Something was off.

Harmoni was looking at an area of dark rocks. The walls and floor were mostly smooth, but there were jagged rocks sticking up in places, and a wide crevice in the middle of the area.

She saw all this, but it was like trying to see it through water. Her vision wasn’t right. And it seemed like the only sense that was working. Considering how good her hearing was, that was very wrong.

The scene before her rippled, again like water. Suddenly, her view was closer to the crevice. And not only was it wide, but deep, with more jagged rocks poking out along either side. But other dragons were egging her(?) on, and she could see wings spread out on either side.

The scene rippled, and she could see a dragon halfway across the gap, wings spread out.

It was at that point, that Harmoni figured out it was a dream, and not hers.

The dragon’s wings failed it, it started to fall.

Harmoni was awake now, but could tell the dragon was falling down the deep pit, in danger of hitting the spikes as the vision rippled.

She shoved Fleck. She shoved him hard, but made sure not to knock him off the bed. Falling in real life wouldn’t help now.

Fleck’s head shot up and he swung his gaze around the room, but he quickly remembered where he was. The sights and smells were very different from the cave, and Harmoni’s presence helped ground him even faster. He wasn’t in the cave, and he didn’t even have wings yet.

“Sorry.”

Harmoni shook her head. ‘Don’t be.’

Nightmares happened sometimes. They were nothing you could control, and nothing you needed to apologize for. And having one reminded her Fleck was just a person, just like her.

~~~

Harmoni was getting well adjusted to her life. After the first day, it was simple enough to know what to do. She mostly cleaned, but she also took inventory, or moved things in and out of storage. Udo and Aqua had her and Fleck join them to make soap one day.

She avoided the customers. On the off chance neither Aqua or Ferren could help, Fleck would talk to the customers.

He didn’t really know more than Harmoni, but he could let the dragons know they weren’t being ignored. And he'd be better at that than her.

He didn’t resent Harmoni for being shy or nervous though. He didn’t really get that way himself, but he felt what it was like through their bond. And really, it was terrible. With feelings like that, Fleck admired her for coming to work every day, and for being so willing to walk up to strangers and ask for an apprenticeship before this.

The work could make her sore. She noticed she was getting slower with each day, and that with only working half days. She'd have to build up a little strength.

But she liked work. She could do it, and do it well, and being busy stopped her from feeling too stressed.

After work, or before one day, they went back to Udo’s home. She’d explored the house while he was at work, though there wasn’t much to see. The entrance was on the left side of the building, with most things being on the right when you walked in. Downstairs there was the living area. It had a few comfortable seats, an end table with a lamp, and some bookshelves. He had a decoration or two, but they seemed . . . arbitrary. You wouldn’t guess much about Udo from them.

There was also the kitchen and eating area, merged into one room. And there was a bathroom under the stairs. Upstairs there was her bedroom on the left, which couldn’t be seen from the outside and clearly needed magic to exist. On the right there was a hallway with three doors. One of them was the bathroom. That hadn’t taken long to find. Another door was Udo’s bedroom. Harmoni had opened the door to see what it was, but she wouldn’t be snooping around in there.

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The third room was an office. There was a desk with a computer at it. There was a filing cabinet, and a cardboard box next to the desk. She opened the box to reveal paperwork. Some of it was related to the spa, work he brought home maybe. But there were also things like an electric bill for the house, and a ticket to Xentron from years ago.

And that was enough snooping.

There wasn’t a lot of space in the room, but if Fleck stayed on her shoulders, she could move around.

When they weren’t at work, Harmoni and Fleck could use the computer. They played games on it. Harmoni used it to find a bit more information about her new home once. They lived in Xentron City, the biggest civilization on Xentron.

The biggest civilization the riders made. There were plenty of dragon civilizations that had it beat.

Xentron apparently wasn’t considered home of any “sentient” species, so it wasn’t very populated.

The computer gave her a chance to contact other people, basically anywhere in the galaxy, but she kept to herself.

Aside from the computer, Harmoni read some of the many books Udo had.

Fleck, like many dragons, couldn’t read.

So Harmoni read to him. The nonfiction book about edible plants on Xentron was interesting, and useful. And she liked the mystery series about an investigator team on Morivon. She’d tried to read a book about space travel. What she could make out seemed interesting. But it was a bit above her reading level.

They found a deck of cards in the end table, and Harmoni taught Fleck how to play go fish and war. Fleck wanted to invent his own card game. It was a funny bit of trail and error, where he’d make up ideas, but clearly hadn’t thought of all the situations that might come up while playing.

That took up a lot of their time during their half days. But if they weren’t playing games or reading, they did some work. Harmoni washed the dishes or cleaned her only real outfit. (Udo had given her some spare clothes, but they were so huge on her, they only really worked to sleep in, or to wear while she cleaned her clothes.) The day before her first day off, she cleaned all the floors in Udo’s house. He’d seemed a little stressed when she left work that day, and she wanted to do something, even if he might not notice.

He'd kept his promise of sharing dinner with her, and sometimes she would help him with that.

Fleck helped out with the other work, but not with that. Harmoni was a vegetarian and Fleck . . . very much wasn’t. He joined Aqua for meals. But, he probably would’ve anyway. It was a tight fit inside for Aqua, so she preferred being outside. Fleck liked giving her the company. And he was used to being around dragons all the time in the cave. Having them be only half his company now was a bit of a shift to get used to.

Harmoni and Fleck also learned a bit more of each other's differences. For example, while Fleck had an amazing sense of smell, and Harmoni's hearing was better than his, their sight was different too. Fleck was better at seeing in the dark, but Harmoni had a wider range of colors.

Fleck shrugged when they first realized that one. Dragons lived in underground caves or out in the desert. Seeing blues and reds was important. Green was just green.

They also had different opinions about some of things in town. They hadn't seen much together yet, just walking between work and home, but she knew he hated the plant building she'd seen on her first day, when she brought it up.

Some people had desert plants in their yard, windows, or roof. And those were alright. But emphasis on desert. The building almost covered in plants didn't seem like it could be that. Xentron City was probably built here because the underground water source was closer to the surface than in some places, but there was still only so much. Those plants were a waste.

Yes, Harmoni’s first five days with Udo had gone well. Then, on her first day off, she woke to Fleck nudging her. He had a request.

He wanted to do something. Go somewhere. Udo’s house was nice, and he’d had fun these last few days and all. But there wasn’t enough to keep them entertained the whole day.

Harmoni groaned and put her cheek to the pillow, facing away from him. She wasn’t ignoring him, and he knew it. She just wanted to lie there a bit longer.

‘Where do you suggest we go?’ she mentally asked.

Fleck paused from where he’d been bouncing up and down like an idle animation.

He hadn’t really thought of anything specific to do. He’d only lived in the city for five days, and he had no idea what to expect in the rest of it. He mostly wanted to go exploring.

‘But hey, if you want go somewhere specific, I smell something I’ve wanted to check out,’ he suggested. He’d noticed it on the walk to and from work, but it was far enough away it seemed kind of silly to go out of their way until now. ‘It smells like metal, and fire, and dragons. I want to know what that’s about. And if you’re worried, it smells like its in the middle of the city? I think.’ He didn’t really know where the city ended. ‘They wouldn’t be doing anything too dangerous there, would they?’

Harmoni didn’t know, but she wasn’t that worried. He didn’t have to comfort her in this case.

Well, maybe she could afford a change of outfit.

Right then. Time to eat breakfast, and go exploring.