She slept that night by the shore of the lake. In the morning she woke, feeling refreshed. Sadness still lingered in her. It always would. But she had hope too. Hope for the future. Hope for her own future children, that they might be raised without hearing the word "monster."

She also woke with a sense of decision. If she really was going to unite dragon and human there was one great step she could take, one step she had been avoiding most of her life. She had put it off because she was afraid. Afraid of rejection. Afraid of that word, "monster." But... her mother had known all along. Had known... how long? Serali didn't know. But almost certainly for many years, and she had never shown Serali anything but love. And she had said that Serali would tell her father in her own time. It was time.

She set off back the way she had come, following the road. When the Great Escarpment loomed up before her she continued, curious about where the road would come out. The road led into a massive rift in the cliff wall. The bottom of the narrow canyon that the road followed was dark and shadowed. The road twisted and turned to follow the meandering of a tiny stream that seemed to have carved out the cleft. It sloped steadily upward, crossing the trickle in places on bridges that seemed sized for a great flood. Serali could just barely fly along above the road and was in danger of clipping a wing against a stone wall. The canyon narrowed as it grew shallower and she was soon forced to fly high above the canyon walls. She followed it at last to where it ended in a tumble of stone. She was within only a few miles of Land's End, she recognized the western edge of the very same bluffs that her lair was dug into. And it seemed that a huge section of those bluffs had fallen some time long past and blocked the end of the canyon thoroughly. Which explained why nobody had ever found the road. From above it was hard to tell it was a road, and no one could get down into the canyon to see with the upper end blocked as it was. She shrugged and wheeled around to the east.

Mere minutes later she was at her own lair, hugging Kethro and trying to settle back into her life. There was just one more thing she had to do before she settled down entirely. Taking human form she walked into town. Setting a brisk pace she headed straight for the inn. She walked into the dim front room. Her father was standing behind the bar pouring drinks.

"Papa, I need to talk to you."

"Serali! Where have you been?"

"I'll explain. But I need to talk to you outside, please."

Falio looked as if he was about to say something, then he shrugged and walked around the bar. "Certainly." Standing out in the square he stopped and asked, "What is all this about?"

"You remember what I wanted to tell Mama? She knew already, but I think everyone else ought to know too. I was afraid you might not love me if you found out, but that's silly, so�" she paused trying to think of how to say it. "I know it's kind of hard to believe Papa, but that gold dragon that lives outside of town? I'm her."

"What do you mean Serali?" He was puzzled, his daughter and the dragon so far apart in his mind that the very idea of them being one and the same was confusing.

"Exactly what I said. I'm the dragon, the dragon is me. I always have been. Here, I'll show you."

She took a few steps back, glanced around to make sure no one was in the way, and shifted. Falio took an involuntary step back at the sudden appearance of a dragon in front of him. Bystanders jumped in surprise, and one inebriated man who'd followed Falio out of the inn fell over at the sight.

Serali stood quietly in the middle of the street as people gathered around, whispering the news that Serali and the dragon were one and the same. Falio reached out his hand, an expression of bemusement and wonder on his face, and touched Serali's lowered head, as if he thought she might not be solid.

"Serali?" he asked.

"Yes Papa. It's me."

"My Serali... I never dreamed such a thing! How is it possible?"

She smiled softly at him, not showing her teeth. "I can tell you the whole story. I have been hiding it for so long, it is a relief to be able to tell you at last. I wish I had long ago."

As she told her father her story, and as her siblings and their children, and others from the village gathered around, she felt finally that she really was home. For so long she'd looked for a place where she belonged, but she realized now why she'd never found one. She belonged to both worlds. She couldn't belong among humans when she was pretending she wasn't a dragon, but she couldn't belong among dragons either, pretending she wasn't at all human. She was both, and now, in this place that had always been home, she had made for herself what she had always needed without knowing it, a place where she could be both, without secrets, without pretense.

She was home.

The End