A Match of Monsters

Chapter Nine

"My Lady, you disregard the sacred word of our council. You break their trust and your own honour with such secrecy and prohibited behaviours." Manasseh heaved a great sigh and pleaded at the great dragoness with his eyes. "Please – let me take care of this. I will be discrete, and no one shall know of this dishonour.

Elain watched as the Lady finally let loose her breath, exhaling a thick mist of amber vapour that poured towards the ground and covered the stonework from corner to corner of the massive cavern.

"My honour is intact, you know not what you speak of, my second."

The male began to beg again. "Please, Ladyship, you know I do not want to fight you or take your title. If you let me, I will nit destroy your clutch as I am bound to by our laws, but deliver them discretely to a distant hatchery where no suspicion can be reflected back to you or your fiefdom."

Elain could see the broken spikes of his tail swaying side to side in agitation. His voice sounded so scared, so upset, as he addressed her Ladyship, and the human girl hoped the Lady would give him her clutch. For even Elain had heard of the Great Council of Elders, and she could not help but shiver in fear when she recalled the stories her tutor had told her of the punishments the Great Dragon Council and their elite Great Council of Elders had given to those that broke their laws.

"You know I will not Manasseh." After the long, drawn-out silence the Lady spoke, and at her words Elain's heart sunk.

There were four eggs – four unhatched dragon kits – left, and the girl dared not imagine what would happen to them now.

The male dragon's response differed greatly from that of his silent spectator's. Before the lady had even finished her answer, he had roared out a challenge to her, the sound full on anguish. As soon as the guttural noise had finished ringing through the heavy air and the cavern was once more silent, he pounced on her.

The deep magenta scales that covered his ribs heaved alongside his breaths as he crashed into something mid-air, only inches from the Lady's outspread wings.

As his forepaws crashed back down to the stone floor and his claws chipped the delicate carvings beneath, her Ladyship barred her teeth and chirped.

The sound was unlike anything Elain had ever heard before, both somehow both deeper and higher than she had ever heard before, with a tone inlayed into the vibrations that no mortal beast could ever produce. It was terrifying and foreboding, different to everything she's ever experienced, but still the only way Elain could think to describe it was as a chirp. The word just seemed to tame to suit.

Manasseh, who Elain had never stopped watching except to blink, drew a sharp breath in at the sound. Elain could not understand the raw terror that flashed through his eyes before he could hide it.

He opened his mouth and gave a shudder as he responded with a slightly higher, wispier chirp. His still struck fear into the human's heart, but it did not inspire the same ominous shiver down Elain's spine.

These chirps – even though the word seemed far to mild to accurately describe them – obviously meant more than Elain had thought; something important was about to happen. She feared that whatever would happen next, might end up defining not only her future and that of the small kit she now protected, but of whom she would come to be.