Azual put her hands in his. “As each year passed us by, and we could not be together, my love for you grew.” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “When I witnessed the witch use your father’s sword upon your leg, I almost killed myself.” She opened her eyes and looked directly into his. “If not for the egg that was growing within me by then I would have tried to kill the witch. I knew she would have killed me.”
Tusk nodded at her legs. “I see that you carry a scar down your leg as well.”
“Yes it was done to save another life. I could not help but think of you at the time my leg was cut. When I took you in the air within my dragon wings I choose to restore your body. I could not repair your scar from the witch – for that I’m very sorry.”
Tusk nodded his head. “We both agree then that our union will proceed as planned despite the lost years that have passed.”
Azual grinned. “Tusk, you should know that, according to the custom of my species, when I took you up in the air in my wings…that was our wedding. You are married to me now in the eyes of the dragons. If you wish to have another ceremony so that your kind will accept our union I will be happy to marry you again.”
Tusk reached over and pulled Azual into his arms. “I do not think that another ceremony will be necessary wife. If we are married in the eyes of the dragons then the planet and all others will accept our union as such.”
Tusk looked around the clearing. “Why did you bring me up to this spot tonight? We were here so many years ago on our last night together before the witch came.”
“This spot holds great memories for me. As the dragon I could fly here often and when my heart was sad for you I came here. Sometimes I felt as if you could still sense me while I was here.”
“It is funny that you say that Azual as there were many times while I slept that I dreamed of this place. Always you were as the woman that I carried here long ago.”
Tusk laid Azual down on the top of the hill. “You are as I remember you. I pledge myself to you once again as I did in the past. I will protect you and this planet for as long as this body will allow.”
“As long as we are mated together your body will last and protect all those that are important to us.” She looked toward the lake. “I can see the tiny tents that are around the lake and the great ship. It is good to see others here again in such a pretty place.”
But Tusk did not follow her gaze. “I only see my wife.”
Azual’s eyes returned to his face. “I only see my husband.”
Tusk pulled Azual closer and kissed his wife. “I have much to discuss with you, wife.”
Azual touched her hand to her husband’s mouth. “We can talk later.” Her lips brushed his neck and she whispered in his ear. “But now let us have our honeymoon that was postponed all those years ago.”
* * * * *
Chapter 52:
Algamight flew high above the lake with Steven upon her shoulders. “Where are you taking me Algamight?”
“I know of a place hidden within the trees on the other side of the lake. I wish to take you there.” As Algamight landed in the sandy beach Steven thought he recognized the spot.
Steven jumped off and walked slightly up the hill behind the hidden ledge of rocks. “Algamight, I know this place. I have seen it in my dreams. When our ship first woke us up I dreamed of meeting you here. You told me of the secrets that would help save your queen dragon and how my Aunt and her family would help destroy the witch. Is this place the same from my dreams?”
“Yes, Steven.”
Steven turned around and watched Algamight change into the white haired woman from his dream. As she changed, Steven realized that he had always dreamed of her. “You were in my dreams even before I knew of this planet. While I was a child I saw your face in my dreams. I was frozen in my sleep and yet your face was always there.”
“I’m not sure how that could be.” Algamight shivered in her nakedness.
“You are cold.” Steven removed his jacket and placed it around Algamight. “It is a lovely place here. This planet has everything that a man could want. I’m lucky to have been brought here.”
“I think that my mother, the queen, had something to do with your love of this planet. She has gone to great lengths to bring us together. Even when you were a child my image was placed in your mind. I’m not sure that any feelings that we have for each other are truly our own. My mother used some of her own magic to implant those memories to us.”
“Your mother is not here now.” Steven took a step closer to Algamight. “She may have brought us together between time and space but she did not fly me up here just now. You did that, Algamight. What say you about that?”
Algamight sighed. “I have special feelings about this place as well. I remember seeing you in my dreams before I knew about the great dragon that is my other form. Our lives have been woven together for a very long time.”
“It does not change how I feel about you, Algamight. From the first time I saw you in my dreams until, just the other day when I pulled you free from the castle floor, I think I have loved you. Even if your mother brought us together it does not matter to me. I can no longer imagine my life without you.” Steven pulled Algamight into a tight embrace and kissed her with all the love he felt for her pent up all the years he was on the ship. Algamight kissed him back as she too also felt for Steven the love of many years.
Steven leaned back and looked into her eyes. “Does it really matter that your mother and this planet bought us together now?”
“No, Steven, it does not.” Algamight shook her head firmly.
“Then let us make our own life together now. I will stay here with you as your mate if you will have me.”
Algamight’s eyes widened. “You will not continue on in your ship with your people?”
“No. Algamight, my entire life has been focused around you: in my sleep and now in my waking hours. I could never leave you or this planet. Your mother and Tusk are now king and queen of this place but they will need us to take over for them some day. Let us join together and be the next protectors of this planet. My family will travel on if they choose to do that once the great ship opens and they meet our ancestors.”
“Steven, I’m so glad that you feel this way. I could never leave this planet. It is my home now. I have my mother and, if I understand what my mother was trying to tell me, Tusk is my father. I have everything that a woman could want…as long as you will be here with me.”
Steven picked Algamight up and carried her to the rock ledge above the sandy beach near the lake. He stood facing her and held her hands tight. “I pledge myself to you and this planet. I will take you as my wife and we will be mated together. We will serve this world for as long as we are allowed.”
A glimmer of guilt shadowed her eyes. “Steven, there is something that I must tell you. My mother…she can talk with me telepathically now. She has told me that…when I took you in flight…well…we have already been mated together in the eyes of my people.”
Steven raised his eyebrows. “Then, if that is so… you are considered to me my wife now?”
“Yes, Steven, you and I are bonded as man and wife now.”
He ran his hand down her body and caressed her thigh. “So If I do this to you…it is allowed as your husband.”
She placed her hand on his chest and stroked it downward. “Yes…and if I do this to you…we are not breaking any rules.”
She stopped and looked up to him. “Steven, I’m to be your wife for now and always. I can explain all these things to your family tomorrow,” she paused as her hands continued to explore, “…but for tonight, let us celebrate finding each other here alone.”
Just as Steven kissed Algamight, he felt something. A smile slid across his face. “What is making you smile so, husband? You have already seen me without my clothes?”
“It is my Aunt Sofia and your mom Queen Azual. I can sense from them that our families are happy that we are togeth
er. My father, Ely, he is happy for us. I do not think that we need to explain anything to them tomorrow.
“Then husband let us take a swim in the lake under the moonlight and enjoy our hidden cove while the sun is set. Tomorrow we must be ready to meet your family from the ship and I would like to be mated to you in body and soul before that happens.”
Steven carried Algamight to the water’s edge. He removed his jacket from her body. As the moonlight hit Algamight’s body her white marked skin began to glow. Steven took a step back from her and looked at the beauty that was his wife. “It will take some getting used to seeing you this way as it will take me some time to get used to seeing you.”
Algamight helped Steven remove his clothes and they walked out into the lake just as the moon reached its peak above the rock ledge.
* * * * *
Chapter 53:
Morning came and all the people from the tents a woken by a noise from the other side of the lake. Every few minutes another dragon was appearing by the water’s edge. Each dragon now carried a rider. Sometime during the night many had paired up. Some of the dragons had riders from the planet with them while others carried some of the hunters from Roberto’s planet on their backs.
The hunter Mesquil was just jumping down from a great brown dragon when Roberto emerged from his tent.
“Mesquil! It is good to break light with you finally. In all the centuries that we have known each other, never have we met the light together.”
“Yes, old friend, I was trying to stay hidden in the trees with the brown dragon woman but she insisted that we fly back here to be with you and the others when the ship opens this morning.”
“So, hunter, you spent the night with the brown dragon last night?”
“Yes, she is something different when she transforms from her dragon form. She is like us my old friend. She can match me stride for stride and she has a strength about her like none other that I have seen. She is well suited to have been with me last night.”
“It is just that I never expected to see you with a woman. You have always been a loner within our tribe.”
Mesquil smiled. “Well even us loners need to find company once in a while. How is your wife Sofia doing today? She was tired last night when we left you and that child of yours – he screams like he has a lung larger than yours.”
“Yes, I know. I have heard him already…many times.” Roberto shook his head. “He is always hungry. He seems to suckle all the time from Sofia. I find myself jealous that Vincent gets to spend so much time at Sofia’s breast!”
Mesquil laughed and patted his old friend on the back. “It is good that both have survived, my friend. You have your wife and now a son…a hungry one…but still, a son you can call your own. You are lucky indeed.”
“What of you, Mesquil? Will you and that brown be together long? or did you only just wish to keep yourself warm for the night?”
“Only time will tell, old friend.” Mesquil sighed. “I do find her company refreshing.”
Sofia walked out of the tent with Vincent just as Tusk, Azual, Algamight and Steven arrived. Azual and Algamight changed back into their human forms. This time to everyone’s surprise they appeared fully clothed.
Algamight stared down at herself. “Well, now, how did that just happen?”
“My daughter, it is your husband that brought your clothes to you when you changed. It seems that our men do not wish to share our naked bodies any longer with the others. So long as they will it, we will transform with clothes on our back.”
Ely and Wisteria walked over with many others hunters from their original ship. Azual called everyone to the water’s edge. “It is time to meet your ancestors.” She transformed into her dragon form.
The dragons started their humming once again just as the sun was coming up over the highest peak above the lake. The water on the lake stirred and turned a frothy white color. The dragons humming grew louder and the ship began to glow. At first the light was faint, white lines forming across all the edges of the ship.
Steven turned to look at Algamight. “Wife, look at your skin! It glows just like the ship. The dragon song…it is calling to you like it calls to the ship.”
“It is ok, Steven. It does not hurt. It feels electric…like my body is being touched by the light of the sun.”
As the others looked, on the ship grew whiter and whiter until suddenly the dragons grew silent once again.
“Sofia and Ely, please, if you would climb upon my back now I will take you to meet your ancestors.” Azual knelt down and propped her leg up so that it would be easier for them both to climb upon her shoulder.
“Wait, Sofia, I wish to accompany you. We do not know for sure that to expect from that ship I do not think it wise for you both to go alone. What if this is all a trap?”
“My Roberto, always trying so hard to protect me. But I think you should stay and hold our son. I can sense our families in that ship. Algamight shows on her skin that this is our family. Do not worry for Ely and me; we will be fine.”
Sofia handed Vincent to Roberto. “I will not be long. After their long sleep Azual believes it best if the first people they see are their children and their protector.”
“Very well…I trust you, wife; go meet your family. We will wait here for your return.”
* * * * *
Chapter 54:
Sofia and Ely climbed on Azual’s great back. Azual flew high above the lake and circled around a few times so that the others on the lake could just make out their forms in the air. Azual landed just outside the great ship as the doors and shutters across the windows were opening.
Azual spoke to Sofia and Ely. “Time for the ship inside is different than yours has been outside. They only know they were awakened by my call. They may not know how much time has passed. You both were children when then sent you away. They will not know you as the adults you are now. Just remember that when they first greet you.”
Sofia and Ely stood next to Azual. She had not changed to her woman form as she told them that it was important to present the two of them to the ship as the protector of their planet in dragon form.
As the door slid open and a puff of smoke filled the doorway, Sofia took Ely’s hand. “I’m sacred brother.”
“I, too, am scared sister. We never dreamed this would ever happen. Let us show our strength now before we meet these ancestors.”
Sofia and Ely held hands while Azual gave them a nudge with her great head. “Go now to the door. It is time.”
Sofia and Ely walked up slowly toward the door. A man and woman appeared at the door. Their faces were slightly hidden behind the doors edge. Each wore a white hooded cape. Sofia remembered that cape from a long time ago. If it was the same as her memory, the sleeves would bear a strange symbol.
As Ely and Sofia looked on, the two strangers from the ship walked down the plank from the door entrance. Sofia saw the markings on the cape just as she remembered. “Brother do you see their markings? They are of the royal seal of our family – it is the same marking that I carry on my body. Do you not carry that same marking?”
“Yes, sister, I do.”
The strangers approached them with the hoods pulled over their faces so that Sofia and Ely could not see their full appearance.
The man spoke. “Who calls us from our sleep and wakes the ship from the great lake.”
Azual’s voice sounded loud behind them. “I called the ship. I am Azual the blue dragon, protector of the Armis family.”
“Come forth then great dragon and explain our waking.”
Azual continued. “It has come to pass as it was foretold. The children have returned to our safe haven. It was time to bring the ship awake and let them greet their ancestors.”
“You say that our children have returned and yet I see none with my own eyes. What trick is this?”
“It is no trick, my masters. Look at the faces of these two ??
? what do you see?”
The two strangers walked up to Sofia and Ely. They pulled back their hoods so that they could have a better view of the two in front of them.
Azual spoke. “Look at them. They are your children from Armis. Much time has passed since you sent them away and were frozen in the ship, locked away at the bottom of the lake. Do you not know who these two are? Reach out to them with your magic.” Azual walked up to the four adults and placed her wings around them. “Feel the magic from each other.”
From across the lake Roberto could see the two strangers walking up to Sofia and Ely. “Be ready, Mesquil. They approach my wife and her brother. If anything happens to them, I need to be on that side of the lake right away. Do you understand?”
“Yes, old friend. We will take you if it becomes necessary.”
“Sofia and Ely I wish to introduce you to your parents. This is Master Ares and Mistress Ann. Masters these are your children.”