The trip they'd made on the wing in only a few days took nearly a month to complete on foot at the slow pace of cows, but at last the cattle reached Land's End. The lower plateau that the village itself stood on was already being grazed by the villager's cows, but the bluffs where Serali and Kethro had dug their lair were actually the side of a higher plateau above the first. It was smaller, but the grazing there might actually be a little better. The trail between it and the lower plateau was narrow and winding, but it wasn't too steep for the cows, and though it took quite a while they eventually got the whole herd to the top. Serali perched on the edge of the bluffs in dragon form and looked out over the mesa plain. She smiled. It was a start.

"Thank you," she said to the Kesego.

"You are most welcome," he replied.

The other plainsmen turned their horses and began to pick their way down to the lower plateau. Kesego, however, didn't move to leave with them.

"Shouldn't you go?" said Serali.

He looked up at her. "If you would allow it," he said, "I wish to stay. I wish to try and learn to change forms. And even if I cannot learn that, this thing, that dragons and humans should live together, is a strange thing, and I wish to see it with my own eyes. We do not venture near the places where the plains dragons are. But perhaps we might someday, if it were possible for us to make a peace treaty with them. This would be a good thing."

"I..." Serali looked at him. She had been about to say that as far as she was concerned he was welcome. But he knew her as Serali the human, and as the golden dragon. If he stayed, he might well give away her secret. She sighed. "I would welcome you. Peace between humans and dragons is something that I want very much. But... the people here, they know me as two different people, the human Serali and the golden dragon. They... I don't know if I want them to know they're one and the same, and if I do, I should be the one to tell them, not a stranger."

"Ah." His solemn dark eyes regarded her and he nodded. "But surely if they are willing to let you, the golden dragon, live among them, they will be all the more willing, and happy, to know that you are their human friend also?"

"I... I suppose you might be right." She refolded her wings a bit nervously. "But I'm not sure. I haven't been living here as a dragon very long, and I don't want to risk losing all my friends, and my family, if they decide they don't like dragons after all. I've heard too many humans call me a monster. Maybe in time... but not now."

He nodded again. "Your secret is yours to keep, and I shall not tell it for you. But the shape changing...?"

She smiled. "I don't know if you can learn it, but I will do my best to teach you."

"Thank you," he said simply, and with that he turned his horse to the trail that lead down to the lower plateau. Serali wondered what the villagers would think of him. But if they could get used to a pair of dragons, they surely could get used to one outlander, however odd. And surely they can get used to dragons, she thought, the thought almost a prayer. Surely. Kesego is right. I shouldn't have to hide who I am from them, but I just don't dare tell them yet. But I hope, someday...

She sighed again, and spread her wings to glide down to the base of the bluffs and to her home, her heart full of worries and hopes tangled together.