Kaz wasn’t sure how much time passed before he became aware that he was lying on the ground, face up and arms spread wide. Li was stretched out beside him, her breath tickling his ear and the tip of her tail wrapped around one of his paws. When he opened his eyes, so did she, and they stared at each other.

Li said,

Kaz’s ear twitched, flicking her on the nose, and she sneezed. He chuffed a laugh and sat up, holding out his arms. Li laid her head on his shoulder, letting out a soft sigh. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I’m not sure what happened.”

His dragon pulled back, looking at him.

He started to shake his head, then stopped. “I’m changing,” he confessed. “I don’t understand it, but I will eventually. I’m not scared.”

Li puffed a small circle of vapor that drifted around his nose. she said.

Kaz closed his eyes. Of course she’d known. How could she miss it? “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”

The dragon hissed softly.

And he did. Opening his mind, Kaz showed Li everything that had happened to him in that strange space that both was and wasn’t his core. When he was done, she just blinked and said,

Kaz looked away. “I’m not…Kaz,” he admitted. “Not Oda’s pup, but not Rega’s either. Not Ghazt’s son. Not Katri’s brother.”

Li said, stretching so she could meet his eyes. And that was that.

Soon enough, Snen noticed that Kaz was sitting up and came over to him. The xiyi looked hesitant, but when Kaz stood, Li climbing to her feet beside him, the xiyi gave his version of a smile. “I was worried when you stopped responding,” he said, “but Li said you were all right.”

Li said.

Kaz remembered having a similar conversation with a certain golden dragon, and said, “I hope you told her no-”

Li said with him, then puffed a cloud of cool steam and blew it toward him.

a new voice said, and they all looked around as Renao landed beside Li.

Snen hissed a short laugh. “Now that you’re awake, I’m going to take them hunting. Usually we don’t allow our dragons to hunt for themselves, because they’re not smart enough to tell the difference between what is prey and what is not, but obviously that’s no longer true. Do you want to go with us?”

Kaz thought about it. He wasn’t entirely sure what was and wasn’t good prey either. They’d eaten mostly rabbit, fish, or dried meat during the journey to Cliffcross. Raff had described some other food animals, and of course they’d seen birds and deer, but knowing more about your environment and how to survive in it was always a good thing. Still, he had too much else to do, so he shook his head.

“We need to return to Cliffcross. I told Raff we’d be back before nightfall.” The sun had traveled a good distance across the sky, and though Kaz still wasn’t entirely clear on how many hours should be left before the sun set, he didn’t think he had enough time to do anything that wasn’t necessary.

Snen nodded, then looked at the dragons rather uncertainly. Intong, Yanshi, Renao, and the other two dragons whose ‘insensate’ rune had been removed were clearly the leaders now. The xiyi was no longer the master, even though his whistle still hung around his neck.

Yanshi rumbled, stepping closer.

Kaz looked at the large green-scaled male, automatically checking his dantian. He wasn’t surprised to see that it looked much the same as it had before; the dragon’s cycle was a little rough, ki oozing out through tattered walls. Kaz still didn’t think it posed any real danger to the dragon, and it might even lead to an increase in Yanshi’s body cultivation, as Kaz’s leaking channels had done for him, but there was no doubt it was uncomfortable.

“Do you feel all right?” he asked, stepping closer and instinctively lifting a hand toward the dragon’s head.

Yanshi flinched back, then held still, allowing the touch. he said stoically, ducking away after only the briefest brush of Kaz’s fingers over his scales. Stretching his wings out of the way, he ducked his shoulder.

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There was no leather pad on his back - Snen had removed those from every dragon except Intong - so Kaz climbed gingerly into the space just in front of his wings. It looked like some of the dragon’s spikes had been trimmed to allow the pad to rest there, and as Yanshi shifted, Kaz saw a bare patch of flesh where the scales had rubbed away.

Without thinking, Kaz sent blue ki into the painful-looking area, and Yanshi shuddered, his skin rippling beneath Kaz’s touch. he asked sharply.

Kaz pulled his hand back. “Did it hurt? It looked like you were injured, so I tried to make it better.”

Yanshi stood still, neck curved so he could stare at Kaz, then said,

Beside them, Li shifted. She’d tensed when Yanshi shuddered, and she didn’t like the fact that Kaz was riding another dragon who wasn’t her. she said.

The green dragon huffed, and Kaz wasn’t sure who was more surprised when a faint haze of smoke emerged from his mouth. Snen let out a soft gasp, Yanshi backed up a step, and Li actually hopped into the air and started to fly away before quickly circling back.

“None but the oldest dragons can breathe fire,” Snen said, yellow eyes wide.

Li immediately blew out a short burst of pure, bright flame that almost toasted Snen’s snout. Only after she said this last did she seem to realize how it sounded, and she circled up again. she called, and flew off toward the city.

Without comment, Yanshi lifted off. He was larger than Intong, and larger even than some of the older dragons, so it seemed likely that he would be truly enormous when he reached his full growth. Which might be sooner than it should be if Kaz couldn’t remove the ‘ephemeral’ rune from his dantian.

The other dragons scattered, but Renao actually followed them for a little while, until she grew bored or distracted and turned around. Kaz hoped she would return to Snen, but she was her own person now, and she would make her own choices.

Soon enough, the walls of Cliffcross once again stretched from horizon to horizon, but this time they simply soared over. Below them, humans pointed and scattered, but no one actually tried to attack them. Kaz wasn’t sure if that was because they’d received word that some or all of the dragons who’d left that morning might return, or if their weapons simply wouldn’t reach so high, and they knew it. Either way, Li, Kaz, and Yanshi reached the sprawling building that was Raff’s family’s den without trouble, and landed in the same open area where they’d spent the night.

As soon as Yanshi’s claws touched the ground, Kaz jumped down, aware that even his relatively light weight had to be painful for the dragon. Hurrying to Li’s side, Kaz turned back to the green dragon. “Thank you,” he said, and Yanshi nodded before turning away.

For a moment, it seemed that the dragon would leave without another word, but he hesitated. Looking back at Kaz and Li, he said,

Kaz felt his ears flatten. “As soon as I can,” he agreed cautiously. He didn’t want to promise anything more than he already had.

Li said, and there was something in her voice. It was familiar, having been there several times before, and yet not, because it wasn’t exactly Li’s voice. Or not exactly Li yet.

Yanshi looked surprised, then thoughtful, and Kaz could almost feel him reassessing the smaller, younger dragon. At last, the green male nodded, accepting her words. he said, and when he stretched out his wings, Kaz saw the raw, scaleless flesh where his xiyi rider once sat.

Looking at Kaz, Yanshi said, Then he took a few steps forward, launching himself into the air and flying back toward Snen and the others.

Li asked, but she was still watching Yanshi’s rapidly shrinking form.

Kaz looked at her, trying to ignore the discomfort in the pit of his stomach. He had no right to that emotion, and so he refused to feel it. “We get Kyla and Mei, and then we go home,” he said, but there was something still bothering him, and Li knew it.

she told him, and in her voice was a kind of amused resignation.

Kaz glanced at the huge den, where he assumed Raff and the others were waiting. Kaz had only seen Raff for a short time that morning, when another group of humans brought more food for the dragons, Snen, and Kaz. At that time, Raff hadn’t been certain what he was going to do, other than check in with his guild.

Li lifted her wings, stretching them as wide as she could, so the sun gleamed across them like they were made of liquid gold. They were easily eight feet wide from tip to tip, and there was no way she would fit comfortably inside the building.

Kaz peered up at the very top of the building, where a spire stretched toward the cloudless sky. Li was right. There was a golden shape glinting there, spinning in the wind, and when it turned correctly, it did indeed look like Fengji, the Rooster.

“Are you sure?” he asked. Li didn’t like to be left out of things.

She opened the link between them a bit wider, and suddenly Kaz was looking at himself; tall, strong kobold with deep blue fur and sapphire eyes that were too serious for his age. He thought his shoulders had broadened slightly since he last saw himself through her eyes, and his fur looked a bit thicker, but he had recently reformed himself from his own image. Had he really made himself look better, or was it just something about seeing through Li’s eyes? Either way, the thought was embarrassing, so he was glad when Li spoke.

she told him.

That was both fair and true, but as she began to lift her front legs, preparatory to leaping into the air, Kaz stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. They stood, chest to chest, hearts thudding in time, and he could feel both of their bodies as if they were one whole. “I love you,” he told her.

she said, but laid her head against him.