Chapter 2: A Fairy at Our Fire

While he was with her, making love to the fairy beneath the waterfall, everything seemed so right, like there was nothing in the world but himself and Ico. But it was wrong, and he endangered his nest.

"Seirian," he says, coming upon his second nest brother tending the flame fruits.

"You've been out all day," Seirian says, rising to greet him, "Have you seen Brys?"

"He hasn't come back?" 

Seirian shakes his head, "Not since he stormed off last night. Tearhne was pretty hard on him. You know how he gets when he's in a mood. I worry he'll be careless and get himself seen."

"He'll come back, he always does. I'll talk to Tearhne," Aymeri assures his brother, not mentioning his own incident. From Brys, they would expect this kind of indiscretion, but not from Aymeri. Of course, Brys would have killed the fairy on sight, solving the problem before it began. "She needs to take care of him before he starts challenging us all."

"Aye, let him wrestle with her," Seirian laughs, "What have you been doing? You smell...flowery."

Her scent. It clings to him, though he swam all the way back to his nest, her scent did not wash away. "I must speak with Tearhne," Aymeri says, avoiding his question.

Tearhne will have to be told, and he will have to face his brothers and stand judgment. They'll want to know why he didn't kill the fairy, how he could put his whole nest at risk for love of an outsider. 

On his way to Tearhne, Aymeri takes a moment to play with Talfryn. "Flower," the dragonling says, nuzzling his father's hair. Even the child can smell the fairy on him.

The nest comes first, every dragon learns this with his first steps, his first words. How could he have forgotten that, even in a moment of passion?

"Tearhne," he whispers her name as her wraps his arms around her,  "We're worried about Brys." The simple matters first, Aymeri decides. "When he returns, you should make it up to him."

"So now you're taking it on yourself to decide my bed partners for me?" she answers with a laugh.

"I'm giving you my advice, as your first," Aymeri says gently, "You hurt Brys' feelings, and he lashes out at us. If you do nothing, I'll keep him in line, as I always do. But it would be better for the nest if you made it up to him. He's your nest mate, he needs your love more than he needs my hand."

"You're right," Tearhne sighs, "When he comes back, send him to me. Why do you smell like flowers?"

Ico followed his trail through the streams boring under the mountains, to pool in the low grounds near the shore, and when her head rises back into the air, she sees he is not alone. Of course, she thinks, he went back to his home, to his kin. And she remembers the last words he spoke before Tania came upon them, that it would mean his life if his kin were to learn he had been with her. So Ico keeps out of sight, watching, waiting to catch him on his own.

"I allowed myself to become trapped by a fairy," Aymeri admits, no longer able to avoid it.

"You allowed...?" she asks, "How did it trap you? Did it see your true form?"

"She did. I had already transformed when she came upon me. She'd been tracking me. She said she wanted to ride a dragon," Aymeri smiles fondly as he speaks the words, despite his anger at her, and at himself for falling for her.

"She ensorcelled you somehow?"

"No," Aymeri admits, "I gave myself to her. I gave her my name, willingly." And they'd spent hours together, making love, whispering to each other about nothing, and not once did she attempt even the simplest magic. If that had been her intent, she'd had the opportunity, while his guard was down. Yet she did not, not even when the other fairy told her to bind him before he got away. Ico let him go rather than use her magic on him. He remembers her face as he left her, her tears and her desperation, and he realizes his mistake.

"So, you weren't really trapped," Tearhne says, perceiving the truth much quicker than he did.

"Another fairy came upon us, and I..."

"Made some rash assumptions and stormed off in anger?" Tearhne surmises, knowing the temperament of a male dragon very well, having four of them in her nest.

"Aye," Aymeri admits, remembering with the regret the last words he spoke to Ico in his rage, "That I did."

"You've been seen by two fairies, that still live with this knowledge," Tearhne says with a sigh.

"I could not kill her," Aymeri says, "I would not kill her now, even if it meant my life."

She didn't hear his approach or feel the disturbance in the water as he slipped behind her, unaware of him until his arms here around her, his hand covering her mouth.

"I've got you, fairy," he growls in her ear.

Ico struggles as he pulls her  from the water, and quickly discovers that she's unable to use her magic here. The dragons have a magic of their own in place, a protective ward that leaves her powerless.

"Let her go, Brys," Aymeri commands, "She's here for me."

"I caught her, that makes her mine," Brys snarls, throwing the fairy to the ground so he can take a swing at his elder nest brother.

Aymeri responds with a blow that sends Brys flying backwards. The rest of the nest gathers to witness the challenge, but do not interfere.

He lunges at Aymeri again only to be forced over his brother's knee.

"One day, you will learn not to challenge me," Aymeri growls as he pulls Brys' arm behind his back, "Until that day, you will be grateful that I'm able to restrain myself."

Having made his point, Aymeri helps Brys back up to his feet. "Tearhne wants to see you tonight," he says, smiling as he claps his youngest brother on the back.

"You've got fairy all over you," Brys observes, "What have you been doing?"

"Did he hurt you?" Aymeri asks, kneeling in font of her.

Ico shakes her head, terrified but unharmed.

"When we parted, I said things to you in anger that I now regret," he says gently.

"You said some things to me in passion, too," she answers, "Do you regret those words as well?"

"No, I don't regret what we shared, Ico. I only regret what this will mean for my nest. Your coming here was my doing, because I left you in a rage. And now you've seen us, all of us..."

Tearhne approaches, handing a length of fabric to Ico. "You'd best cover yourself," she says gently, "With four adult male dragons about..." Tearhne doesn't finish the thought, "We have to decide what to do about this," she says to Aymeri.

Tearhne's nest gathers around their fire, and Aymeri tells his brothers how a fairy happens to be among them.

"I wouldn't have killed her either," Riain admits when Aymeri's tale is done.

"And what of the other fairy?" Seirian asks, "By now she must have told her nest about us."

"We don't have nests," Ico says quietly, almost afraid to speak in their presence, "Tania will have told Auberon, I'm sure. We are curious about your kind. But we mean you no harm, truly."

"You have your curiosity, and we have our laws," Tearhne says, "None but a dragon can see our true form and live."

"We have to kill them all," Brys says, "The other nests would have to join us to go to war with the fairies."

"That's probably the worst idea you've ever had, Brys," Riain says, "There must be a way to resolve this without involving the other nests, and without resorting to violence."

"We have a fairy at our fire, Riain," Brys points out, "The other nests will find out eventually. If we let this one live, they'll come for us."

"I've taken you down once today, Brys, don't make me do it again. Ico is under my protection," Aymeri growls. "But you are right, about the other nests. I won't see our nest endangered because of what I've done. If I leave with Ico now, they'll never know she was among us. Cast me out as a lawbreaker, and the other nests won't turn on you."

"And where will you go, brother? To live with the fairies?" Seirian asks, "The other nests won't allow that; they'll come after you and make war on all of them. And they'll expect us to join with them. I won't do that. I'll stand with you and defend your fairy."

"Our nest should stand together," Riain agrees, "If you leave, I leave with you."

"The nest comes first," Brys agrees, and all three of them rise to stand with their brother.

"We stand together, Aymeri," Tearhne says, the final word on the matter. She often boasts to other females about her nest, how close they keep their bonds of brotherhood, how well they work together. It's no easy task, keeping the tempers of so many males in line, keeping their squabbles and challenges from turning fatal, keeping the nest from turning on itself. She knows well that she owes her nest's unity to Aymeri, her first. He inspires their loyalty in ways she's never seen another dragon accomplish, he keeps them in line without fostering resentment, and each of her subsequent mates had fought for a place in her nest as much to be lead by him as to be mated with her. Even Seirian, who turned down an offer to be another female's first so that he could be her second. "And your fairy can come and go among us as she pleases. The other nests will have to accept that, or fight us." Her nest is young and still low in the order of dragon society, but Tearhne has ambitions, to see her nest rise to the top. Defying the law this way could destroy them, if she let it, but if she means to lead, then she will do it by refusing to follow laws that get in the way of her nest's happiness. "I will call for a gathering," she decides, "We won't wait for the other nests to question us, we will come out fighting to change the law to allow us to keep our fairy."

"Walk with me," he says, wrapping his arm round her and leading her into the woods around their camp.

"Why are dragons so secretive?" Ico asks, "Why do you wish to hide from us?"

"That's the way it's always been," Aymeri answers, "Your kind must have laws you keep, traditions you'd kill to defend."

"Fairies have no laws," Ico says, "We do as we please."

Aymeri tries to imagine living without laws, and sees nothing but chaos and infighting, "I don't think dragons would survive without some form of restraint. Left to ourselves, we'd kill each other."

Ico shudders, thinking of the casual way Brys suggested they kill her and go to war on her kind. "What have we done?" she asks, her voice breaking, "I only wanted to love you, not bring the wrath of all dragons down on my kind."

"We couldn't have gone on unseen forever. It was bound to happen that a fairy would come upon a dragon in his true form. If it hadn't been me, and it hadn't been you, there would have been blood. A dragon like Brys would have killed you without thought. And your kind would have retaliated. What we've done with our love is give both our kinds a chance to make peace before we make war."

Aymeri unties the knot holding her simple dress around her and they sink down to the forest floor together, legs and arms wrapped around each other.

"We couldn't have done anything else," he says, kissing her neck, "I am your dragon, Ico, and will love and protect you through all eternity."