To Love a Dragon - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,69

were alive. They were moving forward. They were family.

On the sixth day, the clouds darkened, and a chilly breeze crept through the air. That breeze carried the first raindrops, which landed heavily upon the surrounding foliage with a quickening pace.

Within moments, it was raining in earnest. Though it could not compare to the violent storm during which Leyloni had met Arysteon—there was no howling wind, no thunder and lightning, no torrents of rain thick enough to obscure vision—this rain brought its own form of misery. It was cold, just like so many of the storms that blew in from the north, and was just heavy enough to soak Leyloni from head to toe.

Even in Arysteon’s arms, sharing the dragon’s body heat, Serek was shivering and fussy within a short while.

Were it not for the rain, they could have continued traveling for another half a day. But Arysteon, who seemed unbothered by the rain and cold, called for them to find shelter almost immediately.

The rain fell suddenly harder, as though to admonish his decision.

Leyloni angled her face downward to keep the rain from her eyes, barely suppressing the shudder that threatened to course up her spine.

Arysteon extended his tail in offering, and Leyloni took it without question. She held on firmly as he led her forward, and she kept her face down, focusing on the obstacles before her—tangled roots and uneven depressions in the ground, primarily.

The air was redolent of the rain and damp earth, but soon took on a hint of another scent—the perfume of flowers. A new sound rose amidst the falling rain even as that floral smell grew more apparent, but it was more difficult to discern from the rainfall. Was it…running water? Perhaps runoff collecting and pouring down to the forest floor in a concentrated stream?

She looked up to take in her new surroundings, and for a few moments, her breath was caught in her throat. Despite the rain and gloom, this place was beautiful.

They were in a lush glade flanked on one side by a tall, rocky rise. A stream ran from atop that rise, tumbling over exposed boulders in several tiers before reaching the pool at the rise’s base. Water flowers of white, purple, and pink bobbed on the surface of the pool, and the surrounding vegetation was filled with countless flowers in those shades and half a dozen more.

Even as Arysteon led her beneath an overhanging rock that provided shelter from the rain, Leyloni could not help but stare in wonder. This glade felt at once a natural part of the forest and entirely separate from it, a tiny slice of tranquility, of paradise.

Leyloni jarred herself from that wonderment when Arysteon passed over Serek, who was still wet and crying. She tended to the baby as Arysteon left their little shelter to search for dry wood, checking the ground beneath trees with the thickest boughs and leaves, though he remained close and within sight.

After Serek’s diaper cloth was changed and he was wrapped in a dry blanket, Leyloni removed her clothing with trembling fingers. Each time Serek tried to crawl out from beneath his blanket to reach for her, she stopped what she was doing and returned him to his place, wrapping the blanket around him just a bit more snugly.

“Just a moment, little one. I will hold you soon,” she said between gentle shushing.

Once her clothes were laid out to dry and she’d wrung the excess moisture from her hair, she pulled a blanket around her own shoulders and spread two more on the dry ground. She gathered what rocks she could find nearby and arranged them in a ring for the fire. That done, she took a small, cloth-wrapped bundle from her bag and sat down, pulling a fussy Serek onto her lap.

“Shh, it will be okay.” Rubbing his body vigorously with the blanket to warm him, Leyloni kissed the top of his head. She set the cloth bundle aside and opened it, revealing the purple berries inside. She plucked a couple out and presented them to Serek. “Here.”

His cries ceased as his watery eyes fell upon the berries. He hiccupped and reached for them, wrapping his whole hand around the little berries before shoving them into his mouth.

Leyloni smiled and had another waiting for him on her palm when he was ready.

As Serek was stuffing his next berry into his mouth, Arysteon returned, hunched over with a bundle of sticks and dried leaves clutched to his chest. Leyloni held another berry