Every Thorn Has Its Rose Chapter 4
The next morning, Ensign Smalls stepped out from behind her corner partition, wearing her newly-altered Corps uniform. The four men who shared the barracks with her took one look and were completely and totally scandalized.
Tufnel was the first to find his voice. "Oh, now see here, Ensign! This is taking matters too far!"
"Much too far!" Shrimpton echoed. "One word to the Admiral, and this nonsense will be nipped in the bud!"
"I can see the logic in it," St. Hubbins observed, "but you can't pretend to think that Their Lordships will approve."
Lt. Smalls was the last to weigh in. "Sister, have you taken leave of your senses?"
Rose stared at them in surprise. What was the problem? She was just wearing the standard green Corps flying coat with white blouse... and cream-colored pants. Oh, that.
She tried to reason with them. "A skirt or a dress is totally impractical for a dragon rider! Surely you don't expect me to ride Spina side-saddle, do you?"
"You could do so easily," Tufnel retorted. "Simply ride on the broad areas of her back, instead of astride her neck. It should not inconvenience you in the least."
Rose planted her hands on her hips. "And how am I to relay your commands to Spina if I'm seated fifty feet away from her ears?" she demanded.
Tufnel glared at her. "You cannot seriously suppose that, in the heat of aerial battle, the dragon will refuse to obey my orders directly? This ridiculous arrangement is strictly for peacetime, or until the dragon becomes sensible enough to recognize that she can have only one captain, and that one captain must be a man! A man like me!"
Rose bristled. "Are you suggesting that, when the Admiral conscripted me and made an ensign of me, he did not really mean it?"
"Of course he did not mean it literally!" Shrimpton cut in. "Ladies do not ride dragons, ladies do not give orders in battle, and ladies emphatically do not wear pants! Admiral White would not upset centuries of tradition, merely to appease your own vanity!"
"Well said," Tufnel nodded.
She stared at each of the men in turn. "Are all of you against me?"
St. Hubbins shrugged. "I wish to remain a neutral party in this war, thank you very much."
"I can't take sides," Smalls said helplessly. "I'm too close to one of the principals. I cannot pretend to be unbiased."
"That makes it two against one, Ensign," Tufnel snapped. "You are outvoted, as well as outranked."
Rose considered that for a moment. "But... if I am not really an Ensign, then you have no authority to pull rank on me."
Shrimpton had to counter her challenge. "If you are not really an Ensign, then take off that Ensign's uniform!"
"All right, if you insist," she smirked, and began to unbutton her shirt. All four men spun away, blushing furiously and exclaiming, "No, leave it on!" "I didn't mean it!" "Please don't take it off!" "We take it all back!"
Tufnel risked a quick glance and made certain that she had not disrobed. "All right, Miss Smalls," he snapped, "this leaves us nearly back where we started. Your precise status in the Corps is undetermined, but you are still outvoted."
"Perhaps not," Rose exclaimed. "There is one vote yet uncounted!" She spun on the heel of her new boot and strode out the door. The men followed, but quickly spread out to either side of her. They did not want to be caught gazing at... umm... at that portion of herself that was now quite noticeable, thanks to her form-fitting uniform pants.
"Rose!" Spina exclaimed as she saw her rider approaching. "I am so happy to see you this morning!"
"You always say that, my special friend," she smiled. They rushed together, and Rose embraced the dragon's scaly neck, a gesture she made without a trace of self-consciousness or discomfort. She no longer had to kneel to greet her dragon friend; Spina was growing rapidly and was now somewhat larger than a draft horse.
"The dragon is your uncounted vote?" Tufnel said from behind her in disbelief.
"She is a member of the Corps, subject to military order and discipline," Rose shot back over her shoulder. "There can be no argument on that score! She certainly should have a say in this matter."
"What matter is that?" Spina asked, bending down so her head was at Rose's eye level.
"This is about Ensign Smalls wearing a man's uniform," Shrimpton began.
"No, this is about so-called Ensign Smalls having a part in the military chain of command!" Tufnel corrected him.
"So-called?" Spina looked puzzled. "I distinctly recall Admiral White telling my captain that he was making her an Ensign in the Aviator Corps. Was the admiral not telling the truth?"
"He was simply taking temporary action to deal with a complex situation," Tufnel lectured her. "He had no legal authority to induct a lady into the Corps. There is no precedent for such an action."
"Oh, I see," the dragon said, acting mollified for a moment. "So I will not be allowed to squirt my poisoned acid at England's enemies, because there is no precedent for that action either?"
"That's... that's not the same thing at all!" Tufnel protested.
"I fail to see the difference," Spina said, raising her head to its full height in order to glare down at him. "If we are to be governed by precedent, then nothing new must ever happen. If we are to be governed by military discipline, then the Admiral's orders must be obeyed, whether you personally approve of them or not. If, on the other hand, we are to be governed by common sense, then common sense dictates that my captain should wear a uniform appropriate for her duties. If that uniform should happen to resemble a man's uniform, what of it? I can see that she has altered the fit, to suit the differences in her own shape from yours; a man could not wear it comfortably. It is no longer a man's uniform."
"Ladies do not wear pants!" Shrimpton argued.
"This one obviously does," Spina answered him. "Can you not see them?"
"I'm trying not to look," Tufnel sputtered. "And another thing. You may cease and desist from referring to Rose as your captain. The admiral gave that position to me! Rose is nothing but... a special passenger, of questionable status."
"Now you are the one who is not telling the truth," Spina objected firmly. "The Admiral named you to be my senior rider. He did not call you my captain! That honor and privilege goes to the one to whom I am pleased to give it. Rose will be my captain for as long as she lives."
"You'll quickly change your mind when your training begins," Tufnel threatened. "When you take your first flight, and your so-called Ensign is screaming in terror from the height and the speed, you'll think twice about taking orders from her, in battle or anywhere else!"
Now Rose was genuinely angry. "Is that your opinion of me, Lieutenant?" she demanded.
"The fairer sex is not known for its courage," he sneered. "Anyone who would stand on a chair and shriek, for fear of a mouse, can offer but little bravery when flying on a dragon!"
"I have never acted in so undignified and cowardly a manner," she spat. "And if that's your opinion of me, then your opinion needs adjusting! Right now!" She turned, ran three steps, and leaped onto Spina's back, straddling the base of her neck. "Show me some height and speed, my friend!" The dragon understood her meaning; she galloped out the open barn doors, spread her enormous wings, and vaulted up into the sky. The shouts and protests of the four lieutenants were quickly left behind.
Rose Smalls had seldom been off the ground. She had climbed a tall tree once, to retrieve an errant kite that belonged to her brother, and she'd had to venture onto her family home's roof several times to patch leaks on rainy days when her father was too drunk to do it and her brother was away with the Corps. She had no fear of heights, in terms of the heights she knew, which were not particularly high. She knew she would fly with her dragon some day, but she was unsure how she would respond to the sudden absence of anything solid beneath her feet. Now that moment had come... and all she could do was to grip Spina's neck tightly with her legs, throw both hands up over her head, and shout, "WHEE-EE-EE!"
Spina looked back at her, startled. "Are you in distress?"
"No, I'm in Heaven!" she laughed back. "Go higher! Go faster! Don't ever come down! This is what I was born for!" Impulsively, she pulled out the pins that held her dark hair in a bun, and let it fly free behind her. Fly... free. If ever two words belonged together, it was that pair! She had never felt so free in all her life.
"I must obey my captain," Spina replied with an impish edge. Her huge wings bit into the air and propelled them faster, faster, until Rose had to squint into the blast of wind that their progress made. She held on tightly to the dragon's neck, but she felt no fear of falling off; it was simply to steady herself against the wind.
Then the flapping stopped. For long minutes, they just glided far above the earth. (They were barely half a mile up, but it seemed like miles.) There was no sound except for the air rushing past her ears. There was no sense of motion except when Spina banked her wings to change direction. The clouds seemed close enough that, with a little more effort on her dragon's part, she could reach out and touch them. She could see a flock of goats that looked like a moving carpet as they were driven toward the feeding grounds. A few dragons stirred from their caves as the goats approached; they were surely enormous, but from this height, they looked like mere children's toys. Her dragon's barn was a child's building block, and the four tiny specks next to it were the men who had been persecuting her.
"It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small," she said out loud.
"And the men who would control you can't get to you at all," Spina added softly.
"Spina, this is your first flight too! How are you feeling? You were concerned about your flying muscles. Are they strong enough for this?"
"I think... I think I waited far too long for this. As you said, this is what I was meant for. I am a creature of the sky!"
"You and I both," Rose corrected her.
"We fly together!" Spina shouted, then let out a trumpeting roar that startled all the dragons in the feeding area of the breeding grounds. They looked up, curious which dragon could sound so happy in such a miserable place. Then they returned to their meal.
Spina and Rose were gliding in huge lazy circles, first looking up at the clouds, then looking down on the earth below. Spina focused on the flock of goats. "Those goats all belong to someone?" she asked wistfully. "It would be wrong for me to take one or two?"
"If they're inside the borders of the breeding ground, then they're fair game for any dragon," Rose told her. "If you want to take your breakfast there, go right ahead. Just d–" Her breath was taken away as the Longwing folded her wings and dove at full speed.
"Don't hit the ground!" she gasped, and added as an afterthought, "And try not to antagonize the other dragons!" Spina had her own agenda, and while she narrowly avoided hitting the ground, her actions severely antagonized several dragons. She swooped and tried to take two goats, one with each forefoot, from a Malachite Reaper who had just cornered them against a steep stream bank. She got one and missed the other, so she continued her headlong rush and snatched another goat away from the mottled Greyling who was about to catch it. One dragon roared in anger, the other hissed something in Durzagh, but Spina was moving far too fast for either of them to catch her from a standing start. They turned back to the herd and tried to find something else to eat, while keeping one eye on the sky for a dragon with unusually long wings and no manners.
Spina landed on a hilltop and enjoyed her usual messy meal, leaving nothing but the horns and the hooves. Rose had a fairly strong stomach, and she felt like she had to watch or she'd somehow be playing into Lt. Tufnel's low view of women in general. But it was not a pleasant performance to view. "Do you feel better?" she asked when the last bite had gone down the dragon's cavernous gullet.
"Much better," Spina replied, then turned away and belched. "I do beg your pardon," she said, embarrassed. "Shall we fly some more? I like flying with you."
"Perhaps we should not overstress your wings on your first day of flying," Rose said thoughtfully. For a moment, she almost wished one of the men was here; they were far more familiar with the limits of young dragons than she was. "There will be many more days for flying together before we are done."
"But we may not escape from Lt. Tufnel so easily next time," Spina said petulantly. "I do not want to fly with him, even if it is my duty! He is arrogant and he thinks badly of you. I would gladly be rid of him if I could, and I will gladly tell him so, given the chance."
"Oh, you must not do that!" Rose burst out. "He is the Admiral's favorite. If we displease the Lieutenant, then we'll have to deal with an angry admiral as well, and while I still have much to learn about admirals, I do know that an angry one is not pleasant company. I know it's hard, but please try to get along with the lieutenant, both for your sake and for mine."
"So what shall we do? Walk back to the barn?" the Longwing wondered. The barn was visible in the distance, but only barely. "That is a terrible distance to walk. It might take me the rest of the day to make it on foot."
"Then let us fly just high enough that you can glide back," Rose decided. "That should not overtax your wings."
"The lieutenant may think I've overtaxed them anyway," Spina said. "I think he is going to be angry if he sees us flying back."
"Do you know what? I think he's going to be angry at us, no matter how we return," Rose said. Then she leaned up and whispered conspiratorially in the dragon's ear, "It was worth it!"
o
A/N
From the cross-country flying scene in "The Neverending Story," to the nail-biting Test Drive scene in "How to Train Your Dragon," to the terror-turned-to-triumph of Eragon's first ride on Saphira, everyone knows that your first ride on a dragon's back is wildly exciting. Laurence didn't get to savor that moment with Temeraire because their first flight was a life-saving mission in the middle of a storm, so he couldn't relax and enjoy the ride. But I've tried to capture some of that excitement in this chapter. How did I do?