Black as Blood (Part Two)

Ralem's Surprise

Ralem didn’t hear when his dragon snuck in with the craziest hairstyle and a dazed look, long marks on his forearms from the thirty-something shopping bags Arianna had shoved on him. He smelled strongly of perfume and something stained his mouth and smothered his nose. With a sigh, he transformed into smoke and then into a dully glowing dragon, who rested on broken shards of various objects without any apparent discomfort. In seconds, he was fast asleep, too tired to even dream. And when he did, it was vague and consisted mostly of huge shopping bags and delicious-tasting lip-stick. He thought that in one of such dreams Ralem made an appearance, but left as soon as he saw the huge dragon smothered and sucking on an enlarged lipstick case.

              And Ralem also didn’t even so much as twitch when the great dragon crept out of the room in the wee hours in the morning, thinking only last minute to transform and slip out the door.

              Arianna could hear the soft padding of Jaydon as he walked down the stairs to the great hall. “Hey Jaydon. Finally you get up. Have a good rest?” she continued without letting him reply, “Well I hope you got more than me. I was so worked up about this I couldn’t go to sleep! I’ve already got all the connections, everything’s falling into place.” She adjusted a painting of an overweight king, “Now all we need  is…” she turned around to find Jaydon looking half asleep and droopy-lidded. “Jaydon!” She exclaimed as maids hurried around her, hanging banners and setting the table. She rushed to him, “You have a horrible case of Ralem bed-head. Oh no, your pink shirt is all wrinkled. Did you sleep in it?”

            “What?” Jaydon said slowly, before continuing, “No…”

            Arianna raised an eyebrow, “So you just turn into a human and have his clothes on as they are?”

            “Well, yeah,” he said, rubbing one of his eyes blearily.

           “Thought so. So… Ralem slept in it. He really was tired, wasn’t he?”

          “I told you he was. Shopping wears- yawn- him out. And I guess it wears me out too.”

         She cocked her head, “Do you need to go back to bed? Sorry, I forgot baby dragons need their sleep. You need your rest.”

           Jaydon shook his head violently, “No. I’m fine. I just…. Don’t like waking up at four in the morning.”

            “Are you sure?” Arianna asked, “You can go to bed if you like.” She almost laughed at his face. His mouth was half-opened and his long eyelashes fluttered sleepily as if he were fighting to stay awake

            “No. I’m fine,” Jaydon persisted, swirling the air around his hand so rapidly that it was actually visible, effectively making his eyes bright and awake. “So, what’s first?”

            Arianna leaned back, her hand covering her mouth as she thought for a moment, “Clothes. You need new clothes first. Good thing I’m always prepared,” she said, shuffling to the corner of the room where supplies were steadily being drawn from. “Hey!” she said to one of the maids, “The refreshment table goes over there! No, not on that side! That’s where the… there, you got it. Perfect!” She gave the thumbs up before spinning on her skirts to a yellow shopping bag. She picked it up and hurried over to the dragon, getting out a fancy outfit, “Try this on. We need to know he’ll fit it anyway. Now, go on!”

              Jaydon looked at her for a moment, the outfit in hand, before starting to unbutton his shirt.

              She grabbed his hand lightly, smiling up at him, “Not here. You have to change in private. Go to the chamber room.”