Dragon Vòlkan

Chapite Uit (8)

Konsekans pou bèl jenn fi

(Consequences for the pretty maiden.)

After her trip, Violette soon took her bed ill; she thought perhaps it was the rich food after so long eating little. The dragon was concerned and looked in on her often, soon the spider chef and his frog buddy Isaiah were bringing her marzipan and pastries. But after a while the elf retreated deeper into the caves where the dragon could not pry. She only emerged to bathe; she noticed the cold pool was warmer each time. Wakhangli thought perhaps she had hoard-itis and supposed that she was spending her time with her new cosmetics, creams, delicacies and soft clothing. He did not understand her much.

One day he saw her bathing and invited himself with a huge cannonball that sent her end over end in the water.

“What is the matter with you,” she sputtered, “are you trying to drown me?”

“Mermaids can’t drown,” he said in a matter-of-fact way then added, “why do you avoid me?”

“I’m not avoiding you, I’m just busy. Besides you have plenty of playmates, I’m just the newest one…”

“... Also the shiniest.” he attempted to finish her thought. “A dragon is entitled to as many consorts as he likes, but I really do prefer one at a time with any other in my entourage taking other posts - cooks, merchants and alchemists.”

“When were you planning to tell me all that?” she was shouting but did not realize she was.

“Tell you? I showed you exactly where to go to meet them and told them to receive you well. I am informed that they did. Is it not so?”

“All but Tzapp, he was rude.” she answered.

“I get the distinct impression he does not trust you.” the dragon said, nodding his head.

“That seems unfair,” she said bitterly and almost in tears, “is it because I’m an elf?”

“I’m not sure about his feelings concerning elves, but possibly.” His eyes locked on hers now, “Although, he mentioned you giving gold and rubies to the illusionist.”

“The illusionist? He’s lying!!”

“My son doesn’t lie to me, it’s one of the house rules for all of my family and employees. A single lie destroys trust permanently. We may lie in business dealings, or in combat, but always to strangers, never to each other.” His gaze searched her, making her uncomfortable.

“You may not have told a lie, but you certainly deceived me into thinking you were lonely on top of this mountain and wanted me for company.”

“Is that so? It’s because of that you give my gold and rubies to a charlatan who can pass herself off as a sun elf for ten minutes? It was folly enough that you gave my gold to beggars. Did you get anything in exchange, or just her story and the beggars’ toothless smiles? It’s hard to imagine how that is a good return on investment.”

“You empowered me to collect a starter hoard. If I collect smiles and stories, what is that to you? An Elvin hoard is a lot different from a dragon hoard! Mine is made mostly of memories and a few things that feel good. I don’t really understand collecting yellow metal!”

“Perhaps; little one, but what of the flowers? Those were not yours to give.”

Her mouth dropped open. She had not expected that this had been detected, she did not want to lie about it, he would not believe her at this point, it would only make things worse. “I… I … uh…”

“You stole from a dragon!” He boomed. “Do you not know, that is the death penalty with no possibility of reprieve?” He sighed. “It pains me to do this and I suppose you got the wrong idea when I allowed some of the assassins to live. A good deed never goes unpunished, I suppose.”

Violette could no longer fight with the dragon; she had given up her hopes and dreams for him. She had most of the time always let him have his way. The dragon would never love anything more than his gold or money in the towns. She had known this since her trip to the dragon maidens. He had so many human life partners. She felt like walking treasure instead of a lover.

She dipped her head low, her deep violet orbs filled with a franticness. She spoke in her Elvish Tongue now. “Please my Sun, please do not do such a thing. The others can see your kindness and it will please them. Almost no one in town can buy your flowers.” Smoke began to rise from his nose and she could see pools of electricity in the depths of his eyes. His wings spread and he let out a thundering roar that knocked her from her floating place in the water. Her silver hair had become frizzy, he nearly fried her in his outrage. He splashed her again and then got out of the water. She knew diving would be no help, his electricity would sizzle her in a moment above or below the water.

“I should have known that this is why you have forced yourself away from me FOR DAYS.” He seethed as she trembled.

Shaking her head, she shook her head no. “NO, my dear one no!“ He nearly did not catch it. It was in Elvish though he knew ‘mon’ and ‘no’ very well’ so “No, mon cher” had been easy to place; he growled deeply.

She came nearer to place herself in the position he had once joked about being eaten, with her hands at her sides, a pitiful look on her face. “Eat me if you must but please go to the spider webbed nests in my things. My happy things you had me collect away, each little spot has fluffy colorful web around it.” She switched suddenly to dragon speech, “You will know what they are … who they are when you smell them. You must keep them warm and bleed on them often, or they will dry up.” She rolled her long flowing silver hair up, to show him little markings by her chest. The dragon recoiled in disbelief.

“No, I do not believe any eggs are near you.” He knew instantly what would happen if there was a half dragon born to a world that shunned them. More importantly what would happen among the other blue dragons that worshiped the one dragon goddess - Tiamat. Anything but a beautiful dragon was scorned and sacrificed.

“Then what do you wait for, mighty dragon? Shall I sprinkle myself with salt and pepper?”

“You will show me these eggs. I do not know what this means, but if it is true we must repair our rift somehow. You have been very foolish and I am angry with you.” He stalked off and took to the air, trying to get some perspective on the situation. He had much to think about.

Chapite Nef (9)

pi gwo trezò dragon an

(The greatest treasure of the Dragon)

Long ago, the dragon had taken to the caves as his home, but now he preferred the openness, saving the caves and tunnels to store his most priceless things that could not afford to be weathered away by time and exposure. He could not follow her into the tunnels, but put his head down them and then met her at the next opening. He had been happy to give them to the elf months ago but now was starting to wonder if it had been the right choice.

Yet seeing them now he knew he had made the right choice: she had polished every suit of armor, golden statue, glittering emerald and ruby. The cave also smelled differently; it was as if a fresh lavender field was growing within its walls; he knew she loved lavender, only he was not sure how she had gotten it to smell so delightful! It was so much like her. Inside his emotions were at war with one another he should have been angry as he had displayed outside for her, yet inside all he could think of was the tender things about her that made him happy.

The caves smelt differently as they descended deeper. The dragon noticed she had added enchanted phosphorescent toadstools and lily flowers All along the cave walls. It has been growing warmer as spring was changing to summer. So, she had also enchanted a cool breeze along the walls so that her home did not overheat.

It was deep inside her things next to her bed that fluffy colorful cobwebs hid something away near her bed. The sweet scent of golden elvish blood coated the air so strongly here the dragon recoiled. He began to pry at the webbing with the gentle folds of his wings by the clawed tips.

Soon the greatest treasure of his long-life time glittered away at him. He sniffed them each: they were clear shelled dragon eggs. He could see the growing embryos inside. They each shined like stars brighter than their mother. One was silver and gold from what he could see. Little wings shrouded most of the body away from him. The other two he could see very well. They had all the features of Violette. One was ultramarine, just like him with golden wings flapping around to stretch. The last was green with bits of violet. If he had to predict, he expected they had Violette’s eyes. He thought for a moment on how none of his other children had ever been a brighter blue than he, he had always supposed it was because of the muddied blood due to the polymorph potions. This was not a close imitation, however altogether something else.

They had wings and were covered in scales. Yet, they had been the most beautiful of his children. They each looked like ancient dragon gods. The dragon knew this was different; he had not deeply loved any of the other dragon maidens more than his treasure. She had been the only one of them all to challenge him, to try to make him change. Only she had shown him how warm in his chest mercy could make him feel. He pondered this out loud for her.

“The babies have made you give away so much; you are full of an instinct to protect them and others, I see now why a mother and child so easily fooled you, but it does not explain the flowers.” he muttered.

She buried her face in her hands sobbing a little. “There was a half elf. She is sick, perhaps my kindness and compassion is taken advantage of by others like the sorceress who pretended to be the mother. I was given things in return for all I gave away.” He nearly went to her yet she was curled up now clearly very upset. “You gained love and trust from the town and I gained dragon speech, I have potions brewing to possibly make me a dragon … I learned about this island and where the people come from.”

With a soft sigh her whole body shook. The eggs could hear so now had begun to glow hot red as upset as she was. He considered all she had said and shifted around. “Please, I cannot go home now. I am tainted, no longer pure as I was. I have made a blue dragon my mate; I have told you many times that the clerics of my world are not allowed to mate if they want the future that I’ve wished for. I have given up everything and have nowhere to go kill me swiftly but let them live.”

“I cherish you too much to truly kill you but I am deeply wounded. You did not let me soothe you when you had the eggs. I was very generous but you went beyond it and transgressed.”

The elf’s head dipped in shame as her silver hair shrouded her like a blanket. “You cherish my value, not me.”

“It is not true!” His voice thundered as perpetual moisture dripped from the walls. His voice shook like she had never heard before. He was full of passion and rage but it wasn’t the kind of rage he had had earlier; it was the kind of rage that comes from being deeply wounded out of mistrust.

“No that is not true, you are like none of the others. No one ever challenged me or cared about me enough to make me think of others. No one has taught me lessons of warmth in my body that you give me. No one since I was a hatchling could get me to cry. Yet for you I have cried twice the first time was when you plunged into the water and I thought I had lost you forever but the second time was when you locked yourself away here for weeks and had these eggs without me and I thought perhaps maybe you no longer loved me and only wanted to give my treasure away.”

Her violet orbs met him; it was like the world around them stopped. It was overwhelming when she spoke. It was in Elvish but he understood most of it. He had been studying it since she had come to be with him and was getting quite good. (Other than the occasional mixed-up words being based on gender every now and again.)

“Boundless treasure means nothing to me; gold coins have no value. Yes, I like all of the luxurious things that make my life smell good and are pretty but I can’t take any of those things with me when I die after a few hundred years what I can take with me is the actions that I took to help those around me and save lives, I promise I will not take your treasure without asking you again and we will consult together on whether it is a sorceress or someone who truly needs help… please… forgive me, my Sun.”

Soon the dragon was wrapping his tail around her with his snake-like tongue flicking back and forth. It took a long time of kissing and nuzzles from the dragon to get her to calm herself.

Her smell of lavender filled the air and for a while it was calm for now the eggs had gone back to their usual bright glow instead of the red tint. They too seemed to be soothed by the agreement. Violette had never understood love or had felt it deeply before now. She cleared a space for him, and he wrapped himself around her as she wrapped around and cradled the eggs. They slept soundly.