[Seryanna's point of view]

Thanks to Alkelios, I was already feeling a lot better. My fever went down and my coughing stopped. After just one night, I felt like I wasn't sick anymore. I don't know if he wished for me to be cured this fast or if he knew exactly what to do to help me, but I was already feeling in top shape and ready to head out. Yet, the man refused to let me leave the bed.

“I said I'm feeling fine.” I glared at him.

“Yes! Yes! We'll leave tomorrow. After I am 100% sure you are!” he retorted while carefully working with some vials at the alchemy lab in the corner.

The dragon merchant going by the name of Vanazalez had it installed for him there while I was still asleep earlier this morning.

“Ugh...” I let out a dissatisfied groan and turned my back at him.

He turned around and showed me a smile.

“Just relax, Seryanna. This time of rest and relaxation will do you good.” he said.

I didn't answer back.

After we had breakfast, he gave me another Rotiqus Potion to drink and some fruit juice. The potion tasted like dirt, but he was saying it would do me good, I saw no reason not to believe him.

“What are you making anyway?” I asked sometime around noon, after I was so bored, I couldn't stand it anymore.

“Virulullian Potions for mister Vanazalez. It was the condition for letting us stay here. He's expecting only one potion per day, but I'm going to make him 10 because of the kindness he showed us.” he replied.

“Isn't he being awfully kind to you, a stranger?” I asked him a bit surprised.

Usually, we dragons were careful about whom we welcomed in our homes, especially when those said dragons were merchants. Even grandfather was extremely suspicious of Alkelios until he interviewed him, but his already friendly relationship with me and my sister was probably the decisive factor in his acceptance. When I remembered that scene, I could not help feel that the main reason he acted as such with Alkelios was because he, although a human, didn't show to be afraid of him, a renowned human slaughterer on the battlefield. He also didn't appear to try and take advantage of me because I was unawakened, but another important factor was also the way he treated my sister, Kleo.

While other dragons kept their distance from her or even regarded her as something dirty, he saw past the color of her scales and treated her like he would a true friend.

After all the time I spent with him during our travels and adventures, I couldn't help but feel amazed by his kind and gentle nature, completely different from how I heard other humans behaved around dragons. Even if he was a dragon, this side of him was also something quite rare and hard to come upon in a world where the strong ruled over the weak, and at times the family you were born into could decide everything for you and your future.

In a way, I also hoped he would never get to see that ugly side of our world... And with this tournament the princess called me for as well as the possibility that someone might be scheming something behind our backs, the chances of Alkelios not gazing upon the dark side of the world were slim... at best.

Maybe this was one of the things I feared about us... The fact that one day he would see the dark side of this world and being surrounded only by dragons, he would come to see it in me... and eventually hate me.

In the evening, after Alkelios was done with his potions, he took them to the old man Vanazalez. The moment he saw them, he was overjoyed. So much, that I heard him from inside my room. Apparently, he wasn't expecting to receive so many and of such a high quality.

When Alkelios returned, he had a cute dumbfounded look on his face.

“I think he was pleased.” I said with a smile.

“Yeah...” he said with a strange look on his face.

“Something happened?” I asked him.

“He hugged me so hard I thought my bones would break... And that was the first time a male dragon kissed me on my cheeks... and an old man at that.” he blinked and then walked up to my bed.

I tilted a little my head to the left.

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“Hya!” I let out a startled sound when he suddenly fell on the bed, face first.

“I need healing...” he said in a half-muffled voice.

“H-healing?” I asked confused.

“Yes.” he then looked up and embraced me. “I need my cute redhead dragoness to hug me. To erase the feeling of the old man's hug.” he said almost in tears.

I couldn't help it and let out a small giggle.

“Please, don't laugh... This is serious...” he complained.

“There. There...” I said and hugged him back, gently patting him on the head. “You are exaggerating this a lot, aren't you?” I told him after a moment.

“Yes, I am...”

“It's alright...” I told him.

He was my lover, I didn't mind.

Later that night, after he came to bed, I found my heart beating very fast again. It was the first time in my life I was self-conscious of a man next to me, and the day before when I could barely stand didn't count. And neither did the many other times we found ourselves in the same bed in the past. This was also the first time I was certain Kleo or Kataryna weren't going to come peeking inside our room with eyes that showed they were expecting 'something' to happen.

Up until now, I never thought myself to be a woman whose beauty could outshine even that of the most plain-looking dragonesses. Compared to an awakened one, I was but a child with no tail or wings... I was ugly. Yet, Alkelios... he...

“Do you really think I'm cute?” I asked him in a whisper, but then hid my embarrassed face under the blanket.

What am I doing asking him this?! I thought.

“Hm?” he moved closer to me and pulled the blanket down. “Not just cute, but beautiful, strong, kind, valiant, open minded, charming, incredible too.” he said with a smile.

My heart was beating like crazy, and I knew my cheeks were as red as a dragon's breath.

“How can you say something like that with such a straight face?” I asked him and for some reason glared at him.

“Hey, it's not easy for me either... It's hard to confess these things...” he lowered his head. “But it's the truth... that's how I see you...” he told me.

“You love me?” I asked him.

“Yes... I love you...” he showed me a smile.

I gulped.

Looking into his dark-brown eyes, I strangely found myself pulled in like magic. I was embarrassed, my heart was jogging in my chest, and if I had a tail, it would have swayed and waved restlessly under the covers, yet I still looked at him. Alkelios was like a drug that stirred all sort of emotions inside of me, and I like a reckless fool... I wanted more.

How would it be like if he... if he embraced me? If he was my first... I thought in a daze, but by the time this sentence in my head was over, I had already moved my hand over his head and pulled him closer.

Now we were sharing the same breath. His scent, his warmth, his touch... they riled up the flames inside me. IT stirred a strange energy which told me it was alright... No, it pushed me towards it and demanded of me to CLAIM this human as mine. Yes... human, not dragon... this energy, this desire... demanded the human Alkelios.

I kissed him, and he kissed me back.

I cared not anymore...

Nobility... class... rank... status... to Abyss with them all! I wanted Alkelios... and I wanted him NOW!

My kisses turned rougher and before I knew it, I found myself on top of him. I was feverish and hot, my cheeks flushed and my breath was in heaves. I gulped and kissed him again and again...

What happened and how, I didn't know. But I was dragoness, and like all those of my kind, we demanded to give claim over our mates. We desired to dominate them or be dominated by them... I wanted the same.

The heat in my body, in my core... it burned me like the lava in a rumbling volcano. Yet, I desired this scorching heat, and I wanted it to grow... to set me free.

I took off my blouse, and I continued to kiss him... to want him...

His hands moved over my body as well. He too wanted me. The heat inside him was also great, it demanded my own. A merger of flames was what our nature called for.

Through kisses and embraces... I slowly lost myself to my draconic side, even my sight turned strange.

Yet, when it was time to move on...

It was limp.

“Huh?” I snapped out of it.

“I'm sorry...” Alkelios looked away with a complicated look on his face.

Inside me, the flames... were simmering down. He said he loved me... that he found me beautiful and attractive, yet why was he limp? How?

I couldn't understand, but because of this... tears rolled down my cheeks. A few drops fell on his face.

Surprised, he looked up at me.

“Seryanna?” he asked with big eyes.

“No... I'm sorry I'm not... I'm not...” I tried to finish the words, to say: I'm not good enough for you.

His body was honest to the words in his heart. He loved me. He cared for me. Maybe, but he didn't find me THAT attractive. After all, I was a dragon, and he was a human... what was I expecting?

Even so, he apologized and kept apologizing while embracing me and holding me in his arms. I didn't even know why I was crying so hard, why I felt so rejected, but he kept apologizing and trying to calm me down, to wipe off the tears I shed... yet the pain in my heart wasn't going anywhere.

I accepted him and wanted him to the very core of my being, yet... these were only one sided feelings in the end? How could I not feel so devastated, so sad... so broken? So I cried... I cried myself to sleep in his arms because no matter how much I struggled, he didn't let me go.

But inside, I was happy he did so. If he had released me from his embrace, if he let me cry on my own... that would have been it, the end of us. But like this, I knew... somehow, someway, that he was trying his best to overcome this because maybe... just maybe, he wanted me as much as I did him?