As Caldor slowly came to, it took him a moment to remember what had happened. But once it all came to him, his eyes snapped open and he sprung up, automatically backing off as far as he could before his back collided with a stone wall.

He was shocked by the fact that he was still alive, but the dark, rough walls surrounding him very easily and quickly crushed that relief. This was yet another dungeon. That barred door in front of him was more than enough evidence of that.

But seeing it made a surge of determination rise inside of him again. Cal had no idea why he was here, and why the dragon hadn't just killed or eaten him yet, but he was not interested in finding out. He could see a lock on that door, his hands weren't bound, and as he quickly found out he still had his lockpicks. That was good enough for him.

Lockpicks in hand, Caldor practically ran to the door and stuck his head between the bars, looking the lock over and running his fingers over it. It looked fairly basic—a single lock with nothing complicated about it. That was a bit odd for a prison cell, but he wouldn't waste time thinking about that.

But as he jammed one of the lockpicks into the keyhole, he jumped back immediately as a bright burst of blue light appeared. Standing there, frozen in horror as the lockpick disintegrated before his eyes, Caldor continued to stare at it for a moment after the light had disappeared, his mind struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

Was that magic? Actual magic?

Sure, he'd apparently been kidnapped by a dragon, but he'd known those existed, if perhaps not aware they existed quite so close to him. But he had never thought magic was real, and neither had anyone he'd ever known. If they had, his guild would have tried to get its hands on it by now.

But the wonder of this realization didn't manage to overwhelm his terror for even a moment. The fact that this dragon had access to magic cemented the fact that there was no way Caldor could escape, was there? Hell, the dragon had probably used magic to make him pass out when he'd captured Cal, too. What else could that have been?

Trying not to let fear overwhelm him, Cal looked around the cell again, wondering if he was back in the fort, but there was no way to tell. There wasn't a window here that would help him verify or discount that, with the only source of light being a torch next to the cell door.

Caldor leaned against the bars, half expecting to get hit with whatever magic there was keeping him trapped here. Nothing happened, but at this point, he wouldn't have even cared. Maybe it would even be better than whatever that dragon planned to do with him.

He sighed heavily, closing his eyes and leaning against the bars with his forehead. He had no idea how much time had passed with him eventually sitting down in a corner of the dirty cell, his legs still aching from the long journey he'd undertaken presumably a few hours ago. Cal didn't dare think about the animal bones in the corner, or the pile of something a few feet away from it. He actively tried to think of nothing in general and just kept staring blankly at the opposite wall, studying the stones making it up, varying both in size and shape.

Until he heard the sound of soft footsteps down the corridor.

Caldor immediately rose to his feet and backed off into a corner, even though he knew that was not going to help him in the slightest. He didn't dare breathe as the footsteps grew closer and closer, until finally, the dragon appeared, in his semi-human form.

But despite looking mostly human, the intense glare, and the spark of fury in his deep, dark eyes made him seem almost as terrifying as he had been in his true form. And yet Caldor couldn't look away, no matter how scared he was, staring right into those angry eyes. He couldn't even blink.

"Where is the book?" the dragon asked coldly, in a deep, smooth voice, raising his chin and spreading his now considerably smaller wings as if he felt Caldor wasn't intimidated enough already. Though the wings brought Cal's attention to the fact that the dragon was wearing robes of some kind. There must have been holes for the wings in the back, otherwise there was no way the dragon could wear clothes.

And was it just a trick of the light, or was one of the dragon's eyes lighter than the other?

Caldor realized that this was not at all what he was supposed to be thinking about right now, but he couldn't seem to stop.

"Speak, thief," the dragon snapped, narrowing his eyes. Right, Cal had better do that before the dragon killed him out of impatience.

"I...don't have it anymore," Caldor said, grimacing. He knew that there wasn't much separating him from a bloody death right now, but he knew that no amount of sugar-coating would make this sound good. He didn't have the book, and there was nothing to be done about it. So why would the dragon keep him alive?

Though this at least explained why the dragon had even bothered capturing him in the first place. Caldor just wished he had more to work with.

"Yes, you don't say," the dragon replied with a surprising amount of sarcasm as he crossed his arms over his chest. Caldor blinked, some of his terror leaving his body out of sheer surprise at the attitude. "Where is it? I need it back."

Was Caldor just imagining things, or had the dragon sounded a bit...desperate at the end of that sentence? He was now glaring even harder, but Cal couldn't unhear it. Wisely, he decided not to point it out, though.

"I brought it to Augerill," Caldor admitted with a sigh before realizing he should probably explain who that was. But watching the dragon mutter a curse under his breath was more than enough to tell him that it was unnecessary.

"So you are one of her lackeys, as well as a thief?"

Cal would take offense if not for the wrong pronoun drawing his attention away from the insult. "Lady Augerill is dead. Her son wanted the book."

The dragon frowned, looking thoughtful for a moment instead of angry. Unfortunately, the glare returned a second later, just as fierce as before. "I suppose that matters little. Go back to your master and tell him to give the book back."

This time Caldor couldn't help himself and argued back, despite how stupid it was to argue with a dragon. "Look, Augerill isn't my master. He made me help him in exchange for letting me live. I can't even return to Redreach now without risking being killed."

Seeing the dragon's glare lessen and his shoulders and wings slump was not something Cal had expected, and it made him feel something strange. Was that guilt creeping into his heart? He'd never thought he'd feel that way concerning a dragon of all things, and yet here he was.

"So...even if you wanted to, you cannot get the book back?" the dragon said, basically repeating what Caldor had told him.

Caldor shook his head, swallowing. He was going to get murdered by this dragon at any moment now that he had admitted his uselessness, he just knew it. Cal flinched and squeezed his eyes shut as the dragon muttered a few words under his breath, the sound of the door unlocking following. So, this was it.

But the dragon didn't go inside. Caldor opened his eyes again, noticing that if anything, the dragon had taken a step back, his wings now drooping even lower. He looked utterly defeated, with his eyes downcast and his head bowed forward.

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"Then leave. You are of no use to me," the dragon said, his voice notably tired and flat. And then he was walking away without saying anything else, leaving Caldor alone in the cell. Cal stared at the spot where the dragon had stood, trying to figure out why he was still alive, but that only lasted a few seconds before he quickly ran over to the cell door.

Gingerly touching the bars and pushing, the door slowly swung open with a creak. Had the dragon seriously let him go? He'd always thought dragons were cruel, indiscriminate murderers, and yet this one was letting him leave, despite knowing that Cal was to blame for his troubles.

This made no sense to Cal—none of it did—but he didn't bother trying to understand. It didn't matter right now. What he needed to do was run away before the dragon did change his mind and decided to eat him.

But he stopped as soon as he got out of the cell and saw the dragon disappearing up the spiral stairs at the end of the hallway. Cal knew he should be looking for a way out of here, and then running for his life, never looking back, and yet he found himself standing there, unsure of what to do.

Sure, the dragon had kidnapped him and interrogated him, but to be fair, Caldor had stolen from him. And that book, whatever it contained, had clearly been very important to the dragon if he was so upset over losing it, so his anger was justified. And now the dragon was letting him go, even though Cal was responsible for this situation.

Caldor sighed, rubbing his eyes. He did feel guilty about this, didn't he? He was sure staying here was a bad idea, but he couldn't in good conscience just leave. He had no idea what he wanted to do, but he knew it would bother him if he left without doing anything. And he also had nowhere else to stay, especially since he couldn't afford a guard or soldier seeing him. Besides, he was sure it was the middle of the night. He would have no idea which way to go even if he had a destination in mind.

Slowly making his way up the staircase, Caldor's every instinct told him to be as silent as possible, even though the dragon knew he was there, and he hadn't made any move to kill him yet, nor had he implied he would.

Cal couldn't help but question his sanity as he reached the end of the stairs and found himself in a familiar, well-lit corridor. This was where he'd stolen the book except he was now standing on the opposite side of it.

He walked softly along the carpet, looking inside the various rooms that had the door open at least a little, trying to spot the dragon. He ended up finding him at the very end, though, in his library. He was standing in front of the lectern with his back towards Caldor, giving the man an opportunity to properly study the dragon's golden wings. They seemed smaller than Cal had thought initially, curled around the dragon's shoulders almost like a cloak, but the way those scales glinted in the candle fire truly showed off how...beautiful they were.

That was an utterly insane concept, but it was the only word Caldor could think of that fit them.

"If you hope to steal something else, know that I will notice and remove you by force," the dragon said, not even bothering to turn around. Caldor flinched, not having expected that. The dragon hadn't sounded particularly hostile, but his words definitely were. And they were also frankly insulting, but then Caldor hadn't exactly given the dragon much of a reason not to think the worst of him, had he?

"I'm not going to—" Cal cut himself off with a huff, shaking his head. He really shouldn't get into a fight with a dragon, not even a verbal one. "Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

It might have been a trick of the light, but Caldor could swear the dragon's wings twitched just then. If they had, he sincerely hoped it was from surprise and not anger.

Cal tried not to grimace as the dragon looked over his shoulder directly at him, but he quickly relaxed when he found no malice in the creature's eyes. Getting a better look at him now, Cal could definitely see that the dragon's right eye was lighter than his left, though they were too far apart to tell exactly what color they were.

Interesting.

The dragon was frowning at him in what looked like suspicion, but he didn't seem angry, and that was good enough for Caldor. Though once the dragon silently turned to get a better view of Caldor, looking him up and down, Cal grew uncomfortable almost immediately. He felt like everything he did and said was being studied and dissected.

"What?" he finally asked, unable to keep it in anymore. It came out sounding just as defensive as he felt, though he was immediately regretting it. He still didn't know if he could trust the dragon not to kill him or not, after all.

"You don't seem to be lying," the dragon replied, finally turning around fully. He folded his arms over his chest, drawing his wings even closer over his shoulders. Caldor had to admit that like this he didn't look as threatening anymore. In fact, that frown he was wearing paired with the narrowed eyes and the pose made the dragon look more grumpy than anything, which might have been funny if Caldor wasn't still half expecting the dragon to attack him.

"I'm not lying," Caldor said, which made the dragon narrow his eyes further. Cal had always been good at lying, so since he wasn't lying now, it should be more than convincing enough. But clearly, the dragon was suspicious of him regardless of how genuine he made it sound.

"You are sorry for stealing my spellbook?" the dragon repeated as if he was unable to wrap his head around this concept. Caldor's eyes widened at that.

Oh, so it was a spellbook. That explained a lot, actually. No wonder the dragon wanted it back. Cal might not know how magic worked, but that book was probably important for it. And now Augerill had it, which was bad news for everyone.

In fact, after hearing that, that was all Caldor could think about. So much so that he had to ask about it. "Can Augerill use that book?"

The dragon blinked at the sudden change in topic, but then he shook his head in a rather dismissive way. "Of course not. No human can."

Oh, well, that was a relief. Though Caldor was certainly glad he wasn't going to be anywhere near Augerill once the lord found out about that, and he pitied the poor souls that would be ahead of time.

"Why are you still here?"

Caldor sighed. "Look, I'll leave if you want me to but...."

He trailed off when he saw the dragon open his mouth, only to close it and stare off to the side. That was an odd reaction. Caldor had been expecting him to immediately confirm that he wanted Cal to get out of his fort.

"I simply don't understand what you hope to gain by staying here," the dragon said, locking eyes with Caldor again. Cal opened his mouth to reply, but the dragon continued before he could.

"If it is forgiveness you seek, I accept your apology."

Cal blinked, his eyes wide. That was about the last thing he'd expected to hear.

"You only did this to preserve your life—that I believe. I can hardly fault you for that."

The dragon sighed heavily, somehow finding a way to pull his golden wings even closer to his body, and then proceeded to stare down at the rug beneath his bare feet.

In one word, the dragon looked absolutely miserable. Staying here had clearly been a mistake after all, but for a completely different reason than Caldor had thought, as now Cal felt even worse. He had to force himself to keep a neutral face and not outright grimace.

What had been in that spellbook that was so important? Sure, magic would make life easier, but surely the dragon didn't absolutely need it, right? He clearly didn't absolutely need it, as the dragon had demonstrated already.

"Maybe I can figure out how to get the book back somehow," Caldor blurted out, immediately angry with himself. He did want to help make this right, but he doubted he would be able to. And the dragon must have seen through it because now he was giving him a look of suspicion again.

"Truly? You said you can't earlier."

Right, Caldor had said that. And realistically, it was the truth. But the dragon hadn't looked this miserable back in the dungeon. Perhaps Augerill would be more willing to part with the book once he found out it was useless to him, but even then, it would be incredibly difficult to break into the palace without getting captured again. Even getting into Redreach would be difficult now.

But Caldor did genuinely want to somehow make this up to the dragon, even if he couldn't get that damned book back. Perhaps being around the dragon for a while would help Cal figure out an alternative to make him feel better. And now that Caldor wasn't concerned about the possibility of being killed at any moment, he certainly wouldn't mind staying for a while, especially since he had nowhere else to go. Though that thought didn't make him feel much better because it made it feel like he was using the dragon to get a place to stay.

There was just no winning, was there?

"You are very strange," the dragon finally commented, looking a little tired as if constantly staying suspicious of Caldor was exhausting him. "But I suppose if you truly want to try, I have no reason to discourage you."

"All right, great," Caldor said, breathing out. A wave of exhaustion hit him, then. He felt like his body was shutting down now that the conversation had reached some kind of conclusion. He would now have to deal with the mess he'd made, but he would worry about that tomorrow. Hopefully, the dragon wouldn't change his mind and eat him after all.

Cal frowned. He was really starting to get tired of simply calling him dragon.

"My name's Caldor, by the way. What's yours?"

The dragon narrowed his eyes, watching Caldor as if he was once again trying to figure out if there were any ulterior motives behind the question. But just a moment later, apparently having decided that Caldor could be trusted with his name, he answered.

"Idriseth."