Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Eighty: Amatory

"Who knows, she's a little busy now, isn't she?" I smelled smoke.

"She may be busy with your new siblings, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have time to spend with you."

"Having an eleven-year-old as well as twin babies isn't easy, you know," I grumbled back as I moved my body around. There was a rock digging into my side. "Ímila and Cadoc are keeping her plenty busy, those two get into everything if you don't keep a proper eye on them."

"Are you sure you are not just making excuses?" I curled in on myself and tucked my chin to my chest.

"My life might be a thousand time better than it was," I whispered back. "but that doesn't mean I have forgotten what I am."

My Dragon fell silent, curling around me as I tried to send myself off to dreamland. Sleep did not find me quickly. When the first rays of the morning sun rose, I was tossing and turning from nightmares about my childhood.

With a glittering wing stretched over my body in a comforting manner, I watched my Dragon's side as it expanded and contracted with every breath. I rolled to my feet and rolled my bedroll up into a neat tube before slipping out from under my Dragon's wing.

A sunrise dusted with pink, red, and orange greeted my vision as I stretched my arms over my head. I was stiff everywhere, and there was a knot in my back from sleeping on what had to be a rock.

Rubbing my neck, I deposited my roll next to my saddle before I found a nice green space to stretch. My body slowly went through the warm-up stretches of the Rimgar. Ever so slowly, I work the knots in my back lose enough that I no longer felt the pain.

Warm-up thoroughly done, I moved into level four poses, planting my hands firmly on the ground, I pushed my legs off the ground and into the air. With even breathing, I bent my legs and moved my feet until they nearly touched the braid that held my brown hair tight to my head.

Lifting my chin, I looked at the sun as it rose across the plain below the plateau me and my Dragon had slept on last night. Move to move, I moved, all the while keeping my hands planted firmly on the ground.

The sun was a quarter way into the sky by the time my Dragon woke. I heard him let out a yawn before snorting and getting up to shake his body free from the curled position he had remained in for the night.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," I said as I brought my legs down from the ramrod straight handstand I had been executing. A rumbled escaped his mouth as he huffed at me and stretched like a cat, his entire glittering body shimmering in the morning sun.

"I see you still haven't slept well."

"It's nothing new," I replied as I rolled my head and rubbed my neck. "you know that."

I heard another huff as I searched my bags for breakfast. I produced a chunk of bread and a handful of dried fruit. Sitting down in front of last night's fire, I tore into the bread, quickly gobbling it up before moving onto the dried fruit.

"Your mother would be appalled by your manners." My Dragon said dryly. I raised an eyebrow as I popped a couple dried raspberries into my mouth.

"She's not here, now is she?" I replied curtly. A jet of fire escaped his nostrils as he snorted. I finished my breakfast in silence before standing up and slipping my hands underneath my saddle. "alright, let's see how long this takes me."