Understanding
I wrote this last night before going to bed at 11pm~ took me half an hour!
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" You know Artimas. I just do not get women." The mage grew a smile on his hair covered face amused. " You are a gluten for punishment my old friend."
He responded to the 'young' dragon. In fact the dragon was older than the mage, but the difference between their species was obvious. " I mean I get the fact she is mad that I only see her once a year, but I earn my keep here." The 'her' referred to is his mate. Another young dragon that almost became a fatal encounter the first time they met. Sense he encroached on her lands. The ritual was an old one rarely practiced these days. Most wild dragons just avoid tamed ones. " I mean she knows I never had an elder to learn from. If it was not for you I would have joined their fate."
The mage looks out across the land he governs amused by the dragon. " How long has it been sense we first met?" The dragon lays down and put his head beside the mage so he could rub his broken horn. " Four hundred three years and one hundred and seventy days." The mage chuckled amused. " And in that time how many women did I chase?"
The dragon turns an eye to the mage. " Sense I met you or all together?" The mage pauses and the dragon raised a little amused. " I see the point however." He raises a little more to let the breeze catch on his wings but not enough to lift him off the tower. " It was a day like this the first time we met. Do you remember Artimas?"
The mage strokes his beard as it blew in the wind. " I was a young lad. Just learning magic. I heard of the hunting parties and thought to join in thinking of earning a little money and fame. Then there you were injured in a field whimpering." The dragon closes his eyes remembering the day even more clearly than the man. " You nursed me back to health. Put that lame magic collar on me that worked as well as a fabric rope and used me to get in so much trouble."
The dragon looked at the mage humored. " It was fun. Till you were caught and I was dragged with you." They both pause remembering the next few years in the twos life. The lessons and punishments they incurred. " They never expected a dragon to grow an immunity to human magic. Your mistakes early on working in our favor. We escaped and wondered around. I remember the day we came here. You said your knees were hurting. So you made a tower full of stairs."
The mage laughed to being pointed out the irony. " I remember the day as well. The day you almost died again." The dragon stops enjoying the wind on his wings and lowers back down beside the mage. " When it was over she nursed me back to health. It took time for me to learn my own language back and of things again. While I was gone you got people coming to you in droves. I got to say I never expected seeing you respectable."
The mage coughs and leans on his cane. The dragon knows their time coming to an end now. " We sure did have some good adventures. Rescuing princesses, getting those princesses rescued from us, fighting demons and evil wizard duels. Artimas, do you have any regrets?" The mage looked at the dragon sorry. Blood covered his once white beard. " Yes, tying your life force into my own."
The mage then lost strength to hold onto his staff and fell onto the ground. The dragon sighed and nuzzled the mage before raising up sad. " No, my old friend. I always gave it to you. You saved my life that day we met. To repay that debt I gave you all you asked for." He gave a wail in sadness before looking away to his watching mate in the distance. This is the first time sense their first encounter she had been there. He was now finally free of a master. Free to finally figure out the woman in his life.