"Where am I?" Max asked.

"In a cave," said the frog-thing cheerfully.

That was less than helpful, but Max let it go. "I fell in the lake..."

"Yes, you did. And I had been sleeping quite peacefully right up until then. Do you often fall into people's bedrooms and need rescuing?"

"You told me that you have magical powers and then you turned invisible," Jim said. "Things like that don’t happen to me. How did you think I would react?"

"You walked out on me." Zane flinched inwardly at the naked hurt in his own voice. "I thought you’d come back, but you didn’t."

"I’m back now." Jim’s expression softened.

"Three days later," Zane said. "You can’t convince me it took you that long to think about it."

Jim sighed and said, "I’m a slow thinker. I’m sorry."

Slowly, he turned back to look at the tree. The shape tied to it blurred and jumped and took on form. A man hung from a high branch by his left ankle. His right leg crossed his left, ankle behind knee. He was naked and bleeding from a wound just below his ribcage. His hair was still nothing but shadows that hung to the ground, his eyes still nothing but light.

"Are you--" Alive? Dead? Human? "All right?" Micah ventured. His voice was small and smothered by a silence as thick as smoke. The man didn't answer, but Micah thought he moved his hand. A gesture to come closer? Micah assumed yes and, since he couldn't run away, he did.

There were two princes. People forget that now, for the older one got into the stories and was remembered, however imperfectly. The younger vanished from sight and from men's minds, his family and people forgetting him even as he rode through the castle portcullis for the last time. Only his twin brother remembered him, even after the whole country had forgotten.

Getting access to China and the province, as well as hiring guides and a team willing to go with him on such a hunt, was much more difficult. As far as he was concerned, though, it was worth it, even if they only caught a glimpse of the legendary beast.

Finding a half-naked man in his tent that first night was worth it, too.

Azhar has touched water like this before: surface water. But the water he has touched was all surface, only shallow. He longs for more now, but he doesn't know how it would work, to be in the water. He is not a merman, nor even a fake merman; Azhar does not think he would float, and he is certain his body would not know how to breathe water. So he contents himself with standing outside it, face and hands pressed to the glass, gazing into the depths.

And suddenly, the depths are gazing back.

"You could park just around the corner," someone said right next to him, so close he felt warm breath on his skin. Roy flinched away, lost his balance, and nearly tipped three hundred pounds of shiny red bike onto his leg, but the man shot an arm over his shoulder and gripped the handlebar, steadying him.

"Sorry," he purred into Roy’s ear. "I didn’t mean to startle you. Hi."

"You know, being human isn’t just a matter of the shape you take," Lisa said. "It has to do with interacting with other people. Getting out there and mixing it up."

"Yeah, I know," David admitted.

"So, are you going to go out tonight or not?"

"Yeah, I am," David said. "What have I got to lose at this point?"

"Exactly." Lisa looked relieved, and David could tell that she’d been expecting him to put up more of an argument. "Good. So go put on some pants and take off that dog collar. You’re starting to creep me out."

"Even with every last copper piece I have it is not nearly half of what you asked for." Thomas confessed, and held out the purse in trembling hands. "It is not nearly half, but it is all I have." He was ashamed to hear his voice shake and blushed miserably. "Is there nothing I can offer you to make up the difference? Nothing you would consider taking in its stead?"

Thomas took several frightened steps backwards as the Black Lord dismounted and stalked towards him, stopping only when the Lord reached out to take his chin between strong fingers.

"Would you give me anything I wanted? Anything I asked for?" he asked angrily. "Anything at all?"

Morgan stopped on the road with a sigh. Kingdom law was quite clear that it was any prince's duty to facilitate negotiations between villagers in distress and ravaging dragons. "I don't suppose you have any weapons in the village? Maybe a charging steed?" Henry had always been quite clear on the tools needed to go slaying dragons.

The peasant thought for a moment. "We have a donkey and some shovels."

"I'll go without," Morgan replied quickly.