Chapter 2 - Chapter Two

Walking, walking, walking. All I had done since the sun thought it smart to rise about the horizon was walk. My feet ached and I was covered in grime and sweat. As a princess, this wasn't something I was really used to. When I had been younger, I had learned the basics in sword-fighting and gotten sweaty; I had gardened with some of the yardsmen. But I hadn't done things like that in ages. And it was taking its toll.

Sometime earlier, as it was about midday, I had used my magic book to cast a small spell to limit my walking distance. Crossing over hundreds of miles wasn't my idea of an ideal experience, so I shortened the trip with a simple ten-league stride spell, or something of a similar kind. I came upon a town rather close to the foot of the dragon's mountains and canceled the spell, interested in purchasing something to eat. In my haste to depart the night before, I had forgotten to pack anything to eat. Somehow, though, that didn't surprise me.

I walked by lush farmland as I approached the village, my stomach screaming at me in outrage that I had forgotten it. I smiled as I passed the cows and sheep. I had always liked animals, even if my brother thought that animals were just stupid beasts. Taking in stray cats and dogs had been a favorite pass-time of mine before my parents passed away.

As I moved closer to the village, I began to hear two men arguing. Curious, I slowed as I passed by them. They stood in a field, both dressed in finery I wouldn't have expected to see on farmers. One, the taller, wore fine purples and blues to match his blue-black hair. I could make out glittering silver embroidery on the hems of his clothes as well. The other wore greens, a light green tunic and deep green pants which tucked into tall leather boots. His brown hair flowed passed his shoulders in waves. Both looked very angry as they stood, yelling at each other, over the corpse of a cow.

I approached, somewhat quietly, tugging on my blonde braid as it flopped over my shoulder. They didn't notice me at all; they just continued to shout at each other.

“Uh… excuse me,” I ventured, leaning myself a bit closer to them to try and catch their attention.

They ignored me.

“Damn it, Nagash, the blasted animal is mine! I caught it!” the brown haired man roared.

The black haired man, Nagash, looked bored as he replied, “Yes. And then it got away and I killed it, Jonah. Stop doging about it.”

I frowned. Why are they arguing about who got to keep a dead cow? I wondered to myself, watching them go back and forth a bit more.

Finally, annoyed at the fact that they were ignoring me, a princess, I placed my hands on a cocked hip and shouted, rather loudly over them, “Excuse me!”

They stopped and turned to me.

“What?” they both demanded. Jonah glowered at Nagash (I suppose for saying the same as he), who ignored him completely as he focused on me.

“Why, in the name of all holy things, are you arguing over a dead cow?” I asked, giving them a bewildered look. “Just split the animal down the middle and be done with it before the flies and vultures get at it.”

“Half a cow is hardly a sufficient meal,” Jonah growled, sounding petulant and grumpy. I noticed that he had dimples. It made him look adorable. Then his words registered.


“Hardly sufficient?” I demanded. I shook a finger at him. “Half a cow can feed at least six people!”

Nagash arched an eyebrow and then threw back his head, laughing, as Jonah looked at me, obviously annoyed.

“Stupid human,” Jonah growled. A sudden feeling of apprehensiveness bloomed in my stomach, dropping like a rock to the bottom and making me nauseas. Jonah turned to Nagash. “She thinks we're humans.”

That, to me, sounded rather dumb. “Well, you certainly look like humans,” I pointed out.

Nagash, finally done laughing (not that I would particularly mind if he continued laughing as long as the laughter wasn't directed at me), smiled at me. The smile was hardly warm and didn't reach his blue eyes. “Never meddle in the affairs of Dragons,” he said to me. I immediately backed up a step. “For you are crunchy,” he added, almost thoughtfully, “and taste good with ketchup.”

I swallowed hard. “Dragons,” I said weakly. “You're both dragons.”

Nagash shot me a look. “We aren't dragons,” he snapped. “We are Dragons. Damnable creatures you've become not to recognize the difference.”

I couldn't hear a difference. “Oh. I, uh, see,” I lied.

“Liar,” Nagash said quickly, advancing on me. “I rather don't like when people interrupt a meal, insult me, and then lie to me,” he growled.

I laughed nervously, stepping backwards each time he stepped forward. “I wasn't aware I insulted you,” I said, trying to muster as much courage as I could.

He chuckled. Again, laughing at me. I really didn't appreciate that, but I really wasn't in a position that would allow me to point that out. “You called me a dragon, little human,” he said. “A very large insult, I must say. Don't you concur, Jonah?”

Jonah froze in place, his hands hovering above the corpse of the cow. “Er, yes. Of course I agree, my Lord.”

I frowned, and then suddenly realized that I was on familiar ground. “Wait a moment!” I said quickly, holding up a hand as if that would stop the Dragon Nagash's advance. “You called him `my Lord' and yet you fought with him?” I asked.

Jonah looked slightly distressed as Nagash's eyes turned calculating on me. “Yes…” he replied hesitantly.

“Well, that's obscene!” I exclaimed. “If he truly is your Lord, than surely you would yield the cow to him and not horde it for yourself.”

Nagash's lips twisted into a smile. “How right she is, Jonah.”

Jonah looked sullen and annoyed. “Very well. I'll go find another lunch.” A ripple flowed over his skin as he shifted from human to Dragon. I stared at him as he transformed. Scales blossomed over the rippling skin, greener than the grass on which we stood. His body contorted and twisted gracefully as his face elongated into a snout and his arms shortened. His legs became thick and powerful and he sprouted a tail nearly as long as he. Wings, large membranous things with claws on the ends, stretched above us as he leaped into the air. With a powerful downward thrust of his wings, he was gone.

Nagash turned back to me, gracing me with the same smile that he had given Jonah. “I commend you, Princess, on your ability to send a Dragon to the sky,” he said smoothly.

“Well, it wasn't really me,” I said, tugging my braid. “It was more you and me reminding him about you, since you are his lord and all, and I figured that would strike him and…” I trailed off, frowned, and then looked up at him. “What position do you hold, exactly, as his Lord?”

Nagash's smile grew. “I am Nagash of aelle Bastkarwa, wyvern of the gold and silver dragons, Keeper of Fire and Ice.”

I frowned, scrunching up my nose, not sure if I was supposed to understand any of what he just said.

With a frustrated sigh, he barked, “I'm the bloody king of the Dragons, you thick-headed princess!”

My eyes widened. “Oh,” I managed. Suddenly, things weren't looking so great. I had insulted the king of the Dragons, it appeared.

He approached me, his smile still on his face. His blue eyes sparkled at me, laughing at some joke only he knew. I had the sinking suspicion that the joke was on me.

“As you have insulted me, my dear Princess, you must make amends. As you are a princess, and I currently have no princess of my own, I shall take you back to my caves,” he said, his skin rippling as he shifted his own form.

Jonah's transformation had been shocking and beautiful to watch, as I had never seen a Dragon change from his human form to his Dragon form. But where Jonah's transformation was beautiful, Nagash's stole my breath. His body changed as if it flowed like water, his skin vanishing under deep blue scales. When he stood before me, completely transformed, he was huge. We were near a tree and, when he lifted his head to its full length in a stretch, he easily reached above it.

With a strange look that I assumed was his way of smiling, he bent his face so that it fell level with mine. “What is your name, Princess?” he asked me.

“Azaphora,” I replied, starting to shake. His head alone had to be as long as I was tall. “But everyone calls me Aza because I don't really like-”

“Azaphora. It suits you.” Suddenly, he lunged forward and I was caught in his claws. When I finally gained my bearings, I was hundreds of feet above the ground and pressed up against a rather dead cow.

I did the only thing I could think of.

I fainted.

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