Harper

  Lou had slept badly and I had hardly been able to help him.

  He slept under my wing, his trembling body nestled against my dragon scales. I nudged him with my muzzle to wake him up from his nightmare.

  Again and again.

  Whenever Vivi fell asleep, the dreams returned. What exactly he had dreamed, he did not want to tell me. After a big breakfast for me, outside the cave, and a smaller one for Lou, we went for a walk. So that he forgot his dreams. At least I hoped that he would forget them. I pnned to show him something special. The Sanctuary. The cave with all the eggshells.

  But in order to show it to him, I first had to ask the elders, or at least one of them, for permission. Fortunately for us, Ernst had invited Lou to his home. If he was forbidden to enter the cave, which I couldn't imagine, I could still take him to Olive. He would at least see an egg there. As long as Olive didn't hide it under her butt. Although... We passed Olive's cave... Perhaps...

  Vivi paid no attention to the cave. His gaze rested on our hands. He narrowed his eyes intently as if he could see better that way. It looked cute. We walked hand in hand. Close to each other. I enjoyed it. My Vivi smelled good, his hair shimmered golden in the sunlight. The white strands of hair became a sparkling, silvery glow. He looked like a fairy. At least that's how I imagined fairies. I had never seen one before. They were sweet and pretty, they said. Both were true of Lou.

  We passed Olive's cave. She greeted us immediately, curled up in the back of the cave. Lou couldn't see her, but he could see Bilge. Her cub stormed out of the cave and jumped happily around us. He tried to get Lou to py with him. Unsuccessful. Lou just clung to me and avoided the stormy child until Bilge was called by his mother. She pushed the little one under her wings. "Excuse me, Lou. I told Bilge not to be so tempestuous when you're around, but... Where do you two want to go?" she asked in a rumbling dragon voice. Another dragon came out of the cave. Olive's partner, who had previously sat lovingly next to her nibbling on her neck. He looked at Lou with a friendly snort. "My partner. Salih!" Olive introduced him to Lou. Her voice thundered from the cave.

  Sahli greeted me telepathically, then he sniffed Lou from a small distance.

  Lou peered out from behind my back and nodded shyly. Probably a greeting, but when Sahli approached him, Vivi ducked behind me again. Whenever Olive's voice rang out, he flinched.

  "We are visiting Ernst. He invited Lou!" I answered her question, as Vivi hid silently.

  "Ah. Greet him from me. Him and Kra", Olive now asked. "Their young have already hatched."

  "Oh. I don't want to disturb them", Vivi murmured immediately. "I didn't think of that. Then..."

  "Nonsense!" Olive winked at him. "They will certainly be happy about your visit. Especially since the cubs hatched! I heard that Ernst is completely in love with the little ones!" She snorted exhausted. "I can't wait to meet my second cub. Sitting in the same pce for so much is grueling, even if I can leave the cave now and then. Oh! Do you want to see it? Lou?"

  Salih snorted, he looked questioningly at his partner. We dragons protected our brood vehemently. To show an egg to an outsider, to a stranger, was unthinkable. But Lou was neither.

  "He wants to!" I said quickly before Lou could say no. He seemed nervous.

  'I want to py with Lou!', I heard Bilge's protest in my head. Lou, of course, didn't hear him.

  'No', Salih answered curtly. 'Lou doesn't have time. He's talking with Mom now!' The older dragon looked at Vivi skeptically. He didn't like her idea.

  'But!' Bilge pouted. 'That's mean! Everyone just wants to see the egg! Nobody pys with me!'

  'Bilge!' Olive warned, licking his forehead. 'Don't be silly. Yesterday your uncle pyed with you! And soon you will be able to py with your brother or sister. It's going to be great!'

  Smiling, I took the unsuspecting Lou by the hand again. "Come on. We'll look at the egg"

  "Hm. Okay." Lou's voice trembled in disbelief. "But..." He looked around restlessly. In Lou's eyes, I led him into an uncertain darkness. Olives and Sahli's cave was a bit darker than my parents', as the entrance was lower and the path to the main room narrower.

  Sahli led the way. His footsteps thundered heavily through the cave. Lou’s grab on my hand tightened. We followed Sahli into the cave. There Olive y curled around a small, iridescent egg. Well, for a human, this egg should look very rge. It probably reached up to Lou's waist. Could he see it as soon as we stood in front of it? We hadn't arrived at Olive yet.

  Bilge freed himself from his mother's wing, jumped over the egg, and then hopped past us. I heard him scolding softly. Sahli sat down next to his partner again. His gaze rested first worriedly on Bilge, and then proudly on the little egg. For a moment he looked at me and Vivi warningly.

  Lou walked very slowly, I almost had to pull him up to Olive and her egg. Finally, I pushed him close to Olive. Hopefully close enough that he could see something in the dim light. Vivi was startled briefly and blinked. He first looked at Olive with narrowed eyes, but he could hardly see her, and then his gaze wandered to the egg.

  "Sparkly", he whispered and shyly bent over to the egg. Olive snorted contentedly.

  "Feel free to touch it", she told him. "The cub can see your contours through the shell, at least that’s what we think."

  "Oh." Carefully, Lou reached out and touched the egg. "Oh! It's warm!"

  "Yes. Because life grows there. It must be warm!" growled Salih loudly. "But we don't want to stop you from your pns. You wanted to visit Ernst. I heard he invited Lou."

  "You want to throw him out?" Olive smiled.

  "Yes?" Salih hissed. "The boy has now seen the egg. As cute as he is, humans shouldn't see our precious eggs. Or be allowed to be near them."

  Lou was startled and took a step back from the egg, directly into my arms. I hugged him and id my head on his head. "How mean!" I grumbled. "My Vivi is no stranger here!"

  "Certainly! Lou is an honorary dragon, you grump!", Olive whistled carefreely. "It’s fine, Lou. You haven't done anything wrong."

  "I'm not a dragon", Lou whispered. Sahli nodded in agreement. He nestled his head in Olive's wing and hissed softly. "He should go! There are no honorary dragons, dear!"

  "We'd better go now." I sensed a small marital quarrel between dragons, who could easily crush a tender Vivi if they were not careful. I didn't want Vivi to be in the middle of an argument. "We actually have something else to do!" I looked at Salih and rolled my eyes. "Thank you for the invitation. Come, Vivi."

  "My name is Lou", Vivi murmured with red cheeks. He stared uncertainly at Sahli. I could smell Vivi's fear. So I quickly took his hand, said goodbye to the disputants, and left the cave together with Vivi. He did not protest against it. Quite the opposite. Vivi seemed relieved about this.

  'But I want to py!', I heard Bilge protest again. But he was not allowed to py with Lou. How could he? Lou probably wouldn't survive Bilge's games. The cub was too young to be gentle enough with a human.

  "Are you okay? Vivi?" I asked the wonderfully fragrant person holding my hand. Sweet and nutty. I loved Vivi's smell.

  "Lou", he mumbled.

  "Lou." I sighed. "Come on. We go to Ernst. Unless you'd rather go back?" I could still smell some fear.

  "Hm." Lou stopped and thought about it for a moment. "No. It's... okay. The egg was... pretty. And I... I want to see tiny dragons."

  "Good." So he wanted to see the young ones? But if he liked the egg, how would he react to our sanctuary? Full of anticipation, I nodded.

  Shortly afterwards we arrived at Ernst's cave. He looked forward to us joyfully. Of course, he had long since smelled me and Lou. Ernst quickly took on human form and waved to us, but Lou couldn't see it. So only I waved back.

  "Huh?" Lou looked at the hand I raised in greeting.

  "Ernst waves to us."

  "Oh!" Now Lou waved too, without being able to see the other dragon. His face turned all the redder. And that up to Lou's sweet human ears. To my great annoyance, however, Ernst also found this cute. He greeted Lou far too effusively and ecstatically for my taste. I wanted to growl, but I didn't want to scare my Vivi with it.

  Ernst pushed Lou into the very bright cave as soon as we arrived at him. There he proudly introduced him to Kra. She looked at Lou as rapturously as he had done before. Lou, on the other hand, was most interested in the tiny creatures, while Kra's enormous figure intimidated him. Under Kra's wings, four small, extremely skeptical dragon faces looked at us. "Lou? This is my beautiful Kra! She's looking forward to finally meeting you. You couldn't hear her words, but she's very pleased," the old man said proudly. "And these are our little ones: Philip, Trixi, Bibi, and Weiko." Then he gently pushed Lou to Kra. Immediately, the cubs sniffed curiously at Lou. 'Children? That's not food!', Ernst told the little ones without Lou being able to hear it. But I did. And Kra. When we dragons communicated telepathically, we could decide who heard us. Whether just one, several, or all.

  And since I was allowed to listen in, Ernst probably wanted to assure me that Vivi was safe.

  One of the tiny creatures, a little girl, stumbled towards Lou on clumsy feet. She didn't even reach his knees. Unlike the egg before with Olive and Sahli. Baby dragons were always much smaller than the eggs in which they grew. Kra watched this with a smile. "Hello, Lou!", she greeted Vivi loudly. 'Trixi? Don't bite!' she added, addressing the cub. 'This is your Uncle Lou.'

  Uncle? Seriously? I rolled my eyes and turned to Ernst. Lou was in good hands.

  "Can I speak to you briefly?"

  Ernst nodded with a superiority that all the elders seemed to possess. "Of course."

  "I want to show Lou our sanctuary. May I? Please? I want to show him my eggshells!"

  "That's how important he is to you?" Ernst ruffled my hair.

  "Hey! Hands off! I'm not one of your cubs!" Pouting, I pushed his hand away. "Yes, he is." We only presented our eggshells to partners or best friends. Friends we considered part of the family. Of course, each dragon had access to all the eggshells, but presenting one's own was considered one of the most intimate gestures and expressions of love. A gesture that was only for family, best friends, and above all partners.

  "You're still a cub, Harper! As for the sanctuary, of course, you can. Lou is one of us. We recognized him as one of us." Ernst smiled. "When it comes to rights and everything, Lou is now a dragon. What we are entitled to is also due to him. We elders agreed on this yesterday. He is under our protection."

  I smiled with relief. "Thank you." But then I heard a soft sobbing. Armed I looked at Lou. Had something happened? But Lou cried neither out of fear nor for any other, negative reason. He held Trixi in his arms. The little girl licked his face excitedly. And Lou cried. With happiness. A cautious smile crept into his face, but he didn't seem to notice it.

  Ernst and I looked at him in amazement. Kra blinked confusedly. "I allowed him to lift Trixi. She is still light enough for a human to carry. And Trixi is the calmest of the four. And the most curious", she grumbled and looked helplessly at us. The three other cubs looked at Lou and Trixi all the more skeptically. Philip hissed.

  "Lou?" I rushed to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's the matter?"

  "She's so cute. And pretty", he whispered.

  "Tight?" Ernst now stood next to us and stroked Trixi over the tiny wings. Wings that weren’t able to carry her yet. Then he stroked Lou's hair with a smile. "All four are as pretty as their mother!"

  I wanted to growl again, but Ernst's gaze was fatherly. So I let him pat Vivi without protesting. Lou obviously didn't mind, if he noticed it at all, as enchanted as he seemed to be by Trixie.

  "I... I've never been allowed to hold a baby. Or see... Except for Nina", Lou sobbed. "But I was never allowed to hold Nina either. Only Louise was allowed to do that. And other babies? I've only ever heard them, but never seen them. I wasn’t allowed to see. No one came close enough. No one came to show a cursed one their child. She's delightful." Then he gently hugged Trixi. The little girl made a sound that resembled the purring of a cat and licked his face again.

  Had I just gotten competition? Great... Just great.

  sasi