Riven's Story - II
When John's wife came, I went back to my city, to my rambling flat full of friends. But something had changed while I was gone--my friends were friends no longer. They fought and screamed and blamed each other for misfortune. Soon after that, our dragon landlord said we all must leave.

I found myself living alone in a basement and desperately seeking a new job. I spent a great deal of time at an old mansion across the square--it was now used as an art museum and housed some paintings that I count among my oldest friends.

In each room there was a young or not so young person, who's job was simply to sit there and guard the paintings. I thought perhaps that was a job that I could learn to do. But many of these people seemed to be made of cardboard, and I did not want to become a cardboard person, even if it meant that I could live among my painted friends.

One day I entered a room in the museum and found a woman sitting there, watching my favorite painting as though she wished to memorize it. She was small and elfin looking, with short dark hair and pointed ears.

I thought she was a museum guard, one of the cardboard people. I thought it was quite odd, for she was definitely not made of cardboard. I don't know how I knew this, but I knew.

I moved on to the next room, and there was John. "Come meet my wife," he said.

I've heard it said that two women under one man's roof means trouble. I can tell you, from my personal experience, that it can mean friendship, love and joy.

How did it end? I don't know--suffice it to say it ended. One day I looked at him and was surprised to find my heart locked firmly in my chest. It was as though something had evaporated overnight.

I began seeking other company, spending time with friends my own age. We went to concerts in the park by daylight, explored a dark and frightening city by night. There was one terrifying night I felt myself surrounded by demons and vampires, then later learned a woman had been killed not far from me in the most horrifying circumstances imaginable. There was a wonderful, bright boy, with long blond hair that seemed to glow and wrapped around him like a golden cloak--I often wonder where that boy is now, I hope that he is happy.

John and his wife wanted me to come to England with them. I said I would, then changed my mind. They left me in the company of a dragon, an old and trusted friend of theirs. I stayed there for a while, learning a great deal and caring for his children.

His wife had changed herself into a coyote and now traveled about with a gypsy theater troupe--sometimes she would come back for a visit, hug the children, and ask me why I was wasting my time there in his cave when the world was so much wider outside. I thought about her words, decided I should find someone that I could really love, someone who would be mine alone. I left his cave--although the children cried and begged for me to stay--and found a city full of hills that sparkled through the fog.

There was a Chinese boy I thought might be the one, but he was not. A wounded bear I longed to love but feared too much. A gypsy prince, with whom I traveled far and wide. And, finally, a warrior who bore me off to settle in a house beside the sea. But those are other stories--I will tell them to you later.