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One of his arms had slipped forward to dangle, while the other rested under his twisted head.He looks like he just passed out.

She wondered if her presence, and her constant needing to be saved, had meant he hadn’t slept. She didn’t dare go near him, since he was a predator who was in a vulnerable state, but it was kind of sweet that he’d suffered for her sake.

He stated that speaking with the voices of those he ate hurts.It probably wore him down.

Since he fell asleep, she figured the area must be safe then. So, she just soaked in the flames, and tried to figure out what decisions she should make.I don’t know what to do.No matter what she did, everything was a risk. She was one woman in a world filled with fangs and claws.

For now, she could stay here until her food ran out. Here was safe while she collected herself mentally, andfinallyrested – after what felt like two months of utter hell.

If he wouldn’t aid her people, she would leave to go to the towns below the mountain range.

I can’t stay here if there’s no point to it,she thought, just as a small whimper made her frown.

Muscles twitched and clenched as the grip of a fragment clutched at him in the form of a nightmare. Images flashed, penetrating his mind with a confused chaos he found difficult to grasp.

Shuddering, he burrowed within the folds of his coiled tail to shelter himself. It was a useless attempt, as he couldn’t escape the delusion that masked itself as his own memory.

A woman shrieked, and it seemed to come from his own lips as well. His tail had split into two limbs, and they shot excruciating pain up his legs as a boulder crushed them. Oddly enough, he sought mercy from a Demon, hoping it would eat him as it approached his trapped form lost in the darkness of a mining cave.

‘Please,’he begged, wanting to escape the agony.

As soon as fangs lanced his throat, he awoke with the long length of his tail propped up over his back. Huffing breaths fell from his parted maw as his chest heaved with anxiety.

The scream continued to ring, battering around inside his skull like a creature trying to escape its cage. A moment of lucidity allowed him to fully wake from the fragment, when usually it would make him suffer for endless hours – punishing him for truly falling asleep, rather than just open-sighted resting.

Leaning upright on straightened arms, as if he’d darted up to defend himself against his fragment nightmare, he panted in fear. With his own claws embedded inside his limb all the way to his finger pads, and orbs white, he found the female still seated by the fire.

Her palms were flat as they faced towards the flames. At first, he thought she hadn’t noticed what had just occurred, but she eventually flicked her sparkling brown eyes towards him. They appeared like molten bronze with the fire reflecting in them.

“I guess I’m not the only one with memories that haunt them,” she quietly mumbled. Then her cheeks reddened, as if she hadn’t meant to say that aloud. “Never mind. Bad dream? You were whimpering a lot.”

The reddish pink of embarrassment filled his sight. Nathair grumbled to himself as his tongue smacked inside his mouth, irritation evident.

I hate these dreams.They infrequently bombarded him, but that one in particular had come to the forefront because of her.This is why I choose not to sleep.A choice made from necessity, and one he couldn’t always adhere to – every living creature needed sleep. Nathair’s attempt at thwarting the need often saw him losing that battle after weeks.

He finally unlatched his claws, hissing in pain as he did, to scratch at the side of his neck. He shuddered, as a new fragment continued to flicker in his mind’s eye, although much more faded and quieter.

It was unwise of me to bring her here.His nightmare was just a reminder.

Despite his desire to protect the small prey before him, the little bunny he’d found, she was in danger every second she sat there. He may lash out in his sleep or, worse still, while he was awake but semi-conscious. A fragment, if not contained, could drive him to momentary madness, and cause him to act irrationally and with deep confusion.

Despite his short sleep, exhaustion weighed on him due to her disturbing him. He needed to let his mind recuperate in order to hold back the barrage that constantly battered him within it.

Nathair turned his skull away to look at the wall.

I miss home.His simple rock and his false lake in Tenebris. It’d been his home for over two hundred and eighty years. His life may have been boring, but it had been easy and mostly untroubled – from environmental factors, at least. This life was too messy, too confusing.

Now, he was doing foolish things, like keeping this female as some kind of human pet.

What must I do to keep her content and safe?Feed her, give her water, a bed, and... pat her on the head?Why was it my territory she found?

Had she gone to another pond just a little east of his own, he wouldn’t have grown curious about her.

Instead, he was finding himself oddly entranced by the beautiful female he currently had in his keeping. Worse still, he liked that her peach-and-vanilla scent was filling up his home. The desire to scoop her up and place her in his nest itched at his scales, and he was failing to control the urge.

He specifically hadn’t looked towards it until he finally dropped his sight down from the wall to it. Although it would look like a lumpy rock in the darkness to a human, he could see something glinting from the recess of his walled, bird-like nest covered in animal skins.

Since Nathair was much taller than her, he doubted she’d see the way his nest gleamed in the firelight. The sparkling caught his eye, and it made his chest swell as dark green filled his sight.