The Dragon's Heart

The Dragon's Heart part 8

Another part for everybody and don't forget to comment, vote, and hopefully fan.

“Rant!” Anna said jumping up and hugging her. “Thanks for showing me that move with the axe! I got to use it on the way here!”

“That’s not very good. Whoever did you use it on?” Rant asked looking around.

“Bandits attacked us.” I said frowning.

“Oh yes they have gotten bad, but they know not to go deep into the forest in fear of messing with us. They call us the demons of the forest.” Rant said sitting on a dresser in the corner of the room. Her 6 foot 4 height let her sit instead of having to hop.

“How do the beds represent the Earth?” Elizabeth asked looking at the three beds. “I would get one blue bed and a green bed but not the two blue beds.”

“Oh there is the blue sky above the Earth and water below the surface, and of course there is water in the air so either way there is water above and below the Earth. Well the water below is more in the Earth than below but basically the same you don’t see the water on the surface so we consider it below. Sorry I’m babbling.” She said with a laugh.

“When did you get married?” Anna asked bouncing on her bed.

“I was married 30 years ago.” She said with a laugh.

“How old are you?” Anna blurted out.                    

“Anna! That is inappropriate you never ask a lady her age.” Elizabeth scolded flipping her brown hair over her shoulder.

Anna’s brown eyes squinted in a glare at the reproach but Rant just laughed. “Oh dear I’m 50. Oh but I forgot how different age is for humans. You three are the first human visitors we have had in over 300 years.” Rant said with a beautiful smile.

“What about Christophe he seems human.” Anna said with a smile.

“Oh definitely not, he may take on human form but drakon live for thousands of years. Humans die in less than 100, so considering that they are far from human.” Rant said with a laugh.

“Wow how can they live for so long?” Anna asked in her eyes wide and completely focused on Rant.

“I have no clue, I believe it has to do with the fact that they can change into a dragon. Dragons are known for their longevity after all.” Rant said with a smile as she crossed her legs.

“That is true.” Elizabeth said nodding.

“Oh yes we are having a meeting tonight to discuss your reason for being here. Someone will be here to escort you there when the time comes. I must go sadly, but I will see you at the meeting.” She said with a nod before she left. It was always amazing watching her walk. She had a way of not moving anything above the knees so if you weren’t staring at the bottoms of her legs you wouldn’t even know that she was moving a muscle. She glided across the floor and with the dress on it was like she floated right out.

I went over to the window and saw the sun was already high in the sky. “It’s noon.” I said with a smile. “How on Earth did they make this window?” I stared at the amazing structure and found it was just going right over my head. The vines twisted in a way that made it look like it was cut right out of the wall and I would have thought that had I not followed the vines framing the window. They curled back under to loop back up and form the next framed part of the vine.

“It’s noon and we haven’t even had breakfast or lunch?” Anna asked with a gasp.

“That is rather amazing for you and you didn’t even complain about being hungry once!” Elizabeth said with a laugh.

“Well I guess this journey is good for me.” Anna said with a little smile. “I am still hungry though. Do you think we can go look for some food?”

“If you insist, but we must hurry to make sure we’re here when they call us to the meeting.” Elizabeth said with a smile. “I must change into something less… travel-stained.” She shook her head in disgust and went downstairs to where the pack horse waited. I leaned back down onto the pillow of my bed and fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up to shaking and found myself staring into the newly clean faces of Elizabeth and Anna.

“How long was I sleeping?” I asked immediately sitting up and looking around.

“Not long. We both just finished showering and getting dressed, you’re last up.” Anna said with a smile. “By the way the shower is amazing, the water doesn’t get cold.”

“Yeah it’s rather amazing. I have never seen something like that before. How do they make the water come out of the ceiling?” Elizabeth said shaking her head.

“I have no clue but I will gladly try it out.” I said stretching and climbing out of bed. I hurried down the stairs and grabbed my dress out of the saddlebag that had been laid on the floor. I hurried to the shower and hung up my dress on the door. I took a quick but thorough shower and managed to get most of the dirt off of me. I got out of the shower and dried myself off thoroughly with a towel.

I brushed out my hair and eased the water out as I curled it around the end of the brush. I finished ten minutes later with my hair curled and dry, a benefit of having water as an affinity. I slipped on my undergarments and then pulled on the long light blue chiffon gown that fell all the way to the floor and is sewn tight right under the breast. It has thin straps but those are covered by the over coat. I slipped my silver linked belt on and strapped my sword to it so that it was hidden by the over coat. A long white over coat falls all of the way to the floor and is tied right under the breast corset fashioned with the ends of the bow trailing down to the floor. The sleeves fall long and flow out at my wrists, showing the inner blue material. The over coat doesn’t wrap all of the way around and so it shows the long dress underneath creating a look that makes it seem like the overcoat and dress are one.

I placed my circlet on my head again and tried not to cry or think too much about my parents. I slipped on my good leather slippers and walked out of the bathroom. I found myself staring at my friends who were similarly made up. Anna had a floor length red dress with an underskirt of champagne color with a slit in the skirt up to the waist and sleeves that flow down to her wrist. She had her axe strapped to her back.

Elizabeth was decked out in jewels galore that matched her velvet green gown. The skirt puffed out in the shape of a hoop. The sleeves fit slimly to the wrist then fanned out. She wore a white corset over the dress. She wore slim green slippers. Her bow hung over her shoulder with a quiver full of arrows over her other shoulder. Her hair was half up; half down with the upper half in a decorated bun with flowers weaved in.

“Gorgeous dress.” Elizabeth said with a slight nod of approval.

“Thank you. It’s a dress my family has had for a long time. It was sent to me last year. I had it fitted then and I guess I haven’t grown any.” I said with a laugh.

There was a ringing from outside the front door and we walked over. We opened the door to find Drake standing just out the door. He bowed low to us, his eyes on Elizabeth the entire time. “You all look beautiful my ladies, may I have the honor of escorting you to the dining area for lunch?”

“Of course, it would be our honor to accept such a gracious invitation.” Elizabeth said swinging a fan out of nowhere in her left hand to flap it in front of her face. I looked quizzically over to Anna and back to the fan and Anna gave a slight shrug and shake of her head. Alex came over and butted his head under my hand with a quizzical wave of emotion tumbling into me and made movements with his mouth as if speaking. What he was meaning immediately hit me as I looked back at the fan. She was using the language of the fan, a secret court language meant to convey messages. I looked at the fan closely and which hand it was in, along with how open it was. She was saying, ‘I am desirous of your acquaintance.’ My mouth almost dropped open as I looked at Drake’s smile. He looked as if he was very happy at the message.

“Please then, this way.” He said gesturing for us to follow him. He led us farther up the pathway and then across a bridge and wound our way throughout the tree village. We found ourselves in a large dining room 10 minutes later. The food looked delicious though there was more meat than I would have thought considering they never killed animals themselves.