After a thorough wash, Marcie felt much better, almost back to full strength, her hair was washed and combed and was drying in the late afternoon sun.
She sat outside by the log pile, wrapped in blankets because Miss Maiden insisted that if she go outside she be wrapped up warm. She was enjoying the warmth of the fading sun and the slightly chilly breeze, that signalled winter was tightening its grip. She was outside behind the house because her father was dozing in from and she did not wish to wake him and she needed some time alone to think.
Even now she could feel the presence of what she was sure was the baby Dragon in her mind, she had felt it there constantly since she awoke and whenever she tried to push it away or ignore it she was rewarded with incredible pain, pain that was doubled because the Dragon seemed to feel it too and cried at her in its childishly innocent way, confused at what was happening between them as much as she was, she knew because she had sent questioning feeling towards it only to be greeted with equal confusion. The only thing she had learned was that the Dragon, while possessing child like innocence and fascination, was also very intelligent, able to recognise and interpret the feelings and emotions she sent towards him (for she was reasonable sure it was male), she also learned that he seemed to love her, in much the same way that a child loves a parent or a carer.
The sadness he felt when ever she tried to push him away was not only because of the pain but also because he believed she hated him and would be rid of him and he, being young, blamed himself. She felt his sadness as an ache in her heart as though it were her own emotion and so she no longer tried to push him away, but it was such an odd thing to happen and so very strange to share your mind with another, a being not human and so childlike that she was not sure what she felt towards the Dragon, her emotions confused her and by default the Dragon.
He seemed always energetic, responding to each tiny feeling with one of his own as if playing a game that he found entertaining. Sometimes he sent images as well as tastes and smells which were harder to interpret than the pictures, sometimes the images showed her the mother Dragon lounging in the cave, and sometimes just a wall or the crystal ceiling, one time the Dragon wandered far enough away from his mother that she saw him at the very end of the cavern where it shrank down into a small area and contained a crystal clear pool of water, uninhabited by any life as far as she could see (and the Dragon, smell) but containing water as clean as mountain dew, the Dragon gained much delight from the pool and sent her happy contented feelings that heightened her own and in turn made the Dragon happier still.
She also had another worry, the strange mark on her chest, she was sure that it was that which had hurt her so when she first touched the child Dragon because when she had tried to wash it in the bath she had felt the same pain that she felt that time. She had tried to get an answer from the Dragon about it but he was equally clueless, and concerned because he felt the pain it had caused her, he had tried to comfort her when it had happened but with little success.
As she sat there having a strange unspoken conversation with an intelligent creature that was not human it occurred to her that she did not know what to call the Dragon, simply calling it the Dragon was not helpful and she felt that he deserved his own name.
She pondered a few choices with little success. Then she thought about how the Dragon had appeared when she first laid eyes on it, as if cloaked by the night sky, the crystals reflecting like stars off his scales.
She was reminded of a book in Dafne's library that detailed the heavens and the movements of the planets, in this book it had referred to stars by their old language name, a name quite fitting for a creature who appeared to wear the very stars as his armour.
She sent her presence to the Dragon to get his attention and he responded almost instantly by sending her back an image of a small bone he had found was now sending skidding across the ground and chasing. She smiled and sent him a feeling of wanting his opinion, he stopped what he was doing, the bone captured between his front forelegs, she tried to feel what she wanted to give him a name, at first the Dragon was confused and did not understand so she made him feel how she felt when people called her by her name and other people close to her that she called by name. Once he understood, in rather simplified terms, that it was something to make you different and stand out from others, he became excited, jumping around with happiness before staying very still, quivering with anticipation waiting to find out what she would call him.
Although sending thoughts had not worked before she had no other way of making it known so she concentrated and put feelings of what if was like to be an individual and be known into her thoughts then sent him four words.
'Your name is Dara'
The Dragon pondered the name, testing it and after a moment a feeling of happiness and love wrapped around her like a comfortable blanket.
And Marcie felt more complete than she had in years, like she had regained something she did not even realise she had lost.