Follow the River
We continue our travel northeast along the river.
Traveling with the egg is easy enough; I keep it tucked against my chest and all of its little wiggling cannot free it from my grasp. Walking on three legs is odd, but not impossible, and easy to adjust to. Traveling with the bear? I’m still not certain how I feel about that…
Sometimes I outpace it, and then I feel momentary guilt, wondering if I should be stopping and waiting for it. But other times I wonder if I shouldn’t walk faster? I don’t know what became of its previous clan - if they’re still in the area or not - and I don’t know if anyone might recognize it and take offense to me allowing it to tag-along. But either way, it seems any time I’ve lost sight of it, I pause for a brief hunting break, or lay down for a nap, and the next thing I know it’s there again. I can’t help but wonder if it has some sort of teleporting ability, as ridiculous as I know that may sound, but at the same time I also can’t help but puzzle about if it does this good of a job at staying this close to me, then how did it manage to get lost from its previous dragons? Did they leave it behind on purpose?
At one point I awoke to find it with an offering of fish in its mouth, and at the rumble of my stomach it dropped the scaly meal to the ground and nudged it toward me. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the saying ‘The quickest way to a mirror’s heart is through their stomach,’ and I’ll be honest, I may have just coined that saying myself, just now… but either way, after that one meal, I think I’ve made up my mind on allowing the creature a place at my side. Or, at the very least, a spot back near my flank where it plods slowly along behind me.
My wings have recovered enough for use, but having resigned myself to the fact that I’m bringing a
bear home, of all things, I am still unable to use them as a swift way across the gap between Windsinger’s steppes and the burning lands of my own dear Flamecaller. It looks like we are forced to continue along to a place where the two lands meet after all, and by now I’m fretting to even try and imagine how Deesha and the others must be handling my disappearance. Deesha, most of all. I understand this ‘charge’ business is a fairly big deal for guardians, and I’d hate to think what she might do if she believes me truly lost…
My thoughts are distracted by a particularly sharp wiggle from the egg, and I look down at it in confusion, wondering how such a leathery thing could have rough edges. The question is answered by a tiny claw sticking out through the shell, and I stop so suddenly that the great bear behind me nearly knocks me over at is blunders into me. I give it a hiss and a snap of my jaws before turning back to watch the small egg rock and hatch in my hands, momentarily enthralled by the display. I have been witness to so many eggs hatching these days, but none so tiny. This one almost seemed like a toy, hatching out some impossibly small dragon into the very palm of my hands. I sat back on my haunches, watching patiently as long minutes passed until the tiny fae fully emerged, shaking shell slick from her wings and blinking up at me with soft green eyes and tiny, wiggling frills.
"Hello there, little one," I said with some amazement. She sneezed in response, giving tiny huffs as she crawled to the edge of my cupped hands and stared at the ground far below. Her small, white tail curled around one of my fingers as she attempted to stretch her little wings and stared back up at me. She squeaked with a sound just as monotone as Elysia’s, and I frowned down at her, trying to decipher her small body movements. I flicked the remainder of her shell away, clutched the little white thing to my chest and continued onward once more.
Looks like it’s time to go digging for some bugs…
