Page 68 of Deadly Maiden

I extrude my claws while I let her think. They slide in and out easily. That’s a tease, a torture. Why did I shift that once, and fly, and yet now I’m useless? My tentative attempts to shift when she slept have only reinforced that I’m crippled. The flaw remains.

Flying is good. Fucking her is also good. Tying her up and then fucking her?—

Enough! I bring a halt to these lascivious thoughts that have bothered me lately.

I bother you?

For a second, a scrape of a second, I see something more than myself, within myself.

What in the?—

“Rorsyd?” Wyntre is leaning low and peering up at me.

I straighten. “Yes?”

“I think I know what attracts me to that place. Since you’ve no objection, and were falling asleep, I’m checking it out.”

“What?”

She dismounts to lead Blossom down the trail.

The most ridiculous horse name ever, that. Wrong-footed, I do the same and follow her.

What are you?I’m talking to myself, aren’t I? Insanity beckons. This must be related to my damage inside.

*I am you.*

I halt, shocked, but I can feel the difference now. There is something within, an alien, perhaps an evil presence.

*I am you! Your inner dragon is I.*

Is I?Who taught this thing grammar? Can that be correct?Rhetorical question, I hurriedly add. Why am I not horrified?What the hells is an inner dragon?

*I’ve always been here. I think. You just never saw me.*

“Rorsyd!” Wyntre is looking miffed and has slowed, waiting for me to catch up.

I hurry forward, pulling to get Snake-eyes moving again. He’s joyously yanking at the long grass and crunching it up. He rolls those eyes but obeys.

Later, I will talk. If you are me, you know she is important. She is ours to guard even if we suck.

In some ways, it is a relief to be able to share my…our failings. I have an inner dragon? I believe this. Now that I have had my eyes opened to this inner self, how can I not believe?

The faintest whisper of that inner dragon’s thoughts waft in and dissipate. *She likes our sucking.*

What?The rudeness in that.I’ll call you ID from now on. The D is for?—

*Dragon?*

For dick.You are my Inner Dick.I think that, smugly, then shut down the conversation.

“Wyntre, why?” I gesture at this ornate crumbling archway. It’s what we saw from the main road. A fence of wrought iron has fallen into disorder to either side, and great sections of the head-high fence are bent over, twisted, or toppled. Beyond fence and archway is a landscape that must have been cleared long ago. The trees are younger, and their roots have dislodged stones from the earth and partly covered a small building further in.

“This is a graveyard?” The knowledge arrives like a gong being struck. “Oh.” I stare at her.

She shrugs, then knots Blossom’s reins to the fence. “There must’ve been a town somewhere here. You’re thinking this is to do with necromancy?”

“Yes.” Of course.

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