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I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten real food. Not that any of the slop that the Invaders served their soldier-slaves could be considered real food. It’d just been so long since I craved or consumed anything except for the earth energies of the crystals.

I wasn’t even certain I could eat. Levi must have seen my dubious expression as I looked at the food on my plate and misread it.

“It’s not poisoned or anything, you know,” he informed me. Then, as if to prove it, he took his eating utensil and shoveled some of the food from my plate into his mouth.

I growled a bit at this. I didn’t know if I wanted this food, but it was mine. It wasn’t his to take.

To prove it, I responded by taking a vicious bite from the thin slab of meat on my plate. The taste of it was unlike anything I’d ever consumed before. I was captivated by my overwhelming senses, and just sat there savoring it, juices trickling down my chin. Though I didn’t require food anymore, eating a meal of this quality was certainly a pleasurable experience that I’d been missing out on.

“Hey,” Levi finally spoke, snapping me out of it. He pointed to his chin with a jovial glint in his eyes. “You got something on your face, right there.”

I paused in my food-reveling to see everyone else watching me with a mixture of unreadable expressions. I must have looked so much like an animal to them.

“Here,” a woman handed me a knife. It was the same woman who called Levi by his name, rather than his title. “Cutting it makes it a little easier to swallow.”

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It was the first time one of the other clan members spoke to me. Though I felt as if I was being gently mocked, I swallowed my ire and took the knife silently.

Have I really become so much of this… Dragon… and remain so little of my former self?

Did I want to remain any of my former self? That broken, miserable little creature that was too weak to fight for freedom? Like these pitiful little people… who didn’t know the potential of the greatness waiting inside them.

I wiped my chin with a provided cloth and set about figuring how to carve my meat. Levi’s gaze was upon me.

When my eyes met his, that’s when I realized what I’d been seeing all along. This man knew exactly the potential of greatness that was hidden within him. He did not fear it. He sought to embrace it.

He would become mighty.

And I had to find a means to contain… and control… that.

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I’d never seen an instrument before, nor heard this thing they called “music.” It mystified me that a strange wooden object with strings could produce such pleasing sounds. When blended with drumming and the voices of the singing people, it was something that soothed the inner flames… even my own.

Levi played the instrument well and with confidence. His wasn’t the most beautiful voice there that night, but it was pleasant enough. I could see the joy and passion he put into his music, and though I wanted to fully enjoy it, something within me felt cold and jealous.

I wanted to make such lovely sound. I wanted to know what that kind of joy felt like.

On the edge of the fire, I heard laughter among the singing. People were dancing. Men and women held hands and spun each other. Children imitated the adults, but that mostly devolved into childish running amok.

The faster the music played, the more they danced. The more they danced, the wider Levi’s smile became.

And the further away from it all I felt. I was so… so… different from these creatures.

These… weak but… happy… blessed… creatures.

I suddenly hated it.