Jura's Grand Introduction

Jura’s skirts gave her the appearance of floating on air.  The jewels on the hem of the dress reflected like stars in the moonlight while her dark hair fell gloriously around her shoulders.  People stared as she walked down the Market Road instead of looking behind her for a change.

Leilani kept her white-blond hair tucked beneath her hood.  Her blue eyes focused on the sparkling crystals sliding against the rough road.  She’d have to talk one of the Nerou into washing the dirt from the hem later, but tonight she wanted her sister to enjoy herself.  The black clothes she chose to wear helped her blend into the background.  Though people glanced at her as if she were a common thief, she felt comfortable for the moment.  She felt almost free, and then her eyes landed on him…

“Look!”  Jura whispered.  Her feet stopped moving as she stared like every other human, ogling the man outside the city tavern.  His legs were long and lean, and a sword hung at his side.  Dark hair fell in his eyes before he shoved it back with a rolling laugh.  The woman beside him must’ve been a fan; she leaned into his every word as she watched his movements with glassy eyes.

“Why should I take in his appearance?  He murders my kind for sport and glory, remember?”  Leilani said a little louder than she meant to, earning darting glances from drunken souls.

“You should look because he is handsome enough to admire!”  Jura pushed her midnight hair over her shoulder.  “Let’s stop here tonight…Oh, please!”

The dragon held her look of indignation for a long moment, trying to make herself walk away, but she couldn’t say no to her only sister.  She pulled her hood tighter around her neck.  “This is well past good judgement, Jura.”

Leilani could feel her heart racing in her chest, but her icy countenance never broke.  She followed her sister to within a foot of the Dragon Slayer.  Her eyes, fixed on her sister’s back, couldn’t stop their curious glance toward the stranger.  Jura was right.  He was handsome for a human.  High cheekbones, pronounced nose, straight teeth, but his dark eyes felt more acidic than Damocles’ when he wanted something he couldn’t have.  She didn’t realize she was staring until the maiden with him spat something incoherent at her.

“Lei…” Jura started, but her sister’s shaking head interrupted her.

“My apologies, I do not usually gaze upon people such as yourselves often.  If you will be so kind as to excuse us,” Leilani whispered in her cool tone.  The woman grew angry, and the dragon’s smile did not ease the matter.

Jura took her hand.  “Come, sister.  You promised!”

Leilani chuckled.  “I spoke no vow, but I shall heed your words now.”  She squeezed Jura’s hand before walking passed the slayer into the tavern.  However, instead of getting away from him, he followed the girls.

“Have I not seen you before?” He asked.  Jura couldn’t be sure to which of them he spoke, while Leilani took great bounds to ignore him.

“I’m afraid not,” Jura answered while her sister walked away into one of the shadowy corners.  Leilani liked joining the card games men played, even though she always was shooed away from the table for beating them.  “My sister and I don’t get out much.”

“You don’t speak as properly as she does, why?”  His eyes followed magical laughter in the corner.  Jura suddenly felt jealous again.

“She lived in the house with our father; he is a perfectionist of sorts.  I grew up in a shack with my mother; she was a peasant, cleaning homes for a living.  My sister taught me a great deal, but it wasn’t enough to please Father.”

He looked toward Jura now.  Confusion creased his brow.  “You don’t look like a peasant’s daughter, and you certainly cannot be displeasing to any creature.”

She found herself wincing slightly at the word ‘creature’, remembering who and what her father and sister were.  “He has a lot to deal with, I suppose.”  Jura managed to speak again, but her eyes strayed toward Leilani.  Her hood was falling slightly now as she laughed and drank ale with the men.  Blue diamonds sparkled as she nodded toward Jura.  For the moment, the drunken men weren’t taking notice of her thievery.  If Jura had to name one thing she hated about her sister, and dragons in general, it would be their lust for shiny objects.

“Have I offended you?”  He asked a little too quietly.

“Not in the least, but I am done talking about my family.  Why don’t you tell me of yours?”  Her smile brought the blush Leilani pinched onto her cheeks back as the tavern keeper sat a jar of ale in front of her.  She took a quick gulp while keeping her eyes focused on the dragon slayer.

He nodded and opened his mouth to speak when the door banged against the wall with shoved force.  Jura looked over her shoulder before she glanced in Leilani’s direction, but her sister was already gone; she turned back to the door.  The man standing in the doorway was a broad shouldered man with cinnamon colored hair and eyes as ruddy as fresh mud.  He wore a dragon scale cloak and a longsword on his side.  Jura thought she recognized him.

“We don’t serve your kind here,” the tavern keeper’s voice echoed in the sudden silence.

“What, pray tell, is ‘my kind’?”  The broad man answered with a toothy smile.  His teeth were as sharp as Leilani’s dagger, and his ears were pointed slightly likes hers.

“The slayer has told us stories of your treacherous ways, Dragon.  He has proclaimed that those with sharpened ears and eyes that spark flames are of your beastly kind.”  The tavern keeper’s finger rose until it met with the man sitting next to Jura.

“Well…well…well.” The Dragon man shook his head while laughing.  “Is this not a strange and amusing sight?”

Jura knew.  As soon as the man looked into her eyes she knew who he was, and she was too afraid to speak his name.  Everyone knew her father in the human world, but the townspeople didn’t know she was the half-human daughter of a dragon.  If he spoke now all would surely learn tonight.

“Damocles!” Leilani’s voice was raw and harsh.  Her white blond hair poured over her black clothing like frost covering her own tell-tell signs, except the blue tint of her lips and cheeks.  “Step away from the human, now.”

“Isn’t she your…?” the slayer trailed off watching the ice princess standing as if she were a statue with her bow poised, aimed at Damocles’ heart.

“No,” Jura whispered her lie.  She couldn’t meet his curious gaze because she had told him more than once that Leilani was indeed her sister.  Her eyes focused on Damocles and his scaly armor.

She remembered the broad man well now that she truly studied his features.  Jura met him the night of her sister’s betrothal.  The large Fotiά Prince with black and red scales wanted to marry the last Págos Princess, and he was the last creature on the planet Leilani would ever consider.  She looked between the dragons in their human forms and she couldn’t stop thinking, ‘Is this what it’s like when fire meets ice?’

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

You are a amazing writer dear Nikki.
"Jura’s skirts gave her the appearance of floating on air. The jewels on the hem of the dress reflected like stars in the moonlight while her dark hair fell gloriously around her shoulders. People stared as she walked down the Market Road instead of looking behind her for a change."
The above lines. Made me see the beauty of her. I hope you keep writing. I would buy your books. You made the reader believe every words. Thank you for sharing the outstanding chapter.
Coyote