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Shirkla and Adam looked at each other nervously, as the priest recited his litany about the marriage vows they were going to take. Their minds were full of the many moments they had spent waiting for this special event. Her belly was rounded from their offspring, the sole requirement for their marriage to happen. So was the very strict rules under Junmoondar's land.

The priest continued for a couple minutes addressing both the audience and the couple until the silence fell. Adam popped from his daydreaming as Shirkla nudged him.

"I think he is waiting for you." she said in her deep booming voice.

The naked six foot tall human looked up to his soon-to-be-wife in surprise and shook his head directing his gaze to the expectant pastor. The short guy dressed in a black clerical gown gave him a knowing smile. He looked much smaller than Adam and yet his stance showed confidence for his job. His hands were covered in immaculate white gloves as required by the rules of the Sebastian church.

Adam's thick brown beard parted to let his lips appear as he smiled widely.

"I do."

The priest turned to Shirkla

"I do."

The cleric turned around to face his altar and raised his hands to the sky chanting in a long lost language to the Gods above. A pale yet distinctive aura appeared around the newlywed as they reached for each others lips for the kiss that would seal their destiny forever. The crowd roared in enthusiasm when the aura dissipated in a vivid burst of light. The marriage had been blessed by the Ancients.

The two lovers start walking down the alley towards the door, applauded and congratulated by the witnesses as they walked down the church. The large wooden door opened to let the sunshine adorn their path, a local equivalent to the red carpet.

They stepped outside slowly, a big banquet had been settled for them as if all the citizens from the country had gathered for the party. Such an event was quite a rarity because and in spite of the law authorizing their wedding as it had been for many years. The rule stating that you have to carry an offspring before being allowed to marry limiting to a very little number of cross-species marriages.

Shirkla was a white dragon towering at eight foot, but with a length of twenty feet leaving very few margin when she walked down the church alley. Many a dragon being in the same predicament as they had to settle for opened windows or surrounding paths if they wanted to assist the ceremony. Those who couldn't had to patiently wait outside and listen to the events unfolding while staring at it on a large screen outside. Smaller dragons had a better chance and sat down where spaces had been arranged next to human seats.

The church and many building of the same era had been mainly created for human weddings and while dragons had accepted their tradition once the law had passed, they never felt the need for such before. It had even been a heated debate at first since they would not recognize the human beliefs. Amends had to be done on both parts and the Catholic religion has since evolved into one named Sebastian from its founder's name, now respected by both humans and dragons.

The black-robed dragon walked out of the church following the trail behind the married ones, his tail dragging under his priest clothes. He waved and blessed anyone who would ask him with a large scaly smile. His green hide shining through his hood that he wore on the back of his head, only held by the small horns sprouting from his skull. He advanced toward the newlywed and waved his paw at them.

"Well, this has been quite a feat. I must say this first wedding went better than I expected!"

"I took us so long to get there, but it was so worth it. Thank you Johrad." said Adam

The small dragon showed a toothed grin as his name was uttered, it was not often that someone would address him this way, mostly he would get 'my reverend' or 'father' and all the like but he was always glad someone would once in a while forget his title and call him by his name. It had always made him feel a little different to be seen as a powerful figure around and sometimes sad that he could not just walk around and be greeted as just another person in the vicinity. He had taken his vows almost a decade ago and had since administrated a thousand of marriage and just as many funerals as well as a countless of other ceremonies. He had to be fluent in all the human and dragon dialects around which sometimes had caused him troubles in mixing them and gave a very busy life as he would be called in anytime there was a different between parties. Not that humans had many dialects but dragons had a old habit of creating a new one, at least for some words or expression, each time they built a new weyr. A reminiscence from their wild part when the clans wanted some privacy from potential enemies.

The party went on all through the day and a good part of the night. This has been the first marriage of a human and a dragon in such a long time because of the requirement to have at least one kid naturally conceived by the couple. Of course, many applied but only a few managed to make it through. Nobody was really sure why some couple could procreate but a majority of them could not. This has caused a long lasting hatred in an otherwise peaceful country. Albeit not a necessity for being with one another, the laws stated that cross-species couple could only stay together if they applied for marriage and then spent time with each other only seeking procreation. In other words, they could only meet for mating in a secluded mansion built for this very purpose. Furthermore, the law set forth that a church person or someone granted by the state might assist in order to prove the meeting would only be for that specific purpose.

Many wannabe couples had tried to overrule this law but failed to change the mind of the constitution representatives. Promises had been made over and over again, local fights erupted here and there, many a blood was shed and rivers of tears had run but nothing ever changed. To the point that those who could afford it had fled in search of a better place.

***

Adam looked at pictures taken from previous marriages and sighed, he still had to wait for confirmation that his lover had caught from their last pairing but he wasn't allowed to talk to her unless they were to meet in the Egglash, the name given to the mansion designed for that purpose. Of course, he could have tried and see her outside of it for small talk but once a couple applied for marriage, the knowledge of it would become public and any sight of them too close to each other could be reported and fined accordingly.

As stated by law, they could not enter their significant other's house as sentinels would size up for any suspect entry. Signs were posted next to the houses to warn anyone of the state of the occupants, so people could report them. There was although a sort of consenting among the population and the lawmakers that if you were to seek sexual pleasure without the risk of impregnation, it would be accepted as normal behavior for anyone that prostitutes of both sexes be easily accessible and for female ones not to able to procreate as they would not be allowed cross-species marriage in any way. The state would make no difference regarding homosexual and heterosexual ones if it stayed within one species. The uniqueness of cross-species though brought the grandiose out of it.

The most recent consensus has agreed that older not married cross-species couples could visit each other on the condition that they would not perform any sexual act while visiting. They could arrange staying longer than a day only if separated bedrooms were available. The laws have strictly included that no privacy were to be asked and if couples were seen together, they could risk jail time, banishment or even death, no matter how high their rank in society. For that matter, curtains were prohibited during the day and night vision cameras were installed for the night, no room could be set in a way that made it not visible from the street.

The publicness enforcement has been derived from the church beliefs that one should approached naked to his or her wedding as they had nothing to hide from their Gods. The law had played on the fact that dragons, despite some of them liking the human habit to dress, saw it convenient to remain in the nude; on the human side, it took a long while to accept this as their old beliefs were of a stricter moral and hiding shameful parts of the body. The majority had kept being dressed up outside while no more a formal requirement for public behavior as dragons overruled past laws.

Adam wasn't shy to show off naked, even if some parts of his body betrayed his true feeling during the mass. He often kept walking around or doing shopping naked, and the feeling that he was soon to be marriage to a naked dragon has helped comforting him in his beliefs that this attitude was nothing to be ashamed of. Only his work has required that he presented himself formally dressed, a rule he has easily accepted and which he saw as a way to show off in an expensive piece of clothing he enjoyed wearing like a disguise.

He looked up through the window, the sentinel was standing still in the street with his back turned away from him as the sun declined and sent orange and red streams all over the ocean. He had inherited his two stories house from his mother, a wonderful and cozy place with remnants of Victorian apparels, rich furnitures from his parents wealth and one of the first house on the seaside with water and electricity. The large porch at the front of the house was facing the sea in a way that the sun would hit the front of the house every evening. It had been his dad's wish for his retirement as he would enjoy sitting down for many hours looking at the ocean.

"The only thing that will never ask you to abide by its law and accept you as you are."

His dad had seen the slow but heavy changes in the law through the years and what it had done to the people in this country, he often muttered how things were better before, to which sometimes Adam had to agree.

He closed the book of "Historical Cross-Species Marriages: An How-To For Wannabes" and got up. He opened the door and stepped outside as the sentinel, a black scaleless dragon whose standing looked closer to a velociraptor than the usual two legged drake, stared at him dryly for a second then resume his posture. The rocking chair has been worn by time and sun exposure, the varnish was cracked all over.

Adam sat slowly in it and rocked gently, the chair went in motion with a creaking noise which annoyed the sentinel as the dragon walked a few paces away.

Their breed had been hired for this specific task as a result of their small size and fine hearing. They could easily sneak on people and quickly deliver messages without being seen. They sported thin leathery wings that could be tightly held against their back as to not impair their running abilities. Being a wyvern species, they had no front legs or arms and used their wing claws for any purpose requiring opposable thumbs.

Their stance made the humans first classify them as a separate breed as they would stand upright more often than not, their thick tails being short enough that it would not touch the ground. A genetic alteration along the years had robbed them of all different colorings their ancestors sported, leaving their hide a permanent black.

Adam smiled to himself as the sentinel moved further away and turned his gaze to the kids playing nearby, he could spot all different breeds of dragons and humans but no hybrid. If his act had worked through, he would be the first of his village to have such a child. Although he already seen a few of them, some looking like humans with dragon features, others sporting humans features on a mainly dragon body, each one was totally unique and so far no scientific study has shown a genetic dominance that could claim any feature that would appear on an offspring. His mind wandered longly over the young ones playing games with a ball, imagining what his would look like or what he would like him, or her, to look. Probably a pair of wings and scales instead of skin, oh and claws, yes claws, that would be neat!

Adam popped out of his dream as the sentinel walked past him. The teenagers were already gone as the sun had set several minutes ago and the last rays of light had disappeared before the moon. He shivered, rubbed his arms and walked inside.

Tomorrow he could visit his beloved once again in that Egglash mansion. The thought was creepy on him, the only allowed visits he could be close with her only let him be very intimate and while he could do some foreplay, long talk and cuddles were reduced to a minimum if any.

The law was meant to discourage people from marrying cross-species, and many good thinkers tried to prevent it from happening but they couldn't just ignore the fact when the first cross-species baby was born. Persecution had been the normal result of an adulterous interspecies couple discovered until then, and the government had been pressured to decide quickly. Albeit people were in general strongly against such couples, they were even stronger opposed to banning one element of a family unless it prove deadly for the infant.

Very few believed in a natural occurrence when the first hybrid was born, many an opponent had claimed they stole him from another family, and fabricated the evidences such as fake wings and eye lenses. The legal process had been very stressful for the family when they had to undergo experiments and psychiatric examinations one after another to assess the lineage.

The firsts ever of a new era had left their name unto history: John, Mirra and Jason, their kid.

They were legally allowed to marry, once the results had dismissed all doubts, in a mix of happy and disgruntled people. The news quickly spread all over the country, many a couple saw an opportunity for their own future and had tried to apply. The townhouses rapidly filled up with demands and dozens of hybrid child popped out of nowhere. The overwhelmed government had wanted to keep an eye on it and in an official move to offer protection for those new couples created the Egglashes, unique mansions meant for the sole purpose of reproduction under the tight surveillance of sentinels and cameras, which empowered them with the possibility to tighten the law about public encounters of different species while not married. There had been short outbreaks following the news when several felt it took away their liberties but the voices eventually died down a month later.

***

Shirkla looked at a picture Adam had given her. It was a simple photograph of him sitting on his rocking chair at the front of the house. She had carried it with her whenever she had a bag, a fancy thing she still was not used to hoist that female humans seemed to enjoy, or wore clothes with pockets. If she couldn't she would just keep it locked in a cabinet between the pages of her diary.

Her own house was a large cave carved in the rock, something her kind fancied more than human houses, mainly because of the small size they were compared to the cavern and the fact that most of the furnitures were not adapted for their uses. Caves, unlike what most humans had in mind, were far from being the cold bare holes inhabitable in winter, those were as a matter of fact quite comfortable and with many a craft in the dragon community, their skills were in great demands. It was easy for one to make a comfortable income and build his own castle of sort, with a large iron door reminiscent of Earth Middle-Age sharing advanced technology very similar to a modern human house but with dragon design in mind.

Her desk was in fact a semi circular table standing at an height of 5 feet surrounding half her body where she could actually bend her head down effortlessly and reach for writing devices which could either be held between her lips or with her forepaws. The space where she would settle down to write or read was cushioned like a giant chair to support her weight, her forelegs moving under the desk where a desk-wide keyboard stood. It was designed so that she could use it for consulting her computer or turn on and off the different lights from her desk.

Her cabinet was no smaller and the keys had a special push-pull mechanism that dragons just needed to insert correctly to unlock the doors.

Modern life was very convenient for them, although many older dragons did not like it and the ever need for using their muzzles as a tool had kept them with using the old fashion methods of claw carving and drawing instead of all those electronics. Some had welcome the arrival of a macro keyboard allowing the use of their claws again but a good number still showed a strong disdain to anything modern, up to the point where electricity had not made it into their places. They had kept firing up their own chimneys and using a nearby pond for their water needs.

She sighed heavily and looked past the sentinel outside in the direction of Adam's house.

"Soon, my dearest." she said cupping her belly as if it had already been swollen from pregnancy.

She looked back at her desk and opened her notebook then grabbed a pen:

Dear dairy, today has just been another long day spent once again all alone. I can't wait for my love to be close to me. Living in the same town and not being able to be with each other, what a non-sense.

She raised her head startled at a sudden noise, she smashed her journal closed and looked at the sentinel outside. The small wyvern didn't seem to have noticed anything. The sound repeated once and she mentally slapped her forehead.

"You damn owl!" she grumbled at the ceiling where a large bird of prey had had the bright idea to nest.

After a long sigh, she opened her book again only to see that her pen had dripped on the paper when she reacted and it had smudged the fresh text. She growled with her head low.

"Me and my liking for fountain pens..."

The pearly white dragon raised up leaving her journal to dry overnight and turned the light off.

It was time to sleep anyway, tomorrow would be another day at the mansion. She turned her head to the pale screen of the computer and sent Adam a quick message.

"Good night, Dear." was all she said before logging out and shutting down the computer.

She had wanted to say so much more, to write him a complete novel on how she loved him and how she would run away from the country to hopefully have a better life but she knew too well that sentinels were not only outside in the streets.

She woke up uneasy from a tormented night and wished she didn't have to go to the mansion in spite of the fact that she will be able to spend more time with Adam, she somehow had gotten sick from having sex with him again and again, she just wished she could just lay beside him and close her eyes for a while not caring if there was any sentinels or cameras who made sure they were respecting the law.

More than once she had though of leaving the place but she had always scratched the idea because she was not sure where to go. All the places she knew had the same law and if she was caught with Adam there, they would surely separate them for good and perhaps even be sentenced to death.

She sighed and engulfed a quick meal before heading out. The place was not very far away but she headed toward a longer road going through the bushes, a small enough path that went from the rocky field where most of the dragon caves were and down to the shore. She often enjoyed hiking there by herself with the aromas of plants and flowers mixed with the salt from the sea. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply then sat down in front of the ocean.

"Perhaps my chance lies out there..."

She turned her gaze back to the village and lowered her head. Her expression turned grim when she realized she would never built the nerve to leave it all behind. She stomped her left foreleg once grunting. If things were to change, it would have to be here and nowhere else.