“She shows promise,” Dravadon said to Zek after the girl had left the hall.

“Well, she’s still young,” said Zek, though the huge man couldn’t entirely hide the spark of pride he felt at this small compliment towards his daughter. “Will… Will you teach her? She’s got so many great dreams that she’ll never realise if she grows up here, we have no way to offer her any sort of education and I can’t just leave this place.” Zek looked into Dravadon’s eyes, his posture was one of forced relaxation but the dragon saw the pleading look in his eyes.

“Those that join me at my home do so because they choose to serve the dragons, were she to wish to do this I would accept her presence there and she would be extensively educated, but she would be there to serve us,”

For the first time since meeting him, Zek felt a little intimidated by the dragon, he could talk one being to another without a problem, but right now he was talking to someone who could radically change his daughter’s life.

“I can’t see her not wanting to go with you, I don’t think there’s anyone in this world who doesn’t consider serving you dragons an honour,” said Zek, doing everything he could to convince Dravadon to take Nicola with him.

“It is still her choice. Talk to the girl, you will be contacted in three months time, if she wishes to serve us she will be brought to the valley,” Dravadon said to the tavern keeper.

Zek looked at the dragon for a long moment before lowering his eyes and nodding. “I’ll talk to her. Thank you Dravadon.”

The dragon acknowledged with a nod of his head before standing. “I am grateful for your hospitality and look forward to visiting your village again,” he said as he started moving towards the door.

“The honour was ours Dravadon, and you’re always welcome,” said Zek, walking alongside him and opening the great doors for him. Without further conversation, Dravadon took several quick, long strides outside and leapt straight up into the air, wings unfolding with a snap and beating downwards powerfully, hurling the dragon into the atmosphere. Zek looked on in awe.

“You know, no matter how much I tried to treat him like just another person I still couldn’t help feeling small around him,” Zek said to Jason as they both saw the gleaming golden shape of the dragon open its wings and soar between the mountains and out of sight.

“Even I feel like that around them sometimes,” Jason admitted to the tavern keeper.

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“But you’re a friend of Dravadon, don’t you get used to them?” Zek asked, seeming startled and a little confused.

“No one does, not completely. When you spend a lot of time with the dragons and get to know them better it’s almost as if they seem more wondrous, not less,” Jason told Zek, looking at him with eyes that seemed to be trying to convey an intensely deep and profound feeling about what he was saying. “I have never felt more honoured than the day I first shared the sky with a dragon and I have never felt so alive as I do when I’m up there with them.”

Jason turned his head and looked back to where Dravadon had disappeared around the mountain. Zek looked at him for a few moments before following his gaze, a troubled expression on his face.

“Worried that Nicola will want to stay here?” asked Jason.

“Partly, and I’m a little worried she won’t.”

“Why?” asked Jason, looking at him with a confused expression on his face.

“We’ve never really been apart since the day she was born, I’ve always been there to look after her and she’s still so young. If she does leave, I won’t be there for her,” Zek explained.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” said Jason with a little chuckle.

“You can say that, you’re not a parent,” Zek said in a way that made Jason lose his smile.

Jason searched for a way to ease the man’s mind.

“How much do you know about the people living in the Castle in Dragon Valley?” he asked eventually.

“Only what I’ve been told, that they’re highly honoured and all of them serve the dragons in some way,” said Zek.

“It’s a little more complicated than that. If you want to live there you have to be invited by someone with a certain level of rank, then they have to clear it with the housemaster.”

“Who’s he?” Zek asked, looking even more confused.

“Housemaster Jameson looks after the household staff of Dragon Castle. He’ll be in charge of your Nicola if she decides to go. The point is this, usually when someone wants to serve the dragons they have to seek invitation, when someone’s invited they’re responsible to and the responsibility of the person who invited them.

“Your daughter hasn’t been invited by a human, even a high ranking one, she’s been invited by Dravadon. None of the dragons have personally invited someone to serve them for nearly twenty years and no one can remember the last time Dravadon invited someone.”

Zek’s face seemed to show a hundred emotions at once as he realised what Jason was getting at.

“So she’ll be serving Dravadon directly?” he asked.

“No!” laughed Jason. “But if she has any problems, he’ll look after her. Seriously, don’t worry about it.”

That, thought Zek, was easier said than done.