Black Stained
Chapter 13: Shining
It was a very rainy and windy day, fortunately for Aral, she had been inside for most of it. Her task wasn't complicated; she had to serve breakfast, then take one of the dragons to the surgery room, feed it some candy and play with it a bit. As Nicki had described it to her; forming a band between you and the dragon, which will make them easier to handle. Nicki and Levi sometimes helped in the morning, but their work was more focussed on taking care of the dragons medically. With magic. Aral found herself extremely lucky with two colleagues, so if anything went wrong -If their was magic needed- they could intervene. She had discovered that the rooms behind the doors all represent one of the four elements. Water, fire, earth and air. She had also learned to be more careful around the fire room, although they were little the dragons were still very dangerous. They had almost set her hair on fire. Breakfast was served all at once in their rooms. She only had to place large buckets of food in front of them and in less than a minute she could pick up the emptied buckets and clean them up. Taking each dragon -one by one- to the surgery and 'form a bond' took a lot more time. When she was almost at the end of her shift she felt like she could sleep standing, not even bothering to feed her empty and growling stumach. She brought back Zooth to the air room and checked her list, in the hope he was the last one, but she read one other name at the bottom of her list.
Gemi.
She sighed but quickly got to work, she didn't want to slow on her first day already. Gemi had been assigned to the air room, this relieved her, she didn't want to deal with another fire dragon today. She checked if her dragon skin jacket and gloves were still in its place and walked around the room. She could see Zooth, Bith (the hungarian horntail), Tal, Ami and Saph, which she had already gotten acquainted with. But no where she could find a dragon called Gemi, she called its name a couple of times and walked through the whole room (even this enlarged room had corners and walls), but it was no where to be found. She stood there for some moments, contemplating ideas where it could be. A very small voice in the back of her head whispered something.
Revelio.
She shook away the thought, she was determined not to use any sort of magic. She wasn't ready. A cool breeze moved her hair and made her skin tingle of cold. The small dragons were playing with each other, one -Saph- was already starting to overgrow the lenght that could be held here, soon she would have to be moved to the larger holdings. She fell into a trance, watching the little ones play and feel the cold breeze which made goosebumps appear all over her skin. When she got nearly hit by a bolt of flames she duck away and snapped out of her trance.
Gemi.
Hastily she stalked back to the surgery. Levi was still working with a dragon and didn't notice Aral walk -almost run- into the room.
'Levi?' She interrupted him.
He looked up and slowly lifted the dragon -Balon she believed- onto the table and gave it a toy to pass the time. He turned to Aral and gave her his full attention.
'Can I help you?'
'Yes. I'm almost finished with my list, I only have to take care of a dragon called Gemi, but I can't seem to find it. It is no where to be found in the room.'
She grew more anxious the more she thought about it, losing a dragon on her first day at work... Disaster. To her surprise Levi started to chuckle and she frowned.
'Oh Aral... I'm quite sure she's there.'
'Then were is it? Did I check the wrong room? It's assigned to the air room, right?'
She was starting to feel stupid. The smirk on his face only grew. She told herself to keep it together and straightened her back.
'No. I'll show you.'
He stood up and picked up Balon. They dropped him off at the water room and she followed Levi to the air room. Curiousity grew inside her. They walked toward a place she was convinced of she had checked thrice already. They walked over the soft grass untill their feet met the hard stone. There were some rocks piled up and spread around the place. Levi walked around it and checked some corners, he then walked back over to her side. She looked at him and raised her brow in a questioning manner. He didn't say anything, instead he pointed with his hand towards the right of the pile and nodded. She frowned again and walked over to the rocks laying there. First she saw nothing and on the moment she wanted to turn around and tell him so, she saw something which caught her attention. Slowly she approached the shimmer of light and tried to figure out where it came from. Once she was near enough she found out the light got reflected by... scales. Beautiful scales, all neatly in rows and together forming a harness with nothing as equally strong. A dragons skin. Her eyes met a pair of multi-coloured, pupil-less eyes, reflecting all the colours in the world. She felt like she sunk into water and floated in the air, like she was heated with fire and her fingers dug into the earth. It all was so overwelming, but also very peaceful. All her problems left her and she could breath in the air freely again, without pressure or a heavy weight on her shoulders. She didn't fall into a trance, she was completely present. She was struck by its beauty.
'It is so beautiful.' She breathed almost too soft for Levi to hear.
'Yeah, she is.'
The dragon -Or Gemi- didn't react to her being there, it did however crawl deeper and further into the shadows when she took another step forward. She tried to reach out, but a beam of vivid scarlet flames was shot towards her. She stayed back, remembering not all dragons trust a new face that easily. A small smile formed on her lips, for she recognized this behaviour with herself too.
'Can you quess what kind of dragon it is?' Levi asked.
Grey skin, was the first thing she thought about. It could be a Ukrainian Ironbelly or a swedish short snout, but this dragon didn't have red eyes or a blue flame. No, it had pupil-less, mulit-coloured eyes and a vivid scarlet flame. Vivid scarlet.
'Vivid sc-' She murmured staring into the its eyes.
She slowly took a step forward and crouched down on her knees, focussing all her energy on sending out a positive and safe aura.
'An Antipodean Opaleye?' She couldn't believe it.
'Very smart.' Was his only answer.
Her eyes were locked onto the eyes of the creature. She felt something, but didn't know what exactly.
'Your skin... Your scales...' She didn't notice herself speaking to the dragon directly, Levi did and he frowned at her actions. She was still moving very slowly towards it and to his amazement it didn't move. It was staring back.
'What happened to your colour?'
Antipodean Opaleye usually had a less scarred and more coloured skin. Somehow she felt herself drawn to it and it drawn to her.
'Gemi.'
She was so near. Levi wanted to answer her question, but his thoughts carried away when all of his attention flowed to the sight before him. Aral felt as if all her movements were slowed down and time stopped running. Her hand gracefully lifted in the air landed only inches in front of the dragon and hovered in the air, inviting the dragon, trying to coax her out of the shadows she had crept into. Gemi took the bait. Her nose slowly moved forwards, the hot air from her nostrils tickled Aral's fingers. But she didn't pull away, it didn't burn her. The scales felt both soft and rough on her own skin. How strange that two totally opposite things can be found in one and the same thing. She didn't move and let Gemi move closer to her. Gemi slowly pushed her head into her hand, like a cat wanting to be stroked by its owner. Her thumb slowly moved circles on the side of her face. Everything was peacefully quiet, even the dragons playing with each other couldn't be heard. Levi was helding his breath. A sound made Gemi pull her head back suddenly and she wanted to crawl back into the darkness, but Aral tried to stop her.
'Wait, shh, calm down. It's okay! It's okay.'
It was something she told herself, when she was scared -which she never liked to admit- and wanted to creep back into the shadows.
'It's okay.'
Gemi looked at her, again a little distrustful. Aral somehow knew what to do, like a feeling. She sighed. When the air escaped her lips she closed her eyes and did something she hadn't done in a very long time. She opened her eyes and looked into Gemi's. She believed to recognize something like shock in her pupil-less eyes, but if it had been there it was gone as soon as it had come. Before Gemi now where a pair of shiny, golden eyes. Something that used to happen to her very often when she was younger and lost control or used a lot of magic. Then it had been a reflection of power, now it was meant for trust. And, to Aral's happiness, it seemed to work. Gemi moved back into the light and curiously looked at the kneeled down witch with golden eyes. There seemed to be an understanding between the two. They both were extraordinary and both dangerous creatures. The golden eyes dissappeared, but trust had been formed. Gemi came nearer and allowed Aral to pick her up and carry her across the field. Aral walked past Levi who was still a bit baffled. It was then that she noticed the other dragons had stopped playing and now were just low on the ground, glanzing at her direction. She kept on walking untill she arrived at a table in the surgery.
She had come to really enjoy the little Gemi. She was a little shy, but a beautiful creature on its own. She wasn't part of the group and barely played or interacted with them, but was more on her own. Which resembled Aral a bit. Although she loved the reserve and working there, she was still a bit parted, not yet part of the group. But she didn't know if she also wanted to be part of it, she had always been good on her own. Besides them she had become friends with Nicki, Levi and Tuck. Charlie wasn't much around, he worked on the other side of the reserve and at other times. She missed his familiar face sometimes, it can become quite lonely, but she didn't mind. After a quick meal at the canteen she left to see if she could find Charlie, he was supposed to have a break around this time. She didn't find him and then returned to her cabin. She picked a book from her shell and took a blanket, wrapping herself like a burrito and laying down on her couch. As much as she loved reading books originating from the wizarding world, she loved to read muggle books once in a while. Tonights entertainment; the shining. Although she didn't particularly like any sort of horror this one intrigued her. After reading almost for three hours she finished the book. It had chilled her to the bone, a horrifying and at the same time incredibly fascinating book. She noticed it was time to go to bed already. Her shifts started pretty early and after today she had learned a good start needed enough energy. When she lay down she realized how tired she actually was and she slept almost instantly, dreaming of little dragons, hotels, burning hair and a brown-red haired guy.
