Chapter 5
Kuja stood with the dragon in a huge, open field surrounded by wooden fencing. He stroked the side of its muzzle gently, loving the cool feel of scales under his fingertips. He loved dragons. They were power, grace, and beauty incarnate. They were so graceful that just looking at them touched him somewhere deep in his soul. He eyed the metal shackle around the ankle of the dragon's left hind leg, and his gaze followed the chain that led from it to the peg firmly embedded in the earth nearby.
Do the stable hands know how easily you could break that thing and fly away? Kuja asked silently in the mind-speech of the dragons.
I'm not sure, the dragon replied, his mind-voice colored with amusement. I don't think so. I haven't had the heart to show them.
Kuja looked at the sparkle in the dragon's eyes and couldn't help smiling himself. So you're playing along with them?
For now, said the dragon. We'll see how long that holds up when they actually want me to try combat. I think our species has seen enough warfare for a while.
Kuja looked at the ground, feeling his guilt swell up for the part he knew he had played in forcing the dragons to fight. He only looked up again when the dragon nudged his face slightly with his muzzle, forcing him to look into the beast's large eyes. We don't blame you, said the dragon softly. We would not have fought with you if we did not care for you. We follow you because we love you, and for no other reason.
Even when I make the wrong decisions? Kuja asked.
Regardless of your decisions, the dragon agreed.
Kuja smiled. I don't deserve the friendship of your race, he said.
Perhaps not, said the dragon, the amusement returning. But you have it. You are a kindred soul among mortals. It does not happen often that one of you exists, and when it does, we must cherish that bond.
Kuja petted the dragon's nose for a few moments longer, then suddenly smiled mischievously. What say you we go on a flight, hmm? he asked.
The dragon's reply was wordless, but the sense that enveloped his mind was an overwhelming affirmative. He knelt by the dragon's shackled leg, looked around briefly to make sure that no one could see him, and applied just enough magic to the metal to freeze it solid. When dragon gave his leg a good jerk, the metal cuff shattered into hundreds of tiny shards, leaving the scaly leg free of impediment.
The dragon grumbled a low, rumbling sort of growl to express his pleasure and lowered his head to the ground to allow Kuja access. Kuja swung himself over the beast's neck and settled himself on the shoulders, holding tightly to the small ridge of fins that swept down the spine of the dragon's neck.
Raising his head, the dragon erupted from his crouch and with a few powerful downsweeps of his wings, was high in the air, gliding easily just below the clouds.
Kuja savored the feeling of the wind whipping past his face. He had missed this very much. The wild dragons of the plains surrounding the Iifa tree had been polite enough, but they were feral and would not allow any mortal, regardless of his unusual connection to the dragon species, to even touch them, let alone mount and ride. The white dragons however had been his companions for a long time, and it was a comfort to sit astride one and feel the wind whistle around his ears and play with his long hair.
In his mind he could feel the dragon's unadulterated joy of flying, and it touched a matching joy in him. This was why he got on so well with dragons. He understood them. Their emotions meshed with some part of himself that saw the world as they did. He felt things the way that they did. He wasn't sure how that had come to be, but he could never remember not feeling that way.
The dragon roared his joy out to the world and Kuja couldn't help an answering whoop from leaving his throat as the white wings sent them plowing through the clouds.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.