A Dragon's Tale Ch. 32

"A portal stone?" Ethan's eyes went wide.

"Yes honored dragon, so we can communicate." The King replied. "You would do me a great honor if you would accept this, and consider yourself a friend of the wood elves."

"I'm honored, and happily accept." Ethan replied.

"Then I shall hinder your departure no longer. May Illuminar -- blessed be He -- guide you on the path of light as you travel."

"And you as well." Ethan replied.

The King gave a small head bow, then departed with his entourage.

"Well that was nice." Alana said. "You do realize he was asking you to be more than just a friend to the wood elves right?"

He grinned. "Yeah, I think so. He seems like he could use a friend."

"You could too." She pointed out. "I know you're not lonely with all of your wives around, but men need other men as friends too. I love you, but I'd go crazy if I didn't have any women around to talk to."

"Fair." He nodded, then held out his hand to her. "Shall we?"

She took it, feeling the smooth scales of his hand and smiling. "Yes please sir."

They walked on to the Argo just as the last of the artisans departed. They all gave him slightly awed looks as they left. Once they were gone, Beth, Taloni, Rachel, and Selene came over.

"So, how did it go?" Beth asked.

"One moment." Anthiel interrupted before the wood elf could speak. "We're about to make sail and I'd like Taloni to take the ship out."

The Fey went white. "What?"

"My dear girl, I started teaching you how to pilot an airship weeks ago, and have you noticed that I've barely touched the ship's wheel since?" She paused. "Well, except for while you were captured."

"Yes but... but..." She looked at Ethan. "Help?"

"I'd imagine that leaving dock is easier than docking?" He asked Anthiel.

The high elf nodded.

He looked back at the Fey. "You've already docked, so why not try leaving dock?"

Taloni swallowed. "Are you sure master?"

He looked at Anthiel.

"She can do it." The ship's pilot said with absolute confidence.

Ethan gave Taloni a proud smile. "I won't make you, but I'd like to see you try. You're becoming so great as an airship pilot and I know you want to do it. Courage is...." He prompted.

Taloni took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "...it's being scared and doing it anyway. Okay master, I'll try."

Anthiel chuckled. "No, you'll succeed."

Selene nodded and said in a funny accent. "Do or do not; there is no try."

Ethan laughed out loud.

* * *

"Well done Taloni!" Ethan exclaimed as the Argo hit altitude after the Fey teen had set the proper course.

"Thank you master." She beamed.

He pulled her into a soul-searing kiss, which she returned with interest.

"So, we're on course for Gralden?" Beth asked.

"Not quite." Taloni replied. "Sailing directly to Gralden would take us over Lord Delmar's territory. Instead, we're going to swing south and travel over Ivernia, which is to the south of both Lord Delmar's lands and Lord Borden's lands."

"Okay wait." Selene said, closing her eyes and obviously thinking. "I'm getting lost in the names. Where is everything?"

"Okay, so let's pretend that this knot here is Alana's forest." Taloni pointed to a small knot in the wood on the decking of the quarterdeck. "And let's further pretend that toward the Argo's bow is north."

"Okay, knot is Alana's forest, front of the ship is north; got it." Selene replied.

"Ok, so here is Gralden." The Fey continued, pointing to a spot that was mostly east and a little north of Alana's forest, pretty close to Gralden. "Now, Arcanum is nearly straight north from Gralden." Her finger went straight up. "It's about a week's sailing time under normal wind, though it took two weeks the first time Ethan went there because the wind wasn't good. The mine where I grew up is just northwest of Arcanum; so close you can see the airships coming in to dock." She pointed again. "And Gonorran's camp is about a day's sail from Arcanum in a northeastern direction."

"Okay, I'm following so far." Selene said.

"Now, Gralden, Arcanum, and Nalatia form a nearly perfect right triangle, with Nalatia being almost due west of Gralden, and almost directly southwest of Arcanum. And again, Arcanum is almost directly north of Gralden." Taloni explained.

"Okay, then where is Sarah's inn?" Selene asked.

"About here." Anthiel indicated a spot that was about halfway between Gralden and Nalatia, but also significantly south of both of them.

"So, are we going to pass nearby?" Selene asked. "You said we're going through Ivernia right? I'd like to check in on her and see if she's doing okay if we won't be too far."

Everyone looked at Ethan.

"I have no objection." He shrugged.

"Okay, we'll just wait a little longer before turning from southeast to due east then, that'll put us pretty close." Taloni said confidently.

Everyone looked at her.

"What?" She said, suddenly becoming bashful.

"I love how comfortable and confident you're getting with piloting the Argo and navigating." Ethan said feeling his heart swell as his mouth split into a wide smile. "It does the heart good."

"Thank you master."

"A thought my lord." Rachel interjected.

"Yes, O' Wise redhead?" Ethan smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "Lord Farbrottan and Lord Delmar have an alliance of sorts. Since the Argo has already been to that location once, one or both of the lords might be watching it. I would suggest that the Argo stays at least twenty miles away and then just Selene goes. Or to speed things up, she can um..." Rachel cleared her throat and then spoke delicately. "...ride Ethan in."

Beth and Taloni giggled; Ethan, Alana, and Selene rolled their eyes.

"I don't think that'll speed things up." Beth said as her face went red. "He can go for a long time."

The Brazilian woman blushed.

"I've been demoted to the butt of sex jokes and a transportation service." Ethan said laughing.

"Well, I'm only interested in one of those." Selene said shaking her head.

"So you want to 'ride him'? Purely to go see Sarah of course." Alana said, managing to keep a perfectly straight face while doing so.

Everyone laughed.

"This 'Sarah' is..." Ethan thought for a moment. "...she's the innkeeper's daughter right?" He knew that Selene had mentioned her, but she'd said almost nothing about her since her story had mostly focused on how she got to the Ten Kingdoms, not what happened once she'd arrived.

"Yeah." She nodded. "I would really like to see her again if that's okay." She adopted a mock-flirtatious tone. "I'm even willing to 'ride you' to get there."

"I would never." He replied in a mock-offended tone, then added more normally. "Sure, I can give you a ride."

"I admire your courage." Rachel said to the Brazilian woman.

"Huh?" Selene looked confused.

"I was pretty nervous on my wedding night." The redhead replied in a deadpan expression.

Selene went red and smiled, but something about her expression made him think this had gone on long enough.

"Okay, enough with the jokes." He said gently but firmly. "I'm not taking her to bed and there'll be no... ahem, 'riding' when I give her a lift. I'm not interested."

* * *

Selene was torn between gratitude that Ethan had told them to lay off, and confusion at his clear pronouncement that he wasn't interested in her. She didn't understand. She thought that they got along quite well and she knew she was beautiful; why wasn't he interested?

Deep down, she knew that she was being silly.

She knew there was more to attraction than merely getting along and physical beauty. However, every man she'd ever met that didn't share her last name -- and creepily one who did -- had definitely shown interest in her. Every single one without exception, even the married ones. Not all had expressed it openly, but all had definitely seemed interested.

Why not Ethan?

Why every other girl on the Argo and not her?

Hell, she'd seen more sparks fly betweenKendra and Ethan, than Ethan and herself. His wives were all pretty no doubt, but they were all more a wholesome, girl-next-door type of pretty than the supermodel look. Maybe that was it? Maybe she was too pretty?

Then she mentally kicked herself.

Get a grip Selene, you're becoming one ofthose girls. She shook her head and pulled her attention back to the conversation at hand.

"Wait, how big did you say the bed was?" Ethan asked

"Huge." Rachel replied.

"Big enough to fit all your wives master." Taloni said excitedly.

"Well, let's go take a look." He said, creating a stampede of motion down the stairs from the quarterdeck, where they had all been standing to lend moral support to Taloni while she piloted the Argo out of the dock.

The Brazilian woman herself followed at a more leisurely pace and ended up right behind Ethan.

"Hey, I'm sorry they keep teasing you; they don't mean anything by it." He said.

"I know." She nodded.

"Good." He nodded. "Now, let's see how big this bed really-- wow."

Selene could see into the captain's cabin and had to agree.

The captain's cabin was a square room about sixteen feet on a side. There had previously been two large walk-in wardrobes that were six feet square on either side of the door, resulting in a thick "T" shape for the rest of the room. The bed had occupied the starboard side at the top of the "T", while the large desk and chair had occupied the port side.

It was totally different now.

The starboard wardrobe remained, but the port wardrobe had been moved to the lower decks. The artisans had disassembled it and reassembled it faster than she would've thought possible to make space in the captain's cabin. The desk had been moved to where the port wardrobe had previously been, leaving the entire back of the captain's cabin empty. That's where they'd put the bed; along the entire back of the captain's cabin.

The bed itself was sixteen feet wide and about seven feet tall.

It covered the entire back wall of the captain's cabin and nearly half the total area of the room. Removing the other wardrobe and putting the desk in its place meant there was still space to stand, plus there was a roughly three foot gap between the bed and the remaining wardrobe. That left a ten foot by nine foot area to stand, not counting the area between the bed and remaining wardrobe, of which the desk took a chunk.

"Wow; that's huge." Ethan breathed.

"Yes it is." Alana said in disbelief.

"And the artisans said that it has self-repairing and self-cleaning sheets too." Taloni said brightly.

"Awesome." He grinned. "Now, I'm going to see how it feels."

As one, Ethan and his wives all flopped themselves onto the bed, except for Rachel who remained near to the door, watching with an amused expression.

"Holy shit." Ethan breathed, then let out a sigh of relaxation. "This must be the most comfortable bed I've ever felt."

"It's perfect." Beth sighed.

"I think we should try it out.... sir." Alana said as she gave him a smoldering look.

"That's my cue to leave." The Brazilian woman said, feeling the almost palpable change of atmosphere in the room.

She closed the door behind her and smiled. She really was happy for them, but she missed sharing a bed with Sarah. That had been really nice and intimate without being sexual. It just had felt good to have someone that sweet sleeping next to her. She smiled about that too. She would get to see her again in about four days.

She smiled.

Plus Ethan was going to give her a ride, so he would almost certainly meet Sarah too.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED...

***So, I previously mentioned that I had another story planned after I finish ADT. Now I have more than just one. I have this idea of creating an immersive, interconnected world of stories that builds richness. So my future stories will often include cameos from previous ones, though no cameo will change/ruin another story's ending. (I hate when movies/TV do that.) So even when ADT ends, you'll have the chance to see glimpses of these characters again in some of my other stories; little snapshots of their future lives. As I write more stories, I hope the world will grow and build into a full-fledged and fleshed out universe. That's my plan anyway.***

***I'd also like to extend a very special thanks to someone who didn't want to be credited by name, so "Anonymous", (you know who you are) thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it.***

STORY TAGS: dragon, magic, medieval, elf, teen, romance, virgin, harem, cuckquean