Sand on a Stone Beach (The Tale of Aaron Re-Wrote)

Chapter 3

When Sand woke up, he found himself in a dark, freezing cave that seemed to have been manually cleared out by someone. At first, he thought it was a dream, but then he tried to move and realized that his back leg had a makeshift splint on it.

"How did I end up here..." He wondered to himself.

Just as he said this, he heard a kind of squeak (he guessed), and whipped his head around to see who made the noise.

It turned out to be an Icewing, maybe half a year younger than him, but overall just about the same age. She was sleek and shined like a diamond against the walls of the cave, which made her attempts at fearfully hiding herself from him behind a small wall nearly impossible.

"You do know I can see you, right?" Sand said, trying not to scare her even more than she obviously was.

"I'm sorry, I-I found you in that canyon, you seemed like you had buried yourself in the rubble from the cliffs." The Icewing said skittishly.

"Well, thank you for getting me out... wait, I don't know your name yet."

"M-Me? Oh, I-I'm Aurora. W-What's your name?" Aurora said, obviously trying to cover a nervous stutter.

Sand was listening to her, but he was having a hard time looking away from the glow her scales had in the dim cave light. Whereas most would have seen a regular Icewing, Sand saw pure beauty.

"You, uh, have a really nice name..." Sand said, still a bit stunned from the sight of her, "I'm Sand, it's, uh, really nice to meet you."

 They both shared a quick awkward moment before, almost simultaneously, they both became distracted by a strange glow. Almost, because Sand noticed first due to the burning pain that stabbed him in the chest.

"Oh my moons! Are you okay!?" Aurora called, yet Sand didn't hear her through the voice echoing out in his head.

My my, little dragon, you sure are young for a vessel

"D-do you h-hear that voice a-as well?" Sand asked through the pain.

"Voice? What voice?" Aurora asked, confused and startled by Sand's sudden pain outburst.

Nobody but you can hear me. I recommend you keep this 'voice' to yourself

Who are you!? And why does everything hurt!?

Trust me, I'm not here to hurt you. This pain is caused by the bonding of a Host, you, and an Old One, me

"Sand! Sand, are you okay!?" Aurora kept asking, trying to help him in any way she could.

"I-I've certainly been better..." Sand jokingly said, the pain spreading throughout his entire body, "Wow, it burns. Ow. Ow ow ow."

"I-I have an idea, but I don't think you'll like it..." Aurora rushed, and before Sand could ask any further questions, Aurora let out a very small amount of her ice breath, covering over the glowing spot on Sand's chest.

"Aaaaah, that's cold, cold, COLD!" Sand screamed out, instinctively trying to jump up even though Aurora was holding him down.

When he finally pushed her off of him, he realized that the pain had actually stopped.

"I am so sorry. I-I hope I didn't hurt you, or anything..." Sand said quickly.

"No, no, d-don't worry, I'm fine." Aurora said.

"Thank the moons. Well, thank you for, what ever you did anyways." Sand said.

"Don't worry, you just owe me a big favor. What was that, anyways?" Aurora asked, sounding just as confused as Sand felt.

"I don't know, but hopefully, I don't have to do that again."

"Hopefully, we never have to find out. For your sake." Aurora agreed.

"Hopefully..."