The Dragon’s Mage

kept her warm until she finally dozed off.

Chapter 3

After an uncomfortable night, Morgan was hustled out of bed at dawn with a swat to her posterior.  She sat up as if loaded on a spring and looked around clearly befuddled until his obnoxious laugh brought her back.  How dare he?

“Come little falcon, we fly.”

“Listen dragon I reali...”

“Ladon.”

“What?”

“I am known by Ladon, not dragon.”

She gritted her teeth.  “Fine.  Ladon.  I realize you can't help being...”

“Your name?”  He interrupted again.  She narrowed her bleary eyes at him as she tried unsuccessfully to pull on her abused dress without untwisting it first.

“Morgan.”  She stood, snapping the dress off with a huff and re-arranged it while she spoke through gritted teeth.  “I realize you can't help being arrogant and self-centered, but us lowly humans need a few minutes in the morning to feel up to facing the day.”  She finally got her dress on, her voice muffled through the fabric until it slipped with a final yank into place.  Then she looked up into the gold eyes of a fully transformed dragon and stumbled back on her bruised posterior.

He had grown to five times his normal size taking up most of the available space.  His colors, even in the dim cave, were jewel bright in iridescent rainbow hews that shimmered with heat.  His snout was long and full of sharp teeth, his ears pointed.  He was a beautiful dragon, there was no denying that, and Morgan was amazed, even awed, at the splendor before her.

We fly.  A long tail whipped out and wrapped twice around her waist.  She screamed when she went airborne, but it was abruptly cut off against his massive scaled chest.  He held her against his heart with tail and talon as he leaped from the cave into the open sky.  Morgan buried her face in his surprisingly soft hide, and felt more than saw his wings expand to catch the thermals.  He flapped, once, twice, and they were gliding.  When they didn’t crash to the ground, she loosened up enough to crack open her eyes.

Morgan had to catch her breath at the grandeur of dragon flight.  The world was a patchwork of green and brown, the wind a crisp power against her face.  It was the most exhilarated thing she had ever experienced.  She laughed at the pure joy of flight.  Ladon hearing her took her through some dizzying acrobatics that had her clinging to his chest while she screamed and laughed at the same time.  When Ladon finally landed it was at the mouth of another high cave, this one had the overpowering odor of sulfur.

“Is this what I think it is?”

“Hot springs.  We are close to my home now.  We passed the Northern Gate today.”  His voice was a surprise, and she turned to see him changed into a man once again.  He still wore the trousers, but they were so mangled that he was the next thing to naked, and she blushed to see him in the full light of day.  Even dirty and scraggly he was a remarkable sight.  It reminded her forcibly of the night before.  “If you follow the cave back you will find the hot springs and everything you need for a bath and rest.  I will return.”

“What?  You can’t be serious.”  She knew her voice was panicked, but she did not want to be trapped here.  “I’ll go with you.”

“And find myself facing mage trickery?  No better that you stay here.  When I return we will eat.  We will be mated before you leave this cave.”

Then he was gone before Morgan could sputter out a denial.

“Arrogant Dragon!”  She yelled after him.  “Unbelievable gall.  Who does he think he’s playing with?”  She muttered to herself even as she headed into the steam-filled cave.  She opened her hand, and flame shot forth, perhaps a little more than was strictly necessary for what she needed.  She tamped it down and concentrated until she had a ball of light and she sent that floating before her into the cave.

 “If he thinks I’m going to be laying around waiting naked for him like some virgin sacrifice for the big bad dragon he can think again.  I’m going to get the lay of the land and then figure some way out of here, before his mightiness returns.”  Morgan realized she was talking to herself and shut up just about the time she found the entrance.

The cave opened up to a grotto, and she saw the hot springs.  An immense natural geyser threw off steam.  There was ferns and night blooming flowers.  Star blooms in their white splendor twinkled and released sweet scents and relaxing vapors into the heavy air.  It was like being in the middle of a primitive jungle.  The magic in the air was incredible, and Morgan felt it working along her skin like a hot caress from a lover’s hand.  In the midst of all that was a giant bed, a real bed, with a thick mattress and clean sheets. 

Dragon magic.

She was impressed.

How Melly, Clare, and Rhune would love this place.  That brought her up short.  She found she could ignore the soft bed and the hot springs with the herbal soaps and towels stacked nearby.  The lovely soft towels that like the bed kept their cleanliness by magic.  It was magic she envied.  She could make things grow, change the weather, call on the elements, but this was making something out of nothing.  There was no way these plants were native to this cave, and to keep everything clean?  Did all dragons have that ability?  Then why was Ladon still dirty?  He probably didn’t do this himself, but then who did and why did Ladon assume an extremely powerful dragon would not show up and take exception to a trespassing mage?

She began to search the cave in earnest, using her sight and earth magic.  There were no hidden corridors or blank spaces behind walls that she could detect.  It was strange.  She felt the rock as never before as if she could pull it and bend it.  She could make her own door, she knew it.  But all the way down the mountain through solid rock?  Ridiculous.

She headed back towards the only entrance to the cave and looked down.  Once again, they were in the side of a cliff with no way to walk down.  Wings would be good here, or the ability to make a ladder out of thin air.  She leaned over until she could see the small dirty shoots of scrub.  An exceedingly long ladder.

What if he could mate her?  Dragons mated for life, she knew that, but to mages?  She'd never heard of it, but did that mean it was impossible?  She was already feeling a connection to Ladon after that little episode last night that she refused to think about.  Whatever he did when he bit her, she would not be able to say “No” when she wanted to that much was obvious.  She had to get out now.  Anything else would be unacceptable.  She was not going to tie herself to an adolescent self-absorbed dragon with control issues.  She had to find her family.

She sent her senses out into the mountain once again, looking for those protruding roots and scrubs thinking maybe if she could make them grow, she could use them to climb down, it would take forever, but it was better than nothing.  A strange thing happened when she opened her power up to the mountain; Morgan felt as if she could move the Earth itself, then she felt the wind on her face and with her powers open she felt the eddies and thermals clearly for the first time.  She pulled in more air and laughed as she felt her feet leave the ground, she landed back down with a thump.  Stupid mage, you can control the wind.  All you need is something to hold it.  She headed inside for the sheets off the bed.

Chapter 4

Ladon was not happy to be leaving his mage behind.  From the first time he opened his eyes with the taste of her blood on his lips he had known she was his.  Everything inside him roared that she was the one.  It had been explained once what a mate would feel like when he found one, but he had not expected to feel such for a human, and before his adult molt at that.