Dragons V.S. Mermaids

Chapter I

I awoke in the bed alone again. There was a folded piece of paper on the pillow next to me. I picked it up and read his elegant handwriting.

Far West Kingdom under attack by House invaders. Be back at dinner, hopefully. I love you.

Matthias.

            I folded the paper closed and put it back on the pillow. I turned on my back and looked up at the ceiling as my body relaxed from last night. It was his seventeenth birthday last night and we had an intense night together. We didn’t complete our relationship, because we were waiting for our wedding night to do so. I got out of the bed and headed for the shower. I removed my sweat caked nightgown and got in the shower. I stopped wearing my shell clothes since I turned fifteen as I saw it silly wearing nature for sleep wear. The only thing I had on was the dragon and mermaid necklace that I wore around my neck. The mermaid was in the center and the dragon had his sharp talons on her shoulders and torso with its wings spread out. The dragon wasn’t clawing at the mermaid, but more of holding her. Matthias gave me the necklace for my sixteenth birthday and he told me it was enchanted as a distress call to his twin necklace identical to mine and I never took it off.

            My, did I love him so. Over the past three years it had been like this. I pictured him in my head as the leader of a great dragon army. We had given an egg to each of our allies and if it hatched he would go and induct the new Rider. He was tall, muscular, and grew into an image of his father, according to Melody, our elf friend from the Elven Kingdom. Apparently, she met him during the Rider’s golden years, but he was a soldier not a leader. He would be proud to see Matthias today if he was alive. Vanilor, his dragon, had grown into a fierce dragon of fourteen years. He was now large enough to carry an army and breathed ice as dragons gained this power when they turned thirteen. Sometimes he woke us both up when an allied kingdom was in danger and Matthias had to go and save it. I hated that.

            He was always away on missions or training new Riders. Not always, but it felt like I was a widow who lost her husband or a princess locked in a tower waiting for her knight. We had been trying to get married for the last year. We tried two times, but when the date approached it seemed to be interrupted by a mission or a new Rider appearing the day before the ceremony. This got on my nerves. My mother was married when she was sixteen and a short while later she was pregnant with me. From what I learned from my parents I became a fair ruler. I took my father’s philosophy and put it into good use. My people said I was as fair as my father and as beautiful as my mother. Although, I don’t think my mother would grow her hair to the back of her knees. That was one of my signature features. With my long legs, flat stomach, and un-natural beauty, I was considered one of the most beautiful women in my kingdom. If only they knew Oceana, my mermaid form. My tail was a dark green and strong enough to be considered a weapon. The tail wasn’t only a weapon, but my source of motion through the water. I always thought that Oceana was more beautiful than me, but we were the same person. Matthias said that if my mermaid form was more beautiful than my human form, he’d marry the mermaid.

            As I stood in the shower letting the warm water hit and roll down my body. I used the oversized shampoo bottle to wash every strand of my long brown hair and my hands went to my stomach with the bar of soap, feeling the muscles starting to form on my stomach from all the swimming I had done when Matthias was away. As I showered I thought of how we all changed. Adam, especially. He grew out of his womanizer attitude and focused on more important things. Fred and his blue female dragon, Aquatis, became the strategists for the Riders and he became the Brain of the Riders. Tyler, Matthias’s best friend and second in command, and his dragon, Pyro, had become fierce in battle and Matthias had never seen anything like them in battle before. In the few short wars we had, Tyler and Pyro were right behind Matthias and Vanilor. After every battle, they meditated in order to keep them to hurting someone they cared about. Especially Kirston. Kirston was Tom, the Elven Prince’s, sister. We returned to the Elven Kingdom when a silver egg hatched for Tom. As time went by, Kirston and Tyler had fallen in love. She came to my kingdom when it was time for us to leave. Tom and his mother gave her their blessing to pursue her love. I knew that Tyler would be devastated if he hurt Kirston. Lamar was a different story. When he was young, he was always brash and hard headed in battle, but as the years passed, he cooled down and used his words instead of his fists. This earned him the title Voice of the Riders. He put his negation skills into good use in gaining us allies. The last few who changed were my handmaiden. They grew into young and beautiful women who now had their eyes on the young men of the village.