The dancing music of Bella's emergency phone alarm woke her. It took a moment as she took in the unfamiliar surroundings, confused while the remnants of heavy sleep still fogged over her mind. When the memories of the previous couple of days hit her, she almost rolled over, wishing to sleep it all away again in comfort under the navy blue comforter. She had stopped at the most low income motel she could, and booked a single night in cash under an alias once the sun had peeked over the horizon.

But, she knew she couldn't. She had to move. It was half past three, a perfect amount of daylight for her to eat and get on the road again. Assuming she was being followed, if that vampire was holding up close by it would be incredibly hard to follow her in broad daylight, and Bella planned to continue traveling through nightfall.

Packing went quick-Bella had hardly taken anything out, after all. A quick brush of her hair and teeth-she had showered the previous night-and she was ready for the road again. Feeling empty and stressed once again as she took a look at the empty motel room, she left the room key on the table to save time, stepping outside into the sunlight with her luggage.

"Hey there sweet little lady," an oily voice greeted her as she closed the door to her room.

Irritated, Bella ignored the newcomer-a lanky man appearing to be in his mid forties-and continued on doing the basic safety checks of the motorbike Jacob had once taught her. Three days ago, she would have been terrified off her rocker and waiting to be saved. Today, she currently had bigger fish to worry about. Bella reached into the folds of her jacket and met the creep's eyes when he stepped closer.

"I'm well trained and I conceal carry."

Whether it was the exhausted glare in the young woman's eyes that didn't belong for one so young, or perhaps that she had somehow become intimidating overnight, immediately, the guy took the bluff. Hands up he backed away. Selling it, Bella nodded and removed her hand from her biker's jacket. She casually slid her helmet over her head, revved her engine, and bluffed confidence as she drove off, but discreetly checked to be sure. He wasn't following. Good.

The fresh mountain air was nice, and the little shops built into the town were perfect. Older styled, but somehow still freshly made, they fit perfectly into the surrounding landscape. Honestly, if she wasn't on the run, this would have been one of the perfect stops. Once more making certain she wasn't being followed, Bella stopped at a little coffee and all day breakfast shop. Nothing on the menu seemed appetizing, but she ordered pancakes and sausage anyways. She told herself she was fine, as she drank her hot coffee uncharacteristically black, not caring about the flavor. Her waitress was overly kind-regardless of the fact she had showered, Bella understood she looked like hell. Her coffee was refilled without prompt, and handfuls of creamer were splayed towards her. When her pancakes were brought out, the waitress brought out an entire can of whipped cream.

"I'm twenty six," Bella had said, attempting to look affronted.

"Sure you are, sweetie," the waitress had replied smoothly, a gentle smile on her face. "How much whipped cream would you like?"

Bella had sighed and given in. "Load it."

Satisfied, the kind waitress had left her alone for a while after that. The bustle and voices around her of the families all out having a good time eating together both soothed Bella with a sense of safety and also caused her heart to ache. For a moment, she allowed herself to wallow, remembering Charlie.

Her pancakes were only half finished when she asked for her check. The waitress somehow managed to not only make her check appear quickly, but magically pack the remainder of her dish and give her a to go cup of coffee by the time Bella was done counting out the cash.

"I know a runner when I see one. What you're running from is your business, sweetie, but if you want help, all you have to do is ask."

Bella shook her head. "I don't think anyone can help me with this one. It's...complicated."

"Shame. If you're ever in the area again, feel free to stop in."

With that, Bella left the little eatery and was back on the road. It took some configuring, but turns out she had a compartment on her motorcycle for storage. Slightly embarrassed, she ended up putting her backpack/suitcase in it, along with the food and clipped the sealed coffee mug to the side of her when she rode, to sip at stoplights. Thinking about it, the next time she stopped at a gas station she stopped inside and grabbed a couple gallons of water, some snacks, and put them in a storage compartment on the other side as well. Finally feeling some sense of security, she stopped at a drug store as well, spending a chunk of cash on first aid supplies-she wouldn't be going to the hospital or to a doctor any time soon, and was often accident prone.

Bella Swan was well set up for the continued trip to her mom's. Picking up speed as the clock hit five thirty, she felt somewhat refreshed and ready to pull another all nighter of travel.

Little did she know, her plans could and would change, very, very quickly.

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"She's planning on meeting her mom, but the route isn't that clear."

Carlisle's eyebrows furrowed as the coven looked at Alice simultaneously in the car.

"That's quite unusual for you."

"Yes. I'm worried. It keeps fogging in and out. I know for sure she's going south, and then going east. But when she reaches the rocky mountain range, everything gets…..strange," Alice continued.

"Strange how?" Edward, this time.

"I don't know. She goes along normally for a while, and then suddenly everything about her future fogs up before disappearing. Usually if someone dies the vision abruptly cuts off, like when I first saw her in Charlie's house when it was still burning."

Esme's hand tightened on her mate's on the consol.

"Let's just find her. Leaving her alone like that was a mistake. The poor girl was left wide open to attack. As soon as she knew about us, we should have turned her for her own safety."

"No." The rebuttal came swift and short.

"Edward, this isn't just about you anymore, unfortunately. If we don't turn her, Victoria will find her, or worse, the Volturi. And we all know what that means. Even if we were to wait, keeping her with us is dangerous for her as a human. We can't leave her alone anymore, either." Carlisle replied, effectively keeping a fight from breaking out in the car, while shutting the option down.

"How do we even know Victoria knows she's alive?" Edward challenged icily.

"We don't. But if the Volturi gets wind of this, we're all in serious trouble," came Rosalie's quick, irritated response. She had no unsightly urges to give her brother mercy-after all, it was his fault they were in this mess.

"If you do not turn her when we find her, Edward, one of us will." Alice promised.

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Bella didn't understand what caused her to stop on the windy, narrow road up the mountainside roughly fifteen miles from Mapleton. She had barely left, and had many miles left before her next rest stop. But something was itching at the back of her mind. Even as she chided herself for her idiocy, she pulled her suped up motorcycle off the main road onto a narrower dirt path, driving slowly and carefully while telling herself she would only be a few minutes.

Of course, it wasn't a few minutes. It was nearly forty, and Bella was fairly certain the narrow path was not intended for motorcycles. The fact she could drive on it meant she had learned how to handle her bike quite well, and that her motorcycle was just the right make and size for the job. Paranoia set in as the sun began to set, and the forest itself seemed to loom around her, every shadow and cliff wall hiding a red haired vampiress in wait. The rumbling of the motorcycle seemed all too loud, and the late teen finally pulled the brake, trying to figure out how to turn around on the narrow path.

A loud half growl half whine halted her in her paces. What the hell was that? came to mind.

It didn't sound like a dog, bear or cougar, although she knew they lived around these parts. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and while her instinct was to run away, her damned curiosity prodded her.

Bella left her bike running, but with the brakes locked and stand up, as she swung herself off with her eyes up. She kept her back to the trees when possible as she crept forward, utterly paranoid.

There was utter chaos in a small clearing just a few paces forward. Trees were broken at the trunks, a huge skid mark ripped the earth wide open, as though something the size of a cow had fallen out of the sky. Bella flinched back-things like this didn't happen to the average side of the world.

Then, the smell of blood hit her. It was nauseating. Immediately, Bella plugged her nose and waited for the nausea and lightheadedness to fade. Once it did, she looked for the source, and paused. She still couldn't make sense of it. Whatever it was, it was big. Naturally translucent yellow/white-not a nice color. A mess of way too many limbs.

A regal arrow shaped head with horns lifted, glaring at her with striking blue green eyes. A loud, threatening hiss had Bella suck in a tight breath and step away quickly. A dragon. She had randomly stumbled on a dragon. The ridiculousness of the situation nearly forced a disbelieving laugh out of her, while she waited for the humongous predator to pounce.

But the dragon didn't attack, she realized through her pounding, adrenalized heart rate. For a dragon, the thing looked pitiful, not the things of terror that plighted childhood stories. Blood was dripping out of its swollen lower jaw, one of its front legs was bigger than the other. One of the back legs was almost the size of a tree trunk. And it very obviously, now that she could make sense of the form, that it had a broken right wing. Claw marks and obvious bruising rented tears throughout the rest of its paper thin looking hide.

The dragon couldn't attack. It couldn't even walk. Probably couldn't even eat properly with that mouth.

Bella found herself on the ground, the shock a bit too much.

"How did you get here?" she found herself asking, voice trembling.

Of course, the dragon didn't answer her. "It's not like dragons are seen nowadays flying through the sky, you know. This...this is ridiculous."

She decided to leave. She had enough on her plate already.

Bella ended up pacing back and forth instead, very aware of the dragon's eagle-like gaze watching her every move. It had stopped hissing, at the very least.

"I have no idea why I'm here. You are probably going to eat me. But…..wait here."

The last statement was said very unnecessarily. She didn't understand why she couldn't just leave. But, damn it all, she couldn't. Something about the dragon looked so...helpless. Pathetic. Lost. Bella went back to her motorcycle, and grabbed a gallon of water, and turned the stupid thing off.

The dragon was now uninterested in her presence-or at least seemed to be pretending to be. What looked to be an ear was perked up towards her as she entered. Her knees trembled at the absolute insanity at what she was planning on attempting.

"Umm….hi."

From a seemingly safe distance away, she tried to get the dragon's attention, waving her arm out awkwardly. The dragon let out a loud rumble that almost seemed like a groan. Now what? She could practically hear. Bella took the cap off of the bottle and swished it, dropped a swig in front of her. From the dragon's demeanor, there was no way it wasn't intelligent, right? It had stopped hissing at her like it had realized she wasn't a threat.

It looked at the bottle suspiciously. Grimacing, she stopped breathing through her mouth and took a sip of the water, unplugging her nose for just a moment.

"It's water. Your mouth is-

Her head began to spin. She swallowed. "Covered in blood. I'm betting you haven't had a drink in hours-maybe days."

The dragon took a long, hard look at her. It hissed again, slowly raising its long, clearly injured tail with very sharp looking spines on the end of it. Bella started to back away, but the hissing stopped, the tail went back to its original resting place, and the dragon lowered its head., cutting off its hiss. Bella looked at the dragon, uncertain. It was either a warning to stay away, or an intelligent way to ward off foul play. It grunted, thumping the injured tail on the ground gingerly, almost like a demanding child. Despite her fright, Bella couldn't help but smile, clarity now given.

Shaking knees walked towards the huge legendary creature. Much less, towards its mouth. Two top incisors poked out of the top jaw, the bottom jaw was swollen to a cringing state. Gingerly, still frightened, she knelt with the water, trying to figure out how best to do the task while ignoring the pool of blood at her feet. The dragon's head alone was the size of her entire torso, and then some. Besides that, the dragon just had...presence. In spite of the dire physical state it was in, every breath the dragon took seemed to fill up the entire clearing with sound and being.

"Regardless of what I do, opening your jaw is going to hurt. But I'm betting you have to drink water," she realized out loud, frustrated. The dragon let out a higher pitched rumble, and Bella found it again beyond odd that it seemed to understand english.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the dragon opened its mouth a couple inches, a small high pitched whine coming out at the action. But oof-the smell of blood intensified. Bella resigned to holding her breath entirely as she dropped a bit of water into the dragon's mouth, then realized it was having trouble swallowing. Bella froze for a moment, unsure what to do, and then shakily reached a hand down and gently rubbed under the dragon's throat, certain she was going to get her hand bitten off the entire time. The scales of the dragon's throat were smooth and ridiculously, soothfully warm.

She did not, and it seemed to work. Over and over she repeated this process, until she was able to give the dragon the entire gallon of water-although, looking at the size of it, it would need several more gallons of water to sat its thirst completely.

The smell of blood caught up to her as she stood up, and the ground rushed up to meet her face.

When she woke up, the sun was almost completely down. As her awareness came back to her, Bella panicked. There was no way she was going to make it back to the road in time to be on a safe pace during nightfall, and she was very much vulnerable in the forest to attack. She leapt up, quite adrenalized, when an odd, earth shaking rumble sounded behind her with a confused tone. Oh. That was right.

The dragon was looking at her with a sense of amusement and obvious bewilderment. It was insane, the amount of expression it's face was able to make. For whatever reason, she felt the need to explain herself.

"I-I get sick around the smell of blood," she finished lamely. If a direly injured dragon could have an expression of humor with a swollen jaw, this one did.

"Regardless, I'm stuck now."

The dragon raised its head and bumped her with the top of its jaw. Bella was still amazed it hadn't eaten her yet. To hell with it.

"I've been on the run from a vampire that burned down my house and killed my father. I have a motorcycle that can take me faster to the road than I can walk, but I still can't move fast enough in the forest to get to the main road before the sun goes down if she has been following me. Vampires move very, very quickly. I've been going top speed to try to outrun any pursuers, can't do that in the forest."

She laughed nervously. The dragon took another good long look at her, and Bella once again admired the eyes. The dark, hexagon shaped pupils were unlike anything she had ever seen, surrounded by almost sun shaped spheres of green, which then broke out into a striking, bright electric blue that literally glowed in the low light. Raising its head, the dragon took three long sniffs, one to the north, east, and west, rumbled again, then set its head down on the ground.

"So….I'm good for now?"

The dragon seemed to rumble an affirmative. Feeling faintly like she was nuts, Bella contemplated. To be honest, she wanted to be safe. She wished she were safe. And looking at the dragon in front of her-it was certain it would die without help. Selfishly, she also wanted to feel needed.

Shaking her head to clear it, she moved on. "If I'm not moving on tonight, we need to clean those wounds. Some of them look nasty. And we need to control the swelling somehow. I have nothing for broken bones on me at this point. You're lucky. I might be able to figure out how to set your wing to heal correctly-my mom sent me to advanced avian veterinarian studies in high school for college credits back when I was in Florida."

Bella paused. Throughout the craziness of the past few days, she hadn't bothered to think of the future. Would she even be able to finish school at this point? For all the world knew, she was dead-she understood that much.

"I have to go back to my bike-I have first aid supplies there. I don't have anything for broken bones-not of your size, at least, but if I'm not found, I can probably think of something."

The dragon huffed, and stretched its swollen muzzle out. Bella froze, certain that finally, the large creature was going to gulp her down in one bite. Instead, it somewhat roughly raked its warm, somewhat hot scaled cheek against her shoulder.

"Ouch!" Bella cried in surprise as one of the dragon's yellow-white translucent scales embedded itself into her shoulder. She reached up to pull it out, but the scale had turned red as a coal, and melted into her flesh. The dragon seemed satisfied as it pulled back.

There. Now we can communicate easier. And would you please stop referring to me as an 'it' in your mind?

Bella froze as the unfamiliar voice echoed through her being, almost audible, except...not. The mode of communication was strange as well-she understood what it meant, but instead of words, it came across as a highly complex feel of emotions and instantaneous understandings. She sat down hard.

Get up, little human. This is degrading enough. I shouldn't need your help, but as it is, I currently do.

Bella blinked. "I could leave, you know!" She snapped, irritated.

Then why don't you? Go, then! The statement was sent with another hiss, and Bella was made very aware of just how within reach she was of his very sharp teeth. Somehow, she could also feel the real intent behind the snap. The dragon was snapping out like a kicked pup, not snarling with want to kill. She swallowed.

"What's your name?"

The snarl dropped from the dragon's face. What?

Bella repeated the question.

The sickly, beaten up dragon looked the girl in the eyes with a long, hard stare. Regardless of the fear smell coming off of her, the girl met his gaze unflinchingly.

A low rumble shook the dragon's chest, irritating his broken collarbone.

Fallow.

Bella smiled uncertainly, an attempt at being friendly. "Well, Fallow, I was known as Isabella Swan before my father's house burnt down. But you can call me Bella."

Fallow snorted. Iza.

"Excuse me?"

You can't simply go around with the same name if you're on the run. So I will call you Iza.

Bella rolled the name around her mind, squashing the urge to argue. There wasn't really a point to arguing it anyways-Isabella Swan was for all intents and purposes, dead. She sighed. The dragon was the only one that would be calling her that anyways, so what would it matter?

"Iza it is."

The dragon-Fallow-rumbled again in response. Bella shook herself, and headed back into the forest to collect the gigantic first aid kit she had originally bought for herself, feeling the dragon's piercing gaze drill into her back as she went. Once again, she asked herself why she was doing this.

The trees loomed over her threateningly, casting shadows as she walked. It was only a couple of paces to where her bike was, but it was still out of sight of Fallow, whom had somehow become a spot of security for her in the past couple hours. A couple more seconds were spent thinking, and she brought her backpack/suitcase and leftover meal from earlier that morning.

The walk back was quiet, although as the sun went down completely Bella went rigid. The sounds of the crickets were annoying-they could easily hide any sounds of a predator she might be able to pick up. Weighed down as she was, the teen picked up her pace, breathing a quick sigh of relief when the dragon came back into view. Ridiculous, as it was quite obvious the dragon could barely move, let alone guard her-not that he would want to, either.

Fallow's green blue eyes glowed, staring in exactly the same position he was when she had left as Bella stumbled back into the clearing, carrying her bundles of items. Feeling very awkward, she set her things down in the grass beside the dragon and looked up at him again. Taking in his battered and quite blatantly bruised condition. Were dragons supposed to be able to show bruising underneath their scales that easily? In other species it was considered a sign of illness.

Offensive. Fallow snorted.

"Realistic. And would you stop reading my mind without invitation? It's rather rude."

Not to mention she was extremely curious as to how the dragon was able to read her mind at this point-Edward despite having the ability, was never able to read hers.

The scale I embedded connects us temporarily, seeing as the current situation I am in requires help. The last segment was said with a bit of a sneer.

"Connects us?"

Fallow lifted his swollen muzzle….pompously? I have no desire to tell you extra details, Iza. I am simply here until I can go home. Get to your doctoring.

Yes, it had indeed been pompously. Bella narrowed her eyes. Regardless of her initial fear, she snapped.

"No, I don't think I will."

What?

"You're not the only one that has had a bad few days at this point. Regardless of being on the run for my life after being through the most horrifying experience, I stopped to see if I could help you before I even knew you were sentient enough to communicate. Suspicion is fine, but this has gone beyond that. We are both living creatures with minds of our own, the least you could do is try to treat me with some decency."

Bella was, quite firmly, sick of being everyone's else's pet. She had not paused her journey to turn into a dragon's pet next.

Fallow's initial irritation was cut through efficiently. Perhaps, if he had been accepted by the others of his flock growing up, and looked upon with favor, he would have reeled back in pride and simply eaten the human for having the gall to talk back. But, the influences that would have shaped him to simply act out of aggression and self pride had denounced him as their own long ago, not that his want, no-need, to be accepted by them hadn't affected how he had grown. But instead, his mother, Teacher-Of-The-Old-Ways-Zyra, had been his main influencer. While the others of his brood had flocked to his stronger, larger father for their teachings, Zyra had taken runt-Fallow personally under her wing. And what was one of the strongest teachings she had taught, over, and over? All life was to be valued. Those who lead must first be led.

Shame filled the young prince at his thoughtless snarling and quipping at the tiny human. His draconic ego had gotten the better of him.

Whatever Bella thought would come of her little outburst, she did not expect the sickly looking dragon to drop the only part of him he seemed to be able to move-his head and neck-as close to the ground as he could and avert his eyes.

I acknowledge the equality of soul within you. Do you acknowledge mine as well?

"Oh. Umm…yes?" Bella stuttered. It was awkward. She had no idea what it meant, she assumed it was an apology, it was obviously very hard on the dragon's pride, but there was no real way to know.

Fallow rested an eye towards her, and somehow she could tell he was irritated again.

"Is this an apology? Like an 'I'm sorry?""

"I'm sorry?"

"Like, when two people argue, one person generally asks for forgiveness, and if the other accepts, all is well."

Fallow huffed and abandoned his previous submissive position, obtaining an expression that clearly showed he thought she was stupid. Yes, Iza.

She was beginning to think the nickname was an insult.

The colorless dragon looked at her raised spine frills, something of scaly eyebrow sorts furrowed.

You're an awkward human, aren't you? There's no way others of your kind are this strange.

"Oh, shut up."

Bella found that she liked it much better when the dragon couldn't talk.