12. Darian
Chapter twelve
Darian
After bringing the triplets and Celia back home, Darian felt like he couldn’t leave yet—Celia was too sad.
“Let’s have a picnic,” he suggested.
She looked up at him, and he noticed how red her eyes were. “Why do you want to have a picnic?”
To make her smile.
“Because the sun is shining, it’s a beautiful day, it’s finally warming up, and we’re going to make that memory with these hatchlings before they leave,” he said. “Come on, I’ll help you make food.”
“No, you won’t,” Celia said, shooing him away with the shawl she no longer needed. “I would like to enjoy this picnic.”
“I’m not that bad,” he protested.
“You’re not good, either,” she pointed out.
Darian sighed. “I’m going to go move the chickens for you, unless you already did that today.”
“That’s fine,” Celia said, turning to Breeze.
You left me behind.
He’d wait until she was done tending to Breeze before he left.
I don’t like being left.
“You’re not big enough to walk out there yet,” Darian pointed out as Celia quickly unwrapped her wing and applied the salve again before tying the wing to her body again.
Breeze trilled angrily. I want my wings. I need to fly.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a pat on Breeze’s head. “I’m doing it for your own good, though.”
She’s hurting me, Breeze squawked to the fire dragons.
She’s helping you. Flame always was the voice of reason.
She’s not helping, the air dragon squawked.
Flame made a noise that Darian could only imagine was the equivalent of a dragon rolling their eyes, and he snorted as he followed them out of the house.
“I need to move the chickens,” he said.
She moved them last night, Spark pointed out.
He glanced toward the cottage, where she was watching them through the open window and grinned at her. She probably just wanted to get them all out of the house.
“Well, we’ll move them anyway,” he said. “She wouldn’t have told me to if she didn’t want them moved, right?”
So he moved the chicken coop—or perhaps more accurately, Spark moved the chicken coop at his direction.
Did Celia know that the baby dragon was capable of moving it on his own? She probably didn’t, because if she did, he could imagine she would take more opportunities to have him do so instead of moving the heavy coop on her own.
“Thank you,” he told Spark, who didn’t say anything but looked smug as he flew a lap around the yard—such a cocky little dragon.
It was only a few minutes before Celia came out of the house with a picnic wrapped up and ready to go, a blanket swung over her shoulder.
“Is everyone ready?” she asked with a smile.
The dragons chirped, and Darian smiled up at her. “We’re ready,” he said. “Where should we go?”
“I know just the place,” Celia said, leading the way to the creek.
Darian smiled as they settled in, spreading the picnic blanket before sitting down and listening to the water gurgling and the sound of birds chirping.