The morning dawned cool, and Cacopheny shivered under his new, silky black tunic, standing in the meadow between Chiya and Enyi, the soft slippers they had given him for his feet wet with dew. He was tired, cold, and irritable; he had slept badly the night before-- true night, not just darkness in his cell, and actually at night, for he no longer slept during the day-- and the shadows, though he had not called them, were still clinging to him and chattering inanely, like the Air dragons en masse, only worse. Even though he wanted to scream and claw and bite things, standing with Chiya and Enyi he had to contain himself to glaring sullenly at the ground, claws digging into his arm through the cloth of his tunic to try and remind the shadows that he had things to do, and that he didn't need them distracting him. It wasn't working very well.

Aedelian Landwerlen finally appeared, bounding down from the mountain with a bag of their belongings strapped to his shoulders between his wildly waving wings. "All right, all right!" he called breathlessly. "I'm here! Sorry that took so long." He skidded to a stop beside them all, grinning, and his shadow was laughing again.

"What in Asuka's name were you doing?" Ketvia asked, her shadow snarling with annoyance.

"I forgot a few things," was all he said. "Everyone ready? Good, gather together, closer please. Actually, if you could shift down, Ketvia, it would be much easier. Magic isn't my strong suit, the only big spell I know is teleporting and the smaller you all are, the better it is."

Even though he knew the language now, sometimes Aedelian still lost him. Ketvia seemed to understand, though, because she changed shape, turning into the tall-- though not nearly so tall as Cacopheny-- busty woman with reddish-brown skin and fiery hair. A shadow leered at her, and Cacopheny's mouth twitched, trying not to laugh. Her shadow screeched at him, and she gave him a suspicious look, which he returned blandly. Chiya was already in her human body, and Enyi didn't know how to change yet, so they were as small as they could get. Aedelian smiled at them all, but his shadow wasn't laughing anymore, it was murmuring absently, nervously, about magic and weight and locations.

He's afraid.

He'll kill us all.

I don't want to go.

Stay.

Stay here.

Stay. Stay. Stay.

Staystaystaystay.

Or go home!

Yes, go home!

No. I'm going, and I don't care what you think.

Growling under his breath in his native tongue, Cacopheny absently did as Aedelian Landwerlen instructed, stepping within a ring he made with his tail and wing, close beside Chiya, Enyi, and Ketvia. Chiya glanced at him with some concern, but he ignored her. Part of him wanted to shout at her, shout at Aedelian, just chase them away so he could be alone to silence the shadows however he could, but the rest of him balked at making her cry or fear. Or Enyi.

The young dragon had been good to him. He had never had a friend before, but he somehow knew that's what he had now. Enyi wasn't exactly gentle or kind, but she was company, and she seemed to enjoy being company, because she kept finding him and talking with him-- mostly to him, but she did help him try to work out his grammar, the way he put his sentences together, and even tried to learn a few words of the language She had taught him. Enyi never threatened him, like the shadows did, and she didn't seem to understand loving and hating, like She had been so focused on. She didn't want him to change, like Chiya and Ketvia, and seemed to find his changing moods fascinating, looking alert and interested every time he tried to talk away the voices of the shadows. Even her own shadow was mostly quiet, as if it, too, wanted to be his friend.

So no, he couldn't scream at her or threaten her. It wouldn't be right or fair. What he really wanted to scream at and threaten he couldn't, because they weren't here, or they weren't real and they wouldn't care even if they were.

We're real.

"No, you're not," he muttered, shutting his eyes and ducking his head even further.

Then there was a lurch in his stomach, a multi-voiced scream from the shadows, and when he opened his eyes again in shock the meadow had changed. Shadows had shifted, the sun was higher, the flowers were a different color, and there was a round dome surrounded by towers built into the mountainside in the distance. He blinked, staring half-blind in the light of full morning, then let the shadows coil around him again, shielding him from the sun.

"Finally!" a cheerful, boyish voice exclaimed.

"What--"

"Who--"

Everyone turned around, as if they were of one mind, but Cacopheny lagged behind the rest, still dazed by the sudden change of location and time. Another dragon stood behind them, smiling brightly, yellow fur blazing like the sun itself in the sunlight, wings open and dazzlingly pale, almost white. Cacopheny winced back, ducking into the shade Aedelian Landwerlen provided and squinting at the thing who had come unexpected and unannounced to meet them.

"Yihoto!" Chiya exclaimed in surprise, and her shadow was already babbling with pleasure. "We were going to come find you--"

"Yes, yes, I know," the sun-bright dragon interrupted, still beaming, sounding remarkably like Aedelian when he knew something already because he'd picked it out of your head. Cacopheny had learned since that, that was what the Air dragon did, rather than listening to the whispers of the shadows or anything else. "I saw it last night," the newcomer continued. "I thought I'd save you the trip and come meet you myself. You sure took long enough, I saw you here at dawn!"

"Well, it is dawn in the Low Mountains," Aedelian pointed out. His shadow was muttering some rather nasty things under its nonexistent breath. It seemed that Aedelian did not much like Yihoto. "We moved eastward enough that it's already up, here."

"Oh," the new dragon said thoughtfully. "Huh. That makes sense. But! I am so very anxious to meet your little demon!" His eyes searched excitedly for Cacopheny, but Cacopheny was still hiding in Aedelian's shadow, and Yihoto's eyes were dazzled by the sun and his own blinding colors. He seemed to have no shadow of his own, he was so bright. "Come now, I know he was here."

"He is," Chiya assured him, "he's just hiding. You can come out, Cacopheny, he's not going to hurt you. But he's only half demon, and he's really very sweet," she added to the new dragon. Yihoto.

Cautiously, Cacopheny melted back into sight, staring suspiciously at Yihoto, hunting for his shadow. He'd never met anyone without one before, and it unnerved him. His own shadows clung to him, shielding him partly from his brightness, but as he now knew, it also made it hard for anyone to see him clearly, as well. The dragon pouted at him, and Cacopheny stared even more. He'd never seen a dragon pout before. "I can't see him," the pouting dragon complained. "Come closer, mister shadowy demon. I can't see you."

"I. Am. Not. T-t- Deemohn," he said slowly and carefully, through clenched teeth.

"Oh? Then what are you?"

"Cah-cof-en-ee."

"I see! Well, come closer, Cah-cof-en-ee, so I can see you."

Stepping forward, Cacopheny could now see Yihoto's shadow, and it was laughing with mocking delight.

This miserable little boy...

...is suppose to help you?

Help us?

He won't even be able to see us!

His own shadows were laughing, too. Yihoto shook his head. "That won't do, I only want to talk to Cah-cof-en-ee." With a careless wave of his forepaw, an exaggerated wiggling of his fingers, the shadows fell suddenly, horribly still. Cacopheny whimpered in the silence, eyes huge and still half-blind and fixed on Yihoto.

"Yoo-- yoo-- how--"

"Did I shut them up? Easy enough. I just blocked out that part of your brain. I can't do it for too long, as it would probably hurt you if I did, but I do just want to talk to you, so for a few minutes, I can do it."

"Then you can help him?" Chiya exclaimed with such relief that Cacopheny wished he could look at her. As it was, he couldn't turn his head away from Yihoto, who had managed the one thing he, himself, had always wished for but at the same time dreaded.

"Nope," Yihoto answered. Chiya's shadow let out a wail of despair, but Cacopheny's own were still silent. "It's not good for somebody to walk around with only half of their brain working, you know."

"But-- you can't fix it?"

"Nope," Yihoto said again. "I mean, I could, but it would take years and years and years, and would be so tedious, and besides, he'd have to help me, and I don't know that he would."

"But then--"

"Of course he's not doomed," Yihoto interrupted with amusement. "You think so melodramatically! It's very entertaining. But back to him-- he's got other things he can do. You've got other things to do with him-- you've talked about it, you know what I mean. So do it, already. I'll keep an eye on him, if you like, but I can't very well go around messing with him until he's ready. Now, I came and saw what I wanted to see, so I think I'll be heading back. Ta-ta!"

The sun-bright dragon disappeared, and suddenly Cacopheny's ears were filled with screams. He clapped his hands to his head, crumpling into the grass with a moan. Chiya rushed to his side, but he couldn't hear her through the din of the shadows' indignation and fury at being so easily silenced. The only sound that broke through was Ketvia's sigh and the words, "I guess we go to Aloia, then."

Then, mercifully, he slipped into darkness.