Hours passed by, and before they realized, it was dinner time for both humans and dragons alike. While the Penn family and their friends dined in the stable's house, the dragons shared a meal in the common trough at the center of the stable's courtyard. All dragons but one. Beau's mind kept wandering off to Geeld, and after giving the umpteenth glance to the stall's closed door he had enough and walked over to it and opened it.
"Beau, what are you doing?!" Cyrano called when he saw Beau walking into the stall.
Beau stood near Geeld, watching her as the light and the noise of the other dragons' footsteps slowly roused her from her sleep. At first she shifted, rubbing her head into the soft hay, but as a light breeze made her shiver, she slowly opened her eyes. It took a second or two to focus her eyes, but when she did she tried to scramble away from Beau, that was still standing near her.
"Geeld?" Beau asked with worry, noticing how she pressed herself against the stall's corner. "Geeld, it's okay. No need to be afraid."
Geeld didn't answer. She kept staring at him, her golden eyes wide open.
"Look, Geeld, we..." Beau began, but then trailed off with a sigh as the words went lost to him. "Guys, a little help here?"
"Geeld, I'm... sorry." Wyldfyr said, stepping a bit closer to the stall. "I know I shouldn't have been so harsh with you, but... I couldn't believe that... that the wraith was still in your head."
Geeld's eyes darted to stare at Wyldfyr, equally wide and frightened.
"Listen to them, whelp. They sound and look sincere enough to me, so they may as well be." The wraith in Geeld's mind said, as she appeared at her eyes walking between the other dragons.
Watching carefully, Beau noticed how her eyes seemed to focus on nothing but thin air. It then occurred to him that perhaps it was the wraith's image in Geeld's mind. Unsure whether it was a good idea or not, he decided to try at least.
"Geeld, is she... the wraith here?" Beau asked. To everyone's surprise Geeld nodded. "Are you... afraid of it?"
Everyone was taken back by his question, but the wraith more than everyone. Her purple eyes from inside Geeld's mind snapped on Beau, wondering what was his point. Geeld looked at the wraith, then at Beau, and she slowly nodded her head.
"Did she hurt you?" Beau asked Geeld. She shook her head. This surprised everyone, and earned Geeld a quizzical look from the wraith.
"Geeld, how do you feel about the wraith? Please, I... I have to know." Beau pressed on. For a moment he feared that she wouldn't answer, but then she settled down and sat on her haunches.
"She... is rude, but she tried to help me... she says she's evil, but she really isn't. She's like a really bad bully who doesn't know how to bully." Geeld said, sounding quite shy as she fidgeted with her short arms.
"Really..." Beau mused, raising an eyebrow at Geeld, who nodded.
The wraith let out an exasperated sigh. Why does it have to happen to me, the wraith thought. Unfortunately her thoughts trickled into Geeld's mind, who giggled at the wraith's embarrassment.
"What is it?" Beau asked, tilting his head as he saw Geeld giggle. "What did she say, or do?"
"She's shy!" Geeld chirped, watching the wraith as the black dragon blushed.
"No, I'm not shy!" The wraith screeched at Geeld. The wraith blushed all the more visibly as Geeld kept giggling. "Listen, since he wants to know me so much, can I just talk to him myself?"
Geeld nodded, but much to the wraith's curiosity she found herself unable to take control, yet.
"She wants to talk to you." Geeld said, still giggling. Then, she let go and the wraith surfaced.
Cyrano, Fracshun and Beau didn't have the chance to meet the wraith since the 'incident' in the square, and Fracshun was less than willing to stay there. His curiosity got the better of him, so he just backed off a bit, making sure he could hear, but not be seen. Wyldfyr simply watched as Geeld's form took the wraith's appearance, causing him to shiver as her purple eyes opened.
"Well, Beau... Here I am." The wraith hissed, grinning at him. He was just horrified, the difference between Geeld and the wraith was so great and yet they looked and sounded so alike. "Anything you've got to say, Dragon of Legend?"
"Yes, who are you really?" Beau asked, mustering his courage to look straight at the wraith's eyes.
"Me? I am whatever Geeld decides I am. But, more specifically I would say that I am Geeld. Just not the Geeld you know." The wraith chuckled.
"Well, you don't really sound like Geeld..." Cyrano commented, causing the wraith to scoff at him.
"Really? What made you guess that? The fact that Geeld's a 4 year old, or that my lexicon comes from a machine?" The wraith scoffed.
"A lexi-what?" Cyrano rumbled, not really knowing the word.
"Listen, wraith." Beau said, attracting the wraith's attention. "Why are you still here? Shouldn't your personality have vanished the moment the psi gear was removed?"
"How am I supposed to know? I'm a wraith, not a technician!" The wraith screeched.
"So even you don't know how to get rid of yourself from Geeld's head?" Wyldfyr asked, regretting it the moment wraith-Geeld's eyes turned to him.
"First, this morning you didn't help. At all." She snarled at the red dragon. "Second, who says that she wants to be rid of me? Have you thought of that?"
"You can't possibly suggest that Geeld would want someone like you to keep her company!" Wyldfyr growled.
"Well, so long someone here doesn't stop being a hothead I know I wouldn't!" The wraith snapped at the red dragon. "Do you know what it feels to be alone!? Like, truly alone! No friends, no parents. Have you come to realize that these past days she kept waking up and went to sleep completely alone, with nothing but herself and me!? And what about me? You don't even know me! Now that I'm free from the electronic cage of the gear I can truly be myself, and not be some puppet in the hands of a very sad man!"
The wraith's rant caught everyone by surprise. No one would have imagined that a wraith could feel like that, and let alone be able to voice it so clearly. Even the wraith was shocked by such outburst.
Of course that much commotion didn't go unnoticed, the people inside the stable's house hurrying outside to see what was going on. Connor, Kitt and Artha had readied their staves, ready to strike at any intruder, only to find themselves with a small reunion of dragons at the stall where they put Geeld earlier in the afternoon. Parmon and Lance where trying to stay as close to each other as possible, standing at house's doorway.
"What's going on?!" Connor called, all the dragons turning their heads to him. Connor's eyes narrowed as he saw the wraith staring at him.
He charged towards the stable, advancing in powerful strides. Connor stopped only when he was centimeters away from the wraith's eyes, which stared at him, their faint but evident purple glow casting an eerie reflection in Connor's.
"I want you to be gone, wraith. Leave Geeld and these dragons alone, you hear me?" Connor snarled to the wraith.
"You. Don't. Command. Us." The wraith snarled back, pushing her snout against him as she exposed her sharp teeth.
"Us?" Connor asked, taking a step back from the wraith, who kept showing her teeth to him.
"Yes. Us. Me and Geeld. Is that a problem for you?" The wraith snarled, her pitch raising as she took a step forward, bumping her snout against him once more.
Artha and the others slowly and carefully approached, unsure of what was going on.
"Dad, what's going on?" Artha slowly asked as he tried to approach Beau, who was staring at Connor and the wraith with sheer terror.
"Listen, wraith. I don't know what do you want, but this is Geeld's body, so let her have it!" Connor said to the wraith, ignoring his son.
"Geeld knows that, and so do I. Tell me, Connor, what are you afraid of?" The wraith hissed, grinning as she saw Connor taken another step back.
"I'm certainly not afraid of you, wraith." Connor replied, trying to take a braver approach.
Everyone looked in confusion and curiosity at the verbal fight between the wraith and Connor.
"Then why are you so insisting on ridding Geeld of her last true friend?" Wraith-Geeld hissed. She gave a curious glance as Beau looked at her with insulted eyes.
"We are her friends as well! While you are nothing more than-" Beau roared, but was cut off by the wraith's own roar.
"A mockery!? Is that what do you think I am? Your memory is certainly quite fallible if you can't even remember your own words!" She roared. Beau stared with shock and wonder. "Yes, Beau, she heard everything that day, but didn't pay much attention because she wouldn't understand... But unlike her, I do understand! Her memories are mine, too, remember? I can remember everything you shouted that day. That she's a mockery, that she's not a pure gold Star-class! Your hubris certainly knows no limits, 'Dragon of Legend'. Let me ask you something, what is it that makes you afraid of her? Of her very existence? And spare me the answer, because I know it. I can see it in your eyes. You're afraid that she could be the real Dragon of Legend, aren't you?"
The wraith was breathing hard, the rush of adrenaline that this fight was giving her starting to wear out. Beau's head lowered, too ashamed to admit that the wraith was right. Connor and the other dragons present were petrified, unable to fully wrap their heads around what just unfolded before them. Inside Connor's mind his worst worries started to emerge. How could she possibly know or understand Beau like that, Connor silently wondered.
Geeld too was shocked, the young dragon watching silently through her mind's eyes. She looked at everyone's faces, she listened to the incredible silence that descended on the group of people and dragons. Through the binding that kept her and the wraith together, she finally comprehended what the wraith meant. She remembered that day, when Beau shouted at her, and she could remember how Beau and Wyldfyr kept shouting at each other after that. Her mind was in a whirl of emotions, anger, fear, loneliness. Those emotions trickled back to the wraith, further adding to hers.
"Get. Out." The wraith growled, fixing her eyes on everyone. Without getting a response, she charged her energy. "GET OUT!"
Getting the cue, everyone quickly scurried away from the stall, with Connor closing it as he ran out of it.
The wraith stared at the closed door for many long minutes, the adrenaline finally exhausting its effect and making the black dragon feel how tired she actually was. In her mind, she could feel Geeld's emotions as the whelp wept from inside her. Just like the wraith would with Geeld, so now Geeld was appearing in the physical world, only for the wraith to see. The golden dragon was curled up on the hay that was sparsely covering the floor, sobbing and crying. The wraith too was about to cry, but she held strong and made use of what she represented to Geeld. A friend.
"I'm... sorry Geeld. I shouldn't have shouted that much." The wraith whispered as she laid down too, back to back with the mental image of her golden twin. Geeld only kept crying, simply shaking her head.
"Look, tomorrow we need to fix this mess, okay? Even though they are not the best friends one could have, they are still friends." The wraith whispered to Geeld, nudging the gold dragon with her head.
"Thanks." Geeld said between sobs.
"You're welcome." The wraith whispered back. Then it occurred to her something rather important. "You know, I've just realized I don't have a name."
Geeld's head perked up a little at what the wraith said.
"That is... sad." Geeld whined, her cheeks still streaked with tears.
"Yeah... Think you can give me one?" She asked Geeld, who shook her head. The wraith was about to speak again when both her and Geeld let out large yawns at the same time. "Something tells me we'll have to worry about it tomorrow."
When she received no answer, the wraith looked at Geeld, finding the golden dragon already asleep. Shaking her head, she laid down completely, letting her physical and emotional exhaustion take her to sleep.