A Tender Moment

“That’s not what I said to her!”

S’re laughed hysterically, pointing at Jasper’s attempt at an indignant frown. “You absolutely did! She said she liked tall men and you puffed up with your thumbs in your vest and said ‘well, I’m taller on my dragon!’ I was standing right there! She was about to slap you! If she’d had a sword, this would be a different kind of story!”

Though Jasper rolled his eyes, he joined in her merriment.

Beside her on their bed, a big black mound of scales grumbled. Sitting up straight, Hero peered around. Now considerably taller than her when she was sitting, his height was mostly in the gangly neck. Opening his maw in a great yawn, the double fangs of the Wars were more pronounced among the smaller teeth that were as mixed as his heritage.

“Did we wake you, Hero?” S’re tittered. She patted the muscular joint between his wing and shoulder blades.

Stretching exquisitely, he arched his long spine before sitting back on his haunches again, a back foot sticking straight out, and curled his tail around his talons. “He-o, hmmm, dweeem.”

“I swear he learns a new word every day,” Jasper stared at the dragon in awe from his chair. “I’m going to have to start watching my language.”

S’re giggled and was about to respond when Jasper was out the flap of their home and racing through the trees before she felt the rumble that traveled through the dragon’s body. Standing at his head, Jasper peered around them. “What is it, buddy?”

The Tunk’ta raised his head high over the trees and tilted as if listening intently before he decided to plow ahead through the forest despite Jasper’s attempts to reroute him. The vegetation did not take kindly to being disturbed, and he made a terrible sound as he went, the animals fleeing long before he arrived. Those massive tusks protected the dragon’s face as he went, swinging his head side to side to clear the way enough to get his body through. Branches scrapped off the upturned edges of his back where younger plants grew, leaving them behind to one day regrow what he destroyed. All his passengers could do was hang on and wait for his trek to come to an end.

At last, he emerged from the trees and onto another trail as a large range shook the forest. After clacking his tusks together with the main patriarch and matriarch of the range in greeting and request, Randel waited to fall in step with them. Each dragon turned their heads to peer at S’re curiously as they passed but did not stop in their march.

“Wow!” Jasper marveled as another ancient matriarch moved past them in step with her mate, an immense curtain of vines growing all around her legs like the skirts of a lady. “Look at her! I think I’m in love!”

Turning her head to peer at this young newcomer, he could see the vines had taken root on the soil atop her head. Growing down in a tangle, it made the sage dragon blind on the side that her mate dutifully guarded.

Rushing back into their shelter, he slung his bag over his shoulder and dashed past S’re, making a running leap from Randel’s outstretched head and sailing through the air with a thrilled yell to tumble onto the matriarch’s shell. Hopping nimbly to his feet, he glanced back to make sure S’re had seen, giving her a playful grin before making his way towards the overgrown patch on the dragon’s head.

With a loving smile and a little sigh, she gathered her bow and took her position to shoot at the pesky cenepir that clutched the thick feeding tendrils under the Tunk’ta’s shells. She knew just how much he enjoyed showing off for her as he leapt and swung from dragon to dragon, casting her glances to check if she was watching.

It had always been her favorite part of their travels, watching him go about his tasks while she dealt with the pests. Diligent in his duties as a Tender, it was usually the only help he would accept from her. As most Tunk’ta met a Tender every few months, there was often little need for more than one person to keep up the maintenance. Tending the vegetation on the dragons that would overgrow or die and leave a skeleton that added needless weight was his most time consuming service.

It didn’t take him all that long to cut through these vines, though. In a thick, heavy snarl, the last few snapped on their own from the weight. The reaction from the old cow was as instant as a Tunk’ta could move, and he nearly lost his footing as her head lifted up in surprise. Realizing she could see, she let out a pleased trill that shook in Jasper’s chest, looking intently at the bull beside her as though falling in love all over again.

The old bull drew close, his great, glittering eye peering down at the human on top of his mate’s head in curiosity.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jasper replied to the expression, hands on his hips proudly. “Remember me. And, you’re both welcome.”

Finished with his inspection, the bull returned his attention to his mate, and Jasper hurried off.

A shiver rode up S’re’s spine that she had felt before, but she did her best to ignore it, keeping her attention focused on what was real and alive. Whenever Jasper asked, she played it off. How could she even begin to explain that occasionally traveling with them were the ancient Tunk’ta that had walked these paths long before them, while the few Bonded appeared as even less than the wisps of the dragon spirits? It was unsettling enough to her.