Disclaimer: I do not own Alys or Selendrile, as much as I wished I owned the latter. They are the property of Vivian Vande Velde.

Dragon Tails

Chapter 1: A forced Nap

The cackle echoed a hundredfold in the vast, empty cave. The wrinkled face of the old crone filled Alys's vision, the expression on the old witch's face nothing short of terrifying. The witch's piercing gaze cut right through Alys, sending shivers of fear down her spine. "Leave me alone!" cried Alys desperately, hiding her face behind her arms to shield herself from the witch's eyes. "You still owe me a soul," croaked the witch, her creaky old voice menacing. Alys tried to defend herself, tried to convince the old witch of the glen that Atherton had never sold his soul to the devil, but the old woman waved off her protests. "You must pay your debt before it's too late…"

Alys awoke with a start, breathing heavily and realizing that she was drenched in sweat. She sat up and pulled the covers off, thinking of going for a walk to clear her chaotic thoughts. The cool night air swept over her, making her shiver. She and Selendrile had made their camp near a small forest two days ago. It was warm during the day, but the season was slowly turning to fall, and the nights were freezing.

She glanced at the place where Selendrile was peacefully slumbering in his human form, several feet away . . . and her heart nearly stopped. Selendrile was not sleeping, but staring at her so intensely that his eyes seemed to be burning. The expression on his face was unreadable. Alys's heart was racing faster than she would have thought possible—even after several months of living with Selendrile, she still couldn't quite get used to him.

"Don't do that," she gasped. Selendrile merely continued to stare at her for a minute or so until Alys began to feel self-conscious and pulled the blanket back over her, and looked away.

"You were having one of your nightmares again," came Selendrile's voice, completely emotionless. Startled, her head snapped up, and she tried to tell from Selendrile's bland expression what he was thinking. "How did you know I've been having dreams?" she asked, studying him carefully. His face betrayed nothing, so she quickly gave up, turning her gaze to the glowing embers of their dying fire.

Selendrile shrugged, but his amethyst eyes seemed to darken for a moment. She could tell, although the firelight and the moon barely gave off enough light for her to see the color of her blanket.

It was true that she'd been having similar nightmares for weeks now. Her eyes had dark shadows under them from lack of sleep, and though she tried to hide it, her sleepless nights were taking their toll.

She'd been living with Selendrile for several months now, always on the move, never staying in one place for more than a week. Sometimes they stayed in inns, sometimes in abandoned farmhouses, and very often they simply camped out in the open, with Selendrile leaving Alys alone for short periods of time to get her food. Her sleep schedule was strange now, for she had become accustomed to going to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, when it was still dark, and waking up sometime during the afternoon. She had adjusted her sleeping to Selendrile, who could only turn into a human under the cover of night. At the beginning of their journey together, she'd tried to continue sleeping at her normal times, but this had proved frustrating and pointless as that meant she could only talk to Selendrile for short periods of time every day. And since he was quite often the only company she had, she had become so lonely that she had no choice but to sleep through part of the day.

Suddenly, Alys realized something. It was too dark to be anytime after she'd gone to bed—the sky had already been lightening when she'd closed her eyes. She turned to Selendrile, slightly confused. "Selendrile," she said carefully, annunciating each syllable, "How long have I been sleeping?"

Selendrile answered without hesitating. "About a day," he said.

Without realizing it, Alys had jumped up. "A day! You mean I was out for the rest of last night and all of today!" she exclaimed, too surprised to be angry . . . yet. How had she been able to sleep for more than twelve hours when she'd barely been managing to get a few hours of sleep for the past few weeks? She eyed Selendrile warily, suddenly suspicious. But before she could open her mouth to say anything, Selendrile cut her off. "I noticed that you seemed weak, even for a human, during the past few weeks, so I put herbs in your tea to make you sleep," he said simply, as if describing the weather.

Alys was so filled with fury that she was speechless. She'd missed an entire day because Selendrile had drugged her? And then there was also the fact that he'd been staring at her for God-knows-how-long. Although that was not unusual, Alys thought wryly. It was not uncommon for her to wake up and nearly have a stroke because she caught him staring at her. She'd learned to simply ignore him and pretend her blood wasn't being pumped at about fifteen times its usual speed, but the dragonish grin on his face always gave away that he knew.

Alys opened her mouth to yell at Selendrile for drugging her drink but then shut it before she'd uttered a sound. She suddenly realized that Selendrile must have done it because he'd been worried about her. Wait a minute—worried about me? she thought, utterly bewildered. She hadn't been aware that Selendrile liked her very much at all, let alone that he cared enough about her to notice the dark circles under her eyes and know instinctively that they came from nightmares. She felt strangely touched.

Selendrile was still staring at her, his expression blank as ever. But there was a touch of amusement in his voice as he said, "What, no yelling at me because I drugged you? No 'Selendrile, why did you do that?'"

Now the amusement was definitely showing in those violet eyes of his. Alys didn't even roll her eyes. "No, actually I wanted to say thank you," she said thoughtfully, smiling to herself as she noticed the confusion cloud his expression for a moment before returning to its blank state. She did enjoy getting a reaction out of him, and the fact that he'd been practicing letting human emotions show on his face to better disguise himself in public made her job much easier. "That was the best I've slept in weeks."

A shadow passed over his eyes, but then his face returned to being completely expressionless. "I know," he said shortly.

Alys sighed. This seemed to be all she was going to get out of him, for he turned slightly away from her to stare at the dying remains of the fire. Selendrile never let on much about what he was thinking, and she had gotten used to just not asking. He also tended to show his emotions more in the presence of other humans—at least, his expression changed more frequently than it did around Alys, but she was fairly certain that his change of expression was usually just a façade.

She sighed again, mentally berating herself for giving Selendrile an excuse to tease

her mercilessly about this particular habit, and decided to go for a walk after all. After having slept through an entire day, she was also feeling a strong urge to use the bathroom. She was also quite thirsty, but she would take care of that later.

Selendrile didn't seem to notice it when she walked directly past him, so it was rather a shock when she heard him say, "Don't go too far away from camp, or I'll have to go and look for you again." She couldn't help rolling her eyes. Selendrile was still holding the one time she'd gotten lost over her head. She'd wandered around in that dense green forest for hours, until sunset, in fact, calling his name all the while. He'd finally found her sitting in a clearing and trying not to cry. He had shaken with laughter all the way home.

As she strolled along the edge of the trees, Alys brooded about her dream. It was the same dream that she'd been having over and over again for weeks. The face of the old witch of the glen was permanently imprinted in her memory. But why was she haunting Alys's dreams? Alys had barely spoken a word to the woman, and even then the old witch had offered her assistance…right? She had no idea what the old witch's intentions were, but there was something not quite right about her. And why did she keep saying the same thing? "You owe me a soul…" Alys though back to that horrible night when former inquisitor Atherton informed Alys that she was to buy back his soul from the old witch. She knew that it was impossible to buy or sell one's soul, and yet Atherton had died thinking he'd done just that.

Perhaps that was what made the difference. Perhaps Alys should have done something so Atherton's spirit could be at peace—but what could she have done? Made sure that he'd gotten a better burial? She and Gower had piled rocks on top of the body, not having had the tools or the time to dig a proper grave. Or should she have visited the witch in the glen to ask her what the problem was? Alys shuddered at the thought of the old crone, especially after having had such terrifying dreams about her.

After what felt like half an hour, she began to feel the night's chill, and decided to return to the camp. And perhaps speak to Selendrile while he could still be a human.

It took her several minutes to retrace her steps back to where she had left Selendrile and the fire. Selendrile must have gotten up to get more logs, for the fire was no longer reduced to ashes. But one thing hadn't changed—Selendrile was still gazing blankly into the flames.

"You're back," he said tonelessly, causing Alys to jump. She was coming up to him from behind, and she hadn't considered the possibility that he knew she was there. Then again, she thought, he was a dragon. His senses were much more honed than hers. And after months of living with him, she would have expected herself to know this by now.

For the first time, Alys noticed that Selendrile had been rather moody lately. The stretches of time he took each day to hunt became longer and longer, and he said very little when in human form. Alys realized that she missed the Selendrile she had spent the summer months with, who had at least smiled occasionally and actually been a pleasant conversational partner.

"I have something to tell you," he added in the same morose voice. Alys stared at him, surprised. But he took a long pause before he spoke again, so she had time to circle around him and cuddle up under the blankets of her makeshift bed. "I've found you a nice place to stay for the winter."

The fact that Selendrile had said "you" and not "us" did not escape Alys. She looked at him, astonished and concerned. Was he deciding to leave her? Was he tired of his human companion? She felt a tremor pass through her. She had lost everyone and everything that she had once held dear. Selendrile was the only living soul she even remotely liked at the moment, and he was going to leave her. A tear trickled down her face at the very thought, but she was determined not to let him see.

"You'll be staying the winter in an inn in Quinn," he continued, not taking his eyes of the crackling flames.

"And what about you?" asked Alys. The shakiness in her own voice surprised her.

"I will be elsewhere," he said, his expression never changing from that frustrating mask of impassiveness. Alys was torn between the wish to strangle him or to hug him. She decided to do neither, and instead hugged her knees to her chest. She felt alone, abandoned. "Why can't I stay with you?" she said, trying desperately not to cry.

"Because I will be hibernating for most of the winter."

This answer startled Alys so much that most of her sadness left her. "You'll be what?" she asked incredulously.

Selendrile turned to look at Alys for the first time in nearly an hour. There was a slight hint of annoyance in his eyes. "Hibernating. That means sleeping through the winter."

Alys glared at him, annoyed. "I know what it means," she muttered. "I just didn't realize that dragons…" she trailed off. Suddenly, she had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. She could just picture Selendrile in his dragon form, completely bloated from stocking up on food for the winter, snoring in some cave. She bit her lip to try to control herself, but nevertheless, a small giggle escaped her. Though she knew that Selendrile never snored, the image that had formed itself in her mind was hilarious.

"What's so funny?" asked Selendrile, narrowing his eyes. Alys merely shook her head and shut her mouth as tightly as she could, eyes watering.

But Selendrile was not in the mood to put up with her. He emitted a low growl that sounded distinctly dragonish, and glared at her. "So you think it's funny that I have to leave you in some inn where I can't keep an eye on you and you'll get into all kinds of trouble?" he snarled. "You can barely keep yourself alive if I'm not around, and you find this funny?"

The desire to laugh had vanished, and irritation at Selendrile replaced it. "That's not true! I can get on just fine without you!" she retorted.

Selendrile snorted. Alys knew he was thinking of the time that he'd told her he was tired of constantly having to go out and find food to nourish her frail human body. This had caused Alys to storm off into the nearby forest, where she had walked straight into a bear den and nearly gotten herself killed. She'd fled from the little cave, only to step right into a hornet's nest. She shuddered at the memory of those horrible buzzing creatures swarming around her and piercing her skin with their stings. Her face and arms had swollen to twice their thickness, and it had taken a week for the swelling to go down.

As if reading her mind, Selendrile added, "And don't forget the time you fell in the lake before I taught you how to swim, and the time you fell off a cliff and I had to catch you in midair, and the time—"

"I get it, I get it," Alys interrupted him, cheeks burning. "I have a lot of accidents."

Selendrile looked almost amused by now, which, Alys supposed, was an improvement in some ways. Not, of course, good in all ways, as she would now have to put up with that smug smile.

"I saved your life too, you know," she said defensively.

"Once."

"Well, yes, but you're a dragon," said Alys, slightly stung at his dismissal of her having saved his life. "You're much harder to save."

To her astonishment, a half-smile formed on Selendrile's face. He was studying her carefully again—searching for what, Alys had no idea.

"Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to fly you the rest of the way to Quinn. Be ready," he said, turning away and ending the discussion. But she could see that he was smiling that dragon-smile of his, the one that never ceased to puzzle her.

Alys lay back onto the ground, pulling her blankets over her. A few stars were visible on the inky sky, and the moon was a silver crescent.

"Good night, Selendrile," she murmured, her eyelids already drooping. For some reason, though she had just woken up after sleeping for a whole day, she felt exhausted. And she had no idea what tomorrow would bring.

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