Survivor (Book One- Lei)

3. Attitudes and Confessions

For months Lei had been learning how to speak Norse and how to act like a human thanks to Dagur. She had been so eager to learn the ways of the Vikings so she could be part of them someday, if she ever left the island of course. Some days Dagur would bring her something she had never seen before and would take it apart just to see how it worked before putting it back together. He was always impressed with how quickly she put the device together, his praises made her smile. Every day she looked forward to her lessons with Dagur and when he was gone, she would spend days waiting for him to come back, often practicing things she had learned from him so she could show how much better she was getting.

Lei often wondered if it was the lessons she looked forward to or just Dagur in general. She noticed a lot of the time when his hand or arm would brush against hers she would feel a fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach, and often found herself just staring at his face. It took her awhile to realize one day that she was starting to sort of fall in love with the human and wondered if he would ever love her back. It was a rather silly idea, he never seemed to be interested in her that way, and she figured it was best not to dwell on it.

Dagur could see that Lei was starting to have feelings for him, just from the way she always sat so close to him, blushed when their hands touched slightly and tried making herself look nicer whenever he'd come see her for the lessons. He had realized recently that he too had sort of developed feelings for the feral girl, but but he wasn't sure if he should ever tell her. If she ever found out why he was helping her in the first place, the real reason,it was going to break her heart for sure.

When Flaresight found out what Lei was doing, he became infuriated. He would forbid her from ever leaving the cove but Lei would find ways to sneak out past the Rumblehorns and Deadly Nadders guarding the exits and go have her lessons with Dagur. As much as he wanted to, the old dragon never dared to follow her but knew something bad was about to come out from it. Numerous times he tried to convince her to stop but Lei would ignore him and keep on going.

"Lei it's not that I hate you or have anything against you learning to act like a human, but what if the humans don't accept you? What if one day you do go back to your village and they reject you? I saw it all!" Sapphire pleaded to Lei at one afternoon when she tried to stop her from leaving the cove.

"Well if they don't accept me, then who cares? At least I learned what I really am right?" Lei scoffed as she tried to slip past her adoptive mother.

"You're practically dressing like one! It's not a bad thing it's just that you're drifting away from us." Sapphire pointed out, gesturing to the clothes Lei had been wearing that were very different from her normal attire.

"I'm not drifting away from you! I'm just trying to fit in with the humans!" Lei snapped angrily, causing her mother to flinch.

"Well...you certainly have gained the attitude of one." Sapphire murmured sadly before walking off.

Lei felt guilty for yelling at her adoptive mother, she never yelled at her like that before and it made her feel awful. She looked down at her reflection in a pool and knelt down to get a better look. She saw a young green eyed woman with neatly brushed dark brown hair that was tied in a braid over one shoulder, wearing a deep blue top with no sleeves and a leather skirt with slits on the side to allow her to move more easily oko that Dagur had given to her as an early gift.

Is this really me? Lei thought to herself as she studied the reflection. Is this actually the girl who was raised by dragons? Or is this another person?

"Look at me, I can't ever pass for a perfect human." Lei said to herself softly and touched the water to cause her reflection to be disturbed. "I'm never going to be a part of their world no matter what I do."