Ragin stumbled up against a large stone, grunting with the effort it had taken to stand. He was breathing hard and his right shoulder was bleeding heavily. The dragon was still perched on his good shoulder, showing slight alarm as he nearly fell over. It peeped concerningly, causing the thief to smile at it. He looked at the dragon and gave it a comforting nudge with his mind.

"It's alright," he said softly, "I've gotten through worse."

He wasn't entirely sure if that were true, as he had no idea what had hit him in the shoulder or the damage it had caused. He was quite sure that it wasn't serious though. As much as it pained him, he was still conscious and able to walk. Though he doubted he would for much longer.

He had stumbled into a ditch with stone on one side and Gil'ead's wall on the other. The alcove was covered in dense trees, making it so the guards on the wall couldn't see through at the stranger on the ground. In fact, the entire area was covered in dense forest. There were a few small tracks that Ragin knew, and had followed to get where he was, but other than that it was quite close to impassable.

Ragin's head shot up when he heard men's voices and dogs barking. They were still looking for him. He reckoned that Tharin hadn't been entirely pleased when they had failed to locate his body, and even less pleased that they hadn't found him alive either. So the search parties were desperately trying to catch him. He had thrown a few concealment spells to throw them off track, like ones to hide his scent, but he couldn't staunch the flow of blood from his shoulder.

"Don't worry dragon," he said when it peeped nervously again, "We're safe now."

Hauling himself from the rock he placed his hand against it then muttered a few words in a strange language. Not at all like the ancient one. His Gedwey Ignasia pulsed under his hand at a flow of magic. After a moment or two of silence the wall suddenly shook and groaned, before sliding downwards into the floor, leaving a dark opening of a man-made cave.

Ragin stumbled inside, muttering a few more words that made the door close. He made a torch hanging from the wall set itself alight with magic, revealing the inside. There were a couple of steps that led downwards, with a couple more torches that were quickly lit. At the end it opened up into a small room, with a bed at the back, an old chair, a table with a plate, a weapons rack holding a sword and a couple of different sized daggers, and lastly a black unstrung blow with a quiver of arrows.

The dragon blinked as it looked around at its new surroundings, as if confused. However it sensed Ragin was far less worried now, and decided to leap of his shoulder and onto the table with a yawn. He watched it for a moment, before sighing and sitting down on the chair and clutching his shoulder again.

He threw the sword he had been carrying rather carelessly toward the weapon rack, only to have it clatter on the floor with a bang of steel. He jabbed his dagger into the wooden table, more to make sure that the dragon didn't accidently skewer itself on the tip, then continued to the difficult task of removing his shirt.

It was painful to lift it over his shoulder, but he managed, and turned his attention to the wound. There was a small hole there, no bigger than the width of an arrow shaft. Most of the bleeding had stopped, thankfully, but every time he moved his shoulder he felt something against the bone.

He winced slightly at the pain and took a deep breath. He didn't really want to use magic to remove whatever was inside, considering he had no idea what it was and didn't want to risk causing more damage. So instead he gripped his small knife, wiping the blade on his trousers, then, with absolutely no hesitation, stuck the point into the wound. He hissed softly in pain and the dragon let out a panicked yowl, shaking its head and staring at him as if he had gone mad.

Feeling something inside his shoulder that wasn't usually there, he used the blade of the knife to leaver it out, gritting his teeth through the pain. Eventually he managed to extract a small metal ball, again, no larger than the width of an arrow shaft. It fell onto the table, the blood gleaming in the firelight of the torches.

Ragin narrowed his eyes at the ball and, after healing his shoulder with a quick spell, picked it up between his thump and his forefinger. He held it to his right eye and frowned slightly. What he thought was iron or steel was something else entirely. He wasn't even sure if it was a type of metal. Shrugging to himself he placed the ball back on the table and let out a soft sigh, looking at the dragon, who was staring at him also.

His bare torso had revealed a rippling muscular chest ridged with scars. There was a black tattoo on the left side of his chest. It was a hand with five outstretched fingers. On the palm of the hand was a circle, with an eye in the middle. The dragon's gaze fell on the mark, studying it for a moment or so as if entranced, before looking up at Ragin and squeaking happily, glad he was okay.

The thief couldn't help but let a small smile cross his face. The smile quickly faded however when he felt a thundering hunger coming from the baby dragon. It peeped again, sitting down, its wings held loosely by its sides. It was looking at him expectantly.

Ragin sighed, "Just hold on a sec. I'll grab you some food."

He stood up and walked over to a small chest in the corner. He opened it to find multiple pieces of sliced cooked meat, all fresh. There was a small gem on the chest with energy that fed into the enchantment he had placed on it, an enchantment that kept all food inside the chest from going mouldy and stale. He picked out a strip of meat before walking over to the dragon.

Slowly he began to cut off pieces and feed it to the small creature, watching as it hungrily gulped them down, bit after bit, eating much more than its size let on. He wasn't overly surprised. He knew enough about dragons to know that they ate a lot during their first few weeks of life. They also grew a lot, which was a slight problem.

He had many mixed feelings about the creature in front of him, and what it meant. His surprise that it had hatched for him had abated, replaced by something else. A love? A connection? He knew of the bond a rider shared with their dragon. He knew how strong it was, and how valued. Did that mean he would have something that strong with this hatchling in front of him? The thought daunted him, as he had never been one to make close connections.

What if the dragon riders found out? The thought scared him more than he was forced to admit. He was a hundred percent sure as soon as they realised a rogue dragon and rider were flying about they would investigate and likely bring him back to their academy, with or without his consent. And if they did that...

He let out a sigh. It was hard enough that Tharin would be after him now as well. He doubted such a powerful man would let such a prize slip away so easily. He would be on the run for a long time, unless he could somehow get out of Alageasia unnoticed... while carrying around a newborn dragon.

Part of him wandered if would just be easier to kill it and avoid that hassle all together, or leave it to live its life out in the wild. Lugging a dragon around with him wouldn't exactly be the stealthiest of options. He liked to live life on the edge. Often, he was forced to hide in places like he was currently, for weeks, before the search parties gave up and he could leave peacefully. That being said, on dragon back he could go a lot further a lot quicker. Besides, looking at the dragon now, he doubted he would have the heart to leave it alone in the wild.

"Aargh! I've become too soft," he exclaimed causing the dragon to yelp, as if in agreement.

He chuckled slightly at that, "Alright dragon, if I am going to keep ya', you're going to need a name."

It titled its head and chortled softly.

"But first, are you a guy or girl?" he set his head down on the table with the dragon's eye level.

It stared at him unblinkingly for several seconds, before leaning forward and licking him on the cheek.

"Hey!" he rose again and wiped the spot with his hand.

The dragon made a strange purring sound with its throat, almost like it was laughing. Ragin glared, before, gently, picking up the dragon and laying it on its back. It growled rather cutely and snapped at his fingers. He ignored the feeble attempts, quickly figuring out that the dragon was indeed, a female. He pulled his hand back allowing the young dragoness to role back onto her feet, yowling in an annoyance that he felt across their bond. Ragin only grinned.

"So, my little girl, what should your name be?"

She snorted at him, laying on her stomach and watching him with careful eyes, as if waiting for him to grab her again.

"Midnight would suit you well, I would think," he said, looking at her dark blue scales.

She growled again and thudded her tail angrily on the table top. He was a little taken back by her reaction, not expecting the dragon to really understand a word he was saying. Sure, he knew dragons were intelligent, but that intelligence usually only presented itself when they got a bit older, a month or so.

"Alright, not Midnight then, hmm," he studied her, and she studied him, "Thelia? Varoya? Celeia? Karaya?"

He listed many more, but each one she seemed to either dislike them or simply refuse to accept them. Ragin sighed as his list of names ran dry. Some of them he actually quite liked. She continued to watch him when he went silent, as if daring him to come up with more. He glared at her.

"Maybe I should just call you Fuss Pot and save myself the trouble."

She let out an annoyed yowl at that.

Chuckling to himself he studied her a moment longer, trying to think of something that she would like, and wasn't just generic either. He didn't really like many of the generic dragon names. They sat like that for nearly an hour, before suddenly a name came to him. It had been a name he had wanted to call his daughter, if he ever had one, but it just seemed to fit the dragon in front of him so well he couldn't help but think it may work.

"Alright, little dragon, your name shall be Akaysha," he said to her.

This time the small dragoness trilled and tilted her head in interest, before bobbing it up and down, a sense of agreement flooding through her mind. Ragin let himself smile before relaxing back into his chair. Akaysha yawned, her pine needle teeth shining in the dull light of the torches.

"I agree," said Ragin with his own yawn, "A rest will do us good."

He got up from the table and walked over to the bed. Akaysha followed him, leaping and gliding with her wings to the mattress. He lay down, and, after a small hesitation, allowed his dragon to curl up by his side. Sighing softly he pulled out the ring that kept his mind hidden and slipped it over his finger.

Almost immediately Akaysha's head shot up, looking at him startled. She yowled rather loudly and nudged his side with her snout, as if making sure he was still there. Surprised by her reaction, he quickly took the ring off and she settled down again, though her eyes were trained on him as though she thought he might disappear. He sent a few reassuring thoughts into her mind.

"Hey, don't be like that. It's necessary. It will help hide us from those outside, okay," he said, looking at her.

He raised the ring to his finger again and slowly slid it back on. He could see why it panicked her. As soon as he slid the ring on the connection he felt disappeared, along with her mind. She let out a saddened snort, before snuggling herself closer to his body as if to reassure herself that he was still there. He lightly stroked her spine. This was going to be difficult to get used to. He lay his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed, vote and comment if you did. What do you think of the dragon's name? Akaysha? The next chapter will be out soon. See Ya

Pennator^^