The aroma of baking bread was always heavenly enough to put Lanna into a trance. She had worked many jobs over the years and few of them were ever pleasant, but usually food jobs were the worst. The smells of grease and fats and alcohol at a lot of bars and pubs were so overwhelming to her sensitive senses that it made her ill.

But here at the bakery, the only unpleasant smell was yeast while it rose, but she had long since adjusted to that. But while the dough baked…Lanna’s mouth watered as she hovered near the ovens and peered inside. The entire oven was glowing hot and bathing the loaves in a red-gold hue. She licked her lips and turned to pull a pair of oven mitts off the hook. She chuckled to herself as she pulled them on. There was a thin plank on a pole that she was supposed to use to pull the trays of bread from the oven, but the heat hardly bothered her. If anything, the inferno of the oven was a nice rush over her skin.

But though she had a far higher tolerance from heat from the flames, even in her human skin, she was not impervious to burns and not so foolish as to grasp the hot metal of the pans without protection.

So once the gloves were on, she reached in up to her elbows and then pulled one tray out. She set it aside and reached in for the second.

“Lanna!”

Carter’s stern voice startled her and she fumbled with the tray, nearly dropping it as she pulled it the rest of the way out. She turned to face him while still holding it and grimaced when she saw his expression. His brows were furrowed and his lips were pursed, but his eyes were wide.

“You stubborn girl,” he muttered. “Lanna, we’ve talked about this. Use the bread peel, that’s what it’s for.”

Lanna glanced at the long, flat paddle hanging on the wall and shook her head. “This is faster,” she announced. She twisted to show him both forearms. “And no burns either. I promise that I am careful.”

Carter shook his head. “You might be strangely resilient to heat, Lanna, but all it takes is one brush against the brick to seriously injure yourself and I don’t want to have to rush you down to Dr. Rendal’s surgery. Use the peel, alright?”

Lanna sighed. “Alright,” she agreed because she knew he would never relent until she did. She was not normally argumentative with Carter unless he was trying to talk her into taking longer breaks or days off, but she could never seem to bring herself to relent on this. Maybe it was just because of how good the heat felt.

When she had first been near the ovens when she initially started working for the Halliwins, Aja had stirred in her chest relentlessly. It had almost been impossible to settle her again and Lanna had spent the remainder of her first day feeling rather woozy. It was the heat. She vaguely remembered the adult dragons bathing rocks in powerful jets of flame until they glowed cherry red. They would do it in the heat of the afternoon sun before sprawling out on the rocks to nap.

Lanna knew it was not healthy for even Aja to be exposed to such extreme temperatures for too long, but if Carter did not properly douse the ovens every single night, she may very well have caved and snuck down to them while everyone was asleep. She supposed she should be thankful the baker was so thorough because that would be an incredibly dangerous risk to take just for a nap in the fires. She supposed she also needed to take Carter’s warning about retrieving things from the ovens as well before he got truly furious or became suspicious about why she craved a heat that would be painful and dangerous to normal people.

“I’m sorry,” she added when Carter continued to stare at her with a quirked brow.

He pursed his lips and then his expression softened and he waved a hand in a shooing motion. “Yeah, alright. Get up front and get those wrapped, and don’t let me catch you back here again today or I’m locking you out of the bakery for the rest of the week,” he warned.

Lanna grinned. “You would miss the help,” she taunted back. But she turned and made her way out to the front of the bakery before the argument could continue. She couldn’t keep a soft smile from her face as she began to transfer the loaves from the tray onto brown wax paper. She carefully wrapped each of the six loaves on the tray and lowered them into a box. They were for an order a few blocks down.

By the time she had finished wrapping half the loaves, Carter had brought the other tray up and plunked it down on the workbench behind the counter. He quirked a brow at her and then disappeared back into the back.

She shook her head and chewed her lip to smother a giggle as she moved to the next loaf of bread.

Heather clearly didn’t share her desire for composure, because she began to laugh heartily. Lanna glanced over to where the woman was sitting. There was a rounded table set up in the nook between the counter and the wall, where she often sat to decorate the various treats either for orders or to put in the display case. She was perched there now with a large bag of rose pink frosting that she was using to draw flowers on the surface of a chocolate cake. It looked delicious. “You just pulled from the oven again, didn’t you?”

Lanna shrugged and resumed wrapping another loaf of bread. Once it was safely nestled in the box, she met Heather’s gaze. “It was not as big a deal as he is making it seem. I was careful. Besides, I’m always worried I’m going to tip a tray off of that paddle. It’s just easier to use the oven mitts.

Heather shook her head. “I would rather a few dumped loaves than to have you seriously injured, Lanna.”

“I already promised I would not do it again.”

“Good,” Heather hummed.

Lanna couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she continued wrapping bread.

The bakery was rather quiet today, so she was able to settle the last loaf into the delivery crate before the bell rang to signal a customer entering the shop. She glanced up to see two men step through the open door. Both were dressed in dark slacks and thick, shin-length boots. One had a leather tunic that was laced across the front and left his arms bare. He sported a tattoo in dark ink of a serpent curling over the muscle. His companion wore a long, brown shirt and a blood-red overcoat. They both had dark hair and stubbled chins, and the man with the tattoo was chewing on the tip of a lit cigar.

Lanna’s nose wrinkled as the foul odour of the smoke permeated through the shop.

Heather coughed and rose from her seat as the two approached the counter. There was a scowl twisted on her lips. “This is a bakery, not a pub. There’s no smoking in here. Either put that out or leave.”

The man with the cigar clucked his tongue. He pulled the cigar from his lips and rolled it between his fingers before blowing out a long stream of smoke. “That’s hardly a way to greet two new customers, don’t you think?”

“There’s a sign in the window about it. As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t respect the rules of the establishment, you ain’t customers. Now leave.”

The man shrugged. “There’s no need to be uptight about it. We’re just here to place an order. We won’t be long.” His smug grin revealed yellowed teeth and Lanna swallowed the unease rising like a lump in her throat. These two made her wildest instincts run haywire. She did not like them and by the way that Aja was squirming in her chest, neither did the young dragon. She wanted them gone.

It took everything in her being not to growl as he stepped up to the counter and tapped on the cigar so that a small pile of ash dropped to the glass surface. Lanna scowled up at him.

He was easily in his fifties, but neither he nor his companion seemed to be suffering a decline from age. He grinned at her and Lanna straightened her spine. This was familiar from her last job.

The man dropped a small sack on the counter and it clinked noisily as it struck the surface. “Don’t worry, we’ve brought a full purse. Now you look like the wench who works the counter, are you going to serve us or not?”

Lanna gritted her teeth together and leaned forward against the counter. “I think that answer was already given to you,” she hissed tersely.

The man tutted his tongue at her. He took another drag from the cigar and then blew the smoke into her face. “We’ll take six loaves, a dozen quiches, and about twenty of those meat pies I hear your establishment is so good at making. Be a good girl and fetch it quickly, yeah? Then we’ll be out of your hair.”

Lanna stared back at the man evenly. As he blew more smoke in her face, a fire lit in her belly and her eyes narrowed. She curled her fingers into fists and rolled her shoulders. A long-buried instinct urged her to lunge across the counter and tear his jugular free of his throat. She had never experienced bloodlust before, but she craved it now.

Do it. A voice deep in her heart urged. Show him what true smoke looks like. She could feel it building in her lungs. She couldn’t breathe true flame like this, but with how raw she felt, it would take mere heartbeats for Aja to take over. But Aja was still buried in her chest, this was something else.

As Lanna wrestled with it, she found herself immensely grateful that her cloak was in the back. If she had been wearing it, she knew she would no longer look human.

Thankfully, before things could escalate, Carter cleared his throat and cut the tension. “Can I help you gentlemen with something?” he inquired with an edge to his tone.

As he spoke, the other man stepped forward. Lanna guessed they were related – brothers perhaps – based on their similar appearances. “Yes,” he announced with a haughty tone. “My brother was just about to wait outside. I do apologize about him, never was very good with people.”

The former grinned again and offered Lanna a wink that made her stomach churn before he turned and stalked from the shop while his intervening brother repeated his order.

Lanna curled her fingers into tighter fists until her nails dug into her palms. At the small prickles of pain, the fire in her gut died away and she took a breath. Then she glanced at Carter, who dipped his head. The Halliwins didn’t want any trouble, so Lanna relented and began gathering the order.

“We don’t have twenty fresh,” she muttered. “If you want that many, you’ll have to settle for some day-old.”

“That’ll be fine, love. Most of em’ll be day-old before we get to them anyway.”

Lanna chewed her lip and swallowed back a retort as she slipped past Carter into the back to gather up some stock. Her hands were shaking as she stacked pies to wrap together.

She shook her head and wiped her brow. She was not sure where those urges came from, but they were frightening. In her chest, Aja stirred, but she could sense the small dragon was just as disturbed by what had happened. And by what had nearly happened as a result. Lanna had nearly lost control and she had no explanation for why.

Aja hated to be buried for so long, but they were more or less in unison about the important things. Aja had no more desire for their discovery than Lanna did.

When she finished counting out pies, she hauled them back in stacks of ten and began wrapping them into a box.

“This is quite the order,” Carter observed. “Having a party of sorts?”

“We’re just passing through. A few of us are headed into Natherjack Woods on a bit of a hunting trip. Just stocking up is all.”

“I see.”

Lanna finished wrapping the order and shoved the box towards the man. She was eager to have the man out of the bakery and that urge spurred a bit more speed from her than normal. "There you are," she declared.

The man clapped his hands together. “Lovely. That should cover it,” he decided as he nodded at the coin purse still sitting on the counter. “You folks have a nice day.”

He gathered up the box and turned to leave.

“Next time, stock up somewhere else,” Carter called. “You’re not welcome here again.”

“Pity,” the man called over his shoulder.

He offered nothing more before the bell chimed once more and the door swung shut behind him.

As soon as he was gone, Lanna found herself shrugging a hand off her shoulder. She glanced away from Heather and chewed her lip. “I am fine,” she assured the woman.

“The look on your face a few minutes ago said otherwise,” Heather pressed.

Lanna shook her head. “I really am okay. I don’t care for their sort, dealt with more than my fair share at my last job, but that is trivial, I am used to it and I can handle myself. But this is the first place I’ve ever actually enjoyed staying and it is not okay for anyone to disrespect this bakery or the people who own it,” she admitted with a rue smile. “Not when they offer people nothing but generosity. I am sorry I got angry.”

“Nah, don’t you ever apologize for something like that,” Carter refused. “Are you sure that you’re alright?”

Lanna swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Let’s get back to work?”

Carter grinned and dipped his head. “You got it. Come on, I’ve got some puff pastry about to come out of the oven. You can fill them with jelly and get them into the display.”

Lanna smiled and nodded. She was glad Carter understood. She didn't want to dwell on what had just happened – which could have been so much worse than he knew – and diving into her work felt like the best way to forget for a bit.

***

The bakery got a little livelier as lunchtime came and went, and it helped keep Lanna occupied with a steady stream of customers. It was a good distraction, but between serving customers and helping with pastries, by the time Lanna had a few moments to catch her breath, both her cheeks and her apron were smeared with jelly and custard stains.

Now that there was a lull, the sticky substances were a bit of an irritant. “Hey Heather, are you okay up here for a minute or two if I duck back to wash up?” Lanna called. She glanced over at the pregnant baker, who smiled back.

“Of course, hon. Looks like it’s going to be quiet for a bit, so go take a break. I’m just finishing up another cake, you can set it in the window for me when you get back.”

“Thank you.” She needed no further prompting to slip into the back, where Carter was just pulling out a wave of fruit pies. There were already a few sitting on the bench to cool, with steam wafting up from them. They smelled heavenly.

Carter smiled at her as he turned to slide more off the peel onto the counter. Then he nodded at a pitcher of water near her. “It’s been hot in here today. Wet your whistle a bit.”

Lanna chuckled, but she did stop to down a glass before continuing out the back of the building. The Halliwins had access to running water, but Lanna loved the mineral taste of the well outside and hardly minded using the pump.

There was already water in the bucket beneath the pump, however, so she crouched down and began to scrub her face and arms with the cool liquid.

It was the type of refreshment she needed to perk up a bit after earlier, but she hadn’t even made it all the way back inside before Heather appeared in the doorway between the front and back of the bakery and called her name.

“Lanna! Oh, there you are. I know I suggested taking a break, but can you come up front? You have someone looking for you specifically.”

Lanna frowned and pursed her lips, but shrugged. “Of course,” she agreed. She followed after Heather and supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised at who she found shifting his weight on the other side of the counter. “Tobin…hello,” she greeted a little awkwardly. “Umm, did you want something?” she gestured across the display counter.

Tobin rubbed the back of his neck and flushed. “No…uh…that’s okay. Actually, I came to talk to you, if you’re not too busy?”

Lanna glanced at Heather, who was grinning openly and shook her head at the silent ask. “Uh, no that’s alright, I have a minute. What is it? Where’s Lescelli?”

“Flirting her way down the beach,” Tobin replied. “Initially I went with her but…hers is rather a solo activity, so I thought I would come to check in on the one other friend I have in town. I was thinking since it’s such a nice day, it would be nice to have some company. What time do you get off?”

Lanna winced. It wasn’t so much that she had any issue with Tobin or Lescelli, they both seemed very nice in their own rights, but people still made her rather uncomfortable. Making friends felt like a rather pointless exercise. It would just make it all the more difficult when she had to abandon them all. Staying wasn’t an option. “Not until later, I’m afraid,” she admitted. She’d never minded the long hours of the bakery. It kept her busy and the Halliwins paid her decently for her efforts. More than she had made at most of her other jobs. Their generosity continued to warm her heart but it was also making her feel far better about her ticking clock. She hadn’t been sure she could raise the funds in time. She still had her doubts, but they were treating her far better than she had ever experienced among people before.

Tobin’s face fell at her response. “Ah, I see,” he muttered. “Well, perhaps another time, then?”

“Maybe,” Lanna agreed.

“Nonsense,” Heather argued. “Lanna’s just about finished up today.”

Lanna’s brows furrowed and she turned towards Heather with a frown. “I am?”

Heather nodded. “We’re going into a lull, Lanna. Go, enjoy the afternoon.”

Lanna shook her head. “You already gave me a day off yesterday, I can’t just bail in the middle of the day,” she protested. “It would be wrong.”

Heather closed the distance between them and squeezed her shoulders. “Lanna, honey, I already know how hard you work and we’ve appreciated everything you’ve done the past few months, but you’re young and you spend way too much time in here.” Heather spun her around so they were facing the bread box Lanna had packed earlier. “Listen, do me a favour and deliver that – save Carter the trip – and then you can consider your shift over. Don’t come back until sunset.”

“But I-” Just as Lanna went to protest, a new feeling bubbled up in her chest. She broke off and her brow furrowed. It wasn’t her emotion, but Aja’s. The young dragon was buzzing with desire and when Lanna began searching for a protest, she felt the nip of Aja’s claws in her heart and lungs. “Okay,” she caved. “Alright. I’ll grab my cloak.”

As she turned away from Heather and Tobin, Lanna knew it wasn’t just them she was caving to. What she didn’t know, was why Aja wanted to go so badly. She shivered and pushed the worry away. Aja rarely pushed for things, so she knew she couldn’t deny her without good reason. If an afternoon at the beach would make her inner heart happy, then there was no reason not to oblige.

“Hey, Lanna?” Heather called as Lanna leaned around the corner of the doorway to fumble for her cloak hanging on the hook.

“Hmm?”

Heather rolled her eyes and gestured to Lanna’s apron. “Change,” she suggested.

Lanna glanced down and remembered she was still wearing her work clothes and the smeared apron, and she flushed. Oops. “Oh…Right…umm, gimme a minute, Tobin?” she requested.

He smiled and shrugged, before stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Take your time,” he replied.

Lanna grabbed her cloak as she hurried through the back of the bakery and into her room. The moment the door was firmly shut, she sighed and pressed a hand to her chest. “This is ridiculous, you know,” she whispered. “We should deliver the bread and come back here.”

She winced as Aja pricked at her again. “You’re being stubborn,” she hissed. “Why is this so important to you?” A yawning void of loneliness surged from Lanna’s heart. It was powerful enough to stall her breath in her lungs and make her legs wobble.

She stumbled over to her cot and sunk onto it. It took a few moments of simply sipping air to quell the feeling. “Oh Aja…I know. I’m sorry. But you know that making friends just means more people to leave behind. We cannot stay, you know that,” she whispered.

This time, when Aja needled at her, she dug deep until Lanna had to grind her teeth together to keep from crying out. Her inner dragon was not going to let this go. “Okay, okay,” she agreed. “We can go. But you have to settle down. This hurts and it’s dangerous.”

Lanna could hear Aja’s happy trill ringing in her ears and the dragon’s excitement felt like the fluttering of wingbeats against her heart and Lanna covered her mouth to smother a giggle. She didn’t want to risk anyone beyond the door overhearing. Shaking off the high of Aja’s energy, Lanna rose from the bed and began stripping out of her dirty clothing.

She folded it all up and set it aside to scrub the stains out later, then ran her fingers through her hair to shake out the bits of flour that always wound up streaked through the tresses.

Then she dug through her drawer for a clean pair of brais and a dark-thread shirt. She changed quickly and then pulled her cloak up over her shoulders. Aja was still prancing around in her chest as the fabric of the garment settled around Lanna. A rush of heat bathed Lanna from head to toe and for a moment, her skin flushed deep indigo. She chuckled and sighed. “Aja, we can’t go until you settle down,” she murmured. “They would have a lot of questions if I walked out with pulsing blue skin.”

It took a moment, but Aja gradually settled down and became a subdued excitement thumping in Lanna’s heart. She took a breath and left the room behind. Time to see what sort of adventure Aja and Heather were roping her into. She wasn’t sure about any of it, but she supposed Tobin was sweet enough that if she had to have a friend, she wouldn’t mind his company too much.

When she got back up front, Heather was still beaming ear to ear and Lanna couldn’t figure out why she cared so much or seemed so overjoyed that Lanna was going, but she offered Heather a hesitant smile in return.

Then she turned to Tobin and shrugged. “I have to make this delivery first.”

He grinned and stepped around the side of the counter to pull open the swing door that allowed them to step out from behind it. “I’ll escort you,” he offered.

“Take the wagon,” Heather protested when Lanna bent to lift the box for the delivery.

Lanna rolled her eyes and hefted it into her arms. It was large and wide, so a little awkward, but it was not too heavy for her to handle. “This is fine,” Lanna refused. “And faster.”

“Stubborn girl.”

“You are the one kicking me out. I can stay if you’ve changed your mind.”

Heather sighed and shook her head, then gestured at Tobin. “Take her. Don’t let her hurry back and don’t let her hurt herself either.”

“Gladly,” Tobin agreed. “Do you need a hand, Lanna?” he offered.

“About as much as I need a wagon…but you could get the door if you’re willing,” she requested.

Tobin’s grin widened and he bent at the waist into an elaborate bow where one hand crossed over his chest and the other swept behind him. “It would be my pleasure,” he replied.

Lanna smiled at the mirth in his tone. Maybe this would be nice after all.