A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long. I was absorbed into writing a variety of other things, as well as just keeping up with life. This is proving itself to be a three-shot. I'm okay with that, because I love these characters. If you're waiting on an update to anything else (or for the next update to this, for that matter) just know that I'm currently staying with family and this leaves me little time to write

If you want to see updates on my stories, ask me or my characters questions, just pm me. I love company~ And questions. Please, make them as awkward as physically possible. I love answering awkward things. And making my characters feel awkward. This is becoming pointless, so please go read and enjoy.

Another day and night wore by quickly and without incident. It turned out that Soren had a few more survival skills than I gave him credit for, and to prove it to me, he set about doing everything he possibly could himself. He completely disregarded my attempts to aid him at first, and then I left him to his own devices, having no desire to argue. But soon enough, he had found the stream a short distance from my cave, and then some good flint nearby. He lit his own fire and put some of the deer from earlier over it, then took was remained and wrapped it up in large leaves and vines. He then set the bundle in the cold stream, wedged between some rocks and submerged among other leaves so as not to be immediately apparent to any other carnivores in the area. It was not something I would've thought to do, and he was a little too smug when I admitted that to him.

He slept under my wing again that night, and fell asleep much faster as a result of his exhaustion. I, on the other hand, was unable to sleep for some time. Some worries plagued my mind, the foremost of them being about my fondness for this human. It was a ridiculous notion, but throughout the day I noticed myself becoming more and more relaxed. I genuinely enjoyed Soren's company, to the point that I let my guard down. A mother bear growled at me as she ushered her cubs away nearby, and the sound actually startled me; it was not like me to not be completely aware of my surroundings. Worse still was that the boy distracted me from my concerns of it only seconds later. It wouldn't do to be unfocused on problems like this. That was a sure way to die.

No matter what thinking I did, though, I could not think of a solution. It would be unbearable to send him away so soon, yet I was not to focus with him around. So I settled down and slept, deciding to think about it in the morning. The minute he was awake the next morning – thankfully earlier than the day prior – he was distracting me again.

"What does it feel like to have wings?" he suddenly asked me, though his eyes remained trained on the roasting meat that was slowly filling the cave with its delicious scent. I looked down at him where he was nestled under the very thing he had asked about; it was a chilly day, so I allowed him to stay there.

"That is a difficult question to answer when you have no similar body part for me to compare to. The best explanation... It is much like your arms, I suppose, if there were something to connect your wrist to your shoulder." He looked down at his arm on cue, bending it experimentally. I chuckled at him and shook my head. "It still isn't quite the same, though. Why do you care?"

"I just wonder why humans never grew wings. We're descendants of the elves the same as faeries and pixies, but we never got the wings."

That was the root of it, then. Mankind and its obsession with flight, with wings, with things it could never have. "Faeries are hardly related to your lack of wings. There were no insects involved in your evolution." He shrugged and looked away, but didn't interrupt, clearly expecting me to continue. "The only reason pixies ever grew wings was their interaction with the Spirit Realm. To enter it requires flight. Humans abandoned magic, however, and so little of it flows through your veins that even if you wanted to, you could never even glimpse the Spirit Realm. Now, are there any more questions?"

"Why haven't we invented a flying device yet, then?"

"It isn't the same." He turned back to me with furrowed brows, so I explained further. "What you and your entire kind seeks is organic flight. You wish to fly for yourselves, or perhaps on the back of a flying creature, as the Dragon Tamers once did. It is natural. A device would never be the same."

The Taming of dragons was centuries out of practice, though. When the Hunters started pretending to be Tamers just to earn the trust of their prey, most of dragonkind rebelled against it. I hadn't heard of a new Tamer in the last four hundred years. Yet, with the idea in my mind...

"What does it take to be a Tamer, exactly?" Soren asked, not meeting my gaze but keeping his hopeful eyes on the stone floor. He had the same thoughts as me.

"Technically, there is a ritual, but I doubt you could find anyone willing to participate these days. Otherwise, there is an irreversible soul bond and a bodily mark." A total stranger would have understood his questioning gaze. The boy seemed determined to make me explain everything. "The mark is the dragon's identifying rune, and can be placed anywhere on his Tamer's body. The dragon then receives the human's mark, though it is always on his rump. As for the bond... That dragon may only speak in the mind of his Tamer, and of course to other dragons. The Tamer's life is bound to his dragon's, and he will live equally long. He also gains some magical ability, enough to preform basic spells."

"And if one of them dies?"

"Then so does the other."

Heavy silence surrounded us then. Both of our minds were undoubtedly on the same thing, though I abolished the idea immediately. I would not be so foolish as to tie my life to another's in that way, be it with Soren or anyone else. There was something undeniably enjoyable about his company, and there was no way for me to claim that I didn't hope to see him again after he left, but I could not say now, just two days after I met him, that I was willing to allow him to be my Tamer. If... If I was ever so daring, it would have to wait. My impatience was illogical.

But Soren alleviated my concerns yet again. "That's a serious matter to consider. I'm not making any suggestions, I-I was just wondering." His cracking voice said otherwise. I chose to ignore that and nod at his food.

"Your breakfast is burning." He had obviously forgotten that it was cooking. With a start, he jumped up and pulled it away from the fire, trying to blow out the smaller fires that were lighting on the meat itself from the drippings. I laughed at him as he sat back against me with a huff, poking at the dark crust like it might attack him.

His next question came so nonchalantly that I failed to understand it at first: "Will you let me ride on your back when you fly?"

All sound ceased. He tensed instantly, visibly wincing at his own words and the reaction he expected me to have. It was a ridiculous idea, more so than this nonsense about Tamers! It had to be... But even as I tried to think up arguments, they fell. I will not allow him that close to me! He was already sitting under my wing and right against my side. He has no way to secure himself, lest he fall. He could certainly hold on, and in the unlikely event he did fall, I was adept enough a flier to easily catch him. It's too cold in the sky for a human. It was far fromtoo cold, and the adrenaline that would undoubtedly be pumping through him would help with that.

He was still sitting perfectly still, and jumped just slightly when I sighed and lowered my head. "I'll allow it."

"I'm sorry, I didn't- wait. You will?" Those green orbs pinned on me again, and even if I wanted to take my words back, I never would've been able to. So instead, I nodded, cracking a small smile at him.

"Perhaps having a flying partner will be... fun. I've grown a little bored with it in the past few centuries, after all." A significant improvement over my small grin lit up his face, and he turned to hug me with one arm.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've always wanted to fly! Let's go right..." He stopped, looking down apprehensively at his meal. "... right after I eat." I chuckled at his resentful glare, regarding that which would sustain him as an unwelcome intruder.

"How should I sit?"

"Put your legs beneath my wings and wrap your arms around my neck." Soren looked a little hesitant, now faced with the actual event, but still warily climbed onto my back. He made a small sound of surprise when I stood up, his grip tightening sharply. Were his arms able to reach all the way around, it might have felt slightly strangling.

I flapped my wings slowly, experimentally. His legs, trapped beneath them, were noticeable but not in the way. His weight on my shoulders would require adjustment in the air, but he was hardly heavy enough to cause any difficulty. "This is weird..." he muttered against me, and I only then realised that he had his face pressed against my scales as well.

"Are you alright? Frightened?"

"I'm not scared of falling. You'll catch me, right?" I craned my head back, looking at him curiously. His voice was so innocent, but his eyes seemed less so. There was a maturity there that he did not speak with, that you had to look closely to see. He knew the gravity of his words as well as I did, and understood the level of trust he was placing in me.

"You have my word." He simply nodded and held on tightly again, readying himself as I pushed into the air.

He may have claimed to not be frightened, but he was whimpering like a child at first. It took all of my self control not to laugh at him, to try and understand that he had no control of the situation and it was only natural for him to be afraid. I didn't take us too far up, instead making a wide arc around my cave just above the trees and trying to maintain a relatively low speed.

It was only a minute or two before his distressed sounds faded, and then I felt him sit up some and look around. Had I not seen it so many times, I may have been more impressed, but the sight of his familiar forest from high above must have been amazing. From the corner of my eye, I caught him pointing toward a ravine that revealed a fast-moving river on the bottom. I complied in banking sharply, chuckling when he had to cling to me suddenly.

My talons drug through the water, tiny droplets bursting upward and hitting the undersides of my wings. Their icy touch reached the boy, too, and he kept himself as low as possible to dodge them. It struck me as I rose back upward, slowing and making less of a show of my ability, that it wasn't so strange as I had expected. Carrying him was easy and natural, and now that I knew what it was like, I considered letting him ride me again.

When we were situated just below the lower level of clouds, making a wide arc around what I called my territory, Soren still hugging me tightly, he tapped on my shoulder.

"What is it, boy?" The sound of his voice barely carried over the wind, and I had to turn my head a little to catch it.

"Can you read my thoughts?"

"Only the ones you are actively thinking, and only if you want me to."

"Good, because it's getting really annoying to keep shouting." The voice in my head almost startled me. I hadn't consciously decided to link to his mind, but then his unspoken words were already there. It was troubling. The boy was nothing but troubling, yet his voice brought me to ease in just seconds. "How can you possibly be getting bored with this? It's amazing up here!"

"After a few centuries, even some of the most amazing things can grow a little dull." I felt him shrug, obviously not paying my words much mind.

"Can you fly near the village? I want to see what it looks like from above."

This time, I actually turned enough to peer back at him. He just gave me the most adorable look of pleading and I had to look away so as not to be sucked into those beautiful green discs. For a child, he was very convincing, but there were unfortunate reasons that I had to deny him his desire. "Do you want them to see you on my back?"

There was a long pause, and what had been begging just moments before became stubborn refusal to believe me. "They won't be able to tell who I am."

"Perhaps so. But even if they cannot see a face, they will see someone riding me, and they'll come to find out who it was. If they come looking for me, they'll find you. Anyone a dragon allows so close is a threat, and even more so if one of their own had become a Tamer." Again, there was nothing but silence from him, whatever thoughts he had not consciously projected toward me. I could likely have looked into them, but there was no need; I knew, without the wisdom of age or the telepathy of any magical creatures, that he was trying to find an argument, an excuse.

He failed his search. His body slouched against me, formerly tight grip relaxing as much as possible without loosing his hold. "What does it matter? You've been friendly to us the whole time, and it's their fault, not yours, that you aren't closer. So what if one of us gets close to you?"

"The friend of a dragon might be defended by that dragon. Say that they harmed the human and he went running to his new friend. They would run the very high risk of having their village utterly destroyed, every life lost. Especially in your case, where you have problems with your father, the danger of upsetting me would be too big a threat for them."

"I don't understand! If they killed me, that'd have the same effect!"

"They would not stop at you..." I said solemnly. "When humans live on a dragon's territory, there will always be at least one who learns how to contact a Hunter, for their own protection. I assure you, as I have seen it happen, that they would leave both of our corpses to rot for their own safety."

"Then why not just LEAVE US ALONE?!" His rage came unexpected, the sudden angry grip around my neck becoming restraining. "Why not just be nice to me!? Then, we'd all be happy!"

"Calm down, Soren." Though I doubted that he actually followed that order, he at least lessened his hold, releasing a long exhale. "It is simply not the nature of most of humanity to allow a threat to loom. Even if there is no threat, even if the only threat is their own paranoia."

Soren took his time answering. I felt his thoughts racing, likely mulling those words over from every possible angle. Then he sighed, longer than before, and I felt his cheek resting on my scales. "I don't want to end up like that."

I couldn't help myself, no matter how obvious it was that the situation demanded the exact opposite behaviour, I snorted and barely contained a small fit of laughter. The light tap of Soren's fist hitting my scales did almost nothing to deter it. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. It is simply very hard for me to even imagine you being as foolish as your kin. You may still be but a child, yet I do not see you ever becoming so drastic, not even in old age." The boy huffed and fell back down against me, clearly relaxing as I slowly angled myself toward the cave.

"I guess that's good to know you think that..."

"Why are you even worried? If you were to become like that, it is unlikely it would do you much harm."

"Because I don't want to end up ruining my chance at meeting a new friend... Or ruining my friendship with you."

I snorted, shaking my head lightly. "Is that what you've chosen to call this? Friendship? We've hardly known each other for three days. That's a rather small time frame upon which to base your conclusions."

"Can you honestly tell me you don't fell our connection? I haven't known you very long, but you're no stranger to me, Draco."

His question blind-sided me, words heavy with wisdom far beyond his years. The very thought of this connection he spoke of had me on the defensive, but before I could respond with a definitive denial, my subconscious dragged me into considering it more carefully. Instead, I tried to bypass the primary inquiry by saying that he was still a fair stranger to me; but even that fell short. It was vaguely disheartening to realise that Soren saw all of these things, how close we had become without ever trying, long before I and all my years came anywhere near admitting it.

"Perhaps. Stranger is not the correct term, but nor is friend. I think... our connection is something else entirely. Maybe something Tameílián has not conjured up a word for."

"Tameílián has a word for everything. You called it Tamer earlier."

The moment my feet were planted firmly in the soft ground, I spun my head around to him, red eyes boring intently into green ones. "That is not a term to underestimate, Soren. There is so much more to that than being closer than is typical after a few days. I don't believe you understand the depth of what you keep saying."

"Are you so completely sure I don't?" My indignant recoil did nothing to shake him. The tables were suddenly turned on me, those green eyes of his rendering my own stare useless. He behaved childishly at most times, but now, in moments like this, he proved to me that he knew what he was talking about. Those were not the eyes of a foolish child prone to impetuous actions; those were the eyes of a man, albeit young, who could fully comprehend the consequences of his actions and benefits that would come with them. He was young, but he was not quite the boy I referred to him as.

"Make me your Tamer," he said sternly, not enough to offend me, just enough that his intent was clearly conveyed. "You can't possibly say that you don't think it's right. You can't tell me you don't feel how deep this connection goes."

He would not falter in his will. And strangely enough, I found myself wavering under his advances. "Our connection may be deep, but such things as Taming a dragon require time to kindle, to forge the necessary level of subconscious connection required to complete the process."

"You can't possibly tell me that we don't have that." From the depths of my mind came a voice not my own. It was almost impossible to believe that the startling words were coming from the boy, but there was no other option. It was his voice, and he was traversing my mental walls with ease. He shouldn't have the magical power in the first place to initiate any telepathy, and even less so to force his thoughts upon me without my consciously listening to them. It was not easy for even the most well-trained mages of humanity. It should be impossible for Soren, unless...

… Unless he was right. It was a fact that I had to face: everything he had said was based in truth, and the more points he brought up, the more I bore witness to their reality. He kept his gaze solidly on me as he slowly dismounted, and I kept mine on him.

Assessing his credibility was a nearly pointless gesture, but it brought me some shred of comfort. He could not be a Hunter, for he had shown up before me injured. No Hunter, no matter how elaborate the scheme they were planning, would ever show themselves in a weakened state to any dragon. There was no lie in his eyes, and none in his mind (a fact alarmingly easy to discover with certainty). There was nothing at all about the boy to leave me suspicious of him.

I had to trust him. I had to, because some part of me told me that if I were to deny him his wishes now, he would never come back to me. I was nearly overwhelmed by how terrible the idea sounded. "Fine. I trust you, Soren, because you are no stranger to me, either."

His brilliant grin momentarily struck me as the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Then the moment was gone and I erased all thought of it from my mind. We had more important things to think about now.

"What is this?" Soren demanded incredulously, a roughly carved rock dangling from the chain he held in front of him. There were a few nearly indecipherable runes on one side, but otherwise, it seemed no different than any other pebble in the world. "I though you said-"

"It is a talisman, to strengthen what little magic you have. By yourselves, no human would have the power." He turned his suspicious gaze from the stone to me. I had to admit, it was difficult to believe such a simple thing held any power at all. "It was thrown together by an old mage I once met. It was the best he could do in what little time he had. It is the only talisman I have that isn't too strong for the situation." I shoved the bag I'd retrieved it from back into a small crevice of the cave, tucking it in so that it was almost entirely obscured by shadow. Then I returned to Soren's side, where he had put the magical object around his neck.

"Are you going to explain the process to me yet?" It was about the dozenth time he'd asked me that exact question, and I ignored him as I had on the very same number of instances. He followed me back to the cave mouth, where a large circle had been drawn onto the flattest surface available, surrounded by a ring of runes. It was another testament to how well this would work that Soren had drawn the symbols, entirely guided by the images I put into his head.

He followed me into the circle, albeit still a little disgruntled that I was clearly not going to explain the process to him, and sat cross-legged on the ground in front of me. For just a moment, I indulged one of my strange urges and nudged him lightly with my snout, and he smiled and nudged back. The ritual itself was neither complicated nor straining, but I was still somewhat nervous, more from the seriousness of what was happening than anything else. Under his excitement, Soren's feelings came very close to my own.

"Are you sure this is a course you are willing to take? Subjecting yourself to an isolated life that will last as long as mine?"

"Sure!" His reassuring smile was weak, but I nevertheless believed his words. "It's not like I had much of a life to begin with. Besides, not much is going to change for a little while, until I'm old enough to leave my father's care." I nodded, for once glad of the human ritual of not letting their young become independent until age twenty. Uprooting his life so suddenly wouldn't be something I could go through with otherwise.

I was unable to procrastinate any longer, so I began. Summoning up every bit of magic in me, letting it become amplified by the rune spells all around me, the words fell from my tongue as if I'd done it a million times. This ancient bonding spell was not something we were ever taught, but something that was burned into our subconscious from hatching on. The incantation was new to me, but I had no difficulty in speaking it just as naturally as I spoke to a friend.

Then Soren's voice mingled with mine, an entirely different line of Elvish sorcery that he knew only from what he saw in my mind. I had expected alarm from him, yet he surprised me by staying entirely calm, almost as if he had expected himself to start speaking a language he had never heard before.

As my eyes fell shut to the world around me, I was met with a sharp awareness of not only myself, but the human boy before me. It came just inches from feeling as I were him and he were me. I saw every ounce of his thoughts, which were just as disoriented by the change as mine, felt everything that he felt, seemed to be in his body and mine simultaneously. From two points of view, only one of which was actually my own, I felt a crawling heat burning an insignia onto my rump and chest. No, it was Soren's chest, and even knowing that I could hardly tell the difference. The warmth was hot, perhaps even to a damaging level, but I felt no pain, just the lucid manifestation of something new on our bodies.

It was not only physical, though. When the visible marks had been made, the invisible ones began to form, a more permanent bridge between our minds than this immediate union. It is difficult to describe the sensation of ones mind being pulled apart, entirely exposed, and then tied at its deepest point to the same point of another's. Some part of me was vaguely aware our chanting faltered, both of us nearly losing our grip on reality in the all-consuming attachment.

Then it was over. I opened my eyes to find the same small gust of wind blowing that had been when we'd began. What had felt like an experience spanning hours had happened within the space of a few seconds.

I looked down at Soren in the same moment he looked up at me. This was more than a simple glance, though; it was an unspoken acknowledgement that our lives had just changed forever, and that we would now be moving forward as one.

He opened his mouth for a moment, as if to speak, then shut it just as quickly. The surreal feeling faded and reality caught up with us. With a slow, shaky breath, I turned back to see a curling rune etched in dark gold just above my hind leg. The shape was whimsical, and it seemed rather befitting to be the boy's mark.

When I turned my gaze back to him, his shirt was gone, my own mark clearly emblazoned in deep brown, almost black, just above his heart. The lines had never struck me as so stark and extreme. He touched them lightly, then with slightly more force, and I knew automatically that he felt no pain and was curious now.

"It's weird. I don't feel any different." He looked up with alarm, and again without trying I knew that he hadn't intended to project that thought.

The overwhelming shock of the situation was wearing off, and I finally found myself relaxing again in his familiar presence. In an unusual display of affection, I wrapped my wing around him and held him close against me, humming pleasantly when he wrapped his arms around my neck and held me as well.

"I'm very glad to have met you, Soren." I knew his smile was there without seeing it. This inherent subconscious bond was going to take a while to get used to.

"I'm glad you didn't eat me as soon as I met you." We shared a small laugh, and then he crawled out from under me only to wriggle his way onto my back. "Come on, let's go flying again."