Reconciling Dues

[Gillian]

Berkley stood at the other end of Trinsic Stablery, his leathered arms leaning on the stall door as he chewed a piece of hay. He’d been watching her for the last few minutes, his eyes mostly on the mare in front of him. Every now and then he’d turn his head toward the door where Gillian stood. Not that she herself had noticed. No, she was too focused on Lummie. Housed at the opposite end from Berkley, was the 7 foot tall, 8 foot long swamp Dragon that Thom had tamed for her before they were married. She’d named him Lummox, for his size and less than graceful walk, and called him Lummie for short. It had taken her and Thom nearly an hour in the Trinsic swamps to find him. His long dark green neck hung over his stall door, his mouth occupied nuzzling a basket of ground meat. She’d been frozen in that same spot for a half an hour now. The last time she’d seen Lummie was a few days before Bane had been captured. She’d not set eyes on him since. That was almost a year and a half ago.

She couldn’t bring herself to step any farther in or any closer. Her left hand came up and absent mindedly rubbed her arm. Dragon claws and teeth echoed in her thoughts.

The snap.

The curl.

The bite.

Thom’s Dragon was all she had seen as she cowered against the steps of Lady Alira’s house. And while it was not quite *all* she saw now, it still filled her thoughts.  It still dragged her back to moment the pad and bone came down on her. She wanted to tell herself that this was Lummie. Lummie who curled up against her in the woods and snuck bits of Boura from her pack. But what she saw was Dragon. Yet another thing she would have to reconcile in her mind. Thom.. and Bane. Lummie and Dragon. Berkley didn’t say a word the whole three hours she stood there. He just watched. And when she’d made her leave he brought over a new pack of meat to the Lummie. Reaching his hand down he scratched at the scales on the side of Lummie’s long neck. "Sometimes, ya just got to remind em".