7th December

"How are you feeling?" When Jen opened her eyes, she saw Lisa's head over her. She took a minute to answer and yawned wide while rubbing her eyes.

"Better." She finally said and then winced when she rolled to the side and put weight on her wing. It still hurt when she put weight on it.

"Fit enough for breakfast?" asked Olga and Jen turned her head to the bear and nodded.

"Is your wing okay?" Ginny asked from the other side and Jen turned her head again and smiled. "It still hurts when I lay on it, but it is not as bad as yesterday."

"Jake said yesterday, that we should help you to get ready today." Ida mentioned with her sweet cute voice and Jen nodded towards her. "Thank you, girls." She said and all of them giggled.

After Jen got up, the other girls were very caring in their assistance. They brought her, packed in blankets, to the shower and afterwards back to their house. They even helped her to put on her clothes, so that it would be easier to not put any pressure on the wing.

Even though she had all the help, Jen winced a few times when she felt a stinging pain in her wing, but it was only when it was pushed to get through the wing-holes of the pullover or when she moved it a bit too fast.

She was a smiling, when they went to breakfast. For the way there, they but a blanket around her shoulders again to not have her wear the mantle that would restrict her wings.

"Good Morning!" the choir of their usual morning greetings with the boys was loud and rang in the ears of Jen. The boys all came to her and asked her how she was doing and then Sophie and Jake joined in. She had to repeat a few times, how her wing was and that she felt much better already.

"You got beautiful wings." Said Malcom, the tiger. "Why did you hide them before?" Jen felt the blood rush into her head from the praise.

"It is not to hide them, but because of the cold weather." It was Jake who answered Malcom. "You see, we dragons are very sensitive to cold weather. It can be very dangerous to us, if we do not protect ourselves. When we are exposed to cold weather for too long, without warm clothes, then our body cools down and we get very tired."

The other kids huddled around Jack and their eyes glued on him. Jen did not mind him hogging the attention, because she still was a bit tired and it was exhausting to have people stare at her.

"Why don't you hide your wings then?" asked Eliot, the elk.

Jake laughed. "Like I said, she is not hiding them, but protecting them. And I live here for a long time already. I am used to the weather and therefore not as sensitive to the temperature than someone who is not used to it. And the other reason is, that I got the right clothes." He smiled.

"I also cover my wings outside, right? I just have clothes, that allow me to move them naturally and not press them against me like Jen had to do." He flapped with his wings, that were covered in a layer of the same woolen cloth than his pullover.

The children emitted a loud "Uh" and "Ah" when they understood and watched him flap his wings. They were fascinated from learning these facts and from the flapping of the wings.

"The reason you do not have to put extra clothes on in winter is, that you have fur." Explained Jake. "You noticed that in cold weather, your fur gets thicker and it is much warmer, right?" all the kids nodded, and Jen showed interest in the topic because this was new to her.

Sure, she had noticed that Frieda and the other kids in her hometown had become more fluffy during winter, and she had loved to cuddle with Frieda in Winter in her childhood and feel the warm cuddly fur, but she never connected this to the winter or a natural reaction of them to it.

Jen was happy that Jack hogged the attention right now. After a while, Jake and Sophie told the kids to start with the breakfast and even though they complied, the eyes were still glued on Jake who continued to explain the difference of the species. Why most of the avian species liked to take vacation in Winter and visit warmer countries or why bears liked to sleep in during the winter.

This all had to do with the instincts of their ancestors or, for dragons, the heritage of their bodies to be vulnerable to cold, but very durable against heat or fire.

The kids were cheerful and finished the breakfast with a lot of loud discussions and sharing their stories of how their families usually spent the winter.

"Come with me, I need to give you something." Jake whispered to Jen after the breakfast. "And I want to take a look at the wing as well." He added.

Jen felt a bit embarrassed, remembering the time of the day before, but her heart also beat much faster when she, again with the blanket around her shoulders, followed Jake to his house.

Inside, it was much warmer than in the other houses and Jen felt energy gushing through her body. Like her, Jake liked it very warm and had put up the heat in his house for that reason. Jen found the temperature quite right, but she knew that the other girls would not allow her to turn on the heat as well in their house.

"Lay on your belly." Requested Jake and he went to the wardrobe and fetched some lotion.

When Jen laid down on his bed, she took a deep breath and her heart started to race when his scent entered her nostrils, Jake started to massage her wing.

Under the constant massage of Jake and with the warm tickling of the lotion, that warmed her scales and seemed to suppress the pain, she felt no pain at all after he stopped ten minutes later.

"Try moving your wings." He asked and Jen carefully moved both of her wings. "Flap a bit." He demanded and she did as she was told. She did not feel any pain from that just yet.

"Okay, I think it is just a small strain and it will be completely healed over the next days. I will treat the wing every morning and evening for the next days to make sure it heals, okay?" Jen mumbled something into the cushion under her.

Jen yipped when she felt a soft slap on her hind, just above her tail base. "I think that is it for the treatment this morning. I got something else for you though."

Jen rose and looked to the ground shy. She had never had anyone other than her parents or her best friend Fieda touch her at the hind or giving her a clap. On the one hand she felt embarrassed, on the other hand she felt very close to Jake, like he was a big brother or so.

"I got you a few clothes that would help you to move more freely." He mentioned and went to a big bag to show her what he got.

Jen made big eyes when she saw the collection. He brought her a warm jacket with applications for her wings, just like the one he had. In addition, he got her pullovers with the same traits and tail covers that could be attached to pants, which were also in the mix, so that she would not have to wear skirts to hold her tail warm all the time.

The main attraction for Jen was however a set of warm pajamas that she observed intensely. She felt a bit shy and insecure about him getting her a pajama, because this had always been a kind of very private gear for her, just like underwear, but she overplayed it with observing it longer than the other pieces.

The pajama had attachable applications for the tail and the wings, that could be put on separated and then attached to the main body or beforehand and then carefully put on like this. The cloth was a soft and warm flannel and they were of a light pink color, just like the scales of Jen around her tail base.

She felt a bit embarrassed when she thought about the connection and that this meant that Jake most likely noticed the color of her scales there. She imagined Jake eying her bottom and seeing her scales there, but she fought down the blood that rushed into her head. Maybe he did not know, and it was just by chance. Many girls' clothes were pink after all.

"Thank you!" she said shy after her heart calmed down a bit and Jake put all the clothes back into the bag. "This is very kind of you."

Jen did not know how it happened or why, but she hugged Jake and placed a small kiss on his cheeks. When she realized what she did, she wanted to sink into the ground. She let go of the hug and looked to the ground and even Jake was very silent and did not say anything for a few minutes.

"Want to go back to your house and try them on?" Jake asked and Jen nodded, happy to get out of this uncomfortable atmosphere. She was happy, that Jake did not mention what happened with one word and just went on.

He brought her back to the girls' house, where the other girls already waited for her. After Jake left, they helped her to get into the new clothes and they cheered and giggled when Jen showed them the outfits.

"He got a good eye for fashion." Lisa mentioned and the others nodded. "And the pajama looks so cute." She added. "He even got it in the same color than mine." And she pointed at the pajama of her that lay folded on the end of her bed.

Jen was relieved that they did not compare the color to the scales around her belly and went on with this comparison and soon the chat of the girls turned to other topics.

This day, Jen had even more fun than before. They mostly explored the forest and even build a snowman. The new clothes fit very good, were warm and did not restrict her in any way while moving around. Every time she moved her wings under the protective layers and reminded her how much the crushed wings had spoiled a bit of the fun before, her heart took an extra beat and her eyes went to Jake and were glued on him for a few seconds.