The sun was shining in his eyes again. Even though his eyelids were closed, the brightness shone through enough to ease him out of sleeping. The ground was hard and his back ached terribly, not used to such meager comfort. He opened an eye and glanced at his surroundings. Neither a human nor dragon Avalyn was seen.
He started up but wished it hadn't been so fast because he felt dizzy from the motion.
"Avalyn!" He called into the daylight. He stood fully, glancing for any sign of her. She was gone.
"Avalyn!?"
He took the time to crack knots out of his muscles that had formed overnight by stretching his arms behind his head and after a few moments, a shadow fell across him and he looked up to see the dragon, flying overhead. He was relieved that she had not left him for good, but apprehensive of her flying above him. She held something in her claws and dropped it. He shouted in horror and jumped back from a landed elk carcass. Its body was ripped in half and its blood had stained its coat of fur.
The dragon landed, stirring up loose dirt around them. He eyed her cautiously; knowing the girl with green eyes was somewhere within but yet still fearful of her mighty form. Her claw landed over the carcass and the head of the beast came down and ripped an entire leg of the elk away, gulping it down between thrashing chews.
God, she eats the same way in either form, he noted, reminded of the way she gobbled the tarts. He forced himself to stop staring because it was making his stomach weak.
He turned around, trying to discern where he was—the air was back to being colder and it meant they were, thankfully, probably far from Scharberlutes.
"Do you want some elk?"
He nearly jumped out of his skin and turned to regard her, although she was naked so he kept turning—out of a chivalrous habit—ending up facing the way he had started out. He found himself to be feeling rather grumpy that morning, due to being hungry and uncomfortable.
"Do you always sneak up on people?" He snapped. His stomach gave a loud gurgling rumble to answer her question when he didn't.
He heard her huff, and only reply, "I'll fire it for you."
What could have only been the sound of growing bones and muscles, sounded from behind him. The dragon breathed a stream of fire at a large bush, igniting it in flames and then threw the remainder of the elk onto it. She didn't change back, just plopped down on her hind legs and waited for it to cook—all the while watching him.
He scratched the side of his face and in that motion, was reminded of its smoothness. He anxiously grabbed up the knapsack from where he had slept and found the vial that held the blue liquid inside. He tugged the stopper out of the opening and drank the potion. It tasted like blueberries.
He took in a breath, closed his eyes and waited for it to happen—for a beard to instantly grow. The dragon watched for it too but after a few moments of nothing, she yawned and lay down, her head set onto her folded claws with disinterest.
Jaythen looked into the bottle to see if there were any extra drops he hadn't drank, but the bottle was purely empty. An anger grew within him and he threw the bottle to the ground with all his might. It crashed into hundreds of little pieces. His shoulders heaved as he took in angry breaths.
"He tricked me!"
She regarded his shout, but only for a moment before standing and pulling the elk off of the fire with her mouth. It lay on the ground with heavy steam rising off of it.
"That scoundrel swindled me!" Jaythen was still furious and in a tantrum at the fact he wasn't growing a beard.
The dragon stepped behind him while he glared into nothing.
"Perhaps it serves you right, trying to make yourself into something you're not."
He didn't appreciate her sass or the way she silently returned to her human shape. He twisted around to see her grab her dress up from the knapsack and cover herself quickly—seeing in turn, that he was staring upon her. She coughed and gave him a prodding look.
"What?"
"Turn around."
"Why?"
"So I can get dressed," she rolled her eyes as if he was the dumbest boy in the world.
"What difference does it make? You got naked for the bandits—you can stop pretending that you have any modesty," He was suddenly irked at the fact she had done it, no matter if the action had saved them. If she had been a regular girl, not one that could turn to dragon—the action would have been stupid and dangerous. Now she was urging him to look away as if she was a shy, innocent maiden. He would daresay she was acting like a minx.
Her brows set in a deep frown at his remark, "I did so because I knew they would become distracted by looking at me—you always seem to be distracted when I am not clothed."
He felt self-conscious at her accusation and averted his stare to disprove it.
"No matter, I saved us."
"Why didn't you just turn dragon in the first place?"
Again she looked at him as though he was the dumbest boy in the world, "If I would have transformed outright, I would have destroyed my garments and I did not want the hassle of trying to find new ones after everything was done."
"What? Is that why you are always undressed?"
"If it doesn't escape your attention—which wouldn't surprise me if it did—a dragon cannot fit into a dress."
He did turn around finally to give her privacy from his eyes and she did don her green dress, leaving the back of the bodice untied, as her arms couldn't reach all the way up her back to tie them. Her long hair hid the fact that the back of it was open though, covering her skin. She did not even ask him to tie the laces like she had before.
"That elk should be about cool enough for you to eat," she brushed past him, indifferently—annoyed again—but this time he was the cause.
He nodded and broke off some of the burnt meat from the inside of the creature. He was not used to this kind of living—the hard ground, the half mangled meal, the near-death experiences, and the girl who could be dragon.
He bit off pieces from the bigger one, glad to at least have food. His stomach felt better, after consuming the cooked meat.
When he was finished he looked toward Avalyn, who was sitting on the ground in a sulking manner—perhaps contemplating if it would best to just eat him and be rid of him. She had done so much for him in the past two days that he didn't know if he could ever repay her. It didn't help that through his grouchiness he seemed ungrateful.
That thought of payment reminded him of his dwindling gold coin pouch—money was never a concern for Jaythen. He always had it and if he didn't, he could always get more. He opened the pouch and counted thirty-five gold pieces.
"So what now?" he asked.
She snapped out of her annoyed contemplation and considered his question. Her head tilted ever so slightly as she regarded him, caused her hair to fall over her shoulder, "I am going to find my mother."
"Right," he nodded, though the method to find the woman she had spoken of would take months—just wandering from town to town and asking her mother's name, "Can you remember anything of the places you went? Perhaps that would be a start—to go there and ask around to where your mother had gone next."
Her head stayed at its angle as she contemplated his thought. After a few moments she licked her lips as if they were dry, and her voice had a waver he wasn't used to, "I remember a water fountain we used to play around, it was all white and had a figure of a lady bearing water."
Jaythen knew that fountain; he had passed it many times while in the Imperial City.
"The Aquarius Fountain."
Her eyes widened at once, "Where is it?"
"Where is it?"
"Wendbury?"
"I've never been there."
Jaythen looked down to his lap, where Nicolette's head lay, and she stared back up to him expectantly. He was sitting on the ledge of the Aquarius Fountain with Nicolette laying into him. It was a hot summer day in July and they didn't feel like moving. Although he was supposed to report back to his lessons soon, he was only on a short break—and thankfully the princess was free in her time as well. They seemed fated to be together during those moments.
"Wendbury is a city, of substantial size, a fortnight northwest of this one."
"I've had dresses bought for me from the dressmaker that lives there."
"Devlin?" Jaythen laughed, just a little homesick at the mention of it, "I would be surprised if royalty such as yourself didn't own one of his gowns."
"I love them. Remember the red one I wore when I first met you?"
How could he forget? He nodded in affirmation.
"That one, was one of his."
He absently played with locks of her hair and craned his neck back to study the white marble figure of the Madame Aquarius. Water pumped out of the jug she held over her shoulders into a suspended bowl that contained many holes so the water, in turn streamed out of those into the main pool. He stuck his hand in the water, relishing the coolness on his skin as opposed to the sweltering sun. Without thought, he playfully swished a handful of water out of the pool and onto the princess. She screamed and shot up—shocked that he would do such a thing to her.
She took note of his unapologetic smile and then smiled herself, pushing into him, so he fell over the ledge and into the fountain.
"I have to go to back to lessons soon!"
"Then I suggest you get dry."
He charged out of the fountain suddenly very soggy and rushed at her. She screamed in surprise, picked up her skirts and started off in a run. He gladly chased her. They both knew it was scandalous to be running around together like so, for the gardens were a public place, meant to be shared with the entire city—they were in danger to be seen by anyone but yet no one was in the gardens on such a hot day.
She ran all way to the orchard and tried hiding behind the many trees but she was wearing a bright blue dress and was easy to spot between the green. He finally caught up to her, grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and they tumbled to the ground—he getting her wet by pressing against her, causing her to squeal and he laughing all the while.
They stopped rolling when he laid over her and gave a quick kiss to her lips. He sighed pleasantly, despite the wetness that drenched him, and looked upon her—his princess who he so dearly loved. She was panting, perspiring, and her auburn hair was tousled and spread out about her shoulders and he could see that she enjoyed their play as much as he.
"Please do not ever leave me," she laughed and reached up to wipe away his wet locks of hair that had fallen across his brow and stuck there.
"As long as you never leave me."
"Jaythen!"
He shook his head, all the images of the princess and their tomfoolery at the Aquarius Fountain fleeting from his mind. How silly of them to wish each other not to leave when it would be inevitable. She left me first though, he thought bitterly.
"Well?" Avalyn's lips were pressed, her face in a frown. Apparently his grouchiness had rubbed off on her.
"What?"
"Where is this fountain you claim to know?"
He felt guilt all of a sudden, losing his concentration to Nicolette—who didn't even love him anymore, who wasn't even there—when he was trying to be of aid to the girl with green eyes.
He cleared his throat, "It's in the center of the gardens in the Imperial City."
Avalyn bit her lip with a mild, unspoken worry, and receded into her thoughts once more.
He didn't dare let himself think of the girl that had broken his heart. So he thought of other things—but they only saddened him. Halden's betrayal, his father's death, his growing worry that they would have to beg for proper food and lodgings once they reached a town. He looked to Avalyn who was concentrated too hard on a deep thought and so had remained silent for a long moment.
"I don't think you've ever told me your mothers name yet," he said, just to get her to talk again. That, and he was genuinely curious.
She sighed, "She called herself by many names to the people we came across, I don't know why—"
"So you don't know her true name?"
Her eyes snapped onto him in a green blaze, "Of course I do."
"Then what is it?" He didn't understand why she was so touchy about it.
She pulled out the silver chain of her necklace from the under the neckline of her dress and twirled it, not focused on him but the amethyst jewel set in the amulet that dangled there—the one her mother gave her. She seemed to debate whether or not to tell him. She never had liked sharing information about her mother and he wondered why she kept such matters bottled up inside of her. What would it accomplish?
He shook his head, wishing she would open up to him—although, he had been acting in an idiotic manner all morning and didn't deserve such a privilege. He began to move away with regret in his mind but stopped seeing her straighten her posture from the corner of his eye. Perhaps she would tell him after all.
"Alys," She said it fast, decidedly, and with it, a flicker of unnamable emotion shot through her emerald eyes before disappearing just like a shooting star would across the night sky.
A/N: So it finally you know how it ties in, it only took 16 chapters! Who didn't see that coming? Who did or even suspected? I'd like to think I was writing mysteriously but if it was obvious from the beginning then... oh well at least there are still other mysteries to be solved in later chapters. ;)