Yilina barely made it through dinner. She was exhausted. Nim and Jo were gracious hosts and helped her to not feel or look too out of place. And they hadn’t minded that she wanted to sleep. Her body seemed to want to follow the Ventarian sun, which had likely set long ago. She looked around the room. She’d never slept indoors. Unicorns didn’t have buildings. If the weather was bad, they slept under trees or in caves. She decided she could pretend this was a cave. She ignored the furniture, took true form, and curled up on the floor. *** Jo returned to their receiving room after checking on Kory. “How’s he doing?” Carry asked. “He’s fine. He had kicked off the covers,” Jo assured her. “It sounds like Yilina’s asleep.” “First, dragons, then elves, now unicorns.” Carry shook her head. “How are you handling it?” Jo asked. “Better than I would have thought. We’re not postponing the wedding.” “Good.” Jo nodded. “Oh, John, that’s all ten.” John frowned. “All ten what?” “All ten resolutions.” “I don’t have Nim’s memory. You’ll have to…” Then his eyes grew wide. “You mean Rob’s resolutions?” Jo nodded. “It took a while, but I did them all.” “Who’s Rob?” Nim frowned. “A friend. He throws a crazy New Year’s party every year. I took Jo once. Part of the party is to make up ten New Year’s resolutions. They start off simple and get crazier the more everyone drinks.” “You never took me,” Carry protested. “Your dad’s a fed.” “So?” “So not all of Rob’s investments are legal. He helped me get a few fake papers I needed.” “So what were the resolutions?” Nim asked. “It started off with walking five steps and trying a new food,” Jo said. “I had those done on New Year’s Day. Then it was read a book and give someone advice. Those are easy. Take a picture of someplace exotic. I did that at Ann and Andy’s wedding. Then they start getting crazy. Go lion hunting was next.” “What’s wrong with that?” Nim frowned. “In Chicago?” Jo challenged him. “Nim took me hunting once and we went after a lion. Then it was to touch a unicorn. Yilina and I shook hands.” “What about riding a flame?” John asked. “How could you do that?” “Have you seen Nim in the sun? He looks like a flame,” Jo insisted. “Besides, Nimitinas means sun and Dentrias means flame,” Nim pointed out. “And you kissed a dragon or two.” John nodded. “Two?” Nim growled. “You kissed my wife?” “We dated for several months. She didn’t tell you that?” “No, she didn’t.” Nim frowned at Jo. “You said you didn’t want to hear about my past boyfriends.” “I said your lovers. You didn’t sleep with him.” “Sort of I did.” Nim growled and Carry looked at John. “You said you only slept with Isabella and Emma.” “I did,” John insisted. “We didn’t sleep together.” “Sure we did, twice. Well, the first time, I slept. You didn’t. You made sure no one pranked me at the party.” John relaxed. “That’s not funny. She means literal sleep. She fell asleep at the New Year’s party. Then we fell asleep one time while watching a movie. We didn’t have sex, never even came close. Then she dumped me. We didn’t even start bonding.” “Bonding?” Jo frowned. “You were trying to bond with me?” “I was hoping, but it didn’t happen. And then I found someone better.” He hugged Carry. Carry smiled. “Your loss.” Jo laughed. “I don’t think so. I got the better mate.” She leaned against Nim and he let out a purr. “That was only nine,” Carry said. “What?” John asked. “That was nine resolutions.” Jo frowned. “What did I forget?” John thought a moment. “Chase a rainbow.” “You just had to add that didn’t you?” Jo asked. “You included that?” Nim asked. “And I suppose you added kiss a dragon too.” “No Rob added that. I said chase a rainbow and pet a unicorn. I was drunk at the time.” “Probably a little stoned too,” Jo added. “Second hand smoke and some of those snacks.” “Maybe the smoke. I avoided those snacks.” “And this is a friend of yours?” Carry asked. “Hiding the fact that I’m over 2000 years old isn’t easy these days. I needed help.” “So this Rob knew you weren’t human?” Nim asked. John nodded. “I trusted him. And I knew where he buried his bodies.” He turned to Carry. “Not literally.” She nodded. “And I owe him my skin.” Carry frowned. “You what?” “The next time I shed, he wants my skin.” “Eww.” “It’s just like leather, but it wears better and you don’t have to kill the cow.” Carry raised an eyebrow. “You wear leather,” he pointed out. “I never dated a cow.” “So you don’t want to come help me when I shed?” She looked at him like he was crazy. So did Nim. “You want someone there?” Most dragons wanted privacy. “Want? No. But it’s been over twenty years. I’m going to get sick and I’m going to need help.” “I wouldn’t know what to do,” Carry said. “You peel it like a sunburn and you try to get very large pieces. The healers say it’s going to be a while yet. Don’t worry.” “Have you done it?” Carry asked Jo. Jo shook her head. “Nim hasn’t shed since we met.” “It’s getting close. Lamdi messed me up when she did that healing.” “What happened?” “I was hit by a lightning bolt when I was a child and it never healed right. It was starting to cause problems so the healers did surgery to repair it. Lamdi thought it was taking too long to heal on its own. And you saw the burn scar on my arm. She healed them both using emergency healing. She was barely trained back then so it was pretty rough. I’m lucky she didn’t do any permanent damage.” “So what about the rainbow?” Carry asked. “Ann’s iridescent. She’s a rainbow,” Jo decided. John nodded. “I say it counts. I’ll have to tell Rob someone actually finished their resolutions. I’m sure there’s some title for it.”