The Twilight Dragon

Chapter 11

"Something troubles you." Duke stated evenly.

"Hm?" I looked up from the grass I was playing with. It was a beautiful afternoon and we were relaxing on a blanket outside our new house.

"You have that little frown on your face when you're trying to figure something out." He noted, a little pleased with his own discovery.

I sighed, tossing the pieces of ripped grass back onto the ground. "It's Donya. I feel like she's been avoiding me lately."

Duke was lying on the ground and resting his head on his hands. "Well she was out with you for several days. She probably had to return to work." He said to me in a soothing tone.

"No, it's not that." I said with certainty. "She's more distant now."

Duke stood up with a small rumble and pulled me to him. I curled up against his leathery chest, pressing my cheek against his warm skin. "Well, she'll come on Tuesday and you two can talk it out."

"Maybe."

****

Tuesday seemed like it would never arrive. Fortunately, there were still many things around the house to take care of. Duke took care of his own food, his fast reflexes allowing him to catch the quickest of deer. That alone was several hours of skinning the meat and drying it for storage. I did not care for that as much, it was the berry picking with him that I really enjoyed.

"If you eat all the berries then there's no point in bringing this basket." I complained as he walked ahead of me, happily plucking the berries off the bushes.

"That sounds like a you problem, not mine." Duke said, tossing a berry into the air and catching it with his tongue. I threw a berry at him and it beaned him in the cheek. He flinched, surprised. I snickered and he growled playfully at me.

"Let me carry the basket then. It'll keep my hands busy."

"Yes...your hands busy." I bumped him with my hip and as I strode past him to take the lead. It was a picture-perfect day, the sky was a light blue color and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. There had been quite a few days like this, the summer was shaping up to be quite a beautiful one. I couldn't remember the last time it was hot out, even though the time when Donya and I went to save Duke it had been scorching hot. Speaking off...

"I'm going to go back to the house, Donya should be arriving soon." I told him.

"Fine, leave me to do this grunt work." He complained, but walked over to give me a kiss. "Enjoy your time with your lady friend."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't call her that. Good bye honey." I gave him a casual wave and jogged back to the house.

I saw her walking up the hill, looking more disheveled than usual. She had a grimace on her face but smiled at me when I reached her.

"Hi." I said cheerfully, relieved that she showed up today.

"Hey." Her greeting was less enthusiastic, but I quickly drove the thought away.

"Well, I have my finished snares here." I said, holding some I had quickly done up for examples earlier today. "Let me teach you how to make some more."

"Sure!" She said, giving me the first genuine smile of the day.

We decided to walk over to the river to where we could practice the snares.

I handed her the rope I made and her eyes lit up. "Wow, did you do this by hand?"

"Yeah, I used the bark from a tree." I said nonchalantly. "You can also buy rope at the market, but I save money this way." I started to show her the snare but she was still examining the rope with fascination. I held back a smile. "I can teach you how to make that some other time."