Enola

Traces of panic and fear from a familiar nightmare faded away as I slowly woke up. It was comfortably dim in my cavern, with only the soft glow of a few crystals embedded in the ceiling providing any light. I yawned and stretched out, spreading my pink wings out towards the stone walls as I pushed the last bits of sleep out of my groggy mind. I lay in the gentle glow for a few more minutes while I prepared to face the day... then I pushed myself to my feet and began plodding through the tunnels that made up my den.

Glowing crystals lined the walls I had patiently dug out long ago, creating rainbows of gentle color as I walked along. My lair had been a mine at some point – humans had once dug into the earth to harvest the magical crystals around me – but it had been abandoned long ago, in some silly war between two humans squabbling for territory. One of the sides had destroyed the entrances to and records of the crystal deposits, and it had been forgotten. Until I had found it again one day and dug out enough of the passages to make it livable again.

Aside from the gentle light the crystals provided, they also generated a constant 'hum' of magical energy that even I could not miss. That had taken a bit to get comfortable around... but now it was familiar to me. Pleasant, even. The sense of magic was all around my lair, and traces of the crystals' energy clung to each one of my scales.

It made for a wonderful cover.

I went through the familiar morning ritual of mentally practicing various spells I knew. I juggled a few of them in my head – the spell for knitting a broken bone, the spell for dulling pain, the spell for blocking infections – though I didn't actually cast any of them. The mental effort of thinking through multiple spells kept me occupied until I turned a corner and arrived in the tunnel leading to the entrance. There were no crystals here – the crystals would not grow this close to the outside world, and it had been too much of a bother to move any crystals here – so I plodded along in the familiar darkness for a few moments. Then the tunnel began to grow brighter, and a few steps later I emerged into sunlight.

The sun was already very high in the sky. I sighed as I looked up at it. It was almost noon, or maybe a little past it. I had overslept again. It was not like I really had anywhere to go to, or that I needed to be at by a certain time... but it was still a bad habit to get into.

My stomach rumbled, letting me know that my oversleeping meant I had gone too long without eating. I could walk to the nearby lake and wait for a large enough fish to wander close to the shore, or wait for a goose to return to the shore for a nap. My stomach was not happy at the idea of going even longer without food while I waited to find something easy to catch, though, and gave me another angry rumble.

I sighed again. I would have to go flying if I wanted to find something substantial enough to fill my belly any time soon. The muscles in my wings started to ache just at the idea.

The faint hum of magic finally broke into my thoughts. It was hard to pick out under the constant humming of the buried crystals in my lair, especially with how out of practice I was at using my mage senses, but it was different enough to be noticeable. I looked down from the sun and over at the single blue crystal I had set into the sloping hill that covered my lair. The crystal glittered a little brighter than it usually did, and I reached out to touch it.

A decent amount of magic had been stored inside the crystal. Close to the limit of what it could hold, actually – about what a dragon would normally generate in a week. A simple spell had been woven into the crystal by another dragon long ago, back when I had first placed it at the entrance to my lair, and now I felt it faintly brush against my dulled mage senses as the enchantment hummed with an eager purpose. Someone had left me a message.

Cess, not again... I sighed to myself and reached one hand up to rest against the crystal, then closed my eyes as the recording spell showed me its message.

"Hi, sweet-wings." The image of a blue dragon appeared in my mind. He had one hand held up – he would have needed to touch the crystal to record his message, just like I had needed to touch it to hear the message – and had a gentle smile on his face. "I stopped by, but it looks like you're still asleep, and I don't want to wake you. I'm on the way south – there are some bandits causing problems for some king, and he's offered to pay for help, so I can't stay long." The blue wings fanned out a little at his sides as he looked over his shoulder at something behind him. "It feels like your spell is getting weak." He turned back towards me, and I saw concern on his face. "Are you doing okay, Enola? It still feels like there's plenty of magic in your lair. A lot of magic." The look of concern was replaced by a painful wince, only to return back to the look of concern. "But... if you need anything, you can always ask us for help, you know? We're all still here for you."

The message grew quiet for a moment while the blue dragon stared at the crystal we both held. "I did what I could to shore up your spell, but you know how I am with that kind of magic. I didn't want to make things worse. But I did fill this crystal up with magic – maybe that can help the spell some. I also ended up catching more food than I needed, so I left some of it by that tree on top of the hill here. I'm sorry if that creates more work for you to clean it up, but I can't stay much longer."

Another awkward silence came from the recording, then the blue dragon forced another smile. "I miss you, sweet-wings. Take care." He stared back at me for another second or two, then his hand lifted upwards. The image faded away as the recording ended.

I slowly shook my head as I opened my eyes and took my hand away from the crystal. The blue dragon was always doing things like this. His checkups had gotten more frequent of late, with his recent retirement from the Sea Guard, and as much as I hated the way it made me feel like a helpless whelp that needed constant supervision... it was nice to hear from him. Even hearing him call me sweet-wings – a silly name he had given me back when we were both hatchlings in neighboring aeries decades ago – had been nice.

The magic inside the crystal continued to hum slightly even against my dulled magic senses, and I turned my attention back to the spell woven in the air around me. It was a spell I had cast when I had first come to live here, which spread out over the land like a giant, delicate web. It did need to be replenished with new magic every so often, but it was a very fragile spell. It needed to be handled with a light touch, or...

I sighed as I felt the strain my spell was under. Cess had added his magic to the spell, but it had all clumped into one portion. Most of the web would get nothing at all from it, and the parts of the web that could reach the magic were starting to fray and burn out from the overload. I was going to have to rework everything Cess had done, or else the entire spell would unravel in a day or two. The blue dragon had not helped at all, and had done just as much harm as good. Maybe even more harm than good.

Which... was probably what he had been trying to do.

I reached into the spell and began smoothing it out. A helpless whelp. You must not leave Enola alone for too long. She cannot be trusted by herself. Go check on her and make sure she hasn't set the lair on fire again.

That had only been one time. Or... no, the second time had been Cess' fault, I was sure of it. And if for some reason it had not been Cess' fault, I certainly wasn't going to assume the blame for it now, decades later. But even if it had been my fault – which I was still certain it was not – it would be no excuse to treat me as a hatchling, instead of the eighty-three year old dragoness I was. Which... granted, that was still young for a dragon, but the point was that I was an adult now.

Or... was I eighty-four? It was spring. Had my hatchday come and gone already, or was it still ahead? It was easy to lose track of things like that lately.

I shook my head and set my mind back on the task of repairing the spell and tried not to get too distracted again. But it was frustrating. Cess had been very careful not to actually help me. The spell was still on the verge of failure. The wording of his message had made it clear he had just put magic inside the crystal, not given any to me. The food he had left had not been left for me – he had even apologized for the mess it caused, since he had just left it discarded in my territory rather than as an actual gift. I had gotten very familiar with the tactic over the years.

His words and actions had all been very carefully planned and intentioned so as to avoid creating any debt if I accepted his 'help'. Though neither of us knew if it would actually work or not.

Helpless, useless whelp...

The spell smoothed out under my attention, and I checked to make sure the weakened portions had recovered. It might take them a day or two to be back to their usual strength, but they had already been running low on magic and growing weak before this, and at least now the spell would keep working. The strained areas could even support more magic added to them, so long as it was smoothed out over the spell and not clumped right on top of them.

I reached for the crystal again and carefully touched it with one claw. The hum of magic became noticeable once more against my magesense. Cess' magic. Almost a week's worth of it.

A moment passed while I savored the feel of magic, then I took a deep breath. I focused on the spell around me, and on the magic in the crystal. I thought through what I was about to do. I checked to be absolutely certain I was ready. I took another deep breath... then I pulled Cess' magic from the crystal.

I felt the magic begin to drain away almost immediately. I pushed it through as fast as I could, moving the magic out of the crystal, into my body, and then into the construct of the spell. I moved the magic as fast as I dared – the spell was delicate, and could only handle so much at once – but still felt my heart sink as much of the magic swirled away into a hungry void.

In only a few seconds, the energy of the crystal had been drained. As much magic as a healthy dragon would generate in a week. Powerful energy, strong enough to sustain all sorts of clever spells.

Not even a day's worth had made it into the spell.

All the rest had been swallowed up by my magedebt.

I let go of the drained crystal and examined the spell again. It was humming strongly enough to be noticeable against even my faded senses now, happily putting Cess' magic to work. It felt healthy and strong again. The magic would keep it going for a week or two. After that I would need to use one of the crystals in the mine to recharge it – or probably sooner, to avoid Cess feeling sorry for me and trying to help again – but that was a problem for another day.

My stomach rumbled, still unhappy at being empty. I turned up the hill and began slowly walking up the slope, wondering what Cess had brought me for breakfast. Though, given Cess, I already knew what it was...