Page 37 of Catastrophe

They must have set up camp. And it was time I joined them.

Turning inward, I asked Dralie, “So? Are we going to talk about why you don’t want us to turn back to human?”

After an irritated flick of his tail, he sighed and said slowly, “My soul remembers the last drakorian soul I was partnered to. He didn’t let me stretch my wings, nor did he let me speak my mind. I was a ghost. I do not wish to live like that again.”

Poor Dralie. I wanted to pet him.

Instead, I said, “Okay, well, I wasn’t expecting emotional soul baggage, but I can see how something like that would make you scared to give back control. But I promise I’m not like this other guy. I think I’ll learn to enjoy flying, and I really like that we can breathe fire. And more than that, I think being a dragon might be better for us to deal with the dragon problem we currently have.”

“You will not ignore me?”

“No, Dralie. I promise. We are a team now. I may not have always had you in my head, but it feels right that you are now. And despite being a late bloomer, I think we can work together.”

I wasn’t lying to make him feel better, either. Other than the minor freakout when I realized I was flying, none of it felt wrong. I didn’t feel trapped in the head of a dragon, although I wished we could talk instead of resorting to charades, and actually, it was kind of nice not to be the one deciding for a while.

“If you swear on Flight that you will not lock me away in your mind, that I may fly, then I will allow us to change forms.”

“I swear.”

“Then let us be fleshy once more.”

I really hate when he calls me fleshy.

I was tugged out from whatever corner of Dralie’s dragon mind I’d been lingering, and my consciousness seemed to expand suddenly, my head and body feeling too big and heavy for me to hold. Then I started shrinking.

And it hurt.

It was as though all my bones snapped and crunched down. Our wings pushed into my back like they were ripping through my muscle to make holes there. And my tail. I felt every spike of that as it was sucked into my body like a re-coiled tape measure.

Torture.

But thankfully, it didn’t last long, and before I knew it, I was standing naked, pale, and freezing my bollocks off in a glass cave on the beach in the dark.

I had to take a moment, no matter how fucking cold it was, to pat my hair for horns, check my butt for a tail, and make sure everything was back to normal. It was.

But it was like folding a sleeping bag back into the cover. It never goes in smoothly. There’s always a bit hanging out, and I felt like a sleeping bag at that moment. I might have looked human again, but I was changed.

As the cold evening lake breeze penetrated my skin, a shiver wracked me, and I gritted my teeth. I suddenly had more empathy for Clawdia when she turned human again. But then again, she wasn’t naked and cold for long. I eyed the woodland, the campfire glow even brighter now that the sun had fully set, and grumbled as I cupped my cock and balls and began my walk toward the others.

Dralie laughed at my misery as I winced when I stepped on a sharp rock. “You wanted to be fleshy.”

“We couldn’t exactly fly over to them. Sigurd’s probably still jumpy,” I muttered.

“I would like to find our mate now and fix whatever pain we are in.”

“You can feel it now?”

“Yes.”

I wondered what it was about switching back to human that meant he could feel the broken bond but made a mental note to investigate later. I was a mystery to myself, but I was always good at finding answers.

“Sorry about that. I’m sure it’ll go once our bond is back.”

“You want the bond back?” Dralie asked in a quiet voice. “Something that causes us so much pain to lose? What if it is lost again?”

It was such a poignant and vulnerable question that I took a moment to answer properly.

“I would rather lose it again than live without it. I’ve had a taste of something most people can’t even dream of. The bond allows me to hear her thoughts, feel her feelings, and sense her in every fiber of my being, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel alone in my head. I suppose I have you in here now, but still … It's special. And the sex is fucking amazing.” I laughed.

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