Awakened (The Brindle Dragon Book 2) Read online

  “Hmmm, it’s strange for him not to even have baby teeth,” the healer said, pulling her thumb from his mouth. “But other than that, he is a healthy dragon.”

  “If that’s so, then why do we have an audience?” Eist gestured over her shoulder and both healers glanced to those who were peeking in.

  “Well… I’m sure you noticed that your dragon is a bit...different than anyone else’s. He’s quite small, and his coloring is unusual, to say the least.”

  “Yeah, but it’s because of the lightning.”

  “Perhaps. But can you blame us for being interested? Most of us have been here at least fifty years. Seeing something different, well, it’s supposed to be impossible. Dragons are a very strict species that work in very specific ways. They never deviate, and that is part of both their strength and weakness.”

  “I see,” Eist murmured, opening her arms to the little guy. “But you’re sure he’s healthy?”

  “I’ll have you come in after a couple weeks to check on his teeth, but yes, his eyes are clear, his joints are flexible, and his hide is shiny. He is a beautiful and healthy baby boy.”

  “Did you hear that?” Eist asked, holding her dragon to her chest. “You’re healthy!”

  “Something’s gotta be wrong with it,” she heard muttered behind her.

  “It just figures that she of all students would get a stunted dragon.”

  The words were eerily close to Ain’s and she felt her temper flare. It was bad enough that she’d had people pity, underestimate, and ridicule her since she was eleven and had lost her hearing. It was even worse that people felt the need to constantly point out her blown-out pupil and uneven gaze. But she was not going to stand people mocking her little boy.

  “I’m hard of hearing, not deaf,” she said, turning to glare at the audience, which now had five different people leaning in. “And even if I was deaf, your remarks wouldn’t be welcome.” She looked back to the main healer. “You can underestimate him all you want, but this little guy is going to be just like me—defying all your expectations and being better than you could ever hope to be.”

  It wasn’t a humble thing to say, but she was tired of taking the high road against the ignorant comments. Looking back to the original healer, Eist forced her tone to be polite. “Am I free to go?”

  “Yes, of course. You should get some food in you. Your new life is just starting. Go enjoy it.”

  Eist nodded and headed out, brushing past the audience to cut through the healers’ hall. But on her way, she stopped and sat down next to her grandfather. She had some introductions to make.

  3

  First Meal

  Eist probably could have sat there for ages, telling her grandfather about how she met his new great-grandbaby. Perhaps it was foolish and sentimental to refer to the lizard as her child, but she couldn’t quite help it. She felt connected to it like she had never felt about a non-family member before. This must have been the call of the dragon that her grandfather had been telling her about since she was young.

  It was a sort of strange, mystical force that was also what let initiates find the dragon that was meant for them. Some said it was the Mother tying their destinies together, while others said it was the Storm making sure that its blessed creatures were put with people who would respect them. And some believed it was something entirely different that humans were never meant to understand.

  Eist didn’t care either way. The only thing was that she knew, deep down in her heart, that she was meant to meet her little brindled boy.

  If the lightning had just been a little hotter, or a little bigger, they might have never met.

  The thought made her shudder, which in turn made her stomach rumble almost violently.

  “I guess I should go get some food,” Eist said finally, standing up. Her dragon stood from where it had curled on her grandfather’s chest. “I’ll talk to you again soon.”

  For a moment, she almost thought he would answer her, but he remained just as silent as ever. Surely he’d healed enough in the weeks that had passed. Was it really necessary to keep him asleep for so long? Sometimes it felt like he was fading right before her eyes.

  She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead before holding her arms out to her dragon. The baby looked from her to her grandfather curiously, before trundling up to his face and using the elderly man’s chin to balance on his hind legs. Eist watched curiously, wondering what the heck he was doing, only for the reptile to tilt his head down and press his snoot against Grandfather’s forehead right where she had planted her own little kiss.

  “By the All-Mother,” Eist sighed, her whole body reacting to the cuteness. “You can tell he’s important to us, can’t you?”

  The little dragonling didn’t answer but skittered back into her hold. Eist gave him a gentle squeeze and headed to the cafeteria to finally get some food into her. It wasn’t until she was heading up the steps beside one of the great corridors that she realized she should probably feed her new charge. Would they have food for him in the cafeteria? She knew dragons were quite capable of eating human food, but apparently, they could be very picky. Grandfather had told her that they could taste things more intensely than a human, and every dragon had very specific tastes unique to them. Hopefully her little guy wouldn’t have a demand for something expensive. She once heard about a dragon that would only eat precious gems. She wasn’t quite sure if that was even possible, but her grandfather had said it happened every once in a great while.

  She was so involved in her musings about feeding her dragon that she didn’t notice a group of seven or so academy staff members standing outside the dining hall doors until Ale’a called her name and jogged over.

  The tall woman’s stride was so direct that for a moment, Eist feared that she had heard about her dragon’s unusual nature and was there to add onto the pile. She should have known better, however, because the woman was all smiles as she held out her hand for him to sniff.

  “Hey there, little fellow. Aren’t you pretty! Does he have a name yet?”

  “No, I haven’t sat down and seen what fits him yet. I was mostly concerned with his examination.”

  “That’s perfectly understandable.” Her blue eyes crinkled into a smile as he pressed his head into her outstretched hand. “Oh, and friendly too. I thought maybe people were exaggerating.”

  “Word already got up here?” Eist asked wryly.

  “Well, it’s not every day that a unique dragon is born. But that’s not why I'm here.” Eist perked up at that, curious as ever. “We actually have a different eating area for dragons, both baby and full grown. We’re all here to take turns leading you newbies there.”

  “Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

  “Right? Dragons aren’t always the best at keeping their food on their plates, so it’s best to let them eat outside. This way.”

  Eist nodded and followed along, going down another flight of stairs and down a small hall until they were in another corridor. This one with an entire wall removed to face out into a courtyard.

  The place looked vaguely familiar, and after letting her eyes sweep over the area, she realized she was now in the area that the students had been sneaking to at night to watch the dragons. Which meant that the dragon cave had to be—

  They stepped out from under the canopy of the hall and sure enough, the cave was right there. In front of her, she could see several people lounging with their dragons or playing, the large creatures taking up a good chunk of the space.

  “This way,” Ale’a said, continuing to lead her around a corner.

  Eist kept right on shadowing her, and they arrived at a large, covered porch with benches all around the edge. At one end there were two large cabinets gently leaking white smoke. Upon approaching them, Eist realized they were radiating cold, which meant that there was probably dragon ice in there.

  “Perishable food is in there, meat in one side, fruits and vegetables in the other. There’s a grill ju
st on the other side in case your dragon only likes things cooked. Try to get him to eat a variety, but since he’s young, meat is your biggest concern. He’ll need a lot of it, and often. Most yearlings spend all of their free time here to make sure that their dragons get enough while they’re going through the biggest growth stage of their life. It can be frustrating to train them to eat at first but stick with it, and you’ll make a bond to last a lifetime.”

  Eist nodded, feeling a bit overwhelmed. “That’s it? You guys don’t have a training expert on hand or even a teacher?”

  Ale’a just shook her head, smiling softly. “No one can tell you how to feed your dragon other than your dragon. It’s a necessary part of being a dragon rider. Best of luck.”

  And then she was trotting off, leaving Eist with the ten or so other initiates who were all in different stages of getting their dragons to eat.

  Eist walked onto the porch and found a spare bench close to the two cool cabinets. Setting her brindled boy down, she headed over to the cases.

  As she approached, she also saw there was a table beside them that had been obscured from her view. They were loaded with trays, prongs, knives, spoons, something that looked like small, spikey hammers, and basically anything that had to do with cooking. Eist had no idea what she would need, so she just grabbed an assortment of tools before opening the first cabinet.

  There really was tons of meat in there. She saw raw chicken, filets of different fish, something she guessed was boar, and venison. Down near the bottom there was an assortment of seafood as well as a dark, dark meat that she couldn’t identify.

  Deciding to keep it simple, she grabbed a small piece of each of the more common meats and then moved onto the fruits and vegetables. Just like the meat, it was crammed with a huge assortment. Eist grabbed an apple, different peppers, and at least one leaf of all of the green roughage before her tray was full. Unsure if it was enough, she also grabbed some red berries and headed over to where her little guy was waiting.

  His head perked up instantly and his little nostrils quivered ever so slightly. Eist laughed and sat down next to him, placing her tray on her other side. “You hungry? I imagine being born works up quite the appetite.”

  He stood on all four of his legs and tried to crawl over to her lap. Eist caught him and slid him back to where he had been seated before cutting off a small sliver of raw chicken.

  “Let’s start with the meat, I guess.”

  She tentatively held it out, her fingers only barely touching the edge of the food so that he could easily take it from her. But instead of grasping the food and pulling, her little dragon just instead chose to close his mouth around her entire hand.

  “Hey there now!” she cried, completely surprised by it. Thankfully he didn’t have teeth, so she wasn’t being horribly maimed, but his mouth was quite slimy, his tongue was rough and grating like a cat’s, and his squishy gums were putting quite a bit of pressure on her knuckles.

  Letting go of the piece of chicken, she managed to yank her hand backward and out of his mouth. Much to her distaste, it was covered in a thick layer of dragon spit, which she hastily wiped on the bottom of her pants.

  The dragon didn’t seem to notice her discomfort at all. Instead, she could feel him make multiple little trills as his mouth opened and closed over and over again, the piece of meat flopping around in his mouth. But just when Eist was about to congratulate herself on her success at the first try, the dragon let out a coughing noise and the piece of raw chicken flew out to splat against the bench, covered in spit much as her hand had been.

  The dragon didn’t seem happy about the development either, poking and clawing at it while looking up at her as if for an explanation. That was when Eist realized what the problem might be.

  “Right, you don’t have teeth. You can’t eat something that big.”

  What to do about that? Perhaps she should just cut it up into even littler pieces? That seemed like it would work, but the back of her mind reminded her about how mother birds fed their babies and an idea formed in her head.

  While she certainly wasn’t going to chew the raw meat herself, there was no reason she couldn’t try to make it a masticated consistency. Taking the knife, she cut the piece up into even smaller little slices. Once that was done, she grabbed the strange spikey-square hammer and pounded the pile of chicken until it was nearly mush. Then, picking it up with one of the large metal spoons, she held it out to her charge.

  “Shall we try again?”

  He proved eager to do so and engulfed half of the spoon into his mouth. Just like before, it took a good bit of effort to pull the utensil out of his mouth, but when she did, it was completely devoid of any food.

  She watched intently as her dragon flapped his jaw a lot, mashing the already squashed food around before finally swallowing. Once the food was gone, Eist let out a shout of triumph, her hands shooting into the air.

  “We did it!” she cried, looking down at her little boy happily. But he was just gazing at her with his mouth open, awaiting more. Eist laughed and reached over to pat his head, but before she could, he moved like a flash and her hand was once again completely in his mouth.

  “Okay. Note to self: no petting during feeding time.”

  With another great yank, she pried herself free and moved onto what she believed was beef. Just like the chicken, she cut it into tiny slivers then went at it with the crushing hammer until it was more mashed than the chicken. But when she held the spoon out to her dragon, he took several sniffs before ducking under it and trying to scramble over her lap to the rest of the tray.

  “Alright, I’ll take that as a no on beef then.”

  She moved on through the meats, getting a mixed bag. He didn’t seem to like pork from raised pigs, but the wild boar was alright. He also didn’t like the rabbit or any type of bird other than the chicken.

  The last thing in the meat category on her tray was the fish, and she went through different species, but he wasn’t having any of it. She had a false spike of hope when he actually took some trout into his mouth, but he spit it right back onto the front of her tunic as a sticky, fishy mess.

  “They never said this would be easy…” Eist reminded herself as she mentally decided to dedicate this tunic as her feeding outfit that she would change into if she had the chance. Forcing herself to remember her success so far, she grabbed the last piece of meat, which was a small hunk of salmon.

  She set it down on the bench in front of her, ready to cut it up, but she had barely even raised the knife when suddenly her dragon darted forward, snapping up the fish whole right from her grasp. This time, she was able to pull her fingers back before they were caught up too, and she just watched as her little dragon tried to mash the fish all on his own.

  And watched and watched. He really went at it, flapping his mouth for several minutes, growling and trilling and making all sort of challenged squeaks. By the time he spit it back out at her, he looked well and truly exhausted.

  “Did you get that out of your system?” she asked, giving him a knowing look. But he was just crouched down in front of the salmon, eyeing it like a cat would eye a mouse. He let out several demanding chirps, clearly asking for her to work her magic, and Eist picked up the hammer once more.

  “I need you to back up, okay?” she asked, only for him to completely ignore her. Sighing, she pushed him back only for him to scoot right into the same position right as she sat up. Of course, it couldn’t be simple.

  Holding him back with one arm, she twisted so she could raise the hammer with the other and proceeded to beat the now saliva-covered food. Thankfully the consistency was already pretty soft, allowing her to finish quickly.

  The moment she stopped swinging, however, the little dragon darted forward and hastily gulped up the pile all at once, barely ‘chewing’ it before swallowing. Once it was down his gullet, he let out a trill and sat back in his normal position.

  “Good boy,” she said, feeling accomplished despite
all the hiccups in their process. “Now, let’s see how you do with plants.”

  By the time they had gone through everything on her tray, at least an hour had passed. But it was time well spent, because now he was sated, clinging to her chest with one of her arms under him to support his bottom. He was letting out a sound that was somewhere between a snore and a squeak, she couldn’t quite tell, but it seemed to her that it meant he was about to doze off.

  Which meant it was finally time for her to eat.

  She quickly, if awkwardly, washed her hands in the basin at the table and went back inside, finding her way to the cafeteria once more. Once she was there, she found that far too many eyes were on her to be comfortable. Even her dragon seemed to notice, his cute little sounds fading as one of his crystalline eyes flicked open.

  As quickly as she could without jostling him, she loaded up a plate of what looked like a decent enough meal then hightailed it to her room. At least there she could eat in peace and get to know her new soulmate a little better.

  Thankfully, no one stopped her in the halls, and it didn’t take her long to reach her room. There she set her food down at her work table, then looked around for a place to set her new friend.

  Except she didn’t really have a place for him. She could set him on her bed, but then she would have to move him later to sleep, and as far as she knew, baby dragons could snooze for very long periods when they were young. Looking around, she saw she still had a wooden bin from the last time she fetched parchment and ink from supplies. That would definitely work as a bed for now.

  Still holding him with one arm, she dumped her materials out of it and set it beside her bed on the roughly hewn nightstand. But before she could get some of her old, worn clothing into the box, there was a knock on her door.

  Who could be visiting her today? She figured that everyone definitely had important things to do.

  Opening the door, she saw Dille and Yacrist standing there, holding their own dragons and food.