vignette: free

She held him in her mouth, careful not to graze any part of him with her teeth. Her face revealed how focused she was on what she was doing, unwilling to make an error, or display through a mistake the fact that this was her first time. She had to do it right.

He felt the wetness of her breath against him and he suppressed an involuntary shudder, trying not to think about what was happening. Like her, it was his first time, and he felt that any sudden motion on his part would spell ruination for them both. He tried to be as still as he could.

She tugged gently and he felt the pressure of her teeth against his skin. His mind reeled at the recklessness of what they were doing. In a moment they would cross an impossible chasm and nothing would be the same.

He forced himself to be calm and looked up at her, towering behind him, her teeth tightly clamped on the harness on his back.

“I’m ready, I think,” he whispered and closed his eyes.

She blinked once and spread her wings to their full extension, summoning a powerful wind to carry them both, invoking her right as a beast of Air and Sky.

When he next opened his eyes, all he saw were the craggy mountains beneath them, growing smaller as they flew higher, spiraling lazily on the higher currents. Far below them, the Grey Emperor’s men spat in the snow and cursed the sight of the dragon and her boy, already beyond the reach of their best archers.

“Free,” the boy spoke against the wind. “We’re free.”

And it was so.