Awakened (The Brindle Dragon Book 2) Page 4

  Eist went to her room and Fior seemed to understand that her mind was going through some things, because he immediately started nuzzling her, winding around her feet and pulling at her shoes.

  She sat at her work table, pulling out the scrolls she had borrowed from the teacher in strategy class. Unfortunately, a good portion of that lecture was spent with the woman’s face to the board as she drew out different tactics, meaning Eist’s comprehension of it went in and out. But when Eist had approached the woman about her worries that she was missing too much info, the teacher had simply assigned the fastest writer in the class to take down double the notes so that Eist would be able to study and pick up on what she missed in her spare time.

  It really was a lovely gesture, and while Eist normally looked forward to reading the notes and the little jokes the writer put in—Valcrest was his name, she thought—she found herself unable to concentrate.

  After reading the same paragraph several times and comprehending none of it, she sat back with a sigh. Looking down at Fior, she saw that he was still sitting there, looking up at her in concern.

  “How would you like to take a trip to the library with me?” she asked, scratching the top of his head. He chirped and pranced over to the door, shifting from foot to foot in front of it. Smiling at the display, Eist grabbed her waterskin and a candle then headed for the massive room.

  It was time to do a little research so the voice in the back of her head would finally quiet down. She truly hoped that she was wrong and just being overly cautious. Because if she was right… She actually didn’t know what that meant, but she was sure that whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

  5

  Five Claw Discount

  Eist woke up slowly, her body aching from all the running she had done in the past few days. Apparently, their teacher didn’t think their endurance was up to snuff, so they were set to run as long as their dragons did.

  Some students’ dragons would trundle a little way then grow bored, flopping onto their bellies or returning to their human, while some students’ dragons were definitely in the mood to play, frolicking lazily and letting their rider jog at a leisurely pace before barking for water.

  But of course, Fior couldn’t be like that.

  In the few days that she’d had him, the little dragon had learned that he loved running about on the ground. He was faster than a greased chicken and twice as agile, which seemed to go hand-in-hand with his love of being chased. So naturally, the moment she had set him down and told him to run, she was stuck doing laps for hours.

  Eventually the teacher would tell her to stop and send her to the baths, but even a good long soak in the ground-heated tubs didn’t stop her soreness from seeping into the morning.

  Groaning, Eist rolled over, wishing she could just stay asleep forever, but something uncomfortable poked at her still-soft belly. Opening her eyes, she saw a beautiful necklace was pressing into her middle, her night clothes having ridden up in her sleep all the way to her chest.

  “Now where did this come from?”

  Swinging her legs to get out of bed, she froze when she kicked something a few inches. Rubbing the last of her sleep from her eyes, she looked down to see that three different candle sticks were laying around the side of her cot.

  “What…”

  Now thoroughly confused, she looked around her room, wondering if this was some sort of strange prank on Ain’s part. As she examined the space, her eyes eventually landed on Fior’s box bed, which was completely empty.

  “Fior?” she called, sitting bolt upright. Suddenly her adrenaline was pumping, and terror was flowing through her. Her dragon was gone! Had someone taken it? What if he was hurt? What—

  Her rising panic was cut off as a gentle scratch sounded at her door and a small, dark shape slid in the opening. If it weren’t for the dawning light seeping through her one window, she never would have even seen Fior as he happily scuttled in, a polished wooden spoon in his mouth.

  “What are you doing?” Eist asked, filled with a strange mix of relief and confusion. But the dragon just trotted up to her and dropped the utensil at her feet as if it was a gift. “How did you even get out? I know I closed the door.”

  As if to answer her, the little dragon ran over to the door, headbutting it so hard that it slammed shut and the latch fell into place. For a fleeting moment, Eist was worried that he had hurt himself, but he just happily wiggled his butt then jumped.

  His mouth wrapped around the small knob of the latch and somehow his gums got a good grip despite the large amount of saliva the little guy always seemed to have. He just hung there for a moment, causing Eist to laugh at the silliness of his actions, only for his body to start swaying side to side. Once he built up enough momentum, he jerked to the left, causing the latch to slide a little out of place. He kept it up, hanging on for an impressive amount of time, until the latch was far enough out of the holder to be moved. From there he let go, only to jump up and headbutt the thing completely out of its track.

  With the lock seemingly taken care of, he dropped back to floor. Turning around to face her, he slid the thin end of his tail under the small gap in the door, then slowly walked forward. Sure enough, he was able to open the door just enough to slip out, which he did with a flourish.

  “By the All-Mother,” Eist murmured, walking to the door to see him waiting for her in the hall. “You are something else, aren’t you?”

  He trilled at her and marched into her room, going to her bed and curling into a ball. It was only after his eyes fluttered closed that Eist saw just how much stuff he had brought in while she had been sleeping.

  Her floor and bed were littered with things. Besides the aforementioned necklace, candlesticks and spoon, there was a ring, a hair trinket, several quills that were now sticky from dragon spit, what looked like a hardboiled egg, and a prayer idol of the All-Mother. Feeling her stomach drop, Eist hastily grabbed it all up and marched right down to the end of the hall in her night clothes.

  For all her months of staying at the academy, she had never once sought out the staff member who was at the end of the hall to help them if they needed it. But this was definitely a good reason if she ever had one, and she knocked on his door hoping that he was already awake.

  The several minutes it took him to answer confirmed that he had indeed been asleep, and the man answered the door with ruffled hair and bleary eyes.

  “Can I help you?” he asked groggily. Eist felt a bit guilty for a moment, especially since he didn’t sound irritated, just confused. But she pressed onward, wanting to get rid of the pilfered items as soon as she could.

  “Um, it seems that in the middle of the night, my dragonling learned how to unlock my door and then open it. He brought me presents, but I don’t think they were gainfully purchased.”

  The man looked down at the mini-hoard in her arms and laughed. “That’s certainly something. You’re the girl with the tiny burnt dragon, right? The one that dive-bombed another student?”

  Eist grinned uncertainly. “I see his exploits are more widely known than I had anticipated.”

  “Well, you have to admit he sort of stands out.” The worker plucked the items from Eist’s grasp, shaking his head. “I’ll make sure these get to the right owners then send for someone to change the lock on your door. He’s not the first to get out, and not the first to exhibit their natural hording tendencies young, but it’s always so funny to see what they take.”

  “Oh, so this has happened before?”

  “Of course! There’s at least one every generation who has the shiny-lust in their system as soon as they hatch. He’ll grow out of it as long as you train him right.”

  “Thank you,” Eist said with relief, some of the stress leaving her. As much as she loved how unique her little guy was, it was exhausting to hear how different he was from everyone else. In a lot of ways, he was a baby dragon just like all the other baby dragons. “I guess I’ll go get ready for my day.”

&nb
sp; “Best of luck.”

  Eist nodded and headed back to her room where Fior was sleeping peacefully, almost as if he hadn’t pilfered all the rooms around them for valuables. Shaking her head, the young woman dressed herself then put the snoozing reptile in the sling that Yacrist had helped her make. Together, they set out on another day together that would no doubt be just as exciting as the last.

  Somehow, the dragon rider life started to turn into a blur of training that all melted together in Eist’s mind rather than an exciting time of adventure and exploration. Granted, her grandfather had always made sure that she knew that the first year of her life at the academy would be just constant hard work, but it was one thing to know that and another to actually live that.

  Every time Eist flopped into her bed at night, she was so sore and tired that she would fall asleep almost instantly. And almost every morning, she would wake to find a collection of trinkets littering her cot. It didn’t matter what kind of locks were put on her door, or even how much furniture she stacked in front of it, Fior would find a way out. Even when she desperately put her entire cot in front of the door, he just found a way to open the window and slipped out that way.

  That had really terrified Eist. It was one thing to have her little dragon wandering around the place stealing bits and bobs, but it was another for him to be strolling around the courtyard on his own. It made her stomach twist to think that something could happen to him while he was out on his jaunts, but every attempt she made to stay up to watch him always ended with her passing out in exhaustion.

  Even Dille and Yacrist had offered to help, figuring their dragons would occupy Fior and the extra bodies would provide enough deterrent. But no, instead, both he and Verelda got out with Alynbach being the only one to stick around in Yacrist’s sling.

  She tried everything, having him sleep all day, feeding him heavy foods right before bed, even tying him to her wrist with a length of rope. The only thing she didn’t attempt was actually chaining him to her bed. The thought was tempting, surely, especially since all the students and faculty around her were growing increasingly more annoyed as their things went missing, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to shackle the little guy. It just seemed inherently wrong.

  So naturally, when she woke again upon the second and a half week of having her new charge to find even more jewelry and fine things in her bed, Eist felt herself snap.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked the little thing, who was sitting in his bed, playing with a goblet. “You can’t use any of this stuff! You’re going to get me in trouble! They’re going to think that I can’t discipline my dragon and that I’m not meant to be a dragon rider.”

  Her voice cracked at that last part. How terrible it would be to finally have made it this far only to trip at the finish line. Would people blame it on her hearing? Her witch’s eye? Or would they just think her weak?

  Fior seemed to sense her tone and left his basket, trotting over to look up at her curiously. Sometimes she felt like he could understand her word for word, and others it seemed that he just knew what she was emoting. But either way, when she looked down in those crystalline eyes, she saw curiosity and worry.

  “I know you like shiny things, and looking at them, but these don’t belong to us. They belong to other people, and other dragons, so you can’t take them, okay?”

  His head drooped, and he let out an uncertain warble. Goodness, it was so hard to discipline him when he looked so adorable. She just wanted to give him the whole world and make sure that he was never upset again.

  “How about I make you a deal? If you don’t steal anything for the rest of the week, I’ll take you to the market on one of our free days and you can run around to your heart’s content. Sound good?”

  He looked up at her, his head cocked to the side and she realized she was talking to him as she would a human. Picking up the closest necklace, she pointed to it. “No, no,” she said, shaking her finger. Then she walked to the window and pointed outside. “Play yes. Shiny means no play.”

  Eist felt a bit foolish talking to him like an ancient savage, but something looked like it clicked in his gaze and he quickly started piling all the stolen goods into one spot. Perhaps it was foolish, but she hoped that meant he understood and was onboard.

  Picking up the items, she made her usual trip to the staff member at the end of the hall. By now he had a box outside his door that Eist would drop the things off in. Apparently, they didn’t have to worry about anybody else taking the things, only Fior.

  She just wished her grandfather was awake. She was sure that he would have an idea on how to curb Fior’s hoarding instincts, or at least a funny story. But he was still sound asleep, and Eist didn’t want to pester the healers about awakening him lest they not let her linger as often as she did.

  Sighing, Eist rubbed at her temples. What she wouldn’t give for a normal morning not waking up in a pile of knick-knacks that didn’t belong to her. Hopefully her most recent deal with Fior would do the trick. Then again, he was a dragon, so who was more bizarre? Him for his kleptomaniacal tendencies, or her for thinking she could bargain with him?

  She supposed only time would tell.

  6

  Quiet in the Library

  Eist leafed through the old book she had picked out from the shelves, many of the words and phrases going over her head. She’d been trolling through tome after tome, scroll after scroll, in what little free time she had since getting Fior, but she still hadn’t found anything that would confirm her suspicions and allow her to demand the healer let her grandfather wake.

  One would think that it wouldn’t be so hard to find something about the long-term effects of green dragon gas, but what books did talk about it either focused on the application and acquisition, or even the history of how it was first used. Maybe it was because healers had the good sense not to let someone be under for months.

  Or maybe Eist was just paranoid.

  Suddenly her hand was engulfed by sticky, squishy gums. Eist jerked and realized she had only been half paying attention as she was feeding Fior an apple, and he had just gone for her whole hand again. While he did it less often than he used to, sometimes he was just so eager to mash food between his toothless maw that he caught her hand up anyway.

  He’d also gotten a lot better at eating in general. Sure, Eist still had to mash up a lot of his food. Enough so that the rhythm of the spiky hammer—apparently called a tenderizer, as Yacrist informed her—was enough to get him drooling almost immediately. But certain things he could handle on his own, mostly in the fruit or gourd category. She would cut him slices and he would use his tongue to press it up against the roof of his mouth or between his gums until it was enough of a paste for him to swallow.

  “Gross,” Eist remarked to herself, wiping the apple-spittle mix on her pant leg. She was definitely going to have to set this out to wash overnight.

  “What, did you suddenly catch sight of your reflection?”

  Eist froze for a moment, willing herself not to react. Once she had her emotions all tightly sealed under a lid, she looked up to see none other than Ain a few feet away from her and Athar standing by the door.

  She carefully took inventory of the situation, marking escape routes and possible ways to avoid the situation all together. As she surveyed them, she realized that their dragons had grown considerably since they had gotten them, unlike Fior who was almost the exact same size.

  “No, they don’t have mirrors in here,” she answered calmly. “So, you don’t have to worry about being distracted by your own visage.” She stood and put the book away, but when she turned to go, Ain was right there.

  “What do you want?” Eist asked, thoroughly exhausted.

  “Now that’s not very polite. Now that we’re in different classes, I never get to see you. Don’t you miss me?”

  He was smirking at her in the way that made her blood boil. He just thought he was so fantastic. It made her want to do a lot of thing
s that were definitely not allowed, so instead, she just fixed a polite smile on her face.

  “I know that your life is so devoid of meaning and substance that your infatuation with me no doubt occupies your mind every moment, but I have been blissfully living my life and actually accomplishing things. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to continue right on doing that.”

  She went to move past him, but he thrust his arm forward as if he was leaning on the shelf, effectively blocking her path. “Don’t be like that. I know you’re tired of all these people coddling you, telling you that you can do anything while laughing behind your back. At least you always know where you stand with me. I’ll tell you to your face what I think, and isn’t that what’s important in life? Honesty between friends.” He leaned in, that same smirk on his face. She knew what he was doing. It was a weird type of intimidation that some bullies liked to use. He was bigger than her, his dragon was bigger than her dragon, and he was older. He was playing at flirting, but really he was just trying to show how much more powerful he was than her, mocking her with some false image of attraction when really all he felt was derision.

  How bored was this guy? He absolutely hated her, that much was obvious, and he definitely didn’t think that she could be a dragon rider, and yet he was working pretty hard to insert himself into her life.

  But if he wanted to play at being attracted to her then she was going to go right along with it.

  “Ain, if you’re going to talk about honesty, then when are you going to admit you’re head over heels in love with me?” She ducked under his arm and continued to walk. “Look, I know I’m fairly irresistible, but please, try to contain yourself. I’m afraid that narcissistic little goat lovers who are clearly trying to make up for the lack of a father’s love in their life just aren’t my type.”

  Eist smirked to herself, sauntering away. She glanced to Athar at the door to see that the giant man was blushing fairly hard. That was curious, but before she could grow too curious, a strong hand gripped her shoulder and whipped her around.