Chapter 08

by ~NeoGaea

Chapter 08: Dancing with the Dragon


                  The next day after breakfast I joined Joslyn on her categorizing. Daemon had been slacking off on his duties so he’s been bogged. We teased him a little about that. So Joslyn had to work with creatures nearby. Yesterday she did a sketch of a couple of dryads and a hamadryad.

                “We’ll probably see the hamadryad on our way to the lake.”

                  “Why do we want to go to the lake?” I asked.

“Mer-people! And with luck they maybe able to direct me to a pond with nixies.”

“Oh. I thought mermaids lived in salt water only.”

“That’s what I thought, but according to Dae there are freshwater mer-people as well as salt water.”

“Cool!” I then started to think about Daemon. Before I voiced my question to her we stopped and talked to the hamadryad. She was a young woman with long greenish brown hair and dressed in bark and leaves. So basically she looked like her tree. After a little while we continued our walk down the mountainside. “Say Joslyn, what royal duties does Daemon have?”

“You know, I haven’t the foggiest idea. I guess I just never thought to ask him.”

We laughed and joked about possible scenarios. When we got to the lake we saw beautiful naked woman combing their hair on the shore. Just like in books. We weren’t sure how to get the mermaids to pose for us or talk to us. Soon Joslyn decided to just sit there on the ground and start sketching. I sat next to her and watched the mermaids.

[Daemon’s visit]

Daemon walked to the back of the palace exiting a rear doorway to a cave system. Through there he continued in his human form through twists and turns until he came to a cave leading down. There at the cave’s mouth was, as usual, a large dragon guardian. This month’s flavor, as Daemon always put it, was a green dragon. He stopped the young king and demanded to know what he wanted.

“Know your place Corinus,” as all Daemon said glaring at the green dragon. Then he proceeded down the slope.

After a long walk he came to a large room. The walls and floor were red marble with gold. There was gold everywhere, hordes and hordes of treasure consisting many different objects. There were accessories, armors, weapons, jewelry, gems, etc and everything was piled high. In the far back of the room was a large golden canopy bed with red, sheets, curtains, and pillows. In the center was a gold throne and sitting atop of the red cushion was a woman.
She had long black hair that went down to her ankles and the same caramel colored skin like Daemon. On her forehead was a crown made of red dragon scales, across her shoulders was a necklace made of black dragon scales and her top was made of blue dragon scales. He skirt, which was connected to a chain of green dragon scales, was blue with green trim. She had on dark blue open toed heals which her husband had bought her long ago from the non-magic world. She had been drinking and was passed out.

Daemon shook the woman awake. “Mother. Mother. Wake up.”

“Huh? W-What? Oh Daemon my baby.” The woman said. She opened her eyes to reveal bluish white eyes. She was Tiamat queen of the chromatic dragons. Since a tragic moment in her life she had been in her human form and drinking heavily.

“You really need to stop doing this to yourself,” Daemon said helping his mother straiten up in her throne. “You’re a mess.”

“Now that’s no way to talk to your mommy.”

“You’re calling yourself my mommy, you really are drunk.”

“Oh hush. Where are your younger brothers? I haven’t seen Suko and Carlos since… Since…?”

“You haven’t seen my brothers since the incident with Fallon.”

“Oh yeah. That bitch. I’ll kill her,” Tiamat got up but was off balance.

“Mother. Please.” He helped her sit back down.

“So when are you going to bring your younger brothers down here?”

“When you stop drinking. Mother they should never see you like this. They should see that their mother isn’t drinking her life away.”

“I’m not drinking my life away!” Tiamat yelled standing up again.

“Mother…”

“No! I am not a child you can order around or scold! I will do as I please. And I want you to bring me your brothers.”

“I will not!” Daemon was loosing his temper. Something he should never loose with his mother for it just made her even angrier and she could be dangerous when angry.

Even without high heels she was taller than her son, he came up to her eyes. “You dare not only to disagree with me, but to raise your voice?”

“Oh Mother you’re being childish.”

“How dare you talk to me that way?”

This wasn’t the first time he had to deal with his mother like this. So he did as he always did, he sighed and turned away. And then he said, “I’ll come back when you’re sober.”

“Don’t you turn away from me!” Tiamat yelled. “If you continue to walk away then…then don’t come back!”

It was the same old same old. She always said that and he always returned never to a sober mother. Daemon loved his mother, but it was hard on him. He knew she was forever in pain and forever in mourning. Despite their petty arguments she did love him and his brothers. She just didn’t want to admit she was being childish and perhaps a fool. What was really needed was for Tiamat to find something to do. Maybe go back to her old wicked ways and fight with her brother Bahamut. Daemon didn’t really like the idea, but it beat her wallowing in self-pity over her lost.

[Return to Majesta and Joslyn]

So we finally got close to the mermaids and were able to coax one of them into posing for a close up sketch. We even got a merman and a child. Joslyn and I talked to the mer-people for a while. But screams made us run up the mountainside back to the hamadryad. A man was taking an axe and hacking at the tree. But why he couldn’t hear her screams was beyond us. Joslyn, being in platform sneakers and not high heels, got to him first and she pulled out her hybrid weapon and put the now large blade to his neck.

“Drop your axe or loose your head,” Joslyn said in a dark tone. I had never heard her sound like that.

The man dropped his axe and backed up. I need a weapon. I thought. Joslyn didn’t look away from the man once not even when I approached. She placed her hand over the chopped area of the tree without even looking. The look in Joslyn’s eyes seemed far away. She removed her hand and held her scythe sized weapon over her head as though she was going to kill the man. I ran over and got in between the two.

“Hold on! You can’t just kill him!”

“In this world this is justice for those who can’t fend for themselves,” Joslyn said, but she was distant. As though she wasn’t in there.

“Joslyn! Please…”I tried to plead.

She lowered her arms and I backed up a little. “If I catch you here again, you die.” She said to the man. He got up and ran. “Didn’t know there was a village with humans nearby. Must be a small one.”

“That’s all you can say after all that?!”

Joslyn blinked, “What are you upset about?”

I paused, “Do you remember anything that just occurred?”


“Yeah.”

Okay now I’m completely confused and freaked out. We dropped the subject and went up the mountain and to the palace. For some reason Daemon was pissed. He paced the hall grumbling.

“What’s with you?” Joslyn asked.

“I haven’t been laid in days!” He yelled throwing his hands in the air.

Joslyn and I looked at each other and giggled. Though that annoyed Daemon even more so, but he stopped pacing. We knew it really wasn’t what was pissing him off, but we humored him.

“So why not do something about it?” I asked him.

“J-Joslyn doesn’t…and I…” He stuttered and blushed looking away from us.

“Hey I just said: ‘if you hurt her I’ll rip off your balls and shove them down your throat’. Nothing about you not getting laid.”

Daemon blushed. “S-still.”

“Then don’t bitch. I swear even dragons suffer from PBS.”

“That’s PMS,” I corrected.

“No. PBS, Psycho Bitch Syndrome.”

I laughed and Daemon blushed more. Joslyn made a comment about how he blushed so much. Considering how she never made him do that. That embarrassed Daemon so much that he decided to take her to Centaur Village.

“Maybe I don’t want to go,” Joslyn said. “Maybe I want to stay here with you.”

“Trust me.” Daemon said pushing her forward, “You want to go.”

Once they left me all alone I decided to continue to look around. Only this time I wasn’t going to Daemon’s room. I think I found the ballroom, that is if dragon’s had one this would be it. The room was on the upper level the palace was built inside the mountain and most of the windows showed other caves so in case of an emergency one could escape to safety. This was the first time I saw sky from the palace. I wonder why they made this palace inside the mountain? And why does this room have a dome for a roof?
I shrugged it all off. I didn’t have my music, but that shouldn’t stop me from dancing. First I stretched out my muscles like I normally did. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine beautiful music. I must have been up there for hours, but I didn’t know for I lost track of time and didn’t have a clock. From what I was told later apparently I had Daemon in a panic because he flew back to the village to get Joslyn to help look for me. They finally came upstairs after Carlos finally told them he saw me go up here. For the longest time I didn’t notice them, and I about screamed my head off when I finally did.

“You scared me!” I yelled my hand over my heart.

“Well it’s an even trade,” Joslyn replied.

“I came back hours ago and couldn’t find you,” Daemon said.

“I’m sorry. I get bored just staying in one place.”

“I noticed,” Daemon said with a grin.

“So what is this place?” Joslyn asked him looking up at the ceiling.”

“It’s just a place to come and look at the night and stars. And not have to be outside where it’s dangerous,” Daemon explained. Then he looked at me. “So what was all that dancing about? Traditional?”

“What? No. No,” I laughed. “No, it’s for fun. I enjoy dancing.”

“It’s also good exercise,” Joslyn said. “You should do it too. Maybe it’ll help shave off some of those pounds.”

“I’m not fat!” Daemon protested.

“Fat headed counts.” Daemon glared at her and I laughed.

“So Daemon care to dance with me?” I asked holding out my hand.

Daemon gulped and Joslyn nudged him in the side with her elbow. “I-I can’t dance,” he admitted. “I never learned.”

“I’ll teach you,” I said gently.

Daemon gulped again then walked over to me and took my hand. I started him out on the Waltz, which only had three beats so it he shouldn’t have too much difficulty. I was wrong. He was a klutz. Joslyn was of no help; she was sitting on a rock and making fun of Daemon. I asked about the rock; Daemon said it was exactly there to be a seat. He was going to add more, but since it was just he and his brothers at the time he didn’t bother. Once he finally stopped stepping or tripping over my feet and got the hang of it we went from there. I swear Joslyn was going to fall off that rock; laughing the way she did. I felt bad for Daemon; he really was trying to ballroom dance with me. But Joslyn made it hard. Daemon almost called it quits when Joslyn got all serious on him.

“Go ahead Quitter. You give up on this don’t bother having a relationship with any woman. A woman doesn’t need a quitter in her life. She needs someone who is going keep going, keep fighting, and keep trying no matter what. Quitting just means you admit defeat. If you don’t like my laughing at you, show me you can do this. Make me stop laughing; show me you’re not the biggest klutz alive.”

I thought what she said was deep. And that’s what Joslyn did to people sometimes. She’d get them so angry that they’d try harder to get her to shut up. And if they wanted to quit, she’d come up with something like that. It was a small talent of hers, but it got the biggest results. And it worked. Daemon tried really hard. By the time we flowing together like water it got dark outside and the stars were out, and there was a full moon. Daemon and I were dancing all over the floor and according to Joslyn she just had to sing Beauty and the Beast. We later explained to Daemon that the song was from the movie Beauty and the Beast. When Daemon and I stopped dancing, he had me slightly bent back and he looked deep into my eyes. I gently placed my left hand on his cheek and smiled. And there was a full moon behind us; Joslyn said it was the most beautiful moment she had ever seen.

That was our first full dance, and there will be many many more to come in our future. This was also the first day we realized that we were going to be more than dancing partners, but that’s a story for later. For now we were just going to build up on that fire that was burning inside of us.