Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 46

Winter slowly began to loose its grip upon the land.

The ice began to melt and the lake swelled in size. Marcie had to clean the mud her boots every time she left the house to keep them watertight. Her father insisted on inspecting the roof for and leaks that might make themselves known during the rainy season.

These domestic chores occupied her time and kept her mind off the outsiders and Dara.

Aldren and his companions had done little to further her suspicions towards them. They mostly lounged around the Tavern, Jin telling his stories, Aldren wandering the town, watching the craftsmen at work, Sebastian occasionally disappearing, presumably to spend 'quality' time with Breen.

With the warming, excitement within the village began to grow, a sign the traders would soon set off on their long journey to bring The Forgotten their wares.

The craftsmen began working round the clock to have enough stock to trade with. Marcie also was busy with Miss Maiden getting all manner of clothes ready, orders for lengthening and repairs came in more often, everyone wanted to look their best.

Marcie was excited also because it was one of the rare times she would go hunting with the other villagers, to gather pelts. As soon as the cold spell broke they would set off for two weeks at most. It gave her an excuse to go into the forest without causing suspicion, and, as the others mostly ignored her presence, she should be able to sneak off to see Dara. Despite this, her excitement was tempered a little, she wondered why, before realising that it was probably because it meant Jin, Aldren and Sebastian would be leaving soon.

Although she found Sebastian infuriating and Aldren full of himself, Jin was friendly and good company and they were all interesting, different, a welcome change from the sameness of everyday life. Although life was and probably would never be the same again due to Dara's presence, it felt like a dream when she was with him or when she communicated with him. The three outsiders felt real, and vibrant. She did not feel the fear of reprisal she felt whenever she thought of them as she did her Dragon.

She realised she would miss them, miss the long discussions over mugs of ale, miss Jins innocent teasing, miss Aldrens harmless flirting and, yes, she would even miss Sebastian's dislike of her, as she guessed it was more a shield for himself than actual hatred, she recognised true hatred having lived under its cloud her whole life.

To distract herself from all this she made her way to Dafne's home. She had been reading up on the Daygon. Familiarising herself with their history, although she was finding it harder than she would have liked. Most of the writing was in the old language and she was having to use another book she found that translated the individual words into the common tongue. It made for disjointed reading not helped that the history was incomplete and included phrases such as "Some believe..." and "A common myth surrounding the Daygon is..".

The result was that she did not feel that she knew the Daygon any better than she had before they marched into the village in search of Dafne. She left the book of Daygon and tried to translate any more of the book of mystical creatures where she had found the information on Dragons. But gave up when the light began to fade and, despite her enhanced night vision, the faded words on the old paper became harder and harder to see properly. Instead she wandered around, placing the books back on the shelves and tidying up some of the parchment that lay scattered on the floor. No doubt Dafne would moan that she couldn't find anything, but Marcie had always hated to see such a beautiful home so messy.

She wandered around the darkening rooms, till she found a room she rarely had cause to visit. Housing a large cot, piled with plump cushions and blankets, that seemed unnecessary considering the inside of the cave was always kept pleasantly warm. It smelt much more strongly of Dafne than the other rooms, a mixture of different herbs and an earthy smell that was unique to her.