Dragon Bane now has it's own livejournal account. Whether or not you have a livejouranl account doesn't matter, seeing as anonymous comments will be allowed. I'm hoping that readers will feel able to elaborate on their reviews, as well as get into discussions about the fic. I want to ask questions of my readers, and I figured LJ would be the best place to do that. The account name is dragon-bane-fic. Only replace the hyphens with underscores, because fictionpress deletes them from chapters.

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"Isa!" Rage cried, hopping into the bed next to Isa's sleeping form. "Isa! Wake up!"

"Mm?" Isa opened his eyes to look at Rage, but before they even had a chance to focus, something soft, fuzzy and warm was thrust into his face. "Ah!" he gasped, jumping back after inhaling a mouthful of fur.

"It's a kitty!" Rage squealed, holding the kitten out towards Isa again. The kitten yawned, causing Rage to giggle and snuggle it. Isa blinked at the little creature, slowly crawling towards Rage and leaning closer to the animal. He cautiously reached out, poking the kitten gently between the ears. The kitten mewed loudly, causing Isa to twitch his ears.

"It's... A feline," he said, poking it again.

"There are more in the kitchen! Lin brought them over!" Rage declared happily, getting up and leaving the room. She went back downstairs to play with the other kittens.

Now that he was awake, Isa got up and out of bed, carefully dressing himself in the clothes Kennedy had gotten him. He'd decided the night before that he was going to do his absolute best to look and act human. He wasn't nearly as emotional as the night before, which eased his mind. Emotions were still very foreign to him. Even more so than the clothes he hated.

After several attempts, he managed to button his shirt on his own. He pulled his hair back and put on his boots. He tied the small bag he used to always carry around his waist, tucking his knife inside of it. He took the bow and quiver he hated so much, slipping the bow onto his back, the string crossing his chest. Putting the strap for the quiver around his waist, he stepped out into the hallway. Taking a deep breath, he headed downstairs.

"'Morning Isa," Kennedy called with a yawn. Isa just nodded to him and walked past Rage and the kittens on his way into the shop. Kennedy watched as Isa left without a word and blinked, turning his attention to Rage.

"Is he okay?" he asked her.

"He was really upset when he came home," Rage said, picking up a light gray kitten and snuggling it.

"Yeah, I know," Kennedy sighed, running his fingers through his hair. He was about to say something else, but stopped as Rage carried the gray kitten into the shop.

"Isa," Rage began, holding the kitten out towards him. "It looks like you, doesn't it?"

Isa looked up from the jars he was putting in a sack to see Rage and the kitten. "I don't see the resemblance." He turned his attention back to what he'd been doing.

"Isa, why don't you want to play with the kitties?"

"I don't even know what that word means," Isa replied, slinging the bag over his shoulder. He walked towards the door of the shop and pulled it open

"What are you doing?" Rage asked curiously, following his movements.

"There's something I want to do," Isa replied, stepping outside.

"Can I come?" Rage asked hopefully, following him.

"No."

"Fine. Take this with you." Rage tucked the kitten into Isa's bag and stepped back into the shop. Isa looked at the tiny cat's head sticking out of the sack. It mewed and he looked up at Rage.

"Rage, I don't want--"

"Too bad. You need something cute in your life to cheer you up," she said, cutting him off. "You can bring it with you when you get back." Rage closed the door of the shop before Isa could protest further.

Isa sighed and walked away, determined not to let even a kitten stop him from what he intended to do. After nearly an hour of walking, Isa finally came to a stop in the field where Kennedy had been teaching him archery. He gently sat the bag down in the grass, checking to make sure that the kitten was alive and well. It mewed happily at him and he was satisfied that it was in good health.

He looked out into the field, spotting the jar still on the tree stump. He took the bow from his back and an arrow from the quiver, aiming for the jar. "He said to pull up higher," he told himself, eyes focused on his target. He raised the angle of his arm and did his best to steady the bow. He fired the arrow at the jar; another failed attempt.

"Rage?" Kennedy called, knocking on her bedroom door. "Can I come in?"

"Okay," Rage called. She was laying on her stomach on the bed, watching several kittens play in front of her. Kennedy opened the door and stepped into the room, watching the girl for a moment.

"Do you know where Isa went?" he asked, smiling as the kitten batted at each other.

"No. He didn't tell me. Didn't want me to go with him, either," Rage pouted, poking one of the kittens in the chest.

"Do you know if he's coming back?"

Rage looked up at Kennedy, unsure of why he'd ask such a thing. "Of course he's coming back! He likes it here, why wouldn't he come back?"

"He was so upset yesterday. I'm worried about him..."

"He's scared. Jerith found out that Isa is a dragon."

Kennedy went pale. "I, I don't think he'd tell anyone... Jerith likes Isa!" he said, having trouble getting the words out of his mouth.

"I don't know... I hope not," Rage sighed.

"Kennedy? Are you here?" a woman's voice called out from downstairs. Kennedy stepped out into the hallway.

"Who was that?" Rage asked, standing up and smoothing out her skirt.

"My sister. Rage, could you please go look for Isa?"

"Yeah. I'll go look for him," Rage said with a nod. She glanced back at the kittens on her bed. "Could you take them downstairs for me?"

"Sure," Kennedy replied. He stepped back into her room and gathered up the kittens, carrying them out into the hallway. Rage followed him downstairs and headed into the kitchen to retrieve her cloak. Taking her cloak off a peg by the door, she pulled it around her shoulders, fastening it at her collar bone and pulling up her hood.

"Rage?" a woman's voice asked, a familiar face coming into the kitchen from the shop. Rage looked up to see who'd addressed her, a surprised look on her face.

"Amara? What are you doing here?" Rage asked, blinking in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask the same thing," Amara replied with a smile. "I'm Kennedy's sister. When you told me you were staying with someone who knew of Isa, it didn't occur to me that you meant my brother."

"I didn't know he was your brother," Rage said quietly, making her way towards the kitchen door. "I have to go now." She slipped outside and began walking around the village in search of Isa. After over an hour, there was still no sign of Isa inside the village. Worried, Rage began extending her search to the outskirts and the edge of the woods.

'Wait... Didn't he have a bow with him?' Her eyes widened as she realize where he was. Immediately she changed direction and headed towards the field.

The kitten sat in the grass, staring up at Isa with large eyes and mewing off and on. Isa had another arrow aimed for the jar in the distance. Releasing the arrow, it flew several yards before lodging itself in the ground. Still determined, Isa pulled out another arrow and repeated himself, this arrow landing a few feet ahead of the last. Slowly, his arrows had been inching closer and closer to their target.

He was growing tired, his arms incredibly sore. But he continued practicing until his quiver was empty. Setting down the bow, he walked in the direction of the jar, picking up his arrows on the way. He moved the jar just a little bit to the side, then returned to where he left the bow. He wiped the dirt off the arrows and put them back in his quiver.

A while later, Rage was nearly to the field. She caught sight of Isa just as he took aim again. She wanted to call out to him, but didn't want to disturb him. So instead, she kept walking, watching Isa closely in the fading light. Isa shot at the jar, the glass shattering as the arrow went right through it. Isa sighed in relief upon finally hitting his target. He put down the bow and headed out to collect his arrows again.

The kitten mewed loudly and chased after Isa. When Isa had put the arrows in the quiver yet again, he turned to find the kitten staring up at him. He gently picked the little creature up and carried it back over to the cloth sack. Rage ran the rest of the way to Isa.

"Isa! You did it!" she cried, hugging him tightly around the waist. She looked up into his face, her eyes overflowing with joy. "I knew you could do it!"

"I couldn't do it..." Isa said quietly, looking down at her.

"But you can now! Isa, you can!" She continued hugging him.

"Rage... Stop. Let's go back." Isa moved away from her and picked up the bag and the bow, still holding the small cat in one of his hands.

"Alright," Rage replied, nodding. She took the bag from him and began walking back in the direction of the village.

"Rage, I can carry it." Isa quickly followed behind the girl.

"So can I."

Together the two made their way back to the shop in near-total darkness. Finally, they both slipped into the kitchen. Isa set the kitten down on the table and Rage hung her cloak up by the door.

"Isa, you look so different!" Amara exclaimed, entering into the kitchen to see who had come in. "You look almost human."

Isa looked up from the kitten on the table and saw Amara. "You're Kennedy's sister," he said, remembering being informed that Kennedy's sister would be staying with them for a few days.

"Yes, I am," Amara nodded.

Kennedy walked into the kitchen, a look on his face that he only had when researching. "Isa, how do dragons measure time?" he asked. Although seemingly random, he obviously had been waiting quite a while to ask this question.

"What do you mean?" Isa looked over at Kennedy.

"How do dragons measure the passage of time? Measure their age?"

"I don't know how dragons measure time... I've never interacted with another dragon."

Kennedy, Amara, and Rage looked absolutely stunned.

"Well... How old are you then? Do you know?" Kennedy asked, hoping to find what he needed in Isa's answer.

"My age...?" Isa blinked slowly, trying to figure out his own age. After a few minutes, he finally spoke, "I am one thousand four hundred and nineteen."

"Years?"

"Seasons."

"Seasons repeat themselves after four..." Kennedy sighed; he was good at measuring things for medicine, but he couldn't do math very well.

Rage stared up at Isa in awe. "I didn't know you were so old..."