Knocking disturbed me and dragged me awake while Russet still slept.
I kept her in my arms as Bee opened the door and cautiously peeked in to find me.
"Thought you'd be here" he whispered "I checked your room but you weren't there."
I didn't say anything so I didn't disturb her.
"I've bought you clothing" he continued and held up a bag that crinkled noisily "you'll need it for your trip today."
Trip?
Was I being taken from the mansion?
"It's nothing to worry about. They just want you close for the ceremony, that's all. You'll be there until you are bound to your mate through it tommorow."
I didn't like that at all. I wanted to be here with the children now that I could be closer to them.
"We will be fine for a day" he smiled and came in to place the clothes beside me "get showed and dressed. I'll wait for you out here."
I watched Bee close the door then carefully pulled myself from Russet who clung to the covers instead.
I really didn't want to do this.
I was still feeling down after the hot shower and bringing the strange clothes out to Bee for him to slide over me in the hallway.
"It's a dress" he explained when he turned me around to close it up "girls like to wear these."
"It has too many confusing holes" I complained when he dropped down to strap red things to my feet "I feel trapped."
"Shoes" he lifted them up, oblivious to my discomfort "this will stop you hurting your feet and make you more stable on uneven ground."
Oh. Actually, I did like the sound of those.
"Come on then" he bent his arm for me to slide mine through "let's get you to where you'll be staying."
I let Bee support me on our walk out of mansion to where a car was waiting out the front. The rocks tumbled under my feet once more, and I faltered but didn't fall this time.
Bee opened the back of the car and waited.
"In you get, Scala."
I paused when I went to climb in and searched for any signs of hidden danger. The car itself had no imposing scents other than the flower perfume coming from a plastic one clipped in the front.
It was dark too. As much as i loved that, it didn't feel right to let myself be willingly trapped in something so small.
I was nervous all over again.
"It's fine" Bee touched my back to make me jump "I'm the only one here with you. Monty and Maitson aren't going to be here this time. I'll drive you there."
I checked the skies for any sign of Barebone but found none. At the time I wanted him most, he was absent to give me the support and comfort I needed.
"It's rude to keep people waiting" Bee chuckled to me before guiding me inside and leaning over to draw a restraint across me.
It was a trap!
"Scala, Scala!" Bee grabbed me when I tugged against it to try and rush for the door "it comes off, see?"
He pressed a button to withdraw it and make it retract immediently into he back of the seat.
"Legally, you have to wear it. I can't change that."
I tensed when he slowly put it over me again and clipped it in. He even reached over further to press a button to make the dark window beside me dissappear.
While he was leaned over, I caught his scent of strong perfume. Tanned leather mixed with smokey firewood flitted across my nostrils that I pressed to his skin to remember it.
"Scala" he giggled and tried to withdraw when I held him there "you can't be smelling people like this. I can't be bent over you like this neither. It's inappropriate."
He pulled my hands from him then stared at me when he placed them into my lap.
There was something about him that had changed. He was suddenly serious and had lost any of the carefree charm I liked.
He snapped himself from it, cleared his throat, and left me so he could quickly slide into the drivers seat.
"Soon you'll be with your mate" he smiled weakly at me in the mirror at the roof that faced me "and that will be all you need to focus on. I can't be there for you forever, Scala."
The car roared to life to make me clutch at the restraint. I kept my grip on it when it started to move slowly, rocking over the pebbles that rolled beneath us.
I saw Bee was the one who was uncomfortable now. If anything, he looked like he was withholding tears.
We had been together for basically my whole life when I first arrived here. Bee had been the mother and father I needed; feeding me and keeping me safe.
Maybe he was filled with the same uncertainty I was? He didn't want to let me go, but it was needed and for the best of everyone involved.
I needed this. And he did too by the looks of him. He was going to get too attached otherwise and develop feelings. Maybe he already had some from the way he had looked at me before?
I glanced at Bee in the mirror and pushed that thought aside.
He was only sad to see me go. I was like his daughter leaving the nest to go out into the scary world. He only wanted to make sure I was OK.
"Now, Scala" he spoke up "when we get there, I want you to stay in the room they have for you. I don't want other men getting the idea that you are available to them. You have to be pure for the ceremony and your mate."
"Who do you think I am?" I scoffed back, offended "I'm not going to waste all of this time and effort for some fling with a human."
Bee smirked at my tone.
"They'll be measuring you to fit you into another dress. It'll be a very fancy one that is for the ceremony and everyone to see. You'll meet your mate as you are on the alter they have prepared then you'll be presented with a gift from him and go from there with the dance you've been practicing."
"Seems like a lot of hassle for a mate" I sighed and looked out the window at the trees flying by "I don't have a lot of time for trivial human things like dresses and theatrics."
"Please try to be gentle with him" Bee whined now "you don't want to break someone so delicate, Scala."
Delicate.
I had to chuckle at that. I was going to be the one who he needed to worry about when we returned to my nest.
Bluntly put, there was going to be nothing delicate between either of us.
I smiled at the thought and quickly hid it when Bee glanced back at me again.
"You seem to be in good spirits" he commented when my smile faded through my blank face "it'd be good to know what you are thinking when your mate can translate for me."
"I don't think you want to know half the things I say" I muttered back cheekily to make him smile and focus back on the road.
Bee didn't strike up conversation until we were slowing to a town up ahead. The town itself was settled right on the edge of the ocean. Huge barriers had been built on the cliffs surrounding it where the town itself was placed on top of.
The colours here were windswept to reveal the raw timber or white undercoat below muted blues and yellows.
Potted plants swayed in the breeze and hovering birds screamed in the wind they played within.
The smell of the salty ocean mixed with the scent of fresh fish a monger was having delivered to his shop made it all the more enticing.
Bee parked the car opposite the fish shop and pointed to somewhere on the left.
I peered out to see a cobblestone staircase branching upwards to where a large round podium sat at the top.
People were already up there,working on a flower arch while trying to battle the breeze.
"That's where you two will meet" Bee marveled it "and then you'll take to the skies."
He got out to come and open my door for me. I stepped out, still taking in the beauty around me.
"You'll be staying in the top room overlooking the podium" Bee pointed to the pale yellow weathered building on the other side of a area decorated with an elaborate circle of white stone "it's a small room but it's very cozy. It has a door too."
Privacy at last. My heart melted at the thought of a soft bed and a warm room beside something so beautiful.
"You'll like it here. You might even want to move here one day when you aren't needed at the mansion."
"Not needed?" I frowned "are you trying to get rid of me?"
Bee ignored my concerns as he led me onwards to the stairs where one of the people were racing down excitedly.
She wore a light blue flowered dress that billowed in the breeze behind her. Pale yellow shoes flashed on the stone she raced over, waving to us. She held a straw hat with the other that the wind tugged at with her curled orange hair.
She was georgous and young too.
"You must be Bee" the woman gushed when she shook his hand "and this is the dragon?"
"Scala" I smiled and shook her hand too.
"Beautiful young thing, isn't she?" the woman looked me over "never seen one with scales like that. And she's not ice?"
"Fire" Bee smiled when I did "our local river dragon has been teaching her to dance too."
"See, that's the amazing thing about dragons" the woman babbled as she led us back up the stairs "they are always so keen to help out when they can. We could all take a page from thier books."
I grinned to Bee and soaked up the praises. I loved this woman more and more as she talked.
"This is where it'll be held" she spread her arms wide at the flower arch, almost losing her hat in the process "and the dance will take place over the water there."
She pointed out to the ocean where a net had been stretched between the floating bouys that bobbed on the waves. A wreath of flowers was being worked on by people in wetsuits that the woman called down to and waved at.
They all waved back and continued thier work.
This was all so elaborate and detailed. I was soaking up the celebration of my union that hadn't even happened yet.
"We have a punching bag for Scala to work with to practice" the woman beamed and dragged it over from behind the arch "this will be Ari."
"Ari?"
"That's his name" Bee motioned for me to pick it up "your mate."
The punching bag weighed an absolute tonne in my human body. I struggled to lift it, let alone hold it.
The red bag even had two lines and a curve drawn onto it with paint. Its dead smile only made the struggle with the bag more frustrating.
"Shall we have a quick run through?" the woman offered excitedly "if love to see what she had learnt. I will be Ari on the ground here; I know the dance well from seeing our local dragon perform it."
Another dragon?
I scanned the skies and waters to see nothing. They could be laying low while I was here, invading it's space.
"Scala" the woman swept her leg put and dipped her body "will you dance with me?"
"Of course" I grinned back and handed Bee the bag that had him falling to the ground with its weight.
We saw him struggling and giggled as he dragged the bag out of the way.
"You know, you have really pretty eyes" the woman admired when we pressed out faces together "and the scales are so soft."
I blushed at her compliments and watched her circle me dramatically.
"If only you could understand me" I sighed when she stood before me again.
"I understand a little" she squeezed her fingers together to make me gasp along with Bee "I'm still rusty."
"Can I take her?" I blurted to Bee "she's the best thing around here!"
"Scala" the woman giggled behind her hand as the other pointed upwards "the sky."
"Ah, right" I blushed again and shifted back into my dragon form to snatch up the bag in my hand and take off.
I twisted with it diagonally so I could be positioned over the flower circle. When I reached the suitable distance, I stared blankly at the smiling bag.
"He's supposed to be doing something!" I called down to the figures "I'm not going to be holding this the whole time, am I?"
"Just don't drop Ari!" Bee called through his cupped hands.
I sighed and envisioned Ari circling me, leaving enough time for him too. I then clutched the bag close to me and fell down with it.
The extra dead weight threw me off. It was like it was magnetized to the water it was trying to smash me into.
"PULL UP!" Bee screamed out when I shot past him.
"I'M TRYING!" I snapped back before the water engulfed me.
I clutched the bag and threw it back on the alter.
"Is he staying shifted for this whole thing?" I growled, shaking the water from my wings "I don't know why I'm putting in so much effort if he isn't going to give me any."
I was seriously contemplating throwing the damn bag into the ocean to let it sink. The fact that everything I had worked for was going to be for nothing was making my blood boil.
"Try again" the woman rested a hand on my arm "just keep going until you can do it without dropping him. We will be right here."
I huffed at them and climbed back into the sky with the bag.
He was so damn heavy. The real thing had better not be like this, or I would let him sink.
I didn't even bother to give the invisible Ari enough time to circle me now. I just focused on reaching the desired height and falling without landing back in those dark, frightening waters.
I fell, aiming for between the flowers that served as my focal point. Instead of breezing over the waters surface, I bent awkwardly when trying to lift the punching bag and felt its weight drag me under again.
Over and over I fell, and over and over I pulled my drenched body out to shake it off and ascend again.
My frustrations grew with each failed attempt. Even when it was looking close, Punching Bag Ari slipped from my grip, weighed me down, or had to be rescued from the water.
He was a hindrance. I was starting to dread what the real thing would be like.
"You are doing amazing" Bee encouraged when I slammed the bag down on the alter yet again "that last one was really close."
I just scowled at him and turned my back on the bag.
I was so done with it. I would have to try and accept that it wasn't going to work.
"Maybe next time..."
"I am not lifting that dead weight again!" I snarled to Bee and planted an arm on the bag to shove it into the ground "is he really going to be like this for the whole dance? How could you lead me on like that and get my hopes up for THIS?!"
I smashed a fist into the bag to get my point across.
"Don't let it defeat you" the woman touched my shoulder that quivered when I withheld bitter tears "keep trying; you'll get it."
I glared at the woman then dragged the bag up and took of with it once more.
I kept at it for several more hours with Punching Bag Ari. I didn't want a bit of cloth and sand to best me. That would have been more humiliating than already getting frustrated with it to the point I wanted to cry.
I was going to come out of this the victor. I would show everyone how beautiful our dance would be.
Even when Bee wished me well and left for home, I was tumbling and turning over the water. I was getting to the point where I could pull up from the drop before actually dropping Ari into the water.
I needed to make these spirals perfect. Our union as mates would be made on the second one; I couldn't drop out before then.
The woman stayed to watch me as she finished the flower arch and sat there, swinging her legs over the edge. Her hat protected most of her body from the sun that burnt her shoulders and down her arms before setting at the oceans horizon.
The deep purples and fiery oranges ignited the looming darkness blanketing the waves to turn them into a deep void that unnerved me.
I decided to finish up for the night with a flourishing twist with Punching Bag Ari back into the air after another successful drop.
"Good job, Scala!" the woman beemed when I landed with the bag "and good job, Ari!"
We giggled at her joke and walked side by side down to the building I would be resting in.
"I'll see you tommorow at the ceremony" the woman smiled "the day of the beginning of the season; it'll be perfect."
"See you then" I smiled back and watched her wander past the fish monger who called out his goodbyes as he shut up shop for the night.
I shifted back to my human form that was now void of clothing and entered the building to be quickly guided up a narrow flight of stairs to a door the hostess opened.
The room I walked into was very small. The front door blocked the bathroom one when it was opened. The bathroom itself had only a tub pressed to the back wall and a tiny sink to the left of that with a counter either side and a oval mirror that looked like it hadn't been dusted in quite a while.
The room itself was a glorified bedroom. The wooden floorboard creaked and groaned when I crossed them to the window opposite me. There was no way of opening it, but it was built so I could sit within it on the cushioned seat at the bottom of its overhanging frame protruding from the building.
I nestled in there and drew up the furry blanket around me that was folded neatly.
To the left of the room was the glorious wooden bed and it's tapered decorations pulling up from each corner. The bedspread was a handmade quilt of yellow, pink, blue, and purple patterned fabric. The pillows were spared and only had on simple yellow covers. It reminded me of Russet's fluffed pillows that had lulled me asleep.
Opposite the bed to the right was a cupboard and a small bench with a steel cube beneath it. I didn't go near them though and just sat there in the window to watch the empty alter.
Tommorow was the day. I was going to meet my mate and welcome the season with new love between us.
Despite my bitterness with the punching bag, I was excited to meet my mate for the first time and see his glorious scales in the sky beside mine.
Surely, he would not remain shifted the whole time. The bag was just testing my endurance and strength to keep a hold of such a large male in the difficult aerial display we would perform together.
The heavy weight made sense now. Of course no human would ever weight that much. It was all some convoluted test for me. They only wanted to see me soar, not set me up to fail.
I was confident in my dance now. I could fall and recover without dropping the punching bag into the ocean. I could handle a living, breathing male who would help ease the stress on my body when we lifted back up together.
Then it would happen.
I felt giggly at the thought of our union happening in the air with so many witnesses.
Would I lose my senses in the moment and crash into the water? I was sure Ari wouldn't allow that.
I had to impress him. Barebone had said I could still fail during the dance and afterwards with my nest.
There were so many chances for Ari to leave. It made me nervous he would take one if I messed up tommorow, even though he had been chosen for me specifically.
Only tommorow would tell.
Only then would my fate be decided.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
