Thank you sooo much for reviewing Swimmergurl-HuntressOfArtemis!

I will never own Dragon Slippers/Flight/Spear. So it's a done deal that the only character I own so far is Laurana, aka Rani.

Read on!

The Dragon Tales

"Do you know the king of the dragon's name, or what he looks like?" Mom asked me. I shook my head. Mom let out a whoosh of air of relief. "Then it'll be easier to explain from my point of view."

"Three years before you were born, I lived with my Aunt Reena. She was a silly woman, and read even sillier romance books. She thought that if she sacrificed me to a dragon, a knight would rescue me and carry me and the rest of my family with him, though I had no dowry." she started, and I snickered. "The dragon of Carleiff Town was called Theoradus, and she sent me into his cave to be rescued."

"But instead of waiting like I was supposed to, I bargained for my escape, and won a pair of blue slippers. I still thought that dragons collected gold and some such like that, so Theoradus was astonished when I asked for a piece of his hoard. He asked me what would I do with a pair of shoes." I had to laugh at that. Mom continued, smiling. "But I still bargained with him. A piece of his hoard, and I could go free, and I would deter the knight from fighting him. He gave his word, and I gave mine. The only slippers that fit were the blue ones."

"I continued on my way to the King's Seat instead of going back home, and stopped the noble's son from going and saving me." Mom chuckled, and so did Dad. I suppose the image of Mom needing saving was hard. "I was about a mile from the King's Seat when I was stopped by bandits. They attacked me, and I tried to fight back. I screamed for help, and suddenly a stained glass window dropped from the sky and landed on the leader. The rest of the bandits scattered and fled, while I was standing there, stunned, and wondering how I did that." I laughed again, and Dad joined in. "Then great, golden claws closed around me like a cage and lifted me up. I screamed again, and then I was really glad Hagen wasn't there, because he would've laughed till his sides split to see me fainting like some lord's delicate daughter." I laughed harder, and so did Dad. Apparently he hadn't heard in detail what had happened.

"When I woke up, the dragon was still there, only I was on a bed of fronds. I befriended the dragon, whose name was Shardas, and stayed for several weeks until my samples of embroidery were good enough for show. After that, he took me to the edge of the King's Seat and left before dawn." She chuckled in recollection of what happened when she got in. "I had a nightmare of a time trying to find the cloth workers district. The curfew is what got me in trouble, after almost stepping on a princess's dog. Amaila." Mom almost growled the last word, and I leaned a little bit away from her.

"She was the princess of Roulain. I was just a country bumpkin, looking for work, when I stepped on Pippin. I nearly caused a war because of that incident."

"Oh, well, that's nice to know." I said, laughing, trying and failing miserably to keep a straight face.

"When it hit curfew time, I didn't know about it, so I almost got thrown in prison for violating a curfew that I didn't know existed. It was then that I met Luka. Before they threw me in prison, he stopped the guard from doing it and guided me to Ulfrid's inn. You've met her, she comes every once in awhile to introduce a possible apprentice." I raised my eyebrows. Ulfrid and her go that far back?

"Yes, Rani, we go that far back." Mom said, grinning.

"Quit reading my mind." I grumbled. I thought Dad was going to split a side the way he was laughing. "Quit it, Dad! Jeez, it isn't that funny."

"If you two can see the irritation and the mirrored looks…" Dad trailed off and chuckled.

Mom ignored him and continued. "I was brought to Derda's by Ulfrid. I was Derda's apprentice for two months. During those two months I wreaked havoc on the shop with my slippers. First Larkin fainting, she was one of the other apprentices, and then having Luka visit the shop, and then Larkin saw Shardas the one night he visited. Then Larkin stole my slippers in the night and gave them to Amalia, who had wanted them for other reasons than they were pretty. In return she gave me an extremely ugly gown."

I wrinkled my nose. "Even uglier than the uniforms?"

Mom laughed, and said, "Oh, much worse than the uniforms. It was cloth-of-gold, which in itself isn't that bad, but then it had sixteen fist-sized roses scattered across the skirt." My eyes bugged. "And in between each fist-sized rose was a great swath of fabric." I thought my eyes were going to fall out of my head. "It also had a low neckline." I covered my eyes with my hands.

"I'm going to have nightmares." I said, pulling at my trousers. They may have originally supposed to be for men, but women were starting to wear them also. They were baggy, so the men couldn't see the shape of our legs, but they were still fashionable, and they matched with pretty much everything. They were great for play clothes instead of heavy skirts.

"After I noticed the slippers were gone, Larkin even admitted to stealing them, Marta took me to the cobbler, where I got some gold colored shoes that would go well with the gown. I was planning to remake it to where it was wearable and not be embarrassed." I snorted. Nothing could fix that gown! Mom just smiled. Dad suppressed a laugh. "When Larkin showed us a Roulainee goldwork bracelet, I snapped, and cut off one of her braids, and called her a spy and a traitor. Derda yelled at me, and I quit work. I went back to Ulfrid's inn and worked on the gown."

"I was dancing with the duke a month later at the Merchant's Ball, when Shardas ripped the roof off the New Palace." Mom said grimly. I thought I might be sick, and put a hand over my mouth. "The duke and I ran to the tunnels, and I was made privy to a very important meeting with the king. It was there that we figured out that my slippers were really King Milun the First's slippers, the ones that could control all of the dragons within a thousand leagues." I was sure I was as green as my eyes. "We ran for our lives after the second attack to the Winter Palace and ran to Ulfrid's inn. There a dog appeared at the door. Fenuil's cousin was Shardas, and he collected dogs." Mom explained when she saw my confused face.

"There was a note in the collar, 'follow the dog.' Luka and Tobin, Marta's husband, didn't want me to go, but we went anyway. Fenuil told us about how the slippers worked, and showed us his cave." Mom looked extremely sad. I clenched my fists, waiting for what came next. "The stained glass windows were shattered. Every one of them. All the windows he'd collected over seven hundred years, gone, smashed, in less than an hour. We made collars for the dragons. Fenuil had one on, so that he could resist the slippers. We managed to get them on Amacarin and Niva too. Luka and I snuck into the palace to see where Amalia was, and get the slippers back."

"She was down in the caves, with Velika. After we collared Niva, she had informed me that Shardas was the king of the dragons." My mouth dropped to my knees. "And that Velika, the hide that the slippers were from, was his mate, and that was why he couldn't destroy them. Shardas and Velika reunited while I was down there, fighting Amalia. Velika flipped me into the Boiling Sea, but Shardas caught me before I hit the waters. Velika plunged into the Boiling Sea with Amalia in her claws, and Shardas plunged after her."

"For a year, Shardas and Velika were thought to be dead. Then a plea to the king showed at the palace, and Luka brought the slip to me, and we had set off in pursuit of the thief who had pried a stained glass window out of a chapel." when Mom said that last sentence, I gasped, and then fell off my chair laughing.

"Shardas- the king-of the dragons, pried a stained glass window out of-a chapel?" I gasped out between laughs. All I could imagine was this huge, winged beast with extremely long claws, trying to pry a stained glass window out of its frame and then soaring off with it, in the middle of the night, without taking out a house or something. It was laughable he'd been able to do that.

Mom ignored my laughing, though I think she was laughing at me.

"If you would get off the floor and listen, I think you'd be entertained with the other two adventures, and Luka and my secret wedding at the Far Isles." she said calmly.

I got up off the floor and listened for the rest of the evening to stories about dragons being collared, uncollared, fighting, and flying. She ended with her marriage at the Far Isles.

I never did finish my homework, and I got in trouble for it the next day, but it was worth it to know that my own mother was the Heroine of the Dragon Wars, and was responsible for saving the future queen of the dragons.

That night I dreamed of flying, flying so high I felt I could grab each one of the moons in either hand.

Me:Review or be eaten! This means YOU! Riss, if they don't review, would you mind eating them?

Riss: My pleasure.

REVIEW! So Riss doesn't have the hassle of hunting you guys down.

What'dya think about the hysterical laughing from both Luka and Rani?