Frozen: The Spirit and the Drage

Chapter Four

Elsa's height seemed to be diminishing slowly to anyone who would have left and came back a few minutes later, but to her audience the answer resided in the snowy path she paced upon. Her feet creating deeper and deeper indents.

"I may not know much about people or how they work but I do know animals...well at least the ones I've encountered." Ryder admitted.

"Believe it or not Emil hated me when I first met her." Elsa did find that revelation very hard to believe. The man and that reindeer had a bond that rivaled even Sven and Kristoff's.

"How are you so close to her now then?" Elsa asked incredulously, ceasing her pacing.

"She didn't fit in well with the other reindeer. She was lonely and I felt a kinship to that." His previously despondent eyes lit up.

"It took weeks of me being stubborn and spending all hours approaching her, trying to feed her, she even broke my arm when I tried to ride her. Then I left her alone and we became friends."

"Wait what?" Elsa asked surprised.

Ryder nodded.

"I left her alone and let her approach me and that's when our bond began grow, slowly but I would take what I could get."

Elsa thought about this for a few moments. So many worries had plagued her mind since the dragon entered the forest. What if animals attacked her? What if poachers saw her and hunted her down as a prize? What if she was unable to hunt on her own and starved or succumbed to injury?

As if reading her trail of pessimistic outcomes Ryder spoke up a bit louder. "Now I'm not saying you avoid her at all costs but just try not to be so overly eager."

Elsa blushed. Had she been overly eager? Her answer was yes, yes she had been, but she never concluded that it was driving the dragon away.

She smiled attentively at him. "Thank you Ryder."

"You are most welcome, try not to get eaten also." He laughed at Elsa's heavy audible sigh as she walked from the campfire, hoping that her being eaten didn't become a customary goodbye that others gave her.

It was late but perhaps she could try her no hands on approach now. Was that still her being too eager? Maybe, but all of her visits had been during the day, if the dragon was sleeping she'd let it alone. Nothing said fervid like waking the object of obsession up in the middle of the night.

At their usual meeting place Elsa affectionately began calling Drage Den the dragon definitely was not sleeping since she wasn't even there, Elsa mentally pinched herself for not recognizing the nocturnal traits of the dragon's eyes. Her eyes much akin to a cat or more closely an owl no doubt. So of course she wasn't sleeping.

Elsa quickly jotted down her theory. The dragon's eyes widened when the creature wanted to take in more of the environment, not just during the night but also during times when curiosity got the better of her. This theory was backed by when the dragon was reading and her eyes pupils would expand to great widths or when she licked the snow pile Elsa had made for Bruni during their usual lunches together.

As Elsa scoured her brain for more evidence she sucked her teeth in frustration as another important detail shook the foundation of her hypothesis. If the dragon's widened pupils allowed it to take in more information then why did they slit so tightly when it was angry or irritated?

Elsa had even more examples of this occurrence, she knew humans eyes dilated during certain times of stress or infatuation. So the same could be said for a dragon's sudden contraction of the pupils to also be tied to its emotional states. "And who's to say it can't be both theories." She concluded aloud.