The house of the healer was dark and hot. There were tokens and charms everywhere. Even from they ceiling there hung some herbs and more charms. Akycha knew, that the healer despised of her. She was her parent's second child. But her older brother died, long ago in an accident on a cliff. Ever since that incident, her mother was overprotective of her, and her father taught her –after long pleading and begging- the ways of surviving in the cold snow plains and mountains. She was ten, when her father let her drive the dog sled. Ever since that one day, Akycha loved to take the dogs out for a ride and the dogs loved to go, too. But many did not approve of her being trained in all the "rude" trades of the men, but most of all, the healer. He hated seeing her doing a man's work and indicated so, by making rude comments about her not being raised properly and never had an ounce of respect for her.
"Well come on already, we haven't got all day you know" came the healers voice from the back of the room. He sounded disgusted, at the prospect of having to talk to her yet again. Akycha noted this with a small smile. She had no distaste for the healer. He did his job well. As for the tone he used to speak with her, she didn't really care about it.
Slowly she made her way towards him and sat down in the chair in front of his working area. Behind which he sat in a throne like chair, rich with carved patterns of swirls and the like. "Now, what is it, you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked her with no less coldness in his voice, than before. She chose to ignore it. "I have found something, out on the plains", she had gone over the story a thousand times in her head. "I was exercising my fathers' team, when I saw a strange snow mount in the middle of the plain. I stopped at it and saw a small, oval object lying next to it and immediately recognized it from your stories. It was a dragon egg." She stopped there and let her last words sink in for a while, like she had seen him do it at night by the fire, while he was telling a story. "I picked it up and looked at it, when I realized that the mound was its mother…dead", again she paused, but not for the same reason. It had broken her heart to see the two like that in the snow. She fought the tears that were trying to well her eyes. When she had regained control, she continued "I took the egg and warmed it the whole way. All I ask, is for you to look at it and tell me whether it will live or not"
The healer watched her with his cold, almost black eyes and considered her and the situation for quite some time. "Where is it?" was all he said, and he looked at her more intently now than he had before. Akycha fumbled at the small pouch that was now bulging with its contents. Carefully she took the egg out. It was white, almost as white as the snow, but it also had its blue shimmer to it. When the light of the candle's light struck it, it seemed to glow in its radiating warmth.
She saw it with amusement as the healers eyes grew wide, but she remembered her first reaction to the eggs glow, so she kept her amusement to herself. The healer reached out to touch the egg, but drew back the moment he did so. "It is not for me to touch", he said quietly and looked first at his hand, then the egg. All of a sudden his frown turned into a sneer. "So, what do you hope comes from this? Do you seek riches? Glory perhaps?" he asked with disdain and scorn. Akycha could se the hatred in his eyes as he spoke and was surprised at it. What had she done wrong? Calmly, but with a slight sharpness in her voice she replied: "I seek nothing of the kind" With that she put the egg back into her pouch to walk off, and turned around one more time. "Unlike you", she added before stalking out of the hut, her chin raised high.
"Healers" she murmured angrily, but then she opened the pouch once more. "Don't you worry, little one. I'll take care of you. He won't be taking you away now." Unconsciously stroking the egg gently across it's gleaming shell, she made her way towards home.