The Princess' Dragon Lord by Mandy Rosko

her
behind him and growled at the man. His fingers became red, stony,
and clawed. Hard scales appeared, like some sort of armor, over his
chest and shoulders. He was preparing for a fight.
    “You will die for what you have done.”
    Dagda puffed out a laugh. “The lower prince
sentencing a king? You think too highly of yourself.”
    That was all the small talk Dagda would go
for. He lifted his hand in a delicate manner, snapped his fingers,
and the trees stepped forward, their roots pulling free with loud
rips and crunches from where they'd re-burrowed back into the
earth.
    Their crackling branches put a fear into
Diana that she hadn't known existed, and she clutched tightly to
Azoth's shoulders.
    He stepped forward quickly, shooting his
hands out. “Wait!”
    The trees kept right on coming, caught in
their spell, but it had been Dagda he'd called to. The fae king
regarded them both coolly, and snapped his fingers again. The trees
halted, just as they'd bent down, as far as they could go without
snapping themselves, frozen on command.
    The trees, their trunks, branches,
everything, groaned in the slight wind that quaked through their
awkward positions, but they didn't move.
    Dagda waited patiently, but said nothing. He
just looked at Azoth, as if to ask, well, what do you want, you
stupid bastard?
    Diana wanted to claw his eyes out.
    “Battle me,” Azoth said simply.
    Diana froze as the meaning to his words came
onto her.
    Her memories had returned, but it wasn't like
one big info dump, there were still things she didn't realize she
knew until she saw something, or something was said.
    This was one of them. Azoth spoke of a
warriors battle. The honorable dragon's battle to the death.
    Dagda's pale brows were suddenly lost in his
hairline. “Battle you?”
    Azoth's head bobbed in the tiniest of nods,
otherwise, his body was as rock solid as one of the mountains where
he used to live. “Leave my wife be. If I lose, take all the gold as
your prize, but do not harm her. We settle this like warriors.”
    Dagda laughed, and a chill spidered up
Diana's spine. “Dear boy, I am not a warrior.”
    He snapped his fingers again, and the trees
came down upon them as quickly as though they were falling.
    They wanted her, not Azoth. Diana ran, but
the reach of the heavy oaks outdid even her fastest sprint. She
screamed as the shadows came on top of her. They were going to
crush her to death!
    A heavy, rock solid force knocked into her,
pushing her out of the way just as several of the tree monsters
came down upon the earth in a bone jarring smash that put a tremble
in the earth.
    Azoth had grabbed her, and he was so much
faster that he was able to leap into safety with her. She gripped
his arms tightly, unable to let go, even with the freshly grown
scales that were there cutting into her palms. His wings spread out
, arched and proud behind him.
    He was in mid transformation, something she'd
seen him do many times before when they were still getting to know
each other in their previous lives. That certainly explained his
unnatural speed.
    The oaks, pines and alders were piled one on
top of the other, their branches tangling amongst themselves. Only
those on the top of the pile were able to get up, shaking loose
leaves, while the ones on the bottom struggled and flailed. Their
gnarled limbs reminded Diana of flies she'd seen, caught upside
down in pools, their legs kicking helplessly.
    Azoth gripped her arms, careful not to pierce
her skin with his red claws, and he held her away from him.
    “Run away, Sakkra , I will see to
this.”
    He certainly looked like he could, but the
fearful coward inside her was reluctant to leave his side. She
worried about what else would come after her if he wasn't around to
keep her safe, but, in some stupid place in the back of her mind,
she also wanted to keep her eyes on him , as though just by
watching him meant that she could keep him safe in return.
    As though reading her thoughts, he gave her