author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Notes from the author:

The writing prompt for this one included the word “saddle.” I read that and took a hard left. Horses! I love horses, but why’s it always gotta be horses? Why not put that saddle on some other sort of steed, maybe some sort of giant lizardy dragonish thing? And while we’re punching holes in fantasy tropes, why not have a girl posing as a boy to get into not the knight-training program but rather the lizardy dragonish stables? But why would the role of stablehand be forbidden to girls and women?

From there I wound up wading hip-deep in all sorts of post-apocalyptic science-fantasy worldbuilding surrounding my knights and stablehands and lizardy dragonish steeds, and I quite forgot about the other two words in the writing prompt.

“You’re going to have to learn how to do this sometime,” Vala said.

Eryn cast a glance at where her trainer sat, back against the wall of the cavern, a sleepy drake’s left forefoot cradled in his lap. His long-fingered hands wielded the talon-file with as much grace as they brought to every task in which she’d observed them. She observed them often, fantasizing about other tasks Vala’s hands might apply themselves to.

She shook off the thought and tossed another shovelful of the absorbent hay-silt-sand mixture into the privy alcove. “I know where my talents lie,” she said. “I muck out a mean cavern-stall. Happy to leave the drake manicures to brave stablehands like yourself who don’t mind being one sneeze away from a disemboweling.” In fact, Eryn knew full well that Erlich-hiss-Kandria would do nothing of the sort. She’d have happily accepted any task in this or any other drake’s proximity. But there was a reason women weren’t allowed in the stable-caverns, and Eryn respected it even as she disguised herself to bypass that edict.

“Eryn. I am ordering you, as your trainer, to join me for your first and woefully overdue lesson in draconic foot care. There,” Vala added, “now you have to do it or be relieved of your duties. And since it’s an order, no blame accrues to you if anything goes wrong. That should be a comfort, right?”

Eryn gripped the shovel with white knuckles for a moment, then gently laid it down. With a mixture of apprehension and excitement, Eryn came to sit beside her trainer. Now she was close enough both to touch Kandria’s claw and to feel Vala’s body heat. Both her trainer and the drake were breathing peacefully to a shared rhythm. Eryn, heart racing, kept her hands in her lap and made herself as small as possible, afraid of what would happen if she so much as brushed Kandria’s scales or Vala’s thigh.

Then Vala murmured, “I know the real reason you’re nervous,” and Eryn stopped breathing. “Relax, Eryn! I don’t mind that you’re a girl, most of the stable team won’t, but I wasn’t about to shout it across the cavern, was I? You never know when some officious lich-brain might be hanging around hoping to curry favor with the stablemaster.”

After a moment, he added, “Say something, would you? Or at least breathe before you turn as blue as Kandria’s scales.”

Eryn gasped. “How long have you—”

“Oh, pretty much since your first day. It’s the drakes. They always know.”

“The drakes? Oh, Vala, I’m so sorry—but you told me to come near, even knowing—” Eryn clicked her teeth shut over the spew of babble, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “Crap in a cockatrice’s cave, Vala, not only didn’t you report me, but you personally assigned me to valet a yet-unbonded drake! What were you thinking?”

Kandria uncoiled her long neck to blink sleepily at Eryn, as though to inquire Why are you shouting at bedtime? Vala chuckled. “Come the Trials, Kandria will choose a knight or not, exactly as she pleases. If she doesn’t, it’ll have nothing to do with whether she’s bonded with a stablehand first.” As Vala said her name, Kandria settled her chin authoritatively on the trainer’s shoulder, which was a neat trick considering that her jaw outmassed Vala’s whole head. She gave a delicate flick of her tongue against Vala’s ear. Vala added, “Which, you might as well know, she already has.”

Eryn wasn’t stupid, but she’d been so concerned with her own precarious position that it took her two breaths longer than it should have to understand. “You? She—But you’re a—Drakes only bond with women and girls! That’s why they don’t allow female stablehands, they can’t risk drakes bonding with anyone other than the knights!”

“That’s the story, anyway,” Vala said, rolling his eyes expansively. “The stablemaster enforces it and the knighthood abides by it, so the whole outpost thinks it’s so. As close as the knights and squires work with the drakes themselves, you’d think they’d know better. The drakes have chosen to let them go on believing it; I suppose they have their reasons.”

“So,” Eryn ventured, “it’s not true?”

“Not remotely. Drakes bond as their fancy moves them, and they’re not exactly monogamous about it. Upworld’s sake, even the stablemaster can see when a drake has a favorite stablehand or two. He just doesn’t consider what that means.” Vala reached over and put a hand on one of Eryn’s where it rested in her lap. She stopped breathing again, fighting off an absurd urge to grasp that hand in both of hers and pull it down between her thighs. Vala gently lifted her hand and laid it along Kandria’s curled talon.

Trembling, Eryn let herself take in the texture of the scales, the polished smoothness of the claw. “See,” Vala murmured, his hand still lying along Eryn’s, “it’s perfectly safe.”

Eryn looked up in wonder. Kandria, chin still resting on Vala’s shoulder, looked back at her with an intensity that shocked her. The drake’s eyes were big as dinner plates and black as deepest space. Stars hid in that blackness, too distant to be detected by the human eye, too powerful to go unnoticed by the human heart. In awe and terror, Eryn shifted her gaze away from that overwhelming regard and found Vala’s eyes instead. They held a searching, wistful look that unmade all the defenses Eryn had placed between herself and her desires. She kissed him.

Vala’s lips were soft, yielding, and entirely passive. Eryn pulled back, uncertain. “Vala?”

“Eryn. I. Yes. But I have to tell you something first. Oh, basilisk spit.” He laughed helplessly. “You know you’re not the only one, right? Who didn’t want to be a knight? Who just wanted, more than anything, to be near the drakes? It’s not just you.”

Once again, Eryn had to blink several times before Vala’s meaning sunk in. “You’re—? You too?”

Vala nodded. “It doesn’t bother you, does it?”

It shocked Eryn, how much her trainer, usually all superior authority and unflappable confidence, seemed to be hanging her entire heart on Eryn’s answer. Eryn shook her head minutely. “No,” she murmured, and saw Vala’s eyes melt to liquid. Relief? Or did she mistake Eryn’s meaning? With the hand not currently caressing a drake’s claw, she reached up to draw Vala’s head back down to hers.

This time, Vala responded to the kiss as though drinking life-giving waters. Eryn pulled her closer. She was aware of Vala’s hand pressing her own down against Kandria’s talon, which flexed gently beneath their combined fingers. It was ridiculous. Eryn was so happy. She laughed softly against Vala’s mouth.

Then she gave a small cry of surprise and wonder as Erlich-hiss-kandria blossomed brightly in her mind, all those galaxies and supernovae somehow accommodating themselves within the walled city of Eryn’s awareness. The walls crumbled. The city revealed itself a cosmos, expansive, infinite.

Vala laughed too, low and joyous. “Yes. You see, it was both of us wanted to get to know you better.”

This has been the Friday Fictionette for March 6, 2020. It's also the Fictionette Freebie for the month, so you can download the full-length (1202 words) fictionette from Patreon as an ebook and/or audiobook) regardless of whether you're a subscriber.

Friday Fictionettes are a short-short fiction subscription service powered by Patreon. Become a Patron to get a new fictionette every first through fourth Friday and access all the fictionettes of Fridays gone by.