Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 70

It may have been merely days later. But for Marcie it felt like years.

She measured time by how the pain lessened slowly over the years until she felt her body move and it did not send spasms of pain though all her extremities.

It was at this point that she thought it might be safe to open her eyes. The act of pulling her eyelids up required so much effort she almost gave up halfway, but when she finally opened them she blinked slowly as the light from the crystals wavered then solidified.

She admired the remarkable way the great glass structures glowed from within, some more than others, all seemingly a different shade or hue.

She stared at these shapes until she felt brave enough to try and move.

She started with her fingers, stretching them and flexing the joints. They felt weak and creaked like old floorboards but they worked.

Then she moved her arms, and was surprised when she felt them disturb the water she lay submerged in.

She was so surprised in fact that she scrambled and splashed, finding her feet then on the bottom of the seemingly shallow pool and grabbing a ledge and pulling herself up it till she was on solid ground.

Lying panting beside the body of water she found herself weak again and instead of waiting for herself to recover she rolled over and pushed herself up into a sitting position, holding herself up on trembling arms she tried to speak,

"D-"she tried and found her voice hoarse and dry. She swallowed and tried again,

"Dara?" A little better, still weak, she coughed,

"Dara? Where are you?"

In response, a great scrambling came from some distant dark corner, and a nightmare black shape unfolded itself and slunk into the light, nearly filling the cavern.

Marcie felt her heart sink.

The great hulking shape that Dara had become, lowered his great head and breathed in deeply.

Marcie held herself very still.

Dara padded carefully around her, his bulk sending tiny tremors through the ground. His huge spiked tail swished too close for comfort and she flinched. He circled her then settled down, bending his legs until his belly rested on the ground in front of her and lowering his head till it was eye level with hers.

She could not read anything in those huge black eyes.

The huge dragon made a huff sound and lay his head, very carefully, on her lap. The weight was enough to keep her legs pinned but not to crush them.

She kept very still. His eye rolled around to watch her, she looked back at him.

Tentatively, she reached out and lay her hand upon the space between his eyes, just under his great horns, he closed his eyes.

Marcie gently, felt around with her mind, and felt him as a faint presence,she focused on it and gently coaxed it 'closer', until she felt a tug of awareness from the presence. Dara sighed softly and suddenly she could feel him just as she could before, except much more, he seemed bigger in her mind as well as out of it, his presence so huge she struggled to arrange her own thoughts for a moment until he settled down and she could hear herself think.

She could tell that he was still in pain, a whole body ache that she felt herself. Some of his scales still had not grown through and the patches of raw skin wept and itched, her teeth felt raw and she ran her tongue around them just to make sure they were still there as the sensation of them missing was so strong.