Flame

Chapter 8 - Bonding

Chapter 8

Bonding

The dragon shop was very cozy and quaint. It was wooden and small with a little fire burning in the petite fireplace. A small girl with long golden hair that covered half of her face popped out from behind a counter. "Hello." She said in a soft voice.

"Yeah I'm looking for a dragon." I said.

"O-okay, follow me please." She said as she walked out the door. "M-my name is Fiona by the way." She was wearing cozy brown boots, a light pink mini-skirt, and an oversized yellow turtleneck sweater. She led me to a large barn. "Here is where the dragons live, the only way to ever truly train a dragon if if you bond with it immediately."

I turned to her. "Okaaaay, so how do I 'bond' with one?" I asked.

She gave me a small smile. "You'll know when it happens." She continued towards the barn and stables. The stink and heat of the place made my eyes water.

All sorts of dragons of varying colors, shapes, and sizes were lined up in pens on the sides of the building. We walked up to the first pen. "This is a Nightstar dragon." The girl said pointing to a large, stout dragon with glimmering purplish black scales.

It looked at me with black eyes that held a cold intelligence, its forked black darting in and out of its mouth. It raised its head proudly and stretched out its large wings. I gasped, the undersides of its wings were dotted with silver flecks that resembled a night sky filled with stars. Its long black spines rippled and flared all along its back. Its muscular black tail curled around its tremendous claws.

"This is Starflight." Fiona stated. "He can read peoples' minds and tell the future, those are the special qualities that a Nightstar possesses." I shivered, all of the things that that dragon knew or could figure out about me, it made me extremely uncomfortable.

"Um, I don't think that this is the one for me." I said.

"No worries." Fiona smiled as she led me to the next pen. "This is an Icetalon dragon, his name is Penguin." She said gesturing to a dragon with icy blue scales. His long curved claws looked perfect for gripping ice, a forked blue tongue flicked in and out of his pointed snout. His narrow tail lashed around the barn floor, the spikes on its whip-thin end scattering hay everywhere. Penguin kept bristling his 'griff' as Fiona called it, or his head and neck flares. The griff was made up of large spikes like icicles that ran down most of his back and covered the sides of his face. Penguin's medium wings were folded at his sides. "Icetalons can actually withstand subzero temperatures and they can breath a deadly ice mist that could freeze anything in a matter of seconds." Fiona explained.

I shivered, all of that frost and ice was too cold for a fire witch. "No thanks." I said politely.

"That's fine." Fiona smiled before moving on to the next pen. "This is a Rainchameleon dragon."

A slender creature with scales that constantly shifted colors lay lazily in the pen. Its scales only morphed into bright colors that resembled tropical birds. Its thin prehensile tail was curled into a tight spiral. It had a wing partially stretched over its snout. Its webbed griff was laid flat below its curving horns. It had small ridges running down the length of its body. The beast had a small horn on the tip of its nose which was called the 'crest' and was used to crack open the egg when a baby Rainchameleon hatched.

"This is Glory, she is really lazy." Said Fiona somewhat apologetically. "Rainchameleons can actually shift the patterns and colors on their scales, each color portraying a different mood. They can also make the colors blend into their surroundings so that they are completely camouflaged. And they can use their curly tails to swing off of or hang on to the branches of trees. Rainchameleons can't breathe fire but they do have a deadly venom that they can shoot from their fangs up to fifteen feet." She explained.