The Journey To A Marriage

Tara'li

'So, king Trashkanir. I've made a decision regarding your peace offering and the condition.'

The council, my squad and all five of the dragons seem to be breathless for a moment. King Trashkanir steps towards me. 'May I inquire what the decision is, queen Tara'li?'

I nod. 'I will accept your claw according to dragon tradition.'

The dragon king seems pleased. 'In our marriage we will be sealing the deal. If you wish you can come with us...'

He is interrupted by one of the dragons in his following who jumps forward. 'This is blasphemous. She isn't even a full dragon! You cannot marry that... Elf the traditional way!'

Before anyone can respond I have my sword drawn and my shield raised in a defensive stance, the flickering light of the chandeliers illuminating the carved dragon on my blade. 'That is my condition. Take it or leave it. Attack me and you will find out why Rashter had to recover for several years after he met me in combat.'

The yellow dragon charges me, spewing a fire breath at me. I hold up the shield initially and then roll aside, lashing out with my sword. The dragon glides to a halt and looks at the cut in his right front leg with surprise. Then he growls at me and charges again. This time I slide underneath him lashing at his right rear leg. This time the dragon starts limping from the cut. Now I spread my wings and hold my blade to the side. 'Give up now, or you'll die. I killed larger than you.'

The yellow dragon looks at his right hind leg and growls once more. Enough said. As he closes the distance I put my sword away and grab my spear. Taking two short steps I then jump into the air hard, spreading my wings and throwing the spear at the yellow dragon. It goes straight through his scales into his shoulder. He roars in pain and anger and tries to follow me into the air, lashing out at me. As he stands on his hind legs I see my chance and make the tightest turn possible and draw my sword once more, diving in with it held in front of me. As it sinks into the yellow dragons chest the force of our collision sends him backwards, collapsing on the ground with a roar. I pull my sword from him and collect my spear. 'Heh. Challenging me and then not even giving me a challenge. Pathetic.'

The area around me is silent as everyone realized what happened. Then the king speaks, somewhat startled. 'I will accept your terms, queen Tara'li....'

One of the other dragons speaks now. 'He got killed in ceremonial combat. This was on him. Your fire is proven, queen Tara'li.'

King Trashkanir nods once. 'If you wish to have your... guards with you, they can come as well. On the condition that they won't share the location of our race to anyone.'

I turn my head to them. 'They are my squad. Yes, I'll want them to come with me. I know I can trust them.'

They all climb on their dragons. As Tresh'ta climbs on Rashter and leans down to help me up I shake my head. One of the remaining dragons the king brought with him steps forward. 'How do you intend to come with us, if not on your dragons back?'

I laugh. 'Your king may already know. Take to the skies and you will know soon enough how.'

As the king jumps in the air with a mighty jump followed by the three, Rashter leads my squad to follow them. Then I look around and speak to the council. 'This will get us the help of the dragons to. If, according to dragon tradition, either of us doesn't love the other, the marriage is cancelled. We will see if his intentions are pure soon enough.'

Then I jump and flap my wings hard, following the rest into the air. I see the king and his three remaining dragons are circling around, again in the X formation but missing one at the right rear. With some effort I fly up to their altitude and get into the remaining empty position. I find it is at least somewhat exhaustive to fly this hard with the snowstorm still ongoing but once I get in the position I feel the strain being at least somewhat decreased. 'I'm ready. Please lead the way.'

The king makes a left turn and starts flying ahead, seemingly gliding mostly. To remain on the same altitude I do have to work quite hard and it seems that for this flying my wings are to small. The one next to me, a bright orange dragon, does notice halfway through the day how much trouble I have with the flying. 'Ehm, king Trashkanir?'

He turns his head towards the orange dragon and grumbles. 'What?!"

The orange dragon motions to me. 'She seems to struggle, my lord. She is fighting the currents, not flowing with them. It seems she never fully learned the flow of the air.'

The king turns his head to me and sees me flapping my wings hard to keep my altitude, gritting my teeth in the process. Then he glides towards the nearest open spot.

For a moment I think the king is angry as he walks over. My wing muscles hurt quite a bit as I fold my wings. Then he pushes my head up. 'You are obviously self trained in flying. You are fighting the air and its flows, my future golden queen. Don't fight it. Let it help you come where you have to go. You flap your wings way to much...'

I look at the sky. 'How do you mean, don't fight the air and its flows? I just feel headwinds I have to fly against...'

The king shakes his head. 'You don't see them, but you feel them. Let me help you learn to fly. To truly fly.'

He points to the dragon that flew at the right front of the dragon and then to the back. Then he motions to me. 'Fly in front of me. I'll guide you through your first true flight.'

As I get into the position he jumps into the air. I jump after him and flap my wings hard to gain altitude. He shakes his head. 'Lean into the head wind and let it blow against your wings. Angle back a bit to gain altitude.'

As I do so I feel I'm being blown back but I also slowly gain height. When I reach his height he nods approvingly. 'Good. Now for the real trick: using the thermals and wind to go forward. With a tailwind it is easy, you let it blow you forward and you glide from thermal to thermal. But here... let it gain you height and wait for the wind to die down.'

I keep my wings angled up to gain height, suppressing the urge to flap them. Then I feel the headwind die down a bit. Trashkanir sees I notice it. 'Now angle down to glide forward. When you hit another headwind you repeat it. Come, you lead and decide the tempo, just follow the directions of the dragon to your left.'

I keep looking to my left to see if the dragon changes direction but otherwise keep repeating the pattern that Trashkanir told me. I notice now that the dragon to my left is using its tail to make small course corrections where I have to lean into my turns all the time. As I lean into my next correction I feel the wind die down again and glide forward. As I'm about to angle up again into the headwind I notice king Trashkanir is continuing the glide and I follow him, somewhat glad I can rest my wings. On the ground he looks around for a moment and then turns to the remaining three dragons. 'We will stay here for the night. Tomorrow at dawn we will fly on.'

As he says that I start walking into the shrub lands we landed next to and gather some dead branches. When I return all three of the dragons that came with the king start joking about me using flint and steel to try and light the fire instead of a fire breath and how pathetic I am. As I put down the flint and steel and lay my hand on my sword king Trashkanir spits a flame on the pile of firewood. 'Ignore them. Me taking you as my bride is at least slightly unconventional. We dragons have been... isolated from the world to say the least. To them, the younglings who never saw the outside world, a lack of fire breath is weird.'

I put away the flint and steel and then grab my sword and my whetstone. Then I stroke the whetstone over the edge in still slightly uneven strokes. 'Maybe to them it is normal, but the only dragon I've seen spit fire so far is Rashter. I don't know how I remember it, but I've survived Rashter's dragon fire. The dragon forges of the Guard are stone cold because of the lack of dragon fire.'

Trashkanir looks into the fire. 'Rashter told me. He told me your story. How you faced him alone with nothing but your stick shooting stick. How you showed bravery beyond your small frame back then, just as you showed it today. It is what I fell in love with. To me you seem like a dream: an Elf you can't suppress. You dare stand up for what you are.'

I check the edge of my blade before putting it back. Then I grab mom's blade and start stroking it with the whetstone. 'I changed a lot since then. Between that encounter I was taught magic by Celeste of the council, learned the first steps into becoming a Dragon Guard, confronted Rashter, bound with him... and then a lot more that turned me from a human girl into an Elven queen with a Glider. By the way... my Glider does like you.'

Trashkanir laughs softly. As he becomes serious again he motions to the sword on my left hip. 'That sword, with which you have slain the yellow dragon, can I see it once more?'

I draw it and hold it out. Trashkanir looks at the carved dragon on the blade. 'I know Elves like to theme their armor and weapons to their more special people, but why a dragon with you?'

I look into the fire. 'When the previous queen adopted me, I was already a Wing Leader. The Wing Leader of her then only daughter. Back then people already knew of my fierce nature and my stand against Rashter. She, queen Reshilde, ordered this armor to be made for me, with sword, bow and spear. The armor smith came up with the dragon theme, which became my shield. Rashter is my royal seal. Back in the Elven realm even my throne is themed after a dragon. After Rashter. I was titled the Dragon Princess before queen Reshilde got killed by Tresh'ta, my real mother. Now I'm the Dragon Queen I guess.'

Trashkanir laughs softly. 'Not yet. We aren't married yet.'

During the night I sleep under the wing of Trashkanir against his body. With the snow around us the warmth of his body is more than welcome. Sleeping against his body I feel at peace. It is odd that I trust him as much as Rashter already despite knowing him for such a short while. In the morning he softly wakes me up. 'My future queen, it is time to continue.'

With some effort I get up, discovering the sun is about to rise. 'Its still early...'

He nods. 'The early dawn is when the world is at its most beautiful. That is why it is called the morning glory. Come, we need to get going. Soon we will be at my home. The home of the dragons.'

I feel my stomach rumble and walk over to the encampment of my squad, grabbing a bite to eat from Rashter's saddlebags before walking back to Trashkanir. There I quickly eat. Trashkanir seems disapproving about me eating. 'Why do you eat already while you ate last night and yesterday morning as well?'

I stretch one wing out, which does feel a bit sore, and point at it. 'Since I got a Glider I discovered I need to eat a lot more. Yes I can fly myself but it seems to have a bad effect on how quickly I need to eat again. It is something I learned to live with. That is one reason the saddlebags Rashter is carrying are so full. It mostly is food.'

As I take the final bite I stretch one last time and nod. 'I'm ready... as ready as I can be at least.'

The king jumps into the air and I follow him again, already regretting saying I'm ready as my wings burn from the pain. I grit my teeth and start angling up my wings again but notice barely any headwind. As I glide on a sudden downdraft hits me and nearly causes my first crash landing. I curse myself and take to the skies again, now a bit more successful and see what the king means. As the sun starts rising above the distant mountains the shrub lands and the pine woods ahead get lit up in orange streaks of light. My mouth drops open and for a moment I forget to focus on my flight. It isn't until I nearly get hit out of the sky that I remember to look to my left and turn right quite a bit. Then I return my eyes to the sunrise. 'It is magnificent...'

Trashkanir flies up a bit. 'Yes it is. Those mountains, that is our destination. If we get a tailwind soon we will arrive there late afternoon, otherwise we have to camp at the foothills and arrive at the ancestral home of our race in the morning.'

I look at the mountains. 'They look so... familiar. Almost like the teeth of Rashter.'

Trashkanir lowers his head a bit. 'That is why they are called the Dragontooth mountains. And it is why our race claimed it as our home. Your future home...'

I then discover the wind has died down and flap my wings a couple of times. I stretch my arms out a bit to feel where the wind has gone and nearly careen of course. Just in time I righten my mistake. 'The wind is gone. How do I now stay in the air...'

Trashkanir sticks his tongue out for a moment and then looks up. 'We have to go a lot higher now. Without a wind we have to fly up and glide. Now... if we were near the mountains the thermals would make a rising current near every mountain and we'd be fine. Now however... please bite through, my future queen in gold. Give it all you have and some more... we will only need to do this a couple of times if we are lucky. At least today...'

He flaps his wings hard once and the force of the downdraft sends me spinning down for a moment. With pure panic and some wild movements with my arms I manage to stabilize my flight and flap hard with my wings. How much I would give for even the wings of one of the smaller dragons. Wings that could displace so much more air per stroke to increase my altitude more per stroke. With fast and short strokes I gain height and follow the dragon king. Several times I hit downdrafts and have to turn to not get pulled down from my hard gained height but when I do finally reach the kings height I gasp for breath with some satisfaction. 'I'm fine...'

The king looks sideways with some amusement. 'I can see that. You look like you ran from Celaris to the Emerald City in a record time. Next climb I'll carry you. Now... focus. Clamp your arms against your body and straighten it as much as you can. Let gravity do its thing while you only steer. Make small corrections only. Soon you will be flying like a champion.'

With his words ringing in my mind I glide towards the mountains, mostly just trying to elongate my glide.

The remainder of the day the king does grab me several times to carry me up into the air again, but for the gliding I'm mostly doing it myself which does make me at least decently proud. On the ground near the foothills of the mountain I do grab some fire wood and with Trashkanir's help I light it, before speaking softly. 'So far I loved flying with my own wings but today... my wings just felt insufficient. They seem to small to really carry me fully.'

Trashkanir lays behind me and puts his big face next to my left thigh and snorts. 'That is because you aren't supposed to be able to fly with your wings. At least not as long as you are. Gliders wingspans are to small to carry fully grown humans and Elves for extended periods. Even with the lighter bone structure of you Elves it is to much weight...'

I nod. 'Especially with the changes my Glider made to my body. She grew bone armor around my chest and belly...'

Trashkanir lifts a paw with the pads turned skywards. As I put my left hand into it he closes his paw around it. 'Gliders are really only good at flying without the weight of any creature to weigh them down. When they choose someone, or in case of many early Dragon Guard fake dragons get chosen, it is mostly the muscles that bring them in the air, not the wingspan. One of the first things that they changed was the size of the wings, and as they slowly grew they grew the wings with them to unnatural sizes. This has always caused issues. You should be glad your Glider is still a natural size.'

I'm curious now. 'With those... early Covenant dragons, what problems did they have with their wings?'

Trashkanir sighs softly. 'Because of how unnaturally large their wings had grown, their wing bones could snap. Especially with how they learned to fly, how you flew before I interfered. That is why we real dragons dislike... most of the Covenant dragons. They cut corners making them not so much dragons as flying lookalikes with hidden health issues. To become a full dragon you need to be guided by a full dragon. Endorsed by a real dragon.'

I put my right hand on the paw closed around my left hand. 'Why... do you want to marry me? Why would you go through the effort of turning me into one of yours?'

He turns to look me in the eyes. 'You are strong. You are fierce. Most of all, you heard the truth about all around you and stood firm not looking at the past but at the future. You heard of all the deceit around you and still you cared enough about the world to not turn. When we came here it was just to meet the hero that defeated the Demon Lord. But when I heard the fights you've gone through, down to killing the one who gave birth to you, I found I admire you. I want to give you something in return, for what you did for all. As you are already a queen, all you can be given is love.'

I find my heart flutter now. Is this it? Is it true love? I close my eyes to just see him on my eyelids again. Maybe he is the one for me in the end. He is noble and patient. Strong and independent. And most of all he respects me without being submissive. Well, I need to think about this... though he seems so attractive to me as I see the package that makes up him. I smile softly. 'I admire you at least up to a point. Though I dislike you were never there during the war, you have grown on me. I like your strength and patience. I like how you treat me like an equal even though I doubt I could match your combat prowess.'

He lifts up my hand. 'Combat prowess is not all, my future golden queen. Where you lack my strength and toughness in combat, you got wisdom to compensate for it. That and you are willing to learn something new, dive in the deep and find out what something is.'

I spread my wings a bit, groaning slightly and the pain making my eyes open. 'Well, this pool is very deep but I'm seeing the glittering of its hidden mysteries.'

Trashkanir smiles, which does look a bit stupid with it showing his fangs. 'Maybe if you dive deeper you will find the treasure at the bottom, the one true treasure every creature in the world wishes to find.'

I rub his paw. 'Maybe you are right. Maybe love is at the end of this pool. If it is then I'm glad to share my life with you.'

His snout now sits less than an inch from my face. 'And I am with you.'

In the morning he wakes me up again and nuzzles me softly. 'Good morning, my beauty.'

I rub his head softly. 'Good morning, my future glorious king...'

I notice it is a lot later in the morning than yesterday when I woke up. Surprisingly I find myself looking at the sunrise from the ground while eating, staring at the foothills. When I'm done eating I bring my confusion forth. 'I thought you wanted to leave as early as possible...'

Trashkanir shakes his head. 'You need your sleep, my golden queen. We will be arriving today anyway, if you get the hang of the thermal flows and how to use them to your advantage.'

I spread my wings and flap them once, feeling how they respond. 'I guess I got about half a day left in them. After that I'll be grounded for a while. What did I expect anyway, flying more than one day in a stretch when usually I only fly one day at most...'

Trashkanir strokes my left wing. 'You are doing great, my queen of gold. Together we will make it. Then I will be able to teach you fully how to fly.'

As I see my squad ready again I nod. 'Lets go then. One final push before I plummet from the skies. Maybe I shouldn't have taken to the air during the fight with that yellow dragon. That could have made a difference.'

Trashkanir shakes his head. 'Don't even mention it. He was stupid and challenged my choices. To even challenge someone who has slain a Demon Lord is stupid.'

He jumps into the air. With some effort I follow him, mostly attempting to glide. Trashkanir now leads on the left front and flies next to me. 'Now for this final stretch, we have to get close to the mountains. Wherever the light touches the mountains, the air rises. Where the air rises we can gain height with little effort. Then we glide to the next mountain and repeat. Do keep an eye on where I fly because there is a specific route to our home. Your new home. Also remember, small corrections, even back and forth.'

As we glide to one mountain I get hit by a burst of air from below. Initially I start to panic as I feel my balance is thrown off by the burst. Besides me Trashkanir turns to me. 'Small corrections. Calm and controlled. Angle your wings a bit if you don't feel comfortable.'

It takes a few minutes before I'm stable and feel the rising air push me to new heights. With the height reached Trashkanir angles his wings down and glides towards the next mountain. As I follow his lead I soon hit the next updraft, this time responding a lot quicker and flying more steadily but not exactly stable. When Trashkanir now starts gliding he slightly turns to the left. 'All right, my queen, try to glide as efficiently as possible now as we need to glide over the pass up ahead. You do not want to land in that snow as it will swallow anyone up hole.'

We glide on towards a glacier of sorts between two high mountains. The chain of mountains seems impassable except for the glacier. I put my wings in an angle to optimize my path and then pray I can hold the angle for the entire glide. Because of my smaller wings I see my glide is a lot steeper and the glacier comes frighteningly close to me. So much so I have to flap my wings several times to not graze the glacier and crash into it. Finally we get to the other side and I feel the updraft again. Finally getting up to the level Trashkanir is flying at I sigh. 'That was way to close. I would not want to fly this route a lot...'

Trashkanir turns towards me, which makes me realize we have to go right now. As we glide to the next updraft he looks at my body position. 'There are some improvements to be made with your wing angle and keeping your body in one line, but with that put aside you really do need proper wings to make this journey on your own. This journey is truly only doable for dragons who know the ins and outs of flying. Your squad is doing decently with your Rashter leading them, but I doubt they will be very... relaxed when they arrive with how they fly.'

We fly in this line for a couple of updrafts until Trashkanir turns left. 'This is the last one, my queen. Up ahead is our valley. Our home. When we arrive there, let the other three dragons lead your squad down as a diversion so you can follow me to my cave. You don't want to be in the centre just yet, until I calmed down the crowd.'