After that one night things went by rather quietly for a while.
                I’m still embarrassed to this day of what happened there, I wished I handled it better, that I wasn’t so broken and unstable and that I didn’t break down so easily after a show of genuine affection like that.
                However, as I said before, it was no use, regardless of whether I liked it or not, it happened…  But I gotta say, remembering it makes me appreciate more what happened afterwards, and as silly as it might be, it wasn’t some crazy new adventure or something exciting or epic.

                Just as promised, the next day he was there greeting me happily in the morning with fresh fruit and berries… Most of it was poisonous, he never foraged before… I felt embarrassed and barely said a word all day, I was sure that would drive him off.
                Then the day ended…

                The next day he was there again, he managed to grab some really small eggs and asked if I could fry them… I taught him how to make a proper fire without using magic and we shared a small breakfast, then by noon my wounds were getting sore so we chilled by the river for the rest of the day.
                Then that day ended as well…

                Next day I felt better about walking, so we covered a lot of ground, then my leg got really sore and it started raining but there was no resting place in sight… He actually lifted me up and carried me for a straight hour in the rain until we found a cave to rest in for the night.

                The night went by, and the next day I was sick.
                He took care of me the whole day, just back and forth with food, and water from the river. I was sure that was it… That I would just wake up and he would have finally tired of me and my feeble body.
                And again… I was wrong…

                The next day was like nothing ever happened, the fever stopped and I could walk again, he just greeted me with tiny cooked eggs and fruit… He didn’t even look tired, he was just too excited about everything.

                And this went on… And on…  
                Every day he’d pop up with something silly he wanted to show me or ask me about…
                And that was it… That is what happened afterwards.

                Before I caught wind of it, this was our day-to-day… I got used to it, I’d wake up sore and turn around to find him grinning at me from somewhere like the big buffoon he is.
                It felt odd… Or at least that is what my brain told me… Somehow I just couldn’t believe anyone would enjoy hanging around that long, but there he was, no sign of tiredness and no backing down from it.
                Something in the back of my head kept telling me something was wrong, that I wasn’t supposed to be happy about this, that I couldn’t really because everything in my life is balanced by karma and if I allowed myself to be happy something terrible was going to happen… It was meant to happen.
                And you know, when you expect something horrible to happen every day it eventually does, but not because you expected it but because it was bound to happen regardless, and then all you can say is ‘I knew it’… But did I really know?
                Did I really know a bad thing was coming, or was I so absorbed in my own inadequacy that I couldn’t enjoy those few happy moments I could have shared with him? Even if they were brief? Even if they were about to rock my proverbial boat so hard, I’d feel like I fell in the ocean and drowned?
                Was the ‘I knew it’ worth it? Worth all the happiness I allowed to be sucked out of my life for it? Nowadays I realize that isn’t the case, it was never worth it, not then and there and not all the times I did it before or would do after… But I am once again getting ahead of it.
                In order to properly tell this part of the story, we move forward around two weeks past our first meeting.

                Since I was still hurt from the gunshots, I was travelling a lot slower than my usual pace, Azreth helped keep things moving but since we were in unfamiliar terrain, we had no directions of where to go… So, we wandered for a while longer than needed.
                One nice thing about this part of the continent is that in spite of the vast expanses of grass with nothing on sight, every now and again you manage to find a farmstead, so after a while we manage to find directions.
                With that settled we went back on the road, eventually getting by to the city of Breezy Hills, as we got closer you could see the Road turning from dirt to Pebbles… This told me this next town wasn’t some sort of village, but a full-blown city.
                I was a bit on edge of approaching such a place as I survived by avoiding larger concentrations of people unless absolutely necessary… The night before, I asked if we could camp outside as opposed to rushing in, he was clearly not happy with it but let it slide.
                We set up camp for the night and I woke up the next day, as usual, a lot later than him. 

                This time however I wasn’t meet with the usual smell of breakfast, but instead the familiar and kind dragon muzzle just inches from my face snorted loud enough for me to hear and wake me up. “Morning princess.” He smiled teasingly.

                “Ugh… Breath…” I turned to the other side and covered my nostrils. I took a look around and the clouds were still dark, the sun hadn’t even fully come out yet. “It’s so early, why are you waking me?”

                “We need to get there early to catch the best breakfast. C’mon!” He started pushing me around to wake me up faster… Which was a surefire way to make me grumpier…

                “*uuhh!*” I groaned as my answer.

                However, he was prepared and likely rehearsed this speech before. “You promised me last night...”

                “*uhnnhh!!*” I contracted into a little ball trying to sleep again, but he just went on.

                “You said… We sleep outside for tonight and go in as soon as the sun is out…” He looked up than back to me. “Sun is out somewhere, let’s get moving!”

                I did say that, against my better judgment, he just sounded so happy about having a decent city to explore I couldn’t say no… But now I regretted it and was desperate for him not to hold me to it. “Just go without me, you know where to find me.”

                Obviously, he was rather annoyed at me, and nowadays I am siding with him on that one… “YOU PROMISED IT! You don’t get to back out on me!” He then stood up and leaned onto a tree crossing his arms in annoyance. “There is no point to it if you don’t go!” He grumbled.

                “*Uhhg!*” I turned and rolled around, as this clearly was not something I could avoid. “FINE!!” I said rolling my tired eyes in disgruntlement. “I just don’t get what the big deal… It’s just food! You swallow it, it’s gone, you live another day!” By all the gods in heaven, I’m embarrassed at my old self for saying stuff like that.

                Azreth on the other hand, had that smug grin of someone who had everything exactly where he wanted it… “You’ll see…” He stretched and got my pack, offering me a hand up. “… Get a move on, time is of the essence!”

                I shoved his hand off… It was rude of me, I was just grumpy and that was my way of punishing him for making me do this…. He didn’t seem happy about it, but luckily, he was patient enough me not to spite me on that.

                It then occurred to me, or rather… My mind searched hard enough to find a problem. “Azreth… Uh… How am I going in there?”

                He turned around and mocked. “With your feet!”

                “NO YOU… *UGH!*” I banged my feet on the ground in annoyance. “I mean… I have no dyes with me, I can’t just walk through the gate!”

                “You’ll be with me, it will be fine!” He answered again like it was no big deal. I wasn’t in the mood to dignify that with any comment… I turned around and started searching for something to dye me with. “Seriously Vernon, just give it a shot! If anyone does anything, I’ll put them in their place!”

                “NO!” I knew… Or at least I thought I did… That he was a rather reckless guy, but this was not something I was going to do just because he asked, going into a city was dangerous for me, but going in like nothing was wrong was suicide… At least in my eyes. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me now!”

                I looked at the fire thinking ashes, but usually smell bad and fall off easily, and I did not want to repeat the problem I had with coal just a few days prior.
                Dirt was a surefire way to get everyone to look at me like a hobo,
                Grass was too bright and called attention… But smelled great.
                And then I found my top contender… Moss… Growing atop a tree, it smelled like nothing and would dry into a mushy brown color, it was perfect… For old me.

                Thing is… I couldn’t reach it… I was a good few arms short of getting it, and when I tried to jump a sharp pain in my leg kindly pointed out… ‘don’t do that again or I will snap you!’ so I was forced to back down.

                I looked over to Azreth, begging him to help with nothing but a gaze, but he was still adamant about this, he crossed his arms in defiance and smirked. “Got a problem there?”

                “Azreth… Don’t do this.” I tried to argue.

                “I mean… You know what would be easier, right?” He was just so full of it… I honestly wanted to punch him, but my anger tends to me manifest a lot less violently.

                “I’m not going like this.” I shied away and dodged his eyes trying not to show how I was really feeling… But he knew I was mad, he just knows these things.

                “Just do it, last time with the couple you said it yourself that they seemed like good people.” He argued, correctly I might add.

                But I didn’t listen. “This is different… Just get me the moss, I will be quick!”

                He rolled his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. “You really shouldn’t…” He approached me and he seemed rather displeased, but chose to say something else.
                “… Here…” He plucked a mesh of his hair. “Try this.”

                I was surprised and confused. “It’s hair… I’m not sure it will work for that.”

                “It’s dragon hair… I’m sure there is some magical property you can exploit, give it a shot, worse that can happen is it not working… Then you can be mushy boring green over there and I won’t complain about it for the rest of the day.”
                But that wasn’t the real issue, at least not an anxious little redmane like me.
                The fact of the matter is that it was BLUE… Bright and shiny blue… Something that calls way too much attention, I mean, how many people have naturally blue fur? How would I blend in?
                I didn’t want to say it, but I’m sure he knew it was on my mind as I hesitated. So to help with that he crept up slowly to the side of my view and whispered in judgment. “Do you not like my blue?” And I could tell there was a wrong answer to that question.

                “I… Uh…” With the eloquence of a five-year-old I stumbled on almost every word, before I found. “It’s… Eye catchy?” And shrugged.
                He was not too happy at me for my answer… So, I immediately did the same thing I always do. “I do like it, It looks great… On you… I’m sorry.”

                His eyes narrowed and his voice changed tone from joking to a rather personal and bone chilling voice. “You don’t have to force yourself… I get it.” He said almost as if he was cursing me, his words twisted my gut so very horribly.

                I was terrified a shiver ran up my spine and I caved almost immediately. “I-I’ll… Do it.”

                And just like that, his face brightened up like the first rays of dawn. “Great!” He smiled back, like nothing happened. “Trust me… It will look good on yah, it will be like if we were brothers!”

                “Alright…” I answered trying not to think too much about it.

                I took his hair and began the process, with just a bit of influence It floated at the palm of my hand, it was strangely hard to control at first but then after around a minute it began duplicating… I had never done this with fur before so I was unsure how to start, but there was this thing about his hair that was odd to say the least.
                As I started to separate the threads, I felt this jolt of energy run through my body, it never happened to me before to have something of what I’m influencing jumping onto me… But this time it did and it caused my hair to stand on end.
                As I began to multiply it, I felt this strange and satisfying feeling running through my arms and into my spine, it felt so easy to do anything now, like there was no effort at all.
                When the influence began covering me, the fur spread rather fast, seamlessly melding into my own like it was meant to be a part of me, like it had been there my whole life.
                When it settled I lowered the influence sphere, I felt… Strange… Like there was this pounding in my heart, this vigor I’ve never felt before.
                it was exciting, yet strangely out of place, like something was both right and wrong at the same time.

                I shook my fur from side to side and took the time to see how well covered I was, spinning around and trying to make sure I didn’t miss anything. “Uh… How do I look?”

                He grinned happily. “It’s really nice…” He then approached me and compared the colors in our arms… I was an almost identical black and blue. “… See, brothers!”

                “I suppose it does look like it…” He started to move up and was ready to motion me in… But there was still one thing. “Wait… Don’t be so impatient.”

                “We need to hurry!” He rushed me.

                “I know… I Just I need you to check If I missed any spots.” I said and started to remove my clothes… I had gotten a lot more comfortable with him over the last few days. Enough to leave only the undies on while I turned around, allowing him to inspect me. “So?”

                For a moment there Azreth looked out of it, like his mind was completely absent and I saw he was drooling for a bit… I’m wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but when he came back to himself, I noticed he blushed and then turned around. “It’s nice…” He said, gulping to clear his throat. “… We can go now.” He dismissed any more talking.

                “Thanks!” I smiled cheerfully… Not even noticing what I did to him.
                After that I put my clothes back on and we finally headed out.