Azulaphael waved a hand and rose to her feet, moving to the drink cabinet. “Someone snap the boy out of it. He’s day-dreaming now.”
Ser Meartin lurched forward in his seat, his arm already cocking back as if to execute a vicious slap to the face. The slight, but immediate shake of Commandant Levenstone’s head gave him pause and he slumped back in his seat, seemingly frowning more than he had been, if that were possible.
The Commandant gave the boy another few moments of staring off into nothing before he reached over and squeezed his shoulder firmly.
Terync blinked his eyes a few times and looked over at his commanding officer, his mouth still slightly agape. “I… uh… I’m sorry sir,” he stammered. “Could you please repeat your question?”
“No question son,” the older knight replied calmly. “Just concern. This is a lot to take in, as I remember all too well.”
“In my day,” Meartin muttered, “we weren’t eased into this life in some huggy-feely group therapy session. We got tapped, told that we were on a new special assignment, met our partners, and then told to shut the hell up about any of it.”
Azulaphael chuckled as she sipped her dark red wine. “Oh, the stories I could tell about that first meeting,” she chuckled, her eyes darting playfully over at Meartin. “But…” she added in a more serious tone, directed at the others in the room, “we do not speak of past partnerships. We respect the bond and all that entails.”
It seemed to Terync that she was directing her comment more than just as a general statement, but her nonverbals gave no indication of what, or who, she might be referring to. It didn’t really matter to the young knight-in-training though, since he was still digesting the fact that he was meeting a real dragon, even if she wasn’t quite the picture he had in his head.
The thought hit him harder than Meartin’s massive hand would have. He wasn’t just meeting a dragon… from what he could gather, he was being partnered up with one. Terync glanced up at Meartin, who still bore a sullen, somewhat grumpy look on his face, and considered that the retiring knight’s partnership lasted… pretty much his entire life.
This was the level of partnership that was being proposed to him. A lifetime of partnering with a dragon. For what purpose, he didn’t know yet, but he was excited to find out.
“Now is the time,” the Commandant said solemnly, “for any questions you may have. We have as much time as you need.”