Dragon

The dragon brings a whole slew of new problems, and things start to get very thorny indeed.

The dragon was indeed huge. Though not as large as Garad had claimed, but certainly it had a significant size to it. Fourteen feet tall and with a wingspan of eight feet from foreclaw to golden foreclaw, the creature bulked large enough on its own without the added fearsome reputation all dragons had.

John's eyes narrowed when he saw the beast. "Pitiful thing," he said contemptuously.

'I could say the same for you,' the dragon replied equably, its mental voice surprisingly cultured and gentle. 'But we're not here to discuss size, or lack thereof. Have we one here who has authority to speak for the realm from whom my guest hails?'

Margaret pushed to the forefront, ignoring John's indignant sputterings. "The young lady of whom you speak is my niece. What have you done to her?"

'Manners,' the dragon chided. 'Goodness me. Here was I thinking I was dealing with a civilised race. Very well. Since you wish to be blunt, so shall I be.' He (probably) pointed a glittering foreclaw at the Princess Regent. 'Thousands of years ago, one of your forebears stole something precious from one of mine. My forebear was grievously upset at this theft, but since he was nearing the end of his life, he vowed that the theft would not go unpunished, and he laid a geas on my line to ensure that we would pursue the thief through generations, until he was at last caught.'

"And what has that to do with me?" Margaret demanded.

'I'm getting to that,' the dragon said, his voice now cold. 'The thief from which you descend later witnessed a falling out between his two sons. One wished to see the precious object returned. The other did not. The thief tried to reason with his sons, but they quarrelled, and thus were the lines of Hanover and Agevin born. Hanover immediately set up shop in the lands they now call Novidia, and entered into an unholy pact, whereby young unicorn mares were kidnapped and forced into marriage with each male of the royal family.'

Margaret stiffened. "That is a lie!" she cried, ignoring the shocked gasps around her.

The dragon huffed out a small puff of black smoke. 'No lie,' he said. 'Your niece is the very last true-born unicorn alive. Her mother was raped at the hands of her father, which resulted in his death from her outraged uncle, your dear brother Harald. Of course, I shan't go into all the gruesome details of why he saved your niece from a fate worse than death, but I'm sure you can put two and two together.'

"Just get to the point," John said angrily, supporting his shocked regent as she reeled against him.

'Very well,' the dragon said. 'To cut a very long story short, the Angevins founded Nomiris, and set to work trying to right the wrong their distant ancestor had committed all those years ago. The Hanovers wouldn't have it, and so began the bitter war between these two lines that has gone on for uncounted centuries. Your attempted alliance between the last two children to legitimately claim the names Hanover and Angevin goes against all our principles.'

John took a deep breath to calm himself. "What are you asking?" he said. "Meghan was to be my wife. What is the harm in that?"

'The unicorns are all dead,' the dragon said sharply. 'Your former betrothed is the last unicorn alive, as I have just stated. And even though you are descended from the side which tried to do good in the face of great evil, the fact remains that the thief's descendants had to pay the price. The geas claimed me the moment the betrothal between you and your former betrothed was announced, and I was forced into action. Meghan is directly descended from the thief who stole my ancestor's treasure. And since the treasure has since long been spent, it is her life which is demanded in its place.'

"Surely there is something of equal value," John protested.

'There is nothing of equal value,' the dragon snapped. 'The geas demands a life in payment. Meghan is to pay the price.'

John shivered. "Is she to die?"

'Don't be so damned stupid, boy!' the dragon roared. 'Have you no wits about you, fool? Meghan is a unicorn! Unicorns are naturally long lived, and the only death which can claim them is old age! She is to give her life however is deemed fit, and since her life is too valuable to be so bloody needlessly thrown away, it has been decreed by my kind that she is to give it in marriage!'

John didn't want to admit it, but he was relieved his former betrothed wasn't to die. "Will you tell her I wish all the best for her?" he said. "And tell her also that I will mend the rift between our two houses once and for all. I have no Hanover bride to wed with now, but I will speak with the nobles of Novidia, and see if we can't actually sit down and talk this time." He took a deep breath. "I will also end this unclean practice of forced marriage. Tell Meghan to have lots of babies, so the unicorns can come back again and give of their silver freely, and not be coerced into it, as I am now led to believe."

'You're not so stupid after all,' the dragon commented. 'Very well, boy. May your reign be long and wise, for I sense that you are a true son of Angevin. Be blessed. And give your cousin some smelling salts, for goodness' sake!' With that last salvo, the dragon spread his wings and took to the sky, dwindling to a faint golden spark that soon died out to the east.

John turned to a stunned-witless Garad. "Get the Princess Regent back to her chambers and see she is given every comfort she needs," he told the shaken chamberlain, wincing as his broken arm suddenly and very painfully reminded him of its presence. "Then see to it she is of sound mind when I ask her to draft a resignation from the regency. I am going to petition the High Queen and see if I can't get someone else to be regent for the next three years."

"Of course, my prince," Garad said, bowing deeply. "Shall I also speak with Prince Harald?"

John grimaced. "Yes," he said. "Get him off the throne of Novidia while you're at it. I need to talk with someone motivated by sense and not greed."

Garad bowed once more. "It shall be done," he said.

John sighed as the still-shaken Margaret was led away. For all that he was fifteen, he still felt as if he was much, much older. I freaking hate politics and bickering, he thought crossly as he went in search of some ale. Let all this madness be over soon so I can finally get back to a normal existence. 

Author's Note

Let me know what you think!

Reviews

[(gone)]

And here proves the fantasy and my hopes for a dragon! Haha, I had hoped for one in the first chapter, and we got it, nice!

So, the conflict of missing persons are cleared, the group conflict still persists, and I'm sensing that the plot wll continue to plunge into more detail about what happens between the two groups and their secret of coerced marriage.

I have a feeling, talking sense will still be difficult, especially if the accusation is brought up, but can't wait to see what happens.

Thank you for sharing! :-)