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... places so abominable that every denizen, no matter how questionable, seems uplifted in comparison.

Mahk Y'liannen,

The Cetraysin Tales

Linen cloth strips and other pieces of windblown commercial detritus pooled around the edges of the streets. Stores sold everything from leather bracers to swords to alcohol to dildos. A grungy roll of drums and glumly psychedelic chanting came from the alleyways - the area could have been quite cultured, had there not been a prostitute positioned on every street corner. A few were seen having sex outside, the sight usually accompanied by a small throng of washed-out looking spectators. Business was booming.

Kayo met remarkably little resistance winding through Faligar's usually hostile market district. She was stopped only once, by a shivering gopporoot addict who attempted to rob her with a rusty skinning knife. He quickly forgot where she was standing and wandered off into the crowd, shouting, "Come back here! I'm not fucking done with you, yet!"

Every other would-be brigand was, evidently, fucking done with her. That dragon must have looked just a little too big for them to handle.

"This place is disgusting," said Rolas.

Kayo passed by a jewelry stand, its owner was fast asleep. She slipped a small golden ring off the counter and into her pocket. "You need something to eat."

"What about one of those hookers back there?"

"That wasn't part of the deal," Kayo responded, gravely.

He frowned. "I was only joking."

"That's not part of the deal, either."

The dragon padded up next to her. His head - walking on all fours, and making no attempt to intimidate - came up to the bottom of Kayo's breasts. "So, how long have you been stealing stuff like that?"

This caught her off guard. "What?" she said automatically.

"The ring," he said, "do you think I'm blind or something?"

Kayo felt around inside her vest pocket, where the golden ring mingled with her few remaining coins. "It's a bad habit, sorry."

"Kleptomaniac, eh? That where all those coins rattling around in your pocket came from?"

"Yes."

The walked into a circular courtyard built around a large marble fountain. The place smelled like cabbage and freshly butchered meat. Shopkeepers milled about, holding up signs with prices scribbled on them.

Kayo noticed Rolas staring fixedly at the courtyard's centerpiece.

"Why don't you go get a drink," she said, "you must be thirsty."

Rolas bounded over to the fountain and dunked his head in, sending a group of women screaming out of the water. Kayo laughed to herself.

She bought a leg of beef, took a look back at Rolas, and decided to buy an entire cow's worth. A few fruits were bought as well, which she stowed into a linen handbag - also purchased - and swung it around her hip. She hefted the bag of salted beef over her shoulder and walked back.

Rolas was leaning over the edge of the fountain, right where she had left him. He seemed to have drunk his fill, but continued to take small sips, as if he didn't want any of the water to go to waste.

Watching him drink, seeing his neck stretch with and tighten with every gulp, hearing him gasp for breath after every new mouthful, was making Kayo feel uncomfortably aroused.

"Feeling any better?" Kayo asked.

"It has a metallic sort of taste, but it's almost cold. Even in this weather." He took one last gulp and moved back from the fountain's rim.

Across the courtyard, a commotion was starting. One man had grabbed another by the arm. He was reaching into the other's cloak pocket, yelling, "Thief! We got a fucking thief here!"

"We should get going," Kayo said.

Another cloaked man, near the accuser, pulled out a sword and swung down hard on the first man's shoulder. Screams started, movement concealed the action, and swords were soon flashing golden light in every direction. A crowd moved toward one of the northern entrances, while the man in a white cloak was dragged out toward the fountain by a group of several men.

They smashed his head against the marble, breaking his nose. His face flooded with blood. After a few kicks to the stomach, one man held the cloaked man's arm down to the fountain rim, and another unhooked an axe from his belt. The axe fell swiftly and made contact, hacking into his flesh. Two more swings and the man's hand flopped off into the fountain water. Blood flowered from the severed limb as it sunk to the bottom of the pool.

"It's your city! Which fucking way?" Rolas shouted back, his tail rising into the air like a scorpion. His head darted back and forth, taking note of the possible exits.

"Follow!" She shouted, the symphony of yelling getting louder and closer.

She ran as fast as she could with the bag of meat on her back, which was unfortunately not very fast. The crowd caught up with them before they could get halfway to the street. A woman to Kayo's left fell down. The last image seen of her was one of a woman pushing herself up from the ground. The stampede reached her before that could happen.

Kayo spun around in panic, thinking Rolas might try to run away in the confusion.

He was still there, staring at her while people tripped over his tail and and ricocheted off of his flanks. He was a dam about to break. "Fucking move!" he shouted.

She did, slowly again. They had not reached the street when the crowd finally thinned out.

There were people writhing about on the ground everywhere, grabbing at various body parts. A large fistfight of sorts was going on to the right, and a man was on his knees to the left, touching a massive wound on his cheek in shock.

Kayo looked over her shoulder again, saw Rolas behind her, and kept moving. They jogged down the street among the few other stragglers. A party of soldiers passed by them, heading for the courtyard.

When she was satisfied with the distance they had put between themselves and the fountain yard, she slowed down to a walk. Neither of them spoke for several minutes.

"We almost there?" Rolas asked.

"Just around the corner."

"You live in this shit hole?"

"Honestly, I think 'shit hole' is a bit excessive."

They stood at the bottom of a short, yet wide, clay staircase that lead into Kayo's three story apartment complex. It seemed to be constructed from clay and stone, but iron bars could be seen supporting the bottom floor. The building was an oppressive orange color that did not mix well with its green shutters.

"The glass is broken," said Rolas. "Look at the windows."

"There never was any glass."

"Classy."

"It's much nicer, once you get inside. I just hope you can fit through my door."

Kayo ascended the stairs first, stopping at the entrance when she realized Rolas hadn't followed. She turned.

"You coming?"

He grunted and shuffled diagonally up the stairs. The steps were far too small for his paws.

Kayo smiled. "You'll just love the stairs inside."

A voice shot out from inside the complex. It was warm and fatherly, but tinted with alcohol. "Kayo, is that you out there?"

Her expression panicked for a moment, but she regained herself. "Yes, Qurial."

The slim man stepped outside, hand raising to his mouth when he saw Rolas. "Well I'll be. I never thought I'd see the day!"

"Qurial - " Kayo waved her hands from Qurial to Rolas, giving the dragon a look that asked him to please fucking behave. " - meet Rolashestul. Rolas, meet Qurial."

"Nice to meet you, eh, Rolas." said Qurial, debating whether or not he should hold out his hand for a shake.

To Kayo's relief, Rolas responded pleasantly. "And you as well, Qurial. That's a Marinian name, isn't it?"

He lit up. "Aye, it is! Smart dragon! Crystal Hawk - right, Kayo?"

"That's correct," she said, surprised, "I see you've done your homework."

He smiled. "You could say that, yes. Always pays to follow your local trainer, you know?"

"I suppose." She smiled back, timidly.

"So how old is the bugger anyways? Seven? He's a big one."

"Fifteen."

He laughed a hearty, drunken laugh. "You've always been a funny one, Kayo. Hope the new responsibilities don't change that."

The man looked to Rolas, who - to Kayo's great relief - smiled placidly.

"You'll take good care of my Kayo, won't you?" He pulled her toward himself and gave her a pat on the back.

"Of course. Six and a half, by the way." Rolas's smile was childlike and sadistically fake, although Qurial didn't seem to notice.

"Smart for your age!" he said.

"Thanks."

"We're kind of hungry," said Kayo, nudging her way out of Qurial's embrace.

He let go. "Head inside, then. Welcome to Yohu's Nest!"

Rolas probably could have squeezed through the single door, but Qurial slid the other stone slab away, just to be safe. The bottom floor of the complex was part lounging area, part reception desk, and the floor was covered in blue tiles. A few druggies sat in the lounging chairs and exhaled smoke, not seeming to care that a twelve-foot dragon had just scraped its way into the building.

"You mind if I handle the paperwork later?"

"Sure," Qurial said, "nothing big involved, just a few liability forms."

Kayo turned to Rolas. "Come on, my room's on the third floor. That's right, more stairs."

Rolas didn't find it necessary to squeeze through the door to Kayo's room. The entrance was quite wide.

Several strings of enchanted beads served as a door - when a specific seal came into contact with them, they pulled tight like vines and closed off the room. Another seal had the opposite effect.

It was a small room, and Rolas had to curl about himself to fit into the space between the wall and Kayo's sleeping area. The floorspace might have been larger, but trinkets, boxes, clothes, and other small objects seemed to grow from every surface like algae.

Kayo grunted, dropped the bags of meat and fruit next to Rolas, and plopped down onto her sleeping mat. She struck a match, lit some incense, and looked up at the dragon. "Well, this is it."

He looked around the room with something resembling curiosity. "It's alright. Kind of small. That building outside the window could be a few more feet away, but it's alright."

"It's not much. Money's kind of... tight," she said, opening the bag of meat. She held it out to him. "Here. Eat up."

"What is this, salted beef?" He said, with his snout already inside the bag.

"Yeah. Sorry, again, it's not much. I mean, you know, with prices - "

He cut her off. "Hey. Relax. I've eaten worse. I'm so - " He tore off a piece and chomped loudly, talking with his mouth open. " - fucking hungry I could care less what this stuff is."

Kayo shrugged out of her vest, taking the few coins left inside of it and placing them carefully into a locked wooden box near her bed.

Abruptly, Rolas said, "So you're a combat trainer."

Kayo turned and wondered why she was so surprised he had figured this out. "Faligar Royal Trainee graduate, yeah. How'd you know?"

"You called yourself a 'dragon handler' a few hours ago. That only leaves a few options open." He ground down on the last slab of beef from the first leg. "Hell, I can see it in the way you carry yourself. How your clothes look like shit but you carry that steel shortsword around like a purse. The way you steal gold right off of a market counter in broad daylight but can't sum up the balls to tell your landlord a simple lie."

"I suppose your answer is no, then," said Kayo.

If that had been true she might as well have thrown herself out of the window right then and there.

"The fuck kind of dragon handler are you?"

She reached into the handbag and pulled out a pear. "I'm not going to force you to fight. Not as if I have a choice, like other trainers do. You're not a little kid anymore, Rolas - you can kick my ass easily if I don't have any gear on."

Like right now, for instance, she thought.

"Well, first off, you said if I followed you here, you would answer all of my questions. So that's what I did. I followed you. So, answer my question: What the fuck kind of dragon handler buys a dragon, politely asks him to dance around for the bourgeois, and if he refuses, sets him free?"

He continued. "I mean, how much did I cost? How long have you been fucking doing this? Am I the latest in a long line of dragons pulled off of those carts and asked to be your partner? What the hell are you looking for, a friend? Didn't you read the job description?" He seemed to take his anger out on a fresh piece of meat.

"It's difficult to explain."

"I don't know where you're going in the next few hours, but I've got time."

Kayo felt trapped. "I've always liked dragons, since I was a little girl."

"Really now? So, how many dragons have you met?" His voice was polished and sharp like a dagger's edge.

"A few, here and there. I met a lot during training, if that's what you mean. My father used to bring me around the stables - "

"No. I mean how many have you fucking met. How many have you gotten to know?"

Kayo said nothing.

"So, what? You walked around the dragon pens of this shithole as a little girl and thought about how pretty the big, blue shiny reptiles looked and suddenly you liked them? And now you think that you can rip one away from his home - his family - buy his hide like this bag of meat, and he'll be your big, scaly, tooth-faced best friend? Is that what you think? Am I a fucking dog to you?"

She looked away, rubbing her shoulder uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry," he said, after some time, "that was unfair of me. I don't know for sure that you had anything to do with the raid. It's not your fault I was taken away."

"But I did buy you. And you're right. I've always liked dragons, but I've never actually known one well enough to call him my friend."

"That's because you don't understand the relationship between a master and slave. You think that you can have meaningful discourse with someone below you, but you can't. There's always going to be a wall that you just can't fucking pass, as long as one of you is wearing the leash. You perpetuate your supposed friend's condition by tolerating it, and you betray his respect by passing off hand-me-downs as generosity."

It wasn't quite rhetoric, but it seemed to calm him down enough so that he could take another mouthful of beef.

This ignited a small spark of defiance in Kayo. "So what the fuck do you expect me to do? Don't you understand? It's illegal to own a dragon that's not being used. It's illegal for a dragon to be free. This isn't an excuse for our - my - cowardice, but what can I do? Break a dragon out of the pens and set him free? That will accomplish a lot; he'll be hunted down and killed, and I'll get my head cut off.

"Sure. I don't know any dragons. Fucking sue me. You think I chose to be born human, instead of draconian, sirathian, or something else? How else am I supposed to meet a dragon? How else am I supposed to help one?"

"You just did," he said.

"What?"

"Everything you just said, and everything you said right before you popped those locks off of my feet, back at the city gates, is what you're supposed to do. Treat me like a person. You gave me a choice. I followed you. I gave you shit about something you had no real control over, and you refused to take responsibility."

After a period of silence, he said, "Are you going to eat that pear?"

"It's all yours." She rolled the fruit to him, and he crushed it with his jaws, right on the floor.

"Thanks."

"So what's your point? This doesn't change anything. I'm still a trainer. I still own you, legally. This is my job, and - " She looked to the small wooden box, containing her last few coins and the stolen ring. " - that's the only thing that will keep me, keep us, afloat. At the moment."

"Then I'll train with you," he said.

After an initial period of dream-like shock, Kayo tried very hard to feel excited about this statement.

"You will?"

"I guess so, yeah. I might be making a gamble here - I've only known you for a couple of hours - but I'd say you're pretty sincere. It's like what you said, we don't have any real choice. I might come off as one of those idealistic anti-civilization assholes, but deep down I'm a pretty practical guy.

"They way I see it," he said, "I can do nothing and die, kill you and die, run away and die, or play the game and see how things turn out. At worst it will be an unpleasant experiment. For the record, I 'like' humans, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They smell like plainstrider meat - I've always wanted to take a bite out of one."

He laughed.

They talked for a while, although it was mostly Kayo explaining the layout and culture of Faligar to Rolas while he sat nodding his head, idly chewing on a bone. The subject of dragon fighting was avoided at all costs.

Not long after the sun sank down behind the tortured stone skyline of the Faligar market district, Rolas's eyelids began to lower as well. Kayo told him he should get some sleep, and he agreed. He curled up into a not-so-tight ball, shut his eyes, and mumbled something about water. She obliged and stumbled down the cramped stairway by candlelight, gave the graveyard shift receptionist a ten-piece coin, and filled a bucket with water at the pump. After that, she walked back upstairs and planted the bucket next to Rolas's head. He was already sleeping.

She lay down on her mattress and tried to fall asleep, but the image of Rolas gulping water from the courtyard fountain wouldn't stop replaying in the back of her mind. Her attempts to dream all resulted in the same sensation of riding on the back of a formless, colorless dragon, bounding through the squalid streets of a nameless city, cackling like a madman. After a half an hour, she got up, threw on her vest, wrote Rolas a short note, and left.

She wandered around the streets for what felt like a long stretch of time, floating from house to house, passing by circles of the poor who huddled around small makeshift fireplaces.

Later, she walked to the courtyard where the riot had started. The fountain was completely drained, and most of the bodies had been carted away. She sat on the marble edge of the fountain, close to where Rolas had been leaning over for his first drink in days, and watched the moon pass by overhead.