Wings of Fire - The LostWing Chronicles, Book 1 - The Awoken

Chapter 14

Her sleep was haunted by nightmares, mostly of Solstice being captured by a horde of deadly SkyWings or of him locking her away in a dark cave, and she arose as soon as the fire-globes were re-lit outside of their cave. She was entirely exhausted, and had a slight headache, so she decided to head for the underwater lake Solstice had shown her for a quick swim before everyone else woke up. The tunnels were easy to navigate, as she was able to remember how they interconnected with each other, and she found the open cavern after only a few minutes.

The water was frigid, hidden from sunlight as it was, and the lake was barren of all life. It was nothing like the colorful and active coral reefs of her home with the darting silver fishes and bizarre ocean creatures all shining in the cool glow of the sun. All that was here was a sort of slimy algae, and the water was covered in discarded parts of silkworms fallen from their nests overhead. Still, it helped her wake up, and like the other freshwater around, it didn't hurt her as much to swim as it did in the ocean. Another SeaWing came over a half hour after she arrived, and spotting her, moved to the opposite side of the cave. He had the grace at least to pretend to just be looking for something he had dropped rather than acknowledging her presence, peering under some rocks around him before diving into the water.

She returned to her cave and found Millpond working away on something inside, so she just waited in the hall for a bit, not wanting to get in his way. After a while a gong sounded from the entrance hall, and he stopped whatever he was doing to enter the corridor. "Oh, you're right there," he blinked, gazing at her. "I was about to go look for you. It's your cave too, you know. You don't have to wait until I'm not there to go in. Or were you just not trying to get in my way?" He peered into her eyes and nodded to himself. "That seems more likely. I really don't mind. You're not a large dragon, you know, and if you sat on your ledge or at the table, I wouldn't be able to even notice that you were there."

"Er - okay," she replied. "What - what were you working on just now? Should I be asking that, or is it - er - not my business?"

A light came into Millpond's eyes, one that seemed to be positive in nature. "No, that's fine. This project is working out well so far, actually. I'm doing a miniature of a SandWing, just for practice, and I believe the curve of the tail I carved is nearly correct. The barb is always difficult, but if I don't mess it up, this could be an interesting work." Something seemed to pass over his face for a moment, and he frowned at her thoughtfully. It was very difficult to read this dragon, but she thought he was looking somewhat jealousy at her, if only for a moment.

"What's bothering you?" she asked nervously, wondering if he secretly despised her.

Millpond blinked at her, keeping his expression entirely composed for a long while, then sighed deeply. "It makes me seem like not a great dragon to be feeling this way, but I don't understand why you find my carvings interesting. I mean, you could create a perfect work with only a few words, if you wanted. You could literally bring carvings to life more than I ever could be capable of doing. In a minute, you could create something that would render everything I've ever made seem as pointless and barren as pieces of driftwood."

"Oh!" Anadrom inhaled, curling her wings towards herself. "Millpond, I wouldn't do that to you. What you can do is amazing, more than any ability I have or ever will have. You - er - trained your entire life to be able to make such beautiful things, and I just happened to be born this way. What you do is better in all ways - er - purer, and more complete, right? Anything I make is set aside as being made magically, not skillfully. I don't want you to feel like - like everything you've worked for is nothing. Yikes, I'm sorry if you've been feeling that way all this time."

These must have been the right things to say, for the glare in Millpond's eyes melted away. "I see," he said carefully. "I should be more careful with presumptions, I assume. You're not unskilled, I don't believe, Anadrom. Qibli says your spells are worded as carefully as any he ever made, and your Informaband is well-planned." Despite his careful words, the dragonet seemed friendlier now, and he relaxed a little bit.