Act III:

Isabella
did not mind the addition to her house. Yerana, the little child, was amusing
enough, if not confusing for her. Her mother did as she was told, cleaning up
and making sure every evening there was a hot and nice meal standing in wait.
Every night something different, Isabella could not help and laugh at the requests
Ada placed at the daily delivery crew.

Her cooks
had never been so bold before to dare to serve her something that she did not
know unless she asked for it. It was an uncommon refreshment between the daily
routine of what has become her life. She
looked down the stairs to Ada cleaning the rosewood
rail of the stairs with a satisfied smile on Isabella's face. The other women
looked happy enough with her new job. She no longer has to worry about food or
not having enough money to buy clothes.

Slowly
turning around she looked to another set of stairs
leading up into the attic. A new stronger lock was shining on the door. While
she wanted to trust the latest addition
to her household, she did know that
sometimes suspicion is better than trust.
At least when your deepest secrets are
locked up behind those doors.  With a sigh she returned to her study, she had
promised to visit Orlena today, but she
could skip a day right?

Her mind
pondered a bit, wondering about a matter that recently drawn her attention.
Something was driving humans and their dragon counterparts.
With the worries on my mind, she sat down
on the air and traced her clawed fingers over a hidden compartment. With a soft
click, it opened, showing a suede inlay with a single looking glass. With
a soft breath,
she infused the golden looking glass with her magic. 'Orlena' she whispered.

Soon enough
a picture appeared, at first a dark shape of a dragon, slowly the background
came into view. The dragon's body was filled in with colour like a painter
painting a dragon. Orlena's picture was real
like she was small enough to fit inside a looking glass. Without a breath she
watched the dragon fly over the mountains. Her wings beating powerfully into
the wind. Apparently, she was on a hunt.
Trough what Isabella could not see it was, she could look
at the mountains, but it was hard
to find the actual place she flew towards. Slowly Isabella turned the looking
glass on its side like one would do,
studying an ant. In the background, the
coal smoke from the city was visible clearly.

Isabella
gave a sigh, relieving to see the city in the distance, she could not have gone too far. Trough a pang of fear filled her for a
moment, looking through the looking glass she feared that she saw a human farm,
it could not be, between the forests. Any way she oriented the looking glass
she could not see the far, yet where did Orlena get that cow from?

A small
ember of worry started to spark in her mind, growing and spreading. Sure her
clan had the concept of property and was taught how humans and elves managed
theirs. Isabella was not sure if Orlena actually realised that the lands around the city did belong to farmers.
Isabella peaked to see if she could spot a cow tag or anything to compensate
the farmer who owned the cow. Just when
she thought she had any idea of who owned the cow, the mirror turned to black.
Isabella jumped up, nearly dropping the glass.

Hastily
Isabella rushed to her wardrobe, shoving the cloths aside and opening a hidden
compartment. Inside was a hard leather armour that clung to her curves, giving
her freedom of motion. The top layer consisted of 'scales' made of light metal that was only recently discovered.
She only knew it under the name of 'shine steel', but it was perfect for lightweight armour. Her weapon was a
crossbow made from brass and traditional bone and wood. The bolds sharp enough
to crush dragon scales. Images flashed through Isabella's mind of where the
last seen Orlena.

“Miss?
Where are you head…" Ada wanted to ask politely but stopped when she saw
Isabella's battle attire. “trouble Ada" Isabella replied. With the last command,
she rushed out of doors "Close the
windows and bar the doors, only open for me." Her wings spread wide, and the emerald dragoness took into the sky.

Isabella
blamed herself for not training her flight after she started living in the
city. She strained her muscles to fly faster than
she ever did. The town shot away under
her, and the clouds of black coal smoke
left blackened patches on her scales and skin. That instance she realised why
dragons never flew inside the city, it was unpleasant. The trough that would not kill her, the people looking up at her
would not kill her, and that bird that nearly collided with her would not kill
her. The glass visors of her aviator's goggles kept her eyes clear or the black sooth.
Her gaze fixed to the horizon, to the mountains she saw Orlena last.

Suddenly, a
roar silenced the noise of the city. The buss of the machines, the chatting of
the people stopped. A shiver ran trough Isabella's spine, that roar, that roar
of pain and agony. She knew the voice behind the roar. She bared her fangs, no longer caring if she showed signs of
ancient dragons. If she was not civilised
like Anthro dragons should be. Her mind was filled with furry.

Not known
to her, Riders rode out of town. It was a convo
of elven and human knights, the rode in a cloud of dust towards the origin of
the roars of pain and furry. Their swords are drawn
and their mindset to bloodlust for some reason or another. Ropes
draped over their horses back, strong thick ropes
to bind something strong. Their horses made short work of the distance between
them and their target.

Not as fast
as the wings of the dragon who was an angry
trough. Isabella shot through the sky like an arrow. Another pained growl
followed, and in the distance, a small jet of flame shot up from the
ground. Isabella could see the dragon shape on the field taking form, slowly Isabella's fears got confirmed.

Orlena was
struggling on the ground, her wings were
tangled up in a net shot from a ballista.
Her scales were bloody with cuts and her left-wing sloped on an odd angle. She tried to
defend herself from a growing assault of
knights and farmers who used everything at hand to calm the dragon. The ground
was scorched by fire all around. Isabella folded her wings, and with a heavy thumb, she landed between Orlena and the growing group around it.
Dust flared up, and some horses that
weren't spooked of the pained dragon got spooked from Isabella landing with a heavy thumb.

An arrow
whistled by as a sole nervous young knight let loose of his tensioned string.
The poorly aimed arrow missed Isabella and landed an arm's length next to her.
Isabella's eyes almost seemed to shine a golden
hue, combined with her expression it made her look ominous and mad. “Who dares
to attack a dragon without reason?" she hissed, her anger was not well
surprised. The knights looked at each other not knowing what to do with the new
dragon on the field. Not recognising her until.

“Isabella?"
A confused and annoyed women's voice came
from the crowd of knights. It was Amanda who supervised the torture of Orlena
within the steel nets. “Yes," Isabella
said in a short hiss. “And you Amanda have a few seconds to explain why you are
here torturing a dragon." Most of the Knights
took a step back, not knowing what to do. The orders came from the whole
council right?

“Capturing
a rogue dragon is not torture, you should know that Counsellor," Amanda said not shaken by the appearance of Isabella.
Her voice was calm, and was that a tiny hint of pleasure under her breath?
Isabella narrowed her eyes to mere slits. “This is no rouge dragon Counsellor
Amanda. She is staying on my lands."

“Why would
you house a rogue dragon?" Amanda shot back. She took a step forwards breaking
out of the line of knights, closing the distance between herself and the angry
anthro dragoness. “She is not rogue, I granted asylum to her on my lands."

Amanda
looked suspicious at Isabella she knew the dragoness was up to something but
what? Looking at the two dragons in front of her. “And you vouch for her?" She got an annoyed hissing yes. “Very well you can free
her." Amanda called to the guards. “if the rouge promises not to kill any of
us."

Once freed
from the nets, Orlena spread her wings to stretch them out. Isabella approached
slowly, looking up towards the angry dragoness in front of her. “Can you wait
in the sanctuary?" She asked kindly, suppressing her own anger. “Why?" Orlena
asked short.

“because
Orlena I need to work something out. I will talk to you when everything is
sorted. Pray you not to be angry at me." Orlena snorted at Isabella's explanation, but her facial expression softened
a bit. “I trust you, Isabella." She
spread her wings. “But please don't leave me waiting for long."

Isabella
looked at the council with a hard stare. “I have two options, one fair for
dragons but no human will become a rider or one that is not so fair for dragons
but ensured everyone can be a rider" Isabella started, naturally Amanda was
first to be protested. “Why would a human never be a rider?"

“because"
Isabella started to answer Amanda. “Humans live a short life. No ancient dragon has yet to be observed to die from natural
age. After that, We, The anthro dragons live the longest lives. The first
hybrid is still alive, old but alive. Then elves and dwarfs. You humans with
about sixty years have an incredible short live span." While talking about how
she lived short frustrated Amanda, she kept her anger to herself for now and
focused on the most important question on why that was important. “The bond is
more than just a few words." Isabella slowly started “It's bond that is forged between souls if one dies the other one will feel like
part of their souls are ripped from them. Maybe the second option wouldn't be
the worst case scenario for both."

“Why would
it be a worst case scenario?" Orrian, the elven counsellor, asked, He could not
hide an excitement on whatever his draconic counsellor had thought of.  “I have sought for long to have a way to
lengthen the lives of humans bonded to a dragon. But you cannot see simply extent someone lives with magic. That is not how it's designed
however I gotten inspiration from the books of ancient dragon culture."
Everyone knew Isabella spoke of the
draconic gods, those outlawed in the city, but so long she did not mention them
directly, they could do little. Orrian pulled a small smile like he always did when Isabella managed to hint to the old
gods, enjoying how the dragons never gave up their gods and culture. “You can
take a life but not generate new life out
of nothing, Humans were designed with a
certain lifespan. I have thought of a way
to equalise it. However, it will make the bond mortal to both when one dies. It
will make the life of a dragon is considerable shorter even when an
elf bonds."

A long
silence fell over the group of councillors when the gravity of the situation
started to dawn, that there was a good chance no dragons would even want to
short their lifespans for something as a rider. “I still believe the second
opinion is the best" Isabella continued after her pause. “But I cannot make
this call, none of us can. We have to ask the clan leaders of all the dragon
clans, the president of the dwarfs, queen of the elves and king of the humans
to come."

“What about
the anthro dragons?" Orrian asked, missing them in the equations. “The anthro
dragons, we have no clans nor leaders. It's a weakness in these kinds of
situation. I have to act as one for now." Orrian nodded, agreeing without
words. “I will send word to my queen" he bowed to Isabella, followed by Finoc the dwarven councillor. “And I will ask
our president to come, I am sure he will come for such an occasion." Last was Amanda who made a sour
face. “I will ask our king, I am not sure he will agree, but when he hears all the species are gathered
for this, he has little choice." A cheerful
agreement from the humans.

“I need
about three weeks to finalise a rite to
follow, some structured way to become a rider." Isabella wanted to steam on but
was interrupted again, this time by Finoc who choose
to remain silent for the discussion until now. “Who will be the first to be bonded?"
He asked, wondering. They only knew three dragons who made up resident here,
four if he counted the refugee that Isabella took under her wing.

“Orlena has
offered to be the first," Isabella
answered, waiting for a big discussion to
erupt. “And who would be the 'rider'" Finoc laid his head in his big hands,
gazing at the dragoness now. “I will." Isabella said simply. “why!?" Amanda erupted instantly “You are the only one who
knows the magic, and you should not be
taking part to any experiment! You are a counsellor,
you should…" Isabella cut off the raging human. “Because I am a councillor, you
decided I speak for both species of dragon, even when I do not. If I have
Orlena as bond, she will be a councillor too, and I will speak for both."

“why would
she be…" Orrian asked wondering the implication. “New laws have to be
implemented." Isabella looked at Orrian then her eyes scanned the luxurious oak
room of the council chamber. “two in a bond should be considered a single
entity when it comes to legal actions. This is why I need your leaders,
everyone needs to agree to this law. I
want to hold a single diplomatic event where every species signs the new
proposed law, and it became universal, a
law that transcends our laws. This will
be something that is more than our induvial species, and I hope that it will bring peace and understanding."

Isabella
looked around the room again, giving a good long stare in each of the
councillors. “Furthermore, I was thinking to have Everhill castle declared
neutral ground for now. The castle is large enough to house a few dragons and
their companions." Thinking she would easily win over at least two of the
council, she was quickly enveloped in a long-lasting
discussing over the old castle. Most notably Orrian who had planned some kind
of observatory or school in the castle, while Amanda was taking it as an excuse to kick up more dust of the plan.
Isabella could do very well without the human ranting on, convincing an elf to
give up a plan was about as hard as
convincing a dragon to share some of their gold.

She was
tired by the time she got home, it
dragged on for far too long. She should have gone to check if Orlena was doing
alright now that she was exposed. She should have, but her mind just wanted a
hot meal and a warm bed. Though she was
lucky with her servant bringing her a hot lunch
on her warm bed. Isabella did not know if she had the strength to eat and then
walk up the stairs.

A grey
dragon growled, his scales once black had dulled over time and his claws had
seen many a bloody fight. “How you mean she is gone?" he shouted at a smaller
dragon who still had his black scales, maybe not for long if he did not get an
answer. It has been well over a few months now since his daughter had been
lost. She flew off to god knows where and her new mate was getting restless. “We
have sought the clan lands of all the clans and could not find her. She might
be hiding in one of the clans…or flew off to the new lands inhabited by the
humans." The smaller dragon defended himself weakly.  “Then fly to those lands and…" He was
interrupted by another dragon, an emerald green dragoness with red eyes. A
daughter of his sister who bowed low. “News for you sir," she said politely. With
a wave, the grey dragon dismissed the
black dragon with a growl. “Esmeralda" he
began “Please do tell, is it news from my daughter?" The dragoness shook her
head “No, but you have been requested by a two-legged
one by the name of Isabella."

“Why that
so?" his voice betrayed his surprise, the statement of Esmeralda did nothing but to increase that surprise. “She has
summoned all the dragon lords and the leaders of the bipeds. She has something
she wants us to agree with." The grey dragon growled softly “If the other lords
come I can't afford to stay behind" he growled to a servant “Fetch to wings, We
will be flying out tonight."