by Sariah Skye
There were a couple of people—men from what I saw—both at their own tables, one of them swinging a heavy hammer. It made a loud clanging sound each time it hit. I scanned the room for Finnian, but I didn’t see him.
One man spun around—he was very short, appearing to be in his fifties or so with short, cropped brown hair and a slight point to his ears. He was carrying a long set of metal tongs with an unidentifiable object between the pinchers. He was… an elf, maybe? I had to stop myself from palming my forehead at yet another discovery of a stereotypical, fantasy creature. Which was completely the proverbial pot calling the kettle black coming from me, the pink fairy dragon.
“A leprechaun, actually,” whispered a voice from behind me. I turned to see Finnian. “They’re like a gnome-elf hybrid, hailing from the Irish legends.”
“Of course they are. Where the—how did—” I shook my head. With Finnian it was best not to ask as nothing was ever as it seemed. Instead, I retorted with a sarcastic remark. “Where’s the funny green buckled hat?”
“I only wear it to bed, darlin’,” the gnome man responded with a wink, as he crossed the room to a big cauldron full of water nearby.
“Oh… I’m…” I blushed sheepishly.
He chuckled heartily. “It’s all right, dragon. Sarcasm is better than a bitten off head.” I heard a hissing sound as he placed the red-hot object into the water for a few moments, pulled it out and crossed back to his work station. “If you want to see it sometime, I'd only be too happy to oblige,” the gnome flashed me a wide smile and I snorted.
“Enough, Brady,” he said, nodding towards the other occupant in the room.
Brady, the leprechaun, winced quickly shut his mouth.
“It’s a… forge room?” I asked Finnian and he nodded.
“Oh, aye, it is. The best weaponsmiths from many different supernatural races gather here to forge their weapons. Or, art, in Brady’s case,” Finnian explained. Brady gave a little wave at us over his shoulder. “There isn’t too much of a need for weaponry out here, but some sell it back in special shops for humans or things like that.”
“Huh… that’s cool,” I said, scanning the room for anything interesting that might stand out; maybe someone’s work left behind. I found nothing of significance, but some metal scraps here and there. I turned to Finnian, impatiently. “This is all cool and everything, but why—” I began, tapping my foot with impatience.
To answer my question, Finnian nodded his head towards the other figure, hard at work over his work station. His back was to me so it was hard to see who it was or what he was doing. I had to move to the left a few steps to get a good look at who it was. When I did, my mouth fell open in disbelief.
Chapter 11
“Maxxus?” I whispered to myself. The figure resembling Maxxus had his back turned to me, but from the broad shoulders and the way his dark blonde, ginger-hued hair curled slightly at his neck, I knew it had to be him.
I arched a brow, watching him from behind, slightly hunched over. His right arm kept rising and falling with a hammer, making a loud clank sound every time the hammer hit the metal. Sweat trickled down his spine, and his shoulder muscles lengthened and retracted with each movement. I was pretty sure at that point, my mouth had fallen open and my tongue was hanging out.
I took a few steps quietly to the left to better see, but I didn’t want to distract him. Whatever Maxxus was making—art or whatever—he was truly a work of art himself. My breath caught in my chest as his face, deep in concentration came into view. He looked positively amazing. His toned—but not obnoxiously so—chest was glistening with perspiration, and soot was smeared over various parts of his upper body and face. His eyes were narrow with determination as he worked, and his lower lip was caught slightly by his front teeth. He paused for a moment, setting the hammer down momentarily and wiping his forehead free of sweat dripping in his eyes with the back of his hand. He shook the waves of hair that was falling into his vision away with a toss of his head.
“Are you drooling?” Finnian kidded from behind me.
I was so fascinated watching Maxxus work, Finnian about scared the crap out of me. I jumped and let out a little yelp. I spun around on my heels and angrily glared at him, angry that he caught me panting at him. “Don’t you know it’s a bad idea to sneak up on a dragon?”
“Leo?” I spun back around, and Maxxus was setting down his tools. A slow smile stretched across his handsome face.
“Oh lord…” I muttered helplessly as he dashed up to me, wrapping his long, strong arms around me tightly. He grinned as he spun me around a couple times, causing me to squeal and smash my face into his sweaty chest where I nearly passed out from the intoxicating smell. Female humans—and dragons alike especially—seemed to be attracted to male sweat, and I was no exception. It was heady and musky; marred by earth and fire and full of pheromones no dragon could resist. Especially one that had been a former boyfriend.
I dared to look up at him through hooded eyes as he set me down gently. Really, Leo, you need to figure this out because clearly, you are hard up.
He grinned out of one side of his mouth as a hand gently ran the shorter length of my hair. “Leorah… you are beautiful.”
“You like?” I asked hesitantly, fingering the long bangs from my forehead to the side.
“I do,” he said, wrapping his arms around me again, burying his face in my neck. And, although I knew I should resist, I gave into the embrace. “It suits you,” he whispered into my neck; his warm breath causing trembles down my spine.
“What… what are you doing?” I questioned. I meant in the forge, but he let out little peals of laughter as he placed very, very gentle kisses alongside my neck… something that he used to do when we were together. It was one of my ‘spots’ and he knew it. I stifled a moan as the heat from his lips electrified my core.
“What? You don’t like this anymore?” he whispered into my ear, a lilt of flirtation in his voice. He lightly nibbled at the edge of my earlobe and I had to force my knees not to go slack underneath me before I stood ramrod straight and forced him with my hand to look me in the face.
“How did you know?” I asked suspiciously.
He grinned playfully. “Know? That was one of your special spots?”
“Well, that and the whole weapon-making thing,” I said, motioning towards his work area.
“Oh!” he let out a little laugh. “Finnian gave me some of that potion he gave to you to remember your magic. He attuned it to me and within seconds—I remembered everything.”
“Everything?” I asked, both delighted and surprised.
“Everything.” He winked, like he wanted to say more. His eyes landed briefly on Finnian and gave him a slight nod.
Finnian nodded back and gave a little wave. “Well, I'll leave you two be… this is what I wanted to show you, Leorah.”
I shot Finnian a solemn look of appreciation and mouthed a thank you to him. He smiled before ducking out of the forge. Brady had disappeared through another door on the other side of the building, and Maxxus and I were left alone.
“What do you remember?” I nodded towards his work. “Obviously, you remember that.”
He nodded. “Yes.” He unwrapped himself from around me and guided me to his workstation. He grasped a silver, ornate dagger that he’d been working on. I gasped.
“It’s just like—”
“—the one I made you, with the pink sapphires,” he said proudly, resting the blade in the palm of one hand. “That one is stuck back over Anarach, and I thought you needed another one.” It had no stones yet, but there were indents clearly where they were meant to be placed. The dagger blade was slightly curved like an hourglass, and it rounded into a gilded handle. The hilt was adorned with filigree silver, woven in and out of each other with a spot for a stone in the center, and several spots on the handle.
“Oh… it’s so beautiful….” I praised, amazed at his craftsmanship. It was even more stunning than the ones h
e’d made before.
“I did this one a little differently.” He spun it around on its other side. My name was intricately carved in artful script on the blade. “I also figured I’d let you pick out the stones this time, too, since you don’t like pink.”
I ran my fingertips down the cool blade—it wasn’t sharpened yet, but it felt like ice in the heat of the hot, forge room—and traced the outline of where the stones were to be placed. “Make it just like the other one, but here—” I said, pointing to the stone are in the center of the hilt— “make it a green one, so to honor the fantastic crafter,” I winked playfully at him.
Maxxus grinned widely. “Glad to hear you embracing your pink. It’s unique and beautiful as you are.”
My heart fluttered a little. “This is truly amazing.”
“It is indeed. Finnian said I deserved to remember. That, and he instructed me to forge actual tangible weapons for everyone—just in case magic goes awry, or something. We may need backup.” Maxxus gingerly swept the unfinished weapon out of my hand.
“That’s great! But, wouldn’t it have been easier to employ the work of one of the other weaponsmiths around here? What if the potion didn’t work?” I asked.
Maxxus gave me a little wink, his entire face alight with happiness and pride. “Well, see, there’s apparently something special about my weaponry.”
“Oh?” I asked with a smirk.
He nodded. “You will see when I’m finished.”
“And when will that be?”
“I just need to weld in the stones… sharpen the blade. Maybe thirty minutes?”
“Wow, that’s fast! How are you going to make weapons, though, for everyone?” I asked.
He shrugged it off. “Oh, easy. That’s one of the special parts. I’m fast. When I took the potion, it came back to me like… what is the human expression? Like riding a bike?”
I giggled. “Yeah, that’s it.”
He smiled earnestly at me. “So… how does this all make you feel?”
I snorted. “The weapons? I mean—it’s fabulous! Look how happy you are!”
He smirked out the corner of his lips, as he set the dagger down on the table. He slowly sauntered towards me, his eyes intent, biting his lip. “I’m happy because I remember you. All of you. The Blacksmithing is an added plus but… I’m happy knowing that my feelings for you—they were real. Our experiences, our memories—they were real. We happened. I’m not sure why we stopped, but it was shortly after that night by the waterfalls that I have no more memory of you.”
“Waterfall?” I was drawing a blank. I rewound back through my memories, trying to recall an instance by the waterfall.
“You don’t remember?” he asked, with a slight pout. “Then, allow me to refresh your memory. We were enjoying a picnic down by the Royal River falls. It was a spot that I frequented as a young drake, and I took you to it to show you. We had a wool blanket laid down. Shared some wine and some jerky. We talked, we laughed and we…” he raised his eyebrow.
“We…?” I urged. The moment was still drawing a blank.
He chuckled, and leaned in closer so his mouth was near my ear. In a husky voice, he said, “It started raining… we crawled under the blanket to stay dry. I covered you with my body, as the blanket wasn’t big enough for the two of us to be next to each other. Things got a little… heated.” He placed a soft kiss on the tender spot just behind my ear.
“Heated?”
He laughed, soft and flirtatious, in my ear. “Yes. We started… kissing.”
My face flushed. I was beginning to recall….
I giggled as Maxxus crawled over me, pulling the blanket safely over us. I brushed the droplets of rain off my forehead. Thankfully, we had the presence of mind to remain in human form for our little excursion, otherwise we’d be very uncomfortable. Dragons didn’t much care for being wet.
“Is this too close?” he asked, flirtatiously. His hands rested on either side of my hips, and he slowly moved one upwards, to the top of my thigh. I had to catch my breath. Though modesty wasn’t a dragon trait, suddenly I felt insecure; that my robes just weren’t covering enough. I could feel the length of my legs exposed, and I made no protests when Maxxus slowly slid his fingertips over my thighs and up towards my waist.
As dragons, we had some erogenous zones—the neck, the stomach—but everything felt so much more intense in human form. Any spot became a ‘zone’, and I was silently pleading for Maxxus to continue his trail upwards.
Unable to contain myself, I wrapped my arms around his neck. I stared into his eyes—blue eyes that sparkled and watched me intently. His breath was labored as I pulled him closer and bit his lip gently.
Maxxus let out a low growl. Biting—albeit more gently in human form—was a surefire way to let a dragon of the opposite gender know you were ready for something more intimate.
I gasped. “You remember…” I blushed, suddenly feeling very exposed next to Maxxus.
“That’s right, I remember. The first time I made love to you,” he spoke softly.
Pangs of both arousal and guilt stabbed at my heart. Well, shit. Go me, I guess...
I must have looked conflicted, because Maxxus peered into my eyes and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
I recalled that day—it was the best day of my life at that point and now that I recalled it, probably ever. My very own storybook romance scene… I’d lived it. As a dragon—being with another dragon—finally one that accepted me for all that I was, and I didn’t have to be defensive, or hesitate or hold back in any way was the ultimate defining point in my life. I finally felt like we had a future. I had a future.
As dragon, sex was just sex. But Maxxus upped the ante that day. Not only had we never been with each other like that, but that wasn't enough for him.
Feeling spent, I panted heavily, wiping the sweat from my forehead. I giggled as Maxxus' arms went slack and the bulk of his body weight rested on top of me, his rough cheek nuzzling my neck.
“I'm not sure I'll ever recover from that,” he panted with a small laugh. Even under the noisy thunder and rain, I could still hear his heart pounding like a drum.
I pretended to slap him lightly on the shoulder, feigning offense. “It wasn't that bad, come on! For a first time—”
He laughed, perching his upper body over me with his arms. “No, silly. That was heavenly. But I'm damn tired now! I'm too old for this.”
I snickered. “Old? We're only, what—fifty?” That would be the equivalent of seventeen in human years.
He chuckled. “Considering I've known you for years, it sort of feels that way.”
I winced. “I'm sorry, I guess that—”
“No, don't be sorry. I only told you how I felt a short time ago. But now that I have, I want to make it official.” Maxxus sat up, still straddling my body, and reached over into his green robes tossed on the ground, and he rummaged for something. I didn't see what he pulled out, but he instructed me to close my eyes.
I clenched them shut and sighed. “What are you up to now?” I felt him grasp my hand and slip something cold over my finger. The middle finger on my right hand. I let one eye fly open and pulled the hand out of his grasp and waved it in front of my face.
It was a simple gold band with intricate Celtic knotwork carved into it with a single emerald stone set in the middle. It was stunning, but I didn't understand…
“What is this for?” I asked, confused, staring at it.
Maxxus grasped my hand and stroked the side with his fingertips. “Leo, don't say anything. I know it's sort of soon, but—when we're old enough, I want us to be bonded.”
I gasped. I sat upright immediately, scooting backwards slightly. The blanket we were under fell into our laps and I squealed as we were suddenly doused with rain.
I groaned, and with a wide gesture of my arm I spun a magical shield overhead; hiding us from the cold rain that fell. I cursed something about the Coterie that should have been watching this storm more closely.
Still unclothed, Maxxus slid next to me closely and wrapped the blanket around us, making sure it covered all our private areas. Dragons weren't modest, but he knew I was.
“Maxxus—are you serious?” With the rain subsided, I could focus on what he said. “Bonded?”
He nodded earnestly. “I could never love anyone as much as I love you. I know I don't have much to offer, but—”
I didn't let him finish. I wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled him close to me forcibly. I didn't kiss him—yet, but I stared intently into his eyes, nuzzling his nose with my own; something we'd done for years before we were bold enough to actually kiss. He smiled warmly, tipping my chin upwards slightly with two fingers and kissed me softly. “I love you, Leo. No one will ever love you like I will. I know most dragons don't always bond for love but, most aren't lucky to find someone they love more than life itself. I don't care how long it takes before you're ready, I'll wait.”
“I love you too. You didn't need the ring to ask me that, though,” I said with a giggle, looking down at it. “Though it is very pretty.”
“I tried to be like one of the people in your human movies you like, but I think I got it wrong,” he said with a chuckle. “It's the best I could do. In time I'll find—”
I put a finger to his lips and shushed him, letting the finger drop and replacing it with my lips, kissing him passionately, perching myself on top of him, pressing my body tightly against his. He opened his mouth slightly to allow my tongue access, and before I could say anything more, I pushed him down on the ground and climbed on top of him. He growled gently at my forcefulness. I leaned over and whispered in his ear. “I would love to be your mate. Officially.”
Maxxus beamed. “Really?”
I nodded fervently. “Yes.”
Maxxus jumped up from under me and threw his arms around me in a very forceful hug. I laughed as we tumbled back on the ground, rolling clumsily, getting tangled in the blanket. He clutched my hand in his and fingered the ring he had given me carefully. “I know it's not much—I know humans make better ones, but it was just such a pretty stone I thought it would work until I could find a diamond. That's what the humans do, right? I tried to get it correct but—”