A good person

“So how long have we known Aoto for?” I drew Tatsuya's haori tighter around my neck and watched the world roll beneath us on either side of his long dragon neck.

“Aoto?” His head tilted sideways for a moment. “We met him a little while after we met Toshi.”

“Where?”

“In your – in Uchi's shop. You met him first,” he said. Painful uncertainty radiated through his back, strong enough to make my bones vibrate. “He bought your shop for you.”

“My shop?”

Why would Shizuka have agreed to use a shop bought by someone else? And how soon had she let that happen? Was it because she trusted Aoto? Or had she been planning something else? I didn't know enough yet to form any kind of solid conclusion.

“The one in Inner Town,” he explained. “He hired Kohaku and her friends too so they wouldn't have to worry about getting new jobs.”

“But I thought Ko said you didn't have money here?” Even as I asked, I was sure money had been mentioned in a previous memory.

The rushing wind made my eyes water. I flattened myself against his scaly back until it could no longer hit my eyeballs.

“Money?” I wasn't sure why he sounded confused.

“Yeah, to pay the people who do jobs.” A new thought horrified me. “Do people not get paid for their work here?”

“In Outer Town, they work to survive,” he replied. “They have to build their own shelters, hunt or grow their own food, or trade with other people to get what they need. They have to do everything by themselves. Things are … different.”

“People in Inner Town have all the money, don't they?” I guessed.

The sun had almost completely fallen behind the line of the horizon, a washed out red ruby in the centre of a black band. The skies were less cloudy than they had been that afternoon and the air pressure induced tears in my eyes added an extra shine to the stars.

“They can ask other people to do things for them and give them money, food, shelter, information, or other things they need in return,” he grunted. “Connections and favours go a very long way in Inner Town, sometimes even further than money. Most can span entire generations if they're maintained well enough.”

“Aoto's from Inner Town, isn't he?” I asked. “That's why he bought the shop and employed Kohaku.”

“His family has always lived in Inner Town, just like Yua and Yor's,” he said. “He's added a lot to his family's library and he knows how to get the most of out of everything. He's – a good person.”

I couldn't help wondering why he seemed displeased by that. Did he want him to be a bad person? Surely it was better to have someone so skilled on our side, wasn't it?

“Was I close to him too?” I asked, choosing my words with extra care. “He seemed really angry when he thought I was someone else wearing Shizuka's face. Is that why?”

“You – certainly seemed to enjoy each other's company.” Even the rough dragon growl lining his voice couldn't disguise the edge of Tatsuya's tone.

“Wait a sec.” I crawled forward with a grin and knocked the base of his neck. “Are you jealous of him?”

Tatsuya's body dipped sideways as if he too had suffered the same problem as the wagon had earlier. My entire body simultaneously lost all feeling like a weightless feather and coiled up tighter than an anaconda around its prey. But he levelled himself out quickly with an extra beat of his left wing and my insides settled down again slightly slower.

“I admire him,” he said stiffly. “He can do a lot of things I can't and has the ability to go further than most of us can even see. Just like you. Calling it jealousy is insulting.”

“I didn't mean to be rude,” I said breathlessly as soon as my tongue stopped sticking to the roof of my mouth. “Sorry about that.”

“You don't have to apologise,” he said swiftly, his voice heavy with regret. “I just didn't want you to doubt my sincerity towards both of you. You've both taught me a lot.”

“I imagine Toshi feels the same way about you,” I recognised the edge in my own voice and coughed several times. “You're the one who brought her to me, weren't you?”

“I was but you were the one who showed her what she could become,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

He looked back at me briefly and I was glad that there were no trees to bump into this high up.

“You're the one who taught Toshi how to control her speed and manage its side effects.” Moonlight illuminated his slit-like pupils and rippled across his scales with every flap of his wings.

The sight was strangely familiar, enough to induce yet another flashback.

The dragon sat upon a sturdy branch of the Spiritless Tree, its head lowered as if contemplating a careless drop into the canyon below it. His distinct colours filled my chest with a warm glow and I angled my wings, gliding downwards until I could land beside him. He looked sharply at me, his wings half unfurling in anticipation and staying that way when I didn't move.

“What kind of bird are you?” he asked, the words seeming to crack against the walls of his throat. “I haven't seen one with such long feathers before.”

I didn't answer, shaking my silvery elongated tail feathers.

“Oh, animals don't talk like us,” he murmured. “You looked so different I thought you were a shape-shifter like me.”

I shuffled on the branch but kept up the silent act, wishing I could ask him why he was upset.

“You're lucky you're not one, to be honest,” he said as if he had heard my silent question. “Lots of people thing being a shifter makes its easier for you to belong in two worlds when really it just stops you from belong in any of them properly. Not that there are many dragons anyway.”

So he was feeling left out? Lonely? I knew of a perfect way to fix that, if only for a short while. I stretched out my wings and leapt off the branch, heading straight into the Jaw.

“Huh – wait!” he exclaimed.

I waited until I was sure a thick enough layer of fog had concealed me before twisting in mid air and shooting back up towards him. He leaned forward on the branch, mere seconds away from leaping into the canyon after me, concern in his moonlit eyes.

I waited until the last second and spread my wings out wide as soon as I popped back into his sight, so he could appreciate the shape of my feathers and how the ghostly light reflected off the silvery one at the edge of my wingspan. His mouth opened as he sighed in wonder and I rolled over backwards, flapping occasionally until I reached his eye level, then circling above him.

“Are you waiting for me?” he asked, hesitant delight lightening his tone.

I flew closer until my wings and tail brushed his head and the top of his wings. He growled but extended the latter, springing off the branch like a cat and flying skyward like a silent, colourless firework. I followed him, catching up and overtaking him quickly. His breath warmed feet and tail feathers until I doubled back, wordlessly encouraging him to push his limits as we danced around each other mid-air.

Our continuous movements warded off the chill in the air and I struggled to avoid the mesmerising effect of light upon his silver-black scales and his distracting outline against the bright circle of the moon.

“I should be happy I can fly here with you like that, shouldn't I?” he said once we both settled back on the tree branch. “Not everyone has the chance to do that, even if they are a shapeshifter.”

I hadn't said a word the whole time we had been together but I also saw no reason to correct his line of thinking.

“Instead of thinking about how much I don't belong somewhere, I should focus on all the places I am able to go to,” he said, blinking slowly up at the moon. “Do you think I'll be happier if I do that?”

I was tempted to nod but that would have only encouraged him to ask more questions. So I flapped my wings and took off before he could say anything else. He didn't say anything or call out after me as I left, which only made me feel guilty about deciding the meeting was over on my own. A glance back over my shoulder showed him watching but not chasing me and he dipped his head as I our found each other in the semi-darkness.

I kept looking back, just in case he decided to follow me all the way to Nippo, and found a good spot to transform back into a human without anyone in Outer Town watching. The last thing I wanted was for them to find out I had more than one power. The council had become stricter over the years and too many people with a secondary power had gone missing over the past few months.

I adjusted my clothes and checked them for feathers but fortunately phoenixes didn't shed their feathers the same way dogs or cats shed fur. I had barely rounded a corner, heading towards Uchi's shop, when a voice I had definitely heard before came from a small drinking establishment.

“We can do it tomorrow night,” said Toshi's father to his intoxicated companions. “I heard the old witch is going to be away for the next few days. We won't even need all of us to pick up two little girls.”

“Oh I thought we were bringing the boy too,” asked a man with cold brown eyes. “He looks like he could bring in just as much as the other two.”

“If you can find a buyer, I'll see if I can catch that big girl too.” Toshi's father laughed. “Those fancy folk of Inner Town will think twice about trusting a smart man when they find out. Why settle for less money when I can get more than double the amount I was paid?”

A ice-cold sensation rippled through me from head to toes. My palms heated up and I burned between the two.

“So tomorrow night then?” asked the brown eyed man.

They all nodded and grunted in agreement.

And I knew I couldn't let that plan go ahead, no matter what.

A loud voice inside my head ripped me free of the memory.

“Be careful! The Inquisitors are waiting for you!”

 I clutched my head with groan and looked up, just in time to see a wave of flaming arrows about to crash into us.