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Part 1

The morning air was fresh and the wind sharp and cold. The winter had been quite mild, but a sudden cold snap at the beginning of spring had taken both the people and the land and by surprise. Yogoloth just knew the winter weather would come late this year and he'd put off the next part of his journey for that reason. He was used to the cold, but it was never a good idea to get caught flying in a snow storm, even with magic at your side.

His scaly hand paused a moment before the oaken door as his other hand held the cloak around his shoulders tight against the wind and snow fall. He wasn't even sure why he had changed to his small two legged shape and had come here. It had been four years since his friend's death and this place should hold no meaning for him anymore. But here he was anyway.

The door to the Cracked Pot and Mill opened, Yogoloth stepped through and quickly closed it behind him. The light from the fire more than the warmth hit him first, that and the smell of civilised food and ale. Apart from a couple of newer looking chairs and a bit of repair work around a window frame, the place hadn't really changed at all. Not that the disguised dragon had expected it to have, but it felt very different coming here knowing that Marrus wouldn't be joining him.

"J'darden isn't it?", a slightly rough voice asked with only a hint of humour. Yogoloth couldn't help but smile at the wolf who owned and ran the Ol' Pot as it was often called locally.

The rough looking wolf stood up from the hearth where he had been warming himself and greeted Yogoloth by firmly gripping the disguised dragon's grey fore arm. It was almost second nature to return the civilised greeting in kind and they both smiled warmly. The inn keeper patted Yogoloth once on the shoulder with his other hand then headed behind the bar as Yogoloth followed behind.

Back when they had first met, Marrus had taken it upon himself to teach Yogoloth the various civilised ways he knew. The customs, traditions and social norms that he would need if he was ever to avoid raising too much suspicion. Over the years, the hybrid had developed his physical and magical disguise and all the while his knowledge grew. He probably had his father's gryphony social skills to blame for not only being able to pick it all up, but also for the desire to do so. They'd come in handy when he'd first visited the Tylor estate too.

"Will it be an ale?", the wolf said already fetching a wooden mug from under the counter.

"It would seem a shame not to.", replied Yogoloth with a smile as the ale was poured from a barrel along the wall behind the counter.

All the ale was brewed by the inn keep himself in the cellar. Only the largest towns seemed to have ale deliveries to taverns and inns. Most found it easier just to make their own, and out here in the Ol' Pot, they made some good dark ales. Yogoloth couldn't stomach most civilised foods and drinks though. Fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts... all disagreed with his carnivorous stomach. But ale seemed to be an exception that the young hybrid had taken quite a liking to.

Yogoloth wrapped his grey clawed hand around the mug and chuckled to himself. His magical disguise had evolved a little over the years. He'd always greyed his hide to more closely resemble the various reptilian races beyond the mountains to the north. But seeing a grey hand grip a mug of ale rather than a green paw take a swipe at something still amused him. Yogoloth realised that the inn keep had poured himself an ale too. The hybrid raised an eye ridge towards the aging wolf.

"Heard about Marrus a couple weeks after you'd normally met up here. Wasn't sure if you'd come back. Marrus was a good man.", he raised his mug to the air in a gesture that the disguised dragon recognised right away. He quickly raised his own mug but struggled for the right words.

"Marrus, a good man, fine warrior and... a trusted friend.", Yogoloth wasn't normally the sort to drink an ale in one gulp, but he felt his throat tighten around the words and wanted to hide the fact. Swallowing a flagon of ale was easier than large chunks of prey at least. The two of them finished their drinks and the wolf smiled as he grabbed Yogoloth's mug and poured another.

"That one's on the house and I'll start you a tab for the rest. Just give me a shout if you run dry. I know you're good for it."

Yogoloth wasn't actually sure what a "tab" was, something Marrus obviously forgot to tell him about. But he knew that being "good for it" meant "trustworthy with debt" and assumed the wolf just meant pay after drinking rather than before. He nodded and found his way to a table near the hearth and settled down on one of the open backed chairs swinging his tail into the gap.

Until now, Yogoloth had always had to hide his furry gryphon tail when dealing with the civilised people. He didn't have enough magical power to change his head to resemble anything other than something close to the reptilian races. So he normally just wrapped his tail around a leg and hid it under robes. But today he'd experimented with removing the fur and making his tail appear grey like the hide on the rest of his body. It had taken a fair bit of skill to pull it off, but the result was far more comfortable. The only thing he still had to hide without magic were his belly scutes and stubby useless wings.

Yogoloth took a gulp of his second ale as a few logs cracked in the fire and a slight gust of cool air found its way into the inn. He'd put up with far worse conditions before, some of them even in this shape, outdoors, in the wilds with Marrus. They'd certainly made an interesting pair, and one second either way one of them would have died when they'd first met. Yogoloth smiled as he recalled the day that threw the two of them together so suddenly.

Part 2

It had been autumn and the trees had already lost their leaves. A chill wind had been threatening winter for a few weeks but had yet to deliver anything. Yogoloth had fled the lands of dragons and gryphons after his first encounter with the latter and had found himself in civilised lands. He knew the Ancient Laws and kept his head down. At least here he could hunt and not be bothered by filthy gryphons.

It had been a few years since he'd found that first gryphon colony and met that young gryphon in the forest. The pain of his wounds had long gone, the scars faded, but the memory still tugged at his heart. The danger that his anger and rage posed not just to himself, but to others as well. So he had decided to train himself, to ensure that even if he couldn't fly, even if he had no magic, he could still hunt effectively and keep himself fed. It wasn't easy.

Without even realising, Yogoloth had become dependant on his wings and magic to hunt. It was easy to swoop down on oblivious prey or to blind them with magic at the last minute. Actually stalking closer, silently and then chasing and catching them when you're built for stamina in the air, not the ground, was taxing to say the least. It took all his focus to do it, that was probably why he nearly got killed by the hunter he hadn't even noticed was there.

The doe was totally unaware of the dragon that stalked her. In her defence, Yogoloth had circled around and was using the cover formed by the natural contours of the ground. His ears alert, claws sheathed, each paw pad placed very deliberately where they were least likely to make any noise. It had thankfully rained in the night and the leaf cover on the ground was damp and muffled. A couple of times the young deer looked up as though she had heard something, half the time she looked in the wrong direction anyway. She hadn't picked the right moment nor place to be scratching her own ears either.

Yogoloth surged forward, having judged that by the time she reacted and started to get up to speed, his teeth would already be around her neck. He had judged correctly and the startled doe's fate had been sealed the moment his hind legs had pushed him forward, churning up the dirt as they did. The deer sprang away from one hunter only to suddenly realise that a second hunter also sought to end her life.

The crossbow quarrel had flown with an accuracy born from years of practice. The young man had reacted automatically as the deer seemed to be startled by something. He had quickly adjusted his aim and fired the bow that he had trained on his prey. Then he realised what had startled the doe as a large green and brown shape leapt into view. The quarrel flew towards both creatures and for a heart stopping moment he thought he had surely killed the gryphon.

The quarrel shot through the feathers of one of Yogoloth's wings, narrowly missed his neck and planted itself deep into the side of the doe's chest. At virtually the same time, his claws were in her flesh and she was dead before she hit the damp, leafy ground. The sudden shock of the quarrel's appearance urged the half-dragon into action and his eyes and magical senses swept the area where the hunter must be. Yogoloth found him and the adrenaline in his veins, that always came so easily to dragons, sped his movements drastically. The young human hadn't time to react as the large predator bounded towards him and pounced.

But in that moment Yogoloth recognised the look in the face of the young human. That look of shock, surprise, that look of fear. He was just an innocent who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like that young gryphon who also suffered the dragon's uncontrolled anger before. So in that instant, Yogoloth retracted his claws and instead of impaling him, he pinned the human against his chest scutes, knocking his crossbow to the side. 'A- are you h- hurt?' the young man had asked. The question had taken the hybrid by surprise.

A young Marrus knew what a real gryphon should look like from his recently passed father's dealings. But he just assumed that there must be other intelligent creatures out there and that Yogoloth was something like that. Somewhere in that first talk they found common ground and went their separate ways. Sometime over the following months they willfully happened upon each other. Then over the years, two very different creatures became acquainted. The young man found fascination in a feral monster and the hybrid found conversation in a civilised human. Both found companionship when they needed it the most.

Yogoloth wrapped his grey hand around the mug and took another drink of his ale. He chucked a little under his breath. The young hybrid had plenty more years to build up his alcohol tolerance up to the levels of his old friend. He certainly wasn't in any rush though.

"You are missed, old friend.", he whispered under his breath and he finished the ale.

Part 3

The inn keeper was true to his word and refilled Yogoloth's wooden mug with ale soon after he'd finished it. No conversation was offered nor expected between the two. The disguised hybrid guessed that the aging wolf had probably seen quite a few patrons in his time who had come to drink ale and lose themselves in their own thoughts.

In many ways it felt quite natural to become so reminiscent of his friendship with Marrus. It had been a few years and he'd not really thought much about his old friend in that time. Not that Yogoloth had anything other than pleasant memories of their time at the inn or out on the road. It was just that last painful encounter, the day that Marrus died, that still settled uncomfortably in the dragon's mind. He was determined not to let one event taint so many years of good memories.

He shuffled a little in his chair as the door to the inn opened and let in a cold gust of air. He'd become quite comfortable in his chair a little ways off from the hearth. The hybrid's deep purple eyes reflected the light from the fire as logs cracked briefly and a few embers floated their way up and out the chimney.

Yogoloth turned towards the door to see what he guessed was a relatively well dressed tiger closing the door behind him and hurrying through towards the hearth. He took off a pair of leather gloves as he held them out to warm them by the fire as he shook a fair covering of snow from his dark cloak. The feline quickly removed his cloak and turned towards Yogoloth and looked momentarily confused. He quietly smiled and nodded before turning back to the warming flames.

The slightly surprised look made the young hybrid momentarily self conscious about his partly magical, partly physical disguise. Although it wasn't perfect, the reptilian races were a rare sight this far south, so the minor imperfections were of no worry to him. But that also meant he often met people who had never seen a civilised reptile before or at least it had been a long time since the last time. Walking on two legs and smiling were normally enough to convince the civilised races you were one of them. Oh, and clothes.

Yogoloth chuckled at the memory of the first time Marrus had taken the young hybrid into a village for supplies. In reality, he was coaching him in civilised customs and norms. That first set of clothes were very uncomfortable indeed.

His two legged form was broadly the same proportions as the other civilised races. Arms, legs, torso, head, tail, all where you'd expect them to be. Apart from the horns, scutes and stubby almost useless wings, he fit into the general shape perfectly. Finding a thick robe that would cover his wings and scutes was fairly easy, as was hiding his fluffy tail to allow him to disguise himself magically as a civilised lizard. Although the thickness of the garment meant he couldn't use the disguise from late spring to early autumn.

Marrus had been told about dragons and magic only a few months previously when they had needed to start a fire without tinder with nothing but rain soaked wooden logs. On the whole, Marrus had taken it in his stride and Yogoloth believed him when he agreed to obey Ancient Law and keep it all a secret. He had pointed out that no one would believe him anyway. The hybrid agreed that his human friend was probably right.

The general social interactions weren't difficult to pick up. Smiling, laughing, shouting, baring teeth all pretty much matched the body language of dragons too. The trade tongue was universally recognised and the hybrid had already picked up some of the local tongue. But what took getting used to was the physical interactions of friends and even friends of friends.

Hand shakes, back slaps, hugs and general grabbing of the body, sometimes when you least expected it, was something that took longer to adapt to. A dragon wouldn't dream of touching another unless they knew each other very well. Such things were generally reserved for relatives, if either or both were hatchings especially, or your mate. Even more confusing was something the civilised races took for granted and yet was at the very core of their villages and towns; trade.

Ownership, property and trespass had their dragon equivalents of course, but enforcement of such things by a ruler was not. Although rude, if you could take a lair from another dragon, then so be it, it became yours. The idea that taking a pig outside someone's house would get you apprehended by guards who don't even know the person who owns it was a bizarre concept. Exchanging such property for small pieces of metal, often flattened down into coins seemed insane. How do they all keep track of who owns what?

Over the months and years, Yogoloth adapted of course. What was a reasonable 'price' for that, what was acceptable trade for this, all came in time. Soon he was surprisingly comfortable in both the social situations and because of the various clothes and evolution of the disguise. He and Marrus even did a few odd jobs together to earn a little coin. Some of those were surprisingly fun and the involvement of a disguised, flying, magic wielding dragon often helped in ways that nothing else could.

The tiger had finished warming himself by the hearth and was now busy eating one of the inn's infamous chicken broths. He was clearly a moderately wealthy traveller who had been on the road for sometime. Maybe a merchant or a ranked member of a guild. The smell of the food began to aggravate Yogoloth's nostrils but he tried not to show it too much. According to Marrus, it was rude to bite people merely because their food smelled bad.

Part 4

"You certainly don't have the accent I'd expect.", Drenabar said smiling as he took a slow sip of hot tea.

"No, my parents travelled down here when I was young. I picked up a lot of different things as they kept moving around.", Yogoloth said quickly to the middle aged merchant. The disguised dragon had been enough of a fascination that the visitor to the inn had soon struck up a conversation.

As it happened, Drenabar had actually met quite a few people of the reptilian races before, whilst trading with villages at the base of the Shudan mountains. Yogoloth looked different enough from them that the merchant had become curious. The disguised dragon had to quickly recall some of the background he and Marrus had come up with, and make some other things up on the spot. But he'd been that far north himself before so he was able to weave a convincing enough story. Thankfully there was a fair amount of variation between the different groups of lizard people anyway.

"Fascinating, fascinating. Inn keeper! More ale for my friend here!", he called out suddenly and soon Yogoloth's mug was refilled. Yogoloth gave the owner of the Ol' Pot a quick understanding smile as the merchant tossed a couple of coins on the table. Something tingled in the back of the half dragon's mind, the unmistakable feel of magic nearby.

"Hope you're... well and... take care crossing... the mountains... come back to... me soon...", Natanii's distant, happy but slightly troubled voice suddenly spoke into his ear. Yogoloth couldn't help but smile a little.

"What is it?", Drenabar asked looking around the inn suddenly. He had obviously picked up on his new friend's sudden distraction and growing smile.

"Oh nothing, just remembering something.", Yogoloth quickly pulled his attention back to his companion. The merchant nodded absently and took another drink of his tea.

The message that Natanii had sent also had a trace attached to it, it must have taken all of her magic for both that and the message to have reached him safely. She may well have had help. At least she would know that the message had reached him and also that he was still amongst the Gretish people.

He wouldn't be able to send a reply until he unravelled some of his disguise and he couldn't do that until he got a room and a little privacy. She would be hard pressed to get a message to him at all once he'd headed northeast after the winter weather had passed. He would be travelling in his feral form at that point, so messaging her wouldn't be so tricky, but she wouldn't be able to reply. It would be pretty taxing for him to send messages at that point too.

"I expect you've seen some sights in your travels!", Drenabar asked eagerly. Yogoloth was both happy that his story was convincing but unhappy that it was clearly quite interesting. But he could hardly leave the inn because of the storm and wouldn't be able to get a room until that night either.

"I suppose so.", he replied trying his best not to encourage any further questions.

"Good, good. Where's the farthest you've travelled to?", he asked, his body leaning a little over the table to listen closely to what he clearly hoped would be a fascinating story.

Yogoloth opened his jaws and took a breath ready to speak. It was at that moment that the door to the inn also opened and two civilised foxes hurried inside. They brought some snow and mud in on their boots but the door soon closed and the cold gust of air soon died down. They were both armed and armoured but smiling at the interior of the warm inn. Their matching armour consisted of bronze scales woven into a flexible leather cuirass, hard leather boots with bronze banding and softer leather gloves suitable for both riding and protection.

They both quickly took off their cloaks and Yogoloth noticed the coat of arms of the local lord who kept the law around the local area. Or was this a kingdom? To be honest, the disguised hybrid didn't really follow the governmental organisational structure of the various nations. The three crescent moons in red behind a rearing stag was easily recognizable though, even if the symbolism behind the scene was lost on the disguised hybrid.

These were officers of the law who were either patrolling the trade routes or seeking more a direct goal relating the rules that governed the land. They both carried swords sheathed in scabbards which Yogoloth often compared to his feral form's sheathed claws. As one of them found a table, the younger of the two headed to the counter, presumably to fetch drinks and/or food.

Yogoloth turned back towards Drenabar to carry on their conversation only to find that he'd turned away from the rest of the inn. He was making a show of warming his hands from the fire in the hearth and had adopted a slightly more hunched position. For a moment the hybrid was going to interrupt him to continue their conversation, but he was suddenly glad that it was over. Every made up detail carried a chance that his lies would unravel. So he took up his mug of ale, looked around the inn again and had another drink.

The arrival of the guards had reminded him about Marrus's one and only attempt at teaching Yogoloth how to use a sword. In his feral form, his dew claws could hold a book or wield a quill, but tools and weapons were simply too heavy. For the hybrid it was either weak accuracy or strong broad actions. But in his two legged shape he could do all manner of things with arms and hands that he couldn't do with fore legs and paws. Although as he and Marrus found out, wielding a sword with any significant skill was not one of them.

That was not to say that Yogoloth was of no help to Marrus and the various jobs he took up. Sometimes an extra pair of weak unskilled hands was enough, especially when hey could turn quickly to magic or less quickly to a powerful feral monster. One particular job had always stuck in Yogoloth's mind. A job where he and Marrus had to deal with real 'monsters'.

Part 5

The civilised races used the term 'monster' to describe just about anything they didn't like or understand. Anything that didn't fit in with their narrow view of the world. Especially if the animals in question were killing livestock, then they were true monsters that needed to be exterminated. Not that Yogoloth had a problem with such things, fighting off other predators to protect your own kill was a natural reaction. But the way the civilised races demonised entire species just so they could sleep better at night, seemed petty.

Regardless, a small mining village had reported that strange pale monsters had taken over the mines and were killing the sheep that the village used for food and wool. The ruler of local township put high value on the output of the mine, mostly copper, and needed someone or a group to investigate and either drive the monsters away or kill them off. Marrus had some dealings with what simple folk defined as 'monsters' before, but the descriptions and numbers didn't sound like the normal exaggerated stories to him.

So, Yogoloth had changed to his two legged shape and had agreed to go with Marrus and see what all the fuss was about. If it turned out to be something dangerous, having a dragon around would be of great help when dealing with a real threat. Otherwise it would be nice to have some company on the trip. It gave Yogoloth chance to practice his civilised social skills too.

It had been the beginning of winter and the path to the village was covered with thick snow, the terrain was barren and the air cold. It had been getting late and pure white clouds had begun to gather, but the village had been only a couple of hours away. As the path had flattened out, they would have probably made it before it as totally dark. But the path had not flattened out, they had mistakenly started walking along a frozen river.

Marrus had been leading the way, as he was much better at navigating by foot, most of the time. He also been carrying most of the weight of their equipment as he was substantially stronger and more capable of such things than Yogoloth's relatively weak two legged form. Perhaps that was why the ice had chosen to break and plunge Marrus into the freezing waters.

Perhaps with any other companion, that would have been the last anyone would have seen of Marrus. The dark waters claimed him and he was quickly pulled away from the hole he had fallen through. Yogoloth panicked, initially with no idea of what had happened. But he spread out his magical senses and found Marrus's life force under the snow covered ice as the waters slowly pulled him down river.

Yogoloth's magic could not stop the river's flow, nor could it pull Marrus out, but it could easily turn already cold water into ice. So the panicked hybrid got to the river bank and ran ahead of Marrus to create something to catch him. A series of ice spikes stretching from the underside of the ice sheet to the river bed. Then as the ice cage caught his friend, Yogoloth braved the frozen river surface, formed a hole in the ice and struggled to pull the heavier human out of the frozen waters.

By the time his friend had been pulled to the river's edge, the disguised hybrid had used all of his strength, he was exhausted. Marrus was drenched, shaking uncontrollably, his skin pale and Yogoloth had used all of his magic just to get him out of the water. He had to get the human dry but both of their bed rolls were also soaked through. The only thing that was still dry was Yogoloth's own robe, so he quickly removed it and Marrus's own clothes and tried to get him as dry as he could.

He was barely conscious, still a little wet and too heavy for the young hybrid to carry all the way to the village. Then the wind picked up and it started to snow. Yogoloth felt the chill of the air on his skin as he desperately searched for a solution, a way to save his friend. He couldn't even carry him to the village in his far stronger feral form, the people in the village would most likely kill them both out of hand. Then suddenly he looked up at the darkening, mostly cloudy sky and knew what he must do.

His transformation had been surprisingly pleasant, relatively speaking. Sure, Yogoloth's body had been wracked with waves of intense agony, but not so much that he'd cried out loud from the pain. After a few precious minutes, he managed to push himself up on to his paws and pad over to Marrus. His friend's breathing was ragged and his body still shook violently. The large predator sat back on his haunches and gently lifted the smaller human up in his fore legs, he was heavy, but so much that Yogoloth couldn't hold him for how ever long it took. He held him against his belly scutes and wrapped his feathery wings around them both.

He enclosed Marrus as completely as he could, curving his neck around, wrapping his tail tight and pulling his fore legs in close. The half dragon focused on one thought, brooding over eggs, trying to trick his body into transmitting as much warmth as he could through his scutes and into the human's naked shaking body. Although most often female dragons would brood over eggs, males were perfectly capable of doing so. Keeping an adult human warm through a snow storm probably wasn't part of the design though.

The snow began to fall faster and some wind still managed to penetrate the feathery cocoon that Yogoloth had built for his friend. He slowed his breathing and began to settle down best he could, it was going to be a long night and he didn't dare sleep. Instead, he snoozed on the edge of sleep to make sure he didn't let his friend down, Marrus needed him now more than ever before.

Morning came quickly for the hybrid, hours might as well pass in breaths for dragons with nothing to do. Snow had built up on Yogoloth's wings, back and mane as he endured the cold for the human wrapped up tightly in his grip. Marrus began to stir, he had stopped shaking some hours ago, and the movement had brought Yogoloth around to a fully alert state. 'Don't remember much' Marrus had begun sleepily as he realised he was naked in Yogoloth's tight embrace 'If one of us ends up pregnant, you're in serious trouble.' he had joked.

Through the night, Yogoloth had recovered enough magic to dry out their clothes and kit. It had been convenient that he was now in his more powerful feral form, the monsters that the village had reported had been small but numerous. About the same size and rough shape as wolves and they behaved about the same. But that was where the similarity ended.

Their hides were pale almost white and they had no eyes what so ever. Their mouths had been very large for their heads and had long almost tubular pink tongues. Hind legs sported hooves while their fore legs had paws more similar to a wolf. Tails had been long and thin like a rat's. The whole creature seemed overly sinuous and even without eyes, they spotted Marrus and Yogoloth coming and retreated into the mines. Although mostly hairless, their hooves were slightly furry and the females had short scruffy manes.

They were just animals, weird animals that neither human nor hybrid had ever seen before, but animals nonetheless. They tasted alright, nothing special. Marrus took the head from one and the tongues from the rest as proof of their deaths. Which was both easier to carry and didn't reveal the large dragon claw and bite marks that had killed many of them.

Yogoloth's mother had spoken at times about the deep places of the world. The creatures that sometimes found their way to the surface. Perhaps driven to the surface in search of food or because of earthquakes collapsing or revealing tunnels. But she had never seen any herself, they were just stories passed down from mother to hatchling.

"I think it's time I headed out. Long journey ahead of me and all that.", Drenabar interrupted Yogoloth's thoughts as he quickly gathered his things and headed out. Yogoloth nodded and watched the middle aged tiger leave in a hurry. The weather had certainly improved but it was still not exactly good travelling conditions. The civilised races were strange.

Part 6

The next day was as cold as the last, but the storm had calmed down greatly. Still, Yogoloth had decided to stay one more night and let the last of the bad weather pass before he headed north. The roads were treacherous but not impassable and travellers came and went as they normally did through the Cracked Pot and Mill. The disguised half dragon watched them with a passing interest and tried not to drink too much ale. It didn't help that he was starting to get hungry.

"J'darden, I can hear your stomach from here.", the wolf inn keeper mentioned in a friendly tone as he cleared and then wiped down a nearby table.

"It's no problem, I'll grab something from my pack later.", Yogoloth lied quickly. It had been a few days since the dragon last ate, a particularly fat pig as he remembered it, so he was getting hungry.

But cooked food just didn't sit well in his stomach and vegetables were a no go. The hybrid was heading north in his feral form today anyway, he should easily be able to catch something before nightfall. Then it would have chance to settle better before having a full day of flying tomorrow. It would be weeks before Yogoloth reached the foothills and then nearly a further week to cross the peaks themselves. The Sudan mountains were a vast almost impassable barrier which had claimed many lives of the civilised races. However, such barriers were not much danger to a dragon or gryphon of course.

"Ah yes, Marrus once told me that you only eat raw meat. I have a few cuts of unsalted venison hanging in the back if you're interested? Only came in last week."

"That's kind but...", the hybrid began but stopped short. Suddenly he was curious to see how filling his stomach now would affect him once he'd returned to his much larger natural shape. "Alright, that sounds good."

"I'll add it to your tab.", the aging wolf smiled and nodded as he collected a couple of mugs from another table and headed back to the counter. He leaned around one of the ale barrels along the wall and shouted into a back room. "Charl! Good slice of that venison, don't bother cooking it, just as it comes."

Yogoloth had tried hunting in this small two legged form before, he'd had no luck at all. So generally he just ate before changing, then changed back after a couple of days at most and fed again. It had taken him a while to get used to feeling so vulnerable, at least in his feral shape he could fly better than anything else that was a threat. While pretending to be a civilised lizard person, even his magic, the one thing that remained exactly the same, was mostly tied up in the disguise. Although it would only take seconds to release it again if urgently needed.

The steak arrived as promised and smelled wonderful, Yogoloth's stomach growled almost as loudly as he could. Beside the wooden plate were a knife and a fork. Marrus had shown the hybrid the basics of using utensils to eat food, but there was so little that he could eat and he could go days between having to eat, so what was the point at all? Yogoloth grabbed the slab of meat in one hand, bit off a large chunk, chewed for a moment and swallowed. The whole event was both strange yet obviously familiar too.

"I never believed what I heard about Marrus, you know.", the inn keeper said as he settled in a chair across the table from Yogoloth. The disguised dragon looked up from his steak and his heart beat a little faster as the aging wolf continued. "He'd never have been part of a bandit group preying on caravans."

"He'd have never preyed on innocents.", Yogoloth replied carefully as he set his steak down on the plate, his eyes never left the aging wolf's. The young hybrid didn't like where this conversation was going, even though the innkeeper was right. He quickly spread his magical senses wide and confirmed that there were no hidden assailants, no hidden weapons, no magic nearby.

"He would have been escorting the caravan himself no doubt. What ever creature killed those bandits, did us all a favour.", he continued as Yogoloth listened silently. The innkeep looked a little unsure, not nervous, but he took a deep breath. "Marrus was your friend and even more importantly, he trusted you, and I trust his judgement."

"We'd been through a lot together.", the disguised hybrid almost whispered as he looked down at the steak.

"You never turned up for your usual meeting...", he leaned in closer and subtly lowered his voice. "Even though news of his death took nearly two weeks to arrive. I'm sure you did your best to save him."

"I wasn't... strong enough...", Yogoloth replied not looking up, his voice wavering slightly as emotions began to rise again. He didn't blame himself anymore, but it still hurt to think that he'd never see his friend Marrus ever again.

The young hybrid shook the feeling from his head, swallowed and rose to his feet, quickly grabbing more than a few coins from the pouch in his robes. It was probably twice what he owed, but he dropped them on the table anyway. He grabbed the remains of the slice of venison and ate it quickly, the juices a promise of more to come that night if he decided he needed to hunt. He swallowed the meat and smirked slightly as the wolf.

"I should go. Thank you... Gronn.", the name sprung to his mind from a distant memory. He turned to the door, as though leaving the Ol' Pot would leave behind the mixed feelings of loss and nerves that swirled through his mind. But he paused at the threshold and turned back to innkeep. "Even after all that, how can you be so sure?"

"Ah...", the wolf rose from his chair, cleared the table and gave it a rough wipe down. His voice was slightly muted but still audible. "It's been over twenty years since you first started meeting Marrus here. In all that time, you've barely aged at all; and the reptiles of the north age even quicker than we do."

Yogoloth couldn't help but smile and laugh. He knew exactly how old he was, but it didn't really mean anything to a dragon, years just flowed passed like water in a fast flowing stream. For that to have given him away, was almost ironic. He looked around the inn and the only two other patrons were busily talking amongst themselves. This was not the sort of conversation that he wanted to be broadcast.

"I don't know what kind of creature you are, J'darden. But I do know what kind of person you are. You'll always be welcome here.", and with that, Gronn nodded, headed behind the counter and into a back room.

He'd spent so much time with Marrus, and on his own on occasion, learning about how to interact with the civilised races. But even after all these years, they still surprised him. Yogoloth chuckled to himself as he left the Cracked Pot and Mill. The cold air flowed through his clothes causing him to pull his robe tighter and his hood up over his head. He looked up at the clear sky and decided it was time to head north. He had a long journey ahead of him.