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Scales, Ears, & Eyes (butterfly0408 & Greeneyed23)

The next few weeks of Maia's life was a whirlwind as her father took her and carted her all over the land from leader to leader telling the tale of how she had been cursed by the elves with their dragon. Her once brown eyes were not an "other worldly" purple color. His version of the events were of course far exaggerated and she was told to keep silent about it all. Just to be quiet and show other her eyes. The one time that she had tried to defend prince Ellowe's name, her father had pinched her arm so hard it brought tears to her eyes. "Look! See! See how just remembering the horrid incident brings tears to my poor child's eyes?!"

After that, the war had begun and her father was not really a part of her everyday life any longer. He was always off leading his army for he was a hands on warrior king. He was not the kind to shy away from battle. It however robbed her little brother of having his father as an influence in his life. That might have been a good thing as it made Jacob a sweet lad and her closest playmate as they grew. Their mother didn't seem all that interested in the raising of children as she passed them off upon the endless parade of nanny and maids. The queen often lamented how the war had taken from her the thing she loved most... the rich extravagant balls that she loved to pass the time. To show off her fine rich dresses and good looks. At least Maia and Jacob had one another.

The years passed. Time passed. The war did not seem to pass. It just kept going on and on. Both sides were well matched and as such there never seemed to be a side with a clear upper hand. Their were not winners only those that were losing their lives in the middle of battle. While the humans did not have same skills as the elves, their numbers often kept them on top of the hill. They simply have more lives to throw into the battle and give up. At first, the human people seemed to be alright with this for their king worked them up over how if they did not defeat the vile elves that they would destroy them with their magic. But as the body count rose up, the faith in their king weakened.

Left to her own devices, Maia grew up more or less how she wanted to. Without the balls to be forced to go to, she did not have that part of her life where she was dressed up like a doll to be paraded before the nobility. And so she was often dressed in casual comfortable dresses. With the war seeming to grow more and more intense, the plans to eventually marry her off to some high noble slipped away as well and really the Princess Maia was forgotten. At this rate, she'd grow to be an old maid before the war ended and her father remembered he had a daughter that need to be we. Maia found herself locked up in in the capital like some kind of prisoner. How often she would look out over the land and dream of the world outside these walls. Even before the war, she had never been given the freedom to fly. As the battles drew close to the capital? It was more a dream then ever before.
 
The elves despised war.

They always had. They hated the taking of life and despite rumors and legends the Dragons felt much the same. This lead to many full retreats and sacrifices of cities rather than fighting, and more often than not they would just kill as many humans as they could bear then leave, without leaving even a single one of their dead.

This was not always the case. Many times humans swarmed an outpost, or patrol, or trapped a Dragon and their guards and slew them, but it did happen enough that it became the legend. That no matter how fiercely the humans fought they never found bodies of their killed, thus making the elves seem ever more powerful and dangerous.

This went on for years and years. The elves refusing to meet in proper battle, but taking back their losses in the night, in daring raids of dragonfire, elven arrows, and the slash of their blades. Here they furthered their legend. They would kill and raze without mercy, for once they decided to do so nothing would dissuade them, and once done they would leave the corpses piled high, or made into walls, even hanging from trees, or in some cases, dropped from the backs of Dragons into cities. Their war was not a war of force but one of terror and though they might not be winning the war itself, they were indeed winning in the breaking of human confidence.

The humans had had a serious victory some years before. Right around Maia's fifteenth birthday the humans had found and killed Queen Tessala and King Ynvar but their had been no sign of the Crown Prince. What only the leaders of the humans knew is that every person involved in the raid that had lead to their deaths had been found and killed even in their own bedchambers in the palace. The bodies of the elves had never reached a single human stronghold and were never seen by any human again.

Now thirteen years after the fated blessing, the elves still refused to meet in open battle, and still their was no sign or word of Ellowe. The dwarves still maintained their silence as did the other races and the orcs had long since been driven back, spitting hate at the humans. There the elves and Dragons had acted with haste and without mercy. They had flown a thunder of Dragons to the very gates of the orc capital, burned them down then taken the Council of Mother's hostage, along with the city. They had slaughtered them all, save the Council who in their grief agreed to call back their forces. Once it was done, all nineteen Mothers were found beheaded and impaled in the midst of the burning city. The orcs had taken the message clearly. Betrayal of the elves was a doom not to be tested. They had attempted to fight on for a time but without leadership they quickly fell to warring and only the emergence of new mothers who preached peace had prevented the utter destruction of the orc race. Now they too refused to speak with the humans and though they hated the elves more than ever now they understood why it had happened and would not dare risk such a thing again.

This all lead to the events of the First Day of Spring.

The central city of Treewall had just been burned. Clearly by Dragons, but though the city was now a ruin, only the city guards, in their towers, had been killed, save for the governor of the city, whose carved up corpse had been delivered directly to the Palace. Right to the balcony of the Queen in fact.

The uproar amongst the nobles and general had been enormous. They had demanded that vengeance be sought.

So it was on the first day of spring that the humans launched an all out attack on the elves sacred Low Forest. This forest was nestled between the arms of their mountains, deep in a valley and they adored them. The attack went well, in that they took the forest without a fight. But they turned to find the forest lit with flame and from out of the flames came forth elves and Dragons with a fury they could not contain. The humans were slaughtered without mercy, without prisoners, the heads of the leaders sent to the palace, the bodies to the King, the weapons broken and melted down along with the armor. The Forest itself had somehow returned to life stronger than ever before but now was darker. Any human that neared it vanished without a trace, never to return, and the Forest grew ever outwards but always thick and dark.

All of this enraged the humans but also frightened them. They needed something more. Someone more. They needed the King to win a great victory. Even as they considered this they learned that the King was dead. Killed in a surprise attack on his command center, bringing it down from above and below. His body was a ruin. The leaders screamed and demanded vengeance upon the elves but the rumors persisted. it had not been the elves. it had been the King's own guard, driven mad with fear. For none of them had survived either.

This lead to the decision to introduce Maia as the leader. Her mother was useless in such matters, and was in mourning now anyway. That Maia was as well, or that Jacob might be was to be ignored. They needed leadership. It would have to be one or bother children of the murdered king. They sent for Maia first. She was a smart woman. She would understand...would she not?
 
The news of the king's death had a very different effect on each and every one of the royal family. Prince Jacob felt sad but then his father had never really been much in his life to really mourn the loss. The queen was devastated... that with the king dead she would no longer be the queen. It was in watching her mother's reaction that Maia felt empty inside for a while. The final conformation that her parent's marriage had always been one of station and privilege. There had never been love between them. As for Maia's reaction to her father's death, it was certainly what one would call mixed. She could still remember the sweet moments with her father before the incident that had been the start of all this mess. She mourned that man. The man that he was. But she could not bring herself to shed a tear for the man that he had become, especially within the last few years of his war crazed life. There was a guilt within her when she found herself actually think for a moment, 'we are better off without him.'

But indeed that left the question now. Who would rule? Neither Maia nor Jacob were properly prepared for the burden and they were both still so very young. Nobility was split down the middle. 'Maia should rule for she is the elder and more prepared' butted heads with 'Jacob should rule for he is the next male in line for the throne therefore it is his birthright.' Back and forth no one ever seeming to asking the royal siblings for their input in the matter. It became so frustrating that Maia finally took action on her own. While the old fools argued, back and forth, she and Jacob decided that he would remain behind while she would answer the call on her own. Setting off with her own personal guard towards the front lines, she decided to meet with the men that had been leading this war under her father. She would gather all the information that she could from them, report back to her brother and together maybe, just MAYBE, they could find a way back to peace.
 
The military commanders were silent as they refused to meet the eyes of the Princess. They had their orders. The elves were to be demolished. Nothing and no one would ever stop them. Their hate, their fear, their mad devotion to revenge for the dead king, who they assured Maia had been murdered by the elves despite the evidence and rumor, would not let them make peace.

They had flat refused to tell her anything, refused her orders as she was not their monarch, and had told her to leave. Now they were waiting for her to go, not looking at her to increase the power of their refusal.

Even as they waited for her to go, they had issued orders for another attack on one of the elves fortresses in the low hills leading to the mountains. There would be no peace. not if they could help it. They wanted elf blood.

While they waited for the Princess to leave, a hooded figure quickly rushed away from the command tent and out of the camp going the same way the Princess would have to to return home. they had an appointment with the haughty little elf-cursed witch.
 
Maia could not believe this. "I am the closest thing you all have to a leader!" she yelled at them all as she slammed her hands on the table where battle plans should be, only they had hidden them from her view. "I come on behalf of my brother. If you will not recognize me as your leader, you MUST recognize him! He will take the throne and his word will be law!" But no one listened to her. She realized she could scream until she lost her voice at this point and these old fools would not budge. They might not be willing to tell her their plans, but they would change their tune. Resolving herself to return home where she would support placing the young Jacob upon the throne so that the siblings word would indeed be law, she departed with her guard toward home.
 
She had not even lost the smell of the foolish old men and their camp when she was beset and her guards killed by wild barbarians.

They killed her horse and the other mounts then dragged her off. They bound and gagged her then moved her through the forest. As they went it became clear she had fallen in with the zealots of the Human Church, mad people who claimed at that all other races were both evil and less than useless and in dire need of death. Especially of the elves.

The leader of this coven, which seemed to be growing about her, revealed herself to be one of the supposed whores from the military camp. She sneered down at the Princess. "You seek to betray us to the filth that dares kill us? Backstabbing bitch. We'll fix this."

They pulled her onto a flat plateau where a number of magma falls, created by the destruction of the war, surrounded a small rock island in the midst of the magma lake made by the falls. They dragged her out onto the island then stripped her to her underwear, binding her arms above her head to a strange ceremonial pole, mounted with a disk with the Human Church's emblem upon it. They then ungagged her and held up a massive snake. "Let this beast call it's own. To kill you as you deserve. Bitch."

The leader slapped her, hard, repeatedly, making her lip bleed and exciting the snake which coiled about her right leg, then they stepped away beginning to chant their hate in a number of derogatory songs about how anything nonhuman was evil waste.
 
The attack had been so fast and unexpected that fighting was useless. Word of the coven had been long whispered but sheltered behind her palace walls, the naive Maia had not realized just what a threat it was. It seemed more like a myth then a reality that she would face. Fighting them off seemed useless. What kind of humans were they? They seemed almost super human in strength. As they pulled her and tugged her along, she felt as it her wrist would snap in two just from the pressure they were putting upon it.

She cried out as they pulled her clothing from her body, the men not being gentle as well as copping a feel here and there leaving marks behind all over her body from the mix of hash grab and hard smacks. "I am trying to HELP!" she yelled out as the pulled her towards what she did not know. "I have come to try and end this war! To seek a way to end this madness with peace." But no one listened to her as they brought her to their intended final destination. Her eyes grew wide and she felt faint. The rumors of their unholy rituals were more then myth. It was reality. Human sacrifices. To what kind of being she did not know for all the rumors spoke of different beasts that the Human Church would offer up virgins seeking blessing. Their intention for her was all so clear now.

As the snake was placed upon her leg, she stilled. She had one and only one chance to try and trick them. "I'm... I'm no virgin!" she lied. "Your offering will be seen as insult if you offer a virgin and do not deliver." Her eyes never left the snake, as if keeping her eyes upon it would keep it from striking at her.
 
The leader laughed. "You are a horrible liar. You've never been touched by a man. Hell you've probably never even seen cock. Be silent bitch. The snake is hungry."

As if cued by these words the snake rose up gazing into her eyes , it's head tilting as it's neck just behind it's head and several inches down folded out into a thick rounded hood. It was a cobra, a fire cobra at that, thick heavy, and drawn to blood. It's poison would kill her, eventually but she would suffer dearly. This was clearly the actual plan. To get the snake to bite her, let the dragon eat her, then watch as the Dragon died in horrific pain.

They continued to chant, urging the snake on.

The powerful pounding of rhythmic drumming began to resound throughout the plateau and lake. The chanting fell in with the drums building to some crescendo. As this happened the snake began to sway with the sound, it's eyes dark and evil, it's tongue whipping out at random.

Just as the sound neared the explosion of the end the snake's head suddenly vanished, engulfed then swallowed by the sudden flash of an incredibly hot black flame. The coven had not even the time to react when a massive black Dragon, with chilling bright green eyes landed with a earth shaking crunch. It raised a talon that was longer than the pole she was bound to, likely even longer, thicker than most trees, and sharp as razors, and cut her free.

The coven was screaming in rage by now. The Dragon gently pinched her between two rounded sides of two talons and lifted her, revealing his size. This Dragon was easily twenty times larger than the mother Dragon that had blessed her. It looked at her with a single eye then opened it's tremendous jaws, the spear like fangs gleaming in the magma light as he unleashed a storm of flames nearly as dark as he upon the coven, washing them them with flames so hot they began to shrivel into dust rather than burn.

When all were dead the Dragon looked back at Maia. I would take you home if you will allow it Princess. We have much to discuss. I have no clothing for you but there is some over there to wrap in. It will be a long and cold ride otherwise. His voice, even in her mind, was calm, deep, rich, and hauntingly familiar. He set her on her feet pointing at a pile of clothes nearby the piles of ash and dust. The zealots had begun to strip in their passion.

Will you let me take you home Princess?
 
"No! I am not! I swear it!" she called out, taking her eyes off the snake for just a moment only to yelp when she looked back and realized that it was in fact a deadly cobra. Her cry caused the creature to jolt and so she stilled herself as best she could. This was it. This was the way she was to die. No one knew she was here yet and so no one would come to her aid. She'd die a slow death. Their plan to feed her to a dragon had not even crossed her mind yet but she'd certainly get the hint when in her last moments she was stuck between the teeth of a beast like some kind of spare food bit that had become stuck.

With the increasing of the beat of the drums, her heart beat started to match it until it was racing in fear. "Please..." she whimpered on a whisper. "Please. I want peace." Her eyes locked with the snakes and she knew he was about to strike. All at once, Maia closed her eyes and whispered a name that had not crossed her lips in nearly 13 years, "...Ellowe."

And then it all happened. Chaos around her. Fire and death and screams and all sorts of chaos. Her eyes flung open just in time to see the dragon reaching out towards her. She screamed a bloody curdling cry as she braced herself to be crushed in the creature's hand. She shut her eyes tight and waited for it. Feeling herself picked up and struggled in his grasp until her feet touched the ground once again. Opening her eyes, she tilted her head up to get a good long look at the dragon. Maia found herself frozen in place as it destroyed all those around her that had tried to harm her. When at last it turned back to her, addressing her by name, once more she paused only staring at the beast..... before she turned and ran as fast as her feet would take her. Ignoring the clothing she sought out a place to try and take cover before the beast would eat her in one bite.
 
The Dragon's tail slammed down before her before her fifth step even began. he might have been big but he was quick, far quicker than her.

Now he spoke aloud. "Maia we have no time. Your people will be coming for you. Stop running." He gripped her again and put her on his neck, right behind his head, his horns serving both to hold her in place and give her something to grip. Before she could move he had crouched and leapt into the air his wings, at least twice as long as he, unfurled and he began to flap them rapidly.

They were flying quickly now. And the legends and rumors that she had heard began to fill her mind.

The Great Black Dragon. The largest and mightiest of the beasts. The leader of the raids, attacks and most brutal battles of the war. This beast below her had slain thousands of her people, burned whole cities, slaughtered their animals, and lead elves in surprise attacks that had swallowed up whole armies of humans. Before she could begin to react the Dragon landed on a flat precipice and tilted his head turning it aside letting her gently fall onto her side then before she could do aught else he shifted.

As she watched the Dragon, longer in body, tail, neck and head than ten carriages with duel horse teams lined up in a row, and bigger than the circumference of the tower at her home. His thick muscle under ebony scales rippled as it convulsed, then contracted, then shrunk and he became a tall lithe elf, fully clothed in black scale battle armor. His skin was deeply tanned and his hair black as pitch and brushed back then held with a pair of braids bound across his temples back to the crown of his head. His green Dragon Eyes glowed at her and he smiled. "Hello Maia."

He tossed her some clean fresh clothing.

"I heard you call for me. I was already on my way...I saw the attack. But I'm touched you remembered me."
 
Maia stumbled and screamed out again as the beasts tail came crashing down before her, cutting off her path of escape from it's wrath. Before she could even think to reach or recover from this road block, she found herself off the ground once again. In a blink she was upon the beasts back and as she moved to try and slip off his back, she was forced down ward as he propelled them up and into the sky. Now, high off the ground, all she could do was cling to whatever she could. Closing her eyes tight, all she could do was hang on for the ride. She did not dare to open them until she felt them land with a thud and as he tilted his head, she slipped off him and to the side. When she felt the sweet touch of land under her once more, she opened her eyes and backed quickly away form the beast, her eyes fixated on him as he morphed and shifted until he had shrunk down in size to that of an elf. "The... Black Dragon.... is just and elf...?" she muttered to herself in wonder. That beast that had killed so many of her kind was no dragon at all but was an elf. The reality was mind blowing.

She was dimly aware of him speaking her name as he tossed her the clothing. The clothing hitting her was was really brought her out of her daze as she held the clothing to her very exposed form but did not put it on yet as she looked at him in confusion. Her mind was having great trouble processing all this. What was he talking about? How did he know her name? "Call for you? I did not call for you," was for some reason the first of her thoughts that came from her lips and did not just linger in her mind.
 
"It's me Maia. Ellowe. The Elf Prince you met when your eyes went from brown to that almost purple. I promised to protect you. i am keeping that promise."

He gave the same kneeling bow he had so long ago. "i have come in your hour of need as I promised. what would have of me Your Grace?"

He stood smiling at her. "i would advise you get dressed Your Grace. We have much to discuss and i would rather not have you shivering during that."
 
It was only when he reintroduced himself to her that she even realized that she had whispered his name in that moment that she was expecting to be her last. Why had she done it? Of all the things she could think of in that moment, why had she spoken his name? She had not seen him in 13 long years after all. True she had thought of him off and on in that time, his name was not one she had ever spoken. Looking at the elf standing before her, she squinted her eyes a bit at if trying to get a better look at him. She struggled to picture the boy she knew as the tall dark and handsome elf before her. It could be him. Something in his eyes. But it had been so long.

She continued to just stand there, looking at him in shock for a few moments longer before it all seemed to be to much for her to process. Her eyes rolled back as she tumbled to the side and falling into a dead faint.
 
He moved with his uncanny speed and caught her then lay her down and dressed her himself, then carried her to a hollowed out funnel of rock which he first filled with fire, then he lay her down on a pallet of blankets, then covered her with another as a massive storm began, wind blasting at the cliff and the funnel, but the heat of the flames served to protect them both.

He sat beside her stroking her hair and smiling his eyes bright. "You have indeed grown beautiful."
 
The heat he had created within the space only helped to lull Maia into and even deeper sleep. Finding comfort in the warmth after having been running around half the day nearly naked. For hours she lay there, resting and recharging from the trying day that she had been through. Having him near at hand was a comfort as well even if she did not realize it. In time, the grip that slept held upon her loosened and her eyes gently opened. It took her a moment to really focus upon his face. It took a few more moments after that for her memories of all that had brought her to this point and just who it was that she was gazing upon now. The great black dragon.

Her eyes shot open wider and she sprang to sit up and inch away from him, the fear from before still there in her eyes.
 
"Maia please. I won't hurt you."

He gently touched her hand. "And stop wriggling. otherwise you'll fall into the fire."

The fire was in a small pit below their feet. "And as to my other side remember we were at war. And your people did kill my parents."
 
She snatched her hand away from his touch as if it burned her like the fire in the nearby pit. Glancing towards it, she shifted so that she still kept a distance between herself and him as well as did not risk falling into the fire. Keeping her eye fixated upon him, she watched him as if the moment she looked away he would strike out at her. "An action that took place amid the death of thousands of humans. One cannot cast blame upon the other side when a body count hovers over both. Both sides are to blame."
 
He shrugged. "Never said they were. But your parents started a war against us because we honored you. They burned whole forests and cities because we altered the color of your eyes. Which are beautiful by the way. I will also point out that your people attacked first. In fact every single attack has been triggered by your people. We have fought a defensive war. And need I remind you of this as well. We could have burned every city and stronghold you have within a year. But we haven't. Also have you ever known that every single messenger of peace we have sent to your father and his generals has either been killed or shot at. We now send magic every day. They have not answered us even once."

He smiled his eyes cold. "So be angry at me as you wish but I did just save your life, from your own people, and I haven't harmed you, nor would I have reason to. But also i want you to consider this. When Brewellyn changed you we offered you feasts and honors. Your mother went mad, your father went to war, and you and your brother have been locked in the palace while your people died in a war they had no interest or gain in."

He smiled shifting away from her. "I've prayed constantly for every soul lost, sent gifts and money to each of their families, and helped innocents escape the warpath. Just what have you done? Gone to a bunch of mad old warmongers and begged them to deny their very being? You can't and won't shame me Princess Maia. I've had to fight in this war. This war your parents forced on me. Which took my own parents from me. And despite that I've never sought to fight it and I've constantly tried to end it."

He opened his shirt revealing a large slashing scar along with many others on his chest. "Your people did this to me. Even as I protected them from each other." He touched the slash scar. "Your father did this to me why I was holding up a fallen pair of towers in Hilltop. While the sisters and brothers of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre carried orphans and wounded out of the base of the towers which your own father had set fire to with them locked inside. I was forced to hold up the towers despite the flames burning me, the arrows, spears and other weapons cutting into my flesh, while my people held back your father's force and I held him back."

His eyes blazed now. "Do not speak to me of lives lost Princess. I want you to go the palace, help me convince Jacob to take the throne despite his age and then he can end this insanity."
 
He was telling her all things that she already knew and yet still hearing him speak ill of her parents and her people left her feeling angered by him. It was the sort of thing that was alright when someone thought about in her own mind but to hear the words come from his lips... she felt the unusual desire to defend them even when she knew it was all truth. The more he talked, the more that she felt like she was being reprimanded like a child. Who did he really think he was? No one spoke to her like this. Not even if it was the truth. Not even if it was the boy that has haunted her dreams for the last 15 years.

She was ashamed to admit that but even if she had not spoken his name in years, she certainly had though of him. Of course he had not appeared within her dreams as he looked standing before her now. He had forever been locked into her mind at that young boy that she had shared a moment with in her youth. He was all man now and he would surely continue to haunt her dreams only now in this much more... mature form. A form that made her heart skip a beat and cause her blood to run hotter within her.

"I was on my way back to the palace to do that very thing. So... all you need to do is see me there and we can all sit down and talk this out like civilized people."
 
He arched an eyebrow. "See you there?...A full blood Dragon Souled Elf to the palace?...That would be quite the negotiating maneuver. I had just meant you go and talk but...i'll take you."

He grinned at the idea. "You'll have to ride my neck again though Princess. I'm not walking there. not through your lands. We'd both be killed out of hand."

He leaned back against the rocks. "Now we can't go until this storm settles anyway. Are you hungry?" he held out a pack which had the elven flat bread as well as many human rolls along with fruit and veggies. He set to eating himself and sipping from his waterskin after pouring out a large measure into a collapsible cup and setting it before her. He shifted slightly and grunting removed his duel elf blades from his back, the fanglike curved blades long light and graceful, yet clearly weapons made for killing, the many scars and well worn use upon them telling her they had indeed done much work.
 
She eyed him, looking unease at him before looking just as uneasy towards the food sitting before her. The look was clear. She was unsure if she could trust him still and unsure if the food he offered to her could be trusted as well. Still, her stomach growled in hunger as she watched him eat. Cautiously she reached out and took one of the rolls he had placed there. Staying from the elf foods she did not seem all that familiar with. How would she know it would taste off if she did not know what it should usually taste of. Picking off little bits of the bread she ate it slowly and with that same caution she still watched him in silence.
 
He smirked but just kept eating. When he finished eh made sure to tidy up then shifted down laying his head on a rock and crossing his arms over his chest and let his eyes close beginning to drift off to sleep.

"You should get some rest. not much else to do I am afraid. And i will point out that i have absolutely no reason to kill you."
 
When she did not feel ill after partaking of the food he had offered up to her, she decided that she was likely going to survive the meal. Survive the night? That might be a different story. So many tales were told of dragons that the line between what was real and was was a lie seemed suddenly blurred as she found herself alone with one for the first time since, well since her eyes had changed. Even that day seemed to be a bit hazy in her memory now.

She found a place on the stone ground of the cave that was flat enough to rest without being poked in the side by a stone. Folding her arms under her head, she used them as a pillow. Even as she lay on her side she watched him. He could say all he wanted, but she was still clearly unsure about him after being separated from him all this time.
 
He smiled his eyes still closed. "If i wanted to kill and eat you i already would have."

He shifted slightly then fell fully asleep, though the fire grew hotter and higher, as the wind outside picked up as well. The storm grew louder and much harder, slamming wind and rain against the hollow, the rind howling around it.

He did not move a single time all night, sleeping still as stone, though always the fire was so hot and high that even had she been able she could not get by it.
 
She flinched a little bit as he spoke of wanting to eat her before he just casually went off to sleep. Dreams did not find her as easily as it seemed to come to him. For quite some time she lay there, one eye open and watching him before not even she could keep her will strong enough to stay awake and slowly it slipped closed as she slipped to sleep.
 
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