Adventures of Jessa

21

The city gates come into view. Dhiren tenses in preparation. He doesn't want his time with Jessa to end. He's just starting to get to know the incredible person that she is. The matter that he needs to talk to Alaric, her grandfather about, makes him edgy. He thinks that if Jessa finds out about it that she will have nothing more to do with him. 

Dhiren sighs silently. If anything the proposal that his father is wanting will hurt his courtship with Jessa. She will think that he only wants to marry her to seal the treaty with the gold dragons.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

For the first time ever, he could actually see himself with a female and not want to kill her within a few short days or years. He thinks with Jessa that he would continue to be fascinated with her for centuries. The fact that she is half dragon will mean that he will have the chance to find out.

If she doesn't tell him where to go when she finds out about the treaty.

They need the treaty. The attack on Jessa's village wasn't a fluke. They've found that the blue dragon deity is the one to cover the attack until the end. They suspect that Jethro is the one that destroyed the protection of the blue dragon deity in an effort to alert the elves for the need to help. Too bad he waited until he did. Had he done so earlier they might have been able to save at least Jessa's mother.

But that isn't the first attack. There have been others. As Jessa found out, the evil minions have been growing. They've been finding and killing the metallic dragons.

Somehow they've found ways to mate with humans. From what they understand the chromatic dragons have to be positively ancient to have the ability to shape shift. Yet, dragon kin, half dragons and half human or other creatures are becoming quite prolific. Not just blue dragons either, there have been an increase in white dragon kin and even red. 

Those they know for a fact. Dhiren is sure that there are also black and green dragon kin. The thought makes him sick. 

He suspects Frosnak to be dragon, gold to be precise. After all her sigil is a gold dragon. Counting houses/lending houses would be a good place for dragons to hide. It would allow them to be able to increase their money, be near it or at least some of it while at the same time masquerading as human. He bets that many if not all of her employees are also dragon, whether they are all gold, that he's not sure on.

He does know that she won't be happy with the business he'll be taking up with her.

Which business will have to wait until after he sees Alaric about the treaty. Frosnak is to meet with Jessa in the morning and that's when he plans on talking to Alaric. Then when Jessa is done with her lessons with Frosnak he'll talk to her about the project he wishes to start.

He can already hear her grumbling about the waste.

He's counting on this project to truly show Jessa that he has changed his feelings about humans. It had taken some talking to with his parents to get them both to give their consent for it. It is a daring and bold move, and one that could do a lot of good, if it gets off the ground the way he hopes it will.

He just hopes that everything works out well with it.

As he thinks about everything that could go wrong with that project and worry over what he's going to propose to Alaric, he absently bites his bottom lip.

"Come, this way prince," Jessa says pulling the prince out of his thoughts and makes it so he has to hurry to catch up to Jessa.

When they get to the market, Jessa automatically slows down to look things over. So does the prince, although he finds the noise and confusion of the open air market anything but refreshing. He watches how entranced Jessa is by the sights and sounds. He loves seeing how happy she is just walking through and looking at the different stalls.

Dhiren makes note of a couple of places, one a dress stall that Jessa had looked at. There was a dress already made that would look perfect on Jessa. Dhiren motions for Sorsha to come forward and hands her some money and motions to the dress.

Sorsha smiles widely and nods before heading into the crowd. The prince is entrusting her to pick up a courting gift for Jessa. For her it is an honor and a great pleasure.

There is another stall that catches his eyes. A head piece made of silver and moonstones made for a female. It will be breathtaking in Jessa's hair especially if the stones are activated by the moonlight. 

Dhiren smiles, it will go nicely with the necklace he is having made for her. Indeed, if he didn't know better, he would say that the two pieces are part of a set. He thinks that the moon goddess might be having a bit of fun with him. Whether or not that is the case, he determines to buy that for Jessa as well.

He tells her that there is something that he would like to take a closer look at and that if she would like to go elsewhere that would be fine.

Jessa nods absently and tells him that she will return shortly before melting into the crowds.

Dhiren doesn't take any time to move over to the shop keeper and look over the piece more closely. As he does he is more than pleased by what he sees. He also notices other pieces that will go nicely with it. 

He also notices a lovely emerald set that he determines to buy for Jessa and will give to her another time.

He quickly makes his purchases and is just setting the packages away when Jessa returns with some sweet rolls that she hands out to each of the elven guards and Dhiren. She looks for Sorsha and doesn't see her to give her the roll.

"I sent Sorsha on an errand. She should return shortly. She knows to ask for directions to Alaric's shop if she can't figure out where we are."

Jessa shrugs and starts eating the roll she got for herself.

Dhiren is more than happy to partake of the roll that Jessa got him. He had enjoyed the one that Jessa had brought to Silva and had hoped to have a freshly made one while here.

It doesn't disappoint.

He thinks that it's the first human food that he's ever had that he actually wanted to try again and found better the second time around.