Private Tales Hummingbirds and Flutterbyes

[Orissa]

"Peonies or orchids?" The question came to Orissa as she marvelled at the fitting of dragon armour on her Ransa dragon, a gift recieved this morning at the Royal Palace. It had been fashioned in the smith's style, but complimented well with the blues, greens, and purples of Pixaelys. Orissa crooned at the gentle dragon, running her fingers over the dragon's helm.

"Must I answer it all myself, or can this wait once he arrives?" Traditionally, it would be her mother and chosen ladies of the court to plan a royal wedding.

The eclipse had faded, darkness now reaching the sun's light, and after a week since the events that polluted Thanasis, it was hard to remember that the Royal House of Aeldren had announced a union with the House Araelor. It was to give the people hope, something to look forward to after the eclipse and attacks, and many had taken interest in this pairing.

"No, I suppose not." Her lady maid responded, closing the book she had been taking notes in, on behalf of the Queen. "They should be arriving soon. We ought to go meet them, Your Majesty."

Orissa had only met Jensen once before, unaware their families had been making such plans for their futures when she came to his aid on the coastline, battling an unknown colossal creature.

The Princess leaned her head against Pix's neck and sighed deeply, mustering the composure to ease the light blush that came to her cheeks.

"Mother will have a coniption if I am not dressed for the occasion." She murmured to her dragon, but the words seemed to be an answer for her lady's maid.

With one last look at Pixaelys, Orissa smiled and looked over the spine of the armour Danika Araelor fashioned. It had been an engagement gift, and fit so well with the Ransa dragon, Orissa had shown her bonded off to her brothers if they had the time to spare. "The days are getting warmer, perhaps I change into something to compliment the weather? I daresay there will be a picnic planned for myself and the Araelor male in the royal gardens..." A chance to get to know him, as if she had not met him already.

He probably did not remember her aiding the Valimir medic in keeping him alive on that coast...

As the Princess spent a good hour getting herself cleaned and ready for this momentous day, fanfare heralded the arrival of the Araelors. There would be an exchange of pleasantries before the families took to the gardens, mingling and conversing until Orissa was announced to the group, a small smile on her lips as she crossed the lawn and bowed her head to their visitors.

She had changed into a blush coloured dress, a much different look to her riding leathers she had met Jensen in a week ago. Orissa smiled, leaving her face warm as her brown eyes found him. "You look much more recovered."

 

[Jensen]

"Could you not have waited to see if... I don't know. I survived before marrying me off?"

Jensen winced as one of the servants helped ease his foot into his freshly polished boots, whilst another held out the impeccably tailored frockcoat his mother had selected.

"Nonsense! We all knew you were going to be fine," his mother plucked an imaginary bit of lint from the jacket once it was on and smoothed her hands down his arms as if to reassure herself he was alive and standing there before her. From what Danika had told her, his mother had been a wreck when he had been first brought back to the city barely clinging to life. She hadn't left his side for days. The marriage had been her way of assuring herself he would pull through.

"You look perfect," she whispered and gently cupped her sons cheek, tears welling in her eyes. Jensen took both her small hands in his and brought them to his mouth, pressing kisses to her knuckles.

"You've done an amazing job considering I look like a battered corpse," his words had their desired effect for she laughed and swotted him away before finally calling for the carriage.

He was still too early on in his healing to have clearance to ride again but that didn't mean he was without his other half. Valathor took to the skies as soon as the carriage set off and lazily winged his way towards the palace. Jensen would have much rather met the Princess from atop the dragons back. He hated how the whole situation had been arranged and had been mortified to hear from Danika it had been the Princess herself who had basically stopped his insides from becoming outsides. How was a woman to be wooed after that?

Jensen was rather glad for his mother to take the lead as the families met. A few of his other siblings had also joined - the ones his parents thought could behave at least. Danika had ended up sequested with two of the Prince's and he found himself woefully alone until the lady of the hour appeared. Jensen had never been the bashful type around women but he found himself tongue tied as she curtseyed and returned it with a bow of his own.

"I... suppose anything is an improvement on trailing intestines," he flashed a grin and rubbed the back of his neck. "I haven't had a chance to properly thank you for... saving my life. And apparently not being too put off to agree to marry me."

 

[Orissa]

Orissa smiled.

"I am glad that my mother and father had such faith that you would clean up nicely after I saw you last when they made the arrangements." For Jensen's actions that day were brave, enough to have his name in the ears of the royal family after all the debriefing. Orissa herself was not present at home when the beginnings of a match were being made.

"Join me for a walk?" The Princess whispered as their mothers started up a conversation about wedding themes and such. She would like to be a ways from them, wanting to get to know her husband-to-be a little better before they could begin to listen to the talk of marriage.

She would take his arm if he offered it, guiding him towards a stone bench before a small water fountain in the wall. It offered a light score to their conversation as Orissa smoothed her dress and sat. The Princess smiled again. "I was relieved you recovered so well, but there is so much Ransa tears and stitches could do. How is your strength? Please! Sit!" She insisted, making room for him.

 

[Jensen]

Jensen winced as she corrected his phrasing. Did she resent the match? Did she have a bow that he didn't know about and the marriage announcement had ruined some great love? He rubbed the back of his neck. Danika would know what to say, but Jensen could only follow dutifully as she asked for a walk and offered his arm.

Each step brought more pain but he had suffered worse. There was only so much that Ransa tears could do and his injuries now were not worth the waste of such a precious commodity. Time would heal the rest, the healers said. He found himself smiling when she echoed his thoughts only a moment later.

"It... comes and goes," he admitted and took a grateful seat beside her. He had learnt when Danika had laid near to death not to lie to healers. "I still have a lot of pain in my back, and my legs, but the healers said it should fade with time and some exercises. They say if you hadn't been there I likely wouldn't have been able to walk even if I had ever woken up."

 

[Orissa]

Orissa scrunched her nose, listening to him what the healers advised him. Since bonding with a Ransa dragon, Orissa took it upon herself to learn how to heal. It had been the most difficult thing to expose herself to, but she weathered through the wounds and bad smells, the gore and ugliness to it all. If she had a mind of war tactics, then she needed to steel herself before a gutted body.

"I admit, as soon as I recognised you, I thought to myself..." And the Princess twisted her frame, fingers going to pluck a few leaves from before the water fountain. "This family does not need to suffer again." She began to rip the five leaves into pieces, watching them wilt naturally in the sun. It was the medical training she learned that then took hold of Jensen's hand, perhaps a little too forward for someone of her station, but she began to coat the pieces of leaves over his hand, no doubt letting the moisture cover his flesh. Soon, his hand would have some better mobility, and Orissa delicately placed his hand to rest on the space between them.

"If I had stayed, I could have brought everything I needed to help you recover better... but the Gilded Wings were not too happy with the stunt I pulled." For the Princess they were sworn to protect had gone where none could follow.

The Princess looked up, brown eyes meeting hazel. "It is called a laelys plant. Named after a dragon that was bonded to the botanist that discovered the plant when we first settled here in Thanasis. In this age, most think of it as a decorative shrub, but you would be surprised how many are planted all over Thanasis. I suspect even in your own gardens they would have them. They make a good paste, and soothe muscles and joints for an hour or two..."

But she did not want to simply be his healer.

Orissa smiled at him, "I told my mother and father I only wanted one marriage, and that it should count. My brother Kaveh has three wives, and I could not think to myself how one could simply..." She faltered, trying to find the right words.

 

[Jensen]

Jensen could barely lift his lips to form a smile at her words. Danika's near-death was still a matter that woke him in sweats in the middle of the night. Through the bond he sensed Valathor's questioning touch and knew if he asked, the dragon would fly to his side right now to provide comfort. The Princess's odd choice to rub a... plant into his hand was an almost welcome distraction. Forgetting the fear and pain of that night, a bemused smile finally reached Jensen's eyes.

"Never had a girl massage me with a plant before on a date," he chuckled and turned his numbing hand over curiously. As she spoke he could feel the numbing agent seep deeper into his skin and he found himself able to stretch his fingers with no discomfort. "Not that this is a date... Well... I guess, in a way..." he chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck nervously and was once again relieved when she saved him from putting the other foot in his mouth by changing the subject.

"Royal traditions are hard to break," he said with care, mindful that pissing off the Princes - all of whom had multiple wives - would be a one way ticket to being thrown out of the Sky Vault. "My mother said it was within your right to pick other husbands down the line if you so wished..."

 

[Orissa]

Jensen's chuckled words had brought a blush to her cheeks, but with her complexion, it became difficult to tell that he had charmed her.

Instead, she met his gaze as she spoke with a small smile. "It always made no sense to me for a Princess or Queen to take multiple husbands. For a Prince or King, however, they are not the one bearing a child. They will have multiple wives carrying them..." Orissa began to peel the laelys from his hand as the ripped pieces had begun to dry. Her fingers moved slowly and steadily. "I am certain of my one and only choice, and that is you, Jensen Araelor."

The Princess gently took his hand again and massaged it to keep the blood flowing, returning him his hand back to his lap once she was done.

"This meeting is a formality, an acknowledgement that we have agreed to this union, but I would like to take this opportunity to get to know you better. When we first met, we were two riders side by side. Today, I am Orissa, Princess of Thanasis, and one day you will be Jensen, Prince of Thanasis. Before that day, I want to know my husband-to-be a little better." If she had been born the type of princess that only cared about pretty dresses and fine parties, not at all involving herself in the safety and service of Thanasis, she would have simply accepted this arranged marriage.

But she had been brought up seeing her brothers seek out what interested them, and Orissa too wished to get what she wanted.

"Tell me... about your family."

 

[Jensen]

Prince of Thanasis. Jensen could feel his palms already sweating and hoped that the Princess couldn't feel his erratic pulse as she massaged his hand. Being a noble was one thing, but he and Danika had worked hard to be more than their surname and their parents legacy. Now he would have a title even more prominent. People would look to him in a different light. He felt too much of a child for such a responsibility, undeserving of the beauty before him. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Ah... my family," he winced as a spasm of pain went up his arm as she hit a particularly sensitive part where the nerves had not yet fully healed. To stop her from worrying over it he brought his other hand up to rest over the top of hers. "Well... We are rather boring I suppose amongst the other noble families. No dramas or politcking.... well apart from my Weird Uncle Ben, but he is no bother. Lives out in the Wylds," he chuckled. Weird Uncle Ben was of course, naturally, Jensen's favourite Uncle. "My parents are very passionate about agriculture and nature and spend most of their time helping with that in their semi-retirement. Aside from Danika I have seven other siblings," he grinned. "All of them more trouble than me."

 

[Orissa]

A fluttering sensation was felt in her chest as his hand came to rest ontop of her own. Orissa did not remove them, nor did she draw attention to it. She had not thought how it looked that her hands had rested with his own; that had been the medical training in her to soothe, but his hand over her own?

The blush rose to her cheeks, again, subtle on her complexion.

"Seven!" She gasped, shocked and surprised by the number of the brood he was part of. "Well, you probably already know how many siblings I have... Kaveh I am the closest with. I wish he was here so I could introduce you to him." But it had been this way for many years. Orissa could not recall the last time she saw all her brothers in the same space, and nothing awful had been said or done. "Perhaps another time." She smiled, her hand reflexively squeezing his.

"Forgive me for asking, but with your parents' interest with agriculture and nature... is your family's estate outside of the city?" With a large family like that, and however many dragons bonded to those of their House, she could not picture them all living here in the city. "Oh... I suppose you reside on the Wall, do you not?" She winced, sheepish in her forgetfullness that Jensen served in the military.

 

[Jensen]

Jensen laughed though it quickly descended into a hacking cough that made him wince and rub at his bruised ribs.

"I don't expect you to remember all the notes your parents gave you on me if it was anywhere as detailed as what I was given on you," he gave her a lopsided smile full of a boyish charm that had won him more than his fair share of kisses in the past. He rested one of his arms along the back of the bench upon which they sat and allowed himself to relax into a less noble sitting position, with one leg crossed over his other thigh.

"My family have an estate here as do all the Houses, but it is mostly Danika who lives there now with my grandmother. My parents prefer our country estate, which is where they hide my wild little brothers and sisters until they're more... House Trained," he chuckled again at his own joke, one he often shared with his twin. "I split my time between the wall and the city - neither I nor Valathor like to be away from Danika and Sylvraxis for longer than we need to be. They're from the same clutch of eggs, so they are rather attached to one another."

 

[Orissa]

For one that had learned to heal to better understand her bonded dragon, she wished to help those that ail.

But for Jensen, the man she helped bring back from the brink of death, she wished to take away his pains like she were a god, not princess. Her hand twitched to help him, leaving his hand at his lap but then he gave her that smile. It looked utterly goofy on him, but what struck her most was how handsome she found him. She felt her heart flutter, stunned into momentary silence as his arm came to rest behind her, and Orissa had to hold her breath as he changed the way he sat, his thigh coming to rest against her own.

Slowly, she turned herself to give them inches apart.

Clearing her throat, she managed to catch him speak of his home, and then the mention of his sister brought a smile to her face. Turning her head, she spied Danika speaking with her elder brothers. "Yes, I have read that some dragon species like to bond with those that understand them best. A deep connection, I find, is of the utmost importance. Trust in one another."

There were many siblings of Jensen's present, as Orissa had encouraged both families to be in full attendance, but the missing shape of her younger brother, Kaveh, was notable to her. It had been a foolish thought that they may all set aside their differences and be there for her on this day, but perhaps what she thought as rivalry was not the basis of it all...

"Pixaelys too had a brother from the same clutch. Unfortunately, before I was born, he had been brought down by Jarlax. His rider was caught first, and the pain crippled their bond. Made the Ransa vulnerable... but Ransas bounce back the quickest, they say." Two years after the bonded rider before her naturally passed, she became bonded.

"Once we are married, I do not wish to keep you here at the palace at all times. I expect you would wish to continue serving at the Wall? Seeing you work that day... duty suits you." She tried not to look to him for long, lest she fell into the trap of his pretty face she had not noticed until this close, outside of an active operation. Of course, Orissa would need to find a way to be comfortable with this arrangement and produce children, as was her duty.