“The riddle. This nugget is the piece of hoard that was mentioned. And who must pay? He who has erred. I thought that was me. But now I think, maybe not.”
Ah. It was me, of course. I have erred in too many ways to count. I paid with pain and with a total loss of dignity in front of all other dragons. By all means, keep that gold.
Jennifer strokes her hand along my head, getting to know it. “Maybe. But I think we both have paid. Actually, I don’t put too much stock in that riddle. I think this was only a matter of removing the toxic gold in you. Oh, here is some more gold.” The gold chain around my thigh has slipped down to my foot, and she points to it.
I step out of the necklace and grab it with my talons. A part of my cache. Do you want to stay in this place, or is there somewhere you’d like to go?
She looks me up and down. “Are you back to full strength?”
I reach out and stroke a claw along her cheek, very gently. I am. Thanks to you. This is not all because the gold piece is out of me. It’s also because you make me strong.
She grabs the claw and brings it to her mouth, kissing it. “Good. For what it’s worth, I feel stronger now, too. Better, I mean.”
There is just one thing.
She stiffens. “What?”
Will you marry me?
A smile slowly spreads on her face, then she checks herself. “First I have to know a couple things. Are you going to plunder and destroy my home planet?”
Not if you don’t want me to.
“I really don’t. Will you do what you can to help my friends return to our unharmed planet?”
I suspect the Plood don’t like me too much anymore. Transport might be a problem. But yes, whatever I can do.
She kisses my scaled snout. “Then yes, I will marry you. Actually, I would love to marry you. I will absolutely, totally love to be married to you. But no more king and queen of Earth stuff, right?”
I chuckle. Right. Very well, let’s go and see your friends and find out if I will love them, too.
32
- Jennifer -
I get up on his back, he beats his wings, and then we’re flying high above the treetops. And if I thought the bobont had a smooth ride, then this is something else entirely. No airplane could do this. Caronerax becomes a part of the air, taking power from it, adjusting perfectly and soaring high, fast, and with total control.
“I get why you’re so good at the sex thing,” I tell him, hanging on to the horns at the back of his head.
You do?
“You do it the same way you fly. You love it.”
Only with you.
What am I supposed to say to that? My heart soars, too. “Okay.”
To my astonishment, the battle outside Bune is still going. A small group of our cavemen is backed up against the spaceship in what looks a lot like a last stand.
Around them, several hundred attackers are moving slowly closer, throwing spears and wielding swords. Their battering ram is being pushed forwards again.
“Don’t kill anyone,” I quickly urge. “But put an end to it.”
One pass of Caronerax spewing white fire at the ground ends the battle on the spot, incinerates the battering ram and causes the attackers run wildly for the jungle.
We set down by the foot of the spaceship, and at my suggestion, Caronerax Changes back to his human form while I watch.
“Huh,” I ponder when he’s finished. “I didn’t think it was true.”
He embraces and kisses me. “What was true?”
“Your pants. They really are magic.”
He looks down himself. “They are? I had no idea.”
“But that’s what you told me!”
“I made it up. I honestly didn’t know.”
I touch the fabric of the pants, which are now perfectly clean and pristine. “Self-removing, self-cleaning, and self-applying pants. It’s a super cool technology, however it works.”
The defending cavemen are blocking our way to the ship, swords in hand. They still have their guns, too.
“Jennifer,” Brax’tan says, tired, sweaty, and very tense. “You have brought a dragon.”
“A friendly dragon who just won the battle for you,” I agree. “This is Caronerax. My fiance. May we come in?”
He doesn’t smile or move. “What are your intentions, Caronerax?”
So, I had no idea being in the middle of a tense standoff with two peak alpha males seven feet tall