Celine
Celine suddenly jerked awake and sat bolt upright, asking herself why she lying under the stars. One horizon was already turning gray, already announcing the approaching dawn. Recollections of her dreams were still fresh and vivid in her mind.
"Easy there, Celine?" Khaladon warned and suddenly she realized that it hadn't been a dream. She was sitting on a bedroll on some beach. The fire was burning low and in its reddish glare she could make out her childhood friend, sitting on the fire's opposite side.
"What happened?" she asked, trying to sort her memories. "There was a dragon..." she froze and looked at Kaladon, suddenly understanding.
A playful grin appeared on Khaladon's face and he wordlessly pointed at some behind them.
Celine's heart froze and very slowly she turned around and yelled in alarm. In the moonlight, she could just barely make out the massive beast lying right behind her, its massive bulk towering above her. The dragon lay coiled up mere feet behind her. In the moonlight, it was hard to tell what began to wear. All she could make out was a mountain of scales and spikes, twice her height. In the faint firelight, she could see scales sparkling.
Celine froze in absolute terror, barely daring to breathe.
She only heard Khaladon chuckling behind her. "Wake up old girl, introduce yourself!" he challenged loudly. A piece of driftwood whizzed past her ear and bounced off the dragon's head.
"Why would you do that?" she gasped once her heartbeat had slowed down. If the dragon had any intention of eating her, it would have surely already done so.
"Ah relax, Amarya is mostly tame!" Khaladon explained as if he had no worry in the world.
Her heart froze again when the dragon began to uncurl and she could finally make out the beasts' head. It was massive, and if she stood next to the beast the head alone would have reached her sternum.
"So, it's actually true. There were rumors you had joined the riders but I never quite believed it...by the gods, that beast is huge!"
The dragon opened her eyes and glared at them. Even in the faint light, she could see that her eyes were like dark emeralds, with slits for pupils. They almost seemed to be glowing in the firelight.
"Curb your insolence, little one!" a deep, rich, and surprisingly gentle voice warned. "Call me tame one more time and I will educate you to the contrary. The girl's lack of manners can be forgiven for she does not know better."
She shrank back and it took her a moment to realize that the voice had only spoken in her mind. Having not experienced that herself the experience was quite unsettling.
"The dragon can speak?" she asked as realization struck her.
"Yes, Amarya can speak," Khaladon confirmed gently with a twinkle in his eyes.
"What happened? There was fire...and I lost consciousness?"
"Ah yes," Khaladon mused. "Astaria usually leaves a lasting first impression, doesn't she. Well, let me summarize what happened after you collapsed. Astaria's and Amarya's intervention very quickly routed the palace guard. We were worried you might get hurt by a stray arrow, or that Astaria might end up burning down half the city so we hogtied you to her saddle, and once you were safely away Varitan and I escaped the citadel on Amarya."
"What about Karlson?" she asked softly.
"Oh, him?" Khaladon asked.
"He was so distracted by the dragons that I just walked up and took his sword away. It was Varitan who caught you," he explained in a good-natured manner.
"Oh," she said. "Where are they anyway?" she asked, looking around for that strange elf she had seen. "Are you friends or something?" she then asked, feeling somewhat in awe. Stories of elves had always been her favorite growing up though until now she had never met one herself. Only stories from second or third hand.
Suddenly she realized something, she felt no pain. No soreness, no ache in her lower abdomen or thighs. Even the fresh bruises on her face, arms, and body did not hurt. She tenderly touched her face, where a handsome bruise should be sporting on her left jaw was completely missing.
"Varitan healed you," Amarya explained gently and with a start, she realized that the dragon was probably actively reading her mind.
"Don't worry, I felt to gather firewood in the meantime. I didn't see anything!" Khaladon then quickly added. Over the past few months, too many men had seen her disrobed, one more would have hardly mattered. Though she felt oddly touched at the thought of Khaladon trying to protect her modesty and gave him a grateful smile.
They sat in silence for a while in which Celine just lay on her back, staring up at the stars above as she savored her newfound freedom. The exhilaration of it was enough to push aside everything that had happened.
"Anyway, where are your friends. Astaria and what was his name again?"
"Varitan and Astaria will be back soon," Khaladon explained.
Just then something touched her back and she almost jumped when she realized Amarya had moved closer without her noticing and was now resting her head in the sand right next to her. Feeling slightly embarrassed she glanced at Khaladon who had the decency not to laugh at her. Cautiously she very slowly reached with her hand on the side of the dragon's snout. Without warning the dragon suddenly swiped her head to the left, cleanly knocking her over into her sand in the process.
"Hey!" she complained, not quite sure yet if she should be concerned or amused.
The dragon looked at her with one large emerald eye and blinked once before closing her eyes again and hopefully going back to sleep. After a few moments, she reached again and began to tentatively pat the side of the dragon's massive head.
"And here they come," Khaladon mused.
"What?" she asked.
Then she heard it, a rhythmic reverberating thud, that made her feel as if she were sitting in the corpus of the world's largest drum.
Then she spotted the shadow moving through the moonlight. Now that she wasn't at imminent risk of dying she had the time to stare in amazement. It seemed inconceivable that something so big could ever fly. She guessed that from wing tip to wing tip the drag spanned more than seventy feet and she was descending right towards them. Suddenly the dragon stopped beating her wings and descended towards them in a glide.
Shortly before landing maybe two hundred feet away from them, the Astaria beat her massive wings three times, arrest her momentum. A moment later Celine was buffeted by almost gale-force winds and sand, as the wing's backwash struck her. The ground trembled as the dragon's powerful legs absorbed the shock. Amarya barely reacted to her sister landing next to her, only raising her head and glancing over, almost knocking her over again by accident in the process, before going back to dozing.
"I trust your hunt went well," Khaladon asked.
In comparison with Amarya's overall gentle demeanor, Astaria was suffering differently entirely.
Celine did her very best not to look as terrified as she felt, though it was as hard not to tremble as Astria approached with slow, patient strides. Astaria, if it was at all possible, seemed even bigger than Amarya and looked down at them with blue eyes, sparkling with keen intelligence.
"I found a herd of wild horses," the dragon's voice suddenly assaulted her mind. It was a much deeper, richer, more imposing voice than Amarya's. "One mair tried to fight me, but she was ill-equipped to fight a hunter from the sky."
Next to her Amarya snorted softly as if this comment amused her. "Where?" the dragon next to her asked.
"Southwest of here on the fields, only a few minutes flight," Astaria reported just as the elf, Varitan slipped from her back and gracefully landed on his feet. It was at that moment that she remembered that she herself had been tired to that dragon's back only hours before. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't quite imagine it.
"Damn it, Astaria," Khaladon suddenly burst out as Varitan approached. "You destroyed the fire, again!"
Astaria looked down at Khaladon with glittering eyes and dropped down into the sand.
Suddenly Amarya rose up to her feet. "How about you go find new wood fire your fire while I find those horses my sister mentioned?" the dragon suggested. "Your fire burned down a while ago."
With a deep sigh, Khaladon rose to his feet and dusted off his trousers. "Very well. You'll be fine, Celine?" he asked gruffly.
"I think so," she replied, though glanced over doubtfully at Astaria.
This seemed to be enough for him and so her old friend turned around and headed off towards the tree line.
Amarya slowly headed over to her sister, brushed up against her, and then flew off in the same general direction her sister had approached earlier.
"I trust you are feeling better?" the elf asked and sat down not far from her left with his legs crossed, his sheathed sword lying across his lap, and gazed down into the now quite scattered but still glimmering driftwood.
"I am, you healed me?" she asked, meeting the elf's gray eyes. He was beautiful, despite striking her as quite alien, quite different. She had seen elves before on one or two occasions, but never from this close.
The elf only silently nodded.
From Khaladon's reaction earlier she surmised that she had been undressed at some point as the elf had probably worked some sort of magic. After more than a year or so of being kept as a slave, the prospect of being seen naked by men left her quite cold. Not that the sense of violation was reduced by any means. However, the elf's air of distant tranquility was soothing to her tortured soul in a way she doubted a human could.
"You have my gratitude," she replied quietly.
For a few minutes, they sat in silence and Celine listened to the sound of waves breaking on the shore. Her newfound freedom was only slowly beginning to sink in. It was hard to decide whether she should be looking at the weary elf, or at Astaria, who was looking at her with sparkling blue eyes. Both were so alien that they demanded attention in their own right, but in the end, she only looked down at her hands.
Finally, Khaladon returned with an arm full of wooden logs and looked back and forth between them. "Ah, a lively conversation indeed," he announced, clearly noticing the silence.
"So, you saved the girl with fiery hair," Astaria's voice rang out in her mind. "What do you intend to do now?"
It was then that she realized her main problem. Celine was without means, without money, and without a husband to rely on. All occupations she might be able to gain in the short term, will they wouldn't be much better than the one she had escaped from mere hours ago. Her anxiety only grew as Khaladon stacked wood onto the fire, not answering for a long moment. "I do have a residence on Vroengard, we could keep her there..."
"I can work as a servant," Celine quickly added. "I can cook and clean."
Khaladon smiled at her reassuringly. "Your generosity honors you Celine, but I will not put guests to work."
"We have just stormed a keep and taken a surf without the orders sanction," Varitan remarked. "They will send envoys to Vroengard, both to see us punished and for reparations. The order might just send Ceiline back for the sake of peace."
Khaladon scowled but seemed to concede the point.
"I do not wish to cause you problems, you can just drop me off at the next city," Celine offered. "I will find my way. You have already done me a great service."
Khaladon's scowl only deepened at the suggestion.
"Do not be ridiculous Celine," Khaladon chided. "We will find appropriate accommodations for you. It would not do at all for us to leave you more peril than you were when we found you. I fear Varitan might just be right though, I can see the elders trying to appease Khaladris. What about Du Weldenvarden? I hate to ask, but could she not find refuge among your kin."
The very name sent shivers down Celine's spine. That enchanted forest had been the center of the cautionary tails of her childhood, where rude children that disobeyed their parents were dragged off to haunted lairs. Now that she was older she had grown to very much doubt those stories, but the ancient stronghold of the elves was yet to lose any of its mysteries. The very thought of going there was enough to quicken her heartbeat.
"Before you involve your own household you should ask Meira to take her in. The king would respect her choice," Astaria suddenly cut in.
Celine had no clue who this Meira was, but Khaladon started grinning. "You are right, I am sure Meira would be happy to look after her when we are off on assignments."
"Who is this Meira?" Celine asked quietly, barely daring to interrupt the two noblemen.
"She is my mate," Varitan explained after a moment of silence, a hint of yearning entering his cool voice. Astaria craned her massive head around and gently bumped her rider, in what Celine assumed was a comforting manner. Though if Astaria did that to her, she would likely have a heart attack. "She is a bardin and occasionally serves as an envoy."
"She must be a remarkable woman," Celine replied almost automatically, though she imagined anyone able to catch the eye of a being that looked like that had to be.
"She is," Kaladon replied drily and exchanged a small grin with Celine.
Varian's face stayed impassive, his head dropping a notch as if to study the sword lying across his lap.
"We should leave soon," Astaria announced, the imposing presence taking her breath away as it flooded her mind without warning. "Dawn is about to break and I grow restless when there are so many leagues for us to cover."
Celine looked to the horizon and realized the sky was now lighting up quickly.
"We will wait for Amarya to eat her fill," Varitan announced. "Otherwise she will have to go hunting again before long."
Astaria growled a deep, rumbling growl which seemed to settle the matter.
By the time Amarya had returned the sun had already begun to kiss the clouds with its radiant glow, bathing them in brilliant golden light. The dragon circled the large camp once before landing behind her sister and strutting over to them, her head raised.
Both Kaladon and Varitan rose to their feet and Celine realized they were finally about to leave. "Who should take Celine along?" Kaladon asked, packing his travel bag.
"Amarya for now I would say," Varitan announced. "Astaria is still worn out from the journey south."
Astaria's head slowly swung to face her rider and spread her massive wings in what Celine assumed was a challenging manner. "I can carry the little two-leg, she would be no further burden to me," the dragon announced indignantly and Celine noticed that Kaladon was fighting back a too obvious grin.
"Not everything is a challenge to your ferocity, sister. You have flown fast and far in recent days," Amarya consoled and walked over to where she and Kaladon were sitting. Astaria only snorted, a cloud of smoke puffing out from her nostrils. Then the green dragon turned her gaze towards Celine. "You may climb on my back," the dragon announced and blinked once.
"Ahm, thanks," Celine said but did not move. Now that dawn had broken, Amarya looked no less intimidating.
Amarya slowly began to strut over to them and plopped down onto her stomach, allowing her rider to stow away his bag in one of the saddlebags. As Celine watched, she asked herself how she was supposed to get up into the saddle. Even on her stomach, the dragon's back towered at twice her height. She doubted she could just climb up Amarya's front leg the way Kaladon could.
"Brace yourself," Amarya suddenly warned, perhaps sensing her deliberations.
"What ar-" the breath was knocked from her chest as Amerya's head knocked her legs out from under her and she was lifted off her feet and unceremoniously dumped in the saddle.
Not bothering to contain his booming laughter Kaladon helped her sit up, which with her dress was no easy feat, and climbed into the saddle behind her.
"If you are quite ready," Varitan called over. The elf was already strapped into his saddle, looking every bit like the hero of the stories she had grown up with his proud features and stern demeanor. Celine's heart began to pound in her chest, realizing how high she was sitting, even without leaving the ground. She was sitting on a dragon, a real living dragon that could tear apart castles and shatter armies. Not quite knowing what was expected of her she held onto one of the long ivory spikes protruding from the dragon's spine.
"Almost," Kaladon announced as he unbuckled his sword belt and began to strap his weapon onto the saddle.
Holding on had been the right decision because it seemed that Amarya cared little for whatever her rider was doing on the back because a moment later the massive green wings spread out and she reared up into her rear legs. A moment later they were in the air and her surprised scream was silenced by the rushing wind.