1
As the sun rose over the mountaintop Daniel woke feeling refreshed and energized. He turned and saw that Kate was curled up, pressed to his side. He lay there watching her sleep, soaking in the scent of her, and remembering the evening before. He couldn’t believe how content he was, how everything had come together so perfectly. Not many men get to find their soul mate, especially in these crazy times. She stretched, arched her back and rolled over opening her eyes and smiling up at him. She scooted over and laid her head on his chest, giving him a quick squeeze. She told him she wanted to make sure all this was real. He assured her it was and proceeded to show her just how real. She protested that they had to get up; they had so much to do. He kissed her softly on the forehead and informed her that this is what is referred to as ‘love-play’, and there was nothing more important. Then he began to love her again, and she dropped all of her arguments quickly.
As they lay there in each other’s arms they began to talk of their lives before ‘the burning’. Both had been lonely, searching for something. Both had felt that there was something ‘more’ in life waiting for them. The more they spoke, the more they saw how alike they were, which at times both found kind of spooky. They were comfortable with each other, holding nothing back. Daniel had always felt in the back of his mind that he was being molded, that his ‘metal’ was being tested for some task; he apologized for not being able to explain it right. Kate said she understood completely; she kept wondering if she was guilty of vanity because she had thought the same thing. It was during this time that Daniel asked Kate to marry him. She said yes, immediately; and then laughed and told him that there were no preachers in camp. After an hour they finally rose to face the day.
They began preparing for their departure, anxious to return to the camp. Everything was stripped and washed and stored away. Their clothing was washed and packed in duffle bags. Everything in the house pantry was cleaned out and extras would be brought back with them to the camp. She called Jake and told him they wanted to return early. Jake was very happy that they were ready to return. He was anxious to go after his Queen. And now that she and Daniel were together, there was no reason to delay.
Daniel wanted to make a last run to the warehouse, but he wouldn’t say why. She decided this might be a good idea after all. She could get some things for Sally, for the kitten. She would need kitten food, litter and litter box, clippers, and a brush. They headed over to the center early and went their separate ways meeting back at the door in half an hour. Daniel came back whistling to himself; he had that Cheshire cat grin on his face, something was going on. He wouldn’t tell her anything no matter how she tried to get him to talk - and she really tried!
They were back at the house by mid-morning. They discussed what to do about the car, how to store it so the battery wouldn’t go bad. In the end they set it up on blocks in the garage, and removed the battery, drained it and stored it on a shelf.
Kate hastily taught Daniel some dragon etiquette and advised him that politeness is a major item with the dragons. She also told him that female dragons appeared to be extremely vain - if Lady Jennie was any indicator.
The twins sensed that they were going ‘home’ and they became very excited, running about and growling. They would grab something and run off with Daniel chasing them, shouting obscenities. A couple of hours later they began barking and running in and out of the house, slamming the door.
We are here My Lady, and the twins are greeting us. Jake informed Kate.
Kate yelled upstairs to Daniel that Jake was here. He came down the stairs and grabbed her and kissed her excitedly and then took her hand in his, “well woman, here we go!” They took off out the back door together and came running around the house to the open field just as Jake was landing.
The sight of Jake took Daniel by surprise and he stopped short, my God… so big, ran thru his mind. He bowed to show acknowledgement and respect, as Kate had instructed him, Good Morning Jake, he sent out in his thoughts. He watched as Kate ran to the large dragon and threw her arms around his huge head.
Good Morning Daniel, you look well. Jake greeted him with a nod of his massive head, your spirit glows brightly with happiness.
I am happy Jake, thanks to you. Daniel stepped forward a little hesitantly and stroked the large dragon on the side of his massive head. You take some getting used to. Jake chuckled loudly in reply, and Daniel received a small shock.
Daniel saw Michael descending on a huge creamy brown dragon; he knew this must be Lady Jennie. He went over to them and made a big show of bowing to Lady Jennie with a grand flourish, Good morning Lady Jennie, my but you are a beauty. You sparkle in the sunlight like a beautiful diamond. She twirled her eyes wide and bowed her head to him in acknowledgement, keening approval.
“Well that’s it for me!” Michael admonished him sliding down from her neck, “she’s going to be impossible to live with now. Between you and Steve, she is spoiled rotten.” He laughed loudly, “by the way, she approves of your salutation; politeness and manners are most important to dragons.” Knowing now exactly who Michael was, Daniel marveled at the young man making his way towards him. He was still laughing as he came up to Daniel, and took him by the forearm in a greeting of equals. “Good to see you healthy and strong again Daniel, you had us scared there for a while.”
“Michael… good to see you. Listen, I, I want to say thanks for all …..”
“Daniel,” he interrupted holding his hands up, “don’t even go there. You’re family now, or soon will be,” he whispered. “Jake told me of you little plan, I think it’s great!” He went over to Kate and gave her a big hug and kiss and swung her around, “My, my, you absolutely glow lady, he’s obviously very good for you!”
“Michael! She was blushing bright red. “Good God, do I have no secrets?”
“You know the answer to that better than most,” Michael laughed thinking; It’s good to see her so happy.
“So young man, how are things at the camp?” She slid her arm in his and led him around the side of the house rattling off a series of questions. The ‘twins’ followed, calling to their master in jubilation.
Daniel moved closer to Jake. I’ve got the rings Jake. Can we do this at sunset on the ridge?
I see no reason why not. Sam and Lucy are very excited to be included. Steve has agreed also, and he is bringing Lady Ashley! She will be one of the new riders. Lady Jennie is honored that you asked her to be present. Daniel, I do not see the need for any of this. My Lady is your Lady Kate now, and you are her mate. There is no doubt.
Jake, it’s something we humans do, trust me.
Ah, you must have a ceremony to announce to all the others that she is your woman. Jake twirled his eyes and stared at Daniel, very primitive!
Hey, cut us some slack here big guy. With that Jake roared ‘approval’, and chuckled as Daniel continued, so Jake, am I riding back with Kate, on you?
Actually Daniel, I was going to hang you from my right claw. Jake tilted his head back and roared.
Daniel was shocked for a moment and then got it… Good God, you made a joke, Daniel laughed and patted him on the neck, I don’t believe it.
OK, you two, lets get this show on the road.
Kate had come back around the house carrying the box with the kitten. Michael had their duffel bags. She set it down and explained to Jake and Lady Jennie how they had found it, and about how old it was. They both sniffed it, Jake blowing on it his approval. Lady Jennie thought it was cute; she wanted to know if it would talk. She was disappointed to find that it was incapable of speech. The kitten seemed unfazed by all of the attention.
They threw their duffel bags over Jake’s mid section, and Kate climbed on. She held onto the box with the kitten and set it between two ridges on Jakes neck in front of her. Daniel was excited as he climbed up behind Kate and settled himself. He held on to her waist and gave her a tight squeeze.
Michael loaded the extras they had, and then introduced the ‘twins’ to the new holders that Steve had designed for them. The device fit around Lady Jennie’s neck and hung down just in front of her wings; so as not to interfere with her flying. They each sat on one side of Lady Jennie’s neck just in front of Michael. He strapped them down and they were barking their approval loudly.
They had better not bark all the way home Michael, or I shall drop them, Lady Jennie told him.
Michael spoke to them and they soon quieted. Lady Jennie and I are ready to go Jake, see you there!
They lifted off gracefully, banked to the right, and headed for the mountains. Daniel watched as they gained altitude.
What a beautiful sight! My God she is so graceful. Jake began to move, Whoa…!
Jake extended his wings took one leap and he was airborne. He circled the house and the surrounding town and ascended gradually heading for the mountains. Daniel was in heaven, he was holding on to Kate, and also to the ridge on Jakes neck. It was very cold, he was glad he had worn the leather jacket as Kate had suggested. He took in the layout of the town and the house and the warehouses.
Jake, this is fantastic! Daniel was beside himself with joy at flying on the large dragon.
I am pleased that you are enjoying the ride Daniel. Jake turned his massive head around and looked at Daniel, soon you will be doing this on my lovely Queen.
And I can hardly wait for that to happen Jake, Daniel answered solemnly. There’s the forest that surrounds our mountain. Look, there’s the river that flows from the waterfall… I can see the camp! Woo-wee…this is kick-ass! There are the fields, and the horse pen, and the south ridge. Jake, this is so cool! Jake was enjoying Daniel’s exuberance, as was Kate.
My lady, Daniel is truly enjoying the ride; his enthusiasm warms my heart. He will make an excellent leader for the community. They will follow him without question. Jake threw his head up and let out a long plume of fire and uttered a loud roar of ‘approval’.
Minutes later Jake glided onto the mountaintop. Daniel was sorry to see it end; he had to admit to himself that he wanted more. He saw Steve waiting by a large boulder, and watched as he came forward as they landed. Daniel climbed down and turned to offer his hand to Kate. She handed him the box with the kitten first, and then she climbed down. She immediately went to Jake and stroked the side of his nose and had a few words with him. Then she hugged and thanked him for the ride.
Steve greeted Daniel with a big bear hug. “You had us so worried, damn, you look great!” He elbowed Daniel and said slyly, “Do I detect a certain look of contentment? ”
Kate left Jake and greeted Steve with a big hug. “How are you Steve? Michael says we have some candidates?”
“Kate, my, my,” Steve stepped back and held her hands looking at her. He chuckled loudly, “lady I have to say you’re absolutely glowing!”
She blushed and went to Daniel’s side and he took her hand in his. She took the box from him and held it out for Steve to see.
He gave her a devilish smile and reached for the box. “What’s this, oh a kitten; bet I know who is going to get this!”
Daniel took the box; “A little gift for Sally from me! We found her under a building, only one left alive.” Daniel handed the box back to Kate. “And by the way, I’ve got a bone to pick with you mister!” Daniel stepped forward towering over Steve, “you knew all about Jake and didn’t tell me?”
Steve gave a chuckle, “I knew you’d be mad when you found out, but I couldn’t tell you Daniel. Jake said I couldn’t, and I wasn’t about go against his wishes; if you know what I mean.”
“Now Daniel,” Kate cut in quickly, “don’t be too harsh on him. He figured it out all by himself. I came up here one night to see Jake, and there he was, sitting there chatting away having a heart-to-heart. He had this stupid grin on his face. Jake loved it, he even gave Steve a ride!”
“Oh yeah man, out of sight!” Steve turned and bowed to Jake with an exaggerated wave of the hand. Good morning Jake!
Master Steve, good morning, Jake replied nodding to Steve.
Daniel continued, “That was the morning you came into the mess hall and you were acting all weird. And I just figured that maybe Ashley and you had gotten together. So everybody knew – even Jerry too?” Daniel scratched his head as they nodded yes, “Damn, I was the last to find out wasn’t I?
“Maybe if you weren’t so hardheaded it would have been sooner.” Steve was teasing him now, “it was right in front of you, man, and you just couldn’t see it!” They shook hands and Steve pounded Daniel’s back as they joked with each other about how dense they were.
Kate came over and broke it up. “Lets go down and settle our things, Daniel. We can drop off our luggage and then go see Sam and Lucy.”
They went down thru the mountain and followed the pathway that led to Kate’s cave. Daniel tossed the duffel bags on the king size bed and looked around.
“Steve, think you could make this a little larger? And maybe give me an extra room over there, for a small office.”
“Sure, let me and Jerry look it over first, and I’ll get back to you. Want to make sure we don’t cut into any steam vents. Oh that’s right, you guys don’t know….” he stepped back and looked at them both.
“Don’t know what?” Daniel and Kate asked in unison.
“Well, Jerry and I were checking out a large cave for Jake. We’re going to use it as a hatching area, and we found a thermal vent under the surface about 15 feet. So we made an opening and then piped it in and under the hatching grounds, the little dragons are gonna be just fine this winter.”
He was very pleased with himself at this, “we also found other areas on the mountain, deep inside. So we figured we could give everybody heat this winter. It all started because we were looking for a way to rig up toilets and showers up here. We were going to pipe in the water and surprise everyone. We already did it down below, man do they love us!”
“I’ll bet they do!” Kate said enthusiastically. She was glad that Steve and Jerry had been thinking about the community. It showed them to be the leaders that Jake said they were.
“The women are all over Jerry. Dan, remember how shy he used to be around women. Ha! Not anymore, and he’s loving all the attention.”
“And you?” Daniel asked.
“Nope, got something a lot better brewing and I’m not going to mess this up for anything. An easy piece of tail is not worth loosing Ashley over. We are so close to finally getting together that I don’t want to even think about doing something stupid like that.” he was very serious. “She’s going to be my future, Dan, and I don’t want to screw it up and lose her.”
“I know what you mean, but I’ll tell you a secret. Once you do get together, you won’t even think about something like that. You’ll be happy in a way I can’t even put words to.” Daniel turned and stared at Kate, “you’ll know you have something most people just dream about.”
Kate lifted her head and looked questioningly at Daniel, then her eyes went wide and she began to turn a bright red. Daniel walked over to her, took her in his arms and gently stroked the side of her cheek. His memory filled with thoughts of the night before; he pulled her to him kissed her passionately. Kate uttered a husky, “Oh Daniel!” Her arms went around his neck and they embraced and kissed again.
“All right you two,” Steve was a little uncomfortable, and surprised at Daniels spontaneity; but more surprised at Kate’s response, “hey, enough, enough!” In a way it was kind of nice to see that Kate and Daniel were human after all, he was really happy for them. “Let’s get going guys; it’s getting too hot in here!” They all laughed and headed down to the camp below. Just as they were stepping off the mountain path, Sally came skipping out of the Great Hall. She took one look, squealed and rushed across the pathway into Daniel’s open arms.
“Oh Daniel I’m so happy to see you! You’re all right! I was so worried about you! I prayed for you every day.” She was hugging him and chattering on and on. Totally unlike that shy quiet little girl he remembered.
“Whoa, slow down a bit little one. I’m just fine, I promise you. I heard how worried you were about me.” Kate handed him the box and Daniel went down on one knee and gave it to Sally. “Well, I’ve got something here we found; and I thought to myself that only one person I know would like this, you!”
She looked in the box and let out a squeal, “Oh Daniel! Oh she’s beautiful! Is she a she? Oh she’s so fluffy! Look how pretty she is; can I name her? Oh she’s wonderful! I’ll call her Oreo!” She hugged Daniel and Kate, over and over. “Thank you so much,” she said as she ran off to show Sam and Lucy.
“I think you made someone very happy!” Jerry had come up behind them and watched the whole thing. “Nice to see that you’re still with us Daniel,” they shook hands, and he tipped his cap to Kate.
“Hello Jerry,” said Kate warmly, “I understand that we have a lot to thank you for. You and Steve have been very busy since we’ve been gone.” She was trying to put him at ease. He was always a little jumpy around her and she didn’t know why.
Strong independent women always made Jerry nervous. “Yes ma’am, we thought we’d surprise everyone with hot water. Jake was the one who spotted the steam vent. I hope you don’t mind, but he took me up to show me where it was located so we could put the charges in the right place.”
“Jake is his own man Jerry, he can take whoever he wants for a ride,” she said with a smile.
“Well, we figure that it would take about a week or two; then the whole camp would have hot water. I wasn’t sure if you would want us to hold off; you know, go get the eggs first before we started all that work.” He was hedging to see if she approved.
“Daniel, what do you think?” Turning around she asked, “Should we get the eggs first, or wait a bit?”
Daniel’s response was what she knew it would be; “Eggs first, we can’t take a chance that they might be destroyed.”
Jerry was surprised that she had deferred to Daniel. Things have changed.
“Why don’t we get all the rider candidates together tomorrow morning and then plan it out and go right then to get the eggs, while we’re all together,” Daniel suggested.
“That would probably be best; we’ll all be well rested and ready. So be it.” She replied and then added; “now, lets go see Sam and Lucy.” She quickened her pace towards the Hall.
“Well that was close,” said Steve, “she almost ruined your little surprise.” He raised his eyebrows up and down as he walked past Daniel grinning.
Daniel caught up with Kate and they entered the Hall holding hands. There was an immediate ‘Hey look who’s back’ from everyone in the Hall. And the fact that they were holding hands was not lost on anyone. Sam and Lucy came up to them and there were a lot of hugs, and ‘glad to see you’re ok’ and ‘we missed you’. Lucy gave Daniel a huge hug and a special thank-you for making Sally so happy.
Sam pulled Kate aside and gave her his choices for riders. “I think they will do real well.”
She read the list and was surprised at some of the names. “I know that maybe Jeff is a little long in the tooth, but he has a great mind for strategy. We play chess quite a bit, and he’s very good. He would be a good advisor for our future endeavors. And with the enhancement and all, he’ll shape up real nice.”
“Sam, you did a wonderful job, your choices are very good. And I’m glad to see that Ashley is among them. She has really come a long way from that frightened little teenager.” She smiled at him and they linked arms and turned around and headed back to the main group.
As they approached, Kate watched Daniel work the crowd. He would look over at her every now and then and smile. Sam could see that there was a bond between them that had become very strong.
“Well now, you wear it well girl,” he whispered to her. She looked at him questioningly, and Sam tilted his head towards Daniel. “I knew when the right man came along, you would find happiness; my dreams told me that much. Katie-girl I’m happy for you both!” He gave her a big bear hug.
“You’re going to squish me Sam!” Kate was grinning at him, she hugged him back. “I love you too, you big lug!”
Big John came into the Hall and went right up to Kate, swept her up in his arms and swung her around. He gave her a huge hug; “Word gets around here pretty quick,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “I’m so happy for you Kate. Does the big lug know how lucky he is?”
Kate was smiling at the open display of affection from Big John, “yes John, he knows. And for your information, I’m pretty lucky too!”
Ashley came into the Hall looked around at all the commotion and spotted Kate. She worked her way thru the crowd of people and went over to her quickly. “Welcome back, I’m glad to see you.” She gave her a hug and continued, “so tell me, how is he doing?”
“See for yourself.” She pointed to where Daniel was amid a crowd of people, talking and gesturing wildly. He looked up just then and stared at Kate. They connected again and slowly smiled at each other. The intensity of their stares told Ashley everything. She was quick to pick up on it.
“Oh my gosh, you two are in love!” she whispered. “Oh, I‘m so happy for you, Kate.” She took Kate’s hand and guided her to a table and they sat down. “To tell the truth, I think I’m falling for Steve. But I want to be sure I’m not making an utter fool of myself. I’d hate for that to happen. How do you know that this is the one? When its real love?”
“Ashley, follow your dreams and your heart.” She held her at arms length and shook her shoulders, “you know he is the one! And I know for sure that he’s mad for you! But I haven’t said a thing, not a word came from my lips!” She was smiling at her.
“Thanks Kate, that’s what I needed. I’m going to tell Steve tonight. I’ll probably scare the hell out of the poor guy! Wish me luck!” She gave her a hug and was off again.