Time flies

🐉[Two years later]🐉

I wake up in a tangled mess of scales and tales. We might have to enlargen the cave again. Sheldon is nearly three meters long now. Pearl is just shy of the three meters.  Olive didn't grow too much. Dre is huge now. He use to be almost chest high and now he is well over head high. Leaf has gotten longer too, I look at the dragon who is nearly five meters long. Maddie made herself a new cave elsewhere since she grew twice the size since I meet her.

"Could you scoot over." I push on Sheldon.

"No. I'm comfy." She says rolling more my way squishing me.

"You brat." I tell her. I get out from under her just to lay on top of her. Drifting back to sleep thanks to the sounds of snoozes and grunts from the dragons around me.

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Kem wakes us up after what seemed like a blink of an eye. Just to make us run through the forest. It's all part of the training though since take down tyrant, aka TDT, will be happening soon. Everyone splits off into pairs here or there to train. The Kem, Sheldon and I combo is an interesting learning experience, or so Kem says. Everyone else pairs up outside of Maddie. Maddie will tag along to a random person since Sonja is occupied.

Sonja is still doing what ever she does at the mansion. I'm sure she is only telling Kem the bare minimum of the things she does since he is sensitive like that. The orbie calls we have between us are interesting. I swear there is something new in her cell every time we call. Oh, I found a fairly fun way to taunt Gilton when he happens to be there for the calls. Ha!

Basically he is the stereotypical "bad guy" and will tell us how he will hurt us if we interfere. So what I do for a response is I will mock him. And the whole time he believes it's my true reaction. My favorites are "gasp, oh no!", "if you do that, ahhhhh" and "how could you? What are we going to do?". He then leaves the room in total bliss when Sonja and the rest of us know exactly what will become of him. Typically he would have hunted us down but Sonja told him if he did she would activate her heart defect spell then and there.

I dodge a low hanging branch bringing me back to reality. We are on our way back up the mountain. I charge into a full sprint that Dre easily barrels toward me for a headbutt, I pull up on a branch getting out of his way. The rest of them try hitting me and/or each other with water or earthen attacks while we run. It started out one day as a squabble till we integrated it into the runs. If you hit someone you get scratches from me but if you get hit at all, even if you hit another, you don't get the scratches. Everyone got real good at dodging or counter attacks.

We all slow down once we make it back to Sonja's house. There are two rooms added onto it on either side. One is where the girls, Amaya and Elbereth, sleep and the other is Mitus, Arata and Kem's sleeping quarters. 

"For the thousandth time. Put a shirt on. We do not need Amaya passing out or getting a nose bleed again." Kem yells at me.

I catch the robe he throws at my head. "It's too hot for clothing." I debate back.

He throws a lighter shirt out the window at me instead, hitting me in the face. I laugh and put it on. Is this shirt getting snug on me too? Dang, you can see all the muscles. I send the robe I won't be using back his way.

I turn back to the dragons as they go off to the others to spend time either training to fight, studying or chores. These last two years have formed strong bonds between them all. The bonds where strengthened with their differences clashing and them working through it.

The others are only up here because they told their parents they are searching for their own dragons. Which isn't a complete lie but Mitus and Arata have been putting off telling their parents they have dragons. This way we can stay up here. Then sneaking clothes and shoes up the mountain for me is difficult since I'm not anyone's size anymore. So Amaya has been making clothes for most of us since its easier to get fabric and thread up here.

Olive and Amaya are paired up as a interesting combo. One is a free spirit while the other is more traditional. Amaya is incharge of making us clothes. Olive makes sure the water stays clean. They actually had a fight that nearly separated them for good but they pulled through.

Mitus and Pearl make for a solid healing team. Mitus found several healing books in Sonja's house and reads them to Pearl often. The repetition makes it so Pearl goes through the motions of healing others smoother when things are in complete choas around her. Pearl also learned how to heal internal problems now.

Leaf and Arata is a quiet and slow relationship. The way they bonded is an interesting story in itself. Most of the time they just walk around. No words, no gestures that I can pick up on, just quiet walks.

Dre and Elbereth are another quiet pair. They both help each other be brave enough to say they don't like something. All in a very nice way when they do speak up. The timid shy Dre that we did know can be pretty fierce when Elbereth is on his back. It could also be the oversized blade of death she is wielding striking us with fear.

The training Kem, Sheldon and I went through was difficult. It took us a year to find any thing about dragons passing magic to humans. And of course it was only a little three sentence paragraph. More or less stating what we know. Dragons can pass their magic on to a human. There actually was old ink beside that paragraph of someone hand writing the words "dragon's laud".

"What does that mean?" Everyone asked each other.

Kem looks up the word 'laud'. The definition means praise.

"Dragon's praise?" I asked.

"My first time hearing this too." Said Kem.

Sonja informed us none of the books at her place or library in the village talk about this dragon's laud. So Sonja does what she apparently does best now days, breaks out of her cell and into Gilton's library. She found hundreds of books that the library doesn't have but finding one pertaining an explanation of dragon's laud proved difficult. Til one day she claims to have found a whole stack of them. Then tells us they are under a protection spell so it will be a little bit before she can get to them. Of course Kem's first reaction is one of concern. Hoping she didn't break into anywhere that would cause her harm. She told him the books were in a secret room. Kem assumed a room in the library and she rolled with it. I can see through Sonja's lie to keep her brother at easy though. My gut feeling said Gilton had them in his room or a study by his room. That call ended with me snagging the orb to talk to her "because I had personal questions".

"Sonja." I said once we are far enough away from the others and into the forest.

"Yea?" She asked.

"Where did you find those books?" I asked firmly.

"A secret room." She repeats.

"Is this room Gilton's by chance?" I stared into the orb and she looked away.

"Do not tell Kem." She replied very quietly.

"Listen to me." I said waiting for Sonja to look up at me through the orb. "You do not put yourself in danger."

"But the information can help you-" I cut Sonja off.

"No!" I said firmly. "You have to stay safe. We can figure this thing going on with me over time. Blaze said it would take time so let's give it time!"

"We don't have time though Ragon." Her voice sounded vulnerable.

"Are you saying we don't have a year like we planned?" I was concerned.

"No we still have a year but if there is something that could help you bring down Gilton. We need to find it." She pleaded.

"Not at the cost of your life." I held her gaze til I saw tears form in her eyes. I tapped my forehead to the glass. "We need you Sonja. We all need you. Especially Kem, I'm not by the house but I can hear him cry at night. He also takes long walks at night. So please Sonja. Your safety comes first." I brought my head back away from the orb.

"When did you get good with words?" She said wiping tears from her eyes.

"Probably because I'm dealing with better people than I'm use to." I replied. "The dragons helped also... Now promise me. No unnecessary risks."

She huffed and pouted a little. "Fine. I will behave."

"What a good little prisoner." I joked with her.

She threw a pillow at the orb on her end. I heard her laugh while the image started to come back of her drying more tears. "Thank you Ragon." She said looking up at me. "But do know. I will still reak havoc here as long as I'm here right?"

She pulled her knees up to her chest. The long nightgown she wore ruffled while she laid her head down on her knees.

"I know you will. And you will do it with caution, for all our sakes." I placed my head back onto the orb and close my eyes.

Sonja reached up and grabbed the floating pop-up orb at her place. She brought up to her forehead too. I didn't realize it til I opened my eyes.