You know, if I’d taken any other path or I’d decided to roost in any other tree, I wouldn’t have been blessed with such fortune. The Gods must’ve seen me coming and granted me favor- I was certainly one lucky man.

My little rosy lady didn’t appear all too friendly and that was just fine by me- I was friendly enough for the both of us. I’d been quite courteous toward her though, genial even. Everything had been going just fine and dandy right up until that little crimson dragon dropped down from the clouds to huff and puff in my face like I’d done something offensive. I coughed once before choking on a laugh, “Nice little buddy you got there!” Maybe I needed to take a few pointers from Rose; perhaps this "Helovia" wasn’t as welcoming as I’d thought.

Picking herbs or not, Rose (as I’d taken to calling her) certainly didn’t appear to be an impressionable mare. I considered myself to be a jovial creature, maybe a bit haughty, but an enthusiastic listener nonetheless. Yet, Rose had shown me a new way of being, not a bright one, but a new way all the same. Was I expected to be so nonchalant as well?


If so, I didn’t think I could adhere to their parameters.

I was far too personable, too… intimate.

But the Gods would see my fate changed as they always had. Rose had heard the eerie song as well which meant I wasn’t just plumb crazy. She lifted pretty eyes to greet the draconic youth, but she was not as amused as I. Instead, she looked like she’d been punched in the gut- never to recover. Damn, she was a melancholy little thing. Everything appeared to disarm her and if it didn’t, well… it didn’t exist.

I watched exuberantly as Rose’s dragon split though both heaven and earth to reclaim his throne in the sky. Once adrift, he tussled and danced with the spiritual representations of his breed brought to our company by the half-breed. In truth, she was whimsical creature, a rare and extrinsic flower come to grow in the dry sands of Helovia. In my mind’s eye, she did not belong; she was more fitted to adorn the pastel heavens from whence she’d come.


But she was here, a friend. How could I refuse such an opportunity?

As if brought abreast by destiny, the half-breed shared her tales of past woes; stories of her mother, sister, and father… they were so dark and threatening. I had to know more. But another notion delayed my prodding –the World’s Edge. Where and what exactly was the world’s edge? What did it look like and was there even such a thing?


And the DragonHeart… was her mother? How frightening.


There were so many new and peculiar terms that I couldn’t yet wrap my head around. I couldn’t be certain that I’d want to live in a dragon’s throat, but who was I to judge? Whatever made the half-breed happy. “Amaris, it is most certainly a pleasure to meet you. I’m Atlas and as far as I know, that’s Rose,” I proffered smugly while gesturing to the awe-struck mare.

If Rose didn’t want to share introduction with me, then I’d simply have to do it for her. Either way, I was completely content to say whatever Amaris wanted to hear… if only to keep her talking, to keep her at my side.