Fapallo had been with Kaitlyn for three days the first time Javorora came to visit. The dragon youngling was away hunting when Javorora came to the hut. Kaitlyn was in the hut, carefully hanging some lavender and mint to dry from the ceiling. She was going to need to get more nettles soon, she was almost out of the string she had made with her first gathering.

Javorora knocked and then poked her head in the open door. The dryad grinned and set her basket on the table. She said, “This place is really beginning to look like a lovely home. Did you know the roof was completely repaired?”

“I have noticed it,” Kaitlyn smiled, “I told you the house knows it’s loved again.”

“And in here…” Javorora looked around, “I couldn’t even begin to imagine this place could feel so homey. I thought it would always have a slight undertone of rot and death.”

“I think there is still some of that underneath,” Kaitlyn said, “when I meditate it is like a big darkness is hovering throughout the house. But I hope some of these things will help to dispel that. I’m burning some sage in the fire every night, and of course lavender and mint both… I love those smells.”

“So Master Garthis is taking good care of you?” Javorora asked.

“He has certainly been helping me,” Kaitlyn said, “he brought me a hammer and a hatchet which… it’s amazing how much help two tools can provide.”

“You were able to fix your door at least,” Javorora said approvingly. “But didn’t he bring you anything else?”

“A tea kettle and some books to help me begin to learn to speak and read dragonic and all about herbs,” Kaitlyn said. She gestured to her flame and added, “and every day I’m getting better at keeping my flame going with concentration. It is so much harder than it looks.”

Javorora looked around and said, “You even got the door back on it’s hinges.”

“Well, new hinges,” Kaitlyn said. “Master Garthis brought…”

Kaitlyn trailed off in shock as Javorora swung the door easily open and closed. Kaitlyn stared at the door and said, “It…. just this morning when I opened it it was…. it was awful. It’s…. fixed.”

“But it didn’t fix itself, you went ages with it broken,” Javorora said. “You must have just done a better job than you realized. Or Master Garthis waved his hand and fixed it when you weren’t looking.”

“You don’t understand, I didn’t do a great job,” Kaitlyn protested. “I had it all wrong and I meant to ask Master Garthis about it but… I forgot when he was here because of Fapallo and… I’m telling you it…”

Kaitlyn walked over and opened and closed the door. Had it been continuing to scrape? She couldnt quite remember when it had stopped. She looked up at the room’s ceiling and wondered just how much the house was repairing.

Javorora was looking at Kaitlyn with a puzzled expression. The dryad then went to her basket and pulled the cloth off the top. Inside the dryad had a bunch of mushrooms, some blackberries, and a bottle of honeyed wine. Kaitlyn grinned and said, “Oh those blackberries will go so well with my pheasant tonight for dinner.”

“Pheasants?” Javorora looked happily surprised, “You figured out the traps?”

“No, Fapallo brought them home,” Kaitlyn said.

“Wait, you are living with a man?” Javorora looked shocked.

Kaitlyn burst out laughing, especially given her own faux paus with Fapallo. She shook her head quickly and said, “Fapallo isn’t human.”

Javorora put her hands on her hips and looked up at her friend, “Species has nothing to do with it.”

“No Javorora, I mean it, he’s not… man-shaped,” Kaitlyn said. “Stay until he comes home, you’ll understand then.”

Kaitlyn told Javorora about her new herb knowledge and the dryad then offered to help find some of the herbs which Kaitlyn didn’t have in her garden. Then Kaitlyn said, “So tell me what you’ve been doing.”

“Well, this is the best season for me to travel because my tree needs me the least,” Javorora said, “So I went all the way to Tora and got some news.”

Kaitlyn paled at the mention of the city where she was supposed to have married. She listened intently though and gestured for Javorora to give her more. The dryad grinned.

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“It seems that your unicorn went there too,” Javorora said, “Actually, five unicorns showed up at the city according to what I was told. The black unicorn is apparently a giant of a beast, and was flanked by four smaller, lighter unicorns. However, it was one of the light ones who apparently did the actually killing. Skewered some baron and his wife right in the city marketplace. The black unicorn had cast a sleep spell over most of the city, but a few people are always able to resist that kind of blanket spell casting.”

“That was Claus’s parents then,” Kaitlyn put a hand to her lips, “How would the unicorn have known that?”

“No idea,” Javorora shrugged sadly, “but the whole town was in mourning, apparently the baron and his wife were quite loved.”

Kaitlyn felt tears in her eyes again and put her hands on her chest, trying to hold the pain from escaping. Javorora put out a hand and whispered softly, “Did you know them?”

“They were…. Claus’ parents,” Kaitlyn whispered, the tears beginning to escape her eyes. She sank to the floor, beginning to shake from the effort of fighting the tears. Javorora quickly came and wrapped her little arms around Kaitlyn’s neck. This broke Kaitlyn’s control and she began sobbing, clutching Javorora tightly.

Fapallo came in right at that moment and growled deeply, the feathers all around his head puffing up to form a larger mane. Javorora saw him and her eyes went wide, and she said, “Kaitlyn, I hope your Fapallo is a big lizard thing, otherwise we’re about to get eaten.”

Kaitlyn sank back onto her heels and nodded, “Fapallo, meet… Javorora.”

Fapallo immediately stopped growling and almost crawled across the floor to gently nose at Kaitlyn’s arm. She shook her head and said, “I’m ok. I just…”

The sobs stopped Kaitlyn from speaking and she curled downwards, burying her face in her own arms. It suddenly was too much. The weeks she had been trying to avoid thinking about the loss of her family, the fact she couldn’t go home. The loss of a future she had wanted. Knowing her possible mother and father in law had been loved by their people made it feel like Claus betrayed her all over again.

Fapallo gently moved around Kaitlyn and curled up around her. Javorora also sat on the floor and stroked Kaitlyn’s hair, “You need this. You need to let it all out.”

Fapallo whistled in a questioning tone and Javorora said, “Claus was her fiance. He used her to hunt for unicorns. He hurt her to lure them out of the forest. That black unicorn cursed her because of it.”

A sudden terror struck Kaitlyn and she looked up and said, “Will he hurt my family?”

Javorora looked at her for a long a moment in confusion and asked, “Isn’t Claus dead?”

“No, the unicorn!” Kaitlyn cried. “It killed Claus’ parents. Will it go hurt my parents because of me?”

Fapallo growled fiercely and Kaitlyn jumped to her feet, “I have to go. I have to warn them.”

“You can’t!” Javorora cried out, “The curse…”

“I have to!” Kaitlyn almost screamed in a panic. The house was beginning to shake from foundation to roof.

Javorora tried to grab Kaitlyn’s arm, but the larger woman shook her off and practically ran to door. Fapallo inserted himself between Kaitlyn and the door, whistling in a series of clicks, trills and grunts. Clearly he was trying to talk to her, but she was in such a panic she wouldn’t have listened even if she understood him.

Dust was falling from the ceiling as the house continued to shake harder. All of the handful of dishes Kaitlyn had fell off the table. Javorora fell to the floor and yelped in pain when she was shaken into the hearth. Fapallo still blocked Kaitlyn from the door, talking at her without her understanding. She was trying to climb over him or around him.

“You have to stop!” Javorora said, a note of panic in her voice.

Fapallo raised a clawed hand and punched Kaitlyn in the stomach. She crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath. He hissed at the roof and the house slowly settled. Kaitlyn lay on the floor in shock. Javorora crawled over to Kaitlyn and gently put the human’s head on her lap.

“Fapallo, could you take a message to her family?” Javorora asked him.

Fapallo made an almost tweeting noise, but it wasn’t clearly whether it was a yes or a no. Kaitlyn curled herself into a ball and covered her head with her arms. Fapallo snarled silently and sat down. He concentrated and wrote in the air, “Meditate.”

“Meditate?” Javorora read. Fapallo nodded firmly and pointed a claw at Kaitlyn.

“Kaitlyn, Fapallo says you should meditate,” Javorora told her.

Kaitlyn didn’t respond and Fapallo growled a little and nosed into the middle of Kaitlyn’s ball. She shoved at him and said, “No! No!”

Fapallo growled more fiercely and stamped a foreclaw on the ground. Kaitlyn sat up and yelled at Fapallo, “No! Why the hell would I meditate right now? My family could be dying right now!”

Fapallo growled again and stuck his face basically in her face, staring at her with his black pupil-less eyes. She wiped the tears from her face angrily and then shoved at him and said, “No. No. I hate meditating.”

He growled again, deeper. Javorora said, “Kaitlyn, I think… I think he knows something important. Please… please try.”

Kaitlyn glared but sat back and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, but she couldn’t focus her mind. She took another deep breath, trying to focus like Master Garthis had told her to. She suddenly sensed the darkness all around her. There was danger, the house itself was prepared to do something. The house itself was angry beyond reason.

The room was smaller. She could feel it now, the house was trying to drain magic from itself and from Kaitlyn for… something. Kaitlyn felt suddenly cold. She also realized that the house was rapidly draining her to a dangerous point. She struggled and strained as she cut off the house. It was like pushing a giant boulder up a river, and when she finally had cut the house off, she was panting and sweating.

“No, not like this,” Kaitlyn thought at the house. A deep grinding noise echoed through the room as though it came from a distance. The room almost popped back to it’s correct size and Kaitlyn kept the barrier up between herself and the house. She needed some time without the house drawing on her. She slowly opened her eyes.

Javorora was standing just outside the door, her eyes very wide. Fapallo was crouched against the door, watching her with concern.

“Thank you,” she whispered to Fapallo.