The Fear of Loneliness (Fear Series Book 1)

Chapter 12: Daring (unedited)

For a moment, Leo simply stares at the saddle, frozen in shock. Then, with speed he didn't know he possessed, the human recoils to his feet.

"I-I-I uh, I," the boy starts, stumbling over his own foot and nearly crashing back to the ground.

The dragon laughs, the deep ruk ruk ruk spreading through his chest and reverberating in the small space. "There is no need to be so nervous, Riorra. I won't allow you to fall."

The boy simply stares at the saddle for a long moment, before quickly snapping his eyes up to Ausren's. "N-not yet. I'm not quite ready yet. Someday, maybe. But not today. Definitely not today."

"Okay, okay," Ausen chuckles, folding one front foot over the other and tilting his head slightly. "Calm down. I will not force you to do something you don't want to. When we fly, you should enjoy it. No other human has ever had the chance."

"Except for the dude in your legend," Leo responds, swallowing down his nervousness. Ausren said he wouldn't push... that's good. "Assuming he did actually bond to the dragon king."

"And assuming said human was indeed a 'dude'. Regardless, let's try the saddle out and make sure it fits. I was just estimating my cuts after all," Ausren replies, lifting his head.

"And what if it doesn't?" the boy asks, brushing off his pants as he approaches the limp saddle.

"Then I suppose you will need to steal another side of leather for us." As he speaks, Ausren hauls himself to his feet, claws digging into the sand. At the sight of those long white claws digging into the ground, Leo scowls. The agony of the little blue dragon's claws ripping his flesh is still a too-vivid memory. One that the boy would love to forget.

The prince shakes his head violently, throwing sand particles in all directions. Suddenly pelted with hundreds of tiny rocks, Leonidas covers his face with an arm and backs up a step. Ausren paces past him, sizing his body up to the saddle and standing nearly on top of it.

Then, turning back to his human, Ausren murmurs, "I'm never going to let someone hurt you like that again, Riorra."

Leo blinks, shocked by the sudden reassurance. "How did you-- oh. Right." The mind-link. I keep forgetting.

Ausren takes one front foot and paws gently at the saddle, sliding it across the ground. "I'm sorry if I'm overstepping boundaries... I know humans are attached to their privacy, but I felt your anxiety and the memory of pain. So I thought you would like to know that I'm not going to let anything hurt you again."

Watching Ausren's sheepish behavior brings an involuntary smile to Leo's face. Beaming at the dragon, Lenodas replies easily, "Thank you, Ausren. It means more than you know."

"You keep saying that..." Ausren murmurs as the boy paces across the cave to join him. "That being protected means a lot to you. Why is that?"

Grabbing one end of the massive saddle, Leo heaves it off the ground and grunts, "I just haven't been protected in a while. My mother and father were never around when I was young. They worked from sunset to sunrise just to support us all, so my older brother, Cecil, took on the responsibility of raising us. But he ran off to join the war when I was twelve. When he left, the responsibility of being the protective older brother fell to me and since then, no one in my family has ever really bothered to protect me with any sort of dedication. It's always my job to protect them. Ruhban and my little sister Yanera would just stand by and watch me get beat-up with minimal protest. It's nice to have someone vehemently protest my getting hurt."

"How odd," Ausren mutters. "That a dragon of all things would be the one to protect you."

At this, Leo laughs, dragging the saddle up his body a little further. "It's pathetic, right?" Leonidas responds, letting the saddle back down and turning to stare at the dragon. Ausren is... quite large. Something that is easily overlooked when he is lying down. In fact, his shoulders stand nearly seven feet off the ground at twenty hands, about seven inches over Leo's 6-foot 1-inch height. And as far as length-wise, Leo estimates a little over 30 feet from nose to tail-tip, if the dragon was laying stretched. As for wing-span... a lot. For the only two times, he's actually seen the prince's wings stretched out, Leo can only guess as to how long they are.