W.R.E.N.

To Bond

"Wait a minute!" I cried pulling my forehead away from Cordgi's. This interrupted the tale Bran was telling of a fight Attroxia and him had gotten into. We were all in our room. Cordgi sat beside me on my bed as Attroxia and Bran were dancing around. Tempest was putting Tanwen's hair up in space buns. Neffy was in the window seat. It was night time but no one wanted to separate from the group just yet. The kissing booth experience was a week in the past. We were now two weeks into our month off of studies.

"Zyn, you just ruined the best part!" Bran cried. Neffy's eyes met mine.

'If what Cordgi told me, and what Bran accidently showed me, you guys are not officially bonded!' a sad look crossed the dragons face.

'I have chosen him, placed my mark on him, he has not named me.' I felt stronger emotions rising in the dragon. Suddenly his mind burst open for me. I gasped. There was so much more to their story. The burden that Neffy had carried alone.

He had hatched on a cold night in late autumn. His mind already racked with the agony of his chosen knight. The emotional and physical pain Cordgi had been in had transcended the space between them. Cordgi' s royal blood was stronger than he realized. The dragon had come aware to the agony of his chosen Nuare.

For years Neffy had to deal with knowing the pain his chosen bondmate was in. As a young hatchling, prone to bouts of unruly behavior. He had to be chained to protect himself and others. If it wasn't for a certain handler they would have put the troublesome dragon to death.

Instead, the handler had taken Neffy to be her paranuare. Their own dragon had perished in a border scrimmage. The bonding of a paranuare wasn't as strong or as a true bond. This was more of a choice, an aligned consciousness of emotions. It was a bit more than best friends. If a dragons knight was killed, they will often die, or go insane, unless they have a paranuare bond. This can pull their mind back from the brink of an abyss so wide and dark, nothing comes back the same. Even as this bond saved his life, it saved that of his host. Most often neither soul within the pair was even aware of the bond, until it was needed.

It was his paranuare that had taken it upon themselves to give him his name. Nephler had been the woman's brother's name. The boy had died an infant. When she came across the suffering dragon, she took it with her. Together they searched the world attempting to find the boy crying out his need for the dragon to come.

Due to Cordgi fighting any dragon connection, it was hard for Neffy to pinpoint where the mental voice was. He could follow a general direction. Yet, since the royals took their love slaves all over with them, this proved another challenge for the dragon searching for him.

The woman, for she was quite elderly, had heard of the orphan who called dragons his family. She believed that if Neffy could find this child, then they would be able to help him locate the tormented knight he was fighting so hard to save. They were on their way to W.R.E.N. Academy when the woman passed in her sleep. Neffy buried her the night he heard his bond mates mind shatter.

The pain had been too great for the boy this time. He had learned years before to block out all mental contact, unless he was in severe pain. Thus, the ones whose care he was entrusted into, would do whatever they could to break his mental walls so their dragons could torture his mind as they mutilated his body.

In a rage for the loss of his trusted companion, fueled by the torment his Nuare was going through, Neffy reached out to the minds surrounding the boy. Finding those who thought of his knight as a friend he enlisted their help.

The royal twins, though prone to mischief themselves, answered the call of the wild dragon. The dragon revealed who he was to them, and just what the boy they thought of as a friend, was going through. A plan was quickly made. The boys told Neffy exactly where to find his Nuare. Neffy was still miles away. In dragon form, those miles dissolved quickly.