Ashes Embraced

2

Cara didn't remember landing.

Only the cold rush of wind...
the heat of Vyrisa's arms...
and the moment the sky disappeared.

Now there was stone beneath her.

Warm stone.

She blinked slowly, her cheek pressed against the ground. The air smelled like smoke and rain and something wild she couldn't name. When she pushed herself upright, dizziness followed, the mark on her neck pulsing like a second heartbeat.

She touched it instinctively.

Still there.
Still burning.
Still real.

Cara swallowed.

She was not dreaming.

The nest stretched wide around her — far larger than she had imagined.

Sunlight poured through the open cavern mouth, turning dust motes into gold. Pillows and layered furs covered the floor in chaotic softness, and beyond them, dragons moved as though this place belonged to the sky itself.

Some lounged lazily, wings draped over stone ledges. Others stretched in the warmth, scales catching the light in shifting color. A pair laughed as they soared past the opening, shadows flickering across the walls like living flame.

It was beautiful.

And terrifying.

Cara wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stay small.

No one here looked small.

Claws clicked softly against rock. Low conversations hummed. Somewhere deeper in the cavern, a roar echoed — not angry, just alive.

Cara had spent her entire life fearing dragons.

But fear had never looked like this.

Her throat tightened.

Her room back home would be quiet now. The window cracked open to let in the morning breeze. The smell of Papa's cooking drifting through the house. Her journal still hidden beneath the pillow, pages filled with sketches no one would ever see.

The drawing of the dragon woman.

The one she could never capture properly.

Cara squeezed her eyes shut.

Papa would think she'd wandered too far.

He would search.

And he would never find her.

A tear slipped free before she could stop it.

Movement nearby made her freeze.

A group of dragon-borne sat in a loose circle, their voices soft but intense. One brushed another's hair aside with clawed fingers, scales gleaming like polished glass. Another leaned lazily against a companion's shoulder, wings overlapping in casual intimacy.

They looked... normal.

Not monsters.

Not entirely.

Cara's gaze lingered too long.

One of them noticed.

A purple-scaled girl — Lyris — turned slowly, eyes narrowing as they landed on Cara.

"Well," Lyris said, voice sharp with amusement. "The pet is awake."

Cara's stomach dropped.

Several heads turned.

She shrank back instinctively.

"Does she speak?" one dragon asked.

"Do pets need to?" Lyris replied, rising to her feet. She circled Cara slowly, gaze cold and assessing. "You smell like fear."