"Yes, really. I. Look. I don't really care that much about whether or not I can fly in my natural form," he says. "Racing scoots is more than enough for me. It'd be nice, but so would being a unique, you know? And between the two I'd go for being a unique first, no question. So... the only reasons to stop being a shren are the chance I might infect somebody, and purely to stop being a shren. And there's no fucking way I'm going to do it purely to stop being a shren. All that's left is contagion, and... and I don't know, Finnah. I just don't fucking know."

"Yeah," he says quietly. "Fuck, does it ever. But that's just it, don't you see? I can't let it win. If I stop being a shren just to get away from that, I'm letting it win."

"I don't want to beat my head against the wall that is fucking Draconic for forever. It's not like it's going to be smug and tell all its friends if I let it win."

"Yeah, well," says Mial, "it's been said that I have trouble knowing when to quit."

"Noooo, really, you?" snorts Finnah.

"I know, it must come as such a shock." He sighs. "Anyway. I'll think about it, I guess. Until they show up. Whenever that is. Just... don't be surprised if I say no."

"What about being contagious? If you ever lose a form?"

"That's the only reason I haven't yet decided to say no," he says. "And... I mean... if these people don't mean to just leave all the future striped eggs in the lurch, their miracles must be renewable, right? So - even if I lose a form, even if I lose a form around a dragon in their natural form - it's not nearly as bad as it could've been. I'm keeping the extra safety spells on my scoot, mind you. I'm not going to be careless about it."

"Mm-hm." Finnah rolls over to sun her other side. "Well - don't be surprised when I take it instantly."

"Yeah. Have fun being a miracle."

"Oh, will do. I'm going to fly to the sun and go for a swim."

He laughs.

"I'm going to buy a saddle and take hot girls on aerial tours," she adds. "I'm going to go to Dragon Island and check out that firepit Aurin's mentioned."

"And I'm going to keep racing scoots and inciting obnoxious letters to editors," snorts Mial.

"I bet they get slightly less repetitive when you are The Last Shren," says Finnah.

"Shit, they'll be lining up to interview me on that basis alone. At last, the fame I deserve."

"...No," he admits. "I sort of distantly hinted at it a little bit. I said 'I need to think about this' and not, say, 'hooray!'."

"...I know your dad is your dad as opposed to, say, my mom, but that makes me extremely nervous, does that make you even slightly nervous?"

"My dad... is very much my dad," says Mial. "I don't know. He's never - he even says 'dragonish', you know? Basically only to me, but still. He gave up his line name for me. I don't feel like I have a reason to be nervous."

"He's... he's your dad. I dunno though. My mom got divorced over me, and then... And the very degree the miracle-workers show up on our doorstep any further time we spend being shrens is more our fault than all the previous decades put together."

"Well, now it's going to bug me until I go talk to him. Might as well get it over with," he says, getting up and dusting himself off.

"Sorry," calls Finnah.