Snakes and Ladders 13.

Chapter 13

I lower Shaya’s hand and I smile and pull her into a kiss. I really love kissing this woman. So I make it long and slow and sweet just kind of pouring all that lover, and that whole soft sexy girl on girl thing into it. I’ve had a long time with the fantasies that have been in my head most of my life and while Shaya’s had them too there’s a lot of her buried under the hammering that being Illian had done to her soul.

“Come on let’s go find Bhlaze.”

We don’t head to the usual quartering place they’d keep an incoming dragon and rider but where he was so exhausted he was taken to one of the stone barns after they had made it comfortable for him. I’m instantly concerned when I see him because he looks tarnished. There this layer of almost a tarnish like color over his scales and his plates and he’s still covered in soot. He was sleeping until we came in on this huge pile of straw they put out as a make do mattress.

Shaya looks at him. “Ooooh, Gods I’m sorry I should have bee down here sooner, you look terrible.”

~Oh well thank you so much beloved for appealing to my vanity, and yes you should have been down here sooner. They’ve been good enough to bring me some food but they’ve kept clear by custom. ~

I can’t help myself; I wade through the Straw and hug him. “I’m glad that you’re okay. You are okay aren’t you?”

~I’m alright Erendae, I’m very strained though and very tired, I’m not used to channeling that much energy in battle.~

I look him over. “Well you could use a good scrubbing for one, there’s nothing like a good bath I find to help fix me up.”

Shaya’s nodding. “Do you thing that you can walk to the rider’s hearth?”

~It will be a trial but I shall persevere.~

He looks at me with these big almost pleading eyes. ~Carry me oh great Titaness? ~

“Oh no, bucko not on my best day could I budge you. C’mon you big sook let’s go.”

He droops his head and there’s this heavy weary very played up sigh that comes out of him as he stands. We head out and head up the levels to where the dragons get quartered with their riders. Only part of it is him pretending to malinger. I see a real drag to his tail and that all too familiar look in his eyes that I knew so well at each landing of the stairs we take. It’s that making yourself move and do something when your bones just hurt.

There’s a change after a moment and he cough/barks at Shaya, it’s oddly like one of the calls like the raptor made on Jurassic park it’s a very reptilian sound. ~Shaya….!, do not I am fine enough to do this as I am.~

He’s ticked, his mental voice is gruffer and he’s…oh…I feel it now, she’s taking some of his pain into herself and he’s objecting to it. I turn to both of them and he’s got her pinned to the stone railing with his snout and he’s glaring at her with the eye on that side turning his head so the eye is looming closer to her.

“Oh for fucksakes.” I throw my arms in the air then walk over to both of them her I pinch her ear and him I grab that eyelid.

~OW!!!~ emanates from both of them through the bound we share. Here I have the advantage. I had kids. Grown and out on their own but I had kids. I know how to hit them both with the parental scorn and you’re being stupid bit.

They both look at me like I’m the one that’s lost my mind and then they start to clue in as to how this whole thing looked to the people and troops around us. “Shaya, baby you should have asked if he needed help, he’s not too thick headed to take help when it’s offered are you Bhlaze?”

~No…~
“Sorry, Bhlaze I should have asked, I was just so worried.” She’s almost pouting and looks genuinely chastised.

It’s got to be an elf thing that they can seem so young all of a sudden. He looks like he’s a puppy that made a mess the way his neck is arched and the droop of his head.

I hug both of them. “We’re all bonded here, let’s just let it all flow together and share in all of it and we’ll get there together, okay loves…?”

They both nuzzle and snuggle into me and then there’s the feeling of the weight of his pain and exhaustion filling out and being shared between the three of us. I tighten the hug and I push back on the tired hurting aching feeling like my arms and legs and my back are aching so much.

I just set it aside.

Just…? Yeah. See I spent most of my adult life kind of like this. In a body that wasn’t supposed to be the real one of mine and getting to the point of where things hurt. Inside and out I guess living that life, being as big as I was even though I had kept trying to shed it there was a shitload of emotional pain and issues that drug me down because of my never really being able just to be me. Now add that into a life of just human life and all the bullshit back home and bad health issues that Shaya and Bhlaze would never know and y’know what?

I still didn’t let it crush me. Oh there were times I was face down in the emotional much with an elephant on my back but I still carried on, got back up, still fought. It’s who I am; it’s part of my soul.

I just, just can’t give up.

I’m a Detroit girl there’s Motor City steel in this heart of mine.

So yeah, Just…is just that. I’m still so used to living with all of that pain I set it aside and I carry on, but not just me…in my heart I put a shoulder under Shaya and Bhlaze too and we start moving together. It’s a powerful moment because this in them finally feeling me.

I’m Wren Phoenix, and I’ll pick you up and carry you if I have to. I’m strong as I ever need to be for the one’s I love.

I even smile as we walk. “It’s just two more flights the a few dozen yards and there’ll be all that piping hot heated sand.”

I get an almost shiver as does Shaya at the longing feelings from Bhlaze. It’s that deep longing ache for a hot bath when everything hurts and you feel like you’re sick.

It’s not that far but it sure does feel that way and there’s such a relief from him Shaya and I both lean on him as he sort of crawls into the sands like we would a quilt. We’re pulling out of the bond and he’s snout nuzzling both of us. And that’s when my heart almost falls to pieces… When he thinks/link speaks… his heart so full of feeling like he’s not just being our bonded but a person we love… he’s so flooded with those feelings that there’s and almost whine almost whale sound as he thinks ~Thank You.~ at us and there’s two big tears that spilled from his eyes….

I didn’t know that dragons could cry.

Okay…Yeah I started bawling.

And Shaya’s bawling.

And we’re both hanging onto the big lug’s head and hugging him for all we’re worth and I can literally feel something change in the three of us and get just a little stronger?

And then of course he’s got to be a guy and ruin it, make us laugh as he thinks to us.

~Dammit…I’m a dragon, and here I am stuck bonded to two overly emotional women, not one but two of you…no wonder I’m a crying wreck. ~

~Damned hormones…~

It was absurdly funny. Him saying that.

And then I pictured him in the look and the make up that the dragon is done up in for the Shrek movies and I can’t help it the giggles started and O lost it I laughed until I had to run around almost cross legged looking for the bathroom because I had to pee.

Which made him and Shaya laugh at me. Actually my need to go potty king of amuses them because apparently elves have the bladder of a freaking camel. It’s like water conservation or something….they find it funny because no one they know of goes to the bathroom as much as I do.

……………………………… Well I get taken care of and he falls asleep and Shaya and I get the things from the supply room set aside for the dragon riders and start scrubbing him down as he sleeps. There is a weird kind of residue that was left on him like you’d see in electrical systems open to the air. And the soot and everything it’s a heck of a lot of work but it’s so worth it every once in a while feeling him knowing he’s loved and cared for and that…that the three of us are family. It’s still a lot of work though kind of like scrubbing down a leer jet by hand he’s about the same size give or take.

The Rymora bring us more food during the few hours that we’re taking care of him and that Shaya’s mixing things to balm some of his wounds from the fighting.

It’s still that kind of polish food and the rye bread kind of stuff and I eat a bit more sparingly but don’t starve myself either. Shaya really doesn’t care for this kind of food except for the perogies. She likes anything with potatoes in it. I’ll have to make her French fries sometime.

……………………………….The rest of the day we spend getting the grand tour and getting acquainted with their dialect of Sylvan and the place itself. There some things I really love here. One the dogs, there’s a lot of dogs here and they’re all those lovely sled dog breeds. There’s no snow and they use them actually on wagons here during the summer months and pulling on other things including having commands for them to run tethered to a milling wheel or trained to run solo as messengers for the scouts.

Shaya has a huge love of these dogs. It was just worth so much to see her just completely girl out and lose it around the puppies they had in the kennels. It was like feeling just some of the hurt and bullshit inside her just get washed away. I got a little misty watching her and I’ll have to ask if they make anything like a camcorder with this majik-tech of theirs. I would have loved to get this recorded.

The horses too, I love the look of those great big draft horses that they have here but these are just beautiful looking animals and there’s so many just stunning horses her and their huge. So much like those heavy Nordic, German, Icelandic breeds all except for the horses for the knights….oh my…they’re the Sylvan version of the Lipizzaner horses. And not like the shows they put on I got to watch them in their gear and barding with their knights and doing this full on combat dressage while their riders sparred and fought.

One of the knights waiting talked as Shaya and I looked on. His name’s Evander. “The Sleipniri are raised to do this since they are very young, we teach them dressage ways as we teach our pages and squires and each horse knows the rhythms and movements of their riders they are one of the great breeds. The Shaelani have their wonderful horses but we are truly blessed with our Sleipniri brothers and sisters.”

I’m curious. “Given how long it takes to train a proper knight how long do these Sleipniri live?”

“Ah you do not know of the great breeds?”

“No, I’m still really very much the new student here.”

“Yes, this is good that you ask. It’s much better to learn about each of us from our own words.” He smiles and he’s sort of cute in that built but not elf way with the Dutch/Swede fair hair and blue eyes. I love his accent though. We’re speaking common sylvan but to me he’s got this sort of northern European kind of an accent or the elfin equivalent of a Rymoran speaking common as his second language. Y’know what I mean.

It’s actually very much like all those regions here mashed together? The amount of blondes though. For awhile I was really amusing myself in the boring parts of the tour by mentally overlapping some of what was being said with the Swedish chef from the Muppets or singing along to ABBA tunes in my head.

I still can’t get “Take a chance on me.” Out of my head.

I look at Evander and smile. “I think that might be the idea the king had when he sent me on this tour with Shaya, that and to get some seasoning in before my duel.”

“Duel? Whom are you challenged by?”

“She calls herself Lady Kyte.”

*** Lady Kyte………………

She dodged and danced and moved and parried and performed move after move beating back the three men she’d been sparring with. Lord Bael Kyte watched his niece with a frown on his face that marred his fine Sylvan aristocratic features. His knight Roan looked on impassively as she fought well, really well they supposed…for a woman.

He walked into the walled yard and paced a bit as she fought and reached up and played with one of the roses growing out of the hedge.

“Wren Phoenix has won herself great honors by meeting the enemy in the Darklands and has been called hero by some. According to my contacts.”

“What!” she turned and took a graze from one of the swords.

There was sneers that just said… of course and pathetic from her Uncle and Roan. Jesslynn’s cheeks burned with anger and shame. She hated her red hair and the fact her feeling flowed too strongly.

She hated Wren Phoenix, she had been taken unawares by the woman’s …no…she was no more a woman from the rumors than Illian was. It burned at her that she and others struggled so hard to be equal to make a mark and this fake just struts in and…

Bael watched as she went crazed like any other jealous wench and took her anger out on the men of the house guard until she’d bested them handily. He watched her sweat like some disgusting street whore or Shaelani slut the one thing he’d admit that it made her training clothes stick to her body in interesting ways. He smiled at her and smelled the rose. “I said that she had won honors in a fierce battle against a terrible foe in the Darklands and that the court is buzzing about her and Illian…or Shaya as they’re being called now.”

He watched her change the grip on her blades. “It seems that the courtiers are starting to talk, they’re saying that you’re going to lose the duel, that you’re the one who was being disrespectful and dishonorable to the princess and her consort.”

He smiled at her. “Oh yes, there are those calling Shaya princess, they are even being tolerant of their trysting with the woman who beat you…she beat you so easily Jesslynn. Yes even a transformed male is better than you. The one thing you’ve ever done for this house was win your shield, It’s your fathers one good choice allowing you that before he died. It at least mitigates the failure you are as a real woman…barren as you are.”

She hung her head cheeks burning with rage. No one thought she was worthy of the honors, not amongst her own kind. The barbarians and the colored elves allowed their women freedoms that she yearned for all her life. But while not forbidden by law on Highwood, Skywood and Greenwood it was by custom. Women had their place.

Except for her. She had been born cursed and fallow, unable to secure heirs no good and right man would want her except as some common whore. So breaking custom she became a knight, her father’s heir once she was titled with her shield. But she had no children nor would she ever to pass that too.

She let her uncle Bael run the family estates to save face and let him do the job he’d have when she died. He’d inherit. She was fine with that, if she died in battle it might help restore her good name, dying for the crown. It’s why she took it to the traitor…to Lyam’s black right hand Illian. If she defeated the traitor then people would see her maybe as not such a blemish. Now this…them gaining support.

She fought back the tears that so often came with her anger. Through clenched teeth she asked her Uncles council. “What would you have me do? The King has sent them on Dragonrider business, I cannot challenge Wren until she returns.”

He walked around her. “Take an airship and some men, these here will do and follow her. Make sure her claims and Princess Shaya’s are true and not some plot of manufactured lies. They could be swaying many by bedding them, you need to be there to make sure that they don’t sway too many against you and our house…plus what if Shaya tries to make contact with her master? Who will be there to know?”

“No one uncle…but we have no airship.”

“Our house must make the sacrifice of the cost to support you.”

“You’d support me?”

“Of course, you achieved your knighthood, a feat none of your brothers lived to do and I myself had failed. We hold great hopes for you.”

“I…I…I have no words for the honor you do me uncle. I’ll get cleaned up and pack for the field immediately.”

“And I my dear will arrange the ship.”

He watched her leave with almost a happy gait to her step. Women utterly predictable. He glared at the useless house guards. “Leave, go pack this mission with her will be the end of your service with us.” He watched them leave and played idly with the rose. Roan walked up. “Shall I leave?”

“Yes, and take enough funds to hire the right people.”

“But of course My Lord, The Darklands are a dangerous place.”