At the end of the session, Karyu and Vrack nuzzled the two tired hens. Astrid and Hilda were sure to bear a fine joint clutch to serve Aquaria, but for now, the two mothers-to-be would require a little bit of time to recuperate. Astrid wrapped her mottled aged bronze-colored body around her wheat-colored mate protectively, and they both settled in to let their hefty helpings of drake-seed do their work.
Karyu led the way as Vrack followed in his wake, to explore the rest of the castle. As the steel-white veteran plodded along in young Karyu's wake, his mind was muddled with questioning thoughts. He had never felt submissive toward a drake before, but Karyu was not like any other drake that he had ever seen. Karyu had no self-consciousness about him at all, and his vermilion body moved with an extraordinarily fluid grace. Karyu was so certain about everything that he did, it caused Vrack to stutter anxiously for the first time in his life, and he found his limbs not moving quite the way that they were supposed to.
"I can tell that you are fond of Anija," Karyu purred, as if knowing Vrack's most hidden thoughts. Thoughts that Vrack himself had hidden from. Thoughts that Vrack had not even let out during his confessions to Avelia.
Vrack flushed hotly, and he stammered, "Ah-ah-ah-ah. Ah-ah-I." He took a breath, and he attempted to compose his mind enough to speak. "She is beyond what I deserve," he admitted.
"You mean you don't trust her to be as kind as you," Karyu pointed out.
Vrack's cheeks burned in shame. Karyu was right. Vrack had not approached Anija because she had that kind of beauty that, if accompanied by an icy glare, could wound a male more deeply than a knife. The azure hen was graceful in a most amazing way, moving like a sky-goddess more than anything. What could someone like her want with an old toad like him? She would only hurt him. He nodded numbly as he accepted Karyu's judgment.
Karyu flicked his tail in anger. "You have reduced her to what you see on the outside, you fool. On the outside, she is a sky-goddess, but on the inside, she could be any kind of person, including a bad one. Give her a chance, though, to just maybe turn out to have a heart somewhere in there."
"And if she doesn't?" Vrack asked tensely.
"Then you will heal, just like you will heal from our foray this evening," Karyu said silkily.
Vrack's legs went stiff as he thought, embarrassedly, about that moment when he had had his legs spread foolishly for Karyu like a hen in heat, and then he quickened his pace, his head down, to catch back up with Karyu, whom he had accepted as being dominant. "If I might ask, where are we going?" he inquired.
"I have no idea, but that's okay," answered Karyu pluckily. "Let's go where our legs take us! The architect that put this palace together had an unusual relationship with logic, apparently." The many corridors of the palace were stretched out over a massive compound, not being so much a complete structure in itself as really a system of covered walkways that linked several very old buildings together, snaking and meandering their way through the capital city of Aquaria. It could be called a "palace" only because it was all linked and all belonged to the royal family. The parts of the city over which it stretched had started out as butlers' quarters or small homes for friends of the family, but their descendants had gradually begun to open shops and inns, bringing enough noise to the area to justify enclosed corridors for actual members of the royal family, who--while welcoming the townspeople--preferred to not have to shove their way through crowds to get from one part of their own property to the other, leading to it all forming into one incredibly massive, sprawling structure.
After the two dragons had walked for a while through the palace's meandering corridors, they came upon...