We’d sat in the ruins of that forgotten city under an ocean of stars, the six of us, knowing it would be the last time we were all together, at least in this life. For when Zero woke again, I would be nothing but bones and dust. I was okay with that. I thought he was too.
As dawn approached and Zero’s eyes started to droop, the dragons presented me with five gifts.
A red scale.
A black scale.
Two blue feathers.
And a white scale.
I wiped my eyes, knowing just how precious such gifts were. But still, I was confused. “What are these for?”
Zero rolled his eyes. “To bind your Grimoire with.”
“Your material hard-won in the face of adversity,” Pat said.
“Because the adversity you faced challenged you greatly,” Leslie said.
“And you were as brave as we knew you could be,” the Great White said.
“And also because I want you to carry a piece of me forever,” Kevin said. “Every time you pick up your Grimoire, you can stroke my scale and think of me.”
We all turned to look at him slowly.
“What?” he said. “Mine was just as heartfelt as yours!”
The others left Zero and me alone after saying their goodbyes, the dragons promising to be there when he woke again. It was calming for me to know that they’d be together even after I was gone.
“We’ll see each other again,” I told him.
Zero glanced at me. “You truly believe that?”
“Yeah, dude. I mean, we’re all the same, right? It might be a while, but we’ll be together again. I know it.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, wizard.”
“And hey, just think, when you wake up next, you’ll be fifteen.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Maybe find yourself a nice boy or girl and kiss them on the face.”
He blushed furiously while I laughed at him.
Nothing much was said after that. And when he gave a cracking yawn, jaws stretched wide, I knew it was time for him to go.
He pressed his snout against my hand. “I’ll miss you, Sam.”
My smile was a little wobbly. “Yeah, me too. And just remember something for me, okay?”
He nodded.
“You are beautiful. And your magic is a wonderful thing. The world knows it now. You no longer have to hide away.”
And then he slithered into his lair.
We waited in that forgotten city in the desert, just for a little while.
But then the dragons sighed as one, and I knew our friend was asleep.
As we flew from the desert, I looked back, just once