Chronicles Of Ba Sing Se (Deathbender Book 3)

2

The zoo keeper didn't end up knowing much about dragon care, but made us promise to never buy a dragon or egg for the zoo, as they weren't meant to be caged.

He was almost in tears when he saw Adria, though. The first dragon sighted in generations, apparently.

Adria was attracting a lot of attention. It wasn't illegal to own a dragon, or have one inside the city, so no one could take her away or kick me out. People tried, because it seems to have been forgotten that dragons are gentle creatures and don't randomly attack people.

She was causing less commotion then sky bison should have, and I hoped maybe someone would mention the bison when talking about rare creatures.

I did get a lot of visitors. Many people wanted to see the world's hope for dragon kind returning, as many regretted hunting them. I was swarmed with questions and protests and offers of help so often that I had taken to leaving the house when I wanted to study alone, or just sit somewhere peacefully.

I found this hill, almost hidden in the city. There was a tree in top of it, and no one ever seemed to go near it. I chose that spot whenever I wanted to be alone.

I took Adria up there often, and she curled up on my lap, and I would talk to her. Mutter calmly, sing in a carefree manor. Just like I always used to when she was still in her egg. Eventually, she would fall asleep, and it was the most peaceful sleep she had, as most of the time she would toss and turn.

She was starting to grow her wings, too. They weren't big enough to carry her when she hatched, and now they were nearly twice their original size, although so was Adria. She flapped them often, and would let out this pitiful cry, like she couldn't wait to get in the air.

I didn't know much about raising baby dragons. Do their mothers teach them to fly, or do they learn on their own? But having wings of my own, it didn't seem too hard in the long run.

The hard part was keeping her close. Most of the time she didn't want to leave my side, but after about a month old she began sprinting away from me, trying to explore, and would go about ten feet before she realized she'd left me behind, and would dash back. But a few weeks later, she was less attacked and more willing to dash away.

Putting a dragon on a leash was a big no no, so all I had to fall back on was calling her name and hoping she'd respond. Most of the time she did, but there were still times I had to dash after her.

The day after I talked to Iroh I decided to take Adria out flying, and put her inside my over-the-shoulder bag, where I had always carried her egg. She seemed to recognize it, and crawled inside to curl up. Thankfully, it was still big enough to hold her, and I didn't trust her enough yet to hold on to me on her own, and I didn't want to deal with her falling off.

I decided to use my glider, even though my wings would be more convenient. It had been too long since I used my glider, and I didn't want to tire myself out.

Plus wings make people stare.

So there we were, flying around the city, when I was spotted by someone I had hoped not to see.

Zuko. We locked eye somewhere above the outer ring, and for a second, I kept flying. Then I steered my glider around and landed in front of him.

For a moment, we just stood there. I'm not sure what made me land, and as I stood in front of him, I wondered what he would do. Would he attack me? Would he leave me to find Aang?

"Well well." He said instead. "I didn't expect to see you here. Can I take this to mean the Avatar is here too?"

"Nope." I lied. "Aang's off training. I came here alone. Well, not entirely." I motioned to my bag, where the small head of Adria poked out.