“Dear little visslii,” the note began, so that she knew it was from uncle J. “I’m sorry I can’t be here right now, and you must have a lot of questions. Please don’t worry, everything will work out just fine. Take good care of your new charges, they need you.” How did he always know what was going on? She continued reading the note, hugging the egg to her.
     “So, in order to make sure you’re all three alright, I’m going to leave all of my things to you. The cabin is yours, and everything in it. I took what I wanted, so don’t worry. The Ssuna’Ouna is yours now too, take care of it. It, along with the cabin, has a spell on it so that if you don’t want anyone to find it, they won’t.” Aislin stopped there for a moment. What? Uncle J was giving her his skiff, and the cabin? Why? Wasn’t he coming back? She read on, hoping to find out.
     “No, I won’t be returning. I’m sorry, little visslii, but you have things to do, and I can’t be in the way.” She could tell uncle J had paused here, and could almost feel his love radiating out at her. She smiled, though there were tears on her cheeks.
     “You’ll do a wonderful job, I can tell. Don’t forget to take care of the garden, there are some special herbs in there that might help you out later on. Remember, little visslii, remember that you can do anything you put your mind to. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Aise wiped at her tears. He’d signed it with a pawprint and ‘love you forever, your uncle J.’ She lowered her head and wiped at her eyes to clear them of tears, and just noticed a brown on brown banded feather sticking out from under the door.

     Aislin picked the long primary up and sniffled. This was from uncle J too. She took it with her to tie into her hair later.

     The skiff was right where she’d left it, and led her mother and the two men to it yesterday. Undisturbed, except that the blanket she’d covered the man with was gone. Oh well, she could replace it later.

     The first one into the skiff was the egg, settling into a coil of rope. Aise could almost feel it’s unease fade with the rocking of the boat. She smiled, casting off and hopping in herself, steering the Ssuna’ouna out into the calm lake.

     In the days and weeks that followed, she was allowed to sail her skiff over the lake, as long as she was within sight of home. Father was surprised at first that she was able to handle the craft all on her own, but then the surprise turned into pride, and he’d use her as an example if he thought his men were slacking off.

     Mother was worried about her little girl for the first few days, and came outside to check on her often, sometimes even when she was in the middle of something, like kneading bread or sewing. However, after a while she realized that Aislin could manage her skiff well, and came out less frequently, until it was only one or two times a day to call the girl in for lunch and tell her to tie up and come home for dinner.

     Aislin was happy. She got to sail every day, and every day she was more and more confident with her skills. She took the egg with her, so that it would both be safe with her, and so that it wouldn’t be lonely. It seemed happy out on the lake too, and whenever she brought it inland, would send her uncomfortable messages until she set it in the skiff again. At first she thought maybe if she worked a little at a time she could get it used to land, so she could sneak it home with her like she planned, but after a while she decided that wasn’t going to work.

     Besides, with the spell uncle J had put on the skiff, the egg would be just as safe there as with her in her own room. Sometimes she even snuck out after her parents had gone to bed so that she could sleep in the bottom of the boat with it. Times like that, she could almost hear it purring her to sleep.

     She’d read through the book, of course, though ‘read’ might not be the right word. She couldn’t read the language that the book was written in, so she looked at the pictures instead. Apparently, this little green and yellow egg was a dragon. And a boy dragon at that.

     Uncle J was right when he said she’d have questions. What was a dragon egg doing on that ship in the first place? Why did they come out this direction? Was the egg destined for someone else, and they’re waiting for it, maybe heard about the wreck and are mourning the loss of the dragon? There was really no way to tell for sure... Aislin just hoped that someday after the egg hatched there wouldn’t be people looking for it, claiming it.

     She just decided not to think about that stuff, since it probably wouldn’t happen. Besides, every time she did think about it, she got the strangest feeling from the egg. Not worry, more like concern, though apparently it was confident that this was where it was supposed to be, even if Aise wasn’t.

     So time passed, and Aislin found some amazing wonders in uncle J's cabin, mostly books. She began to teach herself to read siran, but it was slow going, especially since she didn't really have anyone to help her learn. Still, she'd sit in the skiff with the egg and read him stories from the few children's books she discovered with words easy enough to decipher, sharing the meaning of the words through their mental bond without speaking them most of the time. She didn't want to confuse the poor little egg, after all. English was a hard enough language to learn without complicating it with another different vocabulary.