Unborn - Chapter 3

“What have you done!?” the shrill voice of his mother rang from outside the house.

I look out the window and watch as my mother scolds my father for cutting my hair. It had been well past my shoulders and kept getting tangled when I was working. When he heard me complain, he took it as a chance to trim it. My mother was not pleased. I rush out to try calming her down but as I tug on her dress, she turns around. What I see wasn’t her face gentle and caring eyes, but instead her gaze was a lifeless one.

“Mother!”

Jumping up with a startled scream I wake to find myself in an unfamiliar place. The bed is large enough for two people and the covers feel pleasant against my skin instead of the itchy wool that I have gotten used to. There was one window in the room and small pink curtains block the view to the outside, but I could tell that it was close to midday from the light streaming through.

“You’re finally awake,” a surprised voice says from the corner of the room. Turning I found a woman near my mother’s age who is carrying a tray with a small bowl and towel.

I think I should say something but no matter how hard I tried, words won’t come out of my mouth.

“I will bring you something to eat so don’t strain yourself,” the woman said while having a warm smile.

A few moments later, the woman returns carrying a bowl of porridge and a glass of juice. My stomach starts to grumble as the smell of the food reaches my nose making the woman giggle slightly. She places the bowl down on a small table next to the bed and places her hand on my forehead.

“You had us quite worried sleeping for three days. Oh where are my manners, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Anne.”

I look at her and tilt my head slightly, yet still no words come out of my mouth. I pick up the bowl and take a small spoon at a time. It tastes so good as if I hadn’t eaten anything in a week. As I was eating slowly, Anne watched me with a concerned expression.

“Can you tell me your name?” She asks as I sit the now empty bowl aside.

For a few brief moments, I think about what I should say but in the end the word that comes out of my mouth is strained.

“Skyler.”

I state my name as if I am trying to speak through clenched teeth.

“Skyler-kun, please rest for as long as you need.”

Anne said before picking up the empty dishes and leaving the room.

As I watch her leave, I think there is something I should say, but no matter how hard I ponder, nothing comes to mind. The harder I think the less words come to mind.

Does it matter everyone is gone. I think to myself as I remember the bodies littering the town I had always called home.

I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep but whenever I close my eyes, I see my mother’s lifeless face. Hopping off the bed, I open to door to the room and find a long hallway. After searching for a bit, I managed to find the door leading to the outside.

My body was bathed in warmth light as soon as I stepped out of the large house. Also, in that moment, I heard a loud grunting sound coming from the southern side of the building. Moving around, I find myself looking at a large grey creature with a bulky body with a long neck and two small wings.

“Dragon, it’s a real dragon.”

The creature I had always wanted to see was now standing in front of me silently eating.  Noticing me, the dragon lifts up his head as I stared at him then he goes back to eating.

After a short time, a smaller dragon appeared and walked up to where Sky was watching the larger dragon and started rubbing its head against his shoulder. Though the new dragon was obviously a child, it was still the size of a large horse as the fully grown one was the size of Sky’s old house.

Reaching up, Skyler pats the dragon’s head that was lowered to rub against him. The skin under his hands felt rough, yet familiar for some reason.

“It seems that Lorna has taking a liking toward you.”

Alight voice said from behind me. A girl about sixteen came around holding a saddle and started to put in on the smaller dragon, who happily licked the girls face making her task that much harder.

After she had got the saddle cinched down and had checked the straps three times she sat down beside him.

“I’m Lilly. Mom said that you woke up Sky-kun but I didn’t know I would find you out here.”

I looked at the young girl and smiled. She had good features with light brown hair and eyes. Her voice was warm and comforting, but Skyler still couldn’t find any words to say to her.

“Lorna is my dragon since I have already bonded her, but if you want, I can take you on a ride.” Lilly said when Sky turned his eyes away and looked back to the dragon.

Hearing her offer to take me to ride the dragon, I can’t help but nod my head vigorously while at the same time my mind was vigorously yelling “please!” though for some reasons, the word didn’t reach my lips.

“Common then,” Lilly says as she takes my hand and pull me toward the smaller dragon. As I near the dragon, it looks at me and give a deep whiff then go down on its legs to the lowest it can so that it is easy for me to climb up. Lilly, watching her dragon’s behavior, gives tilt her head quizzically and climbs up in front of me.

As we move out, Lilly grabs my arms which and dangling at my sides and pulls them around her waist.

“You need to hold on tight otherwise you will fall Sky-kun.”

I feel hot as my face reddens but I do as I was told and keep my arms wrap around her slim waist. As I was holding on, sudden jerk in the dragon’s movement makes my hands slip and they brush the bottoms of the soft mounds. After that happened a few times, Lilly looks back at me and gives me a harsh glare.

“Keep a good hold.” She says. The pleasant voice from earlier was gone.

Lilly guides the dragon to a small creek that runs from a wooded area and brings the dragon to a halt and climbs down. I follow suit and get off the dragon. My sides and button hurt as if I had been continuously kicked. Seeing me walk slightly bowlegged as I rub my hindquarters, Lilly give a short laugh.

“You’ll get used to it.” She says floating a bright smile.

“Stay here with Lorna. I need to gather a few things for mother.” Lilly says as she heads into the forest.

I watch as she leaves then I walk next to the creek and sit down. Lorna nudges me with her head then positions herself behind me. Leaning my back against the dragon, I look at the sky while listening to the dragon breathing.

I don’t know how much time has passed but suddenly Lorna raises her head slightly and looks to the ground a little to my left. Following her line of sight, I notice a small white snake slithering slowly toward me. I am slightly startled at first but I feel no danger from the creature as it curiously crawls toward me.

When it was within my reach, the snake lifts its head as if gesturing me to pet it, which I do so with my hand as it was looking at me with small silvery eyes. Having grown up near the woods I have seen a good variety of poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, but I have never seen a white one before.

Carefully I pick up the snake with my left hand and lifted it up. It was so small that it easily fit into the palm of my hand. Using my right hand I rubbed the top of the snake’s head and a soft purring like that of a cat could be heard, which was strange. Smiling, I continued until I heard a noise coming from the forest. Knowing that Lilly must be returning I sat the snake back down and readied to leave but the snake didn’t seem to want to be parted as it crawled up my boot.

Smiling, I picked the snake back up and placed it in the pocket of my cloak. I thought that the snake might have hated it but I could clearly hear the sound of its soft purring. After a few moments I peered inside to see a small ball sleeping soundly.

How very strange.

Turning my eyes back to the forest I watched as Lilly came into view carrying a small brown sack. Lorna causally walked over and rest beside me, where I stand and once again gives a bemused expression. I looked at her gesturing as if asking her ‘what?.’ I really wanted to ask it out loud but once again, the words only sounded in my mind and refused to leave my lips.

“I have never seen a dragon act so calm around anyone but their bonded partner or family of the bonded. Just like papa said, you seem to be a person loved by dragons.” Lilly said nodding her head.

“Well we better get back to the house before mother begins to worry.”

This was the start of my life with a new family.

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