The Princess's Dragon

by JManess

  Sondra expected the inside of the cave to reek of the foul-smelling steam that spewed from the ground vents outside. Instead it smelled like hot metal, wood smoke, and an unidentifiable but surprisingly delicious scent that caused a curly, pleasurable feeling to unfurl in her lower regions. She noticed that her own body changed as she proceeded cautiously into the cave, which opened into a series of tunnels. The deeper she went, the heavier the air grew until it seemed to possess a presence, an intelligence that observed her every move.

  Instead of fear, she felt … anticipation. Her wings twitched and her scales stood out a bit from her body. She realized she now emitted some sort of oil from the skin beneath her scales. “Eww!” She shook herself and focused, consciously ordering her scales to smooth back down—and was surprised when it worked.

  Not nearly as surprised though as when she turned a corner and found her passage blocked by the biggest, most terrifying, angriest, red-eyed dragon she had ever seen. Okay, the only dragon she’d ever seen, but still really scary.

  In her head she knew she screamed, but for some reason she only released a puff of smoke that floated in the black dragon’s face and swept over him like a caress. What was wrong with her anyway? She should be running, screaming, flying, or even crawling away by the gods. Instead she practically purred as she shifted her body so that her head and neck curved vulnerably beneath his immense scowling jaws. He easily topped her own considerable size by several

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  cart lengths and he didn’t look at all happy to see her. She could tell by his physical body language and the strange black fog that overlay his form.

  “Are you seeking death, foolish fledgling?” Sondra didn’t hear him speak, she felt his voice in her mind, and it resonated, sounding incredibly deep and darkly exciting. She couldn’t understand why she remained so mesmerized by the brute, but her body refused to obey her command to flee in terror. Instead she attempted to answer him back by thinking her words and experienced pleased surprise when it worked.

  “Um, I’m … ah … ah … I’m lost. Yes, that’s it, lost.” The black dragon glanced down at her, and she could almost see his raised brow ridge. The skepticism rolled off of him.

  “Do you think me dull-witted, female? Can you not feel my mark? You and the rest of your ilk are not welcome here.” The dragon’s mental voice lashed out at Sondra and she flinched, finally rediscovering that useful fleeing kind of fear.

  “I … I … I don’t know what you are talking ab—”

  “Silence! I will not hear lies. Those meddling clutchmates you call kin have been sending young females just like you my way for centrotations. I will not help you breed my own destruction, I will not send you back heavy with eggs so that you can raise my chicks to return and defeat me. This is my territory and you are trespassing. I thought I sent a clear message the last time. I will have to kill you this time to make them understand!” The enormous dragon seemed to grow even larger; his teeth, three times the length of her own, gleamed wickedly in the darkness as he sucked in a gust of air. His chest expanded and Sondra sensed that now might be a good time to run. She scrambled away, her claws scrabbling for purchase and gouging deep grooves in the stone floor as she rounded the corner. A blast of flames melted the rock just behind her, cooling into black glass in their wake, and she felt her wing tear as she slammed into the walls of the rough-hewn tunnel.

  So, she flirted with the dragon, and it made him angry. She’d heard that some men found a flirtatious woman forward, which is one reason her mother and her etiquette teacher always stressed a more reserved approach to expressing interest. But honestly, killing her seemed like a bit much for such an offense. This dragon suffered major anger problems. Another blast of flames just missed her flank and melted more stone. She couldn’t hear the huge dragon pursuing her and only knew he followed because of the flames skimming her 50

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  every few steps. How could something so ponderously huge move so quietly?

  Of course, she made enough noise to wake Morbidon’s children.

  Her panicked thoughts abruptly halted when she burst through the cave entrance and discovered that she stood on…nothing. She realized this just as she slammed into the jagged rocks below the sheer cliff, cracking her hard, horned skull on a huge chunk of stone. Her last sight before she lost consciousness was the shadow of massive wings and long, shimmering claws descending over her.

  For Tolmac, life was good. He enjoyed his hibernation, all five hundred rotas of sleeping. He toyed with the thought of migrating yet again, but after so many millennia he grew tired of changing worlds, fighting new enemies, and claiming new territory. In over four migrations, he’d never found a better territory on a better world. He faced few challenges now that the “Circle,” as they called themselves, had finally ceased their endless plots to destroy him.

  The dragons native to this world followed the old females, with their atrophied wings and massive bodies too huge to leave their own lairs. They hated him because from the start he had refused to obey them, to mate with their females and mingle his powerful blood with theirs in hopes of strengthening their own kind. After centrotations of defeat they’d finally given up, or so he believed until he sensed the intrusion in his territory.

  His awareness covered the entire mountain like a blanket, noting and dismissing the many life forms that traveled over, around, or through his lair.

  None threatened him or disturbed him, so he left them alone, content to simply sleep and dream—until the feeling of yet another female dragon entering his territory goaded him awake. The last female sent by the Circle returned to them eggless and relatively untouched, though her persistence forced him to physically eject her from his lair.

  That had been before this latest hibernation. Resisting her proved more difficult than the previous times. He had not mated since his last migration, and he didn’t know if he could resist another female’s concentrated seduction. That explained why he felt so enraged when he sensed another female’s presence and the answering desire that licked through his body like the fire element he commanded. He experienced even more fury when he first saw the new female.

  She seemed so tiny she couldn’t be much older than a fledgling, and though she was more beautiful than any of the other females they’d sent, with her pearly

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  scales, gold-tipped horns and claws, and sinuously muscular body, he found it hard to believe those dried-up old lizards expected that he would touch such a young female. His size alone would probably kill her.

  She flirted openly with him, responding to his scent in a typical fashion even as he struggled to resist the very feminine scent her own lithe body instinctively released, a signal that she readied for mating. Perhaps he acted a little crueler to her because of anger, interrupted sleep, and frustrated desire. She didn’t behave like the others; he sensed no malicious cunning in her demeanor, and when she opened her mind to communicate with him he would swear she’d never done so before. Impossible of course, as dragons communicated telepathically from the moment they hatched. He couldn’t help feeling guilty and even a little bit regretful when he sent her careening fearfully from him, carefully timing his flames to just miss her retreating form. He tried not to admire the sweep of her slender tail as she raced away. He fully expected her to race from the cave and take flight, fleeing for her life. He never imagined the foolish young female would drop like a stone and knock herself out on the rock face of the mountain.

  Sighing internally and cursing all females, especially meddlesome old dragons, he alighted next to her crumpled form and folded his wings. He studied her and again marveled at how small and delicate she appeared, despite the muscle that bunched beneath her scales. He noticed more clearly in the light of the day the glorious colors of her aura, the magic of her spirit. Like her scales, her aura glittered with violets and blues,
a hint of aqua green, and the sparkle of gold. He spotted no sign of the grayish taint of the controlling malice of the Circle anywhere in her aura. In fact, he observed no sign of the deep black of death in her aura either. Unlike himself, this female had never killed another dragon for any reason. Instead, she glowed with life, vitality, and innocence, and they let her come to him. They must really hate her.

  She didn’t stir, and he moved closer to her head, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the sleek shape of her face, the flared nostrils, and the smooth slender horns that bordered those nostrils and swept up her head to end in sharp little points. Gently, he lifted her head and cradled it as he sent his awareness probing around her consciousness. He didn’t probe far, unwilling to open a mental link even for a moment. He did not want to or need to form a bond with her. She shifted in his grasp and he saw her body shudder as a thought pressed against his awareness.

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  “Oh, Liliana, I have the worst headache. Please send someone to tell Mother I cannot possibly play the harp for her soirée tonight.” Tolmac wondered what sort of behavior those old, overgrown bats got up to in their linked lairs. Soirées? Harps? Those were human things. The native dragons of this land behaved strangely indeed. Maybe he should migrate again after all. Then he would be free to mate without worrying that he would someday face one of his own sons in battle. He couldn’t mate with this tiny female though. She appeared far too young and innocent. He didn’t want to share his aura with her even for the short time it would take to impregnate her. He didn’t want to dim her spirit with the darkness in his own. Besides, he felt really old and disillusioned when he studied the fresh purity of her aura, something he’d never experienced before.

  Another thought touched his mind as the female came around, her draconic healing erasing any remaining damage from the fall.

  “I had the most horrible dream, a black monster tried to kill me.” Tolmac sighed, setting her gently back against the rock and stepping back, tucking in his wings and waiting. She pulled herself up and raised her claw to touch her head, then stopped and looked at it strangely. He vaguely heard a mental “Oh, damn, I forgot!”

  She gazed around, taking in her surroundings: jagged rocks, mountain, mountain, crumbly rock, cliff face, black dragon, mount—. Her gaze snapped back to him and she jerked back, stumbling over the jagged rocks and slipping and sliding down the mountainside. He shook his head, wondering again why she didn’t take to the sky.

  “Pl—please don’t kill me, I didn’t mean to trespass. I really did get lost, sort of … I don’t know the other dragons you mentioned, I swear it!” She continued her losing battle to remain upright in the small avalanche of pebbles rolling beneath her claws.

  “Why didn’t you fly, you young fool?”

  “I can’t … I mean, I don’t know how.”

  “That’s impossible; don’t the females of your precious Circle share the responsibility for raising and teaching the clutch?”

  “I don’t know who you are talking about. No one taught me how to be a dragon.” The female appeared truly distressed, the emotion radiating across their telepathic communication.

  “So you’re telling me you’re an orphaned egg, no one taught you anything.

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  You cannot fly but you still managed to survive to adulthood and succeeded in traveling undetected through human-infested lands to my mountain? I find that difficult to believe.”

  “Yes! Yes, that is exactly what happened. I know it’s hard to believe, but I mean you no harm.”

  Tolmac snorted. “Harm? You? Harm me?”

  “O—kay; I meant that I didn’t know you were even here, and I wasn’t planning anything against you.”

  Tolmac found himself believing her, against his will. She just didn’t hold any malicious prevarication in her aura. He didn’t think she would even be capable of such a thing. Then he started thinking stupid thoughts and cursed himself for what he said next.

  “I suppose you want me to teach you what you need to know to survive?”

  “No!” The female mentally shouted and then, embarrassed, “I … I wouldn’t want to impose, I’ll just leave you alone.” She turned to head back down the mountainside. Tolmac sighed again, spewing smoke and a few sparks.

  “Stop! You can’t go back that way. Humans live that way. Most of them will run from you but a few might attack. If you kill one the others will gather together and come at you en masse. Then you have to kill more and it never ends. They breed so prolifically, and despite their short lifespan they have very long memories; you will never be free of them. And of course there is a very irritating wizard down there. I will not allow you to enter the valley and cause problems for me. I have enjoyed centrotations of peace and quiet and I prefer to enjoy centrotations more.” Once I train you and get you out of my territory, he privately thought.

  “You know the wizard!” The female grew electric with excitement; in fact, sparks jumped between her wings.

  Wonderful, she’s a storm dragon, Tolmac thought to himself. Tolmac suffered static problems for months after his last encounter with the small but very rare and dangerous storm dragons. He hadn’t spotted one on this world until this delectable female invaded his territory.

  “You don’t want to know the human wizard, little one. He is a pest and unlike the other humans might actually pose a minor threat to you.”

  “Can you take me to him?” The sparks grew into full-blown skyfire zipping over her body.

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  “No. Now accept my offer to train you, or leave my territory over the mountain, not through the valley.”

  The female seemed to think about it. The electricity died out, and she grew calm again. Finally she turned to him. “Very well, I don’t want to cause problems for the—for you. I will accept your offer and I thank you for it.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. You have a great deal to learn and I am not patient.” He glowered at her for a moment, and then turned away. “We will meet back here after I have hunted. You should hunt as well.”

  “Hunt?” She looked at him, panic in her eyes even as her stomach growled audibly.

  “Ohh, noo. How have you managed to feed yourself?”

  “Um—I don’t seem to need to eat very often, I guess.” She bowed her head, her claws digging grooves into the rocky dirt.

  “Very well, it seems that your lessons begin now. Let’s go.” Tolmac didn’t bother to take wing, knowing the female wouldn’t follow. Instead, he did something he hadn’t done since he was a flightless chick and prepared to hunt on the ground. He couldn’t believe how badly this cycle was going. He’d just saddled himself with a young, helpless female. How could he possibly be so unlucky?

  Sondra had concerns of her own, beginning with finding a way to convince the black dragon to divulge the location of the wizard and ending with the problem of concealing her true identity from a monster that spoke casually of killing humans and had just offered to help her learn to be a dragon.

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  CHAPTER 7

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  Sondra learned many important lessons in the cycles that followed her encounter with Tolmac. Most importantly, she learned to guard her mind well because the telepathic communication used by the dragons allowed them to detect stray thoughts, images, and memories that the other dragon failed to conceal. Fortunately for Sondra, she’d spent her entire life hiding behind a mask, so covering her deepest thoughts and secrets proved easier than she had feared. She couldn’t determine how Tolmac might react if he sensed the truth, that she was really a princess in the guise of a dragon. She didn’t imagine such an absurd idea even occurred to him, and she certainly didn’t plan to be the one putting the thought into his head.

  The first few cycles Tolmac spent teaching her the fine art of hunting.

  Sondra didn’t find the experience pleasan
t in the beginning. Never in her life had she needed to hunt her own food, nor did she enjoy terrorizing a small animal simply for the sport of it, so she didn’t even join the many hunts that nobles at court and in their country estate often engaged in. However, hunting to assuage the unending hunger that gnawed at her gut proved a different matter entirely. Apparently, dragons possessed a voracious appetite during the times they remained awake. Sondra discovered early on that dragons spent a great deal of time hibernating. Most likely they did so to avoid consuming every living creature in the world.

  To Sondra’s relief, humans didn’t find their way onto Tolmac’s menu. It seemed that, despite popular belief, dragons did not prefer nor even particularly like eating humans, virgins included. When questioned about eating humans because Sondra just had to know, Tolmac confessed that he’d eaten one or two 55

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  when he was young and inexperienced. He found them completely unpalatable and vowed never to eat one again.

  Instead, they hunted the range beasts that Sondra recalled Sir Pilphragm referring to as equinos. The creatures appeared similar to the domestic horse save for the set of lethal horns that extended up and back from their heads.

  They ran on cloven hoof and boasted a long, thin tail that ended in a puff of soft hair. Sondra found them absolutely beautiful and she hated to kill such magnificent creatures, but Tolmac insisted impatiently that she catch one and eat it. When Sondra did so, she found that they tasted as lovely as they looked.