The blades of the chopper thumped over head as they flew though the night, the occasional lights from small towns flickering below as they flew over, the blinking of the running lights for the chopper the only other lights on this moonless night.

Ryan leaned against Tanner and looked out the window wordlessly. There was very little chatter over the coms, Kheros was mostly silent, Sulvius only occasionally giving instructions on direction and timing. Ryan glanced up into the cockpit and smiled to himself. Kheros was a very reassuring figure.

He sighed and his mother reached over and patted his back and he smiled up at her, then looked over where his father was sitting, stone faced once more.

The whole thing was all very stressful for a young dragon. For that matter it would probably be hard on any dragon; even Sulvius was looking worse for wear. Sulvius decided to go with them to help support Ryan and the young prince as grateful for the company. Adamas had given him the instructions on how to get into Cochise. 

Irian stayed with Norian, Adamas, and Mikail to attempt to straighten things out along with Isabelle who had stayed to back her son, her presence being well known amongst the council and respected.

Cladden wanted to accompany him along with Pax but Adamas told them to stay put and Ryan didn’t like that one bit. He missed having Pax on his shoulder giving him advice, telling him what was going on, and keeping him calm. The tiny dragons presence was like an anchor in a storm: a small thing and yet it could hold a large ship in place.

He looked out the window again with a dull stare, his head leaning against Tanner’s shoulders and chest, not really paying any mind to anything going on around him, the thumping of the blade producing a soporific sound that thankfully blanketed out a lot of the franticness that had gone on in the last several hours.

Tanner sat back in his sat, also looking out the window, but occasionally looking down at Ryan with a worried expression. He rubbed the boy’s back from time to time but Ryan scarcely gave any indication that he noticed.

Ryan’s mother looked on with a great deal of worry, frustration, and what could only be described as jealousy, no matter how she wanted to label it something nicer like concern or care.

She raised Ryan, cared for him, loved him, did everything for him since the day he hatched. She was his mother as surely as if she were a dragon. 

She took care of him when he was sick, infrequent those times were, cleaned his scrapes and cuts, stood up for him the the bullies would bother him, reassured him, encouraged him, and, though she didn’t care to admit it, protected the boy from his father when Allen was having trouble relating to Ryan and his struggles being a dragon in a human world. 

Allen had an unfortunate tendency to treat Ryan a s human with some dragon parts and that almost never worked out right. Ryan was not human, at all, and you had to make allowances for his draconic instincts and thoughts. Mostly he acted human enough to be understandable from a human perspective, but there were always those times…

Allen felt he had to protect Ryan from everything and that included Ryan himself at times. He had gone too far, too often, and it had made Ryan timid, nervous, and even paranoid at times and seemingly frightened of seemingly his own shadow. Perhaps worse, Ryan tried to deny his draconic instincts and tendencies to make his father happy. It was not possible of course but he tried even when it frustrated him.

Now she watched this Tanner, this interloper almost, sitting there with her son leaning against him, taking comfort from him, and “bound” to him, whatever that meant. She had been suspicious of Tanner form the start, worried at his intentions towards Ryan, the amount of care he seemed to lavish on her son, and the level of devotion he displayed.

Tanner assure her all he wanted as friendship and to help Ryan with some of the troubles he was having being a dragon. She trusted him then but now? She wasn’t sure anymore. It seemed all to likely to her that everything he had done was to create this “bond” on purpose despite his protests otherwise.

And it made the dragons nervous and upset which didn’t help at all.

The healer said that Ryan would not tolerate separation and seemed to be saying that Ryan could actually come to harm if it were to happen. She didn’t have time to ask him for more information before they were rushed on to the helicopter and wasn’t sure any information would have been forthcoming if she had asked.

Ryan throwing a fit, saying he would rather stay and fight and even possibly die rather than leave Tanner behind was unnerving. 

And if she were struggling with all of this so badly just how much worse was it for Allen?

Sulvius drowsed in his seat after giving Kheros the final set of directions, occasionally looking over at Tanner and Ryan. There was nothing to be done about it, he knew, at least not for now. Later? He wasn’t sure anything could be done even then. 

He knew very little about the bonding instinct or what it entailed. Privately he thought that Tanner would be just fine as Ryan’s bondmate, or whatever you called it, and things would probably work fine if the bond did continue even if you could break it which he had doubts of.

Personally, even if Tanner and Ryan would do well together, he didn’t like the idea of Ryan, or any dragon for that matter, being bound to any human. Even so there were far worse people in the world than Tanner.

He discussed Tanner and his family with Norian a little before they were forced to leave and even taking in consideration Norian’s respect and devotion to the Wilberforce family, Tanner was a great human and dragon friend, one of the most dedicated.

Even still, Ryan was the prince, the last of his breed, and the council was going to have enough trouble with him being raised by humans to say nothing of being bound to one. That along with million of other issues that would surely crop up with an untried, untested, and almost undragonlike prince.

Sulvius had to admit it: while dragons had instincts and Ryan was certainly a dragon with those instincts, it was all too obvious that Ryan had no notion of dragons, who to act, what to say, or what was normal. It was going to be hard on him. 

Sulvius sighed quietly. He had sworn to himself that he would See Ryan though all of this and help him no matter the cost, but he worried that it would not be enough.

He looked out the window as the landscape rolled past, lost in his thoughts.

Kheros guided the chopper down to a landing pad in the middle of nowhere, the only building around an old beat up airstream trailer that was surrounded by old rims, rusted tools, along with several junk cars that patiently awaited their consumption by iron oxide.

Kheros landed and kept the rotors spinning and Ryan keyed his mic. “Kheros, why  are you not shutting the chopper down?”

“I need to take it back to the council chambers,” the dragon replied, voice tinny in the headset. “I’m afraid I won’t be with you at first my prince! But keep your head and ears up, you are perfectly safe in Cochise if no where else in all the world!”

“It is not being so very safe I am worried about, Kheros! I simply wish you to be here!”

“As do I, Ryan, but for now I have to go. I’ll get to you as soon as I am able. I promise you, my prince.”

Ryan swallowed hard and nodded as Sulvius put his hands on his shoulders and gently guided him off the chopper. “It’ll be fine, Ryan!” he shouted over the blade noise.

Ryan nodded and watched as the chopper lifted off and thumped it’s way off into the distance and Sulvius patted him on the back. “Come along, Ryan.”

They walked towards the trailer, Ryan looking over his shoulder at his parents. His mother smiled and Allen nodded to him briefly. At least he was acknowledging me, the young dragon thought.

The door to the trailer opened and a shirtless man with weather beaten skin, scraggly gray chest hair, and a head of wild, receding hair stepped out to look at them bleary eyed.

He had a double barreled shotgun in his hand and Ryan stopped, grabbing onto Sulvius’ arm.

“He won’t hurt you,” Sulvus said, patting him on the shoulder.

“You’d best get off my property before I shoot ya!” the old man yelled out in a querulous voice.

“Oh knock it off,” Sulvius said irritably.

“Sorry,” the man replied in a more normal voice. “I don’t get to do the act very often.”

“Probably better that way!”

He stepped back into the trailer, holding the door open for them. They entered into a dingy, poorly lit trailer that made the group want to wipe their eyes to clear the haze.

Inside was about as stereotypical as one could possibly expect. An old console style TV, evidently not working, rested against one side with an old black and white TV with a vertical hold problem and poor picture sat above it, the image slowly rolling upwards. 

An old lime green colored bolster style couch lay in front of it, complete with duct tape, a coffee table that was probably in style back in the 1960’s, if then, sat in front of that, along with other dingy items that had long since outlived their usefulness.

Sulvius blinked. “You really do get into this don’t you?”

The man shrugged. “Gives me something to do. I was working on restoring that Studebaker out there but they told me it looked too nice and to let it rust. That was after I did the body work so I gave up on that.”

Sulvius laughed and the man sighed. “Well, only three more weeks of this and I’m due for a break so I suppose it’s not all bad. Let’s get you down there. If you wait too long the code expires and it takes moving all heaven and earth to get another one. Besides you’d have  to wait here and all I have to eat is spam and velveeta casserole.”

Sulvius stared. “You’re taking this way too seriously.”

“Gives me something to do,” the man said and lead them into the bedroom. 

He pulled a stack of old newspaper and magazines out of the little closet and lifted up a board, then spun a combination into a floor safe. He lifted out a tray and punched a code into a keypad that lay beneath it and after a moment there was a soft chime.

He stood. “Alright, the way is open. Head into the old shed and the stairs will open by the time you get there.”

“Thanks,” Sulvius said.

The man shrugged. “It’s my job. Now hurry along, I don’t want to miss ‘I Love Lucy’”

They made their way down the stairs which lead up to a dark hallway that ended with a large metal door, the only light being from a dim bulb in an iron cage, fitfully pushing back the darkness.

Sulvius reached into a small duffle he was carrying and pulled out a large key and unlocked the door, ushering them all through. 

They found themselves in a long hallway that went on for quite some time at a gentle downward grade. “How far is it, Sulvius?” Ryan asked.

“I’m not sure, my prince. I’ve never actually been here before though I know of the place.”

“Norian thought it was a myth?”

Sulvius nodded. “It’s one of our secure areas, more so even than the council chambers. Most dragons don’t know of it and many who have heard of it think it to be myth. It is a well kept secret.”

Ryan cocked his head. “How do you know of it?”

Sulvius snorted. “I have ways.”

Ryan grumbled as they walked along for some distance before coming to another small room with an elevator set into the far wall. 

Sulvius walked over and keyed in a number to a small keypad and there was a small, unhappy chime. Sulvius frowned and tried again and once more, an unhappy little chime. He growled and very carefully and deliberately hit the numbers.

After a hesitation, just as his ears drooped and he expected yet more defiance from the keypad there was a happy little chime and the doors opened. Ryan covered his mouth to try to avoid laughing and Sulvius glared at him.

They climbed aboard the elevator and Sulvius shifted to biped form used a scent wand to activate the keypad, punched in another code, and the elevator lurched into motion. 

Ryan also shifted forms, relieved, and moved close to his mother, putting his hand in hers. She smiled and patted him on the head and he looked over at Tanner who was looking down at the floor, a troubled expression on his face.

The young dragon was about to go to him when elevator music started coming over the speakers in the celling of the elevator, scratchy, bouncy, syrupy music.

Beth groaned. “Someone has a sick sense of humor.”

Sulvius sighed. “I have the feeling I know who.”

“Why Sulvius, you say such nice things about me!” a voice came over the speakers.

“Oh shut up,” the white and blue dragon muttered.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Standing in front of them was a white and blue dragon in his bipedal form, looking a great deal like Sulvius. 

He grinned. “Well, well, long time no see, brother mine! Welcome to Cochise!”