And like that, he was gone. Cara stared with wide eyed amazement at the beauty and grace of the frost dragon. She pinched her own hand and realized that he had actually spoken, albeit, the one word, “Dragon”. She realized that he had spoken back to her the word she had used several times, like it was unfamiliar to his naturally. He did have the ability of speech, like the Fire Dragons but was , of course, he was wild. He had never been taught human language. His voice was melodious and if he had been a man, she would have asked him to just read the phone book. But he had leaped into flight and was gone.<br/><br/>She went in the barn and finished with mucking the stalls.  Time seemed to stand still up here in the frozen tundra with the long dreary nights and the short bright but bitter days. After what she felt was a long time, Cara cautiously went out and looked around. No dragon.  With a sigh of relief, she drove the animals out. She stood with her hand on her hips, gazing into the sky. He was probably like an eagle, she thought, able to fly high and spot prey from way up there.<br/><br/>For the next several nights, Cara studied the book of Shadows and the ancient Grimoire to see what kind of information she could glean about Frost dragons. Her books had precious little about them. She tuned into the radio and a blizzard was predicted so she spent several hours searching on the internet and printing out documents to study when the net went down. The stack was growing and Cara decided to go out to feed the horses and get them settled for the night.<br/>All of the animals except the small black pony came when she whistled. Cara frowned but quickly  threw out feed and closed up the barn. Dark clouds were rolling in from the northwest and she wanted to be safely inside. There was no way she could do look for the pony anyway.<br/><br/>The next few nights, the blizzard raged, shaking the house, rattling the windows. Once she thought she heard the ice clawing on the roof but put that down to her imagination. When the storm blew itself out, Cara fell asleep in her chair in front of the fire place wrapped in a quilt emblazoned with the triquetra. Outside the window, a light show began to dance slowly in the sky and the shifting colors penetrated her sleepiness.<br/><br/>She rose, dragging the quilt around her to the window where she scraped off the frost and peered out. The beauty of  the Northern Lights were almost too much to bear over the sparkling miles of snow. Her breath caught in her throat and she hurried to fling open the door to take in as much of the sight as possible. Cara rushed onto the porch and ran smack into a huge drift of snow. She stood back and blinked. Snow didn’t have a solid form.<br/><br/>“Dragon?” she said, softly, backing toward the door, “you have come back. I’m Cara.” She touched herself lightly on her chest. “Can you say, Cara? I don’t mean you any harm. I would be your friend.”