The Princess' Dragon Lord by Mandy Rosko Page B

cave,
appearing from between the mountains of gold and precious stones,
crowns, and jeweled goblets.
    Naturally, her eyes followed his finger, and
his hand on her lower back led her in that directions. It was
because of that, that she nearly missed the portrait in the stone
pillar they’d passed.
    “Wait.” She came to a halt, digging her heels
in when he tried to pull her forth.
    “Do you or do you not wish to see—?”
    “Is that me?”
    He stopped now too, no longer tugging her
along since she’d seen what he didn’t want her to see.
    Diana stepped out of his hold and approached
the portrait to examine it.
    It was her, there was no question about it.
Her princess self, anyway, but all the details were there.
    The portrait itself looked to be done in
pointillism, which was amazing. Diana never had any talent for that
sort of art work. On first glance she thought he’d used glass to
make it, imbedding the shards into the pillar itself, but then she
stepped closer and squinted.
    No. The portrait, all the way down to her
hair and the details of her eyes, had all been put in place by tiny
diamonds and sapphires. Rubies and garnets and tourmalines made up
the varying shades of her lips, and even, when Azoth had cut them
down to small enough size, the blush in her cheeks.
    Had it not been for the lack of the scar down
her eye, and the difference in her hair color, it would have been a
perfect likeness.
    She looked at him, but she had no words, only
the awe she felt.
    He looked more like that pouting, younger
Azoth from her vision. His arms were crossed, and he wasn’t looking
at her.
    “A millennia is long time to go without
practicing the skills my wife attempted to instill in me.”
    Diana recalled her former self’s words. I
may not always be able to look at the real thing.
    Poor Azoth had learned that the hard way.
    “Let us be off now before I change my mind.”
Azoth said.
    Diana smiled and went with him. Now, unlike
back then, she recognized his defensiveness for what it was, and
she wouldn't be intimidated by it.
    She shocked him by looping her arm through
his. “Lead the way.”
    He did. Not much farther into the cavern,
there was another smaller cave within the cave. Oddly enough, this
one looked like it was perfect for a dragon, something right out of
a kid's fairytale painting.
    It was a round bump in the rock with a near
perfect semi-circle opening. There were scratches along the opening
and the rock leading into the little space. The mouth of the
smaller cave was black, allowing her to see nothing inside. Judging
by the size, she should be able to walk inside without being
cramped, but logically she knew it shouldn't have been big enough
to hold a dragon so large. Odd.
    “Does it lead underground?” She asked,
suddenly picturing a labyrinth beneath her feet where the dragon
crept around and slept.
    “No,” Azoth said. “Dragon! Come forth.”
    Diana put her eyes back onto the dark hole of
the small cave. There was a shift of movement, and then a that
same, triangular, scaled head appeared from within. At his master's
call, the beast reached a clawed, reptilian hand outside of its
sleeping space, and with a hard crunch that made the ground beneath
Diana's feet shake, punctured the rock with its claws and began to
wiggle its massive body from outside of the tiny cavern.
    It was like watching a cat squeeze through a
space half the size of its body, and then still make it through
anyway.
    The dragon, large, scales of several shades
of red, and fierce, shook itself from the rocks and dust it had
collected from its bed as it wiggled free. Diana stepped back, and
Azoth pulled her behind him to better shield her from the falling
debris, though it hardly would have done anything had she been
struck. None of the rocks were big enough.
    After shaking out its body and wings,
fluttering them onto its back in a particularly bird-like motion,
the dragon looked down at them. Then its eyes found Diana, and
locked