Bonds of Fire

A New Chapter Opens

Waking should have been a slow process, his bones and his thoughts felt it, but it was a series of chirrups and annoyed whines that woke him and only then because he recognised their owner as Baby D. His body felt heavy and Drekken opened his eyes to vision that was just blobs of colour, but he recognised his Grey Wing and a small, moving, white bundle that had to be her tiny charge among a selection of other human-sized blobs. His tongue was sticking to the roof of a very dry mouth, so he did not try to speak, but he forced one arm to move with some difficulty and reached out towards his dragons with mind and body. D's response was a shrill whistle of delight and Drekken thought he smiled as Miri moved towards him.

D landed on his chest, placed there gently by Miri and he was then nuzzled under his chin by a tiny, spiny head and on his cheek by a large snout. D purred at him, even though he couldn't co-ordinate his arm to bring it up around her, and she settled quickly into the space just under his chin. Miri remained close and, with his reason for waking gone, Drekken felt the heaviness taking over.

'Sleep, My Human,' Miri whispered in his thoughts and Drekken obeyed.

~

Dragon snoring was more like the sound of a rasp being run over wood, and, living around many of the big reptiles, Drekken was familiar with the noise. However, a fast, high-pitched version was new and the rather cute sound accompanied him out of sleep for a second time. His senses were not so heavy this time, and, although tired, he opened his eyes without the exhausted repression of earlier to discover that D's delicate snout was actually resting on his chin and she was snoring because of the way it tipped her head backwards. The little dragon had slipped down into the cosy spot between his shoulder and neck on the pillows, but with the one resting point on his face, she had him pinned to the bed for fear of waking her.

His limbs were leaden and achy and Drekken wanted to stretch badly, but the somnolent contact welled up so much peace in his chest that his instincts were torn.

'She won't wake,' Miri read him perfectly as she shifted from where she had been sitting beside his bed. 'We have moved her twice for the doctors to monitor you and as long as she remains in contact with you, she remains sound asleep.'

As soon as he was given leave, Drekken stretched and then groaned as it felt like every muscle in his body let him know where it was.

'Gently, Dre, you do not get a full upgrade every day.'

The thought-voice made Drekken wake up quite a lot more, not only because the news of a full implant replacement was a shock, but also because the person who delivered it was not Miri, it was one of his mothers, Orin.

"Ma?" he checked, just in case his senses were fooling him, and he looked past Miri.

"We all came as soon as we heard," his human mother, Wen, drew his attention by taking his hand from the opposite side of the bed to Miri.

It took Drekken a few moments to work out what his mother was saying; it wasn't the first time he'd been hurt in combat, and even an upgrade didn't usually mean his whole family trekked out to see him. However, then he saw the cast of Wen's eyes and he realised she was looking at D.

"It is only a temporary bond," he stammered irrationally, suddenly feeling cornered by the way his mothers and Miri were all looking at him.

Wen apparently ignored that and, patting his hand, told him, "The doctors have said you must rest for a month to let your implants assimilate and then you'll have to undergo the usual six month training to make sure you're familiar with the new functionality."

That information wasn't news, Drekken had had upgrades before and the long rehab was standard procedure. Still, Wen wasn't finished and continued, "You and Miri will be able to stay with us while you train at the academy."