Fion

News of our departure spreads quickly through the camp. Soon everyone’s turned out to bid us— or Sebastian, rather— farewell. Though it’s only a small number, I think I might grow deaf with all their noisy cheers and well wishes. He’s certainly popular, this knight. Like a celebrity. Then, with his skill and good looks, is that really a surprise?

“Don’t you get tired of it?” I ask later when we finally manage to break away from them. “All that excessive praise?”

He laughs. “They mean well, but I suppose it can grow wearisome.”

Rather than shape-shifting on the spot, Bast leads me a little ways into the woods. “My clothes do not change size with me,” he explains, and I recall that was something I observed with Victor too. “It seems wasteful to tear through them every time, but I can hardly get undressed in front of that crowd.”

Reserving great care for modesty, he instructs me to wait behind a tree with my eyes closed while he strips and puts his clothes in a knapsack. I hear the sound of twigs snapping as he shifts into his dragon form, and beneath my feet, the earth shakes faintly.

“You may come out.”

Bast’s dragon voice is low and resonates deeply in my breast, so my whole chest tickles. It feels a little strange to come out from behind the tree to see him changed back into his great dragon form. Sunlight reflects off of his snowy white scales in dazzling, iridescent rainbows. His eyes, still so incredibly blue, have lost none of their intensity as he gazes upon me.

“If you don’t mind taking my knapsack,” he gestures with his jaw to a small brown bag just off to the side. I slip it over my shoulders.

“Now climb on my back,” he instructs, “but mind the wings.”

“Is it really alright?”

“It will be easier to carry you this way over a long distance. Besides, I thought you would be more comfortable.”

Not wishing to appear undignified by scrambling atop him, I summon a bit of wind to lift me gently onto his shoulders. I feel Bast flex beneath me and adjust to the feel of my weight.

“Am I too heavy after all?”

“No,” he says. “It feels good to have you back there. I could get used to it.”

My face is hot as Bast begins to beat his wings and lift into the air, but I soon forget my shyness. It’s a beautiful day. The autumn sky is bright and crisp, but the wind bites into my woolen gown. This is faster than I was flying this morning, I think with a shiver, and it only gets colder the higher we go. Sensing my discomfort, I hear Bast’s voice carried to me on the wind.

“Take out my tunic.”

He slows to a hover so I can manage the clothing without it flying away. I slip his big white woolen tunic over my gown and it cuts the cold significantly, so this time when he speeds up, I’m no longer so chilled.

I lean forward on Bast’s neck, letting the wind comb my hair as he glides over the island. Together we fly through wispy white clouds and past great flocks of birds all while the ground speeds beneath us. We pass the forests and villages of the northern mountains, making our way towards the capitol Quartzmarch.

“Having fun yet?” Bast asks as we dive steeply to avoid a rather large, dark cloud. My belly thrills with the sharp speed of the dive, and I actually giggle out loud.

“This might be the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” I admit, and Bast gives a short, breathless laugh.

He’s tired, I think, his sides are heaving lightly as we begin another climb before he can glide again. Using my ability, I quietly channel him a little of the life energy that the trees and forest creatures are giving off so he’ll catch his second wind more easily. Strengthened, his limber muscles work even harder, climbing faster and with greater ferocity so that I have to put my arm around his big neck to stop myself from slipping right off.

“Quartzmarch,” he announces a few hours later as he begins his descent, pointing out the large, thriving city a little to our east.

“Quartzmarch was only a village when I went to sleep,” I remark. “It’s grown so much.”

“These mountains are rich with minerals. After they were discovered, the area boomed. The Boyd family were not nobility initially, but grew to prominence due to their management of the city’s great wealth. Or so they say.”

Bast touches down inside a large hollowed out cavern in the side of the mountain facing the city. Is it my imagination, or did I hear trumpets blaring as we came in? I suppose the arrival of the city’s famous white dragon knight could hardly go unnoticed when we arrive under the light of midday.

“Your shoulders must be stiff,” I comment as I use wind to lift myself from his back.

“It’s nothing,” he assures me. “It was an honor to bear you, my lady.”

I smile a little shyly, blushing slightly as I take the knapsack from my shoulders. Then I remember Bast’s tunic. “Ah,” I say, pulling it over my head embarrassedly. “This is yours, too.”

“It looked good on you.”

I clear my throat sharply, growing redder by the second. His deep bass chuckle rattles the stone and sends loose flecks of dust raining down from the ceiling.

“Close your eyes,” he urges me. “I’ll transform now.”

I close my eyes and cover my face with my hands. I hear the faint groan of his body changing, and too curious not to, I peek just a little through my fingers.

Was Victor a bad influence on me? I wonder as I steal a glance at Bast’s naked body. I’m sure I wasn’t like this before.

That brute Victor used to change right in front of me and walk around naked without shame. Bast is chivalrous and modest, so he has behaved more politely towards me, but I see now he is in no way less than Victor.

His skin is pale and rosy in places, his physique is perfect, as though carved from marble. He’s so beautiful it’s all I can do not to forget myself and stare openly. Then I remember what an awful voyeur I’m being, and I shut my eyes tightly, mortified by my own shamelessness.

“I’m dressed now. You can open your eyes.”

I lower my hands, hoping my embarrassment doesn’t show too much on my face. I would be humiliated if Bast guessed what I’d done.

“Are you alright?” he draws up to me, looking better than a man has a right to in those tall boots and form fitting leather breeches. When I see the way his shoulders fill out his tunic, and recall how the fabric seemed to swallow me up when I wore it, I somehow get even more flustered.

“You’re tired,” he guesses, “it was a long flight.”

“Longer for you, I’m sure.”

“I survived it alright,” he says, combing his fingers lightly through my wind knotted hair, grinning at me teasingly as though reading my thoughts.

Flustered, I move quickly past him. “We should get going. The report you must make to Lord Boyd is urgent.”

“Careful, now,” he catches my hand. “The way down is treacherous. Stay close to me.”

Leaving by the mouth of the cave, I see Bast wasn’t kidding about the narrow rock path that leads up to it. Looking down to see a more than two hundred foot drop, I make the split decision to conjure up a railing made of twisting vines to support myself, and anyone else that needs to take this path in the future.

Beside me, Bast watches this demonstration of my power with a look of awe and satisfaction.

“I’ll never get used to seeing the sleeping maiden’s power.”

“When will you stop calling me the sleeping maiden? I’m perfectly awake now, if you haven’t noticed.”

“That’s true,” he grins at me as we begin our descent down the mountain, now perfectly secured by the railing. “Then, if the sleeping maiden from the legend no longer describes you, what else can I call you but that?”

“But what?” I glance up at him quizzically, and that gorgeous smile of his is positively lethal with the way it stops my heart.

“My one true love.”