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A dragon’s troth is this day pledged
To she who’ll see me fully fledged.
Through this dragon’s life, as dragon-dame
shall add your blood to my family’s fame.
They flew up and up, circling each other. Natasatch panted with the effort, but sailed higher and higher, till she was above even the beacon-mountain. AuRon circled her, worried and shouting advice.
“Will you be careful? If you’re not used to altitude, you’ll make yourself giddy.”
“Let’s touch the Sun, AuRon! She’s calling to us.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Dragons are so literal,” she said, rolling over and swooping under him.
They embraced, their necks and tails wound around each other, and their wings met. They began a long fall to the world below, joined. They fell for a minute or more before they broke the embrace, hearts pounding.
“That’s how it’s supposed to be,” Natasatch said, turning lazy circles. AuRon swooped around her, flicking her lovingly with wingtip and tail. “Among the clouds.”
AuRon’s body rippled with color, first red, then orange. He wandered through the spectrum and back again in delight. “Climb again, my mate,” he implored.
“The last one almost burst my heart, my lord. Let’s find a cool pond of glacier water. We’ll drink, and I’ll catch my breath. Then we’ll try to go higher.”
They flew over a glacier, dazzled by its whiteness in the rare sunshine. Using it, Starlight caught them unawares.
“AuRon, beneath you!” Natasatch shouted, catching a flash of scale.
AuRon rolled over, bending his spine until it felt as though it would break, and the silver dragon missed his strike. Jaws snapped shut where AuRon’s shoulder had been.
“What are you doing, Starlight? The fighting is over!” Natasatch screamed.
“You cows! You stupid, shortsighted cows.” Starlight growled, turning. He hung in the air, a trick few dragons could accomplish. His body was dwarfed, but he had a full-grown dragon’s wingspan. “By the egg that sheltered us, these humans were Dragonkind’s last chance. They thought they were training us, but I was using those human fools to clear the earth of the hominid threat! Now you’ve set us back generations! Generations!” He folded his wings and dived at Natasatch, and AuRon banked and shoved her out of the way, his wing met Starlight’s with a bruising rap.
“No one is going to use anyone, Starlight!” AuRon said.
“I remember you from the ship,” Starlight said. “I’d just lost my egg tooth. I saw you still had yours, so I remembered you. That elf let you go. This is some plot of theirs, isn’t it? To get dragons to fight for elves?”
“If the hominids want to destroy each other in wars, that’s their affair. I want the dragons out of it,” AuRon said.
“Whoever wins in their war will be the stronger for it,” Starlight said. “Then they’ll put an end to us.”
The dragons flew in concentric circles, Natasatch inside, AuRon around her, protecting her from another strike, and Starlight around the mated pair.
“We’ll see,” AuRon said. “Consider this, Starlight. Once the Wyrmmaster’s people did away with elves and dwarves, and probably the blighters as well, what would they need of us? The dragons under their control would be slaughtered like old warhorses for their flesh and hides.”
“I’d have moved long before that,” Starlight said.
“You’re too slow. Slower than I,” AuRon said, wondering if he had the strength left.
“Ha!”
AuRon flew at Starlight, mouth open and claws out. Starlight sideslipped away, but AuRon still got a mouthful of wing. He tore away the thin skin and banked as he climbed, making sure Starlight didn’t attack Natasatch.
Starlight screamed in fury and spat fire in AuRon’s wake. It flapped its oversize wings, climbing after AuRon. Starlight rose fast. AuRon summoned what reserves he had, rising up and up, but it seemed every time he looked behind, Starlight’s fangs were closer. Starlight was small, but it was strong and knew how to use its wings.
They climbed higher into the thin air. The old injury to his lung throbbed. AuRon tasted his own blood with each exhalation, but Starlight was just behind. AuRon looped, thinking his flexibility could allow him to turn over in a tighter circle than his pursuer.
