New Things

Mabel came pulling up in Bill's truck the back of which was bulging with things that were covered by a blue tarp to avoid them falling off. Daisy was jumping up and down; so excited to see her new things.

"First I get a hug for taking such a long trip to get you surprises." Mabel said, as she got out of the truck. Daisy quickly ran to Mabel for a hug, her wings twitching with excitement. I unstrapped the tarp to reveal all sorts of toys, books, and just general things to care for children. I was almost as excited to open toys as Daisy was, but I had to be an adult and go through things like clothes, school supplies, and things for her safety (water wings, first aid kit with cartoon characters, etc). Most of the toys and clothes would go in Mabel's cabin, until we could find another clean place for them. Vainglorious and I hauled boxes of toys and clothes into Mabel's cabin. Mabel and Daisy helped some, but neither could carry as much. When everything was inside Daisy began opening everything. I could see her excitement as she took the tags off of a big waterproof dragon plushie, among a million other things. Mabel had a cardboard box that she had filled with smaller toys and candies that Daisy couldn't see; she called it the bribe box.

Mabel began setting up a class area for Daisy's human classes. She set up a desk equipped with a tablet stand and small lamp. It had a container for pencils, pens markers, and crayons. A stack of different types of paper sat on a shelf just above the desk. Along with multiple children's work books. Mabel continued working on her little schooling area, and I focused on Daisy.

Daisy was playing with her new toys, all the while still holding the stuffed dragon. I crouched down next to her. "So what is your new friend's name?" I asked playfully, pointing to the stuffed dragon.

"Hmm... I will have to think about it." Daisy said in a serious voice, before going back to playing with her other toys.

"That thing doesn't even look like a real dragon." I heard Cortelco say.

"Now you are jealous of a toy...really?" I replied, "Besides there are tons of dragons out there and you have only seen the ones who have been here." I mocked at the know-it-all dragon.

He grumbled back "You haven't either."

"Nope, which is why we don't know what all dragons look like. There could still be unknown species out there, like Daisy and I. Your species is pretty new too." I continued ranting.

"This conversation is getting to deep for a stupid stuffed toy." Cortelco finished so he wouldn't have to admit I was right.

I nodded my head and turned to Daisy who had fallen asleep on the floor, covered in her new toys. I picked her up, brought her outside, and laid her on Valorous' back, whom was diligently guarding the door. Even in her sleep she held that stuffed dragon tightly. I took into my arms several toys that I knew wouldn't dirty in the cave. I ran to the cave at full speed, while Valorous walked towards the cave at a slower pace, as to not drop Daisy. I set up a cozy area in the cave for Daisy's toys, then ran back to Valorous, whom had gotten about a quarter of the way to my cave. I picked Daisy up and ran to the cave. This girl could sleep. Most kids would wake up thinking they were strapped on the top of a car. She just laid her head on my shoulder completely out cold, as I ran sixty miles per hour. I laid her down in the moss where she splayed out her wings awkwardly, as she had every night since she had grown them. I quickly fell asleep on the moss.

When I woke up I immediately noticed that Daisy was gone. Had I slept in where did she go? I ran out the front of the cave and saw Daisy along the edge of the river with Wisp, Nymph, Valorous, and Callalilly. I shouldn't have doubted Valorous gaurd skills. Then I thought to myself that my response to a missing child was very human. I could have spoken to my dragons, I could have smelled her out, I probably could have deciphered the sound of her footsteps if I wanted to. Despite all of my abilities, none of them came to mind when it really mattered. I need to figure out how to fix that. I walked down the cliff edge to the base of the water where Daisy was talking with the dragons out loud, as she had not mastered the whole mental speech thing yet. I stopped behind her before she could see me; to hear what they were talking about.

"Do I really have to go to two schools guys? You guys didn't have to go." Daisy whined.

It made me smile that her complaints were that of any human child.

"Yes you need to be smart like Mama. She probably won't make you do the same school she had to do though, she said that that was harder than raising hatchlings." Callalilly said supportivly.

"Why can't I just do what you guys do? You guys didn't have to learn to spell or do math." Daisy said in a frustrated tone.

Valorous gave her a dragon grin. Tell you what if you start eating only what we eat, than I will make sure Mama won't send you to school." Valorous said trickily.

"Okay that's easy!" Daisy squealed, "What do you guys eat?" Daisy said obviously thinking that this would be an easy task.

"Well I eat live fish." Valorous said.

"I eat live bees." Callalilly said.

"We eat mold and lichen." the Shadow Sights said together. It seems that they decided to leave out the occasional soggy cereal and shredded carrots.

"Oh...Umm... I don't think that would be healthy for me." she said looking down, obviously trying not to offend them.

I finally made my appearance.

"This one prefers waffles and pancakes for breakfast." I said while tickling her sides. She spread her wings out so I couldn't reach her.

"Looks like Switch is teaching you pretty well." I said, while somewhat proud that she had figured out how to move her wings as she pleased (at least on the ground).

"Daisy you know how important school is, don't you want to be able to spell all of the dragon's names?" I asked her knowing she would say yes.

"But it will take forever and it's hard I only know A, B, and C." she said with a scowl plastered on her face. I decided it was time for some cheering up.

"What! You know A, B, and C! When I was your age a could hardly do A." I exaggerated. I wasn't sure if I was lying or not, because honestly no one my age would remember learning the alphabet.

My words put a proud smile on her face. "Yeah and I know the little A too." at this point pride was radiating off of her in waves.

"So I guess both schools are good then?" I asked with a small smile. Daisy realized what had just happened.

She balled her fists and mumbled, "I guess so."

I walked over and put her on my shoulders. Now let's get you into the tub with all of your bath toys." I said immediately cheering her up.

The next few months went on like this every other day was either dragon training, or regular schooling. Soon Daisy was flapping through the sky's like any other winged dragon. I made sure she always had an avian body gaurd, despite her skill. Though bugs and debris seemed to be a problem at first, soon her eyes became glassy, and nothing stuck to them anymore. On the ground though I had the advantage. I was strong, fast, and had sturdy scales. Daisy hadn't shown any of those aspects. We really were different, yet the same. As I was thinking about all of Daisy's traits she landed in front of my nearly silent.

"Sissy my forehead is itchy, my feet too."

Wisp sat on the top of her head and gently scratched her forehead. That's when I saw them.

"Scales! You are growing scales! Okay honey let's go to Mabel's cabin, she will give you medicine to stop the itching, and when you wake up you will have scales." I said excitedly. I picked Mabel up and she wrapped her wings around her body to avoid getting hit and snagged by twigs. When we got to Mabel's cabin I didn't even knock.

"Daisy is getting scales!" I yelled happily as I crossed the threshold, still holding daisy. "They aren't in the same places as mine, but she is still growing scales!" I kept talking loudly due to excitement. Daisy just sat on the bed as I was shaking with excitement, and Mabel was happily grabbing her first aid kid for allergy and itch medicine.

"No!" Daisy yelled when she saw Mabel holding the syringe of children's liquid benadryl. "It is yucky I don't want it." She said crossing her arms. I was rubbing itch cream on the soles of her feet, where scales were beginning to peak out.

"You feel how itchy it is now? Well it will get a gazillion times worse soon. Only the medicine will help. you can drink down juice right after to get the taste out." I tried to bargain.

She just shook her head again. "No it is too yucky." she said again looking away from me.

"Uhhh!" I moaned in frustration, "If you take the medicine I will give you a special surprise."

Her eyes lit up at the mention of a surprise.

"Pinky promise?" she asked me sitting straight up. I stuck my pinky and reached it out for Daisy to link hers around. After I let go of her small finger she nodded her head ready for the medicine. she closed her eyes shut tightly, as though that would help with the bad taste. She swallowed the fowl tasting medication, and opened her mouth as to prove she swallowed. I ruffled up her hair.

"See was that so hard?" I asked the small girl.

"Where is my prize?" she asked completely ignoring my question. She most definitely has a one track mind.

"uhh" I sighed, "I will go get it. I rummaged through a box of small toys that Mabel had bought for occasions like these. I grabbed a chocolate ball, that had a small toy inside.

"Here you go." I said as I tossed the box holding the candy ball. the wrapping was off almost immediately, and Daisy was scarfing down the rare sweet in seconds.

"Bet you can't even taste that yucky medicine anymore huh?" Mabel asked in a sweet voice.

Daisy just nodded her head, with a mouth filled with the last bits of chocolate. Before Daisy even got to the point of playing with the small toy that was inside the ball; she began nodding off. I tucked her in and began mentally preparing myself for two days without dealing with a child. Mabel and I turned out the lights, and left the room.

"Okay looks like scales and horns are the basic identifiers." Mabel started talking.

"What are you going on about Mouse?" I asked.

"Well my dad asked me to keep a personal log of your species, that I could send in to the DDP when you approved of it." she began to explain. "So far the only physical characteristics that make both of you ummm... dragonesk, are the horns and scales. Daisy has wings, and you obviously don't, and your horns are different, which means there are variations. You however seem to have more of the unseeable physical dragon traits such as: your speed, strength, extreme sense of smell and hearing. Daisy hasn't presented with these things, at least not yet. Both of you can change your eyes and communicate with other dragons. The DDP was unable to test and see her metabolism, because there wasn't enough blood to sample for it. So no one knows if she has an infinite life span like yours."

Cortelco cut in. "Don't worry, even if you live longer, she can talk to you through me." he said, as if knowing that she may die first scared me. Mabel paused her speech when she saw my eyes turn.

"He knows you better than me, and I have been here way longer." Mabel said with an eye roll.

"How did you know it was Telee?" I asked her.

"If it were anyone else it would have been about danger, which you would have immediately responded to." she said completely normal, as if what I asked was a dumb question. She was right though.

"To know how she will age, we need another blood test. Getting blood from her was easy enough last time, but now that she has scales her skin might become impenetrable like yours. and I have a feeling she won't be as brave as you were when you cut yourself to give blood."

We both thought about that for a moment, but decided we would deal with that when we got there.

"You also have a dominant nature over other dragons, and not just your hatchlings. Even Rose, Charming, and Peculiar listen to you. There is a large age gap between the two of you; so Daisy may simply not have that effect because she is a juvenile." Mabel went on.

I laid on the couch and toned out Mabel while she went on about Daisy and I. I never really put in any thought as to our new species. Mabel did point out several things that made sense. There were a lot of differences in our cases though. We lived differently from eachother, we didn't live anywhere near eachother, I was lot older when my body started showing any dragony features, I seem to be Hispanic, but she is blue eyed and blond haired White.

Too many questions for one night. I fell asleep on Mabel's couch while she was talking. She may have been awake, but I was certainly going to enjoy sleeping in and sleeping early.