Sixty-one minutes later Ches walked out of the nest towards the draken palace. "Jarlsonn, please announce me to her Golden Drakeness. It's time I taught her daughter how to hunt."
Jarlsonn was an ancient looking, bald eagle. He no doubt knew of the deal that Cres had made with Jresh.
Though Ches's words were flippant he made sure his every action towards Jarlsonn was respectful. Jresh was not the true power in this drake hall after all.
Treading quietly behind Jarlsonn, Ches looked subdued. Pain still coursed throughout his body so he had to keep his mind focused. He walked in on Jresh who had a skewered, barbecued rat in her hand that she was nibbling on.
"Ma'am," he said. It seemed a more appropriate title now that he was an employee. "Like all top tier predators I'm confident that Amiel's first hunt should be a mammal." He looked meaningfully at the rat in her hand.
Jresh looked at the partially consumed rodent in her claw and realised that if she, a top tier predator was eating mammalian flesh it was good for her daughter as well. She nodded knowingly.
"Where will you take her?"
"To Drake's End if you would allow it. Nothing but the best for the daughter of such..." he paused, "an important clan."
"Ah, the clan lands. Yes. Yes! They are protected and bountiful. Make sure her first kill is memorable."
Jresh then used the skewer to pick her teeth while she complimented herself on such a wise choice of tutor for her little drakeling.
Ches was overjoyed. Carmine, the province he lived in, was ruled by clans. At the top of the pecking order was the Drakenburgs. Jresh, well really Jarlsonn, ruled it with an iron hand, well claw. Drake's End was out of bounds for plebs like him. And now he was going, whilst being paid, and developing a relationship with his new love. He was also allowed to hunt. He was feeling very smug at the way he was becoming a puppet master.
Behind Ches Amiel smirked at his amateurish manipulation of her mother. Coming out from her shell she seen the outline of a chameleon and watched as he quickly snatched access to her bloodline.
She would have stopped him, but realised that she had more to gain than lose in this transaction. Amiel almost slapped him down as he told an oh-so-romantic version of the toad and the swan. She contented herself with watching him writhe in silent pain as fire burned out the old chameleon making way for something new.
True dragons are the most majestic of all dragons but drakes are the craftiest. Of all drake's the aqua drake was the most feared among those in the know. They are the keepers of knowledge in drake society and as rare as hen's teeth. Amiel was born with more knowledge and cunning that the tiny lizard brain before could learn in a thousand lifetimes. That is, unless he was truly changed.
If Ches were to survive his evolution he would become the rarest of all drake's: the Chameleon Dragoon. And he had willingly, if unknowingly, bonded to her. He was not her slave, but eventually they would create a blood bond. It was important to Amiel that she directed the flow of that bond.
Ches thought they were hunting rabbits. Amiel was hunting a soul mate.
"Hope he survives the transition." She knew he had a sliver of a chance to become a drake, as so few Chameleons lived through the transition. In the past, chameleons had run screaming if they saw a drake heading in their direction. She was glad that most creatures quickly forgot their histories.
"I'll have to keep him moving, that increases his survival rate." She giggled as she made her own plans.
Once she was finished Amiel put everything out of her mind. It was truly time to hunt meat and she was feeling peckish.