Dragon's Bride

Many thanks to user roftlheory for their assistance with editing!

***

Valeria clung to Benat as another contraction took hold of her. He was leaning against the wall of the mating hall, his arms around her, supporting her as her womb tensed and constricted. She had insisted he be present, and the older women had transformed the normally spare chamber into a birthing room.

The contraction eased, and Valeria exhaled with relief. Benat leaned forward to kiss her forehead, murmuring how strong and beautiful she was. She nodded, only half-listening. She felt as though something else were with them here in the dim, warm room, guiding her to move first one way, then another. She had only just changed positions to stand, and now she felt the need to lie down again.

He helped her to the bed, and she lay on her side. The midwife Riana appeared before her eyes, saying something about seeing how far along she was, and she nodded tiredly. Her leg was lifted, and she felt fingers reach inside her. Benat knelt on the floor next to her, clutching her hand. Riana must have said all was well, because he nodded and smiled, and murmured to her that she was close.

Valeria could feel it too. It was like when he had put the dragonlets in her, only slower and duller. Her body was opening on its own, widening to make room for their young to enter into the world. Another contraction started growing, and she moaned at its strength. When it was over she felt her dragon husband wiping at her brows, eyes full of love and worry.

He hadn't complained once, not even to voice his doubts about being so close to her for so long. Normally dragon's brides labored surrounded by their human peers, away from the waiting father. She had asked why, but never gotten a satisfactory answer. Perhaps it was difficult for most dragons to curb their lust even as the human women birthed their young. Perhaps the brides themselves simply didn't want to face their husbands a moment longer than necessary.

But Valeria needed Benat close by; she felt it in her bones and her blood and from the dragonlets themselves. She had tried to explain it to him, but he'd only shaken his head in awe and told her that he would do whatever this strange sense of hers directed. She had the feeling he'd long since stopped questioning her strange attunement to him, although the dragon elders were keenly interested.

None of that mattered now. Her children were yearning to come into the world, she could feel it. She felt a sudden urge to crouch down on all fours, as she did for her husband to mount her. But this time, instead of making space for something to enter her, it was so the dragonlets could exit her body. Valeria rolled over on her hands and knees, pressing her large belly to the bed.

Another contraction gripped her, and she cried out. Her whole body was pressing downward, and the space between her legs was opened wider than ever before. She felt as though she were being ripped apart, and then a cold wet body slipped through her legs into the waiting hands of the midwife.

For a split second Valeria's heart constricted; then she heard the high-pitched wailing from her first son's tiny lungs. There were murmurs from the older women circled behind her, and then she saw a pair of hands deliver the infant into his father's arms.

Benat held up the still-screeching dragonlet so she could see. He was pale with wispy yellow hair, looking nothing like either of them. She reached out a hand and found him cold to the touch; she hadn't been imagining it.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked, and Benat smiled wide.

"He's an ice dragon!" he shouted over the little one's cries.

Valeria nodded mutely, though she didn't understand. She'd thought all dragons were like her husband: golden-eyed and hot to the touch. But she had no time to contemplate this discovery, for another mighty pain came upon her. She screamed at its power, pushing her face into the bed, and then another little body slithered out of her, this one warm.

Knowing she was done for now, she collapsed sideways, feeling the umbilical cords still hanging from her. But her moment of peace was disturbed when a gasp arose from the women huddled around the second infant. She lifted her head; was there something wrong with him?

Riana was wiping between the baby's legs, muttering to herself. Then she looked up at Valeria, her face full of wonder. She held up the small, mewling, squirming thing forward for her to take, and Valeria sat up and stretched out her arms.

Her second dragonlet was calmer than the first, breathing lustily but only making small warbles. His skin was warm and darker like his father's, but his eyes were brown, and his wispy dark curls glinted red under the torchlight, just like hers.

She turned to Benat to ask him what manner of dragon this was, but he was staring between the baby's wriggling legs. She frowned and followed his eyes, her mind blanking for a moment when she saw what he did.

This warm-toned dragonlet was not a son, it was a daughter. But such a thing wasn't possible! Was it even a dragon at all? Valeria turned to her husband, worried he'd be disappointed, but he was beaming in amazement. He huddled close to her, still sweaty and bloody, and peered down in his daughter's scrunched-up face.

"She's a metal dragon," he said, voice full of wonder. "I can feel the power in her."

Valeria could only stare, dumbstruck. A hundred thoughts were whirling through her mind, none of them coherent in her fatigued state.

Her husband was looking down, between the son in his arms and the daughter in hers. Back and forth his gaze moved, as though he couldn't quite believe his children were real.

"What is it?" she asked him, and he looked up, eyes wide.

"I thought we'd have two fire dragonlets, but now...." He trailed off, then kissed her abruptly on the cheek. "Do you realize how amazing you are, my love?"

Valeria nodded, though she didn't feel so amazing in that moment. She felt the urge to push again and said so, handing off the infant to one of the women as Riana helped her pass the afterbirth.

The older women huddled around the girl-child, inspecting and exclaiming and even wiping tears from their eyes -- in joy? In sorrow? In relief? Valeria understood without needing to put words to it. If female dragons could be born from the wombs of human brides, then one day the dragons might no longer demand young women as tribute.

But all of this seemed very far away to her. She lay back, her head lolling to the side, seeing Benat watch her appraisingly.

"Rest," he told her. He was rocking their son, who had quieted somewhat.

"Their names," Valeria replied tiredly.

"Loran," he said, looking down at the ice dragon in his arms. "And for our daughter, Pira."

She was too tired to ask him if this was another family name. She simply nodded and closed her eyes.

***

Benat leaned down and kissed Valeria's forehead tenderly before handing over their son to one of the women. He was splattered in blood and amniotic fluid, but the smell barely registered. He wanted to tell his father the amazing news before Valeria awoke and needed help nursing the twins.

He knew his father would be as close by as was safe, waiting with his grandfather and the other elders. He ran to the dragons' side of the hall, through the door and down the long corridor. The steps carried him up the carved passageway into the bright sun, and he squinted as he always did while exiting the underground tunnel.

His father was looking out over the peak, his hands behind his back, the wind whipping his long robe about him.

"Father!" he called, and the older man turned to him, golden eyes identical to his own blazing under the low blue sky. He took in his son's joyful, trembling form and smiled, his posture relaxing.

"It went well, then," he said, and Benat nodded.

Behind his father, the elders began to stand one by one from the circle where they were seated. Benat waited until they were all ranged about him, some in human form, others in dragon form. The oldest of his kin had been hatched in glittering nests, not birthed from humans, and as such had no human form to shift into.

"Well?" huffed one ancient dragon named Baledin, who had been teaching him to speak in dragon form.

Benat smiled wide. "An ice dragon and a metal dragon!"

The small crowd murmured and rumbled, the elders pleased. Metal dragons were less common, and ice dragons the rarest of all.

"And!" Benat shouted, above the wind and the mutters of his kin. "A daughter!"

His father froze, eyes wide. The rest of the elders hushed, and then all at once they clamored toward him.

"Are you certain?"

"A she-dragon?"

"Which one?"

"A

daughter

?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, laughing at their incredulous faces. "The metal dragon. She's a girl!"

They were shaking their heads in amazement now, talking animatedly amongst themselves. The eldest dragons were humming in approval, eyes shut, perhaps remembering their own long-lost mothers.

His father clasped him by the shoulder. "You've done well, my son," he said, but Benat just shook his head.

"It's not me, father, it's all her. Valeria. She's amazing. I wish you could meet her."

The older man smiled sadly at him. Benat knew his mother had resented his father, though she did her best to hide it from her son. But he'd caught her crying on occasion, homesick and hurting beyond his ability to comfort her. It was what he'd dreaded most about receiving a bride, smelling her fear or hatred or sorrow every night as he did his duty to carry on dragonkind.

"Perhaps when I'm old enough," his father replied thoughtfully.

Though he looked no older than fifty, he was nearing a century in age. He'd been one of the first dragons born from a human woman, though his mother hadn't survived his birth. He'd waited longer than most to accept a bride, not wanting his own son to be raised motherless. Fortunately dragons had learned a great deal in his lifetime about how to ready their human brides for breeding, and how to keep them healthy throughout their pregnancies.

But they had more still to learn, Benat could feel it. The key lay in his beautiful mate, who had just birthed the first she-dragon to exist in over a hundred years.

Joy and pride and gratefulness were welling up in his chest, and he could scarcely wait for nightfall. He would roar until his throat burned and his lungs were empty, singing praises for his wife and the power she held to create life.

"Go to her," his father said, squeezing his shoulder once more before releasing him. "You said she wanted you at the birth, so she'll be looking for you soon."

Benat nodded, brushing his hair from his eyes, and raced back toward his family.

***

Valeria sat back, eyes closed, listening to the distant cries of her husband roaring into the night.

It's to honor the mother

, he'd told her, and she smiled. It used to frighten her, when she was growing up among humankind, but now the waves of sound rocked her gently.

She looked down at her children, sleeping contentedly after eating their fill. Did it soothe them, too, to hear their father's song for her? Softly she hummed a lullaby she remembered her own mother singing, and an ache filled her chest. How she longed to show the twins to their grandmother, to comfort her with the knowledge that she was doing well, embarking on her own journey into motherhood.

Loran gurgled in his sleep, and she reached over to pat him softly. The midwife had shown her and Benat how to burp the infants after feeding, and soon after they had settled down in slumber. Loran had cried at being swaddled, and Benat had explained that it was likely too warm for him, so she had set him in his crib wearing nothing but a diaper. But Pira seemed to enjoy being snuggled in warm cloths, nuzzled against her mother's warmth. Valeria smiled, touching the tip of her daughter's nose gently in wonder.

Benat had relayed his father's congratulations and the elders' excitement. As of yet they had only vague theories as to how she had conceived a she-dragon, most of them resting on her unusual attunement to dragon magic. Valeria had asked him if perhaps she had a dragon somewhere among her ancestors, but he'd assured her that dragons always bred true.

"Unless you think your father is a dragon?" he had teased her, eyes sparkling.

But no, her father was incontrovertibly human. If he'd ever held a spark of magic, the village would have flocked to him for charms and spells, perhaps even paid for his apprenticeship to a mage in a larger town. He certainly wouldn't have lived out his days as a miller, and a poor one at that. The whole village had sighed with relief when her brother took over for their father, but a year before Valeria had been chosen as a bride.

She wondered again how her family were faring. It had been more than a year since she had left. Had her brother finally married his sweetheart, the one with rosy cheeks from the next village over? Was her father acclimating well to doing odd jobs, and did her mother still oversee the household, or had she a daughter-in-law to help her now?

Valeria ached to know, but even knowing wouldn't be enough. She longed to hold them in her arms, cry and smile and laugh alongside them, hear of all the happenings in her home that she had missed. She wished she had some memory of them to replace the sorrowful parting burned into her mind, her mother's wails and her father's haggard face.

It had been worsened by the manner in which she'd been led away, hands bound to a rope following after a horse, like some common criminal. It hadn't been the lord of their fief who led the procession, but one of his men, if she remembered correctly. He and his companions had been armed just the same, to prevent her family from fighting to keep her.

Journeying to the mountains had been a long and arduous trek, taking nearly a week. Her shoes had worn out and her feet were bleeding by the time they made it to the mouth of the dragons' cave, where they had tied her to an iron ring fastened deep into the rock. She had pulled and pulled against it with all her strength, wounding her wrists against the rope.

And that was how the older women had found her, bruised and bloodied. Wordlessly they had untied her and led her deeper into the cave, answering none of her questions, not even asking her name. She had thought them cruel and callous, but understood now they were simply mournful and resigned, with little pity to spare for their younger counterparts.

She had wondered at the time why the women even bothered staying, as she'd been yet unable to sense the dragons' presence. But she knew now that cave was merely the entrance to a vast underground network of caverns, all exits guarded by the elder dragons to ensure none of them fled.

As much as Valeria loved her dragon husband, as much as her body yearned for him, she was still a prisoner here. One day Loran would mature and be unable to control himself in her presence, and she would have to wait until the change came upon her to be reunited with him. As for her daughter... would she be safe among all those he-dragons? Would they clamor to breed her as soon as she was of age?

A fierce protectiveness rose up in her, looking down at Pira's delicate face. She was so small, so innocent, and Valeria would face down the largest of dragons who even dared come near her precious daughter.

Riana walked by and spied her brooding over the swaddled infant, tutting as she came forward to move her to her crib.

"Didn't you hear what I told you? You should sleep when they sleep, for they'll awaken soon and be hungry again."

Valeria sighed and lay back on the nest of pillows the women had piled high against the stone wall, where the bed had been moved. Her stomach growled and she opened her mouth, but the midwife spoke first.

"I'll bring you some bread and soup, and after that you should try your best to sleep, even for a little while."

Valeria nodded tiredly, propping up her chin to gaze watchfully at her two little ones sleeping side by side.

***

"You will be glad to hear I found the tome we have been looking for," Baledin rumbled.

Benat watched as the old dragon lumbered across his lair toward the reading table. Benat and his father had built the table, and the shelves for Baledin's sizeable collection of books and scrolls on magic, both human and dragon. Some of them had been passed down from the days when mages sought out dragons for their wisdom and cunning, others had been compiled by the first human-born dragons, recording the oral histories of dragonkind.

There were still plenty of old books piled neatly along the cave wall, though Benat doubted he'd have time to build any more shelves in the near future. He wanted to stay by Valeria's side as long as he could, until the need for her body began pulling at him again. She was the first dragon's bride to insist her husband help her through her labor, and he'd been pleasantly surprised by how free of lust he'd felt attending to her. Her smell had shifted before her pains even began, so he'd known before she did that the babies were coming, and all his senses had narrowed to focus on bringing them into the world.

Now that they were here, Benat could barely stand to leave their presence. How did other dragons manage? Already he was itching to turn around and sprint back to his mate, though he'd left her only minutes before, sleeping soundly alongside the twins.

Baledin's massive head turned back to face him, his great tail twitching with impatience. Benat swept back his hair to clear his thoughts and trotted forward. Reaching the table, he peered down at the text, open to a page illustrating a complex series of interlocking circles.

"What's this, grandfather?" he asked. Though Baledin was technically his cousin several times removed, he called the old dragon this way out of respect.

"A treatise on the elements of magical creatures," Baledin replied.

Benat nodded. Aside from dragons, there were elves and dwarves and other distant cousins to humans, all more long-lived and proficient in magic than humans themselves.

"It theorizes," Baledin continued, "that all sentient beings possess three of the nine possible elements."

Benat leaned closer, still unable to make head or tail of the diagram.

"You should know those elements," Baledin said quietly, and Benat realized the elder was waiting for him to list them.

"Plasma, air, and fire; vapor, water, and ice; stone, earth, and metal," he recited. "Dragons are always of the third elements: fire, ice, or metal."

"Mmm," rumbled the elder dragon in assent. "And what is the order of powers?"

"Fire over ice, ice over metal, and metal over fire."

"And what of humans?"

Benat paused, frowning. "Humans with magical ability usually possess either ice or fire elements. But if this author is correct, then they should each possess two more underneath their main element."

"A primary, secondary, and tertiary element," Baledin affirmed. "Not only humans with magical abilities, but all humans, and all dragons, too."

Benat could feel the pattern spreading out before him in his mind. "If the first elements -- plasma, vapor, and stone -- are divine, and the third elements -- fire, ice, and metal -- are magical, then the second elements -- air, water, and earth -- should be... the human ones?"

"This author, some mage named Kalindor, calls them the living elements," the elder dragon clarified. "This would explain why humans are only perceptible through signs of life, not their magical signatures."

Benat nodded. He could always sense his kin nearby, but the human women might as well be invisible unless he were close enough to smell or see or hear them directly. Although he had grown attuned to Valeria's presence these past months, sensing her sleeping and waking in the women's quarters past the human side of the mating halls. It was only because she'd been absorbing so much of his energy through his seed, he supposed.