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@gabriellepollack The day was sweet and sunny, and Stan and I were traipsing along the bridges between the treehouses of Avensbeck. Stan was whistling a super annoying tune, but I didn’t mind because I was admiring all the swaying treehouses and towering trees, their distant tops swaying slightly in the breeze.

“Emotion,” I said dreamily.

“What?” Stan abruptly stopped whistling and craned his neck at me. “What do you mean?”

“So volatile,” I said. “Like an ocean on the edge of storm. It flares up. And when it does, nothing survives its power.”

“You mean anger?” Stan asked. He thumped his tail on the bridge and made it sway slightly, so I threw out a hand to balance myself.

“I mean anything,” I said. “Love. Hate. Anger. Desire. So illogical, and yet so fundamental…”

Stan scratched himself behind the ear and continued traipsing along the bridge. “Yeah,” he replied. “Very fundamental.”

I followed him slowly, with my eyes half closed, sucking in the sweet scents of leaves and wildflowers. But as I walked, a terrible screeching broke the blissful silence. I shook myself from my reverie and frowned.

“It’s the monkeys,” Stan called. “They’re coming.”

“Rats,” I said. “That’s nasty. Do we have to fight them?”

Stan lifted one scaly, draconic eye-spine. “With me around, Sam? Honestly?”

“Well…” I swallowed. It was not a good idea to question Stan’s fearsome powers.

Luckily, the monkeys saved me, because at that moment a whole flock of them bounded down onto the bridge, shrieking and hollering, and I had to turn around and face them. They certainly were aglow with emotion, because they were running at Stan and I like we had kidnapped their offspring.

“Do you duty, Stan,” I said, stepping aside as the bridge rocked and the monkeys approached.

Stan howled one of his heavy metal death screams and charged down the bridge, baring his fangs and lashing with his claws. The monkeys stopped screaming as he approached, and then came to a halt entirely and stared nervously at Stan as he charged them down.

Licking my lips, I turned to make sure none of the monkeys were looking at me. Then I climbed over the side of the bridge and hooked my fingers into the ropes on its underside. The rope chafing my skin, I hauled myself down the bridge and came to the place where the monkeys were huddled. I peeped my head up to survey them.

Stan was still howling and growling at them, moving slowly down the bridge like a cat relishing its prey. The monkeys were pressing together tightly now and their eyes were wide.

Seizing the moment, I swung back up onto the bridge, roared, and grabbed one of the biggest monkeys, who was standing all the way at the back of the huddled circle.

The monkeys squealed when they saw me and instantly their huddle broke apart, like a paper circle tearing in half. They dashed in a dozen directions, but I grasped the biggest one and held him firm by his very large ears.

He struggled as I dragged him across the bridge, but I was able to throw him over the side. He squealed as he descended into the shadows.

I had to double over and clap my hands over my ears because the other monkeys screamed so loud when they saw where their leader had gone. When I straightened up again, they had all disappeared. I turned to Stan and gave him a sunny smile.

He frowned at me.

“Was that really necessary?” He asked.

I held my hands up in surrender and grinned. “I thought you were the fierce one, Stan? What happened to you? Besides, there’s rope down there. He’ll be fine.”

Stan shook his head and let his tail fall onto the surface of the bridge, and I waved my hand gleefully into the distance where the monkeys had gone.

“You know what I just demonstrated, Stan?” I asked.

“What?”

I turned to him and let a somewhat wicked expression attach itself to my face.

“Change of emotion,” I said. “It goes from fear to timidity in… moments.”

Stan brightened up and gave me a toothy grin. “That means in a few moments I might be fierce,” he smiled.

I clasped him on his spiny back and gazed out at the trees of Avensbeck. “Just don’t learn to breathe fire. This whole forest is woefully susceptible to that draconic ability…”