Dragon of Storms

Chapter 10

 After Marie left, Reyna let the dragon come out from beneath the blankets. He happily trotted over to the huge food platter at the foot of the bed and started sniffing things before he decided to eat what looked like ham, while Reyna snacked on the assortment of pastries, then the fruits. She let the dragon have most of the meat, since that was the only thing he seemed interested in.

"Back to what I said earlier," Reyna started after the two had stuffed themselves and laid down. The dragon was curled up in a ball on one of her pillows, his wings covering his face. "You need a name." He opened one of his eyes to glare at her. "I won't let you sleep until we've agreed on something."

While Reyna knew it was impossible for the dragon to understand her, he always seemed to anyways. "Alright, I'll start." She thought for a second, "Draco?" He only blinked sassily, as if to say Really? "Aslan?" Blink. "Hyperion?" Blink. "Icarus?" Blink. "Ares?" Another blink. "Gods above, I'm never going to get it, am I?" Reyna sighed in frustration when the dragon only blinked in response.

In the back of her mind there was a whisper of a name. The voice sounded young, definitely male. It sounded like the voice of a trickster, it sounded witty, and sarcastic. Reyna focused on it, on what it was telling her. "Helios." It said. It repeated the name over and over, until she had a horrible headache form between her eyes.

"Helios?" Reyna asked even though it was stupid to listen to a strange voice in her head. The dragon's head perked up instantly, and a smile seemed to form on his little face. "Helios?" She asked again. As if in confirmation, he nodded. Reyna grinned. She finally knew his name. "Helios." She said, testing the name out. "I like it."

Helios crawled closer, until he laid on Reyna's stomach. He curled up and quickly fell asleep, leaving her alone with her many, many, thoughts. She tried to distract herself by studying her bedroom.

There was an ivory colored fireplace in front of her, carved intricately to look like vines were crawling up it, to the left and right of it were plush cyan chairs that matched her bedding. There were two bookshelves framing the fireplace that had various things on them. Directly across from the shelves was the door to her closet, which also led to a door to her bathroom. To the left was the door that led to her other rooms, and to the right was a glass double door that resembled a gate you'd usually find in the gardens. They opened up to her balcony, and light streamed through it, dark blue curtains were on both sides. Carpets were strewn about randomly. It was smaller and simpler compared to other rooms in the castle, but Reyna didn't mind.

The surrounding walls were painted a dark ivory color with gold trimmings, and there were a few paintings and torches. The torches were extinguished, so the only light entering the room was from the balcony. Marie had offered to close the curtains, but Reyna had decided to keep them open. Her excuse had been that she wanted to be able to see the stars, but that was total bull crap.

Before she could think too much about it, Reyna started to slip into oblivion for the second or third time today. This time, she didn't dream at all, didn't see any strange symbols or golden eyes. She just sank into darkness and stayed there, floating aimlessly.

As the day passed and the moon rose into the sky along with the twinkling stars, Reyna stayed in deep slumber, along with Helios. While she dreamt of nothing, the baby dragon's mind was filled with images of snow capped mountains, and a warm city practically bursting with color. He dreamt of a throne shrouded in lightning and mist while thunder boomed overhead.

Neither woke, until about midnight, when yelling erupted in the foyer. Reyna's eyes flicked open in annoyance. "Is it too much to ask for a few hours of peace and quiet?" Her sleepy question was buried under the sounds of conflict beyond the door. She sat up, making Helios slide down into her lap. He looked about as annoyed as she felt.