The Dragon Bond

Chapter 11

Alan grinned, thrilled that she was agreeing to help. He loved his kingdom and he loved his dragon. The help of Ariana and Fuego would raise their odds of winning the war.

"Well," he said, "first you have to understand that it is not going to be simple. The war probably will not start for a few months and that whole time we are going to have to train as hard as we can."

Ariana nodded and listened as he continued.

"The criticism that I gave you today is only the beginning. But you are going to have to suck it up and pull through if you and your dragon want to survive."

Ariana bit her lip but knew it was for the best. "I can handle it," she said.

"Good," he said, nodding his head. "Now you have to learn ten years of information in just a few months. Fuego needs to be able to fly without effort, shoot fire at long distances, and you need to be able to communicate with him non-verbally."

"Okay," she said.

Alan let out a small laugh and shook his head. "There's still more," he said. "You need to be able to master the skill of magic."

"Speaking of magic," she said, reaching for the book on her bed stand. "I found this in the library and was looking through it."

"That's the book of magic," he said, taking a step closer to Ariana. "I learned each and every spell in that book. Of course," he said, "it only took me six years."

A wave of hopelessness crashed over Ariana.

"But you only need to know the important ones for now. I can teach you how to do the basic casts and then the rest should come naturally. Most of them aren't very useful though so I will teach you the important ones with the little amount of time we have. This book will help with memorization. It has the words of the spell and a description of how to perform each one and the effect it will have."

This made Ariana pleased with her decision to choose that book. She would read through it whenever she possibly could so that she would be even more prepared for the battle. Suddenly she had a burst of determination, willing to spend long hours working on mastering her newfound skills. "What about the other books," she asked. "Should I look through any of those?"

Alan shook his head. "This book should suffice. The others are just about the history of dragons and diaries. They don't really teach you anything."

Ariana nodded in understanding. "So when do we start?" she asked.

"As soon as we can," he said. "So we will begin our training in the morning."

"How early?" 

"I will send someone to wake you when I am ready. You'll need plenty of sleep and a good breakfast; trust me, you'll need all the energy you can get. Oh," he said, "and don't wear a dress."

Ariana frowned. "Why not?"

"Because," he said. "You are going to be doing some pretty strenuous exercises tomorrow. A dress will only slow you down. Wear what you came here in or something similar."

Ariana smiled to herself. She was relieved that she would not have to continue to wear those unbearably tight dresses anymore. But at the same time she was also weary of what was in store for her tomorrow.

"Well," he said. "I should probably let you rest. See you bright and early in the morning."

"See you then," she said.

Alan walked over to the door. "Goodnight." he said before leaving.

"Goodnight!" she called back. Then she undressed and changed into her robe. She blew the light out in her lantern and climbed into her comfortable bed. She was glad that her first encounter with Prince Alan had not tainted their chances of getting along. Hopefully tomorrow things would be even better. 

She was woken early in the morning by someone pulling her curtains back to reveal the sun.

She wiped her groggy eyes and looked to see her maids were in the room.

"Good morning, my Lady."

Ariana groaned in acknowledgement. Lizabeth smiled at her. She was used to waking up incredibly early in the mornings and could relate to Ariana.

"You get used to it after a few days," she said.

"I can't imagine ever possibly being awake at such an early hour of the day." she muttered, getting up from her bed.

Alexia walked over to her carrying her old clothes. "I washed them last night, my Lady. And if you want, I can make more clothes just like these for you."

"That would be wonderful, thank you." she said. She figured she would need plenty more clothes like her's. She went behind her changing curtain, stripped out of her robe, and changed into her white long sleeved puffy shirt and pants.

Then she grabbed her brush and ran it through her hair. Knowing she would need her hair up for today, she pulled it back into a French braid.

Lizabeth set her breakfast on the table and then excused herself.

"Prince Alan said for you to meet him at the same place yesterday when you are finished eating." Alexia informed her.

Ariana walked over to the table and sat down. "Yes, thank you, Alexia."

Alexia curtsied, and then left the room.

Her breakfast smelled wonderful, although she had to admit she was not very hungry. Her stomach was not accustomed to eating so early in the morning, but she ate her food anyway, knowing she would need her strength.

When she had finished her breakfast, she slipped her shoes on and headed out to the fields where she would meet Alan.