Jaythen counted the days it took to travel to the Imperial City by making a hatch mark into the sole of one of his boots with the sword he had accidentally stolen from Scharberlutes.
On the day of third hatch mark, they found an inn on the side of a road meant for travelers. He was achy and had only been able to eat what Avalyn had caught and shared, so the inn seemed like paradise to him when he stepped over the threshold.
"Good day," the innkeeper called from the common room, it was empty.
"Good day," Jaythen nodded, reminded that he wouldn't be known as the young lord that he was, wearing the clothes he was wearing, looking as ragged as he appeared. He was somebody else completely—just as he always had wanted—yet he couldn't find a happiness within him to celebrate the wish come true.
Avalyn stepped in behind him and she had been in one of her moods since they had fled Scharberlutes—but he didn't know why since she had turned to dragon many times since, so it could not be attributed to the pent up anger of being trapped in human form for too long.
"What price is a room?" He asked the innkeeper.
The innkeeper was a middle-aged man with a beard that Jaythen could be envious of. He wiped his hands on the legs of his breeches and stood from where he was sitting, "10 silver coin, and you get a free breakfast. I make the best eggs in this area of the realm."
"What part of the realm are we in?"
Neither of the travelers had known for they had seen no signs along the road that indicated their exact whereabouts.
"The Eastern Highlands."
Jaythen nodded, somewhat disheartened—they were still far from the Imperial City, and even farther from Wendbury. He would have liked to pay for board in song but knew that was only nonsense accepted in Scharberlutes. He extracted five gold pieces from his money pouch—the value of ten silver ones and paid the man. He led them up the stairs to the last door in the hallway.
"This is a good room, all the way in the back so any noises won't be heard by other people," the innkeeper grinned and unlocked the door with one of the keys off a ring of many—although, there were no other people to speak of.
Avalyn and Jaythen gave the innkeeper a baffled look at his remark but then Jaythen blushed, realizing his insinuation. It would only be assumed they would be husband and wife since they had no chaperones and she was wearing a ring on her finger.
"Thank you," Jaythen said and entered. Avalyn had stepped in before him.
"Let me know if you need anything at all," the innkeeper mentioned before taking leave.
Jaythen only nodded and then closed the door behind him.
"There's only one bed," Avalyn stated coldly, looking at the single, wide frame.
"Of course there is, he thinks we're married."
She flipped around with startlement, and a hint of exasperation, "Not this again."
He unbuckled the straps of his vest, just to take it off and rest a little. They had been walking for days, only to stop when they slept, ate, or relieved themselves.
"Would you rather have him think that you're my lady of the night? Because if we're not married, then you are my whore," he shrugged as he sat on a chair to pull off his boots, "I don't know about you but I'd rather be viewed as respectable."
"I don't want to be married, and I don't want to be a whore," she crossed her arms in a frustrated manner.
"Then what do you want to be?" he snapped, growing weary of her mood.
She fell to a sitting position on the edge of the bed, "I want to be normal."
He then realized that when she had said that she didn't want to be who she was, she had meant that she didn't want to be a girl that could turn dragon—which he hadn't known that fact at the time. He had always assumed she didn't want to be a commoner. He sighed, I really don't pay attention.
He yawned, ready for a nap now that he was on a bed, "If you were normal, would you be less irritable that you are now?"
She glared at him, "You owe me a favor in return for my singing to win you those worthless potions."
He smirked sarcastically, "And what favor will you ask—"
"Do not speak further. You're getting on my nerves."
---
He took a nap but was awoken harshly by Avalyn's laughter—a noise so very rare, he almost couldn't believe it. He opened his eyes and saw she was standing at the foot of the bed with her hands pressed onto her sides, nearly buckling over from shaking so hard.
"What?" he asked and was rather alarmed at her curious behavior.
She tried standing up straight but could barely look at him for more than two seconds before starting off into another bout.
He scratched his chin but found that there was hair, shielding it. He prickled with excitement but it soon turned to worry when the hair didn't stop, it kept going. It grew the length of his midsection. He was dismayed to find that the hair on his head had grown as well, but also as long. He had longer hair than Avalyn!
She just kept laughing, so very amused at the way he looked, and the way a panic reached his blue eyes.
"I take it back, those potions weren't worthless," she howled and grabbed up a handful of his beard so he could see its effect.
"What are you just standing there for? Go fetch me a razor and some cream to shave with!"
She did leave, but not without a mighty guffaw at his situation. He fingered his long beard, unbelieving that the little potion held so much hair-growth power. The razor wouldn't be able to do much, the more he thought about it—he had too much hair.
He picked up the stolen sword that he had set by the nightstand and started to hack at his extra hair, it dropped in piles at his feet. He got his hair as short far as the middle of his neck before fearing he might cut off an ear if he continued, and he stopped his beard a few inches from his chin.
Avalyn stepped back into the room and stared at the piles of dark hair gathered on the floor, and then she looked at the young lord who sat on the bed with his elbow balanced on the handle of his sword—her mouth twitched into a smile.
She handed him a razor and a bowl of cream for him to tidy his appearance up, but still couldn't help but to laugh.
He returned her smile, as it was sort of a humorous predicament. He spread the cream over his chin and carefully removed the remaining extra facial hair. He ended up with a modest layer on the point of his chin that merged into a small strip of facial hair right under his lower lip—a style that was known to be popular in the King's court. He cleared his upper lip of hair entirely as it made his nose itch. He washed the remnants of the cream away with a handful of water from the room's basin and dried it on his sleeve.
"Is it better?" He asked, since there was no mirror.
She tipped her head to study him, still with a radiant smile full of humor, "Yes. Much."
They tried to gather up the remaining piles of his hair and ended stuffing it with the straw in the bed's mattress to dispose of it without raising question of where it had all suddenly come from. Even though the situation was sudden and bothersome, he was glad it had happened, not only because he now had facial hair but because Avalyn was smiling—she was out of her mood and once again fond of him.
---
On the tenth day that he marked the soul of his boot, they came to a city. It wasn't yet the one that they sought but it was the city Avalyn was known to be from to all the courtiers of Wendbury—Prition.
Prition housed a larger population, and was governed over by Petrin, Count of Prition. He informed Avalyn of the city's facts and she gave a slight laugh, "Petrin of Prition?"
"What is so amusing to you about that?"
"Try saying that five times, fast"
"Petrin of Prition, Petrin of Prition, Pertchrin of Prichin, Pret—huh, that is funny," he gave up after his slop-up of the third saying. That was a thing he had, over their traveling, come to like Avalyn for—noticing little things, especially those that were unusually amusing.
Suddenly her eyes lit up, "You said this was a city that held dances often?"
He nodded apprehensively, because he only knew about court dances and he did not wish to announce himself to Petrin's court and have it be known he was there—word would surly spread—Halden would surly hunt him down and finish what he had started.
"Let us find an inn to stay at," He gently pushed her forward. They walked the cobblestone streets of the city, searching for lodgings. Along the way they had stopped at any villages near the main road and Avalyn would sing for the residents, and in return they would receive copper or even silver coins for the people enjoyed her song.
They came across the Waltz Inn, which was much nicer than any of the road traveler establishments they had found along the way. It was more expensive too, but Jaythen could part with gold and silver coin to enjoy some bit of luxury that he missed. The price for a room was thirty silver coin, which equaled fifteen gold coin. He paid in ten gold coin and ten silver coin.
When they entered their room, it was one bed as always. They had shared the bed every time because Jaythen couldn't bring himself to sleep on an uncomfortable floor when he had paid for it. Avalyn never wanted to sleep on the floor either, and to her discontent, shared the bed with the young lord nevertheless—although she always snatched the blankets away and stayed far on the other side until morning.
He had asked her why they couldn't fly and get to the destination more quickly, but she replied that it was too dangerous to fly during the day since people could see her in the sky.
"Then why did you change to dragon in a market full of people if you fear such a risk?" he nagged.
She only sighed with exasperation, knowing that he knew the answer but he was just asking to be bothersome.
He suggested they could fly by night, but that would require that they sleep during the day, which they just had never gotten around to doing and so their sleep cycles were still awake by day, asleep by night.
Jaythen fell backwards onto the soft mattress and spread out his arms over his head with a content smile, relishing the comfort.
"Can we go dancing?"
His smile faded, "I'm not sure—"
"Please? It's been so long!"
"It's only been a few weeks!"
"Still, that is much too long to go between dancing," she fell onto the bed next to him on her stomach and opened her eyes so pleadingly wide that he had to sigh and agree.
"Very well, we shall go out this evening and dance."
She pushed herself up with a dazzling smile—pleased that she had gotten her way.
He sent Avalyn to go out and buy some undergarments because she still had none since they had left Wendbury, which had been uncomfortable for her. He trusted her with half the content of his purse—because he didn't know how much ladies undergarments cost.
While she was gone he had his clothes taken by one of the inn's maids for washing. The city inns provided more services to their guests as well. He had never really been out on his own before—even when he was in the Imperial City he had two guards of Wendbury in his company. Now all he had was Avalyn.
She's not so bad, he thought as he waited for his clothes to be returned clean. Even though she was something in between human and dragon, she still acted—for the most part—human. She was well-spoken, intelligent, and often fierce in her moods but in rare occurrences when she lost all the weight of the world—she was absolutely charming.
He wanted to know more about her mother though, Alys—she said was the lady's name. When they found Alys, could she explain why Avalyn had the ability to transform into a dragon? Would she have a valid explanation to why she had abandoned her daughter with peasants, in the middle of nowhere?
There was a knock on the door and Jaythen went to answer it, finding his clothes clean, dry, and folded at the foot of the door when he opened it. He dressed and then waited for Avalyn. She returned with decent undergarments and gave him any extra money that was left over.
"They are having a festival soon, out in the city plaza at sundown—there were musicians! I'm sure they are planning to dance, can we go to it?" she mentioned as she dressed into them, while he waited on the other side of the door.
He found himself very willing to rather attend the festival than satisfy her craving for dance by going to court. He nodded, "We shall."
---
The ale and the dancing had them both laughing and feeling free. When Avalyn made him dance with her, all he could focus on in the boisterous atmosphere of movement was the girl with green eyes and that smile of hers, radiant as he held her—her hair flowing between them, and her eyes lit up so bright—they almost looked inhuman. She had thoroughly enchanted all the men at the festival, and he felt a twinge of jealousy seeing her laughing with them. The dances were always fast paced and nearly chaotic for him as he didn't know the steps to most of them, but he enjoyed the twirling. However, most of all, he could now enjoy the feeling of being someone else—not Jaythen of Wendbury. The young count-to-be would be looked down upon for partaking in lowly commoner festivals and dances.
"If I truly were from Prition, I would be saddened to have left," Avalyn smiled as she took a seat next to him, nursing her feet from all the dancing.
"I'll buy you a house here then," he handed her a mug and toasted her. She shook her head and laughed at the absurdity, taking a swig.
He finished off his mug and laughed while looking at the bottom of it, "I don't even know what this festival is honoring."
"Neither do I, but I enjoyed it nonetheless."
He glanced at her and noted how cheerful she was. Dancing must have been the something to cause her release, to forget her troubles and cares. He wished that he had something of the sort, because he could think of nothing that rendered him as happy as she seemed at the moment.
"Can you tell me about Alys?"
Her smile dropped immediately. If the act of dancing made her lose her worries, then the mention of her mother brought them all back.
"What do you want to know?
"What sort of lady is she?"
Avalyn was also done with her mug of ale and slammed it on the table behind her, standing abruptly and taking leave of him.
He sighed, cursing himself for putting her back into a foul mood. He had hoped that in her lightness of mood, she would have been more willing to talk about her mother. Apparently, all the lightness of mood in the world could not overcome the darkness that filled her when her mother was brought up. He now could only stand and go after her and hope she would forgive him for his impudence.
A/N: For anyone interested, I made another visualization of Avalyn, this time in her golden dress on the same link in my profile. Thanks for reading!