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Fox gripped her shoulders, gentle but firm, as she swayed.

“I’m okay. I can explain what happened tomorrow, but I haven’t had a proper bath in weeks and right now all I want to do is sleep.”

She nodded, placing a hand on his cheek once more, as if checking to ensure he was still real. His chest tightened and the tears burning in his eyes fell again, hot on his cheeks. He wondered if they were making tracks through the dirt caked there from his days in the forest.

* * *

The bath took longerthan he wanted, the energy draining from his body at the same pace as the dirt from his skin. But it took three rounds of filling and emptying the tub before the water finally ran clean. His skin was red and raw by the time he was done, in part from scrubbing and in part from the sun. The tint of his skin was tanner than normal after days out in the forest, darker than even his stint as a scout when he spent most his time napping under the shade of a tree.

Now he was a junior major.

He hadn’t even told Mother yet, the idea not quite settled into his mind as reality. Nothing felt real at the moment, even the brush of the soft fabric of his pajamas across his skin. It was the softest thing he’d felt in weeks. Except for…

No.

When he came out of his en suite bathroom, his mother was sitting on the small couch in the corner, mind lost to something else.

“Mother,” he said. The words were soft, but she still flinched, head whipping over to him. He realized as her eyes swept over him that she didn’t quite believe this was real either. Was she expecting him to disappear into the bathroom and never come out, a figment of her grief?

“I’m sorry, I can…I just—” she moved as if to leave, but her body just jerked, eyes darting around, lost.

“You can stay,” Fox said, saving her from her own thoughts. “I want you to stay. I think it will help me sleep.”

He wasn’t sure how true the words were. A part of him wanted to sit alone and forget the last few weeks. But the words had an immediate effect on his mother and her shoulders slumped with relief as she fell back onto the couch.

In the end, he wasn’t necessarily annoyed at her presence in his room. It was almost a comfort to open his eyes and look over at her in the dark and remind himself that this wasn’t a dream. He was back. He was home.

And Sofia is here, trapped in a cell because of you.

He fell asleep with this thought spiraling through his mind, her voice an echo he couldn’t tune out.

This is your fault.

FOX

AGE 7

While some Dragonborn have been amenable to assimilation and have outwardly transferred their allegiance to the king gods, it still is unclear if such action will truly bring the people of Suvi together. Until the belief in the dragon gods and the faeries of the forest is eradicated, the Dragonborn will continue to persist as a separate entity from the Dereyan mind.

-Lird W. Viona, Assimilation or Elimination: A Philosophical Debate

“Back with you, faery spawn!” Fox cried, pushing forward with his sword née tree branch until his brother was forced to retreat.

“I will eat your blood!” Leon said, spinning and slashing out with his own blade—a true practice sword carved of polished wood that their father had gifted him last week.

“You can’t eat blood, you idiot.” He followed his words with a jab to Leon’s side.

“I’m magical. I can do what I want,Dumbass!”

“Language,” their mother said from where she was sitting beneath the small pitaya tree. A servant had brought a small wooden chair for her to sit on, the shade of the leaves above her protecting her olive skin from tanning. His father hated it when she looked too dark.

They were outside the manor wall, down by the small man-made canal that carved through the royal and military quarters. It was the peak of the dry season and the sun shone long and hot through the day. Perhaps Fox and Leon should have taken this as a hint to stay inside, at least in the sharp heat of afternoon, but they were far too bored of wandering the manor’s halls. So instead, they moved between playing in the field and jumping in the canal to cool their reddening skin.

Fox leaped back as his brother jabbed his sword at him, the wooden blade smacking him on the side. He squealed loudly, falling back into the grass with a dramatic kick.

“You will not defeat me,” he said, doing his best impression of imminent death. “My dragon will protect me! He comes now!”

Leon gave an equally dramatic cry, hands raised to protect himself from the threat of the unseen creature.