Chapter Eight

Seventeen Years Prior...

"Why can't I go?" Aurora screeched when I declined to let her fly off with Marek to who knows where, likely Demarcus.

"You're thirteen and need to learn when I say 'no' to something that it doesn't give you the option to plead your case," I said rather simply as I sat at my workbench in my newly renovated room.

It now had a fully dedicated work area for my new hobby - finding a way to counteract the effects of pregnancy in female dragons.

What began as dabbling into the tomes of the past and the magics of the world had turned into an obsession. Daily I poured over any shred of notes and texts that could help me save Aurora.

No, not just her, but all of them.

Though Aurora often refused to leave me to my work. Usually, I liked having her in my room and listening to my ramblings of the mystical arts. Afterall, she was still my little Sun, even if her attitude had become defiant in recent years. The girl who listened to my every word had now become a teenager. A love-sick teenager at that and keeping her close was becoming more difficult by the day.

"But I'm going to marry him! Shouldn't I spend more time with him?"

"Of course you can, in the city where you can fly wherever you please. Leaving the mountain range is out of the question." I cemented.

"He's seen the mountain range hundreds of times! Can I please go to Demarcus? Thanases is less than an hour away. Please!" She pleaded with clasped hands against her chin as her lips puffed out.

Children… I sighed.

"No."

Rather than walk away with the grace and dignity of a princess, she huffed, stomped her foot, and slammed my door behind her - causing a heavy, small, metal sphere to fly from a shelf above me and land loudly on the floor.

I miss when she was smaller and minded herself better, I thought to myself as I picked the ball back up and checked for cracks. The contents were still intact, which was good. The gods knew I didn’t need noxious fumes spewing everywhere.

Time was running out and news was now flying in that Alexius was preparing for the end of his life. I was able to negotiate up to her twentieth birthday. That was it.

Only twenty, I exhaled slowly. Twenty years was nothing compared to the longevity given to most dragons, but for those who were of child-bearing maturity it was an ominous timer. Of course, Aurora's world view was obscured by her infatuation with the Demarian prince. There were concerning rumors that the prince was a tyrant in his home country. They made me more uneasy about sending Aurora to Demarcus for a season to grow accustomed to their culture. He treated her well enough under my gaze, but what if I looked away?

Placing the sphere up on its pedestal, I sat back at my workbench. There was a method to the madness, to the scattered papers. PIt was the one area of the room I forbade the servants from cleaning. One page out of place could be the difference between life and death.

Everything was connected from the many cases of maternal fatalities, papers on Belinha's disappearance, and topics on Eternity. How was it that Belinha and Alexius' souls were allowed to return, but there were no confirmed cases of others?

If I could perhaps attach... But I squashed down the blossoming thought to turn to the door.

I need to look for her. Leaping from the window in her room, I began my search.

To call Hyperion a city was more like an inside joke that the rest of the world would never understand. The dragon population was quite small compared to the other races, pure dragons being even fewer. Though, even with the numbers seeming to dwindle as the centuries passed, the range of Hyperion did not grow smaller. In fact, it covered an entire mountain range that rivaled the size of most other nations. Although I told her to stay within its borders, finding Aurora was still going to be a challenge.

Tension built at the base of my skull as I searched, in vain, in her numerous haunts. That tension then turned to heart-sinking anxiety as each townsperson claimed they hadn't seen her.

Where did she go?

The feeling of my own stupidity hit me like a boulder, forcing me to soar as high as the tallest mountain peak and sharply pivot and race to the border where Hyperion lands met those closest to Thanases.

Just as the zephyr was sweeping the underside of my wings to spring me to the capital, a small figure sitting on a patch of dirt, surrounded by blades of dry grass caught my gaze. The knot in my neck melted as my feet met the ground and I watched as this small girl sat with her legs clutched tightly against her chest and her sweet face buried in her knees. Aurora's shoulders quaked as a light sob escaped into the space between us.

"Little Sun," I began gently, watching her body go still but she refused to look up. That was okay, I would lean down to her and sit cross-legged before her until she was ready to speak. Until then, I was going to say my peace.

"Aurora, you have grown so much and too quickly. It's hard for me to see you as anyone other than that sweet little toddler who refused to take five steps without checking to see if I was close behind her,” I breathed slowly and deeply, knowing some concessions would need to be made on my part. "I am protective, stubborn, and hold on too tightly. But I also know it's due to my love for you and wanting to keep you safe."

I paused, hoping she would look up. Instead, her shoulders lowered while she tilted her head slightly upwards, as if to hear me better. So, I continued, laying it all out for her.

"On the day you were born, and I know I’ve said this before, my little Sun, I made a vow to our mother that I would take care of you. On that day..." I struggled, searching for a way to speak without breaking. It was because of my caring for Aurora that healing had become possible after losing our mother, but I wouldn't put that on her shoulders. But, I had to stress her importance to me in another way. "...I had to grant her last wish and make sure I gave you the best life possible. And that's what I have been trying to do ever since. You have become my pride and joy over these short years and I'm not ready to send you off just yet."

Lifting my hand, I rested it on her bright sun-kissed locks. "Please don't be in such a rush to leave me."

After a long pause, perhaps several, her mirroring, yet wet, golden eyes finally took a peek at my own. The corners of my lips turned upwards slightly as hers did the same.

"I'll try not to,” she whispered through a hiccup.

"That's all I can ask for,” I replied just as softly.

We took our time returning home, walking for most of the way. Something about her isolation troubled me and I dared to ask the question.

"I thought you were going flying with Marek?" It came out more as prying than a general question, but after some of the rumors I heard... I just wanted to make sure I was wrong.

She paused in her steps up the path to the mountain and hung her head low, her chin tucked nearly against her chest as she seemed desperate not to cry.

"He brought along someone to join us. But she couldn't fly. She’s from Durant. At first I didn't mind, but when I changed from my hybrid form to my full one..." Aurora's voice trailed as her small shoulders lean forward in a sag. After a moment she let out a breath. "Marek said that it wasn't polite to show off and become jealous. But I wasn't!"

Her voice rose as she turned to face me, tears seeming to become angry within flaring eyes.

"I just wanted the full rush of the winds, they were so strong today. I really didn't mind that he brought someone else. But then, after he told me that I was being vain and rude, he took off with the girl, I think her name is Regina, and left me at the bottom of the mountains. Before you came, I was trying to run through what happened again and again, but I couldn't think of where I went wrong to justify it." Then her gaze became soft again as her angry tears turned solemn. "Huri, is my dragon form really that gross?"

My legs nearly buckled from under me as I took in her words and I wanted to find that boy to beat him within an inch of his pathetic little life. But she was already so upset. I didn't think I had it in me to distress her further. Instead, I released my own wings from the slits of my robes and spread them out wide, allowing the rays of the sun to bounce off the scales and cast glimmering lights onto the ground. I looked at them and then to her as she appeared in awe.

"Do you think my scales are gross?" I asked, giving them a slight flap.

Aurora shook her head sharply.

"No! They are the most beautiful scales I have ever seen!" She cried, new tears forming in her eyes.

"Is that what you really think, my little Sun?" I pressed.

"Of course!"

Nodding and acknowledging her true thoughts, I moved closer to her and leant down to meet her gaze. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I lowered my voice, hoping she would listen well.

"If my scales are beautiful, then why would yours be any less so?"