'You know, you fly quite well– for a male,' Aurha called as she flew loops over the drake. Hanorh was barely able to remain airborne, let alone perform the acrobatics she managed with perfect grace.



'You seem weightless,' he called back, admiring the way her scales sparkled in the sun. She laughed, barrel rolling again.



'I've had practice, drake,' she said. 'I could fly to the moon and back if I felt like it.'



'I'm sure you could.'



'No, I couldn't,' she replied, suddenly serious, 'one cannot breath so high, I once tried to reach it, but found myself in dark unconciousness before I ever touched it's silver face.' She brightened again, quick as lightning, swirling in the air as though she was nothing more than an autumn leaf caught in a breeze. But she was in perfect control. Hanorh could not stop watching the drakka as she swooped and rolled perfectly.



'Where are you headed? What land did you come from?' she asked, flying closer to him. Hanorh suddenly was short of breath.



'I came from the north – Scotland, I think the humans call it. I was headed over the ocean, to the continent, to find a mate and my own hunting grounds.' He did not need to mention that at a certain age every drake was chased away by the dominant male. Every dragon knew that.



'How did you become so good?' he asked, enraptured, as she got bored again with merely flying in a straight line.



'My father,' she replied, 'he taught all my brothers aerial combat, so they could protect their mates, and I wanted to learn too.' Aurha laughed again. The sound was like the powerful rumbling of thunder, but light, like raindrops on water.



The two dragons soared together in silence for a while, until Hanorh broke it.



'Speaking of mates,' he started uncomfortably, as though they had never stopped talking, 'As soon as I saw you, I was enchanted. The way you fly, and the way the sun glints on your scales, enthralled me. I would like to be your champion, Aurha; to court you, if I may?' His stomach clenched painfully as she seemed to consider it; her muscles tensed as if to fly away. 'Just, please don't make me chase you again.'



'Why not?'



'Because I will do it, though it would probably kill me.'



She smiled warmly. 'Good answer, drake. Hanorh, my champion,' she whispered, rolling the words on her tongue. She smiled again. 'Very well, Hanorh, silver drake of the North, you may court me as long as I wish you to. If I change my mind, start flying – fast.'



Aurha grinned, tilting her wing to bank over to Hanorh's other side. He wanted to roar joyfully at the heavens, to flame and fly to the moon and back, so happy was he that Aurha was going to let him stay. Just being in her presence made him light-headed.



'Please stop that,' he said with mock irritation.



'Why?'



'You're making me nauseous.'



'Ha!' A puff of flame escaped from her nostrils, forming a dark cloud behind them both; she rolled again, and took his talons in hers, pulling him along with effortless grace. 'Come,' she growled. 'Let me show you something.'



They alighted on a ledge far above the forest, on the precipice of a towering granite cliff. Hanorh could see everything in front of him, and only the sheer mountainside behind him stopped him seeing all on that side as well. It was breathtakingly beautiful.



'I wake up to this view every sunrise,' Aurha informed him. She led the drake round a large boulder partially eroded from the hillside, which covered the entrance to a cave. It glittered in the sunlight, and as the dragons entered, sun bounced off their scales as well, throwing the walls into a confused dance of shimmering colours. The narrow tunnel widened in no time at all, and what appeared instead was a great cavern speckled with hundreds upon hundreds of gemstones peeking from the rock. Where the water had carved channels, huge stalactites and ribs of stone poked like jagged teeth from the floor.



'Do you like it?' the drakka asked her new mate, watching his reaction carefully. 'If men knew of this place they would come here and steal its wonder, like they will all else in the world.'



'Who told you that?' Hanorh asked. 'this place is too perfect for anything to ruin.'



'My father told me men are now like time itself, only they work faster to level forests and build mountains. He said they would only grow worse as ages pass, and would eventually bring death to the whole world.' She was suddenly sad, and the drake was wounded to see her so.



'Your father must have been wise, but men are only animals, like us, even. What can they do to the world?' he moved closer to comfort her, but she glanced up fiercely, saying that men were already slaying dragons.



'And what creature on earth does not know that the dragons are tied with it? Only they do not seem to realise that if we die out, the world will die with us, and all futures will be lost. Only men.' Aurha's eyes had gone glassy, taking on a faraway look filled with a beautiful sadness. Hanorh wanted to comfort her but did not see how, so he told her to wait while he hunted for her.



'And I promise you this, dear one: no man may so much as scratch your hide wile I still breathe,' he said defiantly, baring his teeth at the thought. Aurha smiled.



The sun had long since dipped beneath the horizon by the time Hanorh returned, two limp deer clutched in his talons. He almost missed Aurha as he landed, so dark was her hide. She was gazing, unmoving, at the sky, watching the slow wheel of constellations through the heavens; her tail curled away and over the ledge and she seemed completely relaxed. She made no indication that she knew Hanorh was there. He laid one of the carcasses gently down at her feet.



'Don't the stars shine brightly tonight?' she sighed. The silver lay down beside her, feeling the warmth seeping from under her skin. 'Yes,' he replied. 'do you see the patterns in some of them?'



'Yes, I think so.'



'Men put stories and names to them; my mother told me something about them. Would you like to hear?' the copper's head snaked round ever so slowly; her eyes glowed like cats' in the dark, alight with interest.



'I would like that very much,' she whispered.



So the silver dredged his memory for all the stories he had ever heard about the stars – Orion, The Hunter; the Great Bear; the astrological signs humans studied so closely. He told his mate stories about human heroes and their gods, of great deeds long forgotten. It was a long time until she fell asleep with her head resting ever so gently in his claws, breathing deeply. He blinked in surprise and bent his head down to breathe in her sweet scent, feeling oddly protective for the first time in his life. It was with contentment that he looked to the east and saw the morning star vanish in the pale light of dawn.