I should have mentioned that the Carrie Vaughn novel, "Voices of Dragons," probably does qualify as a companion-animal story, since at the end the girl and the dragon fly off together with the intention of jointly attempting to improve dragon-human relations elsewhere in the world, as they already have to some extent where they started out, in their universe's version of New Mexico. It's been a while since I read the book, so I'm not sure if it was explicitly stated that some sort of human/dragon peace talks had been scheduled after the heroine and her dragon friend proved that dragons and humans could work together in harmony via the dragon flying over the town with the girl--who happens to be the local sheriff's daughter--riding on his back, obviously voluntarily. However, both girl and dragon seem to be convinced that this dramatic display of dragon/human solidarity has made enough of an impression on their respective species to at least temporarily put a stop to the panicked humans' plans to send their most advanced new fighter planes to attack the dragons in retaliation for the other species' recent perceived violations of human airspace.
It may or may not be significant that in Vaughn's YA novel the dragon who befriends the heroine can not only speak human language, but has managed to teach himself English by consulting old human books found in his clan's archives. In the more boy-centric middle-grades "How to Train Your Dragon," on the other hand, the dragons can't talk. As the title of the original book and movie suggests, in "How to Train Your Dragon," the creatures in question seem to be perceived by even their biggest fan, the boy protagonist Hiccup, as more like Lassie-like really smart animals than intellectual equals, at least in the animated series spin-off currently airing on the Disney Channel.
Another possibility is Laurence Yep's middle-grades novel "City of Fire." This features both fully-sentient shapeshifting dragons who can take human form and a twelve-year-old heroine, Scirye, with a companion-animal pet dragon of a much smaller and apparently less intellectually--or at least linguistically--developed species. Scirye's mini-dragon can't talk either, but he usually makes his opinions on what's going on pretty clear, although he tends to be even more of a loose cannon during confrontations with the much more powerful magic-using villains than Scirye herself is. (Scirye is the daughter of a retired Chinese Amazon warrior type currently serving as her country's ambassador to the U.S. in early 20th century San Francisco. When the villains attack during the opening ceremonies of an exhibit of Chinese Amazon artifacts loaned to a San Francisco museum, Scirye's mother is seriously injured and Scirye's older sister, an officer in the local embassy's Amazon guard, is killed. This makes both Scirye and her pet dragon, who were there during the attack but escaped injury, obsessively determined to avenge their family's loss and get back the priceless artifact the villains stole.)
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It may or may not be significant that in Vaughn's YA novel the dragon who befriends the heroine can not only speak human language, but has managed to teach himself English by consulting old human books found in his clan's archives. In the more boy-centric middle-grades "How to Train Your Dragon," on the other hand, the dragons can't talk. As the title of the original book and movie suggests, in "How to Train Your Dragon," the creatures in question seem to be perceived by even their biggest fan, the boy protagonist Hiccup, as more like Lassie-like really smart animals than intellectual equals, at least in the animated series spin-off currently airing on the Disney Channel.
Another possibility is Laurence Yep's middle-grades novel "City of Fire." This features both fully-sentient shapeshifting dragons who can take human form and a twelve-year-old heroine, Scirye, with a companion-animal pet dragon of a much smaller and apparently less intellectually--or at least linguistically--developed species. Scirye's mini-dragon can't talk either, but he usually makes his opinions on what's going on pretty clear, although he tends to be even more of a loose cannon during confrontations with the much more powerful magic-using villains than Scirye herself is. (Scirye is the daughter of a retired Chinese Amazon warrior type currently serving as her country's ambassador to the U.S. in early 20th century San Francisco. When the villains attack during the opening ceremonies of an exhibit of Chinese Amazon artifacts loaned to a San Francisco museum, Scirye's mother is seriously injured and Scirye's older sister, an officer in the local embassy's Amazon guard, is killed. This makes both Scirye and her pet dragon, who were there during the attack but escaped injury, obsessively determined to avenge their family's loss and get back the priceless artifact the villains stole.)