Theo was standing with Xander as they watched Damara hold a piece of meat up to the sky.
“What do you know,” Xander mentioned as a white wyvern swooped down and gracefully snatched the offering up in its talons. “That animal’s still with her. I guess it has more loyalty than I thought.”
Theo scowled at the wyvern, seeing its red eyes catch the glint of the warm sun as it banked left.
“What’s the matter?” Xander asked her.
Theo shook her head. “I just don’t like that thing.”
Xander laughed. “Why?” He held his arm up, offering it as a perch. “Ow!” He winced when the wyvern landed on his sleeve, its miniscule talons piercing through the thin material.
“Ow!” the creature mimicked.
Xander opened his eyes in confusion. He and Theo looked at the small reptile, perplexed.
“Ow!” it repeated again, the perfect imitation of Xander.
“Hey!” Xander laughed. “Damara, come look at this!”
“Hey! Damara, come look at this!” The wyvern parroted him just as well as the first time.
Theo was astounded. The words Go away! cycled through her head, taking her back to her childhood and the tree she had climbed.
All along…she thought. All along, I was convinced that it had talked to me, when really it was just imitating me!
Damara and Xander crowded the creature, trying to get it to say different things when, suddenly, Theo heard a mournful cry in the distance. She whipped her head around.
“I have to leave,” she told Xander and sprung for the direction of the distressed.
She found herself deep within the forest, surrounded by scraggly clusters of undergrowth and the roots of greyish brown tree trunks. Dust drifted lazily through the light cast from behind the summer canopy far up above.
Theo assumed that it was impossible to walk silently over the layers of dead leaves and fallen twigs. Well, impossible for me, she corrected herself. No doubt Wycker would make it look easy.
She brought herself to a halt, gathering her senses to wait and listen. Where’s the dragon I heard? Everything was luminously dappled. Stretching across the ground and running up the trees, the pattern was shed in all directions. Theo’s eyes locked onto movement, but it was only a bird flying past.
Then she heard the sounds of deep, contorted breathing spaced out between sobs. She tried her best to draw closer as quietly as she could.
A female dragon huddled over a burrow of eggs.
“What’s wrong?” Theo asked, coming to the adult’s side. She recognized her as one of Sky’s friends.
“I’ve laid a clutch of stones!” the female wailed.
Clutch of stones? Theo had never heard of the term, but she inferred that it meant eggs that wouldn’t hatch. This must be what’s been happening to each new generation, she realized, recalling Jacinth’s words ‘with so many clutches ending up as stones, we already face possible extinction.’
“I’m so sorry,” Theo commiserated. “Surely your next clutch will be just as healthy as the past ones.”
The dragon bawled, shaking her head. “No! Once a dragon lays a clutch of stones she never delivers another healthy clutch ever again!” She buried her head into the dirt moaning, “Oh, it’s happening to me. It can’t be. It can’t be…”
Theo felt for her, but she couldn’t think of any way dragons comforted one another physically. The most she could do was stand with her, until at last the tormented dragon lifted her head up from the ground.
“Well,” Sky’s friend inhaled shakily, “I suppose I should bury them now.”
Dolefully, she placed a paw on top of the burrow, containing a number of green and blue eggs. She put her weight down on it, collapsing its summit. Dirt gave way, spilling in and around the eggs until the whole clutch was buried. The adult stood for a while longer, staring at the burial spot with an empty, dismal expression.
I should leave now, Theo thought. On instinct, she nestled the dragon with her head as a consoling goodbye and left.
. . .
Theo traveled the forest for what seemed like a long time, but felt not at all lost. She could sense the direction of the creek, the mountains, the ocean. It was like she had a map always developing inside her head as she visited new areas.
Is this how the hunting wyvern finds its way back to its owner? she wondered. At the moment, she could feel herself drawing near the creek and soon the tell-tale sound of splashing water came within earshot.
She emerged from the trees to see a section of the stream dammed up to form a natural pool. A strikingly familiar dragon played in the water, pouncing and spreading her yellow wings in the spray. Theo realized it was the young dragon that she had declined to mentor.
“Greetings, Theora. Or do you prefer I call you River?” Adder startled her when he spoke. He was standing nearby.
“Hello,” she said, looking back at the pupil, who faltered with her footing and fell awkwardly under.
“Recognize her?” Adder asked, following Theo’s gaze as the unusually small dragon popped back up again, looking around to check if anyone had seen her fall. Her eyes centered in on Theo.
“She wanted to be my pupil last winter,” Theo murmured thoughtfully.
“More like she was interested in you when she noticed how different you were from the rest,” Adder corrected her. “I readily took her in as my own pupil, impressed by how observant she was. She’s a lot like how Wycker was at that age,” Adder recalled, chuckling as he added, “though clumsier.”
Theo looked at him, “You mentored Wycker?” It makes sense, she told herself, but was still surprised.
“I did.” Adder nodded, then smiled. “He’s so solitary- you probably thought he’d mentored himself, no?”
“Something like that,” Theo laughed, but quieted as she confessed, “I don’t understand why he hates me so much.”
“Yes,” Adder sighed. “He is a hard dragon to appeal to.”
“Yeah, but I feel like he doesn’t even give me a chance! It’s like he hates me just because I was a human. But, even then…” Theo recalled, “You used to be a human, and you seem to be his favorite.”
“I understand what you mean,” Adder concurred.
“He told me that I wasn’t a dragon, that I was still human at the core,” Theo brought back to mind. “I think that’s why he dislikes me so much. I must remind him too much of a human. He must have some deep rooted hatred towards them.”
“Keep in mind, he doesn’t know what it’s like to be one,” Adder reminded her. “We are all human, in some ways. It just takes the more accepting to realize that.”
I suppose so, Theo thought, noticing one of Egret’s drawings of a tree on the ground. Every dragon I’ve met seems to have some kind of similarity to humans I’ve known.
Am I still human on the inside? Do I still want to turn back, if Damon finds a solution?
I just don’t know…
Chapter 21