Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 72

After two weeks of lazing around the cave Marcie was feeling more bored than ever.

There was no much to do then hunt or watch Dara fly. Something which she never grew tired of but she missed 'doing' things. She missed bustling around her little house, fixing things and tidying. She missed her garden, which was no doubt over grown beyond redemption, she missed running errands for Dafne or going to see Breen and Luce, helping Miss Maiden, sewing until her fingers ached. She wondered how little Myriam was doing and whether Merrick would ask for Ryna's hand in marriage, she even wondered what Aldren, Jin and Sebastian were up to. Whether Breen and Sebastian continued their liaison or if Aldren was still seeking out the tree and whether he and his companions would keep to their oath.

Most of all she wondered if she even had a home to go back too.

Her little house seemed less and less her home the longer she stayed away from it. Without even her father living there it might as well be abandoned. The surrounding village people hated and feared her and she did not believe, despite what Breen said, that an extended absence would cure them of that.

No, this cave, despite having nothing the likes of which Luce would cal l'homely' felt more like a home to her than even Dafne's cosy little hole under the hill.

Dara was lost in his own revere as he caught a strong gust of air that send him soaring higher and higher, his excitement crashed upon her like a wave washing her worries away for a moment before they surfaced again.

She lounged under the sun, Dara a black shape against the clear blue sky and a deep well in her heart.

Marcie lost track of the days. She only noticed its passing by the steadily increasing heat that began to bake the the surrounding forest. Most days she sought shelter in the eve of the cave, huddling in its cool depths while the forest sweltered beneath her.

Dara seemed to suffer little from the heat, despite his own inner warmth and wondered at her lethargy.

Truly, she was aching for something to do. She hunted, but that was all.

However, struck by sudden inspiration she began saving the skins of all her kills, both large and small. She cleaned them then made some tanning racks from branches and stretched the skins upon them, leaving them out in the sun to dry. All the pieces she did not need to make the oil she left for Dara, who was always hungry after flying and wolfed down the scraps happily.

After several days she had a nice pile of tanned hides and leather strips.

She used the hides and some wood to fashion a nice cot to sleep in and dragged it to the back of the cavern near the pool, where she was taken by a need to decorate the space. She dug out a proper fire pit complete with spit and lay some skins on the rough ground as makeshift rugs and fashioned a few stools out of tree trunks which she lugged up the cliff side one at a time. Satisfied with the furniture she wandered into the forest and fashioned some baskets from the reeds that grew alongside the streams swollen by the winter snow and rain and in them she collected all the medicinal and fragrant herbs she could find and made some hanging racks which she hung from the large crystals that spanned the sloped ceiling of the cavern and hung the herbs upon them to dry. She only wished she had jars and phials with which to keep certain medicines in stock or some bowls.

It was as she surveyed her new living space under the bluish white light of the crystals that she realised she could simply travel back to her old home and grab some supplies here. To her new home.

A smile stretched over her face as she thought, no longer of that small cottage as her home but this dusty cave. She ran out to tell Dara.

He felt her urgency and swooped down in a spiral pattern, flapping his wings to steady himself, dust pluming around him before landing with a great scrambling of claws.