Dragon's Hope

The couple lay entangled together on the bed their soft breaths betraying their sleeping status, the woman was using the man as a body pillow a small smile on her lips, she started to stir. She felt an she was pressing up against something warm, the feeling was incredibly comfortable, and she didn't ever want to leave that warmth. Slowly opening her eyes she saw the profile of the man she had given her everything to. Thinking about what they had done together her body ached partly in warning that she needed to rest before doing it again and partly in anticipation for the next time.

She ran her hand across his c.h.e.s.t and stomach marvelling at the feeling of his toned muscles, she had been far to distracted to pay much attention to his body apart from a certain part of it. She felt perfectly content as if she had finally found a safe haven for herself after having been abandoned by her family. She thought maybe she had just been desperately looking for somewhere and just latched on to Alex, but she shook the thought away if that had been the case she would have settled with the first male she found attractive, Alex was special and she thanked her ancestors that she had found him.

Rose's movements finally stirred Alex to wakefulness, he saw Rose lying next to him and gave her a lingering kiss. "How are you feeling" he asked.

"Like I never want this moment to end" she said smiling at him and moved in to get another kiss. He returned it with a bit more passion, after their lips separated he cautioned that the girls were probably on their way to the room, Anna and Lily had a link to him through their bond and will know he woke up. Rose didn't care in the slightest, they were now her sisters, what did it matter if they saw her cuddled up to Alex, smiling she just snuggled into his embrace determined to stay like this for as long as possible. He chuckled lightly at her antics, she just looked up at him and poked out her tongue.

"There is a bunch of stuff I can finally talk to you about now that you have made the decision to stay with us", Alex started then began explaining about his dragon tamer heritage and the reason he was taking multiple wives. Rose just listened thinking it was unfair that the burden of reviving and entire bloodline was on the shoulders of one so young, she resolved to help him in any way she could.

It was at this point the door opened and the four girls all entered with grins settling on their faces seeing Alex and Rose cuddling on the bed, "Come on you two you can't go at it all day, it's nearly time for dinner so get ready that's if you can walk", said Kayla with a smirk.

Alex chuckled at that and giving Rose a quick squeeze disentangled him self and scooted over to the edge of the bed, Rose pouted a bit at this and then as Alex was about get up, "Alex", he turned to face Rose, she looked up at him coquettishly and raised her arms up, "Carry me". Alex's mind blanked out for a second seeing that utterly adorable act, smiling he reached out and gently pulled Rose into his arms. Standing up he made for the bathroom, Rose looked back over Alex's shoulder seeing the shocked faces of the girls she poked out her tongue and winked at them.

As they exited the room to the connected bathroom Anna spoke up. "I wouldn't believe that was Rose if it wasn't for the presence of that robe on the floor. They all agreed, it was their first time seeing her out of the robe and they were very surprise at how beautiful she actually was with her pale white skin almost like marble and delicate facial features. "We are so going out clothes shopping for her", said Vale.

Alex and Rose didn't rush through getting ready in the bathroom but they also didn't take their time so as not to make the girls wait longer than necessary, keeping the fooling around to a minimum they soon got ready and exited the bathroom to join the others. As Rose exited the bathroom the girls got a good look at her without the robe on and had to admit she truly was stunning, the shortest girl in the group she stood at a petite one meter sixty seven, she didn't even come up to Alex's chin when they stood next to each other. Rather than her robe she was wearing a light yellow one piece dress that hugged her curves and a pair of sandals. She saw the girls looking at her and she smiled, "What do you think", she gave a little twirl. The girls all gave their praises saying it was much better than the robe.

"See told you", quipped Alex which copped him an elbow to the gut as he bent over in mock pain Rose grabbed his head and glued her lips to his, as they separated everyone could hear her comment, "Why do you have to be so damn tall".

The girls burst out laughing and Alex chuckled, it was at this point that Alex empty stomach made its presence known with a loud growl, Alex coughed a lightly embarrassed look on his face and everyone headed out towards the dining hall.

The group of five women and a man entered the dining hall, and saw Melliandra already there, she looked curiously at Rose, Alex chuckled at her reaction explaining that this is what Rose looked like when she wasn't wearing the robe. Alex and the girls all took a seat as they waited for the King to arrive. Thinking of something Alex asked if Mellliandra knew of any decent artificers in the city. Melliandra directed him the official royal artificer and said he would just need to pay for the materials. "Why do you need an artificer", Vale asked. Well while I'm destined never to enter into a relationship in a normal manner I'm going to at least make sure I propose properly and for that I need a ring, so if you don't mind waiting until I can sort that out Rose I will make sure I officially ask you to be my wife soon", he smiled at Rose. "I'm looking forward to it" she responded. Everyone chatted together and soon enough King Rakkar turned up, "Sorry about being late, I got hung up with arrangements for the games".

"What got you stumped uncle?", questioned Alex

"Just some blowhards giving me guff about having you enter the competition, I was trying to get you a seeded entry under the pretext that you are the undefeated former champion of the Valent arena but they all refused saying I couldn't show any favouritism", grumped the King.

"Don't let it bother you, I don't mind earning my way in through the normal channels, what do I need to do?".

The King sighed, "You will need to go through the preliminary rounds that are taking place at the moment you basically turn up at the arena and challenge one of the people standing on a fighting ring, if you defeat the person you take their place and then others get to challenge you. To earn your spot you have to either defeat 5 people in a row without leaving the arena or remain unchallenged for one hour".

Alex nodded sounded simple enough and he had done similar things during his time in the arena so he wasn't bothered by it. "That's fine, I'll register tomorrow and go get the matches out of the way".

"We will come cheer for you", Anna said with enthusiasm. Kayla also want to go with him as she was curious about the whole thing.

All of a sudden a man burst into the dining hall and everyone could see Petra trying to stop him. The man looked around the room, then took note of Alex marching up to him he stood straight and looked right at Alex and then in a stern tone of voice, "I demand a duel to the death".

Alex looked at the man, he was slightly shorter than Alex's two meters, and was well built giving off the air of a trained warrior. With amus.e.m.e.nt flickering in his golden eyes Alex in a lazy tone spoke, "Are you perhaps a moron?".