I wiped down the wooden counter, laughing at myself. The Cat stood on the floor glaring up at me, and his look was just so funny.

“I told you, I didn’t mean to spill my coffee…” It had been a perfect cup as well, with lots of caramel and some toasted pecan on top, along with the whipped cream. It actually hadn’t been me, it had been Indigo, but there wasn’t a chance I would ever say that out loud. She had been coming in for a landing, and hadn’t noticed her tail hitting the edge of the tall glass.

That’s what I got for having a cold drink instead of something in my trusty, heavy mug.

Still, the poor Cat had been covered with whip cream, and my coffee went everywhere. Betty could clean it up for me, but I decided to do it myself since I couldn’t stop laughing at the spotted Cat. He had gotten cleaned faster than anything else. One moment he was covered in sticky stuff, and the next he looked like his normal Cat self.

Indigo still pranced around like she’d had too much caffeine, but I knew it was because she had a dragon lesson today.

I couldn’t blame her at all. Right now, she had caught up to all the stories they had sent to her, and she wanted more. In addition, I’d added several other books from my world to her MP3 player about random things like dinosaurs, which she was very interested in, and then outer space. I resisted adding anything fantasy-related, since I didn’t know what was true versus not.

The doorbells jingled and my head snapped up, ready to say something to Lady Borsal, yet in walked Lady Twilight. Her purple robes were freshly pressed and her hair was coiled up in a bun. Her eyes landed on Indigo as she flew laps around the main shop.

“Good Morning, Indigo.” She smiled at me. “Sable.”

The Cat used the moment to jump on the counter. He nodded in her direction, and she nodded back.

“We have plenty to cover today, I hope you did your homework.”

Indigo started talking too rapidly for me to follow, but I caught some questions about why some Lord killed a cow, or something.

Lady Twilight chuckled. “You did your homework.”

“I can’t keep enough information flowing, and that’s with additional audiobooks.”

She broke out into a full laugh, making the room fill with sound. “She’s in a major growth spurt; she’ll take as much information as she can. I’ll have to keep sending over stories as we get them in from the various Elders in the clans.”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Ask her about the feather,” muttered the Cat.

Lady Twilight headed toward the open area to the right of the main shop. It had lots of pillows and great places to sit on the floor. Based on what I’d seen, it also fit her full sized dragon, if needed. Though, I realized, there was no reason the dragon form I’d seen had to be her full size. I wondered how big she really was.

“Do you have a moment to help me with something before you begin?” I asked. “I received a gift that the Cat suggested I add to the necklace Lord Bennit gifted me.”

I pulled the feather from Carter out from behind the counter. The white feather glowed in the sunlight, the edges glowing with golden warmth.

Her eyebrows raised, and she glanced at the Cat. Something unspoken passed between the two of them, and she stepped forward.

“That is a worthy gift, young Guardian. Powerful.” She took a step forward and Indigo landed on her shoulder. Her hand reached up to stroke the back of the dragon. “This will be an excellent lesson for you as well. Receiving a powerful gift is a precious thing, and making sure to present them in such a way is important.”

Then she stood in front of the counter and held out her hand. “Can I hold it, and the necklace?”

I handed over the feather, then unhooked the necklace holding the leaf. My bracelet from my brother jingled as I did so. Her eyes landed on it and widened again, but she said nothing. Still, it caught my attention.

“My brother got me a birthday gift as well,” I said with a soft smile.

“Your family cares about you very much. Maybe someday I will get to meet them.”

Indigo chirped in agreement.

“Maybe, though magic isn’t common on my world, and I’m not sure how a little dragon would be received…” My voice trailed off as I thought about my mother meeting Indigo. “My family probably wouldn’t have a problem. They’ve always gone with the flow.” Now that I thought about it, I wondered if it would be possible for them to meet Indigo.

“Indigo, watch what I do here,” said Lady Twilight.

The Cat moved closer on the counter, as did the young dragon.

“The goal is to not touch the source of the magic in the feather. We want to coat it with a layer of magic and make it smaller.” Purple light pulsed through her fingers, which turned into talons. It slowly crawled up the feather, but it didn’t dim the glowing edges. “See, it’s coating, not mingling.”

Indigo crawled down her arm and stared at it closely, before nodding her head.

“Now, I’m going to make the coating smaller, asking the feather to get smaller. You must always ask items of power, never force them…” She waited until Indigo nodded before the purple magic flashed again. “Did you feel the consent? The feather doesn’t mind getting smaller, it wants to help.”

Slowly at first the feather shrunk, then it moved faster until it was about the size of a charm on a bracelet.

“You're saying the feather wanted to help?” I asked.

“Yes, it was given in good faith. Whatever you did to help that archangel meant the world to him. He and the feather want to help you in the same way.”