Yifan makes no comment when Luhan starts barking along with his shadow-puppet, his mind still mulling over the information they uncovered throughout the day. “The guardian of the Lost Forest,” he comments out loud. “Have you ever heard of it before?”

Luhan sits back down and lies on his side. He picks up his lyre and flicks the strings softly. “I don’t think so.”

“That’s not surprising.” Yifan takes off his cape and settles down on the ground, his back against the rock. “What worries me is that I haven’t heard or read about it. Not a single mention in all the thousands of books I read during my long years studying to become a wizard.”

“Maybe it’s a new evil beastie,” Luhan says, strumming an upwards scale. “One that crawled out of the depths of the underworld itself to destroy you and your hopeless romantic views.”

“It has to be new. And powerful.” Yifan steeples his hands together. “It seems to have command of all the creatures here. The water spirit refused to tell us anything about it. The gnome got angry when we called it evil. And the fairies held great respect for it.”

“But why is it causing trouble for the Valentine Faire?”

“That is what we have to find out.” Yifan tilts his head back and admires the star-filled sky. “And my views are not hopeless. They’re pure.”

Luhan laughs.

Yifan drifts off to the sweet sounds coming from his apprentice’s lyre. He dreams of a dark haired young man with a single dimple waiting for him at the faire, of holding his hand and making him laugh, of cupping his face and kissing his lips.

Bliss….

A change in the atmosphere makes Yifan wake up. He feels it in the way one feels a pointed stare across a crowd. It’s something off, something that wasn’t there before that you can feel even if you can’t see. He’s about to call softly to Luhan, when his apprentice sits up.

Screeching shadows jump out from the trees.

“Yifan!”

He has no time to react.

Luhan is snatched from across the campfire.

“Yifan, help!”

Yifan reaches out to the fire and draws a tongue of flame towards his palm. He shoots but misses. Grabbing more flames, he chases after the shadows, guided by Luhan’s yells and the shadow’s peculiar sounds. They’re moving fast further uphill in the forest, jumping over fallen branches, ducking under tangles of moss.

Luhan screams. “Stop! Don’t foll—”

Yifan puts on a burst of speed.

He barges through the tree line and into an open space. He barely has time to stop before an edge of a cliff is right in front of him. He flails his arms wildly, trying to regain his balance and not fall into the dark valley far, far below.

“I hope you like flying, wizard,” a taunting voice says at his back.

The kick isn’t hard. It’s more like a soft pressure on his lower back and then Yifan is falling through the air. His mind races to come up with a spell to slow down his descent, but with the rushing ground below, he’s having trouble remembering.

A great form crosses his path mid-air and Yifan’s air explodes from his lungs at the impact. He clings to the first thing he can hold on to and when his vision isn’t spinning any more, he almost lets go.

He’s hanging by one arm, hand tightly closed around a hard spike as long as his forearm. The skin under is full of hard scales the size of his long fingers, sharp enough that his tunic’s sleeves have snagged and ripped on some. The rush of wind is cold against his face as the creature flies with no wings.

What kind of creature flies with…no…wings….

“Oh my stars,” Yifan says breathless.

It’s a dragon.

It’s a massive, very much alive, and highly dangerous dragon from the east. Outside of the pages of books and the fossils in the magical conservatory at the wizard school, Yifan has never seen one before. They were all but wiped out during the Second Wizard War.

Yifan grips another spike with his other hand as he gawks at his savior. The dragon’s scales glitter white in the moonlight, and its long, serpentine body, undulates in dizzying ways. Thankfully, Yifan clings above the front legs where the body remains relatively still. He looks up, to where the dragon’s head is and is struck dumb by the twisting horns and long whiskers that flow back in the wind like ribbons.

The dragon turns its head to the side and inspects Yifan.

“Nice dragon,” Yifan says. When the creature doesn’t do anything, he pulls his body up, throws a leg over in front of a spike and settles more securely on his perch. If the dragon decides to attack he will have to defend himself, but otherwise he doesn’t want to shoot first. If he knocks the dragon out now, they’ll both fall out of the sky.

The dragon focuses up front again and dips lower. Is it going to land? Perhaps it’s a nice dragon after all and will let him go. Yifan takes a peek down and sees lights appear on the landscape below. A town in the forest? When he focuses on them, he makes out the cleared spaces and shape of tents.

The faire grounds!

Oh…

No.

“No, no, no. Don’t do this,” Yifan says, realizing his mistake. “Please don’t do this. Please—”

This is not a nice dragon.

This is the evil beast.

The one he must slay.

The dragon dips into a violent dive, heading straight for the main faire tent. Yifan screams—as a warning of course—and holds tighter onto the spike in front of him. He hopes someone hears him below and takes action to scare the dragon away with lances or torches. But no one notices the attack until it’s too late.

With its wolf-like jaws, the dragon bites the red and white canvas of the bigger tent and pulls it up. The canvas rips. Anchor lines snap, while others simply yank the nails clean from the ground. The destruction is swift. No one could’ve stopped it. Lances and torches would’ve only tickled the dragon’s belly.

Chaos ensues below. There are panicked screams from the knights stationed there and the other workers preparing the faire. Yifan looks back over his shoulder to see the damage, but the dragon has pulled up and away by now. Tiny lights move like ants all over the destruction. Part of the canvas fell back down and caught fire. It shines like a giant bonfire blaze in the night.

The dragon changes course and goes further upwards, picking up speed. They fly this way for sometime, further over the expanse of the Lost Forest. Yifan gets as comfortable as he can on his perch, because there’s no way he can get off the dragon until it lands.

Soon enough, they come up on a medium-sized lake of dark waters and he watches their reflections with barely contained fascination. The Great Wizard Wu is riding a living dragon, one of the rare eastern species which are supposed to be extinct. Luhan will not believe it when Yifan tells him. The dragon flies lower as they near the lake’s shore, it’s motions slow down.

Before it lands, Yifan gets ready and jumps from its back. He tries to duck and roll with the momentum, but he fails. The fall isn’t soft and his shoulder and hit the gravelly ground pretty hard. Yifan just sits there, eyes pinched closed, dazed and breathing through the pain. That is, until the dragon starts spouting fire.

His first instinct is to call his magic and shoot. But the ball of energy sinks into the dragon scales and does absolutely nothing. Except the dragon has now noticed him and focused its full attention on Yifan. Its head lowers, so that it looks up at Yifan with hooded red eyes that glow faintly in the dark. The long whiskers on the sides of its snout keep flying at the dragon’s sides in an invisible wind.

It’s magnificent.

And by gods, it is frightening.

Yifan steps back. “What do you want, evil beast?”

The dragon’s lips pull back, showing its impressive set of sharp teeth. Is it smiling? About to attack? It’s better not to linger long enough to find out. When the dragon opens its mouth, Yifan moves quickly. Luhan’s words from this morning are on his mind as he picks up a rock and throws it. The rock sails through the air like a projectile, it’s speed enhanced by magic, and hits the dragon on its snout. The beast’s growl rumbles through the air. It snaps its jaws, thrashing back and forth while spouting more flames.

This is his chance.

Yifan breaks into a run and heads for the dark woods. He can’t see much of anything, but the dragon won’t be able to give chase in the dense foliage. Unless it chooses to burn everything to the ground. Yifan is thinking about that possibility and cursing the fact that he left his fireproof cape back at camp, when he smacks right into a low hanging branch.

Stars explode behind his eyes and he falls flat on his back. The trees are moving or coming alive, and the leaves are dancing, probably making fun of him for not watching where he was going.

The world goes black.

…

… ….

… … …!

“Lie still. You hit your head pretty hard.”

Yifan knows that voice, but it takes his muddled mind a moment before he identifies who it belongs to. “La…Lay?”

He opens his eyes and finds the scene around him flickering in the light of a fire. It’s still night. He’s in the forest. And Lay…is so beautiful.

The young man smiles at him. “Hello.”

“How did you…Where did you…come from…I mean….”

Lay presses a wet cloth to Yifan’s temple and the wizard winces. “I found you knocked out on the forest floor with a big bump on your forehead. You also seem to be missing your lively apprentice and your cape.”

Yifan sighs and is about to close his eyes when he remembers. He sits up in a rush and has to hold his head from the pain. “The dragon! Did you see a dragon? He was spouting flame and showing me his teeth, and—and—!”

Lay chuckles. “I think you hit your head pretty hard,” he says. “Besides, I’ve read dragons are very playful. I bet he was just trying to be friendly.”

Yifan holds back on describing all the ways a dragon could maim and kill a person. Dizziness comes over him again, and Yifan holds his head and breathes.

The young man dips the cloth on a rusting wooden bowl, squeezes the extra water, and brings it up to pat Yifan’s temple. Lay doesn’t have to move much, because he’s sitting close. Really close. His knees are pressed against the side of Yifan’s thigh. And if Lay leans in any further, their breaths would mingle between their bodies.

“Who are you?” Yifan whispers.

Lay glances up at Yifan and then back at where he’s pressing the cloth. He bites his lip, trying to keep a smile from spreading too far. “A friend.”

“You are one strange friend,” Yifan says. Hitting his head has left him without a filter.

Lay laughs and pulls back. “Is that bad?”

“N-No, just…not what I’m used to.” Yifan touches his forehead and feels around the bump. It’s sore but not like before. He also doesn’t feel dizzy anymore. “It doesn’t hurt that much anymore.”

Lay places the cloth in the bowl and sits back. He studies Yifan for a moment. “It needs a little bit more healing, but you should be fine.”

A sharp intake of breath. “You’re a healer?”

“Of sorts.”

Healers weren’t exactly wizards, but they did study alongside each other for a few years. While wizards became adepts in all things magic—spells, curses, magic items, magic creatures—healers went on to study herb lore and anatomy. How come Yifan had never seen Lay before? “Did you study at the wizard academy?”

Lay smiles. “A long time ago.”

The answer didn’t make sense. Lay had to be younger than Yifan by a few years. How could he have studied a long time ago? Unless he was a prodigy. But then his name would’ve been known throughout the kingdom.

“It was really nice of you to invite Soo, Minseok, Chen, and Baek to the faire,” Lay says, snapping Yifan out of his thoughts.

“Oh! You heard that? But you were gone. How did you—I mean.” Yifan sighs. He’s sounding like the rudest jerk. “You are invited too, of course.”

“Thank you, but no.”

The quick refusal make’s Yifan pause. That and his sudden shattered dream of spending the day at the faire with Lay. “Why?”

“Because I do not approve of the king’s tactics,” Lay says, losing his ever-present smile. “It’s one thing to ask permission to create the faire on our forest, and quite another to come here and start brandishing about his rule over the inhabitants of the Lost Forest. He’s made a mess out of everything.”

“I think the dragon is the one making a mess,” Yifan says.

“Really? The dragon is wrong for defending his territory? For protecting his forest friends and ending the humiliation they’re being put through?” Yifan opens his mouth but Lay presses his hand against it, silencing him. “What would you do if the king came to your home and started dictating how you live? Started dictating what the Great Wizard Wu can or cannot do?”

Yifan frowns. No one has the power to order him about, not even the king. Though he had come to the forest on the king’s orders. But that’s different. Yifan is in the forest hunting down the evil creature because he wants the faire to happen as well.

He removes Lay’s hand.

“I’m here on the king’s request,” Yifan says, “But I do not blindly follow his orders. I’ve seen the grief his rule has inflicted upon the forest creatures and I don’t agree with it. This is why I’ve invited them, all of them, because I believe they have as much right to attend the Valentine Faire as anyone else.”

“You really believe that?” Lay asks, his fingers tightening around Yifan’s bigger ones.

“Yes, I do.”

An unexpected laugh comes out of Lay’s mouth. Just as suddenly, Lay throws his arms around Yifan’s neck and throws himself into a hug. Yifan doesn’t know how to react to a lap-full of happy and giggling Lay, so he settles for patting the young man’s back and keeping his heart from exploding.

“Thank you.” Lay his lips. He’s looking up through impossibly long and dark lashes. “It means a lot to me that you understand.”

“I…I’m….” Yifan leans forward slowly, eyes intent on Lay’s moist lips. He’s been wanting to kiss Lay all day long.

“Yifan?”

He stops leaning and stares into Lay’s eyes. They’re dark and deep and full of undiscovered meanings. “Yes?”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” The words are breathed upon Yifan’s lips.

“W-What?”

“Luhan,” Lay whispers.

“Oh. Um.” Yifan pulls back. Maybe he’d read the signs wrong. “Yes, I need to find my appre—my friend.” He clears his throat and removes his hold on Lay’s waist so the young man can move out of his lap. “He was taken by some creatures, some shadows. I followed them into the forest but they were too fast.”

“Fast shadows, huh?” Lay bites his lip. There’s a rosy tint to his cheeks and Yifan wants to know if he put it there. “Could be elves. Did they make loud, ululating sounds and screeches?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Lay nods. “Definitely elves.” The young man stands and starts to walk away.

Yifan panics, because he doesn’t want him to disappear again. “Wait! Where are you going?”

Lay frowns a bit and blinks fast. “To find your friend, of course. Aren’t you coming?”

“Oh. Yes, I’m....” Yifan shakes his head.

“Come on then.” Lay grabs his hand and pulls him along.

Yifan is content to be lead.