By the time Idri landed on the wall of the fort and let Caldor's feet touch the ground, Cal's legs felt like jelly. He almost fell before regaining his footing, and he couldn't tell if it was from the flight or from the experience of what they'd just done.

Idri wasted no time, immediately changing into his semi human form and pulling his robes and cloak over himself hastily, which he'd apparently carried here using one of his hind legs. Then he took the spellbook from Caldor's unprotesting hands and marched off towards the door to his fort, forcing Caldor to scramble to catch up to him.

"Wait, Idri!"

Idri didn't even bother telling Cal to go away as he continued walking. Caldor just followed behind all the way to the library where the dragon put the book on the stand in the middle, quickly paging through it.

He only looked at Cal with a brief side glance when the human joined his side, saying nothing. Caldor wasn't sure if Idri not kicking him out was a good thing or a bad thing. He did know, though, that this silence was killing him, and he couldn't take it for much longer.

"What's so important that's in this book, anyway?"

Idri froze in the middle of turning a page, staring down at the book for a moment before sighing, his shoulders sinking. "It holds the key to my finding a mate. For years, I've been trying to perfect a spell to make me look human. You took the spellbook away from me when I was almost done."

Caldor stared at him dumbly, blinking as he tried to understand what had just been said to him. Did...Idri truly think he had to look human for anyone to consider him desirable? That was ridiculous. Had Idri ever looked in a mirror? Did he really, truly believe no human would want to be with a dragon, as he'd already said?

But Cal wasn't thinking about any of this for more than a second. No, instead all he could think about was where that left him.

"Well...what about me?"

"You will be rewarded for returning it to me, of course—"

"You know that isn't what I meant," Caldor cut in, grabbing Idri's shoulder to force the dragon to look at him. But that was proving to be a very difficult task, as Idri seemed very intent on avoiding eye contact at all costs. "I liked you without seeing you as a human. Someone else will, too."

Idri scoffed, shaking his head. "Yes, one in a million, perhaps."

"So what? You'll pretend to be a human, and hope that whoever you pick won't take offense at being lied to?"

Idri looked down at the book, his eyes tired. "No, I plan never to tell them."

Caldor almost laughed at that. Idri wouldn't manage to pretend to be a normal human for any amount of time, let alone an entire lifetime. Certainly not if he insisted on calling his partner his mate. But it also irritated Cal to no end. Plenty of people would like Idri because he was a dragon, not despite of it—it wasn't just Cal being weird. He was sure of that.

"Relationships founded on lies won't work," Caldor argued back, as if he had personal experience and knew what the hell he was talking about. Unfortunately, the dramatic arm movement he used to underline his point made the bite on his shoulder sting.

As he grabbed at it, rubbing it, Idri watched him with a sorrowful expression. "Oh, yes, I've been meaning to heal that. Come here and I will—"

"No, it's fine," Cal waved his arm. "It's healing fine on its own."

"But it will scar." Caldor was immediately about to make light of the situation by saying he liked scars with a story, though the truth was he desperately wanted to keep something of Idri's for himself. Still, he didn't get to say anything because what the dragon said next surprised him too much to do so. "I made sure it would scar."

Cal frowned in suspicion, looking down at the bite. "What do you mean?"

Idri shook his head, finally turning to face him properly. "It's a mating bite. Dragons give them to each other to show they are...no longer available."

Oh. So this wasn't just some random bite Idri had given him while lost in a daze of passion. There was a purpose to it, and Cal would very much enjoy that purpose if not for the fact that Idri didn't want him after what had happened.

"I'm sorry. I did not mean to give it to you," Idri said, hanging his head. "I got...lost in the heat of things."

They both had, but Cal couldn't manage to reassure Idri that it was okay right now. He couldn't get himself to speak at the moment.

"Let me correct this."

"No." Caldor blushed at his immediate reaction, still holding his hand over the bite. But now it felt more protective than anything. It was silly, but he couldn't put his hand away.

"Why would you want to keep my mating bite?" Idri sounded almost exasperated. Like he was tired of trying to understand Caldor. Cal perfectly related to that, though—he too was tired of trying to understand himself.

"Maybe because I like the idea of it," Cal replied, feeling a bit lighter for having admitted it out loud, even though surely Idri already knew. He did feel immediately guilty for being so selfish, though. He could understand why Idri would be uncomfortable with this after what had happened, and he should have left it at that. But Cal couldn't seem to force himself to do it.

"But...you're a thief." Caldor narrowed his eyes. What did that have to do with anything? Idri was now looking him right in the eyes, his gaze glassy. "Humans are by their nature disloyal creatures. And you are a rogue. How can I trust you not to leave in a week, a month?"

And once again, Caldor was confused. He knew Idri had been worried about that, as he'd directly told him as much, but what about their drinking incident? He'd thought that had been the main problem, but he was starting to doubt it was just that.

"That is why I told you to leave in the first place," Idri continued, somehow shocking Caldor even more. That, and no other reason? Surely that couldn't be right. "It is inevitable, so why not avoid it completely?"

Caldor shook his head, for the first time feeling absolutely exasperated with the dragon. What kind of logic was that? Where was he supposed to even start pointing out how little sense this made?

He wanted to grab Idri by the shoulders and shake him then, but no, he had to stay calm. Because if this really was the only reason Idri had wanted him to leave, then that meant he still had a chance. And even if he didn't, he cared about Idri enough to make sure he did find someone else eventually, which he certainly wouldn't if he went into finding a partner with this mentality.

"Idri," he began, trying to stay patient as he tightened his grip on the dragon's shoulder. "How exactly are you planning on figuring out who is loyal?"

Idri opened his mouth, only to close it a second later, his eyebrows drawn together and a grimace on his face as he looked away. He didn't push Caldor away though.

"Not to mention we humans tend to die a lot," Caldor continued, shrugging to hide the way his heart clenched at that. Death had never bothered him much, but now that most of his friends were dead and the others the gods knew where, that had certainly changed. "And aren't dragons immortal?"

Idri finally shook his hand off his shoulder, huffing angrily as he once again began to page through the spellbook with a bit too much force. "There are ways of making a human immortal. I have thought of this issue."

Caldor raised an eyebrow. That was certainly not what he'd expected him to say, but it worked for him anyway because it just poked other holes in Idri's plans. "And that's with not telling the poor person you're a dragon? Because I think they'll notice they're not aging sooner or later."

Idri glared at him so fiercely it almost made Caldor want to take a step back. But almost immediately, the angry look lost all of its intensity, turning sad and defeated. "So, you are saying it is hopeless."

Caldor blinked, guilt making his heart clench yet again. Gods dammit. "No, of course not. But not if you go into it like this. If you're this scared of a relationship ending at some point, you'll never find one."

Caldor barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at what he was saying. As if he was one to give relationship advice. And to a dragon no less. But Idri seemed to be listening to him intently with no hint of thinking that what Cal was saying was stupid.

The dragon heaved a sigh, staring down at his spellbook. He looked so damned miserable that Caldor wanted to hug him, but he resisted. He still wasn't sure if dragons were used to hugs, and if it would even help.

"I suppose you are correct," Idri finally said, sighing again. "And in that case, there is no reason to search."

Dammit, that wasn't at all what Caldor had meant. Idri would find someone—he just had to lower his guard and standards a little.

He was about to say as much when without warning Idri turned to him and pressed his lips against his. Caldor was too stunned to properly react before the dragon was pulling away. But Cal could still feel the kiss on his lips, and by the gods, he wanted to do it again.

"You are one confusing dragon," he forced out as he tried to get his rapidly beating heart to slow down and to not breathe as hard as his lungs wanted him to.

"And you are a strange human," Idri replied, looking a bit less miserable, but definitely not happy. "A strange human I am choosing to trust."

Caldor's eyebrows flew up to his hairline. Of course, he had already sort of gotten the implication from the kiss, but to hear Idri say it like that.... So, he really was giving Caldor a chance. And Cal in turn would do his absolute hardest not to mess it up this time around. Again. Not stealing any of Idri's books would be a good way to start, he thought drily to himself.

There was a moment of silence, with the two of them just looking into each other's eyes. That was fine with Caldor, though, as it was very pleasant for once. He could so easily get lost in how beautiful Idri's eyes were.

"So, do I bite you now?"

Idri huffed tiredly, though there was a spark of amusement in his eyes despite that. "If you wish. Though I doubt your teeth will manage."

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No, they probably wouldn't. But then how did Idri do it? Could he change only parts of his body at will?

Why was Caldor thinking about this right now?

"Are you certain about this?" Idri asked, staring deep into Caldor's eyes, and into what felt like his soul, as well. It was so intense, and yet Cal couldn't look away.

"Yes, of course. I've been sure for a while now."

Idri didn't seem that convinced as he narrowed his eyes at Caldor, but he said nothing, only giving a single nod before capturing Caldor's lips in another kiss. Not expecting it, Caldor gasped in surprise, letting Idri push his tongue into his mouth.

Caldor moaned and closed his eyes, kissing back and just enjoying the feeling for a moment and not worrying about anything else as he ran his fingers through Idri's hair, over his horns.

Caldor took a few deep breaths when they separated, feeling like his heart was trying to leap out of his chest. In general, he felt odd, a bit lightheaded even, but it was a good kind of odd. He couldn't help but grin.

"I do seem to enjoy this particular human custom," Idri commented, as scholarly as ever, though Cal could hear a slight breathlessness in his voice. He was clearly not as unaffected by the kissing as he wanted to pretend to be. "Perhaps I'll enjoy participating in a more human relationship, as well."

Caldor laughed, unable to stop grinning. "That's the spirit."

The corners of Idri's mouth quirked up in a barely-there smile that somehow managed to light up his entire face. But there was still fear and worry in his eyes that made Caldor's heart clench. He would do his best to show Idri he had no interest in leaving him, though. Not unless Idri wanted him to.

"I am afraid we must leave now," Idri said, barely hidden sorrow in his eyes as he looked over the shelves of books around them. "I was considering staying and facing Augerill's soldiers, but if you are to stay with me, I will not risk it."

Caldor felt his previous happiness very quickly leaving him. He hated the implication that he was a burden, but Idri had a point. He could of course just hide somewhere around here—the fort was large enough that whatever soldiers might come, they probably wouldn't find him—but no matter how selfish it was, he also didn't want Idri to stay and fight them, so he would stay silent. It wouldn't be smart to stay here, anyway, and Idri had to realize that.

"Hey, we can come back here as soon as Augerill decides to leave you alone, right?"

Idri nodded grimly, clearly not happy about any of it. But maybe seeing a bit of the outside world would be good for Idri. He didn't seem to leave the fort much from what Caldor had seen so far. Maybe Idri would like exploring, and it should be easy too, with Idri having wings and all.

"Until then, I must cast protective magic on my library and my clan's hoard, at least. Augerill will take it or burn it all otherwise." Idri looked directly at Cal again, annoyance in his gaze. "Will you help me?"

Caldor felt like this was just to see his reaction, and that Idri was testing him. But he couldn't bring himself to care, especially if it would bring Idri peace of mind. "Of course I'll help. But how? I don't know magic."

"I will tell you what to do."

Caldor raised his eyebrows but went along with it when Idri walked out of the room. Cal proceeded to follow the dragon into another room, all the way on the other side of the corridor, watching as Idri unlocked the door with the same spell he had used on the cell he had originally brought Cal to. That was incredibly strange to think about. It felt so long ago.

As Idri swung the door open and walked in, Caldor peaked in, noting the shelves upon shelves of ceramic bowls and herbs up to the ceiling. Were these magical ingredients? They must have been. They certainly weren't seasonings.

Idri went around collecting ingredients while Caldor waited outside, wisely deciding to stay quiet while the dragon worked. Cal still didn't see how he could help with this, but he was sure he'd find out eventually.

With his hands full of bowls, Idri finally walked out, locking the room once more, heading back to the library.

"You will add ingredients while I cast the spell," the dragon informed Caldor, pushing the seven bowls he'd been holding into the human's arms before heading inside the library and picking up the spellbook.

Feeling a bit unsure of his abilities concerning this, Caldor looked down at the ingredients, frowning at them. He couldn't even tell what some of them were. There seemed to be some gray dust, seeds, flower petals, small, red pieces of...something.... The only bowl he was sure of was the largest, empty one, into which the other ingredients would be added.

Caldor set them all up on the floor, having no table to use, putting the empty bowl in the middle, surrounded by all the others. He certainly hoped Idri would be descriptive when telling him what to do.

"Good," Idri said, raising the spellbook. Was he going to read directly from it? "Put some bone dust in the bowl, and we may begin."

Caldor grimaced. That didn't sound very good. "Do I want to know whose bones it came from?"

Idri gave him a blank look. "It's the gray powder."

"Right."

Begrudgingly, Caldor crouched down and took some of the powder between his fingers, throwing it into the bowl. Idri gave him a pleased nod before reading something from the spellbook, using words from a language Cal had never heard. They'd barely begun, and he already had a lot of questions concerning how magic worked.

He continued adding ingredients as Idri told him to, preferring to now simply point at the right bowl to do it, probably to avoid more questions from Caldor. And frankly, Cal was fine with this, as he was very suspicious because of the bone dust already, and for his own sake, he didn't need or want to know more.

Idri kept on reading the spell after Caldor added each ingredient, which turned out to either be very long or used very long words because it seemed to take a while every time. And every time he finished, the ingredients lit up with a different color, but only for a moment. It was subtle enough that Caldor had initially thought it had just been a trick of the candlelight glinting off the bowl's edges.

He wasn't sure if he was in awe of it or if he was wary, but he said nothing. Idri seemed to know what he was doing, so there was no reason to worry, surely.

"Now give the bowl here," Idri said, taking the spellbook into only one hand and reaching out to Caldor with the other. Cal gave the bowl to him, frowning as he watched Idri put the bowl to his mouth.

Caldor flinched when Idri blew on the ingredients, and a small flame came out of his mouth, setting the ingredients on fire. The flame turned blue right after, with Idri quickly reciting more of the spell.

Cal took a surprised step back when the blue fire suddenly flew out of the bowl and into the library, spreading over everything. He stood there frozen in shock, not sure what to do, but knowing that if he didn't do anything, every single book would be burned. But...Idri wasn't doing anything. He was just calmly watching the fire spread over the shelves. And upon closer inspection, the fire didn't seem to be destroying any of the books—simply enveloping them before spreading further.

Confusion replacing his shock, Caldor stared at Idri quizzically, waiting for him to explain what in the hell was going on, but the dragon made no effort to. He didn't even look Caldor's way, and instead, he waited until the fire had spread everywhere before saying something.

As soon as more strange words left his mouth, the fire disappeared, leaving behind a glow of the same color around everything in the room—even the walls.

Caldor waited for a moment for Idri to say something, but once again he didn't, forcing Cal to ask. "So.... Is it done?"

Instead of replying, Idri walked into the library, touching a shelf on his right. But...wait, he wasn't touching the shelf—his hand was going right through it. Caldor gawked at the way Idri's hand flew through a row of books, too shocked to even make fun of Idri over the smug look he was wearing.

"Can't you do that to the entire fort?"

Idri shook his head, narrowing his eyes in annoyance. "Unfortunately, no. A spell of that size would require much more power and skill than I have at my disposal."

Right, well, that was a shame. But Caldor supposed that Idri didn't seem to care about much beyond this library of his, so even if Augerill set the fort on fire, not much would be lost in the dragon's eyes.

They proceeded to do the same to the other rooms that contained books, managing to do all of them before the flame went out.

"And now for my hoard."

Without another word, Idri told Caldor to gather up the bowls again and led him to the basement, close to where they'd gotten the rum earlier. That was immediately strange to Cal seeing as Idri had told him he didn't come here much. Wouldn't checking on his hoard be important to him? Caldor had simply assumed that he hadn't gone to it when the human had been awake, or hadn't checked on it at all to avoid showing Cal where it was, but the more cobwebs and dust he saw, the less and less he was confident that was the case.

As they reached a stone, spiral staircase, Caldor was about to ask how far down the place even went, but the question died in his throat when he saw golden glinting lighting up the wall. As they descended, Cal's eyes widened as the glow got more and more intense until finally, he could see what was casting it.

The stairs led into a large, underground room, and the room was filled to the brim with gold and jewels. There was so much of it that the bottom of the stairs wasn't even visible, and all of it was lit up with what must have been enchanted torches, attached to each wall of the chamber.

When Idri had spoken about his hoard, of course Cal had imagined gold and jewels, but not this much of it. He wasn't sure if Augerill had this much in his palace. No wonder Idri wanted to protect this, too.

"You shouldn't be impressed," Idri told him grimly as he stared down at the gold. "My clan pillaged human settlements for it."

Well, of course that was the origin of all of this gold. People didn't get this rich by being nice and playing by the rules. But it was still impressive to him—Caldor couldn't help that. He'd never seen this much gold before. The thieves' guild vault had never contained even a fifth of this, and it had been very full at times.

"But it is all I have left of them," Idri whispered, but in the silent room, Caldor could easily hear him. He was about to pat him on the shoulder or hug him, but then Idri swirled around, raising his spellbook. "Shall we?"

They repeated the process of casting the spell, with Caldor feeling more confident in adding the ingredients now. It even seemed to take less time, which was good because the room was very cold.

As blue flame once again consumed everything around them, Caldor couldn't help but stare as the gold, now looking blue itself, glinted and shone in the fire. Idri put a stop to the spell as soon as the flame spread everywhere, turning around and heading up without even bothering to check if it had worked.

Caldor grimaced. He would have to talk to Idri about this. But not now. The dragon was upset enough after everything that had happened.

And so Cal silently followed him, not saying a word as they walked to the ingredient room again to put the bowls away. The silent walk continued until they were outside, standing in the courtyard, where Idri finally spoke.

"Do you have everything you need with you?" he asked, handing Caldor his spellbook and already making a move to remove his robes.

"Yeah, probably," Cal replied, stubbornly staring at everything except at Idri's naked form, and he didn't look at him until the dragon's huge true form was standing next to him. Idri didn't seem so intimidating now, though he was still very large. It helped that he was looking at Cal with tenderness in his huge eyes, instead of anger like last time.

Gods, Idri was beautiful like this. Those golden scales, the elegantly curving horns on his head, the vibrant eyes.... He couldn't help but wonder what Idri looked like in direct sunlight. The moon didn't offer much light right now, but even like this Idri's scales shone.

Idri lowered his large head to Caldor, so they could see eye to eye. "I do not know how long we will have to stay away for, but...."

"Hey, it's all right, Idri," Caldor said, putting his hand on Idri's snout without even thinking about it. He realized this might be uncomfortable for the dragon the next second, but before he could pull his hand back, Idri pushed into his palm gently, letting out a deep, pleased hum. "We'll manage."

"Of course," Idri replied, a note of amused fondness in his tone. His eyes were now half-lidded as Cal stroked his snout gently. It brought a grin to Caldor's face to see the dragon relaxed like this.

Suddenly, in the next second, though, Idri moved too fast for Cal to react, taking the back of his cloak and tunic between his teeth and lifting him up. Caldor didn't even have the time to yell in surprise or manage to drop the spellbook, though, as in the next second he was gently deposited onto the dragon's back.

"Idri!" Cal chided him, straightening his cloak. "A little warning next time."

"Hold on well, my mate," Idri said instead of addressing what he'd just done. Was Caldor crazy, or did Idri once again sound amused? If Cal wasn't so distracted by the fact that the dragon had just called him his mate, he would be vocal about taking an issue with this. "Humans don't tend to survive falls from great heights."

Because Cal hadn't known that. But he left his sarcasm to himself, instead hugging Idri's thick neck with one arm, keeping the spellbook pressed against his chest with the other.

"Are you ready?" Idri asked, moving his long neck to look back at Caldor with concern.

Caldor almost smiled at that. Even though he'd already flown with Idri just a while ago, he was a bit nervous, though. He hoped he wouldn't fall off. "Yes, I'm ready."

Idri nodded, looking up and spreading his wings, the tips close to touching the fort's walls. Caldor was starting to wonder if Idri would even be able to fly out of here comfortably, but as Idri jumped up, rapidly flapping his wings with mighty strokes, Cal was quickly proved wrong.

He held on as best he could with only one hand as Idri gained altitude, continuing to flap his wings until they were high above the fort before beginning to glide away.

Caldor couldn't help but smile in awe as he looked down, seeing trees and fields from an angle he hadn't seen much before. He'd been too anxious when Idri had flown him here to take any of it in.

His life had changed a lot over the last few days, hadn't it? In fact, it didn't feel like a few days at all. So much had happened. But despite the sad reason he had met Idri in the first place, Caldor couldn't help but feel excited about being with the dragon. Even with the rocky start they'd had, hopefully now nothing significant would stand in their way, and Cal was looking forward to exploring his future with Idri, wherever it might end up being.

Caldor nodded to himself. Whatever might come their way, he was ready for it. As long as he had Idri with him.