As I woke up from a strange dream of some... being offering me a wish, I felt a weight on my chest and looked down towards it, well I still lay in my bed so down was relative.
'I have more pressing maters' I thought to myself as I recognized the black, cat-sized dragon sleeping on my chest.
It seemed like this strange being from my dream kept its promise. After all, by the time I went to sleep, there hadn't been a dragon in or near my house, and now there is one on my chest. Probably I should have been surprised, but I had hoped to find a dragon for years and now one slept right there in front of me.
It's a known fact that it is rare to find a dragon, even more so to find one that would accept living with a non-dragon over which it does not rule. But I'm a miar who had awoken the power to control magic, something said to be as scarce as the unicorn that kicked me ten years ago.
I could still feel where it hit me whenever I remembered that day, but that wasn't important right now. My thoughts returned to the being on my chest, and I started to purr, feeling happy and amused at the same time.
"Not really what I had in mind when talking about a dragon", I muttered while letting my head fall back into my pillow, just to hit something hard underneath.
"Ouch!"
I took the book, that somehow got under my pillow, out and started to examine it. The book had a solid metal frame as well as several ornaments made of metals and gems.
"Raising a Dragon Beginners Guide, what a strange title... and why is there no author mentioned?" While I wondered, where this book came from, I missed that my small new friend woke up. As its little head showed up behind the book, I could barely keep myself from screaming in surprise. It rubbed its head on the book's frame, which caused a small electric bolt to jump from its maw into the metal frame and right into my hand.
"Damn it." The book fell out of my hands, and after watching it fall onto my bed, I looked at the fur on my hand. Feeling relieved about there being no sign of damage, I turned my head to the tiny dragon. I wanted to say something about his behaviour and that he shouldn't electrify people, but realized, that he didn't do it on purpose.
"Sight, how about breakfast?"
It started mimicking my purr, jumped down from my chest, tried to fly by flapping its wings, and crashed into the floor. Without knowing why, I tried to catch it. But with my body still a bit sluggish from the night, I just fell and landed face-first right next to it.
"Ooouuuchhh. My poor nose." Instead of getting up I simply turned my head to the dragon. "We need a better way to start our day."
I sighted a second time and pushed myself up. Looking down, I saw that the dragon hadn't lost his good mood, as it jumped around me as if nothing happened.
I simply picked it up while saying: "We don't need to risk anything, do we?"
As I entered my kitchen, I put the dragon on the table which needlessly took about half the room.
"Please wait till I prepare something to eat for both of us."
The dragon looked at me before it walked to the centre of the table and let itself fall to the side. After it found a comfortable position, it yawned at me and moved one of its wings as if it told me to go on. I shook my head and turned to make coffee and slice some whole wheat bread. As I turned to another cupboard to get some jam, I realized that I overlooked something important.
"What do you even eat?" I looked towards the dragon. It looked back at me, and I could have sworn it looked as puzzled as I felt.
"Maybe the book can help." Even before I reached the end of the table, the dragon jumped on me and climbed my nightgown up to my shoulder. "So, you're the clinging type." I started to pet its head. "Let's see together what the book tells us about your diet."
Ten minutes later we had our breakfast. As it turned out, dragons aren't fastidious about food, especially the young ones, and would eat almost anything. So, we both had two slices of toast with strawberry jam, in addition, I got myself a coffee and the dragon got a small bowl with milk, watered-down as the book recommended. Since I finished eating long before the tiny dragon, I took a closer look at it.
With most of its elegant, narrow body covered in onyx black scales, the narrow strip of short aqua blue hair seemed to shine, as it ran down from its Head, following the long neck and down his back, until it reached the tip of his tail. At the back of the dragon's head, right next to the strip of hair were two tiny silver stumps that most likely would grow into horns. The scales around the snout looked a bit more bluish than the rest of its body and between the red jam, I could also see that the scales at its lips were like the scales around his eyes dark blue like the sky at night. With his gaze focused on his meal I needed to go down to see them. As our eyes met, his seemed to be made from sapphires filled with mischievous Ideas, as well as curiosity and friendly thoughts. I purred once more as I realized that the dragon tried its best to mimic me while eating by sitting up straight and holding the toast with its sharp silvery front claws.
"What shall I call you? Or do you already have a Name?", I said more to myself than the dragon. It still stopped eating and looked at me. After it seemed to think about my question it shook its tiny head and turned its focus back to the breakfast. It had sprinkled tiny drops of jam across my table by shaking its tiny head, preventing me from asking further questions, a bit worried about the mess it might cause.
After wiping the table around the dragon, I picked up the book to get some Ideas for a name. When I looked up what to feed a dragon, I saw that the book contained a compendium of the different possible dragon species one could stumble across.
"Let's see what species you are, maybe that helps to get an idea."
The compendium had forty-some illustrated pages with two or three species per page, as well as the most important characteristics. Now I had to shake my head remembering something, that being from my dream had told me. "So much for not realistic."
After skimming the pages for a minute, I could narrow it down to three.
"So Stormsinger, Midnightfluffer, or Blue Maned Thunderpuff. Who is responsible for these names? Only one sounds somewhat like a dragon species."
I put the book on the edge of my table and turned to the dragon. Before I could say anything it already signaled me with one claw, that none was right. A bit puzzled about it knowing that I wanted to ask the dragon and that I understood its answer, I turned back and hit the book with my elbow. It fell from the table and when landing on the floor, it opened a page I somehow missed. I bent down and read what it showed me there. Only one entry fully fitted my little friend, and I finally found it.
"So, you are a Silverlined Thundermane." I looked up and saw it nod. I had found the right species.
"Well, it is better than Midnightfluffer or Thunderpuff..."
I read the rest of the entry and looked back up to the dragon.
"So, we have two things to clarify. First question, do you really know your species or is it the only species whose name you like?" With a glance, it declared me stupid, with my question as proof. How should it give me an answer that goes beyond yes or no? "Ok, that's my fault but do you really know your species?"
It nodded.
"So, you're a hatchling that already knows its own species. But there is no elder dragon that would kill me because you're here?"
The question was meant as a joke, but its rather unsure response unnerved me enough to feel my pelt starting to stand up. After swallowing I got back to the original reason for looking into the book.
"Anyway, we still have to give you a name... The book didn't help either so, any preference what it should sound like?"
It tilted its head, looked down, and thought for some moments about it. Waiting for its decision, I started to hum a song from the lands far north which once were my home. To be honest, I mainly aimed to calm myself down, but it helped pass the time. Suddenly the dragon started to make two different sounds that reminded me of a tiger's cub, and I stopped humming. After it repeated the sound a second time, I already tried to figure out what it meant.
"Riamar?"
The dragon simply repeated its sounds.
"Ramra? No that sounds a bit like something to eat. "
The dragon roared in my general direction and a small lightning missed me by just an inch. I looked a bit startled at the tiny beast, which had arched its back like an angry cat and spread its black wings, but instead of continuing its attack, it got back into a more relaxed pose and started to... hum? After checking the air for the smell of burned fur, that I luckily couldn't smell, I concentrated on the dragon's humming. It sounded like the same song, I hummed just a few seconds before. Since it must be of importance I joined in and tried to remember its text, but there has been no name in it. Suddenly it stopped humming and repeated its sounds.
"Is it a Nordic name?"
It nodded.
"Like... Ragnar?" The dragon jumped over the table, seemingly excited.
"You already knew, how you want to be named?" I slowly shook my head. "Does that mean you are a guy? At least Ragnar is seen as a male name."
The dragon stopped jumping to look and sniff down at its own body. When it looked up it slowly bobbed its head, seemingly unsure.
"You're a strange one. You understand what I say, know your species, and decide on a Name for yourself, but you are unsure if you're a boy or girl. Not that it is really important, it just would feel strange to refer to you as it. So, based on the name, do you want to be referred to as a male?" The little beast looked aimlessly around while deciding what it wanted before nodding in agreement.
"Well then little Ragnar, time that I introduce myself. I am..."
Not able to think about much more than Ragnar, I spend most of the day in the living room, petting him and reading the book aloud. He slept through most of it, but he seemed to like hearing my voice and I was able to learn more about how to raise him, or rather should have been, unfortunately, I couldn't remember much.
Only by the time we decided to have dinner, I wondered about that book. We read more than 600 pages and weren't even close to half of it, yet it looked like it would have 400 pages at most.
"Ree"
I looked to the door and met Ragnar's rather hungry gaze, who already stood inside the kitchen.
"Yes, yes, I'm on my way."
Without further thinking, I tossed the book onto the couch, went to the kitchen, and cooked our dinner.
After we finished eating, we decided to go back to the couch and enjoy the merits of a lit fireplace. There it finally hit me, that Ragnar had appeared overnight, right after that dream. I leaned over to Ragnar and started to pet his little head.
"You cute tiny dragon, you're way better than anything I initially hoped for."
He looked at me a bit puzzled, clearly hoping for an explanation.
"Well, last night I dreamed of this guy... or rather he appeared in my dream. While I can't even tell how he looked, but it seems like he also caused me to become conscious about my dream. I hadn't realized that there was more to it, but he told me that he would fulfil a wish and I wished for a dragon. You must know, years ago someone told me, that only a dragon could help me with my...let's say problematic Mana. Later it became my first, but still honest response to everyone asking for a wish of mine."
My mood went a bit down since it's been a rather unpleasant part of my history.
"Anyway... As I said, this guy appeared in my dream, so I would have been happy to just fly with a dragon inside said dream, but instead, I woke up with you little guy. It still feels unreal..."
I lifted him up for a hug.
"I just hope, that we're still together when tomorrow comes. But today we shall stay up as long as we can." I felt a little prickling at my neck, where the dragon pushed his head against me as faint electric currents from his mouth passed through me. After a few seconds, I stopped hugging him, and he let himself fall into my arms. I looked at his little face. Again, I checked the air for the smell of burned fur, and again I found none.
"Interesting", I mumbled to myself, "It is the third time your electricity hasn't scorched my fur. But at least the one in the kitchen should have..."
As any miar, I've always been rather proud of my pelt, else I might have overlooked this. But at the same time, it's been obviously nothing I could have figured out in one evening, so ignoring it seemed like a better option.
"Well, do you want to play something?"
Ragnar jumped from my arms into the air, landed, and began to run circles around me and the couch.
"What are we going to play?", I asked more to myself.
Thirty seconds later I found myself pulling at a rope, with Ragnar holding or chasing the other end until we both fell asleep on my bed.
The next morning, I woke up to a flapping sound but blinded by sunlight, I couldn't see the flapping's source.
'Didn't I close the shutters?' I thought to myself before my heart nearly skipped a beat, realizing that I didn't feel the tiny dragon's weight on my chest. I needed a few seconds more to realize, that the flapping sound might have been Ragnar. After seconds that felt like hours, I finally succeeded in opening my eyes and saw Ragnar 'flying' circles in my bedroom. He was visibly happy about it, even though he barely managed to stay in the air without crashing into my wardrobe, the open door, or the walls in general.
I stood up, caught him the moment he came close to me, and scratched his chin with a finger.
"Hey little guy, we have the whole day in front of us. So, let's have our second breakfast together instead of exhausting ourselves."
While I prepared the same breakfast as yesterday, Ragnar jumped on the kitchen counter.
"Ree"
I looked at him, slightly confused.
"Ree"
I realized. "You want three slices?"
Ragnar held his head high and nodded, seemingly proud, that I understood it with just two tries. Purring, I ran a hand over his little head before cutting an additional slice of bread.
Like the day before, I finished long before him and watched him eating. His hair had grown a bit longer than the morning before and the tiny silver stumps at the back of his head also seemed to be a bit pointier than yesterday. It was really true, it's been not just a dream that Ragnar had breakfast on my table. I couldn't help but purr again.
This probably caused him to notice how I watched him. Ragnar stopped eating and took a pose, while he let tiny lightnings run through his hair, giving him a sparkling mohawk.
I snickered: "Already as proud as an adult I see."
He lost his pose and looked a bit sad about my comment. "Mrawwr?"
"Hey, such a pretty little guy like you deserves to be proud. But you're also so cute that it makes me feel delighted."
For a moment Ragnar seemed a bit unsure how to feel about it. Worried that my improvident comment about his pride might really have hurt his feelings, I tried to think of something to cheer him up. But Ragnar seemed to like what I had said, purred, and took a sizeable bite out of his breakfast.
Happy, that he seemed to be fine with this I leaned back in my chair, just to jump up, when I had a sudden electrical pain in my neck.
"Argh. Damn it, what is this?"
Ragnar, fully concentrated on eating, ignored how I ran to my bathroom or rather to my bathroom mirror. Luckily, it's only been a brief pain, so I couldn't feel it anymore after mere seconds when coming into the bathroom. Even so, I still tried to see the cause on my neck, just in case it might still be there. But since I couldn't even see my neck, I took out a small handheld mirror to aid my attempt.
I always thought, that only through books I would see, what my mirror now showed me right there on my neck's pelt. After seconds of staring at the intricated, crest-like mark in the colours of Ragnar's body, I felt my tears seeping into my fur. A dragonmark had shown up on my neck, and not just a simple mark that a dragon would give temporarily. About 2000 dragons were known to occasionally decide to bond with a person. But hardly a handful who would bond for as long as Ragnar just did.
Everyone has a very slim, near non-existent chance of a simple bond, and yet, Ragnar had decided to form a bond for his entire life with me in less than thirty hours.
"But why...?" Barley a whisper came over my lips. Knowing that I would get no answer to my question, I ran back to Ragnar, grabbed him, and pressed my scaley little angel to my furry chest.
"Thank you, thank you so much."
I felt his claws pushing against me and set him - after a few seconds - back on the table. He went to his milk and continued drinking, while I felt somewhat ashamed because I hadn't noticed he had yet to finish his breakfast. While he finished drinking, I started to clean the table but as I now was in really high spirits, I ended up cleaning my whole little hut while purring happily.
By the time I finished, he had curled up on the table and slept soundly. Not wanting to wake him up, I snuck into my bedroom and changed my clothing.
After changing, I used my bedroom mirror to check if I put my reinforced leather armour on correctly. The transport of the full-length mirror to my hut might have been sinfully expensive, but also worth it. I checked that the chain-based reinforcements were covering my vitals and that my tail- and feet guards were connected to the armour. "I should have worn them more often. Three years and it still feels strange."
I looked at my reflection for a second time, now to check if I looked passable. My amber-coloured fur gave a beautiful contrast to the dark leather and matted chains. Although it only showed on the uncovered areas of my head, tail, hands, and paws. I preferred lighter colours and less coverage, but it looked good for armour.
I shook my head to break away from the mirror and picked up the backpack I had prepared as an improvised carrier for the dragon. Finding Ragnar still sleeping when I came back to the kitchen table, let me swallow what I wanted to tell him and change my course of action.
With the utmost care, to neither hurt nor wake him, I bedded him on the blankets I had laid out inside the backpack. After I covered him up, I carefully took the improvised carrier and went to the front door. There I took my bow, quiver, daggers, rapier, and hooded cloak, before leaving the little secluded forest hut I called my home. Well, I also double-checked, if I locked the door and shut every window, living in a forest glade doesn't mean I could be careless.
On my way to the city, the very thing I preferred about my hut, now became its biggest flaw. It took me half an hour to leave the forest and another half to reach the outskirts of the city around Fräylis's tower. The outskirts were quite idyllic. Along the main road, there were mainly fields and some houses for the farmers, as well as a tavern/pub used by mercenaries as a cheaper alternative to the city and by traders to hire or pay these mercenaries.
With the tavern's name long forgotten and its sign missing for a long time, most called it the Dragons Watch Post, hinting at the fact, that it most likely once was one of the city's old casernes. As I wanted to reach the main city faster, I paid a trader to give me a ride to the city gates. We travelled in silence and parted with a silent handshake as we reached the customs.
When I first arrived at Fräylis's tower, it seemed strange to me, since the towers and cities had official trade agreements that would have made these controls unnecessary. But it didn't take long for me to learn, that each tower and city had different goods that were illegal, resulting in the controls being kept to prevent smuggling. At the same time, I learned why the clan - I grew up in - considered valerian an illegal substance.
Reminiscing about it, I walked to the back of the queue in front of the gate, where a familiar voice surprised me.
"Who do we have here? The great Lonely Hunter." Despite the guard captain's teasing, she came up to me with open arms. I took her hand before she could hug me.
"Lirithiel my friend, it's good to see you. Sorry that I can't hug you, but I don't want to risk my new little friend to get hurt."
In front of me stood a typical dracorian woman, meaning she looked like a human woman with elvish ears, blond hair, and bronze-like skin. My friend gave me a skeptical look, before motioning for me to follow her to an empty room used for inspections. On our way to the room, I ignored the murmur about cutting lines by having connections and greeted every guard, as I knew almost every guard in town anyway. Inside she leaned on the Table, which had always been the only allowed furniture, and looked right into my eyes.
"Sooo, you have a new little Friend? Is it a moss-covered rock?"
While I never liked it, when people made fun of me, I couldn't be mad at her. To me, she's not only one of my few true friends but my best and we used to train and hang out together when I first came to the city. We even worked together for five years, well, technically I've always been a freelancer who's good with inquisitive tasks and guiding through the wilderness, which is an advantage of my feline body. So she knew me better than most and was somewhat right to ask. I lived in the forest, because I'm usually bad at dealing with people, as I often don't understand their feelings or how they show them. That and because I couldn't stand the noise and stench of the city over an extended period of time.
"Why would I worry about a rock? I mean what I said, Ragnar is just sleeping." I replied to her taunt. At the same time, the little dragon moved in the backpack and shoved his head out. Lirithiel just stared at him in fascination, while Ragnar climbed on my shoulder, stretching his body through the difference in height. Once fully on my shoulder he yawned and looked around.
"So, you found a hatchling and decided to bring him to the tower? I always thought, that once you find a dragon, you'd leave civilization for good."
"Nah, I'm going to get myself a reassessment and confirmation. If you don't believe me, just look at my neck."
She chuckled, walked around me, and choked on her own salvia. I patted her back until she stopped coughing.
"How did you make it look so real?" She took out a cloth and some water to rub it out of my neck fur. I simply took Ragnar from my shoulder and let her do it because, in her position, I wouldn't have trusted myself. After roughly two minutes I pulled myself away from her.
"Please, I'll get a bald spot if you keep rubbing. Besides, you could probably cut off my skin, only to see it on my muscles. It is real"
Lirithiel stared a few seconds at me before she decided something on her own.
"Ragnar, right?"
The little dragon nodded.
"You should better hide again until we get your bond with our friend officially confirmed." Ragnar looked at her in confusion before looking at me. I petted his head, set him on the table, and took off my Backpack. After he climbed back inside, I carefully put my improvised carrier back on. The moment I was ready, she grabbed me by my arm and pulled me out of the room and into the city.
"Dave, I need to make an urgent report to the higher-ups, so now you're on gate duty."
The guard she had addressed just nodded, winked at me, and took up his post at the gate.
To the people reading this Story: I’d like to read your thoughts about this and will be thankful for every comment. I am already aware that I have the following two problems because English is not my native language, but I wish to learn how to better myself:
A. That I’m aware that my English-skills are a mix of the British and American English. I just don’t know what word is from the American and which is from the British.
B. The use of punctuation, especially the use of quotation marks when switching back and forth between the narrator and the spoken word, is probably a bit unusual for native speakers, as I unfortunately only really know it in my native language and am not sure about the rules in English.
The first four chapters are finished and 2 to 4 will be published within a week, but I need to warn you that I’m a slow writer and this is a secondary project of mine, so it might take some time for every chapter after 4. (The fourth literally took me a year of writing and rewriting.)
Copyrights: The initial Idea for the story’s beginning came with this Pinterest-Post, where my first draft is to be found in its comments. The World and Story are by me. Another site to read the story: Wattpad
