," Ray replied. They embraced, and Ben strapped himself onto Firedrake. The dragons and Brownies saw him off, and Firedrake started a few powerful wingbeats, destined towards the monastery.

"See you in a few days!" Firedrake called as he rose higher and higher.

Ben and Sorrel watched them gain altitude, and then Ray spotted something falling towards the ground. Ray pushed Sorrel out of the way and caught it just before it hit the ground.

It was the pistol Ray had given Ben. Attached was a note.

"Good luck, Ray. I'll come visit you when I can. If you haven't given up on humanity, come stay with me sometime. I'll be sure to let you know if you're on any missing persons list, too. -Ben" The note listed his address in England.

"What does it say?" Sorrel peered over his shoulder. Ray read the note out loud to Sorrel.

"I guess that's it then," Ray looked up at the mountains surrounding the valley he stood in. They made him feel small, but not alone. Ray sighed contently, knowing that this was where he was going to live.

He turned his phone on. It had been weeks since he tried to get a signal, and it hadn't changed. The phone indicated that the battery was low, and it made him think.

Ray looked at the phone earnestly. His only contact to the outside world, even though it wasn't working at the moment. It's still possible he could get a signal if a satellite comes close enough, but wasn't it the world he was trying to get away from?

Ray was about to turn his phone off, when suddenly, he had one bar. How was it even possible to get a signal out here? That satellite theory was starting to sound kind of far fetched, anyway. He watched as his phone loaded the many, many text messages and indicated how many messages were in is voicemail inbox. The battery was so close to dying, he had to decide what to look at. The text messages were probably irrelevant, so he went to his voicemail to see if there was anything important.

A message from Bob caught him by surprise.

"Hey Ray, it's uh, it's Bob. Listen, I'm just going to be straight up. I can't find anyone that did as good of a job as you on the bikes and around the shop. If I wanted someone as good as you, I couldn't afford it. If you come back to work, I'll give you a raise, starting twelve an hour. Gimme a call back if you're interested." July 13th.

There were many messages in his inbox, some were from child protective services vaguely asking him to come in for questioning, along with a more firm and direct one from the police.

"Mr. Sokolov, this is Officer Jaeger from the Atlanta police. We received word that you had gone missing from your mother, and just wanted to confirm you are alright. If you don't give us a call in the next two weeks to schedule an appointment where we may get a chance to sit down and have a chat, you will be put on the missing person's list and runaway list. Thank you for your time." The message was sent on August second, so he was definitely on the runaway list now.

One by one, he skipped from message to message, until he got to one that stuck out. It was a female, Russian accented voice. Surprisingly, it sounded sober.

"Raymond, when I come back to house, you were gone. I come home three days ago, I hope you aren't dead, but I think that's what you want of me," She said awkwardly in her english. "I'm sorry Ray, that I or your father have never been there for you. Please come back, I promise things will be different. I call your father, and I tell him you have run away. Your father would very much like to see you, he say. I know you aren't dead, because I come home and house is locked up, and your car and motorbike is still here. I know you are out there Ray, please come home to your tired mother. I will wait for you. Ya lyublyu tebya, syn moi." Sent August fifth.

Ray looked at his cellphone, knowing what had to be done. His only contact to the outside world. Surely, he still had enough battery to make one phone call, but in the events of his life, he had lost faith in humanity, and didn't care to talk to even his apologetic mother now. Maybe someday, he would come home. But all Ray knew was, he wasn't going back to the States any time soon.

Ray threw the phone on the ground and stomped on it. The plastic and glass popped and burst under his boot.

"Ya sdelal (I'm done)," Ray thought. He walked away from his smashed phone with Sorrel.

Ray had no regrets.