Carnoc's days at the zoo turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months.  At first he'd actually been excited to fly at night because of the end of Simon's harsh treatment, but the routine of getting up to eat, drink and exercise in the tiny pen didn't take long to turn monotonous.  With so little room to fly there wasn't much he could do: not enough to try and improve his speed, or his best altitude, and even working on his stamina was difficult because of the near-constant turning flight in the cage required.  He didn't even have enough room for most of the aerial stunts he'd practiced all his life, and more than once he tried them only to strike the edge of a barrier and get a rough shock for his trouble.

Eventually he tried to create a new stunt-flight style tailored to the narrow confines of the cage, with mixed results.  Not being able to get a lot of speed meant that virtually all his tricks had to move downward, and to make the repeated upward spirals required to get his altitude back more interesting he added bends and corkscrews usually made up on the spot.  While this new method kept him safely away from the barriers it was also much more tiring, but he couldn't help but flick his tail and hold his head high with pride when Vical said she'd never seen anything like it before.

She wasn't his only audience, though.  The night staff of the zoo would often gather outside his cage to watch him fly and probably looked towards his cage whenever they could see it as they roamed the park, and once they grasped which maneuvers were difficult and which were nearly impossible they would cheer whenever he did something especially impressive.  Carnoc was surprised to find he didn't mind having a human audience while he practiced his tricks, but after thinking about it for a while he decided having them watch was different: they worked for the zoo, and while they were watching him in order to be entertained they would have been there whether he was out flying or not, so he couldn't refuse to go up just because they were there--besides, he had to fly sometime, and just a few of them gathering at night was better than the huge crowds Vical drew during the day.

When he came down after each workout and walked to the stream to drink they would cheer again, and sometimes try to engage him in conversation.  He ignored them at first, but as the nights dragged on and on without any change--even the weather didn't change very much as the seasons turned--he found it harder and harder to keep silent.  There were the occasional dragons Nesleh had told him about who kept aloof from the rest of the clan, rarely spoke to other dragons, didn't seem to create anything despite having so much alone time and only did what the clan elder told them to do if they saw it as necessary or worthwhile--or if the elder defeated them in a duel.  Nesleh said some dragons just weren't able to handle sharing territory with other dragons, whether through old instincts left over from before the formation of the clans millennia ago or some other reason.

Carnoc didn't understand how they did it, especially now that he was so nearly living that life.  Only Vical there to have a conversation with, nothing but his new style of flying to create, practice, work on until he thought it couldn't be improved on any more, no elder, no clan...  He felt lonely, disconnected, depressed when he looked around after a flight and saw nothing but those softly glowing barriers and the humans down below, when he woke up each evening to a small, empty cave, whenever he thought of his friends and what they used to do together.  Sure he could keep in contact with them through messages, and he did regularly exchange messages with his father, Molthan, Melora, and Krain--though some of the messages with Krain felt awkward when Krain and Vical recorded sections for each other about how their mating had gone, while Carnoc's topics with him were much more innocuous--but there was such delay between message and response, they could only say so little at a time, and there was none of the physical connection of a true conversation.

But there was Vical.  Little by little he found himself spending more time with her, talking before, during and after meals, not having to suppress a growl whenever she walked into his-- their cave...  Their conversations started simply as they just got to know each other, talking about their family, their pasts, but before long they started to open up to each other more and more.  First he found himself telling her why he missed his friends so much, all the things they used to do together, then he listened and comforted her when she explained how she still felt sad whenever she thought about her mother, who'd died two decades ago.

He unconsciously changed his sleep schedule so they would have more time when both of them were awake and they began to talk more and more, to share so much about themselves until he felt as close to her as he'd ever felt to any of his friends from his own clan.  She felt the same way, as Carnoc discovered when she got fed up with him shoving her away whenever she tried to curl up with him to sleep.

"What is wrong with you?" she snarled, slapping his flank with her tail.  "I feel like I know you well enough to be your parent, let alone your friend, and you keep kicking me like we've never seen each other before!  Why won't you let me rest against you when I go to sleep?"

He shrank away from her just a little, surprised by her sudden anger, and had to struggle to keep his temper from responding to hers.  "Why would I?" he growled.

She sniffed the air.  "Don't... you don't think we're close enough now to be friends?"

"I do."

"Then why won't you let me rest with you?"

He growled again; this was going in circles.  "Why would I?"

"Because you're my friend.  Friends curl up together."

That surprised him.  "Oh."  He cocked his head to one side.  "Really?  We don't do that in my clan."

"Weird," she snorted.  "You just lie down scattered around your clan's cave, all of you trying not to be near each other?  What about when it gets cold?"

"Our cave is pretty deep, so it never gets too cold inside... but we don't lie in the open, we all have our own little alcoves to sleep in and keep anything we craft in.  I mean, maybe you could fit two fully grown dragons in an alcove, but might not be comfortable..."

"We don't have alcoves at our cave, as I'm sure you saw, so we curl up together, especially with friends.  It's what we do in my clan," she approached him again.  "It's almost impossible for us to be in here without touching each other anyway, so calm down," she nosed his side, "and give yourself a chance to see what it's like."  Vical pressed one paw against his hind leg so it was tucked a little more snugly against his belly, then laid down next him with a sigh, her back and haunch resting against his belly and flank.

"See?" she snuggled against him, purring a little.  "Doesn't this feel nice?"

Carnoc paused.  She was heavy, but she was warm, and he had to resist the urge to wrap his tail around hers--they were friends, sure, but they weren't that close.  Either way he couldn't help but agree, and from then on they rested curled up together whenever they could.  It did create the occasional problem, especially once they were familiar enough that they did cross necks and tails as they slept, when one of them wanted to get up and had to face the difficult task of untangling oneself from the other without waking the other in the process.

Not long after that she began to nuzzle him more often, spent even more of her time as close to him as possible and even tried one night to get him to teach her his new style of stunt-flying--but she didn't have the stamina for it and said afterward that she preferred her method.  They teased and joked with each other, curled up together to sleep and nuzzled and tickled whenever they felt like it, which for Vical was often.  It seemed now to him that he was closer to her than he was to his friends in his clan: he joked and played with Krain and Molthan, yes, but they didn't have the constant physical contact of nuzzling or sleeping curled up with each other every time they decided to nap.

He worried sometimes what Melora would think if she knew how close they had become.  Sure, she knew what the gestures they made towards each other meant with two females, but she likely only knew of dragon and dragoness acting like that when they were mates and they were careful to seem more distant from each other whenever they sent messages to her.  That his own devotion to his mate didn't get in the way of their friendship was a testament to how carefully Vical kept the promise she'd given Melora those months ago: she always kept her tail down, she left him alone if he was ever aroused, and she never let any of their conversations drift towards the topic of mating.

But even with Vical to spend time with the time passed slowly in their cage.  Each night was the same boring night of flying, resting, then talking a little before going to sleep and after a while even flying started to lose its appeal--though he kept working on his stunts just out of habit--and he was well-behaved enough to never even be threatened with a harness or muzzle.  Only asking Jeff for the date, watching the moon and feeling the slight changes in the weather helped them keep track of the passing days, and somehow it was only January when Jeff finally gave them some good news: "Sean Nelson got the Senate to start drafting the bill to get dragons freed.  It'll be another few months before they vote on it, if it makes it to a vote, but if it passes, then we won't be allowed to keep you here any longer."

Exchanging a couple messages with Vallen, who remained in close contact with Sean, got them more--and more hopeful--information.  "Sean expects the drafting process to take two or three months, depending on what other worldwide issues come up during that time.  The biggest obstacle right now, apparently, is that they want to put us all in Nepal together but Nepal isn't a part of UN territory right now.  That means the bill may be delayed once fully drafted, and other members of the Senate may try to add some unrelated issues to the bill, which could complicate things...  It's a little over my head, to be honest, but Sean admits human government is too complicated for its own good.  Anyway, he expects the bill to be passed by late April, and we should all be freed very shortly after that.  I'll be sending regular updates on the bill's progress to everyone, so don't feel like you have to send me any messages unless you have a question that I don't answer with my own follow-up about each piece of news."

Thus began the long, slow process of waiting for news each day.  If the days had only walked by before they were barely crawling now, as anticipation of their freedom grew more and more with each passing week.  But first news came of one internal delay, then another, then a recess of the drafting process because of political bickering about some minor issue or other that had nothing to do with dragons...  April came and went without the bill's completion, then May, then finally in June the bill was completed and taken into the Senate to be voted on.  After that they heard nothing for three days, not even from Vallen, and on the fourth morning Carnoc was about to ask Jeff to record a message to Vallen to ask what had happened when the man came into the cave with their breakfast--and the news they'd been waiting months to hear.  "Great news: the UN Senate passed the bill!  You're both free, and you get to leave the zoo this evening."

Carnoc craned his head back and roared, keeping it up until his breath ran out and tail flicking back and forth with such excitement that Vical winced in pain when he struck her by accident.  But this roar was a happy one, and she could tell.

"What did he say?" she said, nuzzling at his neck.  "You sound happier than usual."

"We're free!  We get to go home tonight!" he roared again.

She jerked away from him, eyes wide for a moment, then she grinned and roared with him.  "That's wonderful!"

"I take it the two of you are happy, then," Jeff observed.

"Only a little," Carnoc laughed.  "...but why can't we just leave now?  If the bill's been passed, we should be free to go now."

The human paused for a moment.  "Because, well, security has to be arranged to make sure you're safe during your flight home.  Also, I've been told to let you know a dragon named Nesleh is flying down to meet you here before you get moving."

He nodded.  "My father.  I suppose we should wait for him, then, plus I'm tired after last night's flying..." he yawned.  "I guess Vical and I should rest up for the journey as soon as we're done eating."

"You sure Vical doesn't want to fly one last show for our guests?" Jeff looked over at her.  "I'm sure they'd appreciate it."

"She might..."  He glanced at her and said, "do you think you're going to rest today, or do your normal amount of flying for the humans?"

Vical swallowed a bite of her breakfast.  "Maybe I'll fly some this morning, but I'm going to need a lot of rest if we're supposed to start flying home tonight."

He relayed her answer to Jeff, who nodded and stood patiently while they ate, then took their trays and left.  Vical stood and started to stretch in preparation to go outside, while Carnoc curled to sleep, pausing to clean off his face and claws.

"But wait, aren't we free?" she said after a little while, looking around and sniffing the air in confusion.  "Why can't we leave now?  If we've been freed by their government, we should be allowed to just spread our wings and fly out of here whenever we're ready to go."

"Jeff said something about coordinating security to keep us safe while we fly home; I guess not all humans like us as much as the ones who come to see us do.  Plus my father's flying down to meet us here, so we should at least wait for him, anyway."

"It'll be nice to build up a good store of energy from two free meals, too."  Vical yawned and stretched out next to him.  "Think the humans out there know this is our last day?"

He shuffled his wings and peeked outside.  "Judging by the way they're packed on the walkways out there, I think they do."

"As long as they don't get too loud for me to rest once I'm done this morning's show.  I'm not going to enjoy flying through the night if I can't sleep all day."

Carnoc fell asleep after lying there for a short while, and Vical joined him to rest in the cave around noon.  Finally he woke up late that afternoon when the noise outside their cave died down--much earlier than usual, he noticed, as it was still light outside--and Jeff walked in with their dinner.  "Nesleh will be here in a few minutes," he said.  "Sean is coming with him, too."

He grunted and started eating, swatting Vical with his tail to wake her up; she came awake with a start, then relaxed and dug into her own meal.  They were just finishing when he picked out the sound of approaching wings, and a few moments later a gust of wind signaled a dragon landing on the ledge outside.  He could also here a jet engine spooling down, but he ignored it, standing and turning around to see Nesleh walk into the cave.

"There you are, son," the old dragon said, stepping forward and lowering his head to nuzzle Carnoc's shoulders.  "I missed you."

He returned the nuzzle.  "I missed you too, father.  Are we ready to go?"

"Not quite yet...  How much did you hear from the other dragons?"

"Well, there was you, and we also exchanged messages with Melora and Aithsa, Krain, Molthan, and Vical's friend Hilsuro.  Why?"

"Just wanted to make sure you held up well, I suppose," he looked away.  "Are your mate and egg doing well?"

Carnoc tilted his head.  "Yes, as far as she's told me."

"Good to hear.  How long until she's supposed to lay?   Two months?"

"Seven weeks, but I need to see her," he growled.  "Can we go now?"

"Calm down, son.  Vical, he didn't lose his temper much, did he?"

"Only before he accepted that we'd be sharing a cave," she laughed.  "It was just a couple of times and he didn't hurt anyone."

"Good to hear; you're going to need your control."

Sean walked into the cave.  "Nesleh, have you told him yet?  They're getting a little nervous and impatient out there.  At least the media isn't here to complicate everything...  Jeff, you made sure all the big news reps are being kept away, right?"

"Yeah, my boss made sure."

"I'm getting there, Sean, just wait a moment," Nesleh said, not turning around--though he would have barely had room to anyway, with three dragons nearly filling the cave.  "I'm sorry, son, but you aren't going to be free for a while yet.  I warned you about losing your temper so violently, but..."

"Why?  What's going on?" he demanded.

"The police are waiting outside, and they're going to arrest you for murder."

"No!" he roared.  "I'm not going to be locked in another cage after this, I have to go, I have to see my mate!"

"Carnoc, enough!" Nesleh snarled, baring his fangs, and the younger dragon lowered his head.  "I'm not happy about it either, but you've broken the law and you have to pay the consequences.  We're going to walk outside in a minute, and you're going to let them take you in, understand?"

"But--"

"We don't have a choice.  I'm sorry, but you have to let them arrest you."

Carnoc sighed and looked at the ground.  "What are they going to do to me?" he asked after a moment, voice low.

"They're going to restrain you and take you to a holding facility.  I don't know all the specifics, but Sean is going with you, and he'll be bringing in a lawyer to help with your defense--if you can even have one, considering you're definitely guilty.  Either way, it'll be a while before you're free again."

"What about Melora?  I have to be there when she lays our egg, and if I don't come back with you she'll be worried, and..."

"It's all right," Vical said, reaching over to nuzzle at his neck.  "I'll tell her you wish you could see her and you miss her, and that you'll do your best to make it back in time to be there for her."

Nesleh glanced back and forth between them.  "Wait, have the two of you...  How close have you two grown?"

"Close friends.  We aren't mates, if that's what you're looking for; Melora's my friend too, and I couldn't do something like that to her," she pawed at the ground.  "But where am I supposed to go, if Carnoc isn't going home?"

"There are some UN fighter jets waiting outside to escort you and me back to Nepal.  Now Carnoc, can you promise you won't fight the police?  Resisting arrest is a crime, too."

He tilted his head wordlessly.

"Thank you.  Sean, tell them we're coming out, and that Carnoc's agreed to go peacefully."  The human turned and walked outside.  "Come on," Nesleh said quietly, and led the way onto the lawn; Vical followed close behind him, and Carnoc went last, head and tail drooping.

A full twenty uniformed police officers were waiting outside, and all of them trained their guns on him.  He growled a little and felt his blood rise, but he shook his head and blinked, letting his temper sink into despair.  "Don't move, Carnoc," one policeman said, stepping forward.  "You are under arrest for the murders of Allison Young and Jim Fuller."  Several more officers approached with restraints open and waiting.

Carnoc sighed and laid his head on the ground, opening his mouth so the humans could slip a bit into his mouth--this one more rubbery and less foul-tasting than the one Simon had used, but still unpleasant--then closing it again when they started to thread and tighten the straps of the muzzle.  They shackled his legs close and strapped his wings tightly to his sides, and the policeman who had spoken clipped a long cord to the bottom of the muzzle.  "As a UN citizen," the little human looked him in the eye, "do you understand your rights while a prisoner of law?"

He blinked, confused, then looked towards his father and said in dragontongue, "do you know what he's talking about?"
"There are certain things police officers are required to make sure the people they arrest understand, that's all.  I don't know what they all are myself, but I guess since Sean's going with you he'll be able to make sure they don't take advantage of your lack of knowledge.  He understands, officer," Nesleh said.

"Good."  The human tugged on the cord in his hand.  "Let's go, then."  Carnoc took one last look at his father, pleading silently for him to find a way to set him free, but the old dragon looked away; then the policeman yanked on his leash impatiently and he had to go.  He could barely shuffle along with his paws chained so close together, but he managed to follow the officers onto a large metal plate, which they attached his restraints to.  The plate rolled slowly into a connected trailer, then raised itself to the proper height and locked itself into place.  A couple of officers got into the trailer, and one held his leash while the other injected something into his neck--sedatives.

He looked out at the sky one last time, then collapsed onto the floor of the trailer and lost consciousness.