The Dragon’s Throne 1

He laughed, kissing her then jumping up to leave the room.

“Hurry and finish up.  We don’t want to have to rush to dinner.”

He was gone before she could respond.  She sighed heavily, steeling herself for the long weekend ahead.  It was going to be a whirlwind of activity, and she hoped that she didn’t get lost in the shuffle of it all.

She went to the closet and pulled a black down jacket out and put it on over her clothes.  As she had been since she started training, she was wearing her black pants and tight black shirt.  Since she’d gotten comfortable in the more modern attire, she was finding herself going for pants and shirts first, leaving the dresses for special occasions.  After nearly twenty-five years only wearing dresses, it still felt odd at times, but the practicality won her over. 

Looking outside through the window, she saw that it was snowing lightly as it had been off and on all day.  She found a pair of gloves, and a hat to go under the jacket’s hood.  Her boots were insulated, the outside the same black, puffy look as the down jacket.

“If Eleanor could see me now,” she said, laughing to herself despite how much she missed her friend. 

“She would be proud of you,” a voice said from the doorway. 

She turned, swiping at the tears that had started to fall.

“I didn’t hear you come up, Daniel.”

“It’s alright.  I hear you need a ride to the party in your honor,” he said with a smile.

“I do.”

He held his hand out to her and she took it, marveling at how the two brothers had similar features but looked so different.  Daniel’s hair wasn’t nearly as black as Eli’s, and his eyes were closer to chocolate brown than the nearly black-brown of Eli’s.  He was like the softer version of the Dragon King and favored their mother where Eli favored their father more. 

He squeezed her hand and smiled at her.

“I always wanted a sister,” he said warmly.

“I’m sure that I’m not what you envisioned,” she laughed.

“No, you’re better,” he said.  “Fate did good for my brother.  I can only hope that I’m as lucky.”

“We make our own luck,” she said.

“Indeed, we do, princess.  We most certainly do.  Your chariot awaits you.”

“Thank you,” she said, letting him lead her out the door and onto the large front porch. 

She watched as a dragon took off, the last of their things for the wedding strapped to his back as he dove off the cliff and caught an updraft, soaring into the air and heading toward Aman City. 

“Please don’t do that when I’m on your back,” Anna said, her stomach dropping at the thought of plummeting several hundred feet before sailing straight up.

“I’ve already been told that I’m to go low and slow,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“You don’t have to go slow, but definitely no stunts.”

Daniel laughed, shaking his head and walking down the steps and onto the frozen grass in the front yard.  Anna watched him with a calm indifference as he shifted, waiting for Eli to come out of the house and join them before she got on.

He closed the door and walked up behind her, putting his arm around her waist and giving her a squeeze. 

“I’ll take the back pack if you want.”

She shook her head.

“It’s warm.  I’ll wear it.”

“Are you riding behind me?”

“Yes.  Then I can hide behind you and keep the wind off my face.”

“Fair enough.  Let’s get going.”

He jogged over to Daniel, who lowered himself and let them get on before standing up again and walking toward the edge of the yard.

“He promised me that he wouldn’t throw himself over the edge while I was on his back,” she said, wrapping her arms around Eli’s waist and burying her face in his back. 

“He won’t.  If he promised you, he’ll keep his word.”

“I’m glad, because I seem to remember you promising me that you would be gentle and doing something similar.”

“That was different,” he laughed.  “We were training and I was gentle.”

“That’s what you think,” she said. 

Daniel hopped up into the air then, causing Anna to grab Eli tighter, her fingers threaded together for extra security.

“Relax,” Eli said as Daniel gently took off and immediately began a steady decrease in altitude from where they’d been.  “I’ve got you.”

“I know,” she said.  She nuzzled her face against him, loving his manly scent mixed in with the cold air.  “I know that you’ll always protect me when you can.”

“Even when I can’t, I will find a way,” he said.  “You can always trust me.”

“I’ve never doubted that,” she said.  “I’m glad that we’re in this together, because I don’t think that I could do this without you.”

“Neither of us could,” he said. 

She nodded against his body, turning her head so that she could pull herself closer.  Her legs slid behind his, locked in between Daniel’s wings and Eli’s strong legs.  Even if Daniel did decide to start doing acrobatics with her on his back, she wasn’t going to come off easily. 

Her grip loosened as they made their way toward Aman City, and pretty soon, she’d let go altogether, looking down on the scenery below her with wonderment. 

“All those houses belong to other dragons?”

“They do.”

“They look just like yours.”

“Most of the houses are the same; large and on at least one hundred acres of land, with solar panels and self-sufficient water filtration systems.  Aman is almost as modern as the entire country was before the Great War knocked out most of the grid.  The houses that were self-sustaining were the ones that were salvaged; everything else was used for parts and the land was allowed to return to its wild roots. 

“Now, instead of these states having almost a third of their land covered in untamed wilderness, the number is now closer to seventy percent.  It’s actually been good for the planet.  The air is cleaner than it ever was, and the ice has stopped melting.”

“And how many people were killed in the Great War?” she wondered out loud, not sure that she was prepared for the answer.