FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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Chapter Eleven

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Elyra spent a few days organizing Galvarys' hoard. She did not want to confront Varm or visit the other villages until she knew the origin of each tribute. It was an arduous task as the dragon had both valuable treasures and worthless trinkets stored everywhere. A crate of shoes from the Village of Rings sat alongside a chest filled with pouches of gold coins he'd stolen in his youth. Piles of old clothes shrouded a jeweled chalice presented to him by the first village he'd ever made peace with.

Mixed in amongst the disorder were other personal trophies Galvarys had misplaced over the years. Elyra discovered a small wooden box filled with colorful scales from other dragons. She found a set of large, dark feathers and darker claws that Galvarys claimed were trophies from some 'thieving catbird'. Elyra even stumbled across a tiny, sharp tooth that Galvarys claimed he'd lost as a hatchling. The more she dug through the dragon's sprawling collection, the more she found. There was a wagon wheel, a dagger with a black blade, and on and on.

Buried beneath the rest of his treasure was an old winter cloak, thick and warm. The cloak was dark green, with a pattern of ivy vines and leaves sewn all around the edges in bright golden thread. Elyra took it to where Galvarys lounged nearby, ostensibly supervising her organizational efforts.

When Elyra showed him the cloak, the dragon's silver eyes widened and his spines flared around his head. Galvarys pressed his muzzle into it and sniffed it a few times. "I forgot I had this." He sniffed again and gave a sigh. "I thought I'd left it behind, in another home."

"What is it?" Elyra peered over the cloak's green hood at the dragon, smirking. "Don't tell me it's a cloak, either. Who did it belong to?"

"It is a reminder." The dragon snorted. "And it belonged to a woman."

"And here I thought I was your first human friend." Elyra laughed. When Galvarys glared at her, she amended herself. "Minion, I mean."

"You are." Galvarys pinned his ears back and glanced away, his wings drooping at his sides. "It is a reminder, but I did not say what of. This belongs elsewhere."

The dragon took the cloak in his teeth. Elyra watched him pad away with it, deciding against questioning him further. She went back to her tasks, but her mind wandered. Maybe the cloak belonged to a thief he'd caught trying to rob him. Or perhaps it was worn by some renowned dragonslayer he'd killed. No, he'd have bragged about that.

Later in the day, she peeked into his trophy room and spotted the cloak tucked away amongst his other personal treasures. For a little while, Elyra stood in the doorway, gazing around at his myriad reminders. She did not wish to snoop, but she did love to imagine the memories that must be wound around each and every precious artifact. Why, he had enough trophies here for an entire lifetime or two.

It made her wonder just how old Galvarys was. Did dragons count their years? How long had he been alone? The way he'd recounted his ancestry told her they placed value on bloodlines and family, but did they also value companionship? Love? When was the last time he'd even seen another dragon?

All those memories, all those reminders, and yet Galvarys had no one to share them with. Elyra swallowed, wiping her eyes. He'd mentioned other dragons from time to time, yet by his own admission it had been years since he'd seen his own kind. His solitude did not seem to bother him often, though from time to time she caught flickers of loneliness in his silver gaze, whispers of sorrow in his rumbling voice.

Elyra sighed, and turned away from the trophy room. At least he had her now, for whatever that was worth. She just hoped she could return the happiness he'd brought her. If treasure and respect were what it took to make the old beast happy, then Elyra would make sure he got the best damn tributes he'd ever seen.

Elyra smiled. Varm wasn't going to know what hit him.

Each day, Elyra took a break from organizing and tallying the dragon's hoard to explore his fortress home. She took a bright lantern and a sharp knife and spent a few hours wandering the rooms and hallways in which the dragon could not fit. Must have been decades at least since those stone corridors were last wandered.

The fortress' forgotten recesses were choked with cobwebs and populated mostly by insects and the occasional rat. Not that Elyra feared such things after a life spent skulking through cramped servant corridors. She'd brushed aside plenty of spiders and shooed away more than her share of rats, and she did the same now. In a room where a broken window exposed the sky, she found birds nesting in crumbling stone, and a cluster of bats hanging from the ceiling. She also came across several gray lizards, a plump, warty toad in a damp corner, and a fat, brown and green snake curled amongst some rafters on an upper floor.

To her surprise, Elyra discovered more gouges in the stone floor. She suspected they were claw marks, though they were smaller than those marring the central stairs. In one room she noticed many such gouges marking a stone ledge beneath a broken window overlooking one of the wooden walkways. She climbed onto the ledge, running her fingers over the claw marks. Maybe some young dragon enslaved to this fortress in ages past once used this window to slip out into the night, or just stare at the stars. Elyra decided against climbing through the window herself when she saw that broken glass still clung to the rotting wooden frame.

Though Elyra found most rooms empty, a few still held remnants of lives long past. One of the larger rooms contained a ruined bed. The wooden posts at its corners were cracked and decayed. The lingering, threadbare bedclothes looked to have served as nesting ground for a variety of vermin. Another had a large wooden wardrobe. Elyra worked to pry the doors open with her knife. Inside, she found only a squirming family of tiny, hairless baby rats and their mother.

After a few days exploration, Elyra found a way into one of the fortress' corner watchtowers. Winding corridors led to narrow, twisting stairways ascending at a steep angle. The old stone stairs were slippery enough to make Elyra nervous as she climbed, fighting her way through veils of spider webs. At the top was a circular room with narrow windows cut in the stone in four places. Elyra imagined vigilant archers keeping watch over the fortress grounds through each window. Doorways led to the moldering remnants of wooden walkways that once stretched to other towers. A tiny stone stairway ascended to a rusted trap door that provided access to the roof.

Elyra decided against trying to force her way through that trap door, and instead made her way to one of the stone walkways atop the fortress' highest walls. The battlements that crowned the fortress would have been quite glorious if they weren't starting to fall apart. Cracks and broken stones were common enough that Elyra took care not to lean against anything as she walked the parapets.

From her high vantage, Elyra had a beautiful view of a sunset that cast fire across the entire canyon and transformed gray cliffs into scarlet flames. Molten gold seeped down the distant mountains. Elyra spent the rest of that evening watching the sunset from the battlements of the place she now called home.

It took Elyra a week to turn Galvarys' hoard into the 'collection' he claimed it was. She organized all his treasure by type. Coins of gold and other metals were stored together alongside gems and precious stones. Metallic vessels such as goblets, chalices, and a jeweled scepter were kept nearby. Jewelry was next, stored upon display shelves. Armor and weapons were kept in one area, silks and valuable clothes in another, works of art, tapestries, and so on. Elyra even went through all the old clothes. She kept those that were in good condition and disposed of those that were moldering and moth-eaten.

From the treasure room, Elyra moved on to Galvarys' sleeping chamber. After organizing his belongings there, she turned her attentions to the dragon's sprawling bed. She sorted through it one piece of makeshift bedding at a time. Anything too threadbare, mildew rotted, or foul-smelling she convinced the dragon to allow her to dispose of.

Once Galvarys' bedding was sorted, she decided to go the extra step and wash it all for him. Elyra worked several bars of soap into the tub until the whole pool of water under the fountain was churning with froth. There were far more animal furs, blankets, and pillows than she could ever wash by herself, so she tried to enlist the dragon to her aid.

"Galvarys?" Elyra smiled up at the dragon from within the soapy water. She scrubbed at a soft brown pelt of unknown origin. "Won't you please come in here and help me scrub your bedding?"

"No." The dragon sat on his haunches, stubborn as ever. Elyra saw the dull glint of light against his flight membranes. He'd already shielded his eyes despite being nowhere near the tub. "I refuse."

"You needn't be scared of the soap," Elyra said, laughing. "I haven't even dunked my own head under the water. Wouldn't you like bedding that doesn't smell like old lizard?"

"I am neither a lizard nor old." The dragon hissed at her, thumping his tail. The spines clattered against the stone floor. "Therefore, my bedding cannot smell of such."

Elyra sloshed to the edge of the tub, holding up the sopping fur. "Have you ever washed this stuff?"

"There is no need to wash it. Dragons do not sweat, and we do not roll around in muck. Furthermore, I wash myself often." The dragon clicked his teeth at her, then stretched his wings forward over the pile of blankets alongside the basin. "Now stop ruining my soft things."

Elyra selected the oldest, mangiest looking blanket she could see, half-wondering why she'd kept it. It was a small decorative blanket that had once been a beautiful emerald color, but had long faded to a dismal, green-grey. She balled it up and hurled it at the dragon's head. It fluttered open in the air and landed spread over Galvarys' head and muzzle. Elyra couldn't have aimed it any better.

Galvarys gave a low growl from beneath the blanket. He reached up with a paw and gradually pulled the covering away from his face. His indigo nostrils flexed, and he heaved a sigh. "...It may smell a little like old lizard."

Elyra giggled and went back to washing things. "It does. Now will you please get in here and help your minion?"

"And if I do not?"

Elyra glared up at him. "If I have to wash these all by myself, I'm afraid I'll forget to rinse the soap out of the ones you snuggle your head into."

"Thought you were going to threaten to kick me again." The dragon snorted, but eased to his paws to pad towards the tub.

"Certainly not." Elyra grinned at the dragon. "If you give me reason to do that again you won't know it's coming till you're writhing on the floor."

"I was not..." Galvarys trailed off. Elyra quirked her brows, and the dragon snorted, cutting to the end. "Very well. I shall assist you, but I shall not climb into the tub while it is filled with that foul froth."

"As long as you're helping, I don't care how you're doing it."

Galvarys lay down on the side of the tub, alongside the remaining pile of dirty bedclothes. Elyra took her time teaching the dragon how to wash laundry. She showed him how to work the soapy foam into the material with his paws, then dunk it into the water a few times and scrub it again. Together, they washed all his bedding in a single day. Elyra used the fountain to rinse out all the soap, then she laid everything in the sun to dry.

That evening they built an immense bonfire outside the dragon's fortress. They piled up all the blankets and clothes that Elyra insisted they dispose of, along with some of the dragon's more worthless tributes. Difficult as it was to get Galvarys to part with anything, Elyra wondered if the dragon had some sort of obsessive compulsion to keep whatever he got his paws on. She assured him the next round of tributes would make up for the loss of a few tattered blankets and street corner dinnerware.

Though Elyra knew how to get a fire started, she wanted to see Galvarys do it instead. Over a week as his minion now and she still hadn't seen him breathe fire. Galvarys told her again he wasn't actually breathing it, but Elyra didn't care. Fire-breathing just sounded right. It simply wouldn't do to call herself the minion of an air-breathing, flame-exhaling dragon. Whatever she called it, it did not take much to convince Galvarys to show off his natural weaponry.

At Galvarys' warning, Elyra stood well away from the piled junk. The dragon took a breath deep enough for Elyra to see his indigo chest plates expand. For a moment Galvarys held his breath, and so did Elyra. The dragon exhaled with a great roar, and brilliant red-orange fire erupted from his jaws. Despite knowing it was coming, the sight of liquid flame exploding from a creature's maw was startling. Elyra jumped back, gasping. The heat washed over Elyra, the air shimmered. By the time the dragon stopped to catch his breath, the whole bonfire structure was engulfed in roaring flames.

Elyra jumped up and down, waving her arms and shouting in simple delight. "That was amazing! Galvarys! That was amazing! Do it again!"

The dragon cocked his head. His spines half lifted and his ears twisted back in puzzlement. "But it's already on fire."

"Do it again anyway!" Elyra moved a little closer, beaming. She wanted to feel the heat.

Galvarys growled his amusement. He took another breath, and spat even more flame against the raging bonfire. Though Elyra was only a few steps closer, the heat that poured across her skin was far more intense. Again she jumped and laughed, wondering if this was how the nobles felt when they attended a performance of fire tricks and dangerous stunts. No, this must be better. Galvarys was an endless source of amusement, awe, and fascination.

"Oh, that's perfect!" Elyra ran over to the dragon and threw her arms around his neck, ignoring the heat that nearly singed her dress and her hair. "You're amazing!"

Galvarys chuckled, arching his neck. "Of course I am. I'm a dragon."

"You should do that when we return to the Village of Rings!" Elyra eased away from the raging flames, standing alongside the dragon.

"Do what?" Galvarys lowered himself onto his haunches.

"Your fire." Elyra set her hand on the dragon's shoulder, smiling up at him. The firelight that glowed in his silver eyes made them look like molten steel. "When you do your pose."

"You still think I should pose?" Galvarys licked his nose, chuckling.

"Certainly. I'll introduce you as before, you'll pose, and at the end of the introduction, you'll blow fire into the sky!" Elyra's smile grew as she stroked the dragon's shoulder. "You'll look so glorious."

"You think that will impress them more than usual?"

"Of course!" Elyra laughed. She tilted her head, smirking. "I've seen you curled on the floor clutching your privates and with your head stuck in a pastry box, and I was still very impressed just now."

"You aren't going to let those things go, are you?"

"Nope." Elyra giggled as she settled down on the fire-warmed grass, watching the flames tickle the sky's belly. "But don't worry. I'd never tell anyone in the village about that. Not even Amell. They'll only ever know your terrifying side and your glorious, radiant side."

"Thank you," Galvarys said. "There are some things I wouldn't want them to know."

"Nor I." Elyra gazed into the fire, sighing. "But I'm glad I get to see them."

"I'm sure you are." The dragon snorted, sinking claws into the grass. "Gives you something to tease me about."

"No, that's not why." Elyra wrung her hands a little, smiling to herself.

"Why then?" Galvarys cocked his head, peering down at her.

Rather than answer him, Elyra looked the dragon over. "May I sit against you?"

The dragon made a rumbling noise as he pushed his front legs out and settled down against his underbelly. Galvarys lifted one of his forelegs in invitation. Elyra squirmed beneath it, settling back against the plates of the dragon's chest. Galvarys curled his foreleg around her middle, draping it over her lap when she got comfortable. Elyra relished the warmth of the dragon's embrace, the simple comfort and protection of it. She set a hand atop the back of his forepaw, tracing his fingers. With her other hand, she stroked his scutes. The dragon's purr soon rumbled through his chest.

"Why then, my minion, are you glad to see those things happen to me if not to tease me?" The dragon cocked his head, his spines all half lifted, ears perked.

"It shows me how much more there is to you." Elyra traced her fingers along a black stripe across the dragon's forelimb. "Everyone else in the world, they think of dragons as monsters. They see you as some grand beast of fire and claw and treasure from old tales. They think of you as anger and demands and primal power. All of these things are true, but that is all they know of you." Elyra leaned her head back against the dragon's chest, sighing. "But I've come to know you as so much more. They know your anger and ferocity, but I know your kindness and your gentle touch. They know your ego and your arrogance, but I know your embarrassment and humiliation. I cherish that knowledge because those moments make you so much more real to me. They show me who you really are as a person."

"A person?" The dragon chuckled, glancing away. "I am not sure I like that connotation."

"You don't have to." Elyra caressed the fine scales on the back of the dragon's paw. "It's just how I feel. I see in you all the other things I'd see in any other person. Behind your ego, I see your humiliation when you're stuck in a box. Behind your bluntness and arrogance, I see your embarrassment and uncertainty at my gentle touch and your own excitement."

Elyra went quiet a moment. Galvarys' paw trembled beneath her hand, and she squeezed some of his larger fingers with her own until the shaking went away. "Behind all your trophies I see the reminders of the life you once lived, when there were others like you." Galvarys tensed, lifting his head. Elyra forced herself to go on, unsure if she'd ever have this moment with him again. Her voice shook more than the dragon's paw. "And sometimes...behind your eyes, Galvarys...I see the loneliness where I fear there was once something better."

"That's enough, Elyra." The dragon lowered his head to the grass. He glanced at Elyra for the briefest of moments. His eyes glowed orange and wet, pain outshone the firelight. He shifted himself, curling his neck to lay his head near her.

Elyra leaned over his foreleg, reaching forward to gently stroke his ears, his crests. "Galvarys, who did...?" Elyra bit her lip. He'd told her enough, but she had held her tongue since her first night here. She would ask while she had the chance. "Who did you lose?"

The dragon's breath caught in his throat. His whole body shivered. His scales clicked together and his wings rustled against his back. Breath returned only as a halting struggle. "Not yet, Elyra."

"As you wish." Elyra wriggled out from beneath his foreleg and moved to his head. She stroked his neck a few times. Without a word, the dragon lifted his head, and laid it across her lap. The tender gesture was a surprise, but Elyra was more than happy to offer him any comfort she could. Elyra leaned over his muzzle, hugging him, his horns jutting out just past her body. "If you ever want to get it off your chest, I will listen for as long as you can bear to speak of it."

The dragon murmured but did not reply. Elyra stroked his cheek as she sat half curled around his muzzle. A hot, wet droplet slid across her fingers. It was so unexpected that she feared the dragon was bleeding. When she lifted her hand and saw the wetness shining clear in the light of the flames, she realized it was not blood. It was a tear. Galvarys was crying. The dragon had come to her for comfort.

No one had ever come to her for comfort before, not like that. Tears welled in her own eyes, her throat tightened till she could scarcely breathe. She forced herself to swallow down the swelling lump and fought against her tears. Elyra wiped away those that slipped past her guard. She wouldn't do her friend any good if she was crying right now.

Her friend.

That was what Galvarys was now, wasn't it?

Her friend.

Elyra did not acknowledge the dragon's tears, or even wipe them from his scales. She hadn't even been sure dragons could cry, but now that it was so clear they could, she did not want to embarrass him. Only to ease his pain in his moment of need. Galvarys sucked in a few trembling breaths, but kept his sobs quiet and his grief to himself. Elyra stroked his scales the whole time, hoping she was some measure of comfort to her only real friend.

When the dragon's tears had stopped, Elyra leaned her head against his own, her voice just loud enough to drift over the crackling of the bonfire. "All those things that I see in you that no one else does?" She caressed the dragon's neck, her words whispered into his frilled ear. "They make you beautiful, Galvarys. They make you beautiful."

Galvarys murmured a wordless noise of thanks.

Elyra held the dragon's head against her body, sharing silent comfort with her friend long after the fire went out.

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That's the end of the chapter! As always, if you're enjoyed, please hit the FAVE button, and leave a comment with your thoughts on this chapter, and the story so far! Also, don't miss the fact that I've posted two separate chapters at once this time. You can move right onto the next!