A Match of Monsters

Chapter Seven

"My Lady!" Elain dipped her head and dropped to her knees as soon as she realised who – what – she was looking at. Her breaths drew ragged and her hands shook behind her back as she realized whose lair she had fallen into.

The breaths stopped altogether when she realized that also meant that not only had she unknowingly trespassed into the Lady's own private caverns, but that Elain had also dared to interact with her offspring.

Elain did not know how her Lady would take such an offence, but her entire village still remembered what happened to the young hunter who had decided to play with the small cubs of the local guardian bear; only pieces of him had been found. Like that brown bear, her Ladyship might be the protector of the fiefdom's citizens, but if she felt that she herself or any of hers were threatened, Elain believed she would not hesitate to retaliate.

"My Lady," she repeated, her voice high and quaking. "I did not know that this was your lair, and I did not intend to be here. I am sorry for my proximity with your kit, and if you would be gracious enough to spare my life, I will vow to you that I will never wrong you again – intentional or not." The longer the scared human girl spoke, the more her words faltered and creaked as her mind got away from her to recall punishments the dragons had dolled out to men and women over the years from fiefdoms across the continent.

Elain knew that the Lady of the Fine Tooth Mountain Range was more merciful than most reigning dragons on the content, but she was still a dragon and Elain was still a human. Elain would not fault her Ladyship is she had to become an example, she had after all trespassed on personal ground and been near her young.

If Elain had been an assassin... no! she couldn't finish that thought.

As the dragoness continued to withhold her response, the human's shaking grew increasingly noticeable, panic overwhelming her body until her entire body was vibrating and she could stand it no more, daring to look up as curiosity won despite her fears.

Her Lady was even more beautiful than Elain remembered; her scales still managed to shimmer an almost blindingly bright gold despite the limited blue-toned, false starlight that illuminated the expansive caverns. An elegant neck rose from between two sharp shoulder blades, that, when the dragoness stood or sat straightly, were more than twice Elain's height. Her teeth, too white and symmetrically perfect the possibly be natural, glinted from behind curved lips as just above and behind the powerful snout, large monkshood shaded eyes stared steadily back down at the girl.

"Child," the word echoes both throughout the cavern and in Elain's head, the Lady waited until all the noise had once again faded from within the stone walls before opening her powerful maw and mind th the human child in front of her again. "I know how you came, but why did you stay?"

Elain shivered and looked back at the hatchling cowering from its mother behind her. She felt her could form no words, so she did not open her lips to answer.

At the movement, the dragoness's deadly smile widened. "So, you stayed to care for my son, knowing not who he was heir to. You should not have stayed but now it is too late to change everything, for now he has chosen you to foster him, and the bond cannot be broken until he grows his colours or you die. You are now duty and magic bound to safely guard my heir until he matures and can claim a seat in my court." Her eyes intensified, and Elain felt that they were looking straight into her soul. "No one can know that he has hatched from my clutch, or the Shadowcast will ensure you both perish."

At those ominous words, Elain gulped, holding tighter to the kit that had crawled into her arms.

The Lady gestured with her snout, "behind you there is a pack that contains all you will require to raise my son. He has hatched earlier than he was expected to, and you must leave soon before the wrong creatures catch onto whose blood he shares.

Elain nodded her head in acknowledgement, her words still frozen in her throat, as she turned to head towards four identical packs.

Just as her fingers grazed the leather strap, the foreboding clacking sound of claws on stone could be heard heading towards them.

"Hide!" Her Lady hissed at her as she turned to face the intruder.