There was singing through the trees. It was early, with the sky only just turning from the pinkish dawn to the pale blue that would cover it for the rest of the day. The drakka looked up to see a pair of crows flying west, and then turned to the clearing she had spent the night in. By daylight it was beautiful. Bluebells peered from under the conifers, and moss crawled along the fallen log in the center of the glade. Next to her, the drake that had followed her for three days lay, still sleeping, having sidled close to her side sometime in the night. The drakka rolled her eyes. Males.



But it was the singing that drew her attention now. It was Gaelic, a song of old heroes woven in voice patterns like the very decorations that adorned their buildings. It was a woman singing. As silent as a cat the copper dragon crept through the woods.



'Aislinn,' the copper said in surprise, recognising the daughter of the Celtic clan chief.



'Who is there?' the young girl asked the trees, looking alarmed.



'Do not worry, daughter of Celts, I do not wish you harm.' The drakka did not fear those whose people called her kind friend. She strode forward with confidence. 'Your song is sad today,' she commented, coming to sit beside Aislinn on the soft earth.



'It has reason to be, Arach,' the girl replied, 'My father has promised me to king Freyne of the Saxons.'



'Why?' the dragon asked, genuinely curious.



'To make a blood tie between our two peoples – if he does not, King Freyne might decide to destroy my people.'



'Why?' the drakka asked again. The ways of men were completely strange and petty, it seemed.



'Because he can, and we worship the old powers, instead of the new God brought by the Romans.'



The drakka snorted in disgust. 'Yours is the only race on this earth that kills itself for something as silly as believing something different,' she said. 'If it were the same with dragons, there would be none of us left! I do not understand human ways.'



'Then thank the Gods you are not human, Arach, because females like us have barely any choice in life. I do not wish to marry Freyne.'



A sudden realisation came upon the copper. 'Freyne? He is a dragon slayer. I knew many who have fallen to his axe.' It was true, and the drakka had to suppress the fire boiling inside her for all her lost kin.



Hanorh jolted awake. The female was gone.



'Not again!' he groaned. His flight muscles were stiff from all the flying, and though he had no doubt the copper could take wing after so short a rest, but he doubted if he could ever fly again. 'Ow.' Scratch the wing muscles – everything was sore.



Voices drifted through the trees. One was human, the other? Well, he couldn't be sure. The drakka's footprints led in that general direction, and Hanorh realised that she hadn't flown off at all. Thank God. He follwed the footprints and the female's scent until he came upon her talking with a young human robed in white. A twig snapped and the drakka's head snaked round.



'Oh, you're awake, are you?'



'And moving, to my great surprise,' he retorted. Was that a smile playing on the copper's lips?



'Why are you moving, if it pains you so much?' she asked archly, surveying him up and down.



'Because I still don't know your name,' he replied. Now that was a smile.



'Do you know, of all the males who have sought me, not one of them lasted as long as I in the air? You are the first, and as such, I think you can have my name.' She rose, gracefully, like a leopard, and whispered her name in his ear. 'Aurha.'



Aurha. Its meaning was 'northern star' in drakine, and it suited the copper female perfectly.



But the moment was long over. The drakka had turned to talk to the young woman again, in the human tongue. Hanorh only knew fragments of it, but Aurha spoke fluently, as if it was another dragon she spoke to. He would definitely have her teach him.



'Who is he?' Aislinn asked.



'A drake who followed me all the way down from the mountain,' the Aurha replied.



A voice called Aislinn's name through the forest. The dragons froze. The voice was male.



'It is my escort, John,' she explained, 'I slipped away from him and he must have come looking for me.'



'Then we will go,' Aurha decided, 'The fewer humans see us, the better.' Aislinn watched the two dragons melt into their surroundings as easily as shadows, and, still feeling sorry for herself, went to meet John before he could accidentally stumble across them.



'Who was that?' Hanorh asked. 'And where did you learn to speak the human tongue?'



'The human tongue? There are many of those. I know only Gaelic and a little Saxon. An old Celt priest taught me. As for the girl, she is a daughter of our friends, who has a dark future. She will marry a dragonslayer before the next new moon.' The drakka seemed saddened by this, from what the male could tell; being bigger than her it was harder to wind his way between the trees. 'Are you ready to fly again?' she asked suddenly, spreading her wings. Hanorh groaned.