Dragon Talker
Page 35
“I hope you like the fish,” Yuri spoke as he turned around to see Samora emptying the cart of both its fish and its sides in three big bites.
Yuri felt Samora’s enjoyment of the fish in his mind, which he realized was the dragon equivalent of a thank you. This, though, Yuri realized, was him trying to make Samora human. She was more likely letting him know so he would get the same type of fish next time. Again, humans work for dragons, not the other way around.
That thought was followed by a wave of overwhelming confirmation that caused Yuri to sway as if in a stiff wind. He nodded his head at Samora. “Above the village, below the dragon.” The saying popped out of Yuri’s mouth without him thinking about it.
He looked at Samora. “I understand my role, and I share an addition.” He had been practicing for this moment for the last week, looking for just the right wording to convey his thoughts to Samora. “Above the village, below the dragon, my family second to be first.” It was important to Yuri to say it out loud and to Samora
Samora turned to face him directly, her tail smashing the cart to pieces. Yuri instinctively took a step back as Samora arched her back and extend her wings. When she set her front legs down again, she moved quickly towards Yuri, who was ready to take the consequences of standing for his family. He hoped it didn’t hurt and then he realized that what he actually wanted was to live through Samora’s response. When she was just about upon him, Samora opened her mouth wide and unleashed a blast of ice that surrounded Yuri, trapping him like a fly in amber.
Through the ice, Samora was a blue blur. Yuri couldn’t move his head, so all he saw was a large blue form one minute and the next it seemed to leap over his head. Like the cold water of the lake, the ice felt invigorating, though he couldn’t understand how he could breathe. Was he breathing through the ice? Breathing the ice?
He smiled in wonder and relief that he was still alive. After waiting a while to see if Samora would return, he flexed his shoulders and felt and heard the ice crack near his left ear. The more he flexed, the more it cracked. He felt a puff of air on his neck and tried to lean his head to the right, then left. It gave towards the left, and after straining against the ice for a few seconds, a large chunk surrounding his head fell off. Yuri thought he would be out of the ice soon.
But he was wrong. The ice around his head crumbled soon enough, but the ice around his shoulder wouldn’t budge - it didn’t even crack. “Okay,” he said out loud. “You, village, family.” He was disappointed. The disappointment turned to anxiety as he felt someone behind him. Turning his head back as far as he could, he spotted a blue form behind him to the left. Straining in the other direction, he saw another blue form.
A large smile crossed his face as the identity of some of the shapes sunk in. There, behind him, stood ice sculptures of his father, his mother - holding his baby sister, and both Hental and Lared. Family second was going to be okay with Samora. Two were just out of his field of vision, but he assumed they were Bernard and Stone.
“Dragon humor,” Yuri smiled. Then he wondered how long he would have to wait for the ice to melt before he could break out and get back to his new life - as Mandan’s Dragon Talker.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Epilogue