“Daddy, what do you think about Lothinar?” Michelle asked. She was watching her father across the morning breakfast table.

”Who?” He asked. He was reading through some reports and hadn’t been paying attention to his daughter as usual. He took another bite of toast and finally looked up. He smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry honey, distracted as usual. I think Enderline actually left for the mainland because he needed a vacation!”

She threw on her second most devastating pout.

”Lothinar! That handsome elf that is staying in the Ambassador’s mansion! I finally met him at a party last night.”

”Oh that Lothinar." he said with a smile. I’m surprised to hear that he is out and about. He has been quite reclusive up until now. Was his red dragon there? She would be interesting to try and talk with.”

”No, Firestorm wasn’t there but I did speak with her briefly after the party ended.”

”Who would believe my own daughter had a conversation with a dragon." he said. "So she was there. I saw her the one time that I met with Lothinar. He was delivering a missive from King Enderline. I suppose she’s getting pretty large by now. She probably had to stay outside.”

”She’s not too big to fit inside a house yet if the front door is wide enough. But I didn't ask you about dragons, I asked you about Lothinar."

"Why the sudden interest?"

”‘I’ve decided that I want to marry him.”

Her father dropped his fork.

“You can’t be serious! Why would you say something like that?”

"He's a very good dancer!"

”Even if he is that isn’t reason enough to say such a thing. Wait a minute? You only danced with him, right? Not other…um..…things? This was a chaperoned party I assume.”

Michelle just looked at him. She displayed an impish smile.

“Gods! Your poor deceased mother is probably rolling over in her grave! Wait! He’s married! At least I think he is. There is a very pregnant elf living with him.”

“I did get to meet a really big dragon as well.”

”Don’t tell me the details!” He said. “After breakfast we will both go speak with Lothinar! Now eat your breakfast!”

”Mission accomplished.” She thought to herself.

”Her father flipped a couple of pages over in the documents that he was reading. He began to frown.

”Michelle, it says here that some girls that were also at the party that you attended had to pick you up out on a deserted road. You were out there all alone in the middle of nowhere. There is also a reported strong odor associated with your joining them in the carriage.”

”Those reports seem to be pretty thorough” she said. “Did it mention my torn dress?

----------------------------------

Vigilant and Constance were practicing their flying. They were progressing, but so far Tundor had refused to allow them to leave the large pasture. They would run as fast as their short legs would allow, throw wide their wings and glide. Cantell's opinion was that Vigilant was slightly better at it. He had "accidentally" cleared the fence a number of times only to come trotting back around with a big smile on his face. Constance seemed a little better at following Tundor's rules.

Either way, their vigorous activities kept Cantrell pretty close to the well. He had spent most of the morning turning the crank and pulling up water for the two active little dragons. When he had not been fetching water he had taken the time to inspect and then bury the bodies of the three elves that Mo-Rung had killed. It had put him in a macabre state of mind. The gruesome task added a tactile supplement to the visual images Esmarella occasionally sent him of burning elves falling from climbing ropes as she defended the walls back in the capitol. All of this death was taking a toll on his frame of mind. The walls of The Unassailable Palace, as he had spontaneously named it, were not it seemed, as unassailable as he had thought.

He was currently going through and sorting the elves belongings. The contents of the dead elves pockets and pouches had been fairly routine except for one strange thing. It was a ring. At first Cantrell had thought it might be a wedding ring as it had been worn by the female. What he could recognize from what was left her convinced him that she had been Argent's daughter Thelma. It bothered him to look at her dead face. She had been quite a bit older but she had reminded him of Ardwynn. Ardwynn had been a good employee and, he had thought, a friend. Her abrupt betrayal had not just hurt Lothinar. Cantrell had largely kept his opinion to himself on the matter because it was even a more difficult subject for Mavis, Tundor and Mo-Rung.

Cantrell and thrown the assortment of kugels and knives the elves had been carrying into the water trough to wash off the blood. He had just started to shake them under the water when he heard a call.

"Hello the house!"

Cantrell looked up to see an elf. He felt his jumpy nerves see-saw as he realized that he recognized him. He was waving at him from across the pasture fence. It was Cenderick. Cantrell waved back. Cenderick hopped over the fence and walked over to him. Cantrell noticed that he had his bow slung behind his back along with small quiver of arrows.

"Hi boss!" said Cenderick.

"What are you doing up here? Did you actually walk?"

"You must be getting out of shape with all that dragon riding you’re doing." said Cenderick. "Of course I walked. You had us out on patrol as far as this a few times. I didn’t know you were here. I was checking up on Siophra. She’s been up here all by herself with just a couple of nesting dragons for months. Then I heard about Candasar and Vanquish having to quickly leave to help Lothinar. Anyway I decided to look in on her.”

Cantrell gave him a strange look.

"So you didn't hear about the attack?" he asked.

"No! What happened? Is everyone alright?" Cenderick asked with alarm.

"Our people, yes, but that's a difficult question to actually answer." said Cantrell. "I just got finished putting one of Argent's daughters and two other elves in the ground over there." He pointed to a spot just inside the woods. "I was just arriving here and still on the air riding Mo-Rung when we saw the attack. He fell from the sky and ripped the two males in half with his claws. He also simultaneously literally bit the head off Argent's daughter."

"Damn", said Cenderick. "Don't piss off Mo-Rung. Where were you when this was happening?"

"Tumbling over his head and landing flat on my back." said Cantrell. "It was a sudden stop. I was trying to catch the stolen dragon egg that they were dropping. Unfortunately I missed."

"One of these little critters?" asked Cenderick. They look like they left their eggs behind some time ago.

"No, They hatched a while ago. Argent's daughter was after the golden dragon egg that Candasar laid. They take quite a bit longer to hatch for some reason."

"Probably a lot more magic. That Platinum dragon down at the dragon nursery is apparently a lot more magical than the usual colored varieties." said Cenderick.

"This is the part that you are going to care about." said Cantrell. "Siophra got hit by an electrical blast, you know the kind of lightning that asshole Tempton was throwing. It hit her in the forehead. She was running. She went tumbling. Cenderick, I really thought she was dead! "

"But you said our people were fine." the elf said. His face was an unreadable mask.

The baby gold dragon's shell got broken just before that and the embryonic dragon somehow joined herself to Siophra." said Cantrell. "The dragon is inside Siophra and using her body to finish developing while providing healing for Siophra's injuries."

"That can’t be good! Poor Siiophra. Does she look really weird? Like half dragon or something?"

"No, surprisingly not. She looks normal. Her eyes turned gold though. It's kind of freaky actually. If anything she looks better than ever. Uh... Not that I would normally notice."

"Where is she?" asked Cenderick. "I want to see her and make sure she's ok."

"She and Mo-Rung left for the dairy. They must have passed right over you on your way up here. I know you care about her. Weren’t you two seeing each other for a while?”

”We spent some time together. I was definitely interested but she suddenly decided that she needed some more time. I know she has been though a lot.”

Cenderick suddenly got a suspicious look on his face.

“I’m surprised to see you here. You two were not together were you?” He asked.

“Me? Together with Siophra? Like romantically? Of course not! You know that I’m married and quite happily in love with Mavis."

”Whew!” Said Cenderick. “That would have been awkward. Wait. Are you sure she’s not here? Those little blue dragons must belong to Tundor. Tundor and Siophra have been almost inseparable."

”This might be hard to really understand without talking with her yourself but if you see Siophra you need to remember that you’re really talking to the dragon inside her.”

Cenderick looked perturbed.

“You let this happen?”

”I had no say in the matter whatsoever. One second Siophra was dead and the next she started to breathe again. Then her eyes turned gold. The dragon saved her Cenderick! I couldn’t exactly object!”

”Does she have a name? This gold dragon?”

“Zinariya” said Cantrell. “That’s her name.”

“Candasar and Tundor are her parents at least. I sure hope she means well and is going to be able to give us Siophra back.”

Tundor is nearby. You should probably talk to him about this too.” Cantrell looked around then shrugged. ‘Actually he's probably out hunting. He’s got two more mouths to feed obviously."

For a few minutes the two of them watched the two small dragons running across the yard and leaping into the air for a glide.

"Energetic little buggers." Cenderick finally said.

"Thirsty too." said Cantrell. He dumped the blood tainted water out of the trough.

"Would you mind running the well crank for a couple of pulls? I think I've got a blister from this morning already."

"Sure, no problem." said Cenderick. He turned the crank. When the bucket came out of the well he splashed it into the now empty trough.

The little dragons ran up to them.

"Who is this elf Cantrell?" asked Constance.

"This fine elf gentlemen is Cenderick. He said pointing at him.

The elf bowed at the waist and somehow found a genuine smile for the little dragons.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

”Very happy to meet you both “ he said standing up again.

“Cenderick used to work with me when I was head of the warden patrols." Added Cantrell. “That’s when I first met your parents.”

”Do you think that my mother is going to come back soon Cantrell?” Asked Constance.

”I’m sure that she will be. She really didn’t want to have to leave you. She will probably hurry right back!” Said Cantrell.

"Thanks for the fresh water Cenderick." said Vigilant. "We saw Cantrell washing some nasty elf blood in that trough there. I didn't want to drink any of that!"

"Oh, sorry!" said Cantrell. "I should have known better than to do that."

Constance tentatively lowered her face to the trough and licked the water. Then she stuck her face in and began to drink. She pulled out her snout and gave a little grunt of appreciation.

"It's fine now." she said. "I can barely taste it."

Cantrell dumped out the trough again. Vigilant looked at him accusingly.

"Hold on a minute." said Cantrell and pulled another bucket. He handed the bucket directly to the little dragon.

"Let me rinse this out a few more times. I'm told elf blood is very bad tasting to dragons."

"So...” asked Cenderic. “Why is there elf blood in there? That sounds like an interesting story.”

”Well, before I buried the three dead elves I searched them.”

"And this is their stuff?" asked Cenderick, pointing at the assortment of blades and clubs on the ground next to the spilled out water. "You were trying to wash the blood off?"

Cantrell looked conflicted.

"Yeah. Does it make me a bad person to want to look it over?"

"Of course not! Spoils of war and all that. Is there anything good?"

"Nothing too surprising ." said Cantrell. "A couple of nice knives, but not better than mine. You can take a look at them if you want to.”

”Thanks,” said Cenderick. “I might do that. It doesn’t creep me out at all that someone might see me with a knife that Argent’s family was using.”

”I don’t think the rest of that family is going to be around much longer so it’s probably not going to be an issue.” Said Cantrell. “That’s what Zinariya left to do. Permanently end this threat.”

”She thinks it is going to be that easy?”

”Apparently so.” Said Cantrell. ”Hey, I almost forgot. I did find a ring."

"Let’s see it."

Cantrell dug around and pulled it out of the small pile. He brought it over and Cenderick held it up near his eye. He peered at it.

"No markings that I can see." said the elf. He handed it back.

"Hey, what's this?" asked Cenderick. He pointed to the two halves of the golden egg shell that Cantrell had left laying nearby.

"That's the egg from the golden dragon." said Cantrell as Cenderick picked it up and walked over with it. Suddenly the ring began to glow brightly.

"Whoa." said Cenderick. “It reacted to the egg!" He stepped back a few paces. The glow dimmed. He stepped forward. The ring began to glow brightly again.

"This must be a tool of the dragon egg gatherers." said Cantrell. "If you were looking at a nest of dragon eggs and wanted to know which one had the most magical potential, this sort of thing would be very useful."

"I wonder if it works on other kinds of magic besides eggs?" suggested Cenderick. “A magic detector could be pretty useful. Here I thought that the magic was the dragon inside the egg, not the shell.”

”This may be a special case.” Said Cantrell. “Zinariya specifically told me to make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

"Whose hands would be the wrong hands exactly?"

"Well, anyone that was associated with Argent's daughters I suppose. It was one of them that tried to steal the egg in the first place."

"What could you do with just an egg shell anyway?" asked the elf. He was looking with great interest at the egg shell pieces that he was still holding.

"Potions and powders, is what I was told." said Cantrell. "I was told to destroy it. I got distracted."

The two small blue dragons had been standing nearby. They had drunk some water but were now listening to the elves talk.

Cenderick dropped the pieces. He moved to step on them.

”Stop! Don’t do that!” Constance chirped. “I want to eat that!”

Cenderick hesitated. His foot hovering over the eggshells.

”Is that something dragons do? Eat their own eggshells?” He asked Cantrell.

”I’ve heard that humans that raise chickens will feed them the shells for the calcium in them. It does sound a little strange. I wonder what eating a magical eggshell would do to a baby dragon?”

”Don’t let them eat those shells Cantrell!” Yelled Esmarella. Her thoughts were loud through the bond.

Cantrell jumped.

"You startled me Esmarella! I just can't seem to get used to having you lurking in my mind. I forget that you are there!"

"Are you talking to your dragon?" asked Cenderick. "Siophra gets that look on her face when she is talking with Tundor." Then he realized what he had said. His face fell.

Cantrell walked over to him and picked up the two egg shell halves. He set them on the broad edge of the well, at least slightly out of reach of the little dragons. He walked back and gently squeezed his friend on the arm.

"Siophra is going to be all right." he said. "You are gong to get her back."

Cenderick nodded.

"Thanks Cantrell. I hope you're right."

"Your observations are correct. Esmarella is trying to tell me something." said Cantrell. "Hold on a second and I'll tell you what she says."

He reached out again to the dragon.

”So, these eggs. I shouldn't let the young dragons have them? Are you saying that eating the eggs wouldn’t be good for them?” He asked.

There was a lengthy pause. Esmarilla seemed to be considering something. Finally the black dragon answered.

”Actually I was kind of hoping you would save them for me.” She said. She seemed a little embarrassed. “Gold dragons don’t actually crack and break out of their eggs to hatch. In the final stretch they start reabsorbing the magic in the shell until it’s so thin it just sort of disappears. An intact shell is rare and priceless! Any dragon eating it would absorb incredible magic. You do want to give that egg shell to your own favorite dragon don't you?"

"I think we need to get some additional information from Zinariya before we make that decision." said Cantrell.

"Fine, as long as your don't let the little dragons eat them for now." said Esmarilla ."

“Apparently,” said Cantrell to Cenderick “These eggshell pieces will act like a magical supplement to any dragon that eats them. The two young dragons here naturally want to eat them.”

”But you’re not going to let them?”

”Now Esmarilla wants them too! This is going to be a problem. They technically don’t even belong to me.” Said Cantrell. “I wish Zinariya had taken them with her. She just told me to destroy them.”

The little dragons were standing near the wall looking up at the two large egg shell pieces. They seemed to be alternately looking at him and then back at the shell. It kind of reminded him of puppies begging for a treat.

“I need to put those away somewhere out of sight “ thought Cantrell to himself.

Tundor finally came back. He landed in the pasture with a large deer. That, at least distracted Vigilant and Constance from the golden eggshell. They ran over to him and began to feed. Tundor looked at Cenderick and walked over to the two elves.

"I'm sorry, Siophra is not here" said the dragon.

"Cantrell was just explaining that to me." said Cenderick.

"Did he tell you that my bond with Siophra was broken?" asked Tundor.

"No, we hadn't gotten that far." said Cenderick. "He did tell me about your daughter and Siophra somehow joining. How are you feeling about that?"

"I'm actually pretty angry." said Tundor. "My daughter and Siophra were both almost killed. It was a miracle that they are both still alive!. I'm just so very angry at most of the elven world right now!" He paused. "Present company excepted of course. I know both of you would never have done something like this!"

"I've got a little problem Tundor." said Cantrell.

"What now?" asked Tundor.

"It's actually your daughter Zinariya's eggshell."

"Didn't she ask you to destroy it?" asked Tundor.

"Yes, but your other two children want to eat it. I asked Esmarilla about it and she said it would increase a dragon's magic."

"That’s interesting.” Said Tundor. He walked over to the edge of the well and picked up one of the shells in his mouth. He bit down and chewed. He did the same thing with the other half.

Cantrell and Cenderick were staring at the white dragon with fascination.

”I guess that solves that problem” said Cenderick.

Tundor was looking a little wobbly. His face was slack. Cantrell looked at his eyes. His pupils were huge!

”You’re not looking so great Tundor.” Said Cantrell. “Can I get you some water or something?”

”That would be great. Thanks” said the white dragon. Then he burped. Some golden glitter came out.

Cenderick quickly cranked up another bucket of water and set it in front of Tundor. He sniffed it then stuck his muzzle in drinking it down. A strange gurgling sound was coming out of his half open mouth. He slumped to his front knees and his back half followed the front half down. Both elves stepped back quickly as he began rolling around on the ground.

“What’s happening? Is he drunk?” Asked Cenderick.

Cantrell shrugged.

‘Tundor stopped rolling about and laid still. He began to snore.

”Daddy’s growing!” whooped Vigilant.

Cantrell looked, and sure enough he was. Tundor was growing. He was also glowing with a pale golden light.

”You let him eat both halves” said Esmarilla accusingly. “He’s probably going to be bigger than Vanador!”

--------------------

By the time the elf awoke it was already mid-morning. She opened her eyes and tried to figure out where she was. She was up in the mountains, that was a certainty. She rolled over and stood to her feet and looked down at her body. She was pregnant. That was a surprise. The rocky hilltop on which she had been laying was an unlikely place for her to have voluntarily chosen to spend the night. Suddenly there came the sound of a rushing wind. Pebbles and dust swirled around her as an absolutely huge blue dragon sat down a few yards away.

"I see you finally woke up" it said.

Her brain jangled with the incongruity of seeing such a huge monster and not being innately terrified. For some strange reason this seemed entirely normal. The dragon was looking at her with interest.

"How are you feeling?" it asked.

"FIne, I guess." she answered. "Who are you?"

"I am Vanquish" the dragon answered. "The most powerful dragon in the world. In case you are wondering, we are friends."

The female elf thought about that. It didn't really make sense. She would have remembered being friends with a dragon. Her thoughts were jumbled and confused. Perhaps she should ask a few questions. Maybe something would start to make sense.

"I noticed that I'm pregnant." she said.

"Yes. Third term I believe." said the dragon. "You are carrying a boy. Your husband will be very happy."

"I have a husband? She looked at her abdomen. I suppose that makes sense." she said. "Unwed mothers usually have a tough time. It takes a village and all that."

"Do you remember your husband?" the dragon asked. "That was very important to you last time we talked."

"Hmm." she said. "There is a name just on the tip of my tongue. Give me a minute."

The elf began searching her memories. Nothing was coming up. Then a face appeared. The face didn't look happy. How could an old man like that be her husband?"

More things were slowly crawling their way into her brain. They hurt. She was getting a headache. The words of what had to be a magic spell were positioning themselves like writing on a wall, just behind her eyes. What were these words? She didn't recognize them.

"I give up!" said the elf. "I can't remember my husband's name."

I suppose that is not all that surprising." said the dragon. "You have been through a lot."

"Are you going to tell me my husband's name or not?" asked the elf.

"Lothinar." the dragon said. "You once said that you loved him. That. you would rather die than live without him."

"Doesn't ring a bell." said the elf. "Are you planning to introduce me to him?"

"That sort of depends on how this conversation goes." said the dragon. "Confidence isn't very high right now. This isn't going how I thought it would."

"How do you think I feel?" the elf asked. "I wake up alone on this mountaintop and all I can see is this spell glowing in front of my eyes!"

"What are you talking about.? asked the dragon. "What spell?"

The elf spoke the words of the spell. The dragon got a very strange and distressed look on its face. Smoke started to came out of its mouth. It coughed. It began to writhe uncontrollably. Flames were now coming out.

"No! No! Bellowed the dragon. "This can't be happening!"

It coughed again. It tried to jump away and into the sky. It screamed. Suddenly flames burst from holes that tore themselves open in its body. It fell to earth, tumbling and rolling into the canyon below.

The elf looked down into the canyon. The blue dragon was on fire. There was a lot of smoke. It was a good thing that the breeze was blowing the other direction. It didn't take long before there was nothing left but blackened bones.

‘That was weird.” She said out loud. “It seemed fine a few minutes ago.”

"Now how am I going to get down from here?" wondered the elf. She began to carefully make her way down from the rocky mountaintop.

"I hope that this Lothinar lives nearby" she said to herself. Maybe he can explain why I can’t remember anything and am out here by myself with a dragon. He doesn’t seem like he is a very good husband letting his pregnant wife wander off all alone.”

She climbed down. She scratched herself on a sharp rock and scraped one of her knees by the time she got to level ground. She worked her way down to a stream where she managed to get a drink. Wandering a little further she came upon a red dragon munching on a goat. It was quite a bit smaller than the other big blue one that had burned herself up.

“Hi Ardwynn! What are you doing way out here?” The red dragon asked.

The dragon looked friendly. The strange magical words that had remained glowing behind her eyelids seemed to fade away until they completely disappeared. Her headache went away too. That made her smile. She started to feel like herself again. Whoever that was.

”I’m looking for my husband Lothinar. Can you help me?” She asked.

”Of course! Well, I can try.” The dragon looked a little embarrassed. “It would be a good test. I’ve been wanting to try and fly with someone. Even pregnant you are still so much smaller than Lothinar. I’m sure it will be fine.”

”Will it be safe?” She asked. She deliberately looked down at her baby swollen stomach.

”Well if you are that worried, I can go back and get Candasar, but I think it will be fine. It’s not really that far. Hey weren’t you out here with Vanquish?” The red dragon asked.

”Are you talking about that really big blue dragon?”

”Yes. That’s her.”

”She left me alone on top of one of those peaks!” Said the elf. “Did you say my name was Ardwynn?”

The red dragon gave her a strange look.

“Yes, and I’m Firestorm. You are part of my family. Did you hit your head? Have you lost your memory?”

Ardwynn rubbed her hair. She felt her head.

“I don’t feel any injuries except a scratch on my hand and a scraped knee. But I do seem to have lost my memory.” She said, tears coming unbidden to her eyes.

“You poor thing” said Firestorm. “Let me get you back. I’m not even going to finish this goat. It burns me up that Vanquish left you out here all alone.”

‘That would be great” said Ardwynn. “But finish eating your goat first. I wouldn’t want to impose.”

------------------------

Lothinar had undone Candasar’s unnatural craving for mung beans with the sword. When Crimson had finished, Candasar had burped and looked a little ill. Now she was sleeping under some beautiful shade trees near the garden gazebo. She had to be exhausted from her long flight.

Firestorm still had not returned and other than the gardener vigorously shoveling in the mung bean patch, Lothinar was alone. He heard horses and a carriage pulling up outside the house. There were angry voices. He looked out the window. It was the Regent’s carriage. The man had been nothing but accommodating, but now he looked furious. With him was one of the girls that Lothinar remembered from the party last night. She was one of those that he had danced with.

”Uh oh.” He said to himself. “This can’t be good!”

The Regent was pounding on the door.

Rolling his eyes Lothinar went downstairs to answer it. He dissolved his illusion magic before opening the door. He needed all the help he could get. An almost seven foot tall bald elf with two different colored eyes might change her mind.

Unfortunately it didn’t. Michelle jumped straight into his arms. It did surprise her father. He fainted dead away.

“You owe me a dress!” Michelle said lustily. “I want a white one with lots of lace!”

——————-