W.R.E.N.

Change

“Tanwen!” I cried both mentally and out loud. I searched the wry. Where had she gotten too? I knew she was getting too big to stay in the small space I lived, but she was always close by. I could sense her mind. She never made me search so hard for her.

She no longer fit on my shoulders. Instead she walked at my side. More like waddled. Her head reached the middle of my chest. She was growing so big. I couldn’t even pick her up any longer. Zia had come by often and she would fly us around. Tanwen loved to fly. The fire dragon taught her how. Although, still too small to take a rider, especially one as big as me, she was able to fly far enough to hunt for herself. She had become a great hunter indeed. I smirked at the thought. Lately though, her mischievous side has been coming out more. Like today, she was blocking me from her mind.

“Lose her again, did you?” Shea chuckled as he heated the coffee pot over the open flame. I snorted.

“You know her, she likes these little games.” I came to crouch beside him. Although it was summer, living with an ice dragon was often cold. I had used many of the pelts I got from hunting to make warmer blankets for me.

“She's grown a lot. Soon she will be ready to transform.” He eyed me as the smile touched my face. I waved a smooth hand over it. Was it odd that my own hands felt strange to me? Since becoming bonded to my Nuare three months ago, all my old scars and calluses have healed. Tanwen was growing faster than any dragon I have seen before. It was strange since no one knew much about ice dragons. I couldn’t even find literature in the school library on them.

“Actually, I'm surprised she hasn’t changed yet.” Shea sighed. He sipped his coffee. He sat on an over turned wooden crate next to the fire he had made. His penetrating gaze on the flickering flames. We had yet to talk about my enrolling in the school. Mainly because I took off into the woods whenever he brought it up or the principle came down to the Wry. My home was here in this dirt mound.

“Zyn?” he began in that slow steady tone of his. I stilled myself. Of course I could use the excuse of needing to go find my dragon, but we both knew it would be just that, an excuse. I had felt her flicker in my mind. Her little giggle allowed me inside long enough. I had smirked as I sat down beside my father to pour my own coffee. I knew where she was. She was hunting, I could feel her delight as she just brought down a deer.

“You are destined for better than this.” He gestured around the clawed out hole he had raised me in.

“You,” I paused. “Shea do you want me to leave?” I asked. His large callused hand fell to my bent knee.

“I want you to go to the dorms. Be like the others. Live the life her binding is giving you.” He spoke both slow and fast. Like he was rushing to get the words out but not really wanting to say them.

“Zyn, I will always be here for you, no matter what.” I hunched my shoulders, curling in on myself. I wasn’t sure I wanted to live in the dorms. My family was here.

“I don’t belong with the knights…” I began. He punched me then, hard in the shoulder.

“She makes you belong!” in all the years I have known him he had never raised his voice like he did now. I was so startled by that, I fell over onto my ass in the hay beside me. He stood above me panting. There was pain in his deep set eyes. I knew he lost much, everyone here had. I watched as he reclaimed himself. He bent holding a hand out to me. I took it. He easily pulled me to my feet. I could almost look him in the eye. Apparently my dragon wasn’t the only one who had grown this summer.

“You have the chance to sleep on silk, not straw, Zyn.” He whispered brushing the dirt and hay from me.

“She's a water dragon. I would be lucky to get hay.” I grouched.