- 15 hours ago
ESP Rechazando al Fénix, Domando al Dragón
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Short filmTranscript
00:08To be continued...
00:30I thought by the time I turned 18, my body will explode for not finding a mate.
00:34But then Finn, the phoenix, rarest creature alive, chose me.
00:40I actually believed I was special to him.
00:43I wasn't.
00:44I only knew that until my sister Sienna's bonded dragon went rogue and lost control.
00:50Finn shoved me to bind with that monster without blinking.
00:55Here's the thing.
00:56Sienna and I are identical twins.
00:59Identical, except for the mark on my face.
01:02I wasn't chosen.
01:03I was kept as a spare.
01:05In the spiritual beast world, every human must complete a bond before their 18th birthday.
01:10Or their body tears itself apart from the inside.
01:13Sienna and I came into this world together.
01:16I was born with the mark.
01:17She was born a masterpiece.
01:19Every beast man in the territory fought to bond with it.
01:22And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:26Alaric, the dragon.
01:27The most powerful being in our realm.
01:30Beast men carry a sickness called the Feral Curse.
01:33When it takes hold, they hunt their bonded by memory alone.
01:37Drag them into a shared nightmare and torture them to death.
01:40I always knew Sienna would pick Alaric.
01:43Power calls to power.
01:44What I never saw coming was Finn choosing me.
01:48The day he announced our bond in front of the whole territory, I felt like I was drowning in honey.
01:54The air tasted sweet.
01:56Even the people who had spent years spitting on me blurred into background noise.
02:01I stopped hearing the insults.
02:03I forgot every ruse they'd left.
02:06I thought everything I'd survived was just the universe clearing the path to him.
02:11Except he never touched me.
02:13He never showed me his true form.
02:16When a beast man reveals their animal form to their bonded, it means love, trust, everything.
02:22Finn never once shifted in my presence.
02:25I couldn't find a single feather in the entire house.
02:28I told myself it was just his nature.
02:31That he was private.
02:32Then one night, I stayed up until 3am collecting morning dew, his favorite.
02:37And carried it to his room like an idiot with a smile on my face.
02:41And I saw the flash of Scarlet.
02:44His true form.
02:45He was showing someone his true form.
02:48I stumbled through the door.
02:49That someone was my sister.
02:53The moment he saw me, Finn pulled his form back in like a fist closing around a secret.
03:00Sienna smiled.
03:01Soft, unbothered.
03:03Like a cat who knows she owns the room.
03:06Samara, you know Finn and I grew up together.
03:08Revealing his true form animal side to me, it's not a big deal.
03:11My chest felt like concrete poured inside it.
03:14I kept my face very, very still.
03:17Right, I just came to...
03:19The dew I'd carried all night had already tipped and soaked the floor.
03:23I stood there, hands empty, useless.
03:26Finn looked at me once, cold, brief.
03:29Nothing urgent?
03:30Then go.
03:31I walked out with my head down.
03:33Sienna's voice followed me down the hall like smoke.
03:37Finn and I grew up together.
03:39But I met him first.
03:41I met him first, and nobody cares.
03:44That winter, I found Finn half dead in the forest while I was out cutting wood.
03:50Red light pulsed off every inch of him.
03:53The feral curse.
03:54He was losing control.
03:56Every survival instinct I had screamed at me to run.
03:59His eyes stopped me.
04:01There was something in them I recognized.
04:03The desperate, clawing will to live.
04:05I had been looking at that same thing in mirrors for 17 years.
04:10I brought him home.
04:11I didn't sleep for weeks.
04:12I watched over him, learned his fever patterns, held him down through the worst nights.
04:17His body healed.
04:18The curse didn't lift.
04:20Then one day, Sienna visited.
04:22She told me to leave him to die.
04:24That accursed beast wasn't worth the risk.
04:26I refused.
04:27Sienna left.
04:28The moment she walked out the door, Finn's curse vanished.
04:31Just like that.
04:33Like smoke in wind.
04:34He came back to himself, powerful, radiant, healed.
04:38After that, he started showing up.
04:40At my place, at Sienna's, I thought he was paying a debt.
04:44He was.
04:44Just not to me.
04:46Ugh.
04:47I was so absorbed in the past memory that I forgot to see the front.
04:51When I looked up, I met the deathly gaze of Alaric.
04:55You do look exactly the same as your sister.
04:59Except...
05:29His fingers slowly traced my face.
05:30The guests, the spectacle, something pathetic inside me started imagining my own.
05:35I thought, fine, I'll plan it myself.
05:38I spent everything I had.
05:40Literally everything.
05:41I bought a young firebird nest tree.
05:43The rarest thing Finn could want as a bond token.
05:47And gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:49I showed up on the appointed day.
05:51I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
05:54He never came.
05:55The crowd that gathered grew larger the longer I waited.
05:58Not to support me, but to watch.
06:01The flowers in my arms had died.
06:03I kept my chin down and my eyes on the ground.
06:07How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
06:10He was obviously playing her.
06:12She's the only one who didn't know.
06:13Any other day, I would have put my fist through the face of whoever said that.
06:17Today, I just pushed through the crowd.
06:20Silent.
06:20Trying not to drown.
06:22Someone shoved me from behind.
06:23I hit the ground hard, but I caught the nest tree sapling before it could break.
06:28Cradled it like it mattered.
06:29Then someone stomped on the pot.
06:31The clay exploded.
06:32The sapling went gray and dead in seconds.
06:36Shattered, I walked home.
06:38And heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:41Bright.
06:42Delighted.
06:43Finn, this dress is beautiful.
06:45You actually made this with your own hands?
06:48Sienna, as long as you like it.
06:50Finn's voice was as flat as always.
06:52But the upward curl at the end?
06:54That small, involuntary warmth?
06:57Exposed him completely.
06:58The door swung open, and Sienna walked out in a red dress.
07:03Red feathers lined the hem.
07:05Finn's tail feathers.
07:06The feathers a phoenix only plucks for someone they love.
07:11So that was why he'd rushed me out of the house last week.
07:14He didn't want me seeing him make her a dress.
07:17He'd pulled his own feathers, the most sacred part of a phoenix's body,
07:22just to get the color right for her.
07:24He didn't come to my ceremony because of Sienna.
07:27All those years, every glance Finn ever threw across a room always landed on her.
07:34Even agreeing to bond with me, I finally understood that too.
07:38It was just a reflex.
07:39A moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of him.
07:44Samara, they were right.
07:46Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:48I made up my mind.
07:50I would dissolve the bond before it was complete.
07:52I wasn't going to wait around to be discarded with an audience.
07:56I started looking for an available beast man.
07:58Anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
08:01I finally tracked down Riven, a low-rank lizard in the Outer Territory.
08:05And he agreed.
08:06I ran home.
08:08Told Finn.
08:09He didn't look relieved.
08:10He looked furious.
08:13Samara.
08:14You're serious?
08:17You'd bond with that low-rank lizard instead of me?
08:21I didn't show up that day, but I had a reason.
08:24You saw her-
08:25I stopped listening.
08:26I already knew the reason.
08:27Sienna's ceremony was approaching.
08:29He was busy.
08:30Too busy for me.
08:32Never too busy for her.
08:33Because of my face.
08:35Because I was the ugly one.
08:36Because apparently, being born with a birthmark means I deserve to be stood up, mocked in public, and made to
08:44feel grateful for scraps.
08:45I closed my eyes.
08:47Yes, Finn.
08:49I'm bonding with Riven.
08:52Fine, Samara.
08:53Don't come crawling back.
08:55He said it like I was the one abandoning him.
08:58I genuinely could not locate his logic.
09:01I had no time to figure it out.
09:03My birthday was three days away.
09:04The next morning, I went to find Riven.
09:07Somehow, he'd changed his mind overnight.
09:10Apparently, someone had introduced him to a girl last night, and they'd already scheduled their ceremony for that afternoon.
09:16You think I would take someone else's reject?
09:20Then closed his door in my face.
09:22I stood there, lifted my hand to knock again, let it fall.
09:26People like me aren't meant to survive in a world like this.
09:29If I had maybe three days left alive, fine.
09:32I was going to spend them eating well.
09:34I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe, the expensive coffee house I'd never dared enter before, and ordered everything that looked
09:41good.
09:41I was halfway through a plate of honey cake when I caught the conversation behind me.
09:45I heard the phoenix is giving Sienna the thousand-year heartwood?
09:48The one with healing properties?
09:50Healing?
09:51If it can heal, why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
09:55Oh, wait.
09:57Obviously, because Sienna matters.
09:59Samara never did.
10:00He had a cure.
10:02He had a cure for my birthmark.
10:04He watched me get beaten, ridiculed, spat on my entire life.
10:09And he had the antidote in his pocket.
10:11He chose to give it to Sienna as a backup plan, instead of giving it to me.
10:16Tears ran down my face, and I bit my lip until it bled to keep from making a sound.
10:21Tomorrow was my birthday.
10:23I was going to die.
10:24They would laugh at the way my body destroyed itself, so I would not cry.
10:28Not tonight.
10:29Not where anyone could see.
10:31I went home.
10:32Nowhere else to go in this world.
10:34The house was blazing with light.
10:36The crowd had packed the main hall, shouting over each other.
10:39Alaric, Sienna's dragon, was a thing.
10:42Holy moly.
10:43The feral curse had taken hold.
10:45Without a completed bond to tether him, Alaric wouldn't just hurt Sienna.
10:49He'd tear through the entire city.
10:51Dragons in rogue state always do.
10:53Everyone was screaming at Sienna to go through with the bond immediately.
10:57Only Finn was standing in her way, locking her, keeping her back.
11:01But Finn couldn't hold the crowd forever.
11:03I looked at him one last time, but Sienna sheltered behind his back like she was made of class,
11:08and walked to my room.
11:10His footsteps came fast.
11:11He threw open my door.
11:12Why was he here?
11:13His priority was right down the hall.
11:15Samara, you're the only one who can save her.
11:18Me?
11:19The dragon bonded with Sienna, not me.
11:22You and Sienna are identical, except for the mark.
11:24No one will know the difference.
11:25I opened my mouth to ask how I was supposed to remove a birthmark on three seconds notice.
11:31And then I remembered the conversation at Mayfair Garden.
11:34He already knew.
11:35Finn raised his hand.
11:36His expression showed something I might have called regret,
11:39but his arm was completely steady as it swung toward my throat.
11:43Samara, I'm sorry.
11:47But Sienna once saved my life.
11:49I can't let her...
11:50Those were the last words I heard before the darkness took me.
11:54Finn, even now, not one word about me.
11:58I came back to consciousness in a moving carriage, dressed in red.
12:02Finn's dress.
12:02The one he made for Sienna.
12:07I almost laughed.
12:08He worked so hard on it.
12:11And it ended up on the wrong twin after all.
12:13Outside, drums and horns.
12:16The city celebrating.
12:17They weren't celebrating the lawn ceremony.
12:20They were celebrating trading my life for their safety.
12:23The altar was already in sight.
12:25I didn't struggle.
12:26I walked up the steps.
12:28Heard the crowd's murmur shift.
12:30A single, sharp inhale of surprise.
12:32The kind of sound people make when they see something unexpected.
12:36How funny.
12:37I had heard people gasp at my face my whole life.
12:40Always in revulsion.
12:41The one time they gasped in something else,
12:44I was walking toward my own death.
12:46My gaze found Finn at the base of the steps.
12:49He stood very still,
12:50staring up at me with an expression I couldn't read.
12:53This is what you wanted, Finn, isn't it?
12:55I looked away.
12:56Alaric stood at the center of the altar,
12:58radiating red light, barely controlled.
13:01His muscles looked like they were about to rip his clothes off.
13:04His eyes were burning.
13:06All animal.
13:07No human.
13:08But as soon as our eyes locked,
13:09a flicker of blue light flashed in his eyes.
13:12He got closer to me and cupped my face.
13:15You are different.
13:17The ceremony will now begin!
13:21We exchanged the bond tokens.
13:24Blood on both sides.
13:25The bond snapped into place.
13:27The nightmare dimension opened instantly and swallowed us both.
13:31I closed my eyes and waited to die.
13:34When I opened my eyes again,
13:35I was overtaken by the view.
13:39Not darkness.
13:41Not pain.
13:42Trees.
13:42Dense.
13:43Ancient.
13:44Green.
13:45A stream so clear I could count the stones at the bottom.
13:49A spotted deer drinking at the bank.
13:51This wasn't what the nightmare dimension was supposed to look like.
13:55And Alaric was gone.
13:57I turned in a slow circle.
13:59No dragon.
14:00No hulking rogue state predator.
14:03Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:05I looked down.
14:07A tiny white snake.
14:09Transparent scales.
14:11Two small, delicate horns catching the light.
14:15Everyone who'd ever studied beast man biology could recognize those horns.
14:20Alaric.
14:21Reduced to his infant form.
14:23Small enough to fit in my palm.
14:25As long as there was breath, there was a way out.
14:27I carried baby Alaric through the valley.
14:32Trying every technique I knew.
14:35Healing herbs.
14:36Binding chance.
14:38Energy redirection.
14:39Nothing worked.
14:40He stayed small.
14:41His red light pulsed faintly, but never faded.
14:44I gave up for the night and went foraging instead.
14:48In the morning, I woke up with something heavy on my chest.
14:53Baby Alaric had coiled himself on top of me at some point in the night and was fast asleep.
14:57Rising and falling with my breathing.
15:01I picked him up by the scruff.
15:04I don't know what you heard about mate binding,
15:07but sleeping on top of people is generally considered a personal boundary violation.
15:12He stared at me, completely unapologetic.
15:15His tail, however, slowly turned red.
15:25His tiny horns flushed darker as I kept holding them.
15:29I raised an eyebrow.
15:30I spent the next ten minutes poking his horns until he'd turned fully pink.
15:34Only then did I put him down.
15:35Satisfied.
15:37I went back to trying to fix him.
15:39Nothing worked.
15:40I pulled some leaves off a low branch and shredded them while I thought.
15:44One leaf caught my skin.
15:45Blood welled from a clean slice across my fingertip.
15:48Before I could move, Alaric flicked his tongue and licked the wound.
15:52The bleeding stopped.
15:54The cut started closing.
15:55Then he convulsed.
15:56I scrambled for medicine.
16:00Useless.
16:01Because he was already growing.
16:05The feral curse, gone.
16:07He was healed.
16:09We could go home.
16:11But he was also the most famous, coldest, most untouchable alpha in the territory.
16:17And I had spent the last two days poking him and calling him a personal boundary violator.
16:24I didn't get to figure out.
16:25He'd already shifted back to human form and landed in front of me.
16:30He was exactly as described.
16:32Sharp jaw.
16:32Cold eyes.
16:34The kind of face that made people get out of his way before they knew why.
16:39Samara.
16:40Are you familiar with a prophecy passed down through dragon bloodlines?
16:45Can't say I am.
16:46Only the goddess can break the curse.
16:49That he knew my real name or what he was calling me.
16:52I've examined the surrounding space.
16:54This isn't the nightmare dimension.
16:56It's a separate realm.
16:58One that appears to belong to you.
17:01I had a private dimension.
17:03I, Samara.
17:05The uglier twin, the spare.
17:07The girl who couldn't get a lizard beast man to bond with her, had a private dimension.
17:12We returned to the city.
17:14The streets stopped.
17:15The misogs.
17:17I went straight to Finn's estate.
17:20Alaric walked in beside me.
17:23I looked at my sister.
17:26Finn and Sienna were in the morning hall, performing grief in front of the assembled guests.
17:31Sienna.
17:32The name on that banner is wrong.
17:34The one who bonded with the dragon was me.
17:37Samara.
17:38Not you.
17:38Prove it!
17:39How do we know you're even Samara?
17:41I smiled.
17:42I raised my hand.
17:45Sienna's birthmark.
17:47The one she'd painted on her face to impersonate me.
17:51Dissolved.
17:52I already knew she wouldn't have actually damaged herself.
17:55She sent her own sister to die in her place.
17:58How is Samara's face?
18:02The heartwood.
18:03Finn had it the whole time.
18:09The feral curse.
18:11It's lifted?
18:12You can't possibly be walking around if it's not.
18:14You'd tear this city apart.
18:18The curse is gone, Finn.
18:20Samara cured it.
18:23The entire room pivoted to look at me like a single organism.
18:27Finn looked like he'd been hit.
18:29Alaric, you don't have to protect her.
18:31I know my sister.
18:35I'm not protecting her.
18:37Samara is the goddess our bloodline's prophecy describes.
18:41Her blood neutralizes the feral curse.
18:44Finn's hand tightened on Sienna's arm.
18:47Did you forget, Finn?
18:49Your feral curse broke the same way.
18:52Sienna who saved you that winter.
18:55It was me.
19:02I left that sentence in the middle of the room, like a lit match, and walked out with Alaric.
19:08The best revelations are the ones you don't finish.
19:11Life in Alaric's estate was the best 17 days of my entire existence.
19:15Food brought to me.
19:16Warm rooms.
19:18No one spitting on the ground where I walked.
19:20Then the requests started coming.
19:22Word had spread.
19:23A rogue beast man, a fire fox, had been brought to the gates.
19:27People wanted proof.
19:28Alaric and I looked at each other.
19:30Perfect timing.
19:31The crowd outside was enormous.
19:33I walked to the fire fox without hurrying, ignoring the way his curse form snarled at me,
19:38and drew a clean line across my palm.
19:41A few drops of blood.
19:42His throat.
19:43He screamed and convulsed.
19:45The crowd turned on me instantly.
19:47She's a monster.
19:48That birthmark was a sign all along.
19:51And she's poisoning him.
19:52I don't answer.
19:53I don't negotiate with panic.
19:55Alaric stepped in front of me.
19:57One look.
19:57That was all he did.
19:58One look at the crowd.
20:00And every voice stopped.
20:01I watched his back.
20:02The width of his shoulders.
20:04The steadiness of his stance.
20:05And something warm cracked open in my chest.
20:0817 years.
20:10First time someone stepped in front of me.
20:12The fire fox stopped convulsing.
20:14The red light faded.
20:15He blinked.
20:16Calm.
20:16Recognizably himself.
20:18The person who'd been loudest about poisoning him now looked like they might faint.
20:22Started moving through the crowd like a wave.
20:25Within a week.
20:25My name was on every street in the city.
20:28Sienna.
20:28I heard.
20:29Hadn't left Finn's estate in days.
20:31The neighborhood children had discovered she made an excellent moving target.
20:35I was not sorry.
20:37A servant announced a visitor one evening.
20:39I already knew who it was before I reached the hall.
20:42Sienna.
20:42On her knees.
20:43Samara.
20:44Tell them you went willingly.
20:45Please.
20:46Just issue a statement.
20:47She was pale.
20:48Shaking.
20:49Still managing to make it sound like a command.
20:51My voice came out very quiet.
20:53Give me one reason.
20:55You watched them torment me for 18 years and said nothing.
20:59You knew I was the one who healed Finn.
21:01And you let him fawn over you anyway.
21:03And then you sent me to die in your place.
21:06Her mouth moved.
21:07No sound came out.
21:09She grabbed the hem of my sleeve and pulled like a child.
21:12Alaric had her escorted out.
21:14The moment he appeared in the doorway.
21:15Something in me simply gave.
21:17The tears came without warning.
21:19I couldn't stop them.
21:20Didn't try.
21:21Alaric pulled me in without a word.
21:23I cried so hard I couldn't breathe.
21:2518 years of it.
21:27Finally out.
21:28I woke up in bed.
21:29Alaric was beside me.
21:31Asleep.
21:31I remembered distantly grabbing his sleeve and refusing to let go as I passed out.
21:36My face was on fire.
21:38I had approximately 5 seconds to be mortified before a servant announced another visitor.
21:43Finn!
21:44He stood in the receiving room looking wrecked like he hadn't slept.
21:47His eyes found my face and stayed there unblinking full of something painful.
21:52Samara I'm so glad you're alive.
21:54You have interesting timing Finn.
21:56I'm only alive because you swapped me for Sienna.
21:59So technically I have you to thank?
22:01Samara every word you say right now is a blade.
22:04Good.
22:05I turned to leave.
22:06He caught my wrist.
22:07Mara.
22:07My old name.
22:08The short version.
22:09The one he'd used before he stopped seeing me.
22:11I hadn't heard it in years.
22:13Finn.
22:13You didn't lose me.
22:14You put me down a long time ago.
22:16I'm the one who finally stopped waiting for you to pick me back up.
22:19Finn and Sienna stayed away after that.
22:22What they didn't stay away from was a scheme.
22:25Rumors spread.
22:27A second goddess had appeared.
22:29One more generous than me.
22:31No conditions.
22:32No questions about character.
22:34And apparently effective.
22:36I sat in Alaric's garden eating candied plums.
22:40And genuinely could not find it in me to care.
22:43But I noticed something.
22:46Dead animals kept appearing outside the city walls.
22:49Strange variety.
22:51Wrong season.
22:52Sienna.
22:54Sienna, if you actually had this ability, you would have used it before tonight.
22:58Alaric's people quietly investigated.
23:00The count of dead animals matched the count of beastmen Sienna claimed to have healed.
23:05Exactly.
23:07She'd been extracting beastmen Sienna's people.
23:10Killing animals to fake a cure.
23:13She was arrested within a week.
23:15I went to see her before sentencing.
23:18She was barely recognizable.
23:20Dirty.
23:21Small.
23:22The careful performance of herself completely gone.
23:28This is your fault, Samara.
23:30You sent Alaric after me.
23:32I didn't.
23:33But go on.
23:34You, you and your goddess title, you ruined everything.
23:39And Finn is throwing me out.
23:42Dissolving the bond.
23:44He's leaving me to die.
23:46I went still.
23:48Sienna, what you did to me, that only hurt me.
23:51What you did to those beastmen, to this city, that was bigger than both of us.
23:55The reason you're here isn't me.
23:57It's every choice you made when you thought nobody was watching.
24:01She was still screaming when I left.
24:03She died three days later.
24:05I had her remains collected.
24:08Whatever she was to me at the end, she was still the person I grew up beside.
24:13Then Finn appeared at the gate, and every inch of him was glowing.
24:17The feral curse taking hold.
24:20He didn't ask for my blood.
24:29Before I lose myself completely, let this feather find the person it belongs to.
24:33I recognized it immediately.
24:36Finn, do you know what the last thing Sienna ever said to me to me was?
24:40The lizard who rejected me?
24:42You arranged that.
24:44You sent someone to him the night before.
24:46You made sure I had no options left so I'd have to stay within reach.
24:51That night, Alaric came to my room and set a dragon scale on my desk without a word.
24:55I pushed it back three times.
24:58His face went darker with each refusal.
25:02I took the scale.
25:06Alaric's estate was enormous.
25:07I spent two weeks learning the layout and still opened the wrong door half the time.
25:11One wrong door led me to a room full of dried flowers.
25:15Thousands of them.
25:15Every variety.
25:17Pressed.
25:17Labeled.
25:18Arranged in careful rows.
25:19After my mother died, I'd go out before dawn and pick whatever was blooming.
25:24Then spend the hot part of the day hawking them in the market.
25:27Until one morning, a house steward appeared and said his employer was very pleased with my work
25:32and wanted ten full baskets delivered daily.
25:34I had never seen the employer's face.
25:36It was Alaric.
25:38I summoned him to the main hall that evening.
25:40He stood in the center of them, unsure what to do with his hands.
25:44I didn't realize dragons had so many quirks.
25:47Sleeping on people's chests.
25:50Collecting flowers.
25:51Truly a complex inner life.
25:53Alaric.
25:54When we were little, you used to follow me around and call me Big Sis.
25:58I know I told you to stop once we were grown.
26:00I lied.
26:01I liked it.
26:04I looked at him.
26:06Waiting.
26:08He didn't move for a long, agonizing moment.
26:13Big Sis.
26:14We'd met before Finn.
26:15Before any of this.
26:16Him for being born without dragon horns.
26:18Me for the mark on my face.
26:19Left in the mountains to survive or die.
26:21He arrived after me.
26:22So obviously, I adopted him immediately.
26:25We lived like that for years.
26:27Looking out for each other.
26:28Then his horns grew in.
26:30His family came to collect him.
26:32He didn't want to go.
26:33They tied him up.
26:34They told him if he fought it, they'd come back and kill me.
26:38They left to protect me.
26:39He found me again years later in the market.
26:44He was too afraid to approach.
26:46Afraid his presence would put me in danger.
26:49So he bought all my flowers instead.
26:53Every single day.
26:54At triple the market rate.
26:56He agreed to bond with Sienna because he knew what Finn was planning.
27:00He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
27:02He knew the swap was coming.
27:04He let himself be exposed to the feral curse of my family to give me a way out.
27:08His own family found out and took it for them.
27:10An investment in keeping the dragon estate's power centralized in the younger side.
27:13He nearly died.
27:15So did I.
27:16And we both came out the other side.
27:19I turned the dragon scale over in my hands.
27:22A reverse scale I'd found out.
27:24The most sensitive point on a dragon's body.
27:26The thing they guard most carefully.
27:28He'd given it to me in a panic.
27:30Terrified, I'd changed my mind.
27:32I pressed up on my toes and kissed his horn.
27:36You absolute idiot, I said smiling.
27:39Why didn't you just tell me?
27:42He picked me up without any further discussion and carried me inside.
27:46I learned that night, thoroughly and at length, that dragon horns are not, in fact, for casual affectionate kissing.
27:57Life after that was sweet.
27:59Genuinely, embarrassingly sweet.
28:02Except for the bird.
28:03The phoenix had started appearing in the tree outside my window.
28:06Wherever I went, it followed.
28:08Said nothing.
28:09Just watched.
28:12Fin had disappeared.
28:13Some said dead.
28:14Some said he'd left the territory entirely.
28:17Today was my bond ceremony with Alaric.
28:20Some stories end with a bang.
28:22Mine ended with a bird being firmly escorted off the property.
28:27Works for me.
28:28Five days after.
28:32Seven days after.
28:33Six days after.
28:36Six days after.
28:37Seven days after.
28:37Seven days after.
28:38Deliver your attention.
28:38Seven days after.
28:38You
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