Rayne leaves as ordered before Magnus wakes. Magnus has a conversation with himself and Rayne runs into her favorite dragon slayer.

MINE.

~Angel~

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Rayne was packed up and ready to leave before the sun started to peek up over the horizon. She was still fuming, sleep coming but not letting her cool down after yesterday's realization. She wanted to get out of there before he woke, and the loud breathing let her know he was still sleeping. She looked into the cave as he slept like he usually did, ridiculously on his back with his tongue hanging out. She resisted the urge to toss something in his open mouth and make him choke awake. She resisted it, resisted...Kicked the rock at her feet and let it skid down the corridor to help her resist. He didn't wake to the little pebble skirting across the floor, so she kept walking to the exit.

Would she leave him a note? No. He hadn't ordered her to. She was simply following his direct instructions. Leaving in the morning for Sagewynd and wouldn't come back until he called for her. She knew it was spiteful and passive-aggressive, but more and more the walls around her started to close in tightly and the more stir crazy she became.

With the fresh morning air came a calming in her mind, cool and damp with humidity. She crawled down her ladder and took a good look back up at the still dark mouth of the lair. A small twinge of guilt crawled up from her chest, but she pressed it back down, she wouldn't feel bad for the dragon who owned her like one of his books. Although his books didn't talk, or walk, or help him when his life is in danger. He might even enjoy the fact his talking-back toy wouldn't be around. Thinking that helped her trek out of the prairie. He would've tried to scare her awake. That helped getting up the steep hill. He might have yelled in panic again for her. That made her stall near an old tree, leaning against it slightly. Why did he sound so panicked when she wasn't there?

She shook it off before continuing her still long few days. She would reach the edge of the road by sundown—then she stalled again. What if Gaerwn was around? She really just couldn't handle him at the moment, or she couldn't handle herself around him. She knew there was another way through the forest to the road, she would head out that way. It would make her journey longer but at the moment she wasn't looking to return any time soon. She just hoped she wouldn't stumble upon him on the road.

The morning sun can peering through the thick trees and Rayne was well away from Magnus' Lair. If he did roar, she wouldn't have been able to hear it which gave her some ease. Walking helped her calm down and think on what she could do with her time in Sagewynd rather than think Magnus' head would look down on her at any moment with a new demand. She let out a long sigh, deciding to rest and eat something before that guilt returned.

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Magnus grumbled and rolled over, letting out a deep sigh as he tried to return to sleep and curling his wings around him like a bat. He grumbled again when sleep wouldn't return, carefully getting to his feet and stretching his wings wide. He sniffed the air carefully, his mind still waking but his instincts were well aware something was amiss. He wandered out into the corridor away from his room and into the main cavern, scratching his head on a long rock spire hanging from the ceiling. Everything seemed normal, nothing wrong here...Then what was missing?

Snarling to no one he wandered back to his room and tried to curl back up to sleep. His ears twisted around his head, alert but because of the silence suddenly present. His head jerked up and his eyes looked around...There was usually another quiet heartbeat nearby. Rayne's heartbeat. The predator in him knew the beat was missing when the logical side wanted to sleep it off. Where would she have gone at this hour? The sun had nearly just come out of hiding and no one would have wanted to...

The small spat between them resurfaced, replaying in his mind in an instant. He got to his feet quickly before stalking to Rayne's quarters and observing the room with scrutinizing accuracy. The pack was gone, the trail of hay lead across the room and a few stray pieces were here and there under his own feet. Her scent was almost gone, but only the damp floor held it now in patches.

“Little—ungrateful—CHILD!” Magnus roared a bit and let it echo throughout his lair. “How dare she leave without saying goodbye to her Master! Her teacher! Her reason for BEING!”

Nothing. The voice echoed and then nothing was around him.

“I should—I should—WHAT?” he asked himself, sitting on his haunches and putting a front paw on his chin to think. “Obviously the little mortal was just following orders...she would play that to her advantage if I went and chased her down. She did this little plot as revenge for—what? For me raising my voice to her? I gave her strict instructions to stay in the cave!”

He got up and began stalking and pacing his lair, hoping the movement would help him think clearer.

“I have given her all she asked for—even MORE than that! And she repays me with—with— GODS BE DAMNED SHE IS MINE! And she will LEARN TO LIKE IT!”

His paw slammed into the wall with emphasis, seething there for a long few moments.

“Magnus, you are letting your anger get the best of you. Begin to walk the path of the beast and you're no better than some of your brethren. You must think...think on how to make her...her what? Listen to reason and logic? No...Perhaps I should have gone over the Dragon's code on the very first day. She took her oath to me, she bares my scale, she is mine by the code.”

'But,' Magnus' inner voice pepped up, 'you weren't expecting her to stay for very long and now you don't want her to leave.

'And she left. Without saying anything, without leaving anything. Trying to keep her like a pet obviously got you exactly what you wanted, her obedient and gone. That is why you are angry, because you are hurt.'

“She did not mar me,” Magnus grumbled to himself.

'Not externally, no. Your heart is aching. You saw her face, you heard her voice. What once was playful and kind turned to obedience because you demanded it of her. You are angry because she hurt you, for hurting her.'

“I did not hurt her,” he grumbled to himself, massaging his temple with one of his digits.

'You hurt her and you did not even tell her why. You did not explain to her how much you want to keep her safe, why you are so protective over her.'

“Because she is mine to protect!”

'Because you want to keep her safe. Because you want to keep her safe. Because you want to keep her safe. You never told her that. You never told her that. You never told her that.'

Magnus groaned and pushed his thoughts back, aggravated with them and himself. Perhaps if he told her why he was panicked and why he ordered her away...He wouldn't have hurt her. Perhaps then she would have said something before leaving.

His head raised up, shaking off the feelings edging towards the surface. For now things would go as planned, she would go to the little village and he would keep his watch over her there, whether she liked it or not. He would wait for her to come out of the woods, surely she hadn't gotten that far yet, and make certain she arrived back to her village promptly.

Magnus found the transfiguration band shortly after breakfast, not trying to follow Rayne or even think on her as he feasted. He knew where she was going and where he could meet her. He even had a time of day she would probably appear out of the woods thanks to the times she had traveled before.

He landed far off the road, or what one could call a road, to him it seemed just like worn down ground with some pebbles for emphasis. Using the band and putting on clothing, which he was becoming used to, he went to the usual tree and sat next to it, waiting for sundown and the appearance of Rayne.
But there was no sign of Rayne, long after sundown. This was her place of entry and exit, he knew that. This was the place he nearly lost all composure...

He growled to himself and knew Rayne wouldn't be moving anymore tonight. Did he worry for her in the woods? No. She had become too familiar with them to be in real danger there, and if she had truly gotten injured by a clumsy accident he would have felt it. She was either hiding from him there or—found another exit onto the road way. Of course she would have...She was still trying to avoid Gaerwn.

He ran for his changing spot, a deep ravine with nothing mortal made in sight, shifted into his dragon form and took to the air. The darkness helped him mold into the night sky as he followed the marring road from a high distance, searching for another easy area where the road and the forest met. Not for a good hour in the sky did he spot it, far more north than he would have expected.

He could make the trek by the roadway at night, even with the sort of thugs and ruffians on the path now. His eyes were far more accurate at night than theirs, and his strength even in the little form was triple their own. He would chance it, just to see the look on Rayne's face when he suddenly appeared.

To his astonishment he didn't even have to move out of the way of the villains on the road, they gave him plenty of room to move about. Apparently the predators of the road knew another, more formidable predator when they saw one. When he left the road they did not follow, and Magnus in Gaerwn's disguise decided to rest outside the woods for the night, or soon coming morning.

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Rayne prepared her things after the sun awoke her, warm and piercing into her closed eyes. She found herself a few roots to help satisfy her breakfast and began to make her way close to the edge of the forest. The road wouldn't be too far off from the treeline and she could make it home by tomorrow night...She hoped. Spending the night near the road wasn't really a good plan but with her early leave the previous day she thought she could.

Her anger towards Magnus had lessened, but where the anger was a new little nagging ache took its residence. Would he ever see her as anything but property? She looked at the new ground, covered in grass instead of leaves and moss and watched bugs vacate away from her feet. She sighed through her nose and suddenly was startled by the paws grasping her shoulders to stop. She wiggled and jerked from who ever was in front of her, ready to make a run for the woods with her knife drawn! But then her eyes caught her supposed captor and her knees almost gave way under her.

“G—Gaerwn?!” she almost shouted at the white tiger, slipping her knife into her pack. His smile was more predatory than she remembered it...But that was beside the point! “How—wh—you aren't supposed to BE here!”

“Oh?” he asked with a simple look. “I wasn't aware this place belonged to you.”

“NOT THAT! How did you know—I was coming out of the woods—at THIS spot?!” Rayne almost exploded at him, fists tightening ready to hit him in his smug face.

“Well,” Gaerwn replied, leaning against a short tree branch. “The first time I followed you, you didn't expect it and thought I would have left after the first deal was struck. The second time you didn't expect me either, but after that...I could only assume you would expect me to be waiting there. So you would have found another route out of the woods still near the road...and here we both are.”

Rayne felt her face redden with anger, why was she angry at him? She didn't care at this moment, she needed to be angry at something and he just presented himself as the prime target.

“WHY are you here?” she growled at him, “I'm not going into the woods, you can't threaten me with following me in. You don't have anything to threaten me with.”

With that she stepped around him but his arm caught her bicep and held her steady where she was.

“Let me go—”

“I know where you're going,” he stated, not in a torturous playing, but as a certainty. “And I know its at least two and a half days journey from here. I also know what the road is like at night...not very safe.”

“I've been fine before—”

“This time there's a much longer distance to cover, unless you aren't hoping to get there as fast as possible?”

Rayne watched his eyes as they looked into hers, trying to see the other agenda there, see the reason he was following her so closely. But his eyes yielded no reason, no logical reason anyway.

“Why are you helping me?” Rayne demanded as she tried to pull from his grasp again but he pulled her in closer to his frame and looked down at her. She suddenly felt trapped, not by his grasp on her bicep, but the look in his eyes. They held her still, silent, waiting.

“I can't...help myself,” He answered in a slight growl of his own. There was a moment where Rayne should have tried to twist free, she felt his paw weaken around her own arm. She didn't.

“Don't give me some macho facade—”

She couldn't have stopped him even if she wanted to, his lips pressed onto hers and sparked through her. Her fur and skin felt the sudden contact all over her body, and by the second needy kiss her arms had wrapped around his neck to keep him from pulling away. The anger was melting away, the idea of trying to handle herself around him was gone. Pushing him away was a distant thought now. She felt his paws wrap around her waist and lift her off the ground slightly, making her make a muffled noise against his mouth in surprise. She let out a little moan when he pinned her against the tree, feeling his heartbeat against her own chest. Strong hands grasped at her—and then the noise both scared them out of their sudden passionate fit.

The loud squeaking of a cart wheeling by made them both jump away from each other, panting and flustered. The cart went by, the driver not even noticing them as he drove his horse along, a piece of grass in his mouth. Rayne leaned heavily against the tree, eyes closing as she tried to regain her sanity. She felt Gaerwn slide close to her, his breath upon her face, still trying to regain his own composure.

“Rayne...I...”

“Don't,” she replied in a quiet voice, opening her eyes and saw his focused down, something guilty there. “It would be nice to have someone...with me on the way. Just try to keep being obnoxious to a minimum, and no dragon killing while we're together.”

Gaerwn's eyes didn't meet hers, but he nodded once and leaned back to let her have space to move from the tree. She put her paw gently on his arm, before beginning to realize her pack had been digging uncomfortable against her while she was pinned. She adjusted it before beginning to make her way up to the road, listening as Gaerwn stepped up behind her.