A Curse of Competence

23

^^ Keshun the Ancient Water Dragon ^^

Seine was a surprisingly good swimmer, managing to avoid the thrashing and tumbling of the two titanic dragons and climb up the long webbed-hide that stretched between the spikes of the water dragon's spine, holding on through sheer force of will and climbing slowly but surely... but the size of the beast was simply too large, and as much as I wanted to watch his progress, he was moving perhaps ten meters a minute, and there were two hundred meters of neck left for him to climb, so I opened a telepathic channel to Gresham and spoke calmingly. "That's enough, Gresham, fall back; we're not here to fight with this entity."

The blue and gold creature eyed Gresham warily as he immediately leapt back and kept his distance, but then it blinked slowly, looking down at its own neck where Seine had climbed up. When it spoke, it's booming voice shaking the glass on the ship with the volume, I was surprised to find a feminine tone to the voice, and a distinctively maternal air to it as it admonished Seine sternly. "Well, that is simply unwise, little one! Getting caught up in a battle between Ancient Dragons is not advisable! Still... I suppose I should thank you, Sky Dragon, for halting our greeting once you noticed the human being endangered by our enthusiasm..." She gently nudged Seine onto her nose, prizing him off her neck without harming him, and to my surprise he seemed unharmed by the treatment, showing a great deal of care and control in her movements.

Seine sat down on her nose with something of a satisfied grin, responding in a deep voice to resonate with her nose under his body. "Don't worry about it, I accomplished my goal! I thought you two were fighting, you see, and I wanted to let you know that Gresham is a servant of my wife-to-be, the Empress-in-waiting of the northern continent! She's down there, watching."

The dragon slowly turned, her eyes narrowing dangerously, almost possessively, and glared down at me. "Oho, is that so? Tell me, little Empress, how you snatched up my little grandchild here?"

My voice sounded in her mind, making her flinch slightly, but she steadied herself to keep Seine safe. "His people invaded my kingdom, and I defeated them, and now their kingdom is mine. The Crown Prince Seine is to be my first Consort, and his is the first Vassal Kingdom I've brought into my Empire. There will be many others, but for now I'll be enjoying my life as a simple Princess."

She slowly blinked in shock, staring down at me with all her hostility vaporized by the surprise I'd given her, and then she glared again, but not at me, at Seine. "Tell me she's joking, Little One, and you did not invade the territory of a Draconic Magus?!?"

He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his neck and smoothing his wet hair out of his face. "W-well, to be fair, we didn't know she was a wizard powerful enough to subjugate an Ancient Sky Dragon, and especially an Ancient Dragon Wizard, so..."

"I believe I demanded that your kingdom remain neutral, and not fall prey to the petty greed of smaller, lesser kingdoms, did I not?!? I demanded that you remain a neutral land of knowledge and prosperity, and that you avoid war by all means necessary, DID I NOT?!?"

He shrugged helplessly at her infuriated gaze, looking down at his lap. "My father said that we were going to need the land to the north if we wanted to survive the next few winters. Trade with the other kingdoms has become totally stagnant, due to the rebellions and civil wars to the south, and we can't sustain ourselves off our own measly salt-blighted crops and fish."