Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 19

Junca sat opposite Marcie at the table, they ate in silence.

It was one of the few times she had seen him sober since her mother had died.

It heartened her that he would still come out of his drunken stupor for her. I showed her he still cared.

He took careful bites of his bread, glancing at her now and then. He seemed to be trying to gather the courage to say something, Marcie chose not to help him.

Her, bitter? No.

The silence was deafening, Marcie sighed loudly and pushed her plate away from her.

Her father then decided that he could not stand the quiet any longer. Pushing his own plate away he took a deep breath,

"Are...are you well?" he asked timidly,

"I am fine"

"Has Dafne seen to you?"

"Yes, she pronounced me completely recovered"

"I am glad"

Silence fell again, it was painful to be so short with her father, but he had completely disregarded her when he fell into mourning for his wife, cared nothing for how she was supposed to cope with her guardian incapable of providing for her.

Maybe things would have been different if her brother had not left, he was at the perfect age to care for his younger sister and he had chosen his profession that would see him through his life.

But he had, like herself, despised their father for drowning in his selfishness, and unlike her, he had the means to escape and go to greener pastures. She had only been twelve! How was she supposed to have lived with no one bar a drunkard as support.

She couldn't help but feel a little contempt, a lot of anger and the smallest bit of pity for the man who sat opposite her.

As if sensing the angry path her thoughts had turned to Junca cleared his throat nervously and scratched at the growth on his chin, he reached into the pocket of his crumpled trousers and brought out a thin, plain gold ring, he held it carefully between his fingers as though it were fragile,

"This was your mothers" he said, not looking at Marcie,

"I meant to give it to you but...I held onto it" he looked ashamed. 

He stared at the ring, his expression unreadable, then, very slowly, he placed the ring on the table and pushed it towards Marcie.

She picked it up, overwhelmed to hold something of her mothers in her hands, after her death Junca had burned everything else, it had taken her and her brothers pleading to stop him burning the house down.

The Metal was warm, as though it still held a part of her mothers warmth within it after all these years, she closed her hand around it, her eyes filled with tears, but she held them back. Crying was for children and served no purpose.

She sent a mental picture of the ring and feeling of its meaning to Dara, who was dozing at the entrance of the cave, basking in the suns warmth, his mother no where to be seen. In response to the image, he sent back curiosity as to the origins of the feelings it stirred within her, she gave him a nudge of feeling back, trying to convey that she would explain everything to him when she saw him. She was becoming better at these conversations without words.

At the thought of seeing her again Dara jumped up, no longer sleepy and leapt around excitedly, sending her happy and impatient feelings, but stopped when he sensed her underlying sadness. Still not understanding the cause he stopped jumping around and sent her comforting thoughts that caused her tears to immediately dry up, but then made her feel like crying again because she was not used to being comforted and the unfamiliar feeling made her happy but anxious at the same time. But instead of pushing the secondary feeling away she pulled it closer and sent Dara a feeling of being hugged, and got back content.

She looked again at the ring, her mothers own wedding ring and held it close to her heart.