The Girl With Black Bangs

Ch2.

Charlie opend his eyes and ran his fingers through Gideon's hair. He smiled and kissed her head. He loved her more than she knew. He reached over to his table and grabbed the blue velvet box. He opend it and revealed a dragon tooth necklace. He closed the lid again as Gideon stirred beside him, her nails digging into his chest as she stretched and yawned. He winced. " Hi there gorgeous," Charlie said. Gideon groaned and rolled over. She was not in the mood to talk about her looks. "Shut up," Gideon grumbled. "Fair enough," Charlie said getting out of bed and pulling on his shirt. He was just buckling up his belt when Gideon finally woke up. "What is that in your hand?" Charlie turned around and looked at her. She pointed to the blue box. "Oh, that? That's nothing," he said hastily shoved into his pocket. "You will find out tonight. I have to go feed to the hatchlings." He left the cabin with a whoosh as he slung his bag over his shoulder and shut the door. Gideon sat up and pulled on her shirt still thinking about the box and how her best friend had acted so nervous and what he meant about finding out what was in the box.

Charlie shoved the box into his bag and and hurried over to the House of Hatchlings. He looked up as he entered and looked up at the sign. Swordtail roared and lifted off into the sky. Charlie continued inside and Everglade immediately jumped on him. The little Hungarian Horntail dragonet was so full of energy, it was easy to guess what Swortail had roared at Charlie: warning him to beware the crazy dragon baby wrecking the world. His sister, Everest and his brother, Eevalin, were curled up in their nest next to Sora's most recent clutch of eggs. Serenity, a Common Welsh Green/ Swedish Short Snout, was busy lifting some new decorations for the hatchery. When she saw him, she her music box roar and set down her load. Charlie rubbed her nose and she looked at him. "You better not be thinking what I think your thinking," Charlie said to her. Serenity just purred in her twinkling way and returned to her work. There was a whoosh of wings as two more dragons flew in; Clover and Lucky, Serenitys dragonets. Sita came in behind them and landed heavily on the ground in front of Charlie. The large Hungarian Horntail was Sora's mother and was known for begin the vilest dragon at the reserve. She had two rib cages on her front legs and her scars showed a past of battles for survival; battels where the predators became the prey. She glared at Charlie through her narrowed gold eyes and snorted a puff of smoke into his face. Charlie bowed low, for Sita was the dragon queen at the reserve. Looking beyond the scars and bones on her body, Sita was a beautiful dragon. Her sapphire and emerald crown glittered and and flashed in the smoke around her head and a ruby amulet with dragon wings on either side lit up briefly as it flashed and shone. Sita returned the bow and Charlie reached out, placing his hands on her large muzzle. "What if she says no and just wants to be best friends," Charlie said to the old dragon. Sita looked him deep into his eyes and Charlie saw a future where Gideon wore a white and sapphire dress and held his hand on the way to a gleaming carriage. He saw a future where he was a father, with three kids running around with another one on the way. He also saw futures where Gideon just stayed his best friend -a sister even- and where she married someone else and had a child with that person. Sita raised her head and Charlie realized that she just told him that no one can decide the future alone. And with one final bow, Sita turned and flew from the hatchery, leaving Charlie with the possible futures of Gideon.