The dragon was impressed by this, and agreed. It allowed the young man to cut off its horns, which would grow back, so the dragon wasn't really losing anything. It sent the young man off with its horns, so he could win the hand of his true love.

When the cobbler returned with the dragon's horns, however, the king had a furious fit. It had been his hope that the young man would die in the attempt to get the horns, and he had no intention of letting his daughter marry the young commoner. He arrested the young man and threw him in the dungeon, and then ordered him to be hanged the next day.

That day came, despite the pleading of the king's daughter, and the young man found himself standing on the gallows at dawn, with a noose around his neck. The king watched on with smug satisfaction as the young man cast his last goodbyes to his true love with his eyes-

"That's not fair!" Jasana cried. "After he did what he was told to do, it's not fair!"

"If you'd stop shouting and let me finish the story, you'll find out what happens," Tarrin told her mildly as Jesmind stirred the stew, watching on with a gentle kind of happiness. "Where were we?"

"You know where we were!" she cried out.

"Be nice," he murmured, finding his place. "Here we are. And so Aran stood on the gallows, with the executioner holding the handle that would send him under the platform, send him spiralling into the Realm Beyond, when there was suddenly a great crashing cry. The earth shook, and the sky darkened as the sun was blotted out. The crowd, the princess, the king, everyone looked up into the darkened sky, and they all saw a terrible sight. It was a dragon! A monstrous beast it was, taking up the entire sky as it descended towards them, smoke and fire billowing from its mouth.

"It landed in the square to the cries and panicked flight of the citizens of the town, taking up the entirety of it with its great size, and cast a baleful gaze at the king. The king stared at the beast in horror, and to his surprise and dismay, he saw that the dragon had lost its horns! The king realized that the young cobbler had managed to get the horns without killing the beast, and he feared that the dragon was there to take revenge!' Falling to his knees before the great beast, the king raised its hands and pleaded with the beast. 'O Great and Terrible Dragon!' he called in a pleading voice, 'please spare us your wrath! We have already captured the one the stole your horns, and were going to punish him! Please, take him and spare us!'

"The dragon, of course, fully understood what was going on. It rose up and gave a great cry, shivering its wings, displaying its mighty power to all who beheld it. It then looked back down at the king, its great red eyes burning, smoke issuing from its mouth and nostrils as it spoke in reply. 'Kind Aran came to me in humility and honesty, begging my horns so that he could be wed to his true love,' the dragon proclaimed in a voice that shook the town. 'I suspected your treachery, human, so I came to make sure that it was a bargain made in full faith! If you want to avoid my wrath, you will honor your promise and allow your daughter to marry!'

"This confused and shocked the king, who trembled and cowered before the great creature. But though his intent was foul and dark, the gentle light of the love that the young man shared with his daughter shone through the darkness of his plan, casting its warmth upon his soul, and he relented. 'As you command, O Great Dragon,' he replied to the beast with sincerity. 'I will honor my vow, and my daughter will marry him.'"

"Aww," Jasana hummed. "That's very nice."

"I've always thought so," Tarrin agreed, then he continued. "And so it was that Aran the cobbler was married to Princess Dianne in the very square in which he was nearly hanged. And among those present at that happy occasion were the king and the dragon itself, who had come down from its mountain peak to see the fruits of true love realized. The kingdom of Deepwell prospered under the kind rule of Aran and Dianne, and the little town of Deepdale was often visited by a kindly and friendly dragon, who became a great friend to all of Deepwell. And that's the end, kitten," he told her, closing the book. "Did you like it?"

"Umm," she hummed, putting her paws on the book. "I really liked the dragon. It seemed very nice."

"Yes it did. It just goes to show you, kitten, you can't always judge people by how they look. Aran didn't see the dragon as a great and terrible monster, it saw it as someone he could talk to. And he was right. It turned out that the dragon was a very kind and gentle creature, but he'd never had known that if he would have tried to fight it for its horns."

"I really liked that. I thought he was going to try to fight it."

"He knew he couldn't win, but Aran was smart enough to know that there's always more than one way to try to do something, kitten."

"Umm."

"Dinner's ready, you two," Jesmind told them, pulling the kettle off the fire with a damp rag to protect her paw from the heat.

"Alright," Tarrin replied, scooting Jasana off his lap. "Go put that book away and come to dinner, cub," he told her.

"Yes, papa," she said obediently, padding off into Jenna's old room.

"I see you enjoyed reading to her," Jesmind said as he stood up.

"I've never done that for my own child before," he said, kind of dreamily. "It's alot better than I thought it would be."

"It always is," she smiled. "Get the bread out of the oven, Tarrin. It's done."

Tarrin went over to the fireplace, to the door over the opening for the fire that held the brick oven. He opened it with a wooden dowel hanging on the hearth, then used a flatboard hanging by the fire to withdraw the piping loaf of bread. He set it down on the breadplate on the table, then hung the flatboard back on its peg on the hearth. "I didn't have an oven like that at my old cottage," Jesmind said. "It's very handy."

"You'll think it's primitive when I get one of those Tellurian stoves," he told her absently. "It's alot easier than cooking over a fire."

"Oh?" she said with a sudden smile. "Where will we put it?"

"We'll have to knock out some of the counter, but there's room for it," he answered. "Mother had been wanting one. Father was about to get her one before everything happened."

"So you're getting one for her?" Jesmind said with an edge in her voice that Tarrin didn't miss.

"I'm getting one for you," he told her calmly. "That mother will be able to use it is simply an added bonus."

"Oh, well, that's very nice," she almost purred, coming over to him and rising on her toes, then giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Be careful, or we'll start acting like a couple of old married humans."

"I think we already are," he admitted with a wry chuckle.

"I see you've calmed down alot since this morning," she smiled.

"I guess I have. I'm very glad I decided to stop over for a while."

"Well, I'm glad to have you, Tarrin," she said. "I'm always glad to have you."

"That's good to know," he told her. "I'm going to miss this place when I leave. This has always been home to me, no matter where I was or what I was doing."

"I know. That's why we're here."

"Why is that?"

"Because I knew this was where you'd come when you were done," she said calmly, but he could hear, sense, the admission, the emotion, tied up in that simple statement. She had her back to him, getting dishes out of the cupboard, and he stared at her for a long moment. What was more, for the first time since coming back, he really studied Jesmind's scent. A scent could not lie, no matter how hard one tried, and it told him a great deal. She was more than a little nervous, rather unsettled despite how calm she looked, and underneath it all was a continual, almost habitual attempt to lure him with her scent, a response she was trying with all her might to control, to hide from him. He could tell that too.