Dragon

Chapter 9

Focusing on them, she managed to convince the already heavy leather to be thicker again. The heat dissipated and she allowed herself a tiny sigh of relief. Why did everything have to be so warm? Even Jaimin, with his heavy coat of steely-grey fur had been far hotter than she'd expected. Riding on his back was like straddling a stove. A lit one at that.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the dancing flames. Through the stillness, loud against the hush of her breath, came the sibilant whisper of Jaimin's bulk settling in the sand. No doubt he'd sprawled out in front of the entrance. Neither of them spoke, but she could hear his voice echoing down from last few days.

Her mind hummed with the words as she concentrated and tried to imagine herself in a dragon's form. You'll sense yourself growing larger. She almost could. Not too much for scaleds were smaller than the slender tropics, but it was there. Your fingers shall become talons. Her hands balled into loose fists, the nails pressing into the palms certainly felt sharper. The spine will lengthen, accommodating your long neck and tail. Her neck did seem longer than it had been. She stood taller, not daring to open her eyes. Your head will push out, teeth getting sharper. Running her tongue over them, they felt that little bit pointed. Your clothes will melt.

She frowned, struggling to think on what they'd become. Fur? No, he was adamant that her father was a tropic. Feathers then. The picture in her mind wavered. Not feathers. Scales. And your wings ....

The image shattered as her attempt to envision the wings failed. Every single time. Maay glared at the ground, stamping a foot into the soft sand. Two days she'd been trying in earnest to alter her form, she didn't think she could stand a third day of disappointment. Why could every other bit be right but this?

Jaimin had suggested she may have the scaled's customary webbing of skin stretched over bone. They'd tried all day with the image, but it just didn't seem fit. Then she'd attempted the feathery kind she was more familiar with to no avail.

Her tutor stirred, steely fur glowing in the ruddy light. "The wings again?"

She nodded. "Neither of them feels right." So close. She could feel it. If only she could take the form without having to visualise those wings.

He gave a snort, lifting his head from the hand it had been resting on. "I don't understand." His arm thumped onto the ground. "You shouldn't be having this trouble. You cannot be wingless and there are only two choices." His breath rippled through the sand, sparking off tiny whirlwinds that died just as quickly as they formed. "It's not like it can be both."

Both? Why couldn't it be possible to have the webbing of skin and the feathers? She could picture how such a wing would appear. All fluffy at the top, the long finger bones extending from where the flight feathers would otherwise grow and taking the thick, flexible skin with them. She closed her eyes, reforming the image with this new idea. Both. It felt ... right.

The hiss of something large and heavy scraping against stone slipped through a chink in her concentration, banishing the image she'd so carefully conjured. Annoyed, she looked about for the source of the sound. Her head seemed heavier than usual. It wobbled ever so slightly, refusing to obey in due swiftness.

Nothing sat before her. Not even Jaimin's silvery bulk.

"Jaimin?" Where had he gone? Maay shuffled round to peer behind her. When had she dropped to all fours? She frowned down at her hands, swallowing a shriek at the sight of the twin talons digging into the sand. It worked. She sat back on her haunches, lifting the clawed hands off the ground and closer to her face. It actually worked. They'd been right about it after all. She really was a dragon. Even knowing how sure they were and seeing all their evidence, believing had been difficult. Her stomach churned. Hard to question it now. "I am a dragon," she breathed.