Dragon's Fire

Chapter 3

When she woke up, the dragon was sleeping on her stomach, and she felt as if her brain had been stretched, then pinged back into place. "What happened?" She mumbled. She stretched, but the exposed skin of her arm brushed against the dragons wing. Ashlee winced, anticipating the pain ahead, but it never came. The dragon woke up, and done an unusual sort of yipping sound, like a dog would make. A thought drifted into her mind. It was a picture of her feeding the dragon. She supposed it would be hungry. She felt weird though, as if the thought wasn't hers. But then again, feeding a dragon wasn't exactly a usual thought to have. She got a small container of milk from the notch if the floor where all of her food was, and took a second glance at the dragons teeth. She put back the milk, and came back with a few strips of bacon instead. She had a sudden impulse to glue the egg back together. Ashlee didn't know why. She supposed that the dragon did seem quite attached to it, and it was extremely pretty. Ashlee returned to the dragon, dropping the bacon at the dragons feet. It immediately started ripping away at the meat. It was a shame that she didn't know the dragons name. Or even its gender. She decided to go to the library. Hopefully no one would be suspicious. Ashlee smiled and rubbed the little dragons head, the scales fitting smoothly together and feeling as smooth as oil. But dry, of course.
She left the little dragon in the house, despite the sad but quiet cries coming from behind her after she told it to stay. When she got to the library Ashlee immediately head for the section on legends. After some thought she picked out three books: The Care of Dragons, Naming The Flame, and Dragonpedia. She then proceeded to take them to the front desk. The Liberian raised a perfect eyebrow, but said nothing about it. Ashlee noticed, and hurriedly explained that it was a project her little sister had given her. Who of course, didn't exist. The librarian said nothing more, but still seemed slightly suspicious. Oh well. She then proceeded to take the books to her new home. She had realised that she could no longer stay at the orphanage. The would surely kill the dragon. Failing that, call it a witch or a devil and cast it out into the wild. Her people were very old fashioned. She turned to the book about naming the dragon. It seemed to be for dragon riders that had gone through training and knew the terms. Luckily, she had the Dragonpedia. It was sort of like a dictionary, so she was soon reading Naming The Flame with ease. It had some useful tips on dragon genders (female dragons had slit pupils, like a cat, and boys were more like humans. However, they were both still very different, although similar.) Ashlee's dragon was female. But technically, they were friends, not owner and pet. So it wasn't "her dragon". She just didn't know what else to call it until she had a name. Ashlee looked through the lists of suggested names, saying them out loud to the dragon, and writing down their favorites. However, when the little dragon heard one name, a visible shiver of excitement went down her scaly spine. The name Ember. Ashlee noticed, and read out the meaning of the word underneath. "Ember means the glow of fire after it has been burning, and then put out. The reddish glow of the embers. Dragons often level embers when they breathe fire, as it it of such a heat that the fire seems to want to stay behind for a while." "That's cool." Ashlee said, and got out some matches. Carefully lighting a small log, she blew it out after a minute, and saw the flicker of embers. Ember walked over to it, and pawed at the log, extinguishing the remains of the fire. That would be the dragons name. Ember.