Disaster Averted
#7 of The Knights of Juno
Alrighty, the next chapter in the Knights of Juno is here, and there is a surprise. I decided on a two parter this time around, so i hope you enjoy them.
As always, comments are appreciated and requested.
Continued from 'Secrets Revealed...'
Twilight gently shifted aside a hanging cluster of wires, taking care not to jostle them too much. The retreating foot steps of his comrades echoed into the room as they ran down the hallway, fleeing the underground passage, the dying echoes distracting his attention from what he was working on. Not that he blamed them for running of course. If he hadn't known that this was the only way to keep this nightmare from coming to pass, he would have been running right along with them. He sighed inwardly, turning his mind from the rest of his mate's flight and tracing the clump of wires that he was looking at to their source, using only his eyes for the moment. Karen, his human mate, leaned over a little to get a look at what he was doing. Though he himself had not been trained for this sort of thing, Karen had, and the link they maintained made her knowledge the same as his. What she knew, so too did he, and perhaps, just perhaps, together, they had a chance to stop this. Quickly, he returned his gaze to the internal components of the bomb he knelt beside. It was no wonder that his mind kept drifting, what with the ominous red countdown right in front of him.
The timer currently read 8:13, and he knew that he really didn't have the time to think about anything but stopping it. But the trouble was, this device was so different than the ones they had even heard of before. The internal components looked like they had been assembled by someone with only a basic knowledge of electronics, with wires twisting in and out of each other in a chaotic mess. Hundreds of the insulated loops of copper, like so much multicolored spaghetti, made it hard to know what went where. But, fortunately, he had an ally that any human trying to do this lacked. Magic-fueled instincts. He knew, somehow, that deep inside this weapon, there was a weakness. The trouble was, the person building it hadn't been stupid. He had set up magic wards within the device that would cause it to explode if he tried to find the weakness with his own magic. He could have circumvented them with his magic of course, but that would take time, time they did not have. So, the young dragon gently shifted wires around with his clawed fingers, searching and searching for what he knew existed within the complex guts of the device. He shifted aside another set of nested wires, revealing a whole other set of circuit boards inside and he growled in frustration. Each new board only complicated things, and he was running out of time.
The dragon shook his head, trying to see the logic by which this thing had been designed, but he couldn't see what the designer had been trying to do. A mounting panic rose in his mind, and he shook it off, though it was a hard thing to ignore. Every instinct in his body urged him to run, to flee from the doom this device with its infernal countdown promised. Pushing aside another hanging clump of wires, he spotted a lone circuit board, deep inside the device, nearly touching the core of the weapon. It seemed to glitter in his mind, like it was made from some kind of shining metal. Smiling, he knew he had found the key to the weapon. But, the question now was just what to do with it. Here, he was at a loss. He touched each wire coming from the board in turn, trying to decide what each did. And then, just as he was starting to feel utterly frustrated and the panic was starting to well within him again, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he found his mate's hand resting on his black and violet scaled shoulder. She smiled at him, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. He returned the smile and the panic faded away with his frustration.
'What do you see, my love?' Karen questioned, speaking across their mental link quietly. Smiling slightly, he strengthened the link between them and Karen's silvery eyes got a faraway look in them as she began to see with his eyes instead. Twilight looked back down within the device and showed her what he had found. He sensed her nod slowly, thoughtfully gazing at the device. Their minds were so closely knit together now that he could hear all of her thoughts, and he marveled once more just how different her thinking was from his. Where he thought about what each wire did on its own, she thought about what every wire did together. And slowly, order began to appear among the chaos of tangled wires. Slowly, Karen assigned purposes to each cluster of wires, each board of circuits. Soon, the mate pair knew what the device was doing. Finally, when she had figured out what each piece did, Twilight snuck a glance at the countdown. A full three minutes had passed while she brought order, and he shook his head. At this rate, it didn't look hopeful that they would succeed in this task.
'What do we do Karen?' Twilight asked, watching Karen, her distant gaze flicking back and forth while she thought. Slowly, she settled back, kneeling on her ankles, her mind whirling through all the different ways they could possibly stop this device. Finally, after a few more seconds fell from the clock, she replied.
'Do exactly what I say, we don't have much time.' She ordered and he nodded his assent, not at all disturbed by her straight forward thoughts. With that, she began to quickly describe what she wanted him to do, the conversation traveling at the speed of thought. When she finished, he started work, knowing that he could not delay. He began to quickly disconnect several wires, then spliced several together, bypassing several circuit boards entirely. While he was working, he felt a disconcerting nagging sensation in his mind, the tug of his instincts. Gradually, he became aware that they were warning him off, trying to stop him from doing what he was doing. Just when he was about to slice through the last wire with his claw, completely Karen's plan, the feeling became so strong that he froze in place, the wire wrapped around his sharp claw, the insulation of the wire just starting to part. Karen noticed his hesitation and looked at him questioningly.
'Something is wrong, my instincts tell me so.' He said, looking down at the wire he was about to break.
'Like what?' Karen asked, but he did not answer. His eyes started to glow as he used his dragon sight to view the magic within the device. Even to his experienced eyes, the inside of the device looked like one big glowing blur, but gradually, as he discarded wards, the image became clearer. And suddenly, he knew why he had stopped. A tendril of magic, faint against the bright back drop, connected the detonator to the device he was about to remove from the circuit. When Karen saw it she gasped quietly. 'A booby trap. Damn.'
'How else can we disarm it then?" He asked, glancing at the clock. Barely two minutes remained on it. They were very quickly running out of time. Karen frowned, her forehead wrinkled with concentration. Frustration and mounting panic shone behind her flicking eyes, and Twilight began to feel panic as well. The timer steadily counted down to their destruction, and he was forced to sit quietly, watching his love's thoughts whirl past in a blur as she danced from one idea to the next. It was maddening to sit there, watching their death's approach. At the one minute mark, Twilight began to wonder what it would feel like to die, what happened to them afterward, if anything at all. And, as he knelt there, stubbornly refusing to let panic conquer him, he realized that the only regret he had about his life was that he had not had more time to be with his love. And then, with barely forty seconds to go, Karen's eyes suddenly lit with relief.
'Of course!!' she cried with her mind, an explanation of her thoughts pouring out rapidly into his mind. And, as he saw it, he smiled. It was so simple, it had to work. Quickly, he seized one of the severed wires and stripped both ends with his claws, revealing the copper cores. Quickly, he stripped the insulation from the cluster of wires that led into the detonator and twined the wire around the cluster tightly, binding it with magic, then attached the other end to a bare wire leading to a ground circuit. Quickly, he pulled his hand from the device and stood up, standing back with Karen. Twenty seconds remained on the clock, counting down steadily. Putting his arms around his human lover, he spoke with his mind once more, seizing the moment to say what had to be said.
'If this doesn't work, I want to say it one last time.' he said, looking deep into her eyes. 'I love you Karen, with all my heart.'
'As I love you, Twilight.' She replied, kissing him. He returned her kiss and they embraced tightly once more. Turning back they watched the last few seconds count down. Five...Twilight braced himself for the end, for even a dragon's magic would not protect them from this explosion. Four...Karen pressed harder into Twilight's side, feeling the warmth of his scales press into her as she stood there. Three...The pair's hearts began to beat in time, and Twilight was surprised at how calm he felt, knowing that these might be their last seconds in this world. Two...The internal components of the bomb began to hum, preparing for detonation. One...Twilight and Karen sucked in a last breath. Zero...
***
Malcolm stood at the entrance to the underground bunker network, Turquoise seated beside him. They had known that they could not move fast enough to escape the blast, so, when they had gone far enough to say that they had followed Karen's orders, they had sat down here to wait. Malcolm paced back and forth, every muscle tense. From the moment he had saluted Karen and turned to leave, every instinct within him had rebelled at leaving them there, only his oath to obey her as his superior officer making him run away. And now, he was ready to race on back down the passage, to at least be with his friends as they died. But, then, as the seconds ticked by with all the speed of a frozen snail, he paused in his pacing, looking down the passage with a questioning look on his face. He stayed that way for a few moments longer, then he spoke, seeming to be speaking only to himself.
"The bomb should have gone off by now." He said. Turquoise looked up at him, and then nodded, rising to her feet. Shrike and Shiriki got up as well, and the four of them stood there together, shoulder to shoulder, looking down the passage. A full minute passed in dead silence, and the quartet looked at each other with anticipation, the same realization striking all of them in the same moment.
"They must have succeeded." Turquoise said, giving voice to the sentiment they all shared. "It should have happened by now if it was going to happen at all."
Malcolm nodded, reaching out with his mind, seeking to find his friends and see what they were doing, but he needn't have bothered. A point of light began to glow in the tunnel before them, and they all stepped back, knowing what was coming, and hardly daring to believe it. And then, the point suddenly exploded into bright light, light that resolved itself quickly into two familiar silhouettes. When the light finally faded, the flight gave a cheer that was loud enough to shake loose dust from the ceiling above them. Karen and Twilight stood there side by side, neither one marked in any way, their eyes glowing with triumph. The flight cheered again and the six warriors embraced each other, happy to be alive. They all stood together for a moment longer, revealing in the moment, before turning and making their way up the stairs and out of the building. Once they were standing in the sunlight of a finally clear day, beneath a brilliant blue sky, Malcolm finally asked the question they all were dying to know.
"How did you finally end up disarming that weapon?" He asked and Twilight replied, smiling broadly, showing his teeth.
"It was all Karen's idea." He said and the raven haired knight returned the smile, her pale features radiant in the sunlight.
"I remembered something that we learned years ago, back within the dragon mountain." She explained. "Basic physics says that electrical circuits will completely bypass a resistor when they are given a path with no increase in resistance. I realized as we were sitting there that the detonator was basically just a complicated resistor, and I had Twilight provide a path to ground with less resistance than the detonator."
"So when the signal was sent to the detonator telling it to go off, it never reached it." Malcolm stated, completing her thought for her. "Clever."
"What was it that Skye told us during training? 'It is often the simplest solution that is best.'" Twilight said, and the young warriors laughed...
***
Twilight soared through the frigid air above the Atlantic once more, Turquoise and Shrike to his left and right, a little way back from him. Karen was draped along the back of his neck, her cheek resting against his scales, fast asleep once more. The black sky above him was lit with a multitude of brilliant stars, far more than one saw even standing atop the Dragon Mountain. He smiled as he realized how hard it would be for anyone other than a dragon to follow him in the darkness of the night, for his scales were so dark that he was like a wraith, flitting through the silent night. While he flew onward, his wings pumping in a steady rhythm, keeping him aloft in the icy air, he pondered the whirlwind of events that had concluded their first campaign. When word was spread that two young soldiers, a new Knight Lieutenant and her dragon, had disarmed the doomsday weapon the LOT had left within the underground tunnels, most of their allies couldn't believe it. The knighthood and le Ordre de la Chiméra were not at all surprised, for they expected such miracles from the knights and their companion dragons, even the young ones. When the LOT had realized that their grand plan had failed, their leaders slipped away, vanishing into the night, leaving their armies to be slaughtered. Without orders, many of the conscripts they had pressed into service surrendered or defected, killing their handlers in the process. Those that remained dug in all the tighter, but they had no real hope of victory, especially when the EU government finally took a stand. As it turned out, the Light of Truth had indeed infiltrated the ruling council of the European Union, turning a blind eye on the atrocities of their organization.
But, seeing this, the uncorrupted members of the General Assembly had rallied together, performing a coup d'état and removing the council from power. By the time the last of the Light of Truth's soldiers were being routed out by the knights and their allies, the full force of the EU military was in motion. About when the battle ended, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were mobilizing right across Europe to hunt down the LOT. The knighthood had stuck around in the area to help clean up the mess of the battles while Lord Mikael went before the General Assembly. When he had arrived, he had been declared a Hero of Europa, and the entire knighthood was honored with the highest awards that the military could bestow on them. The assembly then went on to apologize for their inaction and asked the knight commander to sign a pact of friendship with the EU. With the blessing of Argil, he signed. And, more than that, the membership of le Ordre de la Chiméra was swelling, tripling nearly overnight. Twilight could understand why that was so, after all, when the civilians of the world were in need, the organization had bravely come to their aid, though they had been horribly outnumbered, and often distrusted by the populace.
During the aftermath of the battle, Karen and Twilight were hailed as heroes, elevated to the same status and spoken of in the same breath as Sir Dealin Darkblade and Sunfire the Magewise. As a result, Mikael and Argil had given them the honor of flying lead for the journey home. They had been away from the mountain and their home for almost a month now, and the young dragon thought about all that had changed with the passage of time. He and Karen had gone from young soldiers fresh from training to honored veterans. Karen herself was an officer now, a lieutenant, a rare achievement for one so young, and he had overheard whispers that she would be given her own wing soon. He had smiled at that, for he knew that she did not wish to have any more responsibilities than those she already possessed. Smiling to himself, he turned his head, looking back past his black wings, nearly invisible in the darkness. Behind him, spread out over a great chunk of the sky, hundreds of dragons flew on, following the course homeward he chose. He shook his head and returned to looking forward. It would be a few hours more until they struck the shoreline of the United States, so he had plenty of time to think. As he turned back to the front, he chanced to notice Turquoise looking in his direction. When he looked back at her, the blue-green dragoness motioned with her head and his grin widened.
Malcolm, the dark-skinned knight who had often commented that he didn't think he would ever be able to sleep like Karen did, draped on her dragon's neck, unsecured by a saddle or harness, was slumped forward, laying on Turquoise's neck, fast asleep. Twilight turned back to the front, chuckling gently to himself. Yes, many things had changed. But, even as he thought this, a new thought came to him, a thought that had been growing in his mind since the incident with the bomb. Thinking about it made him feel strange and uncomfortable, like the time when he had been a hatchling and had accidentally swallowed the rather large stone he had been gnawing on. It felt like he was carrying around a heavy weight in his gut, a weight that he was unable to get rid of. But this was worse even than that, for this weight made his heart heavy as well. Since he and Karen had loved for the first time, he had made her his mate, and he loved her with all his heart. But despite how much he loved her, he had withheld something from her, something that was private and secret. He trusted her implicitly, but this had been something that he had been told not to share with any human, no matter how close they got. His secret name.
It was said that every sentient being had a secret name, a word that contained an incredible power for them, that laid bare their spirit to any who knew it. Every dragon was born knowing their secret name, for they themselves were part of the magic that let the names exist. For the old dragons, it had often been a word dealing with their coloration, or a physical trait they had. But for the new generations of dragons, as Twilight understood it anyway, the names had become stranger, some being very hard to pronounce. But humans did not often ever know their names, and likely would not understand what they entailed; sharing them with many people, no matter the consequences. Only the knights that discovered theirs understood what it meant, and they were few and far between. Though he loved Karen, he had shrunk from telling her his secret name, even though it would mean that they would become true mates. But now, after having come within moments of death together, he wasn't so sure that was the right course to take. Now, he was considering breaking the most sacred tenant of the dragons. Argil and Scarlon, the leaders of the dragon race, had instilled in every dragon that came after them a rule. Dragons were not to share their secret name with any human, no matter how close they were. It would give the human too much power over them, even though the knights were extremely intimate with their dragons already, sharing their minds during much of their lives, but this meant far more even than that.
Twilight did not even know what telling her would do, for though they shared their minds constantly, practically dwelling within each other, if he told her his secret name, she would share his spirit, the very essence of his being. While that certainly sounded attractive to him, it also scared him a little. A dragon's soul was a powerful, potent thing, something so filled with magic that it might have very real consequences if he tried sharing it with a human, even if she was as knight. And yet, he felt somehow that it would be right if he did so. He took a deep breath and sighed, turning his mind away from such troubling thoughts and instead reached out to his rider's mind, gently touching her consciousness as he flew on through the night. He smiled to himself when he saw what she was dreaming about. She was dreaming about lying with Twilight, out in the wilderness somewhere as they often had done in the last year. Sharing the dream, the pair sailed on through the frigid air, content once more...
***
Twilight opened his eyes to the sunlight shining through one of the openings in the Aerie's roof. He was curled up in his true form once more, within his nest. He yawned widely, uncurling from the position he had been lying in, stretching out his long body. He felt a rippling series of pops run up his back and he smiled, licking his lips. The long sleep he had woken from had done him good, for he felt nearly as energetic as he did when they had left the mountain. It had been a week since they had returned, and all the flights that had lost members in the fighting had been given time off from their normal duties to find a replacement among the aspirants. He and Karen had spent much of that time together, resting and recovering from the battle. They had been under nearly constant attention from the knights, since they had been made living heroes upon their return. Personally, he was getting tired of all the admiration. Shaking his head, he smoothed down the few scales that were out of position on his body, and then looked up with a smile, for he sensed Karen coming near. The young lieutenant soon stood at the entrance to his nest, looking at him.
He rose to his feet and walked over to her, nuzzling her with his snout. She rubbed his neck with her hands, giving him a hug in response. Because they were still in very public place, they couldn't give each other the more intimate greeting that both desired, but they had long ago gotten used to that fact.
"Ready to go watch the aspirants train today?" Karen asked and he nodded in reply, shifting back to his hybrid form so he could come with her into the depths of the mountain.
"After we get some breakfast that is." He replied and she chuckled, walking side by side with her dragon back to the spiral staircase at the center of the mountain. Despite the fact that dragons didn't need to eat since they were sustained entirely by magic, most of them ate with their human companions anyway, enjoying the time spent with their knights. The pair walked down into the mountain, heading towards one of the dining halls. As they walked, they discussed which of the graduating aspirants they thought would be a good addition to the flight. Each flight leader could request replacements for their flight by name, and though Lord Mikael and Argil had the final say in the matter, usually there were few conflicts with candidate selection. While the pair talked, they gently nudged each other, gentle actions that could have been easily avoided, had they not been intentional. It was a game they played from time to time, a game that reinforced their desires for each other's contact. When they arrived in the meal hall, they found it about halfway filled, and the moment they entered, they braced themselves, for the conversation immediately died away when they were seen. As usual, a few seconds later, a murmur of new discussion spread into the room, and the pair made their way to the food line, fully aware that many eyes were on them.
When they had gotten their food, they turned around to find a place to sit and found themselves once again having to navigate their way through dozens of invitations to share a table. Neither wanted to sit with many of the young knights who were inviting them to sit down, since they would be inevitably asked to recount their tale once again. And then, just as they were resigning themselves to another awkward meal, they noticed salvation. Near the far wall, Malcolm stood at a table with Turquoise, waving to them. They walked to his table and sat down, grateful for the excuse to ignore the conversations of the knights around them. When they were settled, Karen spoke in an undertone to Malcolm.
"Thanks for saving us a seat Malcolm." She said and the other knight grinned at her.
"Sure thing." He said, returning to his breakfast. "I figured you needed an escape from all the praise and admiration."
"I appreciate it." Karen said, and dug in to her own food. "By the way, we are going down to the training center to watch the testing. Would you like to come along?"
"Sure, we don't have anything else to do today." Turquoise answered, biting off half of a steak in one chomp. "Who do you have in mind for Connors' replacement?"
"Reanan and Blaze, or Kelsie and Thorin." Twilight replied, speaking for his mate while she ate. "The tests today should help us decide."
"Either would be a good choice I think." Malcolm commented, sopping up sausage gravy from his breakfast with a piece of toast. "Though I think Kelsie and Thorin are a bit better at fighting than Reanan and Blaze."
"Really?" Karen asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend. Malcolm nodded and she continued. "Isn't Reanan your little brother?"
"He is," Malcolm confirmed, taking a bite of the sopping toast in his hand. "But that doesn't mean he is better than Kelsie."
"Hmmm." Karen said, devouring several strips of bacon at once. "I guess you are right."
Though Malcolm and his dragon were finished with their meals, they sat with Karen and Twilight until they finished their food, then the quartet checked their trays and left. As they were making their way to the training center to observe the testing, Twilight again turned his thoughts to his mate, and the way he felt. He still hadn't made a decision whether to tell Karen his secret name or not, and he remained silent as they walked through the corridors. Karen took no notice of this as she discussed the aspirants with Malcolm. Even though the decision was ultimately up to her, she valued the opinion of the others in her flight, which Twilight thought was a good thing, as it showed trust. Twilight knew that Karen wished that Shrike and Shiriki were there as well, but they had gone home to visit Shiriki's family in Arizona during their time off. Shiriki was one of the few knights who had a family outside of the mountain, and it was important to him to keep in touch with them. Karen didn't mind, especially since she couldn't imagine living so far from her parents. Finally, when the quartet stepped out into the cavern where the testing would take place, Twilight at last came out of his brooding silence, speaking at last.
"Where should we sit?" he asked and Karen was about to speak when Lord Mikael caught sight of her. The human Lord was seated beside Argil, the huge Dragonlord taking up a rather large section of the room in his true form. He waved to her, motioning her to come over and she nodded, leading the way to where the pair waited.
"My lord." Karen said, bowing to Mikael. He returned her bow and spoke in reply.
"Welcome lieutenant." He said, gesturing to the space beside him. "Please, join us."
"Thank you sir." She replied, leading her flight to sit beside him.
"By the way, I have been meaning to ask," he began, looking over at her while the two dozen aspirants and their dragon companions warmed up in the rest of the room. "How have you been weathering the attention you have been getting?"
"Well enough, I think sir." She replied, "Though I am starting to wish they wouldn't make such an issue of it."
"The price of fame I am afraid." He said, chuckling. "Believe me, I understand. Oh, that reminds me, are you and your friends up to playing some Warhammer 40k this week?"
"I would love to." She replied, and the lord nodded before turning his attention to the aspirants. Having now seen the way that other high ranking officers treated their subordinates, Karen marveled at how different the knight commander was. He didn't act as though he was so much higher than everyone around him in rank. Instead, he acted like a normal person, chatting amiably with his underlings. And, there was also the fact that he still regularly engaged in Warhammer 40k games with the younger knights, though he was so skilled at it that no one had yet beaten him. Still, she preferred his comfortable attitude to the alternative. A few moments later, the lord stood up and called loudly for the tests to begin. Twilight put his thoughts in the back of his mind once again and looked at the class of aspirants as they lined up, paying particular attention to two pairs in the front row of students.
Reanan, the younger brother of Malcolm, looked a lot like his brother, though slighter in build. His dragon companion Blaze lived up to his fanciful name, all his scales brilliant orange in color, like a blaze of fire. Kelsie on the other hand was shorter than Reanan, but slim and graceful like a willow tree. She hailed originally from Hawaii, and her features showed it. Her dragon, Thorin, was a shiny yellow-gold in color, but trimmed in shiny white, but he had a unique ridge of spikes on his forehead that looked like a jagged bolt of lightning.
The students then stepped back against the wall, the dragons shifting into their hybrid forms to give more room to the combatants. Then, one knight and dragon pair stepped forward, readying themselves for the test. At Argil's command, a dozen creatures coalesced out of the air, conjured by his magic. Each was the size and shape of a human, but they had no features, looking like nothing more than an animated shadow. But they had substance to them, as evidenced by the first aspirant knocking one to the ground with a powerful side kick. The fight continued on quickly, the dozen adversaries attacking in concert. The aspirants were graded on their proficiency with hand to hand combat, and their ability to work as a team with their dragon. The use of magic in this test was prohibited, a ward against it being maintained by several dragons who watched the contest.
None of the aspirants failed the test, but a few came close. Reanan and Blaze acquitted themselves well in the fight, neither receiving more than glancing blows from their opponents. But Kelsie and Thorin caught Twlight's eye more than any other pair. Both seemed to have an instinct for hand to hand combat and their bond seemed stronger than any other pair. They often worked together to defeat opponents, and though they were struck by their foes more often than some pairs, it was always when they were shielding each other. They reminded Twilight of how he and Karen had fight when it came time for them to face the test. When the tests were over, Twilight heard the voice of Argil in his mind, the vast power of the consciousness causing his voice to echo slightly when he spoke.
'What do you think of them Twilight?' The dragonlord asked and Twilight considered for a moment before speaking.
'I think that each will be an asset to whatever flight they are assigned to.' He finally said, 'Though I think the best of the lot was Thorin and Kelsie."
'Interesting.' The huge white and silver dragon commented. 'What is your reason for that?'
'I don't understand the question sir.' Twilight replied and Argil chuckled.
'Privately, I agree with you, young dragon.' He said, 'But I want to hear your reasons.'
'Well sir, though they got hit more, and they weren't the fastest,' Twilight began, 'They seemed to be the best at working together. Personally, I would rather have a dragon and knight pair watching my back that is more concerned for each other than for speed.' Argil did not reply to the younger dragon's analysis, but he nodded as though something had been confirmed in his mind. By this point, the aspirants were on their way out to another test. Twilight returned his attention to his mate just in time to hear Lord Mikael ask her a question.
"Which pair do you want for your flight, lieutenant?" he asked and Karen took a moment to confer with Malcolm before answering.
"With your permission, Lord Mikael, I would like Kelsie and Thorin assigned to my flight." She replied and he nodded his assent.
"As soon as they have graduated, I will have them report to you." He replied.
"Thank you sir." Karen replied and the grey haired lord nodded, rising to his feet.
"I will let you know when I am free so we can play." He said. "In the meantime, enjoy yourself Lieutenant." Karen bowed to him and the commanders made their way out of the testing area. Malcolm and Turquoise rose to their feet as well and Malcolm spoke.
"Well, if we are going to be playing against him again, I will have to devise some new strategies to use." He said and Turquoise rose with him. "See you guys later."
"See you." Karen replied, getting to her feet. "Want to go flying Twilight? I am tired of being cooped up here." Twilight nodded and followed her to her feet, the pair of them walking out of the testing hall and towards the central spiral staircase leading to the Aerie. As he rose, Twilight at last remembered something that had gotten lost in the shuffle of the battle and the aftermath. The thought of a free flight with his mate brought the memory back into his mind of that time, more than year ago, when such a flight had changed their lives. Reaching out across the mental link they shared, he spoke once again to Karen.
'You know, something just occurred to me.' Twilight said, mischief brewing in his mental voice. 'I never did give you that gift for getting promoted.'
'You're right, you didn't.' Karen replied, a similar gleam appearing in her gaze. 'Well, as they say, there is no time like the present.' Smiling deviously, the pair began to run, side by side, hurrying to reach the Aerie and their passage to the open sky...