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The Divide

By: Gweall



Alright, new (Stand alone) Story to keep you guys busy while I finish the two series I have going now. I was kind of bored

and was jumping around impatiently, trying to pick something to write. I started this one over a year ago and figured I would finish it since it was more than halfway done. I hope you like it, don't bite my head off if you don't. I promise to make it up to you with the next chapter of Luck of the Irish if you don't like it. Thanks to my editor Gbc5452. Oh and I promise, I'm doing a Christmas story so there's that... :)

quick note from gbc5452; It is entirely my fault that this took so long to be sent in. My laptop crashed twice and prolonged my editing. It is not Gweall's fault there's been a gap between stories, it's mine, an she's amazing and as editor god I order you to lay her offerings of yummy goodies and such in an apology for poking her for new stories. DO IT NOW SUCKAHS! so says editing god

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stormbringer's hooves ate away at the land as she raced forward. Prince Terrin could feel her heavy breathing under him. She galloped faster then the soldier's horses could keep up with and soon they were far ahead of the others.

Some just stopped and watched as the lightning fast gray blur passed them and kept moving.

"They move like lightning and rain, as if they were one." One soldier said to the other.

"The Prince named her Stormbringer for a reason." The other said back. They watched as the horse and her rider reached the top of the hill. Her rider looked over the hill and saw the steep cliff that marked the end of the humans land.

Stormbringer's breathing had settled as the last of the soldiers finally caught up to them.

"Sir, not to interrupt you but we should be getting back soon. Your father will worry." One of the guards said.

"Alright." Prince Terrin said and pulled the reins until Stormbringer turned, and clicked at her to begin a fast trot back to the castle.

"Your father wants you to attend the meeting with Lord Feric." said one of the guards.

"You can just say my Uncle you know. Just because he's head of the guard doesn't mean he gets special treatment." Terrin smiled and clicked once more and Stormbringer galloped away from the guard.

When they had finally reached the castle after their morning's ride, Terrin left his beloved Stormbringer in the hands of the stable keepers and walked into the castle while removing his riding gloves. He took off his thin leather riding helmet letting his hair fall down to just above his shoulders.

The maids and other

females who he passed stared at his forest green eyes and smooth golden hair. They all wondered who

he would pick to be his lucky queen. But most knew that would most likely never happen. It was well known around the castle and the surrounding grounds that Prince Terrin didn't take to the presence of women, he preferred men much more. But that didn't keep the maids from thinking about his broad shoulders and chest.

The guards at the doors to the war room opened the large wooden double doors

as Terrin approached. He

stepped inside to see the meeting had already started. His father sat at one end of the table and

his uncle sat to his left. The other seats of the long table were filled with generals, lords, and captains of different sorts. One seat lay empty to his fathers immediate right where Terrin was to sit.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Prince Terrin." His uncle said sarcasticly.

"It is rather nice of me isn't it, uncle." Terrin grinned when his uncle frowned.

"We are in a war meeting, you will address me as Lord Feric." His uncle said.

Terrin rolled his eyes and took a seat next to his father. 

"And you should know better than any, Uncle Feric, that as the prince heir to the throne I can refer to anyone except for my father the king in any way I please."

Lord Feric glared at him from across the table.

"If I may continue, my king?" said a general down the table.

"Of course." His father gestured for the general to continue.

"The Kin are getting restless. We don't know what's disturbing them but they have been seen growing closer to the borders, and in large broods." Said the general. He used the long wooden pointer to point to a spot on the map that covered the table. Terrin recognized it as a map of Human and Kin lands.

"They even show up more in the waters. Several of our ships have had damage done to their hulls from the spines of one of the retched creatures." The general said. Mumbles and murmurs could be heard around the room.

"What do you suppose we do about this?" said Terrin's father.

"Sire, I think it's obvious what we need to do. This can't go on if we give them room to

breathe they will only spit fire in

our direction." replied the general.

"You suggest we attack them?" Said the king, surprised.

"What other choice do we have? If we don't they will." Lord Feric spoke up.

"We could talk to them. This war has gone on for many centuries. Perhaps it's time to put all

of this behind us." Said another general, who Terrin recognized as General Mickaz.

"We could give them more land."

"We must slay them."

"Leave them be, they will settle."

"They will settle after they destroy us all."

"You know how they are, evil creatures."

Many thoughts went around the room and finally the spotlight landed on Terrin.

"My son, you have as much say in this as anyone else here. If not more so. What are your thoughts?" The king asked Terrin.

"I think...We don't know enough yet. We need to find out at least why they are restless. It could be something as trivial as 'verns in the the area. Something we can solve peacefully." Terrin said, referring to the dragons cousins Wyverns, they looked much like dragons but were cruel and barbaric, they also could not speak.

"You can't talk peace with a dragon. The Kin wish for only our extinction, it's in a dragon's blood." His uncle said. They starred silently at each other from across the table.

"Thank you for your thoughts, I will be returning to my throne room to talk with the advisers and come to a decision about what will be done about the Kin." The king rose and everyone else followed and bowed before the king walked out with Terrin and Lord Feric close behind at his sides.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My king, with all due respect, your son is not ready to handle the burden of the throne. He is still naïve and young."

Lord Feric said.

"Good thing he doesn't need to take the throne now then isn't it." The king smiled at his brother.

"And even if I did, I could handle it perfectly well. I have watched

you my entire life Father, I know how to be a good king. And how to lead my people." Terrin said, and glared at his uncle.

"You can be trusted with nothing! I should be the one to take the throne, not some child!" His uncle growled. "I am the eldest brother, it should have been mine."

"But it wasn't. You have no children nor can you produce any. Therefore, I take the throne and my son follows." The king said.

Terrin snickered at the embarrassment that came over his uncles face.

"I would be a better ruler." His uncle argued. Anger washed over his face and he tried to hide it.

"Maybe, but I guess we won't know until we see what my son can do." The

king smiled and finally reached the doors to the throne room. The guards opened the large brass doors and all three men stepped inside.

"He is young and stupid." His uncle growled.

"I've reached my twenty fifth summer. I'm no longer young, nor am I stupid. Do not insult me again." said Terrin.

"I have heard your arguments brother, several times in fact. And I do not wish to hear them again." The king grew serious and Lord Feric knew it was time to keep his mouth

shut.

'In due time you and your boy will fall, and it will be MY turn to rule.' Feric thought to himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So it's agreed then. My son and Lord Feric will at least go to the border to see if they can figure out what has gotten the dragons so restless." The king said.

"Father, why must uncle come along? I'm perfectly capable of doing this on my own, and you know it!" Terrin asked, trying to

stay calm and not get

angry.

"Of course I know it, but he doesn't. Perhaps this will show him what a capable leader you can be. But be careful. You know what dragons are like, my son. Though you have had the pleasure of NOT seeing them. They are dangerous and they will not hesitate a second to kill you." His father told him.

"I know father. You speak as If I don't remember how mother died." Terrin said.

"I should have never let her on that boat." The king blamed himself for the thousandth time.

"You didn't know one of them would attack. It was not your fault." Terrin said for the thousandth time back.

"Yes, well, either way it doesn't fix or change anything. But maybe you can. Go with your uncle and make me proud." Terrin nodded his head and walked through the long halls to his room.

He quickly suited up in his finest armor and attached his favorite sword to his side and headed down to

the stables to get

Stormbringer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They trotted at a quick but

steady pace. Stormbringer could easily outrun even the fastest of the kingdoms horses. Terrin could practically feel the horses legs itching to run. But she obeyed what Terrin told her to do and cantered lazily along so the others could keep up. Though it was obvious the other horses considered this a fast pace.

"I can't believe we are doing this. What does he want us to do, talk to the great beasts?" his uncle growled. He trotted next to Terrin on his own horse. Terrin couldn't remember the name but the horse was black as night and had a cruel glare to its face. His own armor was more impressive then the soldiers that followed him, but far less impressive then Terrin's.

All of the soldiers that accompanied them were his best. Terrin noticed they all wore a very serious, stoic expression on their faces. He shrugged it off as them being nervous about facing the Kin.

'If we see them at all.' Terrin thought to himself. 'We most likely won't even get a glimpse of one of the dragons. Oh, how I would love to slay one. Make its tough scales into a fantastic piece of armor.' Terrin lost himself in thoughts of slaying the dragons.

Before he knew it Stormbringer stopped beneath him an he came out of his reverie to see they were at the giant steep cliff that separated the Dragons land from the Humans. The legend was that when the Draco-human war began, the Great Earth Dragon Egtunell separated the lands with this cliff so that no human could get down easy and that no dragon would fly up.

To the east was the Atren Sea. The same ocean his mother had died in. The waters were filled with the water dragons. They often attacked the humans ships and the humans often destroyed their homes. They dwell deep in the underwater caves and the ones that lived more to the north, towards the icy caps of the world, lived under the large slabs of Ice.

Terrin had never seen one but had seen pictures of them in books. They were long snake-like creatures. Sometimes with a head at each end of their long serpentine body. Their backs held large crests, much like a fish. And they sometimes had large fins to help propel them through the water. They were usually blue or green. Terrin remembered seeing a boat that had barely managed to return to port after being attacked by one of the dragons. The bottom of the boat had been scraped by teeth and scales and there were several holes in the boat where the

beast had sprayed water out of its mouth. They could produce enough water pressure to eat away at solid stone. that's how they made their homes. Their most dangerous weapon was their own bodies, capable of crushing a whale to death in seconds.

To the west was the desert where the earth dragons lived. They were large worm like creatures that would burrow underground and surprise their prey by

bursting from beneath them and swallowing them whole before they knew what had happened. They were exceptionally hard to kill and you were considered an amazing hunter if you could kill one. Their black plated bodies could be hundreds of feet in length.

At the top of the cliffs past the desert lived the air dragons. They looked like water dragons in that they had the long serpentine bodies. But

their bodies were more like a garden snake and were thinner and lighter. They had large wings that sprouted from their

body with feathers, though they could have leathery bat-like wings as well. Of the species they were the only dragons found to be feathered. They had no arms but did have back legs with wickedly sharp talons. They would swoop down on their pray and catch it in their claws much like a hawk would. They were usually white or gray and were the only dragons who didn't have a specific home. They preferred to soar over the land and only landed to sleep or eat. Considered the weaker of all dragons since they are neither poisonous nor can they breathe anything deadly.

To the north the fire dragons lived. They were smaller then the earth dragons but larger than the others. They breathed fire, obviously, and preferred to burn their prey. They were the most dangerous of all of the dragons since they held traits from each of the other broods. They were large and strong like the Earth dragons, but spectacular fliers like the wind dragons, and they were poisonous like the water dragons. They lived in the volcanoes and lava pits to the north. They were usually different shades of red and orange.

A fifth species of dragons used to inhabit the swamps to the south, close to the cliffs that now separated the lands, the green dragons could breathe toxic gasses and liked to live in the marshes of their lands. But the humans completely wiped out the last of their kind hundreds of years ago.

Terrin looked over the lands and could barely make out the lava pits far to the north.

"Well, what do we do now, Fearless leader." Feric sneered the last part at Terrin.

"I don't know, Father said to find out what was going on." Terrin thought frantically, he didn't want to seem like a pitiful child who couldn't do a single thing without his fathers direct

orders.

"You're useless." His uncle rolled his eyes and turned his horse. Terrin turn Stormbringer to follow and clicked at her so she ran ahead and blocked her uncles horses path.

"You can't leave now, we've only just gotten here. We must investigate." Terrin said.

"What would you like to do? Climb down the Divide?" Feric laughed.

" Well, no but we must do something." Terrin said and trotted Stormbringer back over to the cliff. He dismounted and looked over the edge to see exactly how far down it was. He grew dizzy when he saw the sheer drop down the Divide.

He heard his uncle dismount behind him. And turned to say something when he heard the sound of a sword being drawn. He quickly drew his own and met his uncle with the weapon. His left foot was hanging half the way off the cliff and his right was trying to keep him from falling backwards.

"What are you doing!?" He shouted at his uncle.

"Trying to stop you from falling." He replied casually. He pushed against Terrins weapon harder an he felt his left foot slipping off the little ground it had. Terrin looked to the guards for help but most of them just sneered their

approval. Some looked down at the ground,

ashamed of the crime they were watching, but doing nothing.

"Don't just stand there, help your prince heir!" Terrin shouted at them. None of them moved. Terrin's vision went red with anger.

"When I'm king, they will all have higher ranking positions then lowly soldiers. Why would they help you?" His uncle laughed. Terrin was shocked at the treason being committed and was caught off guard when his uncle gave one final shove of their matched swords.

Terrin felt the ground under his left foot crumble away and he fell backwards. His right foot caught the edge of the cliff and it caused him to turn. He was falling face first towards the earth below. He closed his eyes and prayed one last time that his uncle would be caught.

He hit something that was smooth an sturdy. It hurt but not as much as he thought dying would hurt. He opened his eyes and saw red again. But this time it wasn't with anger. He looked to see he was grasping to the right wing of a very large, very pissed off, dragon. The dragon gave a shriek, that sounded like a mix of a lizard and a bird, and banked heavily to the right. Terrins sword sliced through the delicate flesh of the dragons wing and the dragon screeched again, this time louder.

The dragon turned as hard as it could to the left so it was facing the cliff side. It tried to save them from their fall by grasping the side of the divide. Its wings resembled a bats and served as its arms an as its wings. The clawed finger type appendage tried to grip the cliff side but the loose earth just crumbled beneath it. It tried several more times but eventually gave up and used its large back legs to kick off the side of the cliff.

It tried to spread its wings again but it began tumbling to the right due to the tear in its wing and the weight of Terrin holding it. Terrin heard a loud screeching sound and wished the dragon would just shut up. Then he realized he was screaming along with the dragons shrieks and roars.

They fell faster and faster towards the ground and the dragon tried to shake Terrin off its wing.

'If I'm going down your going down with me.' Terrin thought to himself.

The dragon hissed and tried to balance itself but all it succeeded in doing was turning and twisting them in mid air. Terrin saw the ground getting closer and closer. He looked into the dragons eyes and saw the fear in them. The dragon quickly stopped shrieking and turned itself so its back was facing the ground. It folded its wings into its stomach, an brought Terrin along with them. Terrin was pressed against the smooth scaly belly of the dragon an could feel its wings on his back. He felt the impact of them hitting the ground and heard the

dragon

groan.

They slid for a large distance until finally they came to a stop. The dragons wings loosened and Terrin was able to climb free. He got a few steps away and saw he was still holding his sword. He sat, or more like fell, to the ground an stared at the large beast while he caught his breath. His hands shook and he couldn't seem to get enough air.

The dragon was a large red one. It had two horns that curved towards its back, an in between them were pointed spines that went all the way from its head to halfway down its tail, where they stopped, and a club like chunk of bone ended the tail.

The dragon was still alive, Terrin could hear its

heavy breathing. Terrin looked up the

cliff and saw no sign of his uncle. He tried to stand but his still shaky legs wouldn't allow it. The dragons breathing suddenly became quieter an it opened its large eyes that were easily the size of Terrin's hand. It tried to roll over an folded its wings in an odd way so they were more like arms instead of wings now. He used his tail to help push up his lower half and stood on his own shaky legs.

He looked at Terrin and his

yellow unblinking eyes showed only minor annoyance and curiosity. Terrin slowly moved his hand to his sword that layed next to him. The dragon hissed and moved so it was facing Terrin head on. He glanced at the sword an back at Terrin. His eyes narrowed and Terrin could see his muscles clenched for battle.

"Don't come near me violent beast." said Terrin through clenched teeth. The dragon

raised it's head and it looked, if a

dragon could, like it raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not the one reaching for the sword." It said. Its voice was nothing like Terrin imagined it to be. It sounded younger then the beast looked. And it was obviously male. His lips didn't move but Terrin could hear the voice clearly. He remembered reading somewhere that dragons communicated through telepathy.


The Divide



"I was

reaching because you were staring like you were going to eat me." Terrin said defensively

"Eat you?" The dragon looked liked it was surprised. "You wouldn't even prove to be an appetizer." The dragon laughed in Terrin's head. Terrin swallowed roughly.

"Well leave then." Terrin's hand still hovered over his sword. The dragon squinted at Terrin before raising its 'arms' an spreading its wings. He raised his tail an straightened up on its hind legs so it was nearly standing erect. It slammed its tail on the ground and pushed off with its legs. It flapped its wings several times but it's eyes opened wide in shock.

It hovered for a moment an made it only a few feet before it screeched an fell to the ground. He hissed and raised his right wing. A long cut run from almost the bone that served as his arms all the way down until it almost split the wing in half.

"My wing! You retched creature!" The dragon

hissed and turned to face Terrin

again. It opened its mouth and revealed a row of large, LARGE, teeth.

Terrin picked up his sword and stood in a position where he could fight.

"It was an accident, I was a little busy falling from the top of a cliff to notice where my sword was going!" Terrin yelled at him.

"What were you doing anyways? Last time I checked humans can't fly!" The dragon shouted back at him in Terrin's head.

"Oh we cant? Gee I wish someone had told me that!" Terrin said sarcasticly. Silenced passed between the two a moment but neither stopped their menacing stances.

Finally the dragon relaxed.

"There's no point in fighting, it will only add to our troubles." The dragon said quietly.

"Fine." Terrin put away his sword.

"Now how do I get back home?" Terrin asked the large reptile. The dragon looked up at him with an almost shocked expression on his face.

"There is no way up to the human lands other then flying." The dragon said, as if Terrin should know this.

"Look, I'm Prince Terrin. I'm kind of a big deal up there and if you don't get me back

up there then there is going to be a problem."

Terrin said.

"No you look, I'm Zantoranzin, and I can't fly. So your not getting back up there." The dragon motioned his head up the cliff.

Terrin sighed and plopped down on the ground again. He laid his head in his hands and sighed.

"What am I going to do? My uncle is probably telling my father some lie about me falling over the cliff and into the claws of one of your kind." Terrin muttered. The dragon made a scoffing

sound that wasn't in Terrins head. He

didn't know dragons could scoff.

"You think you're the only one with problems? Look at my wing. I can't fly. If I can't fly I can't hunt, if I can't hunt I don't eat, if I don't eat then I die. Kind of like you humans." The dragon, Zantoranzin, said inside Terrins head. Terrin hadn't thought of the damage he'd done to the dragon.

"Don't you just

breathe fire on stuff?" Terrin asked.

"How often does stuff hold still while you burn it alive?" Zantoranzin squinted his eyes in annoyance at Terrin. Terrin hadn't thought about that.

The dragon fell back on his haunches and Terrin thought it looked kind of funny, a dragon falling to the ground exactly as he had.

"There is a path up to the humans land. But it's far. And you would never make it." Zantoranzin said.

"Where is it?" Terrin jumped at the chance, any chance.

"To the east. Along the coast line." Zantoranzin said.

"No there isn't. The divide goes all the way out a good distance into sea." Terrin said.

"Yes, but there is a series of very small islands that go around the cliff and over to the humans side. But again, you could never make it." Zantoranzin said.

"How do you know what I can and can't do?" Terrin stood and glared at the dragon. Zantoranzin stood and stretched his long neck so he was looking down at Terrin.

"I know you can't because it's at least a weeks walk from here. And the islands are too far apart for you to swim to, AND on the way there, as well as on the islands themselves, there are dangerous things that that sword couldn't protect you from." Zantoranzin said.

Terrin tried to

object but could think of no objection. He sat again dejectedly on the ground. Silence came between them again and soon Zantoranzin stood.

"I must see if I can make it to the lava pits." He began walking but looked very uncomfortable and awkward doing so.

Terrin felt almost lonely, knowing he was leaving. "Well I have to try and make it across the islands." He said trying to show the beast he was not helpless. The dragon turned and looked at him for a moment.

"I wish you luck, human." Zantoranzin said and turned back towards the west and headed towards the lava pits.

Terrin began walking towards, what he knew to be, the east.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'God-forsaken uncle. God-forsaken dragon, god-forsaken rock!" he thought as he walked and kicked a rock that dared be in his path.

He had been walking for hours and felt like he had only traveled an inch. He kept his sword drawn and occasionally heard things stalking him in the dense

jungle-like swamps. He stuck close to the wall

of the cliff and used it for guidance.

He couldn't even see the coast from where he was and knew the dragon had been right. It would take him days to get there and by then his uncle would have already had the throne, if he planned on doing what Terrin thought he would be doing.

He heard a rustling in the trees nearest him. He

turned and brought his sword up and

prepared to strike. Glowing yellow eyes peered at him from the leaves at the top of the tree. He swallowed his fear and gripped his sword tighter ready to fight off anything that drew closer to him.

A loud screech pierced the still air and Terrin screamed as the beast came towards him

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zantoranzin walked along and sulked. He was hungry and was trying to hunt when that human had fallen on him. He stopped and lifted his wing and glanced at it. The wound had stopped bleeding but it would take a long time to heal. He growled a sigh and kept 

walking.

He heard things in the swamps next to him but did nothing. He knew nothing would be so foolish as to attack a red dragon, even an injured one.

The part of his wings that he used to support his weight while walking were already sore. He groaned and sat down. He would never make it to the lava pits at this pace. He felt lonesome and his 'arms' hurt. He stood again and was about to start walking when he heard a shriek. He turned his head and thought he heard a humans scream. He rolled his eyes.

"The foolish human hatchling has already gotten himself in trouble." He said to himself. He began walking and he heard another screech.

'It sounds like a harpy....' he thought to himself. 'He would never be able to fight one off. And they usually come in pairs.'

He hesitated a moment longer before turning and running as best as he could towards the sounds of the fight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The creature tried to scratch at Terrins eyes with its long bird-like talons. It missed when he rolled away and used its feathered arms to circle around for another swipe. Terrin took the opportunity to run back the way he had come. He dropped his sword and felt relieved when the excess weight had gone. He dashed as fast as he could hoping to out run the creature.

Zantoranzin ran as fast as his body would allow.

'I am not built for running!' he thought to himself. He gave a small jump and flapped his wings as best as he could. He glided a short distance and then fell back to the ground. He tried again and when he 'landed' this time he landed on his hind

legs. He began doing small frog-like

jumps that were slower then flying but faster then running.

Terrin ducked his head as the creature tried to rip it off his shoulders. She screeched again and extended the razor sharp talons out. They grazed the spot where neck met shoulder and he could feel blood dripping. He looked back and saw she still chased him. He turned forward only to see the large red lizard, Zantoranzin, right in front

of him. He stopped and nearly ran into

the great beasts 'arms'.

Zantoranzin drew in a breath and the bird-woman stopped and tried to turn. Zantoranzin dug his claws into the ground and exhaled, sending out a large wave of flame. Terrin could feel the blazing heat that the fire above him produced. He was glad he was as close to the dragon as he was, where the flame could not reach him. The bird-woman screeched and tried to flap

away. Terrin smelled her feathers

burning and saw much of the skin and feathers on her back had burned away. She did manage to get into the swamps before Zantoranzin could pursue her.

Zantoranzin closed his mouth and smoke leaked from the sides and out his nose. He snorted and a large puff of smoke came out of his nose.

"Good riddance. Awful creatures, those harpies." He said in Terrins head. Terrin sighed and plopped down on the ground for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.

"I'll never make it to the islands." he said.

"If its any consolation to you human I will never make it to the lava pits." Zantoranzin said, sitting in the same place he had been when he singed the harpy, but was now looking at Terrin.

"Stop calling me human, My name is Prince Terrin." Terrin said. He looked up at the beast and realized he wasn't a prince to him. "You can call me Terrin." He grumbled.

"And you may call me Zan." He replied. "I will make you a deal, Hu-....er...Terrin." He

corrected himself.

"I will help you get to the islands if you can help me catch food, by the time you get home my wing should be healed enough to fly." Zan propositioned. Terrin looked at the beast. His large maw filled with teeth and his sturdy tail. Even the single finger-talon on his bat-like wings were wickedly sharp. He would have no problem defending himself and Terrin. But he would

have a problem sneaking up on prey. He

wasn't exactly sneaky when he walked.

"Fine." Terrin rose. "But we leave now." Terrin walked in the direction he had been running from and heard the dragon fall into step behind him. There wasn't enough room between the edge of the swamp and the edge of the cliff for them to walk side by side and Terrin was glad for that. He didn't want to have to look at the monster he needed help from.

Zan decided not to mention his hunger for now and give Terrin time to think.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun had set several hours ago and Terrin knew he should stop and rest but he couldn't, he had to get back to his land. Zan's footsteps behind him were heavier and slower and he knew the dragon was tiring too.

"We might as well stop here for the night, it's as good as any spot." Terrin

finally said, when they reached a part

of the cliff that had made a small dome. The dragon stooped low and crawled inside. He curled around so he was in a crescent shape that still left room for Terrin. Terrin walked towards the swamp instead of the cave. Zan looked up and watched him curiously. Terrin gathered a decent amount of sticks and twigs that had fallen from the trees and brought them back to the small cave. He set them a good distance away from where the two would sleep and looked at Zan expectantly.

"Could you give me a hand here?" Terrin gestured to the sticks.

"Why do humans fear the dark?" Zan asked and blew a small burst of flame towards the twigs and they quickly began burning.

"We don't." Terrin said.

"Then why must you have a fire?" Zan smirked.

" Because, for warmth and to keep various creatures from getting near us." Terrin said.

"Ah, so you don't fear the dark but the creatures in it." Zan chuckled.

"Quiet." Terrin muttered and fell asleep. Soon the fire died out and Terrin was woken by his shivering and chattering teeth. Zan slept peacefully next to him with long deep breathes. Terrin thought about getting more wood but that would mean he would have to wake Zan to start the fire. And the old saying 'let sleeping dragons lie.' came to mind.

He huddled into a closer ball and tried to breathe warm air into his hands. His heavy armor was meant to keep off painful attacks, not the cold. He heard Zan's breathing quiet and knew he had woken.

Zan stared at the human shivering and shaking on the dirt and felt sorry for him. He knew humans were warm blooded but they still often got cold, as they had no fur to keep it away. Zan slid his tail along the dirt until he reached Terrin and brought him closer to his warmer body. He knew his kind naturally produced heat more then other creatures and he felt Terrin stop shaking.

"Thank you." Terrin whispered. Zan stared at the body of the prince a moment longer before lowering his head and going back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terrin woke and found himself clutching Zans tail in his sleep. He sat up and saw the dragon was awake but only looking at him.

"Sorry." Terrin said and released his tail.

"That's alright. You were cold last night." Zan pointed out.

"Yes, thank you for that." Terrin thanked the beast again. "We should get moving." Terrin said and stood. Zan stood as well and Terrin heard the dragons stomach grumble.

"Ok, we should find something to eat first and then get moving." He said when his own stomach replied. Terrin

found he was becoming use to deciphering the dragons facial expressions. Though he could not move his mouth in the way humans could he had a way of speaking with his eyes. And he could tell now that the dragon was smiling.

Zan crawled out from the hole in the cliff that made the small cave and stretched. He let out a sound that Terrin assumed was a yawn.

"Your wing is healing fast." Terrin pointed out.

"Yes, it would heal faster if I could get to the lava pits. But that is not on the way." Zan said in Terrins mind.

Terrin grabbed his sword and motioned for Zan to follow him. He heard the dragon lumbering behind him and after they were a decent way into the swamps he told him to stay

put.

"I'll find something and push it down towards you." Terrin disappeared farther into the swamps until Zan could no longer see or hear him. He crouched low and listened carefully for the sound of anything approaching

Soon he heard what sounded like hooves coming his way, and human feet following behind them. Soon a deer like creature jumped from the shrubs in front of him and had no time to stop before Zan opened his mouth and bit the horse sized animal.

Terrin came out from the same shrubs in time to see the tail of the creature slide down Zan's throat. Zan shook his neck and the scales shook back and forth.

"Will that due?" Terrin asked the lizard. Zan

nodded his large head once.

"I do not usually expend that much energy. I should be fine." Zan said. Terrin began walking back to the divide they followed.

"What about you?" Zan asked.

"I saw some fruit back towards the cliff, I will eat some of that." Terrin said. Zan had a hard time turning around in the dense trees of the swamp but finally managed to follow Terrin.

"I thought red dragons liked their food burned?" Terrin asked as he shoveled a handful of berries into his mouth.

"We do. But I was hungry and it was already in my mouth." Terrin thought he heard the dragon chuckle. He smiled and kicked a rock on the ground in front of him.

"How old are you human?" Zan asked. Terrin turned his head to look at the dragon that lumbered behind him and looked

down at him.

"I'm twenty-five. How old are you, Dragon?" Terrin said the last part sarcastically.

"My kind do not measure our age in years, but in events." he replied.

"That's right, I read about that. That you live to be so old keeping track of years becomes difficult, so you go by memories." Terrin thought out loud

"Yes, I was still a hatchling when the Draco-human war started." Zan said.

"I wasn't around at the beginning of the war. So you're several hundred years old." Terrin stated.

"Yes. I suppose so. Though I am still young for my people, I understand this time is a great deal for Humans." Zan said.

"We don't live long. Definitely not as long as Dragons." Terrin said.

"Yes, there's a saying among my kind, 'Time is like the wind, it lifts the light and leaves the heavy'." The dragon recited the line.

"What does that mean?" Terrin looked up, confused by the great beast's words.

"That is one of those sayings that no one remembers where it started. It is said that's why some dragons fly and live so long. We care not about time spent or lost. While humans concern themselves with saving

it and losing none, they remain ground-bound and young." The dragon said, looking straight ahead.

"Why did the dragons start the war?" Terrin asked. The dragon stopped walking and looked down at Terrin.

"We did not start this war. The dragons were here long before humans ever set foot on this land. The world was ours and ours alone. When the human's came they slayed us for our scales, claws, wings, and horns. We defended ourselves when Dragon-hunting became a human sport," Zan spat the last word, " Humans used our scales to create their armor, and our claws, teeth, and horns as weapons against us. They even decorated their villages and homes with our wings and heads. They began selling dragon meat as food. They wiped out the Green

Brood and now Lestrazar is alone." Zan grew angry and smoke poured from his mouth and nose.

"That is not what human children are taught in school. We were told that when we arrived here, the dragons attacked us and wanted us to leave. They attacked our villages and killed thousands of us. That they are mean and cruel creatures, unable to think or feel emotions like remorse." Terrin

said.

"It is not true and I was there to confirm this! My mother was slain by humans when I was very young!" Zan yelled. It sounded like he was crying in Terrin's head but his eyes showed no tears.

"What about your father?" Terrin asked.

"Dragons are not raised by their fathers. Once we are hatched we are raised in a clutch with other young. Raised by a group of other dragons, Our mothers keep

track of us but our fathers are never known, but they are there. Watching over us." Zan explained.

"I'm sorry about your mother. Mine was killed by a dragon." Terrin said. Zan snorted and looked at Terrin.

"I apologize human. If you do not mind my asking, what type of dragon?"

"A serpent. In the sea." Terrin said and looked ahead to where he knew the sea would be but could not see it over the tall trees of the swamps.

" Ah, I see." Zan nodded his large head.

" What?"

"Humans often mistake the Atren for being cruel and evil, and that they only mean to attack humans." Zan explained.

"Don't they? I have seen many ships destroyed by them." Terrin said.

"Have you ever seen one?" Terrin shook his head. Zan's eyes smiled and a small laugh echoed in Terrins head.

"They are quite large. Larger then a Tunell." Zan said. " They do not mean to attack your ships, but after all you are sailing in their home waters. Often times your ships will scrape their backs. Look at our scales, Terrin. They only go one way. If they are scraped the wrong way it can be

quite painful. Many of them get angry and only try to defend themselves. I have heard of humans nearly sailing into their nests as well. If I had a brood with young I would protect them with ferocity as well." Zan lowered his head so he was eye level with Terrin as they talked.

"I've never thought of that. Have they not ever heard of a warning shot, though? Those water blasts are quite a pain

I hear." Terrin

laughed.

Zan shook his neck, something Terrin noticed he did when he was annoyed or uneasy.

"Yes I know, Anzin and Atren do not get along well." He laughed.




The Divide



"What are these? Anzin, Atren, Tunell?" Terrin asked. Zan cocked his head to one side much like a dog would.

"Humans do not know of our names?" Zan looked like he was surprised, his eyes blinked three times rapidly.

"What do you mean?"

"Every brood of dragon has a different ending that goes to the end of the name of a dragon, Zantoranzin. Zantor is my name, Anzin is my brood. For female you would just add an A to the end." He explained.

"Oh, So Atren..."

"Is the water broods." Zan explained. "When you speak of a general brood, humans say red, earth, water, air. Dragons say Anzin, Tunell, Atren, Zar, and Angi was the swamp dragon's brood." Zan said.

"I see, so it's kind of like a last name for humans. It tells people what family your

from." Terrin said,

"Yes, I suppose so." Zan looked ahead.

"Who is Lestrazar?" Terrin asked. Zan stopped walking and looked shocked at Terrin.

"How do you know that name?" He asked in a whisper, as if

someone else was around to hear him.

"You said it when you were explaining what had happened when the war started." Terrin said. Zan almost seemed to sigh.

"Lestrazar is the last remaining dragon of the green brood. He is as ancient dragon as there ever has been." Zan explained

"Couldn't he just mate with another dragon and rebuild the green dragons population?" Terrin asked.

"Dragons cannot mate with dragons of a different brood. And he is also the leader of what was the green brood. He is not allowed to mate with any other than his chosen and she is long

dead." Zan explained.

"Chosen?"

"Dragons mate for life," Zan said, "Unlike humans." He said jokingly.

Terrin stopped. "Was that a ..... Joke?" He said surprised.

"Oh gods it was, you're beginning to infect me with your human....ness....." Zan said. He jumped farther to the left away from Terrin, like he was avoiding an infectious disease. Terrin laughed and chased him. Zan

squawked and ran ahead of Terrin. He moved slower then the human but had much larger steps.

When they had both finally run out of breath they matched their pace again so they could talk.

"Are you mated?" Terrin asked him.

"No, I have not found my mate yet. But I will. I am confident in that."

Terrin walked quietly for a moment.

"I hope you do." Terrin said. Zan glanced at him but kept walking.

"Why don't humans mate for life?" Zan asked curious.

"Most do. I will." Terrin said proudly.

"You have not found a mate either?" Zan asked.

"No, it's a bit more complicated for me." Terrin sighed.

"And why is that?"

"I like men, not women." Terrin said. Zan glanced at him and stopped walking.

"I didn't realize that mattered to humans." He said.

"Don't all dragons mate with females?" Terrin questioned.

"No, we do not care about genders, usually if there is two males that are mated a female is chosen to lay an egg for the males.The same happens if two females mate, then a male is chosen. The hatchlings are raised only by the

care of the brood." Zan explained. "Males of my species do not raise the young, so it matters not who we mate with."

"Odd." Terrin said quietly. Zan stopped and leaned back onto his back legs. He spread his wings and flapped them a few times. Dirt fell off them and Zan yawned. Terrin looked at the rows of sharp teeth and down his throat where fire could spew at any moment. Terrin swallowed nervously. This whole time he had forgotten who, or what, he was in the presence of. He mentally scolded himself for letting his guard down, Zan was not his friend, dragons are enemies to humans. Zan returned to leaning on his wings and continued walking.

An hour after they had started walking they came to a part of the divide where the cliff cut into the swamp. Zan looked at the giant wall that blocked their path.

"Stay here." He said and walked up to the wall and dug the claws of his wings and legs in. He climbed the wall slowly and awkwardly when he was high enough to see over the trees he seemed to sigh before he pushed off the wall and fell back to the ground with a loud crash.

"It

cuts very deep into the swamp, it would not be wise for us to venture into it, nor would I be able to move easily in this form." Zan explained.

"Couldn't you just climb us to the top?" Terrin realized.

" No, not far off the ground the mud becomes loose and will fall under my weight." Zan said.

"Then what in gods name do we do?" Terrin said. Zan looked uncomfortable and sat down like an over-sized dog.

"I...I do not know. I have never had to walk this far before." Zan admitted. Terrin sighed and sat next to him. Silenced passed between the two for a long moment.

"What do you mean in this form?"

Terrin asked suddenly. Zan looked up from where he was staring at the ground.

"What?" He asked in Terrins head.

"You said you wouldn't be able to move easily in this form. What do you mean by this form?" Terrin repeated Zans words. Zan looked uncomfortable.

"Well, some dragons can shift into human form." He said reluctantly.

"What?! I have never heard of that!" Terrin jumped up from where he stood.

"It is not something we willingly tell humans." Zan sighed.

Terrin wanted to say something but he didn't know what. He sighed and sat again.

"We have to go through." He said a moment later.

"I would not be able to defend us in human form. We would be vulnerable." Zan said.

"It's better then sitting on our asses." Terrin stood and walked towards the swamp.

"I'm going with or without you. You can stay here and starve

or get your scaly butt into that swamp." Terrin turned and said. Zan stared at him a moment and tested to see if Terrin was bluffing. When Terrin didn't flinch Zans shoulder's seemed to sag.

"Alright." He stood and looked like he was concentrating on something. He began to shrink and lose his red scales and horns. The webbed part of his wings shrank until all that was left was the

boney, arm-like, structure that supported his wings. His arms shrunk and his knees reversed so they were facing the way a humans knees would. The scaly red skin began to soften and turn a lighter, tan, color. The rows of sharp white teeth evened out and flattened until he had a smaller, human, mouth.

When the transformation was finished Zan rolled his shoulders uncomfortably and seemed awkward in the smaller body. His hair was a deep black with unnatural red tips. His eyes were a golden brown and he wore leather armor that looked, oddly, much like his scales.

"Happy?" He spoke out loud for the first time and Terrin was shocked at his smooth melodic voice.

"Yes, now lets go." Terrin turned back to the swamp and stepped through the thick trees. They

walked in silence, Zan stumbling along the way.

"Humans are just....just....Stupid!" He yelled angrily after he fell for the fourth time. Terrin rolled his eyes and kept walking.

"Two legs, no wings, no tail, no scales, no fur, horrible eye sight, no claws, or reasonable teeth." He mumbled.

"Are you going to complain the whole way?" Terrin turned and asked him. Zan glared at him with the chocolate brown eyes.

"Yes." He growled. Terrin glared back and kept walking. Zan growled behind him once more. Zan stopped suddenly.

"Quiet, stop moving." He seemed to look around him and listen for something. Terrin did as he was told and stopped.

"What?" He asked. Zan shushed him. Terrin listened and didn't hear anything.

"I don't hear anything." He growled and kept walking.

"It's because humans have awful hearing as well. Now stop moving!" Zan yelled a whisper. Terrin kept walking.

"Terrin! Terrin stop moving!" Zan whispered loudly.

"No, you just don't want to walk anymore." Terrin said back. Zan shushed him again and motioned with his hands to hold still. Terrin kept walking. He heard something like rocks falling. He hesitated but didn't hear anything

else. Zan ran behind him and pulled his

arm back behind him just as the giant worm like creature burst not a foot in front of where he had been standing. Zan threw himself on top of Terrin and put his finger to his lips and turned his head slowly to look at the huge worm that stood from the ground. Terrins mouth hung open. Several trees lay on their sides, pushed out of the way by the large worm-like creature.

It 'stood' at least 20 feet in the air and seemed to just hang there for a moment. Its body was long like a worm's but covered in several plates. It's head seemed to have no eyes or any other face like features. Only a large mouth with no lips and only large teeth surrounding the O it's mouth made. The teeth were larger then Terrin himself and the beast seemed to drool green slime. It seemed to be waiting for something. It spun it's jaw anxiously. The jaw seemed to be one single bone that could spin several times in a circle before having to turn back. Its teeth could also move individually so it could 'bite' down on its, would be, prey.

Terrin let out a squeak of fear and Zan stood and ran, pulling Terrin by the arm behind him, moments before the beast turned it's body and slammed, teeth first, into the spot they had just been. It quickly 'ate' away at the dirt that they had been laying on, and seemed to dig through the earth itself and its long body followed. Terrin turned to watch as at least a hundred feet of worm followed the toothed head through the hole it had eaten through.

Zan ran and dragged Terrin behind him deeper into the swamps. Terrin could barely see the cliff off to the right. Zan seemed to follow it and made a sudden turn when the cliff stopped cutting into the swamp and turned back. Terrin could hear Zan's heavy breathing and tried to keep up with him. Zan grabbed Terrin and rolled them to the side moments before the large worm, again, lunged out of the ground teeth first. Zan didn't hesitate this time and got up and ran again towards the 'path' like spot between the divide and the swamp. He began changing as they ran. His fingers extended, creating the bones the would support his wings and webbing filled in between them Horns began sprouting from his eyebrows to curve backwards and small spiked lined his neck and down his back.

The armor he wore spread and became scales once again. Finally he grew larger as they neared the opening. Terrin could hear the worm underground behind them. Zan completed his change as they reached the small opening. He jumped into the gap between swamp and cliff and, with his back against the wall, turned. The worm creature exploded from the ground for the third time and lunged, teeth first, at Zan.

Zan drew in a breath quickly and let a torrent of flame spill into the worm's face. The bulk of the flame landed inside the worms open mouth and surrounding areas. The worm seemed to screech, which oddly sounded much like Zan, and tossed it's 'head' to try to avoid the flames. The fire began to slow and finally stopped and Zan inhaled a large breath again. The worm didn't give him a chance and quickly fell backwards and burrowed through another hole and left as fast as its plated body would carry it. When the tail of the creature disappeared

into the hole it had created

Zan relaxed and let out the breath.

"Good, I was totally bluffing the last part." Zan admitted. Terrin dropped to the ground and caught his breath. His hands shook and he was dizzy with adrenaline. Zan caught his own breath and laid down next to Terrin.

"Next time, do not ignore me when I tell you to stop." He said after several minutes.

"I'm sorry." Terrin apologized. Zan opened one eye and looked at him, when he was sure he was being truthful he nodded his acceptance and closed his eye again.

"What was that." Terrin asked. Zan opened both his eyes this timed and looked surprised.

"It was an earth dragon." Zan said surprised, like Terrin should have known.

"THAT was an earth dragon!?" Terrin sat up from where he leaned on the cliff.

"Yes."

"I read they were large but....but that was.... Gods what am I doing out here." He sighed.

"We should rest here for the night, She won't be coming back anytime soon." Zan smiled.

"She?" Terrin asked.

"Yes, you were walking into her nest." Zan laughed.

"Oops." Terrin blushed.

Terrin didn't

move to get wood for a fire, the adrenaline had left his body and he was now exhausted. Zan curled into a crescent shape and used his tail to push Terrin closer towards him. He spread his wings and covered Terrin.

Before Terrin noticed he let out a sigh when he was surrounded by the warm leathery wing. He blushed and looked up at Zan but the dragon was already asleep. Terrin sighed and leaned

into the red scales of the

dragon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zan woke and saw Terrin dragging a large deer behind him. Without moving he sent the thought to Terrin.

"How on earth did you catch that?" He asked. Terrin jumped and looked at the behemoth who had not moved but his eyes were now open.

"Sword, just as good as those claws you know." Terrin nodded at the single claw on each of his wings. Zan lifted his head.

"Move." He said. Terrin stepped aside of the carcass and watched as Zan let a pitifully weak burst of flame. It was barely enough to roast the deer. Terrin wrinkled his nose at the smell of burning fur.

"Wow, that was....pathetic." Terrin chuckled.

"How do you think dragons produce fire. We must consume enough of a certain rock to produce it. Despite many beliefs we are not magic. Just large,

intelligent, lizards. Who can turn into

humans...doesn't really help my argument." Zan smiled his reptilian smile. Terrin laughed.

"Where can you get more of this rock?" Terrin asked as he knelt next to the deer and cut off a small piece for him and left the rest for Zan.

"As far as I know the only place is the lava pits. But I will know it if I see it." He said and glanced at the deer.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Terrin asked. Zan seemed to sigh. He barely opened his mouth and let his long snake-like tongue trail out and wrap around the deer. He pulled the deer towards him until it was close enough to bite.

"Amazing, the laziest dragon in the world, its official." Terrin laughed. Zan looked up at him.

"This walking thing is much more difficult then you humans make it out to be." He sighed, but

didn't move.

"So what happens if you get back to the lava pits?" Terrin asked.

"I would be able to heal my wing, and be able to breathe fire again." He explained simply. Terrin thought for a moment.

"If I get you back to the lava pits, will you fly me home?" Terrin asked. Zan looked up.

"I thought you wanted to walk?" Zan said.

"I did, but this is taking to long, I know the lava pits are closer and it would be much much faster to fly." Terrin said. Zan nodded his large head slowly.

"That it is the truth. Yes, if you get me to the lava pits I will gladly take you back to your home,Terrin. Or at least as close as I can take you." He said.

"What do you mean as close as you can take me?" Terrin asked.

"I wouldn't be able to fly you all the way into the humans lands. I would be killed if I was seen." Zan said.

"No, you take me all the way to the castle or no deal." Terrin said firmly. Zan looked into his eyes.

"Very well." He nodded his large head.

"Good, now, which way is the fastest to the lava pits." Terrin asked. Zan looked thoughtful for a

moment.

"Through the swamp." He said. Terrin grimaced and looked at the large hole the earth dragon had disappeared through.

"Alright, the safest and fastest way." He corrected himself.

"There is no other way." Zan shook his head. Terrin sighed.

"How long will it take to get there?"

"A day, maybe two." Zan said after thinking.

"That's faster than the week it would take to get to the coast." Terrin said to himself.

"I can no longer protect us without my fire. We need to move quickly and quietly." Zan stood from where he had been lying.

"Ok." Terrin stood and walked towards the swamp. Something crunched under his foot. He looked down and saw it was a large plate that had fallen off of the earth

dragon. It had been scorched by Zan's

flame but other then that it was in one piece. He picked it up and ran his hands over it.

"Zan." The dragon looked down at him.

"Will you carry these? They would make fine armor." Terrin said. Zan nodded his head and watched Terrin spend a few moments picking up various pieces of scales and plates. Zan crouched down and Terrin climbed up the slope of his wing and put the items on his back. When they sat securely behind the spikes that lined the dragons back Zan stood again and Terrin jumped down to walk beside him.

"Why was an earth dragon in the swamps?" Terrin asked as they walked.

"Many earth dragons come to lay their eggs here. There are not many nesting areas in the deserts." Zan explained. The two walked slowly as Zan tried to weave through the dense trees and swampy waters. After only a few minutes he gave up and shifted into his human form, and tied the plates with vines to carry. They picked up their pace and covered much more ground.

"Why didn't it speak. I thought all dragons could speak. Tat's one of the things that separates your kind from wyverns."

"She could speak, she just chose not to. If you had a hatchling and someone came stomping near them wouldn't you attack first and ask questions later?" Zan

chuckled.

"I suppose I would." Terrin smiled at Zan and he couldn't tell if the dragon blushed or if the redness in his cheeks was just remnants of his normal form. Zan carried a handful of scales from the earth dragon and Terrin did as well. It slowed their pace but not by much. And Terrin was excited to make a new set of armor and weapons out of the thick plates.

They reached a part of the swamp where a large bog blocked any land paths. They starred at the deep murky water and thought a moment.

"We could go around." Terrin suggested.

"We don't know how far across it is, it could add a day or more to our journey." Zan countered. " We should go through it." He said.

"The gods themselves couldn't make me swim in that water. We don't know what lives in there." Terrin looked at Zan as if he had gone mad.

"Red dragons cannot swim. I should be able to walk across it, you may ride on my back." He said and puffed out his chest and raised his chin trying to seem tough. He was much smaller then Terrin and Terrin couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. Zan glared at him and shoved the scales he was holding at Terrin. He changed back to his dragon form and lowered his head so Terrin could climb up. Terrin crawled up his face and used the arch of, what would be, his eyebrow to push himself up.

"Watch the eyes, damn you!" Zan growled.

"Quit your crying." Terrin said as he sat between Zan's horns. Zan raised his head and Terrin got dizzy at the height. Zan stepped forward into the bog and began wadding through the muddy green water.

"Ugh, this is disgusting." He groaned in Terrins head. Terrin couldn't help but

laugh at the large lizard, you could

clearly see the grimace in his face. The water grew deeper and deeper until it reached halfway up Zan's chest.

"My wings make it nearly impossible to move." Zan complained.

"You are the one who wanted to go through." Terrin pointed out. Zan held his head as high as he could above the water. The green swamp water looked thick with mud and Terrin couldn't imagine how many rotten logs and

trees lie at the bottom. After about an

hour wading through the swamp they caught sight of the shore.

"Finally." Zan rolled his large eyes. The water got shallower and shallower until Zan stood on the bank of the bog. His wings were covered with mud. Moss, twigs, and various other goo and swamp things.

"Ew." He said simply. He tried to shake the filth from his wings, tail, and feet but the goo stuck firmly to his jagged scales.




The Divide



"Hold on." Terrin hopped down and began cleaning the slime off of Zan.

"Thank you." Zan said when the majority of the filth had been wiped off.

"Your welcome." Terrin smiled. The lizard smiled back with his large eyes. He seemed to clear his throat and shift back into his human form. The pair got walking again, Zan was tired from the trip through the thick water but tried not to show it. Terrin couldn't help but stare at the handsome man. His black and red hair was spiked much like the spines on his back when he was in his dragon form, and his golden brown eyes were close to the colors he wore around his pupils as a dragon. It was then that Terrin noticed the gash in his arm. It bled through the red armor that matched his scales but Zan seemed to pay no attention to it.

"You're hurt." Terrin pointed out.

"Yes, we keep any existing wounds in both forms." Zan said, like it was no big deal.

"I didn't know, lets stop here for the night and I'll bandage it." Terrin set down the large blackened earth dragon scales in a clearing and ripped part of

the tunic he wore under his armor. He sat down next to Zan and tied it around the gash like a bandage.

"It's not much but it's the best I can do. If I can find a certain type of plant I can crush it's leaves and it will act as a mild pain reliver." Terrin thought out loud, looking around for said plant.

"I'll be fine for now, maybe we'll find it tomorrow." Zan said, yawning and lying down. "This clearing isn't big enough for me to switch, we'll have to deal with the cold tonight." He mumbled.

"We should be fine." Terrin said, not convinced. They slept on opposite sides of the clearing. Terrin shivered and Zan's teeth chattered.

"Terrin?"

"Yes?"

"We would be warmer....if we shared body heat." Zan said, hesitantly. Terrin was quiet, but was glad that Zan had said something first. He would have said it in less than twenty seconds if the dragon hadn't first.

"You're right." Zan heard him stand and run over to his side, curling up on his chest without hesitation. He held back a laugh and could smell

the manly scent of Terrin on his chest. He sighed and finally began drifting off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Terrin woke up to the steady pounding of Zan's heartbeat. It was faster than a human's, but was constant and reassuring.

"Good, you're awake." Zan spoke. Terrin had no idea how he knew that

he had woken up, but he was glad to hear his voice,

strangely.

"Yes."

"We should get moving, if we hurry we can get there by the end of today, if not we should be there early tomorrow." He said and stood, pushing Terrin off of his chest. Terrin stood and stretched. before they started walking.

"Zan?"

"Yes?" Zan

answered, keeping his eyes ahead of

them.

"Won't there be other dragons at the lava pits?"

"Yes, why?" Zan asked.

"How are they going to feel about having a human there?" Terrin asked, worried.

"I-...I didn't think of that." Zan stopped walking and turned to face him.

"Me either, not until now anyways." 

"I'll talk to them, I'm well known in the brood and they should take my word."

"Should?" Terrin asked, worried.

"Yes, should." Zan seemed just as worried.

"Maybe I should just stay in the swamp then, until you're all healed up and ready to leave." Terrin reasoned.

"No way, if I have to fly into the human capital, you can walk into my brood." Zan laughed, and jumped over a fallen tree.

"Asshole." Terrin grumbled. Zan smiled and winked at him. As time went on he was growing more and more fond of the human. It was beginning to scare him. Two

people so different shouldn't be

together. At least as far as the world was concerned.

"So Dragon's are pretty free when it comes to relationships. Mating and such..." Terrin asked.

"Yes, we believe if you claim someone as their mate, then there's no exception. No matter the case." Zan said.

"Most other species don't follow that rule."

"No, they don't." 

"Why do you think that is?"

"Honestly?" Zan asked. When Terrin nodded he continued. "I think that considering there are only two actually intelligent species on this planet, Dragons and Humans, that's not a lot to go on. Dragon's are a lot like humans, but we've been around for a lot longer and have had time to learn from out mistakes. Human's have the capacity to be just as intelligent, but prejudice and the status quo keep them from reaching their full potential." Zan replied.

"That makes sense. But not all humans are like that."

"And not all Dragon's believe in mating freely." Zan said.

"They don't?"

"No. You can't expect an entire race to see things the same way. Ever." Zan said.

"I guess you're right there. I have to admit though. Pretty much every human thinks Dragon's are blood thirsty barbarians." 

"Do you?" Zan raised an eyebrow. Neither of them looked at each other while they walked, but each listened to the conversation intensly.

"I used to. But since I met you...I guess....No. I don't."

Terrin replied honestly.

"And since I've met you, I don't think all Humans are moronic killing machines." Zan looked over at Terrin and smiled.

"I think that means we're friends..." He smiled.

"I guess it does, doesn't it?" Zan nodded. Silence passed for a few momnets as the two thought about

their conversation but soon it was picked up again.

"But you know, Dragons don't believe in friendship." He said.

"They don't?" Terrin frowned.

"No. They believe in mates, which is equivilant to a Humans 'love'." Zan said. "And they believe in broods, which is equivilant to a Humans 'Family'." Zan explained. 

"Then where do friends fit in? Compaions? Allies?" Terrin asked.

"They fit in as family. Because when you befriend a dragon, you're friends for life." Zan smiled.

"I think I like the sound of that." Terrin nodded.

"That's one major

thing that separates Dragons from Humans." Zan said.

"What?" Terrin asked.

"That simple concept that Humanity isn't a species,

it's a state of mind."

They were silent for the rest of their walk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"It's getting hot." Terrin fanned his face with a leaf he had picked up awhile back.

"Yes, it is!" Zan smiled excitedly.

"We're close?"

"Very." Zan smiled wider and pulled back the vines of some old tree, revealing the pools of hot lava that awaited them. Behind the pools were several volcano's covered in caves and cliffs filled with dragons. Several deep red or orange dragons flew through the air and some bathed in the bubbling lava. Clutches of eggs could be seen in the distant crevices, caves, and ledges of the

volcano's.

"Leave your sword here, it will make you seem like more of an enemy than you already are." Zan said. Terrin dropped his sword from his side, leaving it hidden under a small bush.

"Let me go first, I'll talk to them and then come and get you." Zan looked excited to see his home again.

"Alright."

"I was worried I would never see my brood again..." He confided in his human family member. He paused for a second before stepping out into the black dirt of the lava fields. He shifted quickly and crawled into one of the steaming pools of red liquid. He was under the surface for a long time before coming up. Bits of lava clung to his scales and horns, but he seemed to sigh and relax for a moment. He sat in the pools for a few minutes before climbing out and stretching his wings. Terrin

saw his right wing was as good as new and didn't even show a scar. He reared up like he had the day they had met, and without hesitation, slammed his tail down onto the ground while pushing up with

his back legs and flapping his wings.

He took to the skies and did a few circles before flying towards the largest volcano in the center of the lava fields. He flew into a cave at the front of the volcano and was gone for nearly an hour.

Terrin began to worry when an hour and a half had passed. He was about to stand up from the spot he had claimed as his when he saw a familiar red dragon fly from the cave, followed by two others. He landed in the clearing near the swamp and walked towards where he had left Terrin. He stuck his head through the tree's and made eye contact with one large eye.

"I've spoken to our queen. She's agreed to speak with you, as long as you leave all of your weapons and fears behind." He spoke in his head once more. Terrin nodded and Zan allowed him to crawl on his back. 

"Are you ready to fly with a Dragon?" Zan asked, proudly stretching his

wings and roaring.

"As long as there's no crashing this time." Terrin swallowed nervously. He had always wondered what it would be like to be a bird and fly high above all of his problems. But now flying was his problem. Several red dragons stared at the human, many had never seen a human and had only heard stories.

"You left your sword

didn't you?" Terrin nodded.

"Then we'll be fine!" Zan said and without waiting for an answer, slammed his tail on the ground again and took off. Terrin screamed like a little girl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The

flight was short, only forty seconds or so as the volcano

was right there. But it was nothing other than terrifying. Terrin clung to the dragon's scales for dear life as he and the two other escorts soared towards what he knew to be the queen's lair. Zan landed, and Terrin jumped off quickly.

"I'm never doing that again, I think I'm going to be sick." He leaned on the wall of the cave.

"If you don't want to fly again, then you better get comfortable here, because you wont make it back to the human lands." Zan laughed. They walked to the cave and there was a strange sound coming from deep inside.

"What's that sound?" Terrin asked. They turned a corner and he had his answer. There, in the center of a large opening in the cave, was the queen. The strange sound he had heard was her breathing. Zan was huge, one of his claws was easily the size of one of the kingdom's biggest horses. And Zan, was easily the size of the queen's smalled claw. She was lying down, but even then she was probably taller than the castle Terrin had grown to call home. Several teeth poked out of her closed mouth, and her horns scraped the roof of the giant

cavern.

"You are the human called Terrin?" Her voice filled his head. Despite her size, her voice was sweet and light.

"I-I am." He stuttered.

"Do you know who I am?"

"You're the Queen... Of the Red dragons." 

"My name is, Sarazina. You may call me Sara." Her sweet voice echoed in his head again.

"It's... It's an honor to meet you." Terrin bowed.

"The honor is mine, human. It's been a long time since we've been able to have a civilized discussion with a human." She spoke.

"I'm sure it has." Terrin nodded.

"Zan told us how you met. Quite a story." The Dragon queen chuckled lightly in his head. "I sense good in you, Terrin. You may stay here until you're ready to leave." The queen nodded her head at him.

"Thank you, it means a lot to me. I promise not to cause any trouble." Terrin swore.

"I'm sure you won't, and Zan will watch over you. It's good to see another of my children find his mate,

no matter the species."

"Wait what?"

"Oh hell no!"

"I'm not his-"

"He isn't my-"

The dragon and his human

friend voiced their objection at the same time. Stumbling over their words and looking uncomfortable in the presence of the queen.

"You may not realize it yet, but it's true." The queen smiled at them.

"I think you have this wrong I-"

"Yes,

my queen, thank you." Zan bowed and carefully picked Terrin up with a clawed hand. He turned, and with three legs walked out of the cavern.

"Put me down!" Terrin shouted, and once they were standing outside the volcano, he gently set him down.

"What was all that?" Terrin asked.

"I

don't know, she can see things others can't." Zan shrugged his large shoulders.

"And you believed her?"

"Well... I admit I'm skeptical but she is my queen. She's wiser than you could ever know."

"I'm not your mate." Terrin said.

"I'm sure you're not, come on. We'll sleep here and head to the kingdom tomorrow morning." Zan waited for Terrin to get settled onto his back before taking off. He landed on a ledge of the nearby volcano. 

"Sleeping in the lava pools will help me heal even more, you can stay there, with the hatchlings. The brood mothers will keep you safe."

"You're having me sleep with a bunch of dragon

babies?" Terrin glared at him.

"You'll be fine, see you tomorrow." He smiled and glided down to the boiling pools of lava. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The next morning, Terrin woke up when two fighting dragon hatchlings rolled over him. He grunted and walked to the edge of the cliff. Zan looked up, and flew to meet him, perching on the edge of the cliff.

"Ready to leave?"

"Sure, how long will it take to get there?"

Terrin asked.

"A day, maybe." Zan shrugged.

"Good, lets go." Terrin nodded, but made no move to get onto Zan's back.

"We ARE flying, meaning you have to get on." Zan laughed. Terrin sighed and climbed on.

"Ready?" Zan asked.

"I suppose." Terrin sighed.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Zan said. He glided down gently to the ground near the pools. The drop made Terrin's stomach drop but it wasn't as bad as he thought. 

"I think I could get used to this" He muttered.

"I made you something last night."

"Made me something?" Terrin raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, climb down and I'll show you." Zan said. Terrin jumped off his back and Zan shifted into human form. He stepped behind a tree and came back with a helmet, breastplate, and legplates made out of the earth dragon scales Terrin had gathered.

"You made these?" Terrin ran his hand on the smooth scales.

"Yes, they're forged with the lava from the pools." Zan nodded to the bubbling pools.

"This is amazing!" Terrin took off his armor and put on the sleek black scales. 

"Oh, and there's more." Zan held up a long black blade with a handle made from the scales.

"Is this a tooth?" Terrin held it to the light to get a closer look.

"It is." He smiled.

"We didn't pick up a tooth though, where did you get it?"

"I guess when I shifted I lost one, it happens sometimes." Zan opened his mouth to reveal one of his back teeth was missing. 

"It's yours? Thank you, it's perfectly balanced." Terrin held the sword in his palm, letting it sway back and forth in a balanced motion.

"I'm glad you like it, those scales are good for keeping you safe from blunt attacts, they do no good from heat though. The sword will be

impervious to heat but the handle isn't.

It's also unbreakable." Zan explained. Terrin then realized that the tooth the sword was made from wasn't broken, but was still completely intact.

"This is incredible." He gave the sword a few practice swings and found the armor was light and provided awesome protection, and the sword was swift and made a beautiful sound when swung.

"We should get going, you're going to want to show off that new sword of yours to your father."

"Yeah, lets go." Terrin hopped onto Zan's back after he shifted. It was becoming easier and easier and it was actually beginning to feel natural to him.

"Lets fly!" Zan spoke in his head, and gave a fierce roar outloud. The roar shook the leaves on the tree and as it trailed off, they took to the skies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

They were flying for awhile when Terrin realized that the Divide was to his right, when it should have been ahead of them.

"We're going the wrong way, the Divide is there." He pointed.

"We need to go around. Over the ocean and around the divide." 

"Why?"

"Because, If I fly directly at a human kingdom, they're going to try and destroy me, we don't want that do we?"

"Uh, no, no we don't." Terrin swallowed.They flew until they reached the coast and the sparkling blue water looked inviting. 

"Look, there." Zan nodded his head down at the water.

"What?" Terrin scanned the oceans but didn't see anything. Zan dived until they were only a short distance from the water, but still high enough to get a birds eye view. Then Terrin saw it. The huge skeleton lined the ocean floor, twisting and curving for hundereds of feet.

"What is

that?"

"It's one of the water dragons."

"Jesus, I didn't think they would be so big."

"Yes." Zan continued to fly along the pattern it's skeleton made.

"What the hell could have killed it?"

"Human's did." Zan said

bitterly.

"What?" Terrin looked surprised.

"She was brought down by one of your fleets a few months ago. Look, between her ribs." Zan said, bringing him even closer to the water. There, underneath the body

that had rotten away under the twisting waters, was a clutch of eggs. The dragon had died protecting her eggs to her last breath.

"Can't they be saved?"

"By who?" Zan seemed to raise an eyebrow.

"Theres other dragons aren't there?" Terrin was desperate to find a way to save the unhatched dragons.

"Yes, of course. But who would save them? Red's can't take them. We can't even swim. They can't fly, they can't dig. They belong in the ocean, and another blue won't take them. More than likely they will rot without their mothers care." Zan said sadly.

"I want to help them." Terrin

frowned.

"I do too, but there's nothing we can do." Zan frowned, and took off in the direction of the human lands again.

"Do you think we'll see a live one?" Terrin looked down at the waters hopefully.

"Maybe, they're large and it's their mating season as far as I know." Zan said. Suddenly a huge crest broke the surface of the water and then disapeared.

"Was that..."

"Yes." Zan already knew the question. He got down low to the water and just past the surface was a full grown water dragon.

"Gods..." Terrin gasped as the large beast breached the surface and arched back into the water. Foot after foot of

the large snake passed through the water until it ended with a large sharklike tail.

"Is it true some of them can have two heads?"

"Yes. It's fairly common."

'That's crazy." Terrin laughed.

"It's life." Zan shrugged, smiling. The dragon came up to the surface again and moved her head to look up at Zan.

"Zan, what are you doing in these parts?" Her voice filled Terrin's head, and he assumed Zan's too.

"Just doing a favor for a friend." He moved so she could see Terrin on his

back.

"A human..." The dragon's eyes got wide as she swam along with Zan.

"They're not as horrible as they sound, believe it or not..." Zan laughed.

"You always were the open minded one, Zan. Good luck, I need to get back to my eggs." The dragon said, and dived beneath the waves again

"You know her?"

"I've seen her a few times, she's helped us out during the dry season."

"Dry season?"

"Food is scarce, she's caught whales and left them on the beach for us."

"Wow, I would think that fire dragons and water dragons wouldn't get along."

"Most dragon broods get along with each other. Despite human stories, all of us are quite peaceful, so long as our hatchlings aren't in danger." Zan said. They neared a chain of islands that went around the cliff of the Divide. Terrin recognized it as the way they had originally planned to take. The islands looked empty for the most part, and they were traveling much faster than they would be if they were walking.

"There, in the distance." Zan said.

"What is it?" Terrin asked, in the distance he could see a few black specs but couldn't make out what it was.

"It's the harbor, to your kingdom." Zan said, climbing in altitude.

"We're almost there!" Terrin smiled.

"You never told me, how did you

end up down in the dragon lands?"

"My uncle, he tried to kill me. That's when I landed on you. He wants to take over the throne."

"But the throne is yours, isn't it?"




The Divide



"It is when my father dies or steps down from his duties, but he thinks that because he's older than my father he deserves it." 

"Doesn't he? From what I know about human customs, the eldest child gets the throne."

"As long as they can reproduce they do, and my uncle is infertile. He cant have children therefore there's

no one to take the throne when he dies, so it was

given to my father." Terrin explained.

"I see." Zan pondered the situation quietly for a second. "And what do you plan to do when you get there?"

"Tell my father what's happened, expose my uncle and take my rightful place at the throne." 

"Your father is about to step down from the throne, is he not?"

"A few more years, yes."

"I see...Terrin, has it ever occured to you

that-"

"There, the castle. There will be guards there but they wont have any long range weapons with them so you'll be fine as long as you stay off the

ground. There's a large window in the roof leading to my fathers throne room, break through it and we'll land right there." Terrin said.

"Very well." Zan didn't continue with what he was saying, instead, he banked hard to the right and flew over the grassy highlands. His shadow scared the horses and cows roaming below, and a few soldiers guarding the fields pointed up at him in

fear.

"Terrin..." Zans voice shook in his head.

"What?" Terrin asked, eyes

pointed straight at his castle.

"I'm scared..." The words from the behemoth of a dragon were almost comical, but Terrin could hear the fear in his voice.

"It'll be okay, I'll talk to them. I won't let them hurt you." He stroked the large scales on the dragon's neck. Zan was silent. Suddenly, he turned upwards and flew in a straight line towards the heavens. He gained a good deal in altitude before turning and heading towards the large window in the top of the castle. He could see the throne in the back of the room, and tried to stay away from it, he didn't want to squish anyone afterall. He opened his wings before he hit the window to slow his fall, and felt the glass shatter beneath his feet. He landed with a thud on his hind legs and steadied himself with his wings. Half of the palace guards must have rushed in and before they could do anything Terrin jumped off of the dragon's back and drew his own sword. 

"No one touch the dragon or you answer to me!" He shouted of the roar of confusion and fear. The guards froze, none of them removing their eyes from the dragon who shifted uneasily in the room that barely contained him.

"Father!" Terrin shouted and ran behind Zan's hind leg to get

to the throne. He ducked under his

tail and faced the empty throne.

"Where is my father?" He turned to the guards, who were silent. "Where is the king?" He shouted. One of the guards turned away from the behemoth in the throne room and stuttered a reply.

"Your father is in the fields. Near the Divide. He was looking for you, sir...." The soldiers mouth went dry when Zan made an uncomfortable screech.

"Quiet, Zan. And my uncle?" Terrin put a

hand on the beasts leg to calm him.

"Is with him." The guards spoke.

"Get to them, as quickly as you can. Take Stormbringer if you must, my uncle has commited treason, he attempted to kill me, GO!" He shouted and quickly ran up the slope of Zan's wing, onto his bag and held tight as the dragon took off.

"We need to get to them, I have to tell my father what's going on."

"Terrin, did you ever think that your uncle might be.... a bit impatient." 

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, why would he wait a few years, when he could have the throne now?"

"He can't, with my father still alive he-... No, my father!" the realization hit Terrin and he encouraged Zan to go faster.

"Go! We need to get to them! Hurry Zan!" He turned to see half of the palace guards galloping after them. The head guard who Terrin had spoken to was riding

Stormbringer, and though she wasnt as

fast as when Terrin would ride her, she was almost matching pace with the dragon. Terrin could see a small group of people in the distance and he could feel the tension as his father neared the edge of the cliff. He looked over the Divide and he saw his uncle draw his sword, while still mounted on his horse.

"No..." Terrin whispered, not even Zan could hear him. His uncle drew his sword

back.

"No!" Terrin cried, and his uncle's sword slashed through the air.

"NO!" Terrin screamed. His father turned in time for the blade to be burried into his shoulder. Terrin was close enough to see his face go pale, and he watched as he lost his balance and slipped off his horse,

and into the Divide.

"Zan!" 

"I've got

him." Zan promise and dived over the Divide. He

chased the falling body of Terrin's father and, when he was close enough, opened his mouth and scooped up the king. He shut his mouth gently, making sure not to bite him, but keeping him safe. He pulled up and glided back up to the top of the Divide. There, the guards were attop their horses and his uncle sneered at him.

"You should be dead!" He growled.

"Arrest him!" Terrin shouted at the palace guards who just arrived. They did as they were told but then hesitated.

"What are you doing? Look! The boy is corrupt, he's working with Dragons! I saw the beast swallow the king whole!"

"You pushed him!"

"He fell, and your pet beast ate him!" His uncle shouted. The guards stared at Terrin expectedly. Zan bent his head and opened his mouth, gently placing the king on the grass. Terrin jumped down and went to his fathers aid.

"Father?"

"Terrin, you... fell..."

The king gasped.

"I was pushed father, by uncle." Terrin tried to keep the tears from falling but to no avail.

"I should have known." The king coughed and held the large wound in his shoulder. 

"It's not your fault, I didn't know until he did it."

"He...attacked

me?"

"Yes, but you're going to be alright, we'll get you help." Terrin looked around but didn't know what to look for.

"Is that a...." The king pointed up at Zan.

"Yes, but he's a friend. Don't worry." Terrin smiled.

"A friend, you've made friends with a dragon?"

"It's a long story, we need to get you help." Terrin stood. "Zan, can you give him a ride to the palace? There's doctors there, they can help him." Terrin begged.

"Of course." Zan laid down on the ground and Terrin called over several guards who helped the king onto the back

of the red behemoth.

"You, ride with them and see to it that my father is safe." Terrin pointed to the guard who had brought Stormbringer.

"Me?" The guard went pale. "On that?" He pointed to Zan.

"Him." Terrin warned. "His name is Zan, he'll take good care of you and my father, now go." he nodded.

"Come on then." Zan nodded at the guard, who put a hand to his head.

"It talks..."

"He." Terrin repeated.

"Right... He." The guard crawled onto his back behind the king slowly, and swallowed.

"Alright...Uh...I'm ready." Zan stood and took off, the screams of the guard fading into the distance.

"How are you still alive?" Terrin's uncle questioned.

"You'd be surprised how forgiving a dragon is when you fall on it's back." Terrin smiled.

"What? You fell on it's- What are the odds of- forget it!" His uncle shouted. "It will turn on you, they're ruthless beings. You can't befriend something that isn't human."

"You know what separates Humans from Dragons?" Terrin asked. His uncle only glared expectedly.

"Dragons understand that humanity isn't a species, it's a state of mind." Terrin smiled. "Take him to the jail. And assemble all of the guard and the kingdom in front of the palace." Terrin said. He climbed upon the back of his beloved horse and galloped towards the palace with the speed of a soaring red dragon. But it wasn't the same as the real thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most of the

palace had seen the dragon. They were afraid it was an

invasion, that the war would start again. When the red behemoth landed it's scaley feet on the stones in front of the palaces greatest doctors home, the king was brought down by a knight bearing the colors of the kingdom.

"Everyone to the palace courtyard! Now! Royal Guard and all!" The guard shouted as he carried the king into the home of the doctor. Everyone stood motionless at the great lizard on the cobblestone walkway. Horses were frozen in their tracks, their riders, the guards, the citizens of the kingdom, it seemed even the air itself had frozen. Zan knew he should get back to Terrin, but even he had frozen under the stare of hundereds of people.

"To the kingdom, now!" The guard shouted.

"You have no horse, I assume

you will be wanting a ride there?" Zan

spoke to the guard who nearly jumped in fright.

"Yes, if you would Dragon."

"My name is

Zan." Zan said as he climbed his

wing.

"My apologies, Zan." The guard still seemed terrified of the flying red.

"Apology accepted." Zan smiled inside and took off again. The guard managed to hold back his scream this time, but Zan could feel his muscles tense with fear as the rose above the kingdom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Terrin led his horse through the crowd heading towards

the castle. He saw the great shadow of Zan fly over him and looked up in time to see the great behemoth pass behind a building, blocking him from sight. He galloped until he reached the doctors home. Without even making sure Stormbringer was tied to a post, he dashed inside.

"Father?" He called out, looking through the house.

"In here, my prince." The doctor called out. Terrin followed the voice through the house and found his father on the table used for patients.

"How is he?"

"I think he'll live. But it's a bad wound." The doctor soaked a rag in warm water by his side, and then continued dabbing at the wound.

"Terrin..." The king gasped.

"I'm here, father." Terrin went to where his father could see him.

"You need to do something for me."

"Just wait until the doctor is finished with you and you can do it yourself." Terrin smiled.

"I'm sure I'll be fine, but it's time for you to take the throne." His father held his hand.

"What? No, you'll live and you'll be able to lead your people as you always have." Terrin said, trying not to cry.

"I know I will make a recovery. But until then, I'm in no condition to rule, and judging by the way you made it back home, I'm sure the kingdom needs a strong leader right now." The king said.

"Father, I can explain I-"

"No need, I trust in what you've done and what you plan to do. You've proven to me that you're far more mature than any of us had made you out to be, and that you're ready to take over." 

"But Father, I-"

"You must do this, my son. It's your time to rule." The king said. Terrin was silent for a moment.

"I'll do my best, father." Terrin promised.

"I know, you will. Now go make me proud and rule this kingdom as I would."

"I planned on giving a speech to the kingdom, will you be able to hear it?"

"I will." The king swore.

"I need to go."

"Go then, and change the world." The king said, as if he knew what his son had been thinking about since he met the great dragon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terrin led Stormbringer directly into the palace. Her hooves made an unusual sound against the stone tiles the floor was made of. She was

forced to slow down for the turns through the hallway, the floor was not built to

keep a horse from sliding. He dismounted as he reached the stairs that led to the large balcony used for speeches made by the king or generals. He climbed the stairs swiftly and reached the balcony as the last of the huge crowd filled the courtyard. Zan hovered above the crowd, kicking up dirt and leaves that had fallen from the tree's.

"Zan, land on the castle." He shouted over the roar of the wind from the dragon's wings and the confusion of the crowd. Luckily Zan heard him and he dug his claws into one of the pointed spires of the castle. He slid down a little bit, digging claw marks into the tiles of

the roof. The screams of

the people could be heard easier now, and some pointed. Women fainted dramatically, men held their swords tight, children cowered behind their parents.

"The king was attacked!" Terrin said, to get the peoples attention. The kingdom went silent. The only sound was Zan, trying to keep from falling off the tower not meant to hold a dragon.

"My uncle committed treason. He attempted to kill me and then my father." The kingdom was still silent.

"I know the guards who assisted him, and I'm telling you now that all of you will be brought to justice." Terrin said.

"My father is alive, but injured. He has passed the throne on to me." A few voices rose up, chattering with each other about what was happening. Terrin saw Zan turn his head, surprised at the announcment.

"I am your new King...." Terrin said, surprised at the words coming out of his mouth. All was quiet for a long moment until the guard who had ridden Zan to the doctors stepped forward.

"All hail King Terrin!" He shouted. Another moment of silence passed before the entire kingdom cheered. People bowed and some cried.

"Congradulations, your highness." Zan whispered in his head. Terrin turned towards him and smiled, remembering why he was really up here.

"There's more!" Terrin screamed over he crowd, though nobody heard him. He waited for the cheering to die down but it didn't. "Zan, could

you help me out here?" He saw the

giant red dragon open his mouth as he enhaled, and let forth a roar loud enough to shake the walls of the palace. The crowd was silent.

"There's more." Terrin repeated.

"My uncle pushed me off the Divide, and I should have died. But in a stroke of fate...I landed on the back of a great...red...dragon." Terrin put emphasis on each of the last three words. "My sword cut his wing and we fell. He couldn't

hunt and I couldn't get past the Divide. We made a pact that day, almost a week ago. I would help him make it to the lava pits, and he would fly me home." Terrin let his

words sink in.

"During those five days, we became more than two enemies dealing with each other to get what we want." Terrin was silent again. "We became friends." There was a shocked murmer throughout the crowd.

"You have to understand, everything we thought about them was wrong!" Terrin shouted over the growing roar, and the people began to quiet.

"They're not viscious beasts. They're smarter than you know. They're kind, and they're thoughtful. The night at the lava pits, I stayed with a nest of dragon hatchlings. They're raised in a group setting, all the dragons look over them together. All of them protecting each other." Terrin explained what he had seen.

"They treated me as their own. They made sure I was warm enough and one of the mothers even went out and found me fruit to eat. Zan risked his life more than once for me. Not because he needed me to hunt for him, but because we're friends." Terrin said, looking at the dragon who nodded in agreement.

"I met their queen,

she's so beautiful I can't even put it into words. I spoke to a water dragon. I saw the bones of one who had died protecting her eggs from one of us. I nearly got eaten by an enormous earth dragon who only wanted to protect her nest. I was attacked by harpies, and more mosquitoes than you can count." Terrin grew excited as he realized all of the things he had seen on the short five day journey.

"This whole time, we've seen them as

evil wretched creatures who

are greedy and only want to slay us. But they're not."

"The water dragons sink hundreds of our ships and kill thousands of us every year! What does your friend have to say about that?!" A man shouted from the crowd. Several people nodded in agreement.

"We sail into their waters, their home. We hit them with our ships and crush their nests. We steal food from their hunting grounds, we're doing the provoking! They're only defending themselves!" Terrin shouted.

"So what should we do? Just stop

eating and sailing?" The man scoffed.

"You could speak with us. We can get together to make a map of where it's safe for us to nest, and for you to sail. We can share the oceans, they're a large place." Zan spoke. Terrin's eyes suddenly lit up.

"We can do more than that." He mumbled, the crowd turning to face

him.

"We can work together. We don't need to continue to see each other as enemies, only tolerating each other enough to get our food." Terrin said.

"We can talk to the leaders of the dragons, I can meet with them, we can share the land." Terrin

said. "How much easier would it be if

we could hunt in the swamps? If they could fly in the open air up here? The earth dragons would be amazing allies, the fire dragons are the most powerful things I've ever seen, and the water dragons are beautiful and powerful. How would you feel having an entire whale to feed the kingdom? And being able to sail the waters freely?"

"Terrin..." Zan seemed unsure of this.

"A whale?" The words seemed to sink into the audience, astonished at the thought of being able to feed the entire kingdom with one animal. 

"No Divide?" Another wondered, amazed at the thought that the giant cliff seperating the lands could vanish.

"We would be able to get leather from the repitles in the swamps..." Another said.

"And the herbs there would be an amazing contribution to my collections of medicine, theres herbs there I haven't been able to get in years!" The doctor

said.

"Zan, could you take me back? To see the red queen?" Terrin asked.

"I could...But it would be up to all of the dragons. Not just her." Zan explained.

"Then fly ahead. Talk to your queen, and the other leaders. Bring them....To the islands. The ones that are

lines up with the Divide. I'll bring a handful of our

generals and nobles to speak with them." Terrin reasoned.

"You're really serious about this aren't you?" Zan's eyes were wide.

"The time for fighting is over, Zan. It's time that we brought our people together." Terrin smiled. Zan looked at him with shock until a smile settled on his scaly lips.

"You're insane." Zan said, and took off into the air.

"Give me three days, to convince them." Zan called out in Terrin's mind as he flew off.

"You have three days, Zan! Don't disapoint me!" Terrin shouted after the soaring figure of the behemoth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Two days later

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

'This is the longest week of my life' Terrin thought. In seven days he had nearly been murdered, made friends with a dragon, met the queen of the red dragons, gotten home, stopped an assassination, became king, made a speech to his new kingdom, came up with the idea to join two races that hated each other, made an appointment with all of the kings and queens of the dragons, had a court date with his uncle and postponed his trial until after the meeting with the dragons. That's more than anyone should do in a lifetime, much less seven

days.

"Sire, everything is ready for the journey tomorrow." The guard who had flown with Zan said. Since that day Terrin had promoted him to head of the guard, dismissing the previous head for treason. He showed more bravery in the confusing time than anyone else.

"Good... Prepare Stormbringer for yourself." Terrin said.

"But, how will you get there?"

"I have my own ride coming." Terrin smiled. Suddenly a monstrous roar shook the kingdom, and the shadow of the familiar red behemoth was cast over the castle. Terrin smiled and quickly rushed outside just in time to see Zan fly towards the Divide. He hopped onto one of the guard horses, and as the head of the guard followed him he headed towards the steep cliff that still separated the lands. He dismounted while he was a good distance away from the cliff side and smiled as another roar echoed through the air.




The Divided Soul



"Oh yeah! Like that, more, more, more! Oh God Fuck me! YEAH!"

Andrew tried to bury his head under his pillow but it was no use. There was no chance of him getting any sleep with the noise from the room next door. Especially with the house's paper thin walls. There were a number of advantages to living at home while studying at University, no problems with rent or food and his mother still did his laundry. The downside was having to listen to his twin sister Rebecca's sexcapades night after night.

Rebecca brought home a different guy practically every night, dragged him back to her room and fucked his brains out for hours at a time. Andrew tried not to be judgmental; after all it was just sexism that made guys into studs and girls into sluts if they had a lot of sex. As long as she was careful Rebecca could screw whoever she liked. Andrew just wished she could do it at their houses and keep the noise down. He had long since abandoned late night essay-writing. He had tried head phones, but music was almost as distracting as sex noises. Earplugs didn't seem to help either, as the wall would periodically thump as Rebecca's bed slammed into it. How his parents didn't hear it was beyond him. r perhaps they did and just turned a deaf ear.

"Oh for God's sake just shut up," Andrew moaned to himself through gritted teeth. Perhaps he should have said something, but it was difficult enough to imagine his little sister (Rebecca was thirty minutes younger than him) having sex at all. Especially when Andrew was still a virgin at twenty. It wasn't that he was nervous with girls or anything, he just never had much interest.

Andrew dragged himself out of bed and headed out onto the landing. Maybe if he went to the toilet Rebecca would hear him and think to fuck more quietly. Some hope. Andrew walked across the landing, fighting the instinct to muffle his footsteps. As he walked past he noticed that Rebecca's door was slightly ajar and for some reason he found himself glancing inside.

There was no denying that his sister was attractive. Her breasts were round, firm and large, without being ridiculously oversized. She was slim, but not skinny and still quite curvy, with a firm round ass and main of thick red hair. She was sitting on top of her latest sexual partner riding him frantically. Suddenly she glanced towards the door. Andrew darted out the way embarrassed and hoped he hadn't been spotted. He quickly entered the bathroom. His penis was making a tent in his boxers. Andrew tried not to think about his sisters naked body as he waited for his erection to subside.

After peeing, Andrew found himself pacing around the bathroom trying to find something to do. He had no intention of going back to bed; he wouldn't have been able to sleep and in any case the last thing he wanted was for Rebecca to spot him and really think he was a pervert. Andrew lowered the lid of the toilet seat and sat down on top of it resting his head in his hands, because of tiredness rather than despair. He couldn't say anything to Rebecca or his parents, but a few more sleepless nights were going to kill him. 

Andrew's head grew increasingly fuzzy as he tried not to stay awake, but he was finding it harder and harder to think.

He woke up all at once with a jolt. He was sitting up, no kneeling up, the lights had gone out where was he? He felt something between his legs and looked down. He was naked and was sitting on Rebecca's boyfriend and what was worse he had breasts. He was a woman, no worse he was Rebecca. She was riding up and down as her boyfriends rock hard penis thrust inside her. Andrew realised that he couldn't control how his, or rather her, body was responding. He hadn't become Rebecca, he was just a passenger in her head.

Her boyfriends thrusts continued. Andrew could feel her pussy, it wasn't like anything he had ever felt before. Like masturbating on the inside somehow. It was incredible. Rebecca grabbed her breasts, and Andrew felt a jolt as she tweaked her sensitive nipples. He gasped and at that moment so did Rebecca.

"Oh God Fuck me you stud! Yeah! More! like that!" Rebecca exclaimed. Andrew realised why she was so loud, this was intense. He was building up energy he had to release. He could feel it reaching a peak, any minute now she going to...

"I'm coming," Rebecca squealed. Then she let out a shriek, not of pain but release as it all came out. Her body shuddered and Andrew found himself sharing his sister's orgasm. The sensation that started inside her and spread out all over her making her tingle. She collapsed on to her partners chest gasping for breath. His cock still spasmed inside her, they had come together.

"Oh my God," thought Andrew, "that was incredible." Suddenly, Rebecca sat up

"Andrew?" she said, startled. She looked round at her door. "Andrew you perv, are you there?" she hissed.

"What?" her partner asked blearily.

"Nothing," replied Rebecca dismissively, rolling off him onto the bed. "I thought I heard my pervybrother outside."

"Twisted," the guy said, before rolling over to face away from Rebecca and promptly drifting off to sleep.

Rebecca lay back looking at the ceiling. Andrew was still a passenger. How the hell was he going to get out of this he wondered.

"Andrew?" Rebecca hadn't spoken, Andrew could just hear her thinking. "Shit, are you in my head."

Andrew tried not to think, to let his mind go blank.

"You are, you're in my head," his sister thought. "How the fuck did you that? Shit, were you in there while we were screwing? You pervert, get out, get out now!."

"I can't," Andrew tried to think. But at that moment there was flash of light and he found himself back in his body back in the bathroom sitting on the toilet seat. He stood up and found he had come in his boxer shorts. He grabbed some toilet paper and tried to clean himself up quickly. Then he crept back across the landing as quickly and quietly as he could.

As he passed Rebecca's room he couldn't help looking inside. His sister was sitting up in bed and looked accusingly at him as he walked past. Andrew hurried back to bed and buried his head under the covers. He half expected Rebecca to storm in and attack him, but he was left alone. The experience must have freaked her out as much as it had freaked him out.

* * *

Breakfast the next morning was an uncomfortable experience. Rebecca and Andrew weren't talking to one another, or even looking at one another for that matter. Their parents carried on regardless, assuming that the twins had had one of their frequent arguments. Rebecca stormed around the kitchen pointedly ignoring Andrew as if he didn't exist. Andrew just paid very close attention to his cornflakes.

After their parents had left for work, things hardly relaxed. Andrew sat for about two minutes of painful and heavy silence before getting up from the table.

"I'm off," he mumbled as he headed for the door.

"Andrew," Rebecca ordered. "What the hell happened last night?"

"What?" Andrew replied, trying to sound confused.

"You were in my head," his sister replied, "I could hear you thinking."

"I d-don't know what you mean," Andrew replied.

"Crap," his sister retorted. "You're a lousy liar Andrew, you stammer and look at your feet. You got in my head while I was having sex, you perv. How in the hell did you do it?"

"I didn't do it," said Andrew, defensively, "it was completely non-consensual. I was just in the bathroom and then I somehow got transferred into your body."

"In the bathroom," his sister retorted with a smirk, " you were wanking thinking about me. I saw you look in my room you perv."

"Stop calling me a perv," Andrew yelled, "Do you only know one insult or something?"

"Are you calling me stupid?" His sister demanded.

"Whatever," Andrew replied snarkily, "And maybe if you weren't fucking a different guy every night with you door wide open I wouldn't have to risk seeing your naked body. It's hardly like I had a choice with you throwing your sex life in my face."

"Your just jealous because your not getting any," Rebecca yelled back.

"Slut," Andrew muttered under his breath, and immediately regretted it.

"Bastard!" Rebecca yelled, and she hurled Andrew's cereal bowl at him, missing by an inch.

Andrew stormed out of the house slamming the door behind him. That hadn't gone well, Andrew felt like an ass hole for saying some of those things. It wasn't any of his business who Rebecca chose to have sex with; except that it was keeping him awake. He really didn't want to hurt his sister, and it hadn't helped that some of her remarks had hit a little too close to home.

Andrew really wasn't getting any sex. He couldn't deny it. The weird part was that he didn't really care. He had never been interested in girls and had hardly even masturbated. He wasn't gay, he was definitely attracted to women, in so far as he was attracted to anyone, he just didn't seem to have a libido. Not that that was a problem, it certainly made studying easier without one obvious distraction, but the fact that he had no interest made him feel abnormal and out of place.

Also, the few times he had masturbated, over porn magazines borrowed from friends, he had found images of Rebecca floating into his head. It was worrying that the closest thing he had to a sexual fantasy was fucking his sister. Finding himself a passenger in her body during sex was hardly helping. And the huge fight he'd just had hadn't helped him at all.

Andrew felt he needed to talk to someone about this. Normally he wouldn't even consider talking about his sex life, or the lack of it, but this was too weird to keep bottled up, and there was no way that Rebecca was going to sit down calmly and discuss things. Andrew decided to consult his best friend Tim, a psychology student with a semi-sympathetic ear.

* * *

"Weird," said Tim darkly, leaning over his coffee.

"Thanks Tim," Andrew replied sarcastically. "It's a good thing I unburdened my soul to you. If I hadn't done that I might not have benefited from your expert opinion that finding myself in my sister's body during sex was 'weird.'"

"Well it could have been an hallucination," Tim continued, ignoring Andrew's sarcasm, "they're more common than you would think and can be caused by stress or lack of sleep."

"There's no way it was an hallucination," Andrew countered, "Rebecca felt it too. And remembered it the next day, which is why I almost got a bowl of cereal in the face."

"Well there's anecdotal evidence of a connection between twins, them feeling each other's pain or knowing when each other are depressed or in trouble," Tim suggested. "Of course there haven't been any conclusive studies done. To be honest I can't say I believe in any of that."

"Neither do I," replied Tim. "Or at least I didn't until last night. I'd have been ready to believe I was cracking up, seriously, if it wasn't for Rebecca. I mean she's always been pretty out there, but I can't believe we're having simultaneous, complimentary breakdowns. But then I don't believe in out of body experiences, or that I could be inside my sister's head."

"Like I said 'weird,'" Tim repeated.

"That's not exactly helpful," said Andrew, disgruntled.

"Well you've handed me something a little outside of my experience," Tim responded snarkily. "I'm a psychology student, this semi-magical shit isn't exactly my area, I'm doing my best."

"Sorry," Andrew said, "I'm just more than a little freaked out here."

"Hang on," Tim said, suddenly enthusiastic, "I've had a thought. It's a bit nuts, but so's your problem. There's this girl I know a bit, we've been to a few of the same lectures. Anyway, she's kind of into witchcraft and all that kind of thing. I don't know how seriously she takes it, it's probably bollocks anyway, but she might have some kind of insight into your kind of weird problem."

"I'm not exactly brimming with confidence," said Andrew reluctantly. "Why should she take me seriously, even if I wanted to tell a complete stranger about this?"

"Well I don't know what else to suggest," retorted Tim. "She's definitely heard about weirder stuff than this, and been involved in it if rumours are true. She might be able to help. I've got her mobile number if you want to call her. Her name's Holly Shaw."

Andrew took the number, but wasn't sure what to make of it. In the end he decided to give it a go, after all it wasn't as if he knew Holly so it hardly mattered what she thought of him and his weird problems.

* * * The next day Andrew found himself on the way to Holly's house with a reluctant Rebecca in tow. He had just had been a very strange conversation with Holly over the phone. Holly hadn't questioned his story nor had she offered any suggestions or advice. She just listened and hardly seemed to react at all. She had very matter of factly asked him to come see her and insisted that he bring Rebecca along. Convincing his sister to come had hardly been easy, and Andrew was beginning to regret it.

"Where in the hell are we going," Rebecca demanded for something approaching the three-hundredth time.

"I told you," Andrew answered through gritted teeth, "to see a friend of Tim's."

"And who is this friend and why are we telling her about your weird problems," Rebecca objected.

"My problems?" Andrew retorted. "This happened to both of us, and the last time I checked that's not normal. Believe it or not I don't want to be a passenger in my sister's head the next time she has sex."

"You probably get off on it you pervert."

Andrew resisted rising to the bate. The last thing he needed was Rebecca flying off the handle again.

"Look, I'm honestly freaked out by this and I know you are too," he said as calmly and reasonably as possible. "I've talked to Tim and he hasn't got a clue. I don't see how a psychotic episode could happen to both of us at the same time."

"Okay," Rebecca said, sounding somewhat calmer and more rational, "so what's special about this friend of Tim's? What does she know that he doesn't?"

"She's, a kind of... witch," Andre admitted, bracing himself.

"Are you fucking insane?!" Rebecca yelled, "if you're going crazy you don't go see a crazy person! You need fucking therapy, not voodoo. Jesus, I knew this was a fucking stupid idea."

"For God's sake Rebecca," Andrew interrupted, "I know it's nuts but I haven't the faintest idea what else to try. This is bizarre and I'm scared and I just want to deal with it and if that means spending half an hour with someone who turns out to be crazy what have we got to loose. If it doesn't work then we look for professional help. Will you please just go along with me just this once?"

Rebecca sighed and said nothing, but she didn't storm off. This was progress Andrew told himself, now he just had to hope that this Holly person wasn't too out there."

* * *

In the event Holly turned out to be surprisingly normal She was short, quite curvy and with her hair all over the place. She lived in a house full of incense and wind charms and it was quite clear that all her house-mates were hippies of one sort or another. Holly, however, didn't come across as a hippy at all. She was wearing a simple pink top and blue jeans and drank coffee out of a mug the size of a bucket, having offered the same to Andrew and Rebecca, both had declined.

Andrew had tried to explain the situation as best he could, feeling self-conscious and embarrassed the whole time. Rebecca had sat in stone-face silence throughout, she seemed to be trying to stare Holly down. Either Holly hadn't noticed or was ignoring her.

"Interesting," Holly said when Andrew finished explaining the problem. "It's not quite the 'I feel his pain' bollocks you normally get from twins."

"So you believe us?" Andrew asked.

"I don't know," Holly replied, "do you believe I'm a witch?"

"Um.. I don't really.. well," Andrew stammered.

"It's fine Andrew," Holly said jovially, "you're obviously not the type to buy into this stuff. You clearly wouldn't be here if you could come up with any sort of reasonable scientific explanation."

"Look can you help us not?" Rebecca butted in, speaking for the first time. Holly did not seem phased by her rudeness.

"I think I might, have an answer for you," Holly responded, "but you're going to have to take a fair bit on faith, this isn't the kind of answer you'll be used to."

"You can help?" Andrew interjected, he was shocked at how lightly Holly seemed to have taken it.

"Think so," Holly said casually, "but it's a little outside of my experience. I've heard of your problem before, but it usually only happens with identical twins. You see when a foetus divides in the womb to produce twins, sometimes it can happen that the soul of the child has already formed and gets divided as well. Normally the division happens first and the soul of each baby develops later, it's only when it develops really early that this can happen. With non-identical twins the cell division happens that much earlier, so you two must have formed a soul really early on.

"Your problem, essentially, is that you only have half a soul each. That means that the two halves are trying to merge and that's why your experiencing body swaps. Both soul halves really belong in one body."

"Sorry, what?" Asked Andrew, baffled, "I've never heard of anything like this before."

"This is a loud of total crap," Rebecca interrupted. "It's new-age hippy shit, you don't know anything."

"Hey come to a witch and you get weird answers," Holly countered, seemingly unbothered by Rebecca's hostility, "if you don't believe it you can go."

"Fine," Rebecca stood up and turned towards the door.

"You've had dozens of sexual partners, but you've never felt satisfied, or even attracted to them," said Holly as Rebecca opened the door.

"What the hell...?" Rebecca sounded more puzzled than angry.

"And you," Holly continued, turning to Andrew, "have never had sex and have no interest in it, except for a mysterious attraction to your sister."

Andrew said nothing.

"Sit down," Holly said firmly, surprisingly Rebecca obeyed. "Your problem, both of you, is that you're incomplete. You can't ever be satisfied with half a soul. One of you keeps trying to find love but can't ever get close to anyone and the other buries himself in learning and achievement but wont find what he truly needs. Each of you needs the other to be complete. You've had this problem for years, the body flashes just show how extreme its getting. But there not really the real issue, as long as your apart your lives will just continue as to be unfulfilled and you'll be incapable of true happiness or peace."

"What do we do?" Asked Andrew, "assuming I believed anything of course."

"You have to bring both halves of your soul together," answered Holly. "You see there shouldn't really be two of you; you should really be one whole being."

"What does that actually mean though?" Questioned Rebecca, still trying to sound unimpressed.

"You'll become one person," said Holly, bluntly, "with the memories of both of you. With identical twins its fairly straight-forward, there were two they become one. With you two it's more complicated, both of your minds will be combined in one body, but I couldn't tell you what form this body will take."

"So one of us dies?" Asked Rebecca, sounding nervous all of a sudden.

"It's not death," Holly countered, "its becoming something else. Both of you will become a new person neither one nor the other but both. The alternative is to stay separate, but the attraction will get stronger, the body sharing more frequent and less controllable, and, most importantly, you'll become more and more lost as you find you can't continued living with half a soul. It's up to you what you do."

"How do we do it?" Asked Andrew, "become one person I mean?"




The Divided Soul



Holly hesitated. "Your not going to like it," she said warily.

"Will you just tell us," Rebecca snapped.

"You need to bring your soul together, the two halves have to be close, not physically, emotionally, closer than you've been to anyone before. You need to make love, not have sex, not fuck or screw, make love, experience true intimacy."

"No way in hell am I going to fuck my brother," Rebecca yelled outraged. "I should have known this was all crap, you almost had me going. You're a screwed up bitch."

She turned and stormed out of the house slamming the door.

"Rebecca wait," Andrew called after her. "I'm sorry," he said to Holly turning to go himself.

"You know I'm right Andrew," Holly said matter of factly. "Deep down you can feel it. Give Rebecca some time, she'll come round to it as well, trust me."

Andrew said nothing, he just turned to go.

* * *

That evening Andrew was back in his room studying. He had trudged home from Holly's without Rebecca. She had returned several hours later, alone for once, ignored her parents and Andrew and stormed off to her room. Andrew hadn't seen her since. He had tried to pacify his parents by claiming that they had had a fight and that he would apologise as soon as she came out of her room. He wasn't sure if they had believed him, but they hadn't pursued the matter, yet.

Andrew couldn't concentrate. What Holly had told him was deeply unsettling. It wasn't that he believed her exactly, the whole idea had been completely crazy. And yet. Some of what she had said had been true. He had never had sex and couldn't see himself ever wanting to. All through his life he had thrown himself into work and studying, but he had never truly been satisfied by it. It was just what he did, how he went through life, it had never really occurred to him to question why.

As for Rebecca, he couldn't know what she was thinking, but it was certainly true that she'd had more than her fair share of one-night stands. She was having lots of sex, but had never had a boyfriend that he knew of. Okay, it was her life to live, but it was easy to imagine that she felt as unfulfilled as Andrew did.

And then there was the question of the body flash, or whatever you wanted to call it. That certainly couldn't be explained away.

Andrew returned to his books and tried to forget what he had heard. And then it happened again.

With a start he found himself lying on his back naked. He was inside Rebecca's body again, and she was masturbating furiously with both hands. Her left hand was rubbing at the area round her clitoris, while her right thrust deep inside her pussy, desperately trying to awaken some sensation, anything to get rid of the horrible sense of numbness that she felt in her soul.

Andrew suddenly realised that this time was different. He wasn't simply hearing Rebecca's thoughts, he was sharing her feelings. Her body and soul were completely open to him and he could feel inside and know everything about his sister for the first time.

Rebecca felt lonely, desperately lonely and lost without any kind of direction in her life. She had been trying to find it all her life, feeling intimidated by Andrew's intelligence and focus. Andrew wanted to laugh out loud, he had always envied her confidence. She had been using sex to numb the pain, trying to fill the emptiness with physical sensation.

"Andrew?" Rebecca's voice sounded in his head, not angry or shocked, but simply curious.

"Yes," thought Andrew and at that moment the twins opened themselves up to each other fully. Each could reach inside the others heart and mind, it was all completely revealed. They experienced each others memories, goals, dreams, fears, hopes. And they each realised that everything that had been missing in their lives could be found in the other. It was true, only together were they truly complete.

With a start Andrew found himself back in room. He was sweating and his penis was rock hard. He knew what he needed to do. He pulled down his boxer shorts and quickly sneaked across the landing to Rebecca's room. His sister was waiting for him, naked, legs spread, her pussy wet and waiting for him.

Neither one of them said anything, Andrew leaned forward and his lips met Rebecca's. Their mouths opened and their tongues intertwined for a moment, before they began to explore each others mouths. Their eyes met and locked. They didn't need to speak; each knew exactly what the other was thinking.

Andrew reached out to his sisters right breast and squeezed it gently but firmly. Rebecca gave a slight moan, it tickled Andrew's tongue which was still in her mouth. Their lips parted and Andrew moved down across her body and gently nibbled on her left nipple, teasing it with his tongue. Rebecca moaned more loudly and reached out to Andrew's back. Her nails dug into his skin, only a little enough to tease him. Andrew sucked more fiercely, and then bit on the nipple lightly. Rebecca gave a squeak of delight and dug her nails in more strongly.

Andrew rose up and looked down on his sister. He looked into her eyes and then moved back a little further, truly looking at her for the first time in his life. She was truly beautiful, not just physically, at that moment she represented everything Andrew wanted from life. He leaned down to kiss her again and she reached round and embraced him. They lay together for a moment, comforted by each other's warmth, feeling truly happy and safe. Still they didn't speak, they were sharing a moment of deep communication far more profound than words.

Andrew started to get up and, at the exact same moment, Rebecca released her grip. Andrew made his way down to his sisters pussy, already wet and ready for him. Placing a hand on each leg, he parted them carefully and looked closely at his sisters most intimate place. He leaned forward, smelling her scent and kissed it. His lips met his sisters labia. He pushed his tongue inside and began to explore her. Rebecca squealed as Andrew's tongue rose and fell, moving deeply inside of her and then moving out, teasing her, bringing her to the brink and then holding back.

Andrew slowly moved up, licking all the while, until he reached Rebecca's clitoris, already bright red and warm. He dabbed it lightly with his tongue, which caused Rebecca to cry out again. He licked around her clit, spiralling gently and teasing his sister even more. Rebecca reached down a hand towards his head and ruffled his hair. It was not an erotic gesture, more one of comfort and acceptance. Andrew continued more forcefully, pushing Rebecca quickly to the bring. A quick thrust of his tongue took her over the edge and she wailed in ecstasy as her orgasm took hold. Her head flew back and she gripped the sheets with both hands. Her body shook as her pussy twitched. Andrew kissed it gently and then rose up to look at her again.

Rebecca came down from her orgasm, and sat up, her eyes met Andrew's and she leaned up to kiss him again, tasting herself as she did so. Her eyes moved down, and Andrew realised that the gesture meant that it was his turn.

He sat down on the bed his legs apart, his cock hard and pointing to the sky. Rebecca was on her knees but leaned down to get to her brother's cock, leaving her ass sticking up in the air. Her lips parted and she took her brother into her mouth, sliding her tongue up and down the length of his shaft. She gripped the base of his cock gently but firmly in her right hand and started to move her mouth up slowly up and down. As she did so she ran her tongue gently along the underside, flicking it gently and tickling Andrew.

Andrew gave a gasp, half of surprise and half of delight as Rebecca caressed him with her tongue. She started to increase speed and Andrew's cock grew harder and harder. It was all he could manage to avoid raising his hips and thrusting into her. He had to force himself to stay down, which only heightened the tension and brought him closer and closer to the brink. It was as though he was on a roller-coaster reaching the top of just as the carriage was about to bring him over and down the other side. Masturbation had never been this good.

Rebecca twisted her hand back and forth around the base of Andrew's cock, while her left hand grasped his balls, needing them gently. She was moving her mouth rapidly up and down his cock, faster and faster. She could feel him rising higher and higher, any minute now she would push him over the edge. All at once Andrew gave a gasp and released, his cum flew into his sisters mouth. It was warm and salty tasting. Rebecca swallowed as much as she could, wiping her mouth on the edge of the sheet.

Andrew was still coming down, the last of his cum was still leaking out of his cock. He was panting slightly. It had been the most incredible feeling, not just the physical sensation, but that Rebecca had brought him there. He leaned over to kiss her once more, and they embraced again, this time sitting up on the bed.

Rebecca reached between Andrew's legs and grasped his cock firmly. She stroked it bringing him back to full strength quickly. Then she suddenly pushed him, he fell back on the to the bed, his cock pointing straight into the air.

"Are you ready?" She asked, speaking for the first time. He nodded.

"There's no going back," she warned.

"I know," he replied, "I don't want to go back, we belong together, in every way."

Rebecca swung her right leg over his body, straddling, then lowered herself down, easing his cock into her pussy with her hands.

Andrew gasped, he was inside his sister, they were together. It felt incredible, she was warm and tight yet wet. Rebecca started to move, and it was all Andrew could do to keep from cumming inside her there and then. He reached up and grabbed her breasts, gripping them firmly, massaging them. Rebecca moved more swiftly now, rising and falling. Andrew raised his hips to meet her, pushing inside all the way. Rebecca moaned softly, and then more passionately. The twins were going to arrive together. Andrew released shooting himself into his sister, at that moment Rebecca came and gave a squeal of pleasure. They froze for a moment, tense, letting them orgasm flow through themselves and into each other before letting go. Rebecca collapsed onto Andrew's chest like a puppet with its strings cut. Their hands met and their fingers interlocked, Rebecca kissed her brother full on the lips.

They stayed that way for a moment, then Rebecca tried to move and found she couldn't. Their lips were locked together. She tried to move her hands and found they were also stuck. Andrew was finding it hard to feel his cock, inside the warm embrace of his sisters pussy.

Rebecca tried to cry out but couldn't move her lips. Panicking she struggled against Andrew but couldn't loose her grip. Her hands felt sweaty, she turned to look and realised that it wasn't sweat, her skin was melting. There was no pain, their bodies were simply flowing together into one. Andrew looked into his sister's eyes, and at that moment they both let go. The twins bodies melted together into one, loosing all human shape. The liquid flesh merged and flowed together into a cocoon of human skin. The struggling stopped, and the room was still.

* * *

Andi woke up with a start, drenched in sweat. She had had the strangest dream. She had been having sex with someone, but she had been a guy. No, she had been a guy and a girl at the same time, weird. Now she felt light-headed, and not quite herself.

She made her way to the bathroom, and took a look in the mirror. Everything was where it was supposed to be; short, slightly scruffy red hair, small round breasts, slim figure. It was definitely her.

As Andi showered she reflected that it was probably stress from college; all that late night studying was taking its toll. That and some of her other activities. Andi smiled to herself, she had been playing the field somewhat since she started at University. The freedom of her parents treating her like an adult had been liberating, but perhaps a little overwhelming. Well that was over now, she decided. She was going to ask out Tim, the psychology student she had spoken with a few times now. He had obviously been building up to asking her out anyway. Andi was tired of waiting for him to get his act together, it was about time she had a go at a real relationship instead of all these one night stands she had been having.

Andi dried herself and good dressed. Glancing in the mirror, she still felt a little strange, as though she wasn't quite seeing herself. 

"Pull yourself together Andi," she said to herself. She probably needed a quick caffeine boost.

Having grabbed a coffee, and bite of toast at her mother's request, Andi made her way across to the University campus. She was feeling much more energised, it must have been the caffeine. In fact, thinking about it, she was feeling better than she had in ages, more confident and centred. Probably the rush that came from having come to a decision about Tim, she reflected.

As Andi walked she spotted a short, slightly dumpy girl with wild hair walking her dog. Andi thought she recognised the girl from somewhere but couldn't think wear. As she looked the girl smiled warmly at her. Andi felt faintly disconcerted and couldn't think why, as though she had forgotten something important. 

Andi shrugged and walked on. She had other things to think about. Whatever it was it couldn't have been that important is she couldn't even remember it.



The Dividing Line



Part I

May 10th

Sara Wood kept to the shadows, tried to blend in; failing that she would simply disappear into the nameless warrens of the city. Sara Wood was an expert on urban camouflage, at falling through the cracks in whatever systems there were left to deal with girls like her. There was no home for Sara Wood, there never had been. There had been foster homes. Homes where bespeckled fat-thumbed men had tried to introduce Sara Wood to the finer arts of oral sex when she was nine years old; where wild-eyed women pushed her to her knees - Bible in hand - to repent for sins she had never committed. There was in Sara Wood's life no fridge in the kitchen to feed her empty belly, no television in the den to fill her empty time, nor were there chat rooms or the 'net late at night in a darkened bedroom were she could learn about the carefree, empty lives of teenagers spread over the American landscape like a thin coat of white paint.

So, Sara Wood kept to the shadows of the city, although there were times when it felt like the city did it's very best to keep her there in the dark light of day, out of sight, out of mind. What little comfort in this word she could buy she paid for in the currency of her soul; on her knees in alleys or spread apart in the front seats of suburban sedans, a short smelly cock in her mouth or a reedy whiskey-soaked tongue up her vagina. She didn't use drugs; she couldn't afford them. Dealers and pimps didn't hook her and sell her; the market was glutted with teenaged boys and girls who sold their cocks and cunts and mouths for very nearly free just to get enough to buy a burger and a coke. Sara Wood couldn't rock the boat - there was no boat to rock. She couldn't beat the system - the system was gone.

So in Sara Wood's shadow-world, she knelt on the altar of poverty and justice for all, her face poised before urine soaked khaki trousers sucking on the three inch dick of a fat, smelly man named Bob whose plastic name tag identified him as an employee of the New Life Christian Family Bookstore. Bob had Sara Wood's hair grasped tightly in his hands and he was pulling on it roughly, calling her a dirty little whore, telling her to suck his cock, to eat his cum. His half-hard dick, Sara Wood thought, was about the size of her little finger and she had been sucking on it for what felt like an hour. Bob would not - or could not - cum, and the more apparent this became to Bob the harder he pulled on Sara Wood's hair. Bob looked down at Sara Wood's face and noticed tears in her eyes when he pulled her hair especially hard, and Bob liked this. A lot.

Bob gave Sara Wood's hair a vicious tug, and she cried out, pulled away. Bob could feel his dick harden and twitch in response to her discomfort and flight, and he told her to hold still, that he was going to cum. He held her head forcefully to his groin and tried to pump away, but Sara Wood was now in a fair amount of pain, getting afraid, and was in fact trying to pull away from Bob with a fair amount of effort. Bob both liked this and disliked this. Bob liked the fact that he could frighten and hurt someone; this was something very rare in his experience. Bob disliked the fact that he was probably not going to be able to cum in this girls mouth, which, too was a very rare experience in Bob's life, one that he had paid good money - about five bucks - for. Determined to prevent not coming in the girls mouth, Bob decided to shut her up, and with his fist he swung down with his not too considerable strength and hit her smartly on the top of her head.

Bob's cock was at that moment seated rather deeply - deeply for a three inch penis is of course a relative term - in Sara Wood's mouth. At that moment, as well, Bob still had a hold of Sara Wood's hair and he was holding her tightly in place within this grasp, pushing her against his right knee, which he had lifted to brace Sara Wood against. As Bob's hammer blow connected - driving Sara Wood's head downward as a result - her lower jaw, now supported against Bob's right knee, was in effect being driven up. Unfortunately for Bob, Sara Wood still had all of her teeth, and they were in pretty good shape.

Bob screamed and reached for his groin as he fall backward in agony, his groin on fire. He fell into a thrashing heap; as he tried to come to grips with what had happened, he felt his groin, felt the bloody stump of his cock, and brought his hands to his face. The scream that ensued was reportedly heard five blocks away, and over city-traffic, at that. Bob tossed and twisted; unfortunately Bob was losing a lot of blood at a not inconsiderable rate, and his gyrations slowed to a crawl as shock set in. 

Sara Wood had, at the same time Bob dropped, fallen to the ground under the impact of Bob's blow, fallen in a completely unconscious pile of ragged disarray. There was now, in fact, a large raw patch on the side of her head where a substantial handful of hair had been pulled out when Bob's penis had come into full contact with Sara Wood's teeth. Bob's penis was, by the way, lodged under Sara Wood's tongue. The only visible evidence of this was the small trickle of blood that leaked out of the corner of her mouth down onto the grimy asphalt of the potholed alley.

In due course, an ambulance arrived, and a squad car from the police department followed not long behind. Bob was stabilized by the fire department's paramedics; firemen who responded with the paramedics searched they alley and the nearby garbage cans and potholes for the missing seven-eighths of Bob's penis. The street-waif had been ignored by the medics as just another piece of garbage; they had concentrated their attentions on the man who was bleeding profusely, and who was, in fact, in very serious condition. 

The first police officer on the scene was Paul Edward McCarley, a twenty four year veteran of the department. McCarley's glacial demeanor stood in stark contradiction to his open, friendly face; his slow movements and quick eyes belied his careful observations and endlessly analytical observations. He was the first official to move to Sara Wood's side, to see the blood and the raw patch on the side of her head. He looked across at the man on the ground and saw hair twisted in his hands. He felt inside her pockets, found a sweat-grimed five dollar bill inside, and shook his head knowingly. He felt a twisting churn in his stomach as he took a silver Cross pen out of his shirt pocket, and pried open her mouth. 

"Get me some saline and a baggie; I got the penis right here," McCarley called out. A couple of firemen came over, and of course these firemen all had something quick and clever to say about the penis in the young girl's mouth. McCarley just grimaced as he put on his latex crime scene gloves, pried open the little mouth, and swept the penis clear of the girls mouth with his gloved finger. 

An ammonia stick was produced and cracked open, waved under the girls nose. She stirred, her eyes fluttered, and she sat up in startled confusion. She looked around wildly, and coughed and wretched when she tasted blood in her mouth. She sat holding her knees to her chest, breathing in shallow fear. As Sara Wood regained awareness of her surroundings the first thing she noticed was, and this was a very dangerous thing in Sara Wood's world, a police officer kneeling beside her. It didn't matter that this man was speaking gently to her, holding her shoulder with kind, steadying hands. What Sara Wood saw was a navy blue uniform, a badge, a black leather belt, a holster, a gun, a nightstick and radio, and most dangerous of all, handcuffs. She saw a system that could hurt her, a uniformed man that represented a system which had been manifestly unjust to her, even as it swore to uphold justice.

The policeman asked what her name was, where she lived. He wanted to know what had happened. She was non-responsive, a deaf-mute, a shadow-girl. She didn't exist; she knew that this man would know that simple fact of her life better than anyone else in this alley. He told her he didn't want to take her to jail, that he thought he knew what had happened. If he guessed right, would she tell him he was right, he asked gently. He talked to her, told her what he thought had happened, told her about her missing hair, why her head hurt, what the taste in her mouth was - where that bloody taste had come from. 

Sara Wood turned away and wretched, would have vomited all her stomach held but for the simple fact that her stomach was empty. She didn't even have what little nourishment there would have been in the creep's cum. She lay on the earth and felt the world spinning out of her reach. She lay on her side and drew her knees up to her chest and cried like a baby, cried like the baby she had never had the chance to be.

*

Part II

June 12th

Ed McCarley sat in his squad car writing a police report on a battered aluminum clipboard, listened to calls on the car's radio to respond if anyone needed back-up, and checked his watch. Ten minutes until he could check out for lunch. He turned his attention to the report, wanting to finish it now in case calls backed up in the afternoon.

"Hey there!" a girl's voice said.

Lost in his paperwork - a rookie's mistake - Ed McCarley jumped in his seat so tightly wound-up were his cop's instincts. His head swung to the left, taking in his surroundings, analyzing threats, as he unsnapped his holster. What he saw was a girl, one that looked like a ghost from one of those concentration camp survivor photos. It took a moment or two, then he recognized the girl.

"Sara Wood, right?" he said

"Yeah. Howya doing?"

"Good," he said. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothin' much," she said. "Actually, I just wanted to thank you for what you said to those D.A. people. They told me if you hadn't done your job right I'd be spending a long time in jail."

Ed McCarley looked down; he never knew how to take a compliment or an expression of gratitude. He just nodded.

The girl apparently took his silence as rejection, stepped back, and started to walk off.

"So," Ed McCarley asked, "how are you doing?"

"Oh, you know."

All Ed McCarley had to do was look at this girl to know how she was doing. "Hey, I'm going to check out for lunch in a minute. Care to join me?" He could see the conflict roll across her face. Trust. Fear. Trust. Fear.

"Yeah, I guess," she said.

He thought he could see her salivating. He picked up the microphone hanging from the side of the squad car's radio. "2141, 25 code baker kilo 114" In that jargon, he checked out for lunch at the Burger King in Central District southwest. He rolled up the window, got out of the car, and locked the door. "O.K., let's go!" he said with a little forced enthusiasm.

Inside he ordered, and asked her what she wanted.

"Guess a glass of water," she said.

"Sara, I'm buying. What'll it be? Come on, sky's the limit!" Sara Wood ordered two Whoppers, a large order of fries, a large Coke, and a small chocolate shake. The girl behind the counter repeated the order, called it out over the order system, and shook her head. They got a table and waited for their order. Ed McCarley carried it to the table when the surly girl slid it toward him on the counter.

Ed McCarley sat back and watched the show as Sara Wood tore into her meal. It was almost painful to watch, and he was sure that as shrunken down as her belly was it probably would be pretty painful in an hour or two. He didn't say a word, didn't want to interrupt Sara Wood as she piled the food in, which took about three minutes. "Still hungry?" he asked.

Sara Wood made a laughing noise that came out her nose, her mouth was so full of food. She nodded her head and got out, "Double Whopper?"

"Comin' right up." He walked up to the counter and placed the order. He waited until surly-face slid it to him, then took it back to Sara Wood. He put it on the trey in front of her. "Well, bottoms-up!" he said. He started on his grilled chicken sandwich, sipped his Diet Coke, and looked at Sara Wood's face for the first time. As he did he flinched; for as he looked at the pale blue eyes, the weathered skin, the scabs on her arms, he recognized something lost and loveable in her abandoned and forsaken face that tore at his humanity. 'Fuck, I'm getting old,' he thought. 

"So, filling up?" he asked.

Her mouth full, she nodded, saying, "Yeah, this is really good!"

He smiled at her. "Alright!" he replied.

After they had both finished eating, she asked him where he worked, and he told her at Central Division, and gave her one of his cards. "You can call me at the station if you need me; if I'm not in they'll know how to get in touch with me." he said. 

'Now just why the hell did I do that,' he thought.

Sara Wood took his card as if someone had just given her a burning stick of dynamite, or a one pound bar of gold, the conflict was so instant. She looked at the card intently for a moment, then stuck it in her pants.

The radio on Ed McCarley's belt came to life: "2141." He slipped the radio free of it's holster and brought it to his face. "2141, go ahead."

"2141. 17B Main and Oaklawn, possible fatalities."

"2141, 10/4," he said into the radio, and to Sara Wood he said, "Sorry, gotta go. Really. You need me, call me!" And he was gone, trotting out the door. She watched him as he got into the car; the red and blue lights turned on, the he pulled the car out into traffic as the siren came on. She watched the car as it sped away, went to a window to watch the blue and red lights until they disappeared from view. She didn't know it, but she was standing on her tip-toes, biting her lip, afraid for him. She was afraid of all the unknown dangers she knew were waiting out there on the streets, waiting out there for Ed McCarley.

*

Part III

June13th

It was Friday afternoon, and Sara Wood stood across the street from the Central Division sub-station, in the shadows. She had watched until she had seen Ed McCarley's car pull into the station parking lot, seen him walk across the lot and into the station; now she waited to see if Ed McCarley would walk out of the front door. She just wanted to see his face, know he was alright, maybe talk to him. About twenty minutes later he did walk out, dressed in jeans and a white shirt, wearing sneakers. He carried a gym bag. She wondered where his car was parked. He stopped to talk with a couple of other - she guessed - cops. The he crossed the street in front of her and headed down Grant. After two blocks, he turned left on 21st Street. She followed him, but stayed well behind him, in the shadows. After a couple of blocks, on a block lined with narrow two-story apartment buildings, he turned out of view at a grey brick apartment building, hidden by a wooden fence and a thick row of hedges. She darted forward to catch up, to see which apartment was his. As she got up to the fence she flew around the corner and ran into - Ed McCarley!

As she ran into him he caught her in his arms and brought her gently to a stop. "Whoa, there, girl," he said. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to follow a cop before?"

Sara Wood just stood in Ed McCarley's hands, mute. 

A couple of moments passed; his face was awash in a befuddled grin. "Well, c'mon then. Let's get you upstairs out of this heat and get you a Coke." He led off toward an apartment house one block over and toward the station. Sara Wood knew then that he had known he was being followed almost from the time he had been in front of the station.

He walked up the flight of stairs, took out a key and opened the door to number 7, and walked in. He turned the thermostat on the air conditioner down, way down. He put his gym bag in the hall closet, and went into the kitchen. He poured two Cokes over ice, and went out into the entry hall. McCarley knew he lived in a modest apartment, but when he looked at Sara Wood's face it looked as though she was gawking at the White House. He walked up to the girl and gave her the drink; it was then that the smell hit him. Pure, rank, unadulterated stink. He looked at her skin and saw that the dirt he had thought was on her skin was in her skin...ground into the pores of her skin! Her hair was greasy. The fabric on the Salvation Army jeans and t-shirt was...thin, and foul with dirt and body odor. He thought the worst would be the shoes, but he had no intention of finding out. One thing was for sure, he had to get her cleaned up before the neighbors complained! Cleaned up and maybe out to a shelter.

"Well, sit you down, Sara Wood, and tell me a story!"

She looked at him quizzically; she still hadn't spoken since he'd caught her following him. "What kind of story?" she said.

"Well, maybe your story, Sara. What you're doing followin' me home."

"I was scared. I wanted to see you was O.K."

"What were you afraid of, Sara?"

"Afraid of you gettin' hurt, or worse."

"Don't you have any family or friends, honey?" Sara Wood shook her head. "Well, Sara, how old are you?"

She shrugged her shoulders, shook her head. "Nineteen, I think. Nobody's sure. Maybe twenty. "

"Where did you go to school?"

"Didn't go to no school."

"Where do you stay?" he asked, not wanting to hear the answer. She just shrugged. "Well, O.K., you got any other clothes?" She shook her head 'no'. "When's the last time you took a shower, or a bath?"

"At the jail, when you took me there." He remembered now, the case of the missing dick! That's where he knew her from. Street girl, sucking dicks for food money. His stomach turned. "Do I stink?" she asked.

"Well, honey, Sara, you kinda do."

"You can call me honey if you want to. I like it when you say it." Ed McCarley looked down at the carpet, embarrassed. "It makes me feel like you're not goin' to hurt me." McCarley looked away, hurting inside for this poor human being so badly he wanted to cry.

"Well, O.K. then. Let's get you cleaned up" He stood and took her Coke into the kitchen. She followed him like a puppy, almost thoughtless devotion, he thought, childlike. He felt intensely uncomfortable. He went into the apartment's only bathroom and turned on the shower in the bathtub, adjusted the water to warm. "Alright, Sara, you come on in and get cleaned up. There's soap and shampoo in the shower. You take your clothes of and put them in that hamper," he said, pointing at the white plastic basket next to the sink. "I might have something to fit you in my kids' room."

"You got kids?"

"Yeah, well, they live with their mother out in Oregon. I see 'em twice a year now. But I have some of their stuff here; I'll bet I can find something for you to wear... Now come on in and get yourself cleaned up."

He closed the door behind her, went into his kid's room. He found some pretty generic lightweight sweat-pants and a couple of t-shirts. Socks wouldn't be a problem, but shoes might be. He pulled out a couple of pairs from the closet that looked like a 'maybe'. He gathered them together and put them just outside the bathroom door. He called out to her where to find the clothes, and she answered O.K. He looked at his watch, and went in and phoned the D.A.s office, got shuffled around, then asked a clerk to look up some information on a Sara Wood, unknown DOB possible 19 to 20 years old, arrested in May, he thought. When he was informed she was nineteen he breathed a little easier. Not much, but a little. He asked if the had done any blood work, wanted to know if he'd been exposed to anything.

He sat in the living room, turned on the evening news which was, as always, full of Iraq news. He heard the water cut off, the shower door sliding open; a few minutes later he heard the door open and close as Sara grabbed the clothes he set out. "Can I use your brush?" she called out.

"Yeah, go ahead. Oh, yeah. There are some new toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet over the sink. Help yourself."