Chapter 4: Shock and Surprise

            It was a whole week since passing Hone; Frain had flown ahead but he wouldn’t go too far away from me. We ended up farther north than intended and only found this out when we reached the Levap River. It took another two days of following it and then eventually seeing Itra in the distance. Frain roared with what I expected to be joy and Aspen willingly sped up to try and catch up as he soared ahead.

            ‘Frain!’ I shouted to him and pulled on Aspen’s reins to slow him back down. ‘Stop! Land now, please.’

            He landed looking very annoyed. ‘Yes, my Tamer?’ he said but he knew I never liked him calling me that.

            ‘You can’t just go roaring and then soaring in like you were about to. Itra are used to dragons still but I doubt they would like it very much if you go storming in.’

            Shaking his head, he flapped his wings once yet stayed on the ground. ‘Fine. So you just want me to stay on the outside?’ he asked.

            ‘Yes.’ He turned from annoyed to irritated. ‘Sorry but I don’t want you getting hurt or accidentally hurting anyone else.’

            Grumbling, he laid down where he stood. ‘I will stay here then and I may even go fishing,’ he told me with a hiss of his tongue.

            And so, I left him there as I continued on towards the town. The familiar smell of fish hit my nostrils and I suddenly realised how hungry I was. But I couldn’t stop and pick up a freshly cooked fillet as I had to try and remember exactly where Ky’s house was. It did take longer than I wanted though when I turned the right corner and saw his house, my heart fluttered a little. I slid out of the saddle and tied Aspen up outside the house near the water trough. All I had to do now was relax myself before knocking on the door.

            I did eventually get myself to the wooden door but it took a lot of courage on my half to knock. Only having to wait a few seconds, the door was opened by Cynthia (Ky’s mother). I smiled widely and she was all too happy to see me again. She pulled me into a motherly hug and then looked over me as she pushed me inside.

            ‘Hello, Carly, it is so nice to see you again. I have been wondering how long it would for you to come and visit us again. Is Doran not with you?’ she asked.

            I shook my head. ‘No, just me. I haven’t been out of Dracona for the past three years and I thought I would come and see if you were alright,’ I explained quickly.

            She giggled, smiled and then turned the subject away from ourselves. ‘And I can only guess that you really came to see Ky?’ I let my guard down and pressed my lips together and blushed uncontrollably. ‘Hehe, don’t worry, dear. He isn’t in but you can have your room back for as long as you are staying here.’

            My fingers twiddled around in my pockets. ‘Could you tell me where I might find him?’ I asked quietly trying not to sound unappreciative for her just offering me a place to stay.

            As I put my bag down, she went into the kitchen and answered me from there. ‘You might find him wandering in or around the town but most of the time he likes to ride around by the river.’

            In a rather awkward way, I said thank you and slipped back outside trying not to make too much sound. Hopping onto Aspen’s back again, I cantered back out of the town and tried to see if Frain was anywhere nearby. Though he shouldn’t have been, he was circling only a few acres away.

            ‘Frain!’ I called and he swooped down and landed. ‘Would you fly along the river and see if you can spot Ky for me?’ I explained how I knew he would be near it somewhere. He agreed to fly ahead and soon chirped down to say he had found him.

            Although Frain said he wasn’t far away, to him it really wasn’t; to Aspen and I, it was still a good twenty minutes canter. The first sign of Ky was seeing his painted mare, Murtal and she wasn’t at all happy on seeing Aspen again. He kept his distance but gave her a short snort. It took a little longer to find Ky himself. He was swimming and when he did come out of the water, he looked very shocked to see me there. Shaking his head and picking up his towel to dry off his hair, I giggled but stayed on Aspen’s saddle.

            ‘Ya know, a hello is usually what people say when they see someone they haven’t met in a long while,’ I subtly hinted to him.

            Although he was three years older, he still looked just as I remembered with maybe slightly longer hair. ‘Er, yes.’ He coughed. ‘Hello. How did you find me?’ he asked, tilting his head and now looking confused.

            I dismounted and patted my hand up Aspen’s neck. The horse moved away to take a drink and then munch on some grass as I waited for Ky to sort his hair out. ‘Your mum told me where to find you.’

            ‘Ah right. Well, how have you been?’ he asked without so much as a hint of hugging me; I wasn’t wanting a hug necessarily but after being so close to him for about two weeks the last time we were together, I could forgive myself for expecting one.

            ‘I’ve been... fine, I guess. Not much has happened in my life recently.’ There was a loud thud behind me and, looking over my shoulder, I noticed it was only Frain making his presence known.

            Ky had wide eyes and had taken a few paces back and nearly fell into the river. ‘Is that Frain?’ he asked, sounding astounded.

            Walking over to my dragon, I stroked my fingers over his scales and whispered a warning to him that he still had to be nice. ‘Yes. Don’t be so shocked,’ I said, still giggling. ‘It has been about three years since we were last together. Dragons do grow quite quickly compared to us. Anyway, you don’t have to be scared of him.’

            An hour or so later, Ky and I had fully caught up on each other’s lives and it turned out that neither of us had really been up to much since I was last here. Ky had done a few more errands or whatever he got up to when I wasn’t around but other than that he had just been here, in Itra, doing pretty much nothing.

            Frain was sat on the opposite bank, draping his tail through the clear waters and watching us very closely. I ignored him but Ky found it a lot harder to relax when a ten foot tall dragon was scrutinising his every move.

            ‘Forget about Frain,’ I told him for the eighth time. ‘He just doesn’t trust you like I do.’

            ‘And I wonder why that is?’ he asked but clearly not looking for an answer. ‘So you haven’t really told me, why are you here now?’

            As I told him why I had come here, there was a shimmer in the air around us; it wasn’t a visible one but I could definitely feel something. ‘And here I am,’ I finished with a pert shrug of my shoulders.

            ‘Yes, you are.’ And the next thing I knew, he had his lips on mine. Too stunned to pull away or say anything, I just sat there as still as a stone. Before he pulled away, however, Frain gave a raucous growl and hit the surface of the water with a sharp slap. It was so hard that he splashed us both and I screamed with the coldness that hit me.

            ‘Frain! That was not necessary,’ I growled myself and he grumbled but remained silent after that. ‘Sorry about him,’ I apologised to Ky.

            ‘Oh, it’s alright,’ he replied back as he grabbed his towel. ‘It’s not every day you get to annoy a dragon.’ He chuckled to himself yet shut up straight away when he saw my face as he pulled the towel from his own. ‘What?’

            ‘You shouldn’t say things like that. Besides, you can’t just go around kissing girls without anything in the way of a warning. It might upset the wrong people or worse,’ I hinted as I nodded my head towards Frain. Standing up, I grabbed Aspen’s reins and was just about to hop into his saddle when Ky spoke to me as he stood up too.

            ‘It’s not like I did it on purpose to annoy him. And, besides, I don’t go around kissing girls. You should know me better than that by now,’ he said accusingly. ‘Look, I’m sorry, if it’s an apology you were after.’ Keeping my back to him and one foot in a stirrup, I smirked to myself and tried so hard not to giggle. ‘Carly?’

            I looked over my shoulder sombrely at him. ‘No, I wasn’t after a sorry. But you’re forgiven all the same. In fact, it wasn’t even that good,’ I giggled, no longer able to control myself.

            ‘Oh and I suppose you find it funny?’ Clearly, I did and even Frain was chortling to himself on the grass behind me.

            Coughing, I took a deep breath. ‘Sorry, Ky but really... a hug would have been enough. I wasn’t really expecting much more than that,’ I told him.

            His face showed that he wanted to take back his words. ‘Well, that’s all good telling me now. Uh, so where are you staying?’ he asked, not changing the subject all that smoothly.

            ‘Hehe, you don’t have to worry about that.’ I pulled myself up onto Aspen’s back, finally. ‘I’ve got it all sorted.’ And with that, he packed up and whistled Murtal over and we both rode slowly off towards Itra with Frain at close quarters.

            All the way up to his front door, Ky had no clue that I was once again staying in his house. Smiling sweetly at him, he looked just as confused as when he saw me trotting over by the river. I waited for him to find out on his own. When he opened the door and stepped in, I followed close behind. The door now closed, I headed up the stairs.

            ‘Now where do you think you’re heading?’ he asked, folding his arms.

            ‘Oh, I forgot to say. Your mum offered me my old room.’ And I left him with an astounded expression as I climbed the rest of the steps.