The Dragon Tamers

The Dragon Tamers [15]

I processed the thought again... they'd be here soon. Oh, OH! I need to get out of my nightgown! Oh what to wear, what to wear. No that's too shiny. I rummaged through my bags, trying to find the right dress. This is too formal. I don't feel like that colour today. Mmm, this isn't amazing, but it will do.

I slipped the dress over my head, fixing it into place. It was baggy around my average breasts and my thin waist. I grabbed for an over-bust corset in a complementary colour. The dress was light blue and my corset dark blue. Calming, soothing, the colour of the sky; a second home for dragons and tamers.

I looked around the room frantically, I couldn't tighten the corset on my own. As if the maid was reading my mind, she entered the room. I gave her a sheepish "help me" look, she smiled and laced it up.

"Queen Feluna, is this tight enough?" She yanked on the strings, plucking, pulling, manipulating the laces, willing them to pull the material tighter around my body.

"Oof!" She tugged hard, almost lifting me off my feet. "There! That's perfect." I smiled at her as she fluffed around the room, cleaning up my mess, packing my belongings back into their bags. I glanced around the room, gosh I was a grub! Memo to self: if you take something out, put it away after you've used it. Ah what's the use, I never learn...

Picking up my dress, I scrambled around the keep trying to find the exit. Damn, why didn't I keep a better mental map of the place! In a panic, I ran down the hallways, utterly and completely lost.

As I screamed around a corner I connected with an immovable object. I crashed to the floor, landing hard on my rear, dazed from the impact. Blinking furiously, I glanced upwards, Mokrush's jagged teeth jutted out from his mouth in what looked like a very amused smile. Heat flooded my cheeks; how embarrassing, how un-queen-like!

Sensing my discomfort, Mokrush scooped me up off the floor and placed me on my feet. He gargled a laugh as I squeaked when he lifted me with such ease, I could feel his muscles undulating under his skin, barely straining to lift my sorry butt up.

In silence, I peered up at the War Chief. Curious creatures orcs, they are engineered so differently so us elves and yet the end product means a perfectly sculpted soldier, always battle ready and keen for a fight. I let my thoughts wander for a moment, dwelling on the similarities and differences between our two races.

I leant into him as a group of soldiers hurried past. As I leant into him the skin on skin contact cause a rush of his aura filled me, his energy flooded through my hand, powerful, relentless, unyielding energy. I gasped, it felt a million static electric shocks coursing through my arm. As I looked up at Mokrush, his gaze unflinching from the path before us, I found a deeper understand and respect for him with a tinge of envy. I envied his power, his leadership skills, I quietly made a pact to myself to try and channel his aura in the future.

He broke the comfortable silence a few minutes into our walk.

He chuckled, "A panicked Elf! Now that is something I had never witnessed until then!" His wide grin made deep creases on the sides of his eyes and around his mouth, perhaps he's older than I first anticipated.

Im sure I turned a bright pink colour.

"Don't be ashamed!" He continued, slowing down and tossing me a small side glance with a smile. "I would panic too if I were running late to meeting my soldiers because I was lost in a strange place."

I let out a relieved and embarrassed sigh, he was being so nice about this. I then realised this was the true Mokrush, in this moment he was stripped of his title and was being the kind and caring Orc he can never be around others. I brought down a few walls of my own, taking the opportunity to confide in him.

"How do you do it? Be so strong, I mean. In comparison, my worries are nothing to yours and yet I'm on the verge of breaking down. The Humans have pushed me to my mental limits, I... I don't know what to do anymore." I looked down at the ground, ashamed. I was a worthless Queen who couldn't even keep herself together, let alone a nation.

Mokrush abruptly stopped, stepped in front of me, gripping my shoulders firmly. He got down on one knee so we were almost at eye level.

"How long have you been ruling? Is this your first war as a Queen?"

I sheepishly nodded. Everyone assumed I had been queen in excess of a hundred years. In actual fact I had been ruling for 50 years at most, 50 years of peace, harmony and prosperity. I've been a soldier in battle before, I lead the Dragon Tamers in the last war that claimed my father's life, soon after my mother died of a broken heart.

My father had never prepared me for ruling, he gave me a sound education though. I later found a journal of his where he talked of preparing me over the next century as his own father had prepared him. Mother tried her best to educate me in the years before her passing, but she did not know the intricacies of The Veil. I am grateful to have the council though, they guided me, giving me every side of a story but leaving the final decision to me.

They are diplomats though, they know little of warfare.

Mokrush's deep, rough voice snapped me back to reality. "Nothing prepares you for war and wartime. It's very touch and go, situations are constantly fluctuating, you must bend and flex, taking the punches and delivering them back twice as hard. You need to find something to help you calm down. Look at me, do you think I'm keeping it together?"

I nodded again, tears threatening to spill down my cheeks.

"In my head, my limits are being pushed too. Never have I had to deal with me nation being massacred, I see the women and children homeless, hungry, and heartbroken. It rips me apart that I fell for a trap, a childish TRAP!" He punched the floor with his fist. I gasped as the vibrations shook my legs, penetrating my bones making them ache.

He looked up at me with so much pain and anger in his eyes, I could see into his soul for a moment and realized he suffered just like me.

"I can not do anything to change the past, but I can avenge the deaths of my citizens, and I will avenge every single life lost. Those humans have to answer for their arrogance." Mokrush's voice became gruff, he growled and bared his teeth, staring off into the space behind me as if he stared at the Human King himself. "Now off with you, your soldiers are moments away from landing." The Orc had calmed down, he gave me clear directions to get out of he keep.

The morning sunlight blinded me momentarily; it was a stark contrast from the dimly lit keep. I managed to make out the silhouettes of 5 dragons steadily flying towards the city gates, I hurried to the city wall.

Fenwir was waiting for me there, I saw a hint of red tinge his cheeks from under his helmet, and I realise the same red also flushed in my cheeks. Being the fantastic soldier Fenwir is, he had all his tasks done within an hour. All our dragons were saddled and ready to leave, Beogin stretched his wings liberally.

The incoming tamers landed with a great thud; dragons were never ones for soft landings. They dismounted and bowed before I explained to them what was happened. It didn't take long to debrief them, Mokrush arrived just as I finished talking, he lead the tamers inside the city and that was that. It was a weight off my shoulders knowing that I could help this nation in need, and in return gain indispensable allies.

"Are you ready? We have had very little contact with the shapeshifters ever, I can't not even predict how they will respond to us. I can only hope it will be a positive encounter." Beogin's voice slipped into my thoughts. His beautiful voice never shocked my mind, it gently flowed and ebbed through my thoughts like a creek tricking through the rainforest; calm, constant and gentle.