Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 69 ;)

As Marcie crept back into the cave, she opened her mind as much as she could and pushed hard at the part of her that was Dara. 

He was a rock, unyielding and cold. Tears fell unbidden as he kept her out.

"Dara" she whispered into the dark, her voice broke and she coughed and cleared it, then said louder, "Dara! Dara where are you? Tis I, Marcie!"

She welcomed the crystals when they began to light her path and peered hard into the darkness looking for his tell tale shape.

She continued saying his name and calling out to him.  

As she did this she suddenly felt his mind waver, just slightly. The rush of hope she felt almost made her weak. She carried on shouting, until she saw a dark form, uncoil itself from a far wall and heard the deep growl travel through the ground under her feet.

"Dara" she said again, holding herself very still, "Its me, don't you know who I am?" she swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry, "Do you remember me? What is it? What is wrong?"

She started moving forward, feeling Dara in her mind waver again, his huge body slunk back. Now he was the one afraid.

"Its alright" she said soothingly, "Everything will be alright"

She followed him and he backed up until his rump hit a wall, he turned and growled at the offending rock and Marcie would have laughed if she had not been so afraid.

She could see all of him now, see the way his wings hung slack against his sides, the wing membrane tight and glistening with unknown fluid, how his front legs trembled to hold his upper body off the ground, how his head drooped at the end of his neck. His eyes did not seem to be able to focus, he blinked his inner eyelids rapidly, his lips were peeled back over his huge teeth and Marcie saw that some of them were missing, and some of them were still small, like a child's milk teeth, ones that had yet to fall so the larger adult teeth could replace them.

"Dara" she whispered, feeling his mind waver ever more, "I am here, I'm here now"

She raised her hand, he flinched, pulling his head back, trying to make himself as small as possible and failing. She held her hand before her and walked forward, step by step,

"I will help you" she said, when her hand was mere inches from his snout.

And, as her hand made contact with his hot flesh, his mind opened up to her. And she wished it hadn't.

Pain, sent her to her knees. Her body felt so heavy and weak she crumpled with a cry. The earthen ground was too hard, too painful against her exposed skin and her clothes scratched and itched so she attempted to tear them off her but found herself too weak to mange even that.

All she could do was lie and writhe against the pain and was aware of nothing but it. Even Dara was cut off from her and she knew now why he had been unable to hear her. She only hoped that she was sparing him any more of the pain he had suffered in silence these past weeks, she focused on that, focused on keeping his mind out of hers, something he had done to her but which she had not attempted since they first became bonded.

She took on all of his pain and focused on it until it became nothing but her whole world and she nothing but pain.

White Wisdom heard her cries and awoke from his peaceful slumber, he shuffled on his branch, but, knowing there was nothing he could do, spread his wings and flew off to inform The Witch was was occurring.

Dara awoke from his own slumber and immediately knew he must be dreaming. Maybe he had fallen into Dear Ones body again and was experiencing no pain, no weakness, no...heaviness. However, when he stretched he felt his far too big body move, felt his wings spread and disturb the dust in the air.

Confused, he flapped them once, he felt a little tightness across where his wings adjoined his body and when he lifted himself onto his grounders he felt them struggle with the new weight a little before settling.

He stalked around Home rock, moving as much of himself as he could to make sure everything worked. He found his shell was still sore and his shiny bits had not all grown back but there was no longer the infernal itch that had plagued him since the old ones fell away.

He settled on his belly to think through why he felt no pain, when he did he saw that one of his grounders was weeping again, the exposed shell where there were no shiny bits had opened while he moved, he snarled and set about licking the soreness away, he grumbled a little as his long Taster scraped his loose Rippers and set them aching again.

He gazed around Home rock, it still looked different, all...wobbly, but not as wobbly as before.

It was as he looked around that he spied a strange wobbly...thing, that should not be there. He reached out his front grounder and, after a few attempts, managed to snag the thing with his Sharp, he dragged it closer, and sniffed it. It smelt funny, but something about it was familiar. He lifted it to his snout and thought that it could be the carrier that Dear One brought with her to carry all her things in. He did not know why she thought she needed so many 'things', but she always brought it, so it must be important.

Then he wondered why it was here, Dear One always brought it with her, but never left it, so that must mean...

He dropped the carrier quickly then scanned the wobbly Home Rock carefully. Finally he saw another, not supposed to be there thing, which he slunk closer too and sniffed.

It was Dear One!

But she was different too. She was a strange shape, all curled up and she smelt slightly different, and made strange sounds.

Dara reached for their special place in his mind and recoiled when he found a rock wall so hard he could not feel her. His hackles raised and he growled low.

Who had done this, who had blocked his Dear One! He felt the wall, scratching at it with his mind self, but the wall merely moved away from him and Dear One made more horrible noises that made him curl around her to keep her safe from the danger that made her different.

When she did not go back to the way she had been he cried and nuzzled her, his tears fell on her face and she twitched, he froze, more tears fell and almost steamed, her body was so hot.

Maybe she needs water? He thought, so he bounded quickly over to the small pool that lay at the very end of Home rock, where the water fell off the light bringers and collected. He had loved playing in the pool when he was small, but looking at it now, he could not think why it had shrunk.

He yipped at Dear One but she did not seem to hear him and did not move, so he bounded back over and nudged her with his smeller, she made a horrible sound and he cringed.

Not knowing what else to do he carefully snagged the edge of her shell cover that she wore and began pulling her gently and slowly across the rough ground, wincing every time she made the noise again or tried to feebly push him away.

Finally they made it to the pool and Dara carefully nudged Dear One into the cool water, it was not deep and he kept a hold of her shell cover so she did not sink and then she made a sound he did like, it was better than the other sounds and so he stayed like that for a very longtime, holding her in the water, waiting for her to get better.