There's Something About Dragons

by Selene Griffin

  “Sorinah, please,” he pleaded, shaking his head again. “You know just as well as I do that I could never have closed off anyone from this process with Isidora. Every eligible Dragon is owed a fair chance at her hand, no matter what. You know that.”

  “But this is different!” She protested.

  “No, it’s not,” he interrupted, holding up a hand to silence her, his voice growing sterner. “Regardless of what his family may have done in the past, Enzo Visconti is the new head of a prominent clan and he is of eligible age to court Isidora. Should she choose him, as is her power to do, then we shall respect that. What happened in the past is of no bearing, and it will be of no bearing. Do you understand?”

  Sorinah sat there, dumbfounded for a moment… but she understood. Isidora was the first female Dragon to be born in nearly half a century and for Geza to deny even a single eligible Dragon from seeking her hand would amount to a declaration of war. Isidora had to be given every possible option to choose from or her choice in a husband might not be deemed valid by the rest of their kind. But how could they allow a man whose family had once done so much wrong?

  “Sorinah?” Geza asked.

  “I… understand,” she answered, though her tone made it clear she wasn’t happy about it.

  “Good,” he said as he sat back in his chair again. “I am not happy about this turn of events either, I assure you, but I highly doubt Isidora will end up choosing Enzo Visconti in the end. I’ve been watching that family long enough to know that lad isn’t the sort our Isidora would choose as a husband.”

  “You had better be right, Geza,” Sorinah said in a cold tone.

  Neither of them had anymore to say at that point. There was nothing to be done but wait and see who Isidora would choose. In the end, if she did choose Enzo, it would be her choice. The moment Santiago had passed away, Geza made the choice to never tell Isidora the truth of everything. To tell her now would only destroy their family.

  Chapter Two

  Today was the day she would meet with Ladon Drayce for the second time, and despite her better judgement and constant effort she found herself anxious and nervous about the entire thing. She knew it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Ladon himself. Yes, he was a handsome man and all, but he’d left her so unimpressed and slightly annoyed after their first meeting that these butterflies were definitely not his to claim. They couldn’t be.

  She tried to focus on something else, her hair for example, but even that turned into a more stressful ordeal than she was anticipating. Her dark, thick hair fought her at every turn no matter what she tried to do with it. At one point, she wound up with a rat’s nest on one side and a perfect set of tendrils on the other. She could have screamed from the frustration of working it all back out again… and she did. Loud enough that her mother poked her head into the room to see what was going on before backing away slowly from the tornado Isidora was becoming.

  By the time she called it ‘good enough,’ she had wet, dried, curled and wet her hair again at least four times. Her final efforts left her with a simple blow-dried look. Thankfully, her hair sported a little wave on its own, so she could at least feel slightly satisfied with it.

  Settling on an outfit turned out to be even more of a nightmare for her. At first, she went with a pair of trousers and a button-down blouse but felt like she was giving off the wrong image with it. She wanted him to see her as approachable and feminine despite her Dragon nature. She had heard from more than one suitor that they had expected her to be brutish and possibly ugly. Their pleasant surprise at her classic feminine beauty, as her mother called it, was always an ego boost for her… but it had also caused her to become overly concerned with not fulfilling any of their preconceptions about her. It was tiresome, to say the least.

  Scrapping that choice, she filtered through about seven dresses before casting them all into the pile deemed too risqué. Many of them highlighted her figure in a very flattering way… but every one of them seemed to be just a bit too much. She wanted to seem attractive… not serve as a distraction.

  By the time she found something suitable, Ladon Drayce was nearly due to arrive. But the dress would work. A simple yet flattering spring dress that flowed around her legs and hung from her hips perfectly. The swirling purple and blue design across the fabric matched the season and paired well with her caramel complexion. Even though she was more or less pleased with the way she looked, she still felt the tight squeeze of anxiety in her chest and without warning her frustration came spilling out.

  “Aarrrggghhh!” She growled as she grabbed an armful of clothing from the pile on her bed, tossing it in anger out across her room before turning towards the window.

  She pressed her hands against the cold, gray stone of her windowsill, those dark eyes staring into the middle-space as she attempted to calm herself down. Slow, steady breaths finally relaxed her nerves and soothed her anxious heart before she let out a heavy sigh, hoping to expel the tension and worry over all of this that she just couldn’t seem to shake. The weight of this entire situation was threatening to overwhelm her, and she was scared. They weren’t butterflies, they were hornets.

  Since she was just six years old, she had been aware of just how special and how rare she was. The only female Dragon currently in existence and the first to be born in nearly half a century. From the moment of her birth, the entire Dragon world had begun holding its breath in anticipation for the life she would lead and all that would come from it. She had managed to escape the pressure of it for the first twenty or so years… but now it felt as though it was all crushing in around her at once. She felt like she couldn’t breathe.

  “Ugh, damnit to hell,” she cursed under her breath with an exasperated sigh.

  With a frustrated little growl, she pushed away from the window and turned to face the utter disaster that was her suite of rooms. Nearly every article of clothing she owned was tossed and thrown about the place as if a tornado had indeed passed through. In her ill-aimed frenzy to find the right dress, she had torn through her rooms and everything in them like a wild demon. Well, perhaps that was going a bit too far… but she was still embarrassed at the sight of what she had done to the place. She was better than this.

  “Get it together, Izzy,” she muttered to herself as she looked around.

  A knock to the door sent her heart thumping in her chest again and for a moment she found herself unable to speak. Twice, she had to clear her throat before she felt confident that a sound would come out when she tried. Even so, it was a bit more strained than she would have liked.

  “Yes?’ She said with a cringe.

  “Miss Isidora,” called one of her Uncle’s staff. “Your guest, Ladon Drayce of England, has arrived and is waiting for you in the gardens.”

  “Ah… uh…” She stuttered before shaking her head and trying again. “Yes! Thank you! I will be with him in a moment.”

  The fight to keep her voice from springing an octave higher had been a difficult one, but she had managed. Again, she sighed heavily and ran both of her hands through that mess of thick, dark waves on her head. Ladon Drayce. Hopefully this time around he wouldn’t suffocate the room with all of that pompous hot air, she thought.

  Off to the gardens she went, fussing with her dress every step out of anxiety and nerves. Her nerves were not for Ladon Drayce though, that was for sure. But they were the same nerves she felt fraying each and every time she met with a suitor for her hand in marriage. The weight of those meetings and what sort of domino effect could be triggered from the tiniest of thing… well… it was enough to stress anyone out.

  As she stepped through the wide stone archway leading into the gardens, she caught sight of Ladon Drayce as he stood there waiting for her. He faced away, likely admiring the impressive view from their terrace gardens carved directly into the mountain, but at the sound of her arrival he turned to face her.

  He was just as handsome as the first time they had met ju
st a month prior. Perfectly styled dark brown hair, brooding hazel eyes and a bone structure to kill for, all wrapped around the most alluring smile she had ever laid eyes on. He carried himself with a sense of confidence that was tainted with a hint of arrogance, though the casual-yet-controlled way he moved his athletically built body was a hard thing to look away from. Had she the luxury, she might have ogled him like the eye candy he was… but alas she was not afforded such things and had to keep her thoughts from straying to her face. Thankfully, she was pulled from her distraction by the sound of his voice. A voice that suited his looks to a T.

  “Isidora Balaurescu,” he said with that charming smile and roguish English accent. “A pleasure to see you once again.”

  She could have swooned. Thankfully, she didn’t. She just cleared her throat to push it all down and offered him just as charming a smile and her hand in greeting to him. This was business, not pleasure.

  “You as well, Mr. Drayce,” she offered up. “I hope your return trip wasn’t too much of a bother for you.”

  “Not at bit,” he said, that cocky smile never faltering. “I was quite excited to receive your request for a second rendezvous. I was sure you hadn’t taken much of a shine to me.”

  She laughed softly, rather than tell him he was right. She really hadn’t taken to him all that well at first. Now, again, he struck her as a bit on the pompous side. But telling him as much probably wasn’t the best way to start off this little date of theirs, so she simply laughed it off. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to spend their entire afternoon laughing things off.

  Chapter Three

  “You look quite lovely, today,” Ladon offered as they began their stroll through the gardens.

  “Oh, thank you,” she answered.

  “Quite a well-chosen outfit for today’s weather, as well,” he continued, boringly.

  She nodded, wondering if their entire afternoon together was going to be as dull as things were starting out. Had she wasted her time inviting him back for this second meeting? She watched as he reached out to cup one of the tiger lilies sprouting from their vibrant bush. He just seemed so… droll.

  “These gardens are breathtaking,” he said. “How long did it take your family to build them?”

  His question was, honestly, unexpected. She had already prepared herself to listen to him yammer on about himself and his family all afternoon and yet here he was asking about their gardens. Isidora smiled a bit, finding herself slightly less annoyed with him.

  “Well we are always tending and adding to them over the years,” she started. “But they were originally carved by my ancestors who built this estate.”

  “Carved them?” He questioned, turning to look at her with a quirk to one of his brows.

  “Yes,” she said with a brighter smile as she pointed towards the outer wall of the estate. “Our home was carved directly into the mountain and the gardens are no different.”

  “I’m not sure I understand what you mean, exactly,” he said, admittedly confused.

  “Come, I’ll show you,” she offered with a warm smile and a nod of her head.

  They started to walk, following the main path of the gardens as it seemed to wind up at a gentle slope. As they walked, she pointed out little things he might have missed without her knowing eye. Of course, the garden had been cultivated in such a way to intentionally hide most of these things, but that was the point, no?

  “You see how both the gardens’ outer wall as well as the stone overhang from the house just seem to continue with us as we walk?” She asked him as she pointed it out.

  “I do.” He agreed. “It seems as though we are walking up just slightly.”

  “We are,” she said with a little grin, quite proud of her family’s gardens. “The gardens quite literally wind up the outside of the mountain. By the time we reach its end we will be a full storey above the tree line.”

  The gardens were a point of pride for her entire family and always had been. Her ancestors who had built the estate, carving it from within the mountain itself, had done so for the protection it provided them… but that didn’t mean they lacked a desire for nature and its beauty while safe in their stony castle.

  Carved from the side of the mountain by Dragon claws just as the estate was, and accessible from a number of points throughout the home, the gardens wound up along the mountainside like a verdant pathway—hidden from view unless by air, with a chest-high wall of solid stone that ran the entire outer edge to provide cover and protection as well as a rocky overhang protruding out over half of the space, providing shelter from rain. A little more than ten yards wide all along and running more than halfway up and around the mountain, the gardens provided plenty of safe outdoor space for the family to enjoy.

  A number of beautiful, meticulously cultivated and cared for plants and trees had been brought in over the years to fill the space, growing in beautifully over the passing generations. They had even brought in enough soil from the surrounding area to provide a sense of ‘real’ ground for both the plants and the people, filling in nearly a six-foot depth throughout the entire thing. It was an impressive sight and a wonderful example of the type of architecture Dragons were capable of.

  Isidora shared all of this with him as they walked. She pointed out various points where the construction of the gardens was more obvious than others, claw marks and gouges, and once they reached the top of the pathway she brought him to a stone bench for them to rest on for a while. She was growing tired of carrying the entire conversation and wanted a chance to sit down for a moment. At least from where they sat on the bench she could easily see out across the lush forest that surrounded her home and covered the lower foothills of the mountain. It was a beautiful sight and this was a place she often spent her free time in, to destress and calm her mind. The fact that she had brought him here might have meant something… had he not been so dull yet again.

  Their conversation didn’t grow any livelier as they sat. Even as Isidora pointed out the amazing view, it was just trivial niceties and benign observations just like their last meeting. Isidora was beginning to contemplate how she could call an end to this date sooner rather than later when a little green garden snake slithered past them. Ladon stood from the bench and crouched to scoop the little snake gently up into his hand, letting the little fellow wrap around his fingers as he watched it.

  “If you are going to consider me as a serious suitor, I suppose it would be good for you to know more about my family,” he said, almost idly. As if their date wasn’t steadily going downhill in her mind.

  “The Drayce family from England,” she said with confidence as she leaned back against the bench. “I hear tales that your family claims a lineage going back to the Dragon slain by Saint George.”

  “Tales they are,” he said as he came to sit beside her again, snake still in his hands. “My family first came to England a few generations ago. We are actually from Greece.”

  “Greece?” She prompted.

  “Even our last name is a farce,” he continued. “Our true name is Kholkikos. We only took the name Drayce to better blend into the culture of England.”

  “Interesting,” Isidora said, totally honest in her words. “What caused your family to migrate?”

  “Mm…” He mused. “My family moved for a number of reasons… but mainly because most of Greece had become something of a tourist trap and our family’s sacred lands were all but overrun. It’s fairly hard to pay homage to your ancestors when a hundred humans are milling about at all hours.”

  “So, if your ancestor isn’t the Dragon of Saint George, who is it?” She questioned, finding herself quite interested in his story. The tales of Greek Mythos had always been some of her favorites.

  “We have more than one, actually,” he said, his hazel eyes watching the little snake curl around his fingers. “The Python of Delphi and the Colchian Dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece”

  “Impressive,” she said
with a little smirk. “I have always wondered the truth behind those creatures.”

  “Not every Greek Myth is a story, Isidora,” he said, turning those piercing eyes towards her.

  “Gods and Golden Fleeces?” She asked with a snarky tone and an arch to her eyebrow.

  “You find that hard to believe, but Dragons are totally acceptable?” He asked her back with a teasing smile.

  That caught her and left her silent for a moment. He had a point. How was it that she could so easily dismiss the idea of Gods and Goddesses as mere story… when she herself was a Dragon. Really, it was all quite silly and yet the more she thought about it the more she realized how deep a question like that could really dig into her if she let it. She watched as he leaned down and let the little snake free, letting it slither away into the thicker grass at the edges of the garden. She watched the way he moved, finding herself suddenly far more attracted to him than she had been at the beginning of their date that afternoon. As he sat back up, he continued in his story.

  “In the days of the Gods, when both of my ancestors lived, beasts such as Dragons, Giants, and Cyclops were just as common as any horse or goat,” he said.

  His accent added a certain special touch to his tale, like she had her own private documentary host telling her a Greek tale. Where that snarky smirk had once resided a warmer, happy little smile took its place. She curled up a bit on the bench beside him, resting her elbow on the backrest and her cheek in her palm. Her posture alone made it clear she wanted to hear more.

  “I trust you know the stories?” He asked, letting those hazel eyes of his turn towards her again. “The Python of Delphi, whom the God Apollo himself killed in order to gain control over the Oracle… and the Colchian Dragon, tasked with guarding the Golden Fleece in the grove of Ares?”

  “I do, to an extent.” She offered. “Though I must admit I always thought Python was a giant snake.”