“Scale!” the Rider gasped, coughing on the blood bubbling up his throat, he reached up and cupped the ruby red dragon’s cheek, “Scale. I’m not going to make it. I’m not going to make i…”

His last word was lost to the sound of his last breath. Verus! Verus! The dragon screamed in his head. Roaring as loud as he could. Using the tip of his snout he nudged the Rider’s body. There was no response. The dragon reared its head to the sky letting loose a sound none should ever have to hear. A sound that echoed throughout the lands, far and wide. It was a sound that unfortunately, the people of their land knew all too well.

The sound of a dragon losing its Rider. The sound of a dragon losing the one it cherished most. Its outcry of emotional anguish as it felt as if a part of itself was ripped from its body resounded around the valley. Before being quickly silen—

***

Jeremy sat up quickly in a cold sweat. He panted from the dream.  He could feel the sensation of the cold steel pressed up against the dragon’s throat as if it were his own. He felt the anguish of the dragon’s heart his emotional core being ripped asunder from the loss of the dragon’s most precious partner.

Then he felt the warmth of his lover’s burly, scaled arm and the leathery feel of his wing membrane on his shoulder and brushing his arm respectively. “Shhh, Jer. I’m here. Nothing’s gonna getchya. I’m right here.”

The human turned into the barrel chest of his scaly dragon lover and just started crying. His emotion flooded openly as his lover caressed him and carried him through his bout of emotional weakness. “Rex, it was terrible. I was a dragon. A feral. I lost my rider. I watched a man die right in front of my eyes. And I could feel his death as if it were my own. His pain as if it were my pain.”

The dragon comforted the smaller human, rubbing his back and enclosing him in his wings. Creating what he called his safe space. He held him until the human’s sobs quieted down and he could sense Jeremy’s chest rising and falling in the steady rhythm signaling sleep. The dragon let out a heavy sigh. He lay the human down and tucked him in, before grabbing his cell phone and heading up to the roof. He laid down on the roof gently so as to not damage the wing membranes and quickly dialed the number of his father.

“Reginald? It’s rather late. Why are you calling me? Is it Jeremy? Is everything alright?”

“Dad he keeps having these extremely vivid dreams. I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid of what they may mean for him. He was the one who approached me in the bar specifically because of my draconic heritage. Dad…I need…I need your advice.”

“Have you taken him to see a therapist?”

“He just played dumb. Acted like I was the crazy one. I’m so worried about him. I mean…”

“You love him, Reggie. I know. I knew from the first moment you brought him home. It’s why I allowed you back in the Will. Why I’ve tried so hard to be there for you both. He’s dying Reggie. You know that as well as I do. The cancer’s too far gone. His last hope is Mr. DarkClaw’s procedure. I believe that Jeremy is trying to reconcile with his losing of his humanity.”

“But the procedure is non-transformative.”

“That’s what Mr. DarkClaw said.”

“And I believe him.”

“Consider this for a second, Reginald. Elias’ great grandfather was the man who invented the technology which gave rise to Anthropomorphics. Jer’s subconscious knows the likelihood of him walking out of that clinic tomorrow as a human is slim. It’s preparing him for what’s to come.”

The younger dragon sighed. He sat up, scales catching the light of the moon and making him look like a walking disco ball. “I know father. But his dreams are becoming so much more vivid. It’s like he’s being transported to this realm of Dragon Riders. It’s always the same dreams, just more to it each time. He has the names now. The Rider’s name was Verus. And the dragon was Scale.”

The other dragon groaned at the terrible name for a dragon. “You must continue to be there for him. Tomorrow is a big day. If…When the treatment works, he’ll likely be walking out of there as a dragon. I truly believe his body knows what it wants to be. His subconscious is telling him…His libido is telling him. So, when he walks out of there tomorrow with scales and wings and puffing like a chimney. I want you to be there for him. Why? ‘Cuz that’s what mates do for each other.”

The single tear that rolled down Reginald’s cheek sparkled in the light of the moon, “And if he doesn’t…”

 “Then you come over here and we’ll start doing the things we can to make his last few months comfortable. Reggie, get some sleep. Worrying about what may come leaves one less prepared for the things that are certain to come.”

“Kay, thanks dad. ‘Night.”

“Night son. Love you. Tell Jer that I love him too.”

“Will do dad.”