Aster was awoken by the rhythmic rocking of a horse. She opened her eyes and sat up, almost falling off the back of Bowen's steed. She looked around. Bowen sat in front of her, leading the horse. Draco flew above them, whirling and diving through the air.

"Good morning!" she called to him.

"Good morning as well!" he roared in return, diving and setting down next to them. The dragon walked beside them, grinning.

"Bowen didn't want to waste time sitting around. Nor did he want to wake you," Draco claimed, explaining why she was on the rump of the horse.

"Well thank you!" she exclaimed, tapping on Bowen's shoulder and smiling.

He turned back a moment to nod. "I figured you'd be upset if you woke up and we were gone."

"Not for too long," was her answer. "I'd have followed the dragon tracks, and at points when Draco had taken to the sky, I'd have followed the horse prints."

Draco was taken aback. He beamed with pleasure at this thought, while Bowen shrugged it off and smirked.

"Well, it seems our lass is a tracker at any rate," the dragon responded to this.

Bowen turned to him. "She'd make a decent Ranger, at the very least."

Aster kept her eyes on Draco as he advanced with them. She admired the powerful muscles that worked beneath his skin as he moved. He was so like a horse when it came to his torso, but so unlike one when her eyes fell upon his legs and wings.

"There it is."

Bowen's words startled her. She looked down into a valley and saw a small village near a lake.

"Already? Why this one? It looks so poor…"

"Then I'll lower my price." Bowen spurred the horse faster and Draco took to the air, heading for some mountains in the distance.

Aster watched him fly off and spoke to Bowen.

"How can I help?"

Bowen was taken aback. "You honestly want to help? Rip off some poor village?"

"Well I might as well do something if I'm to stay with you."

"Alright…" Bowen thought a moment, his fingers scratching his stubbly beard. "Head down there and spread the word that there's a dragon on its way, and you…wait. No, when I make my appearance, just sing my praises, would you?"

"Alright then." She hopped down and made for the village. Bowen watched her go and shrugged.

Draco made his appearance splendidly, as only a dragon could. He roared and shot fire and destroyed a few barns before swooping far off and out of arrow range.

Bowen rode into town, sitting high and smirking. He surveyed Draco's handiwork and nodded.

"Where is the leader of this village?" Bowen demanded.

Aster, who had been hiding out behind a stand of straw, was hit by a wave of nostalgia. She fully realized now how well they had planned this before, when it had been her village under the mock-attack.

A tear almost fell from her eye as she realized how they had been set up. But pushing away her anger, she turned back into the conversation the leader and Bowen were having.

"And who are you to say whether we need a slayer or not? How do we know you're not just some traveling ragtag wannabe swordsman who wants some extra pocket-change?"

Aster recognized her cue. She appeared from the wings and began her part in the ploy.

"Oh they sing of a man, a slayer foretold,

"He but lusts for dragon hide, has no passion for gold!

"His name be the fear of any winged beast

"None belittle Sir Bowen's skills in the least!" she sang to a tune not unlike a local folk song she had heard when she was young.

Aster saw Bowen's jaw drop and his eyes roll. Apparently she took him too literally when he said to "sing his praises". But it was too late now; she had an audience. Some people threw coins, and she bowed and picked them up.

"So…you are a slayer. Fine then. Kill this dragon and you'll have your bag of gold," the leader said, walking away.

Bowen sighed and got off his horse. Setting up the local litter, he loaded it and Aster sat down to observe the festivities. She hadn't seen them "slay a dragon" yet.

Draco appeared on the horizon and bellowed horribly. Even Aster was frightened. Bowen, however, wasn't fazed and waited until Draco had flown right in front of the catapult. Yelling, the knight swung his sword down and released the javelin.

What Aster saw next amazed her. Draco picked the spear out of midair and positioned it next to his body so it looked like it had gotten him right through the gut. Her mouth hung open as she realized what a phony ploy it had been and sighed in disgust when she saw the positive effect it had on the peasants.

She stood to see Draco make his death-plunge into the deep lake. He howled to the very last, up to when he fell into the water, sending a tsunami-worthy wave crashing against the waterfront buildings and a cannon-ball deluge over everyone and everything in the town.

She shook the excess water from her hair and breathed again. She realized she had been holding in her air since Draco fell. She noticed he wasn't resurfacing.

Something in her was worried that he might drown, holding his breath for that long. But then again, she figured, they had practiced this plenty of times. Draco was a professional at this, and she should back up and let them do their thing.

Soon after, Aster met Bowen outside of the village and hopped on the back of his horse, smiling.

Bowen looked at her funnily.

"I didn't mean to actually sing it."

"Well I didn't know you didn't mean it in the literal term," she replied.

"Sing what?" Draco was back and settled down on the ground next to them. Water still dripped off his scales, and he was chewing something.

"She found it more profitable if she were to actually put my actions to song instead of just the spoken word," Bowen explained.

Aster glanced at Draco's mouth. "What are you eating?"

Draco bared his teeth and used the tip of his tongue to pick a scrap of meat from between his teeth. Turning so they wouldn't see, he spat out a pile of clean bones.

"Sheep are getting fat this time of year…"

Aster laughed to herself and turned back to Bowen. "So where to now, knight?"

"I asked for directions to the next town, and they said to head west. So, let's find a spot to camp and start a fire."

They found an area next to a single, solitary, half-dead tree. Bowen piled some deadwood and sat back, letting Draco do the rest. Aster had bought some decent pork in the village with her earnings and began to cook it, seasoning it with some of the nearby flora she recognized.

After they had eaten and Bowen told them to get to sleep early so he wouldn't have to carry anyone the next morning, Aster smothered the flames with dirt and curled up in her ball on the ground.

She found herself crying, thinking of her village. Her family buried in the cemetery, her friends all lost to the famine the year before and the heat waves this year. All that was left in her ring of acquaintances was a few farmer's wives that clucked about her outfit and the baskets she made.

The tears flowed freely down her cheeks, making the dusty ground below wet with mud. She didn't realize she was sobbing until she felt something curl around her.

Snapping her head up, she realized it had been Draco's tail. He appeared to be deep in slumber, and she dismissed it as something he did unknowingly in his sleep. Laying back down, she realized how good it felt to have something strong and protective around her, and she sidled up to it, falling asleep under its warmth.

She didn't see the dragon open his one eye to a tiny slit to make sure she was asleep; nor did she see the soft smile he gave when he saw what she looked like, sleeping like a baby next to his tail. Laying his head back on his claws, Draco proceeded to truly fall asleep, just as the stars began to peek out from behind the cloud cover that had been hiding them since dusk.