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Epilogue

Two Years Later

Charlie rolled over in bed without opening his eyes, reaching out for Ophelia to pull her closer, though it was rare for her to be out of his arms while sleeping. When he found her side of the bed empty, he popped an eye open, frowning slightly. He then sat up and stretched, realizing that the sun was starting to rise, meaning she would most definitely be up.

While he had always thought of himself as an early riser, he was surprised to find that Ophelia almost always got up before him.

And once they moved into the house in Hebrides, well, there was only one place she cared to be in the morning.

Getting out of bed, he slid into his slippers and robe, then stretched as he made his way out of their bedroom and into the large, open living room and kitchen. He stopped for a moment, seeing the sun starting to come up over the horizon and Ophelia standing still out on the large porch, a light robe on and a mug of coffee in her hands. Her light brown hair was down, the summer breeze blowing through it slightly.

He enjoyed the first few moments of every day, when he would walk out and see her standing on the porch, looking out over the Hebrides reserve that they had helped build together. Standing on the porch of the house that he had designed specifically for her. It was the picture he had held in his mind two years ago when they first came to look at the old reserve. This house, the windows, the porch. But most importantly, Ophelia.

With a small smile on his face, he made his way over to the coffee pot and poured his own, then stepped outside, joining her. Even with the breeze cooling the air, he could tell it was going to be a warm day.

"Morning," he said, wrapping his arm around her waist and kissing the side of her head.

She smiled wistfully up at him and then looked back out at the main camp spread out below them. While most of those who lived and worked there were likely still curled in bed, there were a couple signs of people starting to get up and start their days.

"Should go out to check on Colonel before I go into the office," she said, her brow furrowing slightly.

Charlie looked over in the general direction of where Colonel's permanent habitat was located near the top of a small mountain. While within walking distance, he was still a fair way off from the main camp and Charlie didn't think there was a strong chance of any visitors wandering off near there.

"Should be fine," he said, looking back down at her.

"Ye ken how he gets. Worried with so many more folks on the reserve than usual, he'll get a bit testy," she replied, her eyes moving over to Colonel's cave.

"You hardly ever worry about Colonel. You sure this isn't actually about the festival?" Ophelia looked up at him, still frowning slightly. "I've told you thousands of times. Everything is going to be fine. You've spent ages working on this and preparing the staff. There's no reason to think that anything is going to go wrong."

Ophelia rolled her eyes slightly as she looked back out at the reserve.

"Oh, aye. Ye can say that. But anything goes wrong and it's my head," she said, a bit tense.

Charlie sighed and put his mug down on a nearby table, then turned her to face him, wrapping his hands around her waist and forcing her to look up at him.

"How many times have I told you that we're in this together?" he asked.

"Every day," she replied with a sigh. Charlie bent down, kissing her on the forehead.

"Since Day 1, I promised you that we were together in everything," he said. "Besides that, you've done amazing work with the reserve. The anniversary festival is going to go off without a hitch. No one is going to get hurt. In fact, none of the guests will be anywhere near any of the fully grown dragons," Charlie said. "Even with the babies and younger ones, they'll be kept at a safe distance. Really, it's a brilliant idea to celebrate the first year of the reserve and generate more interest."