“I like your home,” Darian said, his voice gravelly.“You clearly have put a lot of work into it, even if you've had some help with the maintenance—or lack of it,” he said, grinning at the baby dragons tucked under his arms.
Celia glared at them.“Done by the ones that are about to go outside and stay outside,” she said, pointing at Sizzle and Spark again.
“I’m sure they didn't mean to,” Darian said, beaming at her.“Do you have more of this wire panel?I can make something that should hold them if you do,” he asked.
Celia nodded, reaching for the last piece of it that she had tucked behind the table.She ought to have put it underneath the piece of wood.
Darian reached into his pocket and pulled out a bit of wire.
“You just carry wire around with you?”Celia asked.
“I was cleaning up earlier and found it on the floor,” he said, “and I stuck it in my pocket.I suppose the Almighty knew it’d be needed to help you here.”
He sat down on the floor next to the enclosure, took the piece of panel that she held out to him, and pulled a knife out of his pocket, using it to apply leverage as he wrapped the wire around to hold the top and the bottom together.
“They won't be able to lift it up, right?”he asked.
“Not if I put stones on top of it,” Celia said with a sigh.
She watched him work for a moment, feeling conflicted at the way she was grateful to him for helping her while also annoyed that he was here in the first place.
“I’m going to go check on the chickens,” she said, stopping outside and pretending she didn't hear him chuckling under his breath.
She needed him to get out of here and never come back.
He was entirely too unpredictable for her.
Chapter four
Darian
Darianlookedaroundtheroom after Celia left as he finished wiring the enclosure together,
It was obvious that Celia took pride in and took care of her home, but the baby dragons had taken their toll.Large portions of the room looked singed, the parts that weren't held traces of soot, and there was clearly damage to several things from overzealous baby dragons.
How many had she helped?With the three fire dragons and Sod, there were four at the moment, but who knew how many more had been through her home.
He looked at the charred curtains hanging almost to the floor, though the window itself was higher on the wall.Perhaps she left the fabric for better insulation, or she just hadn't taken the time to cut off the singed bits.
It wouldn’t be kind to do something as drastic as cut off her curtains without asking her, but the water bucket by the door was almost empty, and he could fix that.
Darian grabbed the handle and poured what was left into the pitcher on the counter before making his way out the door.
“Where's your water source?”he asked her.
She was sitting on the ground with the smallest orange dragon in her lap.She jerked her head to the north, and Darian nodded, making his way without saying anything else to her.
Perhaps he was a little too much for her.He'd heard it said that he was a little too much for a lot of people—not that anyone had said it straight to his face—but he'd heard the rumors in school.
His uncles had never seemed to mind, but she was not his uncles, and maybe she needed some quiet.
So he walked north, found the stream, and filled the bucket to bring back to her home.
“I’ll run it through the filter,” she said.“Thank you for your help.”
“I want to help fix your table and stools,” he told her, “If you don't mind.”
She only grunted, looking down at the dragon in her lap.
