Forces Collide by Jamie Wilson (ap literature book list txt) 📖

was awake. The little hatchling slowly got to its feet, falling over twice as it tried. Then it gave a humongous yawn, its mouth stretching open more than I thought possible.
I sat up on the bed and it walked shakily over to me, to settle on its long legs in a crouch on my lap. It then raised its head to look at me with its bright eyes.

My eyes roamed over its face, memorizing it, and also comparing it to the fully grown wyvern in my vision last night. It was hard to believe that the magnificent wyvern I had seen could in any way possibly grow up from this tiny, house cat sized hatchling.

The little wyvern gazed back at me; I spotted three tiny orange bumps that rested on the crest of its white neck.

"Have a good sleep?" I asked, not really expecting an understandable answer from it.

"Yes," the wyvern said through its mouth. The voice was female, and I liked the sound of it.

"Do you have a name?" I asked.

The wyvern struggled to speak this time, but gave up. Instead it shook its head from side to side, which I took for a no.

"I think I know what it is," I told her.

The wyvern looked up at me through its eyes eagerly, they were sparkling with curiosity.

"Want to hear it?" I asked.

"Yes."

I nodded and thought about the name. Then I said, "Gaelira!" After a pause I added, “It means Undying Flame.”

The wyvern chirped as I said it and I could feel her acceptance of the name through her thoughts immediately.

"Then that is your name," I said. "Gaelira."

"Yes!" the wyvern said softly in excitement. "What … yours?"

"Me? I am Gem Hawksong," I laughed. "Call me Gem, alright."

She nodded slightly.

"I love you, Gaelira, you have no idea how much," I told the little hatchling. "We should go see if Nuala is awake yet."

"I… kn…ow," the hatchling said struggling with the words, again.

"Maybe I should teach you how to speak later on," I laughed.

"Yes." Gaelira stood up carefully and hopped off my lap, onto the bed nearest me.

I stood up and walked towards the closed door. The springs in the mattress creaked a few times and then there was a soft thud near me. Down on the ground was my wyvern, walking towards me. Her talons clicked on the floorboards as she moved across to me, shakily. I looked down at her again; her hooked claws were tinted orange on the very tips.

Definitely got some growing to do, I thought. The wyvern unquestionably scarcely resembled her full-fledged self.

The thought made me speculate about the battle that I had seen. What was the cause for her and me to be in it? Who were we fighting and why? With any luck all those questions could be answered by Nuala.

The door swung open with a loud creak and I moved out of the room. My little wyvern followed after me enthusiastically. It did not take long for me to spot Nuala sitting in an old chair by the grungy lofty window, basking in the sun.

A gentle fresh breeze caressed my face as I got nearer, she had the window open. "Morning Nuala," I said drawing near.

She looked at me and smiled. "Ah you're up are you two? I was starting to wonder about that."

"Sorry, we had a little talk before we came out, I found out my wyvern's name," I explained.

"What is it?" Nuala asked with interest, looking at my wyvern curiously.

"Gaelira," the wyvern replied eagerly.

Nuala gasped. "She can talk already?"

"Not fully, she's still learning the finer points about it. She can only speak a few words, but it's enough for me to know what she's trying to say to me," I explained again.

"Is that right, Gaelira Anarloki?" Nuala asked.

My wyvern looked at me in confusion. She did not understand the strange word that Nuala had spoken.

In my own mind I spoke to her, ‘Anarloki means Sun dragon.’

"Yes, Nu...uh.luh," Gaelira responded.

I forced back a laugh at the way Gaelira spoke Nuala's name. It was funny and I had to struggle with myself for a moment. Nuala was not one to laugh hen others spoke her name wrong. I watched her reaction carefully.

Nuala smiled at my wyvern. "For only a day old hatchling, you are more highly developed than most your age."

Possibly because every hatchling that chooses someone takes on their Uruohtar's memories and language when they choose someone?" I suggested. "That way they only have to learn to articulate the words, though they already know them."

Gaelira snorted, she knew what I meant alright. "It… hard…speaking."

"You'll get the hang of it, Gaelira," I assured her. "It takes time for everyone to learn to talk. You've got it to some extent easier than I did, I did not get to have someone else's memories, and I had to be taught every thing from nothing."

"That's true, wyverns like you do have an advantage there, though only those who are given up by their parents to become the partner of an elf or human have that advantage," Nuala said. "Wild born wyverns have it just as hard as we humans and elves all do."

“What human… elf?" Gaelira quipped .

"Gaelira, a human has rounded facial features. Also they age quicker than us and are mortal. Elves however..." I picked her up. "See how my features are pointed: my ears, chin, eyebrows, and eyes?"

"Yes," Gaelira replied touching my cheek with her maw.

"Elves are like me," I said.

"Okay."

I then looked to Nuala, and asked "So what are we going to do today?"

"Well, I thought we might go out of town for the day and have a good talk," Nuala replied.
I understood what she meant by that, she wanted to talk about things that were likely to get us both in trouble, not to mention Gaelira discovered in that case. Neither thing did I want to happen, I knew how the dark king would react to us being found in one of his towns. He'd come for us himself, most likely, a thing that would be very bad for the town.

I wanted no trouble to come to them because of me. Not to mention any trouble to come while Nuala was here. "Let's go, "I said eagerly.

"What... me?" Gaelira asked .

"You can hide under my clothes again, Gaelira," Nuala laughed, her voice low. The little wyvern hid while I got a drink of water, suddenly feeling very thirsty.

When we were ready we moved back through the creaky floor boarded hallway and out of the inn. We made our way slowly out of the town, causing no suspicion.

When we found a big young white ash tree we stopped and Gaelira came out of her hiding place. I lifted her up so she could climb in the tree above us if she so wished.

I heard her gratitude, she could not say the right words yet, they were still beyond her. By tomorrow night she would be speaking as well as Nuala and I did, that was expected of hatchlings, and we both knew it.

Gaelira climbed up into the tree, making good use of her sharp talons and clawed front legs.

"Okay, so what did you want to talk about?" I asked, sitting down by the tree and resting my back against the trees wide trunk.

Nuala sat down nearby me, and I could hear the rustling of leaves as Gaelira climbed above us. She sounded like she was having fun for the moment while we talked.

"You know how I told you that I learnt something before I came, when our warriors returned once more from skirmishing with Lindan Marcos' men?" Nuala began.

"Yes, I know there was more you were going to tell me, but I knew also that that was not the place to discuss that," I replied. I'd known all about that and I was really curious about it right now what she was going to say.

"Well, your parents did not return. At first I thought they simply had things to se to see to, when first they did not return." Nuala stopped, to reorganize her thoughts, I hoped.

"Go on," I told her, bracing myself for what she was about to say to me. I felt Gaelira's eyes on me.

"I spoke with one of the generals in the remaining warriors who returned. He did not have good news for me at all. He told me they would not return because they never could."

My mind rebelled against that news. I knew what she meant by that. My emotions were that instant that I could not stop myself from being filled with rage, and sadness.

‘Gem, we will strike at him, but not yet. He'll suffer your wrath, one day soon,’ Gaelira told me in my mind, she knew I would take a while to recover. The idea that my parents were dead was unfathomable and I was taken aback by the news.

I was aware of Nuala shifting across closer to me and then her arms were around me as the first tears ran down my cheeks. She did not say anything, she simply held me as I cried myself out.

That took a rather long time and when I was finished I was still saddened.

“I suppose that's enough learning for today, you won't be able to focus on anything else now you know that," Nuala told me.

I nodded and we headed back to our inn room. Before we left I reached up and lifted Gaelira down from the tree.

The next day we did not go out, instead we stayed back in the room, I was eager to relax a little; I did not really have any interest in learning anything today. Instead I began to teach Gaelira to talk properly.

It was an amusing process and Gaelira struggled with many of the words.

"Uhru-low-ky?" she asked.

"No, U-roo-loki," I replied calmly. I was trying to teach her to speak a few of the simpler words in my native tongue, something she was able to say a lot in.

"Uhro-low-ki?" she tried again.

"Close," I laughed. “Try once more, try and say it a bit quicker.” I loved helping her.

"Uruloki?" Gaelira chirped.

"Perfect," I laughed softly in joy. "You learnt that one. It actually means…"

"Wyvern, I know," she snapped. "Next word!"

Demanding little thing, I thought in glee. I loved her so much it was hard to be angry with her for snapping at me. Plus what was the point? We were two halves of the whole now.

And so the lessons continued, for a while into the day. She was such a fast learner and was soon speaking proper sentences.

Then there was a knock on the door which made me jump and Gaelira to growl softly in surprise.

I'll get that," Nuala told us, rising from the couch she'd been sitting on watching us and helping where she could. I stood up, and stretched then moved to the couch, Gaelira trailing behind me.

I heard a few words spoken in an undertone and then footsteps came