Kanik simply nodded. "I think Zasen's right and she was a prisoner. A criminal of some kind, and from the state of her, it could've even been for stealing food. Who knows what the Moles consider worthy of a death sentence? But somewhere in there, she was hurt, and likely hurt bad."

Drozel grumbled and pushed himself back. "Or it's a lie."

"Yeah, but now I feel bad," Omden said. "Man, if she's been abused and I slapped her to snap her out of it? That's just more abuse. All I was doing was trying to help her stand!"

"So help me?" Zasen begged. "Tomorrow, let's try to treat the girl like a normal person. We'll all be nice to her, make sure she eats, and if it takes us a little longer to get back, I'll request overtime for everyone."

"I'm good with that!" Omden quickly agreed.

"Still don't like it," Drozel said. "I think she's playing us. I think she's a Mole, and we all know that no Mole - "

"Fuck!" Kanik snapped, his eyes turned towards where Zasen had left the orin girl.

We all heard the rustle of leaves a second later. Immediately, the five of us were on our feet, but because Kanik had been looking that way, he moved the fastest. The girl was up, had her chain over her neck, and she was headed right into the forest.

"There's a cougar out there!" Zasen yelled after our friend.

"Heard it!" Kanik called back without slowing.

And the rest of us sat back down, because he had this. There was no way that broken little girl could make it more than ten paces before Kanik would catch her. Between her destroyed feet and her complete ignorance of the forest, it was even true to say my roommate was saving her.

"And that," Drozel said, thrusting a hand after the girl, "all but proves my point."

"And mine," Zasen said. "Because if she was a spy, she certainly wouldn't want to leave us."

Drozel just murmured, hearing him but refusing to agree. "I still don't like it."

"You don't have to," Zasen promised. "You just have to not terrify her for one more day."

"And after that?"

Zasen pushed out a heavy breath. "We'll let the mayor decide."

Which made all of them look right at me. "What?" I asked. "I can influence him, but he doesn't always listen to me."

"But he picked you as his running mate for a reason," Omden said.

"Mhm," I agreed. "Because without me, he didn't have the votes. That doesn't mean we agree. It also doesn't mean I won't run against him when I feel I'm ready to manage the entire town." Then I grinned. "Vote Rymar the Rose for Mayor. Figure I'll put flowers every-"

A scream cut me off before I could finish being a smartass, but this time it was human. The four of us looked over in time to see Kanik carrying the girl back. His arms were wrapped around her biceps. Her feet were dangling down, but not close enough to touch the ground. She cared about none of it.

The girl was thrashing. With her hands, she smacked at his arms, clearly not hitting hard enough to even make the middle school teacher flinch. Her legs were kicking. The few times she did manage to hit his legs, he didn't even slow. But when he reached the blanket in the leaves, Kanik set her down solidly and stabbed a finger at the bed Zasen had made for her.

The girl stood straighter and lifted her chin.

"Okay, gonna need some help here!" Kanik called at us.

Drozel chuckled. "This, Zasen, is when you cut her throat for being too much work."

"Nope," Zasen said, looking over at me. "This is where we need a politician, not a group of warriors."

"Fuck," I groaned, already seeing where this was going. "Really? You're going to make me sleep sitting up against a tree?"

"Or you can take a blanket over there, but she'll have another tantrum because she clearly isn't interested in boning a Dragon." Zasen was actually smirking as he said that.

"Mm, I'd be able to change her mind," I joked, reaching behind me to pluck my own blanket from my pack. "But you're going to owe me for this, Zasen. Your whole 'Wyvern' thing with the damned Moles is the only reason you're getting out of this."

"And I've spent all day trying to prove to her that I'm a nice guy," he reminded me.

I huffed, unimpressed. "But you aren't."

He just laughed as I pushed to my feet and headed up towards where Kanik and the orin girl were having their standoff. Neither was talking, but that actually made sense to me. Screaming at each other in unintelligible words was pointless. Instead, they were having a test of wills. I was pretty sure the girl was winning.

"Orin?" I asked as I approached.

My voice made her turn, and Kanik let out a relieved sigh. "This girl is determined to get herself killed."

"Mhm," I agreed, keeping my eyes on the skinny little orin. Then I patted the air, doing my best to encourage her to sit the same way I had this morning. "It's okay. No one's going to hurt you. Believe it or not, we're just trying to help."

Ourselves, but I didn't add that part. Nope, I was a smooth-talking bastard when I wanted to be, and hopefully my tone would be good enough. Maybe my colors? In truth, I had no idea what might make this foreign woman relax around me, but I was more than willing to try all of it.

With a heavy sigh, the girl actually sat. Nodding at her, I unfurled my own blanket and made myself a place against the tree. Tomorrow, my body was going to protest this decision, so Zasen could pay for me to get a massage. Preferably one from someone very cute.

Letting out an overly dramatic groan, I sank down to get comfortable. The whole time, the girl kept her eerily blue eyes on me. I made a production of shifting around, getting comfortable, and then patted my thigh.

Her eyes narrowed.

I rolled my eyes, making sure it was dramatic, then pressed my hands together and held them against my cheek in what I hoped was a universal symbol for sleep. Doubling down on the point I was making, I poked at my cotton-covered leg, showing it was soft, and then poked at the hard dirt of the ground, proving it wasn't.

"Pillow," I said.

She huffed so hard she snorted, and then flopped down on her own blanket again. Pissed. That was the only word I had for her reaction. Maybe she didn't say a word, but this girl was clearly not happy to have been caught.

So I cleared my throat, making her look at me again. "Out there," I said, pointing to show what I meant, "there are predators." Hooking my fingers, I clawed at the air and hissed. "They will eat you." I lifted my own arm to my mouth and pretended to bite at it, then pointed to her.

She didn't move, but I caught it when her eyes glanced over my shoulder and into the darkness.

So I kept going. "Kanik saved you." I hugged myself, unable to think of a better way to mime that. "And for the rest of tonight, I'm going to guard you."

So I flicked my tail up and extended my stinger, stabbing at the air as if there was a beast before me. For good measure, I added some fake punches, then blew on my knuckles as if I'd just decimated them all.

She giggled. It was a tiny little sound, and muffled, but when I looked back at her, the girl had a silly smile on her lips. Well, at least I was amusing. Too bad for her, I was also a lot faster than Kanik. If she tried to bolt again, she'd be lucky to make it around the tree.

Politician or not, we Dragons had been made to survive, and this world was not a very kind place. That meant we couldn't be too kind either.

Twenty-OneAyla

The brightness of light against my closed lids woke me the next morning. For just a moment, everything was okay. I was lying on my side with my head buried in my pillow. I could hear Callah moving around - but wait. Leaves?