BRUTUS and the dragon of EVERMERE: Benji runaway

The portal had been closed for months, yet the grass still remembered its light. Benji stood at the edge of the field, hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, staring at the place where the air once shimmered and tore itself open. Brutus sat beside him, the old dog's fur stirring in the cool evening breeze. His ears twitched the way they always did when he sensed something Benji couldn't. The sky was fading from orange to violet; the kind of quiet twilight that made the world feel like it was holding its breath. Benji exhaled slowly. "It shouldn't still glow," he whispered. But it did. A faint shimmer, barely visible unless you knew where to look, pulsed in the air above the grass. Not a portal. Not a tear. Just a memory of one - a soft, lingering light that refused to fade. Brutus leaned forward, nose brushing the glowing air. He didn't bark. He didn't growl. He simply watched, as if waiting for something to step through. Benji swallowed. He had promised Evermere he wouldn't return. He had promised the Keeper he would let the worlds heal. He had promised the dragon ... The shimmer brightened. Benji's breath caught. Brutus rose to his feet. The glow stretched, bending the air like heat rising off pavement. "No," Benji whispered. "Not again." But the field didn't listen. The glow pulsed once more, brighter this time, and Benji felt the familiar tug in his chest; the same pull he felt the night Evermere first called to him. Brutus stepped closer, fur bristling. The shimmer flickered. And then, for just a heartbeat, Benji saw it: A scale. Green. Glowing. Pressed against the other side of the fading light. The dragon's scale. The one he thought he'd left behind. The one that should not still glow. Benji's heart pounded. "Brutus..." The dog didn't move. The scale brightened, then vanished as the shimmer collapsed back into nothingness. The field fell silent. Benji stared at the empty air, his pulse racing. The portal was gone. But Evermere was not finished with him. And deep in the grass at his feet, something small and warm pulsed with light. The scale. Still glowing.