Yes.

"You mean Lady Drake isn't your name?" you quip with a smirk.

No, it is not she snorts, but to be fair your language and vocal cords aren't capable of pronouncing or understanding my true name.

"Well then what should I call you?"

The closest name I can come up with in your language is... She pauses a bit and you find yourself holding your breath. Aurora. You exhale your breath finally when she says her name.

"Aurora" you mouth her name. "That is a beautiful name Aurora, thank you for sharing that with me." She bows her head slightly.

"Does it mean anything specific" you ask. She cocks her head slightly.

"I mean...since you said I wouldn't understand your real name then I assume that means it has more meaning then just a title" you look at her unsurely.

Well, yes actually. She looks you up and down rather slowly. My name, as close as I can translate it to your language, is similar to new beginnings and the flow of change such new beginnings bring. Aurora seems to match that as close as I can tell.

"Yes, that seems like a good substitute for such a meaning" you ponder her name as you lose yourself to your own thoughts. She begins to stare intently at you. When you notice her stare you find yourself lost in her stare for a moment. She tilts her head slightly and a rumble clears her throat breaking you from your stupor.

"Yes, of course, you must be wondering what my name is" you pause slightly and notice she also appears to be holding her breath.

"It is Edward Fitzroy" you hastily blurt out. "Certainly...ah...not as pretty as your name I know, and most just call me Ed" you stumble along your words.

Thank you for sharing your name Edward Fitzroy...Ed she says as her lips curl up into what you hope is a smile. You look back at her eyes and remember they are glowing.

"So how do we stop our eyes from glowing again?" She looks away like she is contemplating something. Suddenly her whole body starts to glow white faintly, and then putters out to her normal green hue.

Can you wait until morning for an explanation? It seems I am too weak to attempt to remove the glow at this time.

"Sure, I'm not going anywhere until you are 100% anyways" you reason. Aurora is definitely smiling now.

You gather your wits a bit and plop yourself in front of the wood you set up. You grab some strands of dead dry grass and rough them up in your hands and form a loose ball of broken up dead grass. Setting the ball down you strike the flint with the dull knife at the ball of tinder and after a few tries a spark catches it on fire. You quickly toss the burning ball into your kindling and begin tending to the fire by adding wood as needed. Aurora watches curiously throughout the whole process, then begins to let out a low warble once the heat begins to spread out from the fire.

It has been a while since I have been lucky enough to lay by a fire without fear of being discovered by... Another brief flash of fear hits you followed by another brief glimpse of an emotion as she abruptly stops talking and looks away from you. You weren't sure exactly what the emotion was but it made your heart race the same way it does before a battle starts.

"Humans?" you finish. You focus your mind and attempt to suppress your guilt while also sending out feelings of care and empathy for her reaction. Her head snaps back to regard you. She cocks her head slightly and finishes her sentence.

Humans.

"Aurora, I understand your fear, I really do." Your eyes get a little watery as you understand fully why she feels the way she does. The moment you first saw her you saw her as a beast to be slain for profit.

Edward Fitzroy, she sternly starts and then with more softness, you have shown me both why I should fear and love humans. Yes, you did attack me without provocation, but you knew what you did was wrong and you have atoned for that trespass. How many of your fellow humans would have stopped when you did? How many would then have helped me survive such a wound? How many would apologize and swear to me that they'd make it right somehow? You ponder the questions, but the effort is futile.

"None that I know of" you reply.

I have never seen eyes glow as bright as yours do right now. That alone shows me that you have a noble heart, and that I can trust you without restraint. There are others who might converse with me from time to time, but none who would go out of their way to save my life. A new emotion washes over you that you don't fully understand, but it feels better than anything you've ever felt before. Warm and soothing it brings a smile to your face. You look up at Aurora and regard her eyes.

"You know your eyes are glowing just as brightly" you try to sound casual.

Truly? You are surprised by the amount of excitement and surprise you detect in Aurora's voice.

"Yes, truly...I could maybe show you if you'd like?" you state while wiggling the blade you used for starting the fire back and forth. Aurora stretches her neck forward a bit. You quickly throw another log on the fire, stand, and begin walking towards her. You hold out the blade for her to see her reflection, and after she moves her head every which way she gives off a big huff.

The blade is too small for me to see much. I can see the glow, but not its size. An idea pops into your head.

"Just a second" as you hold up your finger to Aurora and begin looking around. You spot your shield laying abandoned near your pack. You rush over to grab it. You notice it has a big dent in the front and marvel at how strong the strike must have been to do such a thing to your shield. You ponder the dent more and realize you are making Aurora wait so you rush back over to her.

Holding the shield out to her with the inside facing her you do your best to hold still while she examines herself.

That's...I mean...how...the glow is soooo big... She trails off a bit and you feel the same brief emotion that brought a smile to your face as you can see her neck moving around whenever she changes her angle of view.

You can put the shield down now. I don't know what to say right now. You detect some embarrassment in her tone.

"How about this" you start "we settle down a bit. I'll get some food out, we'll eat and then go to sleep, and in the morning we can come back around to the whole glowy eye thing. Sound good?"

Food does sound agreeable right now. An image of a deer being devoured by Aurora flashes in your mind.

"I don't have any deer, but I do have some dried beef" you suggest.

Did you see an image of me devouring a deer?

__"Uh...yah, why?"

It's just our bond is progressing so quickly. She pauses briefly as she looks you up and down again.

I'm going to have to be careful with my desires she states plainly.

You walk over to your pack and reach in. You pull out a single ration of dried beef for yourself and a waterskin, and a week's worth of dried beef for Aurora. Hopefully that'll be enough you think to yourself.

It won't be, but it should tide me over until I can hunt again.

"Looks like I'm going to have to be careful with my thoughts as well" you smirk.

How does such a small pack carry that amount of food?

"Oh, that's easy. It's enchanted to store much more than it would normally be able to." You can see she is clearly curious. "I saved a mage's life and he gave it to me so he wouldn't feel indebted to me. He gave me some other enchantments as well. My sword is extremely durable and always sharp, my shield and armor are also extremely durable."

What did you do to save his life, that seems like a lot of freebies.

"Not much, I just stopped a ritual that was going to turn him into an undead mage" you smugly reply.

I can see why then. For creatures with lots of magical powers like myself or a deep connection to magic like a mage would have, undeath would be a prison. Their mind would survive the event, but their body would not, and as a result their mind and body would become disconnected. Essentially their mind would remain, but their body would be under the control of whatever made them undead. They'd have to watch as their prison complied with the will of someone or something else. It is not a pleasant thought she finishes.

"Well, at the time I was contracted to find the missing mage and bring him back. So don't give me too much credit for being altruistic. I was paid fairly well for it."

Were you required to take this contract?

"Well no, at the time I just wanted to do something other than fight in a war for some rich nobleman. Saving a life seemed like a good distraction."

So instead of killing you went to save someone yes?

"Well yah, but I was paid to do it."

Were there others of these contracts to take?

__"Yes."

And what did they consist of?

"Bounties mostly."

To kill creatures or people?

"For most of them yah" as you start to understand her point. "Ok I see what you mean you oversized lizard" you joke. Aurora lets out a rumbling laugh.

Don't get mad at me for pointing out how overly humble you are being. Humbleness is a good trait, but like any other trait too much can be annoying or even harmful to yourself.

"Just enjoy your dried beef" you chuckle out as you set it down at her feet. You sit down next to Aurora and you both silently begin to eat. When you are both finished Aurora begins to clean her teeth with her claws.

Better tasting then I was expecting and slightly more filling then expected...do you have more? She snakes her head around and lays it on your shoulder while inspecting your reaction.

"Yes, Miss Bright Eyes, I have a fairly large amount. It is cheap and I never know when I will need to feed more than just myself, but my supply isn't endless."

Then we can wait until morning for more. I tend to over eat as food is not always a guarantee out here in the wilds.

"Fair enough. Well should we catch some sleep" you ask after taking a swig from the waterskin and offering Aurora the rest. Aurora lowers her head to you and tilts her head back with her mouth open. You begin to pour the remainder of the water into her mouth.

Yes, although I don't think sleep will be too hard to catch right now.

"You got that right." At that moment it occurs to you that you've been wearing your armor this entire time and your casual travel cloths are stashed in your pack. Never worrying about being naked in front of others as soldiers rarely have privacy anyways, you begin to strip out of your armor.

What are you doing Aurora shrieks while looking away.

"I'm going to change into my more comfortable travel wear to sleep in.

Ok, but why right here, why not over behind those bushes she presses.

"Because why not" you plainly retort. "Don't tell me you're shy around naked humans" you jest at her.

Of course not she replies a bit too quickly. I just thought you would be more comfortable doing that over there. I will just turn my head and give you some privacy. You chuckle a bit and turn your back to Aurora. You already have the top half of your armor off and laying in front of you, and as soon as your cuisse and tasset started to come off and you could feel the night air on your exposed butt you noticed a faint golden glow was shining off of your discarded armor. You smiled to yourself and removed the rest of your armor. You could feel a faint curiosity and something else that made your blood pump to a certain extremity. Time to wrap this up you thought.

Shortly after you gathered up all your armor and stored it in your pack you take out your travel wear and put it on.

Are you finished yet Aurora asked. You smirk as if she didn't watch the entire process.

"Yah you can face my direction again if you wish" you reply. Aurora turns her head and slowly opens her eyes, as if to make a show of how much she was not looking. You just shake your head and approach the fire, throwing on a few more of the thicker logs for the night. You back up to a tree and sink down. It was a nice warm night, no need for a blanket you thought.

Ahem you focus on Aurora who is fidgeting with her front paws and looking anywhere but at you again.

Since it is such a cool night, which might make you chilly, because of how cool it is out, and for no other reason, since I won't be chilly and clearly you will be, I was wondering if you would want to sleep against my side? Aurora finally looks directly at you.

You know...so you don't get chilly at night?