Their Fiery Love: A Holiday Special

Chapter 9: Madelyn

“What do you expect, we are getting our selves into?” Rob asks me as we ride in the escort vehicle that was sent by the Dragon clans, to pick us up.

A large dragon-man by the name of Oscar is driving the black SUV. Our lands border the dragon lands, so our drive to the palace is not far, maybe about two hours or so. Oscar looked and acted professionally friendly to us.

“Well, hopefully, everyone is as friendly as Oscar up there,” I said, smiling. Knowing well that Oscar can hear our conversation.

He smiled and nodded at us in the rearview mirror. Then he puts in two earbuds then gives us a thumbs up, that we have more privacy now. I smile in appreciation.

“What is in the box, Mads?” Rob asks me.

“Mads?” I say, incredulously.

“Yeah. It has a good ring to it. Seeing as how we will be the only Fae people in all of the Dragon lands, figured we should be on a nickname basis, don’t you think?” Rob says to me.

“Ok. What nickname should I give you then?” I ask him.

“Well, Rob is already short enough, don’t you think?” He asks me, with a raised eyebrow. He looks younger, when he tries to flirt.

Although Rob is not bad looking and seems to be a nice guy, he just isn’t my type. Hell. I don’t even know what my type is. I do not have much experience with the opposite s*x. The few boyfriends I have had weren’t very special and left no lasting impression in my life.

“Look, Robbie,” I say to him and he laughs. “I think you are a cool guy and I think we are going to work really well together. But I think we should keep our relationship as friendly co-workers. What do you think?” I ask him.

“Female, please. I wasn’t hitting on you. Females aren’t really my thing. I was just trying to be friendly.” Rob said laughing.

“Ohh. Sorry.” I answered, completely mortified.

“Don’t worry about it, I can see how you could have sort of seen it like that,” he says to appease me.

“No. I am just really bad with reading males.” I admit.

“It’s fine. I am kind of glad we got that cleared up. Not sure why I told you, I am gay. I don’t really share that information with strangers, or even loved ones for that matter.” Rob says to me, bewildered.

“That’s kind of my fault. I apologize. I can usually control my gift but I probably let it go subconsciously.” I say, sheepishly.

He gives me a nod in acknowledgment. “I see. What exactly is your Fae gift? Its got to be cooler than mine. I just have the ability to move wind around me. How lame is that?” he says laughing.

“It sounds destructive.” I laugh. “Mine isn’t half as cool as yours. My gift makes others tell the truth. Using my gift purposefully will make others not be able to have the ability to lie to me. Although, as a young child, I realized how my gift can also be a curse and I put extra time and effort into learning how to control it. I’m sorry I took your secret form you,” I explain to Rob.

“That explains it. Don’t worry about it, Mads. I am sure you would have figured it out on your own, given time. We are cool.” he says to me.

“Thank you,” I say back.

“So, what’s in the box?” he asks his original question again.

I look down at the box of our SuperNova wine from then special batch that my father keeps in our wine cellar at home. The SuperNova is the specialty wine from my father’s vineyard. Nelphin had arrived at my home, while I was packing, with a message form Aunt Lailane that the dragons had put in a request for a box of the SuperNova wine to checkout. My father was ecstatic about the request.

He was looking for an opportunity to start exporting the family wine to other lands. This was just the chance he was wanting. “Now remember to talk about every detail about the wine, dear. Look over the description on your ride up there, so that you know how to sell it to the Dragon King.” my father said to me as he handed me the info brochure. Which I already knew by heart.

“It’s my family’s specialty wine. The Dragon King put in a special request for it. So I am taking it to him.” I answered Rob.

“Don’t tell me you got bottles of SuperNova in there? Does your family own StarView Winery?” He asked, excitedly.

“Yes. It’s been in our family for centuries.” I answer him, proudly.

“I love that stuff!! I always keep a bottle in my apartment. Glad to know we are going to have a little slice of home at the palace.” he says thoughtfully.

We ride the rest of the way, chatting about our family and friends. Robbie is really a nice guy. I see us being friends quickly.

“Now, let’s be real here, Mads.” Rob whispers, then look up at Oscar, who is nodding his head to the music in his ears. “I know Queen Lailane believes that this will be a success, that the dragons will be friendly to us, but I still think we need to stay on our toes while we are there. We need to be diplomatic when speaking to them and keep our true opinions and observations until when we are alone,” he says softly.

“I agree,” I whisper back.

Robbie is right. We really don’t know, what we are getting ourselves into. We can’t be naive to think that the whole species will be friendly to us after so many years of conflict between us. We can hope that it will, but we cannot be one hundred percent sure.

We arrive at the Dragon lands. The guards at the border, stop our vehicle and talk to Oscar. They look at us with looks of interest and curiosity. I smile at them and one smiles back. The other let us pass.

We drive through Loret City. The city, where the Dragon palace is located. The streets are modern with modern buildings of brick and concrete. There are not many vehicles on the streets, just a few here and there. I guess like our species, vehicles aren’t really needed when you can fly to transport yourself. The street lamps have holiday decorations like wreaths and ornaments and icicle lights border the houses and buildings. It looks very beautiful with the snow on the ground and the buildings. We are not used to seeing winter weather because our lands have summer and spring year-round. We had to pack with heavy winter clothes. Here the dragons seem to not feel the cold, must be because of their natural heat.

We arrive at the palace grounds. There are large snow-covered pine trees on either side of the driveway, leading to the front of the palace. The palace in itself is magnificent. Made of beautiful, onyx dragon stone. Carved perfectly into the side of the mountain. It’s easily double the size of my aunt’s castle. Oscar pulls the car up to the front steps.

From inside the car, I can see a line of dragons at the top of the stairs, who I am assuming is the royal family. I shrink into myself a little. Rob notices my actions and takes my hand into his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Oscar comes around the car to open my door, I take a deep breath and step out.