It was beginning to get uncomfortably cold. The other night, Sonata could hear what sounded to be pebbles down at them from outside in the middle of a storm. She went outside to flail her arms in the darkness till she found a stone of cold ice about the width of two fingers on the ground, and quickly came back inside before she was hit by any of the hail. It may have still technically been Autumn, but Winter came early and harsh to some places of the world. Anytime now, it would get cold enough puddles would turn to ice and rain would be replaced by snow.
Despite her best efforts, Sophia had come down with a fever and clung now to her big sister more than ever before. Sonata placed her hand on her sister's forehead to check her temperature for the third time since they'd woken up, like she'd seen their nurse do the countless times when Sophia had fallen sick back home. Sophia just clung to her, occasionally waking up and pulling her sheets off and then pulling them back on or breaking out into a fit of coughing from which Sonata could just support her back and coerce her to settle back down. Sonata couldn't leave her, she couldn't see how this small fragile being in this state would be okay on its own.
If they used up all the remains of the food they'd been keeping, they wouldn't die. But they needed water.
"I'm cold." Sophia hoarsely said, shivering through the blankets and pressing her head against her sister's leg.
The fire spreading it's warmth against the side of Sonata's face was already a little hot, but it wasn't enough for the shivering being at her knees. She needed to go, but she couldn't leave her here.
Sonata brushed her sister's hair back out of her face again. The small girl's eyes were shut, but she was clinging to her still; she was awake.
"Sophia," she began softly, her tone gentle as she could make it to not scare the sickly child, "do you think you can concentrate enough to take your dragon form right now?"
It took a moment for Sophia to find the energy to talk. She adjusted herself and lifted her head like she was going to sit up, but then felt her own weakness and laid down again. "I'm...tired though."
Sophia pulled the sheets more heavily onto Sophia to shield her from the cold. "It's okay...but need to go get us water for a moment." She explained. Sonata pulled herself out from the sheets and from under Sophia's head, moving her so she didn't accidentally drop it and hurt herself from the sudden absence of her leg. Sophia's eyes flicked open. An immediate frown formed between her brows and she reacted out with her arms a little dramatically, partially falling out of the sheets.
"No, don't leave me!" She plead.
Sophia pressed one of her brows down, already standing up. "How am I supposed to get water otherwise?" She questioned, then quickly added "I'll be fast."
Sophia was beginning to panic. "No, wait, I'll try, don't leave me-" she cried, about to get up before Sonata pushed her back down into her sheets. She almost broke into a fit of coughing again, suppressing it just to try and speak. "I- I.." she was panicking, her small, strained breaths coming quickly.
Sonata shushed her, coming back and petting her head to try and reverse the panic she'd accidentally caused. "It's okay, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere yet." She soothed, carrying Sophia's upper body back into the sheet and wrapping the makeshift blankets back over her.
"I..." Sophia murmured off, her eyes opening and closing in fading consciousness. Still, she gathered up the determination to stay awake and clench her lips shut in concentration, trying with all her might to do the one thing that would keep her sister form leaving her alone right now.
Sure enough, a small amount of dim light engulfed her body and her form began to waver like jello and glitch like a mirage, and then she was completely gone. Sonata lifted up the blanket and searched hastily so Sophia wouldn't suffocate, until she came upon the familiar, small slithery dragoness, who basically leapt into her arms and about curled up and fell asleep before she was even set upon Sonata's shoulders. The older sister wrapped the two of them up in her and her mom's cloaks, making sure Sophia was securely warm and settled before she began to walk.
The freezing cold wetness that clung to the morning grass would have driven Sonata crazy if she didn't have the ability to just turn her feet back into claws that weren't as effected by the cold. She kept one hand up about her neck to make sure her sister didn't fall off or the wind didn't blow up into her cloak as she walked, but Sophia remained quite peaceful in her position as a living scarf. Maybe it was warmer when her body was compressed to such a small size, or maybe it was just the more direct warmth of her scales pressed against Sonata's actual skin.
She would have usually left Sophia at the cave for something like this. Hauling her across the forest on her back was a hassle and she wasn't really that much help for how much she slowed Sonata down even when she was around. Having her transform just to ride lighter on her shoulders was tempting, but still worrisome for Sonata. If it got to the point where Sophia got a little stronger as she got older she wouldn't have made much of a fuss, but despite being a dragon, Sophia's humanoid form was clearly her normal state. It was normal for Sonata to constantly be shapeshifting, but she couldn't begin to guess to what extent straining to keep up to the standards of a normal dragon Sophia could actually take before it began to take a toll. She actually believed there was a chance Sophia could just strain her way out of existence: she was already so fickle to begin with, and her human form had actually shrunk a little bit those first few days Sophia first got shapeshifting into one alternate form down.
Coo coo. An owl.
Sonata held a little firmer to the hump settled upon her shoulders as the image of a bird flying down and snatching her up crossed her mind. Her feet moved faster. They were almost to the river.
Sonata stopped. Sophia seemed to have noticed her abrupt halt, and squirmed a little beneath the cloak, chirping in question. Sonata shushed her, bending down to hide among the bushes. A cloaked figure was walking in the distance, a blurry frown-robed form with a blunt-pointed hood.
A wizard? If it was, they certainly couldn't be seen. At the very least, it looked like a sort of human. Sonata held her breath and watched from the gaps in evergreen bush she'd hid behind until the faraway figure was safely gone.
She exhaled. Sophia exhaled. She looked back towards the tiny dragon at her shoulder, head peeking out from the sheets.
"Get back in there, you're sick," she teased, shoving the tiny lizard like head back into the warmth of the cloaks she was wearing and receiving a set of playful nibbles in response.
"Ow-" she made a show of fanning her hand where Sophia could see it, peeking out from the rim of the cloak. "You're a viscous one."
Chirp, Sophia satisfactually replied.
"Are you comfortably settled?" She asked, one hand moving up to support Sophia as she stood up. Sonata's eyes drifted to the distant dirt path where the stranger had been.
She hadn't known there were other people in the forest. She didn't know they came so close. Sonata met eyes with Sophia, who'd wiggled her way out of the cloaks again to see what the fuss was about.
Chirp?
She rubbed her cheek affectionately against Sophia's tiny head. They just needed to be more careful from now on.
"Nothing, lets go," she said, continuing on her way to the river.
Most of the birds had already started their migration down South, but some of the birds from even higher North settled by the forest and crossed Sonata's path now and then as she went about her tasks. The annoying chatter that'd irritated her through the Summer was now a sweet release from the haunting silence of a steadily coming Winter.
Sophia rubbed a bit of fuzz-thin frost off a tree as she passed. It was really getting colder. She thought back to the tallies she made in torchlight in the cave. Had it really been fourteen days since their mother had left them?
Sophia stopped suddenly, alerted by the sound of a small animal scurrying through the bushes. She was about to go full hunting mode before she remembered her sister still there. She pulled at her cloak enough to peer down into it, the little being curled up beneath looking up in a half asleep state.
"Is it okay if I go hunting right now? Will you be able to hold on?" She asked, concerned.
Sophia blinked herself out of sleep, slowly processing her question only to finally tilt her head in confusion. She hadn't heard.
"Can you hold on to me tight?" She asked, instinctually lifting a hand to support the tiny Sophia as though she could drop and slip off her anytime now. "Will you be okay if I run a little reckless?"
Chirp!
"Ack-" Sonata suppressed a small cry as she felt tiny nails dig down into the place where she'd thinned down her scales considerably to take a human form. It didn't actually hurt, and she was pretty sure she hadn't bled, but she was still sensitive by her neck.
Chirp? Sophia's was looking up at her with concern, her thin, long, awkward pale yellow lizard neck lifted from the safety of the warm cloak.
"I'm okay." She winced. "It's still" she moved one of Sophia's claws so it wasn't pressed right into the crevice of her neck-bone "better than you falling off or something."
Sophia ducked her head a little guiltily. Sonata laughed at her expression. She stuck out the very tip of her tongue, flattened at the front, an unspoken gesture dragons used.
'Goodbye.'
'It'll be okay.'
And the one phrase their language didn't have a platonic equivalent for, 'I love you.'
Sophia warily returned the gesture before ducking down into the warmth, bracing herself.