Scales, Ears, & Eyes (butterfly0408 & Greeneyed23)

He woke her the next day by tossing a roll at her, knowing she would not welcome his touch. "time to awake and once eaten away princess. The storm has stalled and we must leave this place before she grows angry again."

He gave her no time to respond as he gathered his things, leaving her a decent breakfast and some water, and went outside his pack and weapons vanishing about his person as he rolled his shoulders, his clothes vanishing into his form as his body stretched and stretched becoming dark and scaly until he stood in full form spanning the length of the plateau his head on a forepaw his eyes watching her the fire completely dead. "Do please make haste Princess. We have many miles to fly this day." His dragon voice was much like his usual but much deeper and more powerful and seemed to shake the very world below her.

She would consider being hit in the head with a roll to be a rather rude awakening as she jolted to sit up, looking around and for a moment was confused by her surroundings. For just a moment she had awoke expecting to find this all had been a bad dream. But it was not to be as she groaned, rolling out the knots in her shoulders from the unpleasant night's sleep upon the hard stone floor. Perhaps she was more pampered then she realized. Munching at the roll, she pushed herself up to her feet and lingered a few moments behind in the cave before joining him outside. Catching just the tail end of his transformation into his dragon form. Gasping, she took a few steps back until she was pressed against the rock wall. Eyes big and wide with a mix of both fear and wonder. Working up her courage, she cautiously drew closer to him. "There is truly.... no other way?" she asked as she tried to figure out just how to climb aboard him.

He turned his head and cocked it revealing the hollow she had sat upon the day before where the spikes that served as extensions of his jaw and forehead, nine of them in all, each long and reaching half way back along his lengthy neck, the smallest still as big around as her legs together. She could easily climb up his horns.

Even here in the middle she could easily see that they were high above the world in this place, and the nearest similar surface was at least a mile away. She could not see her homeland as here they were above even the clouds.

He spoke very softly. "Come Princess Maia. i have sworn my protection to you and also sworn not to harm you nor let you come to harm. What more could you wish?"

She could wish for a lot of things. For peace. For a way to fix the mess that was the war. Hell she wished the war had never begun in the first place. Her mind wandered to what could have been should the war never started. Could they have grown up as friends and allies rather then strangers and forced to be enemies? All the while she was thinking these things, she moved to climb into place upon his back and her grip held on for dear life as she braced herself for another rough ride like the one that she had had with him the day before when fleeing her captures.

He shifted and a thick layer of leather appeared between her legs, including a large back brace, while his horns serving to hold her in place due to her placement.

"Now Princess. Let us away."

He took two quick bounds leaping high into the air and unfurling his great wings he caught an updraft and let it carry them up then lashing his tail he set off toward the palace.

"Did your parents ever tell you why they were so upset? Did we harm you in some way?"

There was a yelp from her as he thrust them both upwards into the sky. Closing her eyes, she refused to allow herself to open them. If she were to look down and see just how high up they were there was a very good chance that she would pass out and fall off his back that would certainly not be good for her. "My parents only ever yelled and screamed that your dragon had cursed me. Purple eyes were unnatural and only a sin of evil magic could have caused them to change to such and unnatural shade."

'Yet they themselves wore purple all the time! Your father was buried under a purple suit." He shifted slightly his horns tight about her middle, the weight of them holding her down. "Open your eyes already. you can't fall. You don't want to miss this."

He blew out a gout of flame. "And if you don't open them I'll start rolling." He began to tilt, making her lean hard into the horn against her right side.

"I'm scared of heights!!!" she screamed out as she only seem to cling to him tighter as well as tighten her eyes harder still. "Don't, don't, don't, please don't," she begged over and over as she held on for dear life to his back.

"I 'm sorry then. But you still need to see this." He continued to stay tilted his wings flared, the wind throwing them forward as he no longer had to flap his wings to stay moving for now. He smiled. The images she was missing truly were magnificent.

"Why make me do something I don't WANT to do?" she fired back as she took a deep breath and popped open one eye just enough to see out. Her hold somehow grew tighter still for as lovely a sight as the world below might be, the distance from the ground was making her dizzy, head spinning like a little toy top.

He pushed something strong and very alien at her mind and she was embraced by something totally dragonish and he now spoke into her mind. "You might not be a full Dragon Soul but you are one of us. I shall never harm you Maia/ look upon your land and see it as i and my brethren do." his voice was kind and utterly truthful. Somehow she knew, deep in her soul, that he could not lie when they spoke like this, nor could she. this connection was utterly bare of all emotion yet also filled with each.

he looked down at an angle showing her the vast reaches of the human realm, the wondrous lakes, the great forests, the villages, cities, and towns, and the many many roads. His eyes were so strong she could clearly see the palace though even his sight did not diminish the massive distance they had to fly. he spoke softly to her once more. "I made you because you need to see this as well."

he turned his head. The mountains the elves lived in were power and beautiful but even with all of them and the forests they did claim, they did not have a tenth of the land the humans commanded. The dwarves also had only a fraction of the human holdings. He spoke kindly now. "I understand fear and I accept hate but...why do you need more? you have timber, mountains, lakes, and more trade and wealth than you could ever know what to do with. why do your people keep fighting?"

He was clearly serious. he had no idea why they just kept fighting. the elves had tried everything. They had refused to fight, they had slaughtered wholesale, picked off leaders, frightened the grunts, but still the humans fought on. He had to know why.

The voice within her mind. It was his. She knew that it should freak her out and make her only more stressed but is only seemed to sooth her into opening both her eyes and looking out upon the land. Her fear was no where to be found within her as she seemed to actually relax for the first time.

"You ask the wrong person," she admitted openly. "My father and his counsel have long kept my brother and I out of the loop on just what their plans were. What they wanted from this war. At the start of it all, they called the elves a threat for their control over the dragons. The fact that a big giant dragon could come level a city with little to no effort only supported what they said about your people. We might have started fights, but the way you ended them only spread more fear that dragons needed to be eliminated for they were to much of a threat. Your appearances above all has rallied many of the human race to enlist voluntarily to fight."

He laughed. "Perhaps. neither race is blameless in all of this. But still i don't understand why they started this and why they refused to make peace...no matter what i offered. You know i actually offered myself to your father to kill just for peace? he said no....i'll never understand that...oh look."

He directed her gaze as a storm rolled over a lake covering it and the towns on it's shores. The shadows were thick and heavy and through his eyes they could see the thick pelting rain and the waves the wind was making. What was odd was that from their height the massive storm looked both flat and rather round, like a piece of white dust on a brown floor which seemed calm all about that. he smiled at the sight.

"Princess this is the truth of being a dragon. To ride the wind and see how small life really is, and thus how delicate. And i will remind you of this. for everything we have destroyed we have also offered to repair. You have valid points but cannot deny that, even by your own argument, if we truly wished to slaughter you all we could. But we have not."

There was a long pause... "My father never spoke of such a thing. He never spoke of you at all. We have all long through you to be dead." Her eyes found the storm he was trying to point out to her, watching it from the distance and glad to be far from it even though it was beautiful to behold. "You keep speaking as if I don't want peace. You make the assumption that I am like my father was. I have never wanted war but have always been powerless to do anything about it. I am simple the daughter of the king. I had no say in any matters of war. Even now I am not given the rights to rule."

He laughed again. "my dear Princess that is the real problem. No person is powerless. And a princess, even if she not be meant to rule is nothing even approaching powerless. That is the problem. i do not blame you for any of this. But I am concerned that you let them force you into silent weakness. It does not suit you. Even were you not one of us, I would still not see such in you. You are much more than that Maia."

She shook her head, "What could you possibly know about me? We have not seen one another for over a decade and even before that our meetings were few and far between. I have grown much since we were children," she paused a moment to really get a feel for the full size of him now and laughed ever so slightly, "as have you. We know nothing of one another. Perhaps I am just as weak and powerless as my father and his men have always thought me to be."

He laughed once again. 'I can see it. I can see the truth in you." He showed her herself marching into the tents, then when she was taken. She was afraid and rightfully nervous but she never lost her decorum and always there was the steel of power and command about her. "And there is yet more to you Maia. I have seen much. You may not know me but I do know you."

He touched a part of her mind revealing how her connection to the Dragons had allowed them to see much of her life. They had never peeked or intruded but often they had seen much and heard even more through her times of deep emotion.

He touched softly consoling her reminding her of her hurt at the loss of her father. They did not try to understand or measure the loss or her feeling, they simply knew that her father had died and it had hurt her. Ellowe spoke very softly. "You do have my sincerest condolences Maia."

"Stop it!" she cried out suddenly, shutting her eyes as if doing so would allow her to block out the visions that he was placing in her head, "Get out of my head." The feeling and the knowledge that he could slip into her head whenever he pleases was not exactly making her feel comfortable at that moment. It was a place that she had always thought to be her own. Why wouldn't she think of it like that? It was her mind. And now having him in there was like an invasion of her privacy. "Just.... how far off are we?" After this, the one thing she really needed some time to herself and away from him.

He drew back. "My apologies. We Dragons share everything. I'm not used to restraining myself."

He gently strengthened the barriers between them and let her have her peace. "Part of being a Dragon is seeing everything of each other. It is simply our way."

He sent her soothing feelings then smiled as she asked an easy question. "About five hundred miles. Soon you'll be able to see even more of your land more clearly if you wish. And I would advise it. There is nothing like seeing the land you love from the sky. You see things you never even knew were there."

"But I am not a dragon...." she said as she turned her attention back to the world below. With a sigh, she rested her head against him and watched it all just go zooming by her eyes. It was almost smoothing really she came to realize. It was as if it was lulling her back to sleep once more.

He laughed. "perhaps perhaps not. But you are joined to us. i could not link to you mentally without that connection existing. It is more useful than you think. I wold use it and learn more about it. You can use it, to a lesser sense, with animals, and elves. Also a few dwarves and orcs. Human i have no idea. Many claim your brains are too limited without magical enhancement. i doubt that but it is a theory."

He smiled. "I don't mind you getting comfortable but don't fall asleep princess. My horns may have you for now but the sleeping form is much more fluid than many realize...beside you will want to see this." He flared his left wing up and his right down while his tail came down and they began a gentle turn that took they slightly off course but for good reason. He touched her mind again but this time only to give her his sight and showed her what he meant. Far below a massive herd of wild horses were running along a plain, their hooves thundering. They were nothing but horse,s yet also somehow beautiful and majestic.

He spoke softly now. " Your land is filled with many wonders. This is but one of the many reasons we have never marched out in full battle. We could not bear to destroy such beauty..." There was no accusation no thought of the human's lack of similar regard, even of destroying herself, but that was still a hevay presence between them.

At first, as he showed her what he was seeing and commenting on it's beauty, she smiled along with him, but the moment was swiftly ruined by the pretense once again. "Why don't you just come out and say what you keep dancing around. Humans at terrible. You keep on pointing it out without saying how you really feel and I grow tried of you doing so. Say it or don't say it, but stop trying to hide your underlying message behind compliments as you try to make them sound. And I have said it before.... I will say it again... get out of my head." She was clearly not amused any longer by his games he seemed to be trying to play with her head. What did he want?

He blinked. "i don't think humans are terrible. i think your father and mother are. And I despise those mad generals and the cult who tried to kill you but I still hold all life sacred. I am sorry if I have offended you."

He withdrew as she asked very confused. They had argued and she had asked him to stop so he had. What had he said? He winced when he realized and spoke aloud now. "Princess forgive me...I did not mean to cast aspersions on your people. I know that it is not the human condition to destroy everything...I was trying to explain my people. Not demean yours. I have wronged you both."

"I merely wished to share your land with you...."

Oh now he was just winning her over with the insults to her parents, wasn't he? Indeed he was digging himself into a deep hole with ever passing moment. Every word seemed to only make her wonder.... did he have any kind of emotions buried there within him? Or were emotions only within human kind? He spoke with such an almost stone coldness as he seemed to look at everything more like an analysis then really feel for it. "Perhaps it would just be best if we did not speak further until we are reunited with my brother..." she said with a shake of her head.

He sensed her anger and started to argue more then nodded. "If it is your will Your Grace."

He really was a creature of logic. And as he said he could not lie through the mental link. not even to save her feelings. He would normally have been less blunt but the truth had come as it always did. he regretted hurting her but he did not regret his words. her parent's were foul.

Her father had been proud, cruel, and utterly without care. he had ordered his own cities and villages burned both to force out the elves, ambush them, and occasionally to blame the elves for the destruction. he had tortured and murdered hundreds of humans, elves, orcs, and even dwarves and the magical peoples he could find, and without cause. he never questioned he never held hostage he just destroyed their bodies then often sent them home ruined and disfigured. Or he had left their bodies hanging from trees, impaled on spikes, burning in mountainous piles, and any other disgusting insult he could think of. And he had had a vivid and dark imagination.

Her mother Ellowe actually found the worse. She condoned and applauded the horrific actions, all because of her hatred for things other. she ignored her own children when they needed her most, and took no trouble in hiding her thoughts or opinions on any matter. her poor treatment of her people and her children disgusted the elves, and her casual dismissal of all things she viewed unimportant horrified them.

Ellowe was rather touched that Maia was still so dedicated that despite all of that she still defended her parents. At least partially. She was indeed a remarkable woman.

He smiled to himself and shifted beginning to angle up to reach a passing tail wind when he was hit in the side with a force so hard she was knocked off his neck. He bellowed as the force began to crackle along his body making him drop like stone and freeze him place. he had to get to her. She was falling freely towards the ground several miles below.

"MAIA!!!" He tucked his head and blew out a huge gout of black flames and sent him hurtling towards her but far too slowly. Down down down they fell him pushing more and more flame out behind him, trying to reach her, his body locked in place. Finally when she could see the faces of the wizards looking up at her her long neck curled around her and drew he r in tight to his chest as he rolled and with a sickening crash landed on the ground screaming in pain.

The wizards did not pause. they engulfed him in burning ice, making his shrieks increase, and trapping the princess against his still hot chest. They used their magic to breaks his legs and crush his skull and his screams were deafening now. But they had no mercy. No restraint they would kill him and through him her. And they did. not. care.

Ellowe slammed a thought into her head. "I will blast a hole through the ice. you must run. you must escape." even a s a spikes of ice pierced his scales he took a deep breath preparing to unleash his fire