To have a Dragon's Heart

Chapter 11- The Rescue Team

Malia

“Have you ever had fire worm tea, Jaskar?” Gratala asks warmly. Jaskar shakes his head. “Grab a cup for my collection and I’ll pour you some,” she said. I’ve discovered that dragons often like to collect things that are absolutely useless to them. Gratala’s thing is tea sets. They sit on shelves that cover a wall on her den. They’re all beautiful and must cost a fortune. Many are made by the most well-known craftsmen and are embedded with precious gems. Some are carved from precious gems.

                I silently laugh when I see Jaskar pick a chipped tea cup from the plainest looking tea set. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what was going through his mind. All of these are fit for royalty. (note how he forgets that he’s royalty) I’ll probably break them. Oh look! I’ll take this one.

                Gratala gently takes the cup from his hand. “Oh! I’m sorry, but this is the most important piece in my entire collection and I have to ask that you don’t use it. It was a gift from a friend,” she said. Jaskar nervously picks up a cup with gold drizzle on it and hands it to me so I can pour him some tea. “Who was your friend?” He asks.

                “She was a human actually. A very beautiful girl by the name of Bell. That tea set held a lot of memories of when she first met her husband. He was cursed to look like a monster, they feel in love, and she broke the curse by kissing him. She gave me the tea set a few days before she passed on,” Gratala said, her voice full of fondness with a touch of sorrow.  “I’m sorry to hear about Bell,” I said. “She lived a good life. She spent it happily married to a prince and was one of the best queens her country has seen,” Gratala replied. I hadn’t heard of her, but from the odd-sounding name I could tell her kingdom was far away.

                “They were very lucky to have each other, just like us,” Perntik said. Then he went over to Gratala and rubbed noses with her. Therdash, who laid beside me, snorted. “When did you become romantic, Perntik?” He laughed. Wow, that laugh is awesome. It’s deep and warm at the same time. I love the rumbling quality to it.

                Whoa, come back to reality Malia. Perntik just said something that made everyone laugh and I just missed it. I laugh awkward and rather loudly. Opps. How embarrassing! My laugh echoes through the cave and sounds completely fake. “Um… How about we fix the shelves now?” I ask to draw attention away from the moment. “Sure,” Gratala says, completely unaware that I wasn’t listening. I just made a big deal out of nothing. That keeps happening.

                We’re not just at the cave to drink tea and make fools of ourselves. Perntik was Gratala’s new mate and since she had the larger lair, they thought it would be best for him to move into hers. We were helping them set up the lair. Perntik and Therdash went to one side of the cave and started setting up shelves. Gratala, Jaskar, and me head to the other side to take down tea sets and set them up on the new sets. The new couple had decided to put one collection on one side and the other collection on the other.

                We were all working quietly when Therdash suddenly yelled out, “Perntik!” This was immediately followed by a crash. I whipped my head around to see that a shelf had fallen and knocked down another shelf that held a tea set carved of jade. Perntik leaped forward and awkwardly caught most of the tea set. Therdash caught the rest except for one cup that Perntik had accidently sent flying across the room toward Jaskar. Jaskar jumped up, caught it, and fell gracefully on his face. Once we made sure he was okay, Perntik started apologizing to Gratala. “It’s okay Perntik. It was an accident,” she said. “I’m always causing accidents and I know a friend gave you that one,” he protested. “Oh, yeah. I remember now. This is from another human woman. What was her name, Mulin?” Therdash asked. “It was Mulan and she was a great warrior,” Gratala corrected him. “A great warrior gave you a tea set?” Jaskar asked.