Ula

  Warmth radiated around her as she woke up. The pain that her brain always braced for didn’t come. Not opening her eyes Ula listened to the individuals around her. There was a soft hushed conversation. One that didn’t sound like it was too far in but she didn’t have the start for. There was a light steady snoring of something large, her body rose and fell with the breaths.

  The Dragon she deduced was still there and though she didn’t move she knew she was still in a child form.

  She slowly opened her eyes and peered silently at the two women at the small round table. One was decently middle aged with hair that was tied back and out of the way, her clothing was that of simple pelts and she wore various tools and instruments around a belt. The other woman was dresses in far softer flowier clothing though it looked to still be decently functional. She also had instruments around her that Ula’s reader mind told her were medical but fantasy.

  The dragon under her she realized was not the on that found her though. They were still a Sugar-Beet but they were larger and even more encapsulating. Older, laying around Ula like Ula was an egg in her nest.

  “How long has passed though?” The medical woman breathed. The pelted woman leaned back in her chair shrugging.

  “Don’t know. I remember the rumors about the shadows. I remember being injured and then I sort of remember being here, though it’s a blur, like of something done so often you don’t notice your doing it.” She offered. The medical woman nodded.

  “I don’t think I remember how I got here, or why but I do know that it hasn’t been bad and it doesn’t feel as though I’ve been living against my will.” She insisted. She turned and looked at the Sugar-Beet dragon as if here the dragon’s voice. Ula noted the aura of pink that claimed them as part of the community.

  “Yes, that’s exactly it. Like we woke from a trance.” She agreed. The pelted woman leaned forward with a clatter of a boot.

  “How do you forget what you were?” The pelted woman asked skeptically.

  “To be fair I don’t think that’s different then what happened to us. I don’t think I’ve thought of actually treating anyone since coming here. I have work shop full of plants and medicines, enough for years to come but I don’t think I’ve put anything into practice. Like I didn’t remember I was a Healer.” She offered. The pelted woman frowned silent considering then she caught Ula’s gaze.

  Ula froze and braced for trouble the dragon behind her shifted and huffed out a breath shifting protectively around her. Ula blinked meeting the dragon’s soft eyes. The dragon butted her affectionately.

  “Noma, would you let me check on the patient?” The medical woman asked.

  “Noma.” Ula breathed running a hand over her scales. Noma nuzzled her again and unfurled but stay mostly around Ula. The medical woman knelt in front of her with a bag. She glanced up looking at her with very natural looking honeycomb eyes.

  “My name in Andrina, I am… I guess the village healer.” She offered in a exasperated breath. Ula didn’t waver her gaze from the woman. She motioned forward. “May I check to see if everything has fully healed?” She asked. Ula didn’t know whether to trust the woman in front of her but when the dragon shifted and nuzzled the healer she eased. Even as the healer looked baffled by Noma’s actions.

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  Ula shifted forward. Then she blinked and lifted a strand of hair that wasn’t her hair color. Her hair had always been a dark brown like her fathers, but her hair was a shimmering dark grey. With a few strands of beet.

  Ula blinked at it and realized looking at the dragon that the dragons here had chosen her. The thought warmed her heart.

  “Heling you turned out to be a bit more complicated then it should have been.” Andrina explained talking to Ula with no question of her ability to comprehend and understand. “When I tried to use my root magics, everything I tried failed. I tried to use the pink aura that now floats around us and it worked.” She offered to her. “My and Noma’s theory is that you need dragon magic in particular.” She explained.

  Ula took that in and nodded.

  “It looks as though the Dragon magic though healed you perfectly.” She insisted with a warm smile.

  “What’s your name? Noma simply calls you the Answerer.” The pelted one asked tone sharp and pointed like the blades at her hip.

  “Carna.” Andrina scolded. The pelted one shrugged. Ula held the woman’s cocked gaze recognizing a fighter but more specifically a hunter. Ula decided that she would be able to tell if she became this hunter’s chosen prey and that for now she’d allow herself to relax.

  “My name is Ula.” She offered softly.

  “Ula. How did you change the dragons?” She asked. Ula glanced at Noma and considered that and honestly didn’t know. Then she thought of what Noma called her. The Answerer.

  “I… just knew what they were. Sugar-Beet Dragon’s are a peaceful dragon that burrows and farms they collect creatures that would benefit from symbiose. They have never been too interested in hoarding things like wealth, or knowledge or power but the things in life one needs to simply live. They get their name from one of the plants they prefer to grow that matched their coloring so perfectly that they couldn’t be anything but. They can’t fly and they aren’t the largest dragons, but they’re fast and really good at digging and they recognize the benefits of numbers.” Ula listed, in a more broken sporadic way then she had written. “They aren’t the only type of being that has been defined as a Dragon. There are eight that are closely related.” Ula offered.

  Andrina looked her over as if Ula had introduced a wholly untapped source of information.

  “A dragon?” She voiced looking at Noma as if the phrase was something she was for the very first time hearing and defining.

  “We know of the shadows and that there are many shapes of shadows, past that I’m afraid I don’t know much.” Andrina offered.

  ‘There are our cousins the ones that are haughty and think that our farms and crops are bellow them.’ A voice creaked through Ula. ‘The young ones do not remember the times of our cousins and their name evade me’ Noma explained. It was enough though Ula’s mind to run freely a giddiness running through her.

  “Oh, the Muscat Dragons, they’re born in sets of twins. They a pulled toward flavorful and valuable things. They keeps hoards but not individually they tend to be kept in families for exclusivity and variety. They live in generational household but don’t often prefer to allow outsiders into their homes without proof that they have a pallet of standard.” Ula stumbled through.

  “Muscat.” Carna breathed as if the word twist weirdly on her tongue.

  “Yes, they are haughty but they truly have a love and respect for art and history they record and preserve everything. I’m sure if you need answer of any kind about what’s gone on the Muscat would have them.” Ula insisted. Then pulled back her excitement looking down.

  “I guess we know why Noma calls you the Answer.” Andrina offered softly.

  ‘She has always answered our questions. She sees the problem and she offers solution. Why fight bigger for hunt, for survive, when we can burrow and plant?’ She asked. Sparkling. ‘Only some hear but listened. We survived. And we search for voice.’ Noma nuzzled Ula. ‘And we find. All Su-gar-Beet shall stand by Voice of Answers.’ Noma insisted.

  Ula nodded though she didn’t know what Noma meant exactly.

  But maybe seeing as she seemed to be in the world of her Father’s story, maybe her field journal had helped in some way she didn’t understand.