Free The Dragon of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen Page A

started to move. It uncurled itself and slid toward him, sharp claws scraping against the rock floor. Calen remained frozen as the thing circled him, twining snakelike around his legs and inhaling with great snorts of breath. It was amazingly supple; it twisted bonelessly to surround him with its long body as it finally brought its head up to face his own. The yellow eyes stared into his with a strange alien intelligence for several slow seconds. Calen could just see Meg back against the wall, watching silently. Then the dragon began moving again, twisting around and bringing its scaly neck up to rub against the undersides of his outstretched hands. Calen released the breath he had been holding and thought he heard Meg do the same. He ran his hands along the creature’s neck, feeling the smooth scales move under his skin. It was amazing — he was stroking a dragon. He’d bet Mage Serek had never done anything like this.
    Finally the dragon slid back over to where Meg was now sitting. It curled up around her and appeared to go back to sleep. Calen shook his head in wonder and went to sit beside her.
    “His name is Jakl,” she said. “Or at least, that’s what I’ve been calling him.”
    “How —?” Calen didn’t even know how to finish the question. His mind was still reeling. A dragon!
    Meg rested a hand on Jakl’s neck and looked down at him fondly. “I found him about five months ago. I have no idea where he came from — crawled down from the mountains, I imagine, but he was so little, and there was no sign of his mother or any other dragons. Nan Vera had taken all of us out for a walk in the woods, and as usual, we had all wandered off in different directions.” She paused to glance up at Calen, grinning. “She really hates when we do that. I was walking near a creek, not really thinking about where I was going, and suddenly I heard this terrible hissing. I looked up and there he was, perched on the edge of a rock near the water. He was tiny, then, about the size of a big dog, but still, with his wings spread and his mouth open like that — it was terrifying. I didn’t know then that he didn’t have any fire yet, either.”
    “What did you do?”
    “Well, at first I didn’t do anything. I was too scared. That was probably a good thing, I think. If I had tried to run right then, or cry out, I’m not sure what he would have done. So I just stood there, frozen, and I tried to radiate goodwill. That must sound pretty stupid, but it’s all I could think of. They’re supposed to be able to sense things; at least, I thought I remembered that from stories, and so I thought, let him just sense that I’m not going to hurt him. . . .”
    “No, that’s not stupid at all,” Calen said. “I mean, I don’t really know about dragons, but Serek
has
taught me about dealing with aggressive creatures in the wild, and you’re supposed to try to communicate physically, let them know you’re not a threat. You probably did exactly the right thing.”
    She shrugged. “Well, it seemed to work. After a few minutes he came over, sort of like he did to you just now. Stared at me, like he was trying to see who I was. Then he relaxed and rubbed his head against my leg. Just like a cat! I swear, I expected him to start purring. Anyway, just then I heard Nan Vera calling for us, and I knew I couldn’t let her see him — she’d tell my parents, and I didn’t know what they would do. I’m sure they wouldn’t just leave a dragon to grow up within sight of the castle, though. So I told him to wait, that I’d be back. I know he couldn’t really understand me, but he didn’t follow when I backed away, so either he somehow picked up some of my meaning or he was just too cautious to go toward the other voices. After that I started sneaking out every couple of days to visit him, and eventually I found the cave and brought him here.”
    She cocked her head, frowning. “He’s growing so fast, though. Pretty soon he’ll