and going back to not having it simply is not an option. Did that ever happen to you?”
“It has,” I admit. “Quite recently, in fact. Want to try your pants on?”
He completely ignores the garment I’m holding out to him. “Recently, yes. It has for me, too. Now I wonder how I can combine what I have always been with the thing I don’t want to lose. It’s surprisingly hard.”
“Tell me about it,” I sigh. “My old life and existence suddenly don’t seem so tempting to go back to, if it means losing that new thing that… that has opened a new world for me. But I struggle to see how it can continue, how I can get both.”
“And yet,” Caronerax ponders, “anything other than both is unacceptable in the extreme.”
“That’s just it. How shall we get through this? How do we combine that which we are with that which we need?”
“Need,” he samples the word. “Need. Yes. I have never needed anything before. Only my hoard, but that goes without saying. Now I need… something different. As well as the hoard. As well as being a dragon.”
“Perhaps you can have both,” I suggest. “Perhaps it’s about being flexible.”
Again the blue dragon squats down in front of me and takes my face in his hands, very gently. “I don’t know. That new thing I suddenly need is immensely sensitive and precious. The dragon I am might seem abhorrent to her.”
“I am sometimes afraid of the thing I need,” I reply, butterflies fluttering in my stomach. “I wonder what he will do to the things I love.”
His blue and yellow eyes pierce me, but there is a warmth to him I haven’t seen before. “Maybe they become precious to him because you are vital to him. Maybe he will leave them the way they are.”
I return his gaze with no problem. I’m fine with him seeing into my soul. I’m seeing right into his, for the first time. “Maybe she will accept the dragon if he does that.”
He strokes my hair with a look of wonder on his face. Then his lips graze mine, and he looks away with a pained expression.
“I might not fight the other dragons,” he finally says. “But I will do something else that could well prove better.”
“But you will not fight against us?”
“I will not. I will allow no harm to come to you.”
I put a hand on his. “We are preparing to go back to Earth. Our planet. As soon as we can. Can you come? Or follow us?”
He stares into the setting sun. “I can’t plan that far ahead. I’m not used to it, things are changing too much. I think that things will work out for the best. Like you said, perhaps it is a matter of being flexible. For both of us.” He squeezes my hand and climbs up on the bare rocks where the waterfall starts, then stands there and peers south above the treetops.
I pick more fruits and berries while there’s still light, wrapping them in leaves that I place beside the huge fire that Caronerax has built. I light it with one of Dolly’s matches, noticing I have four of them left.
Then we sit by the fire, or rather, pretty far from it because it is so large and hot. I munch on the last of the not-sheep meat, glad to be rid of it.
Then I relax in Caronerax’s arms, getting sleepy and feeling happy and optimistic. I’ll cure Caronerax of his injury, whatever it takes. And maybe I can bring him home to Earth. Maybe things will work out. Like he said, so many things are uncertain now.
But I know one thing.
“I love you,” I whisper into his shoulder.
He nuzzles my hair. “What did you say?”
I clear my throat. “I said, that fire is pretty hot.”
“You said something else. Something much nicer. Jennifer, this is all new to me. I’m beset with emotions and sensations I haven’t had before.”
I kiss his upper arm. “It’s okay. Take your time.”
- - -
The next morning my dress is dry, my fur pouch is filled with berries and nuts, and the sky is overcast. We’re ready to leave, and I’m about to put my mudshoes on when I see movement among the bushes.
“Wait a moment,” I tell Caronerax. “Umm. Be ready to save me if I’m completely misjudging this.”
I slowly make my way past the undergrowth, then squat down a good distance away and wave.