^a cute little sketch of the dragon done by @-strength .WARNING the name is spoiled. And remember, I love fan art. Keep em coming!
Markers; 180,800 reads, 8720 votes
AN; So I have some sad news, I'm going to have to update even less than I already do. I'm currently in college right now and very busy with friends and school work. I'll try to update when I can. Thanks for reading<3 Sam
I looked at my mom and then at the black dragon in front of me. It was smaller than Nessie and had a sprinkle of golden specks scattered around its onyx scales, like golden stars floating in the black sky. But despite how beautiful he was, he looked like he would barely be able to carry my weight, and no way was I interested in learning how to ride him.
"Umm mom, why did you get me a dragon?" I asked, looking wearily at the creature in front of me. I hadn't exactly had good experiences with dragons so far in my life.
"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that I got it to reaffirm my belief that you weren't going to be gone forever," my mom said, and I felt yet another gut-wrenching stab to my heart. One more word from her and my heart would shatter into a million pieces. Why had I ever let myself be sucked through that portal, and why did she have to keep saying sad things? Was she trying to make me feel guilty because if so she could stop, I already felt plenty?
"His name is Deception," she continued, "He's an Irwin, and he's built for speed. Don't you like him?"
"I like him," I lied, "I was just wondering how you knew that would be such a great present for me?"
My mom sighed, and a small smile pulled at her upper lip "Violet, you hate him, don't you?"
I shook my head furiously "No mom I really do love him, but learning how to ride a dragon takes a long time, time I didn't have. Plus I would have to feed him, clean him..." I trailed off.
"It's true that you won't have a whole lot of free time from now on, there is a lot to do around camp, and everyone has to pitch in for things to run smoothly around here, but you should be able to squeeze dragon care into your free time."
"Yeah, I guess," I said.
"Great! I'll find you an instructor!" my mom grinned.
"No it's okay, Henry could just teach me," I said and froze when I realized who I just volunteered to teach me.
I looked into my mom's face, and she looked back at me, the grin on her face was frozen in place "No, I don't think so," she said, and I cringed internally at the iciness in her voice.
Yeah, better not push this.
"Okay," I said and looked away from her.
"Can I show you my dragon now?!" Emily asked, "I got one too!" she said excitedly.
"I turned my head to look at her. I smiled, thankful for the distraction, "Okay," I said and watched her remove a similar silver whistle from the pocket of the brown pants she was wearing. She brought it to her lips and blew on it, and a dragon with light pink scales tumbled out of rafters and landed in front of us, sending up a puff of dust. The dragon was small too, but it was slightly bigger than Deception and had big and round silver eyes.
Emily strode up to and placed her hand on the tip of its snout and began to rub it, "This is Darkrose," she said, and turned to us, "She's the best dragon ever!" Emily squealed and threw her arms around the dragon's knew and nuzzled her face against the pink scales, "She never gave me any trouble, and she was the only dragon in my class who never threw me off! Plus, look how pretty she is!"
"She is pretty," I agreed.
"Emily looked up from her dragon, "Why don't you go cuddle with your dragon?" she said, pointing to the black and golden speckled dragon.
"Cuddle with my dragon?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.
"Yes cuddle with your dragon," she said running her fingers up and down its neck of her dragon. Darkrose closed her silver eyes and let out a soft purr, "That's how the two of you bond, go on try it."
I glanced back at where the black dragon and my mom stood, and back at Emily, "I think I'll pass," I said.
Emily let go of her dragon and walked passed me, grabbing my hand in the process, and before I knew what was happening, Emily had pressed my hand up against the warm snout of Deception.
Deceptions pupils dilated, and he began to hiss.
"Umm Emily," I said trying to pull my hand back, but she held it in place with hers, "I don't think he likes me," I said, nervously.
"He just needs to get used to you, try rubbing his nose. Dragons love it when you rub their noses."
"Okay..." I said and begun making small circles with my hand. Deception pulled his lips up, revealing rows of jagged teeth, and began to growl.
"Ah, I don't think he likes it."
"I'm starting to think he doesn't either," she said, taking her hand away from mine. We both shrieked when Deception suddenly lunged forward, forcing Emily and me to jump out of the way or be plowed over.
Deceptions joined the other dragons in the air briefly before disappearing into the dark corners of the rafters above.
"Well, that went better than I thought it would," my mom said, clapping her hands together.
"Yeah, he bit the last person who tried to touch him twice," Emily added.
I looked back and forth between the two of them, "Wait a second, you let me pet that thing, thinking that it would bite me!?
Emily rolled up the sleeve of her brown shirt, revealing a huge, red bite mark from her elbow to hallway up her shoulder, "Darkrose did this to me the first time I met her," she said and covered it again.
"Wait a minute, are all dragon's supposed to do that!?"
My mom shook her head, her blonde curly hair flying back and forth, "Not normally, but we aren't exactly doing the bonded process correctly."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Oh, I'll explain!" Emily said, raising her hand excitedly, before lowering it to her side "Well, for a dragon to be willing to except a master, they must spend at least a year bonding with them. We do that whole process in about a month, so that makes the dragons a little cranky."
I shook my head "I don't think a little cranky is the right word for that..."
"Alright, very cranky," Emily corrected herself. "It makes them very, very cranky, and since dragons can't talk because that would be just silly," she giggled, and I rolled my eyes, sometimes Emily talked like she was a pre-school teacher."So," she continued, "they bite to let us know they don't like what we're doing," she finished.
"Alright, well I think I'm going to listen to what my dragon wants, and leave him the hell alone," I said and began walking towards the exit.
"Wait!" Emily called after me, "Where are you going!?"
I looked over my shoulder at them, Emily was hurrying after me, and my mom was still standing within huge stable watching, her arms crossed over her chest, which made her big stomach bulge even more from beneath the blue fabric of her dress. What was she even doing in here if she was pregnant anyway?
"I'm going to go find Henry and see how his wounds are," I called back to them.
Emily stopped in her tracks, and I smiled at her, before extending that smile to my mom, who, at the moment, looked extremely unhappy, "I'm just worried about him," I explained.
"But Violet, we haven't seen you in over a year, you're going to leave us already!?" Emily asked sadly.
"This will only take a second," I assured her, "I'll come straight here after I'm done."
"You promise?" Emily asked, holding her pinky out to me.
"I promise," I said, wrapping my pinky around hers.
"I'm coming with you," my mom said abruptly, walking over to us, "You don't know where the medical tent it."
I glanced over at her, "Okay," I said.
"Me too!" Emily said, and I sighed.
"Fine!"
The three of us exited the stables together. I jumped when the iron doors slammed shut behind us. I turned around and looked at them.
"The guard on duty opens and closes them," my mom explained, pointing to a tower on top of the structure. I looked up at it and nodded my head.
We weaved our way back among the tents, before reaching a huge blue tent that dwarfed all the other smaller tents around it. We walked inside, and I was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of disinfectants and herbs. The entire tent was lined with shelves with bottles and jars, which held very colorful contents. People dressed in white pants, shirts, and blue shoes hurried about, tending to people lying on blue tables.
I spotted Henry at the far end being treated by a man with frosty white hair. The man was holding a ball of water against Henry's head, and it was glowing green.
My mom and Emily stayed close by the entrance, while I walked over to Henry's table.
The man with the frosty blonde hair looked up at the sound of my approaching footsteps. He carefully put the water back into the jar and put a lid on top of the jar.
He turned to me,"Does he belong to you?" he asked, pointing to Henry, "If so, we need to go over some things."
Henry opened his electric blue eyes and looked over at me.
"Why is he being rude again?" I asked jokingly.
"I'm not rude, people just need to learn to stop pixieing me off," he mumbled.
"You need to make sure he gets at least three days of rest," the man said, "The injury he sustained to the head is not bad, but if he overexerts himself or hits it again, he might receive permanent damage."
I felt my stomach tie itself in a knot, "What kind of permanent damage?" I asked.
"Stop worrying her!" Henry snapped. He got off the table and grabbed my arm, come on, let's go. He said and began to tug me along behind him.
He stopped when we heard a commotion coming from outside the tent.