[Episode 42217] [Episode 42217]The teenager was well-known for her ambition and capability, and her absence at the days historical ritual had been marked by many, especially those that disliked her.
"Did Kiima explain what had happened?" the elder asked the guards that had found her.
"She didn't make much sense," the guard said. "Kept saying a dragon had flown her."
"And?" the elder asked.
"Somebody had flown her," the other guard said. "We saw them from a distance. He had wings and he wasn't a phoenix, but a dragon?" The elder growled, narrowing his eyes.
"The Musk King does not have wings, and nor does his child, who is not old enough for this anyway," the elder said. "But I know of no dragons in this area."
****
Kiima lay back and dreamed, or rather remembered. Her decision had been made well before the dragon had actually caught her, and when he had, she had quite willing given up any control of her flight to the male, trusting in him not to drop her as they coupled.
The experience had gone beyond her ambitions. A Guardian was chosen for the reborn Saffron once every two hundred years, but the last time a dragon had claimed a phoenix tribe as a mate was well over three thousand years ago in the records.
Let Jeesa have Saffron. She would go down into history as something almost unique. She was a dragon's mate. In her sleep she smiled as she already made plans to seek out her lover.
Had Kiima known the truth it probably wouldn't have dulled her pride at all. After all, unique in the annals of history was even better than almost unique.
As she dreamed, the egg developed in her womb until a sensation of pressure woke her up.
She blinked awake and tried to sit up, gasping in surprise as she noted her distended belly. She laughed in half-hysterical wonder for a moment, in part thinking she was in a dream. She terrified and ecstatic both.
Kiima hardly noticed the hard scales appearing across her skin, or the spines at her shoulders and joints.
The bulge in her belly continued to grow, however, until it had finished growing and decided to come into the world.
****
The next morning the guards came again, hoping that Kiima would be making more sense. They heard her groaning before they came into her den and saw the mutated phoenix pushing the leathery egg out of her body.
They stood stunned as Kiima finished laying the egg and saw her swiftly shift back into the shape she was born with, sweat steaming down her forehead.
"My baby," Kiima sighed falling back into her bed in relief as the effort ended.
"Bring the elders," one of the guards said to the other, nervously looking over her.
****
"There is no sign of demonic activity within her," the priest said quietly.
"Then what is happening?" the elder asked, looking to the girl hugging the egg protectively and looking about at them.
"We simply do not know," the priest said. "She is still confused and disoriented, but that is fading away. Soon she'll be coherent again."
"And the egg?" the elder asked.
"The same, we do not know," the priest said. "She could very well have mated with a dragon. The records make no note of changes to a dragon's mate...but...there are many kinds of dragons."
"I have to find him," Kiima said faintly. "When the child is hatched, I'll have to show him."
The elder sighed in relief. The girl had just given him his solution. He couldn't hurt her for risk of angering a true dragon while Saffron was not yet reborn. Nor could he risk having the unknown...creature that she now was stay long in the Mountain.
"After your child is hatched," he said. "You'll go."
Kiima smiled and lay back down, tired again.
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(Posted Tue, 06 May 2003 18:28)
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