"The girl is safe?" Khuzaimah asked while observing the young Wyvern curiously.

They were flying above Khuzaimah's territory. He was giving Aleron a small tour, pointing out all the points of interest like where to get food and the best place to scrub yourself clean.

"She is. I believe she had family there as there was a woman who seemed to recognize her." Aleron sighed defeated. He felt empty once more after leaving the girl in the village. She had actually started talking to him right before they arrived and her voice was so sweet.

"How did the humans react to your presence?" Khuzaimah swooped down in the meantime closely followed by Aleron. He landed on a rocky outpoint, a lonely mountain around the flatlands that made up the rest of his territory.

"I roared when I landed... She wanted me to do that. I might have scared a few people with that. Some even had pitchforks in their hands when they came out of hiding. Not overly friendly I would say. But when the girl got off my neck they looked... confused. Humans are strange creatures you know that. She hugged me in front of them which made them even more confused. I could read the girl perfectly, knew that was scared seeing all of them but she also knew it was goodbye. The other humans were much harder to read. They have conflicting emotions and I don't like that. Either get angry or don't. Don't mix anger with curiosity and sadness." Aleron stopped talking for a moment and stared at the horizon.

Black clouds were forming and it looked like smoke was cringeling up to the sky. He glanced over at the old wyvern next to him who remained silent. There was a reason Khuzaimah led him here for sure but the big wyvern did not show why just yet. With a sigh, Aleron continued talking.

"A woman came through the crowd and the recognized the girl. She was the only one not scared of me as she actually ran up to us and hugged the girl tightly and lifting her up. I have to be honest, I did not really listen to her talking to the girl. Human babbling is just too tiresome to listen to. Only when she turned to me and thanked me I listened. She actually thanked me and touched me and I let her do that. Khuzaimah, I'm going mad. I let a human touch me! The third one to be precise!"

Khuzaimah chuckled at Aleron and his ramblings. He said he hated listening to humans talking to each other because it was too much babbling and yet he was doing the exact same thing. It was just as he believed it to be though. Aleron was bonded whether he wanted or not. He could no longer live the life of a wild wyvern even though he so desperately wanted to. The fact Aleron had come back to him was proof enough, but Khuzaimah wanted to make sure first before he would try to do something that boggled even his mind.

"I think the humans thought that maybe I was a messenger wyvern but without the mark. They seemed to calm down after the woman thanked me though. She told me they believed everyone in the city was dead. They had even sent out a few riders to check the city out and found no survivors. She seemed eternally grateful I saved that girl. I think the humans.... might actually have been... happy I helped?" Aleron tilted his head to the side as he thought about what had happened.

The ones that had arrived first when he had landed with a fearsome roar had all dropped their weapons and some had even smiled. After the woman had recognized the child, they did not regard him as a wild wyvern anymore, but also not as a bonded wyvern. Not that Aleron knew how they would react to a bonded wyvern, he had only heard a few stories about it. Those stories did not match with what happened though. Aleron knew one thing, the inhabitants of that village would probably not forget him for a while and neither could he forget about them. Not after seeing some sparks of hope in some of their eyes.

"Why did you decide to go to the burning city? Why did you decide to help the girl?" Khuzaimah asked, hoping to gain some more information.

"Why all these questions?" Aleron quickly responded.

"I'm just trying to figure something out..." Khuzaimah smirked at Aleron, baring his teeth. Aleron actually noticed he was missing a couple, further proving the wyvern before him was old. Very old.

"Stop playing games. What are you not telling me?" Aleron shuffled his wings in agitation.

"Let's just say I'm a wild wyvern but wasn't always one. I used to be bonded but no longer am. This here is my home for a long time and I have seen what the war has done to the south these past few years. The dragons with their riders don't come here often. They all focus on the North and on the Golden Dragon and his fight and they forget all about the south. The human government also forgets about this area leaving the humans here to fend for themselves. Let's fly." Khuzaimah spread his wings again and took off without waiting for Aleron.

The younger wyvern followed anyway intrigued and confused by what Khuzaimah had just told him. How could a bonded wyvern become wild again? And if he could do it, why could Aleron himself not do it? So many questions spooked through his brain at the same time. Why didn't Khuzaimah feel the same pull to humans as he did?

As they took to the skies higher and higher Aleron noticed the change in scenery. To the south, it became darker and darker. The green woods and field withered and turned yellow. Trees started to lose their leaves and were eventually left barren. The landscape looked like it was the middle of winter but it was actually at the end of spring. Aleron could see fires burning even further away, but Khuzaimah swerved around the edge of where the lands started to change and did not cross it.

"You might not see it, but these lands still belong to the country of the humans. Many villages here have been lost and not much remains. Even the earth itself has started to rotten causing the decay in plan life. I once ventured deeper in but the effects of the changed lands even affected me. This all started the moment the Golden Dragon revealed itself. Since then, all of the country's attention went to the North where he trained and they forgot about the battles here." Khuzaimah turned away from the area and flew back to where they had come from in silence.

They landed in the same area they had been in before. Aleron guessed it was one of the favorite spots for Khuzaimah to sit as you could see to all sides of his territory. Aleron stared south where he could still see the change in the landscape. If it was true what Khuzaimah had told him it wouldn't be long before the rot would enter his territory. Maye a few years at most. Before that, another few settlements would be affected and even one of the bigger cities in the region would fall. Aleron tried to erase the memories of the burning city he had seen from his eyes. The smell of it had been so pungent.

"What about the village I took the girl to? Will it be safe?" Aleron already knew the answer but asked anyway.

"Why the interest in the girl? She is not your rider. She's far too young." Khuzaimah inquired.

"She's also far too young to die. You also owe me the story of how you came to be... a wild wyvern once again." He made himself a bit bigger than he was to impress the other wyvern.

"Persistent are you? I had hoped you would have forgotten about that. Well, I once had a rider over a century ago. I was a little bit older than you are now when I first experienced the pull. My rider was a young man from a farmers' family. He was the first in their family line. How odd it may sound, it was quite hard for the boy to accept since he was the oldest and was supposed to take over and help his family with the farm. This life, being bonded to a wyvern was something that would force him to leave and not take care of his family. I was young like you and very green myself so our start was pretty rocky. We had to learn a lot all the while being forced to train and work together to become messengers as wyverns always become. It all became easier once my rider got paid and found out he got more coins than he had ever imagined. When years passed our bond only grew tighter and we did some... jobs... on the side besides playing the messenger. Let me tell you this, we wyverns? We can fight as it turns out..." A soft rumble came from the wyvern's chest. A sound that came closest to a human laugh.

"Anyway, we resided in the south the most. Close to his parents and family which he gave half of his coins to every time he got paid. We had some good years. He eventually even found a wife and had two children of his own. The only problem with that is the fact his life and mine were bound now as well. He would live as long as me if we would both stay unharmed. If he would die, I would die and the other way around. A general knowledge fact of being bonded. He never had the chance to figure out how to plan his future with his wife though as he fell ill when his youngest turned ten. There was no saving him, the illness would claim his life and thus would claim mine. The weaker he got, the weaker I got. During these times we would have conversations about everything. About politics, life, jokes and the future of his family. The weaker we got, the more we spoke about family. That was until he got an idea. He wanted me to take care of his family but I couldn't since I would die with him. He claimed he could find a way out of that and it turns out, he did find a way out of that problem. A day before he passed away, he rejected me and forced me to reject him back. It was a crazy idea of his but it worked. I rejected him back... and thus I broke the bond completely. It hurt. It hurt a lot but it worked. The sicker he got, the better I began to feel. He passed soon after and I upheld my deal. I stayed by his family side untill it was no longer needed. From that moment, I went back to the wilds and found myself able to actually do what I used to do before I met my human soulmate." Khuzaimah became quiet as he stared off in the distance.

Aleron bowed his head in respect. The old wyvern had done something nobody believed to be possible. He outlived his rider but it came with a terrible cost. He could see the pain and anguish on Khuzaimah's face. Breaking the bond was still causing the wyvern a lot of pain.

"He forced you to break the bond to take care of his family. He trusted you completely to do that. That's... beautiful." Aleron softly spoke.

"Hmmm. Beautiful you say? Beauty comes with a price. But I'm old now and learned to live with the pain. That is how I knew you did not reject your rider. You are still tied to him because if you weren't, you would be able to become wild again and you would be hurting... a lot. Maybe one day, you will meet your human again and he will accept you. Don't lose hope."

Aleron shook his head quickly. "Hah! It's been six years. I don't even know where he is. No.. we might still have something left of a bond but I'm not putting my hopes on him. I am destined for other things. I just don't know what yet. Maybe I'll be able to bond to another human. Maybe if the girl becomes of age...."

"You're foolish! You will never experience the same thing with another human as you would have with your rider. Trust me, I've tried. There are no other humans out there we can bond with. It's just the one you're fated to and that's it but there might be something else you could do. Something that would not require a rider." Khuzaimah scratched behind his ear with one of the claws of his wing.

"You're going to make me ask what it is? Really?" Aleron huffed in annoyance.

"No. This reaction was enough. I just wanted to see if you were actually interested. Considering your... love... for humans and your concern for the well being of the land I would opt for you to become a protector. Protector of the South. That way, you can keep an eye on your beloved girl, keep her and many other humans safe and show the world we wyverns are more than just messengers. The south could use you." To make his words seem more impressive Khuzaimah bowed to Aleron in a jokingly matter but Aeron knew he was dead serious about the offer.

"Me protector? Isn't that what you are doing here?" He asked in return.

"No. Since I claimed my own territory again, my connection with the humans has slowly decreased to almost non-existing. I simply don't care enough anymore. Besides, I'm too old. When we flew together you believed we were going slow right? Well... that was the fastest I could go. I'm old and no longer strong enough to actually fight."

It was true. When he was up in the air he had thought they were taking it quite easy. Aleron could double the speed without much effort if he wanted to. If that was the fastest Khuzaimah could fly he really was ancient. Aleron added another couple of years to his estimated age of Khuzaimah, making him well over two centuries old in his head. He dared not ask the true age. Aleron turned his head back to the south again and stared at the dark clouds swirling and forming on the horizon. He could accept... It would give him a purpose. He could also deny and take off and plan his own future. The idea was tempting as well. He would not have the responsibility and could do whatever he pleased. After careful contemplating both options for three minutes, Aleron gave his answer.

"I like the sound of it. Protector of the South. I'll take it."