Dream Walker✔️

3.6

Aster's smile fell. He gestured at the boulder. "The cave's big enough for the four of us to lay out in there. Better than a tent, I bet."

"Yeah. That's good." I grabbed one of the dufflar's packs and laboriously dragged it toward the cave entrance.

He tugged the pack from my hands. "Let me, madam."

I followed him into the cave, determined to at least unpack the sleeping bags and find some clothing items to use as pillows. Crawling inside the cave revealed a low-ceilinged area that I could straighten a little but not a lot in. I knelt next to Aster and the pack.

"What's up?" Aster asked, his tone soft.

I shrugged, wincing. "It's still not too late, you know. To take it back." At least, I hoped it wasn't too late. Two days didn't seem long enough to make reversing our bond be beyond my abilities, but I wasn't sure.

He flinched. "Look, Mars, as soon as you're better, be as reckless as you want, but I can't watch you hurt yourself for no good reason when you're not strong enough to fix yourself."

"What? I'm not asking you to take back what you said. You- you might have a point there, okay? I shouldn't push myself too much, and it's not fair of me to expect you to raise my egg alone in the middle of nowhere." My hand hesitated on the pack's ties. "But that's not what I meant. I meant- our bond. It's not too late to reverse it."

He squinted. "When we get back home, you've got to get your hearing checked."

"What, because I 'didn't hear' you talking about how cool 'magic lizards' are? Sure, they're cool now, but if you thought hiding powers might be hard on Earth, try hiding... this." I waved at him. "You have next to no shapeshifting experience. Even if you practiced every day until we get back, you wouldn't be good enough to fool any kind of medical exam that goes more than skin deep. And it would take that long to teach you how to pull off looking and feeling human, even superficially-speaking. Oh, and not to mention, any time you get upset, you turn into an eight-foot-tall bloodthirsty monster. How's that going to go over back home?"

He was quiet for a long minute before a soft scoff escaped him. "This might be hard for you to believe, since you seem to hate being a dragon, but I like what I am now. Being this-" He gestured at himself. "-fits me, more than a human body ever did. I've never felt more comfortable in my own skin than I do now. Whatever happens, don't take that away from me."

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. "Ast, that's noble and all, but a dragon on Earth? How's that going to work long term?"

He raised his eyebrows. "You've managed it this far."

"It's not the same thing. I lived the first eighteen years of my life thinking I was human. The only time I had magic was in my dreams. I never thought for a moment that any of this could be real." Sitting back on my heels, I winced. "I- I don't know if I'm going to stay a dragon when we get back. I can turn human, and if I don't keep my dual hearts, I'll be human. Permanently."

"What?" Eyes wide, he swallowed. "You can't just be human. You're a pure-blood phoenix dragon. You've always been one."

"Maybe technically speaking, yeah, but I never felt like it. And what would I even need magic for back home? It would just cause trouble." I pulled my knees up to my chest and crossed my arms over them. "Besides, it wouldn't last long anyway. Even if a dragon is healthy, well-fed, and rested, they need to be exposed to Mystica's sunlight to catalyze the magic-making process. That special solar radiation doesn't come from Earth's sun. We'd be stuck in one form or another eventually. Might as well make sure the form's human and not... this." I gestured at both of us.