Thread: For the Love of a Duke

------ For the Love of a Duke ------ Thousands of years spent living in peace, ruined by a few hundred. Who would have ever imagined that the Draconic race would be lost almost completely. There once had been hundreds of thousands of dragons that soared through the skies and roamed the countryside. Now there were only a dozen and they were all in hiding. Hiding from the same creatures that they had watched spring from the primordial goo. The same creatures that they had watched over, taught and enlightened with knowledge and magic had betrayed them. The humans, the bipedal mammals had taken all their knowledge, had taken the trust placed in them for years and used it to launch a war against the Dragons that had once lived beside them as friends, neighbors, and in some cases companions. Atella was one of the few dragons left alive. Having long since feared the mammals that others willingly shared their lives with. Her fear had driven her into the deep reaches of a vast forest where she had created a home for herself. Cutting her own spacious home, the size of five human Manors, into the rock face of a large hill found towards the west of the center of the forest. A home that had taken decades, a full century in fact to complete and furnish accordingly. In that time her forest had begun to shrink as the humans cut down the trees and hunted the same game that she until Atella feared that within the next fifty years her forest would be gone and she would join her brethren in the afterlife. With her naturally green scales she easily camouflaged in the forest, which was why she had picked this particular forest to hide in, for there were always green, evergreen trees that hid her thirteen foot long and eight foot tall form from the hunters that now roamed the forest freely. They thought they were safe. They thought that they were the hunters in this forest. But they were wrong and every once and a while, when feeling particularly rambunctious she would show those hunters exactly who they had to mess with, though their stories of the big bad dragon never reached anothers ear for she kissed her prey and enjoyed their screams. Imagining it as her own form of revenge against her fallen brethren. As much as Atella had come to despise the humans she needed them. Or, more importantly she needed a male. A strong powerful male as her mating season approached. And as one of the last of her kind she knew it was her duty to continue her race, even if her offspring would be cursed as half-breeds. Having failed in her many attempts before to find a suitable mate, Atella had searched the continent for a mate flying high above the ground behind the clouds so that she could not be seen, her sight allowing her to see the movement of a rodent between the alleyways of a home even as she soared nearly fifteen thousand feet in the air. This year, as her anger mounted, frustration escaladed and hunger for raw meet rose she knew it was time. Time to find a mate, and she had the perfect specimen. He was strong, intelligent and would be the perfect mate for her. With a shortage of time, it would be a month, perhaps less, before she fell into the throws of her heat, she needed to act quickly. Thankfully, living for eleven hundred years had given her a broader knowledge in magics than some could or ever would expect. With this knowledge came her ability to transform from her true form into that of a human female . Live in plain sight, keep your friends close and enemies closer. It had been the last resort of many dragons in the centuries but many could not hold the transformation for long periods of time. Atella could. She planned to hold it for as long as she needed to, to gain the attention of the young Duke and seduce him to her bed. It would should hardly take her any time at all. With her wealth, wealth earned or stolen in her long life she would make a fine bride for the young handsome Duke and once she had gained his favor, lured him close enough so that she could weasel her way into his heart, attain a marriage proposal she would wait until the first night of her cycle and then take the man for all he was worth before disappearing into the night never to be seen or heard from again by any in this insignificant city. Purchasing the loyalty of a young paige she sent the boy to town two days before her arrival to buy a lovely cottage and inquire about builders willing to work through the change of season to build a small manor before returning to her. With the young boy, two hired women and an older gentlemen she rode into town inside the confines of an embroidered carriage, her long black hair tied behind her back with a green bow, her flowing gown a deep emerald color that matched her bright ethereal shining aqua eyes. Her small parade of hired help, her show of wealth to clothe them all in the finest of silks all a deep green with red etchings, her favorite color and the color of her 'house' she arrived in town with a small entourage of people crowding around to watch as her carriage past. The attention wasn't wanted, at least from the common folk. But what gained all of their attention would soon gain the attention of the Duke she had set her sights on, of this she was sure.