The hot morning sun licked Princess Natkorn as she began the 2 mile trek back to her camp - she'd get no badly needed sleep if the day continued to heat. She could have borrowed a horse for the trip, yet since the age of five she'd ridden a dragon ... how could she now mount a horse like a common farmer? Besides, horses didn't like the smell of this place - or one who lived with a dragon for so long. Her egg had been restless last night, a sign that it was preparing to hatch. Even as the sun rose, the egg had not gone to sleep for hours. Now it sleep the rest of the day, yet she'd have to return to touch it before the sun set tonight. The princess had sat with the egg all last night in that horribly hot chamber, touching it, letting the egg taste her sweat, her leather, her steel. When the young dragon hatched, the first thing it had to know was the elven warrior-maiden. No one could help her. No One could be within wind of the old tower to confuse the new dragon. She would help it from its egg, feed it, let it lick the sweat from her flesh, taste the dried blood on her battle-ax. From that moment on, the two would be one ... until death (or stupidity) separated them. Natkorn had done this once before - at the age of 4. Yet looking back, she didn't remember the process as being this draining, or this hot. Of course, as a child she'd been innocent and not shouldered the importance of her dragon for the kingdom. She'd been free to experience the magic for purity's sake. Yet hatching this second egg was her own fault. She had not heeded her general's warnings, her father's scoldings. She had continued her youthful brash ways in battle, and her dear dragon had salvaged her life by sacrificing his own. With every hot, weary foot-step, Princess Natkorn vowed to her soul - and her next dragon - that she would never again need to do this. She promised her dragon that they would die together ... of old age. Credits [P8 and GIMP][Daphni for V4][The Sentry outfit by Val3DArt][Wynter Hair by AprilYSH][Wyntertide by ~Wolfie~][Dragon Island by Faveral][Art Platforms by mindvision-gds][Jepe's SteamZ][RDNA TerraDome]