We have a lot going on, let me tell you. I will put this though.

"By the gods...I SLEPT WITH A DRAGON?!"

MINE.

~Angel~

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Rayne was still very shaken with the whole ordeal prior but she tried to keep from showing it to Gaerwn. They only had a half a day's trek back and then what? He said he would come back if she wanted him to, and she was beginning to think she did. But what if he came back when she already left for Magnus' lair? Would he try to find her? Would he wait like he had before outside the woods?

It was becoming far too complicated. Now Dracen knew. If Dracen found Magnus and told him, what would Magnus do? Anything? It wasn't his love life, and he really had no say in the matter since his own had caught up to him. Would he be jealous? Or angry? Or...anything? She knew he would ask about the slayer knowing where his lair was, but that really wasn't a part of the picture now. She could tell Gaerwn when she would be around and when she wouldn't, but would he still want to have her when he could only see her for short periods of time? She still wanted and needed to learn about the dragon's knowledge, but now things were becoming so foggy it was hard to decipher what her mind wanted and her heart needed. Gaerwn knew where her loyalties were, and he still wanted to have her. Magnus was her Lord and teacher, but he sent her away for the time being.

Confused was an understatement. She was beginning to think this was the punishment from the gods for taking another life. Rayne thinking she had the power to choose between life and death? HA! Now she must choose between her mind and her heart! She could see the gods laughing at her, pointing steady fingers and enjoying the show all the while. Torturing her might have become a favored pass time. And to top it all off lets have Dracen, the brother of her master thrown into the mix for laughs!

Thinking like that wasn't helping. Neither was the sudden paw on her knee trying to get her attention.

“Did you hear me, Rayne?” Gaerwn asked in a gentle tone. They stopped to rest and have some lunch but she hadn't touched the meat in her paw. Obviously trying to stay face wasn't working as well as she hoped.

“What? No, sorry. I was just thinking,” she muttered before looking at him. “What did you say?”

“I said you should be eating,” he responded calmly, looking at her with worry in his eyes. “Aren't you hungry?”

“A little,” she answered quietly, looking from his face back to the food. She nibbled on it to try to appease him since he already ate all the—all else. He really was a bottomless pit, at least the food she brought wouldn't go to waste she supposed.

“You're not alright,” he replied as he scooted closer to her. “What is it?”

“Nothing, everything,” she shrugged a bit. “I think I'm worrying over nothing. But...”

“But...” Gaerwn pressed her on, putting his paw on her lower back.

“...But the dragon we ran into? Was—hm...”

“A brother,” he replied calmly. “He said if you saw his brother...yes?”

“Mmhm,” she responded.

“And now you're worried he will...tell his brother?” Gaerwn asked. “About this.”

She closed her eyes and leaned into him gingerly.

“I'm worried that he'll learn about you,” she whispered as she put the meat on his thigh, unable to eat anymore of it for the time being. “I told him about you once, the first time...but I haven't said anything since.”

“Right now,” Gaerwn replied calmly, giving her mind something to ground to. “You cannot do anything about it, can you?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“I want you to stop worrying over it,” he said firmly. “I promise things will work out.”

Rayne wanted to believe him, but something in her gut told her otherwise. He tilted her head up with his paw, rubbing her chin with his thumb.

“Believe me, it will be alright,” he whispered to her, his intense stare looking straight into her. “For now lets get you to the village. Are you sure you won't eat this?” He lifted the piece of dried meat back up into her vision.

“I'll hang onto it, see if I bet hungry on the way,” she smiled a bit. “Then at least I know I have something left.”

“I was hungry,” he grumbled a bit, eyes scowling. “Breakfast was cut short.”

“Bottomless,” she stated with a playful tone, poking his stomach before standing up and grabbing her pack. “We should get there soon, otherwise you're going to be leaving town when the sun's setting, and I don't know if you wanted to stay the night.”

Gaerwn's brow quirked up as a devious smile exposed his predator canines, but his face changed as he stood up.

“I need to leave tonight, otherwise I would,” he replied in a disappointed manner. “But there is always an option of staying the night when I return.”

“Oh is there now?” Rayne asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, trying to seem put off by the suggestion. She liked rousing him, as much as he liked rousing her.

“Don't make me make you beg...again, female,” he glowered down at her, his evil smile returning as he rubbed a few strands of her hair between his fingers.

“That might've been a one time thing,” Rayne said confidently, nodding slightly to make it more defiant.

“That's too bad,” Gaerwn growled in a low tone, before kissing her lips slowly. She held back a little moan as he pulled away. “I liked it.”

“I knew your ego needed the boost,” she snickered a little, before turning away and beginning to hike back up to the roadway. She heard him growl a bit, either angry at her comment, or her escape, or both. She grinned as she trotted onto the road, listening for him to come up behind her and attempt a comeback.

The sun still hung in the sky above their heads when Sagewynd came into view, Rayne eagerly waving at a few locals traveling out of town from the market. Greetings were yelled before they made their way into the border, Gaerwn looking a little uncomfortable with all the eyes regarding him. He kept close to her, uneasy on his own feet here. Rayne's curiosity won out.

“Something happen the last time you were here chasing after me?” she asked in a quiet manner.

“No,” Gaerwn shook his head a bit. “Just...not used to getting all the attention.”

“People knew my uncle well, so they know me,” she replied calmly. “Don't worry, they probably won't recognize you without the armor on anyway.”

He didn't look convinced, so she simply took his paw and took his mind off the on-lookers. The little two floored building looked untouched since Rayne had been there last. Her renters weren't outside so Rayne unlocked her door and stepped aside.

“Do you want to come in?” she asked in a hopeful manner. Gaerwn grinned at her with soft eyes before he shook his head.

“You are safe,” he replied, holding her paw tightly. “I need to head out before sundown.”

“Alright,” she said in a little manner, nodding her head once. She didn't know why she was disappointed about it...But he would be back at some point. No point in telling him she might not be here to look at it later.

With a firm pull she came back out of the doorway and into his frame, looking up at him shyly as her ears turned back against her head.

“I will be back as soon as I can be,” he said in a low rumble, making her spine shiver through her torso. The deep kiss he pulled her into made the sensation worse. When he finally broke away she blinked a few times, regaining herself and looking up at him.

“Safe journey,” she whispered to him. Gaerwn bowed his head slightly, before letting go of her and beginning to make his way through the crowd and disappeared. Rayne hugged herself a little, pouting, before she heard something above her head.

Oh great, her tenants HAD been home, let the gossip begin.

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“What could you be possibly thinking?!”

“Dracen, you have ten seconds to explain why you were in my territory before I stuff your own tail down your throat.”

Dracen waited in the darkness for his brother's inevitable return, stance aggressive as Magnus landed hard outside his lair.

“She doesn't know does she?! She thinks that little form of yours is really a slayer!”

“DRACEN! What I do with my mortal is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!”

“She?” came a third invasive voice, echoing from the mouth of the mountain lair. “That IS interesting...”

Magnus almost flinched with the voice as Dracen's head turned towards the darkness of the lair, before one eye saw the tip of the tail blade hovering just before his left eye. A yellow tipped tail blade which melted into a deep brown sat hovering in the air ready to strike through Dracen's eye, the red scaled tail attached disappearing into the dark shadows.

“Why don't you tell me about this...She...Dracen? Be a good little hatchling...”

Magnus' paw grasped the tail and pulled it at a painful angle, almost doubling it over as the voice inside hissed and pulled the tail free.

“Dracen, leave,” Magnus ordered his younger brother, pushing Dracen back while opening his wings wide in case the tail came back out.

“Magnus I really need to tell you...” Dracen's voice was quiet but faded when piercing eyes began to come from the lair's shadows, orange and red and burning.

“Later, Dracen,” Magnus replied in a stern manner, before grasping hold of one of his brother's horns with his tail and pulling back. Dracen grumbled, but obeyed, wings flaring before the beating of them could no longer be heard.

“Xipil, please leave my family out of this.”

“Oh come now Magnus,” the eyes smirked. “I wouldn't have hurt him...much. He is about to become family after all, and I don't want bad blood between us.”

***********************************************************************

Rayne was looking through her recent journals by candle light, trying to organize them since she didn't really have the time to do so traveling as she usually did. She was just correcting a few little errors here and there when she came across a sketched page of Magnus reading she'd done without his knowledge. His book was atop crossed paws as he lay on his side, a concentrated look about him. She tilted her head as she looked at the little details she was able to get with his absorption in the words before him, and noticed the ring. When had he put that on? She didn't remember him wearing it all the time...

But Gaerwn wore a ring, on the same finger all the time. Her attentions focused on the page before her, before her eyes lingered to the scar on Magnus' bicep.

'I don't really want to relive old scars at the moment.'

Rayne's paws shook slightly and she started to breath quickly, heart racing in her ears.

My word is my bond. Are you quite done? DRAGON! ATE MY COWS! Black mane. Yellow-piercing eyes. Narrow eyed scowl. Loud, booming voice. My goodness you reek of him. Believe me, it will be alright.

'I can't...help myself...'

'Rayne.'

She slammed the journal closed, throwing it across the and put her paws against her eyes, rubbing them viciously as the pieces fit nicely together inside her mind. She sat down on her bed, putting her paws in her lap and staring at the journal tossed aside.

Gaerwn was Magnus. Dragon magics. She was sure of it.

“By the gods,” her mouth quaked like her body, rage fuming as did the unnerving feeling of being used. “I SLEPT WITH A DRAGON?!”