"Did Fiona have wings on her back before?"
Seeing the small wings pressed beneath her clothes, Shade muttered suspiciously to himself.
No.
"She" gave him a very clear answer.
"So, this is Fiona... Fiona, wake up."
Shade did not quite understand what was happening. Kneeling on one knee atop the soft bedding inside the tent, he gently called to her a few times, but the sleeping girl showed no sign of waking.
So Shade softly apologized again, then grabbed Mia and used its tail to brush against Fiona's nose. Yet she still appeared to be asleep.
Touch her.
Following the suggestion, Shade took hold of Fiona's slender wrist. Her arms hugged the large tail that passed between her thighs, allowing the tail wrapped around Shade's coat to rest directly against her face. She really was sleeping deeply.
Fiona's skin was warm, and her body temperature seemed somewhat higher than normal. But Shade was not sure whether that was because she was asleep. Then "she" gave him the answer:
The power of her bloodline is growing.
"What does that mean?"
Shade blinked suspiciously, then understood:
"I remember the chapter about dragons in my textbook said that dragons sublimate the power of their bloodlines through slumber. Fiona may be a mixed-blood dragonkin, but she does have dragon blood. That's why she grew that pair of wings during this relatively long sleep!"
Not only that, Shade placed his hand against her forehead again. After carefully sensing it, he discovered that the power of Moon's Dream was also encouraging the awakening of her bloodline power during sleep. The thaumaturgy notes Miss Danist had given him mentioned that this thaumaturgy could also enhance other sleep-related effects. He had not expected dragon "hibernation" to count as well.
"But what do we do now?"
Tree Father's task