The dragons could smell the humans coming long before any of them could see the approaching four. Ayla, a majestic dragon by any standard, inhaled the wind deeply. There was something different in the smell of her friend and rider, DG. Something that had nothing to do with the fluctuating hormones of a female of childbearing age.

It wasn't until the quartet of humans approached closer that the bronze colored dragon could finally pinpoint exactly what the change in smell was: a bonding. The bonding wasn't completed yet, and therefore fragile, but with the close proximity of both bonded it was easier to smell.

Ayla tsked in that manner peculiar to dragons as the group approached her father, the patriarch of the clutch, and her grandmother, its matriarch.

DG bowed low, with the other humans following suit soon afterwards. "My how your scales glisten today, Hakan, ruler of the Misty Mountain Clutch. And may your fire always blow true, and your wings fly straight, Banu, Mother of the Clutch."

Before them sat two gigantic dragons, one with scales that seemed to swallow the light and refuse to share it, and the other with scales of blue diamonds. The black one spoke first in the voice of a wise old woman, "You honor the clutch with your presence, Goblin Princess." She bowed her head, "As do your sister, your bonded, and his son. We have welcomed a new member to the clutch today."

DG glanced furtively at Wyatt to see if he had a reaction to Banu's comment, but he seemed to not be paying attention as he was enthralled with what appeared to be a battle of wills with a blood red dragon off to the right. She turned her attention back to the clutch matriarch and replied, "We had heard of the hatching of an egg. Is this not unusual so early in the birthing season?"

Banu nodded, "Ay, princess. It is. But the hatch went well, and Umit welcomed her first child with joy. The rest lies in the hands of Lurline."

DG nodded, turning her attention respectfully to Hakan, "We had been hoping for a morning flight, if you have four dragons willing to oblige, Father Hakan."

Hakan nodded, motioning toward Ayla and the dragons around her, "My daughter has been waiting for you since dawn, your highness. Yildiz, Zeki, and Savas will accompany you."

DG bowed again, approaching the four dragons in question. She greeted Ayla before introducing Wyatt, Jeb, and Az to their respective mounts. Yildiz was a dark green dragon with a mind all her own. She cocked her head at the elder princess with a huff, "You don't look like much."

Az put her hands on her hips in a slightly intimidating manner and replied, "And you like a big tree."

Yildiz tilted her head back and let out a bark of laughter. Her eyes were filled with something akin to mirth as she nodded, "Ay. We'll get along excellently, then."

Zeki was the smallest dragon there, but that wasn't saying very much. Jeb approached him with wide eyes, DG and his father at his side to make sure the meeting went well. The deep sea colored dragon cocked his own head at the boy-child, holding very still so as not to frighten him. However, when Jeb's hand passed over a particularly sensitive spot on Zeki's hide, the dragon couldn't help but chuckle.

Jeb's eyes grew wider and he smiled, rubbing the spot again. "You're ticklish!"

Zeki couldn't respond for the laughter that was wracking his form.

After the tickling ceased, Wyatt helped his son settle in front of the great dragon's wings and DG showed him where to hold on.

Jeb's wide eyes met hers, "Won't I hurt him holding on like that?"

DG shook her head. "This part here is kind of like a horse's mane. He can feel it when you pull, and that lets him know to slow down, but it doesn't hurt him. Don't worry, he won't let anything happen to you."

Jeb nodded, "I know."

Wyatt nodded once to his son before going to meet his own ride, Savas. This particular dragon looked scary … and kind of mean. Savas looked like the school yard bully everyone gave a wide berth, with crimson scales that seemed to bleed in the sunlight, he was an awe inspiring sight, indeed.

The princess gave Wyatt a smile when they got to the dragon, "Good luck," she said. Turning to the dragon she said, "Behave."

Savas just gave the dragon equivalent of an exasperated sigh. "I make no promises, Princess. Your bonded can take care of himself, I am sure."

DG glared at the dragon before nodding once to Wyatt and leaving to mount Ayla.

Wyatt watched her walk away before turning to the massive dragon before him. "I'm not in the mood to play a game of 'my horse is bigger than yours' with you. Why did you call me her bonded."

Savas lowered himself further to the ground. "Climb on, human. This conversation is one best not had on land where the ears of women and bond-mates cannot hear."

Wyatt easily hopped onto the dragon's back, and held on as Savas took off from the clutch grounds. When they were flying some hundreds of yards in the air, Savas began to speak:

"Between the Land and People there be

A Keeper in whom the power all see

Kept safe in the Guardian's embrace

With love, only to look upon his face

Land, Keeper, Guardian, three as one

Safe keep the People, the Darkness, and the Sun."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wyatt asked over the sound of the wind.

"You are her Guardian. Chosen to protect her by the Land," the wise dragon responded.

The human wasn't angry, exactly, but he did have a few questions that were popping into his mind and making him confused as hell. "Why? Don't she and I get a say in the matter?"

Savas was quiet for a while before responding, "The Labyrinth has her reasons. I believe your bonded knows what those reasons are - for I do not."

"Thank you for telling me," Wyatt said before dropping into a brooding silence for the remainder of the ride. How long had they been marked for each other and bound together? This must be what DG had wanted to talk about.

--

Meanwhile, DG and Ayla were having a much different sort of chat about the bonding.

"If I were human, lass," the dragon sighed.

"And unbound," DG added with a laugh. She looked over to where their bond-mates flew together before turning to look at Jeb atop Zeki. "I just hope that Jeb takes it well. He's never exactly had a mother."

"Don't worry, lass, everything will work itself out in the end. The boy's already fond of having you around. I can smell his love for the Labyrinth growing already. It's the man you need to be concerned with right now. Why have you not completed the bonding?"

DG shook her head, "I don't want him to think that I'm trapping him. He'd grow to hate me."

"No, lass. His love for you is strong - as it is with all bonded. He could no more hate you than I could hate Savas," Ayla soothed her fears. "He needs to know."

"If I know your bond-mate," DG replied dryly, "He already knows about the bonding."

Ayla chuckled, "Aye. Savas doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut about such things."

--

After the ride the humans left the clutch to walk back to the castle for breakfast. All the way to the family dining room DG insisted Wyatt and Jeb joined them in, the boy was gushing over how much fun he had with Zeki and, "Can we please go again tomorrow, Dad? Princess DG, you just have to convince Dad that we should go tomorrow!"

The three adults laughed as the four entered the dining room to find Queen Aerenesa, Prince Consort Ahamo, King Jareth, and Sarah already present.

DG embraced her uncle, giving him a kiss on the cheek as he commented, "I've just received a rather interesting report from the Helping Hands."

She smiled at him and shrugged, "He was getting on my nerves. Actually, with what he said, he's lucky I didn't drop him in the Bog."

Jareth scowled at his niece as the group moved to the buffet table set up with breakfast foods. "DG, that's the fifth time this month."

"They're all getting on my nerves," she replied, her eyes wide. Az snorted at the number. DG turned to her and shrugged, "You'd think they'd have gotten the hint by now. It's not my fault that the lot of them are as dense as over risen bread."

As the words came out of her mouth, the chef (a Halfling of Elvin and hobgoblin decent) came out of the kitchen with his hands on his hips. "It wouldn't have over risen if you hadn't decided it was the perfect opportunity to try to change water into fire and set the kitchen sink on fire."

DG smiled disarmingly at the chef, "I said I was sorry, Louis. I helped you clean it up, didn't I? And it didn't happen ever again."

Wyatt cocked his head at her, amazed that she was able to get into so much trouble. "How in Ozma's name do you set a sink on fire?"

She grinned at him, "Pure skill, my friend. And timing. It's all in the timing."

"And the elemental magick you shouldn't be learning for a few more years yet," Nesa said, easily falling into the role of the mother she had once been to the princess.

DG stiffened slightly as she got her food, Louis handing her one of the sticky buns that he had just brought out from the kitchen. She smiled at him before going to sit down at the table between Sarah and Azkadellia.

Ahamo leaned over to his wife and whispered a question in her ear, causing her to turn and answer in an equally soft voice. Based on the looks that were sent across the table at Wyatt and Jeb, DG made a fairly safe guess as to what their discussion was about.

"Mr. Cain," she said in a lilting tone. He turned to look at her across the table and she asked, "I've heard three different stories about how you acquired your dukedom and all are mutually exclusive. Would you terribly mind telling me which one is correct?"

Wyatt smirked slightly. "It's the least interesting of the three, I'm sure. There was a duke in the Ozarian court who was quite old and had no heir. He took a liking to Jeb and in the hopes that he'd one day take the title, the duke named me his heir. He died a month ago."

DG smiled dazzlingly at him, "That explains quite a bit, actually. Thank you."

--

After breakfast DG was going to take a walk into the city to check on a gift she had commissioned privately for her uncle and his bride, but was stopped from going by her birthparents' desire to speak with her immediately. Having had enough walking for the morning, Nesa requested the chat take place in the royal gallery that held portraits of their ancestors going back to even before the Great Gale.

DG clasped her hands behind her back as she led the way to the gallery with her parents in tow.

"What did you want to talk about?" DG asked, her eyes guarded and her voice civil. She hadn't exchanged two words with either of her parents since that terrible solstice eleven years before.

Nesa took a seat on one of the benches in the gallery as her husband examined the portraits that he had never seen before. She motioned for DG to sit beside her but the teen shook her head, "I'd rather stand."

The queen felt the constant ache in her heart increase at the refusal, but she smiled and said, "It's about your sister, Azkadellia."

"What about her?" DG asked, one eye keeping track of her father, who was standing in front of the portrait Jareth had commissioned to commemorate DG's sixteenth birthday.

"We are concerned about her relationship with one of the soldiers stationed at the palace," Nesa said very carefully, unsure how DG would react. "His name is Adrian Zero."

DG's posture was stiff and hard as she turned from the painting of a very young looking Jareth she had been inspecting. "I will only say this once, and once only," her voice held a quality to it that demanded respect and obedience, "You will in no way interfere with Az's relationship with Adrian Zero. He is a good man, and just because he is a commoner is no reason to dismiss the possibility of him being a loving husband for Azkadellia. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that your own husband was a commoner before you married, Mother."

"DG you're not even listening to me!" Nesa cried, indignant. "He is a terrible influence on your sister - she's been found by guards asleep with him in the gardens on multiple occasions."

"So she's a little impulsive - so what?" DG shot back, anger rising. She pointed her finger at her mother and said, "She's not in danger and she's happy. She deserves to be happy, Mother. I swear to Lurline that if you so much as give him a dirty look I will withdraw all Goblin support from your shared border with King Jackson."

It was a heavy threat not to be taken lightly: the border was long and thin, and Nesa didn't have the man power to keep it secure without the help of her brother's army. "You wouldn't risk the commoners like that, DG."

DG held her head high as she rebutted, "No, Mother, the question is: Would you?"

Without another word she gave her father a nod and turned on her heel and left. Her forceful strides took her through the castle and into the city that surrounded it. None of those that saw her even thought to stop her or ask where she was going. There was no where safer for the Goblin Princess to be than in the Goblin City in the center of the Labyrinth.

She made her way steadily through the city, stopping in front of the forge and attached shop she had come to know well.

She entered the shop without knocking, a smile firmly planted on her face so as not to cause the children of the silversmith any anxiety.

Immediately upon entering the shop, she saw the smith's eldest child, a son by the name of Vico. He was about twenty-five annuals, a big, bulky man like his father. His face was kind, by no means handsome, but kind with dark green eyes and an over all appearance that reminded DG of an actor's from the Other Side that she had heard of a short time ago - Kevin Sorbo, she was pretty sure the name was. He smiled at the princess in greeting, "Good day, Princess DG."

"Good day, Vico," she replied, taking a deep breath. For some reason she always felt better among the smells of metal and grease and fire than she did among fabric and needles and seamstresses. "Is your father in? He told me that my order would be ready today."

Vico nodded, motioning toward the back with his hand, "He's in the back. I'll go tell him you're here."

DG shook her head, gesturing to the rest of the storefront, "That's okay, leave it be for a moment. I want to look around."

"Help yourself, Princess. Let me know if you see anything you like."

"I will, Vico," she promised, turning her attention to the metal puzzles that had attracted her attention. She picked out one that she thought Jeb would enjoy - it looked like a magickal version of a Rubix Cube.

Just as she started looking around for something for Az, Vico's father, Eamon, came into the main shop with a woman who looked vaguely familiar to DG by his side.

Eamon smiled warmly at the princess, "Your highness, I have your order right in the back here. I'll only be a minute getting it. Have you met my sister, Adora? She's just arrived back from her travels."

DG kept her face a pleasant mask as she greeted the woman she could now place as Wyatt's ex-wife and Jeb's mother. "I'm pleased to meet you, Adora," she said in a polite manner, "Your brother and nephew are most accomplished metal craftsmen."

Adora smiled back, "As was our father before them, your highness."

DG nodded, "It was a sad day for all of us when he passed."

As DG spoke some more with her bond-mate's ex-wife, she noticed more and more that there was so much of Adora in Jeb. DG was positive it must be a point of constant pain for Wyatt whenever he looked upon his son's face.

When Eamon came back out with a box which he set down on the counter top for DG to inspect, she was greatly pleased with his craftsmanship, and that of his son's. With a genuine grin on her face she thanked him, paid for the pieces (including the cube puzzle for Jeb) and made a hasty retreat.

She had so much to talk to Wyatt about.

A/N: Sorry about the wait. I hope the size helped to make up for the discomfort of biting your nails in anticipation. FiestyFox was right in her assessment that school takes the fun out of the college experiance.

Be prepared for major DG/Wyatt interaction in the next chapter.