Chapter 4

"Do you have to whistle all the time?" says the beautiful and stubborn Princess Avril.

The stout and equally stubborn knight of Montgomery, Sir Roy Bane, replies, "I'm sorry, Mistress, am I annoying you?" Then he smiles at her.

Princess Avril takes in and lets out a big exasperated breath as she is getting ready to reply, and then she just lets it drop.

"Was it really necessary to bring a fourth pack horse along with all those supplies."

"I am the Princess of Azure, and with that comes specific obligations. Though the clothes I have on now work for this purpose, a time may come that I have to attend an official ceremony and I must be dressed appropriately, sir knight."

"I think the clothes you have on now are wonderful and way adorable, Princess."

Avril looks over real quick to make sure he is not teasing her again, but all she sees is admiration. She is not entirely sure how she feels about that.

But without shame, the knight Roy Bane continues to admire the pretty princess in her red tartan skirt designed in the fashion of the Highlander Clans. Also her black leggings are marvelously form fitting, and now that it has warmed a little, she has taken off her jacket to expose her fine black long sleeve top that is elegant and understated.

Roy figures if the temperature continues to rise, it could become uncomfortable, although he is getting a sick sense of perversion in hoping that he gets the chance to see the pretty princess uncomfortable and to see how she responds under pressure.

As he is contemplating all this, she glances his way again and his breath catches in his throat. "My word, this girl is pretty!" he thinks to himself.

When she is looking at you straight on and her hair is hanging down, her sharp features are hawk-like, and her blue eyes shine, or even now, how she has her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail she is immaculately pretty, but from her profile she has the wolf feature that Roy finds absolutely irresistible in a woman.

For those of you who do not know what the wolf feature is, let me explain. If you look at a girl from the side or profile view, her nose and jaw, which should be almost even with each other, juts out well past the forehead, looking sort of like a wolf's snout. Most of the prettiest girls have it to some extent.

The fact that her skin is milky white also doesn't hurt in the least, either. And then he looks over even further and he truly appreciates how blessed he truly is, because the Maiden Mary is equally as pretty and petite.

"I tell you, if the fate of the world wasn't hanging in the balance I could really enjoy this adventure."

"I'm sorry, sir knight, did you say something?"

"No, milady, just thinking out loud again."

"I wish you would stop that, it is most disconcerting."

Roy smiles, "I will try, milady."

Then Mary looks over and asks, "Roy..."

But Avril interrupts her, "Now, Mary, remember he is a knight of Montgomery and must be addressed as sir knight."

"Actually, Avril, Mary and I have given each other permission to address each other as friends. How about you, Avril, would you like to be addressed as a friend?"

"Sir knight, I am the Princess of Azure, and you will address me with the respect that position is due."

"Yeah, right! Whatever, Princess." and then they explode into a big argument.

About a minute into it Mary turns to them both and yells, "All right, children, if you don't knock it off I'm going to send both of you to bed without supper."

Avril and Roy go quiet and then slowly turn towards Mary. Mary gets a sheepish grin on her face. After a few seconds Avril and Roy laugh and go quiet once again and start concentrating on the world around them.

Mary takes in a nervous breath and says to herself, "Wow!"

"Sir knight?" Princess Avril says, as if she is not really sure she wants to talk with him again right now.

"Yes, Princess."

"Do you know King Cliff?"

"Of course, he is my king, Princess."

"Why do you think he didn't come himself? After all, if the Scepter of Power is found and the world's destiny is fulfilled we are to be married. Is he mad at me because I lost the Scepter of Power and have endangered the world?"

"First of all, Princess Avril, this is not your fault. The king sends his best hopes and wishes. He told me to tell you he will at the very least meet you in the City of Divinity. And he told me to protect you with my life. There is no way, Princess, that he thinks anything bad about you. This is not your doing or your fault. What he is doing is gathering a great army within the kingdom of Montgomery so that we can mobilize to any threat that may arise. He is with you, Princess Avril."

Princess Avril smiles in gratitude at the kind words and says, "Thank you."

A few seconds later, and as Roy is nodding his head, Briar lands and sends the packhorse into full panic and it runs off. Forgetting about the horse for a second Briar turns to Roy, "Is everything all right here?"

"Yeah, the Princess and I were just having a discussion, but we're good now."

"Uh huh." Briar says, looking at Mary and shaking his huge scaly horned golden head.

"Briar, please go chase the packhorse back this way if you would, great and kind sir."

"Of course." Then he takes off leaving them in a cloud of dust. After the dust settles, Avril and Roy look at each other a little foolishly and shrug their shoulders with half smiles on their faces.

They have traveled most of the day with the Brittle Mountains on their left and the Pristine Forest on their right, and soon they will be reaching the border of the Northeast Sanctuary of Nature's Glory Territory.

As they are riding along, Mary turns to Roy and asks, "Sir knight."

"Roy, remember?"

"Oh yeah! Roy, earlier you said Briar is of the Corsair Clan."

"Yes."

"How many different types and colors of dragons are there?"

"Well, Mary, there are four species of dragons on Zebrina, and there are very many differing colors amongst them. Now Briar, who is of the Corsair Clan, is the only species of dragons that does not live in the Realm of the Mystical Ones. The Corsair Clan lives around my Clans of the Northern Warlords in the far north of my kingdom of Montgomery."

"I heard Princess Elizabeth is very beautiful and very sweet."

"Aye, that she is, Mary. She is as pretty as Princess Avril here and yourself." Avril looks over quickly, but Roy ignores her. "Anyway, the other three species of dragons, which are the Mustangs, Hellcats and Spitfires, live within the borders of the Realm of the Mystical Ones."

"Are dragons mean?"

"Have you never met a dragon before?"

"No." Mary says, a little ashamed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetheart. When we stop for the night I'll introduce Briar better, and if you like maybe I can talk him into giving you a ride."