Author's Note

So uh…that was probably the shortest hiatus in fanfiction history right? XD I've been around long enough to know that those are usually either a death knell for the story, or mean the author's going to leave the story for at least a few months…or years. But somehow, I managed to write for three days straight, around 1,500 words each day. Out of nowhere. And yes, that does mean this chapter is over 9,000 words long, so you'd BETTER ENJOY IT :D

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Chapter 5 – Responsibility

I woke slowly, the warmth from the sun hitting my body all over and fighting off the chilly air. I was going to roll over to stretch both my wings when I remembered just in time that Aiden was still with me, clutched to my chest by paw and tail. I instantly stopped moving, not wanting to wake him up—I got the feeling it took a lot of courage for him to come to me last night, and he'd be extremely embarrassed if he woke right next to me.

I gently set him back on the grass, and to my complete elation, he tried to cling to me a little in his sleep, an arm weakly flailing at my shoulder. A huge smile broke out across my face, and I tried not to coo as I tenderly nuzzled his cheek and stepped back.

I dragged his sleeping bag over next to him, hoping he might imagine sleeping with me in the first place. After everything that happened last night…we both needed to forget about it. We had no idea if that Silhouette thing was coming back, what it was trying to do, whether it even meant any harm…

We just needed a good distraction to get our minds away from it, because constantly worrying about it wouldn't help. And I intended to be that distraction.

Once he woke up anyway.

I wandered in circles around our camp, watching the shrinking shade for signs of a shadowy silhouette. It could come back at any moment, without warning, so we had to keep an eye out…but at the same time, it might never show itself again.

Eventually, my stomach started rumbling—something I now knew meant that I needed food. I gazed out over the lake, knowing there would be fish galore hiding in it somewhere…but it didn't feel safe. Not without Aiden.

I started pacing back and forth, staring at the small waves lapping at the shore. Aiden had said 'it's only really dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, and there are strong currents'. There definitely wasn't a strong push or pull to the waves, and I knew how to get around since Aiden had taught me…and I could hold my breath for a really long time.

I lifted a paw into the air hesitantly, then shifted forward and placed it in the water. It felt the same as yesterday—I could tell it was cold, but my body didn't feel cold. I glanced back to where Aiden was sleeping, and then at the water again.

No, I didn't need to be scared. There was nothing to be scared of. No currents, I knew I could swim, and I wouldn't get cold.

All I needed to do was apply logic.

With this conclusion sound in my head, I walked confidently deeper, spreading out my wings and tail as the surface reached my shoulders. It only took me a moment to take my paws off the lake floor, and I was floating again.

'See?' I told myself. 'No need to be frightened.'

I started gliding along the water, flicking my tail for speed and keeping a close eye for movement in the depths. Each time I spotted something, I'd try to improve my diving and catch it. The results were…mixed.

The first time, I thrust my head and neck into the water and kicked with my legs, but didn't tuck in my wings, so I ended up going nowhere.

On the second attempt, I folded in my wings, pointed my tail upward and pushed with all my might. I managed to get underwater no problem, got close to a fish, but forgot to actually bite at it in my excitement.

The third try was my first success, though I swallowed a huge amount of lake water along with the fish. I didn't know fluid could hurt going down my throat like that.

From there it was only a matter of refining my technique—smoothing out my movements so that I didn't disturb the water and scare off the fish, catching several at a time, coming up to the surface and emptying my mouth of water before eating them.

And then I realized I could flap my wings underwater to propel myself faster. Much faster.

I was enjoying myself immensely, speeding around underwater, whizzing past all the seaweed and scaring the life out of the fish when a sudden thought made me come to a halt.

I hadn't checked on Aiden in well over an hour. The Silhouette might have come back.

I burst to the surface and glanced over at the campsite, a shudder of relief passing through me to see it unchanged, and Aiden still fast asleep. I needed to stop panicking like that—I was meant to be the distraction, even to myself.

Now that I thought about it, why was he still asleep? The sun was almost up past the treetops now. The day was well into its beginning…maybe I could wake him up with some breakfast?

I dived back underwater again, searching for an especially large fish. I found one that was as long as my mouth was wide and splashed back up to the surface with my catch.

Holding the tail of the fish in my mouth, I trotted back up the lakeshore to Aiden's sleeping form.

"I brought you some breakfast!" I called, slightly muffled through the fish tail. I flicked it upward and released my hold, intending for the fish to land next to him.

I might have thrown it slightly too high.

And it might have landed on his face.

"AUGH WHAT THE F—"

He wasn't enjoying it as much as I hoped he would.

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Aiden decided since I had fishing down, I needed to learn how to fly and hunt. What I very quickly learned though, is that flying is hard, and hunting is boring.

Every time I launched myself from the ground and tried to flap my wings, I simply fell back down in one way or another. With neither myself nor Aiden having a clue what to do, and the Library not being very helpful, we didn't make any progress. No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to figure out the exact motions, positions and movements each part of my body needed to fly properly. After a couple of hours of aches and bruises, I was ready to give up.

I flopped to the ground, the pulse of my heartbeat pounding throughout my sore form, and I gave a long groan.

"Alright, I have one last idea, and it won't involve you hitting the ground again," Aiden crouched next to my head.

"Won't, or shouldn't?" I moaned.

"Uh…a bit of both really. The idea is you climb that tree—" he pointed to one that had branches hanging over the water. "—and then jump and try to glide from there. See if you can gain a little altitude before you land in the water."

I sighed heavily before slowly pushing myself back up. I did want to fly, but…it really hurt every time I fell. I plodded over to the base of the trunk and stared up at it, wondering how I was even supposed to get up there in the first place.

"Stick your claws into the wood," Aiden suggested, almost reading my mind. It made me yearn for the Above, to feel the Connections again, the instant transfer of knowledge and information, so much understanding…

'Stop thinking about it' I scolded myself, shaking my head. Tutor would find me; I just knew it. So for now, I was going to fly and I was going to love it, Chaos be damned!

With renewed determination and strength, I lifted my front paws up as high as I could, balancing on my back two legs. I curled my claws into the surface of the bark, finding it quite easy to cut through, and tried to pull myself up a little. I placed my back paws against the wood and repeated the motion with my rear claws.

I continued to pull and push myself up, keeping my wings tucked in and my tail straight. Eventually, I reached one of the largest branches that stretched out over the lake and climbed on top of it. The further I moved along its length, the more it bent, until I could almost feel myself sliding down its strangely smooth surface, and had to dig my claws in again. The whole branch was arched steeply over due to my weight, but I was above the lake's surface now.

"So…" I looked down at Aiden. "Do I just…"

"Jump," he confirmed. "Glide over the water, then try flapping your wings."

I steadied myself, unfurling my wings and lowering myself in preparation. I launched upward and forward, intending to clear the thin end of the branch as quickly as possible. But as soon as my paws left the surface, all the tension caused by my weight made it come whipping back up, and it hit me straight in the face, neck and stomach. The immediate lash of pain caused me to lose all focus, and I could only let out a whimpering yelp as I fell down into the water.

I came up a few seconds later, spluttering and sniffling, and dragged myself to shore. I tried not to cry; my exhaustion, sore body and repeated failure driving their thorns into me.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I should've realized that was a willow tree and they're really bendy—" Aiden came running over to me as I slumped onto the soft grass.

"N-no m-more flying," I choked out.

"No more flying," he agreed, rubbing his hand over my head. I weakly tried to press into the contact, desperately wanting comfort after the whole ordeal, but quickly found myself passing out.

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"You feeling better?" I asked Ashburn as I noticed him waking up. I was in the middle of preparing my lunch—instant noodles, for the man of upper class. He stretched and came padding over to the fire I'd set up to cook with, lying down so his head was close to me.

"Yeah," he smiled and nosed my arm. I couldn't help the red that spread across my face at this, but whilst sitting down there wasn't exactly much I could do either. I did feel a little responsible for his fall from the tree earlier, but most of his scrapes were from his own determination to fly. I tried to sort through the jumble of emotions that were whizzing through my head, the urge to run away from everything like a stupid child briefly crossing my mind, before it was washed away by the more rational part of my brain. I eventually settled on giving his snout an awkward and brief scratch before trying to focus back on my food.

Inevitably, I started questioning my own stupidity after that ridiculous interaction, and as usual, I found no answer.

"Whatcha doing?" he watched as I broke clumps of dry noodles into the now boiling water, emptied the seasoning sachet over the top and began to stir.

"Cooking. Not exactly complicated cooking though," I laughed. I took a small sip from the pot to taste it, and yup, I'd put too much water in—the flavour was almost non-existent. I sighed and rummaged around in my rucksack for a moment, before pulling out two tiny jars.

"What are those?"

"Salt and pepper. Basically, they can make anything taste better. Here, take a sniff of this," I unscrewed the lid of the pepper jar and held it out to him. He seemed to take a couple of short hitching breaths as he sniffed it, his nose twitching, and I realized what was happening not a moment too soon. A rising shriek began to emanate from the back of his throat and his mouth began to glow with purple fire. I jumped up, diving away as he sneezed plasma into the cooking pot, sending boiling hot water and shredded bits of noodles across the camp.

I stayed on the ground for a few moments, arms covering my head, waiting for the dust—and foodstuffs—to settle. I cautiously raised my head, looking back at Ashburn to see him on his back, staring in shock at where his shot had detonated.

"Wha…what happened? I don't…" he glanced back and forth disbelievingly at the mild destruction he'd unwittingly caused. "Oh Chaos, are you hurt? What did I do?! I'm so sorry!" he rolled to his paws and ran over to me, despite my attempts to wave him off.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…kinda forgot you were a dragon for a bit there."

"You're telling me! What was that?!"

"Uh…you sneeze fire, I'm guessing."

"I sneeze fire?!" he was completely aghast at this revelation.

"Yup. Kinda ruined my meal plans," I looked down into the now empty pot.

Ashburn visibly winced. "Sorry…do you want another fish?"

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"Can you at least try to be a little quiet?" I sighed as Ashburn enthusiastically trampled through several bushes next to me.

"What for?"

"Because if you want to actually hunt something to eat, you need to sneak up on it first," I replied exasperatedly.

"Why?" he tilted his head.

"Because it'll run!" I half-shouted.

"So I'll run after it!" he grinned, pleased at his logic and completely oblivious to my frustration.

"You won't even get within sight range of anything that hears you coming, and you'll be left hungry."

"I'm not hungry anyway," he whined. "And I'm boooored."

"Oh my God…" I hung my head in defeat. "Alright, what do you want to do then?"

Ashburn glanced around and hummed, before looking back at me with a knowing smile.

I gave him a cautious sidelong gaze. "What?"

He slowly reached out with a paw and poked me in the chest with the rounded top of one of his claws.

"You're it."

Quick as a flash, he was gone, bouncing gleefully through the woods and glancing back at me every so often. Once he judged himself to be at a safe distance, he stopped and turned back fully to see my bemused face.

"Oh come on, you have to know this game, it's everywhere in the multiverse!" he came trotting back. "You're supposed to chase me!"

I could barely hear him, a hundred thoughts washing through my head, not least of which were the memories of playing with Sophie…a long time ago. God, I missed her so much…but I wasn't a kid anymore.

'Why can't you just enjoy yourself?' my subconscious chimed in.

Because it was stupid! I couldn't just act like a little kid, running around without a care in the world, being clueless and immature!

'Yes, but Ashburn's technically a little kid…'

And?

'Aaand by the unspoken rules of society, if you're with a kid, you can do kid stuff.'

Well, shit. I couldn't fault that logic.

I was suddenly jerked out of my inner dialogue by said 'little kid' giving me a light head bump to the chest. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head and blinked a few times, taking a breath.

"No, no, I just…thinking," I couldn't help but notice that Ashburn was now right in front of me, within easy reach.

I began to form a slightly evil smirk.

"What?" he took a half-step back, one paw in the air, giving me a cautious look just as I'd done only moments earlier.

Oh, how the tables had turned.

"You're it!" I shouted, tapping his nose and running for my life.

"Hey, that's not fair!" I heard his much heavier footfalls behind me, and tried to pour on the speed, knowing fine well he could catch me in seconds if he wanted to.

"Just returning the favour!" I laughed, my voice shaking with each impact of my feet. Bushes and bracken whipped past me, and I had to keep jumping over low-lying branches and rocks to make sure I didn't trip. My only consolation was that they would slow Ashburn down a little too, but not much.

I dived around a tree as I heard him get a little too close, feeling the gust of air as he narrowly missed a grab for my back. I couldn't help but let out a cackle at my small victory, and he emitted an excited trill at the near miss, digging his claws into the ground to cancel out his momentum before sprinting after me again. We were both completely lost in the thrill of the chase, exhilaration and adrenaline fuelling our bodies to push us further and faster (though this mostly applied to me, I don't think he even broke a sweat the entire time).

The fact that we both knew it was just for play made it all the better, and Ashburn was definitely holding back to make it more even. When he inevitably caught me with a tag to my arm, we both started backpedalling, trying to nullify our speed to turn and run in the other direction, but he was never more than a few metres ahead of me, dancing and dodging just as he'd done when he stole my bike.

This went back and forth for some time, though I couldn't tell for how long. At some point when he was 'it', I lost track of him whilst running. I began to slow down, turning three hundred and sixty degrees to see if I could catch a glimpse of where he'd gone. My exhaustion quickly caught up to me once I stopped moving, and I was left heaving for air, sweat dripping over my entire body.

Silence fell over the forest as I tried to recover from some of the most intense exercise I'd had in months. I was almost considering sitting down on a nice mossy boulder to rest when a low growl split the air. I looked frantically around for the source, a shiver running down my spine. Or maybe that was sweat.

In all the green, black scales should have stuck out like a sore thumb, but I couldn't see so much as a particularly dark shadow.

This wasn't a chase any more—it was a hunt, and I was the prey.

Part of me was a little proud he'd actually listened to what I was saying earlier; every other part was freaking out. What if he'd somehow turned feral? Had the adrenaline activated some kind of primal instinct? Surely not…he wasn't really a dragon, not in mind anyway. But I couldn't know for sure—after all the weird events that had happened since he'd shown up, this could just be another to add to the list.

The branches of the trees creaked ominously in the wind, and the hairs on the back of my neck tingled.

Don't look up, don't look up, don't look up…

After a few seconds of frozen fear, I took off running again, heading for the campsite. I knew it was close, but my muscles had barely recovered, ache and fatigue threatening to collapse my legs like a house of cards.

I heard Ashburn growl again, and I could definitely pick out the sounds of branches snapping and swaying as he leapt through the canopy after me. I could see the light where the trees thinned out, the sun reflecting off the lake's surface; hope filled my body and pushed me just that little bit further as I leapt free of the woods, but it was too late.

His weight slammed into me from behind and claws wrapped around my torso in a full body tackle, sending us flying across the grass, rolling over and over. I'm not proud of the noise that left my mouth at this moment, but I don't see how anyone could have reacted otherwise. I shrieked like a little girl and tried to cover my face with my arms as we tumbled to the edge of the lake, and then into it, finally stopping in the shallows. I cringed and tried to curl in on myself, waiting for teeth to sink into my skin.

"Ha! I win!" he crowed, and I squinted one eye open to see him grinning victoriously down at me. All the tension immediately drained from my body and I went limp, enjoying the cool water washing over my sweaty, tired and very sore limbs.

"Was the heart attack really necessary?" I mumbled. I wanted to sound at least a little annoyed, but didn't have the slightest ounce of energy to pull it off.

"Heart attack? What's that?" he asked with his usual curiosity.

"It's a…ugh, never mind, I can't be bothered explaining," I let my head fall back onto the water weeds that covered the lakebed. "How the hell do you have so much energy anyway? You don't look even the slightest bit tired."

"I dunno, I just…do? It must be this body, I feel really strong and I want to do stuff all the time!" he started bounding about to emphasize the point, and I only groaned in response. "I'm gonna go swimming again," he announced, leaping past me into the water.

"You do that," I sighed. "I'm gonna…lie here for a few minutes. Or hours."

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I laid on my back, paws resting on my stomach, wings tucked into my sides and staring up into the sky. Aiden suggested I use his rucksack to prop my head up; due to the shape of my body, I found I had to crane my neck to see the stars. So here we were, 'stargazing' as he called it.

It was beautiful.

Hundreds of points of light dotted the night, which faded from dark blue into a muted orange from the setting sun, though the campfire smoke obscured it a little. A faint nebula could be seen spanning from horizon to horizon—that was the shape of the galaxy we were in, Aiden told me—and the trees seemed to stretch taller to touch it, their tops waving in the wind. The stars themselves varied in size, colour and proximity to each other, some shining brightly in small clusters while others could barely be seen at all, distant and tiny in the vast void. It both amazed and excited me to see the sheer potential that lay in this universe alone, and, even better, Aiden seemed to share my passion.

"…it's just insane to think about everything that could be out there—alien civilizations, exo-planets, all kinds of different star systems and things science can't even explain yet…it's awesome," he sighed wistfully.

I crooned in agreement. "And this is only one universe in…countless others. They can have more or less dimensions, everything down to the fundamental level can work differently, the definition of life changes…"

"I still haven't gotten it through my skull that we can just…create universes. By thinking about them. That's…" he shook his head and laughed, unable to find the words.

I turned my head to give him an amused grin. "Well if you don't fully form the idea, it just ends up being a void universe which eventually collapses and disappears. You need to give an idea a lot of thought before it becomes self-sustaining."

"Oh, that's a relief…so there's just a constant cycle of these 'void' worlds appearing and disappearing?"

"Yeah. One of the first things Tutor taught me was never to go near them—if you get stuck in a universe when it collapses…you're dead. There's no escaping your existence being deleted."

Aiden gave a small shudder at the thought. "I think I'll just stick to my own universe. It's terrifying enough on its own."

"How much do you know about it? You explained schools and stuff, and you said humans have been to the moon, sent robots all over the system…"

"I know bits and pieces. I used to be really interested in space, I wanted to be part of the first Mars colony, but that…was a long time ago. Now I'm just stuck here," he said, and I heard anger spike in his voice before he suppressed it. "At least I get to wander about for a good while now, since work's done."

It took me a moment to realize what he meant. "You mean…you just do what we're doing now? Sleep under the stars, explore the wilderness? …Alone?"

"Yup."

I raised my head to look at him, but he avoided my eyes and rolled to his side, moving into his sleeping bag. Assuming he was bedding down for the night, I awkwardly wriggled onto my front and off the rucksack, standing up to stretch my muscles. Because I was so new to having physical senses, I could feel every small pull and ache in my body. But it also meant that stretching and cracking my joints felt extremely satisfying.

"Ashburn?"

I turned at Aiden's voice, a little worried at the tone. He sounded…small. Scared.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that…thing, the Silhouette, whatever it was…is it coming back?" he had sat up a little, staring out across the lake at where it had first appeared.

"I don't know…I've never seen or heard anything like it…" I stepped a little nearer. "But I don't think we should worry about it…it might never appear again for all we know."

"I guess…" he looked up, staring wide-eyed at the great black nothingness above us. I debated for a moment on whether I should try to comfort him or not—every part of me wanted to curl around him, hold him tight to my chest and hug his fears away, both for his benefit and my own. But I knew he didn't feel the same.

I settled on lying down between Aiden and the lake, blocking his view of it. I pointedly placed my tail on his stomach, meeting his gaze in a wordless gesture.

'I'll protect you.'

He gave me a grateful smile, which I returned, and we both lay our heads down to sleep, feeling much more relaxed.

I'd never really thought about sleeping before—it was a completely new experience but I'd been a bit…preoccupied the last two nights. I knew from the Library all I needed to do to sleep was close my eyes, calm my mind and—

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—wow, that was weird.

I blinked a few times, rubbing the side of my paw across the corner of my eye to clear it. I shivered a little, and glanced over to the sun to see it flickering through the trees.

Ugh, why did I have to wake up so early? Aiden wouldn't be up for ages if yesterday was anything to go by. I stood up and moved over to him, nudging the side of his head with my nose.

"Aiden? Aiden wake up."

He groaned and snuggled deeper into his sleeping bag.

"Come ooon," I persisted, poking him lightly in the side with my claws. "The sun's up, we can do stuff now!"

He mumbled something incoherent and pulled the hood of the bag over himself, trying to block out my voice.

"Pleeeeeaaase?" I mewled, stretching my neck over and leaning forward, trying to gain an angle to stare at him imploringly from. I finally managed to get an upside-down glimpse of him trying to hide his face before he gave up.

"Ugh…I thought with work finished I could sleep in, but ohhh no, of course you had to be the 'morning' type," he glared and poked me in the chest.

"Does this mean you're getting up now?" I perked up.

He sighed. "Yes…"

"Yay!" I retracted my teeth, leaned down and grabbed his shoulder with my gums, trying to haul him to his feet. Turns out, sleeping bags don't just slide off like I thought it would, and I only succeeded in getting Aiden upright, still cocooned in the thick fabric.

"Ack! Ashburn let go of me! Can't I get up at my own pace?" he glared at me as I released his shoulder. At least he was standing now.

"A quarter of the day had already gone by the time you got up yesterday!"

"You threw a fish at my face. And it was still alive!"

"That was an accident. Besides, you enjoyed it didn't you?"

"Sure, after I washed the dragon drool off—" he tried to gesture with his arms, losing his balance, and with his legs still stuck in the bag he couldn't do anything but fall. I quickly leaned forward, allowing him to topple onto my head.

"Just put me down," he said in a muffled voice, his nose and mouth squashed against my scales. I lay down carefully, then tipped my head to the side, causing him to roll onto the grass.

He scowled up at me, still somewhat trapped in his sleeping bag, looking like a particularly angry worm.

"I hate you."

I nuzzled the side of his face. "No you don't."

He let out a long-suffering sigh.

"No I don't."

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- O -

I followed Ashburn down to the edge of the water and stopped as he leapt in, apparently wanting to show me something.

"You watching?" he asked excitedly.

"What else would I be doing?" I replied sarcastically. I smiled regardless as he began swimming just like he'd done yesterday—wings out, paws paddling and tail flicking. I had been extremely relieved to discover that he'd gotten over the fear of the water that I'd accidentally instilled in him, and even more so when he told me it was because of what I'd said that he was able to do so.

The first surprise came when he simply tucked in his wings and kept on swimming like nothing had changed—getting over a fear was one thing, but to push himself even further and learn to swim properly was a whole other level of courage.

"That's great!" I called, genuinely happy for him.

"I haven't even showed you the best bit yet!"

I watched in astonishment as he began to flap his wings into the surface of the water, drastically increasing his speed each time he did. Within seconds he was rocketing back and forward, a huge froth spraying up like a trail from a jet as he pushed his body through the surface tension of the lake. Then he took it a step further and disappeared underwater entirely, and all I could see was the wake that he was generating on the surface as he shot past like a torpedo.

After a few passes, Ashburn burst back to the surface again and ran back to shore, a huge toothy smile plastered on his face.

"How'd you learn that?!" I asked, flabbergasted.

"I don't know, I just…figured I could kinda push myself with my wings the same as I do with my tail. It took me a while to sort the exact motions out, because I had to push forward, not up, but when I'm doing it, it feels like I'm flying!" he raced around in circles, wings half extended and I laughed and tried to turn on the spot to keep up with him.

And then we both stopped, looking straight at each other with expressions of complete realization as what he'd said sank in.

"You don't think…"

In a moment of near-telepathic understanding, he rushed back towards the lake as I was about to tell him to, and swam quickly out to the deepest area. He then dove straight down, and I almost immediately lost track of him in the murk of the water. I could only wait anxiously on the shore as he went down and down, right to the lakebed, before turning around and pushing for the surface.

After around ten seconds he exploded upward into view again, and this time he didn't stop. He continued the motions he'd taught himself, pushing through the air just as he'd done with the water, except this time it required even less effort for him to gain height, no longer burdened with the viscosity of liquid. Within moments Ashburn was several dozen metres above me, and he took a glance down to see how far he'd come, letting out a joyful cry at finally being in flight. He relaxed for only a second, eyes closed in bliss, but the disadvantage of air was that it couldn't support his weight. He toppled backwards, losing his rhythm and tumbling through the sky, plummeting towards the lake again. He screeched in confusion, used to the buoyancy of water and now finding it gone.

"FLOAT!" I yelled as loud as I could, hoping he would understand what I meant. His panicked eyes met mine for a brief moment as he fell, and I remembered how afraid he'd been that first time he tried to swim.

He twisted around and spread his wings as if he was using them to float on the surface, his tail straightened out behind him and then he was gliding, though still quite steeply downwards. He stretched out his neck, looking upwards as though he could will himself to pull up, and I wrung my hands together as he got closer and closer to the ground. Realizing he wasn't turning, he curved his whole body in an arc and began to flap his wings again, clumsily slowing down before gaining altitude again. Once he was well above the trees he flattened out, gaining confidence as he soared around the area, making slow and careful turns.

He roared gleefully down at me as he passed overhead and I couldn't help but cheer back and punch the air in a fit of uncharacteristic exhilaration. I didn't care who saw me—a hundred strangers could be staring at me right now and I wouldn't give a damn, seeing Ashburn accomplish so much after his struggles, just flying, something dragons were born to do! It was impossible to describe the feeling.

I tried my best to follow him from the ground as he banked and wheeled across the sky, albeit wobblily, sprinting around the shore of the lake so I could keep watching him. I'm not sure how long this went on for—we turned it into a sort of game— but eventually as he was passing nearby, he shouted down:

"How do I land?!"

"How should I know?!" I called, unable to help but laugh at the question, still a little lost in the excitement. "In the water I guess?"

He circled around before gliding downwards over the lake, trying to slow himself by flapping but only succeeding in gaining height again. His momentum gradually died off, and he ended up dropping straight down into the water with a huge splash, paddling over to the shallows with a grin stretched across his muzzle. I ran to him as he trotted ashore, wrapping him in a brief hug which he happily returned.

"I did it!" he trilled, unable to resist hopping in place from the energy of it all.

"I know!" I whooped. "It was incredible! High five—" I stopped mid-gesture, realizing that he wouldn't be able to pull it off with his paws, and definitely wouldn't know what it was in the first place.

"What's that?" he sniffed at my hand, before pressing his snout into it, obviously thinking I was going to pet him.

I laughed and pulled my hand away. "A high five—it's something humans do when we're excited. Like this—" I clapped my hands together. "—except it's with two people."

"Ohhh, I get it," he looked at his paws for a moment, coming to the same conclusion as I did, before glancing up again. "What if I use my tail?"

"That…would probably work actually! Try it!" I held my hand up again. He moved back a bit before twisting around and flicking his tail at my palm, and I nearly fell over at the force of it. One of his tailfins slapped solidly into my skin, the combined strength of all his tail muscles behind it, and my eyes bulged out of my head.

"FFFFFFFF—" I collapsed to my knees, holding my furiously stinging hand to my chest as if it would cool the pain, eyes watering.

"Um…did I do it too hard?"

"Yep…" I squeaked. "Just a bit."

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

After Ashburn's resounding success in the air, we both needed something to calm us down, and since he hadn't had his breakfast yet, he actually had the motivation to hunt. What he didn't have, was the ability to be patient.

"How is it that you can chase me through the trees almost silently, and yet you can't get near any animal without making a huge racket?" I hissed to him as we picked our way slowly through the forest.

"I don't know…" he mumbled, wincing as he snapped a particularly brittle branch. "There was no pressure when we were playing, it was just for fun. Now I need to be quiet, or I'll go hungry, so I panic."

"Pretend it's a game then," I suggested. "Pretend you're chasing me, except you're actually going to eat the thing you catch."

"What?!" he shouted, and I had to shush at him to be quiet. "I'm not going to imagine eating you!"

"No, that's not what…wait, there!" I whispered, pointing. In the distance I briefly saw the head of a deer pass behind a tree, and Ashburn immediately lowered himself right to the ground. "Alright, if you can't keep quiet, don't bother trying to be. Just sprint at it—I seem to remember that was your solution to the problem before. You're a Night Fury; you should be able to catch it easily."

"Are you sure?" he gave me a worried glance.

"Honestly, I haven't a clue, but you won't know until you try."

He looked back at the deer that had reappeared from behind a bush, briefly tensed himself, and then took off, his powerful legs bringing him to high speeds within seconds.

So much for calming down.

I could only watch with baited breath as his prey immediately took off at the sudden noise, and they both quickly disappeared into the distance, the sound of Ashburn's paws hitting the ground slowly fading away.

I stood up, stretched my back, and began casually walking in the direction they'd gone. God knows how long he'd have to chase that poor deer before he actually caught it—I was a little worried he'd go far enough that he might get lost.

My worries were immediately snuffed out as I saw the deer come jumping frantically back towards me, Ashburn still hot on its tail. I stood there, stumped, as they both sprinted back past me in the opposite direction.

"What the…how did you manage that?!" I shouted after him.

I heard a thump and a panicked yelp from the deer as he finally managed to grab hold of it, pinning it to the ground.

"I got it!" he called back to me. "What do I do now?"

"Oh for the love of—kill it! Bite into its neck!" I jogged towards the noise, still unable to see him through the undergrowth. The deer was still making frantic noises as it tried to escape, and I was beginning to think it might just die of fear.

"Um…it's not working!"

"What do you mean it's not working?! Just bite it!" I shouted, both exasperated and confused.

"I am!"

"…Do you have your teeth retracted?"

The deer's cries were suddenly silenced, and it took a few seconds for the sheepish reply to come.

"…Maybe?"

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

I stared at the screen of my phone, feeling more confused than ever. I'd decided to look up how cold-blooded animals worked, to see if I could help Ashburn in any way, and what I was reading did not line up with what he told me at all.

According to Google—and to the level that I could understand it—normal reptiles body heat matched their environment. So, if it was hot, they'd be hot; if it was cold, they'd be cold. They needed to take time to soak in the heat from the sun, and they hibernated through winter when it was cold. They were also more active when it was warm, and sluggish when it wasn't.

Ashburn meanwhile, seemed to be just fine in cold environments (like the lake) so long as the sun was out. His body seemed to retain heat longer than reptiles, he was able to shiver—which cold-blooded animals couldn't apparently—and he didn't become sluggish when it was chilly. But he was still a lot more susceptible to cold than I was…none of it made any sense.

"So…as long it's vaguely warm, you're fine, and if the sun's out and you're swimming in cold water, you're fine…but what if a cloud blocks out the sun then? Do you start to get really cold really fast?" I asked him, trying to figure out where exactly the problems started and what I needed to watch out for.

"I don't know," he rolled playfully about on the grass, turning briefly to face me. "It's not like I suddenly feel like I'll pass out when it gets a little cold…being in shade is fine, I just prefer the sun. Why does it matter? The fire's enough to keep me warm through the nights, and it's been really warm every day."

"Because at some point, it won't be. It's autumn—the weather is rarely ever this good in October and there's no way it'll hold for much longer. At some point, we're going to get an absolute downpour of rain, and I…" I swallowed, forcing myself to continue. "…I need to know you'll be okay through that."

"I'm sure I'll be fine," he said confidently, rolling onto his paws. "Tutor will find me before long, and then I can just go to the Above whenever it gets cold, or if you're working!"

I raised an eyebrow at this, not having heard his plans for the future before. "You're going to come back here?" A mixture of relief, happiness and confusion swirled in my head.

"Well…yeah!" he answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why wouldn't I?"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to find an answer. "I…figured you were just going home permanently, away from all the physical stuff like having senses, eating…"

"Sure, that was…scary at first. Really scary. But thanks to you, I know how to survive now, and I've just gotten used to it all. It's really beautiful here, and I like talking about Earth with you," he moved over and lay down beside me, nosing my shoulder. "And I'm definitely not going to just leave you here alone with the Silhouette around."

I suddenly felt a lump rising in my throat and sat up to turn my head away from him, hiding my face as a couple of tears spilled down it. My neck burned with embarrassment as I tried to quickly wipe them away and regain my breath.

'Oh good, awkward and unable-take-the-slightest-emotion Aiden is back' my subconscious sniped. The last day or so, I really had turned into a different person…I'd actually relaxed for the first time in…months.

"Aiden?" Ashburn's worried voice came from behind me. "Is something wrong? Was it something I said? Did I—"

"No, you're good," I turned back around, hoping my eyes didn't look red. There was a moment of awkward silence before he noticed my phone, still in my hand.

"Hey, what's that?" he tilted his head at it. It was showing the website where I'd been looking into how warm- and cold-blooded animals worked.

"It's a page of the internet, a sort of…worldwide network of information. I suppose it's kind of like—"

"Humanity has its own LIBRARY and you never told me?!" he got absolutely ecstatic as this news, and I think he was trying to bounce on his paws, except it didn't really work when he was lying down, so he just looked like he was wriggling in excitement. Which he also probably was, thinking about it.

"Please can I look, please please pleeeaaase?" he begged me, shuffling closer with each word.

"Well, uh…" I was extremely hesitant—I knew what kinds of things were on the internet, and I also knew how insatiable his curiosity was. He stared at me with his big black pupils, a faint whine escaping his throat as he pleaded with me for permission. He could have just knocked my phone out my hands and stolen it, but he hadn't.

And then he switched from hopeful to sad, and even though I knew he was faking it for show, my heart nearly broke. He lowered his head to the ground, his emotional eyes boring up into my soul, earfins pinned to the back of his neck.

I sighed.

"Fine…" I placed it on the ground in front of him and he immediately perked straight back up, giving a cheerful yelp.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he rubbed his head against my cheek.

"Yeah, yeah," I pushed him away, glad he'd not figured out licking yet. "Can you even read the text on that?"

He focused back on my phone, looking carefully at the screen. "No, but the images are just as interesting! And I can figure out how to use it from the Library, there's loads of references to interfaces just like this." He began to scroll the touchscreen with a claw, completely focusing in on the new source of information.

"You can understand me, but you can't read that?" I wondered aloud, and he only grunted in response. Experimentally, I waved my hand in front of his face, and he only blinked, not even sparing me a glance.

I smirked. "Kids and their phones these days…"

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

The next few days passed without incident. Ashburn continued to practice flying and hunting, and when he wasn't tiring himself out doing that, he was surfing the internet on my phone and asking me questions about the things he saw. Sometimes he'd be on web pages using hyperlinks to navigate to whatever interested him, other times he'd simply be scrolling through Google Images. He'd often ask me to type something into the search bar that he wanted to know about, or he'd use the 'related images' function to find new content. It was impressive how quickly he'd learned to use it, and his claw seemed to work just as well as a finger would on a touchscreen—he started using it so much I had to break out my solar charger and power pack.

He managed to coax me into a few more games of tag, and then had the brilliant idea of trying it whilst swimming. That was…something else. Most of the time though, I just chilled out and did nothing all day, much to Ashburn's irritation. But I was on my holiday, and somehow the weather was still impossibly warm and sunny, though the clouds were amassing day by day. The Silhouette still hadn't shown itself for a second time, and I began to feel comfortable in the knowledge that it probably wasn't coming back. Ashburn always slept next to me though, never more than a couple of metres away, and I appreciated it, despite the return to my awkward mannerisms.

I caught him a few times just staring aimlessly up at the sky, an anxious expression on his features, and I knew he was desperate to go home.

Then one evening, as we were about to turn in for the night, Ashburn seemed to collapse. I gave him an amused glance, thinking he'd just exhausted himself so much his legs couldn't hold him up any longer and thought nothing of it, wriggling into my sleeping bag as usual.

A few minutes later as I was staring at the stars, I heard a loud gasp from him as if he'd been holding his breath. I sat up and looked over as he frantically jumped to his feet and whipped his head back and forth, searching for something.

"Tutor! Tutor! Come back!" he dashed around the camp, glancing out along the shoreline and through the trees. I hurriedly stood up to get his attention.

"Ashburn, what's going on? Is it the Silhouette?"

He gradually slowed down as he realized no-one else was here, and turned to me with panicked eyes. "No, no, Tutor made a Connection with me, he found me! A-and then h-he…he said…" his breathing became hitched and unsteady as his sight lowered to the ground. He silently came padding over to the fire, lay down with shaky legs, and began to cry.

I stood where I was, feeling like an intruder to a private situation. How was I supposed to react to this? I could barely deal with my own issues as it was—trying to help with someone else's, a child's? That was beyond me.

But I couldn't just…ignore him either. That felt wrong, on so many levels, and, despite my uncomfortableness and my stupid brain, I had to do something. I felt my own eyes reddening and my throat tightening as I watched him in anguish, tears streaming out of his eyelids, squeezed shut to try and hide the pain. Dammit, why did I feel like this? I was meant to be the mature, strong-minded one here!

How would I want to be treated, if our places were reversed?

'I'd want to be left alone.'

But he wasn't me, not by a long shot. He was excitable, immature, ridiculously energetic, reckless, had a constant thirst for knowledge and…he was kind. Every time I'd felt scared, or worried…he was there. He always made sure I knew he was close.

I took a deep breath, tried to clear the lump in my throat to little success, and carefully sat down beside him. I don't think he even noticed.

After a moment's hesitation, I placed my hand on his neck and began to rub rhythmically back and forward, hoping I could provide at least a little comfort. His sobbing paused for a moment, and I tried to gently wipe away some of his tears with my other hand.

"What happened?" I asked quietly.

Ashburn tried to slow his crying down, taking several deep trembling breaths, until he felt ready to talk.

"T-t-tutor…h-he told m-me what was happening…he s-said I can't g-go back home!" his sobbing began anew, but he wasn't trying to hold it in any more. The quiet weeping became great wails that wracked his whole body with shuddering, that alien keening, howling noise that I'd heard on the day we first met rising up and washing over me in waves of sound. He surged into me, trying to bury his snout in my chest and wrapping his forepaws around my back in a tight and desperate embrace.

It took me a moment to react, curling both my arms around his neck and scratching his scales in soothing symmetrical patterns. He was clinging onto me so tightly I almost had difficulty breathing, but his sharp claws never so much as tore my clothing, and his convulsions rocked my whole body along with them.

"Shhhh…shhhh…" I tried to slowly calm him down, leaning onto the top of his head and feeling like I needed to be bigger, to surround him in warmth and comfort as he'd done for me after the Silhouette attacked. I moved my hands down to his sides, trying to caress his sorrow away as I felt his tears soaking through my t-shirt.

I tried not to cry myself, the lump in my throat seeming as though it could block my breathing from the size of it, and I laid my head down between his earfins. I understood now, why this was affecting me so much—it was like looking into a mirror from a year ago. My parents had kicked me out, forcing me to get a job and earn a living after I completely failed school. I had come to terms with it after a while, and I knew why they'd done it—I almost thanked them for it.

But those first few days, when I thought I'd been abandoned, feeling completely alone…I looked just like Ashburn did now.

Except I didn't have anyone to turn to.

I held him a little tighter against my chest as another shudder overtook him, but his keening wails were beginning to fade. Slowly but surely, over the course of a few minutes, he quietened and lessened his grip, until eventually he pulled back, turning to the fire with a sniffle. I kept one hand on his neck, feeling the small, fine scales at the base of his head and rubbing back and forward.

"I'm gonna need to change my shirt now," I joked, trying to lighten the mood and looking down at the tear-soaked fabric.

Ashburn let out a short, choked laugh. "Sorry."

"Don't be," I gave a small smile.

"There was more though," his face turned serious. "Tutor said—"

"It doesn't matter," I said firmly. "Not right now. We'll deal with it tomorrow. You need to sleep."

"But—"

"Tomorrow," I repeated, running my fingers along the top of his head. "I'm going to go to sleep right beside you, alright? I'll be here if you need me."

He looked like he wanted to say more, and then shifted onto his side, unfurling a wing and raising it a little. He looked at the space against his stomach, then back at me, not saying a word but making it perfectly clear what he meant.

"…You were totally awake that night after the Silhouette weren't you?" I realized.

"Yeah," he gave a guilty smile, and I sighed. Every single instinct told me not to do it, that it was wrong, somehow, and that I'd be judged for it.

I told my instincts to sod off.

I crawled underneath his wing, and he wrapped the membrane around me like a gentle cocoon, lifting me off the ground. He set me down with my head against the side of his paw, curling his whole body into a circle, tailfins tucked against the back of his neck.

I reached up and wiped one last small tear from the corner of his eye as he met mine with a worried gaze.

"Please don't ever go," he whimpered.

I gave a conceding breath in response, knowing that, despite my anti-social nature and attitude, I could never turn away from him if he needed me.

"I'm not going anywhere."

- O -

- O – O – O – O -

- O -

Author's Note

Welp, this is the best chapter I've ever written. I think the reason it took so long was because there's so MANY scenes in it, and starting or finishing a scene is always the hardest part. Not only that but this actually within my two-month minimum update time! I uploaded chapter 4 on February 9th, and it's currently April 6th. I am extremely proud of it, and I think the comedy worked pretty well. Also, I tried to do something with the syntax of the scene breaks, hopefully it'll have naturally sunk in after I used so many of them lol.

I really REALLY want to hear your thoughts on this, so yes, I am going to beg you for reviews. Just a little bit. :P If you reviewed the hiatus update, and it says you can't review this because they're the 'same chapter', just send me a PM.

Thanks to my amazing betas CrazyGamer313, jbarron, netWARIOR and acitysurvivor for their help and support, and you for reading!

Rowan