Tamed

Chapter 29. A swirl of emotions

"Why Merlin why!! Why am I stuck with this Nomag?" Natalie grunted.

"Nomag?" Charlie scowled

"Yes, that's American for Muggle, duh!"

"Since when are you American?"

"Since you ceased to be a wizard, Weasley!"

"What's up with you? Why are you becoming so whiny?"

"Because you are acting so stupid! Why did we have to walk to the lake and carry water with us?"

"Because hello? my friend is unconscious and we have to revive him"

"Couldn't we just have conjured some water? Ugh" Natalie scowled with frustration.

"You don't think I tried?" Charlie scowled back, keeping the flask safely in his back pack. They were returning to the spot where Owen was lying unconscious. When Owen lost consciousness, Aiden sent them to bring some water from the nearby river and he himself went to get help.

"Why isn't anything working here? Why ? Why ? Why?" Natalie whined.

Charlie let out a long sigh. He took in a deep breath and spoke very slowly, not to sound rude at all . "Because, if you have forgotten, let me remind you, this mountain is bewitched. You can't apparate or disapparate from here. And some spells won't work here because we are alien to the tribe."

"Oops I forgot" Nat looked down in embarrassment.

"what did you whisper to the dragons by the way, dragon whisperer? Nonsense?" Charlie mocked her.

"What did you feed the hungry dragons, Weasley? Your brain cells? 'Cause I don't see them ever work!" she spat back.

"Nat shut up for once or I might strangle you" he warned and walked forward.

Natalie rolled her eyes and started pulling faces at Charlie, as she followed him.

"You already have a monkey face. You don't need to make it look like one, you know" he said out loudly so she could hear.

Natalie scowled and stopped on her tracks looking down for something she could grab on. She found a twig lying at her foot, quickly grabbed it and threw it at Charlie, yelling " I don't have a monkey face!! You nitwit!"

Before it hit him, Charlie ducked his head and escaped. "Don't you dare Nat!" he warned.

"I will. I am very daring Mr. Weasley. You wanna challenge me? " she asked, running upto him and pulling him back by his collar.

"Hey!"

"Don't hey me!"

"Hey Hey Hey!"

"Weasley!!"

"Scott!!!"

"Uuuggghhh" she stomped her foot on the ground like a toddler and dust flew askew. Charlie waved the dusty air away.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked.

"You!! You are irritating me!" she whined.

"So what about your nagging? I am not complaining, am I?" He shrugged at her.

"I can't stand you for another second" she gritted her teeth

"Oh is it, now? You have no other choice ma'am" He flashed a smile.

"Says who?"

"Whoa!! Dragons!" Charlie whispered.

"what?" she crossed her eyebrows, confused.

"Behind you" he was looking behind Nat's shoulder with wide eyes.

Nat turned around. And she was amazed to see two dragons majestically walking around, gently spreading their wings. They were a beautiful shade of black. Hebridean black. One dragon was nuzzling under the wing of the other.

"Do you think they are a couple?" Nat asked, not able to take her eyes away from them.

"Either that or friends with benefits" Charlie stifled a laugh.

"You pervert" Natalie looked at him in disgust.

"What? I just made a remark and you call me a pervert?"

"Because you are"

"Take your mind off the gutter. What has gotten into you?"

"You!!" she screamed "You. Are. Driving. Me. Insane."

"What did I do?" he asked innocently

"You!" she said pulling him down by his collar "You irritate the hell out of me. You get into my nerves. You ..you.. just.. you" She started to stammer as she looked into his dark brown orbs. They looked beautiful and enchanting. She felt his gaze travel down her face. And it suddenly struck her. What was she doing? She was pulling him closer and closer to him, physically and emotionally. Something she promised herself, she never would. She pushed him away all of a sudden that he stumbled backwards and she turned around and started running without giving it a single thought.

Charlie regained his balance and yelled "Natalie!! Stop right there!"

"No!" she yelled back. She wanted to run into nothingness at that moment, if that was even possible.

"You don't understand! It's dangerous! You shouldn't interrupt them" he yelled at the top of his voice. It was only then that she remembered, that she was running right into the dragon couple. She stopped dead when the male dragon shook its wings violently and started advancing towards her.

"AAaaaaaargh" she closed her eyes and screamed. There were too many things that were going through her mind and all of a sudden it was like her thoughts ceased to exist. She had even forgotten that she was a dragon keeper, let alone a witch. She felt two arms hug her torso and pull her aside and flip together towards the ground.

The dragon roared and breathed out fire, kindling flames on the heap of dry leaves accumulated around it. Charlie and Natalie crawled up to the foot of a giant tree and hid behind it.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his eyes filled with concern.

"Mmhhmm" she nodded, her head bent downwards. She was feeling guilty for running away like that. She was feeling shameful for not being able to think properly and act wisely.

"It's okay. It happens" he said.

She didn't speak. She didn't even look at him. But stared at her palms resting on her lap. A teardrop rolled down her cheeks.

"Hey, it's not like anything happened" he assured her. "We are safe"

She wasn't even able to explain what was going on inside her. She wasn't even able to comprehend that herself. There were a bunch of emotions running wildly. Her bottom lips began to tremble. What was happening to her? It was so unlike her. What has gotten into her? Her eyes overflowed and a sob escaped her lips.

"Come here Ellie" Charlie hugged her with one arm "Ssshh it's okay. Nothing happened" he said as she snuggled closer to him, sobbing like a small child. If only he could understand what was happening, she thought to herself.

"You are strong. You are brave. You are the dragon whisperer" he talked softly into her ear. She pulled away from him, just to look directly into his eyes. "I am sorry Charlie" she spoke, controlling her sobs and wiped her eyes.

"What for?" he asked.

"Owen!!" she cried suddenly. "We should hurry" Clearly she was avoiding the topic and he could sense that. But he didn't want to press the matter further.

"Let's go" he said, grabbing his backpack.