Page 19 of The Witch & the Dragon

I do have something in mind. How are you about taking a short flight away from the academy?

A flight? She stared at the words for a moment, her heartbeat picking up its pace as she considered them. He wanted to take her somewhere. She’d be… clinging onto a scaly dragon’s back.

Is it safe? I won’t end up plummeting to my death or something because you want to do a loop in the air.

I promise not to do any loops. :)

I’d appreciate that. Can you imagine the mess they’d have to clean up?

Yeah, uh… so, ten minutes outside?

Ten minutes outside it was. After a quick spritz of perfume, some frantic dashing around, and locating a warm hoody just in case it got super chilly up in the air, she walked to the gardens just outside the main entrance. He was already waiting and happily waved at her. She waved back just as happily, noting how his face lit up.

“We’re off on an adventure, are we? I’m always happy if you want to tell me where we’re going.”

“I promise it’s nowhere scary,” he said, grinning.

Those deep green eyes of his seemed to sparkle in the light. “But I hope you don’t mind if I keep it a surprise for now.”

Intrigued, she approached him, and they walked together to a large space within the gardens. He wore a smile as he began to transform into his beautiful draconic form, a creamy silver that gave him an almost angelic appearance. She gaped at the form for a moment, realizing she’d never actually seen a dragon that looked like this. Dragons could come in all colors, but some were less common than others. Those green eyes now appeared luminous. A long, silvery, pointed snout tapered into wide frills with tiny webbing between the spikes. The neck was thick and horse-like, and the wings, currently folded, unfurled into a magnificent spread, like white sail cloths.

She was somewhat relieved to see very little spikes on the main body itself, which might have made for some awkward seating arrangements. He bowed toward her and knelt on his front limbs, offering a perch for her to climb onto his body. Nervous but excited, she climbed up, hoping she wasn’t hurting him, though he showed no signs of discomfort. He was slightly larger than a draft horse. Not quite house-sized as she’d been imagining, but comfortable enough to sit on and definitely comfortable enough to make it onto the balcony, as Chloe had seen so many of the students and teachers do throughout the day and night.

“Wow, you’re so beautiful,” she said, finding a comfortable nook that was just behind his shoulder blades and wings. The shoulder blades themselves had these little grooves on the sides, which she now used to hold on to. Again, he didn’t react to her touch. Perhaps in dragon form, they were far less sensitive to physical manipulation. He did, however, react to the beauty comment, and his wings sort of ruffled and puffed out.

“You think so? I’ve always thought that for a dragon, my type of coloring is very plain. You have all sorts of wonderful shades of red, green, blue, and more. Black is also imposing and ominous. My color, however? Not typically the kind of color you’d associate with a dragon.”

“It makes you seem angelic,” she said, running a hand along the smooth, almost silk-like texture of the wings. Bats were leathery, birds were feathery – but this – this was something else.

He craned his neck to see what she was doing and then shifted his wing closer for easier access. “It’s intriguing to see you admire my form in this way. I’m not used to it. I forget, when surrounded by other dragons, how strange this must be to someone who doesn’t shapeshift, who doesn’t have the kind of upbringing a dragon shifter has.”

“It seems a little alien at times,” Chloe confessed, still caressing the wing. “You have your own micro societies, separate from the normal world. Just as I suppose, Dreadmor has its wildland area, separate from the real world, yet living alongside it, you have status and different ideals than humans. But I don’t really know how you view yourself. Do you think yourself separate from humans and fae entirely? Do you guys think kindly of us? Or?”

“That’s a lot of questions, and not all of them so simple to answer,” he said, spreading his snout into a toothy grin. “Let’s just say we are as diverse as humans are, from clan to clan, country to country. Some ideals that I value, a dragon from another place would find abhorrent. Some of us see ourselves as more human but with the ancestry of dragons. Others see us as more draconic, with the ancestry of humans. As for me… I am the former. Human is our normal form. The dragon is an elevated form, powerful, wild, and fun. But not really that convenient for modern life. So we build specific accommodations for our dragon forms back in our clan homes and stick to human form elsewhere.”

“Makes sense.” She took in the words, nodding. Smiling a little at his enthusiasm and his willingness to share. “So… where are we going?”

He flexed his wing away and warned her to hold on tight. Then, with a small jog forward, he launched himself gracefully into the air, taking a few bobbing swoops until he made it all the way. His thick neck helped shield some of the wind tearing past, though she still felt the hissing cold of it as they ventured higher. Her heart thumped like crazy, partly from adrenaline, partly from fear, and with more of a jolting thrill than she expected. The swoop of his wings caused a tickling sensation in her stomach that strengthened with every fast plummet down. Her hands gripped the scales tightly, and she found it easier to lower herself closer to his body since it felt more secure.

He didn’t bother talking much while they were in the air, simply because the wind tore away the words, and her own was hard to hear with the rushing wind and blistering pace. The school faded away from them, though it towered, proud and noble in the landscape, taller than the woodlands, the villages, the swamp, and long stretches of trees that shimmered with a faint mist, endemic to the wild magic that saturated the fae-dominated nature below.

A sense of awe crept over Chloe. How… magnificent this whole place was. Dreadmor Academy stood strong and with Gothic beauty over everything. It embraced the magic all around it. How wild and wonderful everything was! She hugged Tiran tighter. He was wild and wonderful, too, in his own way. Something of this dragon form provoked awe in her, but honestly, she liked the human version of him a lot, too. He was quieter than some of the men she knew. That quietness held a confidence of its own, and there was something attractive in that.

Incredibly attractive if she was being honest with herself.

He liked spending time with her. He insisted on spending time with her. Those were things friends did, right? With lovers, there was more flirting, more… intimacy, right?

She thought of the moments holding and caressing his hands. The long, lingering gazes. The desire to help him, to delve into her magic to see if it might come up with a solution for his predicament. The desire to listen and hug away his problems, even if hugs didn’t quite have that power in themselves.

Still, it could all be in her head. Wishful thinking and misreading the whole situation. Or, perhaps, she was finally picking up on the unseen tension between them, tension that didn’t go unnoticed by Holly, though thankfully, Holly wasn’t the sort to tease others.

Now, she clung to his back as he soared through the skies, flying toward an unknown destination, which possibly seemed to be that mountain looming closer. A single one with a tall, blunt peak drenched in snow that dripped down to about halfway before clearing up into browns, greens, and grays.

He lowered himself toward the mountain, and the mountain loomed larger. A few specks circled the sky like eagles, but close up, Chloe realized they were dragons, swooping through the air without a care in the world.

They descended until Tiran’s wings flagged over the treetops, and his limbs reached out for a landing near a deep, circular lake that looked too perfect to have been formed naturally. Tiran landed gently among coniferous trees and scraggly bushes, shale and gravel and stone peppering the area. Chloe clung tight and examined the circular lake, noting the perfect ring of shale around it. Tiran went into a crouch, allowing Chloe the opportunity to slide off, though she stumbled on a piece of shale while doing so.

Tiran morphed back into his human form and smiled. Both happy and sad at the same time, which confused Chloe. His amber eyes seemed luminous in the light, and he gestured toward the lake and beyond, where a cabin lay overlooking it.

---