Dragon Prince: For Union and Liberty
Book I- Legacy of the Lost Regiment (1923-1945)
Chapter 1- The Mage
Location: Kingdom of Catullus, Pentarchy (1923)
Callum, high mage of Catullus, was beginning to feel the weight of his years. When he stretched out on an overcast day like this one, he felt all the joy of his seventy years and change. Reluctantly he turned over, coming face to face with Rayla. She was still in the prime of life. Such was the way of elves, barring the lightest, almost imperceptible laugh lines, he still saw, much the same elf he'd fallen for in what now seemed an age ago.
Feeling that the restless man was awake her eyes opened though she remained silent. Callum pressed a finger to his lips, he heard the restless pitter-patter of two pairs of feet, hell-bent on dragging their poor parents from restful slumber. They creeped on, feeling that they had been quite clever, but they hadn't inherited the feet of their mother, not wholly anyway.
Just as the two shades pounced on their prey, their sire shouted and signed, "Aspiro!" This action sent the poor halflings flying to the walls where they promptly burst into fits of laughter. The exercise was as much a part of the morning routine as Rayla's famous moonberry pancakes.
"Hatran, Irna, ya little scamps, will you never learn?" Their mother said, knowing full well the answer was no. She knew that trying to appeal to the tiny, pointy eared twins was as much a lost cause as so many of the goads against progress that the Columbians had instituted. Like with the twins, the couple had long sense come to terms with the simplest of the facts of life, "Life is not as I'd have it."
They sent the little imps off to harass the poor chef for breakfast, giving them a rare moment of privacy. Callum was the first to break the sweet silence, "Why did we have kids again?"
She smiled, "Oh I do'na know? Maybe, it's because shortly after the wedding the merry moron ya chose for yer best man teased ya about it? Oh 'er maybe it was his sister who questioned yer manhood just before she made the stupid decision to nose-dive inta a live volcano. Nah," she said on second thought, "must've been about the time ya discovered that yah had a few gray hairs, old man." She poked a stomach that, through careful exercise retained much of its youthfulness.
"You are so…" Rayla pressed her lips to his. The two laid there, each other's hands doing little to resist the intimacy that came with so many years of being so close. They had lived and loved through war and peace, through stormy squalls and clear blue skies. Now, not even the specter of death, that last and most final of challengers on the battlefield that we call life, could even boast to separate them.
It wasn't all grim though, as they reminded each other this crisp, cool, winter morning. "If I'm an such an old man." Callum began.
"Oh, don't flatter yaself." She climbed on top of him, "Leave that ta me." For Callum and Rayla it was just the latest day in the paradise they had built together.
[To Be Continued]