“For as long as I can remember, I idolized my father, even though I never got to meet him.”

“What happened to him?”

Alex hesitated for a moment.

“He was killed in battle, protecting my hometown. He was gifted in every way. The greatest swordsman, spearman, archer, and every other weapon practitioner under the sun in the country. What was really special about him was his magic. Everyone told me stories of how he saved the town from starvation by single handedly ending a drought with a rain spell before he even hit puberty”

“Only a human would think making a little rain is impressive. He doesn’t sound very important to me.” The young dragon mentally rolled his eyes.

“Oh yeah, well, that’s not what the town thought. And that’s just one of a million things everyone kept telling me was so great about him. Somehow he had personally helped everyone in the town. Even when he was enlisted to fight in the war with the Western kingdoms, no one was even a little worried about his safety. When he got back home, he wasn’t just the savior of the town, but a war hero who’d held off a hundred man army on his own long enough for reinforcements to arrive.”

“Why should I care about your stupid father? All of that praise for something the weakest full grown dragon could do.”

Alex physically cringed at the young dragon’s statement.

“Well, that’s… I’ll get to it later. Anyways, that’s where he met my mother. She was a powerful mage herself, and just a few years later they got married.”

“Just a few years? That’s so long! My parents only knew each other for a few months before laying my egg.”

“That’s… Very interesting, buddy. But I think it’s different for people and dragons. After all they went through together in the war, they settled back home and got married. I wish I could say it was a happily ever after, but that would be too good to be true.”

“So… what happened?” The young dragon’s tone had changed. He could no longer keep up the facade of disinterest.

“My mother died while giving birth to me. There were,” Alex paused his tone dropping, “complications with my birth. No one ever told me the specifics, but I barely survived, and my mother wasn’t so lucky.”

“I don’t get it.” The young dragon interrupted. “It’s sad and all, but why tell me this now?”

“Well, bad things always come in pairs. He barely had a few months to grieve when our town was attacked by a dragon. The townspeople knew of a dragon living on the other side of a nearby mountain, but it had lived there for over a century without any problems. Our town was too small to have its own militia, so my father was its only hope. They said the battle lasted hours, and by the time the dust had cleared, neither were left standing.”

“That’s impossible. They must be lying. There’s no way a single lowly human,” he spat out like a curse, “could kill a dragon all on its own.”

“None of the townsfolk could believe it either, and there’s a set of horns on a mantle above my old fireplace to prove it. Growing up alone in that house, there wasn’t much to do after training but sit and stare at them, imagining that legendary battle.”

Alex walked over to one of the puddles in the cave, so still, it reflected their face like a mirror.

“The dragon’s horns curved back around its head, almost like a crown.”

The young dragon stared at his own reflection, confused at first.

“That’s… Just like mine…”

“I’m sorry. I knew I had to tell you at some point, I just didn’t know how.”

“No… No! You’re lying, it doesn’t make any sense! Mom would never lose to a human!”

Alex felt the control of their body slip from him.

“Uh, buddy, it’s not your turn yet…” Alex squeezed out in a nervous tone.

“You’re a liar! I hate you!”

Alex found it hard to think.

“Hold on, take a deep breath, something weird is happening.”

“Why don’t you just leave my body?! If it wasn’t for you and your stupid dad, none of this would have happened! Mom and Obsidian would still be here!”

Alex could feel himself slipping away as the young dragon’s emotions got stronger, until all of a sudden, everything went dark.

“And you! After all that, you take my body from me!”

The young dragon was met with silence.

“Nothing? You don’t have anything to say for yourself?” The dragon growled out, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes.

Yet again, he was given no response.

“Are.. Are you still there?” He called out into the cave.

Once the echoes died off, it was silent both in and out of his mind.

Parker was a little more than surprised when he saw a familiar face sitting in the chieftain’s chair.

“Lasair? What are you doing there? What happened to your father?!” Parker questioned, with a little bit of worry in his voice.

One of the guards that escorted him from his cell kicked him in the back of the knee, forcing him into the ground.

“Show some respect for the Chieftain. Don’t speak until you are spoken to.”

“It’s alright, you can stand down. You know how humans are. They respect nothing but themselves. You are all dismissed. I would like to speak to him alone.”

“Yes ma'am,” the guards all chanted before marching out of the room.

Parker was taken aback by her statement. While they hadn’t spent much time traveling together, he’d at least hoped that they had become well enough friends to iron out any immediate hatred between their people.

“You can stand back up now. I’m sorry about that, I just couldn’t look weak in front of my men.”

Parker gave her a sad scowl as he pushed himself off his knees, rubbing them a little as he stood up. The hard wooden floor hurt when he was pushed over.

“My father is… Busy. The relationship between the clans has gotten worse over the last three months, so he left for diplomatic talks. I’m acting chieftain until he gets back.”

“Really? He made his 16-year-old daughter acting chieftain while he was off at peace talks? Doesn’t he have an advisor or something for this?”

Lasair scoffed at Parker’s rude remark.

“Well, first of all, I’m not 16 anymore, I’m 17. And yes, he did make me chieftain. He told me it’s good training for when I take his place! Is that really so hard to believe? Besides, I’ve been chieftain for a whole two weeks and nothing bad has happened yet.”

“You’ve been chieftain for two whole weeks and you still left me in that cell? I thought you told me you were trying to convince your dad to let me out!”

Lasair tried hiding her emotions, but a sliver of guilt escaped past her façade.

“Well, about that… It’s not like I could just let you go the second I got executive power! What would he say when he got back! I had to wait for the right time!”

Parker gasped and put his hands to his chest.

“And what, pray tell, makes this a better time than any other? Why if all times do you pick now to stop me from rotting away in a dungeon?!”

“Oh, please. Your cell was pretty far from a dungeon. Unlike humans, my people treat our prisoners like people. And you certainly don’t look like you were rotting away.”

Parker crossed his arms and pointed his eyes down.

“Yeah, well it’s still worse than just being free.”

“You’re out now. Anyways, the reason I let you out. Remember that tracking map you put in your notebook?”

“What?! How did you know it was in my notebook?”

“Well, first of all, it would be ridiculous to keep up a single target tracking spell for all this time, and second of all, why else would you value that notebook over all of your camp supplies while we were being chased? I would need to be pretty stupid to not notice there was something important inside.”

Parker didn’t like the smug look she wore while she said that.

“I’ve been using it to monitor Sparky, or Alex’s, movements. He’s been staying in pretty much the same place for the last few months. Three days ago he left his usual spot. Now, he’s done this before, but never so far before. And also, without fail, he would be back by the next day. He still hasn’t returned. In fact, he hasn’t stopped moving since.”

“So what? You haven’t sent a search party out for him before. Why start caring all of a sudden just because he decided to move house?”

“I’m concerned for him. We both know we aren’t the only two,” she paused, looking for a word to call the thing inhabiting Alex’s body, “beings looking for him. I’m just worried he’s been captured again. I don’t think that’s the case with his movements, but I’m still worried for his safety.”

Lasair’s guilty look returned briefly.

“Also, we need him. Even if we return all the rings, if they’ve been completely drained, it may be worse than if we had never returned them at all.”

“Great. Sorry if this sounds rude, but what does this have to do with me? Not that I don’t care about him at all, but why do you need me to do anything.”

Lasair put her hand over her eyes.

“I don’t need you for anything,” she grunted through her teeth.

“But I think since you have experience in this task, it would be best to recruit you for this unsupervised, long term tracking mission”

“Ohhhh,” Parker said as the puzzle pieces fit together in his head.

“Well of course, I would be honored to be given temporary leave from my sentence in order to help you complete this very important mission.”