Dragon Twins Bride

“I need to run.”

“I’m starving.”

“Let’s grab something from the kitchen.”

They closed their desks and headed towards the kitchen, which was the hub of activity in their home.

There was a roast pig that was cooling on a rack. There were so many people in the kitchen that they were seen but ignored. Feeding all of them was a full-time task for quite a few people.

Olivier pulled a knife out of a chopping block and began cutting chunks of the roast pig and tossing them into a wooden bowl.

The two of them snuck out of the kitchen and ate the chunks of pork with their fingers, getting grease all over themselves.

Gahariet, ever responsible, made sure that the wooden bowl made its way back into the busy kitchen.

They washed their hands in a sink before disappearing. Their father made dinner served buffet-style, and people came in and out as they liked. They wouldn’t be missed.

They had clothing in the stable that they used when they went running. They took off their official uniforms, the ones that they wore to look like Draka princes.

Their running clothes were contraband, but it was a secret that their hostlers were happy to keep. The stable master was old, and he had been the one to teach the boys to ride when they were younger. Horses and dragons mixed very cautiously; it required quite a bit of sensitivity. Olivier had, of course, taken longer to ride than perfect Gahariet. He’d been really frustrated when the stable master had kept him only mucking out his horse’s stall for months after Gahariet was allowed to ride his horse.

Both of them went to their steeds to comb them for just a little while before they went for a run solo. After sitting all day, they didn’t want to ride; their horses were exercised daily, so they weren’t worried about their horses getting weak and fat.

Olivier touched his flat stomach. Gahariet was better about going out for runs. If he wasn’t careful, he’d get too heavy. They both ate like the dragons that they were, but he wouldn’t be able to fly if he got too heavy.

“Do you want to go to the Dawn Tower?”

The terrain around it was rough, but it would be strenuous enough for their dragon spirits.

They began to run to the Dawn Tower, which was only a few miles away. Olivier felt the wind go through his hair, and he felt alive. Why didn’t he run more often?

As he ran and ran with his brother keeping pace next to him, he was reminded of his very young childhood. Their mother always took them outdoors. Their father was always busy, but sometimes he played hooky and went on picnics with them, which were sometimes near the Dawn Tower.

One of Olivier’s first memories was playing hide and seek with Gahariet and seeing his parents kissing while he was the hider and Gahariet was the seeker.

It had seemed really gross to him at the time, but now, as an adult, he could see that his mother had been the love of his father’s life — she’d tempered his rough edges. Once she’d died, his father had gotten a lot stricter. A lot more rigid. His queen should be ruling now.

Olivier felt an ache in his chest. He rubbed it.

Gahariet watched him do it, and Olivier felt self-conscious. He dropped his hand.

“Do you want to go home now?”

Olivier could remember why he didn’t run that often now.

“Yeah.”

They did an easy jog away from the Dawn Tower and the past.

Olivier gritted his teeth as he ran. Grown men didn’t cry. They didn’t. And if he panted especially hard, maybe it was because he was out of shape. And he was sweating a lot, enough that the sweat was getting into his eyes. And he might be wiping them, just to get rid of the stinging. Men didn’t cry.

Olivier gritted his teeth as Gahariet easily ran back to their home.

“I need a shower,” Gahariet said. “I’ll ask for our servants to pump the water up.”

“Sound good,” Olivier said in his low voice.

Gahariet waved his hand over a glow pad before speaking into it quickly.