Elon Mistweaver's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

Lunaria stayed a week. She slept in the guest room beneath the glowing eaves. She healed a fox with a torn leg. She hummed while she worked. Elon watched her and felt his chest ache. His soul knew her. But he did not know how to win her. For thirty years he had chased a soul, not a woman. Now she stood in his kitchen, and he had no idea what to do next. That night he found his dragon in the yard. The great shimmering wings folded over the stones. "I can feel her soul," Elon said. "That was never the hard part. The hard part is this. How do I court a person? Not a destiny. Her." The dragon lowered its horned head. "You already gave her a gift once," it rumbled. "By the river, the first day. You never gave it again." Elon went still. The pearl. He had offered it in the clearing to prove his peace. She had not taken it then. He had carried it ever since, tucked in a pouch, waiting. He had treated it as a tool. A proof. Not a courtship. "A thing given to prove you are safe is not the same as a thing given because you want her," the dragon said. "Try again. Mean it this time." Elon climbed the stairs. His hand shook on the pouch. He knocked on her door. Lunaria opened it, her pale hair loose, her purple eyes tired and kind. "I have something," he said. "I offered it once to prove I meant you no harm. That was the wrong reason." He held out the river pearl. It glowed between his dark fingers, its surface alive, two faint dragons turning inside the shimmer. "This time I am not proving anything. I give it because I want you here. Not because our souls match. Because I like the way you hum when you work. Because you saved a fox today and told it a joke first." He smiled shyly, running a hand through his green spiked hair, dark and different to the pale soft colors that her people tended to be. It was unusual in a way that she found she liked quite a bit. “I want to add to your happiness and your life… let’s go call your bonded dragon, I can help you learn about it and get acquainted.”