Kalmia woke up after the best sleep she had in a while. The exhaustion of the last few days added onto the fact she wasn’t staying awake for much longer than she had to. Kalmia walked over the a window, that she found in the room and looked outside. It was bright outside. Due to that she made her way down towards the kitchen and looked for Dedrik. Dedrik was nowhere to be found. Kalmia guessed that Dedrik would probably be in a church service.
In the kitchen she however found a table full of bread. There was also a note on that table but Kalmia couldn’t read the letters of the note so she had no chance of deciphering it. Due to there being a note though she guessed it would be fine for her to sit down on the table and just eat the bread.
After the fulfilling meal, Kalmia tucked in her tail again and hid her horns. After making sure they wouldn’t show she went out of the house and into the village. Now that it was bright outside she could see more clearly how the village looked like. It was a bit smaller than his home village, Kalmia thought while walking through the streets, however it was wealthier than the village he grew up in. The houses were in a better shape and the people didn’t appear to starve.
After just randomly walking through the streets for a while she stumbled on a market that she didn’t see before. It was right in front of the church, however Kalmia didn’t see it and walked into the other direction first and only stumbled upon the market after more than an hour of walking around.
It smelled like there was a lot of fresh food and even snacks that were sold on the market. The market stretched across the entire street in front of the church until it reached the end of the street. Kalmia would estimate that there would be about 30 vendors in that small area. Not just the food that Kalmia has smelt was sold there but also wood, coal and other stuff like toys and things of every day need.
Kalmia had no money on her so she couldn’t buy anything. However due to the smells she became really hungry for something sweet.
In front of one of the stores that sold sweets was a large amount of people standing. Maybe she could… NO. How would Dedrik think of her when she took his hospitality and then stole? As he harboured her what would the people think of him? No, Kalmia decided against taking anything without paying.
Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder. Kalmia turned around in a panic, however, it was Dedriks hand. Dedrik looked like he was exhausted from running around somewhere.
„Don’t you know how dangerous it is for you to go out just like this?“ Dedrik said with a tone of worry, audibly out of breath.
„Wasn’t the plan for me to go after that night anyways?“
„Say didn’t you read the note i left for you?“
„I can’t read…“
„Oh…“
Dedrik looked a bit sorry that he wouldn’t think about stuff like that. He knew exactly how most people wouldn’t be able to read. However he expected Kalmia to be able to read due to her dragon heritage.
„First come with me again. I want to tell you something.“
Kalmia nodded and followed Dedrik back to the house.
„Sit down at the table first of all.“
Kalmia did as said.
„So you currently have nowhere to return to, right?“
She nodded.
„And you don’t have the skills to live out in the wild, right?“
„Yes.“
„So I thought it might be better if you stay here for now until we found a more permanent solution to your problem.“
Kalmia was surprised. She knew Dedrik was nice but she didn’t expect anything like this. But Kalmia couldn’t possibly accept that. She was already a freeloafer for a night and it made her feel uncomfortable.
„But I can’t. You’ve already done so much for me.“
„No no, please, don’t say that. I enjoy helping people such as you.“
„But I’m a… monster…“
„You are no monster. From what I can tell you are a dragon! The rulers of the sky and one of the worlds most powerful creatures. Although you are still an infant, so one can’t speak about you and being powerful yet.“
Kalmia has never heard of dragons before. It may be due to her being illiterate and due to that not being able to read any informational material, that would be the only realistic answer, however why did her father not even remotely mention dragons? Did he also not know of them? Or are they just not relevant to the normal persons live? Also, she and powerful? She thought for a bit about the wolf attack and the attack Adam launched on her and came to the conclusion, maybe she wasn’t as weak as she thought before.
As she was a juvenile, she wasn’t as powerful as a grown up dragon though. How strong might one of them be? Strong enough to kill a hundred men? Enough to kill a thousand men? Or even an entire kingdom? Kalmia had to find out more about that.
After a time that felt like it was a few minutes Kalmia answered „What… is a dragon…?“
„You don’t even know what a dragon is? Where did you grow up?“
„Celia…“
„Ah. That would also explain why you couldn’t read. You see, Dragons are a rare creature, that most people wouldn’t even dream about meeting. They have a high resistance to physical attacks and are the creatures with the fastest flying speed. They could get from here to Grunia within a few hours while taking the carriage would take at least a week.“
„How about it, I teach you to read, write and a bit over your kind and you stay here for a bit and help me keeping order around the house?“
„But I have no skills at all.“
„No problem, you will learn.“
„But…“
„But what? Do you have a better solution?“
„No…“
„Fine, then it’s settled. You won’t be a freeloafer and get through the days easier.“
„…“
Kalmia looked a bit shy and couldn’t come up with an excuse to not get to stay there.
„Fine if you think i should do that I trust you.“
Dedrik seemed very happy about that answer and he seemed to gain energy again.
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„I hoped you would say that!“
Dedrik pulled out a linen bag. He laid it in front of Kalmia on the desk they were both sitting at.
„For that I got you some proper clothes. Come on, open up.“
Kalmia opened up the bag and instantly, her face became red. The bag was filled with dresses, simple clothes and underwear.
„I didn’t know your sizes so if something doesn’t fit don’t mind telling me and we will trade it in for another size at the shop.“
Kalmia didn’t know what to say here. She was more than greatful for her just to live there but even the clothes… however she didn’t want to wear these clothes. All of them would make her look girly.
“What, you don’t like it?”
“… Could there be something less girly in here?”
“You don’t want to look girly? Wouldn’t dresses make you feel more comfortable because of your tail though?”
Kalmia hasn’t thought about that fact. But why the underwear?
“…”
“If it disturbs you that much i can exchange the dresses with pants and shirts. But please give it a try first.”
Kalmia nodded slowly and took the bag of clothes out into the room she slept in. There she laid out the clothes she has gotten on the bed. Among those clothes she found four dresses, three shirts, two skirts and two linen pants. But also three pairs of thigh highs and 5 pairs of underpants and bras.
Kalmia became uneasy and felt that it didn’t feel right to wear the underwear so she decided to skip out on that.
To make Dedrik happy and maybe find out how it feels to wear it she took one of the dresses on and pulled it over her head . It was a white dress which was laying very loosely. Considering the length of the sleeves however it appeared to be the right size.
Because of it laying so loosely Kalmia got an idea. She rolled her tail around her hips and checked whether one could see the tail. From what she could tell it looked quite inconspicuous. After checking that out she went down to the kitchen again, in which they were sitting before and asked Dedrik.
“Do you see my tail?”
“Hmm. Turn around real fast.”
Kalmia showed her backside for Dedrik to see whether one would see it.
“Nope, I can’t see anything. But your shins got a few scales on them. Did you check out with the thighs?”
“No. I didn’t feel comfortable to try to wear them. I don’t think it is right.”
“Why wouldn’t it be fine? Look at you. You are a fine young woman. Many young boys would kill for you.”
Kalmias face blushed up with a red hue and she looked away. There were a lot of things she wanted to hear but not anything in that direction. Something deep down in her felt weird tho… her stomach felt funny and she didn’t really know how to properly react to it. At the same time some intecrate thoughts popped up of wearing them. For now however, she put them off.
“… Thank you… excuse me for a second.”
“…sure?”
Kalmia walked over to the room she was assigned to and put the clothes down from the bed to the ground after folding them. While having the thighs in her hands she thought about wearing them for a second but decided it couldn’t hurt to try. They were made of an elastic material and were very stretchy. Unsure of how to properly wear them she just pulled them over her feet and pulled them as high up as she could. They felt very smooth on her skin and it was a feeling she would describe as very comfortable.
She looked for a mirror but couldn’t find any. That made her sneak out of the room hoping not to get seen wearing the thigh highs and going into the bathroom. In the bathroom there was a large silver mirror in which Kalmia could look at herself. In the mirror in front of her stood a young girl with beautiful silver hair and a new, white dress. Her Legs were adorned with black thigh highs. Would she still be a boy she would get a nosebleed from looking at her.
The feelings she felt towards that made her very confused.
She hated looking this way but at the same time it made her feel happy.
Quickly she slipped out of the bathroom again and went the ladder up to her room again. She sat there for a while, thinking about whether she should wear them or not. As it was a comfortable wear she thought it was quite nice, however she also thought it was too girly for her.
In the end she took them off and left them on the shelf and went down again.
“Back? Did you try on the thigh highs?”
“Didn’t like it.”
“That’s too bad… I’ll leave them here if you change your mind though.”
Change her mind? Did he think Kalmia wouldn’t be set on her thoughts?
“Sure… if you say so…”
“Okay, now that that is done, let’s come to the things you’ll have to do around the house.”
“First of all you are the one having to cook the meals.
Secondly you have to clean the house to keep it in a nice and pristine state.
thirdly you have to see that you stay clean.
fourth, you have to wash the clothes
and last but not least you have to serve the guests that come around once in a while.”
“And in exchange I get to live here and learn from you, right?”
“Not just that but i’ll also give you a monthly allowance for your work depending on how good you’ve done it.”
“But I don’t know how to properly do any of that.”
“No problem. The first few times i’ll stick close to you and show you how it’s done. As soon as I feel you are getting more comfortable with the stuff I’ll leave it completely to you.”
“… okay.”
Over the next fewmonths, Kalmia had to get out of bed at an early hour to cook the morning meal and eat together with Dedrik. After the meal they went to the church and Dedrik does his sermon to which Kalmia attends. After the sermon, Kalmia started doing the cleaning for the next few hours, until she had to cook again. There was no time to relax really, which made her really uncomfortable. After eating for dinner she had to wash the clothes once in a month. On the other days, which were not as densly filled with work, she sat down at the kitchen table with Dedrik and started to learn reading and writing as Dedrik said, that it would be the basis for everything else.
Once Kalmia got a bit more comfortable doing the chores, Dedrik left her alone more and more. At some time she got to a point where she got finished with cleaning proper enough to not have to clean everyday. At first it was every second day. Then it was twice a week. In the end she could get it down to once a week.
As time went on and winter slowly started, she got more proficient in learning the human script. She got to a level where she could read simple books and write short letters. The letters weren’t perfect but one could read them.. In all the time she had been busy she couldn’t spare a single thought about her predicament nor about whether her father was fine. On days on which she barely had work to do, she liked to sit down and think about everything, even though it just gave her a depressed feeling.
Soon and only once a year there was a special holiday. It was at the end of december and many people celebrated it by giving gifts to each other. It was slowly getting closer and closer and now it was just a week away.
**Chapter 4: END**