“Yes? Why?”
Why. Why, indeed. Why had the star dragon prophesized me to Zero seven hundred years ago, well before I had been born, before Morgan, before Myrin, even before Randall had been born? And if that was the case, why couldn’t Myrin have been stopped the first time around? What was it about this time that was different? Why now?
Why me?
“Did I break you?” Zero asked, stretching out toward me. He moved slowly, as if unsure, his hood tucked to the side of his head. He didn’t look as fearsome now. Still snakelike, but he reminded me of Kevin in a way, and it’d been a long time since I’d been afraid of Kevin.
“No,” I said, but it came out as a croak. “No. Just… surprising, is all. It’s not what I expected to hear.”
He didn’t pull away, just rested his head on the ground, closer than he’d been before, eyes on me. If I stood, we’d probably be eye level, given how big he was. “It’s the truth,” he said. “Time is different for me.”
“I can imagine. It must be difficult, jumping through the years like that.”
It almost looked like he shrugged, but since he didn’t have shoulders, I couldn’t be sure. “I guess. It’s hard to make friends that way, given that they’d probably all be dead by the time I woke up again.” His eyes widened. “Not that I want friends or anything! I don’t need friends. I don’t even want friends. Friends are way lame.”
“Sure,” I said easily. “I totally get that. Friends are difficult, sometimes.”
“Right?” he said. “And even if they aren’t, they don’t live. One time, I made friends with a squirrel right before I went to sleep and thought I could keep it with me. When I woke up the next time, it was nothing but bones.”
“That’s… a really sad story,” I said. “Dude, what the hell.”
“Now you see why everything is about pain,” Zero moaned. “No one understands me, not even squirrels who die on top of me and leave their stupid bones for me to find when I wake up. I mean, who does that?”
“That damn squirrel.”
“Right? That damn squirrel. Whatever. I didn’t need him. I didn’t need anyone. I still don’t. I have my trees and flowers. That’s all I need.”
“I think everyone needs someone,” I said quietly. “It helps. In the long run.”
He didn’t say anything, just looked off into the dark forest around us.
“I need them,” I admitted. “The others. Maybe not Ruv, but then I don’t know him. He’s… not a part of us. And I don’t know that he will be.” I didn’t think that was any slight against him. It just didn’t seem like he fit. I thought maybe he needed to find his own path, if he ever decided to break away from Vadoma. But that didn’t seem likely.
Zero mumbled something that I couldn’t quite make out.
“What was that?”
He sighed the weary sigh of the put-upon. “I said, Kevin seems all right. And the unicorn. And maybe the giant.”
“Have you… ever met another dragon before? You didn’t seem surprised to see him.”
“Aside from the star dragon? No. I don’t think so.”
I frowned. “What about your parents?”
He chuckled bitterly. “How can you not know anything about dragons when you travel with one? Ask your Kevin. He should tell you.”
He had a point, though I wasn’t going to let him know that. “What do you think about the knight?”
Zero huffed. “He’s full of himself.”
“Yeah,” I said fondly. “But he’s pretty awesome.”
“You love him, huh?”
“I do.”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, and I was sure he wasn’t going to say what he wanted. But then he blurted, “What’s it like? Being in love?” Then he groaned and turned his head to the side, curling his face against his serpentine body, hiding himself away.