Author's Notes: Well this definitely took longer than I'd expected… I have plenty of prompts for this series, but until a little while ago I had neither motivation nor muse to actually write them. As I upload this one I'm almost done with the next one though, so that should hopefully be fixed now.

"Nergal!" He jolted awake, and when he did, he looked right into Aenir's red-eyed stare. When he jolted back with a cry of surprise, the dragon straightened herself a little to give him breathing space, but she didn't stop leaning over his bed. "About time you woke up," she said, although she smiled and she had lowered her voice from the shout she had given before.

"Lady Aenir…" he was wide awake, but still a little shaken. "What compels you to wake me this early in the morning?"

"Early?" Aenir repeated, looking genuinely puzzled, "It's only eight."

"Exactly." Great. It wasn't bad enough that he had to be protected by a woman, she was a morning person. "What is it?" he asked once more, as Aenir stepped back from his bed so he could climb out of it.

"Grocery shopping." She was kind enough to turn around, as a silent hint that he had to get dressed. "The town of Edessa isn't very far from here. And with you living in with me, I need to stock up on several things."

"Are you sure I should be coming with?" he asked, a little uncomfortable. He didn't want to run into a witch hunter…

"Why not?" Aenir didn't seem to understand his predicament. "Can humans smell that you're a scholar of dark magic? The way I see it, it'll be fine as long as we don't tell anyone." She started leaving the room. "I'll be waiting for you out back. Make it quick, alright?"

As she left, Nergal was left flabbergasted for a few seconds. "Let's hope she doesn't always have this much energy this early in the morning," he muttered, finishing with his robes and taking his cloak off the desk chair.

He shivered as he stepped outside, his cloak not enough to block out all the cold. At least there was no blizzard raging this time. He looked to his side at his landlady. Aenir seemed to not even notice the cold, as was to be expected of a dragon who was not only immune to these temperatures, but thrived in them. "We'll get you thicker clothes," she promised, "You're going to need them for midwinter." Midwinter. Nergal grimaced at the thought. He had decided he would stay with Aenir, since he had nowhere else to go and she seemed to appreciate the company, but that did mean he had to grow used to the temperatures up here.

When Aenir removed a small, oblong blue stone from her own robes, Nergal interrupted his lamenting train of thought. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at it. He sensed something powerful radiating off of it and was worried that it could be dangerous.

"This?" She held it up so he could see it better. "Well, the form I'm in right now can't contain all the life force and power that my true one holds. I need a container for my power when I'm not using it, otherwise I would never be able to re-assume my true form."

"And that would be said container."

"Yes. It's called a dragonstone. All dragons who assume human form have one." The scholar inside Nergal woke up, immediately becoming interested in this dragonstone. He nodded, deciding for himself that he would observe her as she used it and take a closer look at it when she would give it to him. She couldn't hold on to it in her true form, right?

He saw her change her grip on the stone, encasing it within her hand entirely and tightening her grip on it. Despite this, however, Nergal clearly saw that the stone started emitting a bright light, the color similar to that of her hair. The light slowly but surely enveloped her fully, and by the time it just as slowly died down, she had transformed. Instead of the rather attractive woman whose house he had shared for the past few days, he was now flanked by the give or take six hundred foot tall, teal-colored dragon he had seen when he lay half-conscious in the snow.

She lowered her head, and immediately her voice sounded in her head, although she had not opened her maw. Don't look so surprised, she said, we always communicate telepathically in our real forms. She gestured with her massive head. Get on, would you? The sooner we leave, the sooner we will be back. He looked at her, wondering how he was going to clamber onto her strong, broad back. When he started to walk up to her front leg, trying to get a better look at the texture of her scales, he felt her tug on his robes, miraculously without tearing them with her teeth. Not my back. You'll slide off. You're going to want to sit on my head.

"Your… head."

Yes. He decided not to challenge her, instead trying to clamber onto her snout without causing her too much discomfort. Finally settling on a spot just behind her brow, he had barely sat down when she lifted her head. He grabbed on to the frills to not lose his balance, causing her to snarl audibly. Let go! She demanded, that hurts! I'm not going to drop you, you don't have to hold on!

As she started walking, Nergal felt an uncomfortable sensation in his chest. He looked down. "Aenir, this… this feels awkward."

It's either this or walking down the mountain to Edessa and back up it once we're done. She made a good point.

"Shouldn't I hold your dragonstone?"

It disappears when it's not needed. It'll reappear when I assume human form again. She strolled down the slope as were it nothing, and Nergal waited for a few seconds until the ground under their (her, he supposed) feet wasn't as steep anymore.

"Is there a chance I could study it when we get back home?"

Much to his surprise, Aenir laughed both in his mind and through her mouth. It was a very strange sound coming out of her maw. Her answer, however, was not what Nergal was hoping for. No. I will not be studied like a guinea pig.

"T-that's not my… I don't mean to demean you, Aenir!" He quickly sprung to his own defense, but soon realized that he couldn't deny that in a sense, yes. He wanted to study her like a guinea pig. Well… not so much her as her power. Her kind. Dragons were fascinating, and she had just proven that further by showing him her transformation. Shapeshifting from a reptilian form into a mammalian one and back… she couldn't possibly deny that alone made her kind worth studying!

Don't let it happen again. She definitely sounded angry, so Nergal decided to not press the issue. He figured he'd get his chance, somewhere down the road.