Dragon Reincarnated (Working title)

Great Daughter of the Endless Skies

I smiled at Leon's evident nervousness, and excitement, as he approached me. It was good that he had training (What ever that entailed) as I had no clue the proper way for a human to ride a dragon beyond what years of reading fantasy novels could tell me.

I was now just a little larger than the horses, but with me crouched, it wasn't too difficult for the prince to throw a leg over my pink, scaly hide, and get himself comfortable behind my wing joints. Not that I thought he could possibly be comfortable... I was quite sure that my scales were abrasive, and there was nothing but bone and hard muscle under them to provide a paltry cushioning for him. Not that I was overly sold on the idea of being equipped with the same kind of saddle I had seen the much larger dragon wearing just now.

As Leon settled himself, I saw Serenity leaning out the window with a longing look in her eyes.

"Perhaps you can fly with me when you are a little older." I said gently. There would be no way that I would be taking a little girl god knows how many feet up into the sky with nothing but her grip strength to keep her from falling to her doom. At least Leon was an adult and had training in some capacity.

Though, it was probably still pretty irresponsible to take him into the sky when I had no experience, and he had book learning. Did you need a dragon flying license in this world?

Serenity pouted a little but did not complain nor argue as Hannah got her situated back into the carriage. Mean while, Leon shifter around a bit, trying to find a spot that was just right, and i questioned if my sense of judgement had been altered by becoming a dragon, the same why my inflated ego had. The old me would never had even dared suggest taking a kid in his late teens up into the air with no means of securement. Much less on the back of a freaking novice dragon who was still a little shaky with her arial maneuvers and landings.

"Ready?" I asked, putting aside my questionable life choices. Loric and the rest of the entourage cleared out some space so that I could get a running start. There was no way that I could make a cold take off at this stage, not matter how light Leon was.

The prince took a deep breath, leaned forward with arms around my neck, and nodded. "Ready..." He said, his voice somewhere around my shoulder. He sounded a little nervous, but eager too.

"For the love of the gods... please hold on well." Growled Loric, eyeing Leon's hold around my neck with some notable trepidation. "I would hate to have managed to keep you alive this whole time, only to have to become a smear on the King's Way right before your front gates..."

"Graphic, but heartfelt." I chuckled, earning a small glare from the guard. It was a testament to how close we had all started to become that he felt comfortable enough to do that now. Before he would never have dared levy a glare my way. Heck, from the number of times they had expressed nervousness around insulting me, one would think that the average dragon would take down all of Helios for such a brazen insult! "I won't be doing any acrobatics."

No point telling the man that, even without the prince on my back, I would never try them with an audience. I was still having an awful time doing anything but keeping myself airborne at this point. Anything else and I would be making a fool of myself.

I looked back at my passenger (Noting the princess and the maid watching from within the carriage) and saw that he was smiling. "Alright, I'm ready."

I nodded, set my sights forward, and started to lope down the King's Way. Dragons were surprisingly speedy on the ground for such bulky creatures, but it was also clear that they were not designed for running in general. It was awkward, and I was sure a rather bumpy experience for Leon, but I would need the speed to get us both up off the ground.