The Dragons Daughter

"What's that sound?" Deborah asks, her ears perking up in reaction. It sounded like a cry but from a human.

"I hear that too," Ray says, her ears aiming in the same direction as mine.

"It sounds like a human cry," Deborah replied. "Like a child."

Deborah suddenly starts running towards the sound.

"Deborah, slow down!" Ray calls from behind me. Deborah hears Ray's wings starting to flap as they rise above me.

"I think I see it!" Ray calls down to her.

Deborah follows by foot in the direction of her landing. Once there, she sees Ray sniffing at a tiny human. A baby. It had on a little dark indigo dress with little light gray dots on it. Her hair was blonde curls, and her eyes were blue as berries.

"Draig!" The baby sniffles, pointing towards Ray and me.

"What'd it say?" Deborah asks Ray.

"Draig braf!" The child cheers, wiping away its tears with its little hands.

"It said, nice dragon. I think it is Alys." Ray said, pointing towards the name on the first page of the book she had on the ground next to her as she opened it up.

"Well, what's she doing out here then?" Deborah questioned.

"How would I know, Deborah?"

They looked at the book in the baby's hand. It said, Deg Deinosor Bach.

"It's called Ten Little Dinosaurs," Ray answers without me even having to ask.

"Deinosor, Draig." The child says, pointing from the book back to Ray and me with a big two-toothed grin.

"She knows what we are, at least," Deborah says as she watches the baby.

"We should try to get her back to her family," Deborah said, smelling the baby to see if she could catch the scent of her parents. All she got was the scent of pine and smoke, as if she'd been around a fire not too long before.

"They're probably looking for her. We should go." Ray says anxiously.

"No!" Deborah stated suddenly. "I mean... we can't just leave her behind. What if another creature comes?"

"What are we going to do? Fly her somehow?" Ray asks.

"You fly above and tell me if you see her family nearby."

Ray does so and flies up into the sky. She glides along the waves of the wind while keeping an eye out below for any signs of movement. The ground is clear, not even having signs of human life having passed through it. Once Ray had landed, she told Deborah of the news. The two of them decided to come to a decision not to leave the baby behind. They knew they wouldn't be able to find the child's parents without flying, so they decided instead to take a rest for the night and watch over the baby.

Deborah and Ray continued searching for the child's parents as time passed. Days went to weeks which then soon went to months. As the baby grew, so did Deborah and Ray's fondness for her. They grew to love the child, as did the child towards the dragons. By the time they'd passed a month of not finding any sign of the girl's parents, they had decided to keep her until the day came that she was ready to be on her own.

As the years went by, the child grew. Deborah and Ray settled on keeping her name Alys; it was the one her parents had given her. They held a close eye on her since the difference in size between dragons and humans is nowhere near as close as a giant but extensively bigger than a bear. As she aged, they realized that she couldn't live in the same facility as the dragons. They found it right to give her a building to call her home. They searched for months and months until Ray came upon a tall tower that was up above in the hills of volcano territory. They knew Alys would enjoy the heat and decided to move her to the tower.

Alys spent her years teaching herself from the books on the shelves of the tower. The shelves went down along the sides of the circular staircase that led up to her room. She would run up and down it each night, naming off each of her favorite books that she'd read far more than twice by now. She cleaned, created, and taught herself everything she could. She always spent time with her relatives, Deborah and Ray too. She taught them what she remembered of Welsh while they taught her to guidance on how to ride on the back of a dragon properly.

As the years went on, Alys grew lonelier and lonelier. She came to a point where she didn't even find comfort in leaving her bed some days. She would stay up in her tower while the furious yet warmful lava flowed below. That is, until one day, there was a knock at her door.

"Ms. Princess, I have come to slay the dragons and save you."

"Peidiwch â ffycin cyffwrdd y dreigiau." Alys sneered in the direction of the door.

The man went silent.

"You know Welsh?"

"Oes," Alys answered.

"You taught yourself Welsh while being trapped up here?"

"I'm not trapped, and no. I was born Welsh."

"Wait... What is your name, madam?" The man asks from behind the door.

"None that you should know of." She says proudly.

"Or so you say, as do I think, Alys."