"No!"

She stood on the horse's hindquarters and launched herself to Draco. Grasping his neck, she felt the harsh sting of the shaft of wood as it entered her upper back, piercing her lung and driving through a portion of her heart.

Einon gasped and ordered is soldiers to retreat, obviously afraid of this girl who sacrificed herself to save the dragon from the lethal arrow. Draco himself was breathless and was still as Aster's grip loosened about his neck. She bore a smirk as she fell to the ground.

Draco caught her at the last minute and eased her down. Bowen leapt off his horse and came over to examine her.

The arrow was in very deep. Aster gasped for breath as Bowen propped her head up on his knee.

"Aster? Aster! Are you alright? Say something!" he cried, desperately trying to get her to recognize him.

"D-Draco? Are you alive?"

The dragon was instantly at her side. "Yes, Aster. I'm here, thanks to you."

She smiled; a thin trail of blood coming out of the corner of her mouth and tracing a path down her cheek to drip on the dirt below.

"I-I'm glad. It figures…that just when I could come back…I do something stupid like this…but I don't have any regrets about it," she managed.

"Aster…" Draco tried. But her eyes rolled back in her head and she fought to stay awake.

She spoke again, weaker and more dependant on each and every breath she took. "Bowen…take care of him, will you? Learn how to cook."

The knight showed his teeth in a quiet laugh, in spite of himself and his emotions.

"Draco…I know what I believe in now. I know…" She tried to turn her head towards him, but she didn't have the strength. Bowen moved it for her.

"D-Do you th-think they'll let just one human into the dragon's heaven…for s-saving one of their own?"

Draco gave a small smile and shrugged. "I don't know much about these things, Aster. But I believe they might."

She sighed and dropped her chin a bit as her eyes started to cloud over. "I wouldn't mind spending eternity away from my family and friends who went before me…if it meant being with more like you.

"Draco? Do me a favor, would you?"

"Anything, Aster. Anything within my power."

She used the last to her strength to turn her head on her own and look happy. "Could you die soon, so I won't have to be alone for so long?"

He gave a soft smile and chuckled low in his throat. "Aster, my lifetime may seem like an eternity here on earth, but it will pass in a moment up there."

She nodded and expelled her breath that she had been saving.

"I wish…" she began. The night was silent. No birds sung, no crickets chirped. The deafening nothingness was absolute as she finished.

"I wish I didn't have to see it coming."

And she was gone.

Bowen held her limp figure in his arms, tears leaking from his eyes. "Draco? Could you fly her to Avalon?"

The dragon bowed his head and closed his eyes for a moment in reverence to the dead. Opening them, he nodded. "Of course. Here," he bent down. "Put her over my shoulders."

"No," Bowen said. "She…wouldn't have wanted to ride you. She said that…" He tried to recall her words. "She said that, "for any human to ride a dragon…was to belittle the pride of such an ancient and powerful race". You'll have to carry her in your claws."

"Yes, I see now. Here."

Draco lifted off the ground using his wings. He grasped Aster's body in his right foot and started off to the peninsula where King Arthur and his Knights lay beneath the earth.

Bowen watch his friend fly off, knowing that when he arrived, he'd scratch out a shallow grave for the fallen, and would probably place a stone to mark the pile of newly turned earth. Then, when Draco returned, they would start off for the next town and the next adventure.

He didn't notice it, as he led his horse to a nearby stream to refresh itself, that the night became aglow with the stars. A certain group shone more brightly than the rest, and among them, a small star appeared for the very first time. It twinkled for a moment as the brightest in the sky, then dimmed its light and rejoined its brothers and sisters as part of a well-known constellation; one that was said to be the Dragon's Heaven.