12 June 2012
(read chapter 3 first)
Grace kept growing. Everyday she grew bigger and bigger. She now was almost as tall as Owain and as she grew her scales on her back became silvery and shined in the sun. She herself was very proud of her scales and was very conscious of her appearance. She would always clean in the river and keep her scales in top condition. She said that it was dragons most prized possession. She lived in the forest past the large field where they had first met when she was in her egg. She lived around the Linau Lake. The lake was a large L shape and she made her home in various rocky crags by its east side. They would meet at the field of which had no name. And then Grace would fly above Owain as he walked to the lake. Both Baldwin and his father thought that he was spending all his time with a girl. Which in some respects was true. At the lake they would play in the streams and in the lake where Grace would swim and the splash Owain. Owain was surprised at how good dragons could swim. They could swim almost as well as they could fly. It was good practice and kept her clean and well exercised.
She continued growing until she was taller than Owain by a good meter. “Owain,” she said in a very stern voice compared to her usual joyful self, “we need to stop messing around. Its time you learnt to fly.” “ What?” “ You are my rider. You need to be able to ride me!” Owain looked at Grace. This was what he was most dreading. He hated heights. When he was younger, his brother would climb trees and then get him to follow. He had hated it. And so going up thousands of feet high did not sound nice to him. “ Oh. Okay. I forgot about that part.” “ Come on it’ll be fun!” she said sensing his worries.
* * *
The air shot past at a frightening speed. Its howl, deafening. It pushed against Owain’s face. Grace looked back at him. “Having fun?” she said. Her mouth moved and yet her voice came not from her mouth but from every direction. Owain’s response was a scream as she dropped. “Actually its quite fun!” he yelled at the top of his voice. Now he was feeling jealous that she could speak in that way. “ I guess you have caught it off of me.” “What?” he yelled again. “ When we made the connection. Did you not feel the twitch? Like something was pulling at your strings. That was our souls merging and it made us both have parts of each other. I’m guessing you caught the joy of flying from me!” That’s what that feeling was, Owain thought. “ I guess so!” he shouted back
Owain was sat on Sally, the horses, saddle which he had purposefully got a bit to big so that Grace could use it for a while. His father had been annoyed to find that the saddle was too big and so he went and brought another saying to sell that one. Owain had been lectured on buying the right saddle for an hour but it had pleased Grace, which was all that mattered. The saddle had a hole cut out at the front or it where one of graces spine spikes stuck out. He used it as a handle. Grace then started to fly a little faster and then threw Owain of balance when she did a spin. He tugged himself up. Then she did a loop the loop and he hung on for his life. Digging in his heels to keep himself on. He screamed. They carried on to fly and do aerial manoeuvres until it was almost dark. “Grace I really need to go now. I’m sorry. I never like it but I have to go. They’ll wonder where I am!” “No, please. Stay.” “I have to go!” He ran off, stroking her gently as he went. He had barely made it to the lake when she came swooping down and picked him up. “This isn’t funny!” he shouted “I know. It isn’t funny.” “Put me down!” “No Owain we need to go.” She looked down at him. She held him in her forelegs by his arms. “We have a duty to do Owain!” She dropped him back into the cave. “Do you think this happened for a reason or do you think that I just randomly chose you?” she asked sternly. He looked up at her. Her question had left him feeling as though he had done something wrong and was being told off. “Well, I guess there must be a reason?” he said asking for an answer in his answer. “ To save the RedWood! To save the Tarian Islands! To save the world!”
Phoenix: Chapter 4 • Opuss № I