Dragon Blossom

Meyrin and prince Bestenar

The hero Freydelhart, Prince Consort of Artemia, woke up a bit before his wife Runaesthera that morning. He felt strange sleeping in the room King Bestolf had prepared for them in the grand castle of Meyrin, which had recovered almost all of its former glory. Especially because of the portraits of Princess Erina, she really looked too much like Eri, it was like seeing what the future held for his little girl.

In recent months everything was changing very quickly, it wasn't just Eri, who had come into his life to change it upside down, but thanks to her the world seemed so different. Dragons were now an enemy you could reason with, negotiate with. Freydelhart's confusion about whether they were "people" had been completely cleared up, they were. They thought, reasoned, and felt, albeit very differently. He had given the lands the king gave him as a child to the dragon Meraxes to provide her with an income, and he had forged an intricate anklet for her on a whim, all because he had begun to feel guilty. He had killed about twenty dragons, each time that meant saving thousands of lives, or so they kept saying; but now that he knew peace was possible, he remembered his own actions, imagining a person in the place of a dragon. Even more so when Meraxes had told him what motivated them.

The only thing that helped him was to remember that day; to remember everything he had lost, the monster that the dragons themselves feared. But Lady Mera... Meraxes, what was the best way to call her? She said the King hadn't appeared in Nuerin since the day of the attack on Meyrin Castle, the day Eri was born. They had seen him flying towards the ocean and nothing had been heard among the dragons since then.

He stretched and got up slowly, trying not to wake Runa. He liked to watch her when she slept, she always ended up tangled in the blankets, disheveled, with her arms and legs all over the bed. The stories in which princesses slept gracefully, looking beautiful and regal, seemed the most fanciful to him since he had been with her. But that only made him love her more, being able to see something of her that no one else could was, in his view, more beautiful than her finest dresses. Anyway, he started to get dressed, Eri would surely be awake by now, he had promised to practice fencing with her before the meeting.

He slowly left the room and walked down the long corridor to the courtyard, it was the same one where he had killed the gatekeeper, the dragon that had guarded Eri before him. The mages had taken a long time to dispose of the body and study it, the only trace left of their combat was that notch in the quarry floor, which he had made with his sword when he cut off its head. As he had supposed, Eri was already waiting for him with her wooden sword ready. At least that day she had put on training clothes, she wouldn't ruin another dress.

What he didn't expect was that Meraxes would accompany her.

"Lady Meracina," he said, looking around, in case anyone could hear them, "I wasn't expecting you so early."

"All education the young lady receives is my business, Freydelhart," she called him by his full name but always omitted his titles, she spoke full of disdain, Frey never thought he would miss being called prince, "if you are going to teach her to fight I must supervise her, I would prefer my mistress to have her own claws, but I suppose those human substitutes can serve her."

"Dad, let's start now!" Eri looked at him with a pout and a frown, she always got impatient at these times, he couldn't blame her because they were few and rarely lasted more than an hour. He enjoyed them too, so they didn't waste any more time.

They stood in the center of the courtyard, Lady Meracina, better to call her that at all times, sat on a nearby bench to watch them. They began with the unicorn pose, with the sword straight, pointing forward, at shoulder height, the right leg in front, a quick lunge and change of foot; Eri was already following him without stumbling, at six years old she was close to reaching the second movement. They changed to the harpy pose, the sword over the head, pointing to the sky, step forward, sweep down and repeat...