Page 9 of Dragon Chosen
I think I need to go back into the pools. Fern held up her sooty, bloodied hands.I’m grubbier than I was before I got in.
You look like a dragon, I replied, following her out onto the plateau.
If only…
She stopped still, staring at the sky, as if that would conjure others of my own kind, when she shared her musings. Shesaw herself as a green dragon, flying through the sky, clouds wreathed around her head.
What would you do if you were a dragon?I asked.
Me?She turned around and did that teeth baring thing again. A smile, that’s what my memories told me. I tried the expression myself, but that seemed to just scare Fern. When my fangs were safely behind my muzzle, she answered.I’d fly home and terrorise every one of those idiots. Call me a beast, a pig? I’d listen to him squeal as I stomped over, ready to bite his head off.
We could do that.Suddenly I couldn’t want anything more.We could return to your family home. I could raze the place to the ground if you wish.Then everyone in the surrounding properties would question the wisdom of speaking ill of you.
Tempting. Her lips stretched wider.But no. I quite like my home and most of the people who live there are quite nice. My mother…
She was the real enemy, I felt that clearly. What the males had done hurt bright and hot, but would burn out soon enough. This… mother. She created ashes in Fern’s heart, where cheery flames should flicker.
I could eat her.Fern made a strange noise.I could. Humans taste disgusting, but I would do that…I knew dragons bonded with humans, but it was never anything I’d considered. Father made clear what my role was and that bonding with a human would raise them above all others, giving them undue importance.For you,I said finally.I would do that for you, Fern.
That’s very kind. She sank into the water with a sigh, then started scrubbing the remains of her meal away.Honestly, no one has ever offered to kill my mother for me.Her eyes met mine.I’ll never forget you, Auren.
Of course, you won’t.I sat up tall.I am a queen.Fern dropped under the water, then emerged a moment later, flicking water from her face.And you could be a queen with me.
What?
She blinked away the water, her smile gone.
You could be queen with me.I could almost hear my father’s voice inside my head, telling me I was being awfully hasty. Perhaps it was the inbuilt need to rebel that had me making this offer.We could…I stepped closer.We could be bondmates, Fern.
She clambered out of the water, her eyes wide as she stared up at me.
I will stop arrogant males from calling you terrible names and you could…I said.
Protect you from male dragons who just want to mate you?
Yes.That came out in a great rush.Yes, that.
Her hand shot out, and she held it in a way that suggested she expected a similar response from me. My memories didn’t tell me anything about what I was supposed to do, so I held a single claw out. Her tiny hand clasped it and she shook it, which made no sense at all, but this had her smiling again.
So what does this mean?She looked around us.Do we live here, eating stag and sleeping in a cave?
We could…My throat worked. It felt like one of the stag’s bones was stuck in my throat, but that wasn’t true. I’d swallowed down every morsel. No, it was the way forward that had me struggling.Or we could go to the royal keep. Male dragons and their riders get given plots of land by the human prime minister. Territory that belongs to them and them alone. We would order them to provide us with our own.
Somewhere warm?she asked.
Somewhere not too hot in summer, not too cool in winter, I replied.
A place by the sea?
I could almost see what she described, but that vision shifted quickly.
Or a lake. One large enough to swim in every day, I added.
We could build our own home, she said.Grow our own food. Create a garden!
I did not eat vegetables. They tasted like dirt the one time I’d tried them, but Fern seemed terribly pleased by the idea, so I agreed.
And surrounded by a forest, well stocked with deer and cattle, I said.
