I stare at him. The dragon who once treated every expression of affection as a tactical mistake is inviting me onto his back as naturally as if he'd been doing it all his life.
I cross the distance between us and place a hand against the golden scales of his shoulder. They're warm beneath my palm, warmer than I expected, and alive with a strength that seems to run all the way through him. He remains perfectly still while I climb, helping me without making a show of helping me. The old Vyrathion would have claimed I was inconveniencing him. This one simply waits until I'm settled between the ridges at the base of his neck.
The moment I wrap my arms around him, a deep sense of contentment rolls through our bond. Home. The realization hits me so suddenly that my eyes sting again.
His wings unfold with a whisper of scales and membrane. They stretch wider than any creature has a right to be, catching the last golden light of the setting sun. Then he crouches, gathers himself, and launches skyward.
The ground falls away beneath us. Wind rushes through my hair as the crater, the battlefield, the fleeing tribes and the endless jungle shrink below. Vyrathion climbs higher, powerful and effortless, carrying me into a sky painted orange and crimson.
For the first time since arriving on Xren, I stop wondering where I belong.
I'm already there.
29
- Morgan-
Flying on a dragon is obviously the most thrilling experience in the world, and much more so when it’s a dragon that loves you and that you love right back.
Of course Astrid told us what it’s like, but I never listened very closely. The full experience is very special.
The first surprise is how alive he feels beneath me. From the ground, dragons look enormous and almost unreal, like living legends covered in scales. Up here, with my arms wrapped around Vyrathion's neck and my legs pressed against the warm ridges of his back, every movement reminds me that he isn't some force of nature. He's a person. A very large, very dangerous person, but still a person.
I can feel the power in every wingbeat. The muscles beneath his scales bunch and flex with effortless strength. Each stroke of those vast wings sends us climbing higher into the evening sky. The motion should be violent for something so large, yet it isn't.Vyrathion moves with a grace that makes the impossible seem ordinary.
Wind tears through my hair and streams past my face. The jungle spreads beneath us in every direction, endless green stretching all the way to the horizon. Rivers that once seemed enormous now look like silver ribbons winding through the trees. Hills shrink into wrinkles in the landscape. The world keeps getting smaller while the sky somehow keeps getting larger.
Then Vyrathion banks and my stomach drops. I laugh before I can stop myself. The sound vanishes into the rushing air.
Warm amusement brushes against my thoughts.You are enjoying this.
"You're flying like a maniac."
I am flying very gently.
The lie is so outrageous that I start laughing again. Below us, clouds drift across the jungle like islands floating in a green sea. Vyrathion climbs above them and suddenly the world changes. The air becomes colder. The sky deepens into a rich blue overhead while the setting sun paints everything around us gold and crimson.
I suppose you want to see your tribe now.
“Just so they know I’m all right,” I tell him. “And to prepare them for the three new girls. And the hundreds of Plood that go along with them. Oh, and to show you off. I want all the cavemen to see you. And me. They all wanted to marry me. Now they can’t.”
Marriage,Vyrathion ponders.Praxigor is married.
“To Astrid, yes. They’re very happy, Astrid says.”
So there is precedent. That’s almost disappointing. I would have liked to be the first.
“The first what”? I ask, while even more butterflies take off in my stomach.
The first dragon to marry an Earth woman.
“Oh, are you getting married?” I ask innocently.
It’s the first time I experience Vyrathion flustered.But… I… you… now, you see… I thought…
I grin. He’s still a dragon, still living in a world where everything goes the way he decides and where he never has to ask anyone for anything. But this particular thing needs a question asked.
“What did you think?”
