When the moment passed them by, Ayente went and knelt before the bear corpses and laid her hands on their heads. “Do not curse the names of Ayente and Archos in the beyond. I swear to you I killed not for pleasure, and will consume you with the greatest reverence, as all are consumed, through my flesh, your flesh will return to the earth on which you walked, so that you will always be part of this world. May the caves of the beyond be warm and safe for you forever.” She whispered to their prey as she ran her fingers through their soft fur, before she finally stood.

“What was that?” Archos asked with interest as he approached where she stood staring down at their bodies.

“That was a farewell. We took their lives, in exchange, we should bless their peace in death, it keeps the spirits at bay, to know they were not killed for nothing.” She said this without looking up, keeping her head bowed to the beast she had helped to slay.

Ayente put her hands on her hips and looked down at the two bear corpses. “How much do we take back?” She asked as she chewed on her lips in thought and furrowed her brow down at the two with hungry eyes.

“All. But first we must protect it, and too there is another thing I would do.” Archos said solemnly, and under Ayente’s curious eyes, he went to the big male that had taken part of her face, knelt by its long foreleg, where the claw that was still stained with her blood, rested in the dirt. He severed the paw of the beast, then cut the claws back beyond the quick with his sword, he worked swiftly, cutting it down to the point where the claws could be removed.

He then cut part of the pelt away, and began to shave it thinner and thinner under her curious eyes, she approached and loomed over the place where he worked, focused with great interest on his actions, she said nothing, even ignoring the drops of blood that still dripped from her face to stain the ground and the fur beneath.

He quickly skinned the part he was working with and after cleaning off his sword again and putting it away, he held his talon over the strip and drew upon the mana locked within the fur to entwine the strands into a thin twine, they twisted around one another, slowly joining into one piece like ice melting in the sea, rejoining the water it came from. He did this until he had a long, single piece, and then one by one he took up the pieces of the claws, and drawing from the mana within them, he ignited tiny pieces, making small, round holes, and drawing the flame away to rest hovering over his talon. Claw by claw, he did this, until each bore a small hole, and then he slammed the fire down hard on his injury. He gritted his teeth and snarled as his eyes popped open from the sudden pain as it was seared closed and stopped the minor bleeding that seeped over his scales still.

When he finished, he ran the woven strand through each of the holes in the claws, then connected the two ends, and used the former mana expression to weave and permanently bind the two ends together into one perfect circle.

He stood, and held it up to Ayente’s eyes as he looked down at her. Her eyes met his, then fell to the necklace. “Is this...?” She began to ask, and he put it around her neck.

He nodded as he did so, the claws clattered slightly together as they came to rest over her chest, and while he put it over her, he replied, preempting her question, “Yes, yours. No others. We fought together, shed blood together, risked our lives together. You fought as one of my people, without fear. Did I not tell you? It barely counts as courage, to fight when one is large and built for violence. It is another thing entirely, to have no fear when a single blow can easily take your life. Your flesh may appear weak, but what lies within, would have made you worthy of standing in the ranks of our warriors.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and her hands reached up and touched the necklace, she held it out in her palm and looked down at it. “Why are you so kind to me...? It can’t be just because I am brave, you saw my people fight and die, courage is not mine only. Why... why give me this, or anything... when... when you are just going to eat me when we’re done? Is this some ritual among your people? To treat your food kindly, as I spoke to the unikoslof, are you also doing to me?”

Archos looked at her as she wept and stared down at what he’d given her. “I do not understand.”

“Paek ha’ya oos’te.” [Food I am, for you.] She said slowly in her own tongue, “Such was our... bargain.”

Archos put a talon beneath her chin and raised her head so that she was looking up at him, the touch might have been threatening under any other circumstances, but for her, for her then it seemed that he was being as gentle as a ‘good’ mother’s touch must have felt. It reminded her of the chieftain before his death, bidding her well as she went out on her first hunt.

He shook his head slowly. “No. Ayente you have misunderstood. This... explains much.” he groused, and went on, “I am not helping you in exchange for your life, I am helping you because...”

He looked away for a moment, up to the sky that broke through the green canopy of leaves and limbs that sprang out from tall trees. “How do I say this, in your tongue?” He asked rhetorically as she looked with wide blue eyes up at him.

"Ya'madimat ti'tunka war, Tascaros." [You remind me of my war brother, Tascaros.] He touched his talon to her shoulder, “We are drawn, bound to aid the heroes’ light where we see it, and all the more so when it reminds us of a fallen one who gives his life’s blood for others. The blood of the battlefield is far thicker than the water of the egg.” He said, and he reached up to his shoulder where wet blood still stained his scales, and taking it on the talon, he traced it over the bloody wound on her face. “You bear my blood,” he said gravely, and seeing that some of her blood lingered on his talon, he thrust it into one of the smaller scratches the unikoslof had left on him, “and I bear yours. That is the way of warriors. You are not merely made of meat, you were hatched for greater things than to be merely consumed. I have seen the heroes light only a handful of times in my life, despite many battles, and yet I should see it in you, in the first minutes of coming to this world?”

He threw back his head and laughed a deep, growling laugh. “No. I believe Tascaros worked his will in sending me here, in ensuring that of all places, I should emerge to find another who shared his spirit, he wished for me to find you, he wished for us to meet, and he would wish for me to help you.”

“But... but in our stories, the stories of the ancient ancient ones, dragons who came traded great help, for a terrible price... they claimed the lives of those who they helped...” She touched her face where his blood had been put to her wounded face.

“I am not those dragons. I am Archos, son of Baelof & Miarel, and I do as ‘I’ will, not what the stories of the dead say I must.” He said with pride, snorting contemptuously.

“I... see. So... I will live?” She asked him in breathless and awed disbelief, and not a little bit of growing relief.

“Until you die at least, but it won’t be me that takes your life.” He replied bluntly.

“And... we bear one another’s blood now... in all our stories, no human, man or woman, has ever carried a dragon’s blood in her veins.” She held stars in her eyes as she stared up at him with a rising excitement as everything began to sink into her understanding.

“Then none before now have bled with a dragon in battle before. You are a soft, squishy war sister, not a snack. Besides... you look a little gamey, I doubt you’d taste very good.” He said with a slight pulling on the corner of his massive jaws that shaped his version of a smile.

She looked at him, affronted, and was about to argue, when it hit her what she was about to say, ‘Ayente, do NOT argue with the dragon that you ‘are’ likely delicious...’ She reminded herself, and began to laugh all over again, first with the humor of his teasing, then even more as she fell to her knees, realizing, ‘I’m going to live! I’m not just some sacrifice... I’m not just something to be devoured... and... I’m a dragon’s warrior now... this is the best day of my life!’ She cried joyfully within her own mind, as tears ran down her cheeks, the salt stinging her injuries slightly, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care about the mild pain she was still in.

“Your gift... my only treasure.” She said with a deeply moved ache in her voice and clenched her hand over the claws of her unikoslof necklace.

“It marks your courage, proof that you stood against a terrible beast, and took from it the weapons of its own body. Wear it proudly.” He said firmly, and began to look out into the woods. “Now we need to make a sled so I can pull this meat back.”

She smiled and nodded along with him, but kept her thoughts to herself as she beamed at him and let go of the necklace so that it rested on her chest and went to lend him a hand.

Creating branch sleds proved fairly simple, but also... different. “Wait!” Ayente exclaimed as Archos prepared to chop a young tree down, his blade was halfway through its swing when his brought it to a halt in midstroke.

“What?” He asked as he looked over his shoulder at the fidgeting human female. “I was not going to let it fall on you, but if you were worried, don’t stand there.” He huffed a bit and she turned red.

“No! Not that.” She approached the tree, ducking under his blade, and touched a hand to it. “Not this one.”

“Ah, why?” He asked with annoyance, “It is young, springy, it will make for a good sled. I can use magic to preserve the meat for a time, but not forever and it is better that we get it back to your home as soon as possible. We have much to do to prepare your people for war.”

“I know, but these trees...” She reached down, drew her obsidian blade and scrapped off a bit of the pale bark from the slender wood, the girth of the tree was barely twice her body’s circumference, but the way it swayed in the breeze told Archos it was flawless for his intended task. “These trees,” she carried on as she held the scrap of bark out to him, “we can make medicines from, kill this tree, and it will produce no more if its kind, and they are not large in number, we never cut these, they make too much smoke, and their medicine is too potent. We chew the bark and jam it into wounds. Those who use it, seldom sicken and even more rarely die.”

“I... see.” Archos looked at her doubtfully, but drew back his sword. “I will find another then, take some of the bark at least, bruises and small cuts in training, prevent breaks and heavy bleeding on the battlefield.”

“Is it so hard as that?” She asked as she followed him to another tree, he gave it a firm push and watched it sway, it was roughly the same thickness, but had very different leaves and a darker bark, and its long slender branches had green ends that hung very low to the ground.

“Yes, our drills are bloodless battles, our battles, bloody drills.” He looked over at Ayente, “Will this one do?” He asked with a hint of annoyance.

She nodded, “Yes, take it, I will get the bark.” She replied, and went to cut small strips away, as a few feet away, a single swing of his sword, brought a great crash that carried throughout the forest. Birds took to the wing and the crack and scrabble noises of nearby small animals in hiding, briefly disturbed the forest well beyond the time in which the sound of the falling tree resounded.

A few quick chops and hacks and he was done. He’d cut several branches into a crude and semiflat sled. He then went to the bears, and cut strips of long fur from their bodies, and using his magic to weave them together into ropes, he bound the newly made logs together. After he finished, he hefted the bodies, and tossed them atop the sled, and fashioned one more strip of crude rope which he further strengthened by wrapping fibrous strips out of the thinner branches, until it was secured at four equidistant points along the front of his improvised sled.

“Ready to go?” He asked as he wrapped it at the front of his chest and held it fast.

“Can you pull alone?” She asked him with a raised eyebrow and a doubting look.

He stared at her for a full minute.

“Forget I asked the question.” She said dryly, and went to hop on the sled and laid herself down on the dead unikoslof and put her head to resting on her folded palms and propped her feet up on the other soft body of their prey.

“Are you a dead cave bear?” Archos asked dryly when he realized her intent.

She plucked a long plant from the dirt, stripped it, broke the red stem in half, and stuck it in her mouth, “It gets me a ride, I will be a dead dragon.” She grinned more happily than he’d thought possible before the last hour. “Am I too heavy for you?” She asked archly.

“It is the principle of the thing.” He said gruffly, but without any hint of genuine annoyance.

“Just for a bit, if it is alright I... I want to savor this.” She said, her humor gone, a catch in her voice, she looked at him seriously.

“I have been, since we met, since I thought we had made our... our arrangement, to make myself OK with dying by your claws, your teeth, or that weapon you call a sword. I made convincing myself that it will be quick, that it would be OK, that I was OK with dying. That I would rest easy, better dying suddenly, quickly, mercifully at the will of the one who saved my only family, than slowly by seasons of hurt, or by our enemies. I was, I think, very good at talking myself into wanting that death. Now? I find it is not so.”

She looked at him with wide eyed reverence, her shining eyes, narrow as if with lethal intent, but with a brightness he had not seen since they had been filled with battle rage, but different.

She pointed up to the sun and the blue sky that peeked through the green canopy, “I wondered each hour, how soon my last was coming, now to know I may yet have more, to call my savior brother, to bear your blood and know that you bear mine? I am overwhelmed, I wish to savor this a bit, if you can bear the burden of my weight for just a little while.”

“Ah... no.” He said flatly as he stared at her.

“But you were...” She laughed, “It is true what I said but also... I just wanted a ride and thought that looked comfortable.”

She could not keep her lips from turning up widely at the corners as she snatched up her spear and used it as a walking stick as she got up and moved into position beside the behemoth of a dragon.

“Will it take us long to get back? Will you need to rest more often?” She asked thoughtfully.

“No, I will stop and eat something along the way.” He jerked his head toward the bear corpses, “It won’t be long, I will need to use preservation magic on it then, I dislike doing so though, as it makes the meat less flavorful. But, at least it will be perfect at least once. However... “ he looked down at her with a mocking glare, “try to get one more ride on there while I do all the pulling, and I may mistake you for part of the meal after all.”

She snickered and muttered, “You cannot fault a girl for the want.”

“Oh no? Watch me.” He uttered, with a brief guffaw, and bracing himself, he lurched forward, snapping the improvised ropes taut, and the sled began to move, snapping grass and small plants along the way as he began to move, and Ayente walked beside him, and happily began to sing. As she walked with long steps to keep up with the huge strides of the great dragon, and saw that he often slowed himself so as not to leave her behind him, she felt like she could sing forever.