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I whip toward Daeja. Stretching out an open hand toward her as if to halt any sudden movements. “You…you can hear me?”

“Yes.”

My right hand tremors as Daeja leans forward and presses her muzzle into my palm. The part of my palm that used to cover her entire head now only covers the front of her nose. My fingers…

My...fingers.

The light hint of a band that appeared around my middle finger all those months ago when I learned her name has darkened several shades. The ring is now darker than my skin tone.

Daeja breaks our contact, her gaze darting to the illuminated blue river beside us snaking away. The glowing blue mist thins and fades back into the ground until we are left in the dark.

“And…I can…hear you?”

“Also, yes.”

The two of us sit in silence at a loss for words. The moon peaks above the tree line, the light scattering across the forest floor and illuminating the bushes and trees around us.

I rise to my feet and circle her, carefully assessing her transformation as I claw for every memory of my father’s journal entries. But every attempt comes up empty handed.

I can’t recall a blue flame, nor explosive growth spurt. Perhaps I need to consider reading through the rest of the journal a bit faster.

The light casts a silver sheen on Daeja’s back, and she folds her expansive wings into her body. She wiggles, sniffing and inspecting her broad shoulders, whip-long tail, and deathly long talons. A dozen more jagged black horns spike the crown of her head and the nape of her neck.

As I circle around her, I dare a gliding touch against her cool, rugged scales. The rise and fall of her beneath my fingertips is as similar to my own breath.

As I come back face to face with her, I gently tug her upper lip up to reveal rows of serrated fangs. I flick up a look to meet her gaze. Where part of me expected to be fearful, I find myself...sorrowful, in a way.

Stepping back from her, I size up how tall she is, calculating if she’ll even be able to fit through the door at camp. My face falls as I struggle to find any solution.

The small hatchling I once had was gone.

“Well, I guess you won’t be able to fit on my shoulders anymore.”

“Why not?”

I chuckle at the simplicity of her question. It’s so at odds with how ancient and smooth her voice sounds now.

She tilts her head to the side, sparking an ember of joy in my chest at the memory of her doing it so often as a hatchling.

Rubbing my hand against the ridge of her nose,she bumps her muzzle enthusiastically into my hand.

“Do you feel any different? I don’t understand what happened.”

“No, not really. Last I remember, I reached down to sniff the light. My body felt cold and like it was on fire all at once. Everything was white. I couldn’t see anything. And then when I finally opened my eyes, I saw you.”

“I wonder where it went…”My attention floats over to where the blue fire was moments ago.I stare. As if I might look away for a moment and it’ll be there taunting me, like a ghost in the night.

I thought it could have been a delusion, as I had never heard of it before. But perhaps the magical blue flame Willard spoke of all along was real.

It makes me wonder what else he knew.

It’s hard leaving Daeja out in the forest. But no matter how hard I try to come up with an alternative, there’s no way I can sneak her back in and keep her at the camp. Not with how large she is. And definitely not with how clumsy she is. She nearly sweeps my legs out from under me with her tail as she spins around to itch a spot on her hindquarters.

We find her a secluded cave near the southern part of the lake. As I leave, my skin prickles with each step I take back to camp. I can’t help but glance over my shoulder every few yards to check on her.

“I’m still here,”she calls.“I’ll wait for you.”

“I’ll come back.”I promise with tears lining my eyes.