Princess Ahira (25 page)

             
“Watch out for the logs!” Kohath warned, she
didn’t and got hit in the head. She
got up, still scream
ing, and ran all the way home.

“And that takes care of that!” Kohath said, rubbing his hands together before turning to enter the den.

             
“What did you do?” I asked, stepping aside for him
.

             
“I scared her with a potion Azmaveth had given me, which was to
be used only in times of dire need,”
Kohath said
grinning with great pride
.
“The refinement process really helped speed up the potion effects,” he said to Zerah.

             
“I don’t want to know what it
was,
” I said while
rubbing my forehead as Zerah studied Kohath.

             
Kohat
h
shrugged
.
“
I’m hungry,
let’s
eat!”

             
About two to three weeks later Azmaveth gave me some bad news.

             
“Tomorrow you have to go to Beh
emoth’s to meet with the other p
rincesses again.
”

             
I was thunderstruck. “No! No way am I going back! You
can’t do this to me Azmaveth!”
I said tugging on one of the scales on his paws. 

             
Azmav
eth sighed.  “I’m sorry Ahira.
B
ehemoth begged me to send you.
He started crying.
”

             
“But Azmaveth!” I whined.
“You don’t know what it’s like being with
them
!” I said in a panicked voice.

             
“Look,”
Azmaveth started.
“It’s sort of tradition that all princesses attend. But
perhaps I could send Kohath to come for you with a
n u
rgent
s
ituation. T
omorrow
is
your scheduled visit with Tuggles, and we wouldn’t want you to miss that now would we?

             
I
sighed in relief
“Thanks Azmaveth!” I smiled as I h
ugged one of his silver claws.

Azmaveth low
er his head,
so I turned a
nd embraced his muzzle. A
deep rumbling purr
echoed in Azmaveth’s throat. “You’re just a big sweetie,” I said, kissing
one of his scales before skipping o
f
f to finish cleaning
the kitchen.  I laughed as Azmaveth blushed
and snort
ed
.

             
“Am not,” h
e mumbled.

             
The next morning I prepared myself for the princess visit, this time Azmaveth didn’t throw me in his large lake like bathtub. (Thank
fully.)
But we encountered a problem upon opening the front door. 

             
“Snow.”  Azmaveth said.

             
“
What an astute conclusion
,”
I said as I glare
d at the white mass before me. After a great struggled we finally got
the door
s open. H
owever
,
the snow
was chest deep for Azmaveth
, high over my head.

             
“T
his could prove to be a problem,”
Azmaveth thoughtfully said.

             
“Oh well. I can’t go.
That’s t
o
o bad!”  I said as I turned ar
ound and started walking away.
Azmaveth reached out and snagged his claw on my
purple
dress. 

             
“Not so fast there my dear,” he said.
“I can eas
ily deal with this.”

As soon a
he finished speaking huge pillars of fire shot out of his mouth and melted the giant wall of snow before us.

             
“That is an unusually bad case of heartbur
n you’ve got there,” I obnoxiously observed as Azmaveth
threw me on top of his head.

             
He ignored me and
leapt into the air, stretch
ing out his wings to take flight
.

             
To my great sorrow we reached Behemoth’s cave in less than five minutes.  “Don’t leave me!” I begged Azmaveth as I clung to his ear and
Behemoth tried to pry me off.
“It’s horrible in there!”

             
“How do you think I feel? I have to
live
with Cinders,” Behemoth snarled as he
wrenched me off
.

             
Azmaveth sulked and rubbed his stinging ear.

             
“Wave bye-bye Ahira,”
Behemoth said as he delicately picked up one of my arms with two claws and made a waving motion.

             
Azmaveth glared at Behemoth as I gave Azmaveth the look of a desperate,
pleading, and depressed girl. “Sorry about this Ahira. Kohath will come here soon,” h
e whispered.

             
“Oh no he won’t!”
Behemoth crowed
, cradling me in his claws as he lifted
me up and away from Azmaveth.
“Now that I’ve got
her, I’m going to keep her!” h
e cooed.

             
“Behemoth…” Azmaveth warned
, his purple eyes turning black.

             
“Until Kohath comes!” Behemoth hastily corrected himself.

             
Azmaveth
nodded in approval and looked at me one final time.
He he
aved a sigh and took to the air,
circling overhead a few times before disappearing in the horizon.

             
Behemoth braced himself as he put me down, and together we ventured into the lair of the princesses. 

             
To my great chagrin Lesha
, Malory, and T
uneeta hadn’t changed, at all.
Behemoth and I stare
d at each other with glazed expressions as Lesha
rant
ed
and brag
ged about her suitors. Malory scribbled
a picture on a piece of paper
, and Tuneeta stared
at nothing with
a dumb expression on her face.

Cinders was wandering around in a daze. Apparently she hurt herself after walking into a wall.
I had though
t that Cinders had no brains, b
ut when she hit that wall what little brains she had left mus
t have leaked out of her ears. She was
walking around with a dazed expressi
on on her face while muttering “dragons, everywhere, dragons.”
Idiotic girl.

             
“I…can’t….take….much….more,”
I slowly said as if each word I
formed hurt my brain
.

             
Behemoth gazed at me with empty eyes.  I wondered if the princesses’ conversations had dropped his
brain to such low levels
that he
could no longer understand me.

             
As Lesha
babble
d I could feel irritation
welling up inside me. Any move, word, or thought the princesses had done or s
aid was starting to provoke me. Lesha
was just about to launch into
a new lecture when I screamed.
“
CEASE YOUR PRATTLE
!”

             
Everyone, excluding Behemoth who was still in a stumped stupor, turned a
nd looked at me with wide eyes.
“Everything that comes out of your mouth is purely
annoying!
” I spat.
The three
blonde princesses stared at me.
I was
pleasantly
surprised, I was sure they would
have
start
ed
crying
by this point.

             
“You mean y
ou don’t like hearing about my suitors
?”

             
“And you don’t like my artwork?”

             
“And you don’t like…” Tuneeta trailed off,
realizing
she
never did anything but act stupid, probably
.

             
“Lesha
your stories are boring
. Not sort of boring, not only partially boring, but
absolutely boring
. Malory your art work stinks.
Tuneeta you
, you
,you..
. Can you even think straight?
No one can stand being around you
three
for long!
If you’re all princesses why don’t you
act
like a princess?
”

             
Kohath appeared in the room as the three princesses stared at each other wit
h surprised and shocked looks.
He glanced
cautiously at the dazed Behemoth while motioning for me to follow him.
“Come, let’s leave while we can.” 

             
We crept through the cave and quickly
left the perimeter.
We were a good half a mile away before we heard an earth shattering bellow. “NO!! AHIRA!”

             
Kohath grabbed my hand and pulled me along through
the incredibly high snow.  Some
how
, magically no doubt,
a small path
was
sliced through the snow
. It went
all the way to Azmaveth’s den. 

             
“Azmaveth c
leared it for us before he left,”
Kohath explained
, noticing my suspicious expression as we walked down the driveway.

I was
freezing and blue with cold by the time
we
entered the den.
Oddly Kohath hadn’t seemed to mind the
freezing, outdoor
temperature
,
but when he saw my frozen face his eyes widened.

             
“Sorry, I forgot about that! Come on to the library, we still have got an hour
before the Keeper should arrive,” h
e said. 

             
I slowly stumbled to the library and sat down in the huge leather chair before my fireplace,
which promptly roared to life.
I sat there
,
shuddering and shivering
,
as I cursed
myself for not bringing a coat along with me. 

             
Kohath materialized next to me as my teeth chattered.
“
You’ll be okay,” he
cooed in my ear as he wrapped a warm blanket around me. 

             
I relaxed
in the warmth
as Kohath removed my shoes
and slipped on new warm socks. He
took my hands and rubbed them between his own, slowly warming them up.

             
My
eyes
felt so heavy! Slowly they drifted shut,
and even when I felt Kohath pick me u
p and sit down in my chair before placing
me
on his lap I did not protest.

             
I’m sure that I smiled as I drifted off to sleep, clutching the open collar of Kohath’s shirt. 

             
I woke up about a
n hour later when
something soft rubbed against my hand.
I opened my eyes and saw a throat
. Further up was
Kohat
h, sleeping. His warm breath ruffled
hi
s black hair.

I screamed
.

He yelped.

I leaped off the chair, screaming again in reaction to his shout.