Fledgling Demigod Ch. 09

"I will be ready by the time we leave, my lord," she said.

Massaging his temples, he said, "I wanted to ask a favor from you. After the battle tomorrow I'll be leaving for a short--"

"LEAVING!?" she yelled, almost in desperation, as she interrupted him. "Why are you leaving? Where are you going?"

"Calm down, Priscilla," he said, trying to soothe her anger.

"You can't leave, my lord," she said with finality.

"Oh?" he asked. "And why not?"

"Well, I mean," she stammered. "I-I just got here. I've never been someone's vassal before and I, um, don't really know what I'm doing."

He smirked. "So you admit ignorance after all?"

She ground her teeth. "I'm trying to compose myself, my lord, and not take that as an insult," she said.

"You shouldn't," he said. "Because it's not. There's nothing wrong with not knowing something, Priscilla. Anyway, I didn't ask you here for a lesson in grammar. I need your help, if you'll let me finish talking?" he ended the last line in a question.

She composed herself once more and Galen was surprised how easily she did so. "Certainly, my lord," she said, nodding slightly.

"Ok," he said. "As I was trying to say, I'm leaving for a short time. I'll only be gone about a week or so. My problem is I don't have quick enough transportation to get where I need to go and I don't want to be gone for too long. The port city of Prax in the south is a week's ride away but I understand you can fly there in less than a day?"

Her lips turned up at the corners just slightly and for the briefest moment, but Galen caught it. "I can, my lord," she said sweetly and Galen stiffened at the reply. If they were sitting down to eat and she talked to him like that people would think they were married. As it was, while her tone was sweet and affectionate, they underlying meaning was deadly.

"I will order you to take me there if I have to," he said. Up to this point he was keeping his tone light and polite, but her sudden shift in personality set him on edge. "Though I'd rather not."

The sweet smile she gave him turned down into a sinister frown in an instant and she growled, "Why not ask my mother? She seems to be taken with you."

"I already did," he replied and relaxed slightly. This Priscilla he could deal with. Her eyes narrowed to slits in anger. "She told me she vowed to never let anyone ride her again after Chasen."

Priscilla ground her teeth. "No," she answered. "I'd be the laughingstock of the dragons if I allowed a stupid human to ride on my back."

"Oh, good thing you're one of the last ones, then," he said. "No one will ever know."

"I will know," she said.

"So, Drusilla isn't too good to let a human ride on her back but you are?" he asked.

"Precisely," she replied.

"Look," he said. "I don't want to order you to take me to Prax."

"I didn't say I wouldn't take you," she said. "Just that I won't let you ride on my back."

"Uh huh," Galen said. "And I'm not letting your dragon claws come anywhere near my skin. It'll be hard enough to trust you not to drop me from the clouds."

Her eyes went wide in shock. "I-you-we... oooooh," she stammered and growled.

"I would very much like it if you agreed to carry me on your back," he said.

She crossed her arms across her perky breasts in defiance. "You think so little of me?" she asked haughtily.

"No," he replied. "I simply don't trust that you won't try to kill me in some way or another on the flight down."

"Humph!" she said and raised her chin slightly and to the side away from him.

Galen could tell she was a complex ball of emotions she didn't know how to deal with. "Look, I don't want to order you to give me a ride," he said, his tone placating. "I really don't want to because I truly don't want to cause some sort of further cultural dissent between us. Like it or not, we're stuck with each other for a year. Whether that be as lord and vassal or as husband and wife makes no difference."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Husband and wife?" she asked and her tone was almost curious.

"If you agree to it," he answered. "After I return from my trip. Then, after the year is up, if it's what you want, I'll nullify the marriage and you can go back to Dragonmount to raise whatever Dragonlings we have together."

She relaxed her arms a bit and eyed him uncertainly. "You... wouldn't want to be a father to your hatchlings?"

"Of course I would," he said. "But if you don't want anything to do with me I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable by insisting you stay here with me so we both can raise them. Their home is Dragonmount where they need to hatch. Why take them away from that?"

"That's..." she paused to consider her words. "What about other hatchlings? In the future, I mean."

He smiled up at her. "I'll always be accommodating for the race of dragons, Priscilla."

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment as she thought about it. "Alright," she said, stiffening again in resolve. "I let you ride on my back to Prax. In return, you agree to marry me when you return and give me as many eggs as I want. After a year, you nullify the marriage and I return to Dragonmount and only visit when I want another egg. Does that about sum it up?"

"Somehow I feel I'm getting the short end of the deal," he replied. "Make it a ride to and from Prax and I agree."

She smiled and for the first time it seemed to be genuine. It was a beautiful smile and his heart swelled with the sight of its splendor. "Deal," she said. "If there isn't anything else, my lord?" she asked.

Galen shook his head slightly, coming back to his senses. It really was a beautiful smile. "Uh, no," he said. She nodded with that smile still on her gorgeous lips and left. ["What the fuck was that?"] he thought to his goddess.

["Well done,"] she replied. ["Not only did you manage to secure wife number five, for a year at least, but you managed to placate her anger in the process without ordering her about like a slave. I didn't think it could be done. I'm impressed."]

["Care to explain?] he asked. ["You're being unusually vague."]

["No,"] she replied. ["Lucinda is on her way."]

["For what?"] he asked and he felt a hand gently pat his crotch. He hadn't realized it, but his cock was incredibly hard.