When I woke up, Ragnar slept beside me, with his head on my stomach. While softly purring about this, I thought about the day before. After we left the tower, we headed to Lirithiel’s apartment. Being reminded about the age difference still felt odd, but I finally remembered why it didn’t bother me for the last five years. 

I looked at my sleeping dragon friend. Following a strange urge, I started to whisper.  “I told Lirithiel how we two met, but you don’t know my past with her.”  

I thought for a bit, before deciding to give him the story right away. 

“Let me tell you this story, maybe you can see it in your dreams. It happened eight years ago when I had my first and only experience with valerian. Two days after coming into the city, I got so high, that I know only what they told me later. But apparently, I fell out the window of my rented room wearing nothing but my fur and landed bottom first on Lirithiel, who patrolled the city.” 

Ragnar shifted on my bed, rolled onto his back, and made some seemingly amused sounds. I had to hold myself back from petting his belly, as that would most likely have fully woken him up. It also didn’t occur to me that talking to a sleeping dragon is counterproductive if I didn’t want to wake him up.

“Great Mother, you're cute. Where did I stop... ah yes. That they didn’t throw me into prison for attacking a guard is only because the patrol recognized that my mind reached into some realm beyond. They gave me a loincloth and I ended up in a cell anyway, but only until the valerian wore off. After coming back to my senses, they led me into an interrogation room where Lirithiel waited to have a conversation about drug use and public indecency, regardless of whether the body is naturally fur-covered or not, which turned into several hours of talking. Back then, she was grumpy because she had to lecture me. Her colleagues had passed the task on to her, just because I fell on her. In the first two hours, I really believed that I would end up either dead or wishing I’d be, but instead, she ended up scouting me. I don’t know why she did, but when she’s asked for the reason, she tells different stories, ranging from ‘she just felt like doing so' over 'Miars have good senses' to 'orphans should help each other’, even though she first learned about the third months later. Not that it would matter, why she did it, what mattered is, that, after being hired as an external, they made us work together. At that time, I felt absolutely positive about dying within the first week. She even asked her superior if my survival would be important.”

A knock came from the small room's doorframe and Ragnar looked up, while I turned my head to Lirithiel.

“Telling stories, I see”, she said and smiled at us. “I didn’t ask if your survival would be important, but if you’re supposed to come back with all your limbs intact.”

I snickered. “Well, seems like I remember a different formulation. But since we’re all awake, we should prepare breakfast. I assume you didn’t rearrange the kitchen.” I stood up, picked up Ragnar and went the two steps to her. 

While I did so, she shook her head. “First, I didn’t change a bit about your small room so why should I rearrange a kitchen I usually don’t use? Second, you asked the same when you stayed here the last three times, last month, four months ago and six months ago on New Year’s Eve.” 

I licked her cheek while sliding past her through the door. “New Year’s Eve you stayed at my hut because neither of us like fireworks.”

She rubbed her cheek and defended herself.

“They imitate Dragons by using black powder and some dust for colouring. That stuff smells bad and has no use other than creating a loud bang. Magic could do the same and even better.”

“If you say so...” Stretching out the last word, I walked into her small kitchen, which had basically been part of her living room. I opened a cabinet, took out a percolator, filled water into it and paused. Where a porcelain box with grounded coffee should be the cabinet held an empty space.

“Is the coffee somewhere else?” I asked, looking around. Before I saw it myself, Lirithiel answered me as she began setting the table.

“It’s next to the grinder, but I’ve already ground the beans for breakfast.”  

"When did you get a grinder?” I looked around and saw that Ragnar had jumped on the kitchen counter to inspect the nearly brand-new grinder.

“A few days ago. They sold it at a low price, apparently, it has a damaged bearing which makes grinding more difficult.” She turned around, paused for a moment, pointed at Ragnar, and smiled. “He looks like you with your first coffee.”

Ragnar had sniffed at the ground coffee and looked disgusted. Seeing him in this situation reminded me of the time she mentioned too. I began purring at the memory, which now felt much more pleasant than at the time it happened. 

I took the ground coffee, filled it into the percolator and put it on the stove. Without thinking further, I changed my focus to the question, of what we would eat and just the thought of food let my stomach growl loud enough for Lirithiel to hear.

“So that’s why you didn’t hear the grinder.” She laughed before a second, and an equally loud growl came from her stomach. “We should have eaten something before going to bed, right?” She looked at the stove. “Let’s have a full meal. I fire up the stove, and you get what we need from my storage, there is some smoked meat as well as durable vegetables.”

I looked to the percolator on the, as I only now noticed, still cold stove. Flustered I scratched my ear and went to her storage, to get some ingredients. 

Twenty minutes later we had our breakfast, which honestly was more of an extremely early lunch. While eating, we made plans for the day and discussed how our friendship had begun, as we tried to finish the story for Ragnar. 

"... this cult leader tried to take him hostage, but before he could get to him, he tripped and...” 

“What are you saying Lirithiel? Tripped? They didn’t let me carry a weapon, so I threw a brick at his feet, causing him to fall.” 

“And it would have been impressive if the sole reason we were in this mess wouldn’t be, that a certain someone lost the cult’s ceremonial dagger while looking into its illegal activities.”

“And who decided to take me to an important investigation during my first week with the guard?” I teased back and she just shook her head.

“You make it look like I made the wrong decision. But without that cult, we probably wouldn’t have become friends and without us, the leader would have escaped.” She took a bite of the meal and suddenly started giggling. “Remember how we got into that guy’s escape route? We discussed whether or not we came through the wrong door and we got him just because we actually did. The chief didn’t even know if he should scold us for being not on our post or praise us for arresting the leader of the cult.”

I purred and ate a bit more before looking back up towards her. “Do you know if they ever found out what happened to the cult leader’s corpse? I remember that - after he got publicly executed - they lost his remains.”

Lirithiel shook her head. After that, our talk went on by discussing the news, merchants and adventurers brought from other cities. 

When leaving Lirithiel’s flat, all three of us felt stuffed, as we had eaten more than we should have. Ragnar had become so lethargic that he had crawled into my backpack himself and only held his head out while we walked through the streets. Lirithiel and I weren’t much better, and we walked slowly towards the Guard’s training grounds. What should have taken us 20 minutes even on a busy day, now had cost us almost 40.

“Please remind me, why we decided to go here?” My stomach didn’t hurt anymore, but I still felt exhausted from just the short walk.

“We wanted to check if you can already cast some magic without collapsing and your overall fitness. Three years ago, we called this a morning exercise. You didn’t become lazy, did you?”

I shook my head. “You know, I still work as a hunter and as a guide for adventurers who either don’t know the basics or like to have a second opinion on their travels through the surrounding lands. There is no possibility for me to become lazy.” 

“I know, I know, and you’re the best guide this city has.” She said while we began with a warm-up. 

“Don’t say it like it’s something big. The syndicate drove out most of the competent competitors to rip people off with their overpriced services. The only other freelancers in this profession are the old alcoholic and that clumsy half-elf boy. In addition, I am the only guide who lives in the forest, so I need my skillset to survive anyway.”

"You live just a few hours on foot from the gate and need only little over one and a half hours to walk to the Dragons Watch Post where you can get food and a job.” 

“Yes, that is reassuring, but I still try to use the forest’s resources for most of my meals.” 

We kept a few minutes of silence before Lirithiel signalled me to switch from the warm-up to stretching.

“You know, your stove with an elemental gem isn’t part of the forest. Or is that just a sinfully expensive breakfast maker?”

Her question made me stumble in the middle of a stretch. “I talk about the food, not how I cook it. Like the jams I give you every year, they are made from wild berries and honey I gather in the forest.”

She came to me, rubbed my left ear, and smiled. “I just teased you. But enough stretching, we won’t need this anyway.” 

I felt the wooden bars of a bench beneath my back, opened my eyes and looked at the sky. Seemingly I slept till late noon, maybe early evening. My head ached a bit and I needed some time to realize, that I had a weight on my stomach. Turning my gaze down, I saw Ragnar’s worried face. Unsure how to react, I simply petted his head and began to purr.

“How do you feel?” Lirithiel sat a few feet away from me on a stool. 

“My head hurts but otherwise I'm fine.”  I tried to remember what happened but couldn’t remember anything after the stretching. “What happened? Why am I lying on a bench?”

She stood up and came over to me. “Well, you're on that bench because I put you there after you fainted.”  Lirithiel put her hand on my shoulder before continuing. “The good news first: you are as fit as you were three years ago, your speed and dexterity even have improved slightly. The... not so bad news is, that you still faint from using magic. There was a barely noticeable electric spark at your claws and then you fell over.”

I looked around. “How long was I unconscious, that there isn’t a single person in on this training field?”

"You slept ‘til noon, but they had left only half an hour ago. You showed the first signs of coming back to your senses and they were called to an emergency short after.”

I decided to take Ragnar off my stomach and got into a sitting position. It also gave me enough time to think about what she told me. “When there is an emergency, why are you still here? I didn’t need protection, as this field is a very safe place and next to the Guard’s Headquarters.”

“I’m suspended until your twos Bond is officially certified. So, us being here is already stretching far beyond our legal limits.”

I got up and fell straight back onto the bench. “And here I wanted to go.” I looked at her worried-looking face. “All’s fine, I’m just a bit dizzy.” I hadn’t told her an outright lie, but also not the full truth either. While I felt dizzy from the moment I got into a sitting position, I had another, bigger problem. Both my legs felt strangely tingly and numb, to the point that they could no longer support me. 

“Sure... You were only unconscious for several hours.” A glimmer of annoyance showed on her primarily worried face. “If you pretend to be fine, at least have the decency to make it believable. Now, what’s your problem?”

I simply sighed and began rubbing my right leg. “Well, my legs feel tingly and numb. But I guess I just lay in an unfavourable position for too long.” 

She shook her head. “Let me help with the other leg.” She kneeled before me and saw that I hesitated. “I put you on this bench, and didn’t prevent Ragnar from lying on you, so it is my fault.” There was no way for me to argue with her, and we did stranger stuff in the years we worked together than her rubbing my numb leg. But this didn’t let me hesitate. 

“You know... I will most likely fall if I stretch my other leg away from me.”

She gave me an unconvinced look. “You managed to keep balance in stranger positions, or at least they looked stranger than this.” She got up and gestured to the bench. “But ok, let me sit and lie down with your leg on my lap.” 

Something in her voice made me obey her, or maybe my upbringing in a mostly matriarchal species. I concentrated on my right leg and as I slowly felt the feeling returning to my legs, she pressed the pads of my left paw.

“I always wondered how it would feel to touch them. You only wear boots when absolutely necessary, yet they are so soft.”

“And they are sensitive, so please ask before tou...wha...?” I stopped mid-sentence in surprise as Ragnar pressed his snout into my paw pads. 

“Rof” He made a somewhat cheerful sound before Lirithiel began to knead them.

“Glad you two like my paw.” I tried to sound sarcastic, but gladly I couldn’t blush in embarrassment under my fur like the furless human races. Normally I would have pulled my leg away from her and fled the field, but it helped the numbness more than I wanted to admit, and much more than just the rubbing of my legs through the fur. I continued to take care of my right leg until I suddenly heard her giggle. 

“Sounds like you like this.”

When had I begun to purr? “I’m just happy that my legs stopped to tingle. I think I can walk now.” Hoping she would believe this blunt lie I pulled my leg free and stood up. After three steps I even took a few slight jumps there.

“See, I even jumping is no problem. So, please let’s go and never talk about this again.” As I said this, I avoided looking at them and walked in the general direction of the training ground’s exit. But it probably would have been better for me if I had looked at them. Now I only heard a “Catch!” before getting knocked over by my backpack.

Before I decided if I would even try to get up, Lirithiel grabbed me by my shoulders and put me back onto my two paws. “...really thought you’d catch it.”

“Why did you just throw it? It's not like Ragnar would have any problem with sitting on my shoulder just because that’s not on my back.” I put my backpack on while waiting for an answer, but she just shrugged. While I looked at her, still hoping for an explanation, Ragnar ‘flew’ onto my shoulder, climbed into the backpack and snored seconds later.

“Sight, so much for my argument.” We made our way from the training ground and after a few steps in silence, I looked at her. “Hey, Lirithiel, did he stay awake for the whole time?” 

“He hissed at everyone but me who tried to get close to you. He even shot a few bolts of lightning at those he deemed too close. It would have been cute, if not for the fact, that he stopped a medic from helping you until I convinced him that the medic could help you.”

While we walked further, she told me, that the medic had to tend to two other guards, who got hit by Ragnar’s bolts of lightning, but also, that his lightning turned out to just cause a minor burn to the skin. I couldn’t help but laugh, remembering how I nearly experienced it myself. But shortly after we left the training ground, my laughter caught in my throat, as I smelled the slight stench of a tomb.

“What a surprise that you are here, priest of the Weeping Lady.” I turned to an alleyway next to us. “Don’t you have some sermon or something?”

“Why so aggressive?” The form of the robed skeleton priest seemed to manifest from dust and smoke. “I just wanted to see if you’re alright. At least your nose is as impressive as always.” The gaze of the bluish flames, which substituted for the undead’s eyes, focused on Lirithiel, and he made a few gestures to calm her. “I mean no harm, and my people are allowed to be in this city, so please don’t bear your fangs, or rather scales and claws.”

I looked at her in surprise and saw bronze-like scales growing on her copper-coloured skin. Seeing her transform into the so-called first stage, proved that she knew too well what kind of being stood before us. Most knew the Weeping Lady as the origin of the undead and this priest was a Lich, an undead and highly intelligent abomination, who, at its best, could level a city in mere minutes. 

I touched Lirithiel on her shoulder and whispered to her. “It’s not my first time meeting him, so please stay calm. He won’t attack us first, but we won’t survive his self-defence.”  After that, I turned back to the Priest. “Is this another attempt to make me convert to the Weeping Lady? You know that I still believe in the Great Mother and your mistress should know this by now as well.”

“You could also call her the Pale Mother, which is how you Miars refer to her anyway.“ I would have sworn that the skeleton smiled at me. “You know why she wants you, and you also know why I won’t stop until either that curse is gone or you come over to our side.”

“What does the Weeping Lady have to do with his curse?” Lirithiel asked before I could think of a way to get him to leave.

“Oh, my mistress did nothing to this blessed being. You may call it a curse, but he is a born Shadowed Soul, a being destined to become a greater undead. A mage, untouched by the celestial impurities of mana. Our Lady’s greatest....”

“Please spare us that sermon about my Soul” I interrupted him. “It may be true, but I was raised to live my life and not throw it away for any might. You might believe in your way of living your unlife and be content with this, but to me, that means that I’m selling everything, including what I’m supposed to get out of this deal.”

“It’s just for the first two to four hundred years, almost nothing compared to an immortal life.” The Lich spoke slowly and stretched words while gesturing. His gestures felt strange until I realized that he used a sign-based language, meant to be used with a different type of body.

“This still isn’t something I’d call immortal or live. But more importantly, I have no idea what sign language you try to use, and I do not understand a thing.” 

He seemed genuinely disappointed. “I tried to use parts of your native tongue, hoping it would help to show how earnest we are about recruiting you. It took me a full year to get to this point and hoped it would be enough.”

I switched to felis, the native language of miars. “I’m sorry, I really am, as this really would be a nice gesture, but felis can’t be spoken without a tail or fur.” 

“I see…We’ll meet again, but I have to look into something.” 

The Lich seemed to have an idea and disappeared the same way he had come, while Lirithiel stood next to me, not understanding what just happened. “What did you tell him?”

“Just, that he’s missing crucial body parts to speak felis. Luckily, he tried to use it, otherwise, this would have taken much longer.”

She didn’t look convinced. “Why should this be enough for him to go?”

I gestured for her to continue our way. “It might not be enough to convince him as a priest, but as a Lich, he’s still a mage, and that mage had an idea.” We walked a moment in silence before I added. “At least I hope that this is all there is to it. I heard a few worrying things about his doings before he became a priest.”

The next two days went on without anything remarkable. We slept, strolled the streets, or played board games with the three of us. On the fourth day, Lirithiel directed our stroll to the dwarven Quarter. As with every visit here, I always marvelled at the extremely massive and fortress-like buildings and eventually found myself in an expensive-looking store that I recognized shortly after entering.

With no idea how we got here, nor why she led me and Ragnar into this store, I tapped Lirithiel on her shoulder. “Why are we in a jewellery store? I don’t wear any jewellery pricy and never have.”

She looked at me as if she questioned my intelligence. Well, she did, I found out as soon as she opened her mouth. “What kind of dragon would Ragnar be without at least a tiny hoard? And Damian told me, that the ceremony got scheduled for tomorrow, so you need something that looks presentable.” She inspected me and added. “Alternatively, we buy some clothes, but they won’t have time to tailor something for you, it would hardly be enough to fit ready-made clothes to your body.”

This Dracori devil knew exactly, that I would rather go bare-furred than wear one of those endlessly layered, puff-sleeved costumes that were currently considered fine clothing. A look in her direction showed me her devilish grin, proving that she knew she got me. I gave a short pull on the strap on my shoulder. “Ragnar? Come up and have a look, or do you want to snooze in there all day?”

After a few seconds, my little dragon friend slowly climbed onto my shoulder and yawned.

“Losh, am ah blootert or is thon really a tottie dragon on a cat’s shoulder?” 

I looked to the dwarf, which came through the showroom's backdoor. He looked like one imagined a dwarf, about four feet tall, and his jewellery-laden beard reached his feet. Between the broad nose and his thick eyebrow shimmered two eyes, which inspected Ragnar and me with interest and fascination. He grabbed an ocular from his belt and three seconds later pulled my arm down to get a better look at Ragnar. Only the dragon reacted to the dwarf, as he leapt off my shoulder and flew over to Lirithiel to hide behind her back. 

“Ne’er thought, ah wid see a timorous dragon.” The Dwarf laughed and looked at Lirithiel. “Sae lassie, urr ye ‘n’ your kitten ‘ere tae git that discount ah promised?”

She just rolled her eyes. “You don’t need this cliché accent in front of us. When we investigated in that thievery, you could talk just fine, although you spoke quite slowly.”

“Aye, a’m just used tae this, as fowk don’t trust a dwarven artisan without a pure tough accent. Supposedly for ye leed tae lang among humans tae be good.” He laughed again and walked back behind the shop’s counter. “Sae whit dae ye twa want?”

I softly meowed, which Ragnar correctly interpreted and returned to me. After he settled back onto my right shoulder, I stepped to the counter. I had checked my gold pouch this morning and knew what we could spend. But knowing the prices, I would have to use all of what was originally saved for hard times. That I could buy some things in this store didn’t mean I liked the idea, and that the dwarf called me a kitten hadn’t helped to ignite my desire for jewellery. Strangely, when I looked down, there was that missing spark. With the exception of my stove and three mirrors, I never looked at expensive stuff and thought to need it, so why did I suddenly feel a longing for that jewellery? 

It was so pretty and shiny.

Everything was a piece of art.

And so damn pretty.

Lirithiel grabbed my left shoulder and allowed me to overcome that strange longing. “Pull yourself together, or the mark will be more of a harm to you than the blessing it should be.” She looked into my confused face and sighted. “Remember that I told you about high-ranking marks affecting the personality? This is such a case, where his desire became strong enough to be directly transferred. He is young and if you can’t resist, he won’t either, but he also learns from you.” 

While this explained my strange longing, it made me worry. Without my friend, I would probably have made a grave mistake, and it was bound to happen many times in the future. I already felt like I was losing myself in the very thing that I had hoped to obtain for the last eleven years. This sorrow and its reason were seemingly written over my face, as she continued to talk.

“As long as you can overcome these situations, he will also calm down and maybe even shed some of his innate desires.” She gave me a reassuring smile.

“Just why do you know so much about this?” I heard my own shaken voice asking the very question I’d been holding back for the last few days, fearing it would open old wounds.

“I know partly because I read books about this, but also because that is how we Dracori learn self-control. We Dracori need someone we trust for this, and according to the documents left behind by the Great Wyrm, it is the same for Dragons, but with the mark, it should be about ten times stronger than what I’ve experienced.

Next to us, the dwarf hemmed. “I wid lik’ tae hear mair aboot dragons, bit this is aye a jeweller.”

“Yes, you're right.” I somehow felt glad the dwarf reminded us of his presence, as it allowed us to finish what Lirithiel brought us here to do. “We need jewellery for… for the…” 

What did I need that for? To impress some officials? Apart from me, there would be at most ten people attending the ceremony, but most likely only four, including Lirithiel. I was here to buy jewellery, I would most likely never wear again.

“Lirithiel, is this really necessary? It…” 

“Yes, it is. Tomorrow will be an important day, which like every ceremony for new bearers of a dragon mark in this city will be recorded in the archives. To date, there is no known record of anyone who looked like he lived in the forest. And don’t say, that this is the case with you, it’s for Ragnar’s honour too.” 

“Mwaar?”

While Lirithiel’s statement wouldn’t be enough, Ragnar’s miserable tone was proof, that she was right. I scratched his chin and looked at the dwarf behind his counter.

“Ok, Ragnar and I both need jewellery for a ceremony. What can we get for a total of thirty gold coins?” Behind me, I heard my friend cough in surprise at the amount of money.

"Weel, it's muckle gowd fur maist stores, bit even wi' th' discount we seem tae blether aboot jewellery fur an event oan par wi' th' heigh society, sae let me see whit we kin dae." Said the dwarf and walked to the back of his store.

While he was away, I turned to Lirithiel, feeling her gaze burn holes into my fur.

“How do you have thirty gold coins? Even if you’ve got twice the money a guard makes, you’d still be in debt from that stove in your hut.” 

I grinned, an expression I had originally learned for her, and shook my head.

“You know, there is a lot of money to be made as a guide for the forests and caves around town. The fee may only be six coppers a day, but food is included, and I get a share of the loot. On average, after my expenses, I still get about three gold coins a month.”

“And you still stay with me when you visit town?” She paused before adding. “And how did you stop me from noticing?” It seemed like her head was spinning while thinking about this. Before this could become real, I told her, since I never intentionally kept it a secret anyway.

“I used most of it for my stove and the transport of my mirrors. For that reason, there were not many valuables I could have brought through the gates for most of the time. As for the rest, you allowed me to store most of it in your apartment. There was even a note that you can take some of the money.”

While she thought about a response to this, we stood there in silence until the dwarf came back with different sets of jewellery. While we tried them on, to see what suited us best, I knew that I would be broke until I could get another lucrative job.