Shuma gave Joseph a great deal to think about on his way back to Kovis. While she’d answered a number of questions that’d kicked around in his head for years, she’d also caused many more to pop up. If anything, his main questions had shifted towards his birthparents. At least one of them had been a dragon, which made him wonder about his mother. Had she been human and been caught off guard at her baby’s inhuman eyes? Or had she been a dragon hoping to ensure her child’s survival?

The news of his…Kind being hunted and subsequently driven to near extinction didn’t bode well for him. In fact, it honestly scared him. It also caused him to have the sudden and sad realization that he couldn’t really trust anyone. Sure, it wasn’t anything that he wasn’t used to, but he’d hoped that he’d be able to find people accepting of him. Quietly, Joseph snorted. He supposed that, in a way, he had. Charlie and the others didn’t seem to care, but he wasn’t sure how long that’d last since he half wondered if all the kindness hadn’t been a case of pity.

Then again, Shuma made it sound like what the elves had done, happened a long time ago. Even with Charlie’s age, he had seemed ignorant about the idea of magic eating dragons. Honestly, there was no telling how long ago it’d happened. But the fact remained: there still existed people who knew about magic eaters. Kebin, though his knowledge was sorely lacking, still had a vague idea.

Joseph sunk down into a crouch, then jumped as he flapped his wings a few times. The action lifted him up to the top of the rocky cliff he’d ben climbing. It hadn’t been more than ten or fifteen feet, easily climbable had he followed the path to the top on foot, but he felt a strong sense of pride at being able to sort of fly. He sat down at the edge with a pleased rumble and stared towards Kovis, which remained barely visible in the morning fog.

The knowledge of potentially becoming prey caused him to come to a conclusion: he needed to learn how to fight. Sure, he was dangerous as a dragon and would likely become even more dangerous as he continued to mature, there was no doubting that…But his fighting skills as a human were pitiful. Any past fights had been limited to brawls with other boys his age when he’d been younger. Punches that often went wild and damage that’d been limited to bloody noses or busted lips, nothing that a cold cloth and some numbing herbs couldn’t fix. He didn’t know how to use a sword beyond swinging it around haphazardly, meaning he’d be more likely to injure himself than an enemy.

The early morning sun warmed his back and he half opened his wings to bask in the warmth. He half closed his eyes and made a low purr, deep in his chest of enjoyment. Maybe he could ask Charlie to teach him the basics of sword fighting. The vampire had been a pirate, and Joseph doubted that he’d spent his entire time as a cook…So, surely, he knew how to fight.

He opened his eyes at the sound of crows suddenly calling out. Murders could be a hunter’s worst nightmare, if they didn’t like you. Crows were highly intelligent and might wait till a hunter was about to release the bowstring to call out, thus spooking the prey. Joseph had, in a way, made friends with the crows of his home forest by calling to them when he finished with a kill. By feeding them, he’d gotten into their good graces and they’d often go silent when he hunted.

Something had alerted the crows, and he looked over his shoulder to the forest behind him feeling vaguely worried. Since the wind came from his front, he couldn’t scent anything and had to rely on his eyesight. The first arrow whistled past his shoulder, but the second buried itself in his back causing him to scramble to his feet with a bellow to face his attackers. Then he spotted the hunters, ten of them, moving out of the undergrowth. There were too many for him to comfortably attack, and they’d already moved to cut him off from the path that led down the cliff. Either he faced them, or he jumped.

Joseph turned and leapt off the cliff. He always knew he’d have to learn to fly sooner or later, but he’d hoped it’d be on his terms instead of it being forced on him. The first few seconds of freefall terrified him, the thought of splatting himself against the ground below screamed in his mind. His half-opened wings suddenly caught air and slowed his fall, but the tension combined with the arrow in his back caused his muscles to ache. He fully opened his wings and flapped them, gaining altitude instead of losing it. Almost instinctively, he tucked his arms against his body and his legs against his tail, then powered forward through the fog.

Now that he was actually doing it, flying didn’t seem all that bad. It felt surprisingly natural, just as if he were running full tilt across the plains. Still, he hadn’t built up the needed muscles or endurance for flight and he quickly began to tired. His back ached sharply and his lungs burned as he tried to gulp down the air his body demanded.

This led to the question of: how the fuck was he going to land? After a moment of consideration, he figured it’d be better just to glide to the ground since he honestly had no idea what to do. He managed to get his feet on the ground, but his forward momentum caused him to tumble head over heels and a sharp pain to lance through his back.

He laid there on the ground for a moment to catch his breath before getting back up and reaching for the arrow still lodged in his back. Much to Joseph’s dismay, he discovered the arrow shaft had snapped off…Likely that’d been the pain he felt. Now, he really didn’t know what to do, but knew he wouldn’t be able to get the remains of the arrow out of his back as a dragon. Reluctantly, he shifted back human and gritted his teeth at the pain caused by the arrow. Since he now had a larger range of movement, he tried to pull the arrow out but only succeeded in causing himself more pain.

“Well…Fuck.”

Finally, he wrapped the injury the best he could, dressed, and continued to Kovis. Thankfully, his short flight had landed him relatively close to the city…Unfortunately, it still took him until well after dark to get there thanks to the frequent breaks he had to take due to the injury. While he could apparently heal quickly, it seemed that ability didn’t work too well if something remained in the injury…Such as an arrow head.

The city had shifted to the quiet murmur of nighttime, and the tavern patrons were long since gone when Joseph finally arrived. He was fine with this and quietly made his way upstairs. A sliver of light came from under Xavier’s door and he simply assumed the half-elf had found someone for the night. Once in his own room, he locked the door and made his way into the bathroom to attempt to tend to his injury. Much like before, he didn’t have much luck and concluded he’d need a knife to cut the arrowhead out of his back.

“Normally, I’d enjoy the sight of a shirtless man…But what the hell happened to you?”

Joseph scowled at the bathroom doorway where Xavier stood; the half-elf wore an uncharacteristic look of concern. He looked down as he started rinsing his hands. “An arrow decided to run into me. I need a knife.”

“What, why?” While the injury was concerning, Xavier couldn’t help but stare at the claw mark scars that covered Joseph’s back. Most seemed old, but it caused him to wonder how the younger man had gained them.

“Because the arrow head is still in my back. I healed around the arrow shaft and I can’t get it out.”

Xavier frowned heavily for a moment before turning and abruptly walking out of Joseph’s room. When he returned, he carried a small box, a bottle of whiskey, and several towels. “Lay down on the bed on your stomach.”

This simply caused Joseph to give the other man a wary look. “Why?”

“Because you’re not going to be able to get it out by yourself…At least, not without causing yourself a lot of pain. I can get it out faster.” He replied as he folded the towels and placed most of them on the bed. “Lay down so your chest is on the towels. Hopefully it’ll be enough to keep you from bleeding on your bed.”

Joseph eyed him for a bit longer before moving towards the bed. As he passed Xavier, he snatched the bottle of whiskey out of his hand and took a healthy drink of it. After putting the bottle on the nightstand, he laid down as directed. “Hurry up.”

“Are you always this much of a bastard when you’re injured?” Xavier sat down to Joseph’s right on the bed, cross legged, and opened up the box to pull a few things out.

“Well, maybe it’s because I spent most of the fucking day with an arrow in my back. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I hurt. So, yes…I am going to be a bastard about things.” He didn’t bother to suppress the snarl in his voice.

Xavier only gave the other man an unimpressed stare before he began examining the injury. The skin around the broken arrow shaft had turned red with irritation and if he carefully felt around it, he could feel the slight ridge of the arrow head under the skin. “It’s near the surface of the skin, at least. I’m going to have to make two cuts, though.”

“Just fuckin’ do it.” The first cut caused Joseph to squeeze his eyes shut, and the second to bury his face into his pillow. However, Xavier pulling the arrow out cause a deep snarl to start in his chest where the sound was ultimately muffled by the pillow. When the pain finally faded, he became aware of the sensation of the other man rubbing his back, almost soothingly. He raised his head and glared at the bloody arrowhead. The barbs on either side of it were very likely the reason it’d hurt so badly. A quiet growl still rumbled in his chest, even as he sat up to drink more of the whiskey.

“Are you going to be alright?”

“Did it heal?” He looked over to Xavier who nodded. “Then, yes.”

After a moment longer, he got up and returned to the bathroom to clean the blood off his back. Faintly, he heard the sound of Xavier leaving and figured he’d be left alone for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, he still needed to get food. Much to his surprise, when he opened the door, he found the half-elf standing at his door, a bowl of food in one hand, and his other raised to knock on the door.

Xavier offered a faint smile. “You mentioned you were hungry…And I’m curious about what you were up to while you were gone.”

“Not entertaining company tonight?” Joseph took the offered bowl of food and lumbered to the small table to eat.

“Not tonight, no. I didn’t see anyone interesting.” Xavier quietly closed the door behind him and carefully stepped over to the table. Senara had warned him about the territorial nature of male ferals, but he didn’t know if Joseph’s mood had to do with that or simply due to him not feeling well.

“Charlie told me about a forest to the northwest, so that’s where I headed. It was about a day’s travel on foot, nothing too bad.”

“As a human, or…?”

“Dragon. Longer stride and besides, I’m more of an endurance runner. So, I was able to keep a pretty steady jog. I got there around dark and after getting dinner, went to find a place to sleep.” Joseph ducked his head and grinned slightly. “Ended up finding the dryad grove that he warned me against.”

“Oh, Gods. Dryads can be so unpredictable. I’ve seen one or two come to the tavern, thought about trying to bed them, but I wasn’t sure if I’d have a good time or end up with a knife between my ribs.”

Joseph simply cleared his throat and shoved a spoonful of food into his mouth.

“…You didn’t.” Xavier went wide eyed at how the other man avoided his gaze. “You did! And here I thought you’d never done anything like that.”

This caused him to choke on his food. “I hadn’t! It was kinda awkward, honestly.” He looked away, feeling a slight blush of embarrassment forming. “I didn’t really know what I was doing. I mean, I enjoyed it and she seemed to.”

Xavier couldn’t help but quietly cackle. When he finished, an unusually serious look formed on his face. “All things considered, it’s not surprising with how you were ostracized that you’d never had sex. Being inexperienced isn’t really something to be embarrassed over, either. Little secret for you, Joseph: everyone’s first time is awkward. No one, except maybe forest nymphs, is good at sex their first time. Skill comes with practice, and lemme tell you. Some people never become good.”

“Well, you try to fuck everything that walks into the tavern, so I’m sure you’d know.”

“Hey. Hey! Only most things.” He grinned widely, showing that he wasn’t offended by the jab. “I still have standards, you know…Albeit very low standards.”

“I did it because the grove matriarch said she had information about what I am.”

Quite quickly, the serious expression returned. “The trade for information…Did you have sex just for that or because you wanted to, as well?”

“No, I wanted it. Xavier, I might be naïve about some things, but I’m not that naïve. I learned a decent amount, so it was worth it.” Joseph frowned, still mentally churning over what he’d learned.

“Ended up with more questions?”

“I did. That’s why I was gone so long. The first day I traveled to the grove, the second day was spent around the grove, then I wandered around so I could think.”

“And then you ran into an arrow.”

“This morning. I was on top of a cliff sunning myself when a group of ten or so hunters decided to attack me. If I want to look on the bright side of things, I discovered that I can fly decently. I just need practice.” He pushed his empty bowl away from him and briefly got up to fetch the bottle of whiskey. “From there, I headed back here.”

“Well…I’m glad you’re back. You’ve only been around for a week and a half but…” Xavier shrugged. “You can be grumpy and moody at times, but I dunno. It just felt weird without you around. At least it gave Senara time to give us all a crash course in ferals. So…What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry for barging in on you when you first got here. Mostly because I hadn’t expected you to eat so quickly and immediately go for a bath.”

Truth be told, then news of being missed surprised Joseph. “I was honestly thinking that I was being seen as a bit of a pity case.”

“Ok, yeah, I won’t lie. I sort of did at first, but I was also expecting you to take off pretty quickly.” At Joseph’s expression, he quickly clarified. “Not in the sense of you going off to wander for a bit and returning. I meant taking the money, grabbing all your stuff, and completely fucking off. But, instead, you wanted to help out and basically earn your keep. And…Honestly? We’ve been needing the extra help for a while. Charlie was just worried about hiring someone because…Well, vampires aren’t really seen in a nice light. Plus, the old man is a bleeding heart.”

Joseph took a heavy drink of the whiskey and settled back into the chair. He could already feel what he’d drank earlier causing him to relax. It wasn’t a bad feeling, especially after the day he’d had. “It’s nice to find a place where I’m not seen as some sort of freak. I just…Don’t know what to really do. I lost everything and it’s overwhelming trying to figure out what I should do with my life. I figured I’d travel around for a month or two and be back home by late summer. Instead…”

“You’re only…What, eighteen? Psh. You’re still a teenager. You’re not expected to know what to do with your life so quickly. Yeah, some people do, but that’s not the norm. Plus, like you said: you lost everything. Even an adult with their shit together would be lost on what to do. No one can land on their feet from something like that. No one. And honestly, I don’t think anyone is going to be able to tell you how to cope. Everyone handles loss differently. When my mom died? I went on a two-day drinking binge, smoked some really interesting stuff, and had sex with more people than I care to admit to. I didn’t want to feel, I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to lose myself in debauchery.”

“…I was angry. I wanted to kill everyone involved, still do. But that’d be dumb.” He sighed. “I barely know how to fight.”

“Makes sense. You have a bit of a temper.” Xavier grinned. “Gods. When you threw that one guy out of the tavern after he gave you a bloody nose. I was pretty sure you were gonna seriously wreck someone’s shit…Honestly, it was pretty hot. But to be serious, Charlie might be able to teach you some stuff. I know he can use a sword.”

“I was going to ask him. Figured it’d just be a good thing to know in general.” Joseph set the empty bottle on the table and sleepily blinked.

“Probably.” Then, Xavier made a face before briefly burying his face in his hands. “Gods, the old corpse is rubbing off on me. Look at how I’m being a responsible, advice giving adult. I’m supposed to be the immature one.”

“How old are you, anyway?”

“Sixty…Ish. Because I’m half-elf, I don’t age like a human…But I also don’t age like an elf. Sort of in between the two.” He smiled slightly at how Joseph seemed a bit glassy eyed. “I’m surprised your not completely passed out with how much you drank…But I guess the dragon in you, huh?”

“Not passed out, but definitely sleepy.” Joseph looked towards his bed and frowned. While he wanted to sleep, he also didn’t want to seem rude.

“Look, you’ve been traveling all day, right? Why don’t you get some sleep and we can keep talking some other time.”

Slowly, he got to his feet, but made sure to keep his hand hovering above the table in case he needed to balance himself. While Joseph didn’t feel unbalanced, he also knew that alcohol could confound the senses and cause even the smartest men to make utter fools of themselves. “I agree…Xavier? Don’t tell Charlie about me getting hurt, please? He seems like the type who’d worry over me and honestly, I’m fine. It’s not the first time I’ve been hurt and I doubt it’ll be the last.”

Xavier paused halfway to the door and looked over at the other man. “Having someone worry over you isn’t the worst thing in the world. There’s a lot worse things that could happen, but you’re right. Charlie would worry over you…That’s just how he is…And why I’ve stuck around so long. He’s basically the dad I never had. I won’t tell him what happened, but it’d be best if you told him.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Once Xavier left, Joseph all but fell into his bed and made a quiet noise as he felt himself fully relax. While he didn’t mind sleeping out in the wilds, nothing beat a soft bed to sleep in and it didn’t take him long to fall asleep. Unfortunately, morning wasn’t as pleasant. As it turned out, drinking an entire bottle of whisky resulted in an overly full bladder. The walk to the bathroom, while brief, ended up being on the painful side. In hindsight, drinking so much before bed hadn’t been the brightest thing to do.

After he finished relieving himself, he debated the idea of going back to bed, but the faint smell of cooking ham caused his mouth to water. So, after pulling on a fresh pair of clothes, he slinked downstairs where he found Xavier already eating while he talked to Charlie.

Upon seeing Joseph, Charlie immediately grinned. “Joseph! Xavier mentioned that you got back late last night. If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll fix you a plate of food.”

He nodded and took a seat at the bar. “That’d be great. Whatever you made for breakfast smells fantastic.”

“Oh, it’s just something simple. Scrambled eggs, ham, and hash browns. I have some rolls cooling, if you want one of those, too.” At Joseph’s nod, Charlie disappeared into the kitchen to quickly fix a plate of food.

As soon as the plate was in front of him, Joseph dug in and practically inhaled most of it before finally speaking. “So, how’s things been?”

“Not too bad. Quieter now that the ships have left. Well, Kovis always has ships in port, but the current sailors are a great deal better. They don’t hassle Senara or try to cause brawls.” Charlie leaned against the bar. “What about you?”

“Not a whole lot. I enjoyed my romp…Actually sort of flew a bit, so that was interesting.” Joseph grinned. “Landing could use some work, but I didn’t break anything, so I’d consider it a win.”

“Scary?”

“Before I jumped it was. Once I was in the air it wasn’t so bad. I liked it, honestly. There’s just a lot I need to figure out.” He picked at his roll for a moment and looked up to Charlie. “Question for you. Do you know how to fight with a sword?”

“Joseph…I was a pirate. I wouldn’t be a good pirate if I didn’t know how to fight with a sword. Why, are you wanting to learn?”

“I am, actually. I just figure it’d be a good skill to learn.” He pulled a chunk off the roll and popped it in his mouth.

“It really is. Knowing how to fight with a sword is something everyone should know, just like they should know how to cook or perform basic first aid.” Charlie tapped his finger on the bar top as he thought. “Give me a few days to think about how I want to teach you. In the meantime, it’s good to have you back. Once you finish eating, there’s another shipment of wood that needs to be chopped up.”

“I’m glad to be back…I missed my bed.”