by Anthology
She went to the door of the garage and opened it. A gust of cold air hit her in the face, but it wasn't so cold that she wanted to shut the door.
Definitely cold enough that she didn't want to stay outside for too long with her hair still wet, though.
Diana didn't have to think too hard about it. It just happened. She needed them, or she wanted something, and the critters would show up.
They could range anywhere from chipmunks to squirrels, even skunks and deer. Sometimes there were bugs, but they never bothered her. Diana was the only person she knew who actually liked spiders.
It was the chipmunks that she called to herself. They were small and fast, and they would probably be able to find Azoth with ease, and make sure he didn't see them.
Diana knelt down. All her life, she could remember these little creatures coming up to her to pay their respects. It was one of her favorite things, and it felt so normal that she sometimes forgot how not normal it was.
"Hi there. Do you think you can help me with something?"
The little chipmunks stood on their hind legs. One of them had its cheeks puffed out as it still struggled to collect food for storage. They should probably all be hibernating, so Diana promised herself she wouldn't keep them very long.
"You can go back to getting your food," Diana said to the puffy cheeked one. "Thanks for coming though."
The chipmunk scurried off, back to foraging, while its brothers remained behind to help her with what she was looking for.
"I need you to find Azoth for me. I need to know what he's working on," she said.
A few cute little chirps sounded from the critters at her feet. They seemed to nod, and if she thought it was possible, it almost looked as though they'd smiled, too. Then they were on the run, fleeing into the darkness of the forest to search out her husband.
Diana hoped Azoth hadn't gone very far. It looked like it was about to snow again, and she didn't want him to get lost out there, or to get too cold.
Great. Now she was starting to sound like his mother instead of his wife.
Diana went back inside to wait for the chipmunks to come back to her.
* * *
9:00 P.M.
As she waited, Diana continued to work on what she could possibly promise her husband. She felt a little bad about it, but she was starting to hope whatever it was he was working on wouldn't be that great either.
Knowing Azoth, it would be pretty amazing. He could be trying to write her a poem, since he'd been learning how to read in Roman English letters. He liked to impress her like that. He could be trying to design her something for their garden, since he loved building things so much.
Or it could really have been something he'd wanted some privacy with.
She hoped that wasn't the case. It would be too embarrassing if the chipmunks returned with several pages of a journal rolled up and held inside of their tiny mouths.
Diana would have a lot of explaining to do if that was the case.
But then she started to get just a little on the paranoid side.
What if what Azoth was doing had nothing to do with her? Had nothing to do with the New Year's promise they were supposed to be making to each other.
What if he was actually just working on a project that was meant for his eyes only?
After being stuck in a cave, guarding mountains of gold for a thousand years, it made sense that he might want to pursue some things.
And Azoth did enjoy being alone sometimes. It wasn't often, but Diana knew whenever her lover was feeling like he wanted some distance.
As much as Diana knew Azoth loved her, a thousand years was a long time to get used to always being alone, always having things be calm and quiet, with only the sound of his dragon to keep him company.
Azoth had done a lot of avoiding his dragon back when they'd separated their bodies. Things were better now.
She was working herself up again. She shouldn't be doing this. Diana needed to stop thinking about how they were a doomed love because it was starting to give her a headache.
Okay, so she was officially banning those thoughts from her head, at least for the night. Azoth didn't want to be alone because he didn't want to be around her. She wasn't going to contemplate that anymore.
But assuming he was working on something for her, how much would he appreciate it knowing his wife was disrespecting his privacy like this?
Shit. She needed to stop those little critters. She needed to call back her chipmunks.
Diana ran to the front door. Her feet pounded against the wood, and she nearly slipped when she made it to the tile.
"Shit!" She barely caught herself from breaking her legs. Then her mission was to stick her bare feet into a pair of winter boots. She grabbed her long coat off the hook on the wall, a scarf, and a hat, and then rushed out the door.
Even as she was already running, she was also calling out to the chipmunks to come back to her.
They didn't have any names, so had there been any hunters out that night, listening to her, they probably thought Diana was a little on the insane side.
"Here, chipmunks! Come back here, chipmunks! Please come back!"
Yeah, she sounded like a desperate cat lady. Or a chipmunk lady. She prayed to God Azoth wasn't nearby and couldn't hear her yelling out into the darkness of the woods.
They came though. Thankfully, the chipmunks listened to her call and they came.
Diana was beyond out of breath by that time, and she collapsed to her knees in front of her little friends.
"Oh, thank God," she said. The leaves beneath her knees were wet and cold and gross, but she didn't care. It felt like she’d been running forever.
The chipmunks looked at each other, and then they looked at Diana. One of them put its tiny little paws onto her knee, as though double-checking she was indeed all right. It was kind of sweet, actually.
Even if she was still panting for breath.
Diana shook her head. She realized it had to be the first time she'd ever summoned any tiny woodland creatures to her just by calling out to them, but it didn't matter. They were here and that was all she cared about.
Diana never really understood how speaking to the animals worked, but she did know that a lot of it had to do with thinking in pictures. Sometimes in words, but mostly in pictures.
She managed to tell them she was all right and she'd changed her mind about wanting them to spy on Azoth for her.
For that, the little chipmunks were confused. They didn't completely understand the concept of changing one's mind, but they still understood that their princess didn't want them to do something.
They bowed, and then scurried off back into the woods to do whatever it was they'd been doing before Diana had bothered them.
Which was when she'd sucked back a deep breath of relief.
That had been close. Diana was glad she at least didn't have to explain to her husband why she'd been trying to get a look at what he'd been doing. That wouldn't have been fair to him in the least.
She just had to catch her breath before she got back to her feet and waddled her way back to the house to pretend nothing had happened. She was just so exhausted.
A loud grunt and a heavy snarl made her freeze in place.
Diana didn't want to do it, but she slowly turned her head to the side, even though she could already hear the annoying snorting and the way those heavy paws were stomping on the ground.
A black bear. Fully grown, too. It was standing no less than twenty feet away from where Diana was on her knees, breathing heavily, and probably looking like a delicious wounded animal.
Her breath caught and her eyes rounded.
"Fuck me," she said, and only then noticing how completely dark it was where she was kneeling. She was so far away from the house that she couldn't even see any of the lights from the windows. She really had gone farther than she’d thought, and now there was an actual bear standing in front of her.
When Diana had first come
face to face with Azoth’s dragon, it had terrified her in the beginning, before she’d known what it was and why it seemed so affectionate to her.
After going through something like that, she would have thought she would feel no fear at the sight of a bear when she was alone at night.
Not so. Definitely not so. She was actually trying to swallow her heart back down from where it had gotten stuck in her throat.
Okay. The key was not to panic. Diana didn't really know anything about bears, or anything else that was big enough to want to eat her. She'd only ever been able to see and communicate with the smaller animals.
But maybe that didn't matter. Maybe this bear was here because Diana had been calling for the chipmunks. Sometimes other animals and insects came when she was only trying to call for once species, and sometimes certain animals came to her whether she called them or not.
Usually that was to present her with an offering, a gift, whether it was a tiny flower in bloom or a new leaf. The animals came to her to pay their respects.
But the bear didn't exactly look like it had anything it wanted to give to her. There was definitely no fish in its mouth, or flowers or any other type of plant.
Then it bent its head and lumbered toward her. Diana could hardly move a muscle.
7
10:00 P.M.
Shouldn't this damned thing be sleeping for the winter? Granted, it was an unusually warm winter, but all the same, why the hell was it here? And why was it looking at her like that?
It got closer and closer, and of all the things that Diana thought she could do to defend herself, including screaming, jumping up and down and waving her arms to make herself look bigger, and playing dead. Since she knew nothing about bears, she did none of them.
She was too petrified to move, could hardly think, and it was as though she'd blinked and the animal was right in front of her, sniffing her and pushing at her body with it's huge nose.
Its breath was damp and the foulest thing Diana had ever smelled in her entire life. She nearly puked, but didn't.
It might've been for the best. Maybe the acid smell would make the bear lumber off to find something that smelled better for its dinner.
Or maybe it would just eat her vomit, realize how hungry it was, and then eat her too.
Diana promised herself she would learn more about bears if she ever got out of this. She couldn't believe this was happening, and she wanted to cry.
The only thing she did do right was not look the animal in the eyes. Well, she wasn't entirely sure how right that was, but it seemed like the ideal plan, considering her situation, so she didn't look the bear in the face.
Instead, Diana treated herself to an amazing view of those long claws, and the sinking, sickening feeling inside of her got to be so much worse.
Go away, please go away!
The bear nudged her again, making all sorts of huffing and snorting sounds as it pressed its nose against Diana's shoulder, trying to make sense of what she was. What was this creature who had wandered into his territory? Food? Most likely food.
Azoth could scare this bear away. He was a dragon, and when he was in his dragon shape, he was massive and mean looking.
But Azoth wasn't here. She was alone, and she was probably going to die.
Dying on him, again. What was wrong with the universe?
Diana ended up knocked over onto her side as the bear nudged her again. She couldn't help herself. She cried out as she fell over in the wet leaves and mud. The bear pulled back, and all Diana could think about was how she'd just made herself look like a tasty treat to the damned thing, an injured animal waiting to be picked off.
Snow started to fall around her, and Diana trembled. Azoth. She wanted Azoth!
The hot, foul stench of the bear's breath washed over Diana's face in what could have been a cloud. If she looked, she'd be able to see down its open mouth. She could already see its teeth from the corner of her eyes, and she whimpered.
The bear roared at her.
No, that didn't make sense, because there wasn't another hot gush of bear breath in her face when it did, and the noise didn't quite sound right. In fact, it sounded farther off to her left.
Diana looked, and a black cloud swarmed in on her vision. She fought against it, fought to keep from passing out at the sight of the angry eyes that stared down at the bear.
It was like looking up and realizing a T-Rex was looking at you like you'd done something to annoy it.
Severely.
Azoth. Diana breathed a happy sigh and smiled at the sight of him, though she still wanted to pee her pants.
She'd never seen his dragon looking so vicious or angry before in her entire life. Either of her lives, before she'd died as a fae princess and after coming back as an almost normal human.
She was glad that look wasn't directed at her. The teeth on Azoth's dragon was seriously putting this bear to shame, and when it stepped out of the trees, moving gracefully, but still so big it had to bend several birches before it could step into the clearing, the bear actually backed off.
It was no wonder. Azoth in this form was at least three times the size of the bear. Diana was willing to bet money on that one.
The bear didn't seem to want to let go of its prize too easily. It pushed itself up onto its hind legs and released a guttural, raspy roar. Diana could see the spittle flying from its impressive maw.
Which was nothing compared to when Azoth opened his mouth and roared back.
Even though Diana wasn't directly in the line of fire, she could still feel the way the wind blew as her husband roared. It was just the sort of thing to really remind her to appreciate the power Azoth had.
The bear's reaction was immediate. It fell back down to four legs and scrambled away, as scared and outmatched as a cub going against a fully grown grizzly.
Not exactly a fair fight, and the bear was smart to get away.
Diana's vision was starting to swim. She had to lie down.
She was only vaguely aware of when Azoth changed his shape, of when he'd melted out of his scales and wings, becoming a smaller creature in comparison, but still a big and muscly man.
He rushed to Diana's side, and she felt his hands on her body, but there wasn't much she could do to respond as he shook her.
Facing dragons, an impossible past, and an uncle who had wanted her dead, was all apparently nothing in comparison to facing down a live and hungry bear.
Azoth pulled her up into his arms, as easily as though she was made of cotton fluff instead of a grown woman. It was pretty romantic and awesome. She liked being held like this, but the sudden change still made her want to throw up. It was a small miracle she'd managed to hold herself back.
"I'm taking you home," Azoth said, and then started to run.
Diana couldn't agree with that more. She curled her arms around her husband's neck and held on for the ride as he ran home.
When Diana had run out into the woods to stop her little woodland creature friends from spying on her husband, that had seemed to take forever.
When Azoth, powerful and strong as he was, ran back to the cabin with the added weight of Diana in his arms, it seemed to take only a couple of seconds.
It was as though Diana had just closed her eyes for a brief second, before she heard the door being pushed open with Azoth's shoulder.
They were back home, and Azoth's feet stomped through the house as he rushed to put Diana on their new couch.
He immediately grabbed the knit blanket, which had been tossed over the back, and curled it around her shoulders. He even took her boots off, and Diana immediately felt warm under all the attention he gave her.
Azoth put her feet into his hands, as though he needed to warm them, but they weren't that cold. Diana realized she wasn't that cold at all. The shivering must have been because of what had just happened.
"Stay here," Azoth said with something in his voice she didn't recognize. "I'll bring you something hot to drink."
"Azoth," Diana said, but he was already gone. He ran into the kitchen, likely to put the kettle on.
It was the old school kind. The sort that needed to be heated up over a burner on the stove and would whistle like crazy when the steam got to be too much.
And even that was pretty advanced considering what Azoth was used to.
Still, from where she sat, she could hear him rummaging around in the kitchen. Several pans and pots must've fallen out of the bottom cupboards as he yanked out the kettle, because Diana could hear the clatter.
And yet she couldn't stop smiling. She was definitely coming out of her shock, because all she could think about was how her husband, her dragon Prince Charming, had come to save her.
Well, of course he would, and maybe that wasn't the exact thing she was smiling about. It was pretty cute the way he fumbled in the kitchen, just for her.
Okay, yeah, she was still a little in shock, because even that wasn't adorable enough for her to be smiling like this. Or to start laughing. And she did start laughing.
Diana couldn't help herself. It wasn't like this was funny, but she was now laughing.
And then Azoth was back in the living room. He was on his knees in front of her, his eyes so damned wide that she could make out the whites all around them.
Now Diana cried as she laughed. She definitely wasn't the strong person she'd thought she was. She would have been bear food had it not been for Azoth, and as he put his hands on her knees, she fell into his arms.
Azoth didn't seem shocked. If he was, then Diana was still too out of it to realize it, but either way, he’d opened his arms for her and she’d fallen into them. That was exactly what she'd needed. Diana had needed to be in her husband's strong arms, feel the security of having them around her.
The way he pet her hair and kissed the side of her face felt pretty damned good, too.
He was speaking to her, but too quickly in his native dragon tongue for her to really catch anything other than love and sorry.
"Don't be sorry," Diana shook her head. Okay, now she was starting to come out of it a little. Only a little.
