Stev smiled for a moment as he heard Aleyn but then continued placing the equipment back in to the chest.

"Oh you don't know... That's a surprise."

"Hmm?"

Stev turned towards Aleyn and sat down on the rug.

"Tell me Aleyn. What are the things that come to your mind when someone mentions dragons or dragonkin."

Aleyn raised an eyebrow as she pondered what Stev meant.

"Not that much. To me dragons are strong noble beasts who breath fire and live in caves. Dragonkin on the other hand are humanlike people who retain some dragonic looks and power through inheritance."

Stev leaned on the chest behind him.

"I see. Like a children's story."

Silence fell in the room for a brief moment as Stev stared at the ceiling with a solemn look in his eyes. This annoyed Aleyn as she didn't want to be left guessing.

"This is where you say how wrong I am and explain how it really is."

Stev snapped back in to the conversation and smiled.

"I wouldn't say wrong, not completely at least. You just don't have the whole picture."

He looked towards Aleyn.

"Dragons are strong beasts, yes. They live in caves.... some do some don't."

"Noble.. That's not a word I would describe them with, at least not the huge majority of them."

Aleyn leaned on her arm while lying down.

"Oh?"

"Dragons are beasts who think they're at the top of the food chain and treat every other life form with no regard. Egotistic to the point where they can't cooperate. They're driven by their desire to rule over others and act with that desire as they see fit, it wasn't that uncommon to hear about them destroying villages just for a snack in the past."

"Though I can't say they're all like that, I've heard stories that there have been more humble dragons that even chose to help the other races as they were maturing. Still, their reputation is ruined by the majority which are incapable of doing that."

"Luckily dragons have become a lot more careful about what they do after other races showed they could fight back."

Stev sighed.

"Now you can imagine what sort of an image you might get as a dragonkin when your ancestors are literally tyrants."

"You shouldn't be judged by that though surely? What someone else did in the past shouldn't mean anything when judging the dragonkin." She questioned.

"You won't get judged by that no. The moment you are born you are judged as someone with their inheritance."

"Because of your looks?" She asked again.

Stev gave a small laugh.

"No no no, silly dwarf. It is like they say, its not what's on the outside it's what's inside of you that matters."

"Eh?"

"No matter how little your inheritance might be, you will always carry the curse of dragon blood."

Aleyn looked at Stev with a quizzical look.

"Curse? Magic?"

"Blood of the dragons. Something all the dragonkin will carry until their death, no matter how diluted it might be it will always have its effect. Weaker willed succumb to its effects, stronger willed train and fight to keep their right minds."

Curious to know even if she had a hunch.

"So what happens when they succumb?"

"Heh. You know perfectly well what happens, though what you witnessed was only my body changing."

"Oh yea, I'm sure you were in your right mind when you almost drove your whole arm through my head." Aleyn said sarcastically as she laid back down from her side.

Stev turned his head down and looked at the floor.

"I can't say I meant for that to happen. I've been training with my father ever since I was a child to control it."

He paused and sighed.

"Still... you can see how much it can effect us. Even if we're accepted in society a lot of people still fear the beast below the surface that we all carry, and for a good reason."

Aleyn kept quiet for a moment after Stev finished.

"Does it bother you?"

"No." He said bluntly.

It didn't sound very convincing at all.

"Doesn't sound like it."

Stev huffed some air in disagreement and didn't continue the discussion. Awkward silence filled the room, but Aleyn knew a sure way to get him talking.

"Does Thess know?"

Surprisingly the silence continued for longer than expected, but Stev replied.

"Yes.."

"You think shes scared of it? Maybe she thinks you'll blow up if you two ever talk about the incident."

"No.."

A smile crept on his face as he continued.

"The day I met her.. Oh god... I must have been six years old and she a year younger. She used to play with her sister near these houses and I used to watch them from a far as I was too scared to go talk to the two girls... "

"One day she was alone and surrounded by some kids who were older than both of us combined, they were calling her names and taunting her... Something older kids do to bully younger kids. Especially us who look slightly different than the norm."

Aleyn thought this sounded very familiar.

"She was crying on her knees and her white skirt was all covered in dirt and dust.. When I saw her teary face something lit inside me, I had to do something." Stev continued.

"So I struggled to get in the middle of them as I put myself between the bullies and her... I don't know what I was expecting to happen though, I was outnumbered and they were far bigger than I was. "

"The bullies beat me up enough to show who's the boss as I laid on the floor trying to cover my face. Luckily some person started yelling from a window and the kids lost interest and ran away."

"But that's when it started."

"Pain my body was sore from the kicking and punches."

"Hatred.... Their faces and smiles are still carved in to my brain. I hated how they smiled and laughed as they kicked me on the ground.

"Anger.... The irresistible urge for vengeance boiled in my mind, if only I could make them feel what I felt. If I could kick them so hard to the ground they couldn't get back up I wouldn't have second thoughts of it."

"My young body started squirming on the floor as it began to swell. My first time experiencing the effects of dragon blood."

"It was painful, far more painful then their assault had been but all I could think about was going after them and hurting them or even worse, killing them."

"That was until I felt someones arms wrapping around me."

"I opened my eyes and prepared to throw them away and go after the kids. Then I saw her, the girl with teary eyes and dirtied skirt. For a moment I had no clue who she was and was about to throw her away."

""It's okay, they're gone now. You don't need to be scared anymore" she said to me in her quiet sad voice, I'll never forget it. At this point my little body had swelled twice its size as I remembered how I had felt that little feeling inside of me and rushed to stand between her and the kids. With that thought my anger started disappearing and my body began to turn back normal while I endured the pain."

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"I came to her aid when she needed it. She was there for me when I needed it." He smiled.

Stev looked at Aleyn.

"If shes scared of something it isn't the dragon blood, but my untempered feelings. "

His eyebrows twitched as he suddenly realized something.

"But I wasn't there for her when she needed me that night...What good am I?." He mumbled in a very depressed tone.

"You two really are made for each other. Getting depressed over something you have no control over." Aleyn said in a smug manner.

Stev wiped his eyes with his arm.

It was definitely a rough situation for both parties. One bottles up his feelings to the point where the explosion was volatile while the other wallows in their lack of self confidence.

If the situation was to be mended one of them would have to give in. It was the obvious solution, but what could she do on her own?

Aleyn stood up from the rug and dusted herself off.

"Think it's time I go now."

"You've healed up?" Stev asked.

Aleyn demonstrated by stretching her middle body around. It still ached slightly but she was fine enough to move around.

"That's good.." Stev said in relief.

He then dug up some paper from the chest behind him and started writing.

"Are you gonna tell her you know?" Aleyn asked.

Stev stopped writing as he realized the new option in front of him. In that moment she saw the opportunity to get the gears running.

"You do realize if you do write to her about it she's going to know I broke her promise, right? She might not let me anywhere close to her letters ever again."

Aleyn put her hands behind her back as she looked around the shelves.

"All you can do Is answer to her letter, really. That's it."

"So it seems." Stev agreed after thinking about it for a while.

"Are you okay with that after hearing the whole story?"

Stev sat quietly with the paper in his hand.

"That's your answer huh, silence. So much for feelings." She bluntly commented.

Stev quickly faced Aleyn and raised his voice.

"Well what can I do! She doesn't want me to see her.! How can I tell her how I really feel when all I can do is send her a piece of paper with some words written on it!"

He grumbled the paper and threw it at Aleyn.

"You can't, can you? How are you suppose to but all those feelings in to words for her?" Aleyn asked.

"But you could talk to her." She continued.

Stevs angry face turned immediately.

"It's much easier to show her your feelings when you're talking face to face you know." Aleyn said with a slight patronizing tune.

Stev jumped up from the floor.

"Are you an idiot or something? She doesn't want me anywhere near her! How am I suppose to talk to her." Stev snapped.

Aleyn faced Stev with her most serious expression she could muster as she laid it down on him calmly.

"Relationships are a two way conversation. Both of you need to set the rules not just her. If you want to see her, you should see her."

Stev's face turned from angry to confused as he stared at the little woman.

"By not facing her, you're doing more harm than good. You're supporting the idea that you might leave her if she loses her looks."

"But.."

"But what? Do you honestly think that everything will be alright if you just wait?" She concluded.

Stev was about to reply but he couldn't find any words to refute her. She looked at Stev in the eyes with dissatisfaction as he couldn't muster any words for her.

With the air of disappointment she turned around and walked to the door and stepped outside.

"Come and find me once you've grown a backbone." Aleyn sneered as she slammed the door behind her.

Alone and confused. Stev sat on the floor thinking things through. What the dwarf had said was definitely scratching the back of his mind, facing Thess or waiting it out until she was ready to meet him. He had options, but all of them seemed so very frightening to him.

As the feeling of depression crept in, he shoved away his problems and began reminiscing about the past and the happier times before all of this sadness. No matter how much he tried though, he couldn't forget the situation. No amount of Thess's singing or kind words, not even the evening when they had their first kiss could brush away the sadness he felt.

In a whirl of memories and emotions he remembered her face. Her smile when he had complimented her on her singing that night. Her anger when he had once jokingly said she had an insect in her hair and afterwards was pounded by her fists. The way she always looked at clothes with a keen eye as if she saw more in them than anyone he knew. Her emotions to him were all a part of her which he liked, but there were those emotions he couldn't or rather didn't want to see on her.

Fear and sadness, be it when she first witnessed another living being dying as an owl grabbed a mouse up from the streets and ate it whole or when she lost her favorite necklace. Her sadness was not something he could endure without it tearing him apart.

How scared must have she been that night? How did she feel when she told him to stay away from her the next day. What did she feel when she wrote all of those letters and wanted to tell him everything, but just couldn't.

Stev's heart skipped a beat and his stomach clenched as his mind was filled with Thess and how he imagined she felt. But then a different scene appeared in his head.

Lying on the floor with his body torturing itself as it swelled and then feeling those little girls hands wrap around him as he looked in to her eyes. Watching her lips move but not hearing any words, he had no doubt in his mind what she was saying as he remembered them like it was only yesterday.

"It's okay, they're gone now. You don't need to be scared anymore"

That little feeling he had when he saw Thess in the middle of the bullies crying. The feeling he had to do something to save her. That feeling overshadowed every feeling of fear and sadness he felt that moment. Stev opened his eyes, he felt as though it was the first time he had opened them today.

It was now clear to him that there was only one option left and it was not waiting, he had to talk to her and there was only one person he could rely on to help him.

He jumped up and rushed to the door about to start running after Aleyn but the moment he opened the door he noticed his path was blocked.

The dwarf girl was sitting in front of the door with her back towards it. It was a gamble but if Stev really did feel for her as strongly as Thess felt for him then he would eventually see what needed to be done. Aleyn was just glad it didn't take longer than a few minutes for him to see it.

Stev realized he had played right in to her hands, but he didn't care,

Aleyn turned to look at Stev and smiled.

"Ready for the plan then?"