7
Winter was upon them before they realized it. Daniel woke one morning and the mountain was covered in a blanket of snow, the air was cool, crisp and clean. He awoke with an enormous amount of energy and an air of expectancy. He couldn’t contain himself and began to wake Kate up with gentle messaging that turned her thoughts to lovemaking. She could feel the excitement in him, she knew what that meant; the time was very near.
"My love, I believe your Queen will be making her debut very soon."
Daniel agreed with her, "I feel it also my love, but it's this incessant waiting that I find so hard." With a devilish look he grinned at her and said, "but I bet I know one way to pass the time."
"Daniel, no, we have things to do," begged Kate. But there was no stopping him this morning, so they stayed in their cave till noon. Not that she really minded.
Down at the Hall the others were concerned for them; they hadn’t seen them all morning. They asked Jake if they were all right, and he assured them that they were, and chuckled.
"Ah, Daniel is at it again, the man is a dynamo!" Steve blurted out, "I don't know where he gets all that energy from; but he sure puts it to good use!" They all laughed, and quickly stopped when Kate and Daniel walked into the Hall together, smiling.
"Hey you two," said Beth, "we were beginning to get concerned. But Jake said you were just fine. You’re setting a bad example." She was grinning at Kate who was blushing bright red.
Daniel and Kate joined them for lunch. They chatted among themselves, and were trying to decide if they should make some kind of sled for the camp to use during the winter months when suddenly Daniel, who was in mid bite of a sandwich, froze. He dropped his sandwich and slowly rose; he had a silly-looking grin on his face.
My Lady, she hatches! They could all hear the throaty roar as Jake signaled the emergence of his Queen.
Daniel looked up towards the hatching ground. Kate knew immediately that this was it. He turned around and looked at Kate with wide eyes and gave her hand a quick tight squeeze; he made a flimsy excuse and left them. Kate told them she was sure that his queen was hatching.
Daniel rushed up the mountain so fast that he was out of breath when he entered the hatching ground. There were large pieces of shell strewn about. He was so overcome and excited that he had to stop himself and take a deep breath. To the rear of the chamber he heard movement.
He called out to her with his mind, Queenie, are you okay? Are you hurt; don't be afraid my sweet, it is me, Daniel.
In his mind he heard the soft sultry voice of his beautiful Queenie, My Daniel, my sweet Daniel, come - let us meet properly.
Daniel spun around and his eyes flew wide in amazement as he starred at his dragon for the first time. Twenty-two feet at least, he thought to himself. She was silver in color, with black ridges, and black about her eyes with a dab of purple at the corner of each eye. My God, you're beautiful! He found he was shaking all over. Oh how I have wanted to see you, to meet you! Queenie, you are more than I ever imagined!
Of course I am! She spread her wings, reared back and then lowered her head to right in front of him. I am Queen Dragon, Mate to the First; companion to Daniel, rider of my heart, who saved me. They stood like that for almost half an hour; electric charges passing between them, there was a bright light engulfing the both of them.
Suddenly, Daniel felt himself rising up until he was suspended in the air before her. Slowly her wings wrapped around him and he began to turn. A warm light surrounded them and filled the cave. Information flowed into his brain, the history of these noble creatures, visions of things to come; dragons yet to come, Kate with her arms outstretched. And then there was Jake in all his majesty. The sharing of knowledge so profound his head began to pound. The transformation began and continued for several hours.
After a time she spoke again; My Daniel, you have a good mind for a human, I am very pleased. You have a strong moral foundation; this is very good. The name you call me my Daniel, I shall keep. Queenie! For indeed I am a Queen! You have passed thru the first part of enhancement well; I can see why Lady Kate loves you so. She has very good taste! Ah but now I am hungry, and my mate, Jake wishes to see me, and I him. I must leave to feed, I shall return to you in two days.
She stood upright and headed for the opening. Then she turned around once more and looked at Daniel. She raised her head and roared ‘Approval’ loudly. She then bent over, spread her wings and glided out of the cave.
Down below they saw her emerge from the cave and heard a mighty roar from Jake. They watched as they flew around each other, entwined their heads and then flew off together.
It took awhile for Daniel to get his emotions under control; it had been an emotional experience that he had been unprepared for. Realization that this was all really happening had brought things into focus.
He had gone to his knees and said a prayer of thanks for the opportunity to start again.
Kate was anxious to speak with Daniel, and after a bit he came back down the mountain. Changes had taken place during that meeting. As he came down the mountain, Daniel walked like a leader of his people. There was purpose and intent in his strides. His appearance was that of a younger man. He was still Daniel but much more; leaner, more muscular, fine-tuned. His eyes locked on Kate as he descended the mountain. She alone knew what he was feeling; she alone knew what had occurred up above.
Daniel went directly to Kate and took her in his arms hugging her for a long time.
"She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, Kate. She's all sliver with black around the ridges of her eyes with purple mixed in, her eyes are gray in a pool of gold. And she’s a bit haughty, as a Queen would be." He was grinning at the memory of her. “Oh Kate, you have no idea what it was like, on second thought; yes, you do know! You are right; there are no words to describe the experience. We are all so lucky, and so blessed!”
"Daniel, you were gone almost 3 hours. What went on? What happened?" Steve was firing questions at him left and right; and all of his fellow riders were waiting for his answer.
"You'll find out Steve soon enough! You’re next ole boy!" and he gave him a huge pat on the shoulder and let out a mighty laugh.