"What?" cried Julidith in surprise. "Why should I–"
"Get on," he repeated, "you are too foolish to be alone. You will be killed."
The child gulped and slowly came forward. She put her hand on his neck cautiously, before pulling herself up onto his neck. When she was sitting firmly, he suddenly spread his wings and began to lift himself up into the air. Julidith held on for dear life, already terrified.
"Relax, kiir," said Odahviing, "I will not let you fall."
"W-where are we going?"
"To an old sanctuary, where you will be safe."
Before the child could say anything else, he took off towards a mountain range in the East.
Barely ten seconds into the 'ride', Julidith was letting out whimpers of terror, closing her eyes tightly.
"Open your eyes," the Dovah ordered, loud enough so she could hear over the wind. "You are missing the world."
She slowly opened one eye and looked around, only seeing a misty white for a second. Suddenly, when the dragon shouted something in his language, the mist cleared and she could see. She gasped and opened both eyes, looking around.
Everything was so small! It felt like she was a god, being able to see the world from this angle. If the dragon could, he would have smiled – which was a strange thought to him – at her excitement. The kiir was pointing things out to him and grinning, it was almost – no, wait. What was he thinking? Julidith was a mortal child who was too weak and just plain stupid to defend herself. But at the same time, he could sense a strong . . . power inside of her. Maybe . . .
"Hey, look at that river! It looks like a snake!"
"Indeed. At least, a small snake with a large body," said Odahviing, and Julidith laughed.
"This is actually fun!"
"I apologize for ruining your excitement, but we are almost there."
After five more minutes of laughing from Julidith and small conversation, they arrived. The dragon slowly lowered himself to the cracked stone ground and lowered his neck so the child could get off. She did so, and looked around in wonder.
There was a small, crumbled stone building off to the side, with no real door or window glass. Around to the other side, there was a wall with . . . strange engravings on it.
Julidith didn't get to look around for long before Odahviing began to lecture the child.
"You could be killed out there, kiir. You are weak, foolish and cowardly. You should not have left your home, whether or not your parents have died."
The child looked at her feet and bounced on her heels. "I-I know . . ." she said quietly, and the Dovah sighed.
"However," He began, and she looked up, "despite my own good, I will take care of you until you are old enough to go out on your own."
"W-what? But you're a dragon, and–"
"It matters not." He interrupted, and he took a step towards her. "You will stay here with me, or you will die. Hin poguk."
Julidith blinked a few times, before the two stared at each other. There was an awkward silence, but it was quickly ended when she began to wail.
It had been three weeks since he had taken her in. By now, Julidith had learned the rules – no loud noises, no arguing, and no sleeping during the day no matter how tired she was. Odahviing was only keeping her around because of pity, and she knew that. So, she tried her hardest to follow his rules.
She slept in the crumbling building, but sometimes she would walk out and sleep next to the dragon when it was cold (though she usually got caught and was yelled at to go back into the building.)
It was around midnight, and she was wide awake, along with cold. She shivered and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Though she was sleeping with an old cloth she had found, she still didn't feel like it was enough. She pushed herself to her feet and yawned, going to the door. Odahviing was asleep – even he had had a rough day taking care of her, and she felt guilty.
Julidith slowly came out and looked at the 'word wall', as he called it. She walked over and looked at the engravings. According to the Dovah, the words on the wall were in Dovahzul, some type of dragon language. They were apparently 'words of power', too. She couldn't really grasp that concept, though.
She had heard him shout something in his language before, and there was a powerful effect on the goat he had used it on. It had gone flying backwards, and was dead before it had hit the ground. She wondered if she could use it, too.
She stood in a ready position, one foot back and one foot forward, and gulped. Facing the wall and clenching her fists, the child shouted, "Fus Ro Dah!"
The three words on the wall suddenly shone a bright blue, and a strange force came from her mouth. Though it was weak, it was enough to send the child flying backwards, flipping her and sending her crashing into the stone wall behind her.
Odahviing's head snapped up suddenly, and he looked back and forth between the wall and Julidith. The realization dawned on him, and he got angry. "Julidith! Meyus, joor kiir!"
He came over to her and grabbed her collar with his teeth, pulling her up. She stood unsteadily on her feet and blinked a few times, before grinning nervously as he let go of her collar.
"Why would you utter those words? Dreh hi hind wah dir? You are lucky that you did not explode." His voice was filled with obvious rage, and another emotion that the child couldn't detect.
"I-I'm sorry! I just wanted to see if I could do it, and–"
"You should not have tried it in the first place! You could have been gravely injured. You are foolish, weak, and pathetic–"
The Dovah stopped himself when he saw the tears run down her cheeks. Her bottom lip quivered and her nostrils flared repeatedly, but it looked like she was trying her hardest to look grown up.
He didn't realize she was terrified. And when he did, he (strangely) felt bad. He almost never felt bad for anything, for he was a dragon, of course.
With a sigh, he watched the girl cry for a moment before reaching his head out and nuzzling the girl's stomach with his muzzle. Julidith blinked in surprise, though her eyes were still blurred with tears.
"Zu'u friikir," said the Dovah, though he knew she couldn't understand, "are you hurt?"
"I-I hit my t-tailbone pretty hard, but other t-than that, I'm okay."
He lifted his head and, to his own surprise, licked her face with his tongue to get the tears off.
"Do not cry, dii kiir, I am no longer mad at you." Suddenly, his tone got very serious. "What exactly happened when you shouted those words?"
"There was a blue force that came out of my mouth, and I-I don't know what it was." Julidith replied with a sniffle.
A blue force . . . did this child really use a Shout correctly the first time? Though it was weak, it had enough force to knock her back. Could she be . . .? No, that would be impossible. The only one who could really tell would be Paarthunax, who never let anyone onto his stupid mountain as of late.
The Dovah sighed. "Go back to bed, Julidith," he ordered, and the child nearly tripped as she turned and ran to the building. He sighed again as he watched her. What a foolish creature. If anyone had told him right now that he would learn to care about her more than himself, he would burn them.
He never expected it would someday be true.
A/N: Finally wrote this on a computer/edited it/uploaded it. Now, I can take a nap.
Also thank you to my reviewers and one very enthusiastic reviewer c; they mean a lot. Also, if anyone wants Dovahzul translations, I'll add them down here with the A/N. Thanks for reading, as always, and I'll see you in the next chapter! :D