"So, you two know each other?” Ralem asked when the crowd dispersed as the promising aroma of chocolate and other treats announced that it was time for dessert. Daemon slid off his icy blue mount and maneuvered through the crowd to meet them. The ice dragon’s eye crest was about hopping off his face as he ogled Arianna, following his Rider. Arianna rushed toward him, crushing him in a hug, ignoring Ralem’s statement, “Daemon! It’s been so long! I had no clue you would be here!” Daemon was almost as surprised as Ralem, standing awkwardly before Arianna detached herself from him.

“I missed you too,” his face turned serious, “Are you here on your father’s orders?”  

Arianna blanked for a second before hurriedly saying, “No. I’m here on… vacation.” She changed the subject quickly, “Where have you been all these years? Do you have any idea how much I missed you? Father nearly tore the kingdom apart trying to find you.”

Ralem could see red creeping up on Daemon’s pale face even in the poor light from the flickering torches, “Really? You missed me?”

“Of course I missed you! We thought the Julnor had gotten you,” she trailed off.

“Julnor? There was a sighting of one? I thought we had dispatched the last one years ago.”

Arianna’s face turned dark as she looked away from the light, “Yes… “

Ralem was completely lost. A foreign memory of flying assaulted his mind but he pushed it away, forcing his overworked brain to concentrate. “What do you mean? Can somebody please explain?” Arianna blushed, but looked happy to be interrupted, “Oh I’m sorry! Ralem meet Daemon,”-Daemon nodded and looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. The expression he made displayed that he didn’t think much of what he saw. Ralem knew that he probably looked terrible right now. His shirt was torn and bloody and he didn’t know the last time he had had a bath. Arianna gestured to him- “And Daemon this is Ralem, my friend.” Daemon glared at him more intensely at the last word, giving Ralem a warning look like get away from my girl. “Can we talk in private?” he asked, placing a hand on Arianna’s shoulder, “We have much to discuss.”

Arianna stepped back, “Why can’t we talk here? Ralem is a good friend. He… he saved my life.” Ralem could see Daemon’s jaw working like he wanted nothing more than to throttle Ralem then and there. The ice dragon inched closer to him as if waiting for the signal to fight.

Ralem heard earth-shaking thuds on either side of him and realized that his dragon was towering over him. The dragon swiveled his head down to glare at the new Rider and dragon. Jaydon’s snout was dripping with pie as he tried to look as ferocious as he could. The ice dragon glared back frostily as only ice dragons can do, even though you could tell he was trembling like a Chihuahua. Arianna watched, wide-eyed before finally saying, “How about we get some dessert? As Jaydon has already found out- there’s pie! We can all talk together!” She gestured for them to follow. As she started walking toward the dessert table the four of them followed, determinedly not looking at each other.

 Do you want me to scare him off? Jaydon asked.

No, I’m fine. You can get back to your pie.

Jaydon replied If you need me I’m nearby before sauntering off to return to the enormous pie that had been made in his honor.

They grabbed a couple desserts and followed Arianna to sit on the winding stairs. Ralem actually didn’t grab just a couple desserts but a whole bunch, including several tarts and glazed fruit galore. Daemon looked at him with disgust as he daintily picked a few out with a fork. Ralem didn’t care, he was so hungry he just grabbed them by the handful.

Once they were seated, Arianna in the middle, Ralem and Daemon on either side, forcibly not looking at each other, Arianna set her food down on the stair behind them. “Oh, I forgot the iced scones! Those are my favorite! I’ll be right back!” she promised, hopping out of the awkward situation. She set us up, Ralem thought, as he stuffed a pastry into his mouth, watching Arianna’s bright blue dress recede in the crowd. Daemon huffed in exasperation as if reading his thoughts, “I see her for the first time in years and she walks off…”

They sat in silence for a moment, Ralem wolfing down his food and Daemon moving it around with his fork dejectedly. The frost dragon tried to put his head on his Rider’s lap but Daemon pushed it away. Finally, when it appeared Arianna wouldn’t be “right back” Ralem wiped some icing off his face and ventured, “So, you’re a Rider from Grunde?”

Daemon nodded glumly.

“So what’s your dragon’s name?”

“Fraylon,” he answered, brightening if only a little.

“How long have you been a Rider?”

“Almost four years. It seems like it’s been an eternity.”

Ralem nodded, “I know how you feel.”

Daemon looked at him from the corner of his eye and Ralem was surprised to find it was more shockingly blue than Arianna’s. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but in the darkness it shone creepily. But the light dimmed and left Daemon’s wine glass with a frost puzzle etched on it. “But wouldn’t it be a long time- for you? You must be hundreds of years old.”

“Do I look like I’m old? And that’s amazing.”

“No… your dragon is just…large,” he cast a glance at where Jaydon was licking a ginormous pie plate clean, “And what? Oh, yes, it’s not really all that ‘amazing’. I mean, with Lauri able to breathe underwater and Ryan… who knows what that one can do. But I do like a cold wine.” His face turned serious again, “You know, I’ve been a lone Rider through all these years and I’ve had so many questions. It’s really nice to finally be at a place where you can be with other people of your own…. Kind.” He said “kind” as if it were a sort of strange disease, “What ability do you have? What kind of dragon is yours? A forest dragon?”

“Umm… I think he’s a wentus something. I can’t believe I forgot; it feels like he’s told me half a dozen times. And…” he furrowed his eyebrows and was surprised at how easily the air responded to his call. Must have been from all that time he had been with his dragon. Not used to all the power, he meant to ruffle the other Rider’s way-too-perfect hair but instead nearly bowled the guy over and made the wine splash onto his expensive Rider outfit. Ralem quickly stopped. Daemon glared at him, his eye’s turning extremely blue. The wine froze on his shirt and goose-bumps formed on Ralem’s arms as the temperature dropped. Daemon picked off the frozen liquid and grimaced at the blood red stain. “Sorry about that,” Ralem said, though he wasn’t overly much, “I’ve been asleep for so long my powers are going crazy.”

Daemon sighed again, “Oh yes, I heard they called you “Sleeping Beauty” around here. I have no clue why,” he said drily, his tone implying how un-beautiful he looked at the moment. Before Ralem could make a biting remark Arianna dropped back with a huge grin on her face, carrying a half-eaten iced scone. “Sorry,” she apologized, sitting between them, “I just had an argu… talk with Lauri,” she said shortly. “Whew, it’s freezing,” she rubbed her arms with fervor, “Wow, it feels like Grunde. So…”  And so the long and painful conversation began. Finally, though he didn’t feel like he could sleep for weeks, Ralem excused himself as his brain became muddled again. The excess of memories was really getting to him. Dizzy, he made his way to the dragon, not wanting to try to remember where his room was. If he tried to he knew his memories would crash upon him like an avalanche.

 He found Jaydon stretched out on the ground, kids laughing as they played and danced on his scaly back. His face was cracked in a dreamy smile, his eyes staring out in blissful emptiness, lighting up the space around him. Ralem dodged some mothers screaming for their kids to stop prancing around his spikes and come down for bedtime. They grinned back cheekily from their perches, climbing higher onto his back. A few were pretending to fly on his back, their eyes scrunched up in concentration as they clung to his spikes.

Ralem collapsed at Jaydon’s side, “Where’s our room?” His voice was lost in the hubbub so he reverted to speaking in his mind. Where’s our room? He asked. Immediately Jaydon’s eyes narrowed, Oh yes, I was about to show you. He twisted to get to his feet. The kids on his back screamed as their world tilted and they dove for his wings. A dozen of them slid down his soft wings into their mother’s arms. Jaydon stretched like a cat, his front legs thrust in front of him, creating ditches in the soft earth, his mouth open in a yawn, back arched and spikes sticking straight up along with his massive tail. He straightened before bending down, “You need a lift?” he asked. But he took one look at his Rider and picked him gently like a mother cat would to her kittens and walked carefully to his room. Ralem was a little embarrassed at being picked up, but he was too out of it to struggle. When he was set down the first thing he saw was a bath still steaming through the open door to the bathroom. Without a second look at all the fineries in the room he dove for his treasure, just thinking enough to take off his clothes (the shirt was almost ready to fall apart anyway). He heaved a sigh as the tub welcomed him with warm, soapy water. Jaydon just flopped on the floor and immediately started snore-purring, his stomach distended a little from all the pie he had wolfed down.

The water never went cold. Ralem sat in there for hours, his hands and feet getting as shriveled as prunes, and still the tub remained as deliciously warm as could be. He relaxed in there, his mind working too hard for him to even think of sleeping. So instead he thought of all the things he hoped to do in this new home: Baroke.

A picture of Daemon=>