“But do they ever really grow up?” Caelan mumbled under his breath as he watched the humans and dragons playing in the snow. The great black dragon was still stretched out, half-covered while Eno and Adrian used his massive size as protection from the snowballs.
“No, they usually don’t,” the old dragon said with a happy sigh. He paused and then suddenly nudged Caelan with his elbow, one eyebrow lifted in a sort of teasing question. “I’m surprised by the amount of snow we’ve already had for the start of this winter. I wasn’t expecting it to snow for a third night.”
Yes, so maybe Caelan had nudged a storm system that had no plans of dumping more snow on them last night. Kaes had been bored and Caelan had already seen how pleased the younger dragons were with the first foot of snow they’d received. Why not add a couple of feet more for them to play in?
“No idea what you’re talking about,” Caelan replied with a sniff. “We’re far north. It’s cold. I’m sure you get snow like this all the time.”
“It will complicate our travel plans,” Rayne murmured. “It’s likely the godstone is going to be well away from maintained roads. Add more snow to the mix and it will be very slow, dangerous travel.”
“As if I’d let you travel there by car,” Nori scoffed.
“What?” His grandfather couldn’t possibly mean—
“You’ll be traveling by dragon. Flying is the fastest and safest way to reach your destination.”
“No. Absolutely not. I am not flying,” Rayne snapped. His advisor turned on his heel and marched stiff-backed into the manor, closing the door again with a firm snap.
Caelan fought a smile. It sounded like Rayne’s reservations were more related to a fear of heights, but Caelan had his own reasons. “Grandfather, I appreciate the offer, but first off, dragons are not horses. There is no way we could possibly use a dragon for transportation. And second, it will be dangerous. I don’t want to bring Omari dragons any further into a fight with the Takahashi.”
Nori grunted. “The Omari were involved in this fight the second Clan Takahashi decided to attack one of our own,” he argued, poking Caelan in the shoulder. “But you needn’t worry. Any dragons who carry you and your people to the godstone will be volunteers.”
Considering how they’d been welcomed by the clan over the past week, Caelan didn’t think Nori would have any problem finding volunteers for this dangerous mission.
“As your grandson, I am touched beyond words. But as the King of Erya, I’m not pleased, and we will be discussing this further. Erya has no desire to needlessly risk the lives of her allies.”
Nori huffed. “As both your grandfather and the clan leader of the Omari, I would argue this step is very necessary for the future of all of Thia.”
Caelan sighed and cursed Rayne’s timing. His advisor would have been able to come up with a sound reason for why the dragons couldn’t take them to the godstone. Something appropriately political that was hard to argue with. But Caelan had nothing, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that maybe he did want to know what it was like to fly on the back of a dragon.
Any further discussion was cut off by an orange blur that streaked toward the ground. The dragon threw out his wings at the last second to slightly slow his descent before crashing into Drayce. The black dragon roared and grabbed the sunset-colored dragon as they wrestled in a tangle of wings, tails, and claws.
Thankfully, Adrian and Eno managed to get out of the way as Drayce and Haru wrestled, tossing up a cloud of snow. People laughed and shouted, egging them on. Caelan tensed, already heading for the stairs to reach them, but Nori grabbed his elbow, holding him in place.
“Your cousin doesn’t have a drop of sense in his brain,” Nori grumbled, lifting his voice above the growls coming from the two dragons. “But he and Drayce aren’t going to hurt each other. I imagine they sound scary. Dragons live to wrestle in the snow, and Drayce was a very big target.”
That was an understatement. Drayce was significantly bigger than Haru, but it wasn’t stopping the smaller sunset-orange dragon from pouncing at Drayce. It was also reassuring to see that the lack of wings wasn’t slowing his lover down. He was more than skilled enough with his long tail to keep the nimble Haru on his toes.
But seeing Drayce like this left Caelan wondering if Drayce had missed relaxing in his dragon form. He’d spent close to a decade in Stormbreak. There was no way he could have slipped off to shift without someone noticing. Had he really gone that long without being able to stretch his wings?
Maybe once they got back to a more normal life, he and Drayce could schedule little excursions away from Stormbreak. Something incredibly secluded so Drayce could return to scales and fire for a while.