Thrax

“I’m very pleased to have you for my suitor, Thrax,” said Agena.  “I hope we’ll get along well together.”

“Yes,” said Thrax, his manner becoming even more formal.  Agena sensed his demeanor definitely growing more rigid and stiffer.  She looked forward to finding that was not the only thing rigid and stiff about him.  “From your high standing in your sport, you’re a woman of great accomplishment, great skill, and prowess.  You must have had many exciting experiences in your life.  I look forward to hearing of them.  I’m sure we will enjoy each other’s company.”

His mention of her “skill and prowess” made sparks light up and flit around inside her.  She had “skill and prowess” aplenty, and she was ready to demonstrate them for him—on and between the sheets.  “I look forward to that, too,” said Agena.  “And I look forward to hearing about some of your adventures as a Knight.  Our suite at the Courting Chateau is ready.  I was there before the Lottery.”

“Yes,” said Thrax, “the Ministry of Courtship is always very efficient.  I’m sure everything is in order.  They will have attended to every detail.  There are still some details left, which are…my responsibility.”

Agena subtly, knowingly, arched her eyebrows.  “Oh.  Well, yes, there is your um… procedure…”

“Yes,” Thrax said.  “I must be as prepared as the place where we’ll be staying together.  The Spires has already declared the suspension of my oath, pending my formal renunciation.  And there is one other matter.”

“What would that be?” Agena asked.

“The other reason I’ve come back to Lacerta is my rejuvenating swim.  You know this about us, don’t you?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment.  “Your ‘rejuvenating swim’…”  Then she remembered.  “Oh, of course!  I knew about that.  It’s that time for you, then?”

“It is.  I must swim in Lake Shimmershine and re-expose myself to its concentrations of Draconite.  Everything else,” he said meaningfully, “will depend on my health in the days ahead.”

Now, Agena thought, there was no mistaking his tone.  It felt, curiously, almost as if he were distancing himself, or figuratively holding himself at arm’s length from her.  She would have to do something about that if they were going to have any success at all.  Somehow, she would have to get her stunning suitor to loosen up, to be more comfortable around her.  His present demeanor did not lend itself to the purpose for which they’d been brought together.  “I understand,” she said.  “Of course, you want to be in your best health, your best condition, for…what we’re here for.”

“As you would want to be before competing in an important match,” said Thrax.

“Right,” she said.  Funny he should put it that way, comparing their prospect of mating, the time they would spend in bed together discovering each other physically and starting to try to make her pregnant, to a competition.  She had not thought of it in those terms.  Did he think of everything that way?

“Are you sure that’s all it is?” Agena asked.

His demeanor softened just a bit, which she found encouraging.  She wanted his attitude soft as much as she wanted other things about him hard.  “Agena,” he said, “we have just been…presented to each other, very publicly, for the most private and personal of reasons.  We have everything to learn about each other yet, and what we have to do is one of the most important things that anyone will ever do in life.

 This is no small thing, and yet we’re essentially strangers.  And this comes at one of the most important times in the life of a Lacertan.  We both have a great deal on our minds now, don’t we?”

She nodded; he had an excellent point, after all.  “You’re right.  You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of…what we’re here for.”

“And first, there is the necessary medical procedure, for which the Spires has already made my appointment.  I’m due there now.”

“Then you should be getting to that, of course.  If you want, I’ll go on back to the Chateau and wait for you there.”

“You could.  Or…you could come with me to the polyclinic and wait.  It won’t take long, and we would have that much more time in each other’s company, to start getting accustomed to each other.” 

Again, Thrax’s manner seemed to grow softer, which Agena found encouraging.  And she liked the idea of going with him to his appointment.  It felt as though she were being a supportive mate, even considering the way they were brought together.  “I’d like to go with you,” she said.

Once more, Thrax offered her his hand.  “Then let’s be away.”

Thrax shifted his body back to dragon form and offered her his hand once more.  Agena once again let him pick her up and lift the two of them into the air.  In moments, they were soaring over the towers of Silverwing.  Agena, held tightly in his strong arms, feeling the texture of his scaly skin and the caress of the winds over the city, felt safe in the dragon man’s embrace and confident about what they would soon begin to share together. 

Or…mostly confident.  She had noted the softening of his manner, the relaxing of his formality in dealing with her, and was sure it was genuine.  And yet, in some instinctive way, she could not help but think there was something more going on with him, something else that the dragon man was not expressing.

She reasoned that she would have plenty of time in the days ahead to find out what it was.  And perhaps it would even bring them closer in mutual understanding, which would only help them both when they went to bed together.

*****

And so, Agena found herself in the waiting area of one of the Silverwing polyclinics.  The medical facility did everything to make this a comfortable place for the friends and loved ones of patients.  The furniture seemed as comfortable as that in the suite that waited for her and Thrax at the Chateau, and there were plenty of media tables where people displayed a variety of arts, entertainment, and information to pass the time.

 And the area had broad, tall windows all around to admit the sunlight and promote a warm atmosphere.  It was a good place to think.  And as Agena, with a glass of water in one hand, took a seat at one of the windows, that was exactly what she did.