Aria woke in the night, knowing that it was time. There was no rush in the process. Vyktor was by her side and as the contractions began, and when she started to cry out from the pain that racked her from the inside, taking her apart to bring new life, he started to hum something deep and powerful. Something that reverberated through her muscles and took away much of the pain.
Aria felt the pressure deep inside her, and then she felt herself begin to open in a strange and wonderful way. There was no more pain thanks to the dragon chanting, only the pressure that ebbed and flowed until finally she heard a cry. A pure sound that filled her with a joy so intense Aria felt tears flooding down her face.
“He’s here,” Vyktor said, his voice filled with pride. “My son.”
He held him up, the child they had coupled into existence, the being for which Aria had clung to life. She looked at Vyktor holding their son and felt an exhausted pride, and a sense of completion. This was what everything had been leading to. The crash. The capture. The cage. All of it had been in service of this moment, this spark of life that united realms in one flesh.
“This is the beginning of everything,” she murmured as Vyktor laid her child in her arms. “Isn’t it?”
She looked down at the squirming little thing, formed perfectly just like a human child, and felt within her a deep sense of destiny. He was a boy of two worlds, who might become a man capable of uniting them. For the moment however, he wascontent to snuggle against her warm skin and begin taking her milk.
“We still don’t have a name,” she said. “He doesn’t look like a Kenny, or a John, or any of the names in my family.”
“Vilka,” Vyktor said. “It means Commander of Many.”
Aria nodded as she looked down at the suckling babe. “Vilka,” she agreed. “The perfect name, for the perfect child.”
Vyktor smirked, sitting next to her to kiss her head and gaze adoringly on his little family. “He has your blood, pet, and mine. He may not be entirely perfect.”
“He will always be perfect to me,” Aria murmured.
“Just as it should be.”
EPILOGUE
“Mommy, can we go flying?”
“Mommy can’t fly,” Aria reminded Vilka. He was a bright boy, growing swiftly thanks to his father’s genes. Dragons grew and matured much more quickly than human offspring, and remained healthy and vital for much longer as adults. Aria was incredibly proud of Vilka. She had never contemplated motherhood back on Earth, but she would not have changed it for the world now. His dark hair tinged with red streaks marked him out as his father’s son. He had her eyes though, and her love for the sky.
Vilka frowned, looking so much like his father in that moment. “It’s not fair that you can’t,” he said simply.
“Well, it’s just…”
“You’re right, boy,” Vyktor interjected, striding through the door of their new clifftop home. They had moved there after Vilka’s birth. It was the perfect place to raise a dragonling, lots of safe space to fly and plenty of others to play with. Aria smiled at hermate as he came forward and wrapped his arms around her, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“Come, pet,” he said. “I have a surprise for you.”
He still called her pet. Though the initial meaning of the term had long since faded, Aria enjoyed the way it made her feel. Safe, protected, cherished.
Leaving Vilka to play at the house of a friend, Aria and Vyktor walked through the narrow winding passageways of the city to a great big warehouse carved deep into a crag at the top of the mountain. The land in front of it was flat and straight for several miles in a way that most of the dragon lands were not. It was almost as if it had been specially cut out for some purpose.
She gave Vyktor a curious look, but did not ask him what they were doing. She was sure that would be apparent soon enough. It usually was with Vyktor.
“I’ve had something made for you,” he said. “It’s something I know you miss. It won’t be the same as the way it was on Earth, but…”
He pushed open the great doors, several times taller than Aria, with no apparent effort. Peering into the darkness, Aria tried to make out what the surprise was. As the dragon sun hit gleaming struts and props, she let out a scream of pure excitement.
“Oh, my god!” she screamed at Vyktor. “It’s beautiful!”
Vyktor had fashioned her a plane! Not a plane like those she had flown on Earth, but an elegant mechanism designed after their dragon flight forms. The wings were large and folded, scaled and scooped just like a dragon’s wings would be. They gleamed emerald and gold, shining in the light of the bright sun. The bodyof the machine was a very light bone-hued scaffolding with a seat, pedals, and a control stick. It was one of the most beautiful things Aria had ever laid eyes on. Every part of it had been crafted not just for function, but for form. Vyktor had not merely made her a plane, he had made her a body with which to take to the air.
“I had our craftsman working on this from the day you arrived so that you could return to the skies,” Vyktor said, kissing her. “I know you have missed them. I am only sorry it took so long, but this is a complex machine.”
Aria kissed him quickly and returned to inspecting the plane, walking around every inch of it, touching every part of it. Unlike a plane, there were no engines, and she could not see any source of power.
“Is it a glider? Are you going to tow me?”
“No, you will not need me to fly this,” Vyktor said. “It will take you wherever you please.”
