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I bowed to the majestic Phoenix. “Ya’re only the second firebird I ever saw, Zenos. Give me a moment to get over my awe.”

His giant phoenix form faded away as I watched. Soon a fully dressed Zenos faced me as a human male. His change from creature to creature exuded magick yet appeared effortless.

I smiled at him. “Do ya see yer human form as just another version of yerself? I’ve always wondered how shifters prioritizedtheir humanness. Most I’ve known had only two appearances—human or beast. Ya seem to become whatever ya please like a djinn.”

Zenos rolled his eyes. “What did they teach ya in that bloody school ya attended? A djinn is an elemental. They’re made of smoke, wind, and fire. I’m made of the same stuff ya are, Aran. I just control it better.”

“Indeed, ya do,” I said with a laugh. “And I wasn’t out here brooding. I was making a shopping list to buy some plants for my greenhouse.”

“Oh, sure ya were,” Zenos said with an eye roll. “Unhappiness rolls off ya in great waves, lass. If ya won’t be brutally honest with me, our working together is a waste of my time.”

I sighed. “Fine. I suppose ya could say I was a bit frustrated.”

“Yer unhappiness is not the watcher’s fault. That male will be back inside ya the first chance ya give him to do so.”

“That’s not why I’m unhappy... and his name is Rasmus.Hername is Zara. And they like to be called guardians, not watchers.”

Zenos grunted. “They changed their name because the things they did when they were calledwatchersstill shames them. I’d have wanted a new title too after what they did. The males bred cannibal giants with human females because they couldn’t keep their too-powerful cocks in their pants. The watcher females bred with humans as well but their offspring became legendary heroes. Their children fought each other to the death. Yer precious guardians had to all but destroy the planet to kill their wicked offspring off.”

“That’s old news. What’s yer real problem with them? I’ve got a list but I seem to be the only person not fooled by their calm claims of superiority and their philosophizing about lowly humans.”

Zenos grinned at me. “Now I can see why they’re camped out with ya. They like a challenge.”

I snorted. “I doubt they see me as a challenge. I’m more like a thorn they stepped on and can’t pull out of their foot.”

Zenos shook his head as he chuckled. “I don’t hate them, Aran. I just don’t respect them.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Tell me why. I’d like to hear that story.”

Zenos spread his hands. “Dragons can sleep for ages, ya know, and often do. The ancient overseers let their creator people bring in other cultures while we slept. The watchers were a bunch of bored light beings who became overseers. But in this dimension on this planet every physical body, even if not completely human, comes with feelings and emotions that need to be dealt with. The biggest emotion for the watchers was lusting for those they guarded. Sex is a universal urge.”

I nodded. “Rasmus tells me he doesn’t feel human emotions but I know differently.”

Grunting, Zenos bent to the fire pit and rearranged the rock boundary. “A basic goodness from them having ascended once from physical to light is all that saves watchers from being evil. I’ve heard that humans closely resemble what they were like before they ascended into light being forms. Some, like yer two guardians, decided that repeating the life and death cycle was a less boring way to live. Instead of admitting that boredom, they cloak it in pretending they’re doing it for the sake of helping humans. Bullocks to that is what I say.”

Zenos was recounting the same stories Rasmus had shared with me. “Rasmus told me his original form looked nearly exactly like how he does now, except that he had two pairs of arms.” I chuckled a little. “I can see an extra set of hands being very useful during a fight.”

Zenos chuckled too. “Dragons possess two wings, as well as four legs and claws. I’ve used all of them many times.”

“Rasmus has wings. All the guardians do.”

Zenos nodded before smiling. “I asked for wings when I was a wee dragonling. Dragons are born with them now, the lucky buggers, but ya had to endure some painful magick to get your wings to grow back then. My mother was our hoard leader. She made me wait until I was nearly a century old before she allowed me to go through the process. When I think back on it, I believe that was just her way of keeping me around and out of trouble.”

“Wow,” I said as I remembered Zenos as a dragon. “Was it the flying part that appealed to ya most? Rasmus said wings were required for military dragons. He doesn’t bother sharing all the details of thewhysandwhy notswith me. I end up having to connect the dots for myself.”

“Wings were for any dragon, but yes, military dragons were required to get them. I was a scholar in my early years, not a fighter. My heart ached for wings because they represented the ability to break free from earthly bounds and embark on grand adventures across the globe. I dreamed of nothing back then except getting away from the only life I’d known.”

“Aren’t we all like that when we’re young?” I asked with a smile.

Zenos shrugged. “I think some of us are that way forever. It was my nature to want to learn and I’m still like that.”

“So why didn’t ya stay awake and study all the other beings that got put on this planet? The stories I’ve heard were very interesting.”

Zenos looked off into the distance. His fierce glare was aimed at beings in the distant past.

“Long before humans were created, I made some mistakes with my mother’s people. That hibernation was me broodingabout life. I woke when humans came along. Their hedonistic desire to survive was contagious. That was when I made the biggest mistake of my life and the one that cost me my original dragon form. So once again I chose hibernation over facing what I’d done.”

I nodded at the regret in his voice. "No one can claim to have lived without experiencing a few failures and setbacks. Screwing up is part of living, isn’t it?”