Rymar snorted out a laugh before shoving both hands over his lips. Kanik had the opposite reaction. His eyes got big and his lips parted at my words. Sitting on the couch, the Wyvern simply watched me with those stoic orange eyes.

"And that's the man you stabbed with a fork?"

I nodded quickly, not sure if I was making things better or worse for myself. "They made us marry, then I was Mrs. Saunders, so he kissed me. One of the men holding me relaxed after that, which let me pull away and grab the fork." I huffed a grunt, realizing there was an important part missing. "We were in the dining hall."

"Interesting," the Wyvern almost purred.

But Kanik ignored him. "So they chained you out on that tree because you broke a law?"

"God's law," I agreed. "The sixth commandment."

"So see a crim'nal?" Rymar asked, his words easier to understand every time he tried to speak my language.

"No," Kanik told him. "She's a refugee."

"She's also willing to kill," the Wyvern told them.

"I didn't want to!" I insisted. "I just didn't want to marry them. I told them so, but they wouldn't listen. Just like I didn't mean to tempt you when I was washing my clothes, but you still grabbed me. All I did was defend myself, and I should have a right to that."

Slowly his lids blinked, hiding the orange of his eyes for a breath, but the most dangerous of the Dragons never pulled his gaze away from me.

"And yet all you've told me is that you might actually be dangerous." He tilted his head slightly as if daring me to deny it. "You've already attacked one man when he wasn't expecting it. That makes you like a snake. I'm just wondering when you plan to strike the next."

"A snake?" I couldn't hide the huff of indignation. "From you? That's rich, Wyvern."

His face snapped to face mine. "What did you call me?"

I swallowed. "The Wyvern. Dark with light stripes and a blue tail. They said you were deadly."

His smile returned, but this time it wasn't friendly. "I am. That also isn't my name."

"Oh."

"It's Zasen," he said. "The Wyvern is my sign. Rymar is the Rose. Kanik is the Dragonfly. Everyone has one. We choose when we become adults and use it to identify ourselves in case there's more than one person in town with the same name."

"So what should I call you, sir?" I asked. "If it's like a last name, would that make you Mr. Wyvern?"

"You should call me Zasen," he said. "No one uses those archaic titles anymore. They're only heard in fairy tales for children."

"Oh." I nodded, but decided to plow ahead to my next concern, since he could finally answer. "The hunters who hauled me out said you'd eat me. Dragons, I mean."

"I prefer venison." He leaned closer, his expression no longer amused. "What about you?"

I quickly shook my head. "I don't normally care for meat, sir."

"Why?" He looked intense and neither of the other men tried to stop him.

Licking my lips nervously, I tried my best to answer. "My father forced me to eat it, but it turns my stomach. I have never handled meat well. They say it's from my mother's line, which may be true, because she would only eat plants without needing to be beaten. I think the rabbit that night was the first time it didn't make me nauseous."

"And what kinds have you had?"

I shrugged. "It's meat. We get vegetables, tubers, fungus, and meat."

"Just meat?"

"Just meat," I agreed. "Pale and stringy or ground into a paste, not red and juicy like the rabbit."

He licked his lips, and I gasped, shoving my hand over my mouth. Beside me, Kanik tensed and across from me, Rymar sat up. What the Wyvern had meant as a gesture of thought shocked me more than anything else. When his tongue protruded from his lips, it was dark grey, nearly black. His brow furrowed.

"What did I do this time?"

"Your tongue!"

And he laughed, shoving it between his teeth to let me see. "I show you fangs and my stinger, and you want to touch. My tongue is colored differently from yours, and you spook?"

I kept my voice demure. "It was simply not what I expected."

He leaned just a bit closer. "My skin is striped, I have a tail, and you thought my tongue would be like yours?"

"Stupid?"

"Amusing." Then he pointed at Kanik. "His is purple."

I turned and Kanik obediently stuck out his tongue. Sure enough, it was nearly a match to those darker marks on the backside of his neck. Curious now, I turned my eyes to Rymar. A smile claimed his face, and he also stuck out his tongue, showing a bright blue thing! No, turquoise. Somewhere in the middle? It was darker than his stripes, but still a similar color.

"Are all Dragons like that?" I asked.

"Yes," Kanik assured me. "Our coloration on the outside is continued inside. Males tend to be more vibrant while females are often in shades similar to our chests and bellies, just like most lizards."

"So you're lizards?" I asked. "Or Dragons?"

The Wyvern - Zasen - lifted a hand as if asking the others to let him answer. "Tell me, Ayla, what do you know of Dragons?"

All I could do was shake my head, but their acceptance of my answers was starting to make me feel brave. No matter what I said, none of these three men had tried to punish me. I wasn't sure if my words had simply been proper or if they were merely that kind, but either way, it felt like the truth was working for me, so I intended to keep using it.

"Not much," I explained. "Our lessons in school were confusing. They said the sins of women caused us to be kicked out of Eden, and the sins of men caused us to be evicted from the Earth. The battle between God and the Devil raged, and God lost because there were too few Righteous. Now, we are the last, and the heathens - the Dragons and the wild men - are the only ones who can survive on the Devil's world. Earth has become a dangerous place because of evil's influence."

"The Earth," he told me, "has become wild. That is not the same as dangerous. It is certainly not the same as evil. It simply means you need to learn about it before you go running off without shoes." He canted his head and lifted a brow.

"Then give me some," I told him.

He nodded his head once. "I will once your feet are healed. The doctor who treated you was very clear that you should not walk outside on dirt even with the bandages."

That wasn't at all what I'd expected. "You're going to give me shoes?"

"Why wouldn't I?" And he leaned closer, resting his elbows on his knees.

I looked at Kanik, wishing he would interrupt this discussion, because it was starting to feel like an interrogation. But when he simply smiled, I sighed and decided to just answer the question.