Dragon Talker by Steve Anderson

staring right through him. Maybe even warning him.
    “I am honored.”
    Samora nodded her head in response.
    “I have been looking for you, and when I couldn’t find you, I’ve been looking for other dragon talkers to teach me what I need to know.” He rubbed his neck, feeling the scales that now protected him. “But that didn’t go so well. I should have waited for you.”
    Samora stood up on all four legs.
    Yuri backed up. “Can we talk? I really don’t know what I am supposed to do.” He felt her presence in his mind. The image of Mandan village formed clearly in his mind. Samora turned around, bent her knees, and then leapt into the air, water trailing from her tail as she flew away, heading over the trees leading back to the path.
    Yuri, after ducking her tail, watched her go. “Well…okay…” He raised his voice, “I’ll see you there!” Then much lower, “…in a month.”
    Samora turned in the air and started heading back towards Yuri. How good is your hearing? he thought and then, I’m really glad I have armor on right now . Even as Samora dived towards Yuri, he could tell she was in a good mood. If she was human, she would have been smiling. She flashed over Yuri, who had just enough time to remember her tail to tilt his head back down from looking up at her and see it flashing towards him.
    Samora’s tail caught Yuri square in the chest, sending him flying through the air and twenty feet into the lake. Even as the wind was knocked out of him, Yuri tensed in anticipation of hitting the cold water. Hitting the water was hard, but the cold water that was stinging his hands only hours ago did not burn. Instead, Yuri felt invigorated, strong. He felt like he could swim for hours. Treading water, he waited to see what Samora would do. She flew off, leaving Yuri in the lake. Yuri started swimming to shore. When he was able to stand on the lake bed, he turned and looked back across the wide lake. Energy burned inside him, and he wondered if he could swim to the other shore. He could, and did, four times.
    When he finally stopped swimming on the fifth trip and started to tread water in the middle of the lake, he released it was late in the night. Floating on his back, Yuri looked up and saw stars. Looking around under the moonlight, he could see that not just the edges of the lake were starting to freeze. Thin sheets of ice bumped against him. He headed for shore. The scales felt a part of him, now, and dripping wet in the moonlight, Yuri felt as warm as if he was in his parent’s hut at home, with a fire roaring in the fireplace. He also felt wide awake. Powerful.
    He loaded his cooking supplies in his pack and started heading home.
     
     

Chapter 17
     
    Perante walked between the braces that made up the second floor. The weight that his plan would put on the third floor couldn’t be accurately known, so Perante erred on the side of caution. Now, he could load the entire third floor with boulders and the floor would still support the weight and more. Xeron walked at his side.
    “It looks like preparations are finished on the second floor. How is the third going?” Xeron asked Perante.
    “We are on schedule. Watch yourself!” Perante reached out with his arm to grab Xeron. Xeron caught his wrist on a nail sticking out of a post.
    Xeron pulled his hand back and looked at his wrist. It was bleeding. “Funny, I didn’t see that.”
    “That,” Perante said, “is not even worth magic.”
    “No, it isn’t.”
    Perante continued, “As I was saying, two more shipments of ore and the third floor will be more than ready for our first guest…And who do you think that guest should be?”
    “Winderall is already in talks with a green dragon’s talker that I think will be a good test, feisty, but definitely on the smaller size. It’s not the physical strength I worry about, though, but what kind of dragon tricks it might have to escape captivity.”
    “I have plans for that, “ Perante replied,