Inferno Unchained

Chapter 6

RPOV

I couldn't sleep. It was a waste of a good bed, but I couldn't sleep. Too many things on my mind and too many flailing limbs for me to sleep. Viktoria didn't even quiet down when she was deep in slumber. Granted she wasn't talking but she sounded like she was sawing logs, and her body was flopping around as if she was cutting the damn trees. She was now in starfish formation on the bed. There was a small piece of the bed occupied by me. I suppose I was adopting the Armadillo formation, but still, she wanted my space.

After a few hours of trying to sleep, I gave up. I picked up one of the furs and walked to the library. I saw a bundle of furs on the chair and assumed Dimitri was buried underneath them. He also seemed to favor the Armadillo formation. I couldn't see him at all.

Now I could have put some furs next to the fire in the living room. I could have even made a small bed for me on the bench or on the table, but my body let me in search for a warmer, more comfy place to sleep tonight. I just hoped he was staying here tonight.

I walked into the dome and was relieved to see the Dragon sleeping there peacefully. I took my furs and snuggled in his side as I wrapped the furs around me.

He seemed to awaken upon my touch, but I was already drifting off to sleep. The warmth of his body, together with the warmth of the furs and the exhaustion of the day and night putting me right to sleep.

"What are you doing here Roza?"

"Viktoria is a starfish," I mumbled as I fell to sleep next to the obviously confused but chuckling Dragon.

That had been the best sleep of my life. I did have a bit of déjà vu. When I woke up, I smelled that particular scent I had picked up the first time I had woken up in this cave. The manly scent of smoky pine logs. I wondered why I would smell it in the cave and in Dimitri's bed. I hadn't yet sniffed Dimitri, but I assumed if the smell had permeated his bed that he would be the source. But now I was wondering what the source was because I smelled it here. I thought it simply was the fireplace smoldering ember giving off the smell, but I remembered the logs were oak, not pine. And it was definitely a pine smell.

"Roza?"

"Hmm?"

I was trying very hard to ignore the start of the day and stay in my very comfortable bed.

"Wake up."

I didn't comply. I should have complied, but I didn't. And I regretted it very soon when Dimka decided to move away and let me fall on my ass on the hard rock.

I got up and started to rub my ass. I glared a little, but he had an amused expression on his face that was a little annoying and a little contagious.

"I thought you were joking yesterday when you said you would use me as a bed."

I grinned widely.

"I didn't use you as a bed; I used you more as a warm blanket, or a hot water bottle."

He sighed deeply and rubbed the scales above his brow with his talon.

"You better get back in your actual bed. It is still early, but if Viktoria finds you gone and learns you slept here half the night she will be intolerable. And what was this about her being a fish?"

I flung my arms up and one leg out.

"That is how she sleeps, like a starfish."

He seemed to be thinking about it for a bit and then started to laugh. A full belly laugh, which sounded much louder from a Dragon than it did a human.

"Well, let's hope she has adopted more of an eel formation now."

He stretched his wings out, and with one push of his wings on the surrounding air he was lifted off the ground, and he flew out of the cave. I vowed I would ride upon his back one day and take to the skies with him.