 “If you aren’t going to concentrate, prince,” the dragon rumbled, “then I am going to call this lesson over before any time is spent in the sky.” Pallas cared little for the emotions or looks that her fairy cast her way on this. The queen was not a dragon, would never be a dragon and didn’t understand how these things worked. She coddled the child far too much and it only ever gave the dragon more work to do.
Gaiane, on the other hand, had grown up with lessons she couldn’t stand and understood the frustration that drove a child to lose focus, or ultimately lose interest in the material. Of course, she knew Loholt was able to complete what Pallas was asking of him where she couldn’t have done any of the magic her own mother attempted to drill into her, but it didn’t change the thorn-like barbs from the words.
“I’m not sure that’s fair,” she said from her seat on the pile of glittering embroidery and gem-encrusted fabrics, where a book sat beside her, marked with her place but unopened as she watched her son’s lesson, and where her dragon familiar turned to glare at her. “He’s young, Pallas,” she added. “You can’t just demand he concentrate like he’s older than he is.”
This is why you aren’t allowed at lessons, the dragon thought, not intending it for the bond between them though unable to stop it. She turned back to the prince and prodded him with a claw. “Is your mother right, Loholt?” she asked the prince. “Are you a hatchling in need of more breaks to keep focus, or can you stay in form long enough not to fall out of the sky.” Her tone was harsh, but the dragon was frustrated and, having had no clutch of her own and no intention of having them, she was not the maternal figure that her fairy was. Not the beast of the boy’s father’s familiar, but even the feathered dragon’s patience had its limits.
“Hatchlings don’t get to fly. They don’t get to glide. They don’t go into the sky. They stay safe and grounded in their nests.” She turned to glare at Gaiane again before the queen could issue a retort, but instead, the queen was on her feet and moving between her son and familiar. Gaiane wasn’t sure how Loholt had put up with the dragon for so long if this was what a typical lesson was like, but she was going to put an end to it if the dragon didn’t shape up. Although, that was rather in line with the earlier threat, since Gaiane couldn’t exactly take the prince into the sky to let him do whatever it was the pair of them did in the sky with any confidence that she wouldn’t end up diving to catch him. She didn’t know what Loholt could or couldn’t do in his dragon form.
The dragon huffed and let her feathers smooth, counting to ten before twisting to look around the queen at the boy. “What precisely has stolen your focus today, Loholt.”
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