I’d observed a number of behaviors over the years. Action came easier when people didn’t stop to think. Simply deal with the problem, make a choice, take or give.

Consequences came even swifter and with far more bite. Power’s price could be a heavy burden. Women who chose to be wolves sacrificed. Wolves couldn’t bear children, were tied to a pack, with sleepless nights during which they prowled.

I did not envy Stacy. She’d chosen to be what she was and still got a difficult deal. I’d decided to fight that creature, against sane reason, then subjected myself to an overwhelming power that reshaped the earth and pushed back the ocean.

Even now I flew, high on borrowed strength from a creature who devoured others like kindling so she could survive.

The ocean boiled. Fresh steam billowed in droves, swamping the ocean. I took another breath and unleashed more flame from my innards, attempting to vent the pressure.

My wings beat in long slow flaps. The air struggled to keep me aloft. I flew close to the ground, unable to bring myself as high into the sky as I longed for.

I did not envy Kahina and her responsibilities to her household. Having a family who relied upon one person to hold it together must have been hell. What did Roy feel when I’d left? Or Lacey? She’d been right to be mad at me.

Killing the leviathan had done something else. Not only had it pushed thoughts at me, but impressions along with it. Memories floated by in the same haze I’d experienced before when recalling the Sons of the Mountain, dancing in their combat practice.

I could feel parts of the dead monstrosity’s life. It’d woken here, mad and hungry, alone and tired. It roamed the seas, looking for something.

I sucked in another breath and blew out fire, pushing back the water. It hissed and steamed before boiling off my too hot skin. The brief flinches of water brought clarity.

Days and nights passed in flicker. Fish grew smaller, or the creature’s perception grew larger. The hunger remained, gnawing hard at the creature’s belly. At mine. I knew those feelings, those cold lonely nights where the world felt wrong.

It was searching for others like it. Kin, family. Like I had before hiding away.

Terror filled me. I’d been searching for someone left behind. The messenger person had said some went mad walking between worlds. What if I’d just killed the very person I’d sought for decades? What if I’d really killed the closest thing I had to actual blood relations?

We’d been completely different.

The moon’s reflection caught me. I glanced to the water and saw myself. Large wings cracked with unhealthy red. Veins shone like liquid magma. Something like napalm dripped from my mouth. The edge of my long jaw had become stockier, like blocks instead of the smooth ridges they had been a day before.

Lacey’s power had changed me. I couldn’t say it was for the better. Had the leviathan’s power changed it? My father’s memories held no answers.

I breathed out flame again, to purge the world of my reflection. My wings beat in a struggle to go higher. A wall of water loomed ahead. It slipped lower still as my constant assault upon the ocean played havoc with water levels.

I couldn’t tell how much ocean we’d burned away. I couldn’t tell how much had been displaced during our battle. Every eddy banged and pulled against my senses. There were too many swirls to account for them all. The leviathan’s power and my own ignored natural laws.

“Do you guys hear that?” Stacy asked from a million miles away. She cocked her head to one side and glanced up.

“Something large moves overhead,” Deborah said. “It’s hidden by the fog, but you can see where the air sways. Red that doesn’t belong to the sunrise.”

“Oh no. Oh no. That’s Uncle Jay.” Leo stood abruptly. He ran for the guards, yelling in a panic, “Someone give me a phone! Please! I need to make a call.”

His words fell on deaf ears. The guards waved guns at him.

I pulled back my senses and focused on the road ahead. Wings beat, muted and heavy. Miles passed.

Ahead lay home. At the end of dozens of cords were the people I’d gathered. I could finally return to them, as myself. Older, maybe wiser, and triumphant for our cause. Bottom Pit would be my only refuge. There were no others left. Muni couldn’t hide me again, not like before.

I needed rest.

Wylde’s power burned off within me. I struggled against my desire to call forth more flame. Liquid seeped down elongated cheeks and trailed off. Pounding deep in my chest echoed in my head as the power sought an outlet.

I couldn’t relax and let it go but tried anyway. With each mile my control slipped a bit more. The wreckage from my battle lay behind, half a county away in a few slow breaths.

My wings carried on. The other voice in my head grew drowsy. Miles passed by where I drifted in and out. I woke to a pain in my wing. Material sloughed off and ripped behind me. A skin, or extra weight, lost across the distance behind me. My tactile senses reached out briefly and felt the odd material left behind. Smooth, porous, almost like an ash imprint of a lizard’s skin.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Rain poured ahead. Thunder rolled through the sky, accenting the downpour. I didn’t need to the light to see, but the jolts served to keep me slightly aware.

The world grew larger. I found more strength to carry on. Every mile another few bits would flake away. Each one made the stormfront I’d been flying into more apparent. I blinked, then closed my eyes entirely and relied upon extra senses to keep from crashing.

Rain pelted giving my senses a dull perspective. Words from my father, about water giving us clarity, slowly came to mind. I had no strength left to worry and struggled on. I knew, with water’s gift, this flight would end with my face in the dirt.

Clarity didn’t help. I hoped by the end I’d find someplace safe to rest. Passing out amid the ruins of an Order of Merlin base a second time would be a huge risk.

Father Thomas. He’d known of the leviathan. He’d known where I ended up. The Order would be out there, waiting for signs of my continued existence. My body felt heavier than ever as the realization set in. I’d decided to fly over land as a giant winged creature.

It was too late. There, ahead, was the city I’d left. A highway below me had cars along it. Heavy rain should obscure most images. People never looked up.

Must reach safety. Home. Must stay aware. Danger everywhere. Pink Meat and guns. Will tear weakened hide.

I struggled to stay coherent. The leviathan’s memories were pushed back. Others took their place. Then I sat on solid material rubbing my fingers against wet cement. Rain poured in this bit of past.

This remembrance came right before I’d submerged myself in the wanderer’s lifestyle. Daniel and I stood on the rooftop of my apartment complex. Julianne’s bar could be seen just over the edge.

“Listen, man.” Daniel patted me on the shoulder. “There’s a chance this could all go horribly wrong. The Order of Merlin could find you. Some Hunter who doesn’t know who they are could feel your power. Or maybe you do too much for a girl. Or elves gut you like stuck up assholes.”

I laughed, a short, half felt bit of mirth.

“Man. I’m not joking. I know your weaknesses: strong women, your stupidity, and shiny objects.”

“Hey,” I said.

“You’re not stupid, stupid. You just—make stupid choices. You can’t help it any more than Tal and Roy can help constantly being at odds. Or those girls you rescued being airheaded and very, what’s the polite word…”

“Promiscuous.”

“I think that’s the biggest word you’ve ever said,” Daniel responded with an elbow jab.

I rode out the brief indignity, suppressed my inner grumbling, and nodded. The girls Daniel meant were those I’d brought back over the years. There were a lot of them, and they weren’t ignorant. They simply enjoyed partying a lot and were easily lured into the bedroom. Energetic was a kinder description.

“So while you’re under, I’ll be trying to get everything in place. Me and a few others, we’re dedicated to making this work. But if that day comes, when you end up on a news channel or something we can’t stop, then we may have to be enemies.” Daniel glanced down and swallowed. “If the council decides you’re better off dead.”

I thought back to the train yard from so many years ago. A month of childish hunger, a complete sense of abandonment, and loneliness. Daniel had simply bullied past all of that. If it weren’t for him, I would have been dead of starvation or killed by police for being essentially feral.

The world wasn’t kind.

“I won’t hold it against you,” I said. Daniel could have killed me a thousand times over. He’d been there since the beginning. Tal, Roy, Julianne, and even Kahina, all came later. They were all secondary.

If there were still gods, then maybe they’d taken pity on me by making sure Daniel had such a kind soul. The years had made him harder, as they did to all of us, but he still struggled against insane odds to keep everyone alive. Even making friends with a monster like me.

I don’t think many people could have taken that route in life.

“I know you won’t, man. But I don’t want that. It’s why we did all this. Not just to find your family. Not just to stop evil creatures from killing humans while others remained oblivious. We’ve been operating in the shadows—” he shook his head. “Okay, we’ve been operating and Muni has just wiped people’s minds. Sorry, man, sorry. I know you have no concept of stealth.”

I shrugged. He was right.

“But we’ve been building you up so you’re far more valuable alive. I can only hope when that day comes everyone else will see it the same way.” He rolled his eyes and bobbed his head. “Assuming we don’t all die in an alley somewhere. I mean, I’ve trained for this but we’re going next level here. Super ninja spy stuff, man. Deep deeper cover.”

Even if we did survive, the threat of sacrificing me to start the world over, would never go away. Elves would freak if they learned a creature like me still existed. My kind were a symbol of every single atrocity their forefathers had committed. The Sins of the People was not a publicly shared tale. Imagine the outrage of finding out elves could wipe out everyone by putting me under the knife. Or that humans could wipe out all the other races.

I’d been trying to deal with the truth for years. Maybe that’s why none of my relationships had been serious until Kahina. The looming fear. Cancer patients probably felt the same way.

“Maybe you should just kill me,” I said quietly.

“Nah, man.” Daniel actually teared up. “I can’t. What kind of friend would I be?”

“A smart one. One willing to give everything for the peace.”

“Well. I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Even if the council demands, I don’t know if I could…”

Now he had me misty eyed and I didn’t like it. A growl escaped as I worked to shake off the ache in my jaw.

“Don’t worry, man. I won’t tell anyone you know how to cry. And you sure as hell won’t tell anyone either. Because you won’t remember for a long time,” he said.

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. There were no perfect words for moments like this. None of my father’s guidance spoke of showing appreciation to another being. Obedience was assumed. Roy and Tal didn’t believe in the words “sorry” or “thanks.”

While I mused, I felt the quick motion of Daniel wrapping something around my wrist.

My mind clouded over. The last words I heard were, “But if someone has to bring you down. It’ll be me.”

Then I felt pressure against my face and neck jerk to an abrupt halt. Water poured and the earth stayed firm. I reached out with one arm while struggling to retain awareness.

The world didn’t look right. Moments mixed together. Under my outstretched claws the leviathan died, but it had already passed. On the ground of a metal filled scrapyard I lay, gasping as my life was taken away.

What had happened? I’d been flying then assaulted by the past. A memory triggered by something I’d felt or seen.

In the now, I lay upon cement, in a train yard and gasped. Daniel stood in front of me. He shook his head and smiled weakly.

“Guess I can pull the trigger.” Daniel lifted his chest slowly with a deep breath and fidgeted with a large barreled sniper rifle. “Sorry, man,” he said.

Am I home?

The other voice in my head whimpered from confusion. Daniel raised a hand to his mouth then whispered. The piercing noise barely registered.

People moved. Their bodies blurry against my senses. Bits of fire lingered, leftovers from the power I’d taken from Lacey. The entire scene reeked of sour sweat and metal. Like the first time I’d come to this world.

I wondered, as blackness came, why my chest hurt like hell and legs refused to move.